Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1859 — NEW COUNTY LAW. [ARTICLE]

NEW COUNTY LAW.

Beaver City, j Newton County-Ind. > April 14, 1559. S Mr Davies: Being called out on the question as to “who stole the amendment,” I will give “Teddy” and your readers such information as I have on the subject. Snider's House Bill No. 257, for the organization >f new counties, came up on its final passage on Wednesday of the last week of the Session, and was referred to a committee t be amended so that no county shall be formed out of another without the consent of ainijorityof all the voters of the county. 1 considered this equivalent to a defeat of the Bill at this late hour of the session. March’s Senate Bill No. 208, for the formation of new counties out of 200 square miles of territory, had passed the Senate; I considered our only chance for a law to organize Newton County was to attach House Bill 257, to Senate Bill 208 as an amendment. So I copied it off and handed it to Senator March. He approved of the plan and gave me a letter to M jssrs. F*ur- * dice and Duval, of the House; and at the night session the same evening, at the silent hour of midnight, while “our member” was sweetly sleeping, Senate Bill 208 was introduced in the House, the amendment as published in your paper attached to it, read the first time, referred to a select committee of Messrs. Duval of Boone, Griffin of Lake, and Austin of Wayne. The committee went out, examined the Bill, and amendment, and reported favorable; it then passed its second reading and ordered to be engrossed. In the afternoon ofthe next day, with a full quorum present, the Bill was put upon its third reading and final passage, when Snyder of Jasper moved it be referred to a [committee to amend it so that no county 'shall be divided without a majority of the . voters of the county consenting thereto. The speaker referred it to the same commit i tee of pie night before. At 8 o’clock in the [evening Duval handed back the Bill, the : committee rep rtang m/ar/isZ this last amend ! ment, and it was then put upon its final : passage, and passed the House, 51 votes in the affirmative, Snyder voting No. The Bill [ was then returned to the Senate, the amend ment concurred in. and signed by the Governor's the journals of the House will [ show. Snyder’s amendment was stolen by ■ no one; neither did it go up through the skylight of the Dome of the Capitol, as it passed from the Hou-e to the Senate, as some have I suggested. The committee reported against it, and therefore never b 'came part of the Bill. T A citizen of Jasper drafted a Bill containng the same provisions as Snyder’s amendment, and had it introduced bv Warner in I the Senate, and it was defeated. Nvbeker of Warren also introduced a simii lar Bill in the House, and it was voted down , in the early part of the session; and it is my I opinion no law containing such provisions, lor tending toward the repeal of the act of 1857; could have passed the Legislature of

1859.

A. B. CONDIT.