USA > Alabama > Reminiscences of public men in Alabama : for thirty years, with an appendix > Part 9
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HENRY T. JONES had served a number of sessions in the House, and while he was watchful, and particularly attentive to the interests of his constituents, he failed from some cause, proba- bly from a want of due appreciation by others, to wield much influence in the House. One reason no doubt was, that his bitter hostility to the Democratic party, which exhibited itself upon the slightest occasion, incurred the displeasure of that party; and in his own, the Whig party, his leadership was ignored, so that he was kept pretty much in the background. The consequence was, he became to some extent soured and isolated. He removed from Butler to another county not long after the termination of the session.
C. CARMACK had long represented the people of Lauderdale in the House, and with such acceptability that for several years he
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had desired to retire, but his fellow-citizens persisted in electing him. He told me in 1838 that he hoped he would be beaten the ensuing year, as then he would have a good excuse to decline any further attention to public affairs, which did not suit his taste. Mr. Carmack was a plain, unpretending gentleman, rather re- served in his intercourse with the members-investigated closely all the subjects upon which he was required to act. and vote, and , took his course from the stand-point of honest conviction; and this, once determined upon, no whispers of policy, or anything short of principle, could change him. He was much respected in Legis- lative circles, and invited frequently to the social meetings of his fellow-members. Here, while his strict temperance habits were maintained, he would relax the reserve of public intercourse, and enjoy the freedom of such occasions with lively jest and anecdote. Soon after this year he removed to Mississippi, where he remained in private life until 1851, when the State called a Convention to consider the political questions then culminating. He was elected as a Union man, and on the assembling of the Convention, he was made its President. The labors of this position were no doubt too much for his physical ability, which was always below medium condition, and on his way home, after the adjournment, sickened and died. He was a Democrat, not because anybody else was or had been, but solely from principle, and wherever his principles led him, he went. This course of action frequently separated him from friends of the policy school, but did not on his part produce any misunderstanding, or ill blood. He was a Christian gentleman without austerity, and had univer- sal charity toward his fellow-beings.
ARCHIBALD E. MILLS, of Limestone, was a member only this session, although his character and alliances would have secured him a continuance in the Legislature had he desired it; but polit- ical life, and the contests attending it, did not suit his taste. He was well educated, had studied the law more as an accomplish- ment than a pursuit; for he was a wealthy planter, and moved in an easy circle. Being a new member, he participated but little in the debates, and was highly respected for his intelligence and gentle bearing. He was afterwards President of the Charleston
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and Memphis Railroad, in which capacity he exhibited those high business qualities which a few years developed. He died several years ago, perhaps while President of the Road.
BENJAMIN G. SHIELDS had the experience of several years in the House. His election in Marengo during those times was an evidence of his personal popularity, inasmuch as the county was decidedly Whig in politics, while Mr. Shields was a decided and leading Democrat of the Jackson school. This classification con- tributed no little to defeat his election to the Speakership at this and the preceding session. In 1841 he was nominated and elected to Congress from the Mobile District upon the general ticket, and served through one term with entire satisfaction to his friends. President Polk afterwards appointed him United States Minister to Venezuela, in South America, and he was abroad several years. This ended his connection with public employments; but his rela- tion with his old party was kept up, and in 1851 he was incident- ally supported for Governor in opposition to Chief Justice Collier -receiving 5,747 votes. This resulted not so much from any special organized candidacy upon the part of Mr. Shields, as a feeling of dissatisfaction toward Mr. Collier, and the identity of Mr. Shields with that feeling. It cannot, however, be justly regarded as a test of his strength; for, really, he was in favor of the Union, which was the main issue in that election, which the majority decided in the affirmative. Had the movement been made at an early day, so as to secure cooperation, he might have given Gov. Collier a good race, though there was but little prob- ability that the latter could have been defeated by this or any other combination. Not long after this period, Mr. Shields re- moved to Texas.
