Reminiscences of public men in Alabama : for thirty years, with an appendix, Part 39

Author: Garrett, William, 1809-
Publication date: 1872
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Plantation Pub. Co.'s Press
Number of Pages: 826

USA > Alabama > Reminiscences of public men in Alabama : for thirty years, with an appendix > Part 39

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The resolutions are the following:

Resolved, That the repeal of the 25th Rule by the present session of Congress was a weak and truckling submission to the spirit of fanaticism; and it adds another and important triumph to the faction which, now fortified in the halls of legislation, may dispatch its fiery arrows over every section of our confederacy.

Resolved, That we sympathize with the patriotic spirit of the Legislature of South Carolina, which so promptly resisted the insolent attempt to disturb her domestic tranquility.

"The power of slavery belongs to the States respectively"-"it is local in its character and effects"-"each State has a right to guard its citizens against

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inconveniences and dangers." The right to exercise this power by a State is higher and deeper than the Constitution. "The evil involves the prosperity and may endanger the existence of a State." "Its power to guard against or remedy the evil rests upon the law of self-preservation; a law vital to every community, and especially to a sovereign State."

Resolved, That the Governor be requested to transmit copies of this report and resolutions to the Governors of the other States of the Union, with the request that they should be laid before their respective Legislatures; and that copies be also forwarded to our delegation in Congress.

The resolutions were unanimously adopted-yeas 95.

This was a long session, extending from December 2, 1844 to January 27, 1845. Under the lead of Col. McClung, the revenue law was amended and enlarged, looking to the preservation of the public faith, and to the general interest of the people.

Several important elections took place at this session which de- serve a passing notice. As will be seen in the Governor's message, Col. William R. King had resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States, and, to fill the vacancy, the two Houses met in convention on the 7th December, when Dixon H. Lewis, Demo- crat, and Arthur F. Hopkins, Whig, were placed in nomination. The vote stood, for Lewis 85; for Hopkins 45. This was a fair test of party strength in the Legislature, with the exception of two votes-Mr. Kidd of Shelby, and Mr. Mudd of Jefferson, Whigs, who represented Democratic constituencies, and voted for Mr. Lewis. The result was expected of course. Judge Hopkins was voted for by the Whigs, not so much with the hope of elect- ing him, as in compliment of the ablest member of the party in the State. As it is intended, in this work, to introduce, with more or less formality, candidates and public men as their names happen to fall in with the narrative, that design will be, in part, executed here.

HON. ARTHUR F. HOPKINS was a Virginian, highly educated, and with talents of the first order. He came to Alabama while it was in a Territorial condition, and settled in Lawrence county. He was a delegate in the Convention at Huntsville, which formed the State Constitution, in 1819, and, for many years thereafter, held public positions, in the Legislature and elsewhere, including a seat upon the Bench of the Supreme Court, which he resigned after a few years. For a long time he resided in Huntsville, en- gaged in the practice of the law, at the very head of his profes- sion. About the year 1843, he removed to Tuskaloosa, and there continued for a considerable period. He was residing there when his friends made use of his name, at the session of 1844, for the United States Senate. His distinguished abilities, patriotism, and private worth were acknowledged by all parties. As a jurist he had no superior in the State.

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Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.

He contributed a large share of labor to the preparation of the' " Address of the Committee of the Whig Convention to the Peo- ple of Alabama," which was published, June, 1840, in a pamphlet of 25 pages, defending Gen. Harrison from the charges made against him, and arraigning the administration of Mr. Van Buren for public judgment. The Committee appointed, and whose names appear to the address, were John Gayle, Arthur F. Hopkins, James Jackson, Dennis Dent, Thomas H. Wiley, William M. Inge, and Harry I. Thornton.

To show that the least taint of Abolition was fatal to any candi- date for the Presidency at the time of the Address, a part of the defense of Gen. Harrison is here quoted for its historical signifi- cance :

In a Convention of Abolitionists, which assembled recently at Arcadia, in the western part of the State of New York, a resolution was adopted that, in the opinion of the Abolitionists who composed the Convention, Gen. Harrison ought not to receive the vote of any freeman for the office of President, because he voted against the Missouri restriction, and holds opinions against abolitionism, which he expressed in his Vincennes speech.

