Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Volume 01 (of 14), 1898Mississippi Historical Society
History
Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Volume 01 (of 14), 1898
Mississippi Historical Society
Mississippi -- History
Section 142. In case of an election of governor or any state
officer by the house of representatives, no member of that
house shall be eligible to receive any appointment from the
governor or other state officer so elected during the term for
which he shall be elected.
Section 143. All other state officers shall be elected at the
same time and in the same manner as provided for election of
governor.
The legislature is prohibited from electing officers to a very great
extent by the following section of the constitution:
Section 99. The legislature shall not elect any other than its
own officers, state librarian and United States Senators; but
this section shall not prohibit the legislature from appointing
presidential electors.
All the judges of the state, except justices of the peace, are
appointed by the Governor by and with the advice and consent of the
senate. Mississippi was, it may be mentioned parenthetically, the
first state to provide for an elective judiciary; this was done in
her constitution of 1832; but she is now as far away from that mode
of selection as she can well be, her present constitution providing
for their appointment and her people generally, it is believed, are
thoroughly satisfied with the present status of the matter. There are
two instances in which the electors vote directly upon the subject of
the enforcement of laws; and without an affirmative vote in their
favor the statutes are not enforced. These are, first the Local Option
law, by which the qualified electors of a county, if a majority vote
against the sale, may prohibit the licensing of dram-shops in the
county, and under which a large majority of the counties of the state
have secured absolute statutory prohibition of the liquor traffic; and,
second, the fence and stock law, by which is determined the question
of whether the owners of live stock shall keep them confined, and thus
allow of the production of crops on unenclosed lands. This resolves
itself into a question of "fences" or "no fences," and it is left to
a vote in the counties, or parts of counties can vote upon it. This
question is left to "the resident freeholders and leaseholders for a
term of three years or more" of the territory so voting. It will be
noticed that neither sex nor age is mentioned, and in truth women and
infants do actually vote in the state, on this interesting and to those
involved, most serious question.
The Supreme Court of the state has settled beyond cavil that the
statute is constitutional and valid. This "fence" or "no fence"
election is possibly an exception to the general rule of the state that
a plurality vote elects or carries. I say, possibly is an exception,
because of ambiguity in the statute, construed as I think it may be
seen by some minds, it will require two thirds of the vote cast to put
the "no fence" law in force.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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