The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1878-01-19


that those officers shall be lawyers.
Art. 90.
| 1t is agreed that the constitution
must necessarily intend er III termin'
when it provides for the office of Dis
trict Attorney, that he shall be an at
torney at law, but ii may be answered
that the same instrument must equal
ly intend that q Parish Judge should
have been a lawyer, for men must be
lawyers before they can in any proper
sense be said to be Judges, and if it
requires knowledge of law to be a
District Attorney, how much greater
knowledge does it require to admin :
lister the succession system of our
State.
The defendants eligibility to the
District Judgeship depends upon his
legal right to have practiced law for
two years next preceding his election.
That right emanated from the pro-
ceedings of the Board OF Administra
tors of the University of this State,
on April a, 1872. They shall be cop
led in full.
At meeting of the Board held this
evening, the following preamble and
resolution offered by Mr.. Fellows was
adopted by a vote of five to three in
the negative and a motion to recon
slider, which vote was laid on the
table, viz:
Whereas, the President of the
University being present, and having
stated that it would be impossible for
him to declare which OF the rejected
students received three favorable
votes on the examination By the pro-
fessors and which did not, therefore
Be it reSolUed, that the degree of
Bachelor of Laws be granted to, and
conferred upon the following members
Of the class of 1871-72 of the Law De-
partment of the University of the
State of Louisiana, viz : (here follows
several names and among them Morris
| Marks), and that the President of the
| University be directed to confer upon
them the said degree of Bachelor of
Laws, and that the usual diplomas be
| granted and issued to them"
The text of the law invoked by the
respondent is, "The administrators
of the University of Louisiana shall
have the right of comforting under
their common seal, on any person
whom they may think worthy thereof,
all literary honors and degrees known
and usually granted by any university
or college in the United States or
elsewhere.
The degree of Bachelor of Law aud
Doctor of Medicine, granted by them,
shall authorize the persons on whom
| it is conferred to practice law, physic
and surgery in this State"-Rev. Stat.
1870, See. 127.
| No diploma was ever issued to the
defendant. The President of the Uni.
versity never conferred upon him the
degree as the resolution of the Admin
istrators directed. The Board re-
| solved that the degree be granted to,
| and conferred upon him, and to show
| that their own construction of the
scope of the resolution was that the
act was inchoate, proceeded on the in
slant and in the same sentence to
direct that the additional and supple
| mental act be done which was neces-
sary to make the comforting the degree
complete, i. e., the President must
confer it.
1t is manifest besides that the two
clauses of the law above quoted refer
to two different kinds of degrees, one
of which is purely honorary, as is con
| ferred upon persons already distin-
guished in some branch of literature,
science, or other learning, and the
other is conferred upon students who
| have passed the examination neces
sary to entitle them to it.
The first of the degrees is to be
conferred upon any persons whom the
Administrators may think worthy
thereof, and it is to be literary
honor, but the last is to have the
greater effect of authorizing the recip-
lent to practice law or physic. Can
it be reasonably contended or inferred
that power is thus given to the Ad
miuistrators to introduce to the pub
lie, or rather to impose upon it per-
ailments Of the body who has never
read line nor heard lecture upon
any branch of medicine If it be
true that the degree of Doctor of
Medicine can be conferred by the Ad
ministrators upon whomsoever they
may think worthy thereof-although
the recipient may be cOnfessedly
without diploma from any faculty
aud if that degree thus conferred en-
titles him to practice physic, then
an innovation has been made upon
the established usage of Univer-
sites which carries with it dangers of
most appalling character and the
same is of course true in the depart
ment of law.
The statutes upon this subject must
be construed together and as whole.
In fact, the book known to the pro-
fession as the Revised Statutes of
1870, is but one Act. That revisal
embodies the various laws on this
matter under the head of attorney at
law. Secs. III, 130. The substance
of those sections necessary for con
sideration now, is as follows: Any