Page:The World's Most Famous Court Trial - 1925.djvu/105

Rh the body of the act. Therefore, I am content to overuleoverrule [sic] this ground.

(b) In that it violates Section 12, Article 11 of the constitution of Tennessee which reads as follows:

"Section 12—Education to be cherished; common school fund; poll tax; whites and negroes; colleges, etc., rights of—knowledge, learning and virtue, being essential to the preservation of republican institutions, and the diffusion of the opportunities and advantages of education throughout the different portions of the state, being highly conducive to the promotion of this end, it shall be the duty of the general assembly in all future periods of this government to cherish literature and science. And the funds called the common school fund and all the lands and proceeds thereof, dividends, stocks and other property of every description whatever, heretofore by law appropriated by the general assembly of this state for the use of common schools, and all such as shall hereafter be appropriated, shall remain a perpetual fund, the principal of which shall never be diminished by legislative appropriations; and the interest thereof shall be inviolably appropriated to the support and encouragement of common schools throughout the state, and for the equal benefit of all the people thereof; and no law shall be made authorizing said fund or any part thereof to be diverted to any other use than the support and encouragement of common schools. The state taxes, derived hereafter from polls shall be appropriated to educational purposes, in such manner as the general assembly shall from time to time direct by law. No school established or aided under this section shall allow white and negro children to be received as scholars together in the same school. The above provisions shall not prevent the legislature from carrying into effect any laws that have been passed in favor of the colleges, universities or academies, or from authorizing heirs or distributees to receive and enjoy escheated property under such laws as may be passed from time to time."

It is not seriously insisted by the defendant in this case that the indictment should be quashed on this ground. But that there may be no doubt as to the defendant's rights under this section, I will briefly state the law relative thereto.

This section of the constitution makes it the express duty of every general assembly, at all times, to foster, and cherish literature and science. As one of the chief means of accomplishing this most important purpose, the constitution contemplated the establishment of a common school system, and provided the common school fund. But this provision of the constitution is merely directory to the legislature and indicates the popular feeling and the public policy of the people of the state on this great question.

The courts are not concerned in questions of public policy or the motive that prompts the passage or enactment of any particular legislation. The policy, motive or wisdom of the statutes address themselves to the legislative department of the state, and not the judicial department. Therefore, this court has no concern and no jurisdiction to pass upon this question, and is contented to overrule on this ground.

(c) In that it violates Section 18, Article 2 of the constitution of the state of Tennessee, which reads as follows:

"Sec. 18. Of the Passage of Bills—Every bill shall be read once, on three different days, and be passed each time in the house where it originated, before transmission to the other. No bill shall become a law until it shall have been read and passed, on three different days in each house, and shall have received on its final passage in each house, the assent of a majority of all the members to which that house shall be entitled under this constitution; and shall have been signed by the respective speakers in open session, the fact of such signing to be noted on the journal; and shall