600 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The tax laws which levy upon monied corporations, 

 other than manufacturing, the expenses of the State 

 and a large share of the county expenses, leaving lit- 

 tle but local expenditures to he provided for by local 

 taxation; those exempting from attachment family 

 homesteads and the tools of mechanics, and which 

 protect the earnings of \yage workers from the grasp 

 of the sheriff except when debts are for necessaries, 

 and those establishing working men's liens, are all in 

 line with Republican doctrine ; but many of these 

 statutes were intended to apply to different conditions 

 from those that exist now ; and they should be 

 amended so as to give working people a larger lien 

 for their wa^es upon property which their labor has 

 created, make them more secure in the enjoyment of 

 their earnings, and remedy as far as possible the evils 

 of double and other unequal taxation and any in- 

 equitable distribution of the State tax. 



At the November election Tuttle received 42.- 

 479 votes; Amsden, 42,386; and Fletcher, 1,363. 

 No candidate having received a majority of the 

 votes cast there was no election by the people, 

 and the choice of Governor devolved upon the 

 Legislature of 1891, whose members were chosen 

 at the same election. But the political com- 

 plexion of this Legislature was a matter of 

 grave doubt, certain persons having been chosen 

 to the Lower House whose right to seats therein 

 was a subject of dispute between the two politi- 

 cal parties. The questions at issue are consid- 

 ered below. In each of the two congressional 

 districts the Democratic candidate was elected 

 by a narrow majority, a gain of one seat. 



Election Dispute. At the November election 

 the vote in several senatorial districts was so 

 close that the membership of the State Senate 

 remained in doubt. The State Constitution re- 

 quires the Governor and Council to open the re- 

 turns sent to the Secretary of State by the town 

 clerks, and to certify to the result in each sena- 

 torial district. In performing this duty, the 

 Governor and Council declared that 13 Repub- 

 lican and 9 Democratic Senators had been elected, 

 and that in two districts there was no choice by 

 the people. For one of the two districts the cor- 

 rectness of this declaration was questioned. The 

 result in this district depended upon the number 

 of Prohibition votes that should be returned as 

 cast in the town of Rochester. As announced 

 by the moderator at the close of the election, the 

 total Prohibition vote in the town was 34 ; but 

 it was afterward discovered by the town clerk 

 that 44 Prohibition votes had actually been cast. 

 The latter, in making his return to the Governor 

 and Council, as required by law, stated the facts 

 and certified that 44 votes were actually cast. 

 The 44 votes were counted, and the total vote for 

 the district was found to be as follows : Felker, 

 Democrat, 2,100; Parshley, Republican, 2,031; 

 Bean, Prohibition, 68 : scattering, 9. As neither 

 candidate had a majority of all the votes cast, 

 the Governor and Council declared that there 

 was no choice by the people. But if the vote of 

 Rochester had been counted as announced by 

 the moderator, the total vote for Bean would 

 have been 58 instead of 68, and Felker, the Dem- 

 ocratic candidate, having a clear majority of the 

 total vote, would be elected. The State Consti- 

 tution provides that the moderator shall an- 

 nounce the result of the election, it being the 

 sole duty of the clerk to record the proceedings 

 of the town meeting at which the election is 

 held. In order to determine the question whether, 



under the Constitution, the town clerk had any 

 authority to make a return of the vote differing 

 in any way from the announcement of the mod- 

 erator, a petition was filed on Dec. 20, in the 

 State Supreme Court, in which the Democratic 

 candidate asked for a writ of mandamus to com- 

 pel the town clerk to amend his return so as to 

 correspond with the announced result. A hear- 

 ing before the Court was held, and early in Jan- 

 uary, 1891, a decision was rendered in 'favor of 

 the plaintiff, to the effect that the clerk must 

 certify only to the result announced by the mod- 

 erator. The returns were accordingly amended, 

 and Felker was declared elected. The Senate of 

 1891, when it assembled, therefore, consisted of 

 13 Republicans and 10 Democrats, there being 

 no choice by the people in one district. 



The membership of the Lower House depended 

 upon the interpretation and effect of certain pro- 

 visions of the State Constitution. That instru- 

 ment establishes no fixed number of Representa- 

 tives, but provides in Article IX that 



Every town^ or place entitled to town privileges, 

 and wards of cities having 600 inhabitants by the last 

 general census of this State, taken by authority of the 

 United States or of this State, may elect one Repre- 

 sentative; if 1,800 such inhabitants, may elect two 

 Representatives ; and so proceeding in that proportion, 

 making 1,200 such inhabitants the mean increasing 

 number for any additional Representative. 



Prior to the amendments of 1889 it was also 

 provided by Article X that towns, places, and 

 wards of cities having fewer than 600 such in- 

 habitants shall be classed or grouped together 

 by the General Court into districts having at 

 least 600 inhabitants, for the purpose of sending 

 a Representative. In Article XI it was provid- 

 ed that when any town, place, or ward, having 

 fewer than 600 inhabitants, should be so situated 

 as to render the classing or grouping of it with 

 another town, place, or ward very inconvenient, 

 the General Court might provide by law that 

 such town should send a Representative to the 

 Lower House such proportionate part of the time 

 as the number of its inhabitants bore to 600. 

 Under Article IX, every town, place, or ward 

 having 600 inhabitants or more was absolutely en- 

 titled to send one or more Representatives, ac- 

 cording to the population, while under Articles 

 XI and XII action by the General Court was 

 first necessary either in classing the towns or in 

 determining in what years the small towns not 

 classed should elect Representatives. The Lower 

 House had, therefore, three kinds of members 

 those from towns, places, and wards having more 

 than 600 inhabitants, those from classed towns un- 

 der Article X, and those from towns electing only 

 a part of the time or prorated under Article XI. 

 Early in 1889 an amendment to the Constitu- 

 tion, proposed by the Constitutional Convention 

 of that year, was adopted by the people, which 

 abolished Article X and provided that towns, 

 places, or wards formerly classed together under 

 Article X should each come under the provisions 

 of Article XI and elect a proportionate part of 

 the time. It then became the duty of the Legis- 

 lature, which assembled in June. 1889, to fix the 

 years in which each town formerly classed should 

 elect a Representative. This it failed to do, and 

 at the November election each of these towns 

 proceeded to elect a Representative, 11 Repub- 



