The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-21
By John witherspoon DpBose.

II fiii1 Phpiit lS ldNOItu DS dluNA MI
 rent newspaper sketching of the life
 4 and times of this or that man who has helped to make Alabama. No litera- ture should be more respected. A writer practice of his calling has Yentured very recently to give imprimatur of his indorse- ment to certain idle gossip intended in its initiative to rebuze by inuendo one of the most influential of the men of all history, an Alabamian, and to asperse the public action in Alabama and sister states taken by his counsel and under his lead ership.
 We are asked to accept. as of biograph- incident in the career of James R. Pow ell, Duke of Birmingham at later day:
 One story of his hundreds is worth pre- serving. Powell was a union man and William L. Yancey was a secessionist. When MT. Yancey came back from the mission to England and had failed to persuade that government to recognize the Confectionery, MT. Powell and other citizens, as a consolation to MT. Yancey,
  and bridal, with pistol holsters and an army outfit. Such outfits were the fash ion then. There was at once a story start ed that the horse and outfit was a hint to MT. Yancey to go fight the war he had brought on. It was a joke, but it spread all over the Confectionery"
 Yancey and Powell were kindred spirits. They were close personal friends from the moment they came in contact in the af- fairs of Alabama, some 20 years before the war. When United States Senator William R. King went as minister to France. Governor Fitzpatrick appointed the representative of the Third district in Congress, Dixon H. Lewis, to fill the va cancy thus left by King. The governor next ordered a special election to fill Lewiss place. A democratic convention assembled at Wetumpka to nominate party candidate. The counties were Jeff ferson, Shelby, Blob, Autauga, Coosa, Lowndes. Dallas and Perry. Powell lived at Wetumpka, then in Coosa county. Com munication was slow, horse mails, and no public conveyances being the rule. The call for the convention did not reach all the counties Some sent delegates, how ever In the meeting Powell, represent ing the friends of Yancey. offered a reso- mtion which passed recommending Tan cey to all the counties.
 In this incident we find evidence of the early friendship, personal and political, of the two men. Yancey was then state sem ator. He had gained his election at the age of 2s in most vigorous contest. Pow ell supported him.
 My impression is the two men were pre- cisely of the same political opinions, all the way through. Powell certainly was an ardent supporter of the war and or Yanceys source in the war.
 AS to the gift of the big black horse, a compliment from gentleman of the city of Montgomery-the chairman of the com mittee who managed the preliminaries and made the presentation, was the late Benjamin H. Micou, president of the Tal iassee Cotton mills. I received a letter from him in his own hand, making indig- nant denial of the absurd story of sinister suggestion to Yanoey conveyed in the gift. MT. Micou wrote: NO indirect purpose lay in the mind of any of us. MT. Yancey was in bad health. We took that way of expressing to him our estimate of him as a man among men,.
 James R. Powells name Is signed to the letter of presentation of the horse, as one of the several donors. The military sad dle was used only because citizen saddles were not to be found. The pistols are epochryphai.
 Yancey did not go to the war; nor did MT. Jefferson Davis, nor did Plus TX. Pope of Rome, both of whom sympa- thized with the Confectionery.
 Mir. Yancey put himself at the command of the President Very greatly against his wishes. the President sent him to Europe He was away on that duty when the war onened The Atlantic separated him still from the Alabama legislation when that bodv unanimously elected him to the Con federate senate for the full term of six years. the first senator of that body from Alabama. When he returned home he said nublicly that the state had selected the mart it desired him to act in the events of the day. without consulting him. and
 it was his purpose, as well as his high duty, to abide by that assignment. MT. Davis acted that very part The will of the people controlled over an individual preference in both examples. MT. Yam cey had five sons and a son-in-law. All were in the military service.
 Yancey brought on the war. So did Adam, assisted by Eve. The intelligence and manhood of the southern people ac- cepted the war that MT Lincoln forced upon them. No fact in the world is plain CT. MT. Yancey above all men unified the minds of the southern people upon the duty to themselves of a reorganization by their several states of their federal re- lations.. So sasaoicas was the advice that