The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-23

The defeat of the Seymour and Blair na- tional democratic ticket in Alabama in 1868, the vote of the state for Grant electors, the expiration of the legal ex- istence of the freedman's bureau in the several states and the movement to im- peach United States District Judge Bus teed were contemporary events of that year which turned the heads of some bril- liant leaders of the white supremacy shib- boleth
 The cry among ths class of politicians was that the national democratic party was a negative force The die was cast in the south. The negro must be recog- nized as Congress had prescribed. White leaders, citizens bound by every tie to Ithe state, must seek to instruct and lead the blacks.
 Alexander White uttered the first note for white supremacy heard in the state, at the Selma meeting August ?, 1866, the year after Appomattox. He said there the negroes should not be freed and could not be If permitted to remain in the land. B. F. Saffold had already said deportation was the imperative remedy for the situation. Early in January, 1869, Mr. White issued an Address to the Dld Union Men" This appeal published in the newspapers, was speedily followed by one from Judge Rice, urging the im- mediate formation of new party to be known as the party of progress and hu- Inanity.' The progress feature was to be directed toward affiliation of Alabama with the republicans and the Humanity movement was toward negro enfranchise- ment
 Alexander McKinstry. colonel of Con- federate regiment and white supremacy leader in thes legislature from Mobile, favored the Rice party. Provisional Gov ernor Parsons, who led the delegation six months before, to the New York na- tional democratic convention, joined Rice. In his message to the legislature of soo he advised against a negro electorate.
 General Grant saw the democratic col umn shaken and promptly let the recall citrant leaders know they must stand firm They must take the negro side, oust the unfit carpetbagger element from con trol or themselves quit the field.
 Great was the perplexity of the recall citrants On January 2S, as quickly as possibe after White published his "Ad- dress to the Old Union Men" conven- tion of that class met at Montgomery to denounce him and his assertion. Judge Benajah S. Bibb presided. Boiling Hall, Emmet Seibles. P. T. Sayre, Joseph Hodg- son and w. w. Screws were appointed. a committee to prepare the answer. lhe committee was not allowed to retire Tor report until the convention had instructed them that "od union men deprecate such s movement as a third party, as fraught with the most disastrous consequences to our section and people; that the move ment for a third party should be de- ncunced as a secret and most insidlous appeal to old prejudices of the union men looking to the disintegration of the demo- cratic party
 This episode, following the election of General Grant to the presidency commit ted. as he was, to the counsel of the most revolutionary advisers of the north, drew the line deep and impossible be- tween the men bent on the rescue of the state and the chicken hearted. The lead CTS of the third party movement were promptly engulphed. The carpetbagger was out of the situation. Like the vul- ture that ceases to feed only when the carcass has been consumed. they disap- peared with the suspension of the freed mans bureau posts. The scalawag was brought face to face with conditions that he could no longer make an impression upon His reliance at the outset was upon the negro, forced by Congress into po-
 
 nediately disappointed Congress and let the scalawag fall into ignoble disuse,
 They were strange times, new attitudes, 1lntried experiences, the times about us. Recovery from dire extremity where the weak were beset by the strong, where the whole machinery of the government at Washington weighed down the reasoning Of the citizens. where the most Renowned hero of modern wars, in supreme control, had openly avowed his enrnity to us and pledged support to our enemies. The editor of the Marion (Perry county) Com monwealth in confusion, advised that the democrats should out-Herod- d-Herod, that they should select negro and send him to Congress in place of Charles Hays, ecalawag of the most obnoxious kind. 'sNoi" was the spontaneous answer. We will battle for our rights or fall under our burden We will touch not. handle not the unclean thing"
 Cotton had recovered from the disas- trous slump of theUater months of 1867. In January 1868, the staple was marketed at $125 the bale. By this time the effect of tho ahare method of cultivating the plantations, mingled with the renting of small sportions of land to negroes upon the courses of fr1oe was apparent The ancient rno,1od 1njoyed by Mobile as a ccttoW md Zee from the former monopolv- |Nction by individual planters. changed conditions with the btgomery and Selma commanded5 >tton markets. The building of Sad from Selma 10 Montgomery oaching completion; the Montgoi Eufaula line was under way:< rain over he Ala hama and rivers road. cor meeting Rom 6]ma. passed over the line in th4 pf 1868. J. c. Stan ton was actil 1tructing the Ala bama and e road. John T