The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-01-22
HAVE WE FALLEN
UPON EVIL TIMES
Col W. H. benson Asks a Freq
nant Question
DRAWS A LIVING PICTURE
Topics of Live Interest Discussed by
Well Known Birmingham Law
yer-Book of Genesis and
Alabama Constitution.
DRAWS A LIVING PICTURE

the Well-knONn lawyer, DISCUSSES Solis
pertinent questions:
To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
Have we fallen upon evil times, is
pregnant question to every patriotic cit
izen of Alabama, and especially to those
of Jefferson county?
Anxiety for the future must rest upon
the mind of every citizen of Alabama.
Cimmerian darkness interposes Itself be-
tween all Alabamians and the future.
The cause of all this chaos and uncer-
tainty arises from either the constitution
or from the acts of the recent legisla-
ture. The constitution being the funda-
mental law of our state government. 1t
cannot be changed but by the will of the
people. The Legislature nor the courts
can change it.
Was there such a paueity of knowl-
edge of the meaning of the English lam
guage in the delegates to the state CON
vention, that they were powerless to en-
ploy plain language expressed in simple
syntactical structure as to give clear
meaning of their intention by the lam
guage they used?
Were the ideas of the recent legisla-
ture so confused, and their purposes so
uncertain and underlined as to the mean
ing of the language of the constitution
and its intent and purposes, that the Leg
struction and Interpretation of the con-
stitution in the plain language of our
mother tongue?
Is the supreme court so wanting in ca
pacity as to the Interpretation of Ian
guage as to be unable to agree with the
recent legislature as to the construction
of the power of the legislature under the
constitution?
1t is a mental impossibility to eliminate
such questions from the minds of any
intelligent, thinking man in Alabama,
who feels the least concern in govern
mental affairs.
From the past and current encomiums
pronounced by the press upon the men,
bers of the convention and of the last
legislature a stranger cannot fail to be
impressed with the thought that those
gentlemen ARE the people and wisdom
shall die with them"
So constant and profuse has the press
been to ascribe to those distinguished
gentlemen all honor and praise, that the
arrival of any one of them in town is
made known by the publication, MIR. A.
is registered at" such and such hotel.
"ITe was a member of the recent consti-
tutional convention" or legislature as the
case may be-
1t would seem from this that the pub
lie are encouraged to let "the shadow of
our distinguished passing Peter" fall on
them as an immediate cure for all affiic-
tons and ailments.
Under the constitution the supreme
court is the final arbiter as to the inter-
probation and construction of that instru-
ment; to its DEGREES and Judgments all
must bow and render respectful and 10y
al obedience
The present constitution is as volumi-
nous and more varied In the subjects a s
to which it treats as the book of Genesis.
m. IL. aV4d
troversy as to the meaning and proper
Interpretation of the works of God as
set forth in that Book have been going
on commanding the genius of science
and philosophy, and yet the gulf between
the different opinions of the learned is
now greater than ever.
If it has consumed six thousand years
constituting and interpreting the language
of inspiration by the whole world. as
contained in the book of Genesis, how
long will 1t take a much smaller portion
of mankind to interpret and construe
human language and reach a correct
conclusion as to human objects and pur-
poses in a more voluminous volume and
upon more varied subjects? IL not
twelve thousand years, yet the time will
be so long there are none now living who
will witness the end.
The destruction of courts and the de-
capitation of officials created by the last
legislature. which have been the result
of recent decisions of the supreme and
other state courts, holding such acts of
said legislature unconstitutional, that for
ravages upon the official lives of the in
cumbents such decisions of the courts
find a parallel only in the battle of Has
tngs, one of the most noted results OF
which was the slaughter of the nobility.
Perhaps the conservative doctrine of
de facto courts and officers may save
the chaos and ruin as to many acts of
such courts and officers.
But as to courts and judges created
under such unconstitutional acts of the
| legislature cannot be saved by this con-
| sentative principle invoked in cases of
de facto courts and officers because
| there was never any court or judge
either de facto or de jure, and the ac-
| tons of such judges and officers are but
those of bold trespassers, and there is
no longer legal salvation or protection
| for them Such is the situation of the
inferior court of Birmingham over which
| Judges Benners and Alternately presided.
Under the decision of the courts no such
court no such judges, no such clerk ever
existed. The judgments of said courts
and the acts of said judges and officers.
however solemn the same may have
been or however sacred the subject-mat-
ter of the acts may have been, yet the
same are utilities and never had any
| legal force or effect
These judges have pronounced at least
five thousand judgments, affecting in
some degree the property rights of the
| people, their liberty and their domestic
| relations. These were and are now OF
no more binding and legal effect than the
| Judgment of any citizen upon such mat
| ter pronounced while standing on the
| ewalks of the city.
| But this is but a bagatelle, not flip OF
the finger when compared with the acts
| of those supposed judges in marrying
| people, What modification and what
shame will arise to parties, however NOR
| ally innocent they may be, when they
| consider the fact the marriage Is abso-
| lutely null and void in law; the offspring
| is ilegtimate as much so in law as
| though It was the fruit of adulterous in
| tercourse, and there had never been any
| effort at marriage of any kind. unless
| such be maintained and protected under
| what Is known as a common law mar
| riage. which maintains in Alabama.
How many marriage ceremonies have
| those gentlemen performed, and when
ascertained. such will be the number of
, illegal marriages that have occurred.
| Parties who have married under such
circumstances will do well to preserve all
| evidences of such marriage in addition to
] the fact of the marriage by such Of
| fcers.
We are now going through the ordeal
arising from legislation more in the in
| terest of those seeking places than for
the general welfare of the masses. How
| long will an intelligent people submit to
/ sucb2 Just so long as a few self-consti-