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Alabama was the first State to ratify the sixteenth amendment, conferring the right upon Congress to levy and collect taxes on incomes, taking action on August 17, 1909.
The seventeenth amendment, providing for the popular election of United States Sena-
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HISTORY OF ALABAMA
tors, submitted to the legislatures of the several States by resolution of Congress, May 16, 1912, was not ratified by the State of Alabama because it was proposed after the adjournment of the legislature of 1911; and a sufficient number of States having ratified before the meeting of the next session, it seemed superfluous for the legislature of 1915, two years after the amendment had become effective, to go through that form. Sentiment in the State had been favorable to its adoption, and the legislature of 1915 gave effect to its provisions by an act which became a law under section 125 of the constitution. See Congressional Representation; Recon- struction; Income Tax.
REFERENCES .- Codes, 1876, 1886, 1896, 1907; R. M. Patton, Message, Nov. 12, 1866 (1866), pp. 37-43; Constitution of the United States of America as amended to May 1, 1913 (S. Doc. 12, 63d Cong., 1st sess.); H. V. Ames, "Pro- posed amendments to the Constitution of the United States during the first century of its history" (in American Historical Association Annual report, 1896, vol. 2); Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama (1905), pp. 376-406; Mclaughlin and Hart, Cyclopedia of American Government (1914), vol. 1, pp. 417-421; Hilary A. Herbert, ed., Why the solid South? (1890), pp. 29-69; Pickett, History of Alabama (Owen's ed., 1900), pp. 712-718.
CONSTITUTIONS AND CONVENTIONS. A constitution is the supreme or fundamental law of the State, declarative of the form of government ordained and established by the people thereof, "in order to establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty" to themselves and to their posterity. It sets forth the principles upon which government is founded, dis- tributes and regulates the sovereign powers, and defines the agencies appointed for their administration. The controlling part of the instrument is declared by the courts to be the bill of rights, in which "the great, general, and essential principles of liberty and free government" are set forth.
The true ends of government and the extent and force of the enumeration of rights are thus detailed in the Constitution of 1901, viz:
"That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty and prop- erty, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression." -- Sec. 35.
"That this enumeration of certain rights shall not impair or deny others retained by the people; and, to guard against any en- croachments on the rights herein retained, we declare that everything in this declaration of rights is excepted out of the general powers of government, and shall forever remain in- violate."-Sec. 36.
Convention, 1819 .- The Alabama Terri- tory was created by act of Congress, March 3, 1817. Just two years later, less one day, March 2, 1819, Congress passed an enabling
act for the admission of the Territory into the Federal Union "on an equal footing with the original states." Elections for delegates were held in May, 1819.
The convention met in Huntsville, July 5, 1819. There were 44 delegates, each of the 22 counties having as many delegates as it had members in the Territorial House of Rep- resentatives. Madison County had 8 dele- gates. The president was John W. Walker, later chosen by the legislature one of the two first U. S. senators from the State. John Campbell was secretary. The convention ad- journed on August 2, 1819, having been in session actually 21 days. On 1910, the Twickenham Town Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, at Huntsville placed a stone marker on the site of the build- ing in which the convention was held.
"A true and attested copy" of the consti- tution (later printed as House Ex. Doc. No. 1, 8vo. pp. 24), was transmitted as required by the enabling act, and the Sixteenth Con- gress, first session, promptly passed a reso- lution "declaring the admission of the State of Alabama into the Union." President Mon- roe approved the resolution on December 14, 1819, a date now generally known as Alabama Day (q. v.)
Convention of 1819.
OFFICERS AND MEMBERS.
President .- John W. Walker, of Huntsville. Secretary .- John Campbell, of Huntsville.
Door Keeper .- Daniel Rather, of Madison county.
Autauga .- James Jackson.
Baldwin .- Harry Toulmin.
Blount .- Isaac Brown, John Brown and Gabriel Hanby.
