The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-01-31

highest in votes, It Is prQvloe0 InaI the
General Assembly shall, during the same
session, in the House of Representatives,
choose one of them Governor viuo Svoce.
In article a, judicial department. sec
ton 2 provides that the Justices Of the
Supreme Court "shall be elected by 9
Joint vote ofthe General Assembly, land
section l3, Circuit. Judges "by joint bal
lot of the General Assembly" q
While it might be argued, and perhaps
with force, that section "a, article 3, re-
lates only to elections of officers of the
General Assembly, tand to elections
created by legislation, there can. be. but
little doubt as to its having relation
specially to that class of elections, for in
only three cases does the constitution
order elections by the General Assembly,
and instwoo of these it specifies the man
ner of voting, and leaves only the. third
the election of Justices Of the Supreme
Court-subiect probably to the provis-
ions Of section "a, article 2. And if we
were undertaking to go behind the words
of the.eonstitntion to interpret its mean
ING. it mightibe very forcibiy shewn why
difference. is made in. the mode Of vot-
inc for Governor and for Circuit Judges
iby' the Genersi Assembly-the former
having been previously voted for directly
;by the people and the election of the
latter having originated in the General
Assembly. .'i3.
This, however, lis irrelevant; and it lis
unnecessary do more than lay down
the proposition that; any general or uni
iversal rule is subject to exceptions, when
the exceptions enanate 1.-THE same time
from an equal .or the ssame power, and
that is the present cases The 24th Sec
ton article 2, is of force in so far as it is
not varied by subsequent provisions in
the same instrument. ii't = f3iiss
It5appears to- me to be clear that the
convention so understood it, and adopted
that section to define the power of the
Legislative branch of the government, and
then provided by succeeding sections for
the specific modes ofgcondrcting certain
elections. which confer offices of great
importance. ,a4:i,S4 - 1s',..:,':<'...:y .,
The question is thus narrowed down to
the last proposition, whichis the strength
of the case. Can the words "by joint
ballot be construed to mean "by joint
vote" that thereby the. two apparently
sections may be made to con.
form. and the election be conducted by
voting v;ua voce? This depends solely
upon the meaning of the word "ballot."
If"a ballot or ato ballot can be con.
sidered to mean ga vote'oor SO vote, !"
that meaning should. be adopted, for it
would7giye the fullest force and effect to
both sections of the constitution.
. / will say here that while the argument
was able and ingenious, it, did not i'm
press my mind, and subsequent reflection
has strengthened the conviction that the
word "ballot" has a fixed, distinct and
clearly defined meaning, so absolute and
so well understood as not to admit of a
doubt. i.
The learned counsel for the defendant
base their construction of the word :"bal-
lot" upon two grounds.
/. That the theory of the State consti-
tuition is ethat in all elections by the
Legislature, the action of each member
shonld be open to the scrutiny of his con-
stituents, so as to preserve the .accounta-
.b;lity of the legislator to the people.
q That the word 1"ballot" must be
taken,ip5its popular sense, and in tina.
sense its meaning is the "act of voting
without any designation of the manner
of voting.
However plausible may be the policy
of the principle set, forth in, the first
.ground-and strong, had it been argued
In the conyention-itis of.no avail now,
When We 60 to say what is the law of the
Land. we must take the law as it is and
not as it may have been. The rules oi
Interpretation are well stated as follows
"The way to ascertain 4 our obliga-
tions as they arise from instituted laws
is to collect the, meaning and intention Of
the law-maker from some outward signs
or marks-the collecting such intention
from such signs or marks is called inter.
pretation." E
"Words are the common signs that
mankind make use of to declare their in.
tention to one another; and yhen the
words of man express his meaning
plainly, distinctly and perfectly, we have
no occasion to have recourse to any othe1
means of interpretation. ."-RutherJord'
Rules, PoHer's D,oaris, 1876.
And it is only where the words fail tt
express the meaning, plainly, distinctly
and perfectly, that we can .have recourse
to. conjecture, whether rational or proba
bic. The first ground, therefore, is re
moved, unless the second is maintain
able. go, N... :.
To cast any obscurity over the word
sby joint ballot" it must be shown tina
the word "ballot" has two meaning
when used in such connection, and ma!
have been employed in either sense b.
the convention. And this becomes |
question of evidence and authorities
The "popular" meaning of word mus
be understood to be its correct meaning
until the contrary is shown. Yet stronge
is the presumption that in convention
which frames the constitution of Stat
words are in their true Specification, ant
they must be so accepted until the erro
is clearly proven.
What, then, is the. true and correc
meaning of this word ballot? It is o
French origin, and has been adopted int
the English language, without an,
change in its meaning, so far as the au
thorities give US light. In the stapdar
French dictionaries, it is defined t
mean "the act ofvoting by balls or tick
cts by putting the same into a box Q
urn ;" "secret voting by means of ball Q
ticket" The examples in Richardson
English Dictionary clearly define it
meaning to be the same as the Frenc