The age-herald., 1897-09-19

it now stands. He had resigned the year before. Winston was then pres
 ident of the Alabama senate, an o1ics lie held for ten years. Both were dem
 oc1ats, both extremely popular, impetu-
 ous and dauntless leaders. aps
 At Baltimore Cass. the leader of the
 "squattsr sovereignty" doctrine. the an-
 tithesls of the Alabama resolutions. was
 nominated on a non-committal platform.
 Yancey arose and informed the conven-
 ton of the Alabama instructions, saying
 he and one of the co-delegates, Wray, of
 Montgomery would ob=y their instruc-
 tions and omit to vote. No vice-presi-
 dent was nominated, though King of
 Alabama received some votes Win ston appeared before the convention,
 repudiated Yancay's view of the Ala
 bama resolutions and said the vote of
 the state would go for Cass.
 Senator Lewis did not stand up to his
 position. From his seat in the senate
 he wrote Yancsy and Dr. Scott a very
 long letter, which I hav= seen in MS. He
 said he agreed with the Alabama resolu- tions but the party in national convenr ton had decided against him. Yancey replied that Cass, the democrat and Cen. Taylor, the whig candidate, ware
 at one on the question and if a demo- cratic principle had to die or be held in abeyanee for the time it was better for
 the democracy that the whig candidate rather than the democratic candidate should kill 1t or suspend it as the case | might be.
 Yancey and Winston went before the | people. Winston urged thsm to vote
 for Cass on party grounds; Yancey urged them to stay at home on party grounds. | The contest was extremely bitter. King l was for Cass; Lewis died that summer l of bilious fever in New York and took 1 no part in the campaign.
 Cass carried the state by much re- l duced democratic vote
 The legislatures of Georgia and South Carolina called secession conventions in 1 1851; Mississippi submitted to popular vote whether such a convention should be called; Alabama refused to submit l the question to the people at all. Geor- gia and South Carolina did not secede l and tha popular vote of Mississippi de- 1 clined MT. Jefferson Davis appeal to summon the convention. That was the condition of affairs when Alabama set about preparing for the nomination of candidates for governcir. and members of congress for the August election of 1S51
 William L. Yancey and Henry w. Hil- Hard were lawyers in full practice at Montgomery. They had been in con- gress together and had both refused reelection.
 There were many thousands of seces- sionists in Alabama, mostly followers Of the dead Lewis and all were demo- | crats. It was brought about that one great fight should take place in the p5nd- 1 ing campaign between the secessioniSts and the unionists. The wings and dem l ocrats agreed to the movement. The | whigs were all unionists. The unionist democrats of the Montgomery district, | which then embraced Eufaula and all l the southeastern counties, agreed to sup i port the whig nominee on the union 1 issue. The whigs put up James Aber- | crombie. of Russell county; the seces- sionsts put up John Cochran, of Eu- faula. Beth wera high-toned gentle
 men, thoroughly trained in stump speak ing and both remarkably effective speak CTS. Both had long been in public life. But this battle was planned to be in | the name of Alabama and Yancey and Hilliard wsre to be the parties to it. Yancey and Hilliard took the stump in joint debate and all else in the campaign was dull, stale and flat compared with | the combat of these two in the Second district. It is probable no such display Of popular oratory as this was ever heard in Am=gica The debate between Douglas and Lincoln, seven years later, in Illinois, suggests Itself, but the great | ness of Douglas and of Lincoln dces not qualify the belief that the dsbats be- tween Yancey and Hilliard in the sum
 mer of 1851 was a display of genius, cul- ture, philosophy, standing off to itself without comparison in the sphere of stump oratory.
 Abercrombie was elected. Alabama was not ready to call a secession con vention.
 The King and Lewis factions wsre final ly united in 1852 when all voted for King for vice-president on the Pierca
 ticket. iP cree made the leader of the
 secession movement in Mississippi Jeff
 ferson Davis, his secretary of war. Kir g
 died of consumption of the lungs in Gu
 ba, before he had taken his seat as vice
 president.
 Another split of the democracy came
 in 1S53-55 on the American or Know
 Nothing question: Percy Walker, of
 Mobile, a democrat, was elected to con-
 gress as a know-nothing. Jones M.
 Withers. a democrat, was elected mayor
 of Mobile as know-nothing In course
 of year both resigned cffice and stood
 for reelection as democrats-an exam
 pie of political honesty that should be