The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-16
TEN YEARS OF ALABAMA
No. 21-Maior General John Pope, Commanding
18o5-1874

cities of Philadelphia and New York, in the year 1862, and was a political organ ization intended to strengthen the gov ernment at Washington, when the for tunes of the great conflict seemed to. be with the Confederacy The northern part of Alabama was occupied at that time, and generally until the war closed, by the invaders. The farmers were non-save- holders, and they were intense sufferers from the effects of the war. As fast as the enemy gained access to them they were urged to join the Union league
 Many Joined and remained members for
 years after the war. So that the do-
 minion of General Pope, in 1S67,, bore lightly on those counties where negroes were few. Wherever freedmen joined the league, already in commission, tn whites dropped out and the order decayed and expired.
 General Pope was not pleased with the
 conduct of Congress toward him. He sought a conference with General Grant at army headquarters It was agreed between them that the parole of Con
 federate soldier in Alabama held him bound to whatever government was found here. The parole required the beneficiary to obey ''the laws of the state" Con gress had annihilated the state" but the parole held the soldier subject to whatever
 authority the United States set up instead.
 T
 certainly the duty of the district com
 mander to study what the framers of
 tho reconstruction laws wanted to ex-
 press and to execute the law according
 to that interpretation" In other words, the will of the district commander was the only law in Alabama.
 The placid temper, the quiet courage, the boundless faith in themselves of the people, the silent contempt in which they
 beheld the plans ofsthe conqueror to sub jugate them-all this is shown by their every day acts. They pursued their du- ties in peace and resolution to regain their own a. the earliest moment possi-
 ble. They denied all justification of the
 conquest. They renounced no conduct of their own. Not a few individuals or
 the slave master class opened schools for the negroes. Many negro domestic servants were taught to read and write in the families of their former masters. While these evidences of bona f1de at tempts of the whites to reconcile the races to the prevailing change, that had been forced upon them. were apparent: the overthrown constitution and laws oi
 the state and the practices of the courts arose, cumulative testimony to the pur- pose of the whites to abide the fortune that had befalien them, and appeal was thus made to meanest understanding, the party in control of the Washington government sent emissaries and orators of great repute here to make sure the application of the reconstruction lawE
 The end aimed at by the overthrow of the state government was the ratifica ton of the fourteenth article of amend nent and the perpetuation thereby Of the national debt and the national banks | dependent on that debt. all Of which sources Of wealth were in the north. Two members left the fragment of Cnf in ..f1 1cf nf ffC Iah hnr n
 come south to interfere with the course of politics. pending the issues of thls 1 year. Representative w. D. "Pigiron'
 Kelley of Pennsylvania and Senator
 Henry Wilson of Massachusetts were the
 men selected for the mission. Both were ' possessed of high ability, both were trained stump speakers, and both were
 ultra partisans of militarism.
 Senator Wilson had spoken under re-
 stlB int elsewhere along his journey be-
 fore he reached Montgomery. At Mont | eomery a full mixed audience. composed
 of whites, who were unsympathetic and l friendly negroes. smet him. His speech vas ardent in support of his opinions ] but excited no disturbance. General Clan 1 ton immediately rose in reply. He spoke
 at much length and in detail Of existing relations of the races. in the state. He ort Jared with bis familiar emphasis that l the senator did not understand his own
 worlds that his efforts to enect race col | lision were based on imaginary condi-
 tions. He denounced the senator's ale | cations in many particulars as untrue and ! his principles as disastrous to American I liberty
 NIT. Keiiey vent to Mobile for his first i,speech. He lad been widely advertised
 in advance Of the meeting. The carpet lag element there contained in the GUS i tom house and the bureau offices, re- | solved that no such commonnlace meet i ipg for Kelley sAould transpire as had | rcce ivcd. WisGn at Montgomery.
 I'll Kelley neeting was held in the | open air Judge Bdsteed. the most of)- ncxious man iS all the state. presided The orator of the evening was drilled
 beforehand in the scenes expected at the meeting. He was to temper his ad- dr.ss "bv the car,I.
 The crowd was large about the stand l Tie orators words took on the proposed i..ila mmatory character. A pistol shot
 was heard on the mafsin of the meeting
 The police at once arrested the bearsf