The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-31

t-----4 evidences Of energy In ruils oi IE 8i cities and kingdoms of the an- cient east. in the temples and palaces Of the Incas and the Montezumas. excite an intense but hopeless desire for intimate knowledge of the builders there; how they thought and what utterance they made: how they lived in their homes and what their relation to their government
 First Reared Generation of Ala
 bamians
 Enquiry for men by whose energies, fidelity and sacrifices the experimental principle of American Liberty has been tried, leads with historic certainty to the van where stood the first reared genera ton of Alabamians. in part natives to the broad cotton plantations. to the hill farms, to the postoffice villages to the wild woods the others arrived in their cradles with the trailing caravans There hath not been ever the like, neither shall be ever more after it in the years of many generations" Compact and re- souroeful, to it came "a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation"
 We take up here character from the front line of this first -eared generation of Alabamians. Tn lieu of the space of this page there should be book. with it's hundred of thousand words The state in renown, is proud of her past. hopeful in her riches. The line of her first reared generation moved unbroken into the trag- edies prepared by destiny. even thus
 ITO learn that tempted Fate will leave
 the loftiest star.
 On the first line of these Alabamians stood Thomas Goode Jones' The line moved unbroken from 1861 to 1901. Storm sweled above its head into raging temp est, and yet the calm came, the endur- ance ruled into victory, most glorious.
 No question ever arose among his fel- lows whether any was braver than this Alabamian; whether another comrade was less self-seeking, more self-sacrificing than he, wiser or a truer lover of his kind It was said of h.m that he was self-conscious to the point of vanity of mind Be it so. man pure beyond sus- picion, fearless beyond estimate, reaching out from the foundations of his life for touch with his fellows beckonng them where he is and what he is. is a real pull sating human life. That is all.
 Military Preparations
 A train of connecting acts and joint resolutions of the legislature of Alabama enacted in January and February. 1860. was predicated upon the point resolution passed the year before December B. 1S5q as follows, to-wit:
 TO provide for the protection of it's
 citzens in the enjoyment of those
 ttra ial,
 intended 10 secure and to be prepared
 TOT the assertion of it's just rights and
 the maintenance of it's institutions in
 any and every emergency''
 one actsof the series provided for inc immaculate raising of corps of 5000 men 10 De equipped by thes state with tba most modern arms for field service. The men were to be apportIoned among tbe counties, in fixed rate Mobile 75O Mont somery 300. Jefferson 9s Winston 42. etc each county according to an eouitah,a rate of contribution or draft.
 Another act added the military se.+,,r. 10 the State University, the avoweo ,,.r- pose of which was to educate offioous e. tue State Troops Another cb.,taraa t,,a Southern Military Academy at Ua tumpka. Military schools were ch.r
 eai countles and it was en-
 os speclal statute that two cadets rom each county might attend any of lhese chartered schools free of tuition iees provided each upon matrfculation would sign an obligation to drill inc militia of such county for the same tima qullns which he may have been a State cadet" "'e ny special act, the legislature loaned 10 faul W. Dodson, principal and nro. prietor of the Tuskegee Collegiate Irsti- 'ute' given quantity Of arms to en- courage the military feature of that school similar loan was made to Q ia'"ous school at Glenville, Barbour E county Tor like purpose. Arms were iurther ordered to be issued to I,aGra nea military Academy in Franklin County A ~ise humper Of volunteer military com Panies or all arms of service were in corporated by special acts.
 inese correlated warlike preparations were Justified to the whole people bv . Jolnt resolution. approved Februarv 9s iooo' ordering the Governor A. B. Moore u call an election of delegates to o convention of the State, to consider de- termine and do whatever, in the opinion oi saio convention. the rights, interests ana honor of the State of Alabama rs quires to be done for their otaJti,,, :, ohuer these circumstances and condi tions or law and the public will the Secesson convention assembled and or dained the independence of Alabama.
 Alabama, then 40 years a State. popu- lated by 100000 producers and consnm- CTS half of the whole of the highest race among men, half the lowest. one race possessed of the right of normal su- prelnacy over the other; the other con. tent Tn bondage. that was not slavery. II IS Of this phenomenal community that We take birds-eye view, the better to describe those sons of Alabama and an preciate their matchless energy. who stood on the front line to pilot her high resolve.
 Strength of the State
 The census for 1860 shows that the net returns of the annual cotton crop yielded about s35 per capita of population, young and old, embracing both bond and free. Few paid land rent; house rent was al- most unknown. Few drew wage there was no wage class; yet, no labor ing class in the whole range of known industries labored so to its own ad- vancement or received the benefit of its toll in proportion, as between servant and master, as the negro field workers of the cotton plantations The benefit of this drawn out relation consisted in the idiosyncracy of the States laws. that required the master, under penalty, to house, feed. clothe and provide medical attendance upon all the workers the un- prepared young and the exhausted aged alike. 1t was law forerunner of the