The age-herald., 1901-01-12
Alabama seceded Deliberately.

A gentleman who has had some personal experiences ayers that his attention was arrested by certain comment in this place yesterday on the fortieth anniversary of the enactment of the Ordinance of Seces- sion by Alabama. The comment in point was. "secession was carried in Alabama by unfair methodsr'-not af conclusion as given, but rumor or tradition hypothetf- cally rendered for the occasion here. His remark in refutation was:
 ''Whatever may be the ground for any such charge or suspicion may not for get that false election returns were then absolutely unknown in Alabama, or indeed in any state that joined the Southern Con- federacy.
 ''There was some talk in the convention that the majority of the people were not represented. 1 don't know about that, nor was there any way to determine after the convention met any such question. The delegates from every county were chosen in the same way the same day, of course. majority of the people of the United States do not elect the President nor do they elect even the House of Representa- tives. No vote from Dallas County went
 
 delegate from that county, nor did any vote for Underwood for Congress go over to Tennessee to operate upon Brownlow's candidacy. The vote for delegates was fair, open and conclusive on the day be- fore Christmas, 1860, in every county in Alabama. No body of delegates could have been more fairly chosen to convention.
 Another point was raised in the conven- tion shall the ordinance be submitted for ratification at the polls? In other words, shall the people in convention assembled assemble again at the polls, pass upon what the people in convention had most deliberately and solemnly enacted? There were no precedents for such ratification at the polls in Alabama The then existing constitution had not been submitted for ratification at the polls, yet it had built up the State since 1S19. The Federal eonstitu- tion had not been so submitted. The peo pie never voted on it, from first to last.
 Look little farther down into our own times The State Democratic convention of April "A, 1900 had before it the names of Sanford Stallings Shelley and Waller. None of these had been nominated by the primary. The convention nominated one of the number, but the name was not sent back for action of the party at the polls
 No sir; there was nothing unfair The Governor elected in 1859 was an avowed se cessionist and was chosen by the people knowing him. The Legislature elected in 1859 passed d resolution as early as Janu- ary, 1860, requiring the Governor, Andrew E. Moore to call that convention. There precipitancy, no surprises An things were done with decency The people voted as they saw fit, and the people took to war.
 Tt would indeed be a poor compliment to the solid north to confess the four years of strife necessary to crush a divided south. We were not unit. Nor were our fathers a unit in 1776: Nor were the people of France a unit when Bonaparte took hold. There is the law of Moses from Si- mai, on stone, but it does not unite the people. There is the utterance from an- other mount, Blessed are the peacemak- ers,' yet General Wheeler contends that war to the hilt is the best eivilizer and missionary of the Sermon on the Mounti'