Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-02-01

resident of BCtciourt county. and ia not
him. rNs>''' "0'" -
nc following is the report
The undersigned members of fbe
committee on Privileges and Elections
neg. leave TO submit TIE following report
ID the case OF A. NJ. McClintic:
III this case your committee was di.
reetcd to inquire into the eligibility Of
a. Nj. McClintic to n seat III this House
as member from the counties Of
Allegheny, Highland, aud Bath. The
constitution of Virginia. Article v, sec
tion ., provides that "any person may
be elected "a member OF the House Of
Delegates who at the time OF election is
ocfu0fly resilient within the county,
city, town, or election district qualified
to vote for members of the General As
semhly according TO this Constitution.
The report adopted by tins House in
the case OF Reynolds Us. Boiling inter
prets tlifs constitutional requirement as
follows: The required eligibility is
two-fold-first. n citizen entitled TO vote :;
second, residence actual at the time of
election, not constructive. And it is
manifest that the distinction hetween
qualification of votsis and qualification
for members of the Legislature was
carefully made. A citizen may be Il
suitragan having once acquired the
privilege, though not actually. bodily,
u resident; but he must he both an
cloctor and living within the limits of
his county at the time Of his election to
he fitted for representative of the peo-
pie. That the trainers Of the Constitu-
ton intended the express meaning of
this provision is cOnciusively demon
strated by section ., Article ILL.,. which
reads: That all elections shall be by
ballot, and persons entitled 10 vote shall
be eligible TO any Office within the gift
OF the people, cTccpt az restricted in
this Constitution. House journal,
lS83-'S4, page 229. This Interpretation
appears most reasonable, for unless
something moro than to be a voter is re-
quired III the qualification Of a member
of this House, why is it said in the Con
stitution that "A resultant shall be entitled
TO vote. but OF a member OF the House
of Delegates that he must he actually q
resistant Within his county, Sc. ?
"a man retains his domicile if he
leaves it amino rcU6ricHdi." and thus he
may retain his residence for the purpose
Of voting, while actually, in point of
fact, his dwelling-place is outside OF the
county in which he is voter and OF
which he is constructiyely resident by
virtue Of bis intention to return. but
actual residence, as distinguished from
this constructive residence, is requisite
to render a man eligible to a seat III tins
House.
Cooley on Con. Linn, page 75j, says:
"The words 'inhRbitaDt, citizen, and
resident, as employed in different con
stitutions to define qualifications of
electors, mean substantially the same
thing, and one is an inhabitant. citizen,
or resident where he has his domicile or
home
If A. NJ McClintic has any domicile or
home within either of the counties
named it is, according to his own evil
dence, at Oak Hill, the house of Harper
McGloughliD, in the county of Bath.
Bowler defines domicle as being that
place where a man has his true, fixed,
and permanent home and principal es-
adjustment. and to which, whenever he
is absent, he has the intention of return
ing" Law Die, 800.
The wife of A. VI. McClintic lives in
the county of BOtetourt, on land which
she owns There has been no separation
between Mr.. McClintic and his wife, and
il Is shown that the relations existing be-
tween them are Of the most pleasant
character. The only house that MIR. Nc
Chntic owns and his principal individual
business is at Edray, III West Virginia,
and at this last named place he keeps a
furnished room and employs a cook. tie
has an interest III a store at Mountain
Grove, iii Bath county, some distance
from Oak Hill, the house of Harper Nc
Gloughlin, and in different election dis
trict. He does not claim his home at
this place. All the property that MIR.
McClintic has at Harper McGloughlin's
is some articles of household furni-
tire which he and his wife left there
when they broke mp their home IN that
place in the year 1880. He has been at
Harper McGloughlins, upon his own
evidence, once a month during the last
seven years, and has no business inte-
rests whatever at that place. lie has a
room rented IN McCloughlin' house,
which be has the right to occupy when
there, which he does not carry the key
TO. and which McGloughlin uses in ms
absence. In view of these facts, is the
4...o Cd aud ,,o,rnonapt bouna Qud
principal establishment of A. VI. Nc
Ulintic at the house Of McCiloughlin ?
And, although he may intend that such
place shall be his home, has he been such
an actual resident at this place as con-
templated by the Constitution We
think not.
In the case of Cessna rs. Myers, in the
Congress Of the United States, it is said
"The place where mans property is,
where his family is-the place to which
he goes back from time whenever no
temporary occasion calls him elsewhere,
where the permanent and Ordinar. busl-
ness of his life Is conducted, that is to
the ordinary man the place Of his home. "
McCrary on Flee, 400.
With the exceptions OF the articles OF
furniture referred to, and on which Nc
Gloughlin pays the tax, MIR. McClintic
has no property at McGloughlin's he
has a wife, but not there he does not
carry on any business there. When ask
ed where he went to stay when he had
spare time McClintic answered: eff
nv wife is in West Virginia, ! so there
to see her; if she happens to be in
Botetourt, 1 go there to see her" See
record, page Ca
Tried 10y this test, we DO not find one
single evidence of the home of Mr. Nc
Chntic at the house of McGloughlin,
and. what is more important in the just
and proper settlement of this case, the
proof utterly fails to show that he
actually resides at this place but, on
the other hand, it shows that his life is q
wandering one that his business in
forests are chiefly beyond and without
the district which he here represents,
and. rs a consequence, there is wanting
that nicely OF thought and purpose and
interest with that constituency which the
trainers of the Constitution contem-
plated when they embodied that re-
auirement in the qualification of mem
Der OF the General Assembly chat he
should be actually q resfdeaC tcithjn