USA > Alabama > Reminiscences of public men in Alabama : for thirty years, with an appendix > Part 50
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Resolved, That the Governor of this State be, and he is hereby, requested to in- vite Major-General Zachary Taylor, who is now in the United States, to visit this city during the present session of the General Assembly, to meet the hospitalities of our State.
After the reception of Gen. Quitman, at the Capitol, he was escorted in a coach-and-four to the Montgomery Hall, where the hospitalities of the city were tendered him by the Hon. William L. Yancey, in a speech of some length, to which the General re- plied in quite a felicitous manner. And thus ended the public `civilities shown to the two distinguished officers in question.
In a short time thereafter, the remains of Col. P. M. Butler, (Ex-Governor of South Carolina), of Lieutenant-Colonel Dickin- son, and Lieutenant Moragne, of the Palmetto Regiment, brave officers who were killed in the battles around the city of Mexico, arrived at Montgomery on a steamboat from Mobile, in their transit to South Carolina for final interment. The Legislature informally adjourned, and its members took part in the large pro- cession of citizens which followed the honored dead from the boat, a mile, to the railroad depot, where an appropriete address was delivered by the Hon. B. F. Porter, as the remains were deposited in the cars, in charge of Captain Blanding and two or three Lieu- tenants of the Regiment, who had accompanied them from Mexico as a guard of honor.
PACIFIC RAILROAD.
Iu the course of the session, Mr. A. Whitney, a large capitalist of New York, arrived in the city, and pursuant to a resolution, a committee conferred with him in relation to his projected Railroad
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Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
to the Pacific, through the territory which had just been acquired from Mexico. In compliance with a resolution of invitation, Mr. Whitney delivered a public address in the Representative Hall, unfolding his scheme, with a clear and simple statement of the practicability, necessity and advantages of this great national work. He predicted its accomplishment, but did not live to see fulfilled, in 1868, at so early a day after the acquisition of the territory, what twenty years previously he had predicted. At the time Mr. Whitney was traveling through the country, addressing the people at large commercial points, in favor of an enterprise which he was the first to propose and advocate publicly, most people regarded him as a mere intelligent dreamer, wise enough to make a few millions of dollars in the Stock Exchange of New York, and as an importer of foreign goods, or as a speculator in real estate, but certainly not competent to execute what nature had decreed to be impossible! The official report of Captain Fre- mont, of his expeditions across the Rocky Mountains, in 1842-3, had not encouraged the belief that such a road could ever pass these formidable barriers. Yet it has been done, and persons now travel from the city of New York, 3,000 miles by railroad, to San Francisco, on the shores of the Pacific, in eight days. After this achievement of capital, and engineering science, who will venture to say that anything is impossible, through the same agencies? Even the pride of England might be overcome by the like argument, and the resolution offered in Congress by Gen. Mc- Connell to annex Ireland to the United States, might become a veritable, breathing reality, full of strength and resuscitation!
SENATORIAL ELECTION.
A very warm contest, usual enough in name, but somewhat sin- gular in the features it then presented, was decided by joint vote of the two Houses, during the first week of the session. The facts were these.
Col. William R. King, elected Senator in Congress from Ala- bama, in 1819, had held his seat continuously in that body for twenty-five years, until 1844, when, being appointed Minister to France, he resigned. The Governor filled the vacancy by issu- ing a commission to the Hon Dixon H. Lewis, who was then, and had been for many years, a Representative in Congress from the Montgomery District. After residing abroad several years in his diplomatic character, Col. King returned, and his friends were: very anxious to restore him to his old place in the Senate, which he had so honorably filled. In the meantime, Mr. Lewis had established a high character in the Senate, and, having surren- dered his position in the House of Representatives, he was unwil-
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Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
ling to throw himself entirely out of Congress, which was the field of his public usefulness, and of his ambition. Hence, a com- petition, from the force of circumstances, between these two dis- tinguished citizens, seemed unavoidable. Their respective friends went to work accordingly, for a trial of strength in the Demo- cratic party, where the two gentlemen stood unimpeached and unimpeachable for fidelity to its principles.
