The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-07-25
TEN YEARS OF ALABAMA
1865-1875
No. administration of Governor Parsons
1865--1875

the federal government be preserved from
the passion of the victor In the war.
An effort to suppress Instruction" had
ripened into a full blown political reyolu-
ton.
There would. have been no provisional
governor in Alabama, but Watts would
have served to the end of his term had
Lincoln lived. johnson would have full
filled Lincoln,s plan had he not been
prevented by the intensified spirit of rev.
olution in the United States.
The state officers who were retained
by Governor Parsons were Albert Gilmore,
secretary of state, NJ. A. Chisolm, auditor
or comptroller as then known; l.. p.
Saxon, treasurer. G. w. Parsons, his son.
was private secretary, assisted by S. IL.
Dixon.
There was no money in the treasury,
but John w. Whiting negotiated loan
of S35,2S5 Marcus II. Cruikshank was
commissioner for distribution of the sup
plies to the needy.
| The provisional governor was ingenious
enough to know that his place and power
would become irnpracticable In brief time.
| Garrisons of troops, some white, others
black, all Idle. vulgar and active in giving
| offense to citizens, were here. Local
| disturbances were fomented by the troops.
| So brave man as General Clanton wrote
| TO the governor on October 20, 1860, of his
| positive knowledge" that negroes in Lee
| county were drilling in the woods at
night preparing to extermnate the
| whites. In many counties disorder pre-
vailed. The enemy had possessed all the
counties In the valley OF the Tennessee
| for years. All had been ravished and
most infamous outrages inflicted on
venerable men of the highest standing.
| Gen. w. t. Sherman had led in the per-
| petratlon of similar conduct by direct or
ders TO his subordinates. This example
| of victorious enemy wrought great and
general decentralization in those counties
, even after the war
| will relate a single instance of the
| comprehensive character of this oppres-
sion The Rev. Mr. Robertson was in
charge of one of the congregations of
Episcopallans at Huntsville. The ritual of
his church was supreme law to him, and
the ritual required the Officiating clergy.
to pray for 1.-The President of these Con-
federate states with every performance
of the morning and evening services. Mr..
Robertson In this case prayed as instruct
ed by his church. The invading officer of
the post sent in peremptory order to this
clergyman to omit the petition for "the
President of the Confederate states" as
there was no such civil office. He sent
a subordinate to attend the services to
see that the order was duly observed
The officer attended and reported non-
observance; the usual prayer was said.
The season was mid-winter. The elder
ly clergyman was promptly arrested and
thrown into the county JAIL thoroughly
uncomfortable and obnoxious place, with
out a blanket. There was no form OF
trial.
In a few days the prisoner was led
out, mounted on an army horse without
overcoat and conducted 10 miles to
Whtesburg on the Tennessee His escort
found night near, and the weather freez-
ing 1t was resolved to defer transferring
him across the stream, as the order read,
until next morning. The escort, for con-
venience, shut the chicken house door on
the prisoner and locked it. kind of lat
ticed she'd and thereupon betook Them
selves to the residence and a warm bed
| nearby. Their expectation, reasonable
/ one, was the. venerable victim would
freeze to death by morning. About the
rising of the sun the escort walked out
to the chicken house. The prisoner shook
his arms up and down as the cock fiops his
WINGS crying, shrilly Cock doodle do y
The expectation having failed, they put
him in canoe and landed him on the
other side of the stream with warming
not to return to Huntsville at the cost OF
his life. This hardly reaches the import
ance of a sample indignity.
| JOHN WITHERSPOON DUBOSE.