USA > Alabama > Reminiscences of public men in Alabama : for thirty years, with an appendix > Part 19
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ant scenes of other days, nothing is more natural, nothing more prominent than the genial face and merry laugh of Dr. Tandy Walker. He was a general favorite, even among the Whigs, when party spirit ran highest in 1840, and 1844. The social en- joyments afforded by such a man can never be forgotten by old friends. And yet, after all, it is much to lamented that the days of Dr. Tandy (as we used to call him, and he loved to be so called) were shortened by the same deceptive, fatal, agent which deprived Scotland of her idol poet, Burns, at the age of thirty- seven years. Let the warning be heard in time to resist the temptation which has brought so much ruin upon the world.
37. ELISHA YOUNG, of Greene, was formerly a professor in the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill. He was the Whig candidate for Congress in the Tuskaloosa District in 1837, and was defeated by the Hon. Joab Lawler, who died at Washington City, during his term of service. In 1840, Mr. Young was elected to the Legislature, and was among the most prominent members of the House. He was thoroughly versed in classical literature, and it is not too much to say that he was, in this respect, far in advance of his fellow members who figured in debate. His diction was pure, and his arguments were often adorned by apt quotations from the standard authors of antiquity, and from the traditions of mythology. His voice was soft and pleasant, and showed a high degree of culture in its management, by which means his delivery was at all times refreshing to the ear and to the mind of listeners. His person, also, was much in his favor; rather above the medium height, erect and well proportioned; added to which there was a natural dignity that completed the physical man. With these su- perior qualifications, perfectly self-possessed, yet always animated, Mr. Young never failed to command the attention of the House. In parliamentary decorum, and in the knowledge of the rules of the House, he was very proficient, and would have made a first- rate presiding officer, for which position he was supported by his political friends on the first day of the session, who cast for him 41 votes, their entire strength in the House, against 49 votes from the Democrats, who elected Samuel Walker, Esq., Speaker. . The strictness of party organization, and the spirit of the times seemed
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to require the sacrifice of the very best man of the House, who, above all others, would have graced the chair in a manner never excelled since the days of Col. James W. McClung, as a presiding officer. When called to the chair temporarily, as he frequently was, when the House was in Committee of the Whole, Mr. Young displayed his superior skill in the forms of proceeding, and his example left the impression on the majority, which all must have shared, that whatever was gained by party tactics and for party objects, in filling the chair, was lost in administrative force.
At the called session of 1841, when Gov. Bagby convened the Legislature to provide for an election of Representatives in Con- gress, to serve at the extra session which President Harrison had ordered for May, an unfriendly attack, in the Governor's message, was made on Mr. Webster, the Secretary of State, as hostile to the institutions of the South. Mr. Young took the floor in defense of the eminent statesman who had been assailed. The speech was a beautiful specimen of parliamentary eloquence. The report of it was copied in some of the New England papers, and was much admired by the public.
In 1843, Mr. Young was again the Whig candidate for Con- gress in opposition to Mr. Payne. The district was warmly can- vassed by the able competitors, and the result was adverse to Mr. Young, who, soon thereafter, removed to the county of Marengo, where he had a large family (the Strudwicks) connection in whose society he sought happiness, while he and they improved respect- ively the large planting interests which each had founded. Mr. Young died of cancer, about the year 1850. He was a gifted and finished gentleman in the highest sense of these terms. Had he belonged to the political majority in Alabama, his experience in public life would, no doubt, have been more to the fullfilment of his laudable ambition, and to his aims for the public good, which he never ceased to cherish, even when galled by defeat. Those who knew him personally will never forget, and will never cease to admire, his exalted worth and high literary cultivation.
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CHAPTER XII.
Administration of Gov. Bagby - Personal History.
