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 6

Author: Taylor, Hannis, 1851-1922; Wheeler, Joseph, 1836-1906; Clark, Willis G; Clark, Thomas Harvey; Herbert, Hilary Abner, 1834-1919; Cochran, Jerome, 1831-1896; Screws, William Wallace; Brant & Fuller
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Madison, Wis., Brant & Fuller
Number of Pages: 1164

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 6

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Israel Pickens of Greene (November, 1821, to November, 1825), who suc- cceded Thomas Bibb as the third governor of the state, was born in Meck- lenburg county, North Carolina, January 30, 1780. After completing his education at Washington college, Pennsylvania, he served as a senator in his native state in 1808-10, and was a member of the federal house of representatives from that state from 1811 to 1817, in which latter year he was appointed register in the land office at St. Stephens. From Wash- ington county he went as a representative to the constitutional conven- tion, but shortly thereafter removed to the county of Greene. There he resided when he was elected governor in 1821 over Dr. Chambers of Mad- ison, whom he again defeated two years after that time. During his four years in office the opportunity was given Governor Pickens to or-

MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.

ganize and perfect the administrative system of the new state, a task which he performed so efficiently as to win for himself the honorable dis- tinction of having been one of the most useful executives the state ever had. In 1826 he was appointed by Governor Murphy to the United States senate, an office which he very soon resigned on account of lung disease, from which he died in Cuba, April 24, 1827.

John Murphy of Monroe (November, 1825, to November, 1829), the fourth governor, was born in Robeson county, North Carolina, about the year 1785, of Scotch parents who had settled there some years before; with them he removed to South Carolina where, after graduating at South Carolina college in 1808, he was clerk of the senate from 1810 to 1818. In the year last named he removed to Alabama and settled in the county of Monroe where, after being admitted to the bar, he devoted himself to planting. From Monroe he went as a representative to the constitutional convention of 1819, then in 1820 to the house of representatives, and finally in 1822 to the senate of the state. In 1825 he was elected governor without opposition, an honor which was repeated two years later under the same circumstances. After having served one term in congress, to which he was elected in 1833, he was beaten for the same office by Mr. Dellett in 1839. In the following year he died.

Gabriel Moore of Madison (November, 1829, to March, 1831), the fifth governor, like his two predecessors, was a North Carolinian, having been born in Stokes county in that state about 1785. In 1810 he removed to Huntsville to practice law. Not long thereafter he was chosen to repre- sent Madison county in the legislature of the Mississippi territory, and upon the creation of the Alabama territory he became speaker of its only legislature. From Madison he went as one of her eight representatives to the constitutional convention; and in the senate of the new state, to which he was sent as the first senator from Madison, he was chosen president in 1820. After having been four times elected to congress, the last time defeating Judge Clay, he was chosen governor without oppo- sition in 1829, an office which he resigned in February, 1831, in order to accept a seat in the United States senate, to which he had been elected over John McKinley of Lauderdale. During his six years in the senate the most notable incident that occurred grew out of his vote, as a mem- ber of the anti-Jackson coalition, for the rejection of Mr. Van Buren as minister to Great Britain. Although requested by the legislature in 1833 to resign, he continued in office as an enemy of Jackson until the end of his term. After having been defeated in 1837 for the lower house of congress by Reuben Chapman, he removed in 1843 to Texas where, two years later. he died.

Samuel B. Moore of Jackson (March, 1831, to November, 1831), the sixth governor, was the president of the senate when Gabriel Moore resigned the governorship as above set forth. He therefore succeeded to the vacant office whose duties he discharged until the end of the term. Born

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.

in Franklin county, Tennessee, in 1789, he removed to Alabama in the early days, and settled in Jackson county, which he represented in the house in 1823. In 1828 he was elected to the senate, whose presiding officer he was in 1831, when the duties of the executive office fell upon him. At the end of his term he removed to the county of Pickens, which he represented / in the senate from 1834 to 1838. After having served as judge of the county court from 1835 to 1841 he died at Carrollton. November 7, 1846.

