Makers and Romance of Alabama History
Embracing Sketches of the Men Who Have Been Largely Instrumental in
Shaping the Policies and in Molding the Conditions in the Rapid Growth of
Alabama--Together With the Thrilling and Romantic Scenes With Which Our
History is Resplendent
BY B. F. RILEY, D.D., LL.D.
_Author of the History of Conecuh County; Alabama, As It Is; History of
the Baptists of Alabama; History of the Baptists of the Southern States
East of the Mississippi; History of the Baptists of Texas, and The White
Man's Burden; Ex-President of Howard College, and sometime Professor of
English Literature and Oratory in the University of Georgia._
"History is neither more nor less than biography on a large
scale."--LAMARTINE.
"All history is but a romance, unless it is studied as an
example."--CROLY.
"Biography is the only true history."--CARLYLE.
DEDICATED
TO THE WOMEN OF ALABAMA--
The Mothers, Wives, Daughters, and Sisters, without the fidelity,
kindness, and devotion of whom this proud commonwealth could not have
attained its present magnificent proportions, and on whose future loyalty
must largely depend the perpetuation of the grandeur of Alabama; who
though not conspicuous in the glare and tumult of the struggles which have
eventuated in the erection of Alabama into a giant state, have yet made
possible the successes of others by the quiet and wholesome force of our
home life; to these, our worthy women of the past and present, this volume
is most cordially dedicated by
THE AUTHOR.
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
The present volume is intended to be a substantial contribution to the
history of Alabama, by giving expansion to the recorded lives of its
foremost citizens--men who alike on the field and in the forum, on the
bench and in the sphere of commerce, in the lecture room and in the
pulpit, on the farm and in the court, in the field of development as well
as in the ordinary walks of life, have shared conspicuously in the
erection of one of the proudest of the American commonwealths.
The distinction achieved by these eminent citizens in various orbits are
worthy of perpetual record, and their respective deeds and accomplishments
deserve more than a bare reference in the current chronicles of the state.
Along the successive eras through which Alabama has passed, first as a
territory, then as a state, for a period exceeding a hundred years, each
of these worthies made a contribution to the construction of a mighty
commonwealth, and sheer justice requires that the specific task so
worthily wrought by each should be a matter of permanent record. The
effort is here made not to follow the beaten path of chronological
biography, so much, as to seize on the salient points in the life of each
eminent leader, show who and what he was, and that which he did. By means
of a method like this, these distinguished men become reflectors of the
period in which each lived and wrought.
In addition, is a series of romantic sketches which lie outside the
channel of ordinary history, and yet they serve the function of imparting
to its pages a zest and flavor that relieve it largely of commonplace.
These scenes derived from the transactions of nearly four hundred years,
have been carefully gleaned from every possible source, and are here
embodied for the first time in convenient form.
The conditions which have attended on the evolution of a great state from
the rawest of savage wildernesses, have yielded a store of material
intensely romantic. The original tribes with their rude settlements and
forts dotting the uncleared surface of Alabama over, skimming the waters
of the streams and bordering bays in their tiny canoes, and threading the
forests along narrow paths; the invasions of the Spanish and the French,
and their transactions and conflicts as they would encounter aboriginal
resistance, and the later and lasting occupation of the territory by the
Anglo-Saxon, who came with dominant determination to possess the land and
to transform it through the agencies of a conquering civilization into an
exalted government--these have yielded a harvest of romance exceptional in
its rareness and fascinating in its nature. While the record of scenes
like these afford diversion, at the same time, they serve as no inferior
contribution to our history. Like the lives of prominent makers of
history, these rare scenes are indexes of the times in which they took
place.
It is proper to say that the material embodied in this volume appeared
first on the pages of The Age-Herald, of Birmingham, Alabama, with no
original design of the expansion which they gradually assumed, and with
no purpose, in the outset, of embodying them in permanent form. As first
appearing, the individual subjects were treated under the general head of
Men Who Have Made Alabama, while the other sketches appeared under the
subject of Romance of Alabama History. The only change which they have
undergone has been in the way of the correction of certain minor errors to
which the attention of the author was kindly called, and for which he now
acknowledges his gratefulness.
The publication of this volume is due to numerous requests which have come
from both within and without the state, attended by a generous suggestion
of the historic value of the matter herein embodied. It is in compliance
with these requests that the volume is published.
