The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-22

| great government are finally cured of
their disloyalty Immediately after the
adjournment of Congress they will in
augurate the coup d'etat." Messrs.
Bruce and Coon put it down in plain
words and the negro members of both
houses, to man, signed the averment,
as of their own knowledge that mis-
sionaries from Alabama and especially
from Louisiana have been sent north
and west TO prepare the northern mind
If the President shall not have the
power to put this lawess military or
ganization down, which is menace to
civil government wherever it exists"
Coon signed first and Bruce next.
The petition reviewed certain sta
tutes enacted by the democratic ma
Jority in the present legislature with
great detail and emphasis for the in
formation of President Grant Fore
most among these was the ousting of
| three negro representatives from Bar
bour county. who had been elected by
large majority. They were expelled
from their seats without even the for
mality of contest and their defeated
white competitors received them. A
contest would have shown that the
| Spring Hill election riot was set on foot
| to destroy the ballot boxes at that poll
| that We're overwhelmingly republican
and to stop Judge Keils, scalawag,
who had gone there to protect them.
All the late election Keils was succeeded
as judge of the city court of Eufaula
| hy another republican. being himself
afraid to accept another term, lest he
be slain. Seeing this, the legislature
was about to institute proceedings of
Impeachment against the Judge elected,
which he escaped by resignat tion. The
way was thus laid open, as was in
tended, for a democratic Judge, the ap-
pointee of Governor Houston.
The office of commissioner of indus
| trial resources was a state office Great
ed by the constitution itself. The in
| cumbent came in. with the Lewis ad-
ministration, in 1872, for the constitn-
tional term of four years. His salary
had been $500 per annum. The pres
! cnt legislature reduced the amount to
$500, with intent to force the retire
ment of the incumbent.
The democratic majority in the legis-
lature having ousted the republican
representatives from Barbour, forced
the resignation of the republican judge
of the city court of Eufaula, abolished
the criminal court of Dallas county, to
get rid of the negro judge presiding,
without any petition. put the radical
tax collector of Montgomery county on
a 100000 official bond, abolished the
elective board of commissioners in var
IL us radical counties for revenue boards
appointed by the democratic governor,
proceeded further to make the state
office of commissioner of industrial re-
sources untenable by reducing the sal
airy from S250O per annum to- $500, al
the same time requiring the commits
sioner to reside in Montgomery, far
from his home. The commissioner was
d republican, who came into office for
four years in 1872.
Not content with these nuf,erated ex-
amples of public office purging, the Leg
| islature, finding democratic chancellors
| elected in 1874, invested them with au-
| thority to remove registers In the courts
| because one register in chancery was also
| a United States commissioner and had
appointed radicals to be supervisors of
election in a number of the southern
counties.
| billiard was elected chancellor by a
large majority in 1874. A scalawag. he
had moved to Marengo county. Four law
yers in Demopois sent up a petition to
remove Marengo from billiards. division
after he had received 1000 majority in that
| county. This was to force the chancellor
| to resign or to change his residence
/, Among other statutes calculated to em-
barrass the carpetbagger fraternity in
search of the Offices was one regulating
the character of official bonds The face
of the bonds was greatly increased, while
the securities must be residents of the
counties where the officer served This
was the unkindest cut of all to the car
petbaggers.
/ The. petition complained bitterly of GER
tain reforms made by the legislature in
the criminal code The felony class was
enlarged to take in theft of cattle, hogs
and other farm property. Twenty years
| in the penitentiary was the maximum
penalty for breaking into cabbage or
potato patch A kindred act known as
"the sunrise and sunset law forbidding
the sale OF cotton and corn between sun
set and sunrise, was denounced as aimed
at poor negroes who could not leave
their tasks In day time
Two other acts bearing upon political Of
flee were denounced as most atrocious.
One of them divided the state into eight
Congress districts, so as to give the DEM
ocrats the advantage In seven. One dis
trict, including the negro counties of Dal-
las, Wilcox. Hale and others contiguous
was abandoned, as was supposed. to the
radicals. The other "atrQcity'' was in. the
nature of joint resolution, appointing
joint committee to inquire into the
methods by which George e. Spencer OF
New York was reelected senator in 1872,
to sit in the recess and collocate testi-
mony. In our next number we shall ex-
anime that testimony.