Mr. CORSON. I move that the committee do now rise, report progress and ask leave to sit again.

Mr. WOODWARD. Before concurrence in that motion, I should like to submit an amendment to the amendment.

Mr. KAINE. I think we had better wait until morning.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. I would inquire whether it would be practicable to have the amendment proposed by the gentleman from Allegheny printed by morning. If so, I hope it will be done.

The CHAIRMAN. The Chair is informed that it will be perfectly practicable to have it printed and laid on the desks of members in the morning.

Mr. Woodward. I move to amend the amendment, by striking out, wherever it occurs, the word, "electing" the judges of the Supreme Court, and substituting, that they be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate.

Mr. CORSON. I now renew my motion. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Montgomery moves that the committee rise, report progress and ask leave to sit again.

The motion was agreed to.

The committee accordingly rose, and the President having resumed the chair, the Chairman (Mr. Harry White) reported that the committee of the whole had had

reported by the Committee on the Judiciary, and had instructed their chairman to report progress and ask leave to sit again.

Leave was granted to the committee of the whole to sit to-morrow.

COURTS OF PHILADELPHIA.

The PRESIDENT. The Chair asks leave to present a memorial at this time. Shall he have leave?

Leave was granted.

The PRESIDENT. The memorial will be read.

The CLERK proceeded to read it.

Mr. J. M. WETHERILL. I move that the further reading be dispensed with. [Several delegates. "No; no; let it be read."]

The PRESIDENT. The reading is called

for.

Mr. TEMPLE. Let us hear the names attached to it.

The memorial was signed by a number of members of the bar, suggesting that it is the desire of the judges, and also of the bar of this city, that the courts of the county of Philadelphia should remain as they now are, both in organization and jurisdiction.

The memorial was laid on the table. Mr. TEMPLE. I move that the Convention adjourn.

The motion was agreed to, and (at five o'clock and forty-eight minutes P. M.) the Convention adjourned.

WEDNESDAY, April 30, 1873.

The Convention met at ten o'clock A. M., Hon. Wm. M. Meredith, President, in

the chair.

Prayer by Rev. James W. Curry.

officers and judges of the Supreme Court shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and in the case of other judicial and county officers in the office of the prothonotary of the

MEMORIAL.

Mr. DARLINGTON presented a memorial of citizens of Parkesburg, Chester county, requesting the incorporation of a clause in the Constitution prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, which

was laid on the table.

OATHS OF OFFICE.

Mr. KAINE, from the Committee on Oaths and Oaths of Office, reported the following article, which was read:

ARTICLE VIII.

OF THE OATHS OF OFFICE.

Members of the General Assembly and all judicial, State and county officers shall, before entering upon the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation :

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth, and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity; and I do further solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have not paid or contributed, or promised to pay or contribute, either directly or indirectly, any money or other valuable thing to procure my nomination, election, (or appointment,) nor have I knowingly violated any election law of this Commonwealth, or procured it to be done by others in my behalf. And I do further solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will not knowingly receive, directly or indirectly, any money or other valuable thing for the performance or non-performance of any act or duty pertaining to my office other than the salary or fees allowed by law."

The foregoing oath shall be administered by some person authorized to administer oaths, and in the case of State

person refusing to take such oath or affirmation shall forfeit his office; and any person who shall be convicted of having sworn or affirmed falsely, or of having violated said oath or affirmation, shall be guilty of perjury, and be forever afterwards disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit within this Commonwealth.

Within twenty days after the adjournment of the General Assembly sine die every member of the House of Representatives, and every Senator whose term shall expire at the next general election, will take and subscribe before some officer, qualified to administer oaths, the following oath or affirmation:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that as a member of the General Assembly I have supported and obeyed the Constitution of this Commonwealth to the best of my knowledge and ability; I have not knowingly been influenced by corrupt private solicitation from interested parties or their agents; I have not voted or spoken on any matter in which I had or expected to have a private interest; I have not done or willingly permitted to be done any act which would make me guilty of bribery; I have observed the order and form of legislation as prescribed by the Constitution, and I have not knowingly voted or spoken for any law, bill or resolution which I knew or believed to be inconsistent therewith."

The foregoing oath or affirmation shall be filed in the office of the prothonotary of the county in which the Senator or Representative resides; and if any such Senator or Representative shall fail to take and file said oath or affirmation within the time prescribed, (unless unavoidably prevented,) he shall be forever afterwards disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit within this Commonwealth; and if, in taking such oath or affirmation

it shall appear that he has knowingly sworn or affirmed falsely, he shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and also be disqualified as aforesaid.

The PRESIDENT. This article has now been read the first time. It will be laid on the table and printed, according to the order of the House.

THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM.

Mr. DARLINGTON. I move that the House resolve itself into committee of the whole for the further consideration of the article reported from the Committee on the Judiciary.

