Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1908-04-29
The Counties and Their Rights
(Rome Tribune-Herald.)

| What is a county? And why? At
ter reading some editorial comments
| and communications in minority OF
| the Georgia state press recently, one
might be led to think that the coun-
ties of Georgia are imaginary en-
| titles with non-eXistent qualities;
that they could not even be dignified
| by the Austrian minister's definition
of Italy as "a geographical express
SION
The Democratic executive commit
tee or the next state convention may
take such action as they please on
| he methods of reckoning the votes
of the state and ascertaining with
most certainty the real will of the
| voters. This will doubtless be done
without any reference to existing aid
passing conditions, or any confession
| by the friends of any candidate that
| he would fail in his race if selected
either by. an old or ne W method.
But we may be sure that the people
of the state, the mass of the voters,
will view with scorn any suggestion
that such action may be based on
the ground that counties have no
right which states are bound to res
pect.
The basis Of true democracy, wheth-
er spelled with a capital or a small
letter, is the preservation to every
being of very right which he may
exercise without injury to another.
The individual, the corporation, the
city, the county, must be left to hold
unimpaired its right to follow its
own wishes, to consult its own happi-
ness and to exercise it's own judg-
ment, until its action interfere with
| those of some pOssessor of an equal
right.
When rights seem to contest with
each other, some power must be
supreme. The popular will of a
state is supreme and sovereign. But
| this does not mean that a state has
the power, any more than the right,
| to operate as a tyrant. Lest the
people of a state act hastily, their
| highest legislative court is limited by
l a written constitution, and the con-
stitution of the State of Georgia is
based on a system of county admin
istration. Every foot knows best
IWhere its own shoe pinches. The
| difference in feeling between commun-
| tiles on the seacoast and those in
the hills, between agricultural coun-
ties and commercial counties, must
be allowed for. And wisely, or I'M
Wisely, the people of this state have
decided that while population bears
some weight in the general coun-
ellis of the state, no county shall be
able to Cypress another merely be-
cause its geographical or other ad-
vantage enables it to crowd more
people within it's bounds
| 1t is easy to recall how in the
South, at least, our history has been
influenced by that feeling of county
| pride to which we have been bold
to give the title at the head of this
article. 1t seems clear that Neck
| lenburg county took a far holder and
| earlier stand than other parts of
North Carolina and was able to carry
with it an unwilling and perhaps hos
title majority. While it seemed doubt
III if Tennessee would leave the
Tunion, Franklin county took it upon
herself to secede without hating, and
Pete Turneys regiment was raised
while the state to which it belonged
was still a part of the United States
Thomas Nelson Pages stories tell
what an intense pride the people from
whom he game took in "Old Han
lover" and we know that an intensi1-
cation of similar feeling caused our
neighbOring county to be nicknamed
The State of Dade."