USA > Alabama > Reminiscences of public men in Alabama : for thirty years, with an appendix > Part 67
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T. B. BETHEA, of Mobile, who for many years was a lawyer in Wilcox. He also engaged in planting, in which his success has been abundant. In 1848, he was upon the Electoral ticket for Cass and Butler, and voted for those gentlemen in the Electoral College. Afterwards settling in Mobile, in 1853, he came to the Senate a Democrat, and took an active part in the proceedings and debates. In 1855, he was elected as the representative of the Know-Nothing organization, and cooperated with that party in the Legislature upon political questions.
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Changing his residence to Montgomery, in 1863 he was elected a member of the House, and again in 1865. Col. Bethea has been an active speaking member of the General Assembly when he occupied a seat, and took an active part in shaping the legisla- tion of his day. The renown of his great wealth, and success as a planter, and his skill in accumulation, gave much force to his character, and made him a man of influence in financial, political, and social circles. He still resides in Montgomery.
NATHANIEL HOLT CLANTON, of Macon, was first elected to the House from that county as far back as 1838; but owing to the failure of his health, he returned home before the close of the session, and remained in private life many years. He was a Georgian, and settled a large planting interest on Callebee Creek, where he found the cultivation of the soil, and the endearments of domestic life, more suited to his taste than political contests, though he was always popular, and had no difficulty of an election.
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In 1853, he was elected to the Senate, and served through the session with marked efficiency, and returned, at the session of 1855, to complete his term, but his health was such that he was unable to take his seat, and on the 27th of November, he died.
Col. Clanton, in his political alliances was a Whig, but tolerant in his opinions, and remarkably kind in his social relations. He was a Christian gentleman of great worth in society, useful and upright as a citizen, and his loss was sensibly felt, and greatly de- plored by the people among whom he lived, and by all who knew him.
JOHN N. MALONE, the Senator from Limestone and Morgan, graduated at LaGrange College, and read law in the office of Col. James W. McClung, at Huntsville. He was elected to the Sen- ate in 1851, and again in 1854, making six years of service as a legislator. In 1852, he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention, at Baltimore, and aided in the nomination of Pierce and King. In 1860, he supported Mr. Douglas for the Presi- dency, and was opposed to secession earnestly and honestly; but after Alabama passed the Ordinance of Secession, he went with her, heart and soul, sympathy and prayers. Since the disastrous results of the war, he has found it far more difficult to accept the situation, under Federal rule, than to acquiesce in what he con- sidered the rash and unwise policy of dissolving the Union. He is now laboring under the disabilities of the Fourteenth Amend- ment, and is cheered with the hope, and the signs, that the sands in the hour-glass of Radicalism are fast running out, and that better days await the Southern people.
As a Senator, Mr. Malone was constant in attention to business, 40
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and courteous in his bearing and intercourse with his associates, but firm and decided in his positions and votes. In debate, while he never inflicted long speeches, his remarks were clear, concise, and pointed. In his personal relations, he was confiding and social in a high degree, and withal a most affable gentleman, controlled and directed by a proper regard for Christian character and prin- ciple. Sometimes in the heat of political combat, he was excited, but it proceeded from convictions of right, even in the amenities of partisan warfare, but he was not bitter or spiteful.
He retired, at the close of the session, to his cherished avoca- tions, and still resides in Limestone. The name of Mr. Malone, has a highly respectable significance in North Alabama, where he has long resided; and his brother, Mr. James C. Malone, has long occupied the place of a leading man in the Church and community where he resides.
DR. F. C. WEBB, of Lowndes, first took his seat in the House in 1853, and at the next election he was returned to the Senate, in which he served only through the session of 1855. He was a Whig, quiet, and attentive to business, was highly educated, and somewhat accomplished in letters. He frequently indulged his taste in writing squibs in prose and poetry for his amusement, and that of his friends. In these he exhibited fair artistic skill and good humor, of which he happened to possess a liberal fund that made him an agreeable companion. On the floor he was modest, respectful, and retiring in manner, and was regarded truly as a well bred and cultivated gentleman.