The motion was agreed to, and the Convention resolved itself into committee of the whole, Mr. Harry White in the chair. The CHAIRMAN. The pending question before the committee is the amendment offered by the gentleman from Philadelphia (Mr. Woodward) to the amendment offered by the gentleman from Allegheny (Mr. S. A. Purviance) to the second section of the article reported by the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. WOODWARD. I rise to withdraw my amendment, or rather to modify it. My friend from Allegheny offers to do what he did on a former occasion, withdraw his amendment and let mine in. He can do that.

Mr. S. A. PURVIANCE. Mr. Chairman: Having been appealed to by the honorable gentleman from Philadelphia to withdraw my amendment, for the purpose of allowing him to offer his upon the same subject, I very cheerfully respond to that appeal and withdraw my amendment for the present.

The CHAIRMAN. The amendment of the gentleman from Philadelphia being withdrawn, the gentleman from Allegheny also withdraws his amendment, and the question is on the second section as reported by the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. WOODWARD. Now, sir, I move to amend the section under consideration by striking it out and substituting the section of my minority report, which the Clerk has.

in the law, who have attained the age of thirty years, and who have had at least five years' practice in some of the courts of record of this Commonwealth. The said judges shall appoint clerks for their respective courts, and exact adequate security for a faithful discharge of duties, and all necessary criers and tipstaves; but it shall not be competent for the Legislature to impose upon said judges the choice or election of any other officers, commissioners, inspectors, superintendents or other agents, whether civil, municipal or corporate, nor to assign to said judges, or any of them, any extra judicial duties whatever; and said judges shall hold no other office, whether federal, State, municipal or corporate; nor receive any fees, rewards, perquisites, emoluments or traveling expenses, whilst holding and exercising the office of judge of any of the aforesaid courts. The General Assembly may for cause, entered upon their journals, upon due notice and opportunity of defence, remove from office any judge, upon concurrence of threefourths of all the members elected to each House. Associate judges not learned in law shall be continued upon the bench of the common pleas until the expiration of their respective commissions, and thereafter the said office shall be and remain abolished."

The CHAIRMAN. The question is upon the amendment of the gentleman from Philadelphia.

Mr. S. A. PURVIANCE. I now, with the consent of the gentleman from Philadelphia, renew my amendment, as an amendment to his, to be added to his section.

The CHAIRMAN. The amendment to the amendment will be read.

The CLERK read as follows:

"The Supreme Court shall consist of nine members. The State shall be divided into three districts, Eastern, Middle and Western, as nearly equal in population as may be, in each of which three judges to be elected, whose term of office shall be fifteen years, but who shall be ineligible to re-election.

"SECTION 2. The judges of all the above named courts of record, and of such other courts of record as the Legislature may establish, shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of two-thirds ofthe Senate. They shall be men of good moral character, learned

on the first Monday of December of each year, and remaining in session until they have gone through with their respective lists. Decisions made in each district to be suspended until reviewed.

"The judges of the three districts shall, on the first Monday of May of each year, ande ruch oftener as they may desig

nate, at the seat of the Middle district, hold a court of review, in which opinions previously written, and before being promulgated, shall be reviewed and finally disposed of.

"Until otherwise directed by law, the Eastern district shall be composed of the city of Philadelphia and the counties of Berks, Northampton, Lehigh, Bucks, Montgomery, Chester and Delaware; the Middle district of all the other counties east of the Allegheny mountains, and the Western district of all the counties west of the Allegheny mountains, including Somerset, Cambria, Clearfield, Elk and M'Kean."

Mr. WOODWARD. Mr. Chairman: I have arranged with my friend from Allegheny (Mr. S. A. Purviance) that I am, at this point, to occupy such time as may be necessary in support of my amendment. I am obliged to the gentleman for thus permitting me to get this subject fairly before this body. I have desired some opportunity to present it fairly, and not by a side-wind. Before entering on the main question involved, I wish to say a very few words on the minor questions. I propose:

"The said judges shall appoint clerks for their respective courts, and exact adequate security for a faithful discharge of duties, and all necessary criers and tip

staves."

I suppose that nobody doubts that the judges ought to be permitted to appoint their criers and tipstaves, as they do now, but, with the exception of the Supreme Court, they do not appoint their clerks. 1 think it of great consequence that all the clerks of the courts should be appointed by the courts whom they serve.

When the Convention of 1837 assembled all these clerks and prothonotaries were appointed by the Governor, and one of the great objects of that Convention was to reduce the patronage of the Governor, and amongst other things those appointments were taken away from him; and that Convention most unadvisedly, in my judgment, in taking them away from the Governor, which I think was right, committed them to the people and made them elective, and they have been elective ever since.

Sir, all these clerks become politicians of the very first magnitude. They hold the judge who sits upon the bench in their political fists. They control the bench; they do it in this city. I believe my friend here, (Mr. Dallas,) presented

the prothonotary of the common pleas of the city to a judge sitting in a criminal court, upon affidavits of the most concondemning sort; and that judge, as just a judge as I believe sits in Pennsylvania, took up those proofs and delivered a clear, distinct opinion, which is in print, that that prothonotary was guilty of three or four indictable misdemeanors under our election laws. That opinion of the judge is on record to that effect, and yet was the prothonotary ever prosecuted? Was there ever an indictment against him, or any binding over? No, sir, that very judge quailed in the presence of the prothonctary, and refused a trial.