Cahawha (now Bibb.)-Littlepage Sims.
Clarke .- Reuben Saffold and James Magoffin. Conecuh .- Samuel Cook.
Cotaco (now Morgan.)-Melkijah Vaughn and Thomas D. Crabb.
Dallas .- William Rufus King.
Franklin .- Richard Ellis and William Metcalf. Lauderdale .- Hugh McVay.
Lawrence .- Arthur Francis Hopkins and Dan- iel Wright.
Limestone=Thomas Bibb, Beverly Hughes and Nicholas Davis.
Madison .- Clement C. Clay, John Leigh Townes, Henry Chambers, Samuel Mead, Henry Minor, Gabriel Moore, John Williams Walker and John M. Taylor.
Marengo .- Washington Thompson.
Marion .- John D. Terrell.
Mobile .- Samuel H. Garrow.
Monroe .- John Murphy, John Watkins, James Pickens and Thomas Wiggins.
Montgomery .- John Dandridge Bibb and James W. Armstrong.
St. Clair .- David Conner.
Shelby .- George Phillips and Thomas A. Rodgers.
Tuscaloosa .- Marmaduke Williams and John L. Tindal.
Washington .- Israel Pickens and Henry Hitchcock.
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HISTORY OF ALABAMA
Convention, 1861 .- The growth of sectional feeling, and the sense of fear that the Re- publican Party might win in the presidential elections of 1860, produced a very general feeling throughout the South that withdrawal from the Federal Union was the only possible remedy for existing political ills. The leaders in Alabama were fully alive to the gravity of the crisis, and the legislature, February 24, 1860, adopted joint resolutions requiring the governor to call a convention of the people in the event of the "election of a president advocating the principles and actions of the party in the Northern States calling itself the Republican Party." Alabama's electoral vote was cast for Breckenridge and Lane. How- ever, the Republican Party was successful. The electoral college convened and events moved swiftly. Gov. Andrew B. Moore, an ardent secessionist, as directed by the joint resolutions above referred to, issued a call for a convention, and ordered an election to be held on December 24, 1860. He directed that the delegates come together in a "con- vention of the State to consider, determine and to do whatever in the opinion of said con- vention, the rights, interests and honor of the State of Alabama require to be done for their protection."
The convention assembled in the city of Montgomery. It held its sessions in the hall of the house of representatives. The delibera- tlons began on January 7, 1861. Organiza- tion was quickly effected, the Secessionists winning over the Cooperationists, and elect- ing William M. Brooks, as president, and Wil- liam M. Fowler as secretary. The great issue was immediate secession. The subject was debated at length. The city of Montgomery was a seething political community, and pop- ular discussion rivaled the debates in the con- vention. After an earnest struggle by the opposition, on January 11, 1861, a vote was taken, adopting by a vote of 61 to 39, "An ordinance to dissolve the union between the State of Alabama and other States under the compact 'The Constitution of the United States.'" This action reflected the historic position, not only of Alabama, but also of the whole South, on the subject of the rela- tion of the States to the government of the United States. The Federal constitution was a compact, and the States could at will with- draw and dissolve it whenever in their dis- cretion the exigency might demand.
The acknowledged leader in that body, made up of many men of distinction, was Wil- liam Lowndes Yancey, easily the greatest orator and popular leader of the period. Hon. Robert Jemison, jr., a colleague in the con- vention from Tuscaloosa County, and later the successor to Mr. Yancey in the Confed- erate States Senate, paid tribute to him in the Alabama State Senate, 1863, "as the la- mented Yancey, whose eloquence and perse- verance in the cause of Southern rights contributed more largely than the efforts of any other man to bring about our separation from the old Federal Union."
The convention continued its labors, and adopted a number of general changes in the
constitution of 1819. Among these was a pro- vision for annual instead of biennial sessions. On March 13, the constitution of the Con- federate States was ratified, and March 21, 1861, the convention adjourned. The con- stitution was not submitted for ratification. This failure was the subject of bitter criti- cism from many quarters.
