Joseph Hergesheimer - "Linda Condon"

Voltaire - "Candido, o El Optimismo"

Anon - "The Diary of a U boat Commander"

Alexis de Tocqueville et al - "American Institutions and Their Influence"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Volume 1.

M >> Matthew L. Davis >> Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Volume 1.




"Clinton.----To the question relative to the ballots of this county,
it may suffice to say, that verbal and written deputation by a sheriff
are, in law, considered as of equal validity, particularly when it is
to perform a single ministerial act.

"Tioga.----it is said that a deputy may make a deputy to discharge
certain duties merely ministerial; but, considering the importance of
the trust in regard of the care of the ballots, and the extreme
circumspection which is indicated in the law relative to elections, I
think that the ballots of this county cannot, by any fiction or
construction, be said to have been delivered _by the sheriff_; and am
of opinion that they ought not to be canvassed.

"AARON BURR."


The opinion of Rufus King in this case was concurred in by Stephen
Lush, T. V. W. Graham, and Abraham Van Vechten, of Albany; Richard
Harrison, John Lawrence, John Cozine, Cornelius J. Bogart, Robert
Troup, James M. Hughes, and Thomas Cooper, of New-York.

The opinion of Colonel Burr was sustained by Pierpont Edwards of
Connecticut, Jonathan D. Sergeant, of Philadelphia, Edmund Randolph,
of Virginia, United States attorney-general, Zephaniah Swift, Moses
Cleaveland, Asher Miller, David Daggett, Nathaniel Smith, and Dudley
Baldwin. These opinions were procured by Colonel Burr, as appears from
the private correspondence on the subject.


FROM JONATHAN D. SERGEANT.

Philadelphia, 4th May, 1792.

DEAR SIR,

You will perceive by the date of the enclosed that it has been ready
some time, but I have waited in hopes that I should have the pleasure
of sending forward Mr. Randolph's opinion in company with mine. As he
is not yet quite ready, and I am going out of town, I send forward my
own singly. He is very solicitous to collect all possible information
on the subject before he gives his opinion, and would willingly excuse
himself from the task, were it not, as he says, that it would look
like a want of that independence and firmness which dispose a man to
meet any question, however important or strongly contended.

His opinion hitherto has been conformable to yours, and I expect will
continue so. When it is ready I will forward it without the delay of
sending it round to Dr. Edwards's in the country. The doctor had
spoken to me some time before your letter came to me, so that I was
nearly prepared when I received yours.

Your obedient servant,

JONATHAN D. SERGEANT.



On the 6th of November, 1792, the legislature met. On the 13th,
petitions, memorials, &c. were presented to the House of Assembly,
demanding an inquiry into the conduct of the board appointed to
canvass the votes given for governor, &c. at the preceding election,
held in the month of April. On the 21st the house, in committee of the
whole, took up the subject. Witnesses were examined at the bar;
various resolutions and modifications were offered and rejected. The
debate was continued at intervals from the 21st of November, 1792,
until the 18th of July, 1793. The minority of the canvassers entered a
protest against the proceedings of the majority, which it is due to
them to insert here.


"_The Protest of Messrs. Jones, Roosevelt, and Gansevoort_.

"We, the subscribers, members of the joint committee appointed to
canvass and estimate the votes taken at the last election in this
state for governor, lieutenant-governor, and senators, do dissent
from, and protest against, the determination of the major part of said
committee respecting the votes taken at the said election in the
county of Otsego.

"I. Because these votes having been given by the freeholders of
Otsego, and the packages containing the same having been received and
transmitted in season to the secretary's office by the person acting
as sheriff of the county, the committee have no right to reject them
under the pretence of judging of the legality, validity, operation, or
extent of the sheriff's authority or commission; these commissions
being foreign to the duty of their appointment, and capable of a
decision only in the ordinary courts of law.

