Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1875-07-02
OUR CITY CHAHTEK-IS 1T
VALIDl

According to various intimations,
more or less worthy of credence and
recently had from the city of Raleigh,
it appears that there is no difficulty in
regard to the chnstitutionality of the
recent act of the Legislature amend
ing the charter of the city O. Whining
ton, save such as has been begotten in
the judicial mind of the supreme tri-
bunal for the decision of disputes as
to the law of the land by the clause re-
quiring a residence of ninety days
prior to the day of election as quail
fication for voting for an alderman.
This provision, it IS said upon the
streets, excites a holy horror in the
politically unbiased minds of Judge
Reade and Judge Rodman and Judge
Settle and his concentrated Honor,
Chief-Justice Pearson. These august
personages, as Mark Anthony said in
his speech over Caesar, are all "honor-
able men," Judge Reade is the man,
if We recollect Alright, VINO expressed
his judicial qualification that the num-
ber of mulatto babies had de
creased SO greatly in North Caro-
lima since the war, neglecting, how
ever, to state whether he got
his information as man midwife or as
census taker. OF course he is an
honorable man. Judge Rodman if we
remember Alright was the fortunate in
dividual who escaped the surrender at
Appomattox Court House by the aid
of a vigorous mule, that fortunate ami
NAL that unlike its rider has neither
pride of ancestry nor hope OF posteri-
ry. OF course Judge Rodman is an
honorable man. Judge Settle too is
an honorable man. Did he not go to
Peru, and does not the original genu-
inc guano like the celebrated Llama
come all the way from Peru, and may
you not break the vase if you will but
will not the scent of the roses hang
around it still! OF course he is an hon
orable man. And then the Chief
Justice Richmond M. Pearson, the
bled to carry on the Kirk war, is he
not an honorable man? Certainly he
is, can he be otherwise than an honor
able man, in whose favor pres
criptive right to get drunk
can be plead? Certainly not.
Ii. therefore, such men as these
entertain grave doubts as to the con-
stitutionality of a solemn act of
democratic Legislature the natural
impulse is to seek the foundation for
such doubts. Accordingly, therefore,
we have just turned to the record and
what do we find? We tiud that the
very Convention that framed the Con-
stitutiOn, the Convention of 1868,
formally and explicitly gave an en-
phatic Interpretation to the Constitu-
tion upon this very point, and in
reference to the municipal govern
mcnt of the very same city that is now
disturbing the Court, to-wit: IHc CGtp
! Of Wilmington.
In the bound volume containing the
Constitution and Ordinances adopted
by the Convention of 1868, chapter
XLVIII, is to be found an ordinance
entitled an Ordinance amending the
Charter of the City of Wilmington. :"
This ordinance in it's preamble recites
that certain provisions of the then ex-
listing charter of the city are incon-
| CO Lo
by said Convention, and thereupon
proceeds 10 repeal them in the first
and second sections thereof. In the
third section however, of said
ordinance the Sheriff of the
county of New Hanover is di-
rected to hold an election for
Mayor and two Aldermen for each of
the four wards of the city of Whining
ton, which election which shall be in
conformity with the provisions of this
ordinance and sin the manner pre-
scri6ed bu the senenteenth 07th) Sec
ton Of the bctore- mentioned act Of i,a-
corporation.
Now, "the seventeenth Q7tD Sec
ton of the before-mentioned act of in
corporation" provides for the election
of Mayor and Aldermen, at which
election the qualification of the candi-
dates and the voters shall be the sam e
that are required of such persons by
previous provisions of this act.
Among 1.-The previous provisions of
this act" We find the following, to-wit.
Sec. 4. Be it FURTHER enacted, That
no person shall be entitled to vote for
Mayor and Aldermen unless he shall
be qualified and entitled to vote for
members of the General Assembly of
this State and shall hare resided for
sic months nert preceding the day OF
cleo ion aUithi1a the corporate limits OF
said city.
Here, then, we have an express con-
struction put upon the Constitution by
the very men who made it. They
thought and they expressly declared
in an act passed for the very purpose
of placing the charter of the city of
Wilmington in accord with the Con
stitution they had adopted, that under
that Constitution it was allowable to
require SIC months residence in the
corporate limits of the city prior to
voting. And yet some of our wise
Judges, if they be correctly reported,
entertain grave doubts as to the con-
stitutionality of requiring three
months residence prior to the elec'
tion. Judge RoDMAN was a mem
ber of that Convention and voted fol
the ordinancel Will Judge RoDMAr
rise to explain how it happens that II