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 5
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preachers quoted from the bible, and seemed to have the better of the argument from the scriptures. They cited the Tenth Commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's man servant nor his maid servant," etc., contending with reason that servant there meant slave. They cited that the Master preached in the midst of slavery and did not con- demn it-that St. Paul advised the return of the fugitive slave Onesimus, and they triumphantly quoted many texts in the Old and New Testa- ments.
Unfortunately the argument did not stop with quotations from the scriptures. If there were puritans in the north filled with all the bitter- ness that animated the round-heads against the cavaliers, there were preachers in the south who were as venomous as their assailants. As a sample of the manner in which these reverend gentlemen sometimes de- livered their blows apostolic, the following extract may be quoted from a sermon delivered by the celebrated Parson Brownlow, of Knoxville, Tenn., in 1857. It illustrates the extent to which intemperate language and violent abuse were indulged in on both sides of the question. Preach- ing from the text, "Let as many servants as are under the yoke connt their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed," 1 Tim. vi., 1. the parson said: "The state of this union, north of Mason's and Dixon's line, commonly called the New England states. were never to any great extent, s'ave-holding. Their virtuous and pious minds were chiefly occupied with slave-stealing and slave selling. To Old England our New England states owe their knowledge of the art of slave- stealing, and to New England these south- ern states are wholly indebted for their slaves. They stole the African from his native land and sold him into bondage for the sake of gain. They kept but a few of their captives among themselves because it was not profitable to use negro labor in the cold and sterile regions of New England. This is the true history of slavery in New England. They stole and sold property which it was not profitable to keep, and for which they now refuse all warranty." In this same sermon the reverend gentleman said: "It is not unusual to hear bigots of this character in their churches at the north imploring the divine wrath to let fall the consuming fires of heaven on that great Sodom and Gomorrah of the New World-all that extent of territory south of Mason and Dixon's line- where this horrible practice prevails." When ministers of the gospel of "Peace on earth and good will to inan" talked in this manner, as they at length came to do on both sides of the line. there was little chance for a peaceable settlement of the slavery question. Zeal had now usurped the place of reason on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line. Those who were engaged in the anti-slavery crusade were, however, erroneously, yet profoundly. impressed with the inhumanity and barbarism of slavery as they believed it was practised in the south. They believed that the slave-owner was the aggressor in claiming that his right of property in
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
slaves was protected by the constitution wherever his slaves wore found, that it was the mere wantonness of cruelty to demand that slavery should be extended into new territories, and that the clause of the constitution giving the slave states representation for three-fifths of their slaves had created a slave oligarchy that was insolent and domineering.
The time had now long since passed when it was possible for south- ern people to calmly consider the merits or demerits of the institution. The south was on the defensive. and passion had now arisen so high that to doubt the propriety or morality of slavery was to take sides with those who were believed to be the enemies of the south -- it was moral treason. And now nobody at the south did doubt.
When the honest fanatics of the northern states had succeeded in cre- ating an anti-slavery sentiment in the north powerful enough to inspire hopes of office, politicians began to give it attention. In the presidential election of 1840, James G. Birney. the first abolition candidate, received only 7,000 votes. In the election of 1844 Birney, again a candidate, received 62,300 votes. The movement was acquiring strength. Heated discussions of the slavery question in congress took place in 1844-5 in the debates on the question of the annexation of Texas, and again in 1846 on what was called the Wilmot proviso-which proposed that no slave states should be created out of any territory to be acquired from Mexico. Public opinion at the north was rapidly coming to the conclusion that there should be no more slave states, and Mr. Van Buren, who ran as a candidate for the presidency in 1848, on a free-soil platform, received the votes of the abolitionists, getting 291,263 votes out of a total of 2,871.892.
