USA > Alabama > Reminiscences of public men in Alabama : for thirty years, with an appendix > Part 56
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87
Y our Committee believe they would fall far below the standard of the people themselves now, when all the requisite information is laid before them, showing them the means necessary to be adopted, by a person so well skilled from expe- rience to furnish it, with all the details necessary to create, organize, and conduct such an institution with success-if they failed to act at once, and to do, in the name of the people of Alabama, this act of charity and Christian duty.
They have therefore directed me to report
A bill to be entitled "An act to establish a State hospital for insane persons in Alabama," and of which they recommend the passage by this body.
GEORGE N. STEWART, Chairman.
On motion of Mr. Ware, the bill was laid upon the table, and 133 copies or- dered to be printed.
In the House of Representatives-
Mr. R. H. Smith, from the Select Committee to whom was referred the memorial of Miss D. L. Dix, on the subject of a State hospital for the protection and cure of the insane, reported :
That the Committee think no statement or argument can be necessary on the importance of such an institution; no extraordinary appeals are required to elicit our sympathies in behalf of affliction. Increasing legislation throughout the civ- ilized world for the protection and relief of the unfortunate of every class, speaks the tendency of the age too plainly to require comment. The census of 1840 in-
521
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
forms us that there were then three hundred and fifty-seven persons within our State idiotic and insane. When it is remembered that the computation was mere incidental duty to ascertaining the population, it will appear that the number must have been much larger, especially as the lunatics from Alabama in the hospitals of other States were probably not included.
We are advised by the touching memorial of Miss Dix, whose philanthropic life has been largely devoted to ascertaining and ameliorating the condition of this unfortunate class, that, according to the lowest estimate, there are not fewer than seven hundred idiots, epileptics and insane within our State. Observation teaches how deplorable and distressing must be the condition of such out of an asylum. All testimony coincides in acknowledging the restorative and ameliorating effects of treatment in one.
The Committee, impressed with the importance of such an institution, have never felt the force of an objection to its present establishment on the ground of expenditure. The necessity for prudence and economy in the present exigencies of the State is sensibly appreciated, but the Committee think the object to be accom- plished rises above the objection. A comparison of the property and taxes of Alabama with the property and taxes of some of the most flourishing States of the Union, will leave us little cause to complain that we are heavily burdened.
But your Committee do not think the establishment of an asylum will be con- sidered as an ordinary act of appropriation, to be made or withheld on strict rules of economy. They look upon the protection of our afflicted people as the duty of the State, as high, as obligatory, as that of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of liberty and estate.
The Committee instruct me to report the following bill to establish a State hos- pital for insane persons in Alabama.
Said bill was read and ordered to a second reading.
Miss Dix was present in the Legislature when the bill was taken up and discussed. It would no doubt have passed at the session of 1849, but for the burning of the Capitol. At the next session, however, it was passed, and the institution located at Tus- kaloosa, where it has received the fostering care of Drs. Searcy and Guild, of that city, and of Dr. Mabry, of Dallas, who have taken much interest in it.
The building has been costly, under the plans furnished by Dr. Lopez, of Mobile, the agent sent North for the purpose of procur- ing designs. It is an honor to Miss Dix who proposed, and to the Legislature which established it.
Some three or four years before she presented her memorial at Montgomery, Miss Dix visited Tuskaloosa on a mission of the kind, while making a tour through the States where no similar institutions had been provided, and collecting information as to the duty and wants of Alabama in this respect. While in the city she was the guest of Chief Justice Collier, and it was at his house I formed her acquaintance, and was enabled to judge some- what of her extraordinary purposes. The idea of devoting her life and energies to the alleviation of the unfortunate class who had been deprived of their reason, was inspired by the condition of a dear female friend of hers, who had become deranged, to whose relief she for sometime devoted her powers. Then her philanthropy took a wider range, and embraced the whole United States, not only by setting on foot the establishment of asylums
522
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
where the insane could be collected and cared for, but in visiting penitentiaries and prisons, and inspecting them with a view to improvements in their sanitary and moral condition.
