The daily gazette., 1883-01-22
SECTION ELEVEN KILLED.
Council Considering the New Charter
Opposed to the Mayors Court.

|
rad presided. Messrs. Patterson and Turner
the compiIers were present.
Mr.. Beecher moved that Section be read
and adopted. This prevailed. The
section defines the boundaries OF the city az
at present located, and vests the Mayol
and Council with the power &c which be.
fore the passage of the act belonged to him
Section 2, granting the franchisis and
privaleges incident to corporation or body
polite, and Section y, enacting the officers
of the city as they at present exist were
passed without opposition, bute little breeze
was raised over next section. This fixes the
qualification Of the Mayor and the member
OF Council. 1t provides that the holder OF
any Office must be q citizen Of the State and
resident of the city, that the Mayor must
reside In the city two years before the elec.
tion, and that members of Council must re.
side within the city two years before the
election, and at the time OF his election be a
resident and q freehoider of the ward
he represents. Mr.. Beecher offered an
amendment, that the member of Council
should be q freeholder In his own
right, In the city and ward In
which he Is elected, the value Of which 1t,
according to the assessment made next pre-
ceding the election, shall be $500 and free
from all encumberances.
This reused the ire of both Mr.. Quinn and
Mr.. Garrett, the former declaring that the
section was direct blow at him. After an
amendment had been made on Mr. GARRETT
| motion to the amendment, striking out the
words land ward" Mr. Beecher's amend
ment was adopted and the section ss
amended was endorsed. Section s, provid.
ing for the administration Of the oath of
office; section @, for the election of Mayor.
| (the FIRST on the first Saturday In June 1885,
/ nd ~
making It the Mayors duties to see that the
ordinances are fully executed, we're passed i,
| but Council again stuck on section 8, which
gave the Mayor authority to acknowledge
deeds, letters OF attorney, etc. as resident
judge or notary public may do, and fixed
the usual fee to be received at rs cents.
Mr. Mention called attention to the fact
that section 48, yet to be reached, prohibited
the Mayor to receive any fees, and all fees
were to be paid into the city. He asked the
ROmpilers, who were present, TO explain this
IdiscTepency.
After Mr.. Quinn had dilated at some length
and been called to order, Messrs. Turner
| and Patterson explained that this was done
because law of Congress provided for the
acknowledgment of deeds before the Mayor
! of city or resident judge. 1t was matter
OF convenience, and In that respect was not
/ strictly that belonging to the office of
Mayor. Mr.. Patterson further stated that
| as the law had yet to be passed by the Leg
islature, the State should keep the fee or it
should go to the State. After this section
(5) and section o had been amended SO as
to substitute the word "charge" instead OF
"receive," they were passed.
Section 10 vas next adopted without op-
position. 1t simply makes the Mayor the
eonservator Of the peace, and gives him all
the authority of justices Of the peace In New
Castle county.
When section IL, which with section ID,
is. 10, II, 1S, 10, 20, q, 22, IS, 90, 81 and
2s, covers the provisions for he MAYORS
Court" was reached, Mr.. Paynter began
his opposition to IL bv moving that all of
them be stricken out. The President
suggested that Mr.. Paynter would
have to make his motion separately on each
section. and he substituted his motion
for one to strike out section IL. The sec
tion gives the Mayor concurrent iurisdic-
ton with the Mayors court of oil offenses
which shall be committed against city ordi-
nances, &c, and to punish all offenders. It
gives him the authority of Justices of the
Peace for New Castle county and states that
process issued by him may be executed by
the constable or the police officers of the
city. Process issued by the Mayor may be
directed to the Sheriff OF any county in the
manner and be subject TO the same penal
ties as In other cases.
Before Mr.. Paynter had stated his reason
for objection, MIR. Patterson, by invitation,
spoke In defense of the provision providing
for the Mavor's court. He said 1t was a
recognized principle, that when an authority
is once secured It is unwise to relinQulsh 1t.
He then spoke of the difficulties met with
In securing the authority Fl ON the State for
the old mayors court, which under the
new charter would be almost the
same as the one which had been
secured years ago, but which had not
been In session for many years. In the
present case the Mayor and President
of Council constituted the bench and
either of them could hold court Formerly
the court consisted of the Mayer and two
Aldermen. 1t would be suicidal to throw
| the power off now, when 1t was proposed to
incorporate into the new charter the provl-
sion for the Mayors court, which under the
present charter could be reopened at any
time. He said that Wilmington, a growing
| city, would soon need something Of the kind
| anyhow, and claimed that If ali the sections
would necessitate remodelng of the char
ter, and would greatly delay getting the
charter before the Legislature.
Mr. Paynter replied, saying that his rea-
son for opposing the plan to continue the
| Mayors court was that 1t gave the Mayor
too much power. lit does not declared
| Mr.. Paynter, "give an American citizen the
power the United States Constitution
allows him. 1t is wrong to have a court at
which man is to be tried by man with
no expert knowledge OF the law, and with
out jury and with no redress to a higher
court except the civil court. Every citizen
| of the United States should have the right
to trial by jury. II we had man now for
| Mayor with smile at Mr.. Patterson who
is as well versed as the gentleman who has
| just spoken we might expect to get justice,
| but owing to political choice we are not
likely to have man capable of sitting In
important cases with all the powers of Judge
of this mayors COURT
The motion to strike out was then put and
/ the chair had decided 1t carried when
division was called for and the result was 0
to 8, Mr.. Bailey being out of the room.
| Ayes and nays were called when Mr.. Bailey
entered, and he was excused from voting,
not being prepared, he said, to decide by his
vote such an important question without
more thought. The result was as follows
the motion to strike out being adopted
Ayes-Messrs. Adele, Baugh, Blake,
Denny, MeKenna, Newall, Paynter, Quinn,
Shaw and President Conrad-10.
Nayes-Messrs Beecher, Garrett, Grubb
Mention, Miller, Moore, Stevenson and Smith
%.
President Conrad stated that he voted aye
In order to be able to move a reconsidera-
tion. Messrs johnson, Easthurn and File
were absent.
Council then adjourned to meet this