This formidable show of strength created a profound alarm among thoughtful men, both north and south, and when two years afterward the question of the admission of California came up. the debates in congress became more acrimonious than ever. Already the anti-slavery sentiment of the north had practically nullified the law of congress enforcing the provision of the constitution, that slaves escaping from one state into another should be delivered up. Time and again had northern mobs res- cued fugitive slaves from their owners. Northern judges had sought pretext after pretext for evading the laws providing for the rendition of fugitives, and northern legislatures had aided by various devices in ren- dering this law nugatory. A notable example occurred some years later. The legislature of Wisconsin passed resolutions nullifying both the fugi- tive slave law and the decision of the supreme court of the United States in the case of Ableman vs. Booth. It solemnly declared that the decision was "void" and of "no force" and that "positive resistance on the part of the state was the "rightful remedy." Judges boldly overrode the Federal constitution, openly proclaiming that they decided according to a "higher law"-their own consciences. Anxiety at the south was in- tense. There were indeed a few feared to live in neighborhoods thickly populated with slaves. They dreaded northern emissaries plotting insur-
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rection. Plots more or less extensive had been discovered at different times in Virginia, Charleston, Natchez, Miss., and Mobile, Ala. Strang- ers were watched and the negro subjected to the strictest surveillance. At last it had begun to be proclaimed, at the north, that there was an irrepressible conflict between slavery and freedom. Northern statesmen, who reprobated resort to insurrections, declared that the north, by its majorities, would abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, prohibit it in the territories, and hem it in by a cordon of free states, so that it should die by inches. According to this scheme, the border states. see- ing that the fugitive across the lines could not be reclaimed, would in time become free states. Thus slavery would gradually be driven south- ward and the slaves eventually all huddled into the gulf states. Then, southerners were asking themselves, if the storm of anti-slavery senti- ment should continue until at last universal emancipation should by some means be suddenly proclaimed or enforced, what was to save Alabama and her sister gulf states from the fate of San Domingo, where the over- whelming negro population had massacred and destroyed the whites? Agitation had now wrought a wonderful revolution in public opinion. The people of the south were as much excited as those of the north. Lopez. a Cuban, fitted out at New Orleans in 1851, an expedition to con- quer Cuba. He landed on the island with 500 men, but he was soon cap- tured and shot. and his men imprisoned. William Walker, of Tennessee, made several expeditions to Central America to conquer that country by force, but in 1858 he was captured by the president of Honduras and shot. Other expeditions were encouraged by southern people in the desperate hope of adding new slave states to the union, to counterbalance the voting power of the north. All this was but folly of madness.
The wise men of the south. with their opinions about slavery, might well have been anxious for more slave states to be carved out of our west- ern territory. This would have been to simplify. not to complicate. the problem. It would not have increased the number of bondsmen; it would have scattered those already in bondage.
From our present standpoint it was a merciful dispensation of provi- dence that emancipation should have come before the negroes were so concentrated as to give them. by mere force of such numbers as would outweigh the natural superiority of the white race, absolute control of any portion of our country. All history teaches that when negroes are without let, as in Hayti, they relapse into sloth and idleness, if not bar- barism. Interspersed, as they now are, among whites who control the state governments, the southern negroes are the most intelligent and thrifty in the world, and they are making more progress than was ever elsewhere attained by any large body of people of their race. What would have been the condition of the gulf states now, had all the millions of slaves in the union been huddled into them prior to emancipation?
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MEMORIAL, RECORD OF ALABAMA.
COMPROMISE OF 1850 -- ALABAMA POLITICS TILL 1861.
The exciting debates in 1850 terminated in the passage of a series of bills which, taken together, constituted the compromise of 1850. Cali- fornia was admitted with the constitution she had framed prohibiting slavery; the slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia, but the existence of slavery there was not to be interfered with; New Mexico and Utah were organized as territories, but oo laws were to be passed affecting slavery therein: and a more stringent law was enacted for the reclamation of fugitive slaves.
