The age-herald., 1898-03-31
JUDGE TflOMHS N. MCCLELLAN
 8.i1't.is -->FOR CHIEF JUSTICE
Endorsements Of the Nan CaT1di lAt cacy the Press
 Alabama.


 the Herald. Our contemporary believes also that the popular respect for the judi ciary is somewhat lowered when those who aspire to seats on the bench go amongst the people seeking votes. On this point there can hardly be @ difference of opinion. We did not have the pleasure of meeting Judge Coleman when he visited this city recently, and we cannot say what his senti- ment on this subject is; but we know that Judge Mcclellan regrets the necessity for electoneering. It is not only, as the Her aid says, because the necessity for can wasting "is forced upon them by the ex- agencies Of the situation." because "the office that they seek Is elective" but in the case of Judge Mcclellan he must defend the right which custom gives him. He IS at the head of the line of promotion and Judge Coleman is crowding him. The pol icy of the democratic party in this state is to prevent an unseemly scramble for the high office to which Judge Coleman and Judge Mcclellan aspire. The necessity for 1t has always been avoided by the ob- servance of the custom to which we have referred-a custom which has survived all the changes in other directions since the supreme court was organized. According to that custom the senior associate justice has been promoted to the chief justiceship when a vacancy has occurred under such circumstances as exist at present. Judge Coleman challenges that custom and would set 1t asde And therefore it is, we be- lieve, fair to hold him responsible for the situation Judge Mcclellan Is defending long-standng custom and his rights under that custom. Being the senior associate justice, and one in the same position having heretofore failed of promotion un- der like conditions, when his own right to promotion is challenged, he claims his right under usage, and his competitor ought to be able to give a very strong reason for disputing it. He can give no cttnh rnoc md H.. l not ambition, would require Judge McClel- Ian to refuse to retire from the bench or remain on it in a subordinate position. TO do so would be equivalent to a confession of unfitness for the trust; to ask re- nomination for associate justice would De the same thing. If Judge Mcclellan be de- feated, the people of Alabama will be guilty of subiecting an able and upright judge to humiliation. Being junior judge, Judge Coleman is not next in succession and it would be no reproach to him to re- main on the bench as an associate, nor would defeat be a reflection upon him.
 Fromthe Alabama Courier:
 Now that the state executive committee has acted and the state convention for the purpose of nominating candidates for the various state offices to be filled has been called by the democratic party, it is well that the people were looking to the men that to be selected to HI tieSS NtiiiooS positions of honor and trust. That the very best men of the state should be called upon is not questioned by any one. That there are many good men in the state, we all know. The state has to elect this year from the highest to the lowest oihce ana she should look well before she selects her standard bearers.
 For many years Limestone county mas furnished the great state of which she IS a sixty-sixth parcel some of the best men that she ever honored.9 Governors, judges, sena tors and other state officers, such men as Houston. Martin, Pettus, Lemis and many others, going back to the first gov ernor and his brother, and 1t Is truth that no county has ever furnished finer or more competent set of public men than mas Limestone This being true we are pre- pared to state that she has now an hon- ored son that she offers to furnish the peo-> Dle of his native state to honor the highest position within the gift of the people or Alabama, that of chief justice. He comes with ability, experience and democratic record untarnished Limestone will present to the state convention the name of one Of the greatest lawyers in the union, the equal of any in the state of his nativity and the peer of any today occupying a Judiclai po- sition. He has been for ten years a member of the supreme court of his native state, ia the senior assiciate justice today of the supreme court of Alabama, and 1t IS not an exaggerated statement when we say that his opinions have been more complimented by the bar of Alabama than those Of any man that ever sat within the honored pre- cincts of the supreme court room or Ala bama This man is Hon. Thomas N. Mc- Clellan who is native of Limestone coun- ty and man in every sense competent and worthy the distinguished position to which his friends are pressing him.
 From the Athens Democrat.
 This distinguished gentleman is now candidate for the nomination for chief jus tice of the supreme court, the highest office in the state.
 Judge Mcclellan was born and raised on Limestone creek in this county, and the people here are proud of his career. They sent, him to the senate as soon as he was old enough and shortly afterwards he was elected attorney-general of the state, and in both positions he achieved such emi- hence that in 1889 Governor Seay, with the hearty approval of the bar, appointed him one of the supreme judges of the state. In 1892 Judge Mcclellan was elected to that position for a regular term of six years
 Although he was, when thus appointed nerbans the youngest man who ever went on fine supreme bench, he sustained him- seH reflected credit on his state and has given general satisfaction to the peopie Indeed, there are many of the first lawyers of the land who think he Is equal to any of the great judges who have rendered Ia molls the supreme court of Alabama Ills r,ind is unolouded by preference or partial- tv. his temperament is calm and Judlcial bic ,aoaI ability and learning are profound ,and cornprehensdve, and by nature ana in- zt,ncts he is an honest and incorruptlDie man. Such a man, in the prime of lire anu of ;ncreasine usefulness, could not we'll De