In the Spring of 1837 occurred the great revulsion throughout the United States, when the Banks generally, North and South, suspended specie payments. Merchants, manufacturers, planters, and all occupations requiring money to prosecute them to advan- tage, were swept overboard, or greatly staggered by the storm. Few escaped. In Alabama the pressure was so decided that Gov. Clay called the Legislature together in extra session, in May, to devise some measure of relief to the people. Then it was that a loan of $5,000,000 on State bonds was authorized, to be divided among the State Bank and Branches, and the amount to be issued iu bank notes for circulation. Those persons who were most in danger from judgments and executions were preferred in dis- counts, on their executing the proper securities to the Bank. A minute history of these proceedings is not necessary here, as they have been referred to in another part of this volume. As evi- dence of the general distress throughout the Union, President VanBuren had issued his proclamation calling Congress together in September, to provide for the emergency.
At this juncture of affairs-caused by the former expansion of Bank credits, and the consequent ease in the currency, followed by the curtailment which was more or less increased by the with- drawal of the Government deposits from the Bank of the United States, and the issuing of the specie circular of President Jack- son, in 1836, requiring all payments for the public lands to be made in coin-it was the fortune of the Hon. Arthur P. Bagby to be elected Governor of Alabama. When he was installed in office, on the 21st day of November, 1837, he found the State, and all classes of the people, laboring under the depression caused by the financial difficulties which prevailed.
His first annual message to the Legislature was transmitted by Mr. Gooch, his Secretary, on the 3d day of December, 1838. It fills nine closely printed pages of the House Journal. An abstract of some of the points and recommendations is here given:
1. He refers with satisfaction to the fact that the last of the Indian tribes in Alabama have been removed to Territories, pro- vided for them by the United States Government, west of the Mississippi.
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2. The preemption laws of Congress, enabling people of lim- ited means to secure permanent homes, is, referred to with com- mendation.
3. In regard to Indian troubles, and the last drama of the war, he speaks of having organized 1,500 volunteers, equally divided under the command of Major-Generals Patteson and Philpot, to be in readiness to act, if necessary, in the negotiations between the Secretary of War, and certain chiefs of the Cherokee Nation.
4. He refers to the continuance of the war with the Seminoles, and the losses thereby to the people of Dale county. Col. Wil- liam Pouncy to raise a company of Mounted Rangers for their defense. The reimbursement of all expenses by the General Government is insisted upon, and the appointment of a commis- sioner for that purpose is recommended.
5. Under the act of 23d December, 1837, John B. Norris, of Mobile; Thomas Owen, of Tuskaloosa, and Thomas Brandon, of Huntsville, had been appointed Commissioners to examine the State Bank and Branches.
6. He advises legislation in regard to the election of Directors, the accommodations granted them, an increase of coin in the vaults in proportion to the circulation, a curtailment of the long time granted to borrowers, and the unreasonably large sums loaned to individuals.
7. The attempt by a State institution, "styled the Bank of the United States, chartered by Pennsylvania," to monopolize ex- changes, and to control the currency, is denounced.
9. Alexander Pope, of Liverpool, had been appointed one of the agents to sell the bonds of the State, issued in sums of £200 each.
10. He refers to certain combinations among individuals of the State to exercise the privilege of banking, which he disapproved. Instructions had been given to two Solicitors to prosecute such offenders before the Circuit Court. Of the informations filed, one had been continued for the want of time, and the other dis- missed by the presiding Judge, on the ground that there was no law to prohibit the exercise of the banking franchise.
11. He disapproves of the advances made on cotton by the State Bank, under the regulations of 29th August, as an assump- tion of power.
13. As unwarranted by the charter, he condemns the arrange- ment made between the Branch Bank at Montgomery, and the Montgomery and West-Point Railroad Company.
14. Vacancies in the Faculty of the University had been filled by the election of Samuel H. Stafford, of South Carolina, to the chair of Ancient Languages; F. A. P. Barnard, of New York,
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to the chair of Mathematics, and Horace S. Pratt, of Georgia, to the Department of English Literature.
15. A careful revision of the Penal Code, and the establish- ment of a Penitentiary, is recommended. He suggests the bene- fit, if practicable, of passing laws to suppress intemperance, as the greatest "of all the evils that beset and waylay the path of civil- ized society."
