Year: 1867

MAYOR s OFFICE, Sept. Goth, 1867.


WHEREAS. A proclamation has recently
emanated from his Excellency, William G.
Brownlow. Governor of the State Of Ten
nessee. in which. whilst referring to the
election of municipal officers shortly to
take place in the several chartered cities of
the State, he proclaims, with somthing
more than Judicial authoritativeness that
the Commissioner Of Registration, in the
several counties of the State, SIS the proper
person to appoint Judges and Clerks of
election > I feel it my duty, thus prompt
y to declare in respose. that do not at
all concur with His Excellency touching
! the power of said Commissioner in regard
to the appointment of Judges and Clerks
of elections in municipal elections, and the
| Board of Aldermen, with whom have the
honor to be officially associated, after hav-
ing carefully consulted the most astute
and learned jurists of the city of Nashville
upon the question under consideration,
came, some time ago, unanimously to the
conclusion that they, the said Board of
Aldermen, did alone possess the power of
appointing Clerks and Judges in the aP-
preaching election of municipal officers,
and also, in conformity with said view Of
the matter, proceed formally to appoint
said Judges, and cause their names to be
announced, as having been thus empower
ed to act, in the several newspapers of the
city. 1t was due to the great importance
of the question involved, as well as to the
chief Executive officer of the State, that
after receiving copy of his proclamation,
the subject should be examined anew, and
that the aid Of counsels. learned in the
law, should be again invoked with a view,
if possible, to avoid all erroneous action in
reference to a matter of such high impor-
tance in every point of view, whether legal,
social. moral, or economical That has
now been done, and for myselfa as we'll as
| in behalf Of the Board of Aldermen Of the
/ city of Nashville, I now proclaim that we
! still entertain clear and undoubtiug opin-
| ion that the Commissioner of Registration
Of the county of Davidson has no authori-
ty whatever to appoint Judges and Clerks
to act in the municipal election which is to
take place 10 this city on the last Saturday
of the present month; that the clause in
tie charter of the city which vests this au-
thoritY to appoint said judges and clerks
in the Board of Aldermen of the city, is


yet unrepealed, unmodifed, and in full
| force that there is no part of the fran
chise law, which, by any construction,
however strained, can be plausibly inter
preted as vesting this important power in
the Commissioner of Registration that,
were the Board of Aldermen aforesaid to
decline the performance of the sacred and
delicate duty of appointment conferred up
on them by the charter of the city, they
would be guilty of gross and unPardona-
| BILE derelction of official duty. would evince
shameless diregard of the obligation


which they have undertaken to perform,
would manifest willingness basely to sur
render up to sacrifice the great chartered
! interests confided to their management and


preservation, and would make themselves
unequivocally responsible for all the ruin
/ GUS consequences which it is evident TO
every discerning citizen in the State, must
! inevitably result from that organized an
aIchY and rapine with which this robe
commercial metropolis IS now menaced.-
Let it be known then to all the world, that
the election of municipal officers heretofore
advertised, will take place, as heretofore
ordered, in manner and form as heretofore
ordered; that the Judges of Election here
tofore appointed by the Board of Alder
men of the city of Nashville, will be ex-
pected to perform the duties heretofore de-
volved on them ; that they will be held TO
a strict responsibility in connection with
their duties and that they will be fully
sustained in the legal and peaceful exercise
of the authority entrusted to them, by all
the power of the corporate authorities Of
the said city of Nashville. in opposition to
all who shall illegally and violently attempt
to counteract or impede them herein.


10 behalf Of the corporate authorities Of
the city of Nashville, I am furthermore
commissioned to declare. that, in view Of
the excited and coDvulsed condition of tie
country, and the irritated state ofthe pub
lie mind in every part Of the Republic, and


in our own honored Commonwealth in par
ticular, from causes too obvious to need
specification. it is the fixed resolve of the
said corporate authorities, and Of all who
are aiding and counselling them at this
trying period IN our history as a people,
TO exercise all possible discretion, modera-
ton, and forbearance 10 make manifest 10
their whole demeanor the proper respect