INDEX
ABERNETHY, M. W. 289
BAKER, ALPHEUS 261
BAGBY, A. P. 18
BALDWIN, A. G. 62
BATTLE, C. A. 243
BESTOR, D. P. 105
BIBB, W. W. 1
BOWDON, F. W. 110
BOWIE, ALEXANDER 124
BREWER, WILLIS 361
BRYCE, PETER 181
CHILTON, W. P. 81
CLAY, CLEMENT COMER 14
CLAY, CLEMENT CLAIBORNE 48
CLAYTON, H. D. 275
CLEMENS, JEREMIAH 209
COBBS, N. H. 190
COLLIER, H. W. 58
CURRY, J. L. M. 219
DALE, SAM 5
DARGAN, E. S. 176
DEBARDELEBEN, H. F. 333
DOWDELL, J. F. 279
FITZPATRICK, BENJ. 33
FORNEY, W. H. 252
FORSYTH, JOHN 87
GOLDTHWAITE, GEORGE 92
GUILD, LAFAYETTE 284
HARALSON, JONATHAN 342
HARRISON, G. P. 265
HERBERT, H. A. 365
HILLIARD, H. W. 204
HOLCOMBE, HOSEA 53
HOOPER, J. J. 67
HOUSTON, G. S. 293
JOHNSTON, J. F. 365
KING, W. R. 23
LANGDON, C. C. 152
LEWIS, D. H. 28
MANLY, BASIL, SR. 120
MARTIN, J. L. 38
MATTHEWS, J. E. 171
MEEK, A. B. 115
MORGAN, J. T. 299
MURFEE, J. T. 317
MURPHY, W. M. 73
OATES, W. C. 338
ORMOND, J. J. 129
PELHAM, JOHN, 238
PETTUS, E. W. 256
PICKENS, ISRAEL 10
PICKETT, A. J. 133
POLLARD, C. T. 157
POWELL, J. R. 326
PRATT, DANIEL 142
PUGH, J. L. 305
RICE, F. S. 162
RODDY, P. D. 248
RODES, R. E. 224
RYAN, A. J. 321
SAMFORD, W. J. 346
SAUNDERS, J. E. 77
SCREWS, W. W. 351
SEMMES, RAPHAEL 233
SHELLEY, C. M. 270
SHORTER, J. G. 185
SMITH, E. A. 313
SMITH, ISAAC 43
STONE, G. W. 167
TOUMEY, MICHAEL 146
TRAVIS, ALEXANDER 96
TUTWILER, HENRY 137
WALKER, L. P. 194
WEST, ANSON 309
WHEELER, JOSEPH 229
WINSTON, J. A. 100
YANCEY, W. L. 199
THE FIRST WHITE INVADER 373
INGRATITUDE AND CRUELTY 379
TUSKALOOSA, CHIEF OF THE MOBILIANS 385
TROUBLE BREWING 392
BATTLE OF MAUBILA 398
AFTERMATH OF THE BATTLE 405
MURMURING AND MUTINY 410
THE CLOSING SCENE 415
ORIGINAL MOBILE 421
FORT TOMBECKBE 426
CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE CHICKASAWS 431
BATTLE OF ACKIA 436
AFTER THE BATTLE, WHAT? 441
THE RUSSIAN PRINCESS 446
EARLIEST AMERICAN SETTLERS 451
INDIAN TROUBLES 456
ALEXANDER MCGILLIVRAY 461
THE INDIAN "EMPEROR" 466
MCGILLIVRAY'S CHICANERY 471
A NOVEL DEPUTATION 476
THE TENSION RELIEVED 481
THE CURTAIN FALLS 486
LORENZO DOW 490
WEATHERFORD, THE "RED EAGLE" 495
ENFORCED ACQUIESCENCE 499
FORT MIMS MASSACRE 503
INDIAN GRATITUDE 508
THE CANOE FIGHT 512
A LEAP FOR LIFE 517
WEATHERFORD'S OVERTHROW 522
WEATHERFORD SURRENDERS 527
WEATHERFORD'S LAST DAYS 531
AARON BURR IN ALABAMA 535
BURR'S ARREST 540
A DREAM OF EMPIRE 545
THE TRIP AND SETTLEMENT 550
LIFE IN THE FRENCH COLONY 554
PRIMITIVE HARDSHIPS 559
LAFAYETTE'S VISIT 564
LAFAYETTE'S RECEPTION 569
LAFAYETTE'S DEPARTURE 574
OLD SCHOOL DAYS 579
THE CROSS ROADS GROCERY 584
EARLY NAVIGATION 589
HARRY, THE MARTYR JANITOR 594
A MEMORABLE FREEZE 598
TWO SLAVE MISSIONARIES 602
THE CAMP MEETING 607
THE STOLEN SLAVE 611
HAL'S LAKE 615
MEN WHO HAVE MADE ALABAMA
WILLIAM WYATT BIBB
On the extreme eastern boundary of Washington County, on a bluff
overlooking the Tombigbee River from the west, is the site of old St.
Stephens, the original, or territorial, capital of Alabama. At one time it
had a population of perhaps three thousand, composed largely of immigrants
from Virginia. At the time of its selection as the seat of territorial
government it was about the only place in the territory fitted to become a
capital, though Huntsville, on the extreme north, was also a town of
considerable pretension.
As early as 1817 St. Stephens was a bustling little center of culture and
wealth. In their insulation the people were proud of their little capital.
Their touch with the outside world was by means of sluggish flat boats
which were operated to and from Mobile. The original site is now a scene
of desolation. A few ruins and relics remain to tell the story of the once
refined society existing there. Some of the foundation masonry of the
little capital building and of the tiny treasury, an occasional column of
stone or brick, beaten and battered, rows of trees still growing in
regular order as they were planted nearly a century ago and a cemetery
with its stained and blackened marble remain to indicate that this was
once a spot inhabited by a refined community.
