The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1892-02-27

inc vouchers oath,
The attack made yesterday by Mr..
hapard and company upon the Levy
court, was one which only annoys the
clerk OF the peace and puts upon him
more labor. The plain wording Of the
law, In literal, sense leaves no doubt
that the intention was that no one but
the clerk OF the peace '.alonev should
swear voucher for person applying
70 get assessed before the Levy Court.
The word alone is as explicit as the
word illegally" and appears in the
same act Of the Legislature of 1881, but
Mr.. Bayard and his followers seem
disposed to lay great stress and i'm
portance upon the word alone, " while
they treat the word illegally" with the
greatest contempt as II it was OF no
importance. The law putting the
duty OF swearing vouchers upon the
clerk OF the peace alone" was passed
to amend the law of 1873, which per-
mitted the voucher to be sworn by any
justice Of the peace or notary public
In the county of New Castle.
The person applying to get assessed
put the affidavit In his pocket, took 1t
In person before the Levy Court, and
handed Tito the member who moved
to haye.the name placed upon the as.
sessment. This was done in 1850 when
the Levy Court sat at New Castle and
when some 900 names were put upon
the lists during March and the Repub-
Leans that year elected James Martin
sheriff by nine majority. 1t will be
recollected by many that the vouchers
were all sworn by the late George s.
Hagany, then a justice OF the peace of
this city. This plan did not suit our
Democratic friends, who always wanted
to make voting as difficult as possible,
and In the Legislature elected that
year the small privilege Of getting
voucher sworn before Q Justice OF the
peace or notary public was taken
away and the power to swear vouchers
was given to the Clerk OF the Peace
s,alone,n
Even then this was never constructed
to exclude the deputy clerk of the
peace from doing what his superior
had the right TO do in this regard I'M
I'll yesterday, when word came from
Mr.. Bayard and company, that the
wording of the law must be carried
out even If the spirit of it was violated.
Why did not Mr.. Bayard insist that the
word illegally" should be used in the
came spirit? That did not suit his hon
est kind OF Democracy. OF course
there was nothing to do but for tho
Levy Court to comply with the law as
explained by Mr. Bayard and company
and hereafter only Clerk OF the Peace
Biggs will swear vouchers.
Deputy Clerk Eliason in all other
matters pertaining to all the duties of
the Clerk OF the Peace is still empow-
cred to administer oaths, but in this
one particular, the decision of Mr..
Bayard and Company is, that it is of
such holy nature that justice pure
and unadulterated must not be admin
tstered second handed, but must come
warm, gushing, from the lips OF the
Clerk OF the Peace and falling like
holy ointmont upon the heads OF the
sworn vouchers.
AS we have already said. this now
Interpretation OF the law only unnoys
the clerk of the peace. His deputy,
Mr.. Eliason, acts as clerk of the Levy
Court, while In session, while MIR.
Biggs superintends the other multi
farious duties of his dual Office, but
now whenever anybody is present to
beput upon the assessments he will
have to leave all other important du-
ties to swear the vouchers. Tho de,
cision is foolish one, even If 1t did
come from Mr.. Bayard and company.
Suppose Clerk Biggs takes elck, as ne
did two weeks recently, the whole RS
sessment business Of the Levy Court
must stop. Did the law ever intend
thisf Common sense says no. MIR.
Bayard and company says yes