DR. B. F. WILSON, of Pickens, was brought into the Senate by the force of the political questions of the day. He was a gentle- man of intelligence, and held a respectable rank on Committees, and in the science of legislation. His tastes led him away from the scramble for public place, and he retired at the end of the session.
BENJAMIN C. YANCEY, of Cherokee, is a native of South Car- olina. His father, for whom he was named, was a distinguished lawyer of that State, and was Chairman of the Judiciary Com- mittee in the Legislature, in 1816, and died in the morning of life, in 1817.
My first acquaintance with Mr. B. C. Yancey, was in the Dem- ocratic State Convention of 1839. He then resided at Wetumpka, and jointly with his brother, W. L. Yancey, edited the " Argus." He returned to South Carolina, and was several times elected to the Legislature in that State. Settling afterward in Cherokee county, Alabama, where he purchased a large landed estate on the
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Coosa River, he was brought out in 1855 by the Democracy, and elected to the Senate, and at his first and only session was made President of that body. For this position he was well qualified by legislative experience, and he sustained his reputation as a presid- ing officer. Soon afterward he left the State, and settled in Athens, Georgia. Under the administration of President Buchanan he was appointed Minister to the Argentine Republic in South Amer- ica, and remained abroad until about the time the war commenced.
Mr. Yancey frequently participated in the debates of the Sen- ate, upon important questions, with marked ability. He was justly regarded as a gentleman of high character, and possessed colloquial powers of no ordinary kind, which attached much interest to his society, when coupled with his superior intelligence and agreeable address.
For several years Mr. Yancey was President of the State Agri- cultural Society of Georgia, and gave much attention to its pros- perity and usefulness. He is a citizen of large public spirit, and by his energy, and enlightened labors to recuperate the depressed condition of the South, he has gained the public applause. High- toned, and above all concealment, his fame is in worthy relation to that of his distinguished brother, the late William L. Yancey, of Alabama.
MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE.
The rule adopted, to bring forward, in the order of service, the names of gentlemen, applies to the following:
FRANKLIN K. BECK, of Wilcox, was raised and educated in Alabama, and was favored with a large family influence, in coming forward as a lawyer. He was a nephew of Col. William R. King, whose friendship and patronage he enjoyed.
In 1843, Mr. Beck was elected Solicitor of the Second Circuit, which brought him forward as prosecuting attorney, and contrib- uted to develop his future character.' In 1851, he was elected to the House as the colleague of Judge Sterrett, as a Union, or Com- promise man, and cooperated with that organization generally through the session. But the Democratic party having reorgan- ized upon the Georgia Platform, he reestablished his relations, and went for Pierce and King in 1852. He was again elected in 1855, and took a leading part in the proceedings of the House, and was assigned the respectable position of Chairman of the Committee on Federal Relations.
Mr. Beck was a member of the Convention of 1861, and voted for secession. On a resolution offered by Mr. Coleman, to pledge the power of Alabama to aid in resisting any attempt on the part of the United States to coerce any of the seceding States, he said :
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The cause of South Carolina was the cause of Alabama; indeed of the whole South; but particularly were the States that contemplated secession interested in sustaining each other. Alabama can not stand by and see force used against a seceding State. It would be the policy of the Federal Government to conquer the States in detail. They must, therefore, sustain each other. This matter was well understood in Virginia, who, though she had taken no step toward secession, had already, through her Legislature, resolved, almost unanimously, that she would resist by force any attempt to coerce a seceding State. We owed it to ourselves and to the position we now occupy, not to be behind Virginia in giving prompt expression to our determination to stand by and uphold the seceding States in their efforts to resist Black Republican rule.
In the late war, he entered with zeal into the Confederate service, and raised a regiment, of which he was made Colonel. He was in the department of Mississippi, and shared actively in the defense of Vicksburg, when that post was captured by the enemy in July 1863. His command was then ordered to Georgia, and in one of the battles just before the surrender he was killed. Col. Beck was a gentleman of fine character and rising talents, with a bright future apparently before him, when thus suddenly cut down in the meridian of life. When quite young, he married a daughter of James Tait, Esq., of Wilcox, a gentleman of great substance in property and in moral worth.