When the writer first knew him, in 1837, Mr. Shields belonged to the class of younger men, with a mind well matured, and well stored with information, political and otherwise. He conversed with ease and fluency, his address was courteous, and, altogether, he was an agreeable gentleman, with a good person, a well rounded face, piercing dark eye, etc. His speeches in the Legislature were well prepared, and addressed generally in a calm and dis- passionate manner; but on some occasions he was more excited
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though his delivery continued to be clear and distinct, and his language well chosen. He was a member of the legal profession; and, with his cast of mind, had his energies been confined in that direction, he would unquestionably have taken high rank at the bar; but politics and planting, stimulated by the expansion of credit, gave a different scope to his faculties.
HON. ABNER S. LIPSCOMB was a Representative from Mobile this session, yielding to the urgent solicitations of the people that he would serve their interests. This was doubtless a sacrifice one his part, as he had filled the highest judicial position in the State, from which he had retired voluntarily, and had at various times received from the public tokens of the confidence which was reposed in his ability and integrity. He occupied but little time in debate, and while on the floor spoke pointedly, and in rather an advisory tone. . He had more influence, especially on legal questions, than any other member. An instance may be given: A bill was on its passage to authorize the sale of lands of an estate, and was; about to go through without an objection, when he rose and requested that the yeas and nays might be taken, that he might record his vote against it, believing that it was unconsti -. tutional. He said but little, and that in a quiet way. The vote was taken, and every member voted against the bill-a unanimity and force of compliment never before paid any public man.
Judge Lipscomb was identified with Alabama, and especially Mobile, from an early day, and devoted his great mind and ener- gies to the development of the judicial system of the one, and the social and commercial interests of the other. The leading men of the State knew and respected him, and all delighted in his con- versation and counsel, which was pleasant, profitable, and safe. As a Judge, he was profound, and scrupulously exact in holding the scales of justice; as a lawyer, he was faithful and successful; as a citizen, public-spirited, sociable, and useful. In a word, he adorned all the relations of life, and made the impress of his character upon all. He was plain and unpretending, and far from pedantry and egotism. Alabama, in her society and institutions, long enjoyed the benefit of his example.
When I knew Judge Lipscomb, in 1838, he was somewhat
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advanced in years. His black hair was mixed with gray or white, but his step was firm and elastic; his person well developed, a strong and stout frame. Indeed, as he moved about the House, in his quiet attention to business, one was impressed with the conviction that he was no ordinary man. In a few years there- after, he chose the new Republic, Texas, as his residence. There he was soon called to the head of the State Department, where he exhibited those strong traits of character required at that time for the station. After receiving many testimonials of favor from his adopted State, he died several years ago.
BLANTON MCALPIN also served but this one session. He was defeated the next year, and subsequently was elected Mayor of Mobile-a position he filled with energy, and to the satisfaction of the people. He was a Democrat in the full sense of the word, asking and giving no quarter politically. He made a good, work- ing member, but weakened his influence by too much speech- making, and the display of more or less bitterness of feeling, especially on political questions. When the resolutions on Federal policy were under discussion, he took the floor, and signalized himself by the indulgence of harsh expressions, and by vindictive assaults on the motives and purposes of the opposing party, which served only to wound without benefiting any cause. The House was worn-out with the debate, and once or twice he addressed empty benches. This greatly mortified him, and had its influence on his deportment for the balance of the session. His battle of life had evidently been a severe one, intensifying his feelings to a dictatorial pitch, nearly akin to despotism, in his contests with man. He possessed an ability and influence generally successful with the masses, and he had some good traits of character. However objectionable his bearing on political occasions, he was true to his principles, and defended them to the last ditch. His influence at the polls in the city of Mobile, for several years, was potent, especially with his party. Years ago he went to California, and whether he is now living or dead, is a fact on which I have no information.
