Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/104

tion should exist necessarily implies that if a restriction had been intended here, apt and simple words would have been used therefor. Clear words of limitation are used in the following sections: Sections 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, article 1. In sections 28, 29, 30, 32, 34, 35, article 1, all contain express words of negation or inhibition. The same observations may be made of sections 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11 of article 11. Article IV., section 1 provides that "The legislative authority of the state shall be vested in the legislative assembly which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives," etc. And article IV., section 2: "The senate shall consist of sixteen and the house of representatives of thirty-four members; which number shall not be increased until the year 1860, provided that the senate shall never exceed thirty and the house of representatives sixty members." Here are terms of express prohibition used in connection with the words "shall consist of," or "the senate shall consist of." Words of like import are the words used in section 10, article VII. "One of which classes shall consist of three judges," etc. See also section 7, article IV.; sections 9, 11, 12, 16, 19, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, article IV.; sections 2 and 3, article V.; sections 8, article VI. Section 2, article VII. expressly limits the number of justices of the Supreme Court so that its number shall never exceed seven and that it should not exceed five until the white population of the state should amount to 100,000. This is the same Supreme Court authorized by the constitution, although its duties have been made appellate exclusively by law in obedience to the provisions of section 10, article VII. This evident purpose of the framers of the constitutional convention to use prohibitive words where it was the intention to prohibit the exercise of legislative power in a given case, appears in nearly every line and paragraph of the constitution. In fact, it may be said to be the object of the state constitution not to grant power to the legislative assembly but to limit the power which exists in the people, and such limitation in the nature of things ought to be ex-