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 II pt 1 > Part 3
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of the adoption of the general ticket system. representatives had been apportioned to the several districts on the basis of the entire white and three-fifths of the slave population. This was supposed to be in accord- ance with the spirit of the constitution of the United States, which deter- mined representation "by adding to the whole number of free persons," excluding Indians. "three-fifths of all other persons." meaning slaves.
The whigs, who were mostly from the large slave-holding counties opposed "the white basis" with as much vigor as they had resisted the bill to adopt the general ticket system: but it became law in January, 1843.
Gov. Arthur P. Bagby had been elected to fill the vacancy in the United States senate created by the resignation of Gov. Clay in 1841, and he was now re-elected for a full term at the session of the legislature beginning in December. 1842. Gov. Bagby was tall, of handsome and graceful figure, had a fine voice, pleasing address. uncommon abilities and was quite an orator. He was a courtly gentleman of the old school. In 1848 he was appointed minister to Russia. Remaining there about a year he resigned and resumed the practice of law in Mobile, where he died in 1858.
The fruits of the great victory of the whigs in the elections of 1840 had turned to ashes on their lips. They had working majorities in both houses of congress, they had president and vice-president, and now it seems that whig politics was at least to be put on fair trial before the peo- ple of the United States. Mr. Clay, who had confidently expected the nomination of which General Harrison had deprived him. almost forgot his disappointment. Harrison had carried off the presidency. but Clay had organized the victory. A national bank was to be established. the sub- treasury law repealed, the tariff made protective and internal improve- ments to be fostered.
But President Harrison, inaugurated on the 4th of March, died within one month thereafter. before the convening of the extra session he had called, and Vice-president Tylor became president. No vice-president up to that time had ever been called upon to preside as president and the whigs, when they met in December. 1839, to nominate candidates. had not been as careful as prudence would have dictated. Tyler was not then and never had been in full sympathy with their views. The first great meas- ure upon which the party had determined was a new United States bank. Tyler vetoed the bill to establish it. A modified bill was sent to him, and he vetoed that. The power of the party was broken. The cabinet went to pieces. Every member except Webster, secretary of state, resigned at once. Most of the whig members joined in an address to their constitu- encies reading their president out of the party, and in 1842, their idolized chieftain. "the gallant Harry of the west," disappointed and disgusted, resigned his seat in the senate. The whigs did pass, in 1-42. a bankrupt law and a law increasing tariff rates, which was an abrogation of the
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compromise tariff law of 1832. All the Alabama members voted against the new tariff bill. The independent treasury law was not repealed and stands on the statute books to-day, having been for many years satisfatory to all parties. -
The passage by the state legislature of the law of January, 1843, re- districting the state according to the white basis. so strenuously opposed at the time of it enactment by the whigs. left two districts, the Mobile and the Montgomery. fairly doubtful, and now began the memorable contests between the whigs and the democrats which made these districts for years the centers of political interest in Alabama.
