Page:Dakota Territory Reports.djvu/462

 recognized legislative policy of the Territory, do that which the law-making power has carefully and studiously avoided. Much stress has been laid by counsel for appellant on section 15, chapter 21, which provides that the officers of each organized county shall be chosen at the general election in the year 1878, and every two years thereafter. This section has reference to the election for a full term, providing that the election of these officers shall occur at the same time, and making the tenure of office and the time of its commencement, uniform throughout the Territory, and has no application whatever to cases of vacancy, or the election of the successors of officers appointed upon the organization of a new county. Were this not so, and were the construction insisted upon by counsel for appellant correct, then sections 2 and 3 of this same chapter, and section 11 of chapter 22, and the provisions of the section under consideration, could not stand together; for if their reasoning be good in the case at bar, it must prevail in every other case involving the construction of these acts, and consequently no officer can be voted for to fill a vacancy or otherwise, except at the general election in the even years. This cannot be claimed to be the legislative intent.

Our attention has also been directed to section 8 of this special act, as throwing light on the question before us. This section provides for the election of justices of the peace at a special election to be called by the board of county commissioners, and enacts that the justices so elected "shall hold their offices until their successors shall be elected at the general election in 1877, and shall qualify." It is asked if all the officers were to be elected at the general election in 1877, why specify in particular the office of justice of the peace; and it is contended that the naming of one necessarily excludes all others. This by no means follows. The Legislature doubtless considered the law as to the election of the successors of the appointees, fixed and certain; but here they had created an anomaly, had authorized the election of justices of the peace at a special election: how long should they hold the office, and where is the provision of law settling the question?