its national navy. Behind the guns of Dewey, at Manila, and those of
Schley at Santiago, was the efficiency of Hilary A. Herbert. Though
advanced in age, he is still prosecuting his practice in the national
capital.
WILLIS BREWER
Prominent among Alabamians who have aided in building into greatness our
commonwealth is the Honorable Willis Brewer, of Lowndes County. Along
different channels he has wrought for many years. Planter, journalist,
lawyer, author, and statesman, Colonel Brewer has been no inconspicuous
contributor to the growth of the state. A native of Sumter County,
Alabama, with his education restricted to academic training, he has turned
to most valuable account his gifts and acquirements, and by the
self-cultivation of the one, and by means of close and studious
application of the other, he has been an active participant in the affairs
of the state for many years.
When a mere lad of sixteen he, in connection with the late Judge William
R. DeLoach, of Sumter County, began the publication of a paper at Milton,
Florida, where they were, when the war began, in 1861. Both enlisted in
the Confederate army, but the health of Mr. Brewer became broken, and he
was assigned to post duty during much of the war, but served for a period
on the staff of General Wirt Adams in the Mississippi campaign.
His fondness for journalism led him to resume the editorial pen just after
the close of the war, when he published at Camden, Alabama, the Wilcox
Times. It was at this time, when Mr. Brewer was only twenty-two years old,
that Governor Patton appointed him on his staff with the rank of colonel,
by which title he has since been known.
In 1868 Colonel Brewer removed to Hayneville, and founded the Hayneville
Examiner. The times and the environments served to evoke from the young
editor the best that was in him, and his paper became one of the most
powerful engines in the state in the exposure of the corruption of
reconstruction. The slogan resounding from the Hayneville Examiner, "the
people against the fools and thieves in power," caught, in its aptness,
the ear of the state, and became a popular legend throughout the
reconstruction era.
In 1876 to 1880 Colonel Brewer served the state as auditor. During 1880 he
was chosen for the legislature and served during the remarkable period of
eighteen years, twelve of which as senator and six as representative. At
the end of that period he was chosen for congress, where he served for
four years. Twenty-six years of public service, years of diligent
activity, entitles him to the gratitude of the people of a great state.
Valuable as his service was in every position occupied by Colonel Brewer,
his most useful service was rendered while he was state auditor. His
career in that capacity began with the administration of Governor Houston,
which was one of retrenchment and reform. The pivot on which the economic
administration of Governor Houston turned was the office of the auditor,
over which presided Colonel Brewer. Here he discovered the leakage of the
resources of the state, and it was Colonel Brewer who not only discovered
this vent but sealed it, and gave backbone to the economy of the
administration. To illustrate, Colonel Brewer found that the tax
collector of Mobile County was allowed a credit of sixty-two thousand
dollars for the lands bought by the state in 1874-75, and yet it was shown
that Mobile was sold every year, while in the County of Dallas, not
including the town lots, ninety-five thousand acres were sold in 1875.
Conditions like these had prostrated the state financially, and the eight
per cent "horse shoe" money of the state was being hawked in the market at
fifty and sixty cents on the dollar. Within two years after Colonel Brewer
became state auditor, the eight per cent bonds of the state were funded at
six per cent. He never suffered a tax collector to settle with a
subordinate, but always with himself.
Another illustration of his share in the financial rehabilitation of the
state is afforded by the fact that Colonel Brewer originated the state law
of sale of property for taxes, which law he worked through the legislature
during the session of 1878-9. He is the author of the law relative to
descent and distribution by means of which parents inherit from their
children when they die intestate, without wife or children. For seventy
years the state had made no provision for parents, and no matter how old
or infirm, they could not inherit, and the property fell to the brothers
and sisters of the intestate.
From the dry, dull details of rigid business and the exacting irksomeness
of burdensome labor, Colonel Brewer could turn with his facile pen to the
production of the rarest English and the highest expression of thought.
