qualification of his successor. In case the person who receives the highest number of votes should fail to qualify within ten days after receiving notification of election, the office shall be deemed vacant. If the incumbent receives the highest number of votes, he shall continue in office. The same method of removal shall be cumulative and additional to the methods heretofore provided by law. No person who has been recalled from an elective office, or who has resigned from such office while recall proceedings were pending against him, shall be appointed to any office within one year after such recall or resignation.

No recall petition shall be filed against any officer until he has actually held his office for at least twelve months, and but one recall petition shall be filed against the same officer during his term of office.

INITIATIVE

16. Any proposed ordinance may be submitted to the board of commissioners by petition signed by electors of the city equal in number to the percentage hereinafter required. The signatures, verification, authentication, inspection, certification, amendment and submission of such petition shall be the same as provided for petitions under the last section.

If the petition accompanying the proposed ordinance be signed by electors equal in number to fifteen per centum of the votes cast at the last preceding general election, and contains a request that the said ordinance be submitted to a vote of the people if not passed by the board of commissioners, such board of commissioners shall either

(a) Pass said ordinance without alteration within twenty days after attachment of the clerk's certificate to the accompanying petition, or,

(b) Forthwith, after the clerk shall attach to the petition accompanying such ordinance his certificate of sufficiency, the board of commissioners shall call a special election, unless a general municipal election is fixed within ninety days thereafter,

and at such special or general municipal election, if one is so fixed, such ordinance shall be submitted without alteration to the vote of the electors of the city.

But if the petition is signed by not less than ten nor more than fifteen per centum of the electors, as above defined, then the board of commissioners shall, within twenty days, pass said ordinance without change, or submit the same at the next general city election occurring not more than thirty days after the clerk's certificate of sufficiency is attached to said petition.

The ballots used when voting upon said ordinance shall contain these words: "For the ordinance" (stating the nature of the proposed ordinance) and "Against the ordinance" (stating the nature of the proposed ordinance). If a majority of the qualified electors voting on the proposed ordinance shall vote in favor thereof, such ordinance shall thereupon become a valid and binding ordinance of the city; and any ordinance proposed by petition, or which shall be adopted by a vote of the people, cannot be repealed or amended except by a vote of the people.

Any number of proposed ordinances may be voted upon at the same election in accordance with the provisions of this section; but there shall not be more than one special election in any period of six months for such purpose.

The board of commissioners may submit a proposition for the repeal of any such ordinance or for amendment thereto, to be voted upon at any succeeding general city election, and should such proposition so submitted receive a majority of the votes cast thereon at such election, such ordinance shall thereby be repealed or amended accordingly. Whenever any ordinance or proposition is required by this act to be submitted to the voters of the city at any election, the city clerk shall cause such ordinance or proposition to be published once in at least one of the newspapers published in said city; such publication to be not more than twenty nor less than five days before the submission of such proposition or ordinance to be voted on.

REFERENDUM

17. No ordinance passed by the board of commissioners, except when otherwise required by the general laws of the State or by the provisions of this act, except an ordinance for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety, which contains a statement of its urgency and is passed by a two-thirds vote of the board of commissioners, shall go into effect before ten days from the time of its final passage; and if during said ten days a petition signed by electors of the city equal in number to at least fifteen per centum of the entire vote cast at the last preceding general municipal election, protesting against the passage of such ordinance, be presented to the board of commissioners, the same shall thereupon be suspended from going into operation, and it shall be the duty of the board of commissioners to reconsider such ordinance; and if the same is not entirely repealed, the board of commissioners shall submit the ordinance, as is provided by sub-section b of section sixteen of this act, to the vote of the electors of the city, either at the general election or at a special municipal election to be called for that purpose; and such ordinance shall not go into effect or become operative unless a majority of the qualified electors voting on the same shall vote in favor thereof. Said petition shall be in all respects in accordance with the provisions of said section sixteen, except as to the percentage of signers, and be examined and certified to by the clerk in all respects as therein provided. Any ordinance or measure that the board of commissioners or the qualified electors of the city shall have authority to enact, the board of commissioners may of its own motion submit to the electors for adoption or rejection at a general or special municipal election, in the same manner and with the same force and effect as is provided in this act for ordinances or measures submitted on petition. At any special election called under the provisions of this act, there shall be no bar to the submission of other questions to a vote of the electors in addition to the ordinances or measures herein provided

U

for, if said other questions are such as may legally be submitted to such election. If the provisions of two or more measures approved or adopted at the same election conflict, then the measure receiving the highest affirmative vote shall control.

V. JUDICIAL DECISIONS

XXXI. LUTHER v. BORDEN

(7 Howard, 1, 1848)

[The meaning of Art. IV, Sec. 4 of the federal Constitution relative to republican government came before the Court in the case of Luther v. Borden in 1848; and the Court held that it is for Congress to decide what government is established in a state and whether that government is republican.]

TANEY, C. J., delivered the opinion of the court.

This case has arisen out of the unfortunate political differences which agitated the people of Rhode Island in 1841 and 1842.

It is an action of trespass brought by Martin Luther, the plaintiff in error, against Luther M. Borden and others, the defendants, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Rhode Island, for breaking and entering the plaintiff's house. The defendants justify upon the ground that large numbers of men were assembled in different parts of the State for the purpose of overthrowing the government by military force, and were actually levying war upon the State; that, in order to defend itself from this insurrection, the State was declared by competent authority to be under martial law; that the plaintiff was engaged in the insurrection; and that the defendants, being in the military service of the State, by command of their superior officer, broke and entered the house and searched the rooms for the plaintiff, who was supposed to be there concealed, in order to arrest him, doing as little damage as possible. The plaintiff replied, that the trespass was committed by the defendants of their own proper wrong, and without any such cause; and upon the issue joined on this replication, the parties proceeded to trial.