The Territory, ex rel. McKinnis, v. Hand.
The Constitution of Oregon provides that in case of a vacancy in the office of Judge, "the governor shall fill such vacancy by appointment, which shall expire when a successor, shall have been elected and qualified." This provision is quite vague and indefinite, and it does not appear that the Supreme Court of that State, were able to find anything in their Constitution or statutes that materially assisted them in construing it. Yet in the case of the State of Oregon v. Johns, 3 Oregon, 533, that Court say: "The people of Oregon by their Constitution made their judiciary elective, and only gave the executive power to fill temporary vacancies, which should occur between elections. If the people had intended to part with this power of appointing county judges, they would have expressed it; it cannot be inferred. No inference or intendment is ever presumed against the sovereign. Such is the universal rule for the construction of statutes, for they emanate from the sovereign power which, in this State, is the people. They appoint the executive, and he only acts by delegated authority, and this authority cannot be presumed beyond the express words of the grant. And I think the power in this case only extends to the filling a vacancy until the next general election, when the people can regularly exercise their authority in electing officers. I think it is not reasonable to presume that, where the people have reserved to themselves the appointment of an officer, they would confer on the executive the filling of a vacancy in the office, which would extend the time of the appointee beyond a general election, and deprive the whole people of a county from electing their local officers, when they could fill it as conveniently as they appointed the original incumbent." If this reasoning can be applied in a case involving the filling of but one office, how much more forcible will be its application to the case at bar, where the right of the people of Lawrence county to fill by election, not only one office but all their most important local offices, is presented for adjudication. And while properly speaking, there is no sovereignty lodged in the people of a Territory, yet Congress gave in our Organic act the power to the Legislature and governor to determine whether these
