Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/94

 DNITBD STATES V. BIXBY. 79 �the govemor, upon a certificate of qualifications and moral charac- ter from the judge of the circuit or common pleas court of their counties, respectively, and shall, before they enter upon their duties as such, take an oath of office before the clerk of the circuit court of their counties, respectively, and file in his office, to be approved of bjr said clerk, an officiai bond. Section 5 of the same act conf ers power upon notaries to take and certify acknowledgments of deeds and other instruments of writing, to administeroaths generally, totake and certify depositions, and to do such acts as, by common law and the customs of merchants, they are authorized to do. Section 7 provides that no person holding a lucrative office, or being an officer in any bank or corporation possessed of any banking powers, shall be a notary pub- lic. Section 4 of a later act (1 Ind. Eev. St. 635) declares that the jurisdiction of a notary public shall be coextensive with the lim- ita of states, but no notary shall be compelled to act beyond the lim- its of the county in which he resides. �The authority of notaries extends throughout the state, and they are not required by statute to be 21 years of age. But it is urged by counsel for defendant that under the constitution none but voters 21 years of age are electors ; that no person not an elector can hold a county office; and that notaries are county officers. Notaries have nothing to do with the affairs of the county, and they. discharge no duties as county officers. In taking and certifying acknowledgments of deeds and other written instruments, administering oaths, and in doing such acts as by common law and the customs of merchants they are authorized to do, they do not act as county officers. They are not needed in the administration of county affairs, and they are not county officers within the meaning of the constitution. There is nothing in the constitution or statutes of Indiana making infants ineligible to the office of notary publie. Unlike most of the states, Indiana has not declared, in her constitution or statutes, that ouly those who have attained the age of 21 years shall be eligible to any public or civil office. �While at common law persons are not admitted to full eujoyment of civil and political rights until they have attained the age of 21 years, yet infants are capable of executing mere powers, and, as agents, of making binding contracts for others. In England they are allowed to hold the offices of parkr-keepers, foresters, jailer, and mayor of a town ; and in both England and this country they are capable of holding and discharging the duties of such mere ministerial offices as call for the exercise of skill and diligence only. They are not eligible ��� �