The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-19

] Ling the governor, then Andrew B Moore, to order an election for delegates to a sovereign convention provided a
 black republican, should be elected Pres ident the next November. eight months 1 off
 I This affirmative vote of Mir. Parsons the ablest of union men, is not the only | remarkable evldeRce of irregularity in the steps that led Alabama to her attitude or l the all absorbing question of that time The meaning of the joint resolution was plain. It was to provide for the calling of a secession convention.
 Whence came the authority assumed by the legislature to summon a soy ereign convention for any purpose whatever? There Is a total commission by the constitution of 1919 of a pro vision for such a body
 We. the people of Alabama, in con vention assembled was the visible fact of January II, 1861, but the state constitution of 1919. then in force, did not contemplate that political status The secession convention must turn for authority of life to the Declaration ol Independence, that a people may change their government at will. or to Justice h. w. Walkef s opinion III DOf1ldn NS the state, that the state legislature is paramount except where restricted by the state constitution.
 Provisional Governor Parsons came into office in the interval of Congress, March 1, 1865 and December 1 of the same year. His appointment was an invention of President Johnson without authority any where.
 President Lincoln's plan was to preserve af the United States after the extinction by force of the Confederacy. He dictated to Grant and Sherman in conference, about 20 days before Appomattox, on a steam boat at City Point, Va, the terms on which the approaching surrender of the Confederate armies should be made and actually were made
 The setting up of provisional gov ernor in Alabama and other states, by appointment of President Johnson was in complete reversal of Lincoln's plan, practical destruction of the union, re- stored by Appomattox and forfeiture by the President of the very letter of the parole held by all Confederate sol ders
 These are not light matters for the present and future minds that must pre- serve free government in Alabama. A government like the citizen with the DdllOl, 1DuSI pOSSeSS SCH NOlliluthNts | hN people of Alabama from border to bor- der, endured in patience and wisdom, the results of the bad faith at Wash ington They held fast to the ideal form of federal government in which Lincoln had intended to protect them by recall of Watts from his self-inficted exile. They endured Parsons and the events that followed. It is worth while to re- member the story The most recent in
 se. s,, ( tl.a 1AFtA nd for a President from Alabama.
 Mr. Parsons was received into his of fee with universal assurances of wei come on June 21st, 1865. He was the whole thing civil No state auditor, no treasurer, nor attorney general had part in his administration,
 The aristocrats of the old plantations, living in Montgomery, opened their doors to him. The long established Presbyterian church of the city Rev. George Petrie, and the elders notified him that "pew T," had been perma- rently assigned to his use. Letters from former Justice Dorgan of the supreme court an active disciple of Yancey, let ters from leading citizens, in every quarter congratulated the people that so proper a custodian of the public veal had been selected as this governor. Here Is a sample:
 TIslNlDBSlOIl, Ald.s Au6uol ct iono. When the Confederacy died I laid down all opposition to the govern ment The issue was decided against my views, and I promptly submitted. At an early day I took the amnesty oath and also the oath of allegiance. l laid these oaths upon my conscience and have tried by word and deed to reconcile our people to the altered con ditions of affairs I shall ia la,,t in, restoring law and order to the state.
 "A. A. COLEMAN"
 This citizen had been judge of the cir cult court and colonel commanding an Alabama regiment in the field He was a devoted follower of Yancey and wrote the Alabama Ordinance of Secession.
 John Forsyth wrote tender pri- vate letter from the Register newspa- per office in Mobile congratulating the state and the people that so fit a man as Parsons should have been chosen to fill so high a place. The redoubtable editor said also parenthetically of course that as the anticipated legis- lature would be expected to choose senators in Congress, he would see to it that the Mobile delegation stood up for the governor; and, moreover, he would esteem himself happy If the gov ernor would see to it that some other Woulu Suppplt tit SoNci nors friend. MT. Forsyth. for the other place vacant in the Senate,
 Before taking up in detail the work of the provisional governor. it will be convenient to tell of the remarkable conditions that prevailed between the date of surrender of Lieut.. Gen. Richard Taylor commanding the area of which Alabama was a part on May 1. and the appointment of Provisional Cover mn po Sbi m an Inn 21.
 In this period-5o days-there was no semblance of operative and author itative civil government.
 Garrisons of United States troops, many of them negroes. were sudden ly distributed at quiet villages con verted to army posts all over the state. The white troops of the small garri- sons were largely men of foreign birth. allured hithcr by the great cash and land bounties given to them as in- ducement to enlist.
 Garrisons of conquering troops of aliens and eN-slaves precipitated upon an unarmed people in their unmerited humiliation to treat them as they would, was surely the extreme of pub- lie indignity.
 We propose to recall the situation as It was. The town of Demopolis had a garrison The Freedmans Bureau headauarters for a large plantation area was there. Really, there was no harm in the negroes. The bureau was crea ted two years ago by politicians in Congress under absurd ideas Many negroes from the plantations in idle vet very natural curiosity, would de sert fields in the busy time to go tc see for themselves what thu office. as they called the bureau, looked like They could not read the newspapers and in their isolation at home they were in anxious state of mind to find out what the new things meant tc them