USA > Alabama > Memorial record of Alabama. A concise account of the state's political, military, professional and industrial progress, together with the personal memoirs of many of its people. Volume I > Part 5
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
ADMISSION OF THE STATE OF ALABAMA, 1819.
On the 2d March, 1819, was approved the act for the admission of Ala- bama, an act whose provisions are so important and so compact that they should be reproduced without abridgment:
An act to enable the people of Alabama territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admisson of such state into the union, on an equal footing with the original states.
1. Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States in congress assembled, That the inhabitants of the territory of Alabama be, and they are hereby, authorized to form for themselves a constitution and state government, and to assume such name as they may deem proper; and that the said territory, when formed into a state, shall be admitted into the union upon the same footing with the original states, in all respects whatsoever.
2. And be it further enacted, That the said state shall consist of all the territory within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning at the point where the thirty-first degree of north latitude intersects the Perdido river; thence east to the western boundary line of the state of Georgia; thence along said line to the southern boundary line of the state of Ten- nessee; thence west along said boundary line to the Tennessee river; thence up the same to the mouth of Bear creek; thence, by a direct line,. to the northwest corner of Washington county; thence. due south, to the gulf of Mexico; thence, eastwardly, including all islands within six leagues of the shore to the Perdido river; and thence, up the same, to the beginning.
3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the surveyor of the lands of the United States south of the state of Tennessee and the surveyor of the public lands in the Alabama territory, to run and cut out the line of demarkation between the state of Mississippi and the state to be formed of the Alabama territory; and if i: should appear to said survey- ors, that so much of said line designated in the preceding section, running due south, from the northwest corner of Washington county to the gulf of Mexico, will encroach on the counties of Wayne, Green or Jackson, in said state of Mississippi, then the same shall be so altered so as to run in a direct line from the northwest corner of Washington county to a point on the gulf of Mexico ten miles east of the river Pascagoula.
4. And be it further enacted, That all male citizens of the United States, who shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and have resided in said territory three months previous to the day of election, and all persons having in other respects the legal qualifications to vote for representatives in the general assembly of the said territory be, and they are hereby, authorized to choose representatives to form a constitu. tion, who shall be appointed among the several counties as follows: For the county of Madison, eight representatives.
For the county of Monroe, four representatives.
For the county of Blount, three representatives.
For the county of Limestone, three representatives.
For the county of Shelby, three representatives.
For the county of Montgomery, two representatives.
For the county of Washington, two representatives.
For the county of Tuscaloosa, two representatives.
For the county of Lawrence, two representatives.
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POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
For the county of Franklin, two representatives.
For the county of Cotaco, two representatives (afterward Morgan).
For the county of Clarke, two representatives.
For the county of Baldwin, one representative.
For the county of Cahawba, one representative.
For the county of Conecuh, one representative.
For the county of Dallas, one representative.
For the county of Marengo, one representative.
For the county of Marion, one representative.
For the county of Mobile, one representative.
For the county of Lauderdale, one representative.
For the county of St. Clair, one representative.
For the county of Autauga, one representative
And the election for representatives aforesaid shall be holden on the first Monday and Tuesday in May next, throughout the several counties in the said territory and shall be conducted in the same manner, and under the same regulations, as prescribed by the laws of the said terri- tory, regulating elections therein for the members of the house of repre- sentatives.
5. And be it further enacted, That the members of the convention thus duly elected be, and they are hereby authorized to meet at the town of Huntsville on the first Monday, in July next; which convention, when met, shall first determine by a majority of the whole number elected, whether it be or be not expedient, at that time, to form a constitution and state government for the people within the said territory; and if it be determined to be expedient, the convention shall be, and hereby are, authorized to form a constitution and state government: Provided, That the same, when formed, shall be republican, and not repugnant to the principles of the ordinance of the thirteenth of July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, between the people and states of the territory northwest of the river Ohio, so far as the same has been extended to the said territory, by the articles of agreement between the United States and the state of Georgia, or of the constitution of the United States.