We have received from a source we can rely on, a statement of some of the abolition newspapers, which bitterly oppose the election of Gen. Harrison. They are as follows : The " Ohio Philanthropist," the "Pittsburg Witness," the " Penn- sylvania Freeman," the "Connecticut Charter Oak," the Utica " Friend of Man," the "Michigan Freeman," the "New Hampshire Advocate of Freedom," the " Vermont Voice of Freedom," the "Massachusetts Abolitionist," and " Boston Liberator." For this statement, we are indebted to the address of the Whig Cen- tral Committee of Kentucky.

Now, when it is considered that this phalanx of abolition newspapers is aided in their opposition to Gen. Harrison by the whole Van Buren party, the idea that he will get the vote of these fanatics is not a little ridic ulous.

Just here a reflection may be indulged as to the instability of human character and human calculations. In 1840, Mr. Van Buren was regarded by his friends as a "Northern man with Southern principles," and without the least sympathy with the abo- litionists. Matters so worked, particularly his failure to receive the nomination for President in 1844, that in 1848 Mr. Van Buren was actually nominated by a convention of the Abolition party, as their candidate for the Presidency, with an Electoral ticket in his support, in all the non-slaveholding States, and failed to receive a single electoral vote in any State! And it is also remarkable, as showing the organization and efforts of that party, that their candidate, twelve years afterward, received a majority of votes in every non-slaveholding State of the Union, which secured the election of Mr. Lincoln, and that not a single Electoral ticket was formed for his support in a single slaveholding State-such was the sectional aspect of the canvass. This antagonism terminated in the secession of the Southern States, and in the disastrous war of 1861-5.

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Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.

There is one passage in the Address of the Whig Committee, in 1840, probably from the pen of Judge Hopkins, which is here reproduced as an act of justice to a distinguished citizen of the country, who, afterward, succeeding to the Presidential office on the death of Gen. Harrison in 1841, became a subject of hostility and persecution by the Whigs in Congress, with few exceptions, and by the party press throughout the Union, and by Whig lead- ers on the stump, because he had the firmness to adhere to his former settled convictions against the constitutionality of a Bank of the United States, and to veto several bills for the charter of such an institution, and other Fiscal Agencies of a similar char- acter. The address says:

· The name of John Tyler, of Virginia, has been placed upon the Whig ticket for the Vice-Presidency, a man identified with the defense of every Southern in- terest. His spotless private character, his Republican principles, his consistent political life, and eminent abilities, challenge the admiration of friends and foes, and have hitherto silenced the reckless malignity of party opposition. If we have not dwelt at length upon his public services, it is because they are not denied.

The Electoral Ticket nominated by the Whig Convention in 1840, consisted of-

Hon. JOHN GAYLE, of Mobile; Col. NICHOLAS DAVIS, of Limestone; Hon. ARTHUR F. HOPKINS, of Madison ; Col. THOMAS WILLIAMS, JR., of Tuskaloosa; Hon. HARRY I. THORNTON, of Greene;

HENRY W. HILLIARD, Esq., of Montgomery, and JAMES ABERCROMBIE, Esq., of Russell county.

These gentlemen entered into the canvass with zeal and ability, addressing the people at mass meetings, and on other occasions, in different parts of the State; but the Democratic majority was too decided to be overcome, especially as the supporters of Mr. Van Buren were not less active in the campaign, and never shrank from an opportunity to contest, face to face, every inch of ground occupied by their opponents.

Judge Hopkins was originally a Federalist of the Alexander Hamilton school, and the lofty tone of sentiment which formerly marked that class of politicians, he cherished to the last, although he may have modified some of his views in relation to national power and State sovereignty. He was too honest and too independent in his character ever to yield an opinion for the sake of expedi- ency. He made no sacrifices of principle to obtain personal pop- ularity. It is doing him no injustice to say, that he attached very little importance to the decision of the masses, who for want of

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proper information were frequently imposed upon and deceived by artful, selfish party leaders, which he believed to be unavoida- ble in a wild Democracy.

