The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-10-14

STATE IN THE NOVEMBER ELECTION
WE'VE ON THE FIRST WEDNESDAY, in
DECEMBER, AND COMPEL THE ATTEND
ANUE OF THOSE WHO PURPOSELY RE
MPs AM F rk IA SF By WHICH al dN TAfSE
GISLAT1VE BODY SEEKS TO TIE DOWN
ANOTHER."-State Journal, Marct. 1878.
This is REVOLUTION, gentlemen Are
you prepared for this, people of Richnond
Are you, mechanics Are you, lawyers, doc
Tors, clergymen, voters OF any sort2 Do Won
wish to see another Chahoon usurpatiou A
word to the wise is suficient.-Dispdtch.
The Dispatch has succeeded-how mala-
droitly the reader shall see-in calling
our attention to another and most fragrant
outrage perpetrated by the Conservative
party of the state, or by the Conservative
majority of the legislature at its last ses-
sion; and, more maladroitly still, charges
revolution" upon US, when its own
party was guilty of the most outrageous
revolutionary act that has ever been
attempted by any legislative body in the
United States.
This revolutionary act consisted in pass
ing joint resolution Of the two houses OF
the last General Assembly, postponing
the meeting of the next General Assembly
from the first Wednesday in December I'M
til the first day of January, 1874. This
was done in order to enable that shame
lessly partisan body flor it will go into
history emphatically characterized as such)
to elect some hundred county court Judges
in the state, to hold their Offices for the
term of six years from the first of Janua-
ry next, with power to appoint partisan
judges of election at every voting precinct
il their respective counties, and do such
other dirty work as future Conservative
le 5islatures might require at their hands.
This action of the legislature was mani
testify so fragrant violation Of the constitu-
ton of the state, that The Dispatch itself
declared at first-before it found out that
the necessities of the Conservative party de-
manded it as strictly partisan measure
that the members of that body had been
Equity ola carelessness which would be in
excusable Mader other circun1stances.o This
was putting it in the mildest manner posi-
BILE, if not implying, in the opinion of The
Dispatch, that the necessity for such
partisan judiciary, like piety in the devil,
would justify any means to attain the
desired end.
We have not time to state the many con-
S itutional objections urged by The Dis
patch before it was thoroughly posted as to
the little Conservative game that was up,
but more particularly pressed by THE
JOURNAL in a somewhat protracted con-
troyersy it then had with that paper, after
it met with its most extraordinary and
miraculous conversion, from assailing the &C.
ton of the Legislature to thoroughly par
tisan defence of it. We branded this action
of the Conservative party as not only
revolutionary, but as looking to another
Louisiana muddle," if not to official con-
hict and violence in case the Republicans
should carry the state in the November
election now approaching.
We showed, during the controversy re-
ferred to, what The Dispatch at first admit
ted, if it did not originally suggest. that
this action of the Legislature placed it out
of the power of the next General Assem-
bly, to induct the new Governor elected in
Noyember) into Office on tho first day of
January next, as required by tho constitu-
ton. For their joint resolution, as passed
by the Conservative members of the
Legislature, rendered it absolutely impos-
sible, as The Dispatch admitted, for the
duties, imposed by the constitution upon
the general assembly, to be performed /;
and we quoted civil law maxim, older
by two thousand years than our venera-
BILE neighbor of The Dispatch, to
show that there was no validity whatever
to law, much less joint resolution, /
requiring the performance of an impossible |
act. 1t was in this connection that we
penned the sentence quoted so hamingly |
by our contemporary as revolutionary, and |
declared that no such wisps of straw
would prevent the next legislature of the |
state, should it happen to be Republican
from discharging the duties imposed upon
it by the constitution of the state. The
appeal of The Dispatch to the people and
working men of Richmond, and to the
mechanics, lawyers, doctors,
and voters of all sorts generally,
to know whether they want another
"Chahoon usurpation," is one that
caps the climax of all that
is pathetic, excrucating, and rascally
yes, we must say it in politics. We
have seen nothing to equal it in all the
range of Dick Turpin literature. The
: CHAHooN UsURPATIoN! Heaven
ave the mark, and let down, in compass
ionate mercy, shield of protection for
The Dispatch, after the fashion of the
lncient palladium that fell from the all
'itying skies, that it may be saved from !