The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-03-24
MONDAY EvEN'G. MARCH "a, 1877;



the Legislature, in postponing the meet
ing of the next General Assembly from the
first Wednesday in December until the
first day Of January, 1874, is not only
revolutionary measure, in fact, but it
would seem to look to the same disordered
and chaotic middle now existing in the
State of Louisiana, in case the Republican
party should succeed, as is now more than
probable, in carrying the election on the
first Tuesday of November next.
They have not only passed
joint resolution postponing the
meeting of the next General Assembly
beyond the time in which that body can
make its action conformable to the con-
stitution, but they have proceeded to
appoint something less than hum
dred judicial officers whom the trainers
Of the constitution designed should be ap-
pointed by the General Assembly to be
elected in November. In both of these
particulars, their action is revolutionary,
and may be considered as looking to vio-
lence in case the Republicans should carry
the state at the November election.
We are forced to this conclusion from
the inevitable results that must follow the
success of the Republican party at the
next election. For we accord to the leaders
of the Conservative party in the General
Assembly more brains than to suppose that
they do not understand perfectly well that
this joint resolution of theirs is just SO
much waste paper, when it comes to apply
to the next General Assembly. For, il
there is a lawyer in that body capable Of
expounding the FIRST constitutional provision,
he must know that it is with constitutions
as with statutes-the established rule of
exposition being, that the intention of the
trainers is to be deduced from view of the
whole and every part Of the instrument
taken and compared together and that
any law which cannot be obeyed
without violence to the spirit and
letter Of the constitution, thus taken and
compared as a whole, or which it is impos-
sible to act out except in repugnance to
its provisions, is, in fact, no law, and can
have no binding force upon the General
Assembly at which its provisions are
aimed. 1t is extra-consttutiona interfer-
ence with the duties and obligations inn
posed upon that body, and they should
treat it as they would a wisp Of straw with
which pigmy might seek to fetter their
giant limbs. I'D impossibiha memo obj
gatir, is a proposition as true in political
as in moral ethics.
demonstration requires that the General
Assembly, elected on the first Tuesday of
November next, shall convene in season to
elect a speaker, whose duty it shall be, with
in one week after the meeting Of that body,
to open the returns of elections in the pres.
ence Of a majority of the Senate and House
of Delegates, and see that they are counted !;
and the person having the highest number
Of votes for Governor shall there
upon be declared elected. This must
be done within one week after the
assembling of the Legislature, and
before The first day of January. 1874,
the time fixed by the constitution for the
Governor to. enter upon his official duties.
There are any number of other acts,
among which are the appointments of the
county judges, to be performed by the same
body, within the same time. And yet Mas
General Assembly, now sitting at the
State House, declares that the neat General
Assembly shall not so convene, and passes
its soisp-of -straao resolution to that prodi-
gioats effect ! $3.50 xsss, Se5ss ..s8
And what does this all mean |? We can
only infer from question seriously asked
US by Conservative memberof the General
Assembly, if Governor Walker could not
call special session of the present General
Assembly to meet on the first Wednesday
in December to perform the identical con-
stitutional duties required of the next
General Assembly? We answer most
emphatically, no! On the first Tuesday
in November another General Assembly
will be elected, and the present one will be
officially, as well as politically, dead and
buried out of sight. This question seemed
W 20 oAtioo1 eoo pueHiic W answer : anu vet
we have seen the blanks of some hundred
orless commissions, printed and designed to
be issued by Governor Walker ON or after
the first day of january next, or one day
after the constitutional expiration of his
term of Office. $500. 4.
1t is true, these commissions are made To
bear date in 1873 but in that respect, thew
are, to us, an anomaly. A commission IA
an investiture Of authority---a clothing of
one with power to discharge some specified
office or duty. The person making such
investiture must have the constitutional
power to do it IN present, or at
the precise time it is done. At all events
his authority must cover some portion OF
the time specified as the term of official
duty in the appointee. But, in this case.
it doesn't even touch it. Gov
ernor Walkers term OF office
commenced on the first day Of January.
1870, and ends on the thirty-first dav Of
December 1873. These county court
judges must be commissioned on the first