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HENRY WASHINGTON HILLIARD was born in North Carolina in 1808. In 1824, he graduated at Columbia College, South Carolina, where his father resided; and after pursuing a course of legal studies, he removed to Athens, Georgia, where he remained two years, and was in the meantime admitted to the bar. In 1831 he was elected Professor in the University of Alabama. The author has before him a pamphlet of ten pages, entitled, "An Address delivered in the Representative Hall, before the General Assembly of the State of Alabama, and the Citizens of Tuska- loosa, December 7, 1832, in Commemoration of the Death of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, by Professor HILLIARD, of the University of Alabama."
The following correspondence appears in relation to the address:
REPRESENTATIVE HALL, December 14, 1832.
The REV. H. W. HILLIARD-Dear Sir : In accordance with a resolution adopted by the House of Repsesentatives, instructing the Committee of Arrangements to wait on the orator of the 7th instant, and tender the grateful acknowledgements of that body, and respectfully solicit a copy of the address for publication, we have the honor, sir, to concur, and at the same time to request your acquiescence. Your Obedient Servant, P. WALTER HERBERT, Chairman.
UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, December 16, 1832.
P. WALTER HERBERT, Esq., Chairman-Dear Sir : It is gratifying to learn that the address delivered on the 7th instant was satisfactory to the honorable body at whose request it was prepared. The few days given me to prepare for the occa- sion were so occupied with other pursuits, that I am conscious it has many imper- fections. Under ordinary circumstances, I should not consent to its publication ; but regarding it as an humble tribute to one dear to us all, I cheerfully comply with the request so politely expressed by yourself, as Chairman of the Committee. Your Obedient Servant, HENRY W. HILLIARD.
To those old enough to remember the sensation created in the public mind by the death of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, on the 4th of July, 1826, just fifty years after they had signed the Declaration of American Independence-one its author, and the other its strongest advocate on the floor of the Continental Congress-it will readily occur how much interest was felt in Mr. Carroll, as the last of the fifty-six signers. He was born in 1737, in Maryland, and died in that State in 1832, at the age of ninety-five years.
After noting the thorough education of Mr. Carroll in the first colleges of Europe, his return to America, and his public services
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up to the meeting of the General Congress, of which he was a member, in 1776, Mr. Hilliard says:
It is said that when Mr. Howard asked Mr. Carroll if he would sign, he replied, "Most willingly." As he approached the desk of the Secretary and affixed his name to the Declaration, some one in the lobby, apprehensive of an unfortunate termination of the contest, and anticipating the confiscation of property which must follow, exclaimed, "There goes half a million at the dash of a pen!" But no, "there's a divinity which shapes our ends." True, he risked much-more perhaps than any other man-but he lost nothing.
Mr. Carroll remained in Congress until 1778, when he returned home to give his services to his native State, to which he seems to have been deeply attached. In the year 1788, however, we find him in the Senate of the United States, immediately after the adoption of the Federal Constitution. In two years he vacated his seat, and retiring once more to his native State, engaged in local politics until 1801, when his public life closed, at the age of sixty-three.
The remainder of his life was passed in peaceful, and dignified, and happy retirement. He enjoyed a richer reward than ordina- rily falls to the lot of man. He lived to see the work of his hands established; he received the best of all rewards, which Gray describes in his surpassingly beautiful Elegy in a Country Churchyard. It was his lot-
The applause of listening Senates to command ; The threats of pain and ruin to despise ; To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, And read his history in a nation's eyes. 1
He saw growing up around him a great, virtuous and happy family; he saw them spreading themselves out from the waves of the Atlantic to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, carrying with them the arts of civilized life, and laying deep the foundations of a great, and good, and enduring Government. A beneficent Prov- idence lengthened out his days, and permitted him to survive all who acted with him in the great and illustrious scenes of his life. He saw them fall around him one by one until, forsaken by those of his own day, he found himself standing in the midst of a new generation. Let us visit him at his fireside; we see him sur- rounded by the elegances of life, receiving the caresses of his children, and his children's children, whilst brooding over the circle, Religion sheds her holy light. When about to leave the earth, he turned his face for the last time upon its scenes-what was the sight which met his dying vision? Glorious beyond
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description; he saw the broad lands about him soon covered with smiling fields, the forest giving back before the wave of popula- tion; the institutions of his country striking their roots deep, and spreading their branches wide; he saw the broad banner which he had stretched out his hand to raise in the dark day of doubt and danger, when hostile bayonets bristled all around it, now floating high above proud, happy and free States, undimmed by the smoke of war, unstained by the blood of battle, but covered all over with the blessed light of peace.
