informally passed over, and it was read as
follows:
"Section 19. No divorce shall be granted
by the general assembly."
The pending question was upon the amend-
ment submitted by Mr. STOCKBRIDGE, to amend
by striking out the section and inserting the
following:
" Section 19. The legislature shall not pass
local or special laws in any of the following
enumerated cases, viz:
'* For the punishment of crimes and mis-
demeanors, regulating the practice of courts
of justice, or authorizing or directing the
trial of any case in any court;
" For the assessment and collection of taxes
for State or county purposes, or extending
the time for the collection of taxes;
" Providing for the support of public
schools, the preservation of school funds, the
location or the regulation of school houses.
" Granting divorces;
" Changing the names of persons ;
" Conferring rights of citizenship upon mi-
nors or foreigners;
" Relating to fees or salaries;
" Relating to the interest on money ;
" Providing for regulating the election or
compensation of State or county officers, or
designating the places of voting or the bound-
aries of election districts;
" Providing for the sale of real estate be.
longing to minors or other persons laboring
under legal disabilities, by executors, ad-
ministrators, guardians, or trustees;
" Giving effect to informal or invalid deeds
or wills;
" Refunding money paid into the State
treasury, or releasing persons from their debts
or obligations to the State, unless recom-
mended by the governor or officers of the
treasury department;
"Or establishing, locating or affecting the
construction of roads."
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. This amendment will
perhaps need a word or two of explanation,
It is an effort to remedy one of the greatest
evils in our State legislation as it has existed
time out of mind, the evil of excessive local
legislation; action by the general assembly
upon matters which can only be properly de-
termined by general laws or by the local
powers of the several counties. There are
various matters which it has been customary
to bring here, which cannot, in the nature of
things be understood by the general assembly
to which they are submitted. There are
other things which if they do not affect the
direct pecuniary interests of men, are at least
in the nature and form of a litigated case,
contested matters which are brought here, and
decided in many instances without any suffi-
cient notice to the persons interested, passed
as purely local matters, referred to the dele-
gation from the county, which sometimes has
really no knowledge whatever with reference |
to the matter submitted to them, a matter
which cannot be properly acted upon here.
The purpose of this amendment is to ex-
tend the provision contained in the section as
reported, to both these classes of cases. This
provision has been found necessary in other
States besides our own. I am sure that many
gentlemen here, who have been members of
the legislature in years past, have perceived
the necessity for it here. I find a provision
somewhat similar in the constitutions of sev-
eral of the Staves. Perhaps the most full and
ample is that in the constitution of Indiana,
on page 352 of the book of constitutions.
This amendment covers a considerable por-
tion of what is covered there; but is adapted
more fully to what, from careful examination
I have found to be the practical difficulty in
our own State; to the points which I have
thought here most needed to be acted upon.
There is not, I believe, one of these which
cannot best be decided either by local boards
or by the courts under laws to be framed for
that purpose.
Mr. CHAMBERS (interposing). How would
you change the names of persons ?
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. It is the easiest thing in
the world to give the courts power and juris-
diction in the matter of changing names.
They can be changed just as well by a decree
of the court as by an act of the General
Assembly. The proceedings of the courts are.
published, and notice can be given to all con-
cerned. This is done, as I suppose the gen-
tleman from Kent is aware, in several of the
States already; and it is found to answer the
purpose much better. I see no difficulty
whatever in that.
The burden thus taken from the Legislature
is a very great and important consideration.
Three-fourths of the time of the Legislature
is now taken up with these petty things. Men
have come here and asked action by the Leg-
islature to save themselves the expense of a
single dollar; taking up hours of time and
costing the State hundreds of dollars—con-
sidering the matter in committees of both
houses, and reading the bills on three several
days in each house—perfectly regardless of
the expense to the State, and yet the Legisla-
ture has acted upon it. It is made a sort of
political capital, indeed, by the delegations
from certain counties, to be able to show on
the record how much local business they have
succeeded in getting through the Legislature,
and members are sometimes extremely inge-
nious in devising business in order to show
what they have done to accommodate persons
of their own counties.
There is one omission which I desire to
supply to the ninth provision, with regard to
the election of State or county officers, and
designating the places of voting, I wish to
add "or the boundaries of election districts,"
that the task of designating those boundaries
and fixing the places of voting may not de- |