She visited the Penitentiary of Alabama, and turned things about, pointing out many defects, and suggesting improvements. She furnished the first library to that institution which it ever had -the moral culture of the convicts, through books, having been theretofore wholly neglected. Her efforts were untiring. She seemed to feel that she had an important mission to perform, and had no time to lose. Her object was information upon, and coöp- eration in her work. That she accomplished much by her efforts, the establishment of asylums for the insane in every State where they were wanting, fully attests. Not only so. She elevated the character of prison treatment and discipline, in all the States. Everywhere she went, she was regarded with the most profound respect, as the Howard of America.
Miss Dix traveled alone, from place to place, in public convey- ances, without an apprehension. Everybody seemed to know her, or to be awed into respect by her presence and mission. At the time I saw her, she was a little past the meridian of life-tall, slender, and dignified, with a strongly marked intellectual face. She was modest as a lady of rare intelligence and merit; but in the performance of her mission, and the great good she accom- plished, she exhibited masculine powers of no ordinary mould. She had a private income, or annuity, that supplied her personal wants and expenses, and was no tax upon the public. She was a sister of Gen. John A. Dix, of New York, formerly a Senator in Congress, and a man of great prominence in the political world. Whether she still lives, or whether her useful career has been terminated by death, I am not prepared to say. At all events, her record is a bright one in the annals of humanity.
ELECTIONS.
Several important elections were had, the principal one being that of United States Senator. This always formed an animated occasion, particularly when two were to be elected from among active aspirants. The length of the term, and the political influ- ence wielded by a Senator, and the advantages that might accrue to the minority, were counted with vigilance, and frequently over- estimated.
Col. William R. King was, in 1848, appointed a Senator in place of Gov. Bagby, resigned, and Gov. Fitzpatrick occupied the place made vacant by the death of Mr. Lewis. The defeat of Gov. Fitzpatrick, in 1849, by Mr. Clemens, is stated in the notice of the latter gentleman.
523
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
In the other contest, three candidates were placed in nomination by their respective friends, when ballotings were had as follows:
1st ballot.
2d ballot.
3d ballot.
William R. King
57
59
71
Reuben Chapman
15
13
withdrawn.
Arthur F. Hopkins
.58
59
58
Col. King having a majority of the whole, was declared duly elected for a term of six years.
For Judge of the Ninth Circuit, John J. Woodward, Jefferson Falkner, and Robert Baugh, Esqrs., were placed in nomination, and upon the sixth ballot-the name of Mr. Baugh being with- drawn-Mr. Woodward was elected.
Of the candidates not elsewhere noticed, a brief sketch is here given, in observing the custom of the writer to furnish pictures wherever he happens to fall in with the originals.
REUBEN CHAPMAN, Governor since 1847, until the inaugura- tion of Gov. Collier, retired from the Executive with a spotless character. Like his immediate predecessor, he held the office only two years, and saluted the Legislature with only one annual mes- sage, and that was at the opening of this session. It is a state pa- per of considerable ability in the discussion of the political ques- tions then before the country, growing out of the war with Mexico, or rather the acquisition of Territory from that Government by the treaty of peace. These questions are discussed with the clear- ness and ability of a statesman of no ordinary caste, and this mes- sage will pass into history as a far-seeing exposition of the danger to which the Territorial question was likely to subject the interests of the Southern States in the future assumptions of the Federal Government.
In the administration of the affairs of the State, Gov. Chapman displayed Executive abilities fully equal to any emergency that arose. The management of the Banks was mainly in the hands of Mr. Lyon, who was fully equal to the trust committed to his hands; and the original policy of Gov. Fitzpatrick was yet developing in the steady work of liquidation. Gov. Chapman watched with a scrutinizing care every branch of the public interest, and encour- aged and practised fidelity and frugality in the discharge of public duties.
Soon after his inauguration in 1847, he gave a public reception and an entertainment at the Montgomery Hall, which was largely attended. It was gotten up on a scale of liberality and bounteous hospitality beyond any entertainment by a Governor for many years, and was enjoyed with general glee and good will. The
524
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
Governor and his accomplished lady were comparatively strangers in East-Alabama; and while the occasion afforded a good oppor- tunity for them to extend it, the visitors and attendants were pleased, more with the courtly character of the reception, than the abundant provision for convivial enjoyment.