The national democratic platform in 1844 favored the annexation of . Texas. The whig platform was silent on that question. but their candidate, Mr. Clay, was understood to be against annexation. Looked at from the standpoint of to-day, it is somewhat remarkable that this bold leader, who had been so aggressive in his advocacy of the war of 1812, so intensely jealous of the powers of Great Britain, which was now known to have been looking with covetous eyes upon Texas, and who was so supremely American in all his make-up, could have been induced to take such a posi- tion on this question. Here was an immense empire on our southwestern border, separated from us only by arbitrary lines. already rapidly filling up with emigrants from these states. No one of that day was presumed to understand the people of the United States and their temper better than Mr. Clay, and he knew Americans to be adventurous, pushing, am- bitious of territorial aggrandizement. But there had grown up among the masses of the whig party in the north a wide-spread opposition to the extension of slave territory. Yielding to this sentiment in his party, and no doubt sincere in the belief that the course he was about to take would be less provocative of sectional strife and more conducive to the preservation of the union, the whig candidate opposed annexation, and that was one of the issues on which he was beaten. Another issue. made by the democrats in this campaign. arose out of what was known as the Oregon question. The Ashburton treaty of 1842 did not define the bound- ary line that was to separate the United States from British America on our northwestern border, but left that question unsettled and Oregon open to the joint occupation of settlers from both countries. The democratic platform claimed "the whole of Oregon territory," which was supposed to be bounded on the north by the line of 34° 40' James K. Polk, who was the democratic nominee. asserted in his letter of acceptance our rights to this boundary line, and so the democrats had as a popular rallying ery, "Fifty-four forty, or fight." Another important issue involved in the canvass was the tariff. It was fairly made by the democrats in their plat- form, which re-affirmed that of 1540, denying to the Federal government the power to "foster one branch of industry to the detriment of another. or to cherish the interests of one portion to the injury of another portion of our common country," but the whigs had reason to complain of the
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manner in which Mr. Polk treated the question during the canvass. He wrote a letter to a Mr. Kane of Philadelphia, which was capable of two constructions. Mr. Polk's friends have made many elaborate explana- tions of this letter, but the fact remains that, after its publication. demo- crats in Pennsylvania marched under banners inscribed "Polk. Dallas, and the tariff of '42," while democrats in other states were denouncing this tariff of 1842 and proclaiming their intention to repeal it, as they did when they had gotten into power at this election.
Polk and Dallas received 170 electoral votes and Clay and Freling- huysen 105. The campaign in Alabama was very exciting. Mr. Clay, during its progress, visited the state and his presence aroused every- where among his followers the greatest enthusiasm. Notwithstanding the death of Gen. Harrison, who had been the successful rival of the great Kentuckian for the ouly nomination which could ever have secured his election to the presidency, the log cabin and the coon-skin. typical as they were supposed to be of the lamented old hero of Tippecanoe. re -. mained in this as in subsequent canvasses. the signs in which the whigs sought to conquer. An amusing instance is related of the result of a demonstration which an enthusiastic body of whigs had prepared for Mr. Clay as, during this visit. he came up the Alabama river. The demon- strators had gathered on the banks of the river near Claiborne, with log- cabin and coon-skins and fire works prepared for a display that no doubt would have been heartily welcomed, but unfortunately the boat was de- layed until a late hour in the night, and, when it passed, the camp fires had burned down. nature had overcome enthusiasm-the whigs on the banks of the stream were asleep, and so was Mr. Clay in the boat. The whigs in Alabama had put out their best speakers and employed their ablest writers, but so had the democrats, and Polk and Dallas received the electoral votes of the state.
: From 1819 until 1861, it was the custom in Alabama for rival candi- dates, especially those standing for congress. to go before the people in joint debate. It was a wholesome custom. Such discussions try the merits of candidates, educate the people in the principles upon which the government is founded, and so instructed, voters are not easily led astray by doctrines that cannot stand the test of reason. Conducted. too. as they were in those days. when the high standard of honor prevailing among gentleman would not permit equivocation or deception, and when the disputants, while fully determined not to submit to insults, were care- ful to keep within the limits of the strictest decorum, these debates tended greatly to keep alive that spirit of chivalrous politeness which was a peculiar characteristic of the southerner during that period. The discussions in 1840 and 1844 were especially interesting and were lis- tened to by large audiences. It is much to be regretted that the evil days into which the country fell, in 1867-8, caused this custom of joint debates to fall into disuse.
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
George S. Houston of Limestone had been one of the representatives in congress elected under the general ticket system in 1841. He was now, at the first election under the new apportionment, again chosen to repre- sent the district in which he resided. He served continuously, with the exception of one term, 1849-51, until 1861, when he resigned with all other Alabama members on account of the secession of his state from the union. He was successively chairman of the military, judiciary and ways and means committees, and in later years. governor and United States senator. Governor Houston was not an orator in the ordinary ac- ceptation of the term. He had not the benefit of a classical education, could not trim sentences and balance tropes and metaphors. but was a speaker of uncommon power. His plain and pointed arguments, often illustrated by striking anecdotes, went straight to the hearts of the people and he was altogether one of the most effective. before a popular audience, of all Alabama's public men. Remarkable also for his business qualifications and his strict attention to committee duties, he acquired great influence in congress, and throughout a long public career enjoyed the confidence of the masses to an extent never surpassed in the history of the state.