Mr. DALLAS. Will the gentleman permit me to interrupt him?

Mr. WOOODWARD. Certainly. Mr. DALLAS. I had that prothonotary bound over and an indictment presented. I say this in vindication of my own

course.

Mr. WOODWARD. For that the public is indebted to the gentleman and not to the judge. I am stating the record as it was before the judge. I say the judge, a committing magistrate, having before him proof convicting the party of those misdemeanors, refused, upon application, to bind over that prothonotary to answer in the quarter sessions. If my friend had him bound over afterwards, very well. I state the case as it stood upon the record of the judge, and I do it with absolute ac

curacy.

Now, I say that case demonstrates how the clerk holds the judge in his fist; and is it not a remarkable state of things that you have the ministers of justice overruled and trodden under foot by these clerks, some of whom, I am told, are never seen in their proper offices in this city except when they come to draw the money out of the till? They execute their office by deputies, whom nobody knows, who are responsible to nobody, and who do things that would make the heavens blush, especially about election times. These are the fellows who are supposed to be useful at the hustings and in the ward meetings in this city. These are the men that defy criminal judges sitting on the bench convicting them of misdemeanor; and though a judge has judicial power to bind such a fellow over to the quarter sessions, he dare not do it. If the gentleman got him bound over by other means, I am very glad to hear it, but I presume he will not be convicted. I

Mr. WOODWARD. Now, Mr. Chairman, does any gentleman here believe that if that clerk had held his office at the pleasure of that judge the monstrous scene to which I have alluded could have occurred? Does anybody believe that the misdemeanors which were the subject of investigation that day would ever have taken place? Certainly not, because the clerk would say: "If I do this thing I shall be turned out of office; the judge

will remove me at once; I hold my office by his appointment, and, instead of an abortive attempt at prosecution, he will remove me from office."

Now, I would like to ask the conservative element in this body, what do you say? Are you going to keep the clerks over the judges, or will you consent to put the judges over the clerks? Somebody has got to rule; somebody must be ruled. The question is, shall the clerk rule the judge, or the judge the clerk? As it is, the clerk rules the judge. I want the judge to rule the clerk. That is about my amendment in that respect, which I submit to the Convention for consideration.

Now, again:

"But it shall not be competent for the Legislature❞—

And here I want the attention of everybody in this House-

"But it shall not be competent for the

Legislature to impose upon said judges," That is, the judges mentioned in the first article

"The choice or election of any other officers, commissioners, inspectors, superintendents or other agents, whether civil, municipal or corporate, nor to assign to said judges, or any of them, any extra judicial duties whatever; and said judges shall hold no other office, whether federal, State, municipal or corporate; nor receive any fees, rewards, perquisites, emoluments or traveling expenses, whilst holding and exercising the office of judge of any of the aforesaid courts. The general assembly may for cause, entered upon their journals, upon due notice and opportunity of defence, remove from office any judge, upon concurrence of three-fourths of all the members elected to each House. Associate judges not learned in the law

shall be continued upon the bench of the common pleas until the expiration of their respective commissions, and there

after the said office shall be and remain abolished."

One single observation upon this subject, Mr. Chairman. The Legislature of Pennsylvania, finding all other instrumentalities corrupted, committed to the judges of the Supreme Court and the pointments, confessing thereby that the judges of the common pleas these apjudges were the most reliable and honest well. It was an improvement in regard portion of the public service. to the public duties that have been performed by the judges. It shows the preservation of confidence in the judiciary. But its effect upon the judiciary was pernicious, as the effect of the introduction of any foreign element into the judiciary would be.

That was

The judges of the Supreme Court had the appointment formerly, in this city, of all the inspectors of the Eastern penitentiary, and now have of a portion of them, of the Moyamensing prison, of the almshouse board, of the health board, and I know not what amount of municipal patronage of that sort is imposed upon them. The over-worked judges of the Supreme Court, of whom we have heard so much in the last few days, were obliged to do these extra judicial duties. It exposed them necessarily to a great amount of solicitation and electioneering. It is a thing that cannot be done in court. You cannot have the names of the parties presented in open court and discussed, as you have causes

discussed, in the manner in which my friend from Allegheny supposes the question of the removal of causes should be discussed. Politicians and parties interested in having particular appointments made must be admitted to the presence of the individual judge. The effect of all this is bad, and that continually, upon the mind, and manners, and morals of the judge. I trust this Convention will never rest until they have cut up that evil by the roots.

Now, Mr. Chairman, having said all that I wish to say on that branch, I have something to say about the main question. In all the discussions that related to a Reform Convention from the time the subject was first agitated, I do not remember one single conversation that I had with any judge, lawyer or layman, in which I did not either say that if I went to the Convention I should move to