The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-11-12
GROWTH OF THE SOUTH
Feature of Judge Speers Charge to the Grand
Jury.

The growth of the South since the
/ Civil War was the keynote of Judge
| Emory Speer's charge to the grand
| jury of the United Stotes Courts yes
terday His references to the constitu-
ton, and the inspiration it had afford
ed all liberty loving peoples, was a
feature, too. of his charge.
1t was an able and charac-
teristic address, dealing with the in
dustrial and agricultural development
of the Southern states-the new South.
Touching upon the duties of the
grand jury Judge Speer compared a
jurors duties with those of the SOL
der.
THAT gallant youth who steered the
Merrimac into the jaws of death in
Santiago bay or those heroic Ameri-
cans who swept onward and upward to
victory while the machine guns and
nausers of the Spaniards were moving
their lines as with a mighty reaper on
San Juan HILL were not more patriotic
for the common defense, one purpose
of the constitution" said Jurge Speer,
than is the juror for the establishment
of Justice
THE court of which your body is
an Indispensable part exists because
its creation is authorized by the con-
stitution of the United States" said
Judge Speer. The constitution, as you
Know, is the law which organized our
government. The president of the con-
Vention which framed it, you will re-
call, was George Washington. The
name of this mansB greatest of all
Americans, in the language of the ia
Their of Gen. Robert Edward Lee, First
in war. first in peace and first in the
hearts of his countrymen is appended
to the act of the First Congress by
which this court was created Our
court, therefore, is one of great an
tiquity. Indeed, when it was created
Gen. Edward Oglethorpe, the benevo-
lent founder of our state, to my mind
the most romantic and picturesque fig
ure in English history, had been dead
only four years. The source of its
authority, as l have said, is the consti-
tuition.
1T is well for American citizens.
especially when proceeding to the per-
Torrance of a duty imposed by law,
often to reflect on the purposes of that
instrument of government which the
most illustrious thinkers, statesmen
and philosophers of all lands pro-
nounce the wisest and best ever de-
signed by the brain and purpose of
man. Its benign purposes are set
forth in the lucid phrases of the pre-
amble: to form a more perfect
Union, establish justice, insure domes-
tic tranquility, provide for the COM
mon defense, promote the general well
fare and secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and our posterity'
The Inspiration of Freedom.
"These were the ennobling objects
for which the patriots and sages of the
Revolution established the constitution
of the United States. 1t has been apt
ly said that these men were prophetic
and present OF all the future had in
store Their action was not only
pregnant with that future of our coun-
try in which we are taking part, but
1t afforded model of organic
law from which every people,
since then struggling for liberty,
have caught inspiration and APP
propriated a part.
This will be found true whether we
contemplate the volcanic outburst of
the French people against the besotted
tyranny of the Bourbons and their friv-
olous and ferocious mobiles; or the de-
scendants of the soldiers of Cortez in
Mexico, or of Pizarro in Peru and
Chill, as they revolt against oppres-
sion: or the heroic fighters of Bolivar
as amid the defiles of the Andes they
precipitated themselves upon the Span
ish columns as the condor of those fro
zen SUBMITS swoops upon his prey; or
the brave countrymen of the men of
Marathon and Thermopolae as they ex-
PEELED the unspeakable Turk from
that classic land where Homer sung.
where Themistocles and Militades had
led and Demosthenes had Numbered.
The Mission of the Constitution.
1--WE might dwell upon it's accom-
plishments for our people and describe
how from peevish quarreing and con-
tending colonies 1t has cemented us into
an indissoluble union of indestructible
states, how it has established justice,
so that now there are none so lofty
but that it's courts in proper case can
pluck them from their high estate. none
so humble and lowly whom our Judges
will not succor and save Tranquilized
by the pure and impartial administra-
ton of domestic justice in times of
peace. in the hour of danger the gigan-
tic power of our people summoned for
the common defense, has been irresist-
ible by any force our enemies could
send against us.
1--WE may indeed felicitate ourselves
upon the amazing spectacle that while
the nations of the old world even in
times of profound peace, are but
camps of soldery armed with the most
destructive munitions of war; in our
| happy country, with a territory on
some part of which the sun in it's ma
jestic progress round the world for
ever shines, the entire force of our
regular army at home and abroad does