The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-07-10
TEN YEARS OF ALABAMA


upon his life. Congress expired by short
| session, March 4, 1861 Between that date
and the meeting of the new Congress, De-
cember of the same year, Johnson ap-
pointed provisional governors, and
through them restored the vacated state
governments. Congress when assembled
promptly and revengefully destroyed the
new state governments and came within
| one vote of deposing johnson himself.
Provisional Governor Parsons was re-
markable man. He could receive nofoffice
from the people of Alabama before the
downfall of the Confederacy. but now he
was not acceptable. He was In the prime
of life, of imposing stature, handsome
countenance and fluent speaker. New
York was his native state. In early man
hood he came to the village of Talladega
to practice law and rapidly rose to the
front of the bar, where Rice Morgan,
Hefiin. White, Bowie and other distin-
guished pleaders there challenged his pow
ers. He built, perhaps, the most imposing
residence of the settlement and lived to
the limit of then prevailing tests.
Parsons was the leading whig or union
stump speaker of his part of the state,
Yancey pronounced him to be the aDiest
of all the union debaters he had ever en-
countered, the most resourceful mind and
the readiest This was said after an en-
counter with Parsons on the stump at
oiiducSds titdt manly VI llt great thiOHS
present yet remember with enthusiasm.
will relate one instance of the readi-
ness with which the provisional governor
of Alabama was wont to meet political
emergencies. In 1860, after the Charleston
national democratic convention had been
repudiated and broken up by the slave
states, Parsons thought yancey might be
put down in Alabama as circumstances
then stood. The campaign for President
was well advanced, and the wings had
out In this state an electoral ticket for
Bell of Tennessee and Edward Everett.
the Massachusetts orator or course, the
ticket in Alabama was here merely as
the whistle of the boy in the dark.
Parsons left Watts and Langdon to
hold the wings together while he Joined
the Douglas democrats, hoping thus to
flank the Yancey element John For
syth called a meeting of anti-Yancey
democrats at Selma. This meeting maze
up delegation to represent the Douglas
men at Baltimore, whittier the Charles
ton convention, or the northern part of
1t, had adjourned. The Selma meeting
put Parsons in the list of Alabama dele
gates to the Baltimore national demo-
cratic convention, and that convention
that is, the northern part--admitted them
to the exclusion of the regulars under
Yancey, who tried to re-enter.
When the war opened Parsons was ae-
quiescent Two of his sons, along with
nearly all the eligible youths of their
county, enlisted in the Confederate army
and were known as first class soldiers.
Amidst protracted manifestations of in
competency In, the government at Rich
mond a Peace society" to an inappre-
ciable extent, sprung up in the rear of the
armies. and even demonstrated some no.
tice in the ranks in the field. Testimony
is found In the government archives tend
f,.fr 70 cIar. I1t;.
several men of previous high position in
tho state to that organization. Parsons
is alleged to have been leader So was
Col. John Y. Seibles, a soldier OF the Mex
lean war and first colonel of the Sixth
Alabama infantry, commanding it until
after Seven Pines. When by reason of
his good conduct Yancey Joined many
other Alabamians in recommending his
promotion to brigadier general. When one
of Parsons soldier sons heard that his
fathers neighbor and political rival, the
Hon. Jabez l.. M. Curry, had repeated
the story of the fathers connection with
the peace society," the youth sought out
the offender and shot him, luckily innict-
ing only wound. [Fleming.1
The provisional governor was a member
of the legislature of 1868, warmly support
ing the war In 1860 he canvassed in his
native state and elsewhere north against
the fourteenth amendment then pending
before the states. The Alabama legisla-
ture of 1866 chose him United States sem
ator, but Congress refused him.
Alexander White. the brilliant orator
and great lawyer of Talladega and Lewis
e. Parsons and Joseph W. Taylor of Eu-
taw may be said to have led In the cry
for white supremacy in Alabama, very
soon after the soldiers got home. Rob-
ert Mckee, editor In Selma, and Ryland
Randolph, editor, in Tuscaloosa, were
looked upon as their most radical news
paper supporters. j. w. DUBOSE.