New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-08-30
GEO. E. BOVEE,
Secretary of State.

STATE OF LOUISIANA }
Executive Department,
New Orleans. May 4, 1871
Hon. George E. Bovee, Secretary of State:
SIR-Your communication relative to
House bills Nos. % and 30, commonly
known as the Bayou Bartholomew and
Crescent City Waterworks bills, is duly re-
ceived. In reply, l would respectfully
state that the above mentioned bills were
not received at the executive Office until
the twenty-seventh day of February of this
year, at which time they were reeeipted for
by my secretary in the usual form, as should
appear in the receipt book of the clerk of
the House of Representatives. The Bayou
Bartholomew bill was subsequently sent to
your office without my approval, with in
structions that the act should become law
by limitation; while the Crescent City
Waterworks bill is still in my possession,
awaiting either my signature or disap-
proval.
Article sixty-six of the constitution of this
State provides that ''if any bill shall not be
returned by the Governor within five days
after it shall have been presented to him, it
shall be law in like manner as if he had
signed it, unless the General Assembly, by
adjournment, prevent its return, in which
case the said bill shall be returned on the
first day of the meeting of the General As.
sembly after the expiration of said five
days, or be a law"
AS it Is essentially necessary that the five
days shall have expired before an act can
become law by constitutional limitation,
| fail to perceive how either of these acts
can be said to have become law by such
limitation, when the five days limit does
not expire until the first day of the next
session of the General Assembly; conse-
quently, your statement that since the ad-
jOurnment of the General Assembly House
bill No. % has been allowed to become law
by constitutional limitation, and that it is
now known as act No. As, of 1871, evidences
that the act has been improperly promul-
gated as having become law by such limi-
tation.
am at loss to understand how the i'm
proper promulgation of House bill No. %,
or, as it is commonly known, the Bayou
Bartholomew bill, can be made use of as an
argument to prove that the Crescent City
Waterworks bill, which was received at the
same time, and which is still before me, has
become a. law.
One error should not surely be used as an
argument in favor of the commission of an
other.
Trusting that my reply will afford you
such information as will enable yOu to sub
init satisfactory answers to the inquiries of
the incorporators of the Crescent City
w dUttWOEkS, nave Tie lOQOr TO remain,
very respectfully.
III. G. WARMOTH,
Governor of Louisiana.
Remembering the above, it was necessary
to investigate the matter before promulgat-
ing the document. The Secretary of State
assumed and presumed to act for and on his
own account, by publishing the bill last
week, in country paper and in the German
Gazette, adding a note, which contained a
statement that the act had become law,
because Governor Warmoth had failed to
sign or return it within five days.
After this journal refused to publish the
bill, the following note was addressed by
the Secretary of State to us:
MR.. BoyEE's LITTER TO THE REPUBLICAN.
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE,
New Orleans, August %, 1871.
To the Business Manager New Orleans Republican ::
SIR-On Thursday, the twenty-fourth of
the present month, delivered at the Office
of the REPUBLICAN a duly certified COPY of
an act to incorporate the Crescent City
Waterworks, with instructions to publish
the same. On Saturday the bill was re-
turned to my clerk and am informed that
you refuse to publish it. Will you do me
the honor to inform me whether | am cor
rectly informed, and if so, what your frea-
sons are for SO unusual an act I am not
aware of any informality in the copy, the
same having been carefully compared with
the original act deposited in my office.
An early answer will oblige,
Very respectfully yours,
GEO. E. BOVEE,
Secretary of State.
To which was returned the following
reply:
REPUBLICAN, PRINTING COMPANY
Office No. "a Camp street.
New Orleans, August 49, I37l.)
Hon. George E. Bovee, Secretary of State:
SrR-We received at this Office on the eve
ming of August "a, a document purportin z
to be a certified copy of ian act to incorp O.
rate the Crescent City Waterworks Com
pany,p with request indorsed on the ba ok,
without signature, for its publication.
As this bill had already been the su biect
of correspondence between yourself and the
Governor, in which the latter decided that
IL had NOT become law, did not feel at