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976.1
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no. 6
1737674
REYNOLDS H1STOR1CAL
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PUBLICATION OF
THE ALABAMA STATE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY
HISTORICAL AND PATRIOTIC SERIES
NO. 6
THE FORMATIVE PERIOD
IN ALABAMA
1815-1828
BY
THOMAS PERKINS ABERNETHY, Ph. D.
Professor of History, University of Chattanooga
w?
MONTQOMBRY, ALA.
THR BROW?* PRINTINC OOMPAlffV
IBS2
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1737674
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter . Page
Letter of Transmittal - ' 5
Preface ,- - 7-8
I. The Mississippi Territory , 9-19
II. The New Country - 20-23
III. The Immigrants - 24-32
IV. The Division of the Territory : _ - 33-40
V. Alabama Becomes a State , ........ 41-49
VI. The Public Lands ..'. .'. ,...- 50-56
VII. Agriculture 57-72
VIII. Rivers and Roads - 73-85
IX. The Commercial Situation - 86-92
X. The Bank Question _ 93-101
XL Politics and the Election of 1824 102-109
XII. Politics and Federal Relations, 1824-1828 110-121
XIII. Religion, Education, and the Press 122-130
XIV. Social Conditions and Slavery 131-138
XV. Conclusion .......139-146
Bibliography _ _ 147-159
Maps and Illustrations _ - — 161-192
r.:
I
■
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Note: Maps, charts, and illustrations, grouped together at the back
of this book, are listed below under the chapters which have reference
to them.
Plate Page
Chapter I.
1. Indian Cessions in Mississippi Territory _ 161
Chapter II.
2. Geological Map of Alabama „ 162
Chapter III.
3. Road Map, 1818 _...._ „ 163
4. Origin of Population- _ _ 164
Chapter V.
5. Vote for Governor. 1819 _ 165
"6. Vote to Disapprove Censuring of Jackson, 1819 _ 166
7. Melish Map of Alabama. 1820 _ 167
8. Vote to Reduce Judicial Tenure _ 168
9. Vote Concerning Establishment of Branch Banks 169
Chapter VI.
10. Indian Cessions in Alabama 170
11. Value of Lands Sold in Alabama _... 171
Chapter VII.
12. Average Yearly Price of Middling Upland Cotton _.. 172
13. Average Valuation of Slaves in Mobile „ „ 173
14. Cotton Crop of South Alabama...! _.,. _ 174
15. Slave Population, 1818 _ _. 175
16. Slave Population, 1824 176
17. Slave Population, 1830 _...„ 177
Chapter VIII.
18. River Map „ _ __ 178
Chapter IX.
19. Imports and Exports at Mobile _ 179
Chapter XI.
20. Presidential Election of 1824 180
21. Senate Vote on Motion Proposing Jackson for Presidency 181
22. House Vote on Motion Pronosing Jackson for Presidency 182
23. Election of U. S. Senator, 1822. (King and Crawford) 183
24. Election of U. S. Senator, 1822. (Kelly and McKinley) 184
25. Election of U. S. Senator. 1824 185
Chapter XIT.
26. Vote on Bill to Extend Jurisdiction of Sn-ite Over Creeks _ 186
27. House Vote in Election of U. S. Senator. 1826 187
28. State House. Tuscaloosa 188
29. Vote on Bill Fixing State Canital at Tuscaloosa _ 189
30. Vote on Lewis Report Proposine Jackson for Presidency.. 190
Chapter XIII.
31. University of the State of Alabama 191
Chapter XIV.
32. Vote on Bill to Prohibit Import of Slaves to State 192
Digitized by the Internet Archive
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http://www.archive.org/details/formativeperiodi06aber
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.
To His Excellency,
Governor Thomas E. Kilby,
Montgomery, Ala.
Sir:
I have the honor to transmit, herewith, recommending that
it be published as bulletin No. 6 of the Historical and Patriot-
ic Series of the State Department of Archives and History, a
manuscript entitled "The Formative Period in Alabama, 1815-
1828." The author, Dr. Thomas Perkins Abernethy, is a na-
tive Alabamian, at present, Professor of History at the Uni-
versity of Chattanooga. It was upon this thesis that he re-
ceived his Ph. D. degree from Harvard University.
In his preface, Dr. Abernethy has set forth the sources from
which he derived the information presented in his thesis. It
will be seen that exhaustive research has been made.
Copies of this bulletin will be placed, with the compliments
of this Department, in all public libraries in Alabama and in
the college and high school libraries of the State. As long as
the issue lasts, it will be subject to call by any student in the
State with the hope that a perusal of these pages will inspire
in the heart of the reader a love and veneration for our past
and a renewed dedication of loyal service to our future.
Very respectfully,
MARIE BANKHEAD OWEN,
Director.
PREFACE
Dr. A. C. Cole begins his study of The Whig Party in the
South with the year 1830, but necessarily, the basis for the
confusing political alignments of the Southern Whigs lay
largely in the years that had gone before the actual formation
of the party. Alabama received her first great influx of pop-
ulation and underwent the formative period of her develop-
ment during the apparently quiet administration of Monroe,
when party lines were not recognized as existing. The new
conditions of the frontier are sure to change old habits and
old views, but the absolute lack of avowed partisan division
during the period when Alabama was receiving her first
wave of population gives us an especially good chance to study
a society where men's political views are almost certain to be
based directly on economic interest or individual conviction.
With this in mind, it has been with the double purpose of ob-
taining an understanding of the conditions under which the
cotton kingdom was planted on the Gulf Coast, and of trying
to discover the process by which fixed party principles were
crystallized out of the solution of social and economic elements
which existed in Alabama during the period of settlement
which followed the War of 1812, that the present work was
undertaken.
A substantial body of material, principally in the Library
of Congress, the Public Library of New York City, the Ala-
bama Department of Archives and History, the Mississippi
Department of Archives and History, and the Young Men's
Christian Association Library of Mobile, has been searched,
but there are important gaps in the body of information col-
lected. This is especially the case in connection with the sub-
jects of agriculture and slave-management, but, as the dis-
covery of local peculiarities was the principal object of the
study, it has seemed best not to fill in these blanks from gen-
eral accounts. Only such information as deals particularly
with Alabama has been used.
In connection with questions of politics, there also
has been difficulty. In a period of settlement and of polit-
ical uncertainty, there are few established lines of policy to
guide the student on his way. But. on the other hand, there
8 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
is added interest in discovering from among the various prob-
lems which confront the community, the ones which develop
sufficient significance to shape the course of events and to be-
come solidified into partisan principles. Thus the study of
the formative period has afforded an opportunity to find the
principal questions upon which the people were divided, and
hence to gain some understanding of the basis of later align-
ments. But, even so, many points upon which we would like
to have information are left in comparative and tantalizing ob-
scurity. The principal cause for this, as it appears to the writ-
er, is that the questions which agitated the men of these early
years were largely local matters, and the political leaders had
not yet gained sufficient importance outside their own State
to enable them to make a lasting impression. One of the poli-
ticians who grew up with Alabama was William R. King, but,
though he later came to be Vice-President of the United
States, we have few records to reveal his mind during the in-
teresting time when his career was taking shape. And so it
is for most of the others.
This work, submitted as a doctoral dissertation to the Fac-
ulty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Harvard
University, was prepared under the stimulating direction of
Professor Frederick Jackson Turner. The materials collect-
ed by the late Dr. Thomas M. Owen, of the Alabama State
Department of Archives and History, made the research pos-
sible. Each of these men has been of inestimable aid and en-
couragement in my work.
I am indebted also to Dr. Dunbar Rowland, of the Missis-
sippi State Department of Archives and History, and to Mr.
J. C. Fitzpatrick, of the Manuscript Division of the Library of
Congress, for aid in the collection of materials. Professor
L. C. Gray, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, office of
Farm Management, kindly read the chapter dealing with agri-
culture; and Dr. Roland M. Harper, of the Alabama Geologi-
cal Survey, gave me valuable aid in connection with geograph-
ical questions, but of course the writer is responsible for the
treatment of these subjects given herein.
THOS. P. ABERNETHY.
Chapter I.
THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY
When England received West Florida from Spain at the
close of the Seven Years' War, its northern boundary was the
thirty-first parallel ; but England later, for administrative
purposes, changed the line so that it ran from the Chatta-
hoochee due westward along the parallel of thirty-two de-
grees, twenty-eight minutes to the point where the Yazoo
flows into the Mississippi. When Spain recovered the Flori-
das at the close of the American Revolution, she insisted on
the northern boundary as fixed by England, but the United
States protested, and finally won the point when the treaty
of 1795 fixed the thirty-first parallel as the international
boundary.
The disputed territory which extended from the Mississippi
to the Chattahoochee was finally evacuated by Spain in 1797,
and the next year, the United States, with the acquiescence of
Georgia, which also laid claim to the land, established a terri-
torial form of government for the district.1 This was the
original Mississippi Territory. In 1800 an elective assembly
was authorized,2 and in 1802 Georgia relinquished her claim.3
After two more years, the boundary was extended northward
to the Tennessee line,4 and thus the Territory came to include
all that land which is embraced by the present states of Ala-
bama and Mississippi, except such as lies below the thirty-first
degree of latitude.
Within this extensive area there were but two white settle-
ments: one upon the lower Mississippi, and the other upon
the lower Tombigbee River. Those who lived upon the Tom-
bigbee had filtered through the Indian country from the time
of the Revolution onward; some were Tory refugees, some
were patriots who had left their old homes to seek new ones,
and some were traders with the Indians. The blood of these
men was various : English and Scottish traders mingled with
i Statutes at Large, II, 229-235.
2 Ibid., II, 455-456.
3 American State Papers. Lands, V, 384-385.
4 Statutes at Large, II, 445-446.
10 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
Yankee frontiersmen, and many of them had taken native
wives. The half-breeds were often men of wealth, and no dis-
tinction of race seems to have been made in the rugged life of
the frontier."1
St. Stephens, a struggling village of log cabins, was the
principal settlement in the Tombigbee region, and here the
Government established a post for trading with the Choctaw
Indians, and, as soon as Georgia gave up her claim to the soil,
a land office. The act arranging for the disposal of the pub-
lic domain was passed in 1803. ,; It provided for the valid-
ation of claims under the British and Spanish grants ; quieted
claims under the act of Georgia establishing Bourbon County
in 1785;" granted tracts of 640 acres to actual settlers at the
time of the Spanish evacuation in 1797 ; and gave preemption
rights to settlers occupying land at the time the act was pass-
ed. Settling on public lands was forbidden, but squatters
continued to come in and an act of 1837 extended preemption
rights to those who had already come in, but once more pro-
hibited entries upon government lands for the future. Lands
not otherwise appropriated were to be surveyed and put on
sale at public auction according to the provisions which had
already been adopted for the Northwest Territory. Accord-
ingly in 1807 the first sales took place at St. Stephens/
In 1806' the Government acquired from the Indians a small
triangle of land lying between the Tennessee border and the
great bend in the Tennessee River. In 1809 this tract, the
original Madison County, was offered for sale and readily
taken up by cotton planters from Georgia. Here Huntsville
was built about a great spring, and soon came to be the com-
mercial center of the new region.11
Cotton was raised in the Alabama-Tombigbee region as
early as 1772;"' the manufacture of cotton cloth was begun by
the Cherokees in 1796-97 ;u and Colonel Benjamin Hawkins,
who was for many years agent for the Creeks, states in his
Sketch of the Creek Country for 1798 and 1799 that a Scottish
trader, who had made his home among the Indians and had
taken a native woman for his wife, first raised a quantity of
5 Pickett, History of Alabama, Chap. XXXI.
6 Statutes at Larcre, II, 229-2:55.
" E.C. But-nett in American Historical Review, XV, 66-111, 297-353.
s American State Papers, Misc., II. 417.
9 Betts, History of Hc.ntsvilte, 23-24.
io Pickett, His'tor-i uf Alabama, 326.
n Morse, Report <.)> Indian Affairs, 167.
THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY 11
^reen seed cotton for the market, but, finding it more profit-
able to manufacture his own staple, employed eleven hands,
besides his own family, in the industry.1 - In 1802 the first
cotton gins were introduced into the Alabama country, two
of the three of them being set up among the Indians.1 :: By 1808
, the staple had come to be the leading agricultural product of
the region.14
From the very first its culture among the whites seems to
have been associated with negro labor, for in 1810 slaves
made up nearly forty per cent, of the population upon the low-
er Tombigbee; and ten years later, after the cotton regime
was well begun, the proportion of slaves in this early-settled
region remained abnormally high. The men who entered
Madison County in 1809 were largely Georgia planters of con-
siderable means. They came especially for the purpose of rais-
ing cotton, and their slaves were numerous. Their entrance
into Mississippi Territory at this time indicates that the cot-
ton regime might have begun earlier than it did had not the
War of 1812 intervened to delay it.
But the culture of cotton was still in its infancy in 1812.
Scrawny hogs, whose ancestors are supposed to have been left
by DeSoto, and whose descendants are said to be the modern
razor-back, roamed the woods : and in the cane-break region
near the Gulf, large herds of cattle, sometimes numbering
many hundreds, found their own forage summer and winter
alike.
Aside from the fur trade with the natives and the growing
cotton industry, there seems to have been little commerce caj-
ried on during these years in the Alabama country, and the
reason is not far to seek. Mobile, the only accessible outlet,
was in the hands of the Spanish, and the duties which they
charged were almost prohibitive. In order to avoid the pay-
ment of them, Gaines, the agent at St. Stephens for the Choc-
taws, brought his supplies down the Tennessee River to Col-
bert's Ferry, above Muscle Shoals, carried them over a port-
age, which came to be known as Gaines' Trace, to the head of
navigation on the Tombigbee at Cotton Gin Port ; and thence
floated them down to St. Stephens. ir* This was the route by
which a number of the early Tombigbee settlers reached their
12 Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country, 44, 55.
13 Pickett, History of Alabama, 469-470.
1 4 Jack^Sect ionalism and Party Politics in Alabama, 7.
15 Pickett, History of Alabama, 506.
12 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
destination,1" and it long remained an important route of trav-
el for the pioneer.
Until 1806, rivers and Indian trails were the only means of
communication in the Alabama region, but in that year Con-
gress provided for the construction of the first two roads.17
One was to connect Nashville, Tennessee, with Natchez upon
the Mississippi, crossing the Tennessee River at Muscle
Shoals. It was known as the "Natchez Trace" and came to
be a highway of no little importance in the western country.
The other was to follow the route from Athens, Georgia, to
New Orleans, passing through the settlement on the Tom-
bigbee. It came to be known as the "Federal Road" and
along it thousands of settlers later found their way to Ala-
bama.
Such were the slender bands of communication which tied
the frontier settlements of eastern Mississippi Territory to
the world from which they were separated by hundreds of
miles of Indian wilderness. Between the Tombigbee clear-
ings and the settled part of Georgia lay the confederacy of
the Creeks extending its boundaries northward well toward
the Tennessee line. Adjoining the Creeks on the north lay
the territory of the Cherokees, extending eastward into Geor-
gia and northward into Tennessee. Between the Tombigbee
and the settlements upon the lower Mississippi lay the lands
of the Choctaws, and northward of them the country of the
Chickasaws took in the northwestern corner of the future
Alabama and extended across western Tennessee.
These Indian tribes of the South were further advanced
toward civilization than were most of their North American
kinsmen, and, though the westward migration of the whites
was still in its infancy, they saw clearly the problem which
confronted them. They had two alternatives compatible with
peace, — to perfect themselves in the arts of civilization, so as to
compete with the new-comers, or to be driven off the land
which had been theirs from generation to generation. There
was but one other possibility, — to fight.
Already game had become too scarce to be relied upon as
the only source of food supply,1^ and all the Southern Indians
engaged in a crude method of agriculture. They dwelt in
villages with fields adjacent, and maize, beans, and melons
i'-> Ibid., 466-469.
17 Statutes at Large. li. 397.
is Indian Office files P. J. Meigs to Geo. Graham, May 6, 1817.
THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY 13
were the principal crops which they cultivated. Their meth-
ods of culture were primitive and they rarely produced more
than sufficed for their own needs.13
The more the natives resorted to agriculture, the less ground
they needed for the purpose of hunting. This consideration
may partly account for xhe interest which the Government of
the United States took in the civilization of the Red Man, but
such interest was good policy on general principles, for a civ-
ilized Indian afforded a less pressing problem than did one
in his native simplicity,
During Washington's administration the system of appoint-
ing an agent to each of the different tribes was adopted. The
agent acted as intermediary between the Government and the
Indians ; attempted to protect them from corruption by super-
vising their relations with the whites; and tried to promote
their civilization by instructing them in agriculture and crafts-
manship. The Indians were not allowed to buy whisky from
the whites and the whites were not allowed to live among them
except by permission frcm the agents. Such permits were
granted to blacksmiths, carpenters, wheelwrights, and other
craftsmen who were needed, but natives were instructed in
the crafts and sometimes were able to supply a large part of
the demand for skilled workmen.20
The Indians were encouraged by the agents to keep domes-
ticated animals and a few of them came to own large herds.
They were also instructed in the use of the plow and furn-
ished with seed for planting. The culture of cotton was in-
troduced among them, and they were taught the use of the
spinning wheel and the loom. Indeed, some of the native
craftsmen learned to make the wheels and looms and turned
them out in large numbers.
Of all the Indians, the Cherokees most readily took to the-
ways of civilization. Realizing the uselessness of resistance,
they wished to adjust themselves to the inevitable, and through-
education and industry to fit themselves for citizenship. They
took up agriculture so seriously that some of them quit their
villages for the purpose of living upon their farms. They
kept large numbers of domesticated animals, and learned to
spin and weave. They built roads and erected saw mills and
i;i Good accounts are <riven in Hawkins. Sketch of the Creek Country;
and Morse, Report on Indian Affairs, 167 et seq.
-° Indian Orifice files, R J. Meies to Sect'y of War, Nov. 4, 1S16;
Silas Dinsmore to Jno. McKee, Oct. 28, 1815.
14
THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
«*«*&&)
*P# ii*^ ft] |
THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY 15
cotton gins. Sequoya, a native Cherokee, invented an alpha-
bet for the use of his people and they set about diligently to
learn to read and write. They even drew up a constitution
and instituted a representative government.-1 A census of
1825 shows them, with a population of fifteen thousand, to
have possessed thirteen hundred slaves, twenty-two thousand
cattle, over seven hundred looms, more than two thousand
spinning wheels, nearly three thousand plows, ten saw mills,
thirty-one grist mills, eight cotton gins, eighteen ferries, and
eighteen schools.22
The Chickasaws and Choctaws, though somewhat less ad-
vanced than the Cherokees, followed their policy of absorbing
what civilization they could, and of remaining friendly with
the whites. The Creeks, on the contrary, were warlike and
not inclined to adapt themselves to the new situation. The
strength of their confederacy and the fact that their lands
bordered upon Spanish Florida may help to explain their rel-
atively independent attitude.
Just before the War of 1812 broke out, and Tecumseh un-
dertook to unite all the western Indians against the United
States, he visited the Creeks at one of their great councils,
and the younger warriors were incited to hostility against the
whites. Though the older chiefs remained peaceful, the war
or red stick party was powerful and presently took matters in-
to its own hands.-3
Florida was still legally in the possession of Spain, but the
Napoleonic wars had so shaken the position of the ancient
kingdom that her government had fallen prey to French and
British armies. The future possession and control of the
province became doubtful and Madison, fearful for our south-
ern frontier, issued a proclamation in 1810 calling for the oc-
cupation of West Florida. It was at that time, however, tak-
en over only as far as Pearl River. Three years later Mobile
was occupied, but Pensacola remained in Spanish hands.
Thither a band of the hostile Creeks repaired in 1813 for the
purpose of securing munitions of war. The settlers upon the
Tombigbee, learning of the expedition, mustered their mili-
tary strength and marched to meet the Indians as they return-
ed. Jn the battle of Burnt Corn which followed, the whites
-1 Nineteenth Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Part I,
104-113.
22 Southern Advocate, April 21, 1S2G.
*« McMaster, Htstor ■ of the United States, III, 535-6.
16 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
drove the Indians from the field, but while the victors collect-
ed the booty, the Indians rallied, set upon them, and routed
their little band.24
The isolated Tombigbee settlers recognized this skirmish as
the prelude to a bloody Indian war. Seeing no prospect of
adequate military assistance, they hurriedly gathered at con-
venient houses, surrounded them with stockades, and anxious-
ly awaited the movements of the savage warriors. Several
hundred men and women were gathered at the home of a half-
breed named Mims. A stockade was constructed and the
place came to be known as Fort Mims, but of military dis-
cipline there was little or none. Warned of the presence of In-
dians, they took no heed, and when the savages attacked, were
utterly unprepared. The defense was desperate but hopeless ;
and when the day was over, there remained but the smolder-
ing ruins and the bodies of the dead. Of all that had been
gathered in the fort, only a handful escaped.
Appeals for aid were quickly sent to Georgia, Louisiana,
•and Tennessee; and Andrew Jackson, Major-General of the
Tennessee militia, collected a force for an expedition. March-
ing through Huntsville, and crossing the Tennessee River
where he established Fort Deposit, he entered the country of
the Creeks and established Fort Strother upon the upper
waters of the Coosa. Often forced to the last extremity by
the difficulty of getting supplies and by the restiveness of mi-
litia enlisted for short terms of service, Jackson nevertheless
cut a road through the wilderness, fought several minor en-
gagements with the savages, and finally reached their prin-
cipal stronghold at Horseshoe Bend, in the Tallapoosa River.
Here the Indians had erected a breastwork across the neck of
the peninsula formed by the bend of the river. Jackson at-
tacked this work in front* while his lieutenant, General Coffee,
approached the bend from the other side of the stream. Here
the Indians had collected a large number of canoes in which
to make their escape if it should become necessary ; but taking
these, Coffee crossed the river and attacked the defenders
from the rear. Thus trapped, the stubborn resistance of the
natives was ineffectual. Some escaped across the river,
others were drowned while attempting to get away; and
several hundred were left dead upon the field.2"'
a* Henry Adams, History of U. S., VII, 228-229; Pickett, History of
Aloha ma, 523-524.
