In the case last cited, Chief Justice Greene said: "All the powers conferred by the Constitution on the Governor are political powers, all the duties enjoined are political duties. Touching all the powers conferred on the executive, by the Constitution, he is entirely independent of the control of the judiciary, being responsible to the people alone and liable to impeachment for misdemeanor in office. "While it is the acknowledged duty of courts of justice to exert all their appropriate powers for the redress of a private wrong, it is no less a duty sedulously to guard against any encroachment upon the right or usurpation of the powers of the co-ordinate departments of government in the delicate and complicated machinery of our republican system, it is of the utmost importance that each department of the government should confine itself strictly within the limits prescribed by the Constitution. It "It is obvious that the exercise of the power now invoked, will have a direct and immediate tendency to bring the executive and judicial departments of the government into conflict. cannot alter the principle that in the present case the Governor assents to the application. We have Mr. Jefferson's authority for saying, that if the Supreme Court had granted a mandamus in the case of Marbury v. Madison (1 Cranch, 137), he should have regarded it as trenching on his appropriate sphere of duty; that he had instructed Mr. Madison not to deliver the commission, and that he was prepared, as President of the United States, to maintain his own construction of the Constitution with all the powers of the government against any control that might be attempted by the judiciary, in effecting what he regarded as the rightful powers of the executive and Senate within their peculiar departments. (Jefferson's Works, vol. 4, pp. 75, 317, 372.)" What is true of the relations between the judicial and the executive departments of the government, is equally true of the relations of the former with the legislative departments. While it is within the undoubted province of the courts to pass upon the constitutionality of acts performed by such bodies, their judicial functions are in suspense until there has been action. To attempt to interfere with the co-ordinate branches of the government so as to prevent them from acting at all, or to prescribe the methods to be pursued, would be a direct attack upon our political system. Irrespective of these important considerations, there is another reason why the Supreme Court does not possess the right to prohibit the Convention from considering the pending contest. The clause of the Constitution which creates the Constitutional Conven tion requires the Legislature "to provide by law for the election of delegates to such Convention." This leaves it within the discretion of the Legislature to regulate the method of conducting the election and of determining the result, so long as it does not infringe upon the powers properly pertaining to the Convention. In the exercise of this authority the Legislature, in the act of 1893, providing for the election of delegates, declared that the Convention should have the power to judge the elections and qualifications of its members. This was a legitimate exercise of the power conferred upon the Legislature by the Constitution. The election provided for was an election subject to the power of the Convention, to pass upon the qualifications and elections of the persons claiming to be elected. The provision was, moreover, ratified and adopted by the people in electing delegates to exercise the powers so provided for. The election of delegates under this law was the election of officers to exercise this specific power among others. In the words of Judges Bronson, Beardsley and Jewett, above quoted, "The people have not only decided in favor of a Convention, but they have determined that it shall be held in accordance with the provisions of the act." LOUIS MARSHALL, CHARLES H. TRUAX, Sub-Committee. DOCUMENT NO. 6. STATEMENT OF THE CONTENTS OF THE COMPILA- Preface. Short sketches of each of the State departments and Followed by these statistics: Execution. Pardons, commutations and restorations to citizenship by the Gov- Secretary of State. Statistics of crime as reported by clerks of courts and sheriffs. 2. Total convictions in court of record by counties, with offense. Disterical table, from 1830 to 1893. 5. Ages, nativity and social relations of persons convicted in 6. Indictments, convictions and acquittals by counties for 1892. 7. Convictions in Special Sessions, with statistics. 8. Ages, nativity and social relations of persons convicted in Courts of Sessions in 1892. Assessed taxable value, 1859 to 1893, inclusive. 15. General revenue fund. 16. Bank balances in favor of the State. 17. Detail of State income in 1893. 18. Detail of expenditures for 1893. 19. Payments made to new officers each year since 1880. 20. Financial statement of State prisons. 21. Notaries' fees by counties. 22. Contributions to State tax by counties, 1893. 23. Receipts from corporation tax. 24. Inheritance tax by counties, 1885 to 1893, inclusive. 25. Receipts from pool tax in detail. 26. Taxes on lands of non-residents. 27. Taxable value of State lands, by towns. 28. Rate of State tax from 1816 to 1893, inclusive. 29. Amount of several taxes by counties for 1893, as fixed by the Board of Equalization. 30. Valuation of real and personal property of 1893, by counties. 31. Same, from 1846 to 1893, inclusive. 32. Transactions of Comptroller's office for first quarter of 1894. 33. Summary of money transactions for 1893. 34. Condition of treasury, October 1, 1893. The Canals. 1. Superintendent sections. 2. List of places on the canal and distances as adopted by Canal Board. 3. Tonnage in detail for 1893, compared with 1892. 4. Ordinary repairs and operating expenses for 1893. 5. Tonnage of canals and railways competing since abolition of toll. 6. Weekly reports of property carried in 1892. 7. Total value of property carried in 1892. 8. Property cleared at Buffalo, 1892. 9. Value of articles left at Buffalo during 1892. 10. Same, for Oswego. II. Same, for Black river. 12. Same, for Cayuga. 13. Same, for Whitehall. 14. Lake and canal rates in 1892. 15. Average on wheat and corn since 1880. 16. Tonnage of railroads and canals compared since 1853. 18. Total number of all articles on canals from 1837 to 1892, inclusive. 19. Total coming to Hudson from Erie and Champlain, from 1837 to 1893. 20. Exports of wheat, flour and corn from 1880 to 1892 from all ports. 21. Receipts by all routes in New York, January 1 to November 30, 1892. 22. 1892. Total tons of property moved on all canals from 1837 to 23. Value of same from 1837 to 1893. 24. Movement of flour and grain from 1861 to 1892. 25. Exports of same, from 1861 to 1892. 26. Clearances issued on all canals from 1833 to 1892. 27. Boats registered by years, 1844 to 1892. 28. Total tonnage and value moved from 1837 to 1893, inclusive. 29. Date of opening and closing of canals since 1824, with opening and closing of the Hudson and the lakes. 30. General statistics of canal traffic from 1830 to 1891. 31. Table showing total cost of construction and operation of all the canals. 32. Total amount expended by the State in improving the Hudson. 33. Schedule of laws affecting the canals from 1768 to 1891, inclusive. State Prisons. I. 2. Detailed financial statements of Sing Sing, with industries, receipts and expenditures, crime for which convicted, length of servitude, education and habits of convicts, etc. 3. Same statistics for Clinton prison. 4. Same for Auburn and Women's prison. 5. Same for Matteawan Asylum for Insane Criminals. . Factories. 1. Summary of work done by factory inspectors in 1893. 2. List of factory inspector districts. 3. Detail of factories in the several districts in 1892, with number, sex and ages of employes. Labor and Industries. I. Population of State by counties, with increase or decrease between 1880 and 1890. |