Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-02-04
THE UNION AND AMERICAN.
SPEECH OF HON. RICHARD WAR;
NER. IR
IN the constitutional CONVENTION,
February ?, 1870, on the judiciary.

SPEECH OF HON. RICHARD WAR
NER, JR.
In the Constitutional Convention
February 2, 1870, on the judiciary
offer the following in lieu of the 6t
Article and "a section reported by the com.
mittee, t0-wit: Sec. ?. The Supreme
Court shall be composed of three Judges.
one of whom shall reside in each of the
grand divisions of the State; the concur
renee of two Of said Judges shall in every
case be necessary to q decision. The
jurisdiction Of this court shall be appellate
only, under such restrictions and regula-
lions as may from time to time be pre-
scrbed by law but it may possess such
other jurisdiction as is now conferred by
law on the present Supreme Court. Said
courts shall be held at one place only in
each of said grand divisions.
think this resolution is preferable to
the one offered by the committee, because
that fixes as permanent thing urOn the
State five Supreme Judges and this leaves
the number only three. Sirs, my people
sent me here to diminish Offices instead of
increasing them, and curtail expenses. am
asked on my left, Why not have one Judge? l
answer we have one Chancery Judge and
premeJudge dignity enough would not exist.
He would be bound to reside in one of the
grand divisions, and the others would not
have any representative at all, and no more
weight would be given the decisions of the
Supreme Court than the Chancery and
the Circuit l am also asked, why not have
two? / answer, two would be an equal
number, and if one was of one opinion and
the other was of another, we would
have two conflicting opinions, Meth
er of which would be authority.
And only two of the Grand Divisions of the
State would be represented; the one not
represented would feel that it was not fair
and equal am asked, why not have five?
/ answer, because / believe three can dis
patch the business as quick and with as
much dignity as five, and because the
State is divided into three grand divisions,
and three Supreme Judges would give one
to each, and five would give two to each |
Of two Grand Divisions and only one to |
the other; thus four voices would speak |
for two, and only one voice for enc, which |
might produce some contention and
strife. And further, the most important of
all, that five judges will cost the State
almost twice as much as three, and in |
crease the number of offices. The State |
is now burdened with debts and grooming |
terribly. II much more is put upon her, |
the ship must sink and lose all its con-
tents. Mypeople sent me here TO retrench |
Offices and expenses, where it could be |
done; here it can be done, and am for |
it. l do not want to create any Office |
merely to give a man position, like the |
Radical party has done. A well admins
tered, economical government is the best |
raraTTa 81 Ia =
$4,000, 900; her taxable property is about |
S225, 900; thus it is seen it would take 20 /
per cent. of all the taxable property in the
State to to-day to pay the State debt, pro-
vided every man could get its full value in
cash; but if the same had to be soldier cash
1t would sacrifice at least one-half, and
and fifty per cent of every mans property
would be gone. This is one-half of all
If man was worth $4,000, it would take
$4,000 to pay the State debt. With all
this staring US in the face, here are men
wanting to increase the expenses of the SU-
preme Court nearly double what it now is.
Slrs, number of cases are in the Supreme
Court that ought not to be there. Some |
are there merely for delay; some to crafty
lawyers who did not know what the law
was, and wanted to make the impress
sion on his client that he knew more |
about the law than the Chancery or Circuit
Court Judges. Take these unnecessary
cases ont of said court, and the docket
would be half cleared, and the judges
could soon get through. Besides, l am not
willing to tax the State of Tennessee to
pay for private litigation. There is net
one case out of one hundred that is a crimi-
nal case involving life or liberty, hence
nearly all are civil cases, and if persons
are DESTROYS of bringing their civil cases to
the Supreme Court, let the wrong doer
pay all the expenses. If some lawyers had |
not persuaded their clients to bring cases
to the Suprnme COurt, half Of them would |
never have been there. I am unwilling |
for the State of Tennessee to pay for IN
necessary litigation. If such things rs this
were allowed, the laboring class of our
community would he slaves the balance of
their lives, and our government had as
well, at once, cease to be a republic.
The Supreme Court of the United States
consists only Of nine judges to look over the !
business Of thirty-seven States, containing
4O, 900, 900 Of inhabitants, and I see no
use of Tennessee having five TO decide the
cases of about 1000, 600. What
other States have five judges in the Supreme
Court? / would like to know. Three Su-
preme Judges have always done the bust
ness Of Tennessee when the cases were as
numerous as now" 1t is not a want Of
more judges, hut Of more efficient and bet
ter judges We are framing an organic
law which may last fifty or one hundred
years, unless changes by another Conven-
ton, or as otherwise fixed by the Consti-
tuition. 1t is a maxim that Coy
ernments long established shall not
for light trivial causes be changed. Abody |
of wisdom is embraced in these words,
and 1t behooves rs as a wise people, not to
invade this maxim, unless necessity de-
mandes it. I do not believe necessity
does demand a change Of our Supreme
Judges from 3 to ;. Therefore l am OPP
posed to making the number permanently
;, and thereby Increasing the expenses Of
the State, when no good can result to the
people at large The clause as reported
by the committee does not apply 10 tenn
porary judges, but to permanent. If two
of the fGe judges were only temporary,
the case would be very different l hope |
the Convention will well consider this
subject, as it is Of vital importance.