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��EDITORIAL MEMORANDA.
��tor to succeed Senator Wadleigh, whose term expires on the fourth of March next. The law of the United States pro- vides that the Legislature chosen at the election next previous to the expiration of the term shall elect the Senator. The Legislature which will then be in session, and whose members have just been cho- sen, will be the Legislature of the State until the first of June, 1879— three months after the expiration of Senator Wadleigh's term ; yet members of the succeeding Legislature will have been chosen at the election in November previous, four months before the expiration of said term. The question, then, will be which is the "Legislature" contemplated by the United States law, that which is the ac- tual Legislature of the State at the time the Senatorial term expires, or that which is at best prospective and unor- ganized, but whose members have been chosen by the people. Upon this ques- tion, as is already apparent, there will be a difference of opinion, and that en- tirely without reference to partisan bias, many good lawyers, of both parties, tak- ing the ground that the Legislature which meets next June should elect, while others, not less entitled to respect, maintain the opposite view.
The election recently holden in this State is the final one under the old Con- stitution. The amended Constitution, providing for biennial elections, goes into operation, by act of the last Legislature, on the first day of October next, and the
��first election under the same occurs on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November, when, in addition to the officers heretofore chosen at our State election, the people, in each of the sever- al Counties, will make choice of Sheriff, Solicitor and Register of Probate. This change, as well as that making the elec- tions occur biennially instead of an- nually, tends to materially increase the general interest in the election itself, as it adds to its importance.
After November next we shall escape all election excitement for the period of two years, and alternate years thereafter, unless the next Legislature sees fit to amend the act of last year, making our town and city elections occur biennially, on the same day with the State election. There is a diversity of sentiment as to the propriety of such action on the part of the Legislature, many claiming that the local elections should occur at a dif- ferent time. from the State election, so as to remove the former, as far as possible, from partisan influences, while others maintain, with considerable force of arg- ument, that the change suggested would effect nothing in the desired direction. However this may be it seems probable at least that the people of the State will find it practically necessary to the proper management of their town and munici- pal affairs, to hold their local elections every year, and that sooner or later the Legislature will be called upon to make provision therefor. i
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