WILLIAM P. DAVIS, of Benton, was first elected to the House in 1851, and reëlected in 1853, and again in 1855, serving a course of six years. He was raised and educated in the State, adopting the profession of the law, and entered public life too soon to ac- complish anything solid in legal pursuits. The times in which he commenced his career, were exciting and somewhat demoralizing upon politicians who had not become well set in their principles.
Mr. Davis was sprightly and showy, with a good deal of self- esteem-rather more sail than ballast-increased by the fact of having influential family relations. He was much flattered by being consulted on the direction of political and legislative move- ments, which inspired more confidence in his abilities, and fre- quently exposed him to criticism, and produced embarrassment. In political organization he was often a disorganizer, and began to delight in being the center of a disorganizing wing of his party. Sometimes this feeling carried him to great excess, and he was left to himself, as in 1853, when he recorded his vote alone against the resolutions of the General Assembly, expressive of their sense of the character of the Hon. William R. King, Vice-President of the United States, and which surprised everybody. He was erratic and impulsive, and hasty to a fault; and these, in connec- tion with good qualities of mind and heart, presented a strange medley.
It was a misfortune that Mr. Davis entered political life so young, and at such a time; for he possessed intellectual faculties
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which, if properly cultivated and directed, would have led to sub- stantial developments and character. He was a ready speaker, and occupied a good deal of time upon the floor. Having full confidence in himself, he never turned aside from any tilt in dis- cussion, in which he would sometimes get the better, and at other times he came off badly worsted. But whatever errors he may have fallen into, they were more in the nature of mistakes than a vicious disposition; for the impulses of his heart were, in the main, good and generous. Upon the leading political principles of the day, he was fixed and stable. He was a Democrat of the South- ern Rights wing, and received his early bent of character under the influence of the notions then entertained by a good many of the class, that "Young America" was the giant of the day, and had a right to put on airs.
Not long after he retired from the Legislature, Mr. Davis re- moved West, leaving behind him many kind remembrances, of political and personal associations among the many who knew him.
THOMAS H. HOBBS, of Limestone, took his seat for the first time in the Legislature at the session of 1855. He was a young man, who had been raised with all the care which wealth and pa- rental tenderness could bestow. His education had been well attended to, and finished; and he developed at an early day moral qualities which gave beauty to his character. A Christian in prin- ciple and practice, the open advocate and friend of the Temperance cause, and of every movement looking to the elevation of the public morals; with an ample fortune, a good person, an amiable, open countenance that seemed to rest upon a conscience void of offense, he presented a model of the polished religious gentleman. And such he was, urbane, respectful, and dignified in his deport- ment to his fellows, faithful to his trusts and friendships, and true to the State and land of his nativity, which he loved so well. He discharged his duties at this session with marked ability and fidelity, but with the modesty which indicated that he felt the re- straints of being a new member.
In 1857, Mr. Hobbs was again returned, and took a prominent position in the organization of the House and in the proceedings of the session. As Chairman of the Committee on Education, he had a field of duty and labor opened to him which suited his taste and aspirations.
During the latter session, the public faith was imperiled by the force of the monetary revulsion which had set in during the Fall; but the calamity was averted by the energy and patriotism of Mr. John Whiting, which drew from Mr. Hobbs a complimentary reso- lution, to be found on the House Journal, p. 334, as it passed.
His constituents, among whom he was raised, were so pleased
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with his course in the Legislature, that, in 1859, they elected him a third time to the House. With the experience he had gained, he passed through the latter session with increased influence, which made him one of the leading members in all the essentials of a wise, practical statesmanship.
When hostilities between the North and the South commenced, in 1861, Mr. Hobbs entered the service of the Confederate States, and attained the rank of Major. While on duty at the siege of Petersburg, and in one of the desperate charges which marked the battles in Virginia, he was killed. In his death, Alabama lost a virtous and useful citizen, whose future, illumined by talent and bright hopes, seemed to promise a rich harvest of fame. His record, in the hearts of the people, will not soon be obliterated.