6. And be it further enacted, That the following propositions be, and the same are hereby offered to the conveniton of the said territory of Alabama, when formed, for their free acceptance or rejection, which, if accepted by the convention, shall be obligatory upon the United States:
First. That the section numbered sixteen in every township, and when such section has been sold, granted, or disposed of, other lands equiva- lent thereto, and most contiguous to the same, shall be granted to the inhabitants for the use of schools.
Second. That all salt springs within the said territory, and the lands reserved for the use of the same, together with such other lands as may, by the president of the United States, be deemed necessary and proper for working the said salt springs, not exceeding in the whole the quan- tity contained in thirty-six entire sections. shall be granted to the said state, for the use of the said state, the same to be used under such terms, conditions and regulations as the legislature of the said state shall direct: Provided, That said legislature shall never sell nor lease the same for a longer term than ten years at any one time.
Third. That five per cent. of the net proceeds of the lands lying within the said territory, and which shall be sold by congress, from and after the first day of September, in the year one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, after deducting all expenses incident to the same. shall be
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
reserved for making public roads, canals, and improving the navigation of rivers, of which three-fifths shall be applied to those objects within the said state under the direction of the legislature thereof, and two-fifths to the making of a road or roads leading to the said state, under the direction of congress.
Fourth. That thirty-six sections. or one entire township, to be desig- nated by the secretary of the treasury, under the direction of the presi- dent of the United States, together with the one heretofore reserved for that purpose, shall be reserved for the use of a seminary of learning, and vested in the legislature of the said state to be appropriated solely to the use of such seminary by the legislature. And the secretary of the treas- / ury, under the direction as aforesaid, may reserve the seventy-two sec- tions, or two townships, hereby set apart for the support of a seminary of learning, in small tracts: Provided, That no tract shall consist of less than two sections. And provided always, That the said convention shall provide, by an ordinance irrevocable without the consent of the United States, that the people inhabiting the same territory do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the waste or unappropri- ated lands lying within said territory; and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States; and, more- over, that each and every tract of land sold by the United States, after the first day of September, in the year one thousand eight hundred and nineteen. shall be and remain exempt from any tax laid by the order, or under the authority, of the state, whether for state, county, township, parish, or any other purpose whatever, for the term of five years from and after the respective days of the sales thereof; and that the lands belonging to the citizens of the United States, residing without the said state, shall never be taxed higher than the lands belonging to persons residing therein; and that no tax shall be imposed on lands, the property of the United States; and that all navigable waters within the said state shall forever remain public highways, free to the citizens of said state, and of the United States, without any tax, duty, impost or toll therefor, imposed by the said state.
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Seventh. And be it further enacted, That in lieu of a section of land, provided to be reserved for the seat of government of the said territory, by an act entitled, "An act respecting the surveying and sale of the public lands in the Alabama territory," there be granted to the said state, . for the seat of government thereof, a tract of land containing sixteen hundred and twenty acres, and consisting of sundry fractions and a quar- ter section, in sections thirty-one and thirty two in township sixteen, and range ten, and in sections five and six, in township fifteen, and range ten, and in sections twenty-nine and thirty, in the same township and range, lying on the both sides of the Alabama and Cahawba rivers, and including the mouth of the river Cahawba, and which heretofore has been reserved from public sale by order of the president of the United States.
Eighth. And be it further enacted, That, until the next general cen- sus, the said state shall be entitled to one representative in the house of representatives of the United States.
Ninth. And be it further enacted, That in case the said convention shall form a constitution and state government for the people of the terri- tory of Alabama, the said convention, as soon thereafter as may be, shall cause a true and attested copy of such constituiton to be transmitted to congress for its approbation.
