The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-30

Well, that was trouDte ana dh Gu- noyance. When n voting citizsn of the State has once been qualified ind certi- fled and admitted into the electorate, he does not want to keep it continually before his mind that he must go up and secure his privilege again, and that feature of the Sayre election law was repealed years ago, and any man who registers now is in a life electorate without further registration, except, perhaps, upon a change of residence. Therefore, Mir. President, I see no ob- jection to that. We have been living under 1t. and while it has not teen called a Iife-electorate. and 1t has not been provided that it must be put into a book, to be kept alphabetically by precincts, one copy of the book to be kept by the Probate Judges of the state of Alabama, and another copy of the book from each county kept by the Secretary O: State, giving great dig nity and importance to. the life elec- torate, yet our attention has been drawn to 1t now in a way which we have not heretofore considered the mat ter s.nd we imagine it is new thing, but the life electorate is as old as our laws, except the little interregnum of time when the Sayre election law was in force.
 The registration part of this Article has not come up for consideration, but 1t has been argued and it is noised around, both within our circles here as a convention and outside with the people; that there is some reason for alarm in reference to the registration clause of this Article. and what may be considered Tn some quarters as serious alarm. In the dis cussion of this great question before the committee, (and that committee sat for over thirty days discussing every feature of iD, laboring hard to present it to this Convention in its best form, answering all of the objections there that could possibly be made to it, this much -talked-of descendants clause was put in, in order to answer any alarm with reference to the registra- trars. This alarm with reference to the registrars springs out of a want of confidence of man in man. It was said in the committee that if you put in this temporary plan one sole ground, that of good character and understanding of the, obligations and duties of citizen ship under republican form of gov ernment, and let that be the ground upon which voters are to be admit ed into the electorate by the registrars. that inasmuch as the Governor is a Democrat. the Commissioner of Agri- culture and Industries, another mem Der of the appointing board, is a Dem- ocrat, and the Auditor is a Democrat that Democratic registrars would be appointed in every county, and the alarm would be heralded over all the State that these Democratic registrars under the broad license of good charac- ter and an understanding of the duties and obligations of citizenship, would say. to the opposition the white Repub- licans and to the Populists, we will not allow you to register. because we do not consider you to have a good charac- ter or that you understand the obliga- tions and duties of citizenship" So the descendants clause and the sol diers' cause. outside of the merit that rested in them. were put in as mat ter of expediency and policy to meet the fears that were abroad in the State, so that a man coming up to reg ister. if he is denied because of the want of character, could say, well, am a soldier, and that is self-executory and admits him at once, or l am descend ant of soldier, and that admits him without further inquiry, So, 1t was for that reason in part. but not wholly, be- cause the soldier clause rests upon meritorious ground of its own, and, in IlY IHe uGSCtiludHL OL d SOl- dier is not unreasonable or capricious; but there is also a thread and a very strong thread of merit running through that proposition.
 The registrars must act in regard to this matter. No law is self-executory. though you write it in a thousand books, and unless you put a personality behind the law, 1t is dead. There must be somebody to carry the law into exc cution. There must be an executive or the law is dead; there must be a ju- dietary or the law is dead. The life of the law Is found in the personality of it's officers, So we are bound to have registrars, and it is impossible to get along without them. Under the very simple Constitution on Suffrage that we have now, where man has only to effect his residence and attain the age of twenty-one years, you have to have registrar put his name down, to see that he is twenty-one years of age, and to see that he has acquired the proper residence, and even now there is some latitude, but not much, for the regis trars. It it true, MT. President and gentlemen of the Convention, in this good character clause, there is some latitude for the registrar, but it is only temporary MT. President and gentle
 
 trars get their existence from the rep resentatives of the people. and no one ever heard of electing a registrar, and in all the Constitutions of all the States there is no provision for such thing. We would not dare to come before this Convention as a committee and sub mitted a proposition that the registrars should be eleted by the people. Then where would you go? Would you go to the highest official of the county? It was suggested and discussed as to whether we should take the Probate Judges, the Sheriffs and Clerks of the courts in the counties, or any one or the three of them. to constitute this board, tb appoint the registrars for their re- spective counties, but that was found The great county of Jefferson is vitally interested in the system of Wilcox County. Jefferson County does not want board which might stuff the registra- tion list, and neither does Wilcox Coun- tv desire that Jefferson County should stuff her registration list. Our popu" Iation. our voting population. and our value in every county in the State, bear relatively upon every other County in the State, and if you put this mower in the Probate Judge and the officials of the county, they will form clans of their own. The distingulshed from Jefferson, the Chair man of the State Committee. if we had come in here with proposition to let the Probate Judges and local officials make these appointments, might have said with some force, that it was