The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1874-03-12
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
THURSDAY, March IL.

THURSDAY, March IL.
,Senate.-This body met, President in
the chair. Prayer by the Rev. DR..
Minuegerode.
A report Of the joint committee on the
late Coleman defalcation, was received
and agreed to. The committee represent
that it will be impossible to complete their
labors during the present session of the
General Assembly.
THE PETERSBURG CHARTER BILL
GOV. KEMPER vETOEs 1T.
The President laid before the Senate
the following communication from the
Governor, returning the Petersburg chartr
bill not signed:
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA., !
GOVERNORS OFFICE,
RICHMOND, March II, 1874. }
70 the Honorable the Senate.
With reluctance am constrained by my
convictions of constitutional duty to dis
sent, for the first time, from the action Of
the General Assembly. l disapprove the
bill entitled IAN act to provide charter
for the city Of Petersburg" and now re.
turn it, with my objection, to the house in
which it originated.
The provisions of the bill are, in my
opinion, such as would subvert the princl-
pies of popular government in their appli-
cation to the municipality Of Petersburg.
It's enforcement would withdraw from the
suffrages of that city great proportion
of the power to control its government
and lodge it in the hands of appointees, to
be created by legislative act. 1t pro-
poses to transfer such power from the
people to o board of commissioners, de-
irving their authority solely from the bill
itself. While the bill spares the existence
Of the usual city offices, it strips many Of
them of most important and essential
functions, and dwarfs them into insignif-
canoe. The board is proposed to be made
one of the permanent institutions of the
city besides exercising manyIother powers,
it is to appoint and govern all officers, po-
licemen and patrolmen, OF the police de-.
partment. and the chief engineer and
assistants of the fire department !;
to dispense other and extensive official
patronage; to disburse public moneys
through its own orders drawn directly upon
the city treasury, and substantially to
dominate the administration of the city
government Most of the city officers
would necessarily be the dependents as
we'll as subordinates of the board of COM
missioners, for even their salaries are to be
fixed, or, in other words, increased or cut
down at the bidding or caprice of the board.
Such measure seems to me conspicuous
instance of government being instituted for
people without and against their consent.
Waving discussion of the questions
whether or not, the bill infringes the par
ticular clauses of the constitution
which provide for the government of
cities and towns, and whether or not the
trainers of that instrument, hostile as they
were to the now prevailing political
sentiment of the state, intended
to empower their own partisans to
govern all cities and towns in disregard Of
the popular will vet looking beyond such
enquiries to the fundamental principles
underlying all free government, am met
by objections to the bill which impress me
as insuperable. The great cornerstone on
which republican liberty rests is the
principle that all government derives
its power from the consent of the
governed. This fundamental truth,
conceived and promulgated by the Illus
strious minds Virginia gave to the country
in its infancy, is deeper and more sacred
than constitutions, conti OILS their construc-
ton, and checks and confines legislative
power. 1t constitutes great Evolutionary
article of liberty, which will be held sacred
as long as vestige of free government
shall remain. 1t cannot be maintained
that the legislature may exercise, at its
discretion, any and all such powers as are
not delegated to the Federal government
and not expressly prohibited by the terms
of our own constitution. Neither the Leg
| stature nor the government is sovereign.
Sovereignty resides alone and inseparably
with the people, and legislators have no
arbitrary power. "They are the trustees
and not the owners of the estate. The
fee simple is one 1.-THE people,. They 1.-THE
trustees) cannot ALLEVIATE, they cannot
waste" While the Legislature may be
said to be supreme within its
| allotted sphere, yet its supremacy is
relative and not absolute: for the leglsla'
tive power is limited and ruled by the fun
damental and indefeasible principles o
right and justice, commonly called the bill
| OF rights, winch cannot not only IeSuiat'
legislatures and governments, but consti
tutions. Among the foremost of these
the just right of self-goyernment perme
ates the whole people, extends to every
member Of the body polite, and mus
guide and control US in organizing gov
eminent for particular subdivisions o
the community, as well as in enactlnl
general laws for the whole common
monwealth. To infract the least OF the ar
ticles of right, is to destroy the sanctity o
the whole. We cannot invade the libertle
of single city or a single citizen withou
breaking down the monuments which Sc
cure the rights of all. 10 the present un
settled state of our political relations "
cannot but hold to this fundamental RICH
as the sheet-anchor of our safety.
The complete political and material res
toration of our state depends upon her I'm
daunted adherence to the principle
and traditions of Jefferson republi
canism which she has ever maintained
Unmoved by her misfortune, add standing
amid the wreck of her former prospt rty
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