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POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
The forty-four delegate selected under the provisions of this act assem- bled in convention at Huntsville, July 5th, 1819, and organized with John W. Walker of Madison as president, and John Campbell as secretary. The labors of the convention, which terminated on the 2d of August, resulted in the production of a constitution which was duly forwarded for the approval of congress. In the meantime, in order to prepare for the organization of the new government, an election was held for the choice of members of the general assembly. a governor, and representatives in congress. The first general assembly thus chosen, consisting of forty- five representatives and twenty-two senators, was convened at Huntsville, October 25, 1819, and on the 9th of November, William Wyatt Bibb, the only governor of the Alabama territory, who had been chosen the first governor of the new state, was duly inaugurated. On the 14th of Decem- ber, President Monroe approved the four resolutions of congress admit- ting Alabama into the union. Thus at the close of the year 1819, the state of Alabama, fully endowed with all the high attributes incident to her changed relations, entered upon a career of rapid growth and almost unexampled prosperity. Before the close of the year 1820, her popula- tion had increased to one hundred and twenty-seven thousand nine hun- dred souls, and, in less than seven years, natural increase, together with immigration, had swelled that number to 244,000. In 1830, the total was 309,756, and in 1844, 625,000.
EARLY INFLUENCES WHICH SHAPED LEGISLATION.
This population came in the main from the states of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, and while no distinct ascend- ency can be awarded to those who came from any one of these states. we are told that, in the early days, when the general assembly met, it was not difficult to tell what state a man came from by his ideas of legislation. From Mr. Garrett's "Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama" we learn that "The man from Georgia was very apt to inquire for Prince's Digest, and was altering the law so as to introduce some change in unison with the statutes of that state The Georgians were opposed to the judicial system of Alabama generally, especially the supreme and chancery courts, preferring the Georgia plan of a 'special jury,' instead of the tribunals where no jury trials existed. * * The Virginians were a different class, and probably manifested-more of the old state leaven than others. Not a great many of Virginians, comparatively, sought places in the legislature. They came to Alabama mostly as planters. wealthy, inde- pendent, and little disposed to engage in the scramble for place. But it was easy to distinugish them; for they had little use for any other law beyond the 'Revised Statutes of 1819,' and the laws therein, especially those relating to descents; and in other respects looking to the improve- ment of the laws of Alabama by engrafting the provisions of the Virginia
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
code, which had, in part, the sanctity of a hundred years to recommend them. * * The South Carolinians were less wedded to their state legis- lation, and were less marked in that respect, while they frequently inquired for the statutes at large of that state, and examined with atten- tion that portion relating to marriage contracts. As a class they were enlightened and well informed upon the general scope of legislation, and contributed no little to an improvement of the laws of Alabama, though they did not favor a penitentiary system, or the law of divorce-things unknown in the statutes of South Carolina. Tennesseeans were generally known by their reference to 'Haywood's Digest,' or that of a later date by Caruthers and Nicholson, and were in favor of engrafting upon our system the Tennessee laws for the redemption of real estate; and every member originally from that state voted for the bill making that pro- vision, which was proposed by a Tennesseean, and they all rejoiced when the bill became a law, and that notions of Tennessee jurisprudence had obtained in favor of unfortunate debtors in Alabama. They were also generally in favor of changing the mode of assessing the taxes, so as to conform to the laws and practice of the old state, making it the duty of a justice of the peace in each beat to assess, etc. The North Carolinians were proud of their state for its fixed, steady habits and prin- ciples, and of the character of the men whose names adorned her annals, as Gaston, Stanly, Bulger, Haywood, Macon, Manginn and others, not to mention those who distinguished themselves in the revolutionary period of 1776." In this connection it may be instructive to note the nativity of the able men who framed the first constitution of the state, so far as the places of their birth can be ascertained. Clement C. Clay, Henry Cham- bers, Henry Minor, John W. Walker, John M. Taylor, John Watkins, Thomas Bibb, Nicholas Davis, Arthur F. Hopkins and Richard Ellis were all from Virginia; Gabriel Moore, John Murphy, George Phillips, Israel Pickens, Marmaduke Williams and William R. King were from North , Carolina; John Brown and Hugh McVay were from South Carolina; Reuben Saffold was from Georgia; Henry Hitchcock was from Vermont; Harry Toulmin was from Taunton, England. The remaining members, John Leigh Townes, Samuel Mead. James Pickens, Thomas Wiggins, Isaac Brown. Gabriel Hanby, Beverly Hughes. Thomas A. Rogers, John D. Bibb, James W. Armstrong, John L. Tindall, Daniel Wright, William Metcalf, Melkijah Vaughan, Thomas D. Crabb, James McGoffin, Little- page Sims. Samuel Cook, Washington Thompson, John D. Terrell. David Conner, James Jackson and S. H. Garrow have not been fortunate enough to have their birth-places recorded in the state's history. The men who dominated the convention were no doubt from Virginia and North Caro- lina. The sub-committee which drafted the instrument was composed of William R. King of North Carolina, John M. Taylor of Virginia, and Henry Hitchcock of Vermont. It is not strange then that the constitu- tion thus constructed, while it was fully in accord with the spirit of the
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POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
age, should have restated all of the general principles of the ancient freedom in their simplest and purest form.