"II. Because, if the committee were by law authorized to examine and
determine the legality and extent of the sheriff's authority and
commission, we are of opinion that Richard R. Smith, at the time he
received and transmitted the ballots, was the lawful sheriff of
Otsego. By the constitution, the sheriff, whatever may be the form of
his commission, must hold his office during the pleasure of the
Council of Appointment; and, by the law of the land, he must continue
therein until another is appointed and takes upon himself the office.
Richard R. Smith, having been appointed on the 27th of February, 1791,
and Benjamin Gilbert having been appointed on the 30th of March, 1792,
but not having qualified or taken upon himself the office until
Richard R. Smith had received and forwarded the same, must be deemed
the lawful sheriff of the county. The uniform practice which has
prevailed since the establishment of the constitution, precludes all
doubt respecting its true construction on this point. For although the
commissions of the sheriffs are for one year, they have nevertheless
continued to exercise the office until others were appointed and
entered upon the execution thereof, which has often been long after
the expiration of the year, and sometimes after the same person has
remained in office more than four years successively. And such
sheriffs, sometimes after the expiration of their year, at others
after having held the office for four successive years, have received
and transmitted ballots for governor, lieutenant-governor, and
senators, which ballots have on former elections been received and
canvassed; and even upon the present canvass, the committee have
canvassed the ballots taken in the counties of Kings, Orange, and
Washington, notwithstanding the year had expired for which the
sheriffs of these counties were commissioned, and no new commissions
had been issued. Hence the sheriffs of those counties, in receiving
and transmitting the ballots, must have acted under their former
commissions, since a mere appointment without a commission, and a
compliance with the requisites prescribed by law, could not, in our
opinion, give any authority as sheriff to the person so appointed.

"III. Because, if Richard R. Smith, at the time he received and
forwarded the ballots, was not sheriff, the county was without a
sheriff, a position too mischievous to be established by a doubtful
construction of law.

"IV. Because, if Richard R. Smith was not of right sheriff of the
county at the time he received and forwarded the ballots, he was then
sheriff in fact of that county; and all the acts of such an officer
which tend to the public utility, or to preserve and render effectual
the rights of third persons, are valid in law.

"V. Because, in all doubtful cases, the committee ought, in our
opinion, to decide in favour of the votes given by the citizens, lest
by too nice and critical an exposition of the law the rights of
suffrage be rendered nugatory.

"We also dissent from, and protest against, the determination of the
major part of the said committee respecting the votes taken at the
said election in the county of Clinton;

"Because it appears that the sheriff of the said county deputed a
person by parole to deliver the box containing the ballots of the said
county into the secretary's office. Such deputation we deem to be
sufficient; and as there is satisfactory evidence that the box was
delivered in the same state in which it was received from the sheriff,
the votes, in our opinion, ought to be canvassed.

"We also dissent from, and protest against, the determination of the
major part of the said committee, by which they declare that George
Clinton was, by the greatest number of votes taken at the last
election for governor, lieutenant-governor, and senators, chosen
governor of this state; and that Pierre Van Courtlandt was, by the
greatest number of votes at the said election, chosen
lieutenant-governor; and that John Livingston was, by the greatest
number of votes at the said election, in the eastern district of this
state, chosen a senator in the said eastern district.

"Because it cannot be ascertained whether George Clinton was chosen
governor, or Pierre Van Courtlandt lieutenant-governor of this state,
by the greatest number of votes at the last election, without
examining the ballots contained in the boxes delivered into the
secretary's office by the sheriffs of the counties of Otsego and
Clinton--there being a sufficient number of freeholders in these
counties, with the votes given in the other parts of the state for
John Jay as governor and Stephen Van Rensselaer as
lieutenant-governor, to give them a majority of votes for those
offices. Nor can it be ascertained whether John Livingston was chosen
a senator in the eastern district by the greatest number of votes in
that district, without examining the votes taken in the county of
Clinton--there being a sufficient number of freeholders in that
county, with the votes given in other parts of the district for Thomas
Jenkins as a senator, to give him a greater number of votes for a
senator than the number given for the said John Livingston.

"SAMUEL JONES,

"ISAAC ROOSEVELT,

"LEONARD GANSEVOORT."

Joshua Sands, another member of the board of canvassers, entered
separately a protest, but substantially the same as the preceding.

The majority of the canvassers presented a document to the
legislature, in which they assigned their reasons for the course they
had pursued. That document was drawn by Colonel Burr. The original
draught, with his emendations, has been preserved among his papers. On
the motion of a member, it was read in the house the 28th day of
December, 1792, and is entered at large on their journals as
follows:--

"_The reasons assigned by the majority of the Canvassers in
vindication of their conduct_.

