The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-06

II
 ridiculousiy small, and yet this section.
 if adopted, would absolutely prevent | any judge who might resign, from get ting any office in the gift of the State
 except ss it says judicial office. Now 1 why ts thatS What good purpose l would 1t subserve? It Is not to be | contemplated that a judge would use | his offlce for the purpose of securing | another, or that he would exercise. any | influence upon any appointing power | by teason of the exercise of his judi l cial functions which would give him l such an office, so why should we select | members of the judiciary for such an | exclusion as this? I am informed that ! she history of thls State will show that 1 . very eminent judge at one time of the Supreme Court of Alabama became so ! convinced that his salary was insuf- | ficient to support his family, that he I resigned for the purpose of accepting l the more lucrative position of clerk of | the court of which he was judge, and | I understood nobody ever blamed him l for that action. Here We have a | poorly paid-and absurdly poorly paid judiciary, as I believe, perhaps, the | most poorly paid judiciary of any State | of the Union, and yet We are to exclude ' them from accepting any office other | than a judicial one. do not see any | good purpose to be subseryed by it, ani | it does not occur to me that there can l he any valid reason why the provision | in the last two lines of this section.
 should be incorporated in the Cons.i- | tuition.
 Mir. Hefin (Chambers)-I moxe to
 lay the amendment of the gentleman
 on the table.
 | Upon a vote being taken the motion
 to lay the amendment on the table I prevailed. Upon a further vote being 1 taken the section was adopta6. Mir. Sentell-I move that the privi- leges of the floor be extended b the | Hon. J. F. JorAe, a member of the
 General Assembly.
 A vote being taken. the motion was | adopted.
 The Secretary read Section F. as fol- lows:
 Section F. The Supreme Court shall consist of one chief justice and such ! number of associate justices as may be prescribed by law.
 MT. Smith (Mobile)-I move the adoption of the section.
 Upon vote being taken the section was adopted.
 The secretary read Section 1S as fol- lows:
 Sec. 13. The Chief Justice and Asso- ciate Justices of the Supreme Court
 6udgD of the Circuit Courts, Probate
 Courts. and Chancellors shall be elect
 ed by the qualified electors of the
 State. circuits. counties and chancery
 divisions for which such courts may be established at such times as may be prescribed by law. except as herein otherwise provided.
 MT. Smith (Mobile)-I move the adoption of that section.
 MT. Oates-I have an amendment The secretary read the amendment aD follows:
 h lines and 3 strike out the words "elected by the qualified electors of
 Che State and insert in lieu thereof She following. to-wit: Appointed by the Governor by and with the advice
 and consent of the Senate for the State, excepting the Judges of Pro-
 bate"
 Mr .Oates-Judging by the past.
 presuDe this Convention will not
 adora that amendment, but yet. sir, I tRNe the courage to offer 1t because 1t
 Is ny honest conviction. I have, had
 some little experience in life and in
 the affairs of this State. and whether
 to much purpose or not, this experience
 has reached a conviction m my own
 mind. In the Convention of 1H75 was in favor of the very thing that move
 here. from a conviction that I then had, and the vote was a remarkably close one whether the judges should be
 tkHe selected or elected ny popular vote. and the latter prevailed. as shown by the present Constitution. Now. sir, there are reasons for this. The idea seems to be now to elect everything by popular vote. f there be anything that contributes more than any otber to the we'll being of the State. I: is an intelligent and independent judiciary. Have you such a judiciary when the judges are elected by popular vote: I say that you have not. in many cases. The man who is elected a judge is but a man. and human nature has it's place in him as well as :n any other. and it is the most natural thing in the world when the man Is usually can didate to succeed himself or for some other office he wants to 7ct votes. and he is gotw @ cater IS much az he can to such 9 senkment as will bring them. Tn the case Between Q mar wto is worth 100 vooes in an election, and aE- other who scarcely ',odtIols his own, the judge may be very honest. hut the humaR nature in bIn an4his own in terests makes him 6aruraily looK for a reason that seems souni in favcr of the big fellow, 9e wants ills influence, he wants to be hopular with him. It does not contribute 10 holding ;h& scales of justice in equlpoise. I will give to this Convention a little illus tration without calling names. The first year I had the honor to be Cover nor of the State, a petition was pre- scented to me to pardon a man from one of the counties north of this who had been indicted and tried for mur- der and found guilty of manslaughter in the second degree. A fine was inppos- ed upon him and sentenced to 30 days in jail. I learned from other parties that the judge gave the Sheriff the wink and said: Consider him in pris- on" Now. the defendant was a man of much in1uence in that county. A petition was gotten up and sent to the Governor for him to be pardoned. The judge who tried him wrote letter to the Governor along with the petition. and set forth the evidence in the case, and said: Now. Governor. you are a lawyer and you know on that evidence he ought to have been acquitted. the jury should not have found him guilty" I replied: Dear judge. yes. and I presume if you were not a law yer you would not be judge of the Cir cult Court. Taking the evidence as presented, he should not have been sentenced. but why did you not. as a judge set aside the verdict and give him a new trial?" The reason was, that the dead man had a few friends tho oiro,,it had Untaa that ha