THE FRENCH COLONY IN MARENGO.
In considering the various elements which entered into the population of the state at the time of its organization, some reference should be made to a colony which was planted by a band of French exiles, of high degree, who determined to settle in the district of country now known as the county of Marengo. These exiles, who had been driven from France by an ordinance of Louis XVIII. on account of their devotion to Napo- leon, who was then in exile at St. Helena, upon their arrival in Philadel- phia in the winter of 1816-17, at once dispatched one of their number to Washington in order to procure from congress a tract of land upon which they could settle in a body. In response to this application the federal government authorized the sale to them of four townships of land at two dollars and a half an acre, payable in seventeen years, upon condition that they would devote forty acres in each section to the cultivation of the vine and the olive. In order to give organization to their project a com- pany was formed in Philadelphia, which consisted of three hundred and forty allotees, among whom the land to be settled was divided in varying proportions. The secretary of this company was the late George N. Stewart, who for fifty years was a prominent member of the bar of Mobile. Among the leaders of the enterprise were many who had stood close to Napoleon through all his vicissitudes. Among these may be mentioned the famous Marshal Grouchy, whose son came to Alabama in his father's stead and settled his grant near Demopolis. Scarcely less distinguished than Grouchy himself was the real leader of the colony, Count Charles Lefebvre- Desnouettes, who was aid-de-camp to Napoleon at Marengo, and promoted by him for gallantry at Austerlitz. Upon Napoleon's departure for Elba, as he took leave of his sorrowing officers at Fontainbleau, he embraced Desnouettes in behalf of them all, and upon his return he made him a lieutenant general and count of the empire. As a last tribute of devotion Desnouettes erected near his house, in the wilds of Alabama, a log cabin which he called his sanctuary, in the center of which stood a bronze statue of his fallen chief, and around its feet the cherished trophies of many a battlefield. Among those of less note were M. Peniers, a republican member of the national assembly who had voted for the death of Louis XVI .; Colonel Nicholas Raoul, who, after comamnding Napoleon's advance guard on his return from Elba, was at last forced to keep a ferry near Demopolis; and I. I. Cluis, an aid to Marshal Lefeb- vre, who ended his days in Mobile. Under the leadership of such men as these this ill-starred colony sailed from Philadelphia, intent upon find- ing in Alabama an asylum from Bourbon persecution under their own vine and fig-tree. In May, 1818, the ship bearing the romantic voyagers ar- 4
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MEMORIAL RECORD .OF ALABAMA.
