To James Madison from William C. C. Claiborne, 8 May 1806 (Abstract)
From William C. C. Claiborne, 8 May 1806 (Abstract)
§ From William C. C. Claiborne. 8 May 1806, New Orleans. “I enclose for your perusal, a copy of a Bill which had passed the two houses of the Legislature; together with a Copy of a message, notifying my disapprobation thereto.1
“This subject has occasioned much conversation in this place, and is made by some, a ground of complaint against me. As this affair may probably be misrepresented at the Seat of Government, I have thought it proper to communicate to you the particulars.
“The ancient Louisianians in the Legislature, are impatient of controul, and will illy receive a check from the executive authority; but I must do my duty, and shall on every occasion act the part which my judgment approves. By pursuing this course I may present to my Enemies fresh materials to work upon and render myself unpopular; but my conscience will be tranquil, and I shall sleep the better at night.”
RC and enclosures (DNA: RG 59, TP, Orleans, vol. 8); letterbook copy and letterbook copy of second enclosure (Ms-Ar: Claiborne Executive Journal, vol. 16). RC 1 p.; in a clerk’s hand, signed by Claiborne; docketed by Wagner as received 10 June. For enclosures, see n. 1.
1. The enclosures are copies of (1) “An Act to establish certain conditions necessary to be a Member of either House of the Legislature of the Territory of Orleans” (2 pp.; in French and English; docketed by Wagner), which stated that “offices in the gift of the executive Authority” might permit that authority to have an indirect influence in the legislature; that considering that the functions of the legislature required attention that was incompatible with the attention to duties required by public office-holders, it was decreed that no person holding any salaried office under the territorial or federal governments, except someone in the militia or serving as justice of the peace, could be a member of either house of the legislature “as long as he shall remain in said office”; and (2) Claiborne to the legislature, 6 May 1806 (1 p.; docketed by Wagner; printed in Rowland, Claiborne Letter Books, 3:296–97), stating that while the principle of the bill was good, he could not approve of its wording, which would affect several sitting legislators; that a member who had been elected according to the qualifications imposed by the ordinance establishing the government should be allowed to keep his seat; and that he considered the act unconstitutional unless its operation should apply only to future members. A shorter version of the bill was approved on 4 June 1806 (L. Moreau Lislet, A General Digest of the Acts of the Legislature of Louisiana: Passed from the Year 1804, to 1827, Inclusive, and in Force at This Last Period, with an Appendix and General Index [2 vols.; New Orleans, 1828], 1:648).