2>McMaster, History of the United States, IX, 162-170. Bassett, J.
S., Andrew Jackson, I, 91-92, 116-117.
THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY 17
The battle of Horseshoe Bend broke the power of the hos-
tile Creeks. Many were dead, and others fled across the
Spanish line into Florida. In 1814 the chiefs who remained
met Jackson at the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa,
where Fort Jackson was erected, and were forced to surrender
a. broad strip of their land running along the Florida border,
and all that which lay west of the Coosa River. Thus prac-
tically the entire Alabama-Tombigbee basin was cleared of
the Indian title and secured for settlement by the whites.
Mississippi Territory was indebted to Jackson not only for
safety, but also for room in which to grow.
That the Southwest was to become a cotton kingdom was
foreshadowed by the early history of Madison County. When
the old tobacco-growing districts of the Southern seaboard
began to overflow into the piedmont region, a number of Vir-
ginia immigrants established the town of Petersburg where
the Broad River flows into the Savannah, in Elbert County,
Georgia. Here tobacco warehouses were erected and a brisk
business ensued. But it did not last long. When the in-
vention of the cotton gin made short staple cotton available for
commercial purposes, this crop supplanted tobacco as the prin-
cipal product of the piedmont region in Georgia and South
Carolina. Tobacco warehouses were no longer necessary and
Petersburg was abandoned.-'1 Its inhabitants were the chief
founders of the town of Huntsville.-7 In the small triangle
which was the Madison County of that day, nearly a hundred
and fifty thousand acres of land were sold between 1809 and
1812.
During this period the sales of land in the Tombigbee set-
tlement were relatively small excepting that, in the single year
1812, sixty-four thousand acres were disposed of at St. Steph-
ens.
The war naturally halted the progress of the westward
movement, but with the coming of peace, the migration was
resumed with greatly renewed vigor. The Indians were no
longer to be feared, a vast expanse of new territory had been
cleared of the native title, cotton was in great demand, and a
spirit of adventure and speculation took hold upon the coun-
try. In 1816 more than a hundred seventy thousand acres
were sold at St. Stephens. 8S
-c> C. C. Jones, Jr.. Dead Tovns of Georgia, 234-23S.
2" Betts. History of Huntsville, 22-24.
2S American State Papers, Misc., II, 417.
18 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
The territory secured from the Creeks had to be surveyed
before it could be placed upon the market, and surveys took
time. But the westward rush of land-hungry men did not
wait upon the Government. Settlers pushed into the country
in great numbers. They were usually poor men who had sold
all they possessed to secure the necessary means of transport-
ation, and at the end of the journey they sometimes found
themselves stranded without food to last until the first crop
could be made.-'' There were also land speculators who were
engaged in seeking out choice tracts for purchase when the
Government sales should begin; there were merchants who
had brought wagon loads of goods, which they displayed in
hastily-erected huts to the settlers; and there were fugi-
tives from justice seeking refuge in a country where the hand
of the law was weak.
Crimes were, of course, committed in such a community as
this ;30 and to make the situation worse, those Creeks who had
remained friendly to the United States during the war felt,
with reason, that they had been unjustly treated' when their
lands were taken away; and they threatened to give trouble.31
Since no civil jurisdiction was established in the region, Gov-
ernor Holmes, of Mississippi Territory, issued a proclamation
on June 29, 1815, incorporating the whole of the Creek cession
as Monroe County. :!-
This action was not in accord with the ideas of the Govern-
ment, for an act of 1807 had forbidden intrusion upon the
public lands. In accordance with this act, President Madison
issued a proclamation in December, 1815, ordering the remov-
al of squatters and authorizing the use of military force to ac-
complish that purpose.'53 Some ejections were made, but Con-
gress heard the plea of the squatters and, by an act of April
26, 1816, those who had come in before Feburary of that year
were to be allowed to remain until the land upon which they
were settled should be sold.34
29 Indian Office files, R. J. Meigs, to Andrew Jackson, Jan. 17. 1816;
Jackson Papers, E. P. Gaines to Andrew Jackson, March 6, 1817.
3« Toulmin-Holmes correspondence, Gen. E. P. Gaines to Judjre Har-
ry Toulmin, June 1, 1S15; Judire Toulmin to Gov. Holmes, June 5, 1815.
St Washington Republican, Oct. 21, 1815.
32 Gov. Holmes, Executive Journal. 1814-1817; Proclamation of June
29, 1815.
38 Washington Republican, Jan. 10, 1816; Jackson Papers, W m. H.
Crawford to Andrew Jackson, Jan. 27, 1816.
*» Ibid., June 12, 1816.
THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY 19
The Creek cession overlapped, on the north and west, lands
claimed by the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee Indians.
The Government commissioned Andrew Jackson to treat with
these tribes for their claims to the disputed areas, and treaties
providing for the relinquishment of all three tracts were
drawn up in 1816. This cleared up the Indian title to the
greater part of that territory which was soon to become the
State of Alabama. The Creeks still held the entire tract lying
east of the Coosa River ; the Cherokees held the northeastern
corner above this; tho Chickasaws held a small tract in the
northwestern corner ; and the Choctaws retained a little land
west of the Tombigbee.33
On May 9, 1817, Governor Holmes issued a proclamation cre-
ating three new counties which included the new cessions and
a part of the Creek cession. Elk County was to comprise the
land lying north of the Tennessee River and west of Madi-
son County; Blount County was to be made up of that lying
south of the Tennessee and north of the watershed between
that river and the Alabama-Tombigbee basin; and Shelby
County was to comprise the country lying south of Blount
County bounded on the west by the Tombigbee, on the south
by Clarke County, and on the east by the watershed between
the Tombigbee and -Alabama Rivers.3" But the act dividing
the Territory had already passed in Congress, and these three
counties never had a concrete existence. An Elk County is
sometimes enumerated in the early gazetteers, and a Blount
and a Shelby County were established in Alabama Territory in
1818, but they have no continuity with those established by
Governor Holmes.
3:5 See Eighteenth Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, Plate I.
36 Gov. David Holmes, Executive Journal, 1814-1817, Proclamation
of May 9, 1917.
Chapter II.
THE NEW COUNTRY1
The new country which was soon to become Alabama is di-
vided, from an agricultural point of view, into three principal
regions : the Tennessee Valley, the Alabama-Tombigbee bas-
in, and the central hilly region which separates these two.
Fed by streams which drain the country as far north as the
Tennessee Valley, the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers traverse
the central and southwestern portions of the area, and empty
their united waters into Mobile Bay. In the early days of
Alabama, these streams furnished the only, good commercial
highway into the State. They bound her southern section into
one cotton-growing community, and their fertile bottom lands
furnished most desirable fields for the planter of the staple.
The central hilly region is drained by southward-flowing
streams which are not navigable ; and the inaccessibility of the
region, together with the rugged nature of the land, prevented
it from attaining agricultural importance. Yet the isolated
valleys were often fertile, and a scattered population main-
tained frontier conditions here for a long time.
Making a large bend across the northern end of Alabama,
the Tennessee River flows through a wide and fertile valley.
During the early days the produce of this region had to be
floated down the long and tortuous courses of the Tennessee
and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, but the soil was fertile
and attracted, from the very first, planters in large numbers.
Looked at more in detail, the surface of Alabama is divided
into several areas differing in formation and fertility of soil.2
Entering the northeastern corner of the State with the Ten-
nessee River and running down toward the center, is the
southern extremity of the Cumberland Plateau. Here the
ridges run in long sweeps and give a really mountainous as-
pect to the region. Lookout Mountain is the most pronounced
1 The description sjiven here is based almost entirely upon that by
Roland M. Harper in A Preliminary Soil Census of Alabama and in his
Economic Botatni of Altbama, though the writer has relied to seme ex-
tent upon his personal knowledge of the country.
- In addition to the map '.riven here, see that by Eugene A. Smith. U.
S. Census, 1830, VI. 9; and that in the Atlas of American Agriculture,.
cotton section, 8.
THE NEW COUNTRY 21
of the highlands. South of the Tennessee Valley the ridges
give way to the broken hills of the north-central portion of
the State.
Skirting the plateau to the eastward and running parallel
with it, lies the Coosa Valley, which represents the southern
extremity of the great valley extending from Virginia. There
are stretches of good land here, but the early communities
were isolated and it did not become a region of extensive ag-
riculture.
Toward the eastward, the Coosa Valley is bordered by the
southern foothills of the Blue Ridge, and, forming a triangle
between the Ridge and the Georgia line, lies the piedmont sec-
tion which corresponds to that skirting the mountains in Geor-
gia, the Carolinas, and Virginia. As in the piedmont regions
of the older states, the stiff, red lands here arc of unequal
quality but capable of improvement and of fair average fertil-
ity. Until 1836 the Creek Indians retained possession of the
country east of the Coosa River ; consequently this section was
not settled as early as most of the other parts of the State.
Beginning at the eastern border just below the piedmont
section and sweeping across to the northwest corner of Ala-
bama in a broadening curve, the short leaf pine belt borders
the older country of igneous rock, and marks the beginning
of the coastal plain. Here the soil is composed largely of
sand and gravel. It is below the average in fertility, rolling
piney woods being characteristic of the region.
Next toward the south is the Black Belt,0 or prairie region,
which begins within the State and follows the curve of the
short leaf pine region. It presents a gently rolling terraine,
much more level than any of the surrounding country, and al-
so somewhat more depressed. These peculiarities are due,
perhaps, like the quality of the soil, to the soft limestone which
underlies it. The soil is a sticky, calcareous clay, and a part
of it was originally unforested. Holding surface moisture
in the winter, it forms a tenacious mud which renders roads
all but impassable, and in the summer it bakes to a hard crust.
A description of this region given by one of the early settlers
in 1821 affords a graphic idea of the appearance of the coun-
try:
"Wherever these prairies exist, the lime is this soft con-
sistence, when it approaches near the surface, the soil ap-
pears whitish, and is clothed with a short growth of grass
:t See H. F. Cl'eliarid ..i Geographical Review, X, 375-3S7.
22 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
and herbage ; where it lies deeper the grass is denser and tall-
er, and upon the borders, between the wood land and prairies,
the growth of weeds and grass is very luxuriant. But upon
the prairies themselves, there is not sufficient depth of earth
for the growth of trees. Such is the checkered and diversified
appearance of this part of the country where those prairies
exist. Fancy yourself for a moment in such a situation ; be-
fore you a wide and extended meadow, to the right and left
intervening strips of oaks and pines; proceeding onwards,
the prospect seems terminated by the surrounding woods;
anon, you catch a glimpse of the opening vista ; and now again
the prospect expands into the wide spread horizon of an ex-
tensive prairie. These prairies are generally rolling; which
is a great advantage, as otherwise they retain water, to the
great injury of the crops; and as it respects the quality of the
soil, it is generally admitted that it is the best the country
affords The only objection to these prairies is, the
scarcity of good water "4
The relative scarcity of running water, together with other
disadvantages, affords special problems to the farmer, and
the towns which grew up in connection with the cotton indus-
try here — Montgomery, Selma, and others — are located on the
edge of the prairie rather than within it. Though the plant-
ers at first sought the river bottoms and avoided the prairie,
the latter came after 1830 to be looked upon as the best cot-
ton land in the State. As late as 1880 it formed the principal
cotton producing area of Alabama.
Montgomery County has always been a cotton-planting cen-
ter, and its early history is illustrative of such settlements. Al-
most the entire area of the County consists of fine prairie
lands which extend in long, unbroken stretches of fertile fields.
But the Alabama River, which forms its northern boundary,
is bordered by bottom land which is not of the prairie type.
A map of the County, made up from the land records and
showing the dates at which the tracts were purchased from
the Government, brings out the fact that the great majority
of the settlements before 1821 were made in the river bottom
area. By 1828 encroachments were being made upon the prai-
rie, but the greater part of it was still unsettled. On the oth-
er hand, in Clarke County, at the confluence of the Alabama
and Tombigbee Rivers, there were extensive settlements be-
4 Letter from Dr. J. W. Heustis, of Cahawba, April 1, 1821, Cahawba
Press, June 2, 1821.
THE NEW COUNTRY 23
fore 1821, though very few between that year and 1828. In
Dallas and Perry Counties where there is both river and praf-
rie land, the river bottoms and the red lands bordering the
prairies were taken up, but few settlements were made in the
prairies before the end of 1828."
The Black Belt is bordered on the south by the Chunnen-
nuggee Ridge. This runs across the State in a narrow strip,
but toward the eastern border where the Black Belt dwindles
away, the Ridge broadens and replaces it. A limestone for-
mation underlies this section, but it is different from that of
the prairie region in being of normal hardness. This accounts
for the fact that the Ridge country rises distinctly above the
prairie, and that its surface is of a relatively rugged charac-
ter. The soil is predominantly a sandy loam and is, like that
of the Black Belt, above the average in fertility. Looked at
from the standpoint of cotton culture, the two regions might
be grouped together.
Below the Chunnennuggee Ridge and extending to the
southern border of the state, lie the Southern Red Hill6 and
Southern Pine Hill regions. Between these lie two small cal-
careous areas, but there are no marked transitions in the sur-
face here. The appearance of the country and the nature of
the soil are fairly uniform, so that from an agricultural stand-
point, these areas might be considered together.
In the region of the Red Hills the surface is broken and ris-
es almost to mountainous ruggedness in places. One of the
two railroad tunnels in the whole coastal plain lies in this sec-
tion. Pine predominates over other forest trees, and the soil
is reddish sandy clay. Its fertility is only average, but fer-
tilizers can be used to advantage.
Proceeding toward the coast, the hills become less pro-
nounced and the long leaf pine predominates over all other
trees. The character of the soil does not change materially;
it is relatively infertile, but subject to improvement by arti-
ficial fertilization.
It is worthy of note that in the Gulf coastal plain there is
nothing corresponding to the pine barrens of the South At-
lantic States. The reddish sandy clay prevails all the
way to the coast, and the surface presents a rolling, and often
a rugged, appearance.
5 Based upon maps made from the tract books in the office of the
Secretary of State, Montgomery, Alabama.
« See R. M. Harper in South Atlantic Quarterly, XIX, 201.
Chapter III
THE IMMIGRANTS
During the latter half of the seventeenth century, England
was developing the spinning and weaving machinery which
played such a large part in bringing about the Industrial Rev-
olution. The increased demand for raw cotton which resulted
from this development was answered in 1793 by Whitney's in-
vention of the cotton gin. Until this time, it was necessary
to separate the lint from the seed by hand or by means of a
pair of simple rollers. The black seeded sea-island, or long
staple, cotton was the only variety amenable to such process-
es, for its long fibre did not cling closely to the seed and could
be removed easily. The short staple of the" green seeded va-
riety clung so closely to the seed that it could not be removed
profitably by these simple processes in use.
Long staple cotton could be raised only in the tidewater re-
gions, and the coast and sea-island? of Georgia and South Car-
olina produced practically all the American output. The short
staple cotton, on the other hand, could be raised in the uplands,
and when the invention of the cotton gin rendered the culture
of this variety profitable, the Georgia and South Carolina
piedmont supplanted the tidewater as the principal cotton-
producing area.1
This region had been settled by men largely from Virginia
and Pennsylvania. The culture of tobacco was the main in-
dustry for some years, but when upland cotton was introduced
it quickly came to predominate. Towns founded for the ware-
housing and inspection of tobacco were abandoned because
their facilities were no longer necessary.- Such a one was Pe-
tersburg, at the confluence of the Broad with the Savannah
River, the removal of whose inhabitants to Madison County
was mentioned in the first chapter.
That the spread of the culture of cotton into the Southwest
was inevitable, is indicated by its early introduction into Miss-
issippi Territory. This natural movement was interrupted by
the War of 1812. but its pent-up force was precipitated by the
1 Atlas of American Agriculture, cotton section, 16. 18.
- Phillips, Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt, 46-56.
THE IMMIGRANTS 25
conditions which followed the end of the struggle. In Eng-
land, cut off from her source of supply during the War, the
price of the staple rose to an abnormal level ; while in America,
deprived of her usual market, the price fell off sharply. When
peace was made and normal trade relations were resumed with
the lifting of the blockade of our coast, England again obtain-
ed her supply of American cotton and the price in this country
rose immediately. The average price for 1815 was almost
thirty cents a pound.3
To this situation was added the inducement of new lands
cleared of the Indian title during the War, and the innate rest-
lessness of the population. Sales of newly surveyed land were
opened at St. Stephens during the latter part of 1815, and the
following year over a hundred thousand acres were disposed
of by the Government.4 No sales were made in the new Creek
cession until 1817, but in that year three-quarters of a million
dollars' worth of these lands were sold.5
The old Georgia-South Carolina piedmont 'region had two
distinct disadvantages from the point of view of the cotton
planter. Its soil was not considered so fertile as that of the
Alabama river-bottoms and prairies ; and it lacked transporta-
tion facilities, being cut off from the tidewater by the broad
pine-barrens, and being without navigable rivers. Thus, be-
fore the culture of upland cotton had reached anything like a
mature development here, it began to be transferred to the new
Southwest. Population began to flow from the older states
into the pioneer country until the drain was keenly felt in the
deserted communities.
Though the statement cannot be backed by statistics, it
seems that the majority of the planters who moved westward
with their slaves came from the piedmont rather than from
the tidewater regions of the South Atlantic states. G The tide-
water had its staple crops of tobacco, rice, and sea-island cot-
ton, which were not disturbed by the new developments. The
planters here were usually well established, their investment
was heavy, and their land had a certain monoply value. Their
slaves could still be employed more or less profitably, and their
social position tended to hold them where they were. The
z Atlas of American Agriculture, cotton section, 18.
4 American State Papers. Misc., II, 417.
s Ibid., Lands, V, 384-385.
6 This statement is stvor.gly supported by the cases where the writer
has been able to ascertain the origin of the immigrants.
26 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
piedmont region had never had a staple until upland cotton
was introduced, and the west offered it. a choicer field.
Few people of extensive wealth moved into the Alabama re-
gion during the period of early settlement. Only the man
who needed to better Ins fortune had an inducement to make
the necessary sacrifice. Those who nad slaves usually owned
but a small number, ard many who later became planters had
no slaves at all to begin with. In other words, the small farm-
er of the piedmont region became the pioneer planter of the
Southwest.
When a man prepared to transplant his establishment, he
usually sold the land he held and retained the proceeds for the
purchase of his new domain. His household goods and farm
implements were packed on wagons and started out on the
rough road toward the new home. The slaves drove the herds
of cattle and hogs, while the planter's family brought up the
rear in a carriage.7 It was a tedious journey, the roads being
merely clearings through the forest, and without bridges. The
smaller streams were forded and crude ferries were establish-
ed at the larger ones. Yet there were compensations ; hunting
along the way afforded diversions for the men, and the camp-
fire about which the wayfarers gathered at night shed a ro-
mantic glow upon the faces of those who were traveling into
a strange land.
Having reached the place where he was to make his home,
the planter constructed a log cabin after the usual manner.
Two rooms were built opposite each other and joined by a pas-
sage-way. Chimneys built of stones or clay-daubed sticks
were put up at opposite ends of the structure and great open
hearths served for both heating and cooking. A "lean-to"
might be attached behind one or both of the rooms, and an at-
tic might be constructed above. Before the introduction of
saw mills, the floors were made of puncheons, or Jogs snlit in
halves, with the flat side upward. The chinks between the
logs were filled with clay; the doors and shutters were of crude
boards, and the shingles were hand-split. In such a dwelling,
the planter who brought his household furnishings could es-
tablish a kind of rude comfort, which sufficed even the wealth-
iest immigrants during the first few years of their sojourn.
The first and only governor of Alabama Territory lived in
" Hodgson, Letters from North America, I, 138.
THE IMMIGRANTS 27
such a log cabin during the years of his administration and
until his premature death. s
But all the newcomers were not even thus fortunately sit-
uated. No very extensive tracts of the new land were offered
for sale before 1818. and men who had homes to sell in the old
states would naturally wish to purchase a location in the new
country before removing. Yet, from 1815 onward, men poured
into the ceded lands and ''squatted" upon them in spite of the
law and the Government.'-' It was the policy of the United
States to prevent intrusion until surveys could be made and
the lands offered for sale at auction. Attempts were made to
remove the squatters; the troops were called in and ordered
to burn the cabins of those who refused to leave, but it was all
of no avail.10
Men of this class, being improvident by nature, did not come
to seek wealth, but merely to gain a subsistence, or to enjoy
the freedom of the woods. They built their simple cabins and
planted their crops of corn between trees which they killed by
circling. Their greatest immediate problem was to live until
the first crop was made, and here there was much difficulty.11
The influx of immigrants was so great in 1816 and 1817
that the Indians and scattered pioneers were not able to furn-
ish enough corn to meet the needs of the new-comers. In 1816
corn brought four dollars a bushel along the highway from
Huntsville to Tuscaloosa,12 and so scarce did this article be-
come among the local Indians that the Government had to come
to their rescue in 1817 in order to relieve actual distress.13
It is worth our while to know whence the various immi-
grants.came into the Alabama country; by what routes they
reached their destination ; and in what part of the territory
they settled. Although statistics cannot be produced, a fairly
reliable idea may be had from various accounts which, in the
main, agree.
S Pickett Papers. Sketch of Wm. Bibb, by John D. Bibb.
o Indian Office files. R. J. Meijrs to Louis Winston, June 12, 1815.
i'> Jackson Papers, Instructions from Wm. H. Crawford, Jan. 2<, 1816;
Indian Office files. A. Jackson to Wm. H. Crawford, July 4, 1816; Ibid.,
R. J. Meigs to Louis Winston, June 12, 1815.
u An interesting; letter from Clabon Harris to General Jackson, bort
Claiborne, Jan. 12, 1816. gives an account of the conditions of some of
the squatters. This is in the Jackson Papers.
