Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-09-16

rules OF proceedings, &c.
The Senate determined its rules o
proceedings, which he willuIly anC
| flagrantIy violated, set at defiance all
parliamentary rules and precedents
disregarded the constitutional and legal
rights of members, and used his posi-.
ton and office for base, malignant, par.
tisan purposes.
1t is not my purpose now to discuss
whether the majority of the Senators
did right or wrong in refusing longer to
submit to the rulings and insults of this
fellow who prides himself on nothing
so much as being a bully, and therefore
withdrew from their places in the Sen
ate and remained absent therefrom and
left the Senate without quorum.
That they did so is a fact known to
every intelligent inhabitant of the
State, and none knew it better than the
Republican minority, who remained
behind and spent several days in the
vain attempt to obtain the attendance
of a quorum.
The constitution defines what a
quorum shall be, as follows: IA ma
jority of all the members elected to each
House shall be quorum to do busi-
ness; but less number may adjourn
from day to day and compel the atten-
dance of absent members in such man.
ner, and under such penalties, rs shall
be prescribed by law"
With this plain constitutional pro-
vision confronting them, the Republi-
can members of the Senate and their
presiding officer in execution of an
agreement and conspiracy on their part
entered into in caucus to disregard their
oaths office and violate the Constitution
on the Sth day of May, 1886, every man
participating, knowing that there was
"no quorum to do businessn present,
proceeded to have written in a book
which they had the temerity to entitle
the Journal of the Senate, the passage
of resolution ousting the four Sena-
tors from Hamilton county from their
seats and putting four other men in
their places.
There are some provisions of the con-
stitution, as every lawyer knows, that
are held by our Courts to be "directory
in their character, the observance of
which, by the Assembly, is secured by
THAR sense of duty and official oaths,
and not by any supervisory power of
the Courts" but the only directory pro-
visions of the Constitution are such as
relate to modes prescribed, and to the
conferred.
A constitutional provision defining or
limiting authority is mandatory, and
for It's enforcement we have, or at least
should have, not only the sense of duty
and regard for official oaths exist, but
also the supervisory power of the
Courts.
1t seems hardly necessary to aver,
that the constitutional provision de-
fining what shall be a quorum is man
datory, limiting the authority or power
to act by either branch of the General
to
"a MAJORITY OF ALL
The members elected" and restricting
the authority of less number to ad-
iournment from day to day, and COM
pelling the attendance of absent mem
bers.
Under the constitution less than
quorum have no more power to transact
business of any kind than the same
of other citizens would have.-
All the powers possessed by members
Of the Legislature are derived from the
and they are limited by
its provisions.
1t is q startling fact, which may we'll
cause the lover of free constitutional
government to consider with alarm
we are drifting, that all the re-
of a great political party
n the Senate of this State and their
officer should conspire to
yiolate the provisions of the constitu-
ion of this State, which each of them
when he entered upon his office had
olemnly sworn, in the presence of God,
he searcher of all hearts, to support
md defend; but more startling still is |
he fact that the Republican members
# the Court of last resort in this State
an sustain this wanton, shameless |
of the constitution-this fla
rant defiance of constitutional re-
train to.
When we consider that written con-
titutions are the only barriers to the |
of power, the only |
harters of the peoples liberties, and |
hat the supervisory power of the Court |
) the only means of securing their OBJ
ervance, and that this means has prov
d to be but broken reed in the hands
t partisan Judges, we may well ex-
lain. "Great God, on what slender
bread hang the cherished rights of the
eople, the destinies of the State!n
Let all the people ofthe State read and
onder the dissenting opinion of Chief
ustice Owen, in the case of Ohio ex
el-Herron VS.. Smith, and especially
his part of it:
"If seventeen members could transact
uch business so could seven, or any less
umber Indeed, let it once be estab-
shed that plain provision of the con-
titution can be subverted or wholly
by such means as it is here
Omitted were employed, and it is vain
} speculate upon what may not be ac-
in an effort to contravene
he organic law of four State.
''In this case the Court is called upon
} consider radically new question:
t is creditable to the Legislative De-
of the States that no Court
f last resort, or any one of them, has
yer been required to deal with such a
uestion.
"The industrious research of counsel
as failed to produce case, and it will
e observed that not one is cited by the
lajority of the Court which tends in
ne slightest degree to support the ex-
proposition here contended
Or.
"To apply the cases cited and relied
pom it is necessary to assume an entire
7 different state of facts from those
'hich appear in this case.