Here, as far back as 1814, Thomas Easton, the first public printer of the
Alabama territory, issued his little paper with its scant news of flat
boat tidings from Mobile, the improvements in the little town, the
exploits of hunters of turkeys, deer, wolves and bears, with a slight
sprinkling of personalities. St. Stephens had been a town of some
pretension for years before the first territorial governor, Honorable
William Wyatt Bibb, of Georgia, came across the country from the
Chattahoochee to assume the executive functions to which he had been
appointed by President Monroe. Bibb was amply equipped for his difficult
position alike naturally and by experience.
A graduate from William and Mary College, he chose medicine as a
profession and was actively engaged in his profession when he was chosen
to represent Georgia in the legislature, where, though still quite a young
man, he won distinction. When scarcely twenty-five years old he was sent
to Congress from Georgia. Later he became one of the senators from the
state, and later still was appointed by President Monroe, the territorial
governor of Alabama. His was an arduous task. The territory was dotted
over with straggling settlements of colonists who came from Virginia, the
Carolinas and Georgia and settled here and there, but the two chief
settlements were in the opposite ends of the territory at St. Stephens and
Huntsville. Roads were yet uncut, and in passing from one settlement to
another the colonists would follow the trails of the Indians which
threaded the forests through. To weld the widely separated communities
into statehood and lay the foundation of a great commonwealth required
more than ordinary statesmanship.
The boundaries of the territory had just been defined by the National
Congress, with the provision that the territorial legislature of the new
region should be those who were members of the Mississippi legislative
council and house of representatives who resided within the confines of
the newly created Alabama territory. Of that number, it so happened that
only one member of the legislative council, or senate, fell within the new
territory. James Titus, of Madison, was the only member of the upper
house, and during the first session of the legislative assembly he sat in
a chamber alone as the senate of Alabama. He was president, clerk and the
senate--all in one. He met, considered the measures of the lower house,
adjourned and convened with ludicrous formality. In the lower house there
were about a dozen members.
The initial message of the first governor showed a ready grasp of the raw
conditions and an ability to grapple with formidable difficulties. A
wilderness had to be shaped and molded into a commonwealth by the creation
of the necessary adjuncts, all of which the young governor recommended in
his first message. The promotion of education, the establishment of
highways, the construction of bridges and ferries, the definition of the
boundaries of counties and the creation of new ones, in order to fuse the
dispersed population into oneness were among his recommendations.
Perhaps the most notable service rendered by Governor Bibb was that of
thwarting the effort of the Mississippi constitutional convention, in
which convention was organized that state, in seeking so to change the
original boundary between the Alabama and Mississippi territories as to
include into the new state of Mississippi all that part of Alabama which
lies west of the Tombigbee River, or, in other words, to make the
Tombigbee the boundary line between the two proposed states. This imposed
on the young governor an important and arduous task, but with cool
aggressiveness, coupled with influential statesmanship, he succeeded in
preventing the proposed change. Had the change been made there would have
been lost to Alabama that valuable portion now embraced in the counties of
Sumter, Choctaw, Washington and Mobile Counties. To the active agency and
energy of this original commonwealth builder is Alabama indebted for the
retention of this valuable strip of territory.
Commercial and educational systems were organized by the incorporation of
banks and schools, and the first location of the seat of government of the
new state provided for by the selection of a site at the junction of the
Cahaba and Alabama Rivers, which new town was called Cahaba. Governor Bibb
was charged with the work of laying out the plans of the town and for
providing for the erection of a capitol building. Meanwhile the seat of
government was removed to Huntsville in order to await the completion of
the capitol at Cahaba.
His term having expired as territorial governor, and Alabama having now
become a state, Governor Bibb offered for election as the first governor
of the new state, and was opposed by Marmaduke Williams, of Tuscaloosa.
Bibb was elected, but died soon after. Two counties, one in Alabama and
the other in Georgia, were named in honor of Governor William Wyatt Bibb.
SAM DALE
No more romantic character figured in the early days of Alabama history
than General Sam Dale. Cool as an ocean breeze, and fearless as a lion,
his natural qualifications fitted him for the rough encounters of a
pioneer period. Like an ancient Norseman he sought danger rather than
shunned it, and hazard furnished to him a congenial atmosphere. He was
born for the perils of the frontier, and his undaunted spirit fitted him
for reveling in the stormy scenes of early Indian warfare.
A native of Virginia, Dale was taken to Georgia in early childhood, and
there grew to early manhood. From his earliest recollections he was
familiar with the stories of the lurking savage and the perils of the
scalping knife and tomahawk. He was therefore an early graduate from the
border school of hunting and Indian warfare.
When Dale removed to Alabama in the budding period of manhood he had
already won the reputation of being the most daring and formidable scout
and Indian fighter of the time. In numerous encounters he had been a
distinguished victor. Six feet two inches high, straight as a flagstaff,
square shouldered, rawboned and muscular, with unusually long and muscular
arms, he was a physical giant and the terror of an Indian antagonist. By
his courage and intrepidity, he excited the regard even of the Indians,
who called him "Sam Thlucco," or Big Sam.