His passion for literature, for he is a most versatile student, has
resulted in a style peculiarly his own--crisp, terse, luminous,
condensed, cast in a classic mold. His History of Alabama, published in
1872, is an invaluable contribution to the literature of the state. As a
stylist he is rigid in exactness, while preserving a singular flavor which
is most agreeable to the learned reader. His "Children of Issachar," a
novel, deals with Ku Klux times. "The Secret of Mankind" is a metaphysical
production which has won such praise as to cause it to be compared to the
works of Tacitus and Swedenborg. Though published as far back as 1895,
this work is securing a revived popularity, and is now being translated
into the German. The last literary production of Colonel Brewer, "Egypt
and Israel," is a scholarly production of philology, and shows a
remarkable knowledge of the language of the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews.
At this writing Colonel Brewer is still among us. His poise is still as
erect as when a lad, and his speech as clear, though he has passed his
sixty-seventh milestone. In commenting on an allusion made to him in the
Mobile Register in September, 1907, which journal spoke of him as "the
last of the southern colonels," the Montgomery Journal said of Colonel
Brewer: "No man in the state has a more distinguished personality, a
personality more distinctly southern, and none whose brain and intellect,
culture and learning so forcibly remind of the Old South, as does the
Register's Hayneville friend."
In quiet leisure Colonel Brewer is spending his closing days at "The
Cedars," his country mansion, a few miles distant from Montgomery.
JOSEPH F. JOHNSTON
Alabama was favored by the double administration of Joseph Forney
Johnston, who took with him into the office of chief executive the
qualities of a successful man of business and a varied experience of
years. When a boy, Governor Johnston removed from his native state, North
Carolina, and, his father settling at Talladega, the son was placed at
school, where he was when hostilities were begun between the states in
1861. Scarcely eighteen years old, he was among the first in the state to
enlist in the Confederate service, and became a private in the Eighteenth
Alabama Regiment. It is a matter of common observation that a good soldier
makes a good citizen, which admits of application to Governor Johnston.
The record of his soldierly career may be summarized in the facts that the
stripling soldier rose from the ranks to a captaincy, served throughout
the struggle, and bore from the conflict four scars as the results of
wounds in so many battles.
Like thousands of others, the close of the war found him practically
penniless in the midst of conditions of desolation occasioned by the long
struggle, and in facing the future, as a young man of twenty-three, he
selected law as a profession, studying in the office of General W. H.
Forney. Admitted to the practice, Mr. Johnston located at Selma, where for
eighteen years he devoted himself to law, confining himself, for the most
part, to commercial law, which served to imbue him thoroughly with the
principles of business. While an active participant in current affairs of
a public nature, he was content to render whatever service he might to the
common weal, but evinced no desire for official station. In the
reconstruction struggles he actively shared, and, while assisting others
to the gratification of political ambition, Mr. Johnston was content to
adhere strictly to the demands of his profession.
The development of vast mineral deposits in north Alabama induced his
removal to Birmingham in 1884, in which growing city he practically
abandoned the practice of the law, having been chosen the president of the
Alabama National Bank. A still wider sphere was opened to him when he was
invited to become the first president of the Sloss Iron & Steel Company.
Voluntarily retiring from the presidency of the bank, he assumed the
larger duties of this great organization. This responsible station
afforded ample exercise of the qualities of business with which Captain
Johnston was equipped, and by the application of these, the company was
placed on a solid and paying basis.
After years of service in this capacity, he caused it to become known that
he aspired to the governorship of the state. He had never held political
office, had never before desired it, hence had never before sought it; but
now he did not disguise the fact that he wished to occupy the executive
chair in the capitol of Alabama. His characteristic announcement of his
candidacy was quite aside of the hackneyed phraseology of the ordinary
political seeker. With blunt frankness he declared that he had not been
solicited by numerous friends, and was not yearning to become a victim on
the altar of political sacrifice in a consuming desire to render a public
good, but simply that he had an ambition to become governor, believing
that he could serve the state efficiently and with fidelity. Nor did he
disguise the fact that he was possessed of this ambition for the
distinction which it would afford and the honor it would bring.
