1868.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 26T

sidered at one time doubtful whether a State could rightfully
require inhabitancy in a particular district of the State as a
qualification. In the case of Barney vs. McCreery, in 1808,
the House of Representatives seem to have evaded a direct
decision upon that point. There was conflicting evidence
upon the fact of inhabitancy in the particular part of the dis-
trict ; and the House finally merely resolved "that McCreery
is entitled to his seat."

Judge Story states his opinion thus : "In regard to the
power of a State to prescribe the qualification of inhabitancy
or residence in a district, as an additional qualification, there
is this forcible reason for denying it, that it is undertaking
to act upon the very qualification prescribed by the Constitu-
tion, as to inhabitancy in the State, and abridging its opera-
tion."

It is clear, I think, that the State cannot insist upon the
division into Senatorial Districts, as of Constitutional right,
and that the only sanction for the continued observance of
the provision is in the comity and good faith of the Legisla-
ture. Whatever doubt may have been originally enter-
tained as to the question of Constitutional law, has been
lung since dispelled on fuller consideration, and by the re-
peated and clear adjudications of Congress. The report of
Mr. Biogham, from the Committee on Elections, in the
House of Representatives, in 1856, adopted by the House by
a vote of 125 to 5 ; and the decision of the Senate in the
same year, affirming the right of Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois,
to his seat in the Senate, by a vote of 35 to 8, establish the
conclusion that a State, even by the most emphatic provision
in her Constitution, " cannot add to the qualifications of a
United States Senator or Representative prescribed in the
Constitution of the United States." "Whoever possesses
those qualifications is eligible."—Contested elections in
Congress, 1834 to 1865, pp. 167 and 618. Such is the
inevitable result of the fact, that the Constitution of the
United States is the supreme law of the land, to every State,
to every citizen, to Congress, and to every officer and depart-
ment of the Government.

In reply to the last inquiry of your order, whether the
Governor of this State is, or not, bound under the Act of
Congress and the Constitution of this State to issue a cer-
tificate of election to the Hon. Wm. T. Hamilton as State
Senator elect, &c. I respectfully submit that the third sec-
tion of the Act of Congress of July, 1S66, chapter 245,
enacts, "That it shall be the duty of the Governor of the
State from which any Senator shall have been chosen as
aforesaid, to certify his election, under the seal of the State,
to the President of the Senate of the United States, which
certificate shall be countersigned by the Secretary of State of
the State."