NATHANIEL R. KING, of Shelby, son of Edmund King, Esq., formerly of Montevallo, (a gentleman of great energy and wealth,) was a native Alabamian, liberally educated, and a young man of superior intelligence. In 1855, he was elected to the House, and served through the session, his only term in public life. Even then, it was evident from the state of his health, that he had a · disease, which continued to progress until it carried him off a few years afterward. Favored with ample means, and the indulgence of a kind father, he had previously visited Europe, in the hope of improving his physical condition by a change of climate, and by travels in a foreign land; but all to little purpose. He was cut down in early life, yet not until the people of his county, among whom he was raised, had honored him with their confidence in the councils of the State. He had a good mind, and prepossessing person, and was highly respected in the social walks of life.
E. G. PORTIS, of Monroe, represented the people of that county only at the session of 1855. He was a merchant, liberally educated, well read, had a very attractive person, and a face so expressive of character as to draw notice in any assembly. He was ill at ease in the Legislature. They moved too slow for him, and too much public time was spent to no profit, in his estimation. He had evidently been accustomed to an active life, and to great economy of time and means, which, doubtless, contributed to his success in business, and to his fine stock of intelligence. He was a native of North Carolina, but had long resided in Alabama, and was fully identified with her interests. He possessed the elements of char- ·acter for a useful and enterprising citizen, and was a Democrat. In a few years after the session, he died, much regretted by the community.
Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama.
WESLEY M. SMITH, of Franklin, was first elected to the House in 1845, and filled his place well as one of the younger members of that body. In 1851, and in 1855, he was again returned, show- ing the confidence reposed in him by his constituents, among whom he grew to manhood. As his experience in public life increased, his capacity as a useful legislator was developed in his familiarity with the forms of proceeding, and with questions of public policy. He was generally connected with all political movements within his influence as a Democrat of the State Rights school, and used to say that he was a disciple of Major David Hubbard and Col. F. G. Norman, both prominent men of their day, capable of teaching in this department, at least.
Mr. Smith was esteemed a worthy gentleman, and representa- tive of his people, and was watchful of the public interest. An active man on committees, well versed in the details of business, he filled his place well. Since this session, he has been in retire- ment, pursuing the avocations of a citizen, in which he has suc- ceeded, and enjoys the respect of those who know him best, in the possession of comfort and competency as the fruits of honest service to the public and to himself.
GEORGE TAYLOR, of Coosa, was elected in 1855, a Democrat. He was a planter; and from the humble walks of life in property, he had, by well-directed industry, acquired a large competency, and dispensed, at his home near Wetumpka, a warm-hearted, lib- eral hospitality. He had no public aspirations, else he might have represented his county for many years, so closely identified was he with the people around him. Without early advantages, he pos- sessed a good share of practical knowledge and information, and was, in every sense of the term, a respectable citizen. He was elected to the January Convention, 1861, as a Cooperationist; but before the Ordinance of Secession was voted upon, his convictions led him to support it, as the best that could be done. He was never a candidate again, and died a few years thereafter.
DR. GEORGE F. TAYLOR, of Chambers, was a Georgian, and an · Old-Line Whig, who, in the organization of parties in 1855, upon the Know-Nothing basis, allied himself with the Democratic and Anti-Know-Nothing party; and being a gentleman of intelligence and large influence, he was placed on the ticket, and elected. He was made Chairman of an important Committee, and acquitted himself as a useful, industrious member. He was well educated, possessed good qualities and extensive information, and was much respected by his fellow-members in the Legislature. This was his only session. He still resides at LaFayette, engaged in the practice of his profession.
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TOLIVER TOWLES was on old stager, who first made his appear- ance from Chambers, as a member of the House in 1839, the col- league of Arnold Seale, Esq., a gentleman of wealth and worth, intelligence and energy. Mr. Towles was a Democrat, and it took him several years to fix up so as to go successfully through the ballot-box in Chambers, where the political majority was against him ; so he did not return until 1847, and again in 1855-eight years between times.
