Section 2, article 12, declares that "the legislature shall pass no act of incorporation unless with the assent of at least two-thirds of each House." And again, section 1 of article 13, provides that "any amendment or amendments to this constitution, may be proposed in the Senate or House of Representatives; and if the same shall be agreed upon by a majority of the members clected to each of the two Houses," &c.: again, " and if in the legislature next chosen, as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by two-thirds of all the members elected to each House, then," &c. These exceptions not only prove the rule, but by their language they show the intention of the convention when conferring upon a quorum of each House its power of action, or restraining that power, in the exercise of a two-thirds vote. Thus, the distinction in meaning between a majority of the House organized to do business-that is, a quorum, and a majority of the members elected to that House; and the distinction in meaning between two-thirds of each House, and two-thirds of all the members elected to each House, is obvious, from the modes of their expression. They are all exceptions to the general rule, that a majority of each House shall constitute a quorum to do business, but the power necessary to do an act, is in any of the excepted cases well de fined. Again in article 13, which provides the modes in which the constitution may be amended or revised, we find the expressions "twothirds of ALL the members elected to each house,” and “two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives," in juxtaposition. Do they mean the same thing, or are they used in contradistinction to each other? In the one case it is declared that "if at the legislature next chosen as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by two-thirds of the members elected to each house, then it shall be the duty of the legislature to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people," &c. In the other it is provided "that if at any time two-thirds of the Seaate and House of Representatives shall think it necessary to revise or amend this entire constitution, they shall recommend to the electors at the next election," &c. I think it cannot be said after the convention had provided that a majority of the members elected to each house should constitute a house, that they used the expressions "two-thirds of each house" and "two-thirds of the members elected to each house," as meaning the same thing. Besides, this provision of the constitution is restrictive of the power of legislation; and is therefore to be construed strictly. A strict construction would give to two-thirds of a quorum of the Senate the power to pass an act of incorporation; a liberal construction would limit that power to two-thirds of all the members elected. My opinion is in favor of the first construc STATE LAND Office, Hon. Wм. M. FENTON, President of the Senate: SIR-I have received through the Secretary of your body the following resolution: Resolved, That the Commissioner of the State Land Office inform the Senate at as early a day as is practicable, of the amount of each appropriation of lands made by the state for the purposes of internal improvement, from and out of the five hundred thousand acre tract donated by the United States to the state of Michigan ; and also, that the said Commissioner further inform the Senate, in what counties the lands were originally selected under the act of Congress, and from which counties they have thus far been located in and by virtue of any appropriations made by the legislature of this state. And I have the honor to reply thereto, that in the accompanying schedule, marked (A.,) you have the location of the internal improvement lands granted by Congress to the state, so far as they have been selected and approved. And that in schedule marked (B.) you have the amount of each appropriation for lands made by the state for purposes of internal improvement, and the countiesin which they have been selected. The facts that the bridge at Bridgport, Saginaw county, has been built, and the 3000 acres of land selected, are matters which have come to my knowledge since the date of the last annual report from this department. I am sir, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, ABIEL SILVER, Com'r. |