The qualities possessed by Dale may be illustrated by the revelation of
one or two of his daring feats. Appointed a scout at Fort Matthews on the
Oconee River, in Georgia, which fort was under the command of the famous
Indian fighter, Captain Jonas Fauche, Dale slid with stealthy movement
through the country, and spied out the whereabouts and plans of the
Indians. Once while at a great distance from the fort, he was bending over
a spring of water to drink, two Muscogee warriors sprang from behind a
log, and leaped on Dale with tomahawks upraised. With entire coolness of
mind he pitched one of them over his head, grasped the other with his left
hand, and with his right plunged his knife into his body. Quick as thought
the other recovered himself, and rushed with madness on Dale just in time
to meet another thrust from his blade, and both lay dead at his feet.
Bleeding from five wounds which he had received in the combat, Dale
retraced the trail of the Indians for nine miles through the woods, and
when he came to the edge of their encampment he found three brawny
warriors sprawled on the ground asleep, while in their midst there sat a
white woman, a prisoner, with her wrists tied. He deliberately killed all
three as they slept, and cut the thongs of the prisoner. Just then a
stalwart Indian sprang from behind a tree with a wild yell, and with a
glittering knife ready to bury it into Dale's body. Dale weakened by his
wounds and his exhausting march, was thrown to the ground by the Indian,
who had him in such a position that within a moment more he would have
made the fatal stab had not the woman quickly seized a tomahawk and buried
it in the brain of the Indian. The woman was quietly escorted back to the
fort and returned to her home.
Peace having been made, Dale betook himself to trading with the Indians,
exchanging calicoes, gewgaws, ammunition, and liquor, for peltry and
ponies. His profits would have been enormous had Dale not been the
spendthrift that he was. But like many another, he never knew the value of
a dollar till he was in need. His trading led him across the Chattahoochee
into the Alabama territory in 1808, at which time we find him among the
earliest immigrants to this region. He was most valuable as a guide in
directing for years bodies of immigrants from Georgia to Alabama. He was
at Tookabatchee and heard the war speech of Tecumseh which precipitated
the war in Alabama, and straightway gave the alarm of approaching
hostilities to the inhabitants. A long and brilliant series of daring
exploits marked the years of the immediate future of Dale's eventful life.
Perhaps the most noted of his feats was that of the famous "canoe fight,"
on the waters of the Alabama River. This was a thrilling encounter, and is
inseparable from the great achievements which adorn the state's history.
It is too long to be related in detail, and only the outline facts can
here be given. With two men in a canoe, Austill and Smith, and the
faithful negro, Caesar, to propel the little boat, Dale sallied forth on
the bosom of the river to encounter eleven Indian warriors in a larger
boat. As the boat which bore the Indians glided down the river, the one
containing the three whites shot out from under a bluff, and was rowed
directly toward the Indians. Two of the Indians sprang from the boat, and
swam for the shore. Caesar, the negro, who paddled the canoe of the
whites, was bringing his boat so as to bear on the other, that they would
soon be alongside, which so soon as it was effected, the negro gripped the
two and held them together while the fearful work of slaughter went on.
The result of the hand to hand engagement was that the nine Indians were
killed, and pitched into the river, while the whites escaped with wounds
only.
In the early territorial struggles General Dale was engaged partly as an
independent guerilla, and partly under the commands of Generals Jackson
and Claiborne. At the close of hostilities Dale took up his residence in
Monroe County from which he was sent as a representative to the
legislature for eight terms. In recognition of his services the
legislature granted him an appropriation amounting to the half pay of a
colonel in the regular army, and at the same time gave him the rank of
brigadier general, in which capacity he was to serve in case of war.
Later, however, the appropriation was discontinued because of a
constitutional quibble, when the legislature memorialized Congress to
grant an annuity to the old veteran, but no heed was given to the request.
In order to procure some compensation for his services, General Dale was
induced by his friends to go to Washington, and during his stay at the
national capital, he was entertained by President Jackson. Together the
two old grizzled warriors sat in the apartments of the president, and
while they smoked their cob pipes, they recounted the experiences of the
troublous times of the past.
General Dale served the state in a number of capacities additional to
those already named. He was a member of the convention which divided the
territories of Alabama and Mississippi, was on the commission to construct
a highway from Tuskaloosa to Pensacola, and assisted in transferring the
Choctaws to their new home in the Indian territory.
His last years were spent in Mississippi, where he served the state in the
legislature. He died in Mississippi in 1841. His biographer, Honorable J.
F. H. Claiborne, says that a Choctaw chief, standing over the grave of
Dale the day after his burial, exclaimed: "You sleep here, Sam Thlucco,
but your spirit is a chieftain and a brave in the hunting grounds of the
sky."
ISRAEL PICKENS
One of the great commonwealth builders of the southwest was Governor
Israel Pickens, the third governor of the state. As a state builder he
came on the scene just at a time when his constructive genius was most
needed. His two predecessors, the brothers, Governors William W. and
Thomas Bibb, had together served the state little more than two years, the
former dying while in office and the latter, as president of the senate,
succeeding him and filling his unexpired term. Both these had wrought well
under raw and chaotic conditions, but the utmost that could be done within
so short a time was that of projecting plans for the future of the infant
state. While the foundation was well begun, the superstructure still stood
unbuilt.