The Whig members, seeing the division among their opponents, imagined it possible, though a result not to be reasonably expected, that they might secure the election of the Hon. A. F. Hopkins, their great Whig leader in the State, and determined to announce him as a candidate, on whom they might at least bestow their votes as a compliment, without interfering with the Democratic fight, which, indeed, they had no motive or desire to ameliorate. On Saturday, December 11, 1847, the two Houses convened for election, when the Hon. William R. King, the Hon. Dixon H. Lewis, and the Hon. Arthur F. Hopkins were placed in nomina- tion, and the ballots began, and lasted two days. The following statement will show with what tenacity the friends of each ad- hered to their favorite in the contest:
Ballots.
King.
Lewis.
Hopkins.
First
34
50
48
Second
34
50
48
Third
33
50
49
Fourth
32
51
48
Fifth
31
50
48
Sixth.
30
53
49
Seventh
27
56
40
Eighth
27
56
49
Ninth
26
58
48
Tenth
26
64
43
Eleventh.
25
61
47
Twelfth.
28
58
47
Thirteenth
27
56
47
Fourteenth.
28
58
47
Fifteenth
28
55
47
Sixteenth.
23
62
47
Seventeenth
22
66
45
Eighteenth.
*
82
45
* Withdrawn.
A majority of all the votes cast having been given to Mr. Lewis, he was declared duly elected a Senator of the United States for a term of six years. As this was his last appearance on the arena of a political contest, I subjoin a brief sketch of his character and public services.
471
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
DIXON HALL LEWIS was born in Hancock county, Georgia, in the year 1802, and completed his education at Columbia College, South Carolina .* He came to Alabama while yet in his minority ; and I have been told by one who was present and knew, that, at the State election in 1823, the vote of Mr. Lewis was challenged and rejected, in Autauga county, on account of age-he lacking ten days of completing his twenty-first year. He then weighed three hundred and thirty pounds.
In 1825, 1826, and 1827, he was elected to the Legislature from Montgomery, and from the first was a leading member in its counsels. In 1827, he made a report in the House on the rela- tion and policy of the State toward the Indian tribes within its territorial limits, which at once established for him a high position as a legislator, and no doubt exerted its influence in the removal of the remaining tribes from the State.
In 1829, then in his twenty-seventh year, Mr. Lewis was elected a Representative in Congress, where he continued, by suc- cessive elections, until he was transferred to the Senate of the United States in 1844. He belonged to the State Rights school of politicians, and followed his convictions with a firmness that knew no faltering. In Congress he exerted a powerful influence with his party, of which he was for years the acknowledged leader in Alabama. This party was composed of many of the first men in the State for independence and weight of character. Approv- ing the policy of Mr. VanBuren in 1837, for the separation of the Government from the Banks, and for the establishment of the Independent Treasury, in the safe-keeping and disbursement of the public money, Mr. Lewis gave earnest support to his adminis- tration, and was thenceforth in full alliance with the Democratic party. Many of his old political friends went with him in this direction, while others refused, and fell into the Whig party.
At the meeting of Congress in 1839, Mr. Lewis was supported for Speaker of the House of Representatives, and came within a few votes of an election. He was very much opposed to a pro- tective tariff, and rarely permitted an occasion to pass without making a speech against the policy. His principles were set forth in the Platform Resolutions adopted by the National Democratic
*While at the Mount Zion Academy, under the direction of the Rev. Nathan S. S. Beeman, Mr. Lewis was considered a bright youth, of great intellectual prom- ise, but not a very close student. He seemed to acquire knowledge as if by intu- ition. Among his schoolmates were the Hon. A. H. Chappell, since a Representa- tive in Congress, and President of the Georgia Senate; the Hon. Charles J. Mc- Donald, Governor of Georgia, and Judge of the Supreme Court; the Hon. Walter T. Colquitt, who served both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate of the United States, and the Hon. Robert Jemison, who for many years was a prom- inent member of the Alabama Legislature, and afterward a Senator of the Confed- erate States.
