The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-20

<,issv' and why alarm the conservatives <-S,S Se.irp to keen separate and dis. SiSct inc coordinate branches or the royernment. If 1t Is simply recom- n1<rdation, he has that power now;
 Mr. President. we have made the Leeislature target since we con. vened here. There is no question aooe. that. The Legislature has been niau .os target. we opened fire on 1t with sn.,rketry. and then with mountain hovifxers. and now we are bringing s,i, the siege guns. Everything mas 6een brought to bear against the Leg frIature. and we have been constantly encroaching on that branch of the gov ernment. I suppose after we nave hsmnered it. and destroyed its power fo very large extent, that the only reason we have got now for continuing fo shoot at 1t Is upon the same theory that the man continued to beat VI cious dog, after killing the dog. m or der to show that there really was pun ishment after death. That Is the the orv upon which we still seem to be shooting at the Legislature. It IS my opinion that the people are not clam bring for us to take this power out or the hands of 133 of the representatives that they choose, and put 1t in the hands of the three State officials who cannot knew the various conditions of fbIs State as well as the Representa- tives do. Why should we think that the Governor and Secretary or state and the Attorney-General know more about framing a bill for the people than 133 representatives selected directly oy the people. Those representatives have asid7 from their own knowledge access to the information of these ofhcers. arc they are entitled to advise with them, and to have the recommendation of the Governor without having that recommendation put in the form that it Is here. The proposed change would rob them of the power that they nave always had since the formation Of our state. This is a consolidation of pow CTS which takes away one of the checks upon one of the powers Of one or the branches of the Government. MT. webster in talking about matters of this character said that every en- rroachment. great or small, is enough to awaken the attention of those who are entrusted with the preservation Of constitutional government, and this is ar, encroachment on the Legislative branch of the Government by another coordinate branch of the Government. We do not have to wait until great public misfortune comes, or wait until our liberty Is put in jeopardy before we see the dangers that confront us. Our fathers saw them in a change Tn the British Parliament, and the as- Hembled principles of mischief there and the germ of unjust power. They detected it, and as MT. Webster says, they dragged forth that germ of un- just power, that invasion of the rights of the people, and they kept it before their eyes, and directed their active ef- forts against it until 1t was destroyed. Our Legislature will not want to De shorn of this power. The people who send us here did not ask us to take away this power from the Legislature, and the Governor and the other State officers on whom we desire to place this additional power have not asked for it, and 1t has not been proposed in anything that we have said to the people to give them this additional power. They have enough to do with their other duties that devolve upon them. They are not trying to rob any coordinate branch of the Government of power, and the people are not ask ing us to confer 1t upon them. It seems we may sometimes properly fear ourselves in what we are doing. We hold the trust that we have here for the benefit of the people.
 Mr. Macdonald-Is it not fact that one of the greatest evils that the peo- pie of Alabama have been troubled with for the past fifteen or twenty years is in artificial and hastily drawn revenue bills.
 Mr. Blackwell-There may be some thing in that. There may have been some bills improperly drawn, but as matter of fact the gentleman does not know that it was because they were hastily drawn. They have had plenty of time to draw these bills, and he does not know and cannot say that the Governor. the Auditor and the At torney-General can draw a bill more perfectly than 133 Representatives.
 MT. ONeal-They may have drawn the last bill.
 Mir. Macdorald-No they did not. The record shows that.
 MT. Blackwell-As a matter of fact 1t is not shown that the Governor would make 1t any more perfect. The reasons for what we do in this mat ter of invading a coordinate branch of the Government must not be doubtful. We must know that it is benefit and that the people desire it and are will ling to have it.. 1t must not be that character of intention which like the twilight, lingering between night and day. takes on the hues of both. As a matter of fact, 1t must be clear ana effl1gent. The reason. the benetit, and all must be clearly shown.
 After all the abuse we have heaped upon the Legislature, I desire to say that they put into operation this Con- stitution under which we have lived since 1875, and they have enacted the laws which have enabled us to drive out the enemies of white mans gov ernment in this country, and restored the Government to the white people of Alabama again, and think we are going a little too far in our efforts here to invade the province of the Legislature of the State of Alabama, and I hope very much that the original Section as it appears in our present tleman from Dallas as a substitute, will be adopted by this Convention.
 MT. Smith (Mobile)-There was a res- olution referred to the Judiciary Com- mittee instructing it to consider and advise the Convention as to it's power to order the continuance of pay to the members and officers of the Convention after the expiration of fifty days. The Committee finding that the Attorney General was advising the State off, cers on the subject, ascertained that they would be inclined to act upon the opinion of the Attorney-Genefal, and in accordance with the views of the At torney-General the Committee has drafted an ordinance which now pre- sent and ask that the rules be sus- v,anded and that the ordinance he