New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-12-25
MUNICIPAL AUTHORITY
A contemporary thinks

tact the sovereignty OF municipal corpora
tons within their appropriate sphere.
Il is not SAFE on American reasoning,
to predicate sovereignty" Of any, excep.
of that form which commands, by eminent
domain, the control of the property and
the persons Of the citizen, the exten.
Of this contest, of course, limited by the
citizens themselves. In ascertaining the
powers Of a municipal corporation, it is
not proper to consult foreign authorities.
Every one knows that the free cities Of
the Hanse League banded together to
protect their commerce from piracy, and
their property from the exactions Of kings.
Sometimes cities purchased their rights,
sometimes they compelled their recogni-
ton by military resistance. The charter
OF tie city Of London was revoked by
Charles l., but subsequently restored, and
is now subject to charter in which Gus
tom and rights conceded by the sovereign
make up the corporate law.
The sovereignty of the United States re-
poses in the whole people of the United
States. It is delegated to and exercised
by various functionaries, each Of which is
| the legal creation of the common SOW
ereign. This sovereignty is composed Of
| individual integers, each of whom is cred
tied with an average capacity and an i'm
| mortal soul, and each integer is the equal
| Of any other anywhere within the domes-
tic or foreign jurisdiction of the sovereign.
This sovereign people devolves upon
| representatives and officials the duties
which 1t might perform in mass meeting.
| To prevent any abuse Of delegated power,
| it limits and defines the extent of repre-
sentative and official authority by SOW
ereign decree called constitution
Beginning, then, with this equal con-
stituercy, the sovereign apportions the
powers necessary to the common welfare.
In republic all exercise Of power is d.
rectly or derivatively elective. There are
certain duties Of selfgovernment which
the people can best conduct by local
choice and local administration. Itwould
be mistake to suppose that city is more
OF municipality than a township or other
territorial subdivision. The next and
larger system established for the facility
of administrative service is the State gov
ernment, and the third and principal or
ganization is that of the federal Union.
What perfect system Of popular sover-
eighty is thus presented! hundred
political equals govern themselves in a
township. They elect officers, impose
taxes, provide for the charities, the high
ways, adjudge causes and preserve the
peace The same hundred political equals
vote for their officers and representatives
in the State government, and again for an
executive and representatives in the fed
eral government. All these rights are
granted by the people in their sovereign
capacity. From this reasoning We come
to a conclusion not logically inferable
from the premises quoted, though taken
from the text Of the same article. 1t is this
II is true that the municipal corporation
is altogether the creature of the State, and
that lis charter may be amended or entirely
Withdrawn.
1t is true the municipal government is
'the creature of the State" New Orleans
has no other authority than that derived
from the constitution of the State It has
no concession of auth ority derived from
the charter granted by the King of France.
Its laws are neither the customs of Paris |
nor the partidaS of Spain. It is an Anaeri- |
can city, and q citizen OF the United |
States residing in this city has no greater
nor less rights than if he plowed the |
prairies Of Illinois. When we read of |
municipal sovereignty" Or municipal
Independence, We are at loss to what
it refers. The township OF Indiana is as
much municipality as the city of New
York. i is charged by the sovereign
with the same duties; it is intrusted with
the sane subordinate authority, yet it is
neither sovereign nor independent 1t
was proposed in the newspapers that New
York city should secede from the State of !,
New York, and become as much sovereign
as any other self-governed State. 1t |
would not have mattered what might have
been the autonomy adopted, provided it |
had been republican. The population of |
New York city is more numerous than |
that of many States, her capacity for State
defense may be as good as that Of New
Jersey, but her sovereignty would not, in
such case, be municipal, but political |
She would have been another State in the |
Union Just as Western Virginia has been
since its excission from the mother State. |
European ideas and European author
tiles often embarrass the consideration of |
American subjects, and the idea that a |
community of persons in the sovereign
municipality" of Vaudeville, or of New
Orleans, have any more or less rights than
any colored citizen OF st. Landry is an |
error. Each citizen, everywhere, has ex-
actly the same rights which the constitu-
ton, appointed by all her citizens, has
given him. He is nobodys sovereign, and |
nobody's slave. All that sort of aristoc-
racy and serfdom are played ont in in tho