John Gayle of Greene (November, 1831, to November, 1835), the seventh governor, was born in Sumter district, South Carolina, September 11, 1792. After graduating at South Carolina college in 1813, he removed to this state, and settled at Claiborne, in Monroe county, wnere, after reading law in the office of Judge Lipscomb, he was licensed to practice in 1818. In that year, by an appointment from President Monroe, he became a member of the legislative council of the Alabama territory, a position which he resigned to accept the solicitorship of his circuit, an office which he held for two years. After having represented , Monroe in the lower house of the legislature in 1822-23, he was chosen by that body as a mem- ber of the supreme court, a position which he retained until 1828, when he resigned. About this time it was that he removed to Greene county, where he was again sent to the lower house, of which he was elected speaker in 1829. In 1831 he was elected governor, and re-elected in 1833. During the last year of his term, when a difficulty with the Creek Indians seemed to be impending, President Jackson sent a military force to Ala- bama, which it was supposed was intended rather to restrain the governor than to prevent disturbances. In order to remove the friction which grew out of the president's supposed interference, Francis S. Key, of poetic fame, was sent as a special commissioner to settle the points in contro- versy, and through his mediation perfect good feeling between governor and president was soon restored. At the end of his term he removed to Mobile to practice law, and in 1847 he was elected to congress over John T. Taylor of that city. Two years later, upon the death of Judge William Crawford, he was appointed United States district judge, an office which he administered with ability down to his death, on July 21, 1859.

Clement C. Clay of Madison (November, 1835, to July, 1837), the eighth governor, was born in Halifax county, Va., December 17, 1789. Remov- ing with his parents to Granger county, Tenn., while yet a youth, he com- pleted his education at a college in Knoxville, where, after reading law under Hon. Hugh L. White, he was licensed to practice in 1809. Two years later he removed to Huntsville, and in 1817 he began his public career as a representative of Madison county in the territorial legislature of Alabama. From that time onward public honors fell thick and fast upon him. In 1819 he represented his county in the constitutional con- vention, and was chairman of the committee that reported the constitution to that body. In the same year the legislature elevated him to the supreme bench, and although the youngest member of the court he was made by

MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.

his associates chief justice. After serving for four years in that capacity he resigned in order to resume the practice; and shortly thereafter he became engaged in a duel with Dr. Tate of Limestone, in which they were both severely wounded. In 1828 he was elected to the lower house of the legislature, of which he was chosen speaker, and the next year he was sent to the federal house of representatives, where he remained until 1835. Then it was that he was elected governor over Enoch Parsons of Monroe. The most notable event which occurred during his administration grew out of the hostile demonstrations made by the Creek Indians within the limits of Alabama in the year 1836. To suppress these disturbances the governor ordered out the state troops and took the field in person in co-operation with the commander of the federal troops. After a few bat- tles and skirmishes the Indians submitted and were removed west of the Mississippi. Before the end of his term he was elected, in June, 1837, to the United States senate, where he remained until his resignation from that body in 1841. After that it was that he was appointed to prepare a new digest of the laws of Alabama, which was approved by the legislature and published in 1843. In that year it was that he was again made a member of the supreme court by an appointment from Governor Fitzpat- rick. After having been appointed one of the commissioners to wind up the business of the banks in 1846, he retired from public life and lived in dignified repose at his home in Huntsville, where he died, September 7, 1866.

Hugh McVay of Lauderdale (July, 1837, to November, 1837), the ninth governor, was a native of South Carolina, where he was born about 1778. In 1807 he came to Alabama and settled in Madison county as a planter, and in 1811 he represented that county in the territorial legislature of Missis- sippi, serving in that capacity up to the organization of the Alabama ter- ritory, when he removed in 1818 to the county of Lauderdale, which he represented in the convention which framed the first constitution. Between the years 1820 and 1844, when he left the senate, he served five years in the lower and seventeen years in the upper house of the legisla- ture. Having been elected president of the senate in 1836 he was still an incumbent of that office in June, 1837, when the resignation of Governor Clay elevated him to the executive office, which he filled until the end of the term. His death occurred in 1851.

Arthur Pendleton Bagby of Monroe (November, 1837, to November, 1841), the tenth governor, was born in Louisa county, Va., in 1796. While the details of his youth are obscure, it seems to be clear that he came to Alabama while she was still a territory-he was certainly located as a law- yer at Claiborne as early as 1819, and in 1821 he represented Monroe county. in the state legislature. Upon his re-election in the following year, he was made speaker of the house, a position with which he was again honored in 1836. When, in 1832, General Jackson issued his famous proclamation against the nullifiers of South Carolina, Mr. Bagby went over to his sup-

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.

