The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-11-22
TEN YEARS OF ALABAMA
No. 79-The Attorney Generals Plan
1865--1374

NO. lJ- lit AGUO.
 The commission sent to Washington by the court room body. consisting Of for- mer Governor Smith, former carpetoag congressman. Norris, and the state auditor just elected and qualified, R. M. Reynolds earpetbagger, represented in their pres enee the alienation ofzthe appointive pow CT from the people of the state
 To meet the misrepresentations of such a sponsor the capitol legislature placed it's cause in the hands of Senator Peter Hamilton of Mobile and his associates
 The commissioners on both sides were heard by President Grant. The President having limited Knowledge of political eth- ics and politicians, was glad to relegate the matter in controversy to Attorney General George Henry Williams The At torney General was a man in the prime of life, 50 years of age. He was born in an interior village of New York, had been a circuit judge in Illinois, chief justice in Oregon and six years senator from the same state He was a member of the commission appointed to settle lhe claims of the United States against Eng land, arising from the service on the seas of Admiral Semmes and the Confederate cruiser Alabama. He had been classed a liberal He belonged indeed to a class of men whose political opinions re- hected the fact of conquest of the south by the north men who considered ap parent necessities of government for the time being as of paramount importance over the limitations of the constitution. In this respect he 1so attracted the confi- dence of the President that seat on the federal supreme court was offered to him but declined.
 The Attorney General submitted to the governor plan" for creating one leg islature out of two. The process pre- soribed had no relation whatever tos the modus of the constitution of the state No authority for the Attorney General s interpretation in the premises anywhere existed in law or precedent.
 The plan of the Attorney General com prehended the following method of ex- eo ution: D All officers of each lower branch of the legislatures should resign and all members who held certificates of election in both should assemble in the vacant hall of the house of representa- tiyes at the same hour The clerk of each should call it's roll. A temporary organ ization should be made to be followed by an election of permanent officers. The three representatives from Barbour coun- ty that had sat in the court room, holding certificates from the recently elected sec "a ID seats under the temporary organization, but the three from that county that had been seated in the capitol legislature, win certificates from Parker, secretary or state. Messrs. S. H. Dent, Jere Williams and Michael Cody, should be excluded. The poll lists of Marengo county must be at once obtained from the county board of supervisors and the vote cast by that county on November 5, at the general cleo tion, must be counted in the presence of the organized house by two tellers to be appointed by the temporary speaker, one democrat and the other a repub- lcan. Meantime, no claimant on either side from Marengo should vote ana the house should transact no business until the vote of Marengo for representatives should be counted and the result declared.
 In the senate the lieutenant governor. Me Kinstry. should continue to preside, but the senate chamber should be vacant at 12 noon the same day and hour for the proceedings in the house. At the hour and day named the doors of the senate should be opened and all senators holding cer- of election should be adm.tted except that J. ". Mabry, democrat hold ing the certificate of Parker. should be excluded, while Jacob Black, republican. holding the certificate of Ragland. should be admitted
 As to the Marengo contest of election be- tween James Taylor Jones. democrat, and J. W Dereen, carpetbagger the senate, like the house, must proctre the poll lists from the county board of supervisors, and upon such count the person found to have the highest number of votes for senator from said county shall be seated as such,' provided the claimant then holding the certificate should not vote until the count was completed and the re- suit declared.
 The district composed of the counties of Butler and Conecuf presented a contest for the seat of senator. The claimants were E, w. Martin,s democrat and Nal- liam Miller, Jr., a young carpetbagger This contest was te be decided by count by the senate of the poll list
 The Attorney Generals plan, in regard to the senatorial contests above enumer- ated stipulated. ''nor shall the senate do any other business before these contests are settled
 No intelligent citizen accepted the inter- position of the Attorney General of the United States as of legal authority Some of the more influential laity stood out against assent to its They would impeach Governor Lewis with high crime. in his act of recognition of the court room peo- ple.s The general appreciation, however. of the press and of the public was to hasten slowly toward an inevitable re- demption. The robberies of fhe revenues of the government by Senator Spencer must soon or late operate to condemn the perpetrators and relieve the state. The abject condition of the finances of the state could not be lifted by the party in power. Commercial interests in the north, founded on Alabama tonnage in