"Upon investigating the right of the said Richard R. Smith to exercise
that office, the facts appeared as herein-before stated.
"2. The constitution requires that sheriffs shall be _annually
appointed_; which, to our apprehension, implies that no person shall
exercise the office by virtue of any other than an _annual_
appointment. And should it even be admitted that the council may, at
_their pleasure_, remove a sheriff within the year, yet we do not see
on what ground it can be denied that the duration of the office is
limited to one year, unless a new appointment should take place. It
would otherwise be true that the council could indirectly, or by a
criminal omission, accomplish what is not within their direct or legal
authority. It will be readily admitted that an appointment and
commission for three years would be void; and surely the pretence of
one thus claiming should be preferred to a usurpation without even
such appearance of right, and against the known right of another. To
assert, therefore, that 'by the constitution the sheriff, whatever may
be the form of his commission, must hold his office during the
pleasure of the Council of Appointment; and that, by the law of the
land, he must continue therein until another is appointed and has
taken upon himself the office,' is an assertion accompanied with no
proof or reason, and is repugnant to the letter and spirit of the
constitution, which is eminently _the law of the land_.
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