The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-27
(Communicated.)

10 the Democratic voters Ot AlaDAmHs
 The friends of Hon. Samuel D. Weak ley, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, present his name to the Democratic voters of the State, as n candidate for re- election subject to the action of the Democratic party.
 In asking the support or the Demo- cratic voters of the State, 1t Is proper that those of his friends who have been
 most intimately associated with him In a social, business and professional way. and who are best qualified to speak or his attainments, and capacity to fill the
 position, should present this statement
 to the voters who will participate m the Democratic Primary on August 2T.
 Chief Justice weakley was born In
 Morgan county, Alabama, on July It, 1860 of parents both of whom were born and always lived in this State. He is now in the forty-sixth year of his age, and is in the prime of vigorous manhood. He was reared In Florence, and was educated at the State Normal College at that place, graduating from that institution in 1879: for short time thereafter he taught Tn the public schools of aLuderdale county. He read law in Florence, and was admitted to the Bar in 1880. He began the practice of law in Memphis, Tenn, where for. several years he held the office of As sistant Attorney General of Shelby county. In 1887 he removed to Bir- mingham, where until he became Chief Justice he engaged without interrup-
 ton in tho general practice of law, embracing every variety of legal bus mess and requiring his appearance in all the courts known to out judicial sys- tenn.
 Judge weakiey's career as a lawyer
 was one of continued and unbroken successes; although burdened with the duties of an exacting profession, he al-
 ways took an active interest in public
 affairs, and though never a candidate
 for office he was at all times at the comand of hls party for service on com n,ittees, on the stump, or wherever else
 ne might be called.
 He Is an active member of the State
 Bar Association, and of the American Bar Association. and was delegate from this State to the Worlds Congress
 of Jurists and Lawyers at St. Louis. in 1904.
 When the position of Chief Justice of tEe Supreme Court Of Alabama was
 made vacant by the death of the la-
 mented Mcclellan, his name was pre-
 sented. by his friends. to the Governor
 for appointment to the position In the short time which elapsed between the occasion OI LHc VdCdDCy dHu tHC dp~ pointment of a successor, 1t was i'm. possible to make any general canvass | of the State, or even communicate with all of the friends of Judge Weakley.
 who would have endorsed him. It was | believed that the Governor, who was l charged by the law under his official l oath, with the duty of making the app pointment, would do so with full re- alization of the Importance of the of- nd criU raSnanff4l nc sideration to such recommendations as Mir. weakley's friends could submit, and ir was also believed that a Governor
 might act, In a measure at least, upon
 his own knowledge of the qualifications of an applicant; for Mir. Weakley'S
 eminent fitness for the place was well
 known to the Governor. who had here tofore named him to decide an import
 ant case in which the judges of the SupremA Court qualified to sit were
 equally divided in opinion, and his fiji. ness for that duty was not questioned In any quarter.
 It is to the credit of any man that
 his neighbors think well of him, and
 so It was that over 200 lawyers in Jeff ferson county, embracing fully ninety per cent of all the lawyers and every judge in the county, united in a peti- tion to the Governor asking that Judge Weakley be appointed to the vacancy. But the matter was not allowed to rest fere; endorsements of the application made in his behalf were filed by circuit judges. city court judges, county off, 1 cials. Members nf Congress, ministers
 Of the Gospel, and many business and professional men throughout the State.
 He was also endorsed by lawyers from Lauderdalc, Limestone, Madison,
 Colbert. Morgan. Franklin, Marion, Walker, Fayette, Winston. Jefferson, Pickens. Sumter, Greene, Tuscaloosa,
 Bibb. Shelby, Randolph. St. Clair, Cle- burne, Elmore, Talladega, Macon, Ma
 rCngo, Barbour and Mobile counties.
 His endorsement from Mobile consisted
 of twenty-five of the representative lawyers of that Bar
 It was pointed out also to the Gov
 ernor that the death of Judge Mcclellan left only one member of the court re-
 siding in North Alabama, and that the portion of the State lying between
 Calera and the Tennessee river, which
 ful nishes So much business to the court, had no representative on the bench of
 the Supreme Court.
 No stronger endorsement and testi- monals for any applicant were ever filed with a Governor than those pre- sented in Judge Weakley's behalf, and
 they were sufficiently numerous and weighty to lead any Governor to the conclusion that the applicant was a
 suitable man to appoint solely on the ground of fitness. Judge Weakley was eligible to the office. and was well
 qualified to fill it; If the law makers had intended that a Governor should consider no applicant but one who was already a judge, they would have so declared in plain language; and strong reasons might be given why it would
 be better to take a new man. who had distinguish ] himself al the Bar, ratt- CT than promote a junior associate jus tice over the heads of older men on the same bench who had seen longer judicial service. Thete was no prece- dent in this State of such promotion of a junior associate justice. And here it may be mentioned that in m
 case has vacancy in the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the l United States been filled by the promo tion of an associate justice, all the Chief Justices were chosen from the