12 Meek MS., Early Settlement of Alabama. ?
l* Indian Office files. Chevokee Chiefs to R. J. Meigs, March 20, 1817;
Ibid., Samuel Riley to R. J. Meip>; Jackson Papers, L. P. dames to A.
Jackson, March 6, 1817.
28
THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
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THE IMMIGRANTS 29
The two roads through Misissippi Territory for which Con-
gress made appropriations in 1806 were continuations of es-
tablished routes of travel.'4 That from Nashville to Natchez
crossed the Tennessee River at Muscle Shoals and was known
as the "Natchez Trace." It was a continuation of the "Ken-
tucky Trace" which passed from Nashville through Lexington,
to Maysville, and thence by the Old National Road through Co-
lumbus, Zanesville, and Wheeling, then on to Pittsburgh. Fol-
lowing the general course of the Mississippi, the Natchez Trace
was the principal highway for the region which it traversed.
As a matter of fact, however, it was hardly more than a bridle
path through the woods and did not deserve to be called a road.
The highway along the route from Athens to New Orleans
"which followed the direction of the Alabama River and passed
through the Tombigbee settlements, came to be known as the
"Federal Road."15 Beyond Athens, the route passed north-
eastward through Greenville, Salisbury, Charlotte, and Fred-
ericksburg, then on to Washington, Baltimore, and Philadel-
phia. Thus it traversed the piedmont region of the South At-
lantic states and connected the Southwest with the commercial
centers of the East.
Diverging from this route just beyond the Georgia line, an-
other highway passed eastward of it and connected the South-
ern capitals which stood at the fall line of the rivers flowing
into the Atlantic. Extending through Milledgeville, Augusta,
Columbia, Raleigh, and Richmond, this again united with the
piedmont route just before reaching Washington.
But there was still another means of access to the Alabama
country which was of great importance. Diverging from the
Pittsburgh-Philadelphia highway, this road passed southwest-
ward through the Valley of Virginia, then followed the course
of the Holston river to Knoxville. From Knoxville the orig-
inal highway passed westward to Nashville, but with the
formation of Madison County, a spur was extended southward
to Huntsville, and this soon came to be an important route of
travel.
14 The map given here is based upon that prepared by John Melish
for 1818, but it has been compared with all those in the Library of Con-
gress for the period covered. Information as to principal routes of.
communication is based also upon the accounts of travel available to
the writer.
15 It seems that this road was not actually opened until 1811. See
Phillips, Ti-avsportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt, 69; and Ball, Clarke
C&unty, 134.
30 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
Now, a man coming' into Alabama from the piedmont region
of Georgia would have the choice of two routes. He could go
by the Federal Road into the Alabama-Tombigbee basin or he
could take a road which passed from Augusta to Athens, cross-
ed the Tennessee River where Chattanooga now stands, and led
on to Nashville. 1,; The highway crossed the road from Knox-
ville to Huntsville and gave access to the fertile Tennessee Val-
ley region. The Georgia men who helped to settle Madison
County in 1S09 took this route,17 but the later emigration of
Georgia planters was mostly into the southern part of Ala-
bama, and they passed along the Federal Road.
The first lands of the Creek cession which were put on sale
were disposed of at Milledgeville, Georgia, and they lay along
the upper course of the Alabama River in the neighborhood of
the later Montgomery County.15 It is easy to understand,
therefore, how it was that the Georgia planters established a
predominance in this region from the first. With this as a
nucleus, the immigrants from Georgia seem to have followed
the route of the Federal Road and they came to form perhaps
the strongest element in the population of all the southeastern
counties of Alabama.10
Men from the piedmont region of South Carolina also had
two routes open to them. They could take the. fall-line road
through Columbia or the piedmont road through Greenville
and reach the Alabama basin by the Federal Road. But if
they wished to reach the Tennessee Valley, they could pass
northward from Greenville, through Saluda Gap in the Blue
Ridge where it borders North and South Carolina, then to the
site of Asheville, and along the course of the French Broad to
Knoxville, and thence to Huntsville.2" Immigrants came by
both of these routes, and, appearing to have avoided the settle-
ments of those who preceded them in the Tennessee Valley and
in the Alabama River basin, the majority of them passed on
from both directions into the central hilly region or the basin
of the Black Warrior and upper Tombigbee Rivers.
ifl Phillips, Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt,, 68-69.
i" Betts, History of Huntsville, 21,
is Land Office, Record of Proclamations, May 24, 1807.
19 The account given here of the distribution of population in Ala-
bama agrees, in general, with the available statements concerning dif-
ferent localities; and with the general statements to be found in Garrett's
Reminiscences, 35; and in the Meek MS. on the Early Settlement of Ala-
bama. See also Hamilton, Colonial Mobile, 456-457; and Smith, Pick-
ens Count]!, 37-39.
-" Phillips, Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt, 63.
THE IMMIGRANTS 31
Men coming from North Carolina could have taken the route
along the French Broad to Knoxville, and thence to Huntsville,*
but since this road traversed only the mountainous western le-
gion of the State, it is probable that most of the immigrants
from North Carolina found the highway from Raleigh through
Columbus and Augusta to the Federal Road more convenient.
These men, like those from South Carolina, found the central
region of Alabama most attractive.
The Virginians who came from the Valley followed their
highway through Cumberland Gap and down the Holston to
Knoxville, thence gaining access to the Tennessee Valley.
Some of these passed on down to the Black Warrior and Tom-
bigbee Valleys. For Virginians from the piedmont region, it
was more convenient to take one of the eastern roads leading
to southern Alabama, whence they could make their way into
the Tombigbee-Warrior region if they so desired.
Of course the Tennessee Valley was most easily accessible to
the men just over the line, and consequently Tennesseeans had
a predominance in this section. Some bought lands in the
Valley, while others passed beyond into the hilly region and be-
came squatters upon the National domain, for the lands in the
valley were put upon the market principally in 1818, but those
south of it were not sold for several years afterward. Here
back-woods communities were established in the isolated val-
leys, and frontier conditions of life prevailed for a long time.
The principal route of travel connecting the Tennessee Val-
ley with the Alabama-Tombigbee region was a road passing
southwestward from Huntsville through Jones Valley to the
town of Tuscaloosa, which grew up at the head of boat naviga-
tion upon the Black Warrior. It was along this route that the
principal settlements were made in the central hilly region.
At first the Tennesseeans predominated here, but South Caro-
linians soon came in so numerously as to outnumber the Ten-
nesseeans in some localities. The struggle for suprem-
acy between these elements in Blount and Jefferson Counties
provoked open hostilities before it was settled. Finally, the
Tennesseeans came to predominate in Blount, while the South
Carolinians had the majority in Jefferson County.-'1
As in this case, most communities had their local color, and
the state whence one came was always a matter of signifi-
21 Meek MS. Early S< Hlement of Alabama; Powell, History of Blount
County, 37.
32 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
cance. In the Tombigbee-Warrior region, North Carolinians,
South Carolinians, and Virginians mingled in varying propor-
tions, but together formed a predominating population-ele-
ment which had its own characteristics. As late as 1856,
Greene County, at the conjunction of the Black Warrior with
the Tombigbee, had a population of 438 native South Carolin-
ians, 357 Alabamians, 348 North Carolinians, 92 Georgians,
45 Tennesseeans, 24 Kentuckians, 12 men from Connecticut,
37 from Ireland, and 10 from Germany.--
The presence of a small number of foreigners is character-
istic of the early period, and so is the presence of New Eng-
enders. The cosmopolitan population was confined to the
trading towns where the merchants were largely Yankees.23
This was especially true of Mobile, where the transient popula-
tion was turbulent and varied. A community of Germans was
established at Dutch Bend on the Alabama River;-4 and De-
mopolis, on the Tombigbee, was -founded by a band of Napol-
eonic refugees. However, such segregated community-build-
ing was not characteristic.
Finally, in spite of the mixture which was produced by the
flow of immigration into Alabama, three areas can be distin-
guished which show peculiarities due partly to the predomi-
nant element in the population. In the Tennessee Valley the
preponderance of Tennesseeans gave a strongly democratic
flavor to political ideas; in the Tombigbee-Warrior region, the
Carolina-Virginia predominance seems to be indicated by a
flavor of conservatism in things political ; while the influence
of Georgia politics is clearly discernible in Montgomery Coun-
ty. However, there are other factors which played a more im-
portant part in shaping opinions and politics than did the orig-
in of the population, the effect of which, indeed, is often en-
tirely obliterated.
22 Snedecor, Directory of Greene County, 1856.
23 Alabama Republican, Aup;. 15. 1823, Extract of a letter to the Ed-
itor of the Newburyport (Mass.) Herald, dated Claiborne (A), March,
1823; Jackson Papers, Col. Will Kins to A. Jackson, Nov. 23, 1821.
24 Blue MS., I, Autauga County, 4.
as
Chapter IV.
THE DIVISION OF THE TERRITORY
The question of the division of the Territory came up as ear-
ly as 1803, for in that year the Tcmbigbee settlers sent a pe-
tition to Congress praying that they might bo separated from
the community upon the Mississippi.' The petition was renew-
ed in 1809, the petitioners stating that they had a government
in name only, that they were entirely neglected by the authori-
ties of the Territory.- This attitude was perfectly natural, for
the Tombigbee settlement was widely separated from that
about Natchez, and, being in a minority in the legislature, it
was unable to make its needs felt at so great a distance.
In 1809 Madison County was opened up in the Tennessee
Valley; and in 1810 West Florida was annexed to the United
States. This country was claimed as a part of the Louisiana
purchase, but the title was most flimsy. It seemed, however,
that war with England was approaching, and since French and
English armies were fighting over the throne of Spain, West
Florida in Spanish hands was a menace to our southern coast.
England might use the Gulf ports as a base through which to
treat with hostile Indians, and thereby the situation of our
frontier settlements in this region was rendered critical in
case of hostilities. A declaration of independence by a band of
men, largely Americans, who had migrated into West Florida,
gave Madison the excuse which he eagerly accepted as a way
out of the difficult situation. A proclamation declared the
Spanish province annexed to the United States, and General
Claiborne occupied the country as far east as the Pearl River.::
The newly-acquired region was joined to the Territory of
Orleans for administrative purposes. In 1811, this territory
became the State of Louisiana, and more than four hundred
West Floridians petitioned Congress that their district might
be annexed to Mississippi Territory.' Until this time the
Mississippi delegate had been working in Congress for admis-
sion to the Union without division, but here the intersectional
i Annals of Congress, 8 Cong:., 1 Sess., 624.
-' Ibid., II Conjr.. Ft. 1, 695.
3 McMaster, History of the United States, III, 371, et seq.
■* American State Papers, Miscellaneous, II, 155.
34 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
rivalry in Congress came into piay. The House, where. the
North was in the majority, showed itself, even at this early
date, willing to provide for the admission of the undivided
Territory. But in the Senate the South, having lost its hold
•upon the House, was trying- to maintain an equality. This
could be accomplished only by the admission of a slave state
every time a free state was admitted, and from this point of
view, it was desirable to carve as many states as possible from
southern territory. Consequently, the Senate insisted that
Mississippi Territory be divided.
The combination of this situation with tne West Florida
annexation suggested a new idea to Poindexter, the Terri-
torial delegate; and he brought forward a proposition for di-
'vision by a line running due east from the mouth of the Ya-
zoo. The southern portion, with West Florida annexed, was
to be admitted to the Union at once, while the northern portion
was to be given a territorial government.5
This move called down a storm upon the author's head.
The Madison County inhabitants would, it is true, have been
glad enough to see the plan carried through, leaving them
with a territorial government to administer alone.0 But to
be tied permanently to the Mississippi River region with its
^separate interests was the last thing desired by the Tombig-
bee settlers. Opposition was quickly expressed in this quar-
ter, and it was seconded by many in the Natchez region who
felt that the frontier settlements were yet too young to sup-
port the burden of state government.7
There were other reasons, too, why many opposed the in-
stitution of state government at this time. In 1795 the leg-
islature of Georgia had made large grants of land in the
Mississippi country to certain speculating companies which
came to be known as the "Yazoo" land companies. Exten-
sive graft in connection with the deal having been exposed,
the r.ext session of the legislature repealed the grants and de-
prived the companies of their charters. This was supposed
to have ended the matter, but in 1809 the Federal Supreme
Court, in the case of Fletcher vs. Peck, declared that the re-
peal of the grants was a breach of contract, and therefore for-
•"• American State Papers, Misc., II. 103-164.
« Mississippi Transcripts. J. W. Walker to Geo. P'crndexter, Dec. 23,
1812.
"Claiborne. Mississippi, oov; Transcripts. Cowles Stead to Geo. Poin-
dexter, Dec. 2.',, 1812.
1737674
THE DIVISION OF THE TERRITORY 35
bidden by the Constitution. The claimants under the com-*
panies at once appealed to Congress for relief, but John Ran-
dolph, of Roanoke, made the case his pet antipathy and pre-
vented anything being done until 1814.
When, in 1802. Georgia ceded to the United States her
claim to the Mississippi region, it was provided in the agree-
ment that all completed British and Spanish grants should
hold good. Actual settlers were to be provided for, and all
claims arising under the act of Georgia which established
Bourbon County in the ceded region were to be validated. In
addition to this, five million acres of land were set aside for
the satisfaction of any other claimants under acts of Georgia,
to be appropriated as Congress might see fit. The Yazoo
claimants were the chief possible beneficiaries under this pro-
vision, but it was long before the matter was put at rest."
In 1811 many titles to land in Mississippi Territory were
threatened by the Yazoo claimants, and many others were
threatened by a conflict between British and Spanish grants.
A number of actual settlers held tracts under Spanish grants
which had been superseded by grants under the British ad-
ministration. These British claims had never been estab-
lished, but the matter was subject to judicial determination,
and it caused uneasiness to many who lived upon the land.
Because of this uncertainty of land tenure, courts of Fed-
eral jurisdiction were not established in Mississippi Terri-
tory, and though the delegate in Congress pressed for a com-
promise of the British claims, nothing was accomplished up
to the time when Mississippi was admitted to the Union. It
was the dread of Federal courts, therefore, and of British and
Yazoo claimants which caused many men to oppose admis-
sion to statehood in 1812.-'
But in spite of all these objections, an act providing for the
admission of the undivided Territory was passed by the
House and sent up to the Senate in this year. The Senate
committee to which the bill was referred advised division
along the line of the Tombigbee River, and proposed that the
question lie over until the next session.1"
Georgia, in granting her claim to the United States, had
provided that the whole territory be admitted into the Union
s Treat. The Satiovul Land System, 355-364.
'•' Washington Repitblica Sept. S>. 1^15, March 13, and April 17. 1816,
April 9, 1817.
i" American State Papers, Misc., II, 182.
36 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
as a single state as sooii as its population should amount to
-sixty thousand whites. In view of the action of the Senate.
Poindexter now brought in a resolution that Congress secure
Georgia's permission to a division of the Territory.11 The res-
olution passed both Houses, and within the year Georgia's ac-
quiescence was reported to the Senate. But the War of 1812
coming on at, this time, its depression was added to the argu-
ments of those who wished to postpone the question of state-
hood. Thus, from 1812 to 1815 the matter was not agitated
to any great extents
When the question of admission was again brought before
Congress in 1815, two things had happened to change the sit-
uation. In 1812 so much of West Florida as lay between the
. Pearl and Perdido Rivers was added to the Territory, and in
1814 Congress settled the Yazoo Claims by appropriating
five million dollars in scrip to be distributed to the claimants
under the several companies and redeemed in payment on the
first lands to be sold in Mississippi Territory.
Though the British claims still threatened many of the set-
tlers, the prospects of peace and immigration now caused
the Territorial delegate, Dr. Lattimore, who had opposed ad-
mission when first elected in 1813, to come out in favor of the
admission without division. 1J Petitions to that effect were
.sent up by the legislature, and in 1816 the House passed a bill
framed in accordance with that policy. But the attitude of
the Senate had not changed. The commitee to which the bill
was referred again proposed division by a north and south
line, and the question of admission was again postponed. 1;<
Lattimore now saw the uselessness of working along the
•old line, and expressed himself as willing to accept division if
Congress insisted upon it." But, in the meantime, the sit-
uation had changed at home. The extensive Creek cession of
1814 and the smaller cessions from the Cherokees, Chicka-
saws. and Choctaws in 1816 had opened up a great stretch of
country comprising most of the eastern part of the Territory.
The settlers upon the Tombigbee now expected to see their
river basin become, in a short while, more populous than the
region bordering the Mississippi. They accordingly antici-
« Annals of Congress, 12 Con-., 1 Sess.» II, 1480.
i- Washington Republican, April 5 and April 26, 1815.
* 3 Annals of Congress, 14 Cong., 1 Sess., 352; Washing ton R<rpithIieom^
April 16. 1817.
H Washington Republican, May 22 and May 29. 1816.
THE DIVISION OF THE TERRITORY 37
pated control of the legislature and the removal of the capi-
tal to St. Stephens.
Such a prospect was by no means pleasing to the men
who lived between Pearl River and the Mississippi. So great-
ly did they dread the threatened preponderance of the east-
ern section of the Territory that they gave up their old enthu-
siasm for a single state and supported Lattimore on the ques-
tion of division. This, they now believed, was the only way
to keep their capital near the banks of the Mississippi.
On the other hand, the Tombigbee settlers now appeared
much alarmed at the prospect of division. Meetings were held
in several places, and the counties were urged to send dele-
gates to assemble in convention at Ford's on Pearl River.
Here a gathering of delegates took place in October, but Madi-
son and the counties west of the Pearl were not represented.
Resolutions opposing division were drawn up and Judge Har-
ry Toulmin was sent to Washington to present the memorial
of the convention, and to work for its cause when the matter
should be brought up again.1"-
When Congress assembled in December, the House commit-
tee to which the Mississippi question was referred expressed
itself as being in favor of a division of the Territory, with im-
mediate admission of the western portion and a territorial
government for the eastern half. The agitated question was
as to the demarcation. Lattimore proposed a line running due
north from the Gulf to the northwest corner of Washington
County, then following the Choctaw boundary to the Tombig-
bee. Toulmin wished a line that would give Wayne, Greene,
and Jackson Counties to the eastern government, and some at-
tempt was made to fix upon the Pascagoula as the boundary.
The counties in dispute were much nearer the Tombigbee
than they were to the Mississippi, and it was argued that it
would be an unnnecessary inconvenience to their inhabitants
to have to look to a capital upon the great River, when St.
Stephens was so much closer.1" In the end, Lattimore was
more successful than Toulmin and, though giving some ground.
he came near to having his way. The line was fixed so as to
run due north from the Gulf to the northwest corner of Wash-
ington County, thence directly to the point where Bear Creek
15 Washington Republican, Nov. 13, 1816; Jackson Papers, James Ti-
tus to Andrew Jackson, Dec. 5, 1816.
16 Darby, Immigrant's Guide, 107-113; Washington Republican, Jan.
22, Feb. 26, March 5, 1817.
38 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
flows into the Tennessee, then along the course of the river tp
the Tennessee line.
It will be noticed that the present boundary does not run
due north from the Gulf, but slightly northwest instead.
This is because it was found that the line, as originally es-
tablished, encroached slightly upon Wayne, Greene, and Jack-
son Counties. In order to remedy this, the Alabama enabling
act of 1819 changed it so as to make it run southeastward
from the northwest corner of Washington County and to
strike the Gulf at a point ten miles east of the mouth of the
Pascagoula.17
The act establishing Alabama Territory was approved
March 3, 1817. lv' All laws applying to the old Mississippi Ter-
ritory were to remain in force until they might be changed.
Officials holding places under the old government for eastern
districts were to retain their positions until they should be re-
placed, and William Wyatt Bibb, of Georgia, was appointed
Governor.
Bibb had just previously resigned his seat in the United
States Senate because his vote for a bill increasing the sal-
aries of Senators aroused a storm of indignation at home. His
colleague. Charles Tait, was under the same condemnation,
but, urged by John W. Walker, of Huntsville, he remained un-
til the end of his term and saw Alabama safely admitted to the
Union. Then, retiring from public life in Georgia, he purchas-
ed a plantation upon the Alabama and moved into the new
state.11* It was Senator Tait, who, in 1802. had notified the Sen-
ate of Georgia's consent to a division of Mississippi Territory
and who piloted through that body the final bill which provid-
ed for division in 1817. Both Tait and Bibb were staunch
friends of William H. Crawford, of Georgia, Secretary of the
Treasury, and it was likely through his influence that the lat-
ter was appointed Governor of Alabama Territory.
Such members as had represented eastern districts in the
legislature of Mississippi Territory were empowered to meet
at St. Stephens to set the new government in motion. There
on January 19, 1818, the first session was held.
St. Stephens stood at the head of schooner navigation on
the Tombigbee. In 1811 it consisted of three houses; four
i" Statutes at Large, TIT. 490.
i- Ibid., Ill, :;71-:>72.
i-' Tompkins. Charles Tait, 12-ltj; Tait Papers. J. W. Walker to C. Tait,
Jan. 18, 1817.
THE DIVISION OF THE TERRITORY 29
years later it boasted of nine; and in 1816 the number had
grown to forty.-'" In two rooms in Douglas Hotel, hired
for the purpose, the legislature met.-1 The House con-
sisted of about thirteen members who elected Gabriel
Moore their speaker. The Council had but one member,
James Titus, who had been president of the old Council. Not
to be abashed by the situation, he convened with all due cer-
emony, dispatched business, and adjourned from day to day.'--'
In his message, the Governor recommended the promotion
of education and internal improvements, but added that the
latter object could hardly be accomplished without the aid of
the Federal Government. Accordingly, a memorial asking
for assistance in this matter was drawn up by the legislature
and sent to Washington. The legislation accomplished at this
session included the establishment of new counties; the in-
corporation of a steamboat company, an academy, and a bank
at St. Stephens ; and the repeal of the law fixing a maximum
rate of interest which could be charged on loans. Thereaf-
ter, any percentage agreed upon between the contracting par-
ties and stated in writing would be legal. Six men were nom-
inated from whom the President was to select three for the
Executive Council, and a commission was appointed to report
to the next session of the legislature on a favorable site for
the permanent seat of the Territorial Government.--
It was during the territorial period of Alabama that the
Seminole War broke out upon the Florida frontier. Several
white settlers were killed by the restive Indians and militia
was rushed to the seat of disturbance. Though troops were sta-
tioned at several points in Alabama, and a certain amount of
fighting took place within her borders, the struggle went on
primarily in Florida. The storm stirred up by Jackson's un-
authorized attack upon Pensacola and by the hanging of Ar-
buthnot and Ambrister belong to National rather than to State
history.