This great compromise. the work of Henry Clay, proved generally acceptable, and in the presidential election of 1852, John P. Hale. the abolition candidate, received only 155, 825 votes. Satisfaction with the compromise measure was much greater at the north than at the south. In Alabama, those who saw that the storm of anti-slavery sentiment was to continue to increase in the future, as the brief outline in the fore- going paragraphs shows that it did, and who therefore believed that separation was the only recourse, held, in the early days of 1851. a southern rights convention in the city of Montgomery. This convention was dominated by the fiery spirit of William L. Yancey. who thencefor- ward until the secession of his state was accompl.shed. though not in office, was the leader throughout the south of the extremest southern sentiment, Mr. Calhoun having made his last great speech, shortly before his death, against the compromise measures of 1850.
There is no space in this sketch, which is already transgressing its prescribed limits, to treat of Mr. Yancey's great debates with Mr. Hilliard the champion of conservation in Alabama, which extended throughout this whole decade. Suffice it to say, that Mr. Hilliard was not an unworthy foeman, and that the fame of Mr. Yancey continually increased. But Alabama was not yet ready for extreme measures. She was still de- voted to the union and indulged an earnest hope that the north would abide in good faith by the compromise that had been made, honestly en- force the fugitive slave law and rest contents. Collier, conservative, in this year, 1851. was elected governor without organized opposition. For congress. Bragg. southern rights democrat. defeated Langdon, whig and conservative, in the Mobile district. In the Montgomery district Aber- crombie. conservative. defeated Cochran, southern rights. In the Wetumpka district, Samson W. Harris, who was an eloquent orator and who served continuously from 1847 to 1857 and was row classed as southern rights. defeated William S. Mudd. In the Talladega district. White, compromise, defeated Rice, southern rights. In the Tuscaloosa dis- trict, there was an exciting canvass between Erwin, southern rights, and William R. Smith, both orators of ability. It resulted in the election of Mr. Smith, who, besides his reputation as a politician, has acquired re-
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pute in the field of literature. Houston and Cobb. conservative democrats, were returned from north Alabama. each without serious opposition.
In 1852, Franklin Pierce, democrat. of New Hampshire, and William R. King, of Alabama. were elected president and vice president by a large majority over Gen. Scott and Graham. Hale, the candidate of the free soil democrats, received only 155,825 votes. Mr. King died in Cuba. of con- sumption, without having assumed the exalted position to which he had been chosen. Perhaps the career of no one among the long list of Ala- bama's statesmen furnishes to the young student of politics so fine an example of the value of character as that of William R. King. He was wise in counsel, and charming alike to the high and the low by the gracious courtliness of his manner. yet he was not distinguished as an orator nor for the brilliancy of his powers of conversation. But he was faithful in all things, the soul of honor in all the relations of life: and he was honored as representative and senator in congress, as presiding officer of the sen- ate, as United States minister plenipotentiary to the court of France and as vice-president elect of the United States.
The country was evidently satisfied with the written terms of the com- promise of 1850, however much disinclined the northern people might still be to enforce practically the new fugitive slave law.
The elections of 1833 passed off without any unusual excitement. Mr. Abercrombie being the only whig returned to congress. During this year Ex-Governor Benjamin Fitzpatrick was appointed by the governor to fill the unexpired term in the United States senate of William R. King, chosen vice-president. He was subsequently elected by the legislature to fill out this term, was re-elected for six years in 1855, and served until his state seceded in 1861. when he resigned his commission and cast his lot with the people of his state. Gov. Fitzpatrick was not an orator. but he pos- pessed that more important characteristic of the statesman-he knew how always to do the right thing at the right time: and that other quality that so endears the public servant to his constituency-he was absolutely faithful to every call of duty. In the United States senate he was not a debater, but a counselor. What his colleagues in the senate thought of him is shown by his election to be president of that great body. What the country thought of him is evidenced by his nomination for the vice- presidency in 1860 on the ticket with Stephen A. Douglas. But, as his party was divided at the time, he refused the honor.
