The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-15
OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF ALABAMA

lI poWeFS or the people. avery tConstitution is a surrender of some of their otherwise inherent rights for the public good. Mention was made the other day that such provision was con- trary to the teachings of Jefferson. I have great reverence for the name of Jefferson, though I think in modern days he has been made the father of so many doctrines, that 1t Is hard now to conceive what he stood for originally. But we find this provision in the Con- stitution of Virginia, that the Governor should be elected for four years, and should thereafter be ineligible to the office. Coming down to later times, a great assembly met in this hall a little over a quarter of a century ago. In view of all the evils under the COnsti- tuition of the United States from the right of an officer to succeed himself, those wise men and great men depart ed from 1t in one instance, by providing that the President of the new Confed- eracy should have a term for six years, and thereafter should be ineligible. You will find everywhere, MT. President, in g. searching the different Constitutions, from the earliest days of the Revolu- ton down to this good hour, where the people have thought it wise to disfran- chise themselves, if that be the effect of it-by providing certain officers
 
 should not be eligible for office beyond a certain length of time. So there is nothing new in the principle. Then the question arises, is there an evil to which it should be applied? If in an- other place, and not speaking with the sense of responsibility which I think |, should be borne in mind by a man who speaks on this floor. I might use lan- guage to depict in detail some of the evils from which this people have suf- fered by eason of the ambition of Gov ernors, and their efforts to achieve 1t. It Is far from the authors of this reso- lution to condemn ambition in any man. It is said to be an infirmity of noble minds. The best and the purest and the wisest men, when tempted by ambition, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously, do things which they would put far from them. if it were not for the temptation. De- liver US not into temptation, is a wise maxim, as well as one which Chris tian ought to remember. It has been my good fortune to have been the inti- mate friend, with one exception, of every Democratic Governor of Alabama since 1875. I say it conserYatiVely, with no desire to reflect upon any one who has held that office. that there never has been a Governor who cherished that ambition, whose administration would not have been better and higher, if he had not been an aspirant. If the gentlemen ask us to cite some in- stances, I answer the fact that this Constitutional Convention sits here now instead of two years earlier, ought to be evidence to any man of the evils of allowing great power to abuse the Gov ernor's office, and at the same time not curbing his power to abuse them in the pursuit of the Senatorship.
 MT President, we want to consecrate the man who holds this high power, we want to impress upon him, no matter how humble he be, no matter how weak he may be, that it is not the man, but the great office he wields, with which the people are concerned. It will be a great day for our State when the citi- zen who takes this exalted trust, feels that he is cut off from temptation, that his enemies even cannot impute to him designs which he may not harbor, and that his administration and his efforts will be tried upon his merits and his acts. It is not altogether what a Gov ernor is or what he does that makes his weight with the people, but 1t Is what they believe to be his designs, whether selfish or unself1sh, and do not sup pose of late years, at least, that any man who ever held the office did not in the beginning feel antagonisms that crept up against his efforts to reform abuses or initiate policies from people who believe that in defeating them they might lessen his power to go to the Senate.
 These, in short, MT. President, were the reasons which actuated the com mittee in putting the provision in there, that his acceptance of the office should be pledge to the people. Now it is ob- jected, Mir. President, that pledges that cannot be enforced ought not to be in the Constitution. Why, what is the thirty-seventh Article of the Bill of Rights, what are the glittering gener- alities about the equality of the people and the right to pursue happiness? They are simply admonitory. Consti- tutions frequently contain precepts and examples of morality. It Is nothing new in a Constitution to embody some great principle, although 1t is not ca pablo of enforcement in the courts of the country. Why, Mir Presi- dent. at least half of the great commanding constitutions which refer to the Legislative Department, are in- capable of enforcement by any earthly tribunal. The Constitution says the legislature shall assemble at such and such a time. Suppose it refuses to do it.? Is there any tribunal on earth that can impose obedience to it? The Con- stitution says it is their duty to as- sembe on a call of the Governor in ex- tra session. Suppose they refuse to do it. is there any power in the people of Alabama consttutiOnally to compel them to do 1t? I might cite other in- stances MT. President. Then 1t seems to me. sir, that there is no reason for objecting to putting in the Constitu ton, a pledge which embodies the de- liberate public opinion of the people of l Alabama, that a man who. takes that | office parts for the time with other ann | bitionS and consecrates himself to the service of the people for the time men tioned in the Constitution. Mir. Pres ident when that provision is in the Constitution it will have a moral influ- ence that will do as much to build up the State as the ability or genius of the officer in other channels
 MT. deGraffenreid-In the discussion that was awakened bv the introduce ton of this resolution to strike the clause under consideration from the article proposed by the Committee on | Executive Department, there has not been a single person to take this floor and maintain that the clause com pIained of can be enforced or has any | legal efficacy whatever. No man who | hap spoken in favor of that clause, or l of that provision. has attempted to say l 10 any man in this Convention that the addition of that clause will add any | strength so far as the law is concerned l or the ability of the Courts of Ala | bama to enforce the laN. but they