Alabama was not greatly affected by these events and the
tide of immigration moved on undisturbed. Among those
who came in about this time was a party of Frenchmen, sup-
porters of Napoleon, fleeing from the Bourbons who had been
•-" Jackson Papers, A. P. Hayne to Andrew Jackson, Nov. 27, 1816.
21 Meek MS.. The Alabama Territory.
--'Pickett, History of Alabama, 615; Monette, History of Mississippi
Valley, 446-447.
-3 Pickett, History >; Alabama, 615-617
40 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
returned to power. They had moved to America in a body
and formed an association with headquarters at Philadelphia.
Inquiring for land where the vine and the olive might be
grown, their attention had been directed to Alabama. At
their request, Congress agreed to sell two townships of land
at the confluence of the Black Warrior and the Tombigbee.
Here a town was laid out and a settlement established. A
number of Napoleon's famous generals, including Grouchy,
Desnoettes, Clausel, and l'Allemand. were concerned in the
enterprise. Log cabins and agriculture were less familiar to
them than the sword, and the vine and olive did not flourish
upon the Tombigbee. Though the town of Demopolis owes
its beginning to these refugees, most of them finally gave up
the attempted settlement. Some returned to their native land
wrhen conditions made that possible, others took up their abode
among the native population.-4
24 J. S. Reeves, The Napoleonic Exiles in Johns Hopkins University
Studies, XXIII, 525-656.
Chapter V.
ALABAMA BECOMES A STATE.
So rapid had been the growth of population in Alabama
during 1817 and 1818 that, when the second session of the
legislature met at St. Stephens in November of the latter year,
transition to statehood was expected within a short while.
Preparations for this event consequently absorbed the atten-
tion of the assembly.
A petition to Congress praying that the Territory might
be admitted to the Union as a state was drawn up by the legis-
lature and sent by John W. Walker, the speaker of the House,
to his friend, Senator Tait, of Georgia,' who presented it to
the Senate. But the matter was not allowed to rest here. A
census of the Territory had been taken, and the legislature
proceeded to apportion the representatives for the constitu-
tional convention. On this question considerable difficulty
arose. Madison was the most populous county in the Terri-
tory and the members from the southern counties attempted
to reduce the representation of the Tennessee Valley region
by providing that no county could have more than a given
number of seats in the convention. This was strongly oppos-
ed by members from the northern counties and they finally
carried their point, securing a proportional representation.
But in order to accomplish this it became necessary for them
to accept a rider to the apportionment bill providing for the
location of the seat of government in the southern part of the
Territory. -
As was stated in the last chapter, the first session of the
Territorial legislature appointed a committee which was to
report on a suitable site for the seat of government. At the
second session. Governor Bibb, who was on the committee
and seems to have taken the entire responsibility of the
choice upon himself, reported in favor of locating the capital
at the junction of the Cahawba and Alabama Rivers.'- This
i Tait Papers, J. W. Walker to C. Tait. Nov. 11, 1818.
3 Tait Papers, J. W. Walker to C. Tait, Nov. 9, 1818, and Nov. lo,
"■Tait Papers, W. W. Bibb to C. Tait, Sept. 19, i81h.
42 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
was the location forced upon the northern members by means
of the rider.
The place selected, while convenient for all those who lived
on the rivers of southern Alabama, was quite out of communi-
cation with the Tennessee Valley, and naturally was opposed
by the men from that section. In giving their consent to the
bill which established this location, the representatives from
the northern counties were making a substantial concession,
but, by way of compensation, they secured a provision that
Huntsville should be the temporary seat of government until
a town could be laid out and buildings erected at Cahawba.
Walker kept Tait posted on all these proceedings. He sent
him a copy of the apportionment bill, stating that the Senate
was expected to distribute the seats in the constitutional con-
vention accordingly, and that Huntsville should be the place
of meeting.4 John Crowell had been sent to Washington
as Territorial delegate, but his finger is to be seen in none of
these transactions. Indeed, Walker wrote to Tait that he did
not hold a very high opinion of the delegate,' and there is ev-
idence to show that Crowell. in so far as he was able to bring
any weight to bear, opposed the plans of Walker and Tait.0
However, the Senator from Georgia succeeded in getting his
enabling act through as desired, and it was signed on March
2, 1819. ' The convention was to meet in Huntsville on the
first Monday in July, Madison County securing eight dele-
gates against four for the next largest county. Provision
was made for granting to the new State the sixteenth section
of land in each township for the use of schools ; all salt springs
within her borders ; three per cent, of the proceeds of all sales
of public lands within the State to be applied in the construc-
tion of roads; two townships for the use of a seminary of
learning; and 1620 acres at the junction of the Cahawba and
Alabama Rivers where the seat of government was to be
laid out.
Among the men elected to the convention were some who
had had experience in the public affairs of the states from
J Tait Papers. J. W. Walker to C. Tait, Nov. (?). 1818.
•-> Ibid., J. W. Walker to C. Tait. Feb. 8, 1819.
s Huntsville Republican, Feb. 6, 1819. The editor states that Mr.
Crowell said that he remonstrated before a Congressional Committee
in regard to the admission of Alabama, and that this remonstrance was
likely ajrainst the rule of representation for the Constitutional Conven-
tion as adopted bv the Alabama Legislature.
" Statutes at Large; III, 489-492.
ALABAMA BECOMES A STATE 43
which they came. Three former Congressmen and two su-
preme court judges from North Carolina sat in the body along
with a number of others who had seen less conspicuous public-
service. s Nor was it considered incongruous that Sam Dale,
the most notable pioneer and Indian fighter of the Alabama
country, should sit among them. On the whole, the members
seem to have been selected quietly and with the intention of
securing the best available men. From among their number
six governors, six state supreme court judges, and six United
States Senators were later selected.1'
The convention assembled at Huntsville on July 5, 1819,
and John W. Walker was elected to preside. A committee of
fifteen was instructed to draw up and submit a frame of gov-
ernment ; no journal was kept of the proceedings of this com-
mittee. The instrument of government which was prepared
was accepted by the convention with practically no amend-
ments, so that we know very little concerning the process by
which the constitution was framed.1" It was modeled large-
ly after that of Mississippi and the striking feature is that it
made the legislature superior to the other branches of gov-
ernment. The Governor's vote could be over-ridden by a ma-
jority of those elected to each House of the legislature, and all
State judges were elected by a joint vote of that body. These
judges held office during good behaviour, but could be remov-
ed on an address to the Governor adopted by a two-thirds
vote of the legislature. The heads of the executive depart-
ments,— the Secretary of State, the Treasurer and Comptrol-
ler, the Attorney General, — were elected by a joint vote of the
general assembly, it being the duty of the first of these to keep
a record of the acts of the Governor and to lay the same be-
fore the assembly.
The social and political temper of the convention may be
judged from the constitutional provisions in regard to suf-
frage and representation. All white, adult males who were
citizens of the United States and who had resided for a year
in the State were given the right to vote. Representation,
both in the Senate and in the House, was to be apportioned
according to the white population, nor was there any proper-
ty qualification for representatives. Slaves were to be grant-
» Tompkins. Charles Tait, 12-16; Tait Papers, J. W. Walker to C. Tait,
Jan. 18, 1S1T.
'■'Thomas. Birth ot t'- Constitution of Alabama, 4-5.
lfl Journal of the Constitutional Convention of IS 19.
44 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
ed trial by jury in cases more serious than petty larceny, and
in case of personal injury to a slave, the offending paiiy
should be punished just as though the person injured had been
a white man. The legislature was given no power to emanci-
pate slaves without the consent of their owners; but owners
might secure the emancipation of their slaves, and the legis-
lature might prohibit the bringing of slaves into the State as
merchandise.
The constitution provided that a State bank might be es-
tablished with as many branches as the legislature might di-
rect, but no branch was to be established nor bank charter re-
newed except by a two-thirds vote of each House, nor could
more than one branch be established or bank charter renew-
ed at any one session of the general assembly. It was also
provided that the banks already existing might become
branches of the State bank by agreement between them and
the assembly, in which case, however, they were bound by the
same rules as applied to other branches. And in all such
banks and branches, it was necessary that two-fifths of the
stock and a proportional representation in the directory be
reserved to the State.11
It was provided that the first session of the general as-
sembly should meet at Huntsville, and after that it was to
meet at Cahawba until 1825. The first session which should
meet in that year would have power, without the consent of
the Governor, to designate a permanent seat of government,
but if this were not done, the seat was to remain permanently
at Cahawba.
The general assembly might, by a two-thirds vote of each
House, propose amendments to the constitution. These had
to be published three months before the next general election
of representatives; and if a majority of votes were cast in
favor, the next session of the assembly might incorporate
them into the constitution by a two-thirds vote of each House.
Thus the initiative as well as the final action in changing the
constitution was in the hands of the legislature.
This instrument of government was, judged by the stand-
ards of the time, liberal. In the older states, restricted suf-
frage, discrimination between religious denominations, un-
equal representation, and imprisonment for debt, were still
common. In Alabama, imprisonment for debt was to be for-
11 Constitution of Alal ama, 1819.
ALABAMA BECOMES A STATE 45
bidden, slaves were to be treated as liberally as circumstances
seemed to warrant, nor was any interest or section to be given
special weight in the councils of the State. It is significant
that the slave holder was given no advantage over the non-
slave holder in the matter of suffrage and representation.
All this looks like pioneer democracy as it came to be under-
stood under Andrew Jackson. But there was a difference.
Manhood suffrage meant a government by the people, but
once they had voted, their power passed to a remarkable de-
gree into the hands of their representatives. The legislature
controlled the executive and the judiciary and dominated in
the matter of constitutional amendment. Pure Jacksonian
democracy would not have consented to a bench elected by the
legislature and holding office during good behaviour. Though
the government was framed along liberal lines, the conserva-
tive element was strongly marked. Instead of reserving as
much power as possible to the hands of the people, it was
placed in the hands of those whom the people should choose
to represent them.
The convention made provision for the election of repre-
sentatives and officials under the new government, and the
constitution went into effect without submission to the peo-
ple.1- It served Alabama until the War of Secession with but
three amendments.
In the selection of officials, the contest for the governor-
ship and for the Federal judgeship are of especial interest in
that they foreshadow political alignments that were of more
than temporary importance. Bibb, the Territorial governor,
was at first the only candidate for the governorship. Later
Marmaduke Williams, of Tuscaloosa, came out against him.
Bibb lived in the southern section of Alabama and his choice
of Cahawba as the seat of government had provoked strong
opposition in the northern section.13 Of course, there was no
chance of locating the capital in the Tennessee Valley, but
Tuscaloosa was accessible to that section by way of the Jones
Valley Route. This town, though within a few miles of the
Mississippi line, was also fairly easy of access from the south-
ern part of Alabama, because of its situation on navigable
water and on the thoroughfare between the two sections of
the State. The Tennessee Valley region united with the
Black Warrior and upper Tombigbee regions in support of
11: Constitution of 1819, Schedule, section 7.
13 Tait Papers, W. W. Bibb to C. Tait, Sept. 19, 1818.
46 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IX ALABAMA
this place as the logical seat of government, and Williams
was fitted to express this sentiment. Bibb was the stronger
candidate, however, and his influence with the National gov-
ernment would likely prove of much use to the new State. He
was supported by conservative men and carried two counties
in the Tennessee Valley, but, aside from this, the line which
separates the waters of the Black Warrior and Tombigbee
from the waters of the Alabama was the line which separated
the supporters of Bibb from those of Williams.14 The elec-
tion was won by Bibb.
The first general assembly of the State met at Huntsville
in October, and one of its most important duties was to elect
the two United States Senators. There was an understanding
that one was to come from the south and one from the north,
each section being ready to vote for the candidate put forward
by the other. The choice of the Tennessee Valley easily fell
upon John W. Walker, nor did it take the Alabama and Tom-
bigbee section long to decide on WiHiam R. King.'r> This
gentleman had represented North Carolina in Congress dur-
ing those exciting days when the second war with England
was decided upon, and he had been of the "war hawks." He
had later served as secretary of legation to William Pinckney
at Naples and St. Petersburg, and a long political career now
awaited him in Alabama. 1,;
Because of the agreement between the two sections, the
choice of the Senators passed off quietly enough in the legis-
lature, but there was commotion below the surface. Tait,
after his valuable services to Alabama in the United States
Senate, had returned to private life and taken up his residence
in the southern part of the new State. It was not natural that
he should be passed over in the matter of political preferment,
and he had at least one friend who did not intend that he
should be overlooked. That friend was William H. Crawford.
Secretary of the Treasury. Crawford and Tait had become
fast friends while teaching together in Augusta, and they lat-
er came to be political allies.
The Secretary was anxious for Tait to be sent to the Sen-
ate from Alabama,17 and Tait would not have objected. But
Walker and his friends in the north could not further this am-
n House Journal, 1819, 37.
i- Tait Papers, J. W. Walker to C. Tait, Aug. 7, 1819.
i« Pickett, Histoi i >f Alabaina, tUl-^47.
»7 Tait Papers, W. El. Crawford to C. Tait, Nov. 7, 1819.
ALABAMA BECOMES A STATE 47
bition, for the south was choosing its own candidate, and it
chose King. Tait indicated that his second choice would be for
the Federal judgeship in Alabama, ls but there was another
candidate for this place also. Toulmin had been Federal
judge for Alabama Territory and it was natural that he
should expect to retain his place when Alabama became a
state. William Crawford, of Alabama, had applied to Gov-
ernor Bibb for the appointment, and Bibb had recommended
him to the Secretary of the Treasury ; but when the Alabama
Crawford heard that Tait wanted the position, he withdrew
his request.10 Bibb then recommended Tait to the Secre-
tary,20 and by this time Walker was in Washington and able
to help his friend. He went to the President with the
matter, and the appointment was easily put through, Monroe
answering a letter from Toulmin to the effect that he could
do nothing for him.-1
Crawford was in control of the patronage of Alabama and
put his friends into office wherever he could. He even of-
fered a land office receivership to King in order to get him
out of the way of Tail's senatorial ambitions. This situation
naturally aroused the antagonism of those who sought office
in vain, and tended to unite all elements against the men from
Georgia who were strongest numerically in the neighborhood
of Montgomery County, but who constituted a powerful
minority in Huntsville and other towns. Denunciation of the
"Georgia faction" became common, and the Georgia men, see-
ing the danger in this, did what they could to allay it, even
securing the appointment of some outsiders to office,-2 But
here was a political situation which cast a long shadow down
the early history of Alabama.
During the first session of the general assembly, there oc-
curred another event which will serve to complete the politi-
cal picture of Alabama in 1819. General Jackson came to
Huntsville with his horses to take part in some racing. Such
an occasion could not be passed over in silence and the legis-
lature took the opportunity to celebrate. -;; A resolution ad-
mitting the General within the bar of both Houses was passed,
i* Walker Papers, H. Toulmin to J. W. Walker, Feb. 21. 1819.
v.» Walker Papers, C. Tait to J. W. Walker, Nov. 19, 1S19.
20 Tait Papers. W. H. Crawford to C. Tait, Nov. 29, 1S19.
-i Ibid., J. W. Walker to C. Tait. Dec. 20, 1819.
22 Walker Papers. C. T:;it to J. W. Walker. Oct. 9. 181!/; Tait Papers,
W. H. Crawford to C. Tait. Nov. 7. 1819, and Nov. 29, 1819.
23 Pickett, History of Alabama, 6G1-C.I52.
48 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
and another approving his course in the Seminole War was
introduced. This latter resolution read as follows: "Andjbe
it further resolved that this General Assembly do highly dis-
approve of the late attempt made by some members of the
Congress of the United States at the last session to censure
the military course of this inestimable officer from motives
(as we believe) other than patriotic." It was carried in the
House by a majority of twenty-seven to twenty-one; five
counties, two in the north and three in the south, going
against it, ten well scattered counties voting in favor of it and
six splitting their vote equally.24
This, on the surface, does not appear to be a very decisive
affair. But James G. Birney, who lived in Huntsville in the
days before he became a leader of abolitionists and who was
now a member of the assembly, signed his political death war-
rant in Alabama by opposing Jackson on this occasion.-"' The
same is true of most of the others who took a similar course.
Jacksonism had not been an issue when the assembly was
elected and many got seats whose opinions would have de-
barred them at a later time.
But such men as Birney had strong company. Governor
Bibb wrote to Tait concerning Jackson's attack on Pensacola
in the Seminole War as follows :
"Government has done right respecting the occupation of
Florida, except in apologies for Genl. Jackson. In that they
have erred (according to my judgment) most egregiously.
They will gain nothing by it with his friends, and lose much
with the thinking part of the nation. Not a moment should
have been lost in arresting the Genl. and thereby showing a
just regard to the preservation of our constitution. No man
should be permitted in a free country to usurp the whole pow-
ers of the whole government and to thwart with contempt all
authority except that of his own will."2*5
Walker showed a different spirit. He wrote to Tait :
"I fear we think too much alike about some things touch-
ing the Seminole War. I would to God they were undone.
He is a great man with great defects. One cannot help lov-
ing or blaming him. But I follow your exemplary course —
'-* House Journal, 1819, 45.
25 Birnev's Birney, 40.
2«Tait Papers. W. W. Bibb to C. Tait, Sept. L9, 1818.
-" Ibid., J.'W. Walker to C. Tait, Jan. 11), 1S19.
ALABAMA BECOMES A STATE 49
and perhaps go further : when I cannot praise I try to be si-
lent."-7
As for the opinion of the more eminent friends of these
Alabama leaders, Crawford expressed his very clearly in a let-
ter to Governor Holmes, of the Mississippi Territory, in 1818.
He said : "Persons so regardless of our laws as those engaged
in the expedition against Pensacola deserve their severest
penalties, and you may rely upon my exertions to bring them
to punishment."-'1"
Calhoun, Crawford's colleague in the Cabinet as Secretary
of War, wrote to Tait palliating the conduct of Jackson and
upholding the course of the Administration. -'■'
But there was evidently trouble ahead in Alabama for those
who did not uphold "The General."
28 Mississippi Transcripts, W. H. Crawford to Gov. Holmes, April 22.
1818
^••» Tait Papers, J. C. Calhoun to C. Tait, Sept. 5, 1818.
Chapter VI.
THE PUBLIC LANDS
As previously stated, when the War of 1812 and the blockade
of our coast cut off cotton from its British market, the price
fell to a low figure in America, while it rose in England. With
the return of peace, this condition was reversed. English mills
bought heavily to make up for lost time, and the price went up
with a bound, averaging nearly thirty cents a pound for 1816.
This situation would hardly have been expected to last, and the
next year the market fell off to an average of about twenty-
seven cents. At these figures the production of the staple was
distinctly profitable, and planters began to move out in large
numbers to the new lands in Alabama. But 1818 proved to
be an exceptional year. Instead of continuing to fall off, the
price of cotton now rose to the unprecedented average of
about thirty-four cents a pound.1 A rush to the western
lands resulted and prices ranging from fifty to a hundred
dollars an acre were paid for farms, lying in a virgin wilder-
ness.
The monetary situation of the country was such as to favor
the spirit of speculation that set in. There had been a gen-
eral suspension of specie payments during the War and the
currency of the country had fallen into great disorder. Many
of the bank notes that circulated were of uncertain value and
much inconvenience was caused by -their use. Largely in
order to remedy this state of affairs, the second Bank of the
United States was chartered in 1816. It was to go into op-
eration earljr in 1817, and a resolution was passed that the
Government would receive only specie-paying paper after
February 20th. In order to effect resumption, the banks of
issue had to cut down their circulation, but the object was ac-
complished, and by February specie payment had been re-
stored.-
The reduction in the number of notes in circulation which
accompanied the resumption of specie payments would nat-
urally have tended to retard speculation ; but the temptation
1 Atlas of American Agriculture, cotton section, 20.
'-* Dewey, Financial History of the United States, 151.
THE PUBLIC LANDS 51
of the western cotton lands was too great to be denied, and
means were found to overcome the difficulty. In the first
place, the management of the new bank of the United States
was reckless, and its notes were turned loose largely in the
South" to be invested by the speculators. But more impor-
tant than this, about seventy local banks were founded in Ten-
nessee and Kentucky in 1818. * These institutions had troubl-
ed careers, but their notes remained good long enough to
make the first payment on Government lands.
Yet another resource was open to many of those who wish-
ed to purchase land in Alabama. The five million dollars in
scrip which had been issued to the Yazoo claimants was re-
deemable only in payments for lands in the Georgia cession ;•"■
and since no new Indian concessions had been obtained within
Mississippi, the first chance afforded the Yazoo men for re-
deeming their scrip was at the Alabama sales of 1817 and
1818. The greater part of it was turned in at this time to make
the first payments on purchases, and it added much to the
frenzy of speculation.
Land sales during this period were made under the act of
1800, as extended and amended in 1803 and 1804. '• It was
provided that the public domain should be surveyed by mark-
ing it off irto townships six miles square, and the townships
subdivided into thirty-six square miles or sectiors. A qtiarter-
section, or one hundred and sixty acres, was the smallest tract
which could be sold.
Having been surveyed, the land was advertised for sale at
public auctions which were held at the offices established in
the various land districts. Tracts were sold to the highest
bidder, and those remaining unsold might be entered private-
ly at the minimum price of two dollars an acre. In either
case, one-fourth of the purchase money had to be paid at the
time of the sale, and the remaining three-fourths in annual
installments of one-fourth each.
