Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-08-23

7 which was DONE He could not be legal
! ly appointed to an office that had no ex-
istence at the time of his appointment.
Mr.. Coleman was appointed for district
| that already had notary whose term did
not expire until June, 1909, and Mr.. Cole
mans commission was issued June 18th,
1909. The correspondence on file In Mr..
Blackburn's office makes this all clear.
Mr.. Blackburn says ] Justice Richie OF
Miller county, was appointed in october
and commissioned in February The cor
respondence on file shows that the clerk
wrote a letter dated January TO- saying
Mr.. Richie had been appointed. My
letter informing him that | would have
TO have a certificate in the usual legal
form is dated January 18th, three days
later. The certificate which came and
which is on file, bears date January
slst and Judge Ritchie's commission bears
date February 5th. just five days later.
Mr.. Blackburn refers to Judge L. A.
Reed" There is no such name on the
records. / issued commission to Judge
L. A Free, as the records will show.
These are all of the justices and nota-
ries mentioned by Mr.. Blackburn and, as
have said, in not a single case was
there over a weeks interval between the
receipt of the proper papers and the
issuance of the commissions.
And this defense of my work is every
particle of IL, taken from the files of
his own office, from letters and docu-
ments that were within his easy reach
at the time he charged Governor Smiths
administration with negligence and de-
lays, delays, he said, ranging all the, way
from three months to two years"
1T was sometimes necessary to send
back papers for correction, but any
statement that there was unnecessary
or unusual delay in sending out com
missions from my office is not justified
by the facts, and 1 ask any citizen of
Georgia, who wishes to satisfy himself
on that point to see the ordinary or clerk
of the county and ascertain the facts.
NO DELAY FOR JUDGES.
Mr.. Blackburn makes a great TODD
because 1 left with him to be issued ten
commissions of judges and solicitors of
city courts. who were elected at the Oc-
tober election in 1908. The answer to
this is that the terms of those judges
and solicitors would not begin until long
after Governor Brown went into Office
that is the first of January, 1910. The
work of issuing those commissions would
not have taken me an hour. but it would
have been useless and absurd to have
mailed out the commissions 10 months
before the terms began.
TIRED EVERY COMMISSION DUE TO
BE ISSUED HAD BEEN ISSUED AND
HANDED TO MR.. BLACKBURN THE
CERTIFICATES OF THE CITY COURT
JUDGES AND SOLICITORS, WHOSE
TERMS WERE TO BEGIN WHILE
GOVERNOR BROWN WAS IN OFFICE
AND ASKED HIM TO HAVE THE
COMMISSIONS ISSUED WHEN THE
PROPER TIME ARRIVED.
"Of the ten city court judges and So
lcitors ieft for Governor Brown to COM
mission, the terms of not a single one be-
gan while Governor Smith was in Office,
and FIVE of them did not begin until jan
uary /, 1910, and two did not begin until
February. 1910, eight months after Cover
nor Smith retired from office, Mr.. Black
burn, however, did not commission Judge
Long and Solicitor Martin, of Leesburg
city court until January 6. a week after
their terms began.
Among these judges about whom Mr.
Blackburn twits Governor Smith was
Judge r. W. Moore, of Hancock. His
term began August H. 1909, and the record
shows that he qualified September /, 1909,
but mark you, MR.. BLACKBURN'S
RECORD SHOWS THAT HIS COMMITS
SION WAS ISSUED AUGUST 10, 1870
ABOUT A YEAR AFTER HE BEGAN
DISCHARGING THE DUTIES OF HIS
OFFICE.
But in a public record in the gov
ernor's office what does little error Of
a year amount to between friends?
seriously, these errors will amount
to a great deal as the years. go by, for
justices of the peace notaries public and
other officials witness deeds. Every few