The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1880-12-30
An Extra Session.
rae Law AND People DEMAND IT.

cost of meeting of the Legislature, or the
fear of what might be done should it meet,
can never be arguments ola feathers weight,
when the safety of the people of Mississippi
is involved. How does the matter really
stand
First, then, the ia,p demands an e1trd ses-
sion. Sections 81 and 50 of Article ~. of
the Constitution. are plain. explicit, man
datory. No argument is needed to establish
this There is nothing ambiguous about
these sections. If they mean anything,
they mean exactly what is said. The
Constitution which contains them also
contains directions for annual sessions of the
trainers of the Constitution, if we are
forced to resort to intention to explain such
perfectly plain sections was that the session
Immediately succeeding the census, shall
make the new apportionment. Now, Section
of this Article ". was, seven years after
its adoption, changed by the people. Does
this change in any way effect the emphatic
directions of Sections "a and So? In no
way, except by the refusal of the Executive
power to obey. Had it not been for the
change in Section 6, there would have been
no difficulty no discussion of this subject.
The Legislature would have met in regular
session on the 18th day of January, 1881,
and necessarily have proceeded, as part of
its constitutional duty, to make the appor-
tionment according to the census The
substitute for Section 6, however, requires
only biennial sessions-1891 is the off year
and it rests with the Governor whether
the Legislature shall meet or no.
How does the law effect the Governor?
Section of article V. reads "He may, in
cases of emergency, convene the Legisla-
ture, etc. :" and section 8 of the same article
reads: at shall be his duty to see that the
laws are faithfully executed" Without
any knowledge of the views of the Governor
on this subject, his record in the State Sem
ate is too fresh in the minds of all, to admit
doubt of his faithfulness to the people, his
honesty as a man, and his conscientiousness
as public officer. And while extra sessions
of the legislative body of any State or
county, should never be convened except
alone in an emergency, is there man, or
rather is there tax paying Mississippian in
the State, SO forgetful of the political logic of
the few years succeeding the adoption of the
present Constitution, or so obtuse or traitor
Gus to the political shadows which forecasts
the coming political crisis, as to deny that
the emergency of emergencies does not now
face the people of this State? Had it not
been for the adoption of the substitute for
Section of Article 4, the emergency as it
effects the Governor, could not have pre-
sented itself. That substitute being now
part Of the Constitution, in the hands of the
Governor, is the safety of the people Will
the cry of the cost of an extra session, for a
moment, occupy his mind-a few paltry
thousands delay that, which may, by such
delay, grow into possible millions? VIII
the vain imagination of this or that political
writer, that this or that might be done, in
fluence the mind of the Executive at ALL
when the same Constitution which calls him
to see that the laws are promptly executed,
places also in his hands, for the protection
of the people, the veto power? O! for a
sharp sprinkling of stalwart Democrats
throughput L1G kOuIIlS 4OA SCHSAdI
tombment of some of this timid, technical,
lugubrious conservatism Let the Cover
uor convene the Legislature, as the law de-
mRnds, in the early days of the coming year,
as | believe he will, and then stand ready
with his constitutional az forbid" to stay
any action of that body not absolutely called
for by an anxious people; and the Stone
L. i i IL
days when that Shiny monster encircled this
people, shall become the head of the corner
OF prosperous commonwealth, whose pres
ent status was not imperilled by lost OPP
portunity.
In the second place, the people demand an
extra session First, generally, that justice
may be done; that the outrage which was
deliberately perpetrated by the Black and
Tans in 1870, in the present apportionment,
shall be obliterated from the Statute books
and secondly, for the controlling reason, if
not now done, 1t may never be done. Even
the Contribution of 1869 declares, what is
the principle of Democratic or Republican
governments. that representation in the leg
islative body is based upon population but
the apportionment actually made by the
Legislature of 1870, was based alone upon
theabsolute necessities ofimpecunious camp
followers-money changers who polluted the
temple of justice, riotous as paryerus, and
brought and sold themselves in and out of
legislative and judicial stations. Is it not
just, that such legislation, such crying
shame on the manhood of this people for ten
weary years, be, at the first moment permitted
By Eato, corrected Is not the outrage of that
apportionment patent to every man in the
State? If not, it can only be that he who
does not see and feel it, is ready by his timid
technicalities, to be the slave of such a POI
litical monstrosity as made it, or has con-
cluded to repose himself in the hope of
coming honors, in the bosom of the Repub-
lican party Justice then, in the name of
the people, demands the extra session, that
that may be done which would have been
done at the regular session of 1881, if the
Constitutional amendment for biennial
sessions had not been engrafted on the
fundamental law.
In the second place again, Section 118 I
of the Code of 1880 requires at the general
election on the 9Th day of November, 1881,
one-half of the members of the State Senate
shall be elected, whose term of Office shall
be four years Unless new apportionment
is made in the meantime. half of the Sena-
tors will be elected from the districts as now
Does it enter into the minds
of the directors to an extra session, that
upon an apportionment by the regular ses-
sion in 1882, the seats so filled will thereby
be effected And does not the mere fulfill !
ment of section 118 of the Code, under the Z
present law, endorse and ratify the outrage
of the carpet-baggers of 1870, and absolutely |
defeat the constitutional provisions, that a
new apportionment shdH be made every ten
years? Again, if the superintendent is not
now made, so as to be effective in Noyem-
Der next, does not the Democratic, tax-pay- II
ing party of the State, become responsible
for the presence in the Senate and House of
extra Radicals from those counties when it :
can no longer be doubted that they will J
hold power, and whose present representa-
ton is based upon the ability of this same Z
Radical party to carry, and not upon the ]
ratio of population? Will it not be just to ..
charge upon Democrats, who now have the !
power and the right under the law, if they !
10 not act, with continuing to Radicalism Z
arir,at rar,reaantat;cr, and ,rithLeld:..s. -