The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-07

tion.
The white voters. having lost fear Of
| the carpetbagger and scalawag control
| of the negro vote, stood face to face
with the peril remaining in that vote as
it might attach itself in any controversy
between white factions.
No direct movement to suppress the
negro vote appeared. but there was on
| all sides a sub-conscsousness that the
! abnormal element could not be absorbed
by the increasing strength and virtue of
the body polite.
Should Governor O'Neal be given sec
ond term? Why not?
| The number of governors from the be-
| ginning was %. All of these had been
| elected at the polls except Parsons, APP
pointed by President johnson, and Smith
legislated into the office by revolu-
| tionary fragment of Congress The term
of each governor except Parsons, who
served from June. 1865, to the end of
that year and Patton, who was legislated
out by the same Congress, after serving
about three-fourths of one term, had been
two years. Twenty-three of the % were
democrats.
1
had been a second term to the incum-
bent. Only unavoidable conditions had in
| terrupted the observance Of that rule.
Instances of interruption, however, had
been numerous. The first governor, in
order. William Wyatt Bibb, died before
completing the term. Governor Gabriel
Moore, while yet in first term, was
| chosen senator in Congress. Governor
| Clement Conner Clay, yet in his first
| term, was chosen to the Senate. Cover
| nor Joshua. L. Martin was elected as an
| independent democrat on the specific,
non-partisan issue OF winding up the dis
astrous state banking habit A partial
state party convention, that is to say, a
party convention comprised of frac-
ton of the counties, assembled at Tusca-
loosa and nominated Terry as the dem
ocratic candidate Terry was heavily in
debt to the state bank. Martin chancellor
on the bench, had been more than once
elected to Congress and all his life had
! been an ardent democrat 1t WAS after
the fiasco at Tuscaloosa that he declared
his candidacy.
The depocratic legislature adopted
Governor Martins anti bank policy and
put it happily into effect but wlen the
state democratic convention assembled,
toward the close of that governors
first and only term, he was ignored.
True. he made no claim upon the sue
cession. He had saved the state from
ignoble bankruptcy and there rested
on his oars.
This same party convention, 1s47.
fad
ular man in the state. Reuben Chap
man. of Huntsville for governor. He
was elected.
When the regular biennial demo-
cratic state convention assembled in
1S49 at Montgomery, it was found that
a considerable number of the dele
gates due from the northern counties
although known to be en- route, had not
arrived to take seats. These were Chap
man men.
In Governor Chapmans first and onl5
term he filled a vacancy in the Sem
ate, caused by the resignation OF SEN
ator Bagby, to fill the post OF minister
to Russia, by the appointment of Will
liam r. King, who had lately returned
from the French missions. Soon after
that event the governor appointed Ben
ceed Senator Dixon II. Lewis. deceased.
King was from Dallas, while Fitzpat-
rick was from the adjacent slave eoun-
ty Autauga The governors bestowal
of two of the most coveted offices upon
two south Alabama cotton planters ran
heavily against the grain in the hill
country among small farmers. who by
many successive elections had sent him
to Congress.
Mr.. Yancey was both a devoted per-
sonal friend and an ardent political al
ly of the governor. He plead on the
, floor earnestly for his denomination.
Mr. Columbus Lea of Perry bitterly op-
posed the denomination Yancey asked
Lea If he had not himself aspired to
senatorial appointment from this gov
ernor that failed him. The choice OF
the convention fell on Chief Justice
Collier
The next single term appeared in
the example of Governor Shorter, 1863.
The support of the war absorbed the
bulk or the voting population in the
army. Those who were left at home
had no heart to engage In political
strife. Governors Shorter had tiiled the
office with ability and energy. Friends
of the Confederate attorney general,
Thomas Fl. Watts. worked up CAM
paign for him. Watts did not come upon
| the ground. He preferred not 10 lave the
office. But he was elected over Gov
ernor Shorter, thus limiting that gov
ernor to one term. There had been no
convention and no party organization
| to affect the election.
| Opposition developed to the renomina-
| ton of Governor ONeal. > 1t was led by
| Colonel McKleroy OF Barbour, a strong
young man. The Daily Selma Times was
| the leading newspaper organ of the op-
position.
The complaint was. that the governor
was too much or q soldier. In his first
year he had sent Col. Thomas G. Jones
with a company of soldiers from Mont
| gomery to do whatever might be found
| for the soldiers at Opelika. However the
sheriff and the mayor had made urgent
call for the troops The troops found
little to do. In the same year he had
sent Colonel Jones with 700 state troops
| to quell the "Posey riot" at Birmingham.
| The troops were pressly called for by the
sheriff and by the circuit judge, Sprott.
The mob that confronted them upon ar
rival was restrained only by the prompt
and prudent action of the colonel COM
harding.
| In the second year of his term the gov
ernor had made an official visit of In
spection to the state schools for deaf
and dumb at Talladega. The well dis
ctplined, armed and uniformed company
of state troops resident at that town, un-
der Captain .Plowman, who like the gov
ernor. was Confederate veteran. met
him at the station to escort him to his
lodgings The governor did not expect
| the troops, but thanked them publicly for
! the commitment of their parade.