Convention of 1861.
OFFICERS AND MEMBERS.
President .- William M. Brooks, of Marion.
Secretary .- Wm. H. Fowler, of Tuscaloosa, who resigned and was succeeded by A. G. Horn, of Mobile.
Assistant Secretary .- Frank L. Smith, of Montgomery.
Door Keeper .- Robert H. Wynn.
Autauga .- George Rives, Sr.
Barbour .- John Cochran, Alpheus Baker, J. W. Daniel.
Mr. Daniel resigned and was succeeded by Jefferson Buford.
Baldwin .- Joseph Silver.
Bibb .- James W. Crawford.
Blount .- John S. Brasher, William H. Ed- wards.
Butler .- S. J. Bolling, John McPherson.
Calhoun .- D. T. Ryan, J. M. Crook, G. C. Whatley.
Chambers .- James F. Dowdell, William H. Barnes.
Cherokee .- Henry C. Sanford, Wm. L. Whit- lock, John Potter, John P. Ralls.
Choctaw .- S. E. Catterlin, A. J. Curtis.
Clarke .- Origen Sibley Jewett.
Coffee .- Gappa T. Yelverton.
Conecuh .- John Green.
Coosa .- George Taylor, J. B. Leonard, Albert Crumpler.
Covington .- DeWitt C. Davis.
Dale .- D. B. Creech, James Mckinney.
Dallas .- John T. Morgan, William S. Phillips.
DeKalb .- Wm. O. Winston, J. H. Franklin.
Fayette .- Benjamin W. Wilson, Elliott P. Jones.
Franklin .- John A. Steele, R. S. Watkins.
Greene .- James D. Webb, Thomas H. Herndon. Henry .- H. E. Owens, T. T. Smith.
Jackson .- John R. Coffey, J. P. Timberlake, W. A. Hood.
Jefferson .- William S. Earnest.
Lauderdale .- Sidney C. Posey, Henry C. Jones. Lawrence .- David P. Lewis, James S. Clark.
Limestone .- Joshua P. Coman, Thomas J. Mc- Clellan.
Lowndes .- James S. Williamson, James G. Gilchrist.
Macon .- Samuel Henderson, O. R. Blue, J. H. Foster.
Madison .- Nicholas Davis, Jeremiah Clemens. Marengo .- William E. Clarke.
Marshall .- Arthur C. Beard, James L. Shef- field.
Marion .- Lang C. Allen, W. Steadham.
Mobile .- John Bragg, George A. Ketchum, Ed- mund S. Dargan, H. G. Humphries.
Monroe .- Lyman Gibbons.
Montgomery .- William L. Yancey, Thomas H. Watts.
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HISTORY OF ALABAMA
Mr. Yancey resigned to accept the appoint- ment as the head of the Confederate Commis- sicn to Europe, and was succeeded by Col. J. C. B. Mitchell, of Mount Meigs .- Journal, p. 170.
Morgan .- Jonathan Ford.
Perry .- William M. Brooks, James F. Bailey.
Pickens .- Lewis M. Stone, W. H. Davis.
Pike .- Eli W. Starke, J. A. Henderson, A. P. Love.
Randolph .- H. M. Gray, George Forrester, R.
J. Wood.
Russell .- R. O. Howard, Benjamin H. Baker. Shelby .- George D. Shortridge, J. M. McClan- ahan.
St. Clair .- John W. Inzer.
Sumter .- Augustus A. Coleman.
Talladega .- N. D. Johnson, A. R. Barclay, M.
G. Slaughter.
Tallapoosa .- A. Kimball, Michael J. Bulger,
T. J. Russell.
Tuscaloosa .- Robert Jemison, Jr., William R. Smith.
Walker .- Robert Guttrey.
Washington .- J. G. Hawkins.
Wilcox .- Franklin King Beck.
Winston .- Charles C. Sheets.