The surveys in the Creek cession were begun in 1816. : and
speculators at once began making investigations. A. P.
Hayne made a tour of the lands to be put upon the market
and wrote to Andrew Jackson giving a favorable account of
■i Ibid.. 153.
4 Annals ot' Congress. 16 Con'.1;., 2 Sess., 233.
"•Statutes at Large, III, 116-117.
'••Treat. The National Land System, 111-112, 120-121.
~ Jackson Papers. Thos. Freeman to Andrew Jackson, April 12, 181*5.
52 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
the rich river and prairie tracts. s Jackson wrote to a friend
in Washington to inquire as to the price of the Yazoo scrip
and found that it had risen from forty to sixty-eight dollars/'
Companies were formed for participation at the auctions,
and Hayne wrote that "speculation in land is superior to Law
or Physic."1"
The first sale took place at Milledgeville, Georgia, in Au-
gust, 1817, and comprised a tract lying along the headwaters
of the Alabama River in the neighborhood of the present city
of Montgomery.11 Only the best river bottom tracts were dis-
posed of at this time, and these were taken up by speculators
from various places. The men who had moved into the re-
gion were generally too poor to make their way to the place
of sale, and they had little hope of being able to compete with
the wealthier purchasers.1- Sales during this year amounted
to nearly $800,000, and the new tracts in the same region
which were offered in 1818 brought the sales of that year up
to nearly a million dollars.1 :! Almost nothing but river bot-
tom lands were sold at Milledgevile during these two years,14
and there were few actual settlers among the purchasers.
The most coveted bit of land that was disposed of at this
time lay within a wide bend of the Alabama River and upon
a bluff which formed the opposite bank. The soil in the bend
was of the best quality, and the bluff afforded an excellent
site for a town. Members of the Bibb family were anxious to
purchase here, and so was A. P. Hayne, who wrote to Jackson
concerning the matter.1 r- A land company, of which William
Wyatt Bibb was a member, secured the tracts, and the town
of Montgomery was founded upon the bluff in 1819. 1,;
Though these sales were the most extensive that had taken
place up to that time, they were small in comparison with
those which were held in Huntsville in 1818. All the lands
lying west of Madison County, on both sides of the Tennessee
River, were offered for sale in that year,17 and the amount
8 Ibid., A. P. Hayne to Andrew Jackson. Nov. 27, 1816.
n Ibid., D. Parker to Andrew Jackson. Jan. 6, 1817.
10 Jackson Papers. A. P. Hayne to Andrew Jackson. Nov. 27, 1816.
11 L. O. Record of Proclamations. May 24, 1817.
iz Jackson Papers, A. P. Hayne to Andrew Jackson, Autr. 5, 1817.
13 American State Papers, Lands, V, 384-385.
n Tract Book of Montgomery County, Office of the Secretary of
State, Montgomery, Aia.
15 Jackson Papers. A. P. Hayne to Andrew Jackson, Aug. 5, 1817.
16 Meek MS., Early Settlement of Alabama, 1815-1819.
i" L. O., Record of Proclamations, Nov. 1, 1817 and March 31, 1818.
THE PUBLIC LANDS 53
sold reached a value of seven million dollars. Out of the sum
of about one and a half million which was paid down upon'
the purchases, over a million was in Yazoo scrip, or "Missis-
sippi stock," as it was called.
A speculating company, composed of men from Virginia,
Georgia, Kentucky, and Madison County was formed. Prom-
inent Tennesseeans bid against this combine and prices were
run up to figures ranging between fifty and a hundred dollars
an acre. Average cotton land sold at prices between twenty
and thirty dollars.1"
The excitement caused by the sales was nation-wide. Men
came from every part of the country to participate in them.
A company was formed in Charleston, South Carolina, for the
purpose of buying acreage in Alabama, and Stephen Elliott
was sent out to make the purchases.-" Much swindling went on
during the sales. A company of speculators would combine,
and, by a show of force, intimidate their competitors and bid
off large tracts of desirable land at low prices. They would
then sell out at a considerable gain to those who had not been
able to compete with them. It is stated on good authority
that one such association of swindlers cleared $1,980 each on
a transaction of this kind.1'1 The situation became so notori-
ous that the Government authorized its agents to bid against
the combinations when they thought it advisable.22
No such extent of fine lands was ever again offered for
sale in Alabama during a single year, but in 1819 large areas
along the Alabama River below Montgomery County were
put upon the market. The land office for this district had
now been moved from Milledgeville to Cahawba, and the
sales here amounted to nearly three million dollars during
the year.
By the time the credit system of sales was abolished in 1820,
Alabama had, in all, amassed a land debt of eleven million
dollars, or more than half the total for the entire Country.2-*
And in the meantime the price of cotton had gone down to
eighteen cents ; the country was in the throes of commercial
depression ; and the prospect of paying for the lands which
1* American State Papers. Lands. V, 3§4-385.
1;» Jackson Papers, Jno. Coffee to Andrew Jackson, Feb. 12, 1 81S.
2" Record of Deeds. Dallas Countv. D, 305.
21 Nites' Register, XVI. 192; St. Stephens Halcyon, Oct. 11, 1819;
Alabama Rcjrublican, May 1. 1818.
22 American State Papers, Lands. V, 378-380, 513.
23 Ibid., G45.
54 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
had been bought at abnormal prices became almost hopeless.
Such a state of affairs prompted Congress to discontinue
the policy of credit sales. In 1820 it was provided that half
quarter-sections might be sold, that the minimum price should
be $1.25 an acre, and that all payments should be in cash. The
system of public auctions followed by private entry was con-
tinued.-4
But something had to be done for those who had already
fallen into debt beyond hope of recovery, and this problem
was attacked in 1821. It was provided that land which had
been purchased but not completely paid for might be relin-
quished and the sum paid on it applied on the balance due for
lands which were retained. In addition to this, the balance
due on lands retained was to be reduced by thirty-seven and
a half per cent, and an extension of credit to be granted.-"'
Large numbers took advantage of this act, and within a year
the land debt of Alabama was reduced by half. Those who did
not take advantage of it were later given a further chance to
do so, and by 1825 the debt had been decreased to about three
and a half million dollars.-'''
Yet the consequences of the speculation of 1818 and 1819
were not so easily overcome. The men who relinquished their
land under the act of 1821 did not consider that they were giv-
ing up their right to it. They continued to live upon and cul-
tivate it. and expected to be able to buy it back some day un-
der favorable arrangements which they looked to Congress to
make. Thus the community was injured by the presence of
a large number of farmers who were mere tenants by com-
mon consent. The unsettled condition of such men was dis-
turbing to the whole system of rural economy. By 1828
about three and a quarter million out of the twenty-four mil-
lion acres of public lands in Alabama were sold, and nearly half
as much had been relinquished.-7 The extent of the evil can be
imagined.
In the natural course of events, the relinquished lands would
be put on the market again at auction sale, and here the re-
linquisher would have to compete with all comers for fields
that he had owned and cleared and still cultivated. The spir-
it of the community was in sympathy with the relinquisher.
= -* Statutes at Large, III, 566.
sr. Ibid.. Ill, 612-614.
-'■•American Stat- Papers, IV, 795.
2" American Stat.- I . ujrs, Lands, V, 513, S00.
THE PUBLIC LANDS 55
It would hardly have been considered honorable to bid against
him for lands which were looked on as his by natural right.
However, there were many sharpers who made it a business
to prey upon those who had made improvements upon lands
to which they did not have title. It was their practice to go
to the interested party and threaten to bid against him unless
he should make terms. An agreement was generally reached,
and the settler had to pay the sharper about as much as he
paid the Government for his lands. -s
The same situation was faced by others than the relin-
quishers. The more desirable areas in the State, accessible
to river communication, were the first to be surveyed and
sold. Later on, the more inaccessible areas were put on the
market. Where men of small means had come into Alabama
and settled upon desirable lands in the river regions, they
were frequently unable to hold them when they were put up
for sale at auction. It became necessary for these people to
move out into the back country and start all over again, but
the auctioneer in time came to them in their newer homes.
Here, however, the situation was different. The speculative
period was over after 1819 and lands would no longer bring
abnormally high prices. The back country tracts, being rel-
atively inaccessible, would not command prices much
above the statutory minimum, even though they were fertile,
nor would a man's neighbor bid against him for lands which
he had improved. Consequently, the settler in the hill dis-
tricts would normally have been able to buy his improved
land at a price close to $1.25 an acre had not the sharper at-
tacked him in the same manner in which he attacked the re-
linquisher.-'-' Land offices were established in Tuscaloosa and
Conecuh Counties in 1820, and men who had not yet been call-
ed upon to prove their titles began to fear that they would lose
their homes in the competition of the sales. There is on rec-
ord the case of a preacher in Conecuh County who was forced
by swindlers to pay $37.50 an acre for the privilege of buying
his lands without competition, but the fraud became known
to the Government, the sale was canceled, and the preacher
was able to buy in his land at the minimum price.8" Public
auctions were more than once suspended because of the op-
eration of swindlers.
2S Southern Advocate, May 19. 1S2G.
■-•» Smith, Pickens County, 42-44; Cahawba Press, Oct. 29, 1821.
30 Riley, Conecuh County, 96.
56 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN' ALABAMA
In order to obviate such difficulties, it was strongly advo-
cated in Alabama that the unsold lands be divided into classes
and that each class be given a price according to its grade.
Actual settlers were to be allowed to enter their lands at the
fixed prices and thus be assured in the tenure of their fields
and their homes. This was especially urged in regard to the
relinquished lands, and Alabama's representatives in Wash-
ington worked for the adoption of the plan by Congress, but
nothing came of their efforts.'51 There was adopted, instead,
an act which permitted those who had relinquished or forfeit-
ed lands to repurchase them at a reduction of thirty-seven and
a half per cent, on the original price.-- This did not meet the
situation, and the auction continued to stare the settlers in
the face.
•"i Alabama Legislature, House Journal, 1825, 96-97; American State
Papers, Lands, IV, 529; Ibid., V, o80-382; Southern Advocate, April 28.
June 23, Sept. 29, Oct. 6. 1826.
S3 Statutes at Lar<?e, IV, 158-159.
Chapter VII.
AGRICULTURE
By 1820 Alabama had attracted a population of over 125,-
000, black and white, and of these the slaves made up thirty-
one per cent. This was about the same proportion which had
existed between the races in 1816 when Alabama was still a
part of Mississippi Territory and contained but two widely-
separated settlements. By 1830 the population had swelled
beyond 300.000 and the per cent, of slaves had gradually risen
from thirty-one to thirty-eight.1 So that during this period
of rapid immigration and the planting of the cotton kingdom
in the lower South, there were about two white men coming in
for every slave that entered. If the whites averaged five to
the family and the slaves ten to the master, but one family in
four could have been of the slave-holding class.
Whereas, during this early period, the population was in-
clined to spread over the face of the country, there was a
striking segregation of the slave population into certain dis-
tricts. In 1830 there was but one county in the State (Madi-
son) with over 16,000 population, and but seven of the most
barren had less than 4,000. The counties which attracted the
heaviest population were those of the Tennessee Valley and
those of the region of clay ridges which skirts the hilly district
of the northeastern part of the State.
On the other hand, the slave population was very largely
confined to the counties of the Tennessee Valley and to those
lying along the navigable portions of the Alabama and Tom-
bigbee Rivers. The river bottom lands were the most highly
prized by the cotton planters because of their great fertility,
but these were of limited extent, and recourse had to be had
to the ridge lands lying along the courses of the rivers. It is
notable that the prairie region, or Black Belt, which came lat-
er to be so highly esteemed for cotton culture, was avoided by
1 In addition to the U. S. Census of 1820 and 1830, we have that tak-
en by the Mississippi Territory in 181<>(Am. State Papers, Misc., 11,408) ;
the census of Alabama Territory taken in 1818 (Walker Papers); and
those taken by the State of Alabama in 1824 (Huntsville Democrat,
Nov. 22, 1824), and 1S27 (Huntsville Democrat, Dec. 14, 1827).
58 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IX ALABAMA
the planters before 1830 because they had not learned haw to
master the difficulties of the sticky soil.2 In selecting his site,
the planter had to consider communications as well as fertili-
ty of soil ; and continuity of fields also counted for something.
All these factors combined to make the river valleys the
slave sections of the State before 1830.
How soon cotton culture came to be an established industry
in Alabama cannot be stated with accuracy. The staple is said
to have been produced to some extent as early as 1772, 3 and by
1807 it had come largely to supplant indigo in the agriculture
of the Tombigbee region.4 It is fairly clear that the Georgians
who came to Madison County in 1809 came for the purpose of
planting cotton, and it is stated that the crop of that country
in 1816 amounted to ten thousand bales/' Certainly by the time
of the great immigration in 1817 and 1818 the, economic pros-
pects of Alabama must have been clear to practically all who
entered. Yet, Darby, in his Emigrant's Guide of 1818, states
that extensive vineyards would be planted upon the dry slopes
of the Alabama if ever anywhere in the United States, and
that the olive would find a congenial soil upon the banks of the
Alabama, Cahawba, Coosa, and Tallapoosa Rivers.'1 That this
view was seriously entertained at that time is proven by the
attempt of the ill-fated colony of Napoleonic refugees to bring
forth the grapes and olives of southern France on the banks
of the Tombigbee in 1817. ' It was probably their failure
which precluded further earnest attempts along that line,
but when cotton prospects were gloomy, there were not want-
ing those who would urge experiments with other crops.
Grapes, sugar cane, and small grain were all suggested at dif-
ferent times.- and limited experiments were made with each.
But Alabama was to have but two predominant systems of ag-
riculture: that of the planter who raised cotton, with corn as
his subsidiary crop; and that of the small farmer who raised
corn with cotton subsidiary.
2 This view is based partly on charts made from the tract books of
Clarke, Montgomery, Dallas, and Perry Counties.
3 Pickett. History of Alabama, 325.
■* Ibid., 503. .
•"« Wyman. Qeographical Sketch of Alabama in Alabama Historical
Society. Transactions, III, 126.
'•Darby, Emigrant's Guide, 33.
7 See Pickett's History of Alabama, Chap. XLV.
« Southern Advocate, July 1. 1825; Alabama Journal, Sept. 15. 1826;
Mobile Reffister, Dec. 1. L82T. Jan. S, 1828, April 15, 1828, May 17, 1828.
Oct 8 182S; Southern Agriculturist (from the Alabama Journal), I, 379.
AGRICULTURE 59
When the planter with money to invest and slaves to work^
decided to come out to Alabama, he often made a tour of in-
vestigation, or at least wrote to friends in the new country
asking for advice as to conditions. He could not afford to
take unnecessary chances. He needed to know where good
lands were located and what were the chances of buying at
a fair price. The first Madison County lands to be disposed
of were offered for sale at the Nashville land office, and the
first lands sold along the upper Alabama were auctioned at
Milledgeville, Georgia. Land offices were later established
at Huntsville and Cahawba, in addition to the one which had
been put in operation at St. Stephens at an early date, so that
all but the very first sales in these districts were made within
the State. Yet, it is unreasonable to suppose that many men
with a planter's capital at stake would have sold out their old
homes and moved westward without first having purchased
their land.
Having arrived upon his new estate, it did not take the
planter long to establish himself. With plenty of labor, the
ground was soon cleared, or the first crop might be planted
after the trees had merely been deadened by girdling. A house
for the master's family was built of logs, and the routine of
plantation life was resumed as well as the crude conditions
permitted.1'
The log house, so typical of a frontier community, was not
an ephemeral thing. It remained the standard of domestic
architecture in the more isolated sections and was sometimes
adhered to from inertia or sentimental reasons by men who
could easily have afforded more modern quarters. It was
not long, however, before the average planter replaced his
log structure with one of boards. The typical Southern/'man-
sion house," with its generous veranda and stately white col-
umns, arose throughout the cotton region. Hodgson, on enter-
ing the Montgomery district in 1820. was impressed by the fine
appearance of the plantations,1" and Saxe- Weimar, traversing
the same ground six years later, not only speaks in general
terms, but comments upon the handsome dwellings.11
In general appearance, the homes of the Southwestern
planters resembled those of the Virginia colonists. They
"'See Phillips. Xegro Slavery, Chap. X. for an account of the west-
ward movement of the cotton planter.
10 Hodgson, Letters from North America, I, oB.
ii Saxe-Weimav. I, 80-31.
60 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
were white, two-storied buildings of classical proportions,
with broad verandas and gigantic columns. But a different
spirit showed itself in plan and execution. Instead of a well-
knit structure with architectural finish, there was a rambling
house with a suggestion of unnecessary space. The differ-
ence, it would seem, was due primarily to the shaping influ-
ence of the log cabin. The simple cabin, consisting of two
rooms joined by a wide passage-way, having only a floor be-
low and a roof above, accustomed the pioneer to architecture
embodying generous open-air passages. The planter started
his new career in such a house, but sometimes amplified it in-
to a dwelling of from four to eight rooms, keeping to the same
materials and method of construction throughout. Finally,
when he came to put up his frame house, he followed the old
lines of internal arrangement. Crossing the veranda with its
tall columns, one entered a spacious hallway which served
no particular purpose, but merely carried out the idea of the
open passage between the rooms of the log cabin. The spa-
cious rooms which flanked the hall on either side were almost
invariably square and regular in design, just as they must
have been had they been built of logs. And the plan upstairs
was the same as below. v-
But the plantation was much more than a house and lands ;
being, if it chose to be, largely independent of the outside world
for its daily supplies, it was a community in itself. Grouped
about the "mansion" were the barns, the smoke-house where
pork was cured, the cotton gin and press, and the quarters for
the slaves. Places were frequently advertised for sale in the
early newspapers, and from these advertisements we get an
interesting description of the equipment of a plantation in
houses, barns, cattle, mules, swine, and slaves.13.
12 This is the writer's interpretation of the facts, but the general idea
is completely borne out by the following passage from Stuart's Three
Years in North Amtricn, 11, 160: "The planters' houses in the southern
states are very different in their mode of (.(instruction from those in the
north. The common form of the planters' houses, and indeed of all hous-
es that you meet with on the roadside in this country, is two square pens,
with an open space between ♦ihem, connected by a roof above and a floor
below, so as to form a parallelogram of nearly triple the length of its
depth. In the open space the family take their meals during the fine
weather. The kitchen and the places for slaves are all separate build-
ings, as are the stable, cow-houses, etc. About ten buildings of this de-
scription make up the establishment of an ordinary planter, with half a
dozen slaves.'*
V. Alabama Rrpublicav, Nov. 1-1. 1823; Cuhawba Press, Dec. 20. 1823,
Jan 7, 1826; St. Stephens Halcyon, May 1. 1S20.
AGRICULTURE 61
Slaves were rated, according to their fitness, full, three-
quarters, half, and quarter hands, and given tasks according-
ly. Adding these fractions, a planter determined how many
"full hands," or equivalents, made up his working force. A
census of Madison County for 1819 gives nearly twelve acres
of cleared land for every full hand,1 ' and other evidences make
it clear that each hand rated at full work was expected to cul-
tivate five or six acres of cotton and an equal area in corn.1"
There were several reasons for devoting the land in nearly
equal parts to cotton and corn. A gang of hands could plant
more cotton than they could possibly pick, so that a part of
their time had to be devoted to some other crop, and corn had
a peculiar place in the economy of the plantation. The week-
ly allowance of bread-stuff to the slave was a peck of meal,
and this, together with his allowance of pork — the supply of
which article was also dependent on the corn crop — made up
the regular fare of the working force. The slaves usually
had garden plots of their own, and could sometimes add fish
or game to their diet by hunting or fishing in spare time. The
watermelon and the 'possum were favorites then as now, but
corn and pork was the regular fare during the twelve months
of the year.10
Clothing was issued twice yearly, in the spring and in the
fall. Suits of "osnaburg." or coarse cotton clothing, were
provided for the summer, and "plains," or coarse woolen stuff
for the winter. Hats, shoes, and blankets completed the list
of articles which had to be furnished by the master. Medical
attention was provided for the sick and nurseries for the chil-
dren of mothers who went to the field. Altogether, the main-
tenance of a slave for a year, including his food allowance,
his clothing, blankets, and medical attention, cost between
twenty and twenty-five dollars.17
Judicious farming required that the master produce all his
own corn and pork, but, especially when the price of cotton
was high, he was likely to increase his crop of the staple and
buy corn in the market.1 s This kind of speculative planting
t* Alabama Republican, Auff. 25, 1S20.
'•'' Wyman, Geographical Sketch of Alabama in Alabama Historical
Society* Transactions, III, 126; American Farmer. III. 299; Jackson Pa-
pers, A. P. Hpyne to Andrew Jackson, Aug. 6, 1820.
IS Phillips, Secjro Shivcrii, Chan. XV.
i" Aynerican Farmer, IV, :'.08-(J. See also Phillips, Sregro Slavet-y,
Chap. XV.
18 Walker Pape--<. C. Tait to J. W, Walker, Nov. 19. 1819.
62 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
was not only bad from an economic point of view, but tended"
to over-work the slaves during the picking season. For the
small farmer, excessive cotton planting meant that his family
was put on short rations.1. But .such practices as this seem
to have been common during the early, speculative period of
the industry in the State. Though periods of low prices op-
erated to check this over-planting of cotton, it is certainly true
that during che early 'twenties, a large quantity of corn and
pork was imported from other states by the planters, and
many complaints were made about it by the agricultural crit-
ics.
There seems to have been little difference between the
methods employed in the culture of cotton and of corn, but
naturally that of cotton received more attention. The
agricultural year began about the middle of February, when
the first plowing could be done. All the old cotton and corn
stalks were gathered and burned, and the ground was bedded
up by running one furrow and then lapping several others
upon it. This process was called "listing."