472
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
Convention at Baltimore, 1840, which paper is here reproduced, because it has not elsewhere appeared in this work:
1. Resolved, That the Federal Government is one of limited powers, derived solely from the Constitution; and the grants of power shown therein ought to be strictly construed by all the departments and agents of the Government, and that it is inexpedient and dangerous to exercise doubtful Constitutional powers.
2. Resoleed, That the Constitution does not confer upon the General Government the power to commence and carry on a general system of internal improvements. 3. Resolved, That the Constitution does not confer authority upon the Federal Government, directly or indirectly, to assume the debts of the several States, con- tracted for local internal improvements, or other State purposes; nor would such an assumption be just or expedient.
4. Resolved, That justice and sound policy forbid the Federal Government to foster one branch of industry to the detriment of another, or to cherish the interest of one portion to the injury of another portion of our common country-that every citizen and every section of the country has a right to demand and insist upon an equality of rights and privileges, and to complete and ample protection of person and property from domestic violence or foreign aggression.
5. Resolved, That it is the duty of every branch of the Government to enforce and practice the most rigid economy in conducting our public affairs, and that no more revenue ought to be raised than is required to defray the necessary expenses of the Government.
6. Resolved, That Congress has no power to charter a National Bank; that we believe such an institution one of deadly hostility to the best interests of the country, dangerous to our republican institutions and the liberties of the people, and calculated to place the business of the country within the control of a con- centrated money power, and above the laws and the will of the people.
7. Resolved, That Congress has no power under the Constitution, to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several States, and that said States are the sole and proper judges of everything appertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the Constitution; that all efforts of the abolitionists or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipi- ent steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dan- gerous consequences, and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to di- minish the happiness of the people and endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend to our political insti- tutions.
8. Resolved, That the separation of the moneys of the Government from bank- ing institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the Government, and the rights of the people.
9. Resolved, That the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in the Constitution, which makes ours the land of liberty, and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the Democratic faith ; and every attempt to abridge the present privilege of becoming citizens, and the owners of soil among us, ought to be resisted with the same spirit that swept the alien and sedition laws from our statute book.
Standing on this platform, and carrying out its policy, Mr. Lewis made a speech on the tariff, "in Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union," on the 11th of July, 1842, which fills a pam- phlet of sixteen pages, of arguments founded on a most elaborate analysis of the statistical returns of manufactures and agriculture, in the census of 1840. The speech is somewhat in the nature of an indictment against the Whig party, for alleged National crimes in legislation, and for grave misdemeanors generally. To show the compactness and force with which Mr. Lewis expressed him-
473
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
self, and the manner in which he arraigned the Whig party before the people, a few extracts are given :
MR. CHAIRMAN : I seldom address this House, nor should I do so on the present occasion, but for the paramount importance which in my estimation, justly attaches to the bill.
Sir, I look upon this not only as the leading measure of the session, but the leading measure of the Whig party ; that to which all other measures have been directed, and which, if successful, will be the consummation of their whole policy. I look upon it as a return to that disastrous system of measures, under which the country is now prostrated, and suffering with an intensity and protraction un- paralleled in its past history. I hesitate not to say, the pecuniary distress in- flicted on the country, under the joint action of Banks, Tariffs, Internal Improve- ments, and other Whig measures, is infinitely beyond that produced by the last war with Great Britain.
Sir, that system commenced with an United States Bank, then followed the Tariffs of 1824 and 1828-then the system of Internal Improvement prosecuted with so much vigor and with so much injustice, under the administration of the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Adams] ; then in an immense surplus revenue, which, after the payment of the public debt, through an union first with the United States Bank, and afterward with the State banks, gave an inflation to the paper system, unequalled since the days of John Law, and finally terminated, as every such inflation must terminate, in a condition of general indebtedness, but little short of the universal bankruptcy both of States and of individuals.