Convention, 1865 .- The close of hostilities, and the surrender of the military department of which Alabama formed a part, May 4, 1865, left the State without a civil government recognized by the Federal authorities until June 21 of that year. On that date President Andrew Johnson by formal proclamation named Lewis E. Parsons as provisional gov- ernor, charged generally with the duty of organizing the machinery of local govern- ment, and as far as possible securing to the people civil and political rights. The gover- nor was directed to call a convention author- ized to exercise all the powers necessary and proper to enable the loyal people of Alabama to restore the State to its constitutional re- lations to the Federal government. In ac- cordance with the proclamation of Gov. Par- sons, dated July 20, 1865, an election was held on August 31, 1865, for delegates.
The convention assembled in Montgomery on September 12, 1865, and adjourned on the 30th of the same month. Its president was Benjamin Fitzpatrick, and its secretary, Wil- liam H. Ogbourne. Among other things the convention ratified the laws of the legislature passed since January 11, 1861, declared that "hereafter there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this State, otherwise than for the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall be duly convicted," declared it to be the duty of the legislature, at its next session, "to pass such laws as will pro- tect the freedmen of this State in the full enjoyment of all the rights of person and property, and guard them and the State against any evils that may arise from their sudden emancipation," it divided the State into six Congressional districts in accordance with the apportionment authorized by the census of 1860, declared null and void the or- dinances and proceedings of the secession convention, where in conflict with the con- stitution of the United States, declared void
all debts claimed by the State in aid of the War directly or indirectly, provided for the payment of interest on the bonded debt of the State, ratified marriage between freedmen and freedwomen, and declared the ordinances of secession null and void. An election for state, county and municipal officers and for members of Congress was provided to be held on the first Monday in November, 1865.
The convention adopted a resolution recit- ing that "Whereas, the people of the State of Alabama, have taken and subscribed, the oath of amnesty, as provided in the presi- dent's proclamation, of May 29th, 1865, and have given other and unmistaken evidence of loyalty; and this convention having com- plied with the conditions and requirements necessary to restore the said State to its con- stitutional relations to the Federal Govern- ment," and requesting the president "to direct the removal from this State of all United States forces, except the garrison on the coast." The resolutions just referred indi- cated the spirit of the people, and there was a general feeling that the State was fully re- stored to its original constitutional relations. The public accepted the situation in good faith.
The convention had hardly adjourned be- fore there was a vigorous clamor on the part of the North for the adoption of a new policy of "reconstruction." This in part grew out of differences between President Andrew Johnson and the federal congress and partly from a bitter feeling of hate fomented by fanatical leaders of northern opinion. Out of this feeling grew what was known as the congressional plan of reconstruction, and it further practically coerced the decisions of the supreme court of the United States and of the state courts. As a direct result the constitution of 1865 was declared a nullity. In the case of Scruggs v. Mayor of Huntsville, 45 Ala., p. 220, it was held by Mr. Justice Thomas Peters, that, since the constitution of 1865 was not operative, the state was referred to its ante-secession status.
Another case, Noble & Bro. v. Cullom & Co., 44 Ala. p. 555, sets forth with considerable detail the extreme opinion held by the radical element of the Republican party, a position which has since been historically repudiated. An extract is given as illustrative of the rea- soning adopted by Judge Peters
"Congress had authority to pass that sys- tem of laws commonly called the recon- struction acts; and these acts are binding on this court. These acts denounce the govern- ment attempted to be set up in this State under the provisional government which fol- lowed the suppression of the rebellion, as illegal. The congress refused to acknowledge this government as legal. It rejected its senators and representatives from the halls of legislation of the nation. It was repudiated, and another government was ordered to be formed and established in its stead. This was done. The convention, then, of the 12th of September, 1865, was an assembly without competent authority to make a constitution for the State, or to legislate for its people. So
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HISTORY OF ALABAMA
far, then, as its ordinances for the ratification of certain laws therein named, and certain acts and judgments, and other proceedings therein mentioned are involved, they are nullities; unless the same have been re- enacted or adopted by the present rightful and lawful government of this State .- Rev. Code, p. 53, Ord. No. 5; ib. p. 58, Ord. No. 26. The constitution framed by the conven- tion of the 12th of September, 1865, was never submitted to any vote of the people, and it was never adopted by them. It was never the constitution of the State. The people alone are the constitution-makers."
