Section 2, Article 2 of Our State Constitution Is As Follows: in

all elections, not otherwise provided for by this constitution, every white male citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years, and upwards, who shall have resided in the State during the six months immediately preceding such election * * * * shall be entitled to vote in the township or precinct where he may reside.

Two questions at once suggest themselves upon the reading of this section: First--Does the section apply to elections of presidential electors, and thus become a limitation upon the discretion of the legislature in case it shall direct the appointment of the electors by a popular vote? Second--If so, can a State constitution thus limit the discretion which the Constitution of the United States directs shall be exercised by the legislature? I shall consider the last question first.

While the legislature is created by the State, all its powers are not derived from, nor are all its duties enjoined by the State. The moment the State brings the legislature into being, that moment certain duties enjoined, and certain powers conferred, by the nation, attach to it. Among the powers and duties of the legislature, which spring from the national constitution, is the power and duty of determining how the State shall appoint presidential electors. The Constitution of the United States declares in the most explicit terms that the State shall do this "in such manner as the legislature may direct." In the case of Ex-Parte Henry E. Hayne, et al., reported in volume 9, at page 106, of the Chicago Legal News, the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of South Carolina, in speaking of the authority upon which a State legislature acts in providing for the appointment of presidential electors, says: