The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-13
THE BIRTH OF A STATE
BY J. D. BARRON.

j. Nations and States, like individuals, have their birthdays. Tomorrow VIII be Alabama's. and, though it may be some what of an anomaly. tomorrow will also ! be the anniversary of tAlabama's arrival at a state of sovereign manhood.
 There are really three periods iu our history: Mythical and legendary, semi
 historical, and historical. From a time beyond, the memory of man, beyond writ ten history, the land was inhabited. When that habitation began; or, who were the first human beings to thread the tangled forests and gaze into the clear streams, no one can tell. Perhaps the ancient
 mound builders were here in the dim and
 misty past. but of this we know not.
 But we do know, by legend, by tradi-
 ton. and by the many mute evidences
 left behind. that the red men were here in the distant past and left their imprint
 behind them. We do not even know what
 tribes were first here, or whence they come. There were Alabamas and Choc- taws Cherokees and Chicasas, MobiIians
 and Tensas, Muskogees and Uchees, and various other tribes and. sub-tribes who hunted and fished, warred, lived and died in what is now a great State. When they came or whence they came is not certainly known. They have passed away,
 but have left their names on every hand to show, that they once lived. Then the monotony of savage existence was broken by the advent of the white
 man from Old Csstile. More than three l and a half centuries have passed since DeSoto's anabasls. His coming was but brief episode in the history of this re- zion. He and his mail-clad warriors fiit- ted like a meteor across the land and
 were gone forever. As Judge Meek ex- presses it: :eThe dark cloud that had
 covered her territory was suddenly lifted; brilliant. but bloody panorama passed across the stage, and then all was shroud- ed in primeyal darkness" . It was truly a bloody panorama. and to the Indians 1t was, a wonderful and awe-inspiring one. These strange looking
 men, mounted on still. stranger looking animals with murderous weapons such as no red man had, ever seen, were 8
 revelation to the red man, and an un- pleasat one. Almost every step of that progress was marked by rapine and wrong and bloodshed. The naughty Spaniards knew nothing of the Indian character and out of that ignorance was born the innumerable wrongs which al- ways follow when the weak and ignorant are at the mercy of the strong. It was as the passing of cyclone, for though 1t endured for but brief period it's eff fects were long felt and the bloody epi- SOuC AANSu GiS flIdQALlVua UL .lLcf pCOpAG.
 Yet 1t was part of the preparatory work fin the building of a State.
 Generations passed before the Indians again saw the pale face. but the coming was different and the consequences were to be, more lasting. It was about one hundred and sixty years before the al-
 most unbroken wilderness was again dis turbed by, Europeans. and then they came to stay The seventeenth century hel aT.
 ed when the French came.in on the South and began to establish themselves on Ala bama soil. Then came years of desultory struggle in the effort to found govern ment-a- struggle in which French, Span iards and Englishmen contended for mas tery over a rich but unknown domain. In the meantime, while Gauls and Castilians quarreIled and fought for supremacy the English- Americans were settling the Ques- tion in their own way and for all time. From the North and East the hardy pio- ners advanced slowly, but surely. and es- tablished themselves in defiance of the Old World. They came as hunters, as settlers. and as adventurers. They To- cated in whatsoever places best suited them. regardless of the claims of natives
 or foreigners. They fought the Indians, robbed them or traded with them as best suited their characters and desires, but gradually and surely they established themselves and made permanent settle ments. The Spanish and French claim ants were dispoesessed and then came the work of mastering the Indians That
 work was not always marked by human ity or by justice. but 1t was sure as the decree of fate. for all the advantage was
 with the white, race. The red man was doomed. and almost two-thirds of aa cen
 tury have passed since the last of them
 turned their facesfto the setting sun and bade farewell to the homea and the graves
 of their ancestors. s
 ] But long before this the people had