16. Under the 23d section of the act of 23d December, the Hon. Reuben Saffold, of Dallas, William H. Robertson, and Wil- liam Jones, Jr., of the city of Mobile, had been appointed Com- missioners to inquire into the expediency of establishing a public warehouse or warehouses in the city of Mobile, etc. The Gov- ernor favors the system.
17. The revised Military Code had been prepared by Generals Crabb and Bradford, and Col. Henry L. Martin had been ap- pointed to make an index.
18. He recommends the establishment of a separate Court of Chancery, and the division of the State into three districts, for each of which a Chancellor should be elected.
19. An increase of salary to the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, and the Comptroller of Public Accounts is suggested, not to be less than $1,500 each.
20. The Attorney General should be required to give legal opinions to the different executive officers, in the discharge of their official duties; to appear for the State in the Supreme Court, and to prepare bills on important subjects, when required by Committees of the Legislature.
21. Reference is made to the unsettled boundary between Georgia and Alabama, and to the attempt made in 1826 to run the line by the cooperation of the two States, which resulted in a disagreement between the Commissioners.
22. Copies of joint resolutions of the Legislatures of Mary- land, Mississippi, Arkansas, Ohio, Rhode-Island, Georgia, and Kentucky, on various subjects, were laid before the Legislature.
23. In closing his message, the Governor notices the fact that he has abstained from embracing matters of Federal policy, and says: "It has nevertheless been a source of the highest gratifica -- tion, in the great conflict that has been going on between the friends of a National Bank, and the advocates of a Constitutional Treasury, to perceive that a large majority of the people of this State have taken their stand on the high ground of constitutional liberty."
This synopsis of the first message of Gov. Bagby has been more dwelt upon than space will permit to his other messages, though each abounded, perhaps, in matter equally interesting to
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the public. Some of these items, with the proceedings of the Legislature, are referred to elsewhere in this work.
The message of 1839 occupies fourteen pages of the printed Journal of the House. It notices the appointment of William B. Martin, of Benton; Alexander Bowie, of Talladega, and John M. Moore, of Barbour, to ascertain and mark the boundary line between Georgia and Alabama; of the appointment of E. Wool- sey Peck as Chancellor, in the place of Silas Parsons, who had declined the acceptance of the office; the selection of a site near Wetumpka for the Penitentiary, the building of which, when completed, was fixed, by contract, at $84,899; the completion of the new Penal Code by the Judges of the Supreme Court; the encampment drills of several Brigades; the necessity of opening a line of communication, by "improving the advantages of Na- ture," between the waters of Mobile Bay and the Tennessee River; a geological survey of the State recommended; the attempt to burn the Capitol, with the means of guarding it in future; the operations of the State Bank and Branches; advising that the Governor be authorized to nominate double the number of Directors to be elected, from which a choice should be made; the appointment of a Marshal to each Bank to exercise special powers; the cancellation of the unsold bonds of the State; and referred to the authority of a corporation in another State to make a contract in Alabama; the decision of the Supreme Court, etc.
Possessing eminent faculties in many respects, it was never the practice of Gov. Bagby to condense his State papers. He was generally diffuse, paid great attention to style, and seemed indif- ferent as to how much time was consumed in reading them, or how much space they filled in the public archives. His own ideas of form and official dignity were carried out to the extreme. His message of 1840 covered ten pages of the Journal. A syn- opsis will not be attempted. The leading measure recommended was the establishment of the General Ticket system in the elec- tion of Representatives to Congress. Action on this bill has been specially noticed in another chapter of this work.
The last annual message of Gov. Bagby is dated November 1, 1841, and exceeds any of its predecessors in length, being fifteen pages of the Journal, about half of which is taken up in examin- ing the Constitutional point in favor of the General Ticket, after the people had decided at the election in August, 1841, in favor of the District system, on the question directly submitted to them by the act of 27th April, 1841. He was loth to give up his favorite plan of representation, embodying State Sovereignty, and when he was overruled by the popular vote, he determined to argue the matter with such intensity and expansion, as if in so doing he was sure to obtain a restoration of the condemned law.
