A MAJORITY OF ALL THE MEMBERS ELECTED
in each House, and that the same identical proposed amendment passed each House by a majority of all, and that the same, together with the yeas and nays, were recorded upon the journals of both Houses find that they were referred to this General Assembly.
Will some member take the House journal of 1881 and show me the supposed proposed amendment? Will he show it to me on the Senate journal? Will he show me where the amendment proposed, together with the yeas and nays thereon, was referred to this General Assembly? It can not be done. They are not there.
The words "shall be entered" is a direct and positive command, and is a mandatory order that can not be evaded. I care not what other legislators or other Legislatures have done, this question was not then raised; this is its first appearance, and we must deal with it as the supreme law commands and in no other way. One may say that it is directory. If so, whom does it direct? It directs us who have sworn before our God to support and obey it. Its direction is a command to our hearts, our consciences and to our judgments. We dare not disobey its positive instructions or its positive directions.
I have spoken of this in a legal point of view. It, Is nor for me to discuss in this argument the question of prohibition. Other times will do for that. I appeal to every member on this floor to lay aside partisan feeling and judge of this matter as men who sit upon the Bench deciding questions of law. Let not questions of expediency or of policy creep in to distract your mind from the legal question. Rise above party utterance and party bigotry, above party policy and party trickery, and solve this problem as becomes honest legislators and we shall do but our duty.
