The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1880-03-18

o iect of taxation for Railroads,
, Free Turnpikes, and other purposes,
in certain municipalities and by GER
tain classes Of people, by majority
vote, might be enforced as claws
Of a general nature" upon such sub
ject-matter, whilst other municipai-
ties and classes of people might not
have such laws enforced, and that
therefore, by analogy, a Local OPP
ton Anti-LiquOr Law might be pass
ed and enforced in some municipali-
ties in the State and not in others,
and that by the cases of 20 0. S. r.
pages 302, 3, 4 and 5; % o. S. R.
| pages 1IO-1I1, different grades of
cIimemight exist and diversity of pun
iishment might be inflicted. And now
also here, referring to the decisions of.
the State Courts of Massachusetts,
Connecticut, New Jersey and Penn
sylvania, in which Local Option Anti
Liquor Laws have been adjudged
to be constitutional, and noting the
fact that such laws are in force in
many of the States, I waive the
force and effect of all these authori-
ties and precedents, and come di-
rectly to the just, and I hope, judi
cial-like Interpretation of Sec. 26 of
Article III. Legislative Department,
by an original argument de s1o0O, as
if nothing had been written or said.
The section reads as follows:
''Sec. 26. All laws of a general /
nature shall have uniform opera
ton throughout the State, nor shall
any act, except such as relate to
! public schools, be passed, to take ef-
feet upon the approval of any other
authority than the General Assem-
bly,, except as otherwise provided by
this Constitution.
now ask, when and how does
any act of the General Assembly, |
embracing a law of a general nature, |
take efeet7 I answer, when sign
ed by the President of the Senate |
and Speaker of the House, and pub
lished as the law Of the State, in con
formity to the provisions of the Con
stitution, and the time for its taking
effect is declared on its face, or by
general law. This is no technical
answer. It is full and complete, SO
far as the powers Of the General As
sembly are concerned. When, by
the provisions of any such act, ac-
cording to Blackstone's definition of
law, it has fixed a rule of civil con-
duct, prescribed by the supreme
power in the State, commanding
what is right and prohibiting what
is wrong, then at this point, its pow
er is exhausted. If neither the Gov
ernor, the judges, nor any other of
the law officers, nor the citizens, up
on whom is devolVed the execution
of the provisions of any act of the
General Assembly, will execute
them, then, in common parlance, the
law is a dead letter on the statute {,
books but still such law has all the
effect the General Assembly can i'm
part to it, and no other authority
can Obstruct its effect When, there
fore, the trainers of the Constitution
employed the terms, ''to take effect
upon the approval of any other au-
thOrity, they must have intended
that no veto power, like the veto of
a President or Governor, should ez
ist in any department of the State
organization, which could obstruct
the taking effect of any general law;
but they Ger ainly did not mean to
declare that if the human instrumen-
talities which they could alone en-
ploy for the execution of any gener-
al law, should fail in some parts of
the State to execute such law, then
such failure nullifed the same in
other parts of the State. The whole
fabric of Government rests upon the
affirmative obligation of the citizen,
in any capacity in which he moves
and acts, to obey the laws and to
assist in the execution thereof, in
such manner as may be required of
him by the State, and the discharge
of these duties on the part of the
citizen imparts life to the State, and
his failure to discharge them causes
death. Seeing, then, that the law
making power can only, through the
citizen, have the provisions of any
act which has already taken effect
carried into execution, the key ques-
ton of the whole argument arises, in
asking and determining, whether, by
the provisions of the Constitution,
the General Assembly is limited or
commanded as to the manner in g
which it shall employ the agency of 1
the citizen in the execution of the 1
provisions of any general law, which :
has already taken effect. I know of !
no limitation, command or specific r
direction. If such be the true logic i
of the relation between the State and
the citizen, one other question must +
be answered, and this sketch of an
will be closed.
Is, then, Local Option Anti
Liquor law, a law of general nature,
and does it have a uniform opera
ton throughout the State, and does
it depend for taking effect upon any G
other authority? ? I answer, that it I
is a general law, with provisions h
uniform throughout the State, and o
does not depend for taking effect up F
on any other authority, but that, r
ikealI other general laws, the method =
and manner of its execution is pecu- O.
liar to itself, depending upon the il
cooperation and combination of the d
agencies of the citizens, and that its n
like the provisions Of all G
other penal police laws, may be exc
,uted and enforced in one munich
0ality in the State and not in anoth-
9r, dependent upon the state of pub
ic sentiment, which may stimulate
u retard the execution of the pro-
visions of such law. And as the en-
Of any penal law depends
lpon the force of public sentiment
n favor of its enforcement, there
ore, the advocates of Temperance N
insist and pray, that a Ger
ain measure, and the only measure g
hat can be devised, of the standard 4
# public sentiment, shall be afford (
ID to them by the enactment of Al