One of the new members of congress elected in 1843 was William L. Yancey, the most gifted orator Alabama ever produced. He was then only twenty-nine years of age. had less than twenty years of life before him, but he was destined during the brief period allotted to him. although very little in office. to accomplish more in directing public opinion and controlling events than any American statesman born in the nineteenth century. John C. Calhoun, assisted by Hayne, McDuffie and others, had molded public sentiment far and wide over the south in favor of the abstract right of secession. It remained for Mr. Yancey, who as a young man of twenty years had stoutly opposed Mr. Calhoun's nullifica- tion movement in South Carolina, in after years. while a private citizen. to do more than any other to energize throughout the south the doc- trines of Mr. Calhoun and to consolidate the southern people in a mighty effort to establish and maintain a southern Confederacy. Mr. DuBose, in his able "Life and Times of William L. Yancey," gives an accurate portrait of him: "He never electioneered in the ordinary sense of the phrase. No hand met his with a lurking suspicion that its frankness con- veyed a bid for a vote. A neatly dressed man, habitually wearing a smile, an admirable relator of anecdotes, erect, self-poised in all com- panies, was this leader of the people. He was not silent in company like Patrick Henry. nor convivial at table like Prentiss. nor brilliant in the parlor like Clay. His mind did not act in the length and breath of its power until he came before his audience. Then it was, as Goethe says of Shakspeare, 'as a watch seen not only through the crystal to the dial, but through the dial, into the machinery in all its workings."" He took his seat in congress in December, 1-44. The question of the annexation
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Texas, which had been one of the issues of the late presidential canvass soon came up, and during it's consideration Mr. Clingman. a whig repre- sentative from North Carolina, delivered a most scathing speech against it, severely arraigning the "southern agitators," who favored the admission of the new state. Mr. Yancey's reputation had preceded him and southern democrats selected him to make reply to Mr. Clingman's imputations. His peech was simply wonderful. Mr. Bailey, who took the floor immediately after it, declared it the most eloquent he had ever heard in that hall. The correspondent of the Baltimore Sun wrote. "Great was the expectation in relation to Yancey's talents as an orator, but it fell infinitely below what truth and justice warranted; his diction is rich and flowery; he is at once terribly severe in denunciaiton and satire, and again overpoweringly cogent in argument and illustration, but ever dignified and statesman- like: he is comparable to no predecessor. because no one ever united so many qualities of the orator: he stands alone. and has attained a name and an elevation which is at once glorious and unapproachable." This was written when the mighty tones of Webster's voice were still rever- berating in the land and Clay's eloquence yet moving his hearers. The occasion was calculated to develop the powers of the speaker to the utmost. He was repelling insults heaped upon the people of his section. The writer remembers when a young man to have heard Mr. Yancey de- clare in a voice sweeter. clearer and of more wonderful compass and flexibility than any he has ever listened to, "Patriotism begins at home. It takes in first. those around one's own fireside: then his neighbors, those whom he knows best and loves most: then one's state. that protects him in his domestic relations, and afterward the people of the whole union." Such was his creed of patriotism. Here he was replying to one who had heaped insults upon the people whom he loved best in all the world-and this accuser a son of the south. He was in his element, for in withering and elevated sarcasm and indignant and defiant declamation, America has perhaps never produced his equal. save only in Patrick Henry. A duel resulted from the speech. Yancey promptly accepting Clingman's chal- lenge. The first fire was harmless and fortunately friends intervened and settled the difficulty.
