Wabash Railway Co. v. Hughes

Citations

• 38 Ill. 174

Syllabus

<p>1. Statutes—of their authentication, under different circumstances. The constitution has, in terms, provided the mode in which laws shall be authenticated, except in cases where the Governor shall fail to return a bill with Ms objections, or in case a bill is passed notwithstanding his objections.</p> <p>2. Where, however, a bill has been passed by both houses of the General Assembly, and presented to the Governor for his action, and he fails to approve and sign it, or fails to return it with his objections in ten days (Sundays excepted), if the General Assembly shall be in session, or if not in session, he fails so to return it on the first day of the next meeting of the General Assembly, it is declared to be a law, but the constitution fails to prescribe any mode in which it shall be authenticated.</p> <p>3. But the fourth section of chapter sixty-two of the Revised Statutes of 1845, which was not abrogated by the new constitution and is still in force, does provide a mode of authentication of a bill which has become a law by reason of not being returned by the Governor on the first day of the meeting of the General Assembly next after the session at which the bill was passed, he having been prevented from returning it at that session by adjournment.</p> <p>4. And where it is claimed that a bill has become a law by reason of not having been returned in proper time by the Governor, it must be authenticated in the mode prescribed by that statute, or it will not be regarded by the courts.</p> <p>5. Statutes—of the character of evidence upon which a statute must rest. Courts must have some means of knowing that a bill has become a law; and the knowledge of courts in that regard must be derived from record evidence, alone, furnished at the time, by the law making power. Whether bills have or not become laws can only be known from the evidence which the journals, and the original bills with their indorsements, afford.</p> <p>6. If, upon an inspection of a bill, it is