Having resolved to enter the race for this high office, he bent his
energies to the achievement. Twice he sought the position, and twice
failed. In the third contest, however, in 1896, he was overwhelmingly
chosen. That much was due to his praiseworthy persistency, his fealty to
his party, which was ardently shown in his espousal of the candidacy of
his opponents after he had himself failed, and to the fact that greater
publicity was given his forces of character, there is no doubt. His
unsuccessful efforts had served to display the type of man that he was,
and there was a growing recognition of his merits.
On his entrance to the gubernatorial office he began at once to reduce the
government to a business basis. He proceeded to lop off, here and there,
official branches that bore no fruit and yet were duly fertilized at the
public expense; he regulated the system of taxation, so as to equalize it,
by requiring taxes to be paid which had hitherto escaped; he instituted
the system of the examination of the books and accounts of county
officials by expert accountants, and by economy of management caused to
accrue to the state treasury a sum exceeding thirty million dollars. He
took a direct personal interest in the public school system of the state,
and it was during the administration of Governor Johnston that the
question of an improved public road system was inaugurated. By steps like
these he came to be recognized as "the business governor." He was
unanimously chosen to succeed himself after the expiration of his first
term, and his gubernatorial career closed with the last year of the
nineteenth century. In 1909 Governor Johnston and Honorable J. H. Bankhead
were chosen by the popular vote of the state to succeed Senators John T.
Morgan and E. W. Pettus, and in 1910 took their seats. Senator Johnston
displayed the same solid qualities in the National Senate that he had
previously shown as governor. His was not a demonstrative career, for he
was a man of solid qualities rather than one of shining gifts. There was
the utmost popular confidence in his judgment and in the integrity of his
character. Steadfast to duty, often when physically unable, for his health
had become greatly impaired, he won, as a senator, the thoughtful
confidence of the people of Alabama.
An indication of the conscientiousness of his conviction was shown in the
fact that in the famous Lorimer case, before the senate of the United
States, Senator Johnston, guided by the evidence, declined to be swayed by
the popular clamor to vote for the ejection of the Illinois senator. To
many this was thought to be hazardous, but he openly declared that rather
than do violence to his convictions, he would resign his seat. He
therefore voted for the retention of Mr. Lorimer, and refused to be
swerved by the outcry of the popular press. Senator Johnston was
preparing for a contest to succeed himself when he suddenly died at
Washington, in August, 1913.
ROMANCE OF ALABAMA HISTORY
FIRST WHITE INVADER
The morning of May 25, 1539, found the shore of Tampa Bay, Florida, the
center of a bright and animating scene. A wealthy Spaniard, chivalrous and
dashing, had just before reached the port with a force of six hundred men,
twenty officers and twenty-four priests in white canonicals, all bent on
an expedition into the far interior. Their quest was the long-imagined El
Dorado of the western world, which was a prize glittering before the
imagination of the fervid adventurer. Ferdinando DeSoto, who led this
daring troop, was not unaccustomed to adventures such as he had in
contemplation, for he had been with Pizarro in Peru, where he was rewarded
with rich booty, and he pined to invade the southern part of the North
American continent, where he hoped to reap richer rewards than were found
on the continent to the south. In the exploration on which he was now
entering he had been preceded ten years before by Narvaez, who had
perished by drowning. Now, with a freshly equipped expedition, DeSoto
entered anew on an exploration of these western wilds in search of gold.
Novel spectacle was this on the wild and primitive shore of Florida. Men
in brilliant uniforms, and with helmets glittering in the spring sun,
gayly caparisoned steeds, a procession of white-robed priests bearing
their crucifixes, formed a procession at once novel and imposing. As they
filed out and formed for the march, there was ranged in their rear a
small herd, each of cattle and of hogs, to be driven on the expedition for
supplies of milk and meat. As the expedition advanced inland, there was a
strange multiplication both of swine and of cattle.
It was picturesque enough, this cavalcade of horsemen in shining attire,
bearing the ensign of Spain, wending its way slowly through the virgin
forests of tall pines. Their camp fires of rich, resinous pine knots, in
the midst of stately trees, which stood like pillars in a vast cathedral,
lent a scene of enlivenment to the forest surroundings. The region was
green with long, wild grass and the native peavine, while the blossoms of
early spring were in their glory.