On Governor Israel Pickens was imposed the task of the real erection of
Alabama into a state. It was an organization which called alike for skill,
wisdom, and executive direction of the highest order. Serious problems lay
at the threshold of the young commonwealth, and these had to be met with a
sense of delicate adjustment, and yet with a firm and deliberate judgment.
The domestic policy of the state was yet to be molded, and such precedents
established as would thereafter affect the destiny of Alabama. At this
time Governor Pickens was just forty-one years old. There was a demand for
extraordinary prudence in calling into conjunction with himself, by the
governor, the sagest counsellors that the state then had. Executive
leadership at this time must encounter a critical juncture. Fortunately
for Alabama, Governor Pickens was amply qualified for the onerous task
imposed. He sprang from one of the most eminent of the early families of
the south. The name of Pickens lingers in Carolina history today with a
flavor of distinction. Himself the son of a revolutionary sire who had
rendered gallant service as a captain in the struggle for independence,
Governor Pickens bore to the state the prestige of his family when he
removed from North Carolina in 1817. His educational advantages had been
the best that could be afforded in his native state, and the adjoining
state of South Carolina, to which was added a course at Washington
College, Pennsylvania, where he completed his legal education. A
practitioner at the bar for a period in his native state, a legislative
service of a few years and a career of six years in Congress preceded
Pickens' settlement in Alabama in 1817. Locating as an attorney at St.
Stephens, he was appointed to the registership of the land office.
It is insisted, and doubtless rightly, that no executive of the state has
in thoroughness of efficiency and in comprehensiveness of grasp of a
situation ever excelled Israel Pickens.
He became governor in 1821, and was re-elected in 1823, serving till 1825
to the utmost limit of incumbency under the constitution. Within the brief
period of four years he had constructed into compactness a state from the
crude and incoherent elements within reach. The qualities which he
demonstrated were firmness, deliberation, sedulous care, wisdom and
administrative force, to all of which was added a zest of labor. Never
hasty, but always at work, promptly recognizing any lack of deficiency in
the developing structure, and with equal readiness supplying it with a
sagacious eye to permanency, the interest of Governor Pickens was
undiminished to the close of his term of office.
So distinguished were these traits of statemanship that they excited
general comment among his distinguished contemporaries who insisted that
in unsuspended fidelity, unselfish devotion, wise projection and skillful
execution he has never been surpassed, if indeed equaled. That he
succeeded to the fullest in the accomplishment of his difficult task is
the verdict of posterity. Other executives since may have possessed more
shining qualities, others still may have been more profound, while yet the
deeds of others may have been more spectacular, but all who have succeeded
Israel Pickens derived the benefit of that so ably done by him.
When he entered the gubernatorial office conditions were necessarily in an
inchoate form. Rudeness and crudeness characterized the initial conditions
on every hand. Valuable as the service of his predecessors had been, his
lot was to raise into symmetrical proportions with every part perfectly
adjusted a mighty commonwealth, ready to enter on its career worthily,
alongside the older states. Existing conditions were incident to the
emergence of a wilderness territory into the dignity of statehood. But
when Governor Pickens retired from office as the state's chief executive
the structure was complete in all its parts. In the recent work of twelve
large volumes, "The South in the Building of the Nation," issued under the
auspices of the Southern Historical Publication Society of Richmond, Va.,
Governor Pickens is alluded to as "one of the great state builders of the
southwest."
Nor did his career end with the expiration of his term of office as
governor. The year following his retirement from the gubernatorial chair
he was appointed a United States Senator by Governor Murphy. Almost
simultaneously with this appointment came the offer of the federal
judgeship of Alabama from President John Quincy Adams, but the latter
offer was declined, and Governor Pickens entered the federal senate.
But Mr. Pickens was destined to enjoy senatorial honors but a short while.
In the latter part of the same year of his appointment as a national
senator, his lungs became seriously involved, tuberculosis was speedily
developed, and he was forced to resign his exalted station and seek
another and softer climate. At that time the West Indies was the favorite
resort of those thus affected, and Mr. Pickens repaired to Cuba with the
hope of recuperation in its balmy climate. But he survived his retirement
from Washington only five months.
Senator Pickens had not reached the zenith of manhood and usefulness
before he was stricken down, for at his death he was only forty-seven
years old. His body was brought back to Alabama for interment, and he was
buried within a few miles of Greensboro. In his death Alabama lost one of
her most popular and eminent citizens, and one of her foremost statesmen.
To him belongs the chief distinction of erecting Alabama into symmetrical
statehood.
CLEMENT COMER CLAY
Governor Clay was among the pioneers of Alabama. He was a native of
Virginia, the son of a revolutionary soldier, and was educated at
Knoxville, Tenn. Law was his choice as a profession, to the practice of
which he was admitted in 1809, and in 1811 he located at Huntsville, which
continued to be his home till his death in 1866.
From the outset, he showed profound interest in the territory and in the
promotion of its affairs, and two years after making Huntsville his home
he enlisted against the Indians, and was chosen the adjutant of his
command. His name is prominent among the territorial legislators in the
two sessions held prior to the admission of Alabama into the Union.
When the constitutional convention was held, Mr. Clay was not alone a
member, but was chosen the chairman of the committee charged with
submitting the original draft of the constitution. In one especial sense
he is, therefore, the father of the state of Alabama.
