The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-12-30
THE LIEUTENANT OVERNoRSHIp.
An Examination of the Validity of the Late
Election by State SenatorL L.. NJ. Campbell.

To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
Knowing thatI would soon be called upon to
decide for myself on the subject of the right of
the people to elect a Lieutenant-governor at the
last election, l Esve given the subject what l
think a fair investigation, and at the request of
the Journal submit the following as the result:
Indiana presents to-day a novel and by no
means a pleasant spectacle. Two persons are
asserting claims to the Office of Lieutenant
governor OF the State. The fact that there Is
such a controversy indicates one, If not all, Of
the following conditions: There was a serious
omission on the part of the trainers of our State
Constitution in leaving that instrument incom-
plete in its provisions or ambiguous in its
terms; otherwise there is in the present gener-
alton an unseemly scramble for Office, or a great
Lack both of patriotism and propriety.
The question of title TO the Office is the only
one to be considered, because the subject of the
fitness and ability of the two claimants is not In
the issue. Looking, then, only to the question
of title, let US begin the consideration of the
subject by reference to the constitutional pro-
visions relating to the office of Governor and
Acknowledgements. Sections ], 2, 8, s, 9 and
10 of Article 5 of the Constitution provide as fol-
lows:
Section 1. The executive powers of the State
shall be vested in a Governor. He shall hold his
office during four years, and shall not be eligible
more than four years in any period of eight years.
Sec. 2. There shall be a Acknowledgement, who
shall hold his Office four years.
Sec. 3. The Governor and Lieutenant-governor
shall be elected at the times and places of choosing
members of the General Assembly = Il =
Sec. 8. No member of Congress or person holding
any Office under the United States or under this State
shall fill the Office of Governor or acknowledgement
Sec. 8. The official term of the Governor and
Lieute~nantgovernor shall commence on the second
Monday ofJanuary, 1888, and on the same day every
fourth year thereafter.
Sec. 10. In case of the removal of the Governor
from Office, or Of his death. resignation or inability to
discharge the duties of the office, the same shall de-
volve upon the acknowledgement, and the General
Assembly shall, by law. provide for the
inability both of the Governor and Lieutenant
governor, declaring what officer shall then act as
Governor, and srch officer shall act accordingly until
the disability be removed or a Governor be elected.
In constituting this last section, we must con-
slider, also. Section l, Article 8, of the Constitu-
ton, which is as follows:
Three Departmental. The powers of the govern
ment are divided into three separate departments;
the legislative, the executive, including the admins
official duties under one of these departments shall
exercise any of the functions of another, except as in
this Constitution expressly provided.
At the general election held in November,
1884. Isaac P. Gray was elected Governor and
Mahlon d. Manson both
of whom were duly inaugurated on the second
Monday of January, 1885, and each entered
upon the duties of his Office. On the day of
July. 1886, Lieutenant-governor Manson was ap-
pointed to the Office of collector Of internal reve-
nue. for the general government, in and for the
Seventh district of Indiana, and accepted said
office, and entered upon the duties thereof.
By Section 8, Article 2 of our State Constitu-
ton 1t is provided, among other things, that no
person shall bold more than one lucrative Office
at the same time. and Section 6, Article 5, says
no person holding Office under the United States
shall fill the Office of Lieutenant-governor. Lieu
tenant-governor Manson Sled no formal resigna-
ton of his office, but it has been frequently de-
cided, and | understand it is universally con-
coded, that the acceptance of a second lucrative
Office and entrance upon its duties by one al
ready holding one such, amounts to a surrender
Of title and abandonment of the first one. In
this case General Manson is making no pretense
of holding the Office of Lieutenant-governor,
nor has he made any such claim since he ac-
cepted the Office Of internal revenue collector.
By Section 4G78 of Revised Statutes of 1881, it is
provided as follows:
A general election shall be held on the first Tuesday
after the first Monday in November, in the year one
thousand eight hundred and eighty-two. and bienni-
ally thereafter on the same day, at which election all
existing vacancies in Office, and all Offices, the terms
of which will expire before the next general election
thereafter, shall be filed, unless otherwise provided
by law.
On this state of facts it became important
to the people of Indiana to know whether or not
a vacancy existed in the office of Lieusenant-gov
ernor; not that there was any claim or pretense
sA1b OOASAssA AebSO otiA zap IL OluOOs
but whether by law or constitutional provision
any other officer or person succeeded Immediate
" to the vacancy made by Manson's abandon
ment thereof. If a vacancy existed, Section
4678 of the statutes above quoted unquestion-
ably applied, and it became the right and duty
of the people to fill the same at the ensuing No
vember election.
We have in Indiana an officer called an Attor-
ney7general, whose Office is created and whose
duties are prescribed by statute. One of the
6fIfinQ ag,iainad rnnn %hof 0EHoaw NV l. - u 81
give his legal opinion to the Governor, whenever
requested so to do, touching any question or
point of law in which the interests OF the State
may be involved.
In the month of August, 1886, the Governor
OF the State, deeming that the interests of the
State were involved in the question as to wheth.
er or not a vacancy then existed in the Office of
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, requested of the Attorney
general an opinion on the subject. The Attor-
ney-general, presumably after a thorough and
satisfactory investigation Of all the law bearing
upon the subject, decided thai there was a vacancy
which should be filled by election, and gave to
ne Governor an opinion, in which the following
passages occur. Referring to Revised Statute
1881, Section 467S, the Encouragement says:
This provision of the statute is operative only
when there is a vacancy in the Offices of both Govern
or and Lieutenant governor, and in such event the
President of the Senate shall become acting Governor
until the vacancy be filed, and such vacancy should
be filled at the next ensuing November election. r.
S. 1881. Sec. 4676. ,
1t is the policy of the law that when the regular or.
der is broken by a vacancy. the Office IN which it oc-
ours shall not rem ain untitled longer than necessary.
but such Office, as far as possible, should be bestowed
upon the incumbent by the voters, and an off 90
should be filed by appointment only until the voters
can themselves ell it at a regular election. The State
ex rel. Ault vs.. Long, 81 Ind, 351, $50; Parmater
VS.. State, 102 Ind, 80. = 4 y 1t has been urged
that, in some instances, the Lieutenant governor has
succeeded to the Office of Governor by the resignation
or death of the Governor, and a vacancy was thereby
created in the Office of acknowledgements which
was not filed by appointment or election, and
that such practice ought to control the decision
of the question presented by your inquiry. . = =
think it very evident that the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
creates no vacancy in his Office by acting as Governor.
If IN the history of the State there have been vacan.
cies in the office of Lieutenant-governor that were not
filed by election, this construction of the Constitu-
ton and statutes by the State officers, while entitled
to respectful consideration, can never abrogate their
text: it can never fritter away their obvious sense; it
can never narrow down their true limitations; it can
never enlarge their natural boundaries, and repeated
violations of q plain law cannot give construction to
it. May va. Rice, 81 Ind, SAG. $50. 4
In case of a vacancy, permanent or temporary, In