Year: 1859

DeloW tne arguments, condenSed adduced N in support of either side Upon these ar. \ guments, the two parties, per diem, and \ anti-per diem, rest their justification or condemnation, and as 1t is matter that | concerns every one, 1t Is we'll that all shonld seriously ponder them, and prepare them selves to meet out censure where they con. slider it justly belongs.

 Mr. Oates, in support of his position. that the members were not entitled to the per diem pay during the recess, contends.

 1st. That, by law, the members are en, titled to four dollars day respectively for Meiir services as members of the Rneral As sembly, thus making the ser0ices, the con- sideration-a condition precedent-of the States agreement to pay the four dollars. This being true, the members are not enti- tied to the per diem, during the recess, while they were at home attending to their own business, and not serving the State

 End. That during the adjournment of | 24 days there was no General Assembly of | the State, because there was no assembling of the two houses for the transaction of bu- siness.

 3d. To grant the per diem would be to establish precedent, which, should Co., vernon hereafter adjourn legislature for l2 or Is months, might be the means of draw ing two or three Hundred Mousand dolIars from the tax payers of the State forH the legislature was legally adjourned for the 24 days, 1t might be for eighteen months.

 Mir. Duval on the other hand contends:

 1st. That were Mir. Oates first alignment true, it would preclude member from re- ceiving his per diem, not only when he was at home among his family, and attending to his own business, but even those who were sick, and unable to attend the session, and those absent on leave. It has been the uniform custom in this State to allow the per diem pay to members absent on leAye, whether at home or in Little Rock, and this was recognized, as law, by Mr. Oates himself

 2d. That this General Assembly (after the recess) is the same that met and assem- bled under the constitution, on the first Monday of November, 1858, and that no recess that may have been taken at any time, has in any manner affected its con- | stitutional existence, but that the same is one entire session, and that therefore the members are entitled to their per diem, as usual, for the whole session, including the adjournment. That if there was a period of time, between the meeting, and the ad- iournment of the legislature, when there was no General Assembly, it follows, that 1t was not one entire session, and if 4bis be the case, all acts done after this period of time, must be void

 3d. That by the constitution the per diem pay of members could not by any act of the General Assembly be diminished. "We also used this as an argument why the re- cess should not be taken"

 4th. It has been the uniform practice in Congress and other legislative bodies, to pay the members their per diem during recess.

 We have no opinion to express as to the correctness of the position of either party, in point of law, for we deem all considerations of legal right as having nothing to do with the real merits of the case; and we believe the people will take the same view when they come to understand the question in its true light. Suppose. by law, they had right to the per diem pay, is there no sen timent of honor or right that can look be- yond the arbitrary dictum of the law, in every thing it permits2 Because the law countenances thing, is this a sufficient warrant for grasping and exercising every privilege that may thus be placed within our reach, irrespective of consequences?- In the ordinary business affairs of life Ye have known men to have in their possH- sion thousands of dollars of property which was acquired, and held against good con- science, and which the most obtuse sense of right considered dishonorable, and yet the law afforded its protection to its peace

 ful enjoyment. If we find this may beA the case in this relation of life may 1t not also exist in the other? May not members of legislature act dishonorably, and yet do

 what the law permits, and under certain circumstances countenance? We think so, and we think in this instance, though their

 right to the per diem pay may be granted

 by the law, yet to take it, when they know that they have rendered no equivalent to the state in services, is not only unconscion- able, but actually dishonorable.

 In determining then, the right or wrong of the taking the per diem there are other things to be considered than the mere ar guments adduced pro and con. In ques- tons ot this nature were we to settle upon a construction of the law, and pursue its ap l pllcation irrespective of any sense of right that might exist in our own breast--and of the hardships that 1t might work. we would, at once, prove ourselves unworthy the name of republicans and fit only to be ruled by the terror of might. Here is a community placed by the force of circum- stances in a position, perhaps never before contemplated, in which, by the law, 1t is made liable for ten or twelve thousand dol lars, without ever having received an equi- valent in return and in this predicament its creditors-itS oWn rulerS-sent on the re- sponsible mission of guarding its pocket and general interest, crowd in to demand their claims and then with the audacity of confirmed ingrates, stoop to plead the grant of the law in justification Sent to pro- tect inalienable rights that are paramount to, and that cannot be prejudiced by any mere continuance or permission of the law; they yet would seize the very advantages conferred by virtue of their guardianship and use them, though they thereby render ed their ward bankrupt! Oh ye sovereigns of your own liberties and rights, how

 

 long will you sit in mumbled silence under such damnable abuses of your confidence, reposed in all the fullness of honest reliance.~

 Our State has had ills enough to bear from misplaced legislation and abusive ad- ministration, without this new wound - The people of our State have felt and s- lently complained of abuses till they now begin to look upon them as a matter of course; and we not frequently find them so- lacing themselves by the expression that has gone into proverb, " This is Arkan- saw" And now, if we would stop these abuses; if we would raise the sovereigntA of the people to point where they may frown down these fell evils, they must be- gin now, and without delay, to exercise their terrible power, in condemning those who have proven themselves unworthy, and in demandinga respect for their rights, that shall be paramount to the technicali- | ties of the law