Page:State v. Johnson.pdf/8

288    Rh   republican in form, by the framing and adoption of a Constitution, in conformity with the Constitution of the United States, and which should provide that the elective franchise shall be enjoyed by the persons mentioned in said act, and the adoption of article fourteen, by the Legislature of said State, and when said article shall have become a part of the Constitution of the United States, said State shall be declared  entitled to representation in Congress, and that then and thereafter, the preceding sections of said act shall be inoperative in said State. The plea insists, if such an expression may be allowed in this connection, that the present Constitution did not go into effect until the 22d of June, 1868, and that he qualified more than fifteen days before that date, as Lieutenant-Governor of the State of Arkansas.

Motion for a Jury to Try the Issue of Fact Presented by the Second Plea
[The second plea sets up that he qualified as Lieutenant-Governor within fifteen days after he was duly notified of his election. To the first plea, the attorney general filed a demurrer, and a replication as to the second.]

[The demurrer to the first plea was sustained. On the 20th of February, the respondent filed a motion for a jury to try the issue of fact presented by the second plea, the replication and similiter.]

MC, C.J.

Here we have a question presented for our consideration, that is not free from difficulty. On the one hand, to refuse a jury to try the issue of fact presented, is at variance with the ideas usually announced from the political rostrum, or spoken of in unguarded terms by the sycophant and demagogue, who caters and bends to public opinion, "that thrift may follow fawning." On the other, we are constrained in our action by the solemnity of an oath, and the limits of the Constitution. Our Constitution declares, "The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate, and shall extend to all cases at law, without regard to the amount in controversy." Counsel for the