The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-12
WHAT JUDGE srEER DID SAY.
II Was the People of Georgia to
Whom lie Paid Tribute.


From the Augusta Chronicle.
The report from Macon OF judge Spcer's
utterances in his baccalaureate address at
the Mercer commencement. which was
published in yesterdays Chronicle must
have been made by some one who was not
present and from CARRIED reports of his
actual speech In his reference to recent
outbreaks of lawiessness In this state,
Judge Speer was made in yesterdays re-
port to side with the negroes and declare
his love for this people"-the negroes.
etc Il viii be seen from the perusal OF
Judge Speer's words that he was talking
of the white people OF the South, and his
references We're 10 them in the phrase
this people" Referring to the recent law
less outbreaks Judge Speer declared these
were not characteristics of the people of
the South. We quote his words:
Can 1t he doubted that these defects of
our laws often tend TO procreate what La
MARITIME terms chat many-headed mon
ster, the mob" No people can excel ours
in manly virtues. 1t Is temperate peo-
pie, church-loving people God-fearing
people. There We're no better soldiers,
there are no better jurors on earth than
the intelligent though sometimes
uneducated farmers of Georgia.
II is law-abiding. law-respect-
ing population. In those courts
where have presided for many years /
have often witnessed them do their whole
duty to the government and TO non-resi-
dents against every power of advocacy and
every prejudice of the past. / have never
known them TO fail Of their duty 20 the
right by a disregard Of the jurors oath
These things ! know, and l here and
now declare, understanding the fun sig
n1ticance of what / say, that In all those
tragic incidents as they have been spread
before the country of late in all their
sickening and fearsome details are utterly
foreign and abnormal to the character OF
this people. as l have known and loved
it from my childhood's days. and as l
shall know and love IL until my eyes are
closed in death. The alarming portents
of the day must be- aye will be dissi-
Dated by the coming of the law in all Of
its benign and effulgent glory. God grant
my dear young friends that as you put
off the toga candida of the school and
put on the toga viris of the forum, you
do this with the Hottest ideas OF your
noble profession, that you do It with de-
Votion to that mighty aud immortal in
strument Of human government framed by
Washington aud Hamilton, by Madison
and Franklin, expounded by Marshall,
and defended by Webster. under whose
beneticent spell this people have expanded
until the genius of America, attended by
law and liberty, by religion and light,
presides from the feathery palm of Porto
Rico to the frozen Alaskan isles from the
iron bound coast of Maine to those far
islands Of the South Pacific where the
guns of Dewey but lately proclaimed that
henceforward the Stars and Stripes in
every cline shall greet the sun in its be-
nignant progress around the world"
The greed for sensation that permeateo
society leads newspaper correspondents 10
seek out every sensational feature in an
Grafton or a sermon, and frequently the
lesson thai Is sought to be taught and the
argument that Is made are completely set
aside for some trining sensational para
graph or utterance that was merely an in
cident OF the speech. While this makes
the Judicious grieve, the newspaper men
are not altogether 10 blame; for their pur-
pose is to give the public the sort Of news
they want 10 read. II is a vitiated public
taste; but II cannot be denied that Il ex-
lists. However, in the present instance,
there seems to have been absolutely no
excuse for the misrepresentation OF Judge
Speer by any one capable OF understand
ing the English language and the effect Of
logical speech The report must have been
made from rumor, and not by trained
correspondent present at the speech.