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last year clothed with power to do any acts nor any Governor & Council constitutionally competent to do any acts in consequence of the unconstitutional manner in which the Legislature was organized.

We believe this is the first instance in the history of legislation in our country where a Legislature has undertaken for any purpose to claim & exercise the right of examining into & adjudicating on the manner in which any preceding Legislature has been organized. And if it be competent for this Legislature thus to do in relation to the last Legislature it is equally competent for them to inquire into the manner in which any other Legislature since the adoption of our Constitution has been organized - & if it be found exceptionable to proceed as in this instance to denounce their acts and doings as unconstitutional -

But the exercise of this power necessarily involves the right of examining the returns of votes for Senators, the elections of members of this House & the votes for Governor as well as the proceedings of the Representatives and Senators in filling the vacancies in the Senate & in choosing Councillors And all this is indispensable to an intelligent exercise of the right thus claimed - If then this Legislature were to undertake to exercise this power in relation to the Legislature of 1821 & upon a scrutiny of their proceedings as to their organization should find or fancy they had found some latent defect or imperfection in these proceedings it would necessarily follow that this State has never had a Legislature constitutionally competent to pass laws for the members of each Legislature are required by the Constitution to be qualified by certain officers of the next preceding Legislature; but if these officers had no legal existence they are surely not competent to qualify members of the succeding [succeeding] Legislature - It may then be inquired whence this Legislature derives the right of passing sentence of condemnation on the acts & doings of the last Legislature & of the Governor & Council since this very sentence necessarily carries with it the condemnation of this Legislature & declares it has no legal existence - But no such tremendous power exists - The Constitution of our State which in this respect is a transcript of the Constitution of the United States has wisely determined that "each House shall be the Judge of the Elections & qualifications of its own members & may determine the rules of its proceedings" - This provision secures to each Branch the high prerogative of deciding definitively in relation to the subjects makes it the Supreme Judge in the last resort