The opinions in these cases were delivered in 1870 and 1871, two years and more after the constitution of 1868 had been imposed upon the state by congress, and except in a few cases involving similar facts, they could have no material bearing. Practically, how- ever, the constitution of 1865 was operative until supplanted by congressional reconstruc- tion. The entire machinery of state, county and municipal government had been put in motion and successfully continued; two ses- sions of the legislature had been held, 1865- 66, and 1866-67; new counties had been created; courts had been held, property rights adjudicated and criminals sentenced; the people had married and given in marriage, and estates had been settled; the pledges of the people as to slavery in reference to the ne- gro had been faithfully kept; and all other functions of an orderly government in a high and refined state of society had been carried on. These things could not be recalled. Time itself had intervened with its healing, and irrespective of the barriers interposed by un- friendly legislation, biased judicial opinions, and partisan executive interference, events were rapdly moving to the great uprising of 1874 when the usurpers were overthrown.
Convention of 1865. OFFICERS AND MEMBERS.
President .- Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Autauga county.
Secretary .- Wm. H. Ogbourne, of Tuscaloosa. Autauga .- Benjamin Fitzpatrick.
Baldwin .- J. H. Hastie:
Barbour .- Green Beauchamp, M. M. Glenn and B. B. Mckenzie.
Bibb .- Jackson Gardner.
Blount .- William H. Edwards and J. C. Gillespie.
Butler .- Walter H. Crenshaw and M. C. Lane. Calhoun .- John Foster, Isaac P. Moragne, Joseph C. McAuley.
Chambers .- Toliver Towles and Jonathan Ware.
Cherokee .- Thomas B. Cooper, John Law- rence, Henry C. Sanford and John Porter. Choctaw .- Thomas Wilkes Coleman and Joshua Morse.
Clarke .- Samuel Forwood.
Coffee .- John G. Moore.
Conecuh .- Wm. A. Ashley.
Coosa .- Daniel Crawford, C. M. Cabot and Wm. A. Wilson.
Covington .- Julius G. Robinson.
Dale .- J. C. Mathews and Ransom Deal.
Dallas .- John S. Hunter and Thomas M. Mat- thews.
DeKalb .- William O. Winston and Alfred Collins.
Fayette .- Elliott Priest Jones, W. W. Wilson. Franklin .- Christopher C. Tompkins, and J Burns Moore.
Greene .- William P. Webb and A. S. Jeffries. Henry .- William H. Wood.
Jackson .- Bailey Bruce, W. J. B. Padgett and James Williams.
Jefferson .- William S. Mudd.
Lauderdale-Robert M. Patton and James Irvine.
Lawrence .- James B. Speake and James S. Clark.
Limestone,-Joshua P. Coman and Thomas J. ) McClellan.
Lowndes .- George C. Freeman and James F. Clements.
Macon .- Linn B. Sanders, J. T. Crawford and R. H. Howard.
Madison .- John N. Drake and Peter M. Dox. Marengo .- James Taylor Jones.
Marion .- J. F. Morton and G. M. Haley.
Marshall .- James J. Sheffield and Albert G. Henry.
Mobile .- Charles C. Langdon, James Bond, Gipson Y. Overall, and Charles P. Gage. Monroe .- S. J. Cumming.
Montgomery .- John A. Elmore, and Elisha Y. Fair.
Morgan .- John T. Rather.
Perry .- Columbus W. Lea and James F. Bailey.
Pickens .- Martin L. Stansel and Robert Henry.
