The PRESIDENT. Three years.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. The next election is in
1865.
No amendment was offered to this section.
Section two was read as follows :
"The first election for governor under this
constitution shall be held on the Tuesday
next after the first Monday of November, in
the year eighteen hundred and sixty-four,
and on the same day and month in every
fourth year thereafter, at the places of voting
for delegates to the general assembly, and
every person qualified to vote for delegates
shall be qualified and entitled to vote for gov-
ernor; the election to be held in the same
manner as the election of delegates, and the
returns thereof, underseal, to beaddressed to
the speaker of the house of delegates, and en-
closed and transmitted to the secretary of
State, and delivered to the said speaker at
the commencement of the session of the legis-
lature next ensuing said election. ' '
Mr. MILLER. I move to strike out this sec-
tion, and to insert the one reported by the minority.
of the committee on the executive de-
partment, which is as follows :
" Section 2. The first election for governor,
under this constitution, shall be held on the
Tuesday next after the first Monday in Novem-
ber, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and the
second election shall be held on the Tuesday
next after the first Monday in November, eigh-
teen hundred and sixty-eight, and on the same
day and month in every fourth year thereafter,
at the places of voting for delegates to the gene-
ral assembly, and every person qualified to vote
for delegates, shall bequalified and entitled to
vote for governor; the election shall beheld in
the same manner as the election of delegates,
and the returns thereof, under seal, to be addressed
to the speaker of the house of dele-
gates, and enclosed and transmitted to the
secretary of State, and delivered to the said
speaker at the commencement of the session
of the legislature next ensuing said election."
Mr, MILLER. This is the same as the sec-
tion reported by the majority, with the ex-
ception that it provides that the first election
for governor shall be held on the Tuesday
next after the first Monday in November,
1865. According to both reports the gov-
ernor first, elected under this constitution
holds his office for three years. The second
election for governor will occur on the day of
the regular State election for other State of-
ficers in 1868, and so on every fourth year
thereafter.
The only difference between the two reports
is this; the report of the majority provides
that the first governor elected under this con-
stitution shall be elected fourteen months be-
fore he is to go into office. In reference to
such a high officer as the governor of the
State, an officer to be elected by the people
the opinion of the minority of the committee
which I hope will be concurred in by the |
convention, is that the people should elect
him as nearly as possible at the time when
he is to take his office; so that he may
represent the sentiments of the people as
nearly as possible at that time. The election
of such a high officer as this, a year before
he is to take upon himself the duties of his
office, is an anomaly that I have not been
able to find in the constitutional provisions
of any other State. We all know that under
the present constitution the governor is
elected just before he takes his office, and the
people then vote for the man who best ex-
presses their views. It was urged that be-
cause we had adopted some provisions of the
constitution requiring the comptroller and
perhaps other officers to be elected in 1864,
that should govern us in relation to the elec-
tion of the governor. I do not think that
it should. I think that in the present con-
dition and circumstances of the country, the
election for the first term of governor under
this new constitution, which will be one of
the most important elections we shall have,
may very well be put off, and ought to be put
off until just before the time when the term
of the present governor "hall expire, that is,
until November, 1865, instead of Novem-
ber, 1864. it is true there will then be
no other State officers to be elected. But
if be is elected this fall, at the time the mem-
bers of the general assembly are elected, he
still cannot go into office with the legislature
elected at the same time; he will have to
wait until the term of the present incumbent
expires. And I think that the inconvenience
of having a special election for governor is
not so great as the importance of the cer-
tainty of having the officer elected as nearly
as possible at the time when he is to take
office. These are the views which have induced
the minority of the committee to re-
port this section.
Mr. SANDS. I wish to suggest to the con-
vention something that has occurred to me
very forcibly. We have not yet determined
when this constitution shall be submitted to
the people for their ratification. There are
very grave considerations which ought to be
carefully weighed before that question is de-
termined. The day named in the majority
report is the day for our presidential election.
We have not determined whether we will
call an extra election by the people before
that time or not. I will not at present state
my views upon this matter. I will only say
that it is something about which this con-
vention should very gravely consider before
they set the day fur this election. My own
impression is that the proper time for the
submission of this constitution to the people
will be at the time of the presidential elec-
tion.
Mr. THOMAS, If any of the committee on
the executive department are in the conven-
tion to-day, I should like very much to |
