The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-07
TEN YEARS OF ALABAMA
No. S7-Administratio on of Governor Smith
1865-1874

NO. ol-AumlIllStfdIl
 What did Judge Rice mean, when speak, Ing to the white mans convention of June 1, 1868, at Montgomery, he declared with his familiar earnestness, "lt was better for the south to be opposed by divided majority than to be supported by united mnority?"
 That convention of 9S of the 62 counties represented was one of the most poten- tial influences in the politics of Alabama the state has ever seen. Powell of Ma con and Rice of Montgomery argued that the south would be wise to stand aloof from the national democratic party, that Alabama should send no delegate to the quadrennial national democratic conven- -tion to meet the next month, on lnde- pendence Day, in the city of New York; The substance of the argument was that the republican party of the north would dissolve in two or more factions if it should encounter no greater opposition than the unsupported democracy of the north; that a southern alliance with the northern democracy would mpart an ad- ventitious strength to it, sufficient to pre- N the republican party in that section.
 It is not necessary to examine the force of Judge Rice's argument, for it did not touch the gravamen of the political emergency The convention sent delegates to the national democratic convention, with Parsons at the head, not because the state body liad-the clear titles of an heir. but because it was modus, the modus through which the white men must concentrate their minds and soidify and intensifystlieir energies to arrest the alien influences settled upon the state and fin- ally restore the state to themselves.
 Alabama without democratic organiza- tion, without even the power to have an electoral college, sent a full delegation to New York. The delegation was seated and participated. The proceedings of the national convention were so satisfactory that the delegates could return home and proclaim them on every stump.
 A. once the opportunity had come to az
 tate. to arouse the whites. Clantons committee came promptly upon the scene. The entire state area was mapped and orators assigned. The entire press gladly took up the theme. Robert Mckee seized the situation to set up his Southern (Sel- ma) Argus to reach position of un- eaualed popularity and influence.
 In two years, with the biennial state election, Lindsay democrat, defeated Gov ernor Smith for reelection. A democratic legislature displaced General Warner of New York from a seat in the federal Sem ate by Judge George Goldthwaite, demo- crat. and long an honor to the public ser- vice of the state.
 The Seymour and Blair campaign of 1s6s. arousng and organizing force that prepared Alabama for self redemption in the years that followed The wisdom of the convention of June 1 was not of dem- ocratic inspiration, nor of the whigs pres cDt, but a demonstration of sagacity and political acumen in both elements of po- litical life. The sending of a state dele gation to national democratic nominat- ing convention, with Lewis E. Parsons at the head, swept from Alabama politics every vestige of old time party lines, and laid open to the masses the way to self redemption.
 The Congress and the r.rthern press used the organization known as '.Kuklux Elan,' found in various parts of this state and in other places, to justify the deten- tion of troops near the polls and in other ways to prolong the arbitrary course of the government at, Washington
 The committee of 15-12 republicans and three democrats-known as the recon struction committee. magnified every dis covery of a club or temporary organza- ton in the south. There were 50 in the north to one in the south. In the na- tional campaign of 1860 the Wide Awakes" numbered 100000 uniformed men. who drilled at night and who at- tended political meetings. The Ku Klux in Alabama never reached any serious proportions and never exercised any im- portant influence upon the habits of the community. Other organizations besides this were formed and bound to secrecy by paths. the object of which was to ob- serve the extent to which the carpetbag- gers were carrying the Loyal league and its interference with the negroes. Soon 1t became evident the carpetbaggers could not lead the negroes dsastrousy. as they proposed, and the secret clubs of whites naturally dissolved. l belonged to one of those clubs. It never had three meetings and no negro was ever in any manner dis turbed by 1t, however salutary may have been the precautionary effect of full knowledge of its existence may have been
 Ryland Randolph kept the Den of Ku Klux alive in Tuscaloosa by means of his weelpy paper, the Monitor more as method of preserving the organization of whites for political purposes than with any other purpose. He was so active and with resources so peculiar to himself that Clanton published at the north during the campaign disavowal of his work.
 negro of great strength rushed upon him in the streets of Tuscaloosa with up- lifted club Randolph, a small and active man. lodged under the blow. and stabbed his assailant in the back, so. that he fell but not mortally wounded. Returning to his desk across the street, several gen. tlemen came to say horse was hitched in the rear ready for his flight. as some 50 negro men ware then approaching. in column. shouting and cursing him. The editor instantly grasped a double barrel shotgun from the wall and running into the street walked steady in the middle toward the head of the black column When he arrived in easy haiIing dis tance he paused, threw, the gun 10 his shoulder and cried: Scatter. you d-d