The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-09
EIGHT GOVERNORS OF ALABAMA
1874-19O1
No. administration of Governor Houston
General Morgan VS. Senator Spencer
1874--1901

| The continued presence of Col. George
r. Spencer of New York most active and
most obnoxious of carpetbaggers in the
office OF federal senator, even after re-
covery of control of the state govern
ment by the election of 1874, became the
ranking thorn in the side of the body
polite. 1t was the uncomfortable infrmity
| left after the military constitution of
| 1868 had been cast out and after the debt
commission had purged the credit Of the
state of the disgraceful mockery of GER
tain liabilities.
| General Grant. in the presidency, be-
came notoriously intimate with certain
class of men, examples of which were
| in General Mcdonald whom he ap
pointed TO high office in the internal
revenue system and whom he saw put in
| the penitentiary, as defaulter in the Of
| fee, to a very large amount, converted
| by him into republican party campaign
uses, when the President was the candi-
date most interested; and in Colonel
| Spencer who, in the same campaign, 1872,
entered into a conspiracy with federal Of
| ficers in positions of trust in Alabama to
didacy from office as an adherent of
General Grants political fortunes.
| So the Houston legislature with its
first session appointed a joint commit
tee to begin at once and continue if nee
essary in the summer recess an investi-
cation of the legality of the election of
Spencer by the court room legislature
two years before. The case was recog-
nized as of prime Importance not only
| in the effort to relieve the state and the
whole country of the stigma of Spencer's
presence in the Senate, but for the op-
portunity it offered to put before the
world the evidence of the moral degra-
dation to which the republican party had
fallen in the pursuit of its ends. The
legislature therefore gave authority to
the committee to employ counsel. Gen.
John T. Morgan, then at the zenith of his
professional life, was selected The COM
mittee was composed of two senators,
Messrs. w. G. Little, Jr., of Sumter and
w. H. Parks of Pike, and three repre-
sentatives, Messrs. Thomas H. Price and
Leroy Brewer, both of Mobile, and Gen.
Datus h. Coon, carpetbagger, from
Dallas.
The history of Spencer's election In 1872
to succeed himself in the office of SEN
ator from Alabama and the attempt OF
the state in most solemn procedure to
turn him out, carries with it the essen
tial facts of reconstruction" as no other
incident of that period of the conquest
resulting from the fall of the Confed-
eracy does carry.
To the energy, courage and talent of
the states counsel, General Morgan, the
revelations before the committee were in
the main due. Alone he conducted ex-
aminations and the witnesses he selected
were taken almost entirely from the list
of federal officeholders in Alabama, the
beneficiaries of the senator's patronage,
and from prominent lay members of the
republican party in Alabama.
We have seen somewhat of the extra
ordinary labors of General Morgan, at
great self sacrifice, in the state redemp-
ton campaign of 1874. His representation
of the state before the legislative COM
mittee of investigation and his subsequent
conducting of the cause of the state be-
fore the Senate committee which con-
sidered the memorial sent to the Senate
protesting against the right of Spencer to
his seat, is another example of the i'm
mortal record his career has bequeathed
to rosterity of leadership in statecraft.
General Morgan proved that Spencer s
claim 40 reelection by the court room
legislature of 1872 was untenable, not
because the retiring democratic gevorper.
Lindsay, had refused to recognize the
body, but did recognize the capitol leg
islature in all respects, not because the
newly elected scalawag governor had ac-
cepted the validity of the capitol Iegisla-
ture by taking the oath of office by al-
thority of the count of the vote made by
that legislature, without which acknowl-
edgement he was not qualified at all for
disqualification in the want of a quorum
at any time in the court room senate to
do business.
The senate of Alabama consisted
of 33 senator's When the court room
Legislature assembled in the forenoon
of the first day the senate branch of
that body contained only 5. At the
afternoon session three additional names
answered to the roll call of that branch.
These We're w. r. Chisolm. carpet bag
ger. from the first district, composed
of Lauderdale and neighboring coun-
ties; X. II. Baker, carpet bagger from
the third district, composed of Morgan
and neighboring counties. and William
Miller. Jr., recently arrived Scot from
the Butter and Conecuh district. These
three made the quorum necessary to
elect Spencer.
Neither Chisolm. Baker nor Miller had
a certificate of election. Chsolm had
been candidate for the office al tba