The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-04
Picturesque Career of Dis tinsuished Citizen of Bald win County, Sixty YearS in Public Eye

supreme law of the iand, why snoulo not be by the law of the landI Why should I not be by this constituuonf Ts 1t because there runs in my veins "tba blood of a thousand kingsr Be- oause I wear within me the aboriginal divinity of blood-simply because my ancestors worshipped for their god, the snirit "that mounts the storm anu walks upon the wind?" Ohi and who of YOU would not be proud to nave flow through his veins the blood or the native American-the aboriglnes oi such a country? And shall we, because of 1t. be the victims of a political pro scription-be accursed with political damnation-aye, with scarcely an ex- ception: feel all the force of political attainder? It Is shame! lt ID shamer'
 And further on he says:
 And who are we? But the scant remnant of a race-a bare emblem or those who have passed away-a few sparks smoldering among nation funeral pile-an outcast train attend Ing the bier of past generations, mourn CTS gathered around the urn that con- tains the ashes of our people"
 Literary Alabamians.
 Tn those days he was a friend and associate of Alexander Beaufort Meek, the gifted Alabamian who wrote Red Eagle" a poem on Weatherford ana his deeds, and who made valuable con tributions to the literature of Ala bama.
 Meek was at that time District Alt torney," said MT. Tunstall. T spent a good part of my time in the city. He and I being close friends, we roomed l together. He was one of the handsom- ! est men I ever saw, standing, as ne | did, full six feet four inches in height. " zk..z- or1tn one of the most entertaining men ever | knew. mutual friend of ours at that | time was Johnson J. Hooper, the States | famous humorist, who wrote simon Suggs." Hooper was at that time hold l ing a county office in Tuscaloosa, but | he was a frequent visitor to Mobile. He was a small, undersized man, dark and | brilliant"
 In 1851 MT. Tunstall moved to Texas, | where he practiced law for a year or so. But he was soon drawn back to | his Alabama home. In 1856 came his appointment as counsul to Cadiz, Spain. The consulship was rendered him through the good office of Senator Clement c. Clay. The wife of Senator Clay, who is still living and generally beloved throughout Alabama, was Mrs. Virginia Clay Clopton, who Is the cousin of MT. Tunstall, her maiden name ! being Miss Tunstall.
 My appointment came about in this way" said MT. Tunstan. "I met Sena- | tor Clay in Montgomery on one of my visits to that city in 1855. He said, | rom, what are you doing now?" 'I replied, Oh, I'm experimenting the | plantation
 "'How would you like to have some thing at Washington he asked. T told him that If he he had a pay | mastership in the navy he could dis pose of I would take 1t. Sometime af- | ter got a telegram from him offering me the consulship at Cadiz Spain. l went across and took charge of the off, | flee in 1856
 q administered the affairs of the of- | flee until I was removed in 1861 by Abraham Lincoln, whose election had brought on the Civil War. For some | time after my removal I remained at Cadiz. Hearing of the presence of the | sumter, at Gibraltar, commanded by Raphael Semmes and oficered and man. ned by Southern men, I went down to | Gibraltar to visit the vessel. On | leaving I was accompanied by Fay | master Myers of the Sumter. At that | time Semfnes was in a very embarras- | sing position so far as the Sumter was | concerned. The vessel was in neu- | tral port and without coal. It was 1 the purpose of Myers and myself to | buy a Moroccan vessel loaded with coal and turn it over to Semmes to al- low him to continue his cruise. Be- | cause of our arrest and the failure of | cur mission the Sumter never left port | Semmes was forced to abandon her and go to London where he took com mand of his famous fighting ship. the Alabama.
 | But to get back to our own expe-
 rience. On the boat which took us to Tangiers were two missionaries who | in some way learned of our errand As soon as the boat was landed they informed the United States consul of
 our presence and our purpose. We
 were arrested by squad of gendarmes
 and put into irons.
 Put in Irons.
 We were then put aboard United States vessel and sent to Boston.
 remembered that as our vessels passed Narragansett Bay some fishermen
 threw aboard the first American news
 papers we had seen for many months
 and the papers contained the 1irst news
 to us of the battle of Shiloh. We were
 carried to the office of the United
 States Marshal where the irons we
 had worn for fifty-seven days werI
 struck from our limbs.
 We were thrown in prison at Fort
 Warren but were subsequently, given | an unconditional release.
 T went to Washington where I got
 permission from the War Department
 to go South. But some of the gov
 ernment officials got the idea that
 was trying to help the Confederate
 cause in Washington. I was arrested
 with Confederate pass upon my per
 son and charged with being a spy
 They threw me into old Capitol prison
 where I was kept for six months, but
 later the Secretary of War released
 me under the parole that I should g.
 to Europe and remain there until after
 the war was over. After keeping this
 parole I returned to Alabama in 1S66.'
 Mir. Tunstall spent a couple of years
 in Texas practicing law but his love for Alabama drew him back to Ten
 saw and Mobile in 1861.
 His life was spent quietly -tmong his
 Alabama friends. mostly in Tensaw
 and Mobile until Grover Cleveland was
 elected President in 1884. The fol-
 lowing year he was offered by the Cleveland administration the consul | ship at Ascension, Paraguay, but de- clined it. A little later he was of
 fered and accepted the consulship al
 San Salvador Central America, a po-