Gov. Chapman was by no means unpopular with the people as the cause of being set aside, and not reelected. The masses, especially of his own party, had great confidence in him, and re- garded him with favor as a public servant. The men of the party who had secretly favored the election of Gov. Martin over Col. Terry, and had adhered to his gubernatorial interests, were offended at his being dropped at the end of his term, and determined that the precedent of a one term Governor should be followed, at least in this case. Had not Gov. Chapman, in his magnanimity, waived the customary right to a reelection, and requested a Convention to be called to settle the question, he would have been Governor an- other term. But the politicians controlled mainly in the Conven- tion, at least so far as to prevent his getting the required majority of two-thirds. The people submitted to the Convention; but there was little sympathy with the action of that body in throwing overboard a long-tried and faithful public servant, who had become fully identified, not only with the Democratic party, but with the people of the State, by a long residence, and an open, upright, and effective discharge of public duty.
Connected, as the writer has been, with Gov. Chapman in public life, and knowing the correct principles which governed his official conduct, and the popular feeling toward him, he could not in jus- tice withhold the testimony here given.
SILAS PARSONS, at the session of 1849, was elected Judge of the Supreme Court, without opposition, to fill the place vacated by Gov. Collier. He resided at Huntsville, and was the first Chan- cellor elected for the Northern Division, in 1838, but declined the office. He remained on the Bench only two years, when declining health, the result of intense application to his official duties, obliged him to retire. He carried with him in private life the pro- found respect of the Bench, the Bar, and the country, for his ability as Judge, and for the purity of his character as a man. In a few years after his resignation, he died, much regretted by the public.
Judge Parsons was a Kentuckian by birth, and settled in Ala- bama to pursue the law as a profession, when a young man, and made such improvement upon the very ordinary advantages of his early life, that he rose to eminence at the bar. He was a brother of Gen. Enoch Parsons, a distinguished lawyer who resided at Claiborne, and who, in 1835, was the Whig candidate for Governor
525
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
in opposition to Judge Clay; and of Gen. Peter Parsons, for many years a prominent lawyer and politician in East-Tennessee.
In person, Judge Parsons was tall and slender, with a quiet, thoughtful face, equanimity of temper and feeling. In manners and dress, he was inclined to be negligent, doubtless from his de- votion to books, and to his professional labors. His intellectual faculties were of a high order, although concealed from the casual observer by an address almost approaching to dullness and insip- idity. He belonged to that class of men upon whom Nature has bestowed rare gifts, without mixing with them any taste for the refinements of society. To see him and Judge Dargan sitting to- gether in the Supreme Court room, waiting for some case to be called in which they were rivals in the argument, a stranger to both would naturally conclude that the parties litigant had chosen their counsel for inertia of appearance, rather than from any other consideration. But let either rise to his feet, to address the Court, and open his case, a new vision was presented. Then the supe- rior mind, the profound learning, the forcible, sustained logic, riveted the attention of all, and a gleam of light played upon the features of the advocate, entirely displacing the dullness of repose. It is said that appearances are deceptive, and in con- firmation of this maxim, Judge Parsons was a notable instance.
JOHN J. WOODWARD was a South Carolinian. He settled at Talladega as a lawyer about the year 1838. For some time, he was connected with the publication of the " Watchtower," a Dem- ocratic paper. In 1847, he was elected to the House, in which body he established a character for legislative capacity, and for high-toned qualities as a gentleman.
In 1853, he was elected Solicitor of the Ninth Circuit, and was reelected in 1857. Upon the commencement of hostilities in 1861, he entered the service of the Confederate States as a pri- vate, and was elected Colonel of a regiment, at the head of which he distinguished himself for bravery in several engagements. At the battle of Dranesville, in Virginia, he fell while leading a charge against the enemy, and the career of a gallant and warm- hearted man thus forever closed. His memory will ever be cher- ished with fond admiration by his many friends.