We are here this day to bid a last farewell to the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Henceforth, they are not associated with the scenes of earth; their deeds have passed into history; they belong to a brighter world. Farewell, illustrious men. You can never pass from our hearts.
The love where death has set his heel, Nor age can chill, nor rival steal, Nor falsehood disavow.
Let us cherish their memory. When a truly great man falls, the nation should honor him; they should hang their garlands about his urn; all that can be done to make his fame enduring, should be done freely. The memory of such men constitutes the moral property of the nation, and when her fleets and armies are scattered and torn; when her cities are levelled with the dust; when all her other monuments are crumbling beneath the march of Time, then the memory of the great and good will stand unmoved amid the wrecks around, telling to all generations the story of her greatness, and encouraging men throughout all time to good deeds.
To fill the Chair in the Faculty of a College as Mr. Hilliard did, at the age of twenty-three years, and to be called upon by a Committee of the Legislature, at twenty-four, to perform such a conspicuous part in a solemn public ceremony, was at least evidence of ability and improvement in the morning of life rarely wit- nessed. In his future there was no retrograde-no suspension of progress in intellectual character.
After serving three years in the Professorship, Mr. Hilliard resigned, and settled in Montgomery to pursue the practice of the law. He had been some time connected with the itinerancy of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and still exercised the functions of a local minister. He was first elected a Representative in the Legislature from Montgomery county, in 1836, and again in 1838.
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Mr. Hilliard came into the House in 1838 with a reputation for ability, and qualities as a gentleman, which he fully sustained. Participating in the debate on the Sub-Treasury resolutions offered by Judge Smith, he replied to that gentleman in a speech of two days, which added greatly to his character as an orator and states- man. He was a Whig of the State Rights school, ardently devoted to the interests of the South, yet in his patriotism em- bracing the whole country. But few men could charm an audience by the gracefulness of manner, ease and beauty of delivery, and rich imagery of conception, more than Mr. Hilliard. He was a favorite at Tuskaloosa, and on the days he addressed the House in reply to Judge Smith, the lobby and gallery were crowded with the elite of the city, and strangers visiting the Capital. While his political status prevented his accomplishing much in his attempt to carry out his measures of policy, he established a fine reputation among men of all parties for high-toned bearing and social intercourse.
Mr. Hilliard was a delegate to the Whig Convention at Harris- burg, in 1839, which nominated Gen. Harrison and Mr. Tyler, and it was on his motion that the latter gentleman was placed on the ticket for the Vice-Presidency. After Mr. Tyler succeeded to the first office, on the death of President Harrison, he appointed Mr. Hilliard Charge dè Affairs to Belgium, where he remained until the election of Mr. Polk. In 1845, he was elected to Con- gress from the Montgomery District, over the Hon. John Cochran, his Democratic competitor. In 1847, he was reëlected, and again in 1849; the last time over James L. Pugh, Esq., of Barbour county, who was brought forward and supported as the Southern Rights candidate. The meeting between these two gentlemen at the Court-House in Montgomery, was an event I well remember, for I went there determined not to become excited, but to listen and to learn. The discussion was opened by Mr. Pugh, in an attack upon Mr. Hilliard's record in Congress, in which he exhib- ited boldness, and an intimate knowledge of his topic. This was presented without disguise or abatement, arriving at the conclu- sion that the interests of the South, in those critical times, were not safe in such hands. Mr. Hilliard's reply was commenced under the influence of strong feeling, produced by the attacks
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made upon him. His retorts upon Mr. Pugh were scathing, and elicited rounds of applause; and in a speech of one hour and a half (the time allotted to each) he vindicated himself to the sat- isfaction of his friends. He defeated his competitor after an exciting contest. At the end of this term in Congress, he retired, and resumed the practice of law with success ; in the meanwhile, officiating sometimes in the pulpit to large audiences who were attracted by his eloquence. For several years, Mr. Hilliard was a Regent of the Smithsonian Institute at Washington City, an honor bestowed by Congress only on gentlemen of acknowledged literary attainments. For the last five or six years Mr. Hilliard has resided in Augusta, Georgia. His career of six years in Congress brought him into association with some of the ablest men in the country, and secured him general respect. He frequently engaged in the debates with honor to himself as an orator and statesman. A volume of his speeches and addresses has been published by the Messrs. Harper, of New York. Mr. Hilliard commanded a Legion in the late war between the States.
