The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-11-15

The Lyn rhburs Iirgin'an has an article
;.toudsd 70 STOW that there is no necessity
for a meeting Of the Legislature in Deem
har An its arguments, however, are OF
W.. character that they depend for their
c' s,. 49, - ON the provisions of the Con-
stitution, but upon facts "h'cn II wou'u
,aa.S' oa, o,onao the Constitution, If the
80 ,at - ~, or. The = Conserva'
tive majoritics" in the wv 80, oo., nn,r
make the work of organizlt., "" ,r;,;on n,o'
But suppose there were an opp. tio ho.
iority. Or suppose there had been a g.. -,
tween kEarER and HUGHES. In the lat.-
case, everybody would see that the Constl.
tuition requires a meeting in December, be-
cause the Legislature would itself have TO
elect q Governor. The Constitution re-
o,lires exactly now what it would require
in case there were such il tie. 1.-The large
Conservative lnajoriics" are poor constitu-
tional arguments for in honest man TO Oh
fer, such as the editor of the FTJindn Is.
Then think of such an argument upon the
constitutional point us is contained i'll the
following paragraph:
THE constitutional questions raised by
the Dispatch VIC think do not apply in this
case. 1t has happened before i'll the history
of the State that the meeting OF the LeSisla-
ture was changed from the first Monday I'D
December 10 the 1St Of January following.
That was in 1857, when there were ADLER
constitutional lawyers in the Legislature
than we have had there since the war. and
the Legislature elected in that year met the
1St OF january, 1885,
OF course it Was constitutional for the lie.
gisature to meet in January i'll 1888; but
we would inform the Firganian that we
have had several new constitutions since
1853, and that many things that were
constitutional in 1888 Te unconsti.
tutional now, and rice rersa. IT the
VIrq1ntdn will read the Constitution Of 1858
carefully it will perhaps ind that negroes
could not vote then; nor indeed white men
who were not freeholders, or heads Of fami-
lies and taxpayers.
We care nothing for what tho Radical pa
pers may say. Indeed, the State Journal
and the fredericksburg Ledger have come
out in favor of q December session. We say
now, as we said last March, there is no such
thing as postponing the meeting of the
Legislature till January THAT is without
allowing the Constitution TO be shamefully
violated in spirit even if the letter Of it be
complied with.
There would be no "indiscretion d" on the
part of Governor WALKER, unless indeed 1t
might be thought that he wished to assem-
bic the Legislature whilst he was Still high
digntary of the State, and with the means
of influencing its action upon some qlles-
ton or other in which he is concerned. But
he has no such schemes. If lie finds, how
ever, that he ought to convene tue Leslsls-
ture, he will be apt to do so, and take the
risks of being called 'indiscrect."
If the Legislature ought not to assemble
in December in order TO meet the require
ments of the Constitution, it ought not to
assemble during that month for any other
reason. Per contra, if the Constitution de-
mands a meeting then, all reasons against
its meeting amount to just nothing at all.