port, and in 1837 he was made the democratic candidate for governor, an office to which lie was elected over Samuel W. Oliver of Conecuh. In 1839 he was re-elected without opposition. At the close of his term, which was uneventful, he became a successful candidate for the federal senate, in which a vacancy had occurred by the resignation of Hon. C. C. Clay. In the next winter he was re-elected for a full term of six years, begin- ning March 4, 1843. In 1848 he resigned his place in the senate to accept an appointment as minister to St. Petersburg, a position to which his remarkable graces of person specially adapted him. A biographer who knew him well has told us that, "seldom has such a specimen of nature's nobility appeared in any age. Governor Bagby was a little more than six feet high, perfectly erect in his figure, with a symmetry of form and limb equal to that of Apollo. And such a head and face-the very person- ification of intellect and beauty. His walk was stately and graceful-the very beau ideal of the Chesterfield model. In all the etiquette and dig- nity of official station, never departing from the highest standard, and yet withal so courteous and polite; no president, no governor, no wearer of a crown ever excelled him." After his return from his high station in Russia he was appointed to his last public trust. To a committee com- posed of Messrs. Ormond, Clay and himself, was intrusted the task of codifying the statutes, a work which finally appeared as the code of 1852. After baving resided for some years at Camden, Wilcox county, he removed in 1856 to Mobile, where he died of yellow-fever in the fall of 1858.

Benjamin Fitzpatrick of Autauga (November, 1841, to November, 1845), · the eleventh governor, was born in Greene county, Georgia, in the year 1800. Before he reached his majority he removed to Alabama and read law in Montgomery where he was licensed to practice in 1821. After having been solicitor of his circuit he was forced by ill health in 1827 to retire to his plantation near Wetumpka, where he lived the quiet life of a planter for many years. In 1840 he was an elector on the Van Buren ticket, and in the next year he was chosen governor over James W. Mc- Clung of Madison, a position to which he was re-elected two years later without opposition. In November, 1848, he was appointed by Governor Chapman to the seat in the federal senate made vacant by the death of Dixon H. Lewis, and a year later he was defeated by a combination of twelve members of his own party with fifty-four whigs, who elected Mr. Clemens of Madison in his stead. When, however. in 1853, he was ap- pointed by Governor Collier as the successor in the senate of W. R. King he was able to retain the place in the election which took place in the following winter by an overwhelming majority. During the administra- tion of Buchanan he was chosen as president pro tempore of the senate, a position which he held for four sessions of congress. At the national convention of his party in 1860 he was nominated for the vice-presi- dency on the ticket with Douglas, but he declined the use of his name

MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.

in that connection. Although opposed to secession, he retired with his colleagues from Washington at the breaking out of the war, and at its close he was chosen to represent Autauga county in the constitutional convention of 1865, of which he was unanimously elected as the presiding officer. This was his last public service. His death took place Novem- ber 21.1869.

Joshua L. Martin of Tuscaloosa (November, 1845, to November, 1847), the twelfth governor, was born in Blount county, Tenn., December 5, 1799. After reading law for a short time in his own state he came to Alabama in 1819, where he completed his studies under his brother in Russellville, Franklin county. Before entering upon the practice he removed to Athens, Limestone county, which he represented in the legislature almost without. intermission from 1822 to 1828. After serving as solicitor for several years he was elected in 1834 circuit judge. In the next year he was elected to the lower house of congress and re-elected in 1837. At the end of his second term he removed to Tuscaloosa, and in 1841 he was elected chancellor, an office which he held until his election in 1845 as governor over Nathaniel Terry of Limestone. During his administration it was that the Mexican war occurred, and in his last message to the legislature he gave an account of his efforts to respond to the call of the president for volunteers. At the end of his term as governor he returned to the bar, and in 1853 he again represented his county in the legislature, his last public service prior to his death, which occurred November 2, 1866.

Reuben Chapman of Madison (November, 1847, to November, 1849), the thirteenth governor, was born in Caroline county, Va., in 1802. After completing his education at home he came to Huntsville in 1824; and after reading law in the office of his brother Samuel, he was admitted to the bar in the following year. Some years later he removed to Morgan county, from which he was sent to the senate in 1832. At the end of his term in 1835 he was elected to the lower house of congress, in which he was continued until 1847, when his congressional career was terminated by his election as governor over Nicholas Davis, Sr., of Limestone. Although the man- agement of the banks was at the time mainly in the hands of Hon. F. S. Lyon, Governor Chapman did all in his power to relieve the financial embarrassments of the state by a prudent and economical administra- tion. After being defeated for a re-election to the office of governor he went into retirement, from which he emerged in 1855, when he was elected by his party to the lower house of congress.

