The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-26
TEN YEARS OF ALABAMA
 1865-1874
No. 49-Colsion of Gov. Smith and Senator Spencer
1865-1874

The revolutionists in Alabama were all disappointed. The scalawags and the car petbaggers blamed each other. Neither scalawag nor carpetbagger had been able to organize fixed political party of ne- gro voters. The military officers at the various posts were ready and willing to bring their authority into the effort. and did actually interfere, but the antici- pated party was not formed. Only the gullible, childish mob remained.
 When Congress convened December [, 1868, and the delegations that had been legislated into office, six months before, from the south, appeared, unable to testi- fly that the fourteenth article of amend ment, legsated into the constitution by the same act, had reconciled in any degree the race conflict or humiliated the whites or strengthened the republican party in this section, but the reverse, that dismem- bered body was thrown into a state of ex- travagant and impotent alarm. On the very day of assembling A senator from New Hampshire offered A resolution as fifteenth article of anendment. intended to reinforce the abortive section of the fourteenth, an' thus make sure the fas-
 
 all the states.
 The second annual session of the legis- lature met November 15, 1869. Half dozen senators failed to answer the roll call. Jack Appletoddy," the carpetbag- ger lieutenant governor, called the cham Der to order and the official chaplain, on good pay, took his stand for prayer. on the house roll, call nearly third were absent.
 Governor Smith sent in his regular message to the houses.
 The paper was extremely disappointing, issuing from the beneficiary of carpet bag rule, addressed to carpetbagger rul- CTS. The governor entered upon recital in detail to prove a manifest improve ment in the public sentiment of the state. Taking the state at large, the laws have been executed with as much prompti- tude and vigor as could be reasonably ex- pected or desired at any time or in any state" declared the message. There hav- ing been no resistance to any civil author ity, the statute providing for tue organ izaton of the militia had not been put in operation. There is neither war nor re- bellion in Alabama" the governor assured the legislature.
 The carpetbaggers took fire. The gover- nor of Alabama, they argued, was sur rounded Dy Dnlteu Stdtes troops, put nere by Congress, and he had no right to dis abuse the mind of the nation, and thus set up a question of the certainty of the con- gressiona view. Congress retained the troops to prove that war and rebellion" were rampant in Alabama Congress had sent to this state and the governor then held the document, the fifteenth article of amendment. for ratification. If the gov ernor was to be believed, then condi- ton of affairs. so placid, proved the ar- ticle was not needed.
 Senator Spencer felt the contrast be- tween his reports in Washington and Gov ernor Smiths explanation of actual cons ditons in the state most keenly. The sen ator was not an orator, not parliamen- tartan. He was without experience in leg islative halls and without capacity to ex- ercise any influence whatsoever in de- Lucrative body. He was indeed callow fellow, rude political adventurer, whose fall and ignoble disappearance from the stage of action, to which he had been forced, was certain the moment normal conditions returned to the state which inc falsely claimed to represent The only hope for Spencer was in a successful con- trediction of Smith. Spencer could not hope to retain his place in the Senate while the scalawags under the governors lead were accredited in Washington.
 So in midsummer before the meeting of the legislature, Spencer came down from Washington to mingle with the of flee holding carpetbaggers and prepare his line of action. Chiefly his scheme was