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3 Legislature have complied with the behest of the constitu- tion, and the law has been carried into effect, its constitu- tionality has been denied and it has been carried before the judicial tribunals of the State, and its constitutionality sus- tained by the highest appellate tribunal. These memorials now come before the Legislature, demand- ing the repeal of this law and of the constitutional provi- sions requiring its creation, setting forth that their existence is a heavy grievance to the large majority of the people of the State. No evidence has been produced before your corn-. mittee that these memorialists have been deprived of the elective franchise, or deprived of or debarred holding any office of honor, profit or trust under either the law or the constitution. No grievance is proved to have been suffered by the signers of these memorials: No proof that any of them have been disfranchised by the officers of the registra- tion under the operations of the law. Your committee, therefore, do not see how they can recom- mend any measure for the redress of a grievance or oppres- sion, when no attempt has been made to prove such grievance or oppression has been suffered. There is no proof adduced, that the officers charged with the administration of the law, have refused the opportunities offered by the law for the reg- istration of any one of these signers, or that any of them have been so disfranchised, either justly or unjustly. In the absence of both. allegation and proof, that they have been denied the benefits of the provisions of the law, or that it has been misapplied or maladministered in their cases, your committee with great propriety, might have asked to be discharged from the consideration of these memorials, with- out making any recommendations in regard thereto. But recognising the right, in its broadest and most unlimited ex- tent of every citizen, respectfully to petition the tribunal possessing competent authority for the redress of any griev- ance or oppression lie may be suffering, and recognising the great, importance of the subjects referred to in these memorials, the committee have felt it incumbent on them not to give them a summary dismissal. Those memorials come before your Honorable Body, not in the language of a petition, but demand: requiring the Leg- islature to stultify itself, by ignoring a plain constitutional provision in the repeal of a law it has made in the conscien- tious discharge of the oath required of its members. This demand is made on the assertion of opinions made in these memorials, differing from the judgment of the Legis- lature as well as the solemn judgment of the Court of Ap- peals. With the subject brought before your committee in this light, they cannot do otherwise than recommend that the de- |
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Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1866
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