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The administration of Gov. Bagby began at a time of great pecuniary distress among the people, which was but little abated throughout the four years in which he performed Executive func- tions. The cause certainly did not originate with him. Expe- rienced financiers, and the best practical minds of the country, had sought in vain for a remedy in legislation. Relief acts had been passed; loans to debtors had been tried; the extension of Bank debts from one to three years by equal instalments, and in smaller or larger proportion as circumstances seemed to require, and yet the general pressure was not removed. That Gov. Bagby exerted himself, to the utmost of his power, to afford all the relief practicable, consistent with his public duties, admits of no ques- tion. He came into office while the storm was raging, and he left it after having been four years at the helm, while the winds yet howled in the deserted halls of commerce.
ARTHUR PENDLETON BAGBY was a Virginian by birth and edu- cation. He came to Alabama while it was yet a territory, a youth depending entirely upon himself, upon his own talents and ener- gies to grapple with the difficulties of life. The late Gov. Mar- tin informed me that he saw Mr. Bagby when he first came to Alabama on foot, all his worldly goods tied in a small bundle, which he carried with him. In a moral sense, it was truly sublime to contemplate such a figure. Conscious of intellectual power, and scorning to yield to his seemingly adverse fate, he turned his face westward, and bade farewell to his relatives and friends in the proud Old Dominion, where poverty was hard to overcome. Rarely has such a spectacle been presented-such a youth, so highly fa- vored by nature, in person and in intellect; in the grand qualities afterwards developed in a career of success and preferment em- bracing the next thirty years after his introduction in Alabama. That he was here before the Territorial condition was laid aside, when the State Government was organized, is evident from the fact that Mr. Bagby has been heard to say that he voted for Mar- maduke Williams for Governor, in opposition to Gov. Bibb, at the first election held in the State, in 1819.
Mr. Bagby settled at Claiborne, in Monroe county, where he commenced the practice of the law. He at once secured a good run of business. His genius flashed from every feature, and sparkled in his small, piercing, black eyes. No man possessed a finer person to command attention at first sight. His remarkable advantages in this respect will be described in a future paragraph.
He served in the Legislature at an early period, and for many years. He was several times elected Speaker of the House, and never was the chair graced by a more splendid presiding officer. What Henry Clay used to be in the popular branch of Congress,
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as Speaker, Mr. Bagby acquitted himself with similar eclat at the Capitol of Alabama. He was dignified and graceful in every look and movement. The station was completely filled; no ideal could be more perfect. At the last session he served, in 1836, he was again elected Speaker.
As we are now to follow him into a different sphere of the pub- lic service, it may not be amiss to take a brief review of his polit- ical antecedents. Mr. Bagby was originally a National Republican, and supported the administration of President Adams, 1825 to 1829. About the year 1831, Mr. Mosely Baker, of Montgomery, brought forward a proposition in the House of Representatives to commit the State of Alabama to the support of a grand National Bank, with a capital of one hundred millions of dollars. Mr. Bagby was then in the Legislature and opposed it. The next year Gen. Jackson issued his celebrated proclamation against the Nullifiers, of South Carolina, which induced Mr. Bagby to go over to his support, and from that time he was a Jackson man. Being thus about five years in the Democratic party, he was their nominee for Governor in 1837, when he was elected over Samuel W. Oli- ver, Esq., of Conecuh county, a former Speaker of the House, who was neither exactly a Whig nor a whole Democrat, but a fair- minded man with the respect of both parties. He died soon after the contest. Gov. Bagby was inaugurated with the usual ceremo- nies, on which occasion he was seen to great advantage, bearing himself with a natural majesty which would have done credit to a King or Emperor," and yet so easy and graceful that all were pleased with the new Governor. I was an eye-witness of the scene, and I have attended many inaugurations since, but none of them equalled that in 1837. In 1839, he was reelected without opposition. Some of the leading measures he recommended have been glanced at in the preceding notice of his administration. Having arrived at this point of his history, we pass on to consider him in more advanced situations.
