The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-10-06
JUDGE LAPsLEY's CHARGE. It Is Well Worthy the Serious Con
 sideration of Alabama.

Hon. J. W. Lapsley, Judge of the An niston City Court in his September charge to the grand jury of Calhoun County:
 made the following homily upon the need of constitutional reform:
 While securing very few convictions,
 there has still been a wiser purpose in the statute. requiring us to give the cleo tion laws in charge to the grand 1uries, and there has been hope of far-rea ching and valuable results to follow from our faithful discharge of this duty. To pun ish those who do wrong. is one way to prevent the wrong: and yet another way is to influence public opinion so as to make the wrong doing feared and hated, so that we may seek to remove the causes and the excuses that are made for wrong doing. l think l know a good deal about public sentiment in Alabama, and l am correct in saying that 1t has been the desire and effort of patriotic and enlightened men on the bench and else where to educate and stimulate public has been a strong feeling in favor of changing our election laws 50 as to le- gally exclude from the polls the great mass of ignorant and purchasable voters, and thus remove some of the causes and excuses for violating the election laws. Actuated largely by these motives. we have had In session in our State capital. during the summer just passed. Conven- tion called to revise our State Constitu- tion. and the result of their labors is now before our people for ratification. We have all watched the proceedings of the Convention. as 1t has been laboriousiy and carefully constructing this new Con- stitution-watched 1t with the interest with which we sometimes supervise the building of new home that Is to shelter us and our little ones. I have had the possession for some days, and while l have not examined it critically, I have seen enough to cause me to believe, and say with confidence that it Is an in1- n fho OId Constitution and Is worthy of our approval and support. This, however is not the place for dis cussion in detail of the merits of the pro- posed Constitution. but I can properly It's ratification I believe there will result such a removal of the dishonest and dam Gerous elements from our elections as to make the violations of our election laws and dangerous voters will be excluded. That is manifestly impossible. But I say the great, dangerous. unwieldly mass will be put aside, and what is left need not ing those needful and salutary statutes formed to preserve the sanctity of the ballot box.
 But let us not be deceived. The patient sometimes dies even after medical skill has removed the original cause of the disease: because the system has been poisoned or weakened beyond recovery. badly diseased. and Y0Dp ppuBiic ' sentiment s neS greatly debased by our countenancIng election frauds We need to remember this, and to determine to apply now and hereafter the tonic of a sharp and de- cisive punishment to all who may be vio- lators of these laws. Habit Is a danger ous thing. Men began in the black belt by giving their patriotic services to the task of seeing that only the candidates of the intelligent. respectable tax-paying part of the community were returned as elected. But once in the habit, it has been hard to find stopping place. From cheating negroes and their associates. We have gone on until white men have learn ed to cheat each other. You may remem-' ber cases even here in North Alabama. where in white primaries there have been bribery and fraud that would shame even those Philadelphia politicians, who, by general consent, are adjudged to have sunk lowest in political corruption. Turn ing for. moment for example to those Pennsylvania people, we must admit that they as a whole, are as good as we are. and if their legislative and city authori- ties have indeed gone the length in polit- lted 1t is mainly because their respecta- ble people and their judges and juries have not seen to 1t that the laws framed to secure honest elections were rigidly enforced. If we would avoid sinking to similar depths we must insist and see to it. that our laws are enforced. Good peo- pie must talk about the necessities and dangers of the situation, and pledge lHCIuSSlNeS tO QO lT61T OcSI JO TtStOIc Oui country to its former conditions, when ballot box stuffing and bribery were practically unknown among us. Most of you here in middle life remember those days and all should work for their re- turn. One word more on this important subject. I take it for granted that the Constitution will be ratified as it Is ad- mitedly an improvement on the old Con stitution. and l do not believe that after It's ratification we will be cursed by ille- gal voting and false returns to any seri- ous extent. But the danger will be from bribery, in its manifold forms. From what I have heard. fear that it is get ting so that some men, who in old times would have been ashamed at even the thought of being paid for discharging a patriotic duty, are now expecting to re- ceive money in hard for simply doing their duty, In voting and getting others to vote; and so the position of handler of election monsy in a neighborhood has been sought after by men who should have higher ambition, I do not wish to seem a prophet of evil, nor have we time to further discuss this matter, except to say that unless we have a change for the better, we are in danger of having our most important offices filled only by rich men, able and willing to pay down the money for the offices. Me have laws against bribery which we all know and solemnly charge you to make diligent enquiry and true preSentment Of all Such