The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-07

the most conscientious man, men who | are best fitted for that position. They l ought to be we'll paid. Besides. there | is a great deal of work. more ardous | labor to be performed by the judges | of the Supreme Court than to be per- | formed by the Governor of Alabama. | As to the Judges of the Circuit Court, | their duties are quite arduous, and l think 1t Is no thing but fair and just | that their salaries should be increased. | You take a good man, man who is good lawyer, and who would make a good Circuit Judge; he could not anord | to lay down a practice to accept an office paying twenty-two hundred ana fifty or twenty-five hundred dollars which they now receive. It may be true that 1t is not proper to offer this amenment at this time; 1t may be like it was in offering the amendment to fix the salary of the Governor. but whether it is or not this amendment, if not adopted here, should take the same course that the resolution took offering to increase the salary of the Governor.
 MT. Walker-The Convention. be- lieve, has already adopted the policy of not fixing or increasing salaries in this Constitution. being of the opinion that we were not sent here for that purpose. to leave it to the Legislature. and, believing that the Convention has made up its mind upon this subject. l move that the amendmena offered by the gentleman from Fillmore be laid up- on the table.
 Upon a vote being taken, the motion to table prevailed.
 Mir. Oates-I desire to offer one more | section.
 The Secretary read the following sec- tion:
 "The Grand Jury authorized by law in any one of the courts In this State shall consist of not less than eighteen qualified persons, ten of whom shall | concur in order to find a bill of indict- ment. and in all cases of lynching and felonies which, upon conviction may be punished capitally. the first Grand Jury | sitting within the Jurisdiction after the commission of such offense fails to find ] bill of indictment, the Solicitor of the | State shall enclose the substance of all 1 the evidence in such case which was before the grand jury to the Judge presiding and holding such court; thereupon if he be of the opinion that an indictment should have been found and returned into court by such court and jury, he shall enter an order upon the trial docket of such court directing the Solicitor to proceed against the sus- |
 be prescribed by law
 The President-The question will be
 uron the amendment offered by the
 gentleman from Montgomery.
 MT. Oates-I overheard the gentleman
 on my left remark. Lay 1t on the ta-
 ble." I suppose that will be the effect
 of it. Uaughter). Notwithstanding 1t
 will not deter me from performing my duty. On g former occasion I offered but ttz
 sition, and on that occasion 1 made
 some remarks as to the present state of
 affairs in Alabama-as to murders and capital felonies committed which go unpunished. 1 have heard from re-
 liable authority in many of the coun-
 ties of the State where grand juries
 as at present constituted, failed to find true bills when the evidence certainly
 warranted 1t and called for such action.
 Now. sir, the Legislature. I admit,
 could remedy what Is aimed at in the
 first part of this proposition. The
 Legislature could say by law that a
 grand jury shall consist of not less than eighteen qualified persons. ten of
 whom only shall be required to find a
 bill. They can do that, but they could
 not prescribe by law the remedy in the
 latter part of this proposition without
 constitutional authority. Under the
 
 frequently consists of but fifteen mem-
 bers, and in such case parties who are
 sufficiently artful and employ the nec-
 essary amount of means, can not al
 ways, but sometimes, tamper with, and
 control enough. say four members, of
 that grand jury, and no bill can be
 found because, under the law, it re-
 quires twelve to concur and in that
 way guilty parties do escape justice H.,s& sn1N II lu1 to nnN
 in exceptional cases: but even in those
 cases should it be allowed? Ought not
 the Constitution makers and law-mak-
 CTS provide against any such contin-
 gencies, and make the administration
 of the law against offenders certain, as
 certain as 1t Is possible for human in-
 vention to reach? I will not undertake because it would take me much longer
 than the time that I have in which tc
 state 1t, to recount the instances com ing within my knowledge, and every gentleman here Is acquainted with the fact that we have lynchings and wher and where was a man in the State eve, indicted for a lynching? Never, that . have heard of, except in one case, and that was in Washington County; there they did get three or four and put then in the penitentiary. The gentleman from Pike suggests that 1t was nine; nAQ not Int Du that Is an exceptional case. Now ] when they have such influence upor
 the grand juries as not to find any hil . of indictment why not provide somt way to get at it. Now, I have studied l the question and this amendment pre- . sents the best way I can think of. Ii any delegate can provide any better way I would like to see 1t and mos } anxious to support 1t. It is an abso lute disgrace to our State, the number of murders that are annually commit ted within it, and 1t has gotten so. mer escape so frequently for this offence ! that it seems to justify good men peaceable citizens, to go armed grea [ part of their time, as the law does no : sufficiently protect their lives they gC with pistols to protect themselves. Now sir. we want to stop this thing. I pro vide in the amendment offered thai wherever at the first term of grand ! jury within any jurisdiction where sucf l a felony has been committed, and thu l grand jury fails to return a bill O. } indictment that the Solicitor shall dis close to the presiding judge the eVi { dence that was before the grand jury l and then if that judge-and judge 7 Is presumed to be just man. and | } | Is his duty to enforce the laW-if II
 his opinion he believes that bil I should have been found and that tn
 suspected party should be prosecuted
 to order the solicitor to proceed agains . the suspected party. It Is true it |