Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-09-18
TIE ELECTION OF COUNTY OFFICERS

Idh hLECIlVN VI COUNII Ort1S6sS'
We publish elsewhere communication
from member of the Sacramento bar, on
the question of the election of county Off
GERS this year. Our correspondent is con-
WINGED that the recent decision of the Su-
preme Court invalidating the County Gov
eminent bill does not obviate the necessity
of electing county officers, and his argu.
ment is certainly a very clear and strong
one. The Constitution, according to his
Interpretation, renders it unavoidable that
there should be an election of county Off
GERS this year, inasmuch as it has decreed
that the terms of all the present incum-
bents shall be shortened one year, and has
further provided that their successors shall
be elected &c at the last election before the
'expiration of their terms" As under
the Constitution the expiration of their
terms occurs in March, 1881, it would
seem to follow that their successors must
be chosen this fall, and if our CORE
spondent is right in asserting that the
constitutional provisions to which he re-
fers ''do not need the assistance of a
proclamation of the Governor or Board
"of Supervisors to call for the election Of
"these officers" then the candidates for
county offices are justified in going
on with their canvass, and the people are
warranted in making nominations for these
offices where this has not yet been done.
As, however, the opinions of lawyers de-
livered unofficially are necessarily without
special authority, and as in all probability
there will be found lawyers who will take
an opposite view of the situation, it is evil
dent that the uncertainty of the case can
not be removed by these methods. The
most direct way to ascertain the law would
be to get an agreed case before the Su.
preme Court, supposing that feasible,
though even then there would be no GER
tainty as to the receipt of a decision in
time for the coming election. Failing an
authoritative decision of the matter can
didates may regard it as safest to act as
though the election were to be held, for if
the people vote on the candidates, and the
Court decides the election to have been a
legal one, those who run will have the
best position. The fact that the present
incumbents cannot hold after next March
without an apparent violation of the Con-
stitution seems to fortify the position of
our correspondent very strongly, for the
possibility of such an occurrence can hardly
have been present to the minds of those
who favored the instrument, though we
are well aware that it is unsafe
to assume that they knew what they were
doing. The present middle is only a
slight example of the embarrassments and
confusions which that amazing Convention
of impracticables prepared for the people of
California, however, and perhaps it is not
| just that the Supreme Court should be
accused OF endeavoring to add to the en-.
tanglement by its rulings. 1t must be
! realized that no Court has ever before had
to construe such an organic law, and that
it must in the nature of things be impos-
sible for even the most learned Judges to
discover the meaning of jurists who very
possibly did not understand the tendencies
of their own action. We are only begin
ming to find out what the new Constitution
has in store for us moreover, and in view
of the probability that there is much worse
to follow it will be prudent to cultivate pa
tience and resignation, at least until the
community has been satiated with the ex-
pertinent. and is prepared to modify or re-
| neal IT,