the electors of the State several proposed amendments to the Constitution. These proposed amendments changed the State election from October to November, the time of holding the presidential and con gressional election. Of the votes cast for and against them, the amendments had re ceived a clear majority; but that majority was less than one half of the votes cast at the same time, in the same ballot-boxes, for the several township trustees elected through out the State. The court held that it would take judicial knowledge of the number of votes cast for township officers; and the amendments having received less than a ma jority of these votes, they had not received a majority of the ballots of all the electors of the State, and consequently were not legally adopted. The effect was to leave Indiana an October State. The decision was given while the Democratic National Convention was assembled at Cincinnati; and before that Convention Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks was a prominent candidate for the presidential nomination. The charge was made that the decision was a political one, — to throw Indiana back to an October State, and thus render it a pivotal State. This charge received color from the unjudi cial manner in which Judge Worden pri vately announced the decision of the court a few minutes after it was rendered, instead of waiting until two o'clock in the afternoon, the usual time of handing down the opinions to the clerk. Judges Niblack and Scott wrote dissenting opinions. However false the accusation may have been, it undoubtedly had its effect in the autumn election; for Byron K. Elliott and William A. Woods, Republicans, were elected to succeed Judges Biddle and Scott. They took their seats Jan. 3, 1881. The two newly elected judges were men of vigor and power, who had much experience on the nisi prius bench. The legislature of 1879 provided for a commission to revise and codify the law of the State. James S. Frazer, David Turpie, j
and John H. Stotsenburg were appointed commissioners. Their revision of the civil and criminal codes, the Decedents' Act, the Penal Act, and the tax laws were adopted in 1 88 1, substantially as proposed by them. The new codes introduced few new features in our' statute law, but the Decedents' Act was radically new. On the 1st day of December, 1882, Judge Worden, having declined a renomination. resigned, and William H. Combs was ap pointed, Dec. 2, 1882, his successor, serving until Jan. 1, 1883, when Allen Zollars, elected at the previous November election, succeeded him. On the 8th day of May, 1883, Judge Woods resigned, having been appointed judge of the Federal Court for the District of Indiana; and Edwin P. Ham mond was appointed his successor, May 14, 1883. This rendered the election of a new judge necessary at the November election of 18S4; and Joseph A. S. Mitchell, a Democrat, was chosen, his term beginning Jan. 1, 1885. The court now stood four Democrats and one Republican. During the years 1865 to 1871 the court began to run behind with its docket, for which it was directly responsible, until, in 1880, it took over three years, in the regular course of business, for a case to reach a de cision; and then it might be farther carried along several months by a petition for a rehearing. As a measure of relief, the legislature of 1 88 1 created a commission, the members of which were to be appointed by the court, to continue two years. Pursuant to the pro visions of this act, on April 27, 1881, the court appointed George A. Bicknell, John Morris, William M. Franklin, James I. Best, and Horatio C. Newcomb, — three Demo crats and two Republicans. Judge Newcomb died May 23, 1882; and James B. Black was appointed his successor, May 29, 1882. The legislature of 1883 continued the commission two years. Nov. 1, 1883, Judge Morris resigned, and on the 9th Walpole G. Colerick was appointed his succes