When Gov. Clay resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States, Gov. Bagby was elected to fill the vacancy, in 1841, and in 1842, he was reelected for a term of six years from March 4, 1843, to March 4,,1849. His course on the annexation of Texas, in 1845, created some dissatisfaction in the Democratic party ; but he published an address to the people of Alabama assigning his rea- sons. No very serious complaint was made thereafter.
In 1848, President Polk appointed him Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the court of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, at St. Petersburg. He remained there about one year, when he resigned, after the election of Gen. Taylor, as President, and returned to the United States, taking up
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his residence at Montgomery. After a few years he removed to Mobile, where he died in 1858, under sixty years of age.
Seldom has such a specimen of nature's nobility appeared in any age. Gov. Bagby was a little more than six feet high, per- fectly erect in his figure, with a symmetry of form and limb equal to that of Apollo. And such a head and face-the very personi- fication of intellect and beauty ! His walk was stately and grace- ful-the very beau ideal of the Chesterfield model. In all the etiquette and dignity of official station, never departing from the highest standard, and yet withal so courteous and polite; no Pres- ident, no Governor, no wearer of a crown ever excelled him. His address to the humblest person was that of a true gentleman. When such a man appeared in the forum, or on the platform, he had a power, an influence in his very looks which awed men into silence. And then his voice was pleasant, clear and flexible, and his whole manner of delivery that of an orator. Of his scholar- ship it is not necessary to speak. His messages and communica- tions, which have long been before the public, establish his claim to a high rank among men of letters.
And yet, with his fine person, his magnificent head, his splendid eloquence, Gov. Bagby was an unfortunate man. He never knew the value of money. All his life had been a struggle against the depressing influence of poverty, while the generous impulses of his heart, and his lofty ambition, were cramped and often crushed by this unhappy defect in his character. To support himself and his family in a style becoming tlreir position in society, he incurred liabilities, and involved himself in embarrassments from which no amount of good fortune could extricate him. His practice at the bar must have been considerable; his compensation in the high employments he held as Governor, as Senator in Congress, and, as a foreign minister of the first grade, were insufficient for this purpose, and barely kept him afloat, without yielding him a sur- plus. A. man thus constituted, and whose great troubles sprang from this source, deserves the sympathy of all. Such an example, such a prodigy and such a sufferer, was the late Gov. Bagby, in behalf of whose character and memory admiration and regret may alike be indulged. Had he been a good financier, and his fortune in other respects favorable to the development of his wonderful gifts, and his manly ambition, he would no doubt have stood in history in the same class with Clay and Webster, to electrify and bless the world by the rare endowments which he possesssed. Of all it has been my privilege to see in a life of more than thirty years in official connection with the public, including more than a thou- sand men to a greater or less extent distinguished in the country, Gov. Bagby made the finest appearance, and has left on my mind the most indelible impression of natural greatness. Compared
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to this standard, his life, successful as it has been in many respects, has been a mournful failure. The sun has spots, and yet he shines brilliantly, even to dazzle the vision; so may the name and qualities of Arthur P. Bagby shine amidst the hallowed at- mosphere which the grave has diffused to sanctify even the errors of genius.
Allusion having been made in the foregoing sketch, to a tempo- rary coldness of his brother Democrats of Alabama, growing out of his course on the Texas question, it is but justice to the mem- ory of Senator Bagby, to place his conduct in a true light, which the author is enabled to do by a letter, of which the following is a copy :
WASHINGTON, October 7, 1845,
MY DEAR SIR: You will add to the many favors heretofore conferred, by send- ing me, at your earliest convenience, a list of the members of the General Assem- bly of Alabama, with their post-offices. .
I hope to see you very shortly, at Tuskaloosa, as I find a visit to that ancient metropolis necessary in order to place myself right before my legitimate judges, the people and Legislature of Alabama. Never in the history of this country has any public man been subjected to such an ordeal as I have, by being charged with hostility to a measure [the annexation of Texas] which I could have defeated, at any moment, by barely saying no, but which I actually saved from defeat-as I flatter myself I shall be able to satisfy all impartial men ; and I plead to the juris- diction of any other description as unfit and incompetent to pronounce judgment upon my public acts.
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