Streams deep and crystal abounded, along which grew the rank cane. Herds
of deer and droves of wild turkeys came frequently into view as targets
for the Spanish marksmen, and the troop reveled in unusual luxury, with
venison and turkey meat even in the wild woods of the continent of the
West.
From the early stages of the march toward the interior, combats with the
Indian tribes began, but the Indian was unequal to the Spaniard because of
the better equipment of the latter. The savages were overawed by the
splendor of the white soldier, and as much by his horse as by himself, for
horses the Indians had never before seen. DeSoto was fortunate in the
capture of Jean Ortiz in a contest in the interior of Florida. Ortiz had
been one of the band of Narvaez, had been captured by the Indians ten
years before, had succeeded in saving his life by wily stratagem, and
because of his soldierly qualities had been made a chief of one of the
tribes.
Under conditions like these, Jean Ortiz had lived for ten years, making
the most of the circumstances, and had long ago given up all hope of
leading other than the life of a wild savage. The dominion of his tribe
fell within the march of invasion of the Spaniards, and Ortiz led his
warriors to battle against them. Sorely beaten in the encounter, many of
his warriors having been slain, Ortiz and his troops fled in confusion,
hotly pursued by the Spanish horsemen. Ortiz was specially sought to be
killed because he was the leader, and as a cavalryman raised his lance to
deal a deadly blow, the chief cried out in Spanish, much to the surprise
of the pursuer: "Slay me not; I, too, am a Christian!" The half-nude
savage was taken to DeSoto, his body smeared with divers paints, his hips
swathed in a fawn skin girdle and his head bedecked with a coronet of
pretty feathers. He told the story of his capture and wild life to the
Spanish commander, and placed himself at his service. Ortiz proved to be a
valuable ally to the troop in acquainting DeSoto with the methods of the
savages, and in serving frequently as an interpreter.
DeSoto found the aborigines to be far more formidable fighters than he had
expected. While their implements of combat were rude, yet when wielded by
the Indian, they did deadly execution. The chief weapon of warfare of the
Indian was the bow, the character of which made it an object of terror.
The bows were made of sun-cured hickory saplings the size of a man's wrist
and eight feet long. Curved and secured by a strip of rawhide, the bow was
no mean instrument of peril in the hands of the muscular savage. To the
flexibility of the hickory bow and the elasticity of the thong were
adjusted the skill and aim of the practiced warrior. The arrows were
finished with a view to accuracy of aim, velocity, and deadliness of
execution. Tipped with triangular flints with rough edges and pointed
sharpness, they were driven with an aim so unerring, and with such force
and celerity, that they could be shot through a man or beast at a distance
of one hundred yards. With a quiver full of these arrows strapped to his
back, the brawny warrior would sally forth, an object of terror.
Fortunately for the Spaniards, they were prepared with armor sufficient to
withstand these crude weapons, for each soldier wore a coat of steel, a
helmet and breastplate, and carried a shield of metal. Their horses were
also protected with coats of steel. With their biscayan lances,
broadswords, arquebuses, crossbows, and a small piece of artillery, the
Spaniards felt secure against the primitive implements of the savage.
Though thus secured against savage attack, DeSoto and his men soon learned
that theirs was not a primrose path through the American wilds. The Indian
proved to be a terrible antagonist with his foxy stratagem and his
primitive method of warfare. These pampered sons of Spain, many of whom
had been petted and nourished in mansions and in palaces of luxury, had
daily to fight for their lives on the invaded territory of the red man,
who would engage the Spaniards at points of the greatest advantage to
themselves, and who enjoyed every possible advantage because of their
familiarity with the surroundings. But for Ortiz, the expedition might
have perished before it had quitted the present territory of Georgia.
