The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-02
EIGHT GOVERNORS OF ALABAMA
l874-1901
No. 4-George Scott Houston
1874-1901

> A7Hc Sitld14F Inc bDulntIn Stdtte
met nightly in January, 1s49, in the
hall of the House to deliberate among
themselves upon methods calculated 10
unite wings and democrats of those
states in a course of action looking to
their common defense against the rapid
! ly increasing revolutionary activities
among the abolitionists ultimately or
ganized as the republican party.
Let us recur at this point In our ma
rrative Of this important event 10 the
annual message of President Fillmore,
sent to Congress the next year. Re-
| ferring to recent outrage of these
revolutionists. perpetrated against the
authority of the United States, in Bos-
] ton, the President expressed to Congress
and thus to the American people tho
conyiction of his judgment that the new
party was preparing, under guise of an
anti-slavery propaganda, to upset the
entire fabric of federal government and
throw the country into chaos.
| The meetings in the hall of the House
were attended by senators and repre-
sentatives from Delaware and other
slave states. Senator Calhoun presided
and Senator Venable from North Caro-
lima was secretary. 1t was an assem-
blage of greatest dignity.
| a committee of Is was appointed to
Idraw up an address to the public
with MIR. Metcalfe as chairman.
/ Mr. Calhoun was the power behind the
movement. The Address was his di-
| gest of the political situation. 1t is the
most exhaustive and the clearest state
ment of the sectional conflict from the
| beginning to the organization of the
| Southern Confederacy ever thus far pub
| lshed. The argument Is logic on fire. =
1.-THE prophecy has never been surpassed.
A paragraph here will suffice to exeite the
| ardor of the student of the 36 years of re-
construction in Alabama The paper en-
tire may be found in Works of Cal
houn,'' Vol. VI, under the title head:
Address of the Southern Delegates in
Congress to Their Constituents:
1--WE whose names are hereunto annexed
address you, in discharge of what we Ee
lieve TO be a solemn duty, on the most
important subject ever presented for your
consideration.
"rhe British government was
disposed to act justly towards the owners
| of African slaves in the West Indies,
even in the act of emancipation and TO
protect and foster them afterwards. 1t ac-
| cordingly appropriated $100,000,000 as COM
| pensation, etc. Since the emancipa-
| tion 1T has kept up a sufficient military
| and naval force to keep the blacks in
| awe. and number of magistrates and
constables and other civil officers to keep
order in the towns and on plantations, and
But, Notwithstanding all this,
the British West India possessions are
ruined, impoverished, miserable, wretch
ed and destined probably to be abandoned
| to the black race.
"very different would the circumstances
under which emancipation would take
rlace with us. Ii it ever should be eff
fected 1t will be through the agency of
the federal government, controlled by
| the dominant power of the northern
states against the resistance and struggle
of the southern.
"It can then only be effected by the
prostration of the white race, and that
would necessarily engender the bitterest
feelings of hostility between them and
| the north.
.But the reverse would be the case be-
tween the blacks and the south and the
people of the north. Owing their eman-
cipation to the latter, the freedmen wollld
re gard them as friends, guardians and
| patrons. and centre all their sympathy in
them.
1.-THE people of the north would not fail
to reciprocate and to favor them instead
| of the whites Under the influence of such
| feeling, and jmpeiled by fanaticism and
love of power, they would not stop at
| emancipation. Another step would be
| taken to raise the freedmen to political
and social equality with their former own
ers, by giving them the right of voting
and holding federal offices. We see the
first step toward 1t In the bill already al
luded toto vest the free blacks and
slaves with the right to vote on the
question of emancipation in the District
| of Columbia.
.'But when once raised to equality, the
freedmen would become the fast political
| associates of the north, acting and yot-
| ing with them on ali questions and ~
/ I,afxr holding
the white race at the south in complete
| srbiection.
',rhe blacks and the proflisate whites
| that might unite with them would be-
come tho principal recipients of federal
| offices and patronage and would In con-
| sequence be raised above the whites or the
south in the political and social scale.
we would in a word change conditions
with them, a degradation greater than
has ever fallen to the lot of a free and
enlightened people," etc.
| The Address was signed by the south
ern senators and representatives gener-
ally The senator's, William r. King ana
Benjamin Fitzpatrick from Alapa'aa
signed it. Four Alabama representatives,
Frank w. Bowdon, S. w. Harris. John
Gayle and S. W. Inge signed. The other
two, George S, Houston and Williamson
| r. W. Cobb refused to sign.
| 1t was understood by the signers IN
February, 1S49. that a convention of
southern states would meet at Nashville
| the next year to consider q course OF
united action. In the fall of dS49, through
the influence mainly of Senator jefferson
Davis, a Mississippi state convention met
at Jackson and appointed delegates to
| Nashville That was the initial OF the
| Nashville convention of 1850.
| Mr.. Calhoun died in March, 1880. But
the principal check to the Nashville con-
vention that mot in June of that year
was the Clay compromise, then pending
| in Congress. This measure was not adopt
ed until the fall following, but the prince
movers of the Nashville convention were
senators and Representatives engaged in
the effort to pass 1t. The compromise as
passed was accepted by both sections.
Pierce of New Hampshire, Calhoun, DEM
ocrat was elected president two years
10 ter and William r. King of Alabama,
Vice President, by an overwhelming ma
jority.