During March the cotton was planted by running a drill
down the center of the beds and sowing the cotton rather
thickly in the drill. The seeds were covered by attaching a
board with a concave surface to a plow and drawing it
along the crest of the bed. When the young cotton was well
above the ground, the stand was thinned with the hoe, leaving
but two stalks in a place. Later, another thinning reduced
the stand to a single stalk in a place. The distance between
the beds and between the stalks in the bed varied according
to the fertility of the soil or the caprice of the planter. Three
and a half feet between beds and eight inches between stalks
was given as a fair average for the Tennessee Valley.-0
Frequent cultivation was necessary in order to keep down
the grass and weeds, and this was done partly by the plow
and partly by the hoe. That crops were usually kept in very
good condition is indicated by the favorable comments of trav-
elers into the cotton region. The bolls began to open the lat-
ter part of August, but they fruited gradually, and had to
be picked often in order to prevent damage to the fibre. This
,;> Hodgson, Letters from North America. I, 206-207.
-° American Former, VIII, 222-223, quoting: a letter from John Pope,
of Florence. Alabama, dated Sept. 29, 1826; Southern Agriculturist, II,.
255; Hammond, Cotton Industry, 76-77; Fessenden, Complete Farmer^
263-265.
AGRICULTURE 6:J
was the busiest time of the year and all available help, was
called in. The picking went on steadily through the fall
months and well into the winter. Sometimes a part of the
crop was still in the field and had to be destroyed when the
time for spring plowing arrived.-'1
Ginning was also a slow process compared with modern
methods. Every planter of any importance had his own gin-
house where his staple was prepared for the market. If
properly prepared, the cotton had to be carefully picked over
by hand for the removal of trash and yellow flakes before it
went to the gin; and after coming from the machine, it al-
ways had in it particles of seed and other foreign matter
which had to be removed by another picking over, or moting.
The ginned cotton was taken to the press where it was squeez-
ed into bales of about 350 pounds. The gin and the press
were both run by horse power, and several hands were kept
busy at the work.22
During the decade, however, two important advances were
made in the processes of preparing cotton. In 1822 Carver's
improved gin was introduced in Mississippi and its advantages
were noised abroad in the agricultural, papers. It was claim-
ed that the new machine did not tear the fibre while removing
it from the seed, and that the quality of the staple was there-
by much improved. James Jackson and General Coffee intro-
duced the new gin into the Tennessee Valley, and the cotton
which they turned out with it was said to be of unusual qual-
ity.23 In 1824 the first supply of these machines was receiv-
ed at Mobile.-4
At about the same time there was contrived and introduced
in Mississippi an apparatus for moting the cotton as it came
from the gin. In Whitney's gin the cotton fibre was removed
from the seed by means of revolving saw-teeth, and re-
volving brushes removed the fibre from the saws. The
arms of the revolving brushes were now supplied with fans
which blew the issuing cotton through a horizontal wooden
-i Royall, Litter* from Alabama, 62.
22 An excellent description of the method of preparing cotton for mar-
ket was furnished the NakbPiile AgncidtuHat by Alexander McDonald,
of Eufaula. Alabama, in 1845. It is reprinted in Sen. Doc, 1 Sess., 29
Cong., Vol. VI. N'o. : 07. Though this is later than the period under dis-
cussion, it <;ives a clear idea of the p:- iblcm.s and methods of ginning
and parkins: cotton on a plantation.
23 Alabama Reimbliean, Feb. 15. L822, Mar. 22, 1822.
24 Mobile Register, March 26, 1^24.
64 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
flue with a latticed bottom. As the lint passed through the
flue, the particles of foreign matter dropped through the
grating into a trough below. Thus a large part of the labor
of moting was dispensed with.-5
The ginning and packing of cotton was a matter of great
importance, for the market value of the staple depended
largely upon its freedom from flaws and foreign matter.
Many complaints were made as to the carelessness with which
the Alabama planters handled their product. It was stated
that, while the staple of the Alabama cotton was as good as
that of any upland variety, it brought a lower price than that
of either Georgia or Louisiana because of the indifferent way
in which it was ginned and handled.-" The truth of this
statement is, however, hard to judge. Louisiana and Mississ-
ippi cotton consistently brought a higher price than that of
Alabama. That of south Alabama and Georgia stood on a
fairly equal footing, while that of Tennessee and north Ala-
bama usually brought the lowest price. The adaptability of
climate and soil to the cotton crop in these several localities
was undoubtedly the prime factor in these distinctions, but
it is quite likely that there was also a difference in agricul-
tural methods. As far as Alabama is concerned, the people
who moved into the southern part of the state came chiefly
from sections in Georgia and South Carolina where the
planting of cotton was already familiar and well-established.
Those who moved into the Tennessee Valley came in greater
numbers from Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina,
where cotton had never been of importance.
Alabama writers, and especially those in the Tennessee
Valley, often complained that the various methods in use in-
dicated that no scientific basis of field-management had been
arrived at. The greatest bone of contention was as to the
distance that should be allowed between the beds and the
stalks in the beds. There was also much variety as to the use
of fertilizer. Stable manure was, of course, used, and cot-
ton seed was employed by many. The latter was sometimes
mixed with leaf mold or other material and allowed to stand
in great piles until spring, when the mixture was strewn in
drills. Yet there can be but little doubt that the worth of cot-
2K Cfthnicba Press. Jan. 21. 1822; American Farvxer, IV. 380-382.
'•:'•• Alabama Republican, Sept. 7, 1821. Nov. 23, 1821, Sept. 27, 1822;
Cohairba Press, Dec. 13, 1821, Jan. 28, 1822.
AGRICULTURE 65
ton seed as fertilizer was generally overlooked and the valuable
material thrown away.-'7
The greatest advance that was made during the decade in
the raising of cotton was the introduction of the "Mexican"
variety of seed. This produced larger pods which opened
wider than the old variety and allowed the fibre to hang from
the bolls, making the picking an easier process than it had
previously been. Industrious hands were now able to pick
two hundred pounds a day, whereas one hundred had formerly
been a good average.-*
The planting of a localized staple such as cotton was a more
speculative industry than was the raising of the more wide-
spread crops. Since the South furnished the world with most
of its cotton, a bountiful crop in that section, not being offset
to any great extent by differing conditions in other places,
would depress the price to the full extent of the local over-
production. Likewise, a short crop in the South meant a
shortage of cotton for the world, and a high price which
would spend its whole buoyant force upon the industry of a
few states. And the planters were the most helpless of peo-
ple in the matter of adjusting themselves to the varying econ-
omic conditions. Once a man had established himself as a
slave holder in the lower South, he found it hard to vary his
agricultural system. -'■' He could not diminish his crop much
below the normal, for his slaves were efficient only when
worked according to the usual routine ; nor were there any fa-
cilities for marketing other crops.
It was the high price of cotton during the years following
the close of the second war with England which gave Ala-
bama her first great influx of population. During 1818 land
sales in Alabama reached their zenith. So keen was the
competition at the Government auctions for good cotton acre-
age, that especially desirable tracts were sold off at prices
which caused comment throughout the country. But cotton
fell from thirty-four to twenty-four cents the next year; to
seventeen cents in 1820; to fourteen in 1821; and in 1823 it
27 Saxe-Weimar, I. 33; Southern Advocate, July 21. 1826; Southern
Agriculturist, II, 254-562; Royal], Letters from Alabama (quoting let-
ter from Col. Pope), 162.
2S American Farmer, IT. 116 (July 7. 1S29): Southern Advocate. Sept.
8, 1826. Sept. 29, 1826; H intarillc Democrat, Sent. 8. 1826.
-"Southern Advocate, >'ov. IT, 1^26.
66 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
reached bottom at about eleven cents a pound.1" During
these years of falling prices, the value of slaves declined
steadily,31 though there was more land cultivated in the Ten-
nessee Valley in 1821 than during any previous season.-- By
1823, however, discouragement had set in, and the low price
resulted in the planting of a smaller cotton crop.3;i Retrench-
ment was, however, a hard matter for the planter. He could uo
little more in that direction than raise all his own supplies of
corn and pork, and the amount of cotton shipped from Mobile
remained practically stationary during 1822, 1823, and 1824. 34
In 1825 there came a jump in the price as a result of spec-
ulation in the British market. Corn was actually plowed up
in Alabama for the sake of planting more cotton ;35 the vol-
ume of the crop rose ; and the value of slaves was stimulated.
But the optimism wras short-lived. The price of the staple
receded to a lower level than it had reached before, and for
several years thereafter cotton sold in New York for about
ten cents a pound. The depression in Alabama was marked.
Complaints of the unprofitableness of cotton went up on all
sides, and the need for diversification was urged. The prev-
alent unscientific methods of planting were condemned and
a widespread agitation for agricultural societies set in.3'1 The
Governor's message of 1826 urged diversification and sug-
gested a standing committee to consider the agricultural
problems of the State.37 So great had been the over-planting
of cotton in 1825 that the Alabama Journal, on Sept. 6, 1826,
proposed a special meeting of the general assembly to afford
relief in view of the impending scarcity of provisions. Yet
there was only a temporary decrease in the amount of cot-
ton that went out from Mobile.
30 For yearly average of prices for middling upland cotton in New-
York and Liverpool, see J. L. Watkins. Production and Price of Cotton,
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Statistics, Miscellaneous Bulletins,
1895, No. 9, p. 8-9.
31 For chart of slave prices, see U. B. Phillips, Xegro Slavery, 370.
32 Alabama Republican, Nov. 2, 1821.
33 Mobile Arf/us, Oct. 31, 1823; Huntsville Democrat, Oct. 28, 1823;
Alabama Republican, Oct. 24, 1823.
34 Hazard, U. S. Commercial and Statistical Register, III, 272.
3o Tuscumbian, June 27, 1825.
SC Alabama Journal, Sept. 29, 1820 ; Southern Advocate, Sept. 15,
182G. Dec. 1, 1827; Huntsville Democrat, March 9, 1827.
8" Senate Journal. 1*26, 9.
AGMCULTURE 67
The average production of cotton for a slave was, during'
these years, about a thousand pounds, ginned.** This, at ten
cents a pound, would be worth one hundred dollars, and since
the maintenance of a slave cost approximately twenty-five dol-
lars a year in money and provisions, there remained about
seventy-five dollars to provide for u.p-keep. interest, and prof-
its. The indications are that ten cents was the lowest
price at which cotion could be raised at this time without a
loss; but it seems that the production ol a slave was later in-
creased so that a lower price became possible.
As to the management of slaves in Alabama during the early
period, no information has been obtained. In describing a
Georgia plantation in 1828, Basil Hall gives an account of the
"tasking" system;-' and E. C. Holland, in a treatise written
on the subject in 1822, says that this was the universal practice
at the time.40 Fields were slaked off into quarter-acre, half-
acre, or three-quarter-acre "tasks" in proportions to the la-
boriousness of the work and the strength of the hand. By
diligence, the worker could finish his task early in the after-
noon and have the rest of the day to himself. In this way,
compulsion was reduced to the minimum, and the slaves given
a stimulus to work. Another account shows that this system
was in use in South Carolina, and there are scattered refer-
ences to it in agricultural discussions. Whether it was really
universal cannot be stated except upon the authority of Hol-
land's assertion. For Alabama there is no information one way
or the other.
The small farmer was not dependent upon the price of cot-
ton. He had come into the new country in search of econom-
ic freedom rather than of fortune. He sought subsistence for
his family rather than cotton lands and access to market. He
did not compete for the most fertile and accessible locations
because he lacked the capital, and because it was not to his in-
terest to do so. A secluded nook would serve him as well or
better, for he loved the freedom of the forest, his rifle, and his
38 Statistics for Madison County for 1819 give 825 pounds as the av-
erage for a full hand. See Alabama Republican, Aug. 25, 1820. James
G. Birney is said to have produced 1850 pounds to the hand in 1820,
Jackson Papers, James Jackson to Andrew Jackson, May 28. 1821. But
a thousand pounds to the hand is mentioned in most estimates as the
average.
«'■> Basil Hall. Travels in Worth America. IT. 229-231.
4" Edwin C. Holland. .4 Refutation of the Calumnies Circulated:
against the Southern and Western States Respecting Slavery, 48-53.
68 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
axe. He built his house of logs, cleared his corn patches, and
raised his hogs. There was a fine range for cattle in the
woods, and large herds found their own subsistence for the
greater part of the year.41
Many, perhaps most, of the small farmers had come west
with practically no property, and their farming equipment
was at first of the crudest kind. Wheat was a familiar crop
to many of them, and it wr.s tried in Alabama, but lack of flour
mills made the grinding of it a difficult problem. Corn prov-
ed to be more practicable, and grist mills were built on the
streams during the first stages of settlement. Cotton, too,
soon came to be popular with the small farmer. Though a
man could not raise the supplies for his own family and plant
a large cotton crop at the same time, he could raise a small
amount of the staple and. sell it for enough to supply his fi-
nancial needs. Thus, largely because of the ease of market-
ing it, cotton came to be the "money crop" among the farm-
ers.4-
Taking a general view of the State, the several regions
within Alabama differed materially in their economic compo-
sition. The Tennessee Valley, to begin, offers the most com-
plete picture of agricultural, and hence social and political,
diversity. The Georgians who established Madison County in
1809 invested extensively in land, and, being on the ground
during the phenomenal years of 1817 and 1818, their fortunes
soared. By 1826 some of them owned gangs of negroes num-
bering into the hundreds.1- Also among the Virginians,
North Carolinians, and Georgians who purchased lands in the
Valley in 1818 were men of extensive wealth. The specula-
tive conditions under which the valley region west of Madison
County was opened up served to debar men of moderate
means from securing desirable tracts. But all the northern
counties contained lands lying outside the valley region, and
consequently there remained many less desirable tracts which
could be taken up by private entry after the auction sales
were over. Tennesseeans of moderate means came down in
large numbers and settled in the same counties with the
wealthy planters. ^
u Hodgson, Letters from North America, I, 124; Riley, Conecuh Coun-
ty, 52; Southern Advocate, Sept. 7. 1827.
V'Teenle and Snlith (Publishers), Jejjerayn County, 59; Riley, Con-
ecuh County, 22-25, 92-1 11; Smith. Picken* County, 40-48; Yerby.
1 ^ Based' on statements published in Southern Advocate, Dee. 1, 1826.
AGRICULTURE 69
This diversity of origin and station between close neighbors
developed a certain antagonism which was aggravated by the
commercial situation. The cotton of the Valley had to be
lightered over Muscle Shoals and then floated all the way down
to New Orleans before it could be marketed. To have a crop
ginned and baled, and shipped in this way to merchants in
New Orleans; then to cash the draft which was received in
return and secure the proceeds, required months of delay and
entailed reliance upon forwarding agents, brokers, and banks,
which the small producer was not able to face on his own ac-
count. In order to avoid all this, he sometimes sold his cotton
in the seed to local merchants who provided him with his sup-
plies. Sometimes he prepared his crop for shipment and
turned it over to a merchant who advanced him a certain per
cent, of its value and paid the balance when the remittance
came up from New Orleans.44 In either case, he was likely to
lose at every turn in the transaction, and this condition of
commercial dependence tended to leave him resentful toward
those with whom he was forced to do business. The political
result of this situation made the Tennessee Valley a hotbed
of partisan contention.
This section seems to have gone in more for quantity than
quality,4" and its cotton brought the lowest prices on the mar-
ket. When a crop was disposed of to a country merchant,
the staple was usually taken at a uniform price. 4,; The fact
that a large part of the output was sold in this way may ac-
count for the relatively careless handling of the product in
the Tennessee Valley. Picking and preparing the staple for
market required great care, and negligence in these process-
es resulted in a trashy fibre that greatly reduced the value
of the article. Over-planting of cotton caused congestion
during the picking season and naturally led to careless hand-
ling.
Over-planting also made it necessary to purchase a large
part of the corn and pork supply for the negroes, and the im-
portation of these articles into the Tennessee Valley was large.
The trade was encouraged by the ease with which such pro-
ducts could be brought down the River from East Tennessee.
•»' See Chapter IX.
-*■" Documentary History of Ineh'strial Society, from the Georgia Cour-
ier, Oct. 11, 1827', 283-298.
-*« Mobile Register, Jan. ti, 1823.
70 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
Occupying the north-central portion of the State and ex-
tending from the Tennessee Valley to the navigable waters of
the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, lay the hilly region.
Here the isolated valleys were settled by men of pioneer in-
stincts who began to come in as early as 1815. Small clear-
ings were made and log cabins rose here and there. The
woods furnished abundant game and an excellent range for
cattle, while corn and hogs were relied upon as the principal
food supplies. In other words, this region reproduced the
characteristics which have always typified the advancing
frontier of our Country.
Since a large majority cf the inhabitants of Alabama were
of the farmer rather than of the planter class, and since the
planters needed supplies of corn and pork which the farmers
principally raised, it seems, at first glance, strange that the
hilly region did not send large quantities of these products in-
to the river valley regions. This would have been an easily
accessible market for the farmers, and the planters would
have had a convenient source of supply, but no such trade ev-
er reached significant proportions! The explanation is that
the farmer planted his surplus in cotton rather than in corn.
Cotton was easier to handle, and the financial return was evi-
dently more satisfactory in spite of the fact that the small pro-
ducer could not own his gin nor market his crop except by
disposing of it to a local merchant. For the greater part of the
central hilly region, Tuscaloosa, at the head of navigation on
the Black Warrior, was the most convenient market after the
steamboat came into general use. The road which connected
Tuscaloosa with Huntsville passed through Jones Valley, in
which Birmingham now stands; and along this route most of
the cotton was carried to market and the supplies of coffee,
sugar, and flour brought back to the farm.'7
Though the sticky soil of the prairie region, or Black Belt,
was avoided by the planter until about 1830, there were fer-
tile tracts of land upon the northern border of the prairie
which proved attractive to the first planters who immigrated
to Alabama. These areas, together with the bottom lands
along the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, constituted the cot-
ton section of the southern part of the State.
Excepting in the prairie region, the stretches of good land
were not so extensive as in the Tennessee Valley, and the
■*" Alabama Republican, March 1, 1822; Huntsville Democrat, Jan. 19,
%1827.
AGRICULTURE 71
planter lived in ('loser relation to the man who farmed with-
out slaves ; and since he was a fellow agriculturist rather
than a capitalist in the eyes of his less wealthy neighbors,
the sharp political dissensions which agitated the Tennessee
Valley lost their sting in the south.
Perhaps the best expanse of land in all this region lay in
the vicinity of Montgomery County, and here there grew up
what was probably an ideal planting community. The inhab-
itants are pictured as peace-loving, industrious, and economi-
cally independent. Instead of dealing with the local merch-
ants, they carried their cotton to Mobile and brought their sup-
plies back up the River.4-
Though the indications are that the agricultural system
practiced in this region was more conservative than that of
the Tennessee Valley, and that there was less over-planting
of cotton, yet large quantities of pork and corn were import-
ed along with flour and whisky. Though some of this came
down through the country from Tennessee, the bulk of it came
from Mobile, to which point it had been shipped from the
Ohio and Cumberland River region by way of New Orleans.
It was said in 1824 that from twenty to thirty thousand bar-
rels of such supplies passed through Mobile annually.40
The piney region of sandy clay which covers the southeast-
ern corner of Alabama was considered relatively infertile,
and here men without slaves or property set up a frontier
community at the time when the rest of the State was being
settled. Lands in the back-woods sections did not begin to
be sold until about 1824, so that the immigrants could "squat"
for years upon Government property and then buy in their
farms at the minimum price after the speculative period was
well over. Coming principally from Georgia, South Caro-
lina, and Tennessee, the inhabitants of this region had the
same general characteristics as those of the hilly region. The
pasturage here made it possible for cattle to sustain them-
selves during the entire year, and numerous herds were kept
by many of the settlers."0
Thus the agricultural life of Alabama may be divided into
two predominant phases: that in which the planter, with a
highly capitalized establishment, raised cotton with slave la-
■*& Robertson, Montgomery County, 11-13, 15-16, 36-38, 125, 139-140.
w Mobile Register, March 2, 1824.
so Riley, Conecuh County, 19, 28-32. 43-54, 53-65.
72 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
bor for the sake of profit ; and that in which the farmer, with
very little capital, sought an independent existence for his
family. To the planter, rich lands and convenient water
transportation were essential, while the price of cotton was of
prime importance. To the farmer, transportation facilities
were of little importance, and a large part of the State offered
him isolated bits of good land which would have been of no val-
ue to the planter. The geographical segregation of these two
classes of people was not complete, but there was little active
competition between them. The best cotton lands were sold
durmg the speculative period when the man without capital
had little chance of successful competition; the backlands
were sold during a later period when the actual settler could
buy them in at the minimum price with money which he had
made upon the ground. Though there was a tendency for
the planter to displace the farmer who had settled in his im-
mediate neighborhood, nevertheless, the lines which separated
the planting districts from the farming districts were laid
down when the Government first opened the lands to the
whites.
Chapter VIII.
RIVERS AND ROADS
There is no way of realizing more keenly the difference be-
tween past and present than to look upon the untroubled wa-
ters of a navigable river and recall that it once shaped the his-
tory of a section. Though the turbid stream of the Alabama
low but rarely floats a vessel, it is fitting that it gave its
name to the State that it traverses. It was their separate wa-
terway which gave the settlers along the Tombigbee interests
which were distinct from those of the settlers upon the lower
Mississippi. It was down the stream that the early planters in-
tended to float their cotton to market, and so they chose their
homes near the rivers.
Mobile was a struggling community of three hundred in-
habitants, mostly Creoles, when it was taken over by the
Americans in 1813. A few years later, when population be-
gan to spread along its tributary rivers, it began to grow and
in 1819 numbered eight hundred inhabitants. In 1823 this
number had increased to nearly three thousand.1 Most of
the higher class of Creoles had left when Spanish rule ended,
and the new population was made up of Americans of every
type. Merchants came largely from the North, adventurers
gathered from every quarter, and the mixture, according to
some visitors at least, was not attractive. -
In place of the one wharf of Creole days, there were a doz-
en by 1823. Markets were built and brick structures be-
gan to replace wooden buildings. Because of obstruction in
the harbor, ships of the larger class entered with difficulty.