The Spaniards never knew when to expect an assault. Often at the most
unconjectured time, they would receive a shower of arrows, noiseless in
their flight, and coming from unseen sources. Every hour, by day and by
night, they were kept in suspense, and even intervals of quietude became
ominous of accumulating trouble. Sometimes from the summits of rocky hills
in front an attack would be made; sometimes one flank assailed, then both
simultaneously; while not infrequently the rear would be attacked by
overwhelming numbers of shrieking, yelling demons, whose painted, naked
bodies and fierce demonstrations would create pandemonium. There was
little in tragic scenes like these to hearten the tender gentry of Spain.
By dint of rare discipline, maneuver, powder and ball, of which the
Indians knew nothing, and an intensely common interest of protection which
welded the Spaniards together, they invariably prevailed, but never were
shrewder, more stubborn or fiercer foes encountered, than these raw
savages of the American forest.
Though duly provided with workers in metal with their pots and ladles for
the refinement of gold, the troops found no use for them after months of a
straggling march through the woods of the South. The alluring vision of
the invading Spaniard of the abundance of gold in the retreats of the
American wilds, was gradually dispelled and vastly counterbalanced by the
hourly peril that menaced. That the spirit of the troops so long survived
conditions like these, shows the stern stuff of which the Spanish soldier
of that time was made. His love of gold was consuming, while his spirit of
adventure was the most audacious. These, combined with the necessary
coherence in common defense, made DeSoto's band well nigh invincible.
After a considerable detour of the present state of Georgia, DeSoto
reached the region where the city of Rome now is, where he crossed the
river, and was the first white man to set foot on the soil of Alabama. Of
the subsequent scenes of the expedition we shall have occasion to learn in
the chapters that are to follow.
INGRATITUDE AND CRUELTY
Thirteen months of hardship and of Indian warfare had changed the original
picnic appearance of the Spanish troop. The uniforms were not now so
lustrous, and the young grandees did not disport themselves as they did
more than a year before, on the shore of Tampa Bay. The elements had
dimmed the luster of their equipments, the hot southern sun had bronzed
their complexions, their uniforms looked much the worse for wear, and,
while the pots and ladles of the refiners were still unused, there was yet
the undaunted flash of hope in the Castilian eye. It was a resolute legion
under a resolute leader.
The Coosa was crossed, that stream of crumpled surface which the Indian in
his native sense of poetry had called "Rippling Water," which is the
meaning of Coosa, and now the cavalcade turned toward the southwest, as
one would look from Rome toward Blount Springs and Tuscaloosa. It seems
that from the Georgia side the Indians had sent runners to the tribes on
the thither side, warning of the advance of the strange cavalcade of
invasion, for as DeSoto pursued his way he met one embassy after another,
offering every concession in order to placation.
The line of march was through the present counties of Cherokee, Calhoun,
Talladega and Coosa. Like Cæsar in Gaul, DeSoto jotted down his
observations and impressions, for he was a scholarly warrior, and his
records are a matter of permanent value. He was charmed by the primeval
beauty of that northeastern region of Alabama. Streams, swift, bright and
deep, unalloyed by the soil and sediment of the present time, wound their
way among the hills; magnificent timbers stocked the forests; mountains
were the more imposing because of their wooded flanks; flowering vines, in
gorgeous beauty, climbed to the tops of the tallest trees; festoons of
wild grapes were suspended from tree to tree; varied floral coloring
decked the region throughout, while meadows of the rarest green were
spread like carpets along the valleys, through which ran flashing streams
like threads of silver woven into the carpeted verdure.
Here, too, the observant and intelligent Spaniard detected the difference
between the Indian tribes that he had encountered on the eastern side of
the river, from those on this side. Fertility of soil, picturesqueness of
scenery, or the inheritance of forces from a superior ancestry, or all
these combined, had placed the Alabama tribes far in advance of their
tawny brethren across the stream. Here were found cleared fields, on which
was grown corn in abundance, of which there were rude barns full to
overflowing. Settlements and towns were laid out with some respect to
order, and the huts and wigwams were built with more regard to comfort and
of appearance. It was the opinion of DeSoto that the highest civilization
possible to the Indian unaided, was here reached.