Congressional elections in Alabama prior to the Civil war were not held at the same time with the elections for president. Congress had not then legislated on the subject. The state then held such elections on the first Monday in August, and in the odd instead of the even years. Thus it happened that no representatives from the state had been elected to the extra session called by President Harrison to be held in May, 1811, and a special election was ordered by Governor Bagby. The election for representatives in congress in 1841 was the first to take place in the newly formed Montgomery district. destined to be for many years the field of hot debate between the whigs and democrats. The dis-
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
. trict was carried by James E. Belser, democrat, over his whig competitor, Col. Pettit. Mr. Belser was a lawyer of shining talents and high charac- ter. These no doubt contributed greatly to aid him in overcoming the whig majority the district was then supposed to contain, but he profited also by the position the whigs had taken on the question of the annexa- tion of Texas and by the confusion into which they had fallen by reason of the quarrel between congress and the president. After serving one term, during which he acquired very considerable reputation, Mr. Belser returned voluntarily to the practice of his profession.
At these elections took place a remarkable contest in the Talladega district. The district was democratic and the nominee was Mr. Samuel F. Rice, a young man who played afterward many conspicuous parts on the stage of Alabama politics. A graduate of South Carolina college, a lawyer of marked ability, afterward to become chief justice of the- state, a speaker of extraordinary force and fluency and of wonderful ingenuity, genial and pleasant in his manners, possessing an unfailing fund of good humor and supply of rare and ready wit. this young man was to pursue in his long future a course so variable and changeful as to subject him oftentimes to the severest criticism. But throughout his whole life, his many shining qualities attracted to him friends who never for a mo- ment doubted his sincerity or his patriotism. A democratic nomination in the Talladega district, with the united support of the party, was equiv- alent to an election, but Mr. Rice's previous relations to the state bank were not satisfactory. Gen. Felix Grundy McConnell, who had beaten his whig competitor, Mr. Chilton, for congress in 1843, and had now been beaten for the nomination by Mr. Rice, announced himself as an in- dependent candidate. Gen. McConnell was without the finished education of Mr. Rice, and was not a student, but he had fine natural ability, in mother wit was equal to his competitor, was bold and aggressive in de bate, never sparing his adversary through any fear of personal danger, and was probably even more remarkable than his opponent for those qualities that are attractive among the masses. Both these inen were possessed of undoubted courage, and the campaign between them at once assumed the aspect of a rough and tumble "catch-as-catch-can" contest. Immense crowds gathered everywhere to listen to the speakers and ex- citemnt ran high all over the district. An incident. that occurred soon after it became known that McConnell had been elected, will illustrate the peculiar character of the discussions indulged in during the cam- paign. Mr. Rice was riding alone along a country road and saw Gen. McConnell coming toward him also on horseback and unattended. The bit- terness of their debates had so estranged the rivals that they were no longer "on speaking terms." As they approached each other, while Mr. Rice was revolving in his mind whether he should speak. Gen. MeCon- nell reined his horse across the road, held out his hand and said: "Well, Mr. Rice, the election is over; the people of the bloody seventh have
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decided that, that as between you and me. they would take me as the least of two evils. Now, when I get to Washington and tell the people there, who know what manner of a man I am, the principle on which the peo- ple selected me over you, what do you suppose they will think of you?" Reuben Chapman. a man of high order of talent. and who had served faithfully since his first election in 1835. was now elected to congress for the last time, retiring at the end of this term to become governor.
