Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-05-23
Elections Under the New ConstI-
tu ion.

has been ratified by the people, the
next thing Is to ascertain its mean
Ing.
Not few of the difficulties of
constituting Its provisions arise In
connection with the election Of Of
ficprs Who are To be elected, and
when are they to be elected, are
questions which must be speedily
answered one way or another
Those offices are Of three classes
Legislative, executive and Judicial
and doubts have arisen relative
to each of those classes.
More for the purpose OF provok-
Ing discussion than with the view
Of advancing definite conclusions,
l submit, through the columns Of
the HERALD, the following hastily
prepared suggestions relative TO
each of the ella ,ses referred to.
LEGISLATIVE OFFICERS.
One of the most important, and,
OF the same time, most difficult,
questions to which the attention of
the public has been called, relates
to the constitution of the Legisla-
ture which is to assemble next
January.
The new Constitution has not
changed the numbers Of which the
Senate aud House are TO consist;
but as, under the old, 80 under the
new, the Senate Is composed Of
forty, the House of eighty men,
bers. As respects members OF the
House there is no difficulty. Until
Assrmbly districts shall have been
formed, Assembiymeua are, by Sec
tIon 8, Article Nv. of the new Con.
stituiiOn, to be elected in the man.
ner now provided. But, as regards
the Senate, u great aud difficult
question directly arises. Does the
new Constitution abolish the hold
over Senators, or do the twenty
hold overs remain in office until
superseded by successors to be
elected In 1882? This, of course, in.
wolves the subordinate question,
Ale we, at the election for the cur
rent year, to elect forty or only
twenty Senators? A will readily
be conceded, the magnitude ami
Importance Of this Question cannot
we'll BE- exaggerated. Unless finally
settled before the next meeting uf
the Lrgislature-a result not tO be-
hoped for-it will give Us two Sen-
atts, or two budie-, each claiming,
with an appearance OF plau.'b,lity,
to be- the senate, and inv live in
doubt aud di.credit the Whale Leg
islalura OF the most important
sesri"n likely to meet during the
present generation. The power of
the Senate tn 'judge of ths quaIifi-
cation, elertion." etc, of Its MEM
bers, will not suffice to avoid the
difficulty. II single member of
those elected at the coming cleo
tion chances to act with the twenty
hold-Overs, these TWEEN y-0ne may,
nay, must, claim to be the cnn,ti-
tutionai SenSte of the State. The
remaining thirty mine will also
necessarily claim TO be the legal
Senate, ami thus we shall probaU y
SEE Two bolies in session, hoih
claiming to be the Senate Of CALI
foriia.
The question in that case f,r de
terminatinn will not be whether
this or that man Is "a IN -,nber Of
the senate, but which of the two
bodies is the lawful Senate.
II 10 obvious that each depart
ment of the government must de
termine this question for itself in
the first Instance, and that the ju.
iiciary alone can--poSsibIy after II
lapse Of yea's-tiual.y settle it.
That the question Is, in truth, as |
difficult as II is grave, IS I believe,
the unanimous opiuion of th ,se
VINO have attempted to c,nstrus |
Sec. 8, Art. 4, of the Constitution |
and the sections cOgnate TO 1t. No
where In the Constitution is there
a sentence, word, syllable,
from which we can directly iufer u
purpose on the ptrt of the COnven-
ton to either presently abolish the
hold-over Senators or retain them
until after the election Of 1882. So
evenly balanced are the arguments
and inferences from the mere
wording of the instrument that il
Is almost impossible to come to u
conclusion from that source alone.
A brief refereucs to the C0nstitu-
tIonal provisions may not be out
of place.
Sec 8, Art. 4, provides for the
election of eighty Assemblymen
for the year 1879, under the law
now existing.
Sec. 4 provides for the election of
Senators "at the same time aud
place as members of the Assem-.
bly," 1t evidently contem plates
the election Of Senators at the
election for the present year, bui
neither 1t nor any other section
fixes the number to be chosen.
Another election for members nf
the Assembly is to be had in 1850,
but no other election for Senators
will occur till 1882. After this last
mentioned election, and not till
then, they are by Sec. 5 to be class
flied.
Sec. 9 provides for dividing the
State into Assembly aud Sena torlal
districts. This will be one of the
first duties of the next session of
the Legislature; tut, until that is
done, Senators and Assent bi ymen
shall according to the last clause
Of Sec 9. "be elected by distr CTS as
now apportioned by law.n
These are all the provisions tli-
rectly bearing on the question, aud
IL will scaicrly he c0uteuded that
they In Terms fix the status of the
hol,i-over Senators.
Hut SEQ. | Of The schedule TART.