And now, sir, while the country is yet prostrated under these measures, before a wound is closed or the blood is staunched, the great object of Whig policy, is to precipitate us into the same system. As a pretext for inordinate taxation, the Whig party have, within the last two years created a public debt-not a debt like the former one, incurred in the prosecution of a war in defense of our rights-but one designedly created by the most willful extravagance. To throw the whole burthens of revenue on imposts, the proceeds of the public lands are to be distrib- uted among the States ; and thus the old system of Internal Improvement by the Federal Government, so much reprobated by the people, is to be superseded by the more recent and more profligate system of distribution.
After pursuing the argument at considerable length, Mr. Lewis then examined the census returns of 1840, showing that the num- ber of persons engaged in agriculture was 3,717,756, and the value of agricultural products was $794,453,071, equal to $213.71 for the labor of each individual for one year. The amount of capital invested in agriculture, and its yield as above-stated, was then compared with the amount of capital engaged in manufac- tures with its product, and the conclusion arrived at was thus stated:
The result of both these tables is, that a laborer engaged in agriculture,
with a capital of $500, the product of his year's labor and capital would be $ 474.81
A laborer engaged in manufactures, with a capital of $500, the product of his year's labor and capital would be .. $1,239.44 Deduct from this the product of agricultural labor as above. $ 474.81 It shows a difference in favor of manufacturing labor and capital, over
agricultural, of. $ 764.63 Being about three to one.
Now, Mr. Chairman, CAPITAL AND LABOR are the only ELEMENTS OF PROFIT, and from a comparison of both these elements, drawn from a source which cannot be . questioned, the result is, that ONE MAN with a CAPITAL OF FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS,
494 .
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
performing manufacturing labor, makes $289.82 MORE than TWO MEN with a CAPITAL OF ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS, performing agricultural labor.
The predicate of Mr. Lewis for political effect, however justi- fied by the facts, is not here introduced by the writer of this work in the form of an indorsement, but it is merely intended to show the views then taken by a distinguished Democratic statesman, to weaken before the people the scheme of government which he attributed to the Whig party, in the issue before the country.
When Mr. Lewis resigned his seat in the House of Representa- tives in 1844, he was chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and after he went into the Senate he was made chairman of the Committee on Finance, a position corresponding with his former position in the House, always considered the first honor on the floor. He was actively connected with the Tariff of 1846, recommended by the Secretary of the Treasury, and known as the Walker Tariff. Never did any State or any people have a more faithful, a more devoted representative than Mr. Lewis. Even in early life, he seems to have been inspired with a sense of the rights and wrongs of his native South, and his vast intellectual powers were exerted for the defense of the one, and the preven- tion and redress of the other.
Mr. Lewis married a daughter of Gen. John Elmore, of Au- tauga county. His domestic and social qualities were all that his many friends could desire. It was his misfortune, physically, to be encumbered with an enormous quantity of flesh, (430 pounds) which rendered walking rather disagreeable, and always attended with fatigue. Before the day of railroads, he traveled to Washington City in the public mail coaches, and as a passenger he always paid for two seats, a space which he entirely filled. A chair of very large dimensions, and of the strongest manufacture, was provided for him on the floor of the two Houses of Congress. His size and weight considered, it is extraordinary how well he could move about, and what vast labor he could perform in the public service. While on a visit to the city of New York, Mr. Lewis died there in 1848, in the vigor of his days, at the age of forty-six years. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, near the city, where all that is mortal of him now reposes, while his fame belongs to the whole country, whose interests and honor he nobly sustained through a successful legislative course of more than twenty years.
In looking over some old letters in his possession since the fore- going sketch was written, the author of this work found one addressed to him by Mr. Lewis, dated Washington City, March 24, 1846, of which the following is an extract :
I am most anxious, I assure you, to preserve the peace of this country. The prospects of Free Trade at both ends of the line, now for the first time offered to
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Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
us, constitute with me the strongest inducement to avoid a war, which would per- petuate the Tariff, restore the Banking System, and engulph us in a Public debt which would mortgage all the exporting States of the South.
