Ohio Legislature

“ But in neither mode nor in any respect has Congress interfered with the regulations prescribed by the legislature of Ohio, or with those prescribed by the legislature of Maryland. It has not altered them, nor made new ones. It has simply provided for the appointment of officers to supervise the execution of the State laws, and of marshals to aid and protect them in such supervision, and has added a new penalty for disobeying those laws. This is not enforcing an altered or a new regulation. Whatever Congress may properly do touching the regulations, one of two things must follow ”

“ I concede that the Fourteenth Amendment imposes some limitations upon a state legislature's freedom to choose a method for the appointment of electors. A State may not, for example, adopt a system that discriminates on grounds of religious or political belief. But I cannot agree that Ohio's system violates the Fourteenth Amendment in any way. ”

“ During the same period New Jersey and Pennsylvania sent their colonists to the Symmes Purchase, in which Cincinnati was the rallying-point, while Virginians sought the Military Bounty Lands in the region of Chillicothe. The Middle States and the South, with their democratic ideas, constituted the dominant element in Ohio politics in the early part of her history. This dominance is shown by the nativity of the members of the Ohio legislature elected in 1820: New England furnished nine Senators and sixteen Representatives, chiefly from Connecticut ”

“ We! Congress their OWN Legislature in all that concerns this District! Let those who may put on the city livery, and legislate for them and not for his constituents, do so; for myself, I came here with a different view, and for different purposes. I came a free man, to represent the people of Ohio; and I intend to leave this as such representative, without wearing any other livery. Why talk about executive usurpation and influence over the members of Congress? I have always viewed this District influence as far more dangerous than that of any other power. ”

“ The Supreme Court of Ohio having decided that the act of 1824 is by the legislature referred to in the charter and made part of it, and the legislature having full constitutional power to do so when it passed the act of incorporation, when it made its contract with the plaintiffs in error, how can it be that the recovery of the defendants in error, in the Supreme Court of Ohio, is obnoxious to any constitutional objection? ”

“ Nothing could more strongly show that the doctrine by which chancery aids charities is fully recognised in Ohio as an existing, unquestioned judicial principle, to enforce which the Legislature may prescribe different remedies at different times, without in any manner leaving the right itself doubtful. ”

“ Strong now at home our country may extend its moral influence to neighboring republics, encourage trade and intercourse with them, and invite a broader union founded upon common interests, sympathies, and free institutions.
"The State of Ohio is an important factor in this great union of states and people. Ohio is a Republican state, one that has taken a conspicuous part in the great drama of the past. In an evil hour, and under wild delusions, Ohio elected the recent Democratic legislature. With this warning behind us let us not be backward or laggard in the civic contest in November ”

“ Admitting that the legislature of Ohio can give an occupant claimant a right to the value of his improvements, and can authorize him to retain possession of the land he has improved, until he shall have received that value; and assuming that they may also annex conditions to the change of possession, which, so far as they are constitutional, must be respected in all courts; still that legislature cannot change radically the mode of proceeding prescribed for the courts of the United States ”

“ The number of Representatives shall, at the several periods of making such enumeration, be fixed by the Legislature, and apportioned among the several counties according to the number of white male inhabitants above twenty-one years of age in each, and shall never be less than twenty-four, nor greater than thirty-six, until the number of white male inhabitants, above twenty-one years of age, shall be twenty-two thousand inhabitants ”

“ They made the scandal the issue of the next State election, and put the Legislature into other hands. The new Legislature then forwarded formal charges to the Senate of the United States, and a demand for an investigation. The State of Ohio made its solemn accusation and prayer for an investigation through all the organs of utterance it had: the press of both parties; honored men, both Republican and Democratic; both Houses of the State Legislature and its senator whose seat was unchallenged—an aggregate representing a vast majority of the people of the State. ”

“ The second stage in self-government would be reached when the population contained five thousand free men of age; then the people were to have a representative legislature with the usual privilege of making their own laws. Provision was made for dividing the whole region northwest of the Ohio River into three or four or five districts and the final stage of government was reached when any one of these districts had sixty thousand free inhabitants, for it might then establish its 76 own constitution and government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States. ”

“ It only remains for the legislature of Ohio to apply the means within their reach to accomplish this desirable object. When accomplished, there can be no doubt but that it will produce a sufficient revenue to defray the expense’s of the state government. ”

“ He was the author of important statutes that were passed by the legislature, and a delegate to the Constitutional convention of Ohio in 1850. In 1860 he became president of the Columbus and Xenia railroad, and from that time till 1876 he acted as solicitor for several railroads. He published "Treatise on Justices of the Peace and Constables in Ohio" (Columbus, 1836; 12th ed., 1885) ; "Statutes of Ohio" (1841) ”

“ I have thus given the reasons for the opinion that the constitution of Ohio and the acts of her government, done by its special authority and direction, are valid dispositions. It is no part of my jurisdiction to inquire whether these public acts of the people and the State were just or equitable. Those questions belong entirely to themselves.
It may be that the people may abuse the powers with which they are invested, and, even in correcting the abuses of their government, may not in every case act with wisdom and circumspection. ”

“ The Constitution of Ohio in its present form, although making provision for a referendum, vests the legislative power primarily in a General Assembly, consisting of a Senate and House of Representatives. ”