"The joint committee appointed to canvass and estimate the votes for
governor, lieutenant-governor, and senators at the last election,
having been constrained, by a sense of their duty in the discharge of
the trust reposed in them, to reject the ballots returned from the
counties of Clinton, Otsego, and Tioga; and perceiving that attempts
are made to misrepresent as well the principles of their determination
as the facts on which they are founded, feel it incumbent on them to
state the grounds of their decision.

"CLINTON AND TIOGA.--A box, said to contain the ballots of the county
of Clinton, was deposited in the secretary's office by a Theodore
Platt, without any deputation or other authority, accompanied only by
his own affidavit, that he had received the said box from the sheriff
of Clinton.

Another box, said to contain the ballots of the county of Tioga, was
delivered by the sheriff of the county of Tioga to his deputy,
Benjamin Hovey, who, being detained by illness on the road, delivered
the said box to one James H. Thompson, by whom it was deposited in the
secretary's office.

"The joint committee, pursuant to the law, are sworn to canvass the
votes 'contained in the boxes delivered into the office of the
secretary of the state by the sheriffs of the several counties.' Hence
arose a question, whether this was not a _personal trust_, which could
not be legally performed by deputy? Upon this point we entertained
different opinions; but agreed that, if the discretion of the
committee was to be in any degree controlled by the directions of the
law, there appeared no room to doubt of the illegality of canvassing
boxes which were not delivered by a sheriff or the deputy of a
sheriff. The ballots contained in these boxes were therefore rejected;
not, however, without sensible regret, as no suspicion was entertained
of the fairness of those elections.

"OTSEGO.---It appears that Richard R. Smith, on the 17th of February,
1791, was appointed sheriff of the county of Otsego, to hold that
office until the 18th of February, 1792; that a commission was issued
agreeably to that appointment; that on the 13th of January, 1792, he
wrote to the governor and council that he should decline a
reappointment; that on the 30th of March, 1792, Benjamin Gilbert was
appointed sheriff of the said county; that the commission to the said
Benjamin Gilbert was, on the 13th of April, 1792, delivered to Stephen
Van Rensselaer, one of the Council of Appointment, to be by him
forwarded; that the said commission was in the hands of William
Cooper, Esq., first judge of the said county, on or before the 3d of
May; that the said Richard R. Smith, on the first Tuesday in April,
was elected supervisor of the town of Otsego, accepted that office,
and on the 1st day of May took his seat at the board of supervisors,
assisted in the appointment of loan officers, and _then_ declared that
he was no longer sheriff of the county, but that Benjamin Gilbert was
appointed in his place. It also appeared that Benjamin Gilbert had no
notice of his said appointment, or of the receiving of the ballots by
the said Richard R. Smith, until the 9th day of May, and that he was
sworn to the execution of the office on the 11th; that, on the 3d of
May, the said Richard R. Smith put up the ballots of the said county
in the store of the said William Cooper, Esq., in whose hands the
commission of Benjamin Gilbert then was; that the box said to contain
the votes of the said county was delivered into the secretary's office
by Leonard Goes previous to the last Tuesday in May, under a
deputation from the said Richard R. Smith; together with the said box,
and at the same time, the said Leonard Goes delivered a separate
packet or enclosure, which, by an endorsement thereon, purported to
contain 'the ballots received from the town of Cherry Valley, in the
county of Otsego.'

"The manner of the delivery of the said box and enclosure, and the
authority of the said Leonard Goes, were reported to the committee by
the secretary of the state.

"These votes were not canvassed for the following reasons:--

"1. The committee found themselves bound, by their oath and by the
directions of the law before mentioned, to canvass only the votes
contained in the boxes which may have been delivered into the
secretary's office by the _sheriffs_ of the several counties. It
appeared to them absurd to suppose this duty should be so expressly
enjoined, and that they should nevertheless be prohibited from
inquiring whether the boxes were or were not delivered by such
officers; or that they should be restrained from ascertaining a fact,
without the knowledge of which it was impossible that they could
discharge the duty with certainty to the public or with confidence to
themselves. They could not persuade themselves that they were, under
_that_ law and _that_ oath, compelled to canvass and estimate votes,
however fraudulently obtained, which should be delivered into the
secretary's office _by any person styling_ himself sheriff, though it
should at the same time be evident to them that he was _not the
sheriff_. If such was to be their conduct, a provision intended as a
security against impositions would be an engine to promote them. They
conceived, therefore, that the objection to an inquiry so important,
and in a case where the question was raised and the inquiry imposed
upon them by the suggestions of the secretary, must have arisen from
gross misrepresentation or willful error.