And now there was another notable contest between the two parties for supremacy in the Montgomery district. Henry W. Hilliard, who had already acquired fame as an orator and who had but recently returned from Belgium, where he had been serving as minister. was nominated. by the whigs. John Cochran of Eufaula became the democratic candi- date. Both were men of rare natural gifts. highly educated and of pop- ular manner. Cochran, a great lawyer, was the more incisive and severe logician: Hilliard's style was more classical, ornate and captivating. After an exciting and animated contest. in which large audiences met to hear the speakers everywhere throughout the district. Mr. Hilliard was successful. He was re-elected without opposition in 1847, and was re- nominated by his party in 1849. Against him the democrats now sup- ported James L. Pugh, a states' rights whig, who was also a man of great abihty and is now (1893) serving his third term as United States senator. After another exciting debate between the champions of the two parties Mr. Hilliard was again elected. No Alabamaian ever acquired greater distinction in the congress of the United States as an orator than Mr. Hilliard, except Mr. Yancey. At the end of his third term he declined to stand for re-electon. In 1845. Mr. Hilliard was the only whig elected to congress from Alabama, but in 1847, the whigs also elected their nomi- nee in the Mobile district, Ex-Gov. Gayle.
Franklin W. Bowdon. who now served two terms in congress from the Talladega district. was. intellectually. of all Alabama's sons, perhaps the most gifted. He had not Yancey's voice, nor was he his equal in declamation. but he was as fluent as the master orator himself. and he far surpassed him in the richness of his vocabulary and in breadth and grasp of mind. Hilliard's style was not more classic, and Sargent S. Prentiss was not more fertile in intellect. Mr. Bowdon was a victim to the fatal habit of intemperance. His constituents. feeling themselves disgraced by his conduct during his first term at Washington. expressly instructed their delegates to the congressional convention that was to nominate his successor. not to renominate him. When this convention assembled Bowdon was at hand. A motion was made that he be allowed to address it. After some debate. it being pointed out that the delegates were instructed against him and they could not therefore nominate him, he was permitted to speak. When he concluded the convention renomi- nated him amid the wildest enthusiasm. His second term was unfortu-
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nately but a repetition of the first. Intemperance was a disease from which he could not recover.
In 1848, there died in New York, while on a visit to that city, one of the most illustrious of Alabama statesmen, Dixon H. Lewis. He had been continuously a representative in congress from 1529 until 1844. when he was transferred to the United States senate, where he continued until his death. In the senate Mr. Lewis was, at the time of his death. chairman of the committee of finance. as in the house he had been, when he resigned his seat, chairman of the committee of ways and means. He was powerful on the hustings and exerted a commanding influence in congress, his splendid intellcet being mated with a character forceful and spotless. He was a determined foe to protection, and perhaps his greatest speech was on the tariff in 1842. If the student of this question who imagines he has discovered some new objection to a protective tariff will read this remarkable speech carefully he will be apt to exclaim with Solomon, "there is nothing new under the sun." The arguments, so powerful with the voters of this generation. are all there compacted and complete: even the trusts and combinations which modern means of inter-communication and modern devices have enabled the beneficiaries of the system to develop, are but illustrations of the foresight of his logic. Mr. Lewis was the largest man that ever sat in the senate of the United States. There was manufactured for his accommodation a chair that after his death was never in use until brought forth for Senator Daivd Davis of Illinois.
In the elections of 1848 Lewis Cass was the democratic candidate for the presidency against Gen. Zachary Taylor, the whig nominee. The American voter has always been attracted by military heroes, and Ala- bamians are certainly not exceptions to this rule. There was, indeed. much about "old Zaek," as he was called by his followers. to make him peculiarly attractive. He had always been in the service of his country. he had taken so little part in politics prior to his nomination that the general public did not up to that time know to which party he belonged. and it was even doubted whether he himself knew. But this much was was known-that after he had won, with vastly inferior forces. the battles of Palo Alto. Resaca. Monterey and Buena Vista. he was superseded by Gen. Scott: and it was charged and generally believed that a democratic president. Mr. Polk, had intentionally cut short his military carcer to prevent him from developing into a presidential candidate.
Beside all this. Gen. Taylor was a southern man and a slave-holder. The democratic candidate was not a favorite in Alabama. He favored the new doctrine, afterward called "squatter sovereignty." that the first comers in their legislative capacity might declare for or against African slavery in a territory and thus exclude slave-holders from going with their property upon soil that was the common property of all the people of the United States, James E. Belser, Samuel F. Rice, and many other
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