The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-02
TEN YEARS OF ALABAMA
No. 34-Administration of Governor Smith
1865-1874

l Governor Smith went to the senate chamber to instruct the gang there in the 1 proceedings of organization. white
 man was made secretary and a negro doorkeeper. General Dosus E. Coon of Iowa, from Dallas, moved a call of the roll and that each senator in answering
 should declare his position on the ratify- ing of the fourteenth article of amend ment. and also make averment whether he was eligible to his seat.
 | The next business before the senate was
 to decide a contest from Lowndes. w. NJ. Buckley from Massachusetts and New York got the seat.
 Lieutenant Governor spplegate. presid- ing, was extravagantly elated with the success of his first days experience in the | chair On motion of a senator he ad- | jounred the body with the enthusiastic exclamation added Bully for Alabama!' At the first days session both houses voted to ratify the fourteenth article of amendment, the senate unanimously. In | the house the three democrats voted
 nay, but they were not expelled.
 The state was thus reconstructed for a l place in the union. Prostrate in every es- l sential of enlightened government, har- rassed in her shame and menaced on every | side by threats of deeper degredation, her l people did not have heart nor did they l loose the cunning of patriots in their ex-
 
 not be aniss to refer incidentally to some of the evidences of the energies of this people that were crippled or destroy ed | by the new government.
 l Under the Patton government of 1866,
 the state taxes were paid, the sum S612, $50. | Interest on the public debt was paid. the
 sum of which was $4. 725, 100. The uniyersi- 1 ty assisted, the schools for the deaf, dump i, and blind were maintained, the asylum | for the insane received required support. | Governor Patton informed the legisla- | ture that the penitentiary was self sus- | taining A survey of the Coosa river | by the state was made from Wetumpka
 up. Samples of Alabama wealth in agri-
 culture and minerals and woods had been
 sent to the Paris exposition. A system of state aid to railroads had been pro | jected. A civil code had been prepared by | Chief Justice A. J. Walker. The books of the state fiscal officers had been off cially examined and accepted No human 1 intelligence, no instinct of human virtue,
 nothing in the recorded emergencies of the
 times for political action or demonstra- 1 tion of political prudence required the | government that had been set up over the state. It was the invention of the mental | acuteness of the nineteenth century l guided by the unregenerate instincts of
 older and dishonored ages.
 | The day after the two houses organized 1 they met in the hall of the house to per- 1 form the ont of place ceremony of in- ducting the governor into office. On the 18th the governor swore in the speaker and on the 14th the speaker swore in the governor The governor hao ready Il | long message. He told of this, the ulti-
 mate fruit of the Declaration of Independ- ence. All men were created equal and here in Alabama the value of the fact was to be enjoyed. "It has been truly r,,lxo ,as1 ha bot | large number of persons disfranchsed by law will speedily constitute a running sore upon the body polite. Let us rather avoid such an evil than be compelled to | find remedy for it. Our constitution with this exception, provides for the civil and political equality of all men. Let us do away with the exception and make our organic law perfect in it's
 work of guaranteeing civil liberty to all | men," The governor had reference to the disenfranchising provso of the constitu- tion, intended to carry out the proposition | of the reconstruction acts and of the 1 fourteenth article of amendment. The constitution permitted the legislature to
 notify the enumeration of disfranchised
 classes. Tn conclusion gentlemen" said the governor, you will pardon me for | again reminding you that you have as l sembled to egislate -or the whole peo- | ple.' etc.
 ] The legislature passed many peculiar
 personal and local acts. A member of the house was relieved by statute of the pen alties of bigamy. senator who had served a term in the pententiary of Geor- l eHa was relieved of the force of the law | that otherwise would have retired him. | The same senator was also relieved of a more recent liability for murder. The | committee the Judiciary of the senate reported bill to relieve Attorney Gener al Joshua Moorse, charged with the murder
 of Editor Thomas of Choctaw, as already | stated. The senate rejected the bill. MT | Morse was then elector for the state at | large on the Grant and Colfax ticket. | JOHN WITHERSPOON DUPOSE.