GEORGE D. SHORTRIDGE was also a member from Montgomery county at this, his only session. Although young, he came with a good deal of prestige as a rising man. He participated but little in debate, but was an industrious and useful member. He had filled the office of Solicitor of the 8th Circuit, but had resigned on his election to the Legislature. In 1844, he was elected Judge of the 3d Circuit, and remained on the Bench for ten years, discharging his duties satisfactorily to the public. In 1855, he resigned, and accepted the nomination of the American, or Know-Nothing party, for Governor, in opposition to Gov. Wins- ton. The contest was animated and exciting, and in the end became bitter. They canvassed together, and measured strength upon the stump, both encouraged, wherever they spoke, by ardent friends in the multitudes collected on such occasions. Gov. Wins- ton was reëlected by some ten or twelve thousand majority. Mr. Shortridge then resumed the practice of the law, and in 1861 he was returned as a member of the State Convention which, in January, with his assistance, passed the Ordinance of Secession. Since then he has been engaged in private pursuits. It is proper 7
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to remark that he was a son of the Hon. Eli Shortridge, who was formerly a Judge of the Circuit Court of Alabama-a gentleman of the greatest urbanity of manner, of the most attractive social qualities, and of a style of eloquence before a Court and Jury rarely excelled in sweetness, polish, and beauty.
L. A. WEISINGER, of Perry, concluded at this session a term of several years' service in the Legislature. His friends were of opinion that he retired too soon; for while the State was deprived of his valuable counsels, it was generally thought he had before him a good prospect of success. He was a gentleman of solid attainments, with a fund of common sense that fitted him well for the place of a legislator. A State Rights man of the strictest school, he came into cooperation with the Democratic party on the Sub-Treasury question, and voted with that party upon political issues. He investigated for himself, and acted upon his convic- tions, to which he frequently gave utterance in resolutions sub- mitted, and in speeches upon the floor of the House, expressive of his views. His social qualities were good, and he was esteemed as a gentleman of substantial merit. He retired in the vigor of manhood.
W. E. BLASSINGAME, his colleague, served only this session, when he was quiet in his manner, but attentive to his duties. His tastes led him rather into the field of literature, having the advantages of a good education and extensive reading. He made a good impression by his deportment, and modest, gentlemanly bearing; and, had he continued in public life, he would no doubt have taken a high position in the councils of the State. He was long a resident of Perry county, respected for his probity, and died several years ago.
JOHN M. MCCLANAHAN served through the sessions of 1837 and 1838, a young man of modest deportment, amounting almost to timidity. After this, he engaged earnestly in professional pur- suits as a lawyer, and in private enterprises. For many years he was Judge of the County and Probate Court of Shelby, in which office he gave entire satisfaction to the people. He was successful
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in the acquisition of property, and the war found him well to do. He went into the Convention of 1861 with Judge Shortridge, as a delegate from Shelby, and cooperated with the majority. After the surrender, he removed to Louisiana, where, in 1867, he was killed by lightning. He was a gentleman of intelligence, and a valuable citizen,
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