Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/100

 94 Opinion of Wm D. Fenton Judge Shattuck in his opinion, and more elaborately in his address delivered October 18, 1894, before the Oregon Bar Association (see page 48, "Proceedings of the Oregon Bar Association at the Fourth and Fifth Annual Meetings"), con- curs in the view so well expressed by Judge Kelly, citing numerous authorities, and states his conclusions as follows : "First: That the constitution of Oregon is to be deemed, not a grant of powers, but as a limitation or restriction upon powers already existing. "Second: That the legislative assembly of Oregon has power to order and enact whatever it may deem proper and useful upon all subjects and other methods, except where its action is restricted by the constitution. "Third: That the limitation or restriction upon legislative action rendering void an act of the legislative assembly, should be manifested by express terms and allowed only of cases free from doubt or uncertainty. "Fourth : That there is no constitutional impediment to raising the salaries of state officers, directly by legislative action." ! ! '% In his letter of date January 28, 1887, to the judiciary committee of the house, he says: "Contemporaneous opinion may be resorted to for aid in the construction of the constitu- tion. (See Sedgwick, p. 593, on Construction of Statutory Law.) Looking into the journals of the: convention published in 1882, and to be found in the office of secretary of state, pages 87-93 inclusive, some idea may be gathered concerning the opinion of the framers on this point. Efforts were made in the convention to cut off the power of legislation on this subject by an express provisions to be engrafted on the section and they failed. The debates on this subject in the committee of the whole and the discussions at other times and out of doors, all indicated a prevalent opinion that the article as it now stands did not cut off the power of the legislature to raise the salaries."