HenryW. Collier of Tuscaloosa (November, 1849, to November, 1853), the fourteenth governor, was born in Lunenburg county, Va., January 17, 1801. In his early youth his parents removed to South Carolina, where he was taught in the famous school of Dr. Moses Waddell, at Willington. After completing his legal education in Tennessee he came to Alabama and set- tled in Huntsville, but soon removed to Tuscaloosa, representing that county in the legislature in 1827. In the next year he was elected to succeed

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.

Judge Gayle as judge of the third circuit. Upon the resignation of Judge Saffold in 1836 Governor Clay appointed him to the vacant seat on the supreme bench, an appointment which was soon confirmed by the election of the legislature. At the June term, 1837, upon the resignation of Chief Justice Hopkins, he became chief justice, a position which he filled for twelve years, the record of his services during that time extending through thirty-five volumes of the reports. In 1849 he was elected to the office of governor without opposition, and two years later was re-elected. At the end of his second term he retired from public life, and two years later he died, August 28, 1855.

John Anthony Winston of Sumter (November, 1853, to November, 1857), the fifteenth governor, and the first native of the state to hold that office, was born in Madison county in 1812. After completing his education at LaGrange college and at the university at Nashville, he settled in Sum- ter county, where he began life as a planter. As a representative of that county he appeared in the lower house of the legislature in 1840, and in 1842. A year later he was transferred to the senate, in which he served for ten years, presiding over it in 1847. In 1853 he was elected governor without serious opposition and was re-elected in 1855. Owing to his unbending opposition to what he considered unconstitutional legis- lation and a wasteful expenditure of the public money, he often came into collision with the legislature; and he was known as the "Veto Governor" on account of his frequent refusal to sanction the measures of that body. He went as a delegate at large to the Charleston convention, and after- ward headed the Douglas electoral ticket. In 1861 he was sent as a com- missioner to Louisiana, and upon his return was appointed colonel of the Eighth Alabama infantry. with which he served in Virginia until forced by ill health to resign. In 1865 he was elected to the constitutional con- vention, and two years later to the United States senate, in which he was never allowed to take his seat. He died at Mobile, December 21. 1871.

Andrew B. Moore of Perry (November, 1857, to November, 1861), the sixteenth governor, was born in Spartanburg district, S. C., March 7, 1807. After completing his education at home he came to Perry county in 1826, where, after teaching school for two years, he read law, and was ad- mitted to practice in 1833. In 1839 he went as a representative of his county to the lower house of the legislature, where he served for four consecutive terms, during which period he was three times elected speaker. In 1852 he was elected circuit judge, an office which he held until 1857, when he was elected governor without opposition. In 1859 he was re-elected over William F. Samford of Macon. During his second term he was called upon to take part in the acts of revolution which severed for a time Ala- bama's relations with the union. In obedience to joint resolutions adopted by the legislature in 1859, Governor Moore, after the election of Mr. Lincoln in 1860, issued his proclamation ordering an election of dele- gates in the several counties, who were to meet in convention at Mont-

MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.

gomery, in January, 1861, for the purpose of taking the necessary steps for the withdrawal of the state from the union. The ordinance of seces- sion was adopted on the 11th of January. Prior to the meeting of the convention, but after the secession of South Carolina, the governor directed the state troops to take possession of Forts Morgan and Gaines, at the entrance of Mobile bay, and Mount Vernon arsenal, on Mobile river, in order to prevent their reinforcement by the army of the United States. In 1865, when he was again a private citizen, Governor Moore, together with several other distinguished southerners, was for a short time imprisoned, by order of the federal government, in Fort Pulaski.

THE LEGISLATIVE POWER.

