The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-21

The authority of state government that had not been elected bu that had been legislated into power by a fragment of Congress, bitterly and boastfully nos tile to the people, after it had been or ficialy proclaimed defeated at an election conducted in every county and in all details, great and small, by the United States army-that sort of civil authority had the least possible respect showed to it in Alabama.
 Governor Smith sought to avoid military service by engaging in the civil govern ment of the Confectionery. Failing in this purpose, he took the further step of pass ing into the enemys lines, and there he sought a character of personal attach ment to the army of invasion which car ried with it the least military duties. He carried no official or personal influence into the degraded post of governor.
 The lieutenant governor, Applegate, en- tered the south as a private in regi- ment of infantry from Ohio. He was a detailed man in the freedmans bureau office at Huntsville when selected for membership in the military convention that framed the state constitution of 1868 He was selected by the caucus of carpetbaggers of that convention for lieu tenant governor. In company with his comrades of the army, in Mississippi, he played an important part in pillaging a private residence there. occupied by a helpless family of women and children. He stole from a cabinet package of private papers, of peculiar value to the owner but none to the thief. When tracked to Huntsville he confessed pos session and then sold them to the lawful owner for a considerable sum.
 The speaker of the house was a noun tebank. The leader of the house was John Hardy from Dallas county of ignoble antecedents and eliminating recent acts. On Saturday night, September I, 1889, Mr. John T. Miner second to none in the industrial history of the state. de- Nineteenth street which was published the next day in The AgeHerald from the orators manuscript. The following par agraphs are extracted:
 "The first legislature after the war passed a state aid law, with the view mainly of developing our mineral inter- ests. Though our strong men had all gone to the wall, and our stockholders could not pay. few of us kept our char tered interest alive and were just begin ming to start up anew, when the recon struction laws of the federal Congress were passed, in March, 1S67 A sadly dark cloud then settled all over Alabama. No one knew what would come next In June, 1868, the carpetbag legislature ap- peared at the capitol at Montgomery. Their history has been too often portrayed for me to describe them now or their ac- tions, except as they relate to the build ing of what Is now known as the South and North railroad and Birmingham
 Tt soon developed what this legislature was. J. c. stanton, Boston man. the builder of the Alabama and Chattanooga railroad. appeared at Montgomery and controlled the railroad legislation, as well as If he owned every member body and soul. He secured gift of every foot of the work that had been done by our peo- pie before the war along the whole line from Meridian to Chattanooga.
 He wanted more and got it from the legislature. John Whiting had been elect ed president of the South and North Alabama railroad. I was still the engi- neer, so-caled. Whiting was a strict my road held mortgage on Stanton's, but it was in the name of the state. soon saw that Stanton, through his power acquired over the legislature, could set that mortgage aside and all other mort gages we held under the acts of 1s59-60. T told President Whiting of the South and North Alabama that he had better watch the legislature. He scorned the idea of getting down among them at all, much less of>paying them for votes He added, however. that I might go in if
 q had been engaged in the work of rail- had been engaged in the work of rail- road promotion on this line for 10 years My heart and soul were in 1t, so I wen, for the legislature. For weeks and months I mixed with them. Of all the duties CD of my life this was the most disagreeable and the most distasteful, but saved our appropriation"
 The common report was that John liar. dy of the house was made gate keeper
 
 paid in for individual votes. He carried to Selma some sl25,ooo. No record of dis | tribution was ever made. for good reason John thereafter was reported tot be il easy circumstances. as never before. | The South and North road now mad, contract with Sam Tait of Memphis t complete the gap of 67 miles between Blount Springs and a point south of De catur. Tait failed and the work was lef about as it had been. The road was com pleted to Birmingham and had out som, s2 200,000 bonds, first mortgage, state in dorsed. These bonds were held by V. K Stevenson, a banker of New York, onc' president of the Nashville and Chattanoo ga railroad and believed to be still finan cially interested in it. The other larg holder was Russell Sage of New Yorl. These two men suddenly came with F NJ. Gilmer, now president of the road | to Montgomery.
 On a night in April. 1S7l,' the board Q directors of the South and North roa' were invited to meet the New York bank | CTS at their room in the Exchange hotel There the demand was made, peremptor 1 ily, for settlement. The demand. o