Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-07-02
NEW CONSTITUTION.
AN ADDRESS.

port, so that no complaint might be
made in future unless / should prove
untrue after my election to the policy
thus announced.
The Convention assembled in CO.
lumbus, an May 13, lo73, and continu.
ed in session until August s, VIXEN, on
account of the cholera as i'll 1851, it adj
journed to meet on December I'd in
in Cincinnati, where it resumed work,
and on May I4th ult., by vote of 81
to I3 adopted Constitution which is
now presented to the people for ratif-
cation or rejection on Tuesday, August
Is, next. Believing it the duty of the
representative to give an account OF
his stewardship to his constituents,
should have done so sooner had not a
serious attack of sickness confined me
to my room for nearly three weeks af-
ter my return home. / now embrace
the earliest opportunity of calling your
attention to the Constitution proposed
by the Convention, because it is of vi
tai importance to the future of the
State, that every elector should be full
Iy informed on this subject, in order
that he may cast his vote without pref
udice or favor for the ratification or re-
lection of the instrument.
OBJECTIONS
are made to the ratification of the pro-
posed Constitution
First-Op the ground that the Con-
vention was SC long in session and cost
so much that its work ought to be re-
iected anyhow, no matter what 1t may
have been. 1t is not 10 be denied that
popular prejudice has been stirred up
ON this subject, but when it is recollect-
ed that the length of the two sessions
of the Convention has not exceeded the
average sitting GOO days. of an Ohio
Legislature for many years, and that
the whole cost, including the publica-
tion of the debates, is more than $780,
600 less than the average (236,2 ,215l OF
the last three Legislatures (twO Re-
publican and one Democratic), and it
may be concluded that the making of
u Constitution requires as much time
and is worth as much as the framing OF
laws which can be repealed at any
time, if mistakes are committed. Even
though 06SenteeiSD1 of members pro-
longed the session of the Convention
for want of the necessary ffty-three
votes to act finally on pending ques-
tions, as is often the case in the Gener-
al Assembly, it is no reason that the
bers of the Covention who labor
ed faithfully at their posts should be
but the proposed Consti-
tuition ought to be fairly considered on
its own merits, and if, on the aohOle, 1t
is an improvement on the present one,
it should be ratified with a view to the
general public good.
iSecond-It is asserted that under the
proposed Constitution the cost of the
will be largely increased,
and fabulous estimates are paraded as
to the expenses of the Judiciary sys-
tenn. The facts are that besides a Su-
preme Court Commission for three
years to close up the docket now four
years behind, not an additional officer
is created, except tWenty-one Circuit
Judges to perform the duties now inn
nosed on the District Court, sdHthat
,uitor may not. be compelled to try his
,ase twice before the same judges,
reform universally demanded. In
place of fifty Common Pleas and two
superior Court Judges, forty-six Com
mon Pleas Judges are substituted, thus
actually the number of
Judges six, and the cost of the Supreme
and Common Pleas Judges $4,000, even
# the General Assembly, at its session
next winter, should fix the salaries of
he Supreme Judges at $4,000, which is
entirely optional with that body. On
he other hand, the saving made by
salaries to be paid to County
Auditors, Treasures, Clerks and Pro-
1ate Judges and that the fees be paid
INTO the treasury, will more than pay
he salaries of the Circuit Judges, at
$500 apiece, together with the annual
expenses of the General Assembly and
State officers, amounting to about
s146. 600. The fees and allowances of
County Auditors, Treasurers, Clerks
md Probate Judges last year, as ap-.
pears Py the report of the Auditor OF
State (page l5) amounted to $3.50, 407 IL,
DR. for 352 officers in the So counties, an
average of S2754 each more than is
paid to a Common Pleas Judge. A
proper scale of salaries, adjusted as in
allowing not more than $17OO
10 these officers in the 46 counties con-
.aining less than $4,000 inhabitants;
s25uO in the 36 counties between $4,000
and AZ, 900 inhabitants; $4,000 in the four
between $4,000 and 10000, and
5000 in the counties of Hamilton and
would bring down the cost
If these officers in the So cOun-
les to $754, ,S00-thus making saving
If S214, ,507 per year, according to the
asst years returns, by the operation of
he salary provision of the proposed
If the fixing of these
salaries by law to comfy board elect
I'd by the people, as in Illinois, by pro-
ooytiOndl suffrage, so as to give each
1arty check on the other, instead of
he Legislature, no doubt reform and
in this matter, will be
'arried still further by the taX-ridden
Jeople in fixing the salaries of their
,wn officers. The proposed Constitu-
ion relieves Ohio from the anomaly
If paying mere ministerial county Off
.ers more than her Governor and Su-
,reme Judges-for instance, treasu-
er in Hamilton county SIS, 900, in Guy
.hoga $4,000, and in Franklin $1,000.
Third-The legislative apportiOn-
nent has, as usual, been made target
If partisan criticism from the most Op-
oosite standpoints. A well-known Re-
publican correspondent of the Cincin-
lati Commercial, on the 9Th of June
asst, figuring out to his entire satisfac-
ion that majority of the Senate dis
riots are irretrievably against the Re
publican party, while certain Demo-
rats charge the reverse is the fact.
The trouble is that there are several
very cloce districts, which will compel
.he putting up of good candidates on
both sides, and the apportionment is
politically fair, though in some cases
here may be local objections. The
Senate districts under the present Con-
;titution, would, in the present state of
parties, elect 1S to 1S, and without ger
rymandering where there is an odd
the map of Ohio geographical
" inclines the chances against the par
ty whose majority is concentrated in
twelve Western Reserve counties lying
together. At any rate majority Of