It was evident to the state builders of Alabama that no one was more
profoundly concerned in its fundamental construction than Mr. Clay, and no
one among those who had chosen the territory as a future home, was abler
to serve the young state in its first totterings in seeking to get full
upon its feet. The breadth and clearness of his vision, and the
unusualness of his ability marked him as one who was in great need under
such initial conditions. The character of his strength had been shown, and
he was destined to become one of the early leaders of the new state. He
was therefore chosen as a member of the supreme court, and in recognition
of his legal ability, though younger than any other member of the new
court, his associates chose him as chief justice, and he thus became the
first to occupy that exalted station in Alabama.
The rapid increase of population and the newness of conditions in a young
state were productive of increasing business, and called for men of legal
ability. In response to this demand, Judge Clay retired from the supreme
bench after a service of four years, and resumed his private practice. It
was shortly after this that he felt impelled in response to a mistaken
demand for vindicated honor, to brook a grievance against Dr. Waddy Tate,
of Limestone County, by engaging in a duel with that gentleman. The result
was the infliction of a painful wound to each, and the affair was over.
Happily for civilization it has outgrown this method of settling disputes
among men of sense.
Continuing for a period of years in his private practice, Judge Clay was
chosen in 1827 as a representative to the legislature from Madison County.
Two years later he was elected to a seat in the National Congress where he
served with great efficiency for three terms of six years.
Offering for the governorship in 1835 against General Enoch Parsons, of
Monroe County, the election resulted in his polling almost twice as many
votes as his opponent. It was during his term of office as governor that
troubles arose by an outbreak on the part of the Creek Indians. Governor
Clay at once ordered out the state forces, and as commander-in-chief, took
the field in person, co-operating with Generals Scott and Jesup of the
army of the United States in the suppression of the disturbance. For about
three months the troubles continued, but the unremitting activity of
Governor Clay finally eventuated in the suppression of the outbreak, and
peace was restored.
While he was still governor, Mr. Clay was elected to succeed Honorable
John McKinley in the National Senate. In this new orbit he was brought
into contact with the giants of the nation, and the services rendered by
him are a part of the national history. It was through the efforts of
Senator Clay that the pre-emption laws, discriminating in favor of
settlers, were enacted. Multitudes have been the recipients of the benefit
of this beneficent legislation without knowing or even thinking of its
source. By means of this law, thousands have been able to procure homes on
the public domain without which law it would have been impossible. No man
in the National Congress was more active than he in the adjustment of the
conditions for the greatest happiness to the greatest number.
Mr. Clay retained his seat in the National Senate only four years, when he
retired because of his financial condition, to improve which he returned
to the practice of law. However, his previous service on the supreme bench
induced Governor Fitzpatrick to appoint him to a position in the court in
1843. Here he remained only a few months, a fact which it seems was
contemplated in the appointment.
An additional service rendered by Governor Clay, and it was the last
public service for the state, was that of the preparation of a new digest
of the laws of Alabama, to which work he was appointed by the legislature.
His manuscript, as he had prepared it, was accepted by the judiciary
committee, submitted in unchanged form to the legislature, and has been in
use as authority to this day. The closing days of Governor Clay were those
of gloom. The occupation of Nashville by the federals in February, 1862,
resulted in the capture of Huntsville, where numerous indignities were
offered to many of the best people of the city of the mountains. Among
those who shared in these indignities was the venerable Governor Clay.
Because of his well-known sentiments, his home was invaded by the federal
troops, claimed and regarded as national property, and Governor Clay was
himself placed under arrest. He chafed under conditions like these, and at
his advanced age he conceived that the doom of the country had come. Nor
did the conditions of the close of the hostilities lend to his prospect
any relief. Considerations like these he carried as a burden, until
sinking under the weight, he died at the advanced age of 77 years, at his
home in Huntsville on September 7, 1866.
ARTHUR P. BAGBY
While Alabama was yet in its territorial swaddling clothes, Honorable J.
L. Martin, who afterward became governor of Alabama, met a young Virginian
who had just removed to the territory, and who himself was destined to
wear gubernatorial honors. This young man was afoot across the country,
carrying his personal effects in a bundle very much as a peddler carries
his pack. This tall and handsome youth was Arthur P. Bagby.
He was a young man of striking and even prepossessing appearance, tall,
graceful, erect, with classical mold of feature and black eyes that
twinkled with an unusual luster. He was among the many enterprising young
spirits who quit the older states of the south and moved westward with
empires in their brains.
Settling at Claiborne, in Monroe County, at that time one of the looming
settlements in south Alabama, Bagby at once turned to practical advantage
the excellent educational equipment with which he had been provided in his
native state. Recognizing in the law an opportunity, not only to
accumulate wealth, but a medium to distinction, Mr. Bagby entered a law
office and began his preparation for the bar. The rapid inflow of
population to the dawning state, the occupation of lands in all
directions, and the inevitable growth of wealth would beget litigation and
afford a harvest field for the best equipped of the legal profession.
Young Bagby caught the spirit of the times and was not slow to improve
the opportunity.
