The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-03-26
their first, or three years. term, expiring

their first, or three years. term, expiring |
on the day previous.
The Dispatch will hardly deny that this
much, at least, is constitutionally true of
the county court judges. But how can
their terms of office commence on that day
unless they are constitutionally appointed
before that day? To commence on a day
is to begin with it, and in the case of a
sexennial Office, to continue through it, and
for six years less one day after it. No
matter how infintessimal portion of a day
may intervene between the expiration of
the term of one officer and the appoint
ment of another as his successor, if it is
allowed to intervene, there is an interreg-
mum, and the vital functions of govern
ment are for the time being suspended.
We care not what the practice may have
been in the past. Whenever the constitu-
ton requires an officer to enter upon his
duties on particular day, provision must
be made for his appointment or election
before that day; and especially is this
true of an office in which his predecessors
term is made to expire the day before. D
The Dispatch will hardly deny that the
project Of postponing the meeting Of the
next General Assembly had special refer
ence to the election of these county court
judges that it was deemed necessary to
make the postponement in order to render
their election valid, it being conceded that
| the next General Assembly would have
the constitutional right to elect, if it should
meet as the constitution implicitly required,
and as the law provided. The duty mani
testify deyolved ont the Legislature Of 1874
and not on that of 1928; and, hence, it
became necessary to extend the Legisla-
ture of 1874 entirely beyond the
period Of 1873. This was the
legal view of the matter as
discussed at first in the House. But The
Dispatch has discovered that, in making this
extension of time, the members of the
General Assembly were guilty Of care
lessness" which would be altogether in
inexcusable "under other circumstances. ~
What other circumstances? Why, what
would be inexcusable in reference to a
governor elected by the people, is entirely
excusable in the case of county court
judges, who are the creatures of partisan
caucus, and virtually clothed with the alb
solute custody of every ballot-box il
the state. Under these circumstances, d,ac
TO secure this partisan poacer, any outrag
--eoen that of ballot-boG smashng-i
ercusable IN the eyes of The Dispatch !! !!
And here is the infamy of the who'll
thing. The present Legislature was no
elected to appoint these judges, and plac
the ballot-boxes Of the state in their par
tisan keeping. No man in all Virginia wa
fool enough to suppose that they were t
exercise this duty, or usurp this right
They were elected for the discharge of thei
own constitutional duties clearly pointe
out, the people reserving the right toelec
other Senators and Delegates to discharg
this most delicate and important of a
trusts. This General assembly has, Mer,
fore, taken snap judgment on the people 9
3 Vuginia, and that on a forged cognora
. and has perpetrated the high outrage
suspending the executive functions, so ths
an interregum in government is inevitable
unless that body shall promptly take tn
u back track and undo its infamous work.
infamous, because no other or higher M
tive prompted it than the dictation of pa
tisan caucus. And this will be the verdi
y of an outraged constituency in Noyemb
!. next.