Still believing the President is anxious, like myself, to preserve the peace of the country, I am most desirous to sustain him, particularly against those extreme men who are for committing him, uncompromisingly, to 54-40. I know the Presi- dent is willing to compromise on the 49th degree, but I do know that every effort has been made, and is now making, to prevent all compromise. Forty-two out of the fifty-four Senators are also for compromising on 49, and if a Treaty was made on 49, not more than six or seven Senators at least would oppose it.
Under these circumstances, I have come to the conclusion to vote for the Notice, [to Great Britain respecting the joint occupancy of Oregon] unless something occurs to change that determination. I shall vote for notice in the mildest form I can get it, and I am particular about the form only for the reason that a studied effort has been made by the war men to make notice a war measure, and in ad- vance to censure any attempt on the part of the President to compromise the mat- ter. I wish by the notice to leave the President free to do whatever he can, con- sistently with the honor of the country, to adjust this question peaceably.
SUPREME COURT VACANCY.
At the session of 1847 the Legislature had to fill vacancies which had occurred on the bench of the Supreme Court, and on the Chancery bench. Other Judicial elections also took place, which will be noticed in connection with these officers. This opportunity" is, embraced to refer in a special manner to a very distinguished jurist, who died of yellow fever in Mobile, in the fall of 1847.
HON. HENRY GOLDTHWAITE was a native of Boston, Massa- chusetts, where he was liberally educated, and came to Alabama when a young man, in the earlier years of the State. He settled in Montgomery, where he was for some time the editor of a news- paper, displaying the abilities which afterward became so conspic- uous at the bar, in the Legislature, and on the bench of the Su- preme Court. He was for awhile the law-partner of Governor Fitzpatrick, who was then a young man, carving his way into public notice.
In 1829, Mr. Goldthwaite was elected a Representative in the Legislature from Montgomery county, and became active and effi- cient as a member, establishing a high character for talents and business qualifications. The next year he was defeated. Not long afterward, he removed to Mobile, as a more extensive open- ing in the line of his profession. He there formed a partnership with Robert G. Gordon, Esq., which continued until the death of the latter gentleman, in 1835. In the meantime, Mr. Gold- thwaite practiced extensively on the Circuit, and was acknowl- edged the foremost lawyer in all the courts, for shrewdness and legal acumen. His mental capacity, and his logical powers, made him a formidable competitor before any tribunal. He prospered both in reputation and in his finances.
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Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
In 1838, he was elected an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. His opinions in the several volumes of the Reports, em- bracing the period of his service until he resigned in 1843, afford the best evidence of his great legal acquirements. The Demo- cratic party in the Mobile District, being very anxious to defeat Mr. Dellet, the Whig candidate for Congress, held a convention in 1843, and nominated Judge Goldthwaite as the most popular and effective man to compete with Mr. Dellet on the stump, or elsewhere. The character of that contest has been described in another chapter of this work. Judge Goldthwaite, with his gigan- tic mind, great research, his superior reasoning faculties, and his cutting style of speech, failed to conquer his rival, after resigning his high office to enter the political arena. At the next session of the Legislature, he was replaced on the bench, where he continued until cut down in the meridian of life, with bright prospects of future advancement in the honors of the State.
Judge Goldthwaite had broad shoulders, and was quite corpu- lent. Being near-sighted, he wore glasses to strengthen his vision, which gave him the appearance of looking at a high angle of the horizon, to the neglect of obstacles in his foot-path. He was remarkably active for one of his weight, by which means he preserved his equilibrium in walking under difficulties.
He was bordering on the age of an old bachelor when he mar- ried Miss Witherspoon, of Greene, who greatly contributed to his happiness. At the time of his death, and for many years pre- viously, he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. And here it may be added, what has rarely happened before in the religious character of men, that Chief Justice Collier, and Associate Justices Goldthwaite and Ormond, who presided to- gether with distinguished ability on the bench of the Supreme Court for many years, were all members of the same church.
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