Highly gifted, Bagby was like many another young man with rare natural
powers, and came to rely on his natural endowments rather than on studious
application. His charming personality and fascinating manner made him
immensely popular, and his popularity was enhanced by a vivid imagination
and prolific and poetic utterance. From the time of his first appearance
before the public to the close of a long and eventful public career, he
was a most popular orator. His fame as an orator gradually widened, and
his services were in frequent demand, not only in the courts, but on
important public occasions.
He was not long in finding his way into public life, for in 1821 he was
chosen to represent Monroe County in the legislature. His companionable
disposition and uniform courtesy won the hearts of his fellow legislators,
and when he succeeded himself in the lower house after his first term, he
was easily elected to the speakership--the youngest member in the history
of the state to occupy that position, being at the time but little beyond
twenty-five years old. For a period of fifteen years he was kept in the
legislature, sometimes in one branch and again in the other. He closed his
career as an active legislator in the house as speaker in 1836.
His active interest in affairs had by this time made him one of the best
known public men in the state while his popularity was undiminished.
Perhaps Alabama never had a more popular public servant than Arthur P.
Bagby. To the equipments already named was that of the charm of a
perennial flow of natural, bright and animated conversation. Nature had
lavished her richest gifts on this unassuming young Virginian.
In 1837 Mr. Bagby became a candidate for governor. Favorably known by the
leading men throughout the state, the election of Bagby was in the outset
conceded, though he was opposed by a very popular man, Honorable Samuel W.
Oliver, of Conecuh. The popularity of Mr. Oliver was based on his
conservatism, and he was universally esteemed a gentleman of great
fairness. They were formidable opponents, the qualities of each commanding
the highest esteem, but the popularity already attained by the younger
candidate and his persuasive and exhilarating oratory made for him friends
wherever he appeared, and he was elected.
Up to this time the inauguration of a governor was regarded as so tame an
occasion that there was but a small attendance of the population on the
ceremonies, but when Bagby was inaugurated those who had heard him during
the campaign flocked to the capital to hear him on this august occasion.
From remote quarters the citizen high and humble sought his way to
Tuscaloosa, then the capital, to hear the inauguration speech of the new
governor. In full appreciation of this fact, Mr. Bagby was on this
occasion at his best. His appearance was hailed by the acclaiming
thousands, and his inaugural address delivered in a well modulated voice
and with splendid bearing, was wildly received by an idolizing
constituency. The men of plain garb and rustic manner rushed forward to
grasp the hand of the popular young governor, and his reciprocation of a
demonstration so generous and genuine was the most unaffected. Nor was his
popularity impaired during his administration. Two years later he was
swept into office by popular acclamation and without opposition. Though
the dual administration of Governor Bagby fell on stormy times, as the
issue of nullification was then dominant, he succeeded in so directing the
affairs of the state as to increase rather than lessen public esteem.
Nothing was more logical than that he should be elected to the National
Senate to succeed Honorable Clement C. Clay on the occasion of the
resignation of the latter in 1841. But a remnant of Senator Clay's term
was left when he resigned, but Mr. Bagby was easily re-elected when the
fragment of time had expired. Before the term of six years for which he
had been elected had closed, President Polk appointed Senator Bagby envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Russian Court, at St.
Petersburg. For this position he was admirably fitted, but served in the
capacity of minister not more than a year, and for political reasons
resigned on the accession of General Taylor to the Presidency.
Returning from Russia, Mr. Bagby settled again in Alabama, retiring to
private life from which he was summoned to public service by being
associated with Judge Ormond and Honorable C. C. Clay in the codification
of the laws of Alabama. This was the last public service rendered by Mr.
Bagby.
In 1858 he died of yellow fever in Mobile at the age of sixty-two.
Naturally endowed with the highest gifts and most varied talents, he gave
to these substantial expression in the conspicuous ability which he
displayed in the exalted stations which he occupied uninterruptedly for
more than thirty-five years. Arthur Pendleton Bagby adorned with signal
ability every position to which he was called, and throughout maintained
with happy blend and even balance a most courtly dignity and a charming
companionableness which put the plainest citizen in his presence at
perfect ease. Those who knew him best found it difficult to determine
which more to admire, his superior native dignity or his unaffected
cordiality, so undefinable was the charm which invested this gifted
gentleman. No chafe or worry of stress in public strain impaired the
affableness of his intercourse with others, and while he was honored by
his fellow citizens they were amply repaid in the splendid service which
he rendered the state and the nation.
WILLIAM R. KING
A native of North Carolina, William Rufus King, removed to Alabama in
1818. Lured to a region destined soon to take its place in the galaxy of
states, Mr. King was no novice in public affairs when he reached Alabama.
Indeed, he came crowned with unusual distinction for one so young in years
when he migrated to a territory which was just budding into statehood.
Though at the time only thirty-two years old, he had served with honor to
himself and to his native state as a legislator, solicitor and
congressman. When only twenty-four years old he had been sent to Congress
from North Carolina. His entrance into Congress in 1810 was simultaneous
with the beginning of the congressional careers of Henry Clay, John C.
Calhoun and William Lowndes.
Mr. King served with distinction in Congress for six years when he was
chosen secretary to the American Legation at St. Petersburg, under William
Pinkney, who was at that time minister to the court of Russia. After
spending two years in this honorable capacity, King returned to North
Carolina and subsequently removed to Alabama.
