The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-16
0FFIcIAL REPORT 0F THE PROCEEDINGS OF
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF ALABAMA

I II, on page of the rules.
 Tn. President-The next order of business will be the special order. which is the consideration of the re- port or the Committee on State and County Boundaries. The secretary will read section 6.
 The secretary read the section as fol- lows:
 Sec. 6.--No county site shall be re- moved except by two-thirds vote of the qualified electors of said county, voting in an election held for said pur- pose, and when an election has once been held for such purpose no other election can be held for such purpose until the expiration of four years; pro- Nid<d that the county site of Shelby county of this State shall be and re- main at Columbiana, unless removed by a vote of the people as provided for in an act entitled An act to provide for the permanent location Of the county site of Shelby county. Alabama, by a vote of the qualified electors of said county" approved the sth day Of February. 1899, and the act amendatory thereto, approved the goth day of Feb ruary, 1899. or by an election held under the provisions of his article.
 The Secretary then read the minority report as follows:
 MINORITY REPORT.
 The undersigned member of the Committee on State and County Boun- daries does not concur in the report of the Committee as to Sections ?, and {. and he offers as substitute therefor the following:
 Sec. 3.-The boundaries of the sev- eral counties of this State as hereto fore established by law, are hereby rat flied and confirmed. The General As- sembly may by vote of two-rhrds of both houses thereof arrange and de- signate boundaries for the several coun- ties of this State, which boundaries shall not be altered, except by a like vote; but no new counties shall be here after formed of less extent than 500 square miles and no existing county shall be reduced to less than 500 square miles; and no new county shall be formed which does not contain sufficient number of inhabitants to en- title it to one representative under the ratio of represeL .ation existing at the time of Its formation, and leave the county or counties from which 1t Is taken with the required number of in- habitants entitling such county or counties to separate representation.
 Respectfully submitted.
 Milo Moody.
 c. H. Miller.
 Mr. Sanford (Montgomery)-I rise to point of information.
 The President-The gentleman will state his point of information.
 MT. Sanford-If that is adopted, does that become a part of the Constitution of Alabama, or is 1t only an ordinance setting aside the acts of the Legisia- ture?
 of the Constitution 1t seems.
 MT. Heflin (Chambers)-A parlia- mentary inquiry: I understand the substitute will be the first thing con- sidered.
 The President-The question will be upon the amendment, the substitute of- fered by the minority of the Commit tee for the majority report. the gen. tleman from Cullman is recognized. ,Mr. Parker (Cullman)-Mr. Presi- dent, and gentlemen of the Convention: Your Committee on this Section has | sought to throw an additional safe guard around the old county seats of | the counties of Alabam~. We say here | 1t will take an election and wo-thirds vote of the qualified voters of the | county to remove the county seat. It was unanimous report as to the main part of this Section. The Committee believe that the old county seats are, so to speak, vested rights of property, and We did not think the floating vote of a county should be able to move the | county seat, and thus impose the bur den of taxation upon the tax payers | of the county. As to the proviso in this Section to which there Is a mil nority report. when this question of the | removal of the county seat of Shelby County was first brought before the | Committee, personally I was opposed | for the Committee, or this Convention, | to have anything to do with 1t, but l after very careful investigation of this | question. during some ten days and | with testimony taken before the Com mittee, which occupies about 135 pages | of close typewriter matter, 1t was so | forced upon the majority of the Com | mittee that there were wrong methods used to change the county seat of Shell | by County, that We thought it was our | duty to see that the county seat of | Shelby County should remain at Co., lumbiana until changed by a vote of the people. We considered first wheth- | CT this Convention had the right to go into local legislation. The distinguish | ed attorney representing the Calera | side admitted before our Committee | that he thought if 1t was placed in | LIE we that | But it is not a question before this Convention now because by the action | of this Convention ten days ago ex- | cepting certain places from the Article | on Taxation and by the action on last Saturday in allowing my good friend from Henry to have a new county com posed of parts of Henry, Dale and Ge- neva, this Convention has settled that it would go into matters of local legis- lation, and so far as that is concerned, this Is matter res adjudicata so far as this Convention is concerned. This Committee found on that investigation that there was but one member of the House who knew of the existence of this bill, as I say that was the only testimony before this Committee by any witness. It is true that there were filed with the Committee some letters from members of the House, but in making this report we did not consider those eX parte matters as evidence There was no officer of the House who | had any independent recollection of the passage of this bill. One witness said on direct testimony that he recollected something about it, but upon cross ex- animation he admitted that he had no | independent recollection whatever, and that all he knew was by virtue of his handwriting on the back of the bill. There is no question but what that bill was kept off the Calendar of the House. Both sides admit that. There was no question that it was kept out of all the newspapers. Both sides ad- init that. There is no question but