harsh criticism of some, and unscrupulous and slanderous denunciation by a few in certain communities. No five men in existence can do their best work when under constant nagging and vituperation. This has gone to an extent and been given such widespread publicity, that in localities a lack of confidence in the official integrity of members of this Commission has been engendered. This, in my opinion, is only a form of lawlessness. The interests, whether political or merely selfish, which discredit the integrity of one department of the government through constant press propaganda, can undermine a second and a third until, if unrebuked, that form of lawlessness existing in disrespect for constituted authority, will overturn an entire government. If insinuations which have been made have any basis of fact, our laws provide the method by which unworthy, incompetent or corrupt public officials may be speedily removed from office. Mr. President, may I, in conclusion, be permitted a more personal word. Men of my family connections have served Georgia, in peace and in war, for nearly a hundred and fifty years. For nearly twenty-five years I have humbly served my State, in the General Assembly and on the Railroad Commission, called to this service by a vote of the people. I have honestly striven to emulate the example of my forefathers by giving, without thought of pay, to the people and the State I love, the best service of which I was capable. During these years of service there arose many momentous issues, in the solution of which it became my duty to participate in an humble way. Only last year, I, with four colleagues, was honorably discharged by the General Assembly from an arduous duty of four years in the releasing of the State's railroad property, for a consideration of over $30,000,000, without a dollar of compensation nor the expectation of any. During my legislative service I participated actively in the enactment of legislation affecting the taxation of corporations, the termination of convict leasing by the State and the banishment of the liquor traffic from Georgia. It was frequently intimated in those days that undue influences were now and then brought to bear in some directions. It has been known to my personal friends for two years or more that it was my purpose not to be a candidate for re-election upon the expiration of my present term. No human being ever approached me during these twenty-five years with the remotest suggestion of reward or punishment, favor or threat, and it has pained me inexpressibly at the near close of these years of honest efforts at service, to become the subject of contemptible insinuation. I cannot answer these things through the medium in which they are circulated. I think too much of the dignity of my office and my own self-respect to enter into any newspaper controversy for the vindication of my character or integrity. I have made mistakes-my colleagues have all of you have. There has never been a time when I did not have manhood enough to correct them when shown to me. And there has not been, and so long as God gives me life and strength, there never will be a time when I can be intimidated or cajoled from doing what the law, my oath of office and my conscience point to as duty. I thank you gentlemen of the Georgia bar for your gracious invitation to speak to you today, extended through your honored President, my college class-mate and my much beloved friend since. THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA IN THE ASSOCIATION COMPILED BY ORVILLE A. PARK, OF MACON. In his address as President of this Association (1889) Walter B. Hill called attention to the new literature coming into existence through the instrumentality of the bar associations of the several States-"a literature," which he characterized as, "of great value, and thoroughly creditable to the associated effort which has led to its development" Ten years later, having become in the meantime the great Chancellor of the University, he said: "More important than any single utility of the Association has been the creation of a new species of legal literature. No member of the Association can fail to contemplate with pride the eighteen volumes of the reports of its proceedings. These reports are most highly esteemed and are greatly sought in other States. They contain monographs on legal topics, and valuable contributions to legal history, to the discussion of public questions, and to the literature of the law" Having served the Association in an official capacity for more than half of its thirty-eight years of life and on that account being especially conversant with its reports, the Executive Committee has asked me to prepare a paper on the Association's literature. To attempt to discuss it all, even in the briefest way, is entirely beyond the limits of a single paper. I have therefore chosen as the particular topic to present for your consideration the history of Georgia as record 1 ed in the reports, and for two reasons: First, because in no field has the literature of the Association been of greater interest or of more lasting value; and second, because this valuable historical material is in large part unavailable and practically lost, scattered as it is through thirty-eight annual reports (several of which are out of print), in addresses, papers and the reports of committees, unindexed and well nigh forgotten. Of course the Bar Association historians have been largely interested in the constitutional and legal history of the state and its military and political history are only alluded to incidentally. And each one has written on some particular topic rather than on a period of time. Some incidents or some phases of the history may be given undue emphasis or treatment out of proportion to their importance, while other and mayhap more important matters may be passed over with but scant notice. Yet I do assert that a very fair history of Georgia has been written and recorded in the annual reports of the Georgia Bar Association, and much of the legal history of the state is better told in these reports than anywhere else. When I had collected this historical material together I confess I was amazed at its scope, its volume, and its richness. I soon discovered it would be impossible to use it all, and therefore decided to confine this paper to the first sixty-seven years, from the founding of the Colony to the end of the century. It has seemed best to let these Association historians tell their own stories in their own language rather than to use the material which, with so much painstaking care, they have laboriously gathered, in the preparation of a new and an independent history. The plan adopted is after the manner of the "Historians' History of the World"-extracts from different authors being put together to form something of a connected whole. Of course the story is not so smoothly told by the lips of many as if one only had spoken. But under the plan adopted the identity of each writer is preserved—each tells his own story in his own way. Thirty-six different papers, addresses and monographs have been used in the compilation. From some of them only a paragraph, perhaps only a sentence or two, is taken, while others are used almost bodily. On some of the topics only one author has written, while in other sections almost every paragraph is taken from a different paper. In order not to break into the thread of the story quotation marks are not used and the names of the authors and references to their papers are omitted. Following each extract, however, and all are quoted almost literally, is an Arabic numeral referring to a table at the end of the paper which gives the name of the author and of his paper with a reference to the Georgia Bar Association Report in which the paper may be found. For convenience of reference, the paper being much longer than the usual Bar Association paper, a table of contents is inserted. Macon, Ga. September 1, 1921. ORVILLE A. PARK |