The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-14

pick out one official, and only one, ir the State of Alabama, and give tht Governor the right to suspend him Hou cannot justify 1t. It is direct slap at every sherin in this State, and they are the men who stand behind the guns. and they are the men who If they organize against this Constitu. tion. will defeat it and you know it You have removed the impeachment proceedings from the counties. thought that was wrong. I thought the sheriff, like everybody else. should be allowed to be tried in his own county and before jurors of his own county but a majority of the committee and of the Convention decided differently yesterday, and I yield to them. All that ask is that you take away the right of the Governor, when satisfied after hearing the sheriff. that he should be impeached. to suspend him from of flee. It might take twelve months or two years to have his case settled, and for him to get a hearing. You bring him down here and suspend him from office. and you disgrace him. Rather than that you better have one man rule in this State. You might as well have a King and be done with it. What right has any one man to judge of my guilt or my innocence without hearing y You know 1t is contrary to every known principle of law. Every man is SUD- posed to be innocent until he is proven guilty. It is a rule as old as the Bible or the law itself.
 Mr. Sanford CMontgomery)-dis term might expire before he is tried by the Supreme Court.
 MT. Long-of course it might, and it would expire in many cases.
 tkA tleman has expired; the gentleman from Montgomery.
 Mr. Henin-I move that the rules be suspended and his time be extended for a few moments.
 The Fresident-The gentleman from Montgomery has the hoer.
 Ms. Lonx-I think there is motion to Sxtend my time.
 MT. Jones (Montgcmery)-I move to suspend the rules and extend his time.
 The President-How long?
 Mfr. Jones-Fifteen or twenty min utes.
 The President-Hadn't the gentle man better make it an hour? We have plenty of time.
 MT. O'Neal I.auderdale)-I move to extend it ten minutes.
 Mir. Pillans-Why not make it thirty minutes? We are doing nothing. We might as we'll extend it thirty min- utes. Uaughter).
 Upon a vote being taken. the motion to. extend the gentleman's time ten minutes was carried.
 Mir. Long-I am thankful to this Con- vention, and I am especially thankful to the distinguished gentleman from Mobile, who tries to ridicule the idea of an extension of time, because he is opposed to the cause. He is opposed to it in principle, and doesn't want to hear the members of this Convention discuss it, and ridicule it by saying thirty, minutes, as we are doing noth- ing. I thank him for his words, but it is blow below the belt and unjustified by any action upon my part.
 This is a most serious matter. It is a departure from every principle known to republican form of government. The Governor, as great as he is, can make errors, and can make mistakes, and they have made mistakes, and will make them in the future. The Govern or has no right to suspend man from office who is elected by the people. You must remember that he Is not appoint ed by the Governor, and does not hold his term of office at his pleasure. but he is elected by the sovereign people, the same people that elect His Excel iency, the Governor. It is an entirely now proposition. The Article on Ex- ecutive Department, I contend, had no right to go into the Article on Inn peachments and take out the sheriff from that Article so far as relates to his impeachment.
 Now. referred to the fact that time may come in the State of Ala bama, and I repeat it, when we may have a sheriff here. and. no matter how a lynching may happen in his county. the Governor will suspend that sheriff whenever 1t occurs. It is well enough to sit up here in Montgomery and advocate a cause of this sort, where the electric lights shine all night. where the police and military are within a few minutes call of the sheriff, but 1t Is a different thing in many of the rural districts of the State. There often the office pgys so little that the sheriff can have but one deputy, and a mob of 800 men might arise, and justly arise, and overpower the sheriff, or, under pretense, as is often done, that they have a prisoner to put in jail, take a man out and lynch him, and yet you have it written In the fundamental law of the land that the Governor may sus- pend that sheriff at pleasure. I never thought I would see the time in Ala bama when any man would rise up and advocate such a cause. or when a ma jority of any convention would advo- cate giving more power to one man than to the people themselves. That is what you do in this ordinance. A dele gate upon this floor told me 1t amounts to nothing; let it stay in there: we would never get a Governor who would carry it out, but, gentlemen, we might, and 1t is making CZar out of the Gov ernor. Why, when you drag a sheriff down here from North Alabama to be tried before the highest court in the State, is he not then far enough re- moved from any influence that he might have? But you say by this that the Supreme Court of the land will not do justice in the matter. You say that when you insist on this section being retained in here, because you say to the Governor, you must make up your verdict for the Supreme Court: you brand him IS guilty or innocent, before the evidence is ever submitted to any tribunal authorised by law to try him.
 I hope this Convention will consider this proposition. On the question of a compromise. l want to say to the friends of the measure who voted for the sheriff to succeed himself on yes terday, that l never agreed to a com promise. 1 said then, and I repeat 1t, that l was talking to a sheriff of the State of Alabama. President of the Sheriffs' Association, and he told me he would thousand times rather have this Article on Impeachment out of the way than be allowed to succeed him IT. is nneStipp Of