Clement C. Clay, Jr., was also elected to the United States senate in 1853, and he served with distinction in that body until he resigned on account of the secession of his state in 1-61. Mr. Clay was always a stu- dent; he acquainted himself thoroughly with the affairs of the govern- ment, mastered completely the many subjects he discussed, made a num- ber of speeches in the senate that had wide circulation, and was growing into reputation as a statesman when his career at Washington was cut
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA
short. He served two years in the Confederate seuate, and, when about the close of the war. Abraham Lincoln was unfortunately assassinated, was in Canada as diplomatic agent of the confederacy. The startling charge was now made that Jefferson Davis, Mr. Clay and other leaders of the confederates, were accessories to the murder. Of course this was absurd to all that knew these gentlemen and who were capable of deliberate thoughit. But in the excitement that followed the awful deed of the crazy assassin, no charge that could be made against a Confederate leader was too wild for belief. Mr. Clay was in British territory. . He could easily, under the British flag, have sought an asylum in Europe till the storm blew over. Indeed, there were many confederates who fled to foreign lands to escape the danger of possible prosecution, when no charge could be brought against them except that they had fought against the government. But Mr. Clay, shocked at the enormity of this charge, chivalrously sur- rendered himself for trial before his accusers. He was never tried; no specific charge could be formulated. but he was immured in a dungeon at Fortress Monroe for months and only eventually released by the unremit- ting efforts of his accomplished wife, who. during his senatorial career at Washington, had shown the brighest star amid the gay society of the capital, and now was to illustrate, in this most trying crisis of her noble husband's life, the truly heroic virtues of her character.
In 1853 the whig party, of which its followers in Alabama still speak with pride and affection, had gone to pieces. Fragments of it through- out the north were drifting into the ranks of the free soilers. In the south many of its leaders were looking toward the democracy. Of the two great parties, the democrats had always contented for the stricter construction of the constitution, and only in the constitution, strictly construed, could many of the discontented whigs see any shield to protect the south against the aggresive majorities of the north. But now, of the ruins of that old party, a new political organization was being constructed. It originated in 1851 and had been skillfully devised. It was the American, . soon dubbed by its opponents, because of the invariable answer to queries about its organization, etc., the "know-nothing" party. Taking advan- tages of religious prejudices. it pronounced against what it declared was the threatened domination of the Roman Catholic church in American politics. Seeking profit from popular prejudices against foreigners, then coming to America in large numbers, it sought to check immigration and limit suffrage, declaring that "Americans must rule America." The organization threw around itself the charm of secrecy and it was oath bound. Its members, too. proselyted for it with great success among those who were weary of sectional agitation, by announcing that it would save the union. The new party was to unite north and south on new issues.
Not only whigs, but democrats, by hundreds and thousands flocked into its lodges. It is safe to say that at one time, in 1855, a large majority of
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the voters of Alabama were enrolled on the books of the know-nothing party. But democratic leaders assaulted it with great success. Its oaths, its pass-words, its secrecy, its religious intolerance, were ridiculed and denounced as unrepublican, Jacobinical, and dangerous to the liber- ties of the country. Free speech was exalted, the services rendered to America by distinguished foreigners who had come among us from time to time were glorified, and scon democrats in Alabama began to "wash their hands" of the new party. Some of them, however, remained. and among these was Perey Walker, an orator of note in Mobile, who was this year, 1855, elected to congress as a know-nothing over James A. Stallworth, and William R. Smith, elected to the last congress as a con- servative democrat, was chosen as a know-nothing for the thirty-fourth congress.