From Tuskaloosa Judge Hopkins removed to Moble, where for several years he was President of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company. Losing his wife, he afterward married a lady of Bal- timore, who took an active part in the management of the Con- federate Hospitals at Richmond, and by her intelligence, her sym- pathising spirit, her generous contribution of means, and her personal attention to the sick and wounded, she gained an enviable reputation with the Southern people. In all these efforts and sacrifices she was nobly sustained by her patriotic husband, who, though well stricken in years, was ever doing what circumstances permitted to alleviate suffering, and to aid the cause of his native South. The anxieties and results of the war, no doubt, under- mined the vigorous health of the Judge, whose large and manly frame sunk under the combined effects of disease thus produced, and the age of about seventy years, when he died in 1866.

To strike from the history of Alabama the name of ARTHUR F. HOPKINS, would be like erasing a star from the national flag. His political principles formed the only barrier to his advancement to the Executive chair, and to the Senate of the United States, at his pleasure, and now that he has passed away, there can be no recollections but those which do honor to his memory, irrespective of party divisions. His fame is imperishable.

JUDICIAL ELECTIONS.

The two Houses met in convention and proceeded to the elec- tion of Chancellor of the Southern Division, the Hon. Anderson Crenshaw, the incumbent, and Gen. George W. Crabb being in nomination. The former was reelected by a vote of 66 to 46.

For Solicitor of the First Circuit, the vote stood, for William M. Brooks, the incumbent, 73; and for B. L. Defreese, 41. The former was reëlected.

For Solicitor of the Fourth Circuit, the contest was more ani- mated, from the number and character of the candidates. The three ballotings were as follows:

For Edward A. O'Neal 24

For Richard W. Walker

For John B. Sale.

For Green P. Rice

13 withdrawn.

Mr. Walker having received a majority of all the votes cast, was declared duly elected.

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Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.

For Solicitor of the Seventh Circuit, the competition was be- tween S. W. Pettus and Henry L. Ward. The former was elected by a vote of 76 to 50.

For Solicitor of the Sixth Circuit, John Edmund Jones received 62 votes, which elected him over Percy Walker, who received 57 votes.

For Solicitor of the Fifth Circuit, the candidates were William O. Winston, who received 65 votes, and William Acklin, who re- ceived 64 votes-the former being elected by one vote majority.

As several of the candidates held public stations, and others sub- sequently became prominent, it is deemed necessary to give per- sonal sketches of some of them at this juncture of circumstances. Owing to the greater length of the notice of Chancellor Crenshaw. by including a public document, it will be reserved for the close of this chapter.

RICHARD W. WALKER was a young man, and was just entering upon a successful and brilliant career. He was a son of the Hon. John W. Walker, who was just entering upon a successful and brilliant career. He was a son of the Hon. John W. Walker, who was President of the Convention which formed the State Constitution, in 1819, and was elected a Senator in Congress, Oc- tober 28, 1819. He served until 1822, when he resigned. His son Richard has since acted an enviable part in life, as his record will show.

In 1851, Mr. R. W. Walker was elected to the Legislature, from Lauderdale county, as a Union Whig, and was appointed Chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the House. In 1855, he was allied with the Democratic party in opposition to the Know- Nothing or American party, and was again returned to the House, of which he was elected Speaker, and made a good presiding officer. Soon thereafter, he was elected to a seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court, an office which he held until 1863, when he was elected a Senator in the Confederate Congress, to succeed the Hon. C. C. Clay, jr .. He at once repaired to Richmond, and gave diligent attention to his public duties until the Southern cause was lost, in 1865. Since then, he has been engaged in the practice of his profession in Huntsville.

Judge Walker's record is, of itself, higher praise than any I could bestow on his great abilities and attainments. In social life, he is pleasant and communicative, without being loquacious. He has a tall and graceful person, which is carried with ease and with- out ostentation. He is a brother of Percy Walker, Esq., hereto- fore noticed to some extent in this work, and also a brother of Gen. L. P. Walker, the first Secretary of War under President Davis' administration, Their elder brother is John J. Walker,

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Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.

Esq., who practiced law a while at Huntsville, but afterward en- gaged in the factorage and commission business in Mobile, where, by appointment of President Taylor, he was Collector of the Port four years, until displaced by President Pierce. He married an accomplished daughter of Judge Hopkins.

GEN. EDWARD A. O'NEAL was elected Solicitor at the called session in 1841, and held the office one term, after which he ap- pears no more in an official character before the public, but has gained distinction at the bar, and as a public speaker. He ad- heres to the Democratic party, of which he is a prominent mem- ber, and withal a gentleman of high social position.

