The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-11

/ sire to return to his native state in her
season of affliction with alien rule, here
| to labor and to wait with fellow-soldiers,
| brought him into the hot bed of disturb
/ ance, the black belt. At Union Springs,
Bullock county, he formed law part
. nership with his relative, Col. W. NJ.
! lvey and later with young Henry Clay
| Tompkins. destined to attain such hold on
| the affections of Alabama
! At Union Springs in December, 1865, Mr..
benson married Miss Rosa Cowan, daugh-
! ter of DIR. William Cowan of Eufaula.
lie then entered upon period of singular
domestic happiness. To them were born
! three sons and two daughters.
Two years were passed in the practice
| at Union Springs He then moved to La
| Fayette Chambers county. and remained
| there in prosperous labors in his profess
sion for seven years.
In 1877 he found many A1abamians pros
porous In their new homes in Missouri and
! Texas. He was lured away. He went
| first to Missouri, but not finding the open
| chance he was in search of, went on to
! Waco, Texas. He did not tarry there
! long. Returning to Alabama, he opened
| first an office in Scottsboro, remained
| there less than a year and then moved
| to Gadsden. Lawyers remembered that
| he wrote at Scottsboro a humorous and
| highly entertaining account of his search
| in the west for an opening. The mono
| graph was in the form a bill in chancery,
| praying consent of the court to his re-
storaton to the bar of Alabama bond
| to fulfill all his duties and live contented-
| iy in his native state
| In 1885 President Cleveland appointed
| Colonel benson United States district at
! torney for the Northern District of Ala
1 bama His native energy of the appointee
found in this field a fine opportunity His
prosecutions were singularly vigorous, but
the work was not congenial enough to
bring out the amplitude of his powers.
His forte, in criminal causes. was the de-
Tense, and in that sphere of the practice
he was truly great.
After the expiration of his term as dis
trict attorney he formed partnership in
the general practice with Judge John II.
Disque of Gadsden The business of the
firm in several counties was extensive
and highly lucrative. In 1896 this partner
ship seemed to have dissolved, as We find
Colonel benson opened law office in At
lanta of the earlier months of that year,
until he removed to Birmingham in the
fall. In Birmingham his law firm was
benson 81 Tanner next benson q Ullman,
and finally benson & Sons.
! William II. benson was a first-class
lawyer in the general practice. His fac
uty of analysis was strong; his power of
application was tremendous; his self
conservation to the case before him was
aDSOlutely CODlpdeles ne WAS never 10 De
surprised by an antagonist at the bar or
by the ruling of the court against him.
he was fearless, aggressive and logical
His manner of address was earnest, al
most to a fault, yet never rude or bois-
ferrous. HI possessed pleasing voice and
full vocabulary. He never failed to
leave an impression on court or jury that
he was thoroughly prepared with the
facts and the law in the case, and that
he honestly believed all the words he
spoke.
/ I was an eyewitness go his habit OF
applications, on one exceptional occasion.
He came to the library of the supreme
court to prepare to argue In that August
and to present the application for re-
hearing of Frank Duncan, an alien and
perfect stranger, a convicted burglar and
murderer then in Jefferson county jail
under sentence of death. There was never
more uninviting task before a lawyer
of established reputation. The client was
pauper in effect; convicted of killing a
policeman on duty, to whom a monument
had been erected. For three entire days
far into the night this feeless attorney
labored at the desk with law books
stacked around him yard high He told
me at the end of his study that he had
made good cast
Denson's defense of the Shelton broth
ers for the killing of Ross. was prolonged
! and very brilliant His defense of young
Teage, for the assassination of the rail-
road agent and telegraph operator, at
| Albertsville, shot at his desk from the
darkness outdoors. was another example
of his power. The deprecated human SYM
patty of the man. the inventive faculty OF
his mind his rich vocabulary united to
illumine his discussion of the law in cases
of that kind. To him the law had a hui
man meaning. To him the meaning of the
law was not mystery, but the right of
! humanity.
J. In Politics.
|, In the general assembly of 1867 Colonel
benson represented Chambers county, en-
titled to the one representative only. He
had been local worker in the cause of
| white supremacy all along, but never
seems to have sought public office before.
When he settled in Gadsden he became
editorial writer on local newspaper and
distinguished the paper by his advocacy
of a state railroad commission. That
was in $780, the year the commission was
| created.
Colonel benson came prominently be-
fore the politics of the state in the his
toric democratic and conservative party
state convention of 1890. The farmers
alliance put up Commissioner of Agricul-
ture Reuben T.. Kolb in the primaries as
a candidate before the convention for
| governor. Kolb's support In the primaries
! was by no means limited to members of
the farmers alliance however. Excite
| ment had been running the full length of
| the political letter for two years. In 1883
Commissioner Kolb, Sam Adams. A. B.
| Brassell and other leading members of
the Alabama division of the alliance went
to st. Louis to assist in forming a politi-
cal national party. The ST. Louis con-
| vention did form 1.-The Farmers National
| Alliance and Industrial Union" party. The
| Alabama delegates, however, there, on
the spot, or after they came home, as the
facts may be, repudiated certain planks
| in the new party platform.
1t became evident that the farmers al
lance in Alabama intended to put up
candidate for governor before the state
democratic convention of 1880. Every al
lance man in Alabama was a democrat
| Kolb had done as much for black belt
methods in his county of Barbour as any
man in Dallas had done there Many
leading democrats, not members of the
alliance. were for Kolb for governor.
The candidates before the state demo-
| cratic convention of 1890 had been long
announced. They were Kolb, Joseph F.
Johnston. William Richardson, James
Crook and Col. Thomas G. Jones. Kolb
and Jones were the first to announce.
| Kolb and Jones alone canvassed the state
by public speaking. Jones made very
able attacks on the st. Louis new party
and ably advocated the ancient demo-
| cratic faith as the only hope of Alabama.
AT that time Cleveland had been defeated
by Harrison, and the radicals in Alabama
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