Mr. Towles belonged to a valuable class of members who saved time by not speaking, and rendered ready service in carrying for- ward the business of the House with an eye to its dispatch, and the public interest. Socially, he rendered himself quite agree- able, and possessed a generous nature. He was a Georgian, a planter, and a good citizen.
In 1865, he was elected a member of the Constitutional Con- vention for reorganizing the State, and was also a member of that in 1867, organized under Congressional rule ; but I do not think he voted for the Constitution that was adopted by that body. And while it is to be regretted that a gentleman who so long enjoyed the confidence of his fellow-citizens, should, in after-life, become embarrassed in his political relations by causes of such a vital nature, fair allowances should be made for surroundings and pre- judices which, if known, perhaps would relieve Mr. Towles from misapprehension, at least so far as his motives are concerned.
The observation of a life-time satisfies me that one misstep, or a step in the wrong direction by an old man of pride of character, and position, and opinion, is difficult to retrace, and that relations thus impaired are seldom reestablished. Confidence is destroyed, and when that is gone in public men, or when men find them- selves deceived, the feelings revolt from any further reliance. Looking at Mr. Towles away back twenty and thirty years, in the freeness of political associations and personal friendships, I confess that my mind rests with more satisfaction upon his early political history ; and I have no doubt he finds more pleasure in reflecting upon those days and associations, than he does upon his recent experience and attachments as a politician.
JAMES H. CLANTON was a student in the University of Alaba- ma when I first formed his acquaintance, about the year 1845. His father, Nathaniel H. Clanton, an opulent planter of Macon county, was a Representative in the Legislature in 1838, who, hav- ing very little inclination or taste for public life, soon retired, and his next election was to the Senate in 1853. He died not long thereafter.
The son, Mr. J. H. Clanton, read law (to the best of my recol- lection), with the late N. W. Cocke, Esq., and, after his admission
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to the bar, settled in the town of Montgomery to pursue the prac- tice of his profession. He married a daughter of the Hon. James Abercrombie, late a Representative in Congress, by which connex- ion he secured a large family influence. In 1855, he was elected a Representative from Montgomery county, and subsequently obtained the commission of Brigadier General in the State Militia. He also, in 1855, attached himself to the American party. By special invitation, he and the late Hon. James E. Belser attended a large Mass Convention of that party at the city of Macon, Geor- gia, where both were called out by the multitude, and both made eloquent speeches. In 1860, Gen. Clanton served on the Union. ticket as a candidate for Presidential Elector in favor of Bell and Everett. He was a decided Whig in politics from early manhood, and was opposed to secession until the Ordinance was passed, after which he acted on the principle of paramount allegiance to the State.
On the breaking out of the war in 1861, General Clanton was among the first to raise a company for Southern defense, and, with his cavalry, operated on the coast and about Pensacola. He after- ward raised a regiment of cavalry, of which he was appointed Colonel, and subsequently he was promoted to the rank of Briga- dier General by President Davis. He continued in the service until the surrender of the Confederate armies, in 1865. He was a bold, gallant and impetuous leader, and such are now his quali- ties in the contests of civil life.
At the Convention at Selma in 1866, Gen. Clanton was appoint- ed Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Democratic and Conservative party, which position he still retains, always vigilant and fearless, and ready to expose error and corruption. He has rendered efficient service to the State by his wise and patriotic counsels, supported by his able associates on the Committee.
The personal qualities of Gen. Clanton are most decided. His name is of high authority when the honor of men is involved, and when the principles of justice and right are at stake .. Were he to perceive a manifest wrong about to be practised on a politi- cal enemy, or on the humblest man living, he would stand by him at every peril, to prevent or to redress the wrong. Whatever is elevated and honorable, finds in him a cordial support, and he will incur every hazard to carry out his principles. His character in this respect is so generally known, that he has been called the Chevalier Bayard of Alabama-a man without fear and without reproach.
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