We have already observed that the territorial legislature, at its second and last session held at St. Stephens, provided that the future capital should be situated at the mouth of the river Cahawba, and that, pending the preparation of the public buildings, Huntsville should be the tempo- rary seat of government. Under that arrangement the constitutional con- vention met in that town on the 5th of July, 1819; and there the first general assembly of the new state was convened on the 25th of the fol- lowing October. In order to provide for the wants of the growing popu- lation, this body was called upon to add the counties of Greene, Jefferson, Perry, Henry, Wilcox and Butler to those already created. Greene was organized upon the territory taken from Marengo and Tuscaloosa; Jefferson upon territory taken from Blount; Perry upon territory at one time nominally a part of Montgomery; Henry upon territory taken from Conecuh; Wilcox upon territory taken from Monroe and Dallas; Butler upon territory taken from Conecuh. By an act passed December 19, 1820, Pickens was carved out of Tuscaloosa; and by acts passed in Decem- ber, 1821, Pike was organized out of portions taken from Henry and Montgomery, and Covington out of territory taken from Henry. By acts passed in December, 1824, Dale was carved out of Henry and Covington; Fayette from Tuscaloosa and Marion; and Walker from Tuscaloosa and Marion. By an act passed in January, 1830, Lowndes was created out of territory taken from Montgomery, Dallas and Butler. In 1832, at Cusseta, in the present county of Chambers, was consummated the negotiations which culminated in the treaty of Cusseta, in the first article of which "the Creek tribe of Indians cede to the United States all their land east of the Mississippi." Out on that portion of this cession, within the state of Alabama, the general assembly hastened, during the year 1832, to cre- ate the counties of Coosa, Benton (now Calhoun), Talladega, Tallapoosa, Russell, Randolph, Chambers, Macon, and Barbour. At the same time was created the county of Sumter out of territory acquired in 1830 through the treaty of Dancing Rabbit creek, whereby the state was relieved of the presence of the Choctaws. By acts passed in 1836 the counties of DeKalb, Cherokee and Marshall were created in the main out

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.

of the last cession from the Cherokees. By an act passed in December, 1847, the county of Choctaw was carved out of Sumter and Washington; and in February, 1850, an act was passed creating the county of Winston (first called Hancock) out of territory taken almost entirely from Walker. Winston was the last county created prior to the civil war.

Governor W. W. Bibb, in his first message to the state legislature, was careful to call their attention to the liberal donations made by congress, in the act already set forth in extenso, whereby seventy-two sections of lands were reserved for a seminary of learning; the sixteenth section in every township for the use of schools, five per cent. of the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands (sold after the first of September, 1819), for purposes of internal improvement; and sixteen hundred and twenty acres of land, at the confluence of the Cahawba and Alabama rivers, for a seat of government. The donation thus made for the establishment of "a seminary of learning" led to the founding in due time, by the legisla- true, of the university of Alabama, which was so organized as to make it a part of the state government. The governing body is a board of trus- tees, chosen by the general assembly from certain districts, of which the governor is ex-officio president. By this board the faculty are chosen and by-laws made for the government of the teaching and student body. Not until April, 1831, was the university opened to students, with Alva Woods, D. D, as its first president. In 1837 he was succeeded by Basil Manly, D. D., who continued in office until 1855, when he was succeeded by Landon C. Garland, LL.D., who presided until 1865. In April of that year it was that the original university buildings were burned by order of General Croxton.

In 1820 the second general assembly met at Cahawba, which continued to be the seat of government until 1826, when, by an act of the legislature passed in that year, the honor was transferred to Tuscaloosa. During the interval the state was involved in a disastrous enterprise which seriously affected her after history. In 1823 the legislature incorporated the state bank, and between 1832 and 1836 branches were established at Montgomery, Mobile, Decatur, and Huntsville. Through these agencies the state pledged her credit and entered actively into the banking busi- ness in the hope of realizing sufficient profit not only to defray the entire expenses of the state government, but also to maintain a system of popu- lar education. Into the capital of the bank went the university funds, the funds from the sales of the school lands, the three per cent. fund, and all other public funds of the state. For a time the institution was well managed; the loans well secured, and the profits large. So prosper- ous was its condition in 1836 that, in January of that year, in order to carry out the main purpose of its creation, an act was passed abolishing the collection of taxes from the people-an act which remained in force six or seven years. But with the financial convulsion of 1837, which per vaded the entire union, the trials of the bank began. Specie payments

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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 6

Author: Taylor, Hannis, 1851-1922; Wheeler, Joseph, 1836-1906; Clark, Willis G; Clark, Thomas Harvey; Herbert, Hilary Abner, 1834-1919; Cochran, Jerome, 1831-1896; Screws, William Wallace; Brant & Fuller Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Madison, Wis., Brant & Fuller Number of Pages: 1164

Author: Taylor, Hannis, 1851-1922; Wheeler, Joseph, 1836-1906; Clark, Willis G; Clark, Thomas Harvey; Herbert, Hilary Abner, 1834-1919; Cochran, Jerome, 1831-1896; Screws, William Wallace; Brant & Fuller
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Madison, Wis., Brant & Fuller
Number of Pages: 1164