This fact made it necessary for the town to confine
its shipping largely to the coastwise traffic. Fruits from
Cuba were to-be found in the markets and a regular trade
with New York was established at an early date, but a large
part of the cotton which was destined for Europe had to be
sent to New Orleans for shipment.''
i Niles' Register, XXII, 96; Mobile Register, Feb. 7, 1822.
- Hoilg-son, Letters fr&m North America, I, 152.
3 Saxe- Weimar, 7 '•> els Through North America, I. :'»9-4l; Hamilton
Colonial Mobile, 47.1; Mobile Argus, Oct. 28, L823; Mobile Advertiser,
Feb. 26, 1824.
74 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
The cotton region along the rivers gave birth to several
towns between 1815 and 1818. St. Stephens already stood
at the head of schooner navigation on the Tombigbee. It had
been a flourishing little community when Mobile was still in
the hands of Spain. But now the trade passed it by and went
down to the larger town on the Bay. It still held a local
trade, however, and some of its glory lingered. With its
bank, its academy, its press, its land office, and its steamboat
company, it maintained its place for awhile: but its well-
built houses were destined to sink into ruins which have
now all but disappeared from view.4
Far above St. Stephens, Tuscaloosa was located at the head
of boat navigation on the Black Warrior, and from here such
overland trade as there was between the two sections of the
State passed through Jones Valley to the Valley of the Ten-
nessee.5
On the Alabama River, Claiborne grew up at the head of
schooner navigation and came to be the center of a cotton-
planting community. The capital of the State was establish-
ed at Cahawba, where the river of that name flows into the
Alabama; and Selma was founded a few miles above. On a
bluff not far from the head of navigation, two towns were
established by land speculators in 1817 and 1818. One of
these was founded by Andrew Dexter, from Massachusetts,
and was christened New Philadelphia; the other was founded
by the Bibb Company and named East Alabama. In 1819
the two settlements were combined and incorporated as the
town of Montgomery.1-'
From these places, the cotton passed down the rivers to
Mobile. Flat bottomed boats — crudely constructed affairs
with pitched seams — could carry from fifty to a hundred
bales and were broken up at the end of the journey.7 Keel
boats, though not used so frequently as flat-bottomed boats
on the Alabama and Tombigbee, were employed where the re-
quirements were more severe. They were frequently about
fifty feet in length and were more durable and sea-worthy
than the flat-bottomed type. But the greater expense of
construction discouraged their use except where a return trip
was to be made.
•* St. Stephens Halcyon, March 30. 1S22.
R Alabama Republican, May 4, 1821; Hamilton. Colonial Mobile, 463.
'"• Woodward, Reminiscences, 130; Blue. Montr/ornery, 6-8.
« Saxe-Weimar, Travels Through North America, I, 35.
RIVERS AND ROADS 75
Nor were return trips very frequent. A boat which would
float down from Montgomery to Mobile in about two weeks
required a month or six weeks to be poled or warped back up
the river; and the freight rate prevailing at that time was
five dollars a barrels Merchants generally preferred to
bring their wares over the Federal Road from Georgia,'-' or
down from the upper country. Whisky, pork, and flour were
the most generally desired commodities in the cotton section.
These articles could be obtained in east Tennessee and in
west Virginia, and they could be brought thence by the fol-
lowing method : A keel boat was loaded near the place of
production and floated down the Holston to the Tennessee
River. By ascending a small tributary of the Tennessee, the
Hiwassee, the boat could be navigated to within twelve miles
of the headwaters of the Coosa. There was a portage across
this stretch of land. Boat houses were constructed at either
end of it, and arrangements were made for hauling the boats
in wagons from one stream to the other. This route was
traversed at a very early period in Alabama history. Ten-
nessee produce reached Montgomery by this course, and about
twelve thousand gallons of whisky were said to have been car-
ried across the portage in 1821. 1(M
Transportation conditions in the Tennessee Valley were
rendered peculiar by the presence of the obstruction in the
channel of the River at Muscle Shoals. During the dry summer
months the Shoals could not be passed, but the River rose in
the fall, and by February, boats could go over the rapids. The
water began to go down again in the spring, so that but two or
three months elapsed during which shipments could be made
from above.11 Warehouses were built at landing places on
the River and here cotton was accumulated by merchants and
shippers. As soon as the water rose, the bales were loaded
on keel boats which were dispatched in fleets under the
charge of experienced pilots who saw them safely past the
Shoals. The pilots would then return, and the boats would
s Levasseur, Lafayette en Amerique, II, 345; Niles' Register, XXI, 215;
Jackson Papers, E. P. Gaines to Andrew Jackson. March 15, 1816. See
Phillips, Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt, 71, for a description
of the flat-bottomed and nole boats.
n Hall Papers. Hines Holt to B. Hall. July 4, 1820. Sept. 20. 1820, Nov.
14, 1820.
W Niles' Register, XX, 63, House Ex. Docs. No. 15, 20, Conp., 2 Sess..
"Vol. 1.
ii Alabama Republican, Feb. 8, 1822.
76 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
proceed to New Orleans under the direction of forwarding
agents. The freight rate for cotton shipped in this manner was
from four to five dollars a bale.1-
But difficult as it was to get cotton to market, it was still
more dificult to bring back the supplies which were needed.
There were several possible routes and all of them seem to
have been used at times. Until 1816 the usual method was to
ship goods from New York and Philadelphia to Charleston or
Savannah ; transport them to Augusta, and thence carry them
by the "Georgia Road" through the Cherokee country to
Ross's landing, opposite the spot where Chattanooga now
stands on the Tennessee. From here they were floated down
to Ditto's landing near Huntsville, or to other points along
the River. In 1816 a merchant named Crump was the first
to bring goods from Mobile to Huntsville by poling them up
the River in a boat to Tuscaloosa, and hauling them in wagons
from that place. The road was found to be fairly good, and
the overland trip required but eight days.13 Supplies might
also be brought through the Valley of Virginia by way of
Knoxville; but the favorite route during the 'twenties seems
to have been that down the Ohio to the Cumberland, up the
Cumberland to Nashville, and across country from that place.
Flour, pork, and whisky could be brought from Kentucky and
the Northwest in this way, as could manufactures which went
overland from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and then down the
Ohio.11
fVYith the advent of the steamboat, conditions were radically
changed. Goods could now be carried up stream as easily as
they could be brought down, and the overland trade rapidly
fell off. Central and southern Alabama became depend-
ent upon Mobile for supplies and North Alabama be-
gan to obtain most of hers from New Orleans. The planter
thus came in time to buy his goods in the same market in
which he sold his cotton.
The first appearance of the steamboat on the rivers of Ala-
bama cannot be fixed with absolute precision, but it seems
clear that steam navigation on the Tombigbee was establish-
ed in 1819. Morse's Universal Gcographij of that year states
i-Betts, History of Huntsville, 61-62; Alabama Republican, Jan. 18,
1822.
13 Washington Republican, Jan. 1, 1S1T; Warden, Account of the Unit-
ed States. Ill, 39; Indian Office files, S. D. Hutchings to R. J. Meigs,
Dec. 3, 1816.
i-i Alabama Republican, Jan. 18, 1822.
RIVERS AND ROADS 77
that steamers were then plying between Mobile and St. Steph-
ens;1"' and Hamilton asserts in his Colonial Mobile that the
first trip up to Demopolis was made in 1819 by either the
"Tensa" or the "Mobile.1'1 There is a record of the launch-
ing of the "Tensa" on the Bay during this year, and the citi-
zens of Mobile were a little later congratulated in the local
press on another attempt to navigate the River.17 During
the same season the steamboat "Mobile," which had been
brought from Boston, was advertised to ascend to Tusca-
loosa.18
It was not long before the "Harriett" and the "Cotton
Plant" were brought to Mobile for service in the river trade,
and in 1820 the "Tombeckbee" was launched at St. Stephens.
This last boat was of seventy tons burden, had an eighty-five
foot deck and drew but fifteen inches of water when unload-
ed.1'-' The others were of about the same size, — in other words
but little larger than the average keel boat then in use. But
these four little craft were pioneers; they established steam
communication on the waters of the Alabama. In 1821 the
"Harriett" ascended the Alabama to Montgomery; in 1824
the "Cotton Plant" made her way up the Tombigbee to the
head of Navigation at Cotton Gin Port, Mississippi ;-" and in
1828 the first trip was made up the Chattahoochee to the falls
at Columbus, Georgia.-1
It was during the fall and winter months only that the
stage of the water was high enough to permit of navigation
of these rivers. Dread of yellow fever all but cleared Mobile
of population during the summer; but in November the mer-
chants began to return and collect their wares. The cotton
trade commenced in this month and continued briskly until the
following May or June, then it fell off suddenly and remained
at a stand until the waters rose in the fall.*-'2
1;"> Morse, Universal Geography, I, 558.
18 Hamilton, Colonial Mobile, 447-448, 471-472.
i" Mobile Gazette, Aug. i, 181!'. copied in the Alabama Republican
Aug. 21, 1819. •
is Alabama Republican. April 3, 181.9.
»»St. Stephens Halcyon, May 15, 1820.
20 Hamilton, Colonial Mobile, 172: Walker Pacers, J. S. Walker to J.
W. Walker. Nov. 23. 1821. In 1822, the Elizabeth, the Harriett, the
Cotton Plant, and the Tensa were navigating the Alabama, while the
Torn.beekbte was plymg the Tcmbi^bee River; Mobile Register, June 10,
1822.
-i Cahawbo Press. Anr. 24. 1824.
-•a Statistics on the r rie for the sws: na 1826-1827 and 1827-1828 col-
lected from the Mobil' /.' jistcr.
78 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
The number of boats en the rivers increased from year to
year. In 1823 chore were eleven,-1- and by 1826 the number
had risen to eighteen. -* All or these were vessels of light
draft, the lightest being used in the Tuscaloosa trade. Cot-
ton was piled high on the decks and passengers confined close-
ly to the cabins, which were not commodious. Before reach-
ing a town, a gun was fired from the deck in order to warn
the inhabitants of the approach of the vessel. The banks
of the rivers were generally steep and high, and cotton was
loaded by sliding it down an inclined piane. The boats fre-
quently lay to in order ro take on wood, and they always stop-
ped over night because of the many dangers which were to be
encountered in the tortuous streams. Striking on a snag and
sinking was no infrequent occurrence.-"' Twice within the
same season the "Cotton Plant" succumbed to that fate, but
each time she was raised and sent on her way.
In the Tennessee Valley the transportation problem was pe-
culiar. Huntsville, the largest town in the region, was built
around a great spring distant some ten miles from the River,
and at a considerable distance above the Shoals. Florence and
Tuscumbia grew up where the Natchez Trace crossed the
Shoals. They had some forwarding business in connection
with the shipping down the Tennessee, but there was little re-
turn trade in the early years.
The first steamboat to reach Florence, as far as records
show, came in 1821.20 From that time forward development
was rapid. It was only the next year that a small vessel, the
"Rocket," was commissioned to run regularly between Flor-
ence and the mouth of the River, depositing its cargo at
Trinity to be forwarded up the Ohio or down the Mississippi
in larger vessels.-7 Regular lines were later established to
connect Tuscumbia with New Orleans and the towns along
the Ohio.-s
Commercial conditions in the Tennessee Valley were chang-
ed by these improvements in communication. The shippers
above the Shoals continued to send their cotton down in keel
boats, but after the passage over the rapids, they were often
23 Mobile Argiis, Oct. 28, 1823.
-'« Mobile Register, Dec. 19, 182G.
■-■"' Saxe-Weimar, Travels through North America, I. 32-38.
-•• Alabama Republican, March 16. 1821.
-■ Ibid.. Jan. 18, 1822, March 15, 1822.
-"'Ibid., May IT, 1822; Tuscitmbian, Aug:. 22. 1825, May S, 182G.
RIVERS AND ROADS 79
towed to New Orleans by the steamers, or their cargoes were
transferred to the larger vessels. Freight rates to New Or-
leans fell from more than a dollar a hundred-weight to eighty
cents in 1822 and to fifty cents in 1828. J,J
Keel boats still came to Florence from the upper waters of
the Ohio, and merchants in the vicinity of Huntsville still
brought goods down from Nashville; but the steamboats
which came up to Florence brought large quantities of pro-
duce from New Orleans, and this came to be the main source
of supply for the entire Valley region.
One further advance in transportation facilities was made
when, in 1828, the little steamer "Atlas" ascended the Shoals
and began to ply the Tennessee and Holston Rivers between
the rapids and the town of Knoxville, Tennessee. ::o
The introduction of steam navigation made more evident
than ever the desirability of overcoming the obstruction at
Muscle Shoals by means of a canal. The question was taken
up by the legislature in 1823 and continued to be discussed
during following years. Two successive companies were in-
corporated by the State for the construction of the desired
canal, but the proposition did not prove sufficiently attract-
ive to private investors and nothing was accomplished along
these lines of endeavor.31
Hope was aroused in 1824 by an act of Congress which ap-
propriated money for the survey of an extensive system of in-
ternal improvements. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, was
called upon to submit a report on the subject, and the Muscle
Shoals canal was among the works which he classed as of na-
tional importance.-- A Government survey was made and a
report submitted, :;:; but Congress was not acknowledged to
have the right to appropriate funds for the construction of
such works, and it seemed that the matter would drop here.
Yet there was no objection to the donation of land to states
for the purpose of internal improvements, and in 1828 Con-
gress granted 400,000 acres of relinquished lands in the Hunts-
ville district, proceeds from the sale of which were to be ap-
-'■' Alaba ma Republican, Jan. 18, 1S22; Southern Advocate, March 14,
1828.
30 Southern Advocate, Feb. 15 and March 14, 1828.
31 Alabama, Acts, 1823, G6-69; Ibid., 1828, 79-86; Southern Advocate,
March 2, 1827.
32 American State Pawr?, Military, II, G9S-701.
:{3 American State Papors, Military, IV. 13; Huntsville Democrat, Ju-
ly 11, 1828.
80 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IX ALABAMA
plied to the construction of a steamboat canal around the
shoals.:it
While the people of the northern section of the State were
interesting themselves in this project, those of south Alabama
were working for a canal to connect the waters of the Tennes-
see with the Alabama River. Such a canal would en-
able the inhabitants of east Tennessee and west Virginia to
ship their produce to Mobile, which was a much closer market
than New Orleans. But the main consideration was that the
people of south Alabama would be able to purchase their flour,
whisky, and pork directly from east Tennessee instead of
having to bring it around by New Orleans and Mobile.
This plan did not look unreasonable, for the route of the
canal was to be the portage between the Hiwassee and the
Coosa, and this covered a distance of only twelve miles, with
but a moderate elevation to be overcome. The legislature, in
order to enlist the support of both sections of the State, made
a practice of dealing with both canal projects at the same
time. A company was incorporated and empowered to co-op-
erate with any company which Tennessee should establish for
the construction of the Coosa-Hiwassee canal, the reason for
this being that the site of the proposed work lay within the
lands of the Cherokee Indians above the Tennessee line.35
Calhoun, in his report of 1824, considered the Coosa-Hiwas-
see canal, but classed it as of less national importance than
that around Muscle Shoals. Though a Government survey
was made and a report presented, '■"'• the scheme for connecting
the waters of the Alabama and Tennessee did not recover from
this set-back, and the Muscle Shoals project forged ahead
while the other died a lingering death.
While Alabama was divided into two commercial sections
by her rivers, the roads which connected her with the rest of
the country did not tend to draw these two sections together.
There were two main routes of travel connecting Washington
with New Orleans: the one which passed through Richmond,
Raleigh. Columbia, Milledgeville, and Montgomery to Mobile;
and the one which passed into the Valley of Virginia at Rock-
fish Gap. threaded the Valley and then followed the course of
the Holston to Knoxville. From Knoxville, it passed to
Huntsville, then on to Tuscumbia at Muscle Shoals, and fol-
34 Statutes at L; r*. v, IV. 290.
-•'•Alabama. Act-. lS2:i, 62-66.
"(: House Executive Documents, No. 15, 20 Gong., 2 Sess., Vol. I.
RIVERS AND ROADS 81
lowed the Natchez Trace to New Orleans. In addition to
these, there was one other import;: rU route of travel between
the East and the Southwest. This was a continuation of the
National Highway from Cumberland on the Potomac to
Wheeling. Passing from Zanesville, Ohio, to Maysville, Ken-
tucky, it ran on through Lexington and Nashville, joining the
Natchez Trace at Muscle Shoals.
Most of the travelers journeying from the East to New Or-
leans took the route through the Southern capitals. Some of
them, instead of going all the way to Mobile before embark-
ing, took boat at Montgomery and made the circuitous voyage
down the river rather than endure longer the hardships of
the road. Hodgson, who passed this way in 1820, took the
land route to Mobile, :;T but Lafayette took the water course
when he came in 1825, :;s and so did the Duke of Saxe-Weimar
who followed in 1828.™
A journey over the roads of that day was a real undertak-
ing. The traveler had to content himself with log cabin ac-
commodations as he passed through the forests, and the inns
of the towns were not attractive. It was a frequent
occurrence for vehicles to be upset at some danger to life and
limb, and consequently most of the traveling was done on
horseback. The building of a road consisted merely in cut-
ting a passage through the woods, the stumps being left sev-
eral inches above the ground. Bogs were traversed by cause-
ways made of small logs placed close together across
the road with dirt thrown on top. Bridges were not
ordinarily built across the fordable streams, but ferries were
established at the crossings of the rivers.
Instead of going through the Southern capitals, the mail
from Washington to New Orleans went through the Valley
of Virginia and by Huntsville until 1827. From Huntsville it
was carried to Tuscumbia and thence followed the Natchez
Traced" As far as Huntsville, there was something that could
be called a road, but the Natchez Trace was reported to be
nothing more than a broad grass path.11 The route was cir-
cuitous, and in 1816 Congress made an appropriation to en-
able Andrew Jackson to cut a more direct road from Tennes-
'■'•' Hoderson, Letter* from North America, I. 39 et seq.
:{lii Levasseur, Lafayette en Ahierique, II. 345.
-'•'Saxe-Weimar. Travels Through North America, I. 32-38.
■"' House Reports. N'o. 48, 20 (/one;., 1 Sess., I. ITT,.
11 Hodgson, Letter* frayn Xe>rth America, I, 273.
82 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
see to New Orleans.'- The troop.1? were employed on this
work, which was begun in 18 J 7 and completed in 1820. ft
diverged from the old Trace road at Muscle Shoals, and, pass-
ing Columbus, Mississippi, on the Tombigbee River, took a
straight course to Madisonville, opposite New Orleans on Lake
Ponchartrain.43
This Military Road, as it was called, was forty feet wide,
had bridges over the smaller streams, and well constructed
causeways over the marshy places. But no provisions were
made for keeping it in repair, and since the Trace road passed
through the towns on the Mississippi while the Military Road
lay through a region large]y uninhabited, the latter was allow-
ed to fall into disuse. By 1824 the bridges had mostly been
washed away and a growth of young trees was flourishing in
the road itself. Though it was intended that the mail should
have passed this way to New Orleans, it became necessary
to cross over below Columbus and continue to take it along
the old Trace route.44
Though the road to Huntsville was at first a mere branch
of the main thoroughfare between Knoxville and Nashville,
it afforded a more direct route to New Orleans and this fact
was recognized by sending the mail this way after 1822. In
1820 Huntsville was made the terminus of the first stage line
in Alabama. This connected with the main line between
Knoxville and Nashville, and at first the service was only once
a week.4"1 This was increased in 1823 to two trips each way
every week.4'1 In 1825 an increase to three trips a week was
made, and the line was extended to Tuscumbia.47 Stages also
connected Tuscumbia with Kentucky and Ohio by the route
through Zanesville, Lexington, and Nashville. 4S But below
Tuscumbia, the river did not permit of continuous navigation
and the Natchez Trace did not permit of stages. Consequent-
42 Statutes at Large, III, 315; American State Papers, Military, IV,
627.
43 American State Papers, Miscellaneous, II, 537; Alabama Republi-
can, Dec. 17, x819, and June 9, 1S20; Jackson Papers, Wm, H. Crawford
to Andrew Jackson, March 8, 1816, W. Young to Jackson, March 14,
1817.
** American State Papers, P. O. Dept., 119-120; Tuscumbian, Nov. 12,
1824.
■*"» Alabama Rcjmblican, May 6, 1K20.
*« Ibid., Aug. 16 and Sept. 13, 1822.
*~ Tuscumbian, April 11, 1S25.
<* American State Papers, P. 0. Dept., 241; Southern Advocate, Sept.
A, 1827.
RIVERS AND ROADS S3
ly, from Tuscumbia to New Orleans the mails were still car-
ried on horseback.
The route through the Southern capitals, instead of parallel-
ing the streams as did the one through Huntsville, crossed
them and hence was more subject to interruption from swol-
len waters. Though it lay through more populous com-
munities than did the western route, the through mail be-
tween Washington and New Orleans was not carried along it
until the latter part of 1827. !:' This accounts for the later
development of stage facilities on the road between Milledge-
ville, Montgomery, and Mobile. The first stage route from
Montgomery eastward was established in 1821. At first only
one trip a week was made, but this was increased in 1823 to
two trips weekly. Not until 1826 was there a regular line
established between Montgomery and Milledgeville giving
three trips weekly.-"" It was during the next year that the
through mail to New Orleans began to come this way. It was
carried from Montgomery to Mobile in two-horse wagons,
from Mobile to Pascagoula by sulkey. and from Pascagoula to
New Orleans by steam packet."'1
This is as far as the development of transportation through
Alabama went during the period under review, but a great
deal of futile discussion was aroused by the Congressional
act of 1824 which provided for the survey of a system of in-
ternal improvements. Calhoun, in his report on the subject,
stated that a highway from Washington to New Orleans would
be best calculated to further the interests of that section and
of the country lying south of the Capitol City ; and the survey
of three separate routes was planned. The first of these was
to intersect the eastward-flowing rivers at their fall lines:
the second was to lie between this and the Appalachian Moun-
tains; and the third was to pass down the valley beyond the
mountains."- The surveys were accordingly made. The routes
recommended in the first two cases were already followed by
lines of travel. The first one lay through the Southern capi-
tals, passing on to Mobile. The second diverged from this in
northern Virginia and passed through the piedmont towns of
Petersburg, Salisbury, Greenville, and Athens, rejoining the
*n House Reports. No. 4S, 20 Cone:., 1 Sess.. 176.