“ She has felt their benefit, and grown great and powerful under their sway. She knows and testifies to the liberality of the general government, in the administration of the public lands, extended alike to her and to the other new states. There are no petitions from, no movements in Ohio, proposing vital and radical changes in the system. ”

“ The acknowledgment of such a power would be to establish the alarming doctrine that the empire of Ohio, and the remaining States of the Union, over their revenues, is not to be found in their people, but in the numerical majority of the judges of the court. ”

“ The most important questions concerning State affairs which in the ordinary course of events will engage the attention of the people of Ohio, during the term of office upon which I now enter, are those which relate to the action of a Constitutional Convention authorized to be called by a vote of the people at the October election in 1871. The present organic law provides for submitting to the electors of the State, once in twenty years, the question of holding "a convention to revise, alter, or amend the constitution." ”

“ By way of further questioning the state court's jurisdiction, it is said that the state statutes, rightly under stood, do not invest that court with power to review orders of the Commission relating to interstate commerce, but only such as relate to other subjects, sections 502, 614-89, 614-101 of the Ohio General Code being cited. ”

“ During forty years of public life, though many able men have aspired to the office I hold, the people of Ohio, through their general assembly, have preferred me to represent them. Though my grateful thanks are due to them and have been often expressed, yet I have felt, as they do, that my duty was to the whole country. Proud of Ohio, of its history and people, willing at all times to sound its praise in the sisterhood of states, yet, according to my convictions, the United States is entitled to my allegiance, and all parts of it should receive equal care and consideration. ”

“ Counties are united for Senatorial representation, but any county may be made a separate Senatorial district when it has acquired a population equal to a full Senatorial ratio, providing, however, that a full Senatorial ratio is left in the district from which it is removed. The compensation of the members of the General Assembly is fixed by law. The Lower House impeaches and the Senate tries all cases of impeachment, the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senators being necessary to a conviction. Bills may originate in either House, and no bill may contain more than one subject. ”

“ Whether the Court considers that Ohio law bars the Commission from making a valid order, or whether it uses its knowledge of Ohio law to tell the Commission what the Commission has attempted, is immaterial-in either case we press our conception of Ohio law on the Ohioans. ”

“ The next contention of complainant is that the Ohio statute is a delegation of legislative power, and void for that if not for the other reasons charged against it, which we have discussed. While administration and legislation are quite distinct powers, the line which separates exactly their exercise is not easy to define in words. ”

“ But, sir, high though be the value of this noble approbation, it becomes an invaluable benefit to humanity by these resolutions by which the General Assembly of Ohio, acknowledging the justice of those principles which it is my mission to plead in my injured country's name, declares that the mighty and flourishing commonwealth of Ohio is resolved to resist the eternal laws of nations to their due sway, too long contemned by arbitrary power. ”

“ A state basing its legislation upon that conception has the right and power, so far as the Federal Constitution is concerned, by nondiscriminating legislation, to preserve its policy from impairment or defeat, by any means appropriate to the end and not inconsistent with that instrument The proposition is not contested that the Ohio statute would be unassailable if made to take effect after a sale in the original package. ”

“ Nothing has reflected more credit and renown upon that great statesman—then as prominent and favored a son of the noble State of Ohio as you are to-day—and nothing more effectually paved the way to the great work of reducing the burden of our people by lowering our interest one-third than that expression, sanctioned and confirmed by subsequent enactment of Congress in 1869. ”

“ Four profound judges, four acute lawyers, twelve grave jurors, and I don't know how many venerable witnesses, making in all about thirty men, perhaps, all engaged in the profound, laborious, and illustrious business, of finding out whether a man who pays tax, works on the road, and is an industrious farmer, has been born according to the republican, Christian constitution of Ohio—so that he can vote! ”

“ By the first section of an act of the general assembly of Ohio, passed February 28, 1846, it is provided that whenever county commissioners should thereafter be authorized to subscribe to the capital stock of any railroad company incorporated in that state, it shall be their duty 'to give at least twenty days' notice * * * to the qualified voters of said county to vote at the next annual election to be held in the several townships * * * in said county, for or against the subscription as aforesaid ”

“ As already stated, it alleges that the board is a citizen of Ohio; not that the trustees are citizens of the state. As already stated, the bill does not, in terms, even allege that the board is a corporation, although it shows that it possesses some of the characteristics of corporations. The Constitution of Ohio provides that no person shall be elected or appointed to any office in the state unless he possesses the qualifications of an elector ”

“ Excessive legislation has become a great evil, and I submit to the judgment of the General Assembly the wisdom of avoiding it.
One important question of principle as old as our State government still remains unsettled. All are familiar with the conflicts to which the policy of making distinctions between citizens in civil and political rights has given rise in Ohio. The first effort of those who opposed this policy was to secure to all citizens equality of civil rights. ”

“ The General Assembly may provide for the organization of cities and incorporated villages by general laws, and variously restrict their powers. Similarly, provision is made for the election of such county and township officers as may be necessary, the day of election for county officers being the same as that for State officers. Their terms of office do not exceed three years. No person is eligible to the office of sheriff or county treasurer for more than four years in any period of six. ”