The daily gazette., 1883-01-31

whatever has ever been paid to the fact that
the original number was not to exceed
twelve. What argument of equality of
representation can be drawn that will not
be equally applicable to equality of numbers
of Justices of the Peace am unable to con-
ceiVe. 1t seems to me that the practice with
respect to additional Justices Of the Peace,
begun long time back and acquiesced in and
by all the departments of the Government.
by the public at large, (for there is no evi-
dence that 1t was ever questioned by any
body ought of itself to form a construction
for the clauses under consideration. / re-
peat that | think the Legislature has the
power mentioned In the first of the above
quoted interrogatories.
With reference to the second of the in-
terrogatories above set forth, / have to say
that, In my opinion, the Legislature has no
power to provide by law for the election of
Representatives or Senators in the General
Assembly by districts within county. The
express language of the Constitution is, in
my Judgment, against it. There are two
clauses with respect to this matter, and they
are similar in their requirements:
"The representatives shall be chosen for
two years by the citizens residing in the
several counties" (section 2, Article IL,
',The Senators shall be chosen for four
years by the citizens residing in the several
Counties" (Sec. 8, Art. II.)
The words "by the citizens residing In the
several counties" seem to me to preclude
the idea that a member of the Legislature
may be elected by the citizens residing in a
portion of one of them; though / see no
reason why the Legislature may not by law
direct that a certain number of either body
shall be residents of certain dis
trict, one or more Distribu-
tion of them for the public
| benefit may be very necessary measure and
there is nothing to prevent it being done
| Until of late years no necessity appears to
have arisen to raise the subject for consider
| alton, which may account for the fact of
absence of legislation, but political parties
have acted upon 1t In the formation Of their
| tickets.
/ answer the second interrogatory in the
! negative.
J. P. CoMEGYs, Chief Justice"
| AN INTERVIEW WITH CHANCELLOR sAULS-
| BURY-How HE SUPPORTS HIS OPINION.
Chancellor Salisbury, in the opinion
which he submitted to the Legislature on
| Monday, did not give any historical
facts, or reasoning based upon them, to es-
tablish that opinion, and the GAZETTE re-
porter called upon him yesterday and ques-
toned him about this 81 never submitted
| TO an interview in my life, said he, "but
have no objection to telling the GAZETTE
| anything you may desire to know. In the
first place ! am not opposed to New Castle
having increased representation If secured
in constitutional manner. ! have formed
my opinion that the Legislature cannot di-
rectly increase its members after a careful
examination Of the historical facts bearing
| on the case"
The Chancellor then, after showing some
| reticence, went on to say that in the original
draft Of his opinion he had gone into these
facts but had afterwards omitted them, as
he did not wish to lay before the Legislature
anything that might not be essential to the
the expression of the constitutional views,
although he had no doubt that the facts
| which he had omitted would eonclusively
establish the reasonabieness of his views.
The Chancellor then gave the omitted
portions of his opinion as follows
II do not express and do not wish to be
understood as expressing any opinion as TO
the propriety or inpropriety of an increase
| In the number of Senators and Representa-
| tyes in the General Assembly, or in respect
| TO the apportionment of the number com
| posing either branch of the General Assem-
| bly, between the several counties OF this
| State. If your honorable bodies judge that
/ the number of Senators and Representatives
| in the General Assembly ought to be
u
| between the several counties of
the State, 1t is within your
constitutional authority to call convention
| of the people of the State or to propose
i amendments to the existing Constitution in
| the manner provided by the 9th article
| thereof; but the unequal representation of
| the several counties In the General Assem-
bly, In my opinion cannot be made In any
other manner nor can the members of the
/ La, ha viz
stitution be otherwise chosen than by vote
of the legal voters of the counties. The
| election of members by votes in partial dis
| tricts of county would be clearly uncon-
| stitutional.
The history of this subject is, however,
| interesting and that history conclusiyely
establishes the fact that the equality of
| representation in the Legislative depart
| ment of the State government OF the several
| counties has been the uniform and settled
| policy of the government in Delaware
| throughout her existence, whether as terri
| tories, "A colony or a sovereign and indepen-
| dent State. do not propose to review that
/ history, but for the period prior to the adop-
/ tion OF the first constitution by the people OF
| this State In 1776. | refer to the Act of Union,
| XIV Charles IL, A. d. 1852 lin Vol. l =, Laws
| of Delaware, The Act OF Settlement, A. d.
| 1862, The Charter Of Privileges granted by
| w llllam fenh 10 Tue lHHhDlIdnth Vi I ItnHS1I-
yania, and the Territories thereof, XIII
| William Ill, Oct. 2S, A. d. 1911, The
| Frame af the Government, The Frame of
the Government of Pennsylvania and the
Territories thereunto belonging, Duke of
| YorlS's Book of Laws, 245), An act for reg
ulating elections, &c NJ George IL, 146.
| Other references might be made, but these
| are sufficient to establish the fact that
| through the entire existence of Delaware as
an organized society governed by laws, in
the enactment OF which the people of the
eounCies participated up to the time of the
| foundation of the first Constitution in 1176,
| the representation in the governing legisla-
| tive bodies was by counties and by equal
| representation of the counties.
| The I'd article of the first Constitution of
the State, Sept. 20, 1776, declares that the
| Legislature shall be formed by two distinct
branches. Article declares that one OF the
branches shall be called "liouse OF As
sembly't and shall consist of seven repre-
sentativts to be chosen for each county.
| Article declares the other branch shall be
called the "Couneia and shall consist of
nine members, three TO be chosen for each
county
The provision of the Constitution of June
| IL, 1792, in respect to the Senators
and Representatives and how and by
whom chosen are the same as the pro
visions Of the existing Constitution of the
State made in convention, December 2, 1881.