JOHN B. SALE was raised in Lawrence county, a son of Rev. Alexander Sale, who resided in the neighborhood of Courtland. He was educated at the LaGrange College, under the Presidency of Bishop Robert Payne. Previous to 1844, he had filled the office of Judge of the County Court of Lawrence county. A young man of talents, and full of aspiration, Mr. Sale, not long after his defeat for Solicitor, left Alabama, and settled in Aber- deen, Mississippi. From thence he removed to Memphis, Ten- nessee, where he is now pursuing his profession as a lawyer.

GEN. E. W. PETTUS is a North-Alabamian, connected with a large family of his name, one of whom was, a few years ago, Gov- ernor of Mississippi. After holding the office of Solicitor for a time, he resigned, in order to include in the practice of his pro- fession, all classes of controversy which might arise in the Courts, from which he was partially excluded while representing the State. His course was onward, and he was elected a Judge of the Circuit Court, giving the people a just administration.

When the difficulties were pending, and secession was contem- plated, Judge Pettus was appointed a commissioner to communi- cate with the State of Mississippi as to the proper measure, and for the formation of a Southern Confederacy. After the war com- menced, he entered the army with the courage and resolution of his strong character, offering his life and his fortune to his native South. He was advanced in command to the rank of Brigadier- General, which he held at the surrender of our armies. I am not informed in what capacity he entered the service; but from the published accounts, as the war progressed, he fought gallantly, and won proud distinction in the field, which has secured him an enviable standing with his fellow-citizens.

The person of Gen. Pettus is tall, large, and commanding. As a speaker on the hustings, his voice and manner, as well as matter, are engaging and impressive. He is still in the prime of life,

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Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.

and resides in Selma, with great personal influence which, on all proper occasions, is exerted for the promotion of peace and con- cord among his fellow-citizens, and for the prosperity of the State.

PERCY WALKER, who was defeated in this election, deserves a more particular notice than that heretofore bestowed, and I pre- fer to give it in this connection. His defeat was not the result of any incompetency or unfaithfulness in the discharge of his duties as Solicitor for the four years preceding; for it is very. questionable whether his equal in that particular department of the public service, has ever appeared in the State. The energy and skill with which he brought offenders to the bar of justice, and there vindicated the majesty of the law, was justly regarded by the citizens of Mobile as effectual in producing a great reform, and his defeat was considered a calamity. But there was a combi- nation of political influences against him, brought about by the state of parties then existing, which, in the hands of a dextrous and persevering opponent, popular, and just out of a term in the Senate where he had made a good deal of character, produced the result just noted

Mr. Walker is justly regarded as one of the leading men in the State. Without seeking popularity, he is still popular. Though generally considered as cold and taciturn, he is social and generous in his nature, but entirely without disguise, dissimulation, or dem- agogism, in his professions, or in his deportment as a gentleman and politician. . He has followed his convictions without regard to policy, which frequently separated him from friends with whom he would gladly cooperate. He has a penetrating, logical mind, and in his public addresses is bold, earnest, and sometimes defi- ant. He has succeeded at the bar, and stands high in his profes- sion, especially as an advocate, in which he seems peculiarly gifted. In carly life, he married Miss Ella Lipscomb, the accom- plished daughter of Judge Lipscomb, who has adorned his path through life by her intelligence and womanly dignity.

Talent seems to be inherent in the family, as the four brothers, Percy, Richard W., Leroy Pope, and John J. Walker, all sons of the Hon. John W. Walker, are conclusive testimony. Perhaps no other family reared in the State has been so brilliantly illus- trated.

WILLIAM ACKLIN, of Huntsville, has been Solicitor several times, which is evidence that he made a good prosecuting officer, although he never became distinguished in his profession. He aspired to the Judgeship of the Circuit Court unsuccessfully. In 1853, he was elected to the Senate from Madison for a term of four years, and in 1855, his friends were very anxious to place

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him in the chair of that end of the Capitol, but without success. For years he has been in private life, engaged in his profession. He is brother to Joseph A. S. Acklin, Esq., for some time United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, and who married a wealthy and accomplished lady, Mrs. Franklin, of Nash- ville, and died some years ago; and also brother of John R. Ack- lin, Esq., for some years Sheriff, and a prominent man in Madison county.

[NOTE .- The above notice of Mr. William Acklin was written in 1871. He died in 1872.]