Buying a plantation near Cahaba, in 1819, he had scarcely located when he
was chosen a representative to the first constitutional convention of the
state. Together with Honorables Henry Hitchcock of Washington County, and
John M. Taylor of Madison, Mr. King drafted the first constitution of this
state. His clearness of perception, soundness of judgment and ability in
adjustment of matters of great moment arrested the attention of the
leaders of the coming state, during the session of the first
constitutional convention, and he was marked as one of the men of the hour
in laying the foundation stones of a great commonwealth. In recognition of
his ability, Mr. King was chosen one of the first national senators from
Alabama when the first legislature met in 1819. Of this prospective
distinction he must have been unaware, for at the time of his election he
was on a visit to North Carolina.
Mr. King lived in an atmosphere above that of ordinary men. He was a man
of solid rather than of shining qualities, and his life was redolent of
purity and of exalted conception of duty. There was a delicacy of
sentiment which characterized his conduct, an affableness and quietness of
demeanor, an utter absence of display or of harshness, a serenity and
gentleness, with no unbecoming speech to soil his lips, no action to repel
even the humblest civilian. On the floor of the Federal Senate the
Honorable R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, said on the occasion of Mr. King's
death: "He was a man whose whole soul would have sickened under a sense of
personal dishonor." He was far more forward in his assertion of the claims
of others than of those for himself.
No man in the public life of America ever more won by dint of intrinsic
merit than William Rufus King. Such was his bearing on all occasions that
men instinctively honored him. To him as a public man principle was the
path of the highest expediency. He wore his honor on his sleeve, and
would not scramble on a low plane for place, and would never learn the art
of petty politics. He engaged in political contests, but they were in the
open field and in full view of the eyes of the world.
Mr. King came to be the first citizen of the state, becoming Vice
President of the United States, but it was entirely due to his worth and
not to any of the arts of the struggling politician. Utterly without
assumption he was as spectacular on one occasion as another. His was a
quiet knightliness without dash, the stamp of a nobleman of nature,
without lordly port.
So unquestioned was his ability, so unerring his judgment, so profoundly
substantial his qualities as an ideal public servant, that the people of
Alabama honored him with official station for a period of almost
thirty-five years. In 1837 Mr. King was offered the position of minister
to the court of Austria, but declined because of the fact that the ardent
advocacy by him of the election of Mr. Van Buren might be construed as a
motive looking to future emolument--the payment of a political debt. Men
of that type were not so rare at that time as they now are.
When complications with certain foreign powers became imminent in
consequence of the proposed annexation of Texas as an American state,
there was the demand for the most scrupulous diplomacy and tact and for
the ripest statesmanship on the part of those who should be sent abroad to
represent the United States at the Courts of England and of France. A
single misstep at this juncture would mean limitless trouble. One
especially qualified by social prestige as well as sage statesmanship was
needed to be sent to the Court of France. It was just such an emergency
like this that called for the exercise of powers such as Mr. King
possessed, and he was accordingly appointed to this position and served in
this capacity for a period of two years, when he resigned and returned to
Alabama. The seat left vacant by Mr. King in the federal senate had
meanwhile been filled by Dixon H. Lewis, who was a popular idol, but of a
type entirely different from that of Mr. King. Both were models of honor,
each equally worthy of public esteem; but Lewis, ponderous as he was in
size, was a popular speaker and more of the bonhommie type than was King.
At this time, these were recognized as the two most distinguished men in
the state.
On his return home King's friends wanted him to resume his place in the
United States Senate, while the friends of Lewis were equally determined
that he should remain in a position which he had adorned for full two
years. Political maneuvering between the friends of the two distinguished
statesmen began, but negotiations seemed of no avail. It was inevitable
that each must test his strength before the people. King and Lewis were
personal friends, they were from adjacent counties, and both were
democrats. So conspicuous had Mr. King become now as a national figure
that many predicted that Lewis would not dare oppose him, but he did. The
contest was joined. It was a battle of giants. King, lithe, elegant,
smooth, plain and simple of diction, but clear as the shining of the sun,
without the gifts of the orator, but a superb talker, went before the
masses. Lewis, weighing five hundred pounds, his large full face beaming
with sunshine, and though large, a most telling orator who could relate an
anecdote with marvelous effect, while he possessed unquestioned ability to
give frequent expression to passages of oratory, won his way rapidly to
the public heart. As is well known, Lewis won, but the two friends were
destined each to be gratified, for Governor Chapman was able soon to
appoint Mr. King United States Senator in the stead of Senator Bagby.
During the administration of President Fillmore Mr. King was chosen to act
as the presiding officer of the senate, and in the summer of 1852 he was
nominated for the vice presidency, elected on the national ticket with
Franklin Pierce, but died the next year at his home at Cahaba, Ala.
DIXON H. LEWIS
In a number of respects the Honorable Dixon Hall Lewis was a very
remarkable man. He was precocious, though, in his early years, not
studious. Still, he held his own in his classes in South Carolina College,
as the university of that state was then called, with decided merit.
Possessed from the beginning with a popular turn, he was a great favorite
in college circles, and was counted an all-round good fellow.