The most noted contest in this election, however, was upon the old battle-ground, the Montgomery district. Here the know-nothings, or American party, largely old whigs. put forth their strongest man, Thomas H. Watts. Mr. Watts was a great lawyer, an able advocate and an eloquent speaker. He was singularly persuasive in his manner and remarkably popular by reason of his affability and large heartedness. As he does not figure again in this sketch. which is confined to those who have taken part in the Federal politics of the state, it is proper to mention that he was always, until the Civil war. a states' rights whig; that he went with his state for secession; became widely distinguished in the office of attorney-general of the confederacy, and after the war was over became and remained until his death one of the most zealous and efficient workers in the ranks of the democracy of his state. His oppo- nent was James F. Dowdell, a gentleman of singular purity of character, of popular manners and a strong debater. though not eloquent. After an exciting joint canvass, which attracted attention all over the state, Mr. Dowdell was returned to congress by a small majority.
This canvass of 1855 had its counterpart two years later in the contest between Mr. Dowdell, again the democratic nominee, and Mr. Thomas J. Judge, in which Mr. Dowdell was again the victor, this time by a still smaller majority. Mr. Judge. like his law partner. Mr. Watts, though now affiliating with the new party, had always been a states' rights whig. He had not the culture of Mr. Watts. nor the singular affability, but, though always remarkable for his dignity, his manliness and candor gave him a great popularity and he was a natural orator of extraordinary force and directness. In 1:61. the state of Alabama having seceded and claiming now to be a sovereign, sent Mr. Judge as a commissioner to treat with the United States of America at Washington. The president of the United States denied him an official audience and he sturdily refused to be introduced as a private citizen, although Mr. Buchanan had consented to and desired an interview. Col. Judge, after the Civil war, became one of the judges of the supreme court of his state.
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The next most notable contest in this election was in the Mobile dis- trict, and it was again between Percy Walker and Col. James A. Stall- worth, the latter being this time successful. Col. Stallworth had natural talent, captivating manners, a rich mellow voice, a fine flow of language and was an exceedingly attractive speaker. When it is added that he excelled as a raconteur and was blessed with a handsome person, it can ยท readily be understood that he was a "people's man." He was re-elected in 1859 and retired with his delegation when Alabama seceded.
Besides Col. Stallworth, two other new members were returned in this election, J. L. M. Curry and Judge Sydenham Moore, both democrats. Col. Eli S. Shorter, of Barbour, was also in this, as he had been in the previous congress. Col. Shorter had natural talent and culture, was a good speaker and attracted considerable attention in congress by his zealous and able speeches on the question of slavery. Indeed, this was now, and had been for years, the one paramount topic of discussion at the south. It was the Aaron's rod of politics, and all the members elected in 1857, excepting Smith, Houston and Cobb, were states' rights men of the strictest sect. Mr. Curry was quite a young man, but an accurate scholar and thinker, a gifted orator and remarkably energetic. He soon achieved prominence among his colleagues in the Federal congress, where he continued to serve until the new government was set up in the south, when he was transferred to the Confederate congress. Serving there for two years, he was afterward a gallant soldier in the field. About 1867 he removed to Virginia. From 1885 to 1889 Mr. Curry was minister of the United States at the court of Spain, and he is now the distinguished head of the Peabody school fund for the southern states. Judge Sydenham Moore was a man of ability, of the very highest char- acter and marked individuality. He fell a colonel, gallantly fighting for his convictions, in the battle of Seven Pines. May 31, 1862.
Among the members returned by the elections of 1859, there were only two, who had not served in the previous congress. James L. Pugh of Barbour, who took the place of Eli S. Shorter, and David Clopton. Mr. Pugh, who will come into further notice hereafter, during this, his first term in congress, made a speech upon the southern problem that at once gave him reputation. (It was widely commented upon in America and was published in the London Times.) Mr. Clopton had fought his way into congress in a fierce battle that was waged all over the field, that had now become so famous for political contests, the Montgomery district. He had encountered, at every point of debate, the same doughty antago- nist who had become so famous by his contest with Mr. Dowdell two years before, Mr. Judge, and now, as then, the struggle in the capital district had been the center of political interest in Alabama. The antagonists were considered equal in debate, and the issue from the first was doubtful. Mr. Clopton, a remarkably able lawyer, was the more cultured of the two, and it is probable that his arguments were more
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