rived in the bay of Mobile, at whose entrance they barely escaped ship- wreck. From Mobile they proceeded in a barge, furnished by the col- lector of the port, up the river to White Bluff, in whose vicinity, upon the advice of Mr. George S. Gaines, they determined to make a settlement. In accordance with their project they laid out a town which they called Demopolis-the city of the people-and in the territorial legislature an act was passed, Ferbuary 7th, 1818, creating a new county to which, upon the suggestion of Judge Lipscomb, was given the name of Marengo, in honor of the great battle won in the days of the republic. The names of the city and county thus established have become parts of the history of Alabama, but the colony for whose special benefit they were created has vanished. The enterprise, which was based upon the false assumption that the land selected was adapted to the cultivation of the olive and the vine, was further hampered by the fact that the exiles themselves were utterly unfit for the work of colonization and settlement. Many of the more wealthy and distinguished of the colonists returned to France, while a few remained in Marengo, or removed to Mobile, where their descend- ants are among the worthiest of our citizens.
FROM 1820 TO 1860.
Having now recounted the leading facts touching the population of the state at the time it emerged from a territorial condition, together with the facts incident to the making of the first constitution under which the state was admitted into the union, the attempt will next be made to epito- mize the leading events in the executive, legislative and judicial history of the state from that time down to the beginning of the civil war.
The history of the executive power in Alabama can be made to embrace but little more than brief notices, personal and official, of those who have in succession filled the executive office. From what has already been said it appears that the first governor of the Mississippi territory was Win- throp Sargent of New England, who held office from 1798 to 1802, when he was succeeded by William C. C. Claiborne of Virignia, who held from 1802 to 1805, when he was succeeded by Robert Williams of North Carolina, who held from 1805 to 1809, when he gave way to David Holmes of Virginia, the last governor of the territory, who held from 1809 to 1817, when the state of Mississippi was admitted into the union. The first and only gov- ernor of the Alabama territory was William Wyatt Bibb, who held office as such from its creation in 1817 down to its transformation into the state of Alabama in 1819, when he was chosen the first governor of the new commonwealth. The history of the executive office could hardly have begun with a worthier man.
Governor Bibb (November, 1819, to July. 1820), who was born in Amelia county, Virginia, October 2, 1781, removed with his family to Elbert county, Georgia, where his father, who had been a colonial officer, died in 1796, leaving a widow and eight children, of whom William was the eldest.
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POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
After completing his education at William and Mary college he began life as a physician at Petersburg, Georgia. As soon as he reached his major- ity he was sent from Elbert county to the legislature, where he served for four years. When he was barely twenty-five he was elected to the lower house of congress, in which he served from 1806 to 1813, and there became a fearless advocate of the war of 1812, and an earnest supporter of Mr. Madison's administration. After missing by only a few votes the speaker- ship of the house, he was sent by his state in 1813 to the senate, to which he failed of re-election in 1816, having been defeated by George M. Troup. Immediately upon his defeat he resigned from the senate and went into retirement, from which he was called a few months later by President Monroe, who appointed him governor of the Alabama territory. After the territory became a state his competitor for the executive office was Marmaduke Williams, over whom he prevailed by a respectable majority. On the 9th of November, 1819, he was inaugurated, and in July, 1820, he died at his residence in the county of Autauga in the thirty-ninth year of his age, in consequence of a fall from his horse. The name of this youthful statesman, thus cut off in the midst of his usefulness, has been perpetuated in the names of two counties; one in the state of his birth, the other in the state of his adoption.
Upon the death of his brother, Thomas Bibb of Limestone (July, 1820, to November, 1821). who had been elected president of the senate at the first meeting of the general assembly at Huntsville, succeeded to the execu- tive office as the second governor of the state. He, too, was born in Virginia in 1874, and grew to manhood in Georgia, where he became planter and merchant. In 1811 he removed to the county of Madison and thence to Limestone shortly after the territory which constitutes it was purchased from the Indians. As a representative of that county he appeared in the convention that framed the first constitution, and shortly after was elected by the same constituency to the senate of the new state. During his administration it was that the three electors chosen by the general assembly in 1820 cast the first electoral vote of the state for James Monroe of Virignia and Daniel D. Tompkins of New York.
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