HON. ANDERSON CRENSHAW was a native of South Carolina, and completed his education in Columbia College, probably in the graduating class of 1806. He is said to have been very diligent and successful in his studies. In early life he emigrated to Ala- bama, and engaged in the practice of the law. The best evidence of his character and success, is the number of high Judicial offices he held in the State:

1. A Judge of the Circuit Court.

2. Judge of the Supreme Court, composed of Circuit Judges, previous to 1832.

3. Chancellor of the 'Southern Division, from the organization of a separate Court of Chancery in 1838, until his death in 1847.

He was a Whig in politics, but so moderate in his views and feelings, and so devoted to the duties of the high places he occu- pied, that the question of party politics was never brought to bear upon him, and so he was retained in office under elections of the Legislature, when large Democratic majorities existed. His vir- tues as a man, and his abilities and integrity as a Judge, gained the public confidence, from the beginning of his long administra- tion of justice, which he retained to the last. Nothing more need be added to such a pregnant record of success. Yet there was a period in his history of sore trial, when he and two of his Asso- ciates on the Bench of the Supreme Court-Saffold and White- were impeached before the Legislature, as shown by a pamphlet of thirty-six pages, entitled "Responses of Judges Saffold, White, and Crenshaw, to certain charges preferred against them by Wil- liam Kelley, Esq., before the General Assembly of the State of Alabama," printed at Tuskaloosa, by Dugald McFarland, 1829.

As showing some curious facts, an extract from the opinion de- livered by Judge Saffold, at June term, 1828, of the Supreme Court, in the case of Robert Thompson vs. L. H. Jones, is here submitted :

It appears that the plaintiffs held a bond on A. D. Dandridge, D. Wade, and R. H. Dandridge, whereby, on the 8th day of January, 1819, they promised, on or

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Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.

before the 1st day of January next thereafter, to pay the plaintiff, or order, $4,440 for value received, with 20 per cent. per month interest on the above amount thereafter until paid. Credits appeared on the note to the amount of $1,800, ex- pressed to be in part payment of the interest due thereon, dated subsequent to the maturity of the note. There was also an indorsement on the bond, by which the defendant acknowledged that he had, on the 14th of March, 1822, (which is the date of the note here sued on) purchased of the plaintiff the said instrument, and had exonerated him from all responsibility respecting the payment of the same, or any part thereof. This bond was the consideration of the note sued on, and of two others, all of the same amount; making together the sum of $6,300, payable by three installments, with interest from the date, one of which having been given for each installment. Each of said notes was also signed by two other persons (the Eldridges) as securities of the defendant, and by his procurement. The de- fendant appears to have been influenced to enter into this contract, from motives of friendship to the original debtors, and his apprehension of their great injury or ruin from the rapid increase of debt, as the rate of interest stipulated, amounted to more than $10,000 per annum, on the $4,440, and at the time this defendant contracted, this rate of interest had been running more than two years. The plaintiff, however, in conversation with the obligors, both before and after the matu- rity of their bond, said he would not exact the full rate of stipulated interest- that he would only require 5 per cent. per month.

From the "Responses" of the Judges it would seem that the impeaching memorial of Mr. Kelley was prompted by his loss of fees, from the ruling of the Court against the usurious contracts which had been placed in his hands for collection. The Judges passed through the ordeal triumphantly, and each received from the Legislature new tokens of confidence.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Legislature of 1844 Continued-Senators and Representatives Sketched.

Several members of the Senate having taken their seats at this session for the first time, and others not having been included in the personal notices heretofore made, places are here assigned them in these "Reminiscences."

EDWARD S. DARGAN, of Mobile, by birth a North Carolinan, came to Alabama when a young man, first settling at old Wash- ington, then the county-site of Autauga. Here he was elected a Justice of the Peace, and filled that office for some years, in the meantime, practicing law; and here, in this quiet village, on the west bank of the Alabama, while depending wholly upon himself for advancement, were no doubt acquired those habits of thought

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Reminiscences of public men in Alabama : for thirty years, with an appendix, Part 39

Author: Garrett, William, 1809- Publication date: 1872 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Plantation Pub. Co.'s Press Number of Pages: 826

Author: Garrett, William, 1809-
Publication date: 1872
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Plantation Pub. Co.'s Press
Number of Pages: 826