The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-01-23
! D. LAUTER co.,
PIANOS AND ORGANS,
Broad ST., Newark.

side been heard it is reasonable to infer that
the opinion might lave been modified. Let
us remember, too, that this opinion is NOT
| law: it is an opinion, and as coming from
the legal officer of the State, is entitled to
our respect, and to be compared with the
views of many other distinguished legal gen
t1emen who have given the subject careful
| consideration
"With only a portion of the case before
him, and that prepared for the purpose, the
| Attorney General, in his closing paragraphs
states that when they the credentials are
in proper form and there is no dispute as to
the authority of the party who makes the
certificates, it has been the universal Gus
tom to admit the claimant to his seat His
Excellency, the Governor, appends to this
statement his WI earnest words and de-
| clareS, 1T would thus seem TO be the COM
mon law of the legislative bodies mentioned,
| established by uniform custom and prece-
| dent that a claimant presenting credentials
! regular in form and attested by proper au-
thorities, should in the first instance be
seated thereon Upon these two strong
opinions of Democratic officials the eleven
Republican Senators rest their case; while
not strenuous as to details and anxious to
end this unseemly strife, they demand the
simple and universal methods as attested in
the opinion above quoted.
TO ASSERT THEIR G RIGHTS.
eff these efforts at settlement should
prove unavailing, it would then become us,
| Mr.. President, to assert our legal rig hts and
go forward in the line. of duty. Were the
| conditions reversed, and were we standing
in the position of the gentlemen on the
Democratic side who doubts that we would
be placed in the pillory of public scorn and
denounced as revolutionists of the boldest
type?
ic tIa tr,1a Ga,,oto of fhn Stofo of Nauy Tor.
sey. Consider the reasons therefor:
II. 1t is composed of persons fully quail
fed to act. The State Constitution Section
2, Article ~ gives such right to those who
are duly elected by the legal voters of the
county. The nomination and election &C
the returns and the official deposit of
the same with the County Clerk
and his certificate signed and sealed, consti-
tute the holder thereof a Senator of the State
of New Jersey. From that moment he is
designated asa member or a member elect,
and when the oath prescribed in Sec. 8, Art.
4 is taken he is under the law entitled to take
his seat and to possess all the rights OF a
member of this body.
ts2. This Senat has, according to Sec. 2,
Art. 4 of the Constitution a constitutional
majority, which, according to Sec. 4, Art. 4,
paragraph 6, is necessary to do business. A
lesser number has the solitary function of
aQ1OufllQO d1u SeUQl1lG IOI dDSeuUS6S, Ill
order to make up the requisite quorum. In
no instance can the acts of less than a major
ity of the entire body have any legal signii-
canoe.
ss3. This Senate was. organized on the day
designated in the Constitution, within the
Capitol of the State, and at the usual lou
Unable, by reason of violence and usurpa-
ton, to occupy the customary place. its MEM
bers retired to a committee room, and after
inviting the Democratic Senators to p~artici-
pate went through the constitutional forms.
Certificates were presented, inspected and
accepted; oaths of Office were subscribed,
and twenty-one Senators were called and
were present or within hearing.
"a. TIL contention hat Senators must be
sworn before holder members is shown by
Sec. 8, Art. 4, to be unfounded. That clause
provides that members-elect of the senate
are empowered to administer to each other
the oath of affirmation. Were it necessary
to appear before the old members, this pro-
vision of our State Constitution would be alb
solutely without meaning. It's very pres
ence in the instrument is proof that its
trainers considered all members-elect mem
bers of the body, of the House; otherwise,
how could they be entitled to administer a
qualifying oath! Furthermore, four Sena-
tors who were holdovers and refused to
resort to revolutionary methods took part
in the organization. 1t is conceivable hat
between the day of the election and the day
designated for the commencement of the
legislative year, the Senate should be sum-
moned for special session and though some
dreadful accident the lives of all sacrificed.
The new members would then have no per-
sons through whom they could derive sena-
torial succession, and who shall say they
could not exercise their functions as MEM
bers of the enate and order writs of election
to fill the constitutional quota2
~. The newly elected members constitut-
ing a class according to Sec. 2, Art. 4 have
coordinate rights with the other two classes.
To prevent new members from acting until
the older members have given their sanction,
is to establish not only a new test of MEM
bership, but to set up an order of privilege
which is foreign to the Constitution. The
danger of sucha theory is apparent to all.
NoT A CONTINUOUS BODY.
sc. The Senate is not in any true sense a
continuous body. Its organization n its
power to act closes with zach legislative
year. 1t is true that Senators are elected
for three years and one oath covers
the entire period, but the body
is new, although composed of some
members who served the previous
wear. The work of the year ends definitely;
the terms of officers and clerks have always
ended and rules have to be adopted at each
| organization. The two houses are made COM
Elementary as regards business, and both adj
iourn on joint resolution and expire, with
no inherent power to call themselves to-
gether until the time prescribed in the Con-
stitution for a new organization, There is
an unbroken record of new organization,
and hitherto no man has averred that the
Senate had continuous functions until the
present year, when a new idea is asserted
with persistent desperation, to enable a
clique of men to continue in power after the
people had pronounced against them judg-
ment of condemnation in the most emphatic
terms.
81. The provision Of the Constitution Sec.
4, Art. A that each House shall be the judge
Of the election returns and qualifications of
its own members, refers, as all know, to con-
tested cases. This Senate does not deny the
right of the body to make such inquiry. Not
one of us, Mr.. President, but would scorn to
hold a seat painted with fraud; but let US
remember the decision of the Attorney Gen
eral and of the Governor, that certificates
regular in form must be accepted pending
investigation, according to uniform law and
precedent.
.sLet us remember, too, that each House
Sec. 4, Art.1 is to be the judge, and as the
Senate is declared to consist Of twenty7one