The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-17

Mr. Oate0--6ei0ie tne ENTERTAINMENTS are considered, ask unanimous con sent to make correction of punctua- tfon. In the third line. after the word an1 the next word would begin with a capital. It Is simply an error of the printer.
 The Preside nt-The secretary does not use the printed report, but has the original, and the error does not occur in that.
 Mir. Jones--I offer an amendment.
 The Pfesidcnt--The chair would sug- gest to tte gcut'err .. . amendment pending and his amend- Ine.lt "U..- ..~.~ --- - .-.-s amendment or the gentleman can with hold it until the Convention passes on this amendment.
 Mir. Junes--Well, will do that.
 Mir. deGraffenreid-I move to lay the amendment of the gentleman from Mo- bile on the table.
 A vote being taken, the amendment yf the delegate from Mobile was tabled.
 Mir. Jones-I now offer my amend ment.
 The amendment was read as follows:
 Amend Section 3 by striking out all after the words 1902 and insere in lieu thereof the following words: Repre- sentatives shall be elected every two years thereafter and Senators every four years thereafter, 50 that the term of Representatives shall be two years and that of Senators shall be four years, commencing on the day after the general election at which they were elected, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution. Whenever va cancy shall occur in either house, the .In a tny A to flll such vacancy for the remainder of the term.'"
 Mir. Jones-I offer this specific amend ment because I do not desire to tres pass upon the patience of the House longer than
 The President-will the gentleman explain wherein his amendment dtf- fers from the amendment of the gen. tleman from Mobile?
 MT. Jones-Yes, if you do not take it out of my time. In my amendment the Senators are elected In 1902 and hold for four years, and the the Repre- sentatives elected hold for two years.
 The President-What was the amend ment of the gentleman from Mobile, which was laid on the table?
 Mir. Jones--It makes no difference; you can offer a proposition that has been laid on the table.
 The President--It seems to the chair the amendment is practically Identical with the amendment of the delegate from Mobile, and If it is, the gentleman would not be in order.
 Mir. Jones (Montgomery)-Then I have the floor and you can put my amendment on the floor or anywhere else, and I will speak on the main question. There cannot be any point of order on that.
 I am opposed to this section in toto, This is one of the most important mat ,ters that has come before this ConvenS ton. 1t Is a thing that has been dis- cussed and mooted by scholars, jurists and publicists and plain commen-sense people from time to time, so that it is hardly possible to adduce anything new on the subject.
 After the Revolution, as everybody knows who has studied history. some Of the States, like Virginia. held on to the old English system and elected their Representatives for seven years. Other States elected them every six months. and some of them every year. Then when the Constitution of the United States was under discussion. some things were said which are familiar to Us all, but perhaps I may be pardoned TOT TeCalLAuA tHCtiA toChCl <AhACO c~@eNs Tyranny begins where annual elec- tions end" Readers of history are also familiar with the fact that such a thing, even in England centuries back, as having the legislative power, put to sleep for four years, excited the indig- nation of the House of Commons ana in the time of Charles II they enacted a statute that Parliament must meet at least every three years. l believe there is no State in this Union, unless 1t Is the State of Mississippi, where they allow the legislative power to go to sleep for four years, so that It cannot be put in motion during that time un- less the Governor calls 1t together on some extraordinary occasion.
 The Executive going into power IS generally given q longer tenure of of- flee. but on the formation of the Con- stitution of the United States, and or nearly every Constitution the people have framed, they have insisted on having the legislative power in session at least every two years.
 Now who are the Legislature2 They are tte masters, and the master ought to visit his premises at least once every two years. Now, human nature is pretty much the same. and officers are pretty much the same, but we know py universal experience that the Execu- tive generally regards the Legislature as somewhat of a nuisance. He is glad to get rid of them. Now. we have officers in office for four years. They might do something requiring impeach- ment, and it is not to be expected the Governor would call the Legislature to- gether to impeach himself; and this people, if they put such a thing as that in the Constitution, may be the vic timx of outrageous wrong by the Ex- ecutive, false policies enforcing law and have no redress on earth. Here comes up great questions. Fed eral questions it may be. You have couple of Senators to elect and your Executive may not be in harmony with the prevailing thought of the people, and yet for four years the Executive will put Senators in there directly op- posed to the will of the people. or whom the peopie do not want. I submit that is not wise.
 Now, 1t Is said that the people are tired of frequent elections. So they are: but there ought to be a happy mean. The elections for the Legisla- ture do not tear people. up like the elections for the higher executive of- ficers. what are known in common par lance as the paying offices" Then, another thing, take an illustration from Aldermen. An Alderman goes in for four years and the first two years he is absolutely arrogant. He does not care for public opinion. But in the last two years, tryin1 to make up for that. he absolutely debases himself in the other direction trying to meet the ap- probation of the people. We want to