Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-11-18
SCALLAWAGS In COUNCIL.
Negroes, Ex-RebeIs and YAM
KEGS at Work on n Con-
stitutiOn.
The Alabama Convention.
Personnel Of the Convention
An Extraordinary Con-
gregatiOn.

SlfucllnR Tue oOulu on HtBTO Ohhlb Was
formally inaugurated here The Ala
bama convention met at noon and was
temporarily organized by the appoint.
ment as chairman of Albert Griffin, Of
Ohio, now editor OF the negro paper, the
Nationalist, in Mobile, and prominent
actor in the Kelley riot. Of the one
hundred delegates elected, eighty.four
we're present, sixteen of that number
being blacks. The one single Conserva.
| tive elected was in his seat, and thus,
with Radical majority of eighty.three,
the initial convention Of the Sherman
Shellabarger plan began. Let me describe
the personnel of that convention, taking
its members in alphabetic order. First
comes
Thomas Adams, OF Clay county, plain
| farmer.lke looking man, some fifty years
1 of age, and 80 obscure as to have no
discpverable political antecedents. After
him, .llL-
Ben. Alexander, of Hale, n negro OF
the ordinary type of field hand.
j. l.. Alexander, of Elmore, native
| of Alabama, who served for time as a
private in company X, First Alabama
infantry, c. S. A., commonplace char
acter and not over highly spoken of by
his comrades, though nothing to his
| actual discredit is alleged.
A. j. Applegate, of Madison, a North
Alabamiau, chiefly known for squabble
with Figures, tenth.rate demagogue, OF
Huntsville, who in some way put him
4 (Applegate) to the route with two ne
\ groes.
VIM. A. Austin, Of Jackson, plain
4 countryman, native Albanian, who has
/ been for some twenty years back in the
State Senate, and was member OF the
secession convention in 81.
j. II. Autry, of Calhoun, is tall,
worn looking person, dressed in rude
homespun, and bearing an air Of general
mental and habilimentary dilapidation.
Arthur Bingham, of Talladega, is a
| small man with chin beard, who seems
possessed of some sprightliness, which
he normally diffuses on the Freedmen 5
\ Bureau, whereof he is an official.
i d. Fl. Bingham, of Lauderdale, would
\ answer to Spencer's old, old man, with
u beard as white as snow" but for the fact
that this beard is dyed of a preternatural
black, with the white only appearing
! in thin line next to the face that II
adorns. Mr.. or Captain Bingham is,
however, of indubitable age, the oldest
man by perhaps fifteen years of any in
the convention, and the intensity of his
Radicalism is entirely coordinate with
his heightened span of life. 1t is pitt
| able sight to behold this ancient with his
poor, old, dyed beard, and his glazing
eye and quivering mouth, rise tremu-
| lously in his seat to humble out the
/ EXTREMIST doctrine of his sect Like
| 6y@and. twenty of his, colleagues, the
Captain has constitution in his pocket,
and the chief points in this document
are the Gisfranchisement of " all rebels
and the enforced settlement, in the pre-
sent currency, of all trust estates lost in
Alabama during the war by fiduciary
investment, under State acts, in Con-
| federate securities
W. II. Black is a Northern man OF
small size and little note.
w. T. Blackford is likewise Northern
man, a bureau official, and the wearer OF
one of the two really clean shirts in the
convention. Altogether, Mr.. Blackford
is a reputable looking person, and would
not be out of place in the Legislature OF
his own State in the North.
Mark D. Brainard, of New York, is a
very, very young man, with horid
| cheek and a coming mustache. He is a
postoffice clerk has something to do with
the bureau, and is said, when elected, in
accordance with the programme for
Monroe, not to have known exactly where
"his county lay.
Alfred L. Buck, of Maine, is not other
wise noticeable than for the singulariy
of his sobriQuet in Mobile, which he
represents.
Charles W. Buckley, of Massachu'
sets, is clergyman who ministers to
the spiritual needs of the Bureau, and is
an educational superintendent also OF
that organization. His brother,
w. Nj. Buckley, likewise of Massachu-
setts. of course, represents the
wealthy county of Lowndes, and is
thought to bear facial resemblance to
the late lamented John Brown, of peri
patetic soul.
]. H. Burdick, of Iowa, speaks the
sentiments of Wilcox, which sentiments,
in this rendition, are fiercely radical
Pierce Barton, of Massachusetts, was
removed from the Bureau for writing a
letter to the Springfield Republican, ad-
vocating repeal of the cotton tax, but
as the negroes favor that view the breach
has been healed, and Mr.. b. is the dele
gate from Marengo.
C. M. Cabot is a Northern man, who
WAS in the reconstruction convention OF
'65 which be is now, in '67, seeking to
reconstruct in turn.
John Carroway is light mulatto with
a back hair" of magnificent proper
lions. At its supreme altitude this or
nnment extends fully five inches straight
ont from the nape of the neck, forming
a right argIe very comely to the eye.
Mr.. Carroway is assistant editor oil the
Mobile Nationalist, and it is matter OF
professional courtesy to thus record his
distinguishing attribute.
Alfred Collins is a plain, clean.shaved
middle aged divine, Fho was in the Leg
islature of 60.
ID. y. Coon, Of Iowa, and lately a
brigadier in the United States army, is a
small man OF a rather Jewish look. DE
represents" Dallas, and gave the con
yention quite a turn to-day. by introdu-
cling a resolution about oaths.
Joseph II. Davis, of Randolph, is an
Alabamian, said to have served as surgeon
in the United States army and TO have
reconstructed Alabama once before, to-
wit. in the convention Of 65.
r. Deal, Of Dale, is also one OF those
who did the work negligeRtly in 1865.
He is Baptist preacher, and let Us hope
has hotter success in reconstructing souls
than Noverei iEniiea =,
Thomas Diggs Is negro whose hesa i1