JAMES A. STALLWORTH, elected Solicitor of the Second Cir- cuit, was returned to the House from Conecuh county in 1845, and was reelected in 1847. In 1853, he was reelected Solicitor.
He was regarded as a rising young man, developing rapidly as a lawyer and public speaker. In 1855, he was the nominee of the Democratic and Anti-Know-Nothing party for Congress in the Mobile District, but was defeated by Mr. Percy Walker, after an
526
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
animated and exciting contest. In 1857, he was elected to Con- gress as the Democratic candidate, and reelected in 1859.
In the meantime, his aspirations for popular favor, and his con- vivial personal associations, brought upon him an unfortunate habit, the deadly snare of genius and popularity, which consigned him to an untimely grave in 1862, before he had reached the meridian of life. .
Col. Stallworth was a native of Conecuh county, and connected with a large family. influence. He possessed talents of no ordi- nary character; but grew too rapidly in public favor, after entering the political arena when quite a young man, to allow the proper training for its consistent development, by close application. He was an agreeable speaker, and discussed the questions of the day in such a manner as to convince the masses of his attainments, which as yet were imperfect. He had a good person, remarkably kind face, and social qualities of a rare type, which he had well cultivated, which, all together, made him what is termed a "pop- ular man." He was charitable, kind-hearted, and generous, full of good humor, and told and enjoyed an anecdote with remarkable gusto. His age was a little past twenty-one when first elected to the Legislature, and his race was ended in seventeen years, in which time, as his record shows, he filled many positions of honor and trust. His star rose rapidly, and blazed brightly across the political horizon; but too soon for himself and his country, it was extinguished in a premature grave.
May the fate of this young orator and statesman convey a salu- tary lesson to the young men of the State, to be always on their guard against the insidious approaches of the foe which proved his ruin. A voice from the tomb can almost be heard, saying-Taste not, handle not the dangerous element of moral and intellectual slaughter !
JOHNSON J. HOOPER was born and raised in North Carolina. It has been generally reported that he was a grandson of William Hooper, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He was a collateral kinsman, his father, Archibald Mc- Laine Hooper, being the son of George Hooper, of Wilmington, who was a nephew of the distinguished signer and Revolutionary patriot. Mr. DeBernier Hooper, of Fayetteville, a gentleman of high moral worth and literary attainments, is a brother of Mr. J. J. Hooper.
After a stubborn contest in the Legislature, at the session of 1849, Mr. Hooper was elected Solicitor of the Ninth Circuit, over Messrs. Bowie, Latham, Spyker, and Presley, his competitors. At the end of four years, when his term of office expired, he was a candidate for reelection, but was defeated by Judge Woodward.
-
527
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
He afterward established the "Mail" newspaper, which was for awhile the organ of the Whig party, taking the place of the "Alabama Journal," and acquired a large influence. In 1860, the paper went into the support of Mr. Breckinridge for Presi- dent, and assumed an extreme position on the leading questions which progressed in bitterness between the North and the South.
When the Provisional Congress of the Southern States met at Montgomery, in February, 1861, Mr. Hooper was elected Secre- tary of that body, and continued to hold the office until the organ- ization of the two Houses of Congress at Richmond, after the Confederate Government was formed under the Constitution, and was defeated for Secretary of the Senate. He never returned to Alabama. The convivial habits which had been growing upon him for several years, increased no doubt by his defeat, termin- ated his life in 1863, while he was comparatively in the vigor of his days.
The associations of Mr. Hooper, and his great fund of wit and humor, which made his society much sought and enjoyed by the lovers of fun, had never tended to a very moral course of life, and the subject of religion seemed never to have entered his thoughts, or at least never had any perceptible influence on his conduct. But it is said that, when his last hours drew near, he became deeply interested for the salvation of his soul, and in this extremity, he sent for a Catholic priest, to whom he confessed, and who administered to him the sacraments of the Church pre- scribed for such occasions. The humble penitent had seen the error of his ways, and it is hoped that he died at peace with God and man.
