The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-03

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 servative party. Il. NJ. Long was tho
 nominee of tho republican party and
 he Is allowed by the record ts.soo votes Thus In n total of 1e2.so2 votes
 Jones received s7.622 majority. Governor Jones and Capt. IL. r. Kolb appeared again, in the campaign of 1892. as rivals for the nomination for governor by the biennial state conven-
 ton of the democratic and conservative party, due to assemble June g. The re-
 publican party managers worked upon
 They forbade the diversion of can- didate from their side. It was an open
 secret they would be content with the defeat of Jones.
 | This campaign between the two can didates inherited the bitter disappoint-
 ment of Kolb and his devoted band in the final action of the convention of | 1Ss0 Kolb from the outset forced that disappointment as the issue involved. The candidates took the stump late in 1891. Through the winter and spring Of l1ss2 they met in joint debate, from precinct to precinct, in several coun- ---' forced by Kolb compelled the governor to the defensive He must explain how he, going into the convention of 1890 with 45 votes against the 235 for kolb, did on the fourth day of ba1loting carry the nomination by a majority of a little more than 30 votes in a body of more than 520 select delegates.
 The campaign of these rivals not only inherited the rancor of Kolb's disap- pointment, two years before, but the audacity of Jones' success Kolb and Jones were equally courageous men, the former six years the older kolb relaxed nothing in his dogmatic charge that he had been triaked out of the of flee Jones held. while the governor treated the complaint with contempt land offered his record of first term to prove the present duty of his party to adhere to party precedent. while II vindicated itself, in bestowing a sec Ond term on him.
 The state party convention nominated Jones for re-eleetion:. the new party the Jeffersonians, nominated Kolh. The returns made to the secretary of state from the election of August, 1892, gave Governor Jones 126,959 votes to 116,524 l for Kolb that is Jones defeated kolb by more than 11,00O.
 l The Jeffersonian party denied with great yehemence their defeat and as- sailed continuously, with utmost acri- mony, the correctness of the count of
 the votes that gave the election to Governor Jones'
 The decision of so grave dispute, involving the whole electorate, almost evenly divided to it. belonged under 1 the scheme of the state constitution, to | the legislature. But the legislature had failed to enact the statues necessary to put into effect contest for governor | In the absence of a possible contest before the legislature. Governor Jones accepted his election as he was fin right permitter, and in duty bound. We have followed in this series. step by step, the process by which the con queror reached his ultimate and, in parallels. the processes by which the people of the state struggled, nightly. to offset his nefarious scheme and re- cover their own.
 The method, challenged though it be, which placed Thomas c. Jones in tho office of chief executive in 1890, was a direct benefit to the state: the dis puted election of S92 which continued Governor Jones in office. was the logi- cal conclusion of a disturbance that
 partook of the character of aftermath of revolution.
 elected under the law or not, the in- cubus of foreign conquest yet rested on
 
 the land. only by srfferance in the sword of the conqueror did the pr1Vi- llege of the ballot remain in Alabama.
 The faction of white men behind Gov ernor Jones was naturally the don't nant faction Its power could not in
 the nature of things be subordinate. That was the situation which was im- perative and to which the whole people
 finally yielded.
 In the glimpse of Alabama history here offered. no effort is made to prove who received the greatest number of votes, Governor Jones or Captain Kolb, at the August election of 1892 Rela- lively that question Is immaterial.
 Our higher aim Is to show that tho military conquest of the state, In 1885, was for political purposes on the part of the conqueror: that the main pur- pose attained to was the corruption of the electorate; that, In 1892, the elec- torate had become corrupted that an election for governor was not pos sible without charges and counter charges of fraud.
 In other places than this column de- tails of the election of 1892 may be profitably recited Suffice 1t here to be said that from 1887 to 1901 the neccs- sary end of an election was to pro-
 tect the state, the county, the town from moral, financial and political dis Fl right and duty for usurping codes
 We have come to the constitution of 1901, reached by action of the virtue and intelligence of the masses. directed in their processes by Clanton. Morgan, Houston. Screws and their associates. Within the SS years of dire foreign op pression. vulgar insult consuming tax ation, the state nevertheless grew strong, and secured finally her redemp-
 ton because the factions of 1892 be- came as the passing wind.
 There remains a lesson in the vote for governor. cast in 1892. The negro is here to stay. There is wader mar gin of race distinction between the CO., occupant races in 1914 than tbere was in 1860. No negroes in 1860 lived in houses of comparable architecture to
 thousands of houses now occupied by Individuals of the race. On the other hand nowhere in the world was there a banking house comparable to that now reared on Second avenue and Twenty first street, spot. in 1880. bare. A large proportion of negroes now read and write, where practically all
 were in the earlier time ignorant of letters On the other hand; the whites have developed electricity to be ap- piled to the acean cable. to the ma chinery of the mill, to the wireless telegraph, to the telephone. have learned the horse with the motor. The mar gin between the co-occupant races Is ever widening and in that fact friction between them ceases 1.lere Is no race rivalry.
 But the time Is far remote when the past experience of the state with negro suffrage must cease to be worthy or