Pike .- Levi Freeman, M. B. Locke and E. S. Owens.
Randolph .- J. H. Davis, Robert T. Smith, and George Forrester.
Russell .- A. B. Griffith and George D. Hooper. Shelby .- James T. Leeper and N. B. Mardis St. Clair .- C. G. Beeson.
Sumter .- John A. Winston.
Talladega .- Joseph D. McCann, Andrew Cun- ningham, and Alexander White.
Tallapoosa .- Wm. J. Boone, Early Greathouse, and D. H. Thrasher.
Tuscaloosa .- Moses McGuire and John C. Foster.
Walker .- Benjamin M. Long.
Washington .- William H. Coleman.
Wilcox .- Aaron Burr Cooper.
Winston .- Charles C. Sheets.
Convention, 1867 .- As stated in the pre- ceding paragraph, every step was taken by the convention of 1865 to meet the demands of the president and Congress, and the people in full appreciation of their renewed obliga- tions to the government, were everywhere sympathetic and loyal. However, the attitude of the Republican Party then dominant in the North, was wholly hostile to the policy which had obtained in the treatment of the Confederate States. In order to make clear the attitude of the State, the legislature, Feb- ruary 22, 1866, adopted resolutions approv- ing the policy of President Johnson, and de-
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HISTORY OF ALABAMA
nouncing "those who represent our views and intentions to be different, as cruel and crim- inal assaults on our character and our interest." The legislature lamented the presence in the State of "persons whose interests were temporarily promoted by such false representations," and promises of the State were renewed to treat the negro race "with justice, humanity and good faith," and protesting that to compel the State to further change "the adjustment of political views as fixed by the constitution," would be a breach of power altogether unjustifiable.
The refusal of Congress to recognize the good faith of the people of the Southern States, and the determination to relegate them to a condition of military dependence found expression in an act of March 2 and another passed supplementary thereto on March 23, 1867. These acts were only passed over the presidential veto. The false assump- tion was made in the preamble that "no legal state government or adequate protection for life or property now existed in the rebel states," etc. The phrase rebel states per- sistently used throughout the act was ex- tremely offensive to the high minded people of Alabama, and its use, and well as the sub- sequent conduct of Congress in its efforts to reconstruct the South, was bitterly resented, and persistently fought. The establishment of military governments throughout the South anticipated the determination of provisional veto that this section of the union would be under "the absolute domination of military rulers." The act in question anticipated a convention to form a new State constitution, to conform to the ideals and political theories of the new order. On October 1, 2 and 3, an election was held to determine the question of holding the convention. The registered vote of the State was 165,813, 95,866 votes were cast, and 90,283 were cast for the hold- ing of a convention, according to an order of Major-General John Pope, U. S. A., under date of October 12, 1867. Delegates were elected at the same time. Col. H. A. Herbert, a distinguished citizen of the State, in Why the Solid South, p. 45 thus describes this con- vention and its work:
"The convention to frame a new constitu- tion met on the 5th of November, 1867, and it was a remarkable assemblage. Some of its members were Alabamians, intent on the best government that might be possible; others were natives of the state, with not a thought beyond self; many were negroes, for the most part densely ignorant, and many were Northern men, who, having failed in life at home, had come South to seek their fortunes in politics, carrying all their worldly possessions in grip-sacks, 'carpet-baggers.' In a Democratic newspaper, the place of nativity of ninety-seven out of a hundred members of the convention purports to have been given; thirty-one of them being from Vermont, Con- necticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Canada and Scotland. The debates in the convention on
disfranchising certain classes of whites, on mixed schools, intermarriage of the races, and other questions were exciting and inflamma- tory. These discussions, duly reported by the newspapers of the day, were read throughout the State with the deepest concern. An over- whelming majority of the constituency of this convention was colored, and it had not been long in session before it became quite clear that the black man's party was in con- trol. The fact, that had begun to dawn on Mr. Greeley even at his distance, in Alabama was startling.
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