The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-04


labor will meet with a sure reward, and capi-
tai receive remunerative returns for invest
ment Lands bought at So this year will be
worth $40 next year. shave so often seen
in this State this wonderful multiplication of
wealth, that we are justified in making these
statements. The real and substantial advan-
tages of Kansas as field for immigration are
being appreciated, and hence this great
exodus, this pouring in of this unparalleled
stream of immigration to enrich, fertilize,
and adorn the State
SENATORIAL QUALIFICATIONS - THE
CASE OF GENERAL AMES.
From the NJ T. Times.
The debate in the United States Senate on the
credentials of General Ames, the Senator
elect for the State of Mississippi, is full of
instruction as to the meaning and intent of
the Constitution in regard to the qualifca-
tions of the Senatorial Office and the right of
any citizen of the United States, of nine
years standing, to represent any State in the
Union in the Senate or House of Representa-
tives, without qualification as to the term of
inhabitancy in the State. The Judiciary
Committee reported that General Ames could
not take his seat because he was not an in
habitant of the State when elected within the
meaning of the Constitution. 1t was not
pretended that the question had any material
personal or party significance. On the con-
trary, it was conceded that General Ames is
now an inhabitant, and if sent back would
assuredly be reelected; but the ma ority of
the committee claimed that at the time of the
original election he was not an inhabitant in
the legal sense. In support of this view it
was alleged that if he had failed of an cleo
ton, he might not have remained in Mssis-
sippi
The Republican majority in the Senate
frnn ha
cal argument upon which 1t was founded.
General Ames had been a resident of Missis-
sippi in his military capacity for about
eighteen months. When his duties as Mill
tary Governor were about to cease, he was
solicited to become a candidate for the
Senate, and being of the proper age, and
citizen of the United States of more than nine
years residence, and living in Mississippi sat
the time, it was held that the facts of his
election and acceptance constituted sufficient
proofs of the other constitutional qualification
of inhabitancy.
Aside from its immediate interest, the de-
bate developed the technical meaning of the
term ''inhabitant;" and secondly, the real
intent of the Constitution in the use of the
term, without prescribing, so far as State
lines are concerned, any particular time or
term of years of inhabitancy. 1t transpired
| that this last point was made in the eonven-
ton that framed the Constitution of 1889.
Mr.. Rutledge, Of South Carolina, moved an
| amendment to the effect that three years
| local inhabitancy should be required. Mr..
Read, of Delaware, suggested that as the
| convention had met to frame a constitution
in the name of the whole people of the United
States, irrespective of State lines, no such
qualification ought to be imposed. 1t was
sufficient, he contended, that Congressman
should be simply an inhabitant of the State
| vubaT a1aota1 Of tba rao0iCita aoa and q niti-
zen for nine years of the United States. Only
two States, South Carolina and Georgia, voted
to prescribe term of State inhabitancy, and
| the amendment was lost
These facts sufficiently dispose of the vul-
gar taunt of ''carpet-bag9er, whether applied
to General Ames or any other man now re-
presenting the Southern States in the Senate
or House of Representatives, or to Mr.. Cox,
late of Ohio, representing the Sixth district
of New York. His place of birth or place of
previous residence has really nothing to do
with their qualifications to represent parti-
cular State, provided, if not born in the
United States, he had been nine years citi-
zen in any part of the United States; for if
the late war settled any one point more en-
phaticallysthan another, itiwas that we are one
people. The right of the freemen (and freed
men) of the reconstructed Southern States,
without distinction of race or color, to select
their own representatives, without respect to
their previous inhabitancy, would therefore
seem to be no longer doubtful.
In England, the right of constituencies to
select their members of the Commons House
of Parliament is unlimited The question of
residence or inhabitancy within the borough
or county has nothing to do with this perfect
freedom of selection. But our Constitution,
without drawing the slightest distinction as
to citizenship or residence within the United
States, whether North or South, East or
West, requires that the Senator or Repre-
sentative elect to the Congress of the United
States shall Rave local inhabitancy at the
time of his election. And it seems clear from
the tenor of the recent debate that one ol
three days inhabitancy is, for all constitu-
tional as well as practical purposes, as good
as one or three years.