The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-26
OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF ALABAMA

ouSH aH eALeHt that they are unIUtc tO hear the proceedings of the Conven- ton.
 The Gentleman from Montgomery. Mir. Jones (Montgomery)-Mr Presi- dent, regrat very much that ty a mfsi ake of my own, as to the result of the vote an yesterday. inadvertently made vote which defeated the section favored. I shall not :respass upon the patience of my friends
 MT. Harrison-I desire to interrupt my friend, the chairman of the Com mittee, to ask that the section be read. It is not printed in the report. MT. Jones-I will read it to the gen. tleman in the course of my remarks. MT. HarriSon-That will answer. Mir. Jones-The section which was de- feated. Mir. President, was that offered by the delegate from Dallas, and reads as follows:
 Amend by adding as Section :1: sn case any Sheriff or his deputy or any member of his posse be killed or per- manently disabled by discharging his duty in defending a prisoner in his charge. the General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance of those who are dependent upon the person killed or disabled.
 The gentleman from Dallas told me on yesterday, I do not see him In his Seat this morning, that he had drawn this hastily, and that the committee could offer a substitute if his views were carried out. At the proper time that substitute will be offered. but now on the motion to reconsider. do not think 1t proper to go into a mere change of phraseulogy.
 I submit that after our decision on the other section of this article, if we vote down this proposed section that we put the State of Alabama fifty years backward in the march of c;vili- zation. We have said that prisoners should be defended and that there was a standard of honor In this State, that should make its protection worth something. to men whom it made help less, when it took them into custody to try them for offenses against it's laws. Now we only ask to add an effective help to the arm of the Sheriff. If we refuse to do it. it goes out to the world from this hall that we are simply play ing with words; that we do rot mean what we say.
 I trust no member of of this conveh- ton will ever be put in the unfortu- nate attitude. where. in a matter in which he has not a particle of feeling, he must confront his neighbors and his best friends, and it may be to kill them. because the law of the land de- mands that he should rally to the pro- lection of the Sheriff. It Is one of the most disagreeable duties that ever falls to the lot of man. It is one from which every man instinctively shrinks. At the risk of being charged with be- ing egotistical - whether a man Is egotisticaI or not he seldom knows I want to illustrate my point by an in- cident that portrays more powerfully nA dPo x,. back. to the Sheriff and posse Is the thought that if a man is killed in the discharge of his duty, and he is poor man, that he may be buried at the eA- pense of the county, and his family be- comes dependent upon the charity of neighbors. I remember on one occasion being charged with a duty of this sort, and a handsome blue-eyed feliows one of the manifest looking specimens l ever saw. faltered in his duty. In priv ate I asked him why he did that His manhood. his honor. and his name would have been eternally disgraced, If any eye but mine had seen him, when in a dark alley he skulked his duty. He said to me, I know 1t was wrong. I did not mind being hurt. I did not mind being killed, if had to be killed; but I had an old widowed mother and two sisters, and l did not know what would become of them if l was hurt here. Their faces came before me as I was ordered on this duty, and it was dark and my courage failed me. That is the cause-not that l was un- willing to suffer wounds, any may be death. but 1 was unwilling to servS the State that would send me out to death, and then not even pay my funeraI ex- penses if I was killed. |
 Now if we put this duty, and we put it rightfully. on the Sheriff, we have laid a moral command on him. We have fixed a. high standard for him. Then for Gods sake. let us show that we are in earnest-that while the -mor- al power of Alabama is behind the Sheriff. when he stands confronting mob-that it is not an individual, not a mere Sheriff, but the State of Ala bama, in all its majesty and power. l do not suppose there is a man here who has not in his veins the blood of some soldier, and there is not civiliz- ed government on earth that does not think 1t is proper and wise, when man dies and gives his life for 1t, to pay some attention to the wants of those whom he leaves behind him. am not going to make a speech now; am not going to trespass further on the patience of this House. l shall not say one word more than that this, that since this question has been brought up and afterwards laid upon the table 1t presents a great moral issue.
 MT. Buiger-May ask the gentleman question?
 MT. Jones (Montgomery)-I will ans wer in a minute. I will answer the gentleman now.
 MT. Bulger-Would you mind reading the substitute that you propose to cf- fer for the amendment offered by the gentleman from Dallas, provided this question Is reconsidered?
 MT. Jones (Montgomery)-Yes, will read 1t with great pleasure; Hut 1 thought it was not entirely in order to be discussing the substitute before the House had reconsidered. It would read this way: It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to made ade- quate provision for the dependent fam fly of any Sheriff. deputy or member of any posse, who may be killed. or permanently injured, while defending from mob violence any prisoner in jail, or in the custody of the law.
 Now. when I was interrupted, MT. President, l was about to say that the action of this House is upon question of great moral significance. If you vote this amendment down. after 1t has been offered. the world will rightly under stand that Alabama hardly means what it says when it directs that prisoners be defended at all hazards. and l was about to add one word, in lines which are familiar to most of us,
 Whether on scaffold high,
 Or on the battles van,
 The fittest place where man can die
 Is where he dies for man."