The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-02-20
II YEARS A JUDGE
JUDGE sPEER'S ANNIVERSARY OF
HIS ACCESSION TO THE BENCH.
CASES HE HAS DECIDED.
INCLUDED MANY OF VITAL IMPORT
ANCE TO PEOPLE OF GEORGIA.

United states Courts Do Not Seek to
Interfere with the Rights of the
States-Judge Speer Says He Has
seduIousIy EndeavOred to Observe
and Preserve These Rights-His
Administration of the Law in the
Courts Over which He Has Pre-
sided Has Helped to Weld the
Union of the Stntes-Interesting
and Important Decisions That He
Has Rendered.
Yesterday marked the seventeenth
anniversary OF Judge Emory Speer' s
accession to the bench of the United
States District Court for the Southern
District of Georgia. In the course of
this long period many important cases
have been presented to the court and
received the consideration of Judge
! Speer.
A Morning News reporter saw Judge
| Speer at the De Soto last night and
asked him to give some account of
these many and important judicial de-
Examinations. The judge declined to
|
for the many vital questions it had
fallen to his lot to decide.
1T is true" he said that one of the
most famous law writer's in the coun-
| try once wrote me that it had seemed
my lot to decide a great many novel
and important questions and this is
perhaps true.
This was due however, doubtless to
the large and varied interests of the peo-
pie of my judicial district and to the
| fact that so far as the Southern Dis
trict of Georgia extends, it was large
ly virgin territory for Federal ques-
lions.
My predecessor the late
Judge Erskine, had been
infirm for a number of years, and
while a judge of the highest character,
| On his retirement necessary left a great
accumulation of work for my DISPOSE
ton. Besides the growth of the South
ern District of Georgia has been phe-
nomenally rapid in it's material devel-
opment, but as appears from the eau
Gus in the increased population. We
| have, | believe, more people here in
the Southern District of Georgia than
there are in the entire state of Flor
| ida.
1T would be- said the Judge,
wholly beyond the scope of news
| paper article to recapitulate, even
briefly, the great number and variety
of highly important judicial questions
which have been finally disposed
or in the courst where 1
have for so long presided
Generally, 1 will venture to say
however, that while 1 strongly believe
in the Interpretation of our constitu-
| ton as expounded by Chief Justice
Marshall and the great jurists and
statesmen. who, under the inspiration
| Of his mighty decisions, have done so
much to make the Union perpetual,
| and to conduct it to the unsurpassed
dignity and power of it's pres
ent station, have never fail
| ed to appreciate, l think, the
| absolute Importance of protecting
the power of local government in
| the state.
"At times there have been those who
| perhaps Influenced by that temporary
| disappointment common to the loser in
| litigation. have ascribed to me some
disregard for the rights of the states.
Others who are familiar, however with
| the record of cases decided by me will
! see how mistaken was that impression.
THE truth is, the Federal Courts,
think, have been the best and most
effective judicial friends of state rights.
| Senator Hoar' recently said that the Su-
| preme Court had destroyed the policy
of reconstruction, to which the Repub-
| lican party was at that time devoted.
My own decisions have, of course,
| been far less conspicuous on that line,
and yet they may have been not alto
gether valuless to our people For in
stance, in one case, where it was insist
ed that the local option laws
deprived the saloon keeper
of his property without due process of
Flaw / had the privilege to so con-
strue the law as to uphold the system
of our state, intended to encourage
temperance among its people =
/ I'm another and a very critical case,
where the ques ton was brought with
| in the jurisdiction of the court, after
careful consideration l upheld the
! laws of the state, which forbid inter-
marriages between whites and negroes.
I'm a recent decision, in a bank
ruptcy case, 1 felt it my duty to sus-
tain the inchoate lien created by the
state constitution in the form of a
waiver of homestead in a promise to
pay.
Il might mention many other cases,
but it would be scarcely possible to
conceive topics of more general inter-
est than those affecting the validity of
] our laws on the sale of intoxicants,
the social institution of marriage
and the right of our people of slender
means to pledge their homestea ads SO
as to secure credit for their farming
and other ventures.
1T is true that on this first
question was reversed by
| those distinguished judges who
compose the Circuit Court OF
Appeals of this circuit On different
pleading, however, they have so modi-
! fed theirsviews as to certify the ques-
ton on division of opinion to the Su-
preme Court of the United States, for it's
! decisive action.
81 am quite reluctant to speak for
publication of these matters, and would
not do so but for your earnest, though
! courteous, insistence. l will say that L
am deeply and sincerely grateful to the
| people and to the bar for the cordial
and indeed. answering support, they
have for many years accorded to the
enforcement of the laws of the United
/ States IN the courts here. Under free
| government laws amount to nothing
unless they have the support of
| the people. Our jury commissioners Sc
! lect the jurors from among the very
! best men in each community, and
! have often said, what Is true, that In
all these years In which / have been
! Judge, have never known "A jury in
| the Southern District OF Georgia TO
| refuse justice TO the government In
any OF Its cases, civil or. criminal. to
an allen or TO a nonresident. l think
| and trust that our people now regard
the United states Courts az Ccorpia