The age-herald., 1900-11-23

the veto.
 The following bills were passed at the afternoon session: -E
 H. SS-To amend section SIP of the Code of Alabama.
 H. 56-To authorize and empower the Commisisoners' Court of Tuscaloosa Coun- ty to issue bonds.
 H. 15S-To authorize the Court of County Commissioners of Lauderdale County to is- sue bonds.
 H. 24-To grant a right of way to the Ensley Southern Railway Company over the ton 16, township II, range west in Jeff ferson County, Alabama.
 Governors Message.
 The Governors messages are quoted in full as follows:
 Gentlemen of the House.
 The purpose of this bill is to enable the Governor-elect to take the oath of office anywhere, and before any authorized of ficer to administer oaths
 Doubtless the deplorable illness of the Governor-elect, and the apprehension that he might not be able to qualify as the law requires induced the nasty passage of this bill
 The first General Assembly of this State passed a bill which was approved on Mo- vember g. 1873, which provided that the oath of office should be administered to the Governor by the Speaker of the House in the presence of both houses of the Gen. eral Assembly. The only modification ever made in this State by any General Assem- bly, of the State since 1S19 has been to au- thorize other officials than the Speaker to administer the oath. All have tenaciously held to the proposition that the oath should be administered in the presence of the two houses.
 Manifesty it was the purpose of the General Assembly to hold within it's grasp sxA1 rft son declared by them to have been duly elected. All seems to have recognized that the orderly succession to the title and of flee was material to the peace and welfare of the commonwealth.
 For more than fifty years not case arose to demonstrate the wisdom of the statute, but during the past thirty years two cases did arise where persons not declared elect ed appeared at the capitol and insisted up- on taking oath and armed troops surround ed these peaceful walls. Then it was that the foresight and wisdom of our fore fathers was manifest.
 For about eighty years this statute has stood, untouched by codifiers or legislators as @ bulwark to stay the angry waves Of passion and partiSanship, and to secure the peaceful installation into office of the man declared elected. It seems to me that statute that has so long been tried and not found wanting should not be repealed with out given consideration. If there was a cause to apprehend that the dis tinguished GoYernor-elect would not be able to take the oath and be installed into office, in the presence of the two houses, at the expiration of the present incum- bency, it would seem to have been wiser to have passed a special act authorizing him, by name, to take the oath, before any official authorized to administer an oath, at his residence in the city of Opelika. Such an act would have testified the high esteem 4I.. well as the people, and be a perpetual of our sympathy for him in his lllnesS and at the Aame time the General would have maintained the spirit of the law by having designated the very person authorized to take the oath. Such a course would have fully provided for the present emergency and have left the old law upon our statute books, where it. has been since the statute was admitted into the Union.
 For these reasons should not have voted for the passage of the bill, but, as 1t in- wolves no constitutional objection, and the old law can presently be remedied, l have the bill. Respectfully,
 JOSEPH F. JOHNSTON, Governor.
 November p, 1900 Gentlemen of the House:
 I return you herewith without my ap- proval, House Bill No. 2 to provide for the of the office of Governor, etc. This bill enacts into law the fifteenth section of the fifth article of the Consti- tuition in every particular, except that it strikes out from the first clause the words removal from office and inserts in the same clase language that confers upon the President of the Senate the right to eXer- else the power and authority of the office of Governor "in case of the failure of the Governor-elect to qualify or enter upon the discharge of the duties of the office after qualifying, by reason of death or from any other cause"
 This bill, in effect, adds another clause to the fifteenth section of the fifth article Of the Constitution.
 It is hardly to be presumed that the framers of the Constitution failed to pro- vide for some one to exercise the power and discharge the duties of Governor incase of a vacancy in that office, from any cause whatever. If such provision was made it cannot be changed by legislative act. If this bill is merely an attempt to declare the meaning of the Constitutional provision, it is wholly unnecessary.
 The bill practically attempts to do two things-frst, to substitute for the constl- tutional words refusal or failure to quail ify;" and, second, to provide that upon the failure of the Governor-elect to quail fly or enter upon the discharge of the du- ties of the office, the President of the Sem ate shall fill the office.
 The fifteenth section of the fifth article  penings of which will give the President of the Senate the right or title to occupy the office. 1 doubt whether the General Assem- bly, can add any other clause that would give him such right. If 1t could add o1ss, 1t could add any, and in doing so utterly ignore and repudiate the provisions of the fifth section of the same article, which pro vides that the Governor shall continue in office until his successor shall be elected and qualified. Suppose there was failure to elect, can it be contended that the Legis- lature could provide that the President of the Senate or any other person than the Governor should occupy the office? Yet this bill provides that the failure to qualify shall give him the title.
 I think the framers of the constitution wished mainly to provide temporary successor to the person elected by the peo- pie, and that it was never contemplated that any one other than the one elected should hold practically for an entire term, or any considerable part of it. It seems to me that if it be within the limits of the constitution, it would be unwise to pro- vide for an election by the people in the event of the death of the Governor-elect bafora he should he dIlV installed into of