The age-herald., 1902-01-26
By Ava Fitzpatrick.


 Part I.
 To "Alnwick Castle" the once famous poem of FitzGreene HaIleck, history is in- debted for the coinage of the phraze which denominated the second administration of President Monroe, the Era of Good Feel ing The line Is a poetic offering from the patriotic and descriptive of that pe- riod of peaceful eminence in early Re- publican annals which followed the war of 1872, and marked the disappearance from the domain of American politics of the party of Federalists. There is a stim- ulus of state pride in the reflection that in the early flush of this golden age, Alabama completed the fitness of her time" for promised membership in the republic, and in the succeeding hush of national repose, when party passions were stilled, and partisan strife had faded away with the conditions which provoked 1t, the new state entered upon her first years of constitutional existence. The prophe- tic significance of fact which made the birth of Alabama an event in national history coincidcnt with the advent of an era in which Arcadian glories of peace prosperity and happiness from the trial of crowning civic virtues. furnishes a there worthy of some imaginative mind capable of pointing the beautiful moral the anology affords A concurrence of events under auspices so unusual in hs- tory Is worthy of note in its illustration of the homely philosophy which ascribes felicity to the life which had It's origin under a lucky star"
 a To the curious visitors at Huntsville the spot Is still pointed out which mark ed the site of a modest structure in the year lSl9. There are few residents in that City of the Valley, whose memories can run the gauntlets of the four-score years which lie between the present and the summer of that memorable year, to re- call the scenes which dignity the place Tn Alabama history. Here, on the 9th day Of July in the year 1919 forty-f1ve chosen delegates, representing the pioneer constituency from the twenty-two sparse ly settled counties which comprised the Alabama Territory assembled in the dis charge of the solemn functions conferr- ed by an act of Congress, ITO enable the people of the Alabama Territory to form constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the union, on an equal footing with the original states
 A public sense of the gravity of the undertaking which was to engage the la- bors of the assembled representative, is evidenced in the high character and emi- nent qualities of the constituent members of that historic conclave. To its councils the embryonic state contributed of the wisest and best of It's craftsmanship. list of the leading factors reveals a selec- ton of names prominent then in state and national affairs and yet they are scarcely less distinguished than many of tnelr contemporaries who until later times could boast of no serious pretensions to renown With an acclaim that bespoke the spontaniety of their choice, the dele gates selected that petted political idol of early times, Joseph w. Walker of Madison. as President. With a unanmI- ty as cordial, they conferred on the typi- cally Scotch, but titularly unadorned name of John Campbell, the respectful dignity of Secretary. To MT. Clay of Madison. the founder of that noble name in Alabama, the chairmanship of the committee which reported the constitu- tion for adoption by the conyention was awarded while at the head of the more important committee charged with the drafting of the instrument, was that most renowned of Alabama statesman, Will liam R. King. To this latter circum- stances much must be ascribed in our estimate of the remarkable document from which our civic policy for forty years received it's trend, and through which many of our highest and best at- tainments of the past were achieved.
 The session of the convention was nota- bly, brief The assembled pioneer fathers crowded sufficient labor and achievement into the brief period of twenty-eight days to perfect an equipment designed for the operation of a great commonwealth In this simple statement a panegryic worthy of the authors of ---s first con stitution is expressed. True the condi- tions under whc. they labored were fa- vorable to harmony of action and speedy attainment of result; there were no party division nor opposing political factions to disturb the unity of public feeling and the advent of an age in which "the negro problem" and Free Pass Evir were dominent issues, had not been dis cerned beyond the peaceful horizon which encircled "the Era of Good Feeling These qualifications must be duly consid- cred in invoking a comparison of the con