"Upon investigating the right of the said Richard R. Smith to exercise
that office, the facts appeared as herein-before stated.

"2. The constitution requires that sheriffs shall be _annually
appointed_; which, to our apprehension, implies that no person shall
exercise the office by virtue of any other than an _annual_
appointment. And should it even be admitted that the council may, at
_their pleasure_, remove a sheriff within the year, yet we do not see
on what ground it can be denied that the duration of the office is
limited to one year, unless a new appointment should take place. It
would otherwise be true that the council could indirectly, or by a
criminal omission, accomplish what is not within their direct or legal
authority. It will be readily admitted that an appointment and
commission for three years would be void; and surely the pretence of
one thus claiming should be preferred to a usurpation without even
such appearance of right, and against the known right of another. To
assert, therefore, that 'by the constitution the sheriff, whatever may
be the form of his commission, must hold his office during the
pleasure of the Council of Appointment; and that, by the law of the
land, he must continue therein until another is appointed and has
taken upon himself the office,' is an assertion accompanied with no
proof or reason, and is repugnant to the letter and spirit of the
constitution, which is eminently _the law of the land_. The practice
which has prevailed since the revolution, as far as hath come to our
knowledge, does not warrant the position; neither could mere practice,
if such had prevailed, justify the adoption of a principle contrary to
the obvious meaning of the constitution. Upon the present occasion we
have not canvassed the votes of any county which were not returned by
a sheriff holding his office under an appointment unexpired. The
sheriffs of Kings, Orange, and Washington had all been reappointed
within the present year, which satisfied the words of the
constitution, and was the _known_ and avowed reason which influenced
the committee to estimate the ballots of those counties. The doctrine
concerning the constitutional pleasure of the council in the
appointment of the office of sheriffs _had not then been invented_.

"3. But even admitting the visionary idea that the office of sheriff
(_whose duration is limited by the constitution_) can nevertheless be
holden _during the pleasure_ of the Council of Appointment, yet that
appears to have been determined by the letter of the appointment and
commission, by the appointment of Benjamin Gilbert, by the declaration
of Richard R. Smith, and by his acceptance and exercise of another
office, which is, by the constitution, declared to be incompatible
with the office of sheriff.

"It was evident, therefore, that Richard R. Smith had no authority by
appointment, by commission, by the constitution, or by any law, to
hold or exercise the office of sheriff on the third of May.

"4. As Richard R. Smith was not legally or constitutionally sheriff on
the third of May, neither, under the circumstances of the case, can he
be said to have been sheriff in fact, so as to render his acts valid
in contemplation of law: the assumption of power by Mr. Smith appears
to have been warranted by no pretence or colour of right. The time
limited for the duration of his office had expired by the express
tenure of his commission and appointment, and he had formally declared
his determination not to accept a reappointment. He had, two days
previous to his receiving the ballots, openly exercised an office
incompatible with that of sheriff; then declared that he had resigned
the office of sheriff, and that Benjamin Gilbert was appointed in his
place; and by an affidavit which was produced to the committee, it
appeared that, upon the day upon which he had put up the ballots in
the house of the said William Cooper, he, the said Richard R. Smith,
declared that he had resigned the office of sheriff. The business
might with equal care and certainty have been executed by Benjamin
Gilbert. The single act of receiving ballots could of itself continue
_no man_ a sheriff--least of all _a man disavowing that office, and
then in the exercise of another_. It was foreign to the duty of the
committee to provide against evils which may possibly arise from
casual vacancies in the office of sheriff by death and otherwise.
Vacancies will sometimes unavoidably happen, without further
legislative provision.

