The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-01-08

Our esteemed coutem porary. The CLAIR
Iox, has Inadvertently Inexperienced Us
We said @some Of our contemporaries COM
blamed that Governor Stone i vested Win
a power OF filing .ffic al vacancies" and
not that any one had ceHsured ham tor d"e
appointment he had made. Moreover, the law
on this subject = not III our opinion oUJrct-
iouabtP either on the ground of its paternl-
~. or that it invAdes tie rights OF the pee-
pie. InEerregnnms should not exist In puo
lie off ccs. aud the only way to prevent tnls
j. for unforeseen vacancie- To be temp lrarily
II led bv appoint ment. Tie existing law ia
regard to county office was approved Feb
rutry p. 1873. and WAS therefore Passed
after X aGacaI.~m had been expelled from
all place, of trust aud power in the state.
II provides that the appointees OF the Gov
erHor are lie continue in office until such
vacancies shall BE- file BY election accord
Ing 70 law."-IIolly Springs South.
We agree fully with our able friend OF
the South that 'interregnums should not
exist in public Offices The difference Is
in reference to the mode of filing vacan-
cies in county Offices. We hold that the
present mode, which was originally con.
ceived during the Ames regime to de
prive the people of Warren county of
| their right to make choice of their own
| officers, and was repealed by the first
/ Democratic Legislature that assembled
/ after the overthrow of carpet bag rule, is
/ od;ous and undemocratic in that it vests
/ a power in the Governor, which, as it re-
/ lates to a matter of purely local concern,
/ properly belongs to the Boards of Super
/ visors, who, as we have before remarked,
are directly responsible to the people OF
their respective sounties, and are pre-
sumed to be better informed Of their
wishes. True, the present law wa:
passed in 1873, but this does not alter the
fact that it is the same as the Ames law
10 which we have referred, and which
had been repudiated by the Democratic
Legislature of 1876.
We know that in some quarters, the
plan of Withholding from the people the
right 10 fill vacancies, is advocated OF
the ground of economy; but they who
urge that reason ought to know that
while the people demand economy in the
administration of their affairs, there i.
one thing which they place above s
money value, and that is the right tC
choose their own servants. 1t is to them
a sacred right which is above all price
and lawmakers underrate the virtue and
intelligence of the people if they suppose
them to be sordid enough to sacrifice il
for precuniary consideration. Not only
is the substitution of appointment fol
election odious because it violates popu
lar sovereignty, but it destroys the essen
tial feature OF representative govern
ment, the responsibility of the public
officer to the people whose servant he is
The reputation of this principle is
the virtual denial Of the right of the PEG
pie to govern themselves. When they
assemble in Convention to remode
their organic law, they will restore it t(
the pedestal from which it was struck
down by the aliens who framed the ex
listing constitution not to benefit the PEG
pie but to construct close corporation
for their own aggrandizement.