This is not really creating a new office.
It is merely re-distributing duties that are
now performed under another name, and so
far from increasing expenses to the State, it is
saving expenses. It is true that so far as this
report of the comptroller shows, the expense
for the last fourteen years for these duties
have not averaged much over $1,800 a year.
But last year it was considerably in excess of
$3,000. But the report does not include
those cases in which gentleman have been
employed by the treasury department and
have received commissions out of moneys
collected for the State, I know that one gen-
tleman under the late comptroller received a
very considerable commission; not too much,
for it was a very valuable service which he
performed, in regard lo matters of that sort,
whenever that kind of compensation is inside
it is not contained in the report of the comp-
troller or treasurer. Now if you take into
account the commissions which have been
paid for these services, it will amount to
much more than $1,800 a year.
Now you must have for attorney general a
man who is accustomed to trying cases, or
he will nut be fit tor the office. And any man
who hies agood practice trying cases makes a
considerable sum of money every 'year by
trying cases against the State. But it' such a
mail accept? thin office, he must give up entirely
that portion of his practice. Talking all
these things into consideration, I believe a
competent attorney general at three thousand
dollars a year will be a saving to the State of
at least a thousand dollars a year.
Mr. EDELEN. I would ask the gentleman
from Baltimore city (Mr. Stirling) if in his
opinion, the duties which this attorney gen-
eral will be required to perform will be suffi-
cient to occupy all his time? In other words,
would he not have time to transact and attend
to considerable private practice?
Mr. STIRLING. I suppose he would have
some time. But no man will be willing to
engage himself as the permanent counsel of the
State, unless be gets a competent salary, for
it will greatly affect his practice. There are
many lawyers who receive from five hundred
to a thousand dollars a year from criminal
practice alone. If a man takes the position
of attorney general he must resign all that
portion of his practice, because be cannot
take a case against the State. Then the
attorney general would necessarily be requir-
ed to reside in Annapolis a great deal of the
time during the session of the legislature, and
would have to pay board while here, and he
must also go about the State a great deal.
In regard ,to the necessity of such an office
as this, I think every one who has panel, any
attention to the subject. has been convinced
.of the vices of the present system. The gov
ernor has absolute discretion to employ any
counsel, and any number of counsel he
pleases; and so with other officers of the |
State. .And it 'has become a sort of favor-
itism to reward certain lawyers. And it baa
got to be the practice that no man comes
.down here to perform such services for the
legislature but what he expects his five hun-
dred or his thousand dollars. And every man
considers it a sort of grab at the treasury , as
the only kind or instance of that service that
he will get from the State, and be therefore
considers himself entitled to a good fee. And
besides the opinion of a man who has no offi-
cial responsibility is not such an opinion as
the State-is entitled to. The opinion of such
a man is not matter of record to the ex-
tent that the opinions of the attorney gen-
eral would be. Besides that, you now have
half a dozen men, one of!' whom may give one
opinion and another give another opinion,
which will control the action of the State
authorities upon the same subject in the
course of two or three years. But by having
this officer, you at least secure uniformity of
opinion during the term of his office.
Besides that there is a supervision exer-
cised over the State's attorneys. This does
not go back to the old system, but secures
advice and co-operation in such a manner as
to give us a uniformity in the criminal ad-
ministration of the State. As it is now,
with the different views that may be taken
by different State's attorneys in regard to
criminal law, one man may be acquitted by
one State's attorney in one county, and an-
other convicted by another in the next county,
on the same charge. It is an anomaly that
the criminal administration of the State of
Maryland should be represented by twenty-
one different officers. This office unites the
judicial system of the State so far as re-
sponsibility is concerned. And I am of the
opinion that if you give this officer three
thousand dollars a year you will save at
least a thousand dollars a year to the State,
if not more. •
Mr. BOND. There is one thing to be said ;
it is made the duty of the attorney general to
try all cases in which the State is interested,
in the supreme court of the United States, as
well as elsewhere, and I suppose his travel-
ling expenses, and expenses at Washington
Will amount to at least five hundred dollars
a year.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I suppose that any one
at all familiar with the legal business of the
State, must feel the absolute necessity of the
office proposed in this report. Without any
disrespect to those officers, it is a notorious
fact that the State's attorneys in some of the
counties are far from being qualified to discharge
the duties which devolve upon them,
even in the local trials there. And when the
cases which they have tried there come up
here to the court of appeals, they are utterly
incompetent to, follow them up here and try
them. The consequence is that it has been a
necessity forced upon our governors almost |