"There is not, therefore, in our opinion, any application to the
subject, or force in the objection, 'that if Richard R. Smith was not
sheriff, the county was without a sheriff;' neither is the position
true in fact, for it appears that the county was not then without a
sheriff. At the time the ballots were received, it was well known that
Benjamin Gilbert was appointed sheriff, and that his commission was in
the hands of William Cooper, in whose store Richard R. Smith put up
the ballots. It is also to be fairly inferred that, had proper
measures been taken to give notice to Mr. Gilbert, he would forthwith
have qualified and undertaken the execution of the office. It cannot,
therefore, consistent with truth or candour, be asserted that there
was the remotest probability that 'mischiefs' could in any parallel
case ensue from the principles adopted by the committee.

"It did not seem possible, therefore, by any principle of law, by any
latitude of construction, to canvass and estimate the ballots
contained in the box thus circumstanced.

"But, had the question been doubtful, it was attended by other
circumstances, which would have determined the committee against
canvassing those ballots.

"5. Because the notice of the appointment of Benjamin Gilbert was
received by Richard R. Smith on or before the first of May, and his
commission was received by William Cooper on or before the third of
May. Mr. Gilbert might therefore have been notified, qualified, and
executed the duty. He did actually qualify on the eleventh, which gave
ample time to have forwarded the ballots before the last Tuesday in
May. These facts, with other suggestions of unfair practices, rendered
the conduct of the Otsego election justly liable to suspicion; and the
committee were constrained to conclude that the usurpation of
authority by Richard R. Smith was wanton and unnecessary, and
proceeded from no motive connected with the preservation of the rights
of the people or the freedom and _purity of elections_.

"6. Because, having in several instances, by _unanimous vote_,
rejected ballots of whole towns, free from any suspicion of
unfairness, by reason of a defect in _form only_ of the return, the
committee conceived themselves the more strongly bound to reject
ballots where the defect was substantial, and the conduct at least
questionable; especially as the law regards the custody of enclosures
containing the ballots as a trust of high importance, and contemplates
but three persons in whose hands they are to be confided until they
come to the possession of the canvassers, to wit, the inspector, the
sheriff, and the secretary; all officers of great responsibility and
confidence.

"7. Because the return, upon the face of it, appeared to be illegal.
The law requires the sheriff, 'upon receiving the said enclosure,
directed to be delivered to him as aforesaid, without opening or
inspecting the same, or any or either of them, to put the said
enclosures, and _every one of them, into one box_, which shall be well
closed, &c., and be delivered by him, without opening the same, or the
enclosures therein contained, into the office of the secretary of this
state before the last Tuesday in May in every year.'

"By recurring to the preceding state of facts it will be evident that
this direction of the law had been disregarded. If irregularities of
this kind should be permitted and countenanced, it would be in the
power of the sheriff, by excluding a part of the votes, to confer a
majority on any candidate, in counties where there were divisions of
interests. Affidavits were indeed produced tending to show that there
had been, in that town, disputes respecting the election of town
officers; that two enclosures, purporting to contain the votes of the
town, were delivered to Mr. Smith, and that he had put into the box
that enclosure which contained the votes taken by the persons whom _he
judged_ to be the legal inspectors: a matter proper to have been
submitted to the opinion of the committee.

"The committee have considered this subject with deliberate attention,
and in every light in which it could be placed; and whether they
regarded the channels of conveyance, the mode of the return, or the
general principles which ought to govern their decisions touching the
freedom of elections and security against frauds, they found
undeniable reasons which compelled them to reject the votes.

"DAVID GELSTON,

"THOMAS TILLOTSON,

"DANIEL GRAHAM,

"MELANCTON SMITH,

"DAVID M'CARTY,

"P.V. COURTLANDT, jun.,

"JONATHAN N. HAVENS."

On the 18th of January, 1793, the House of Assembly passed the
following resolutions on the subject. "Thereupon, _Resolved_, That the
mode of prosecuting any joint committee of the Senate and Assembly,
appointed for the purpose of canvassing and estimating the votes taken
in this state for governor, lieutenant-governor, and senators, and the
penalties to be inflicted on such committee, or any of them, for any
improper conduct in the execution of the trust reposed in them by law,
are clearly pointed out in the twentieth and twenty-first sections of
the act for regulating elections, passed the 13th day of February, one
thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven; and that, therefore, any
person or persons who may suppose that any such joint committee, or
any of them have conducted themselves improperly in the execution of
the trust reposed in them, may prosecute the same to effect in the
ordinary course of law.

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