The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-06
JOSEPH R. JOHN.

Uniontown, that IS in 1888. The young man came alone and without purpose to buy a plantation. He knew beforehand no field of enterprise invited him but the bar or medicine.
 Three great prairie counties corner at Uniontown or very near the town-Perry, with the courthouse at Marion, 20 miles away: Dallas. with the courthouse at Cahawba, 30 miles, and Marengo. with the courthouse at Lindence. % miles dis tant. MT. John naturally assumed that the planters who came to the postonice and the churches at the little village would come there for advice in law. Nevertheless. the remote county capitals and not Uniontown, have attracted clients and thither the body of lawyers have ever resided.
 Having determined upon a career, MT. John taught school two years. The act Of Congress- contemporary with the birth of the state reserving the 18th section of each surveyed township of public lands to the support of public schools, had not then been applied to the country about Uniontown The teacher in the case here must have been a tutor in private fam fly, as the custom was, or principal or a private school. At any rate, teaching school was the via media for the study of law.
 When the study of the law had pro- ceeded sufficiently license was obtained to engage in the practice at the bar. The young lawyer married His bride was Miss Jane Smith. He was gentleman of prepossessing personal appearance, a tall and slight figure. df dignified man. ners and high public spirit He stood in the ranks of the profound lawyers. In 1S47 he was chosen to represent Perry county in the legislature. This was the period when John Quincy Adams and fol- lowers, in the free states, precipitated the slavery agitation, after it's long repose since the Missouri compromise. Perry county was then whig, accepting the Union as the paramount political good"
 The other side in Alabama took Cal nouns resolutions' as it's shibboleth. Dion IT. Lewis and W. L. Yancey were the Calhoun leaders Reuben Chapman, from Madison, member of Congress, was elect ed governor on the Calhoun resolution, in 1S47.
 Mir John, after IS years residence at Uniontown, in full practice, moved to the promising young city on Moore's bluff, Selma, to pursue his profession. There he took an active part in organizing the Ala bama and Mississippi Rivers Railroad company. In this work he became at once associated with the great merchant, Philip J. Weaver of Selma. Urging the prosecution of the road project, he went to Cahaba to address a public meeting at the courthouse and MT. Weaver went with him. The movement then was to build the road from Cahaba to Marion. The planters did not awaken to the sig nifcance of the argument. They laughed aloud when Mir. John told them if they would build the road and send a train over it to Marion, nothing could stop it short of the Mississippi
 Discouraged by what he heard in the audience at the courthouse, MT. Weaver called a meeting of citizens at Selma to take up consideration of the movement. He told his fellow townsmen unless Ca haba responded Selma must. If Cahaba should respond sufficiently and became the terminus on the Alabama, he would move his great stores there.
 The ultimate result was the road from Cahaba to Marion was built first. Quick ly following the road from Selma tos Un- iontown onto Newberne was built. Both roads thus far were in operation before the war.
 In 1862 MT John filled the responsible office of Mayor of Selma. The movement of troops through the town and the build ing there of foundry shops by the Con federate government, gave importance to the office.
 The maNer became chancellor and be- fore him was tried a case of extreme importance to the military history of the Confectionery This writer received orders from the military department of Alabama, Mississippi and east Louisiana, to take 0 squad of cavalry to SCOUT a certain sec tion of country for men liable to service in the army who, under any pretext might be absent. Sunday morning I met on the public road about Shiloh, in Ma rengo county, two young men with pack of hounds hunting deer. They took from their pocket for inspection certain papers which they alleged were evidences of legal exemption from the army. The claim of one was allowed He operated a saw mill. The claim of the other, George W. Tate, was denied. He had a legally ac- cepted substitute who was at that time enrolled and in the ranks of the army. He had paid a citizen to do his fighting. The substitute law, however, had been re- pealed by the conscript law. Whatever obligations of contract might have once justified Tate's claim to exemption were not considered in my orders from army headquarters. Tate must report for ser VIC dl DtlilOpOllS Nilllout dcldy. nt til- izen he had hired to stand up in his place was made soldier on his own liability by the conscript law
 A near day was named for Tates ap- pearance at post headquarters at De- mopolis. He promised to obey and was permitted to go on his way. Instead he sent the sheriff after me. I was ordered by the civil authority to defend myself before Chancellor John. in Chambers, at Selma. charged with false arrest
 Tate appeared with able counsel, George ". Gayle. I presented my military or ders to the chancellor as my sole de- fense and declined to employ counsel.
 Gayle argued long. At the conclusion of his speech the chancellor informed me that he would retain my orders and take the case under advisement heard noth- ing more, but in a few days I read the decree of the court, several columns of the newspaper, sustaining my actions and ordering Tate into the army. There was yet delay. The man who had a substitute employed additional counsel, the ablest, then sin the field, and took an appeal. The chancellor was affirmed On the boat going down from Montgomery was Tate 8 counsel. Governor Moore was also pas- senger. The case had arrested wide at tention and the fiery secession governor was especially indignant that any young man eligible to service in the field should interpose so lame an excuse to avoid it. The governor had some exceedingly sharp words with the eminent counsel That old white-headed governor of Ala bama, victim of disabling disease, would have made another Pettus or Clayton, or more still, had he been ten years younger. If Governor Pickens of South Carolina had possessed Governor Moore's military instinct, Fort Sumter would not have