The character of Mr. Hooper was peculiarly marked. He first . edited the "Whig," or some paper of like politics in East-Ala- bama. His articles giving the experience of a census-taker in 1840, when the old women flourished their broomsticks on being interrogated in regard to their poultry, dairies, and "garden truck," were so humorous and natural that they were copied into nearly all the papers of the South, and afforded general amuse- ment. Then followed "Simon Suggs," which was a delineation of character, bad enough no doubt in the original, but highly em- bellished and aggravated in the romance, with scenes, occurrences, sentiments, and other details of a cunning, unprincipled man, whose art, in the perpetration of fraud, was greatly assisted by the cant and hypocrisy of a pretended piety and church member- ship ! This work was published by Messrs. D. Appleton & Co., of New York, and the volume had a very extensive circulation. Thousands and tens of thousands of readers have laughed over it, and the grotesque situations and characters introduced; but prob- ably not one of them all has had his reverence for virtue increased
528
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
by the perusal. While Mr. Hooper gained celebrity as a humorist, he lost something of a higher value in public estimation. His own authority will be here given for the effect.
In December, 1856, a Southern Commercial Convention was held in Savannah, to which Mr. Hooper and other gentlemen from Alabama were delegates. His arrival was announced in the city papers in terms quite complimentary, as the author of "Simon Suggs," that inimitable production so popular throughout the country. When the Convention met in the Atheneum, and while the Mayor was in the chair, waiting for the committee to report officers for permanent organization, Judge John A. Jones, of Geor- gia, himself a wag and humorist, formally moved, in presence of the six or eight hundred delegates, that Simon Suggs be called upon to give an account of himself for the last two years. The Mayor, with great politeness, put the question, and on its being carried in the affirmative by a unanimous vote, he requested "Mr. Suggs," if present, to comply with the expressed desire of the Convention. There sat Mr. Hooper in the pit, wrapped in a green blanket coat, near Albert Pike, of Arkansas, as if over- whelmed by the pressure. From the character which his writings inspired, he was supposed by everybody to be always ripe for a frolic, and for a roar of merriment, and that he was as good at telling stories as in writing his droll descriptions, and thankful for the privilege. He stirred not an inch. More than a thousand persons, in the galleries and elsewhere, were on the tiptoe of ex- pectation at hearing "Simon Suggs" deliver his convulsive jokes. But the feast came not, when the entrance of the committee put an end to the embarrassment of Mr. Hooper.
This call by Judge Jones was referred to at the hotel, in pres- ence of Mr. Hooper, as an evidence of the popularity of the latter, even out of his own State. He replied that a liberty had been taken with his name which was really offensive, as showing that others looked upon him as a mere story-teller, with nothing solid in his composition. He confessed and regretted that his writings had established that character in public estimation, and that he felt its depressing influence whenever he desired, or aimed, to soar above it, to a higher rank before the public. His ambition had been to move in quite a different channel, to enjoy the respect of men; but he had unfortunately obtained a reputation which cut off all such hopes. It was an evil day to his fortunes and to his happiness when he embarked in that class of literature, or otherwise became a chronic story-teller for the diversion of his companions. He said it was probably too late to rectify the blun- der, and that he must continue to suffer the consequences.
For once in his life, Mr. Hooper appeared to be in earnest, while deploring his notoriety. There is a salutary moral in his
529
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
experience which, it is hoped, may have the effect on others to cultivate habitual self-respect and a due regard for public opinion, while cherishing at all times lofty feelings and resolutions to pos- sess the gold of character, without the alloy which defeated the genius of Johnson J. Hooper. Here let him stand as a beacon- light, to give warning of the rock on which the manly ambition and hopes of his youth perished.
Mr. De Bernier Hooper, of North Carolina, having been men- tioned as a brother, it is proper to introduce here the name of George D. Hooper, Esq., also a brother, a worthy member of the legal profession, now residing at Opelika. For a number of years, Mr. George D. Hooper was a citizen of Russell county, where, at Crawford, the county-site, he pursued the law as a vocation, and enjoyed a large degree of public favor. He was a member of the State Convention in 1865, and assisted in framing the Constitution of that year.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.