•"•" Blue. History of Montgomery, 11-12; Alabama Journal, June 23 and
'-.i Mobile Register, Nov. 24, 1827; House Reports, No. 63, 20 Cong., 2.
Sess.
'^American State Papers, Military, III, 137-138.
84 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
other route near where it entered Alabama. But the third
route differed from that already established. After passing
through the valley of Virginia to Knoxville, instead of pro-
ceeding to Huntsville, it followed the valley of the Tennessee
to where Chattanooga now stands, then, paralleling Lookout.
Mountain, passed into the valley of the Cahawba. From
Centreville, at the falls of the Cahawba, it turned westward
and passed out of the State by way of Demopolis.""'
This route followed the course of the rivers and valleys, and,
theoretically, was perhaps the best. But it had the disad-
vantage of Jackson's Military Road in that it did not follow
an established route of travel. The Huntsville people pro-
claimed loudly that the route through their town should be
surveyed, and they had their way.54 The mail then took this
course to New Orleans, and the Postmaster General favored
the route. After the survey was made, no further action was
ever taken. The Old South stood opposed to the policy of in-
ternal improvements, and, shortly, with Jackson's aid, it was
able to restrain the desires of those who would have the gen-
eral Government construct a system of communication for the
country.
Commercially distant as were the two sections of Alabama,
there was necessarily some communication between them. The
first route traveled from north to south seems to have been
the portage between the Muscle Shoals and the head of navi-
gation on the Tombigbee at Cotton Gin Port. Pioneers floating
down the Tennessee took this trail in order to reach the settle-
ments in the neighborhood of St. Stephens.""' Jackson, in
the Creek War, cut a road from Huntsville southward through
the country east of the Coosa River and on to the place where
Fort Jackson was established at the confluence of the Coosa
with the Tallapoosa."'" By this route travelers were enabled
to reach the Federal Road in the neighborhood of Montgom-
ery.
Yet there was but one passage between north and south
Alabama which came to be traveled with frequency, and that
">■•* House Executive Documents, No. 156, 19 Cone:., 1 Sess., IX; House
Reports, No. 4S, 20 Cone., 1 Sess.. I; American State Papers, Military,
III, 109; Huntsville Dome rot, Sept. 7, 1S27.
54 House Executive Documents. No. 125. 20 Cong,, 1 Sess., Ill; South-
ern Adroc-te; Jan. 13, 1826, letter from Gabriel Moore.
r.r. pickett, Historv of Alabama. 466-479.
•"'• Streit, MamkfH Cr.unty, VIII.
RIVERS AND ROADS 85
was the one which led from Himisviiie through Jones Valley
to Tuscaloosa at the head of navigation on the Black Warri-
or.57 The road through the Valley was good, and much pro-
duce came down from Tennessee and reached central and
southern Alabama by this way,58
5T Warden, United States, III, 39.
5$ Alabama Republican, March J. 1822.
Chapter IX.
THE COMMERCIAL SITUATION.
The lack of a well developed financial system in the United
States rendered commercial transactions much more compli-
cated in the 'twenties than similar business would be today.
Instead of a currency resting upon the credit of the Govern-
ment and of uniform value, there were only bank notes, the
value of which depended upon the credit of the issuing banks.
The first Bank of the United States had done much to stabi-
lize the condition of the currency, but this institution had gone
out of operation in 1811 and the end of the War of 1812 found
the country flooded with paper money which was no longer
redeemed in specie by the banks which issued it. It was during
this period that settlers began to find their way into the Ala-
bama country in increasing numbers, and practically the
only money which permeated this frontier consisted of the
depreciated notes of the banks of Georgia.1
It has been explained- how the state banks were forced to
resume specie payments when the second Bank of the United
States went into operation in 1817, and how the immigrants to
Alabama were supplied with funds by the numerous new banks
which sprang up in Tennessee and Kentucky in 1818. But
the financial stress of 1819 caused these institutions to close
their doors and leave their notes to circulate at a depreciated
value in the western country.
In 1816 the legislature of Mississippi Territory had charter-
ed the Merchants' and Planters' Bank of Huntsville, and in
1818 the Tombeckbee Bank of St. Stephens and the Bank of
Mobile were chartered by the Alabama Territory. The two
last-named of these institutions were not seriously affected
by the events in Tennessee, for there were few commercial
ties between south Alabama and that State ; but the interests
of the Huntsville region were closely bound up with those of
the region to the northward, and the Huntsville bank was
necessarily influenced by the affairs of the banks of Tennes-
see.
I Riley, Conecuh County, 22-25.
-• Chapter VI.
THE COMMERCIAL SITUATION 87
The West was a debtor section ; it owed for lands, for slaves,
for goods. The East was creditor and had to be paid. But
when the banks of Tennessee suspended specie payments,
their notes were no longer available for remittance to the
East. One way around the difficulty lay in purchasing
Huntsville notes with the Tennessee notes, and drawing spe-
cie on the former. This was done, and so great was the drain
on the specie reserve of the Huntsville bank that it felt itself
forced to suspend payments in 1820. 3 Its notes continued to be
used, but they fell below par and usually circulated on an
equality with notes from Tennessee. Specie and the notes of
specie-paying banks, being at a premium, ceased to pass from
hand to hand, and north Alabama was left with a depreciated
currency.4
The value of a bank note depended not only upon the solvency
of the issuing institution, but upon the chance of presenting
it for payment in specie. Thus the value of a note in a locality
at some distance from the place of issue would depend upon
the commercial relations between the two places. If the mer-
chants who held the notes had no remittances to make to the
place where they could be redeemed, they would have to bear
the expense of sending them for redemption and bringing back
the specie. The value of the notes would be diminished by
the amount of this expense. If, for instance, it cost five per
cent, to collect in this way, notes would be worth only ninety-
five per cent, of their face value. But if the merchants had
remittances to make, notes would be more convenient for that
purpose than specie and they would command their full value.
In fact, if the remittance to be made outran the supply of
notes, the value of these might rise above their face value Dy
the amount that it would cost to ship specie in their stead.
For instance, if it cost three dollars to send a hundred in spe-
cie, a hundred dollar note would be worth a hundred and three
dollars to a merchant who had remittances to make.
This situation is brought out by the condition of affairs in
Alabama. The Georgia and South Carolina notes, which
formed the bulk of currency in the southern part of the State
were worth about four per cent, less than specie in the Ten-
nessee Valley because there was very little business between
3 American State Papers, Finance, III, 7Go-7G6.
* Alabama Republican, Sept, 22. 1X20, advertisement of P. Yeatman
& Co.; Ibid., Oct. 6, 1820; also statistics a llected on bank note exchange
from newspapers.
88 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
that section and the country directly to the south or east of it.
The notes of New Orleans banks were usually on a par with
these because the cotton sent down to the City was more than
sufficient to cover all remittances for goods. But, on the oth-
er hand, the notes on Virginia banks and on the banks of Bal-
timore, Philadelphia, and New York were always nearly
equal to specie because the Tennessee Valley imported
its manufactured goods through the Eastern cities
and obtained its agricultural produce from the Ohio
River region and from Tennessee. Eastern notes could be
used to pay the East directly, or they could be employed with
equal facility to pay the West, for the latter section was in
debt to the former and anxious to have funds for remittance.5
So difficult was communication between the two sections of
the State that the trade of the southern section was entirely
distinct from that of the northern. Not only did the towns
along the rivers send their cotton down to Mobile, but the cen-
tral hilly region also forwarded its crop by way of Tuscaloosa
and Montgomery. Some of the staple was shipped directly
from Mobile to European ports, but the greater part of it went
to Eastern cities, principally New York/' An amount almost
as great, consisting largely of the best grades, which could
be passed off as the Louisiana product, was sent to New Or-
leans to pay for the corn, pork, flour, and whisky which came
down from the Ohio River region and which were purchased by
the merchants of Mobile to be sent up the Alabama and Tom-
bigbee Rivers to the interior of the State.7
In the trade between Mobile and the Eastern cities, there
was a balance in favor of Mobile, more cotton being shipped
than was necessary to pay for the imports which were receiv-
ed in return. As a result, there was a balance due the South-
ern merchants which had to be paid in cash. But in the trade
with New Orleans the cotton shipped was not sufficient to
pay for the produce that was imported, and the Mobile mer-
chants had to use their cash to pay the difference.^ In other*
words, the money which the planters of southern Alabama re-
ceived for their cotton was spent largely in payment for corn,
5 Statistics on bank note exchange in Huntsville and Tuscumbia, col-
lected from newspapers.
•'• Mobile Register, Oct. 5. 1S24. Exports for the year 1824 included
14.900 baler of cotton to New York. 13,094 to New Orleans, and 8,778 to
Liverpool.
r Mobile Register, Nov. 7. 1822; Feb. 17. L824.
^ Biddle Papers, John Hunter to Nicholas Diddle, Jan. 6, 1827.
THE COMMERCIAL SITUATION 89
pork, flour, and whisky which were brought down the Ohio
and Cumberland Rivers to New Orleans, and shipped thence to
Mobile.
The larger planters usually went down to Mobile once a
year to transact their business with the merchants of the port ;
but the smaller producers had to do their business with coun-
try merchants who bought their goods in Mobile and trans-
ported them to the interior. These merchants did a local
"factorage" business, which consisted in "advancing" supplies
to farmers and taking their cotton in payment when the crop
was made, a balance being struck once a year. The trans-
actions between the larger planters and the merchants in the
principal towns were perhaps frequently on this same basis. !>
This was the method whereby the cotton producer secured
capital to finance his operations throughout the year. This cap-
ital was obtained from the local merchants in the first in-
stance, but these dealers were financed by the Eastern mer-
chants for whom they purchased the staple; and in this way
the East furnished capital for the production of cotton.
During the early 'twenties, when the country was just be-
ing opened up, money was scarce in southern Alabama and
many complaints were heard upon the subject ;10 yet the
notes of the local banks, as well as those of South Carolina
and Georgia, furnished a sound, though limited, currency.11
So complete was the commercial separation between the two
sections of the State, that each kept to its own medium of ex-
change with practically no interference from the other. Aft-
f> See The Cotton Factorage System of th.c Southern States, by Alfred
H. Stone, American Historical Review, XX, 557-565. This system came
to be the usual practice, but whether it was completely developed during
the 'twenties cannot be stated definitely. Merchants frequently adver-
tised that they would advance on cotton turned over to them for ship-
ment, but a committee of the legislature estimated in 1826 that two-thirds
of the cotton shipped to Mobile was sold by the negotiation of bills of
exchange, and the banks of that town did a large business in such paper.
The fact that the planters received payments in these bills indicates that
the local merchants were hardly more than purchasing agents for their
Eastern correspondents.
Another indication of sales on a cash basis is the prevalence of auc-
tions in Mobile at this time. It was customary to beat a drum as an
announcement of the sale, and the noise made in this way came to be
such a nuisance that complaint was made in the newspapers. But coun-
try merchants doubtless made advances to the small producers in their
neighborhood from the very first. See Alabama, House Journal, 1826.
80; Southern Advocate, May 12. 1826; Mobile Register, April 21, 1823,
and Jan. 17, 1824.
i" Alabama, Senate Journal, 1819, 188-190.
n American State Papers, Finance., IV, 745.
90 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IX ALABAMA
er business conditions became more settled, the notes of South
Carolina and Georgia banks ceased to pass at their face value
because of the lack of trade between Mobile and those states.
A currency sufficient for practical purposes was furnished
by local banks, the Bank of the United States, and the New
Orleans banks.1 -
The specie foundation upon which all these notes rested was
very slight, judged by modern standards of safety. Both
gold and silver were legal tender, according to law, but ac-
cording to the market prices of the metals, a gold dollar was
worth more than was one of silver. The result of this situation
was that silver passed from hand to hand, while gold was
withdrawn from circulation and a premium had to be paid to
obtain it.
But even silver was scarce. There had been a profit made
out of sending silver dollars to Latin-American countries and
exchanging them on equal terms for the Spanish dollars, or
pieces of eight reals, which were a little heavier. These for-
eign coins were brought back and melted down because the
silver in them was worth a little more than a dollar according
to our monetary standard. Hence there was left for circula-
tion in this country only the Spanish dollars which were too
light to afford a profit in the bullion market, and a certain
amount of fractional Spanish coin.
This situation had caused Jefferson to suspend the coinage
of silver dollars in 1806 and none had been produced since.1'-
Spanish, Mexican, and other foreign coins made up our supply
of specie, and it afforded a very light reserve against the
notes which were issued by the banks, nor were there nearly
enough of the smaller coins to serve the ordinary purposes of
trade. A remedy was sought in the issue of "change tickets,"
which were merely bits of paper purporting to be worth
twenty-five, fifty or seventy-five cents. They were signed
by the issuer and were supposed to be redeemable for specie,
but, since there was a demand for them, they were expected
to remain afloat. This was a very profitable form of printing
and it was indulged in by business houses and municipal au-
thorities.14 The irregularity in the issuance of such tickets
made this practice a great nuisance to the community. For-
geries were easy, and the country was flooded with the paper
12 Mobile Register, Oct. 29, 1823, and Aug. 30, 1828.
18 White, Moi c i ■< nd Banking, 33-34.
i-» Alabama Republican, Nov. 10, 1820.
THE COMMERCIAL SITUATION 91
of various uncertain houses. These considerations finally in-
duced the State to take the matter up ; the issuance of change
tickets by private firms was forbidden and the government
undertook to furnish the people with a lawful supply.1'
Such was the condition of the currency in Alabama ; but the
man who had cotton to sell was affected not only by local con-
ditions, but by national and international trade relations as
well. The crop of Alabama was sold largely through Mobile
and New Orleans merchants, who in turn disposed of the bulk
of it, directly or indirectly, in the British market. The Amer-
ican merchant collected his account by drawing a bill of ex-
change on the British purchaser and disposing of this to some
other American merchant who was in need of funds to remit
to England.
During the period following the War of 1812, America was
importing more than she was exporting and the bills of ex-
change drawn by exporters were not sufficient to meet the
demand of the importers who needed funds for remittance.
Th result was that some of the importers had to send gold to
pay their debt and this operation cost about ten per cent. It
normally cost only about five per cent, to ship gold to England,
but that country was on a gold basis and nothing but silver
was circulating in this country. Consequently, the man who
had a remittance to make in specie had to take silver at the
current rate and purchase gold with it at about five per cent,
advance. This premium on gold, added to the expense of
shipment, accounts for the ten per cent.' which it cost to send
specie to London. Now the man who could buy a bill of ex-
change on London to cover his debt was willing to pay — and
the competition for such bills forced him to pay — a premium
of about ten per cent, over its face value.11'
The Mobile merchants usually transacted their foreign bus-
iness through New York firms, and received the proceeds of
their foreign exchange in drafts on New York. Since, after
the first few years of expansion, the cotton crop of south Ala-
bama brought in more of these than could be used for remit-
tances to New York, the balance had to be sent for collection
in specie, and it cost about three per cent, to bring the specie
from New York to Mobile. Hence New York paper passed
at about three per cent, below its face value in the Alabama
port, and the local merchant, not caring to stand the loss of
i"'Ibid., May 18, 1821. June 29, 1821; Cahawba Press, June 8, 1822.
i,;Statistics on London exchange, collected from newspapers; Ala-
bama Republican, Feb. 12, 1822, extract from the Xatiotutl Gazette.
92 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IX ALABAMA
the three per cent., made a practice of remitting to the plant-
er in New York funds, leaving- the latter to pay the cost of
converting them into current money.17 Yet, as a total result,
there was a gain of about seven per cent, to the cotton pro-
ducer because of the condition of trade-balance between the
cotton region and the East on the one hand, and between this
Country and England on the other.
It must not be understood from this discussion, however,
that there was a trade balance in favor of Alabama as against
the rest of the world and that specie was pouring in. While
money was coming in from New York, it was all going out in
other directions, and the State was accumulating no capital in
cash. Like all newly opened country, Alabama was in debt.18
The settlers owed for their lands and slaves, and for consum-
able goods. What they made from their crops, they invested
in their establishments and there was no capital for commerci-
al enterprises. This was doubtless due largely to the fact
that cotton planting was the only occupation which wTas sure
to give social prestige. Merchandising was carried on to a
large extent by men from the North, and it was not regarded
with great esteem by the agricultural community. The mer-
chant was likely to be looked upon by the planter as a grasping
inferior, while the poor man was apt to consider him an eco-
nomic enemy.
Speculation, land grabbing, and graft of all kinds were the
necessary accompaniments of a rush into new country
where all were scrambling for a place and where the strong
could use his strength to greatest advantage against the weak.
The man without capital was largely at the mercy of him who
had it. as is well illustrated by the situation in regard to the
sale of the public lands.
The planter who bought his land and settled down to the
business of raising cotton was not looked on with disfavor by
any part of. the people, for his profits did not come from his
neighbors. But the man who used his capital in a commercial
wray made his profits largely out of the community, and he
often made too much. Thus the poorer men frequently looked
with suspicion upon those who did business with them, which
fact manifests itself forcibly in connection with the banking
question.
IT Alabama. Honse Journal, 1826, 80; American State Papers, Finance,
III, Tt>2; statistics on domestic exchange, collected from newspapers.
t* Alabama, Senate Journal, 1821, 21, Message of Governor Pickens.
Chapter X.
THE BANK QUESTION.
The money which cotton brought into Alabama during the
'twenties went out largely through the land offices and for
slaves, and the State was left without commercial capital.
Funds were needed to finance the cotton crop ; to promote ag-
ricultural expansion ; and, especially, to furnish the basis for a
sufficient circulating medium. The first of these needs was
met by the New York cotton dealers, for they financed mer-
chants in the South who bought the staple on their account;
agricultural expansion was provided for by the planter's rein-
vestment of his profits ; but there seemed to be no means of
securing a sufficient circulating medium except- by local
banks, and this expedient was resorted to.
The difficult problem was to obtain sufficient capital for
investment in banking enterprises. As such institutions are
conducted today, with solid value behind their paper dollars,
they do not add greatly to the capital of the community, being
merely organizations for its efficient use. If this had been
the case in 1820, they would not have met the requirements of
the Southwest. A multiplication of capital was expected of
them — the creation of money where none existed before. Yet
promising as were the prospects of these money-making ma-
chines, men would have invested their funds in lands rather
than Ln banks had they not expected to borrow more than they
put in — so great was the lure of cotton in the eyes of the
planting community. This situation must be understood be-
fore the bank question can be made clear.
The charter of the Merchants' and Planters' Bank of Hunts-
ville was granted by the legislature of Mississippi Territory
in 1816, while the Mobile and St. Stephens banks were grant-
ed theirs by the legislature of Alabama Territory in 1818. yet
the provisions of all three documents were very similar. The
capital of each institution was limited to half a million dol-
lars, a minority of which was reserved to the territorial gov-
ernment in each cat;e; no interest over six per cent, might be
charged; and the i>sne of notes was not to exceed three times
94 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
the amount of capital actually paid in.1 This last provision
indicates that the authorities were more solicitous for a cur-
rency than they were for financial safety. They evidently
expected the banks to be money-manufacturing institutions,
and their hopes were not disappointed.
In September, 1818, the Tombeckbee Bank, of St. Stephens,
went into operation with only $7,700 of its stock subscribed
for. Israel Pickens, a lawyer of St. Stephens, and register
of the land office there, was elected president; and George S.
Gaines, for a long time factor for the Choctaw Indians, was
chosen secretary.- In January, 1820, Pickens wrote to the
Secretary of the Treasury that the Mobile Bank had but a
nominal existence. He stated that that institution, which had
been chartered in 1818, had had $70,000 subscribed to its cap-
ital, and that one-eighth of this, or about $8,000 had been
paid in specie. An agent was sent North with a part of this
sum to secure the materials for putting the bank in opera-
tion, but while he was gone, the bank's balance was lost by
robbery. Now the agents of the Mobile institution were sup-
posed to be drawing upon the Tombeckbee Bank for specie
with which to put their corporation on its feet.3
Meantime, the Huntsville bank, being an older institution,
was doing business in a larger way. In August, 1819, it had
a capital of $164,000 and had discounted to the extent of
$408,000.' The Secretary of the Treasury wrote to Leroy
Pope, president of this bank,"- as well as to the president of
the Tombeckbee Bank,'; and expostulated on the reckless way
in which their affairs were being conducted ; but no practical
reform was effected. Demand for accommodation was great,
capital was limited, and the temptation to profit was too
strong to be withstood.
The first evident result of this situation was the suspen-
sion of specie payments by the Huntsville bank in 1820. It
has already been explained how the suspension of payments
by the Tennessee banks in 1819 was followed by a drain of
specie from the Huntsville bank, which was too heavy for an
institution whose circulation far exceeded its specie reserve.7
1 Toulmin, Alabama Code of 1823.
2 American State Papers, Finance, III, 767-7(38.
•"• American State Papers, Finance, IV, 740.
« Ibid., Ill, 778-782.
■> Ibid., Finannce, HI. 7C4.
'■Ibid., Finance, ill, 108.
7 Ibid., Finance. Ill, 7;>o-7t!G.
THE BANK QUESTION 95
It was believed, however, that the bank was sound, and its
notes continued to circulate on a par with those of the Teiv
nessee banks, and the two together made up the currency of
northern Alabama.
On account of the lack of commercial relations between the
two sections of the State, this financial trouble did not com-
municate itself to the south, where the two local banks con-
tinued to pay specie and where the bulk of the circulation con-
sisted of notes of the solvent banks of Georgia. The equilib-
rium of Alabama would hardly have been disturbed had not
the situation developed a political as well as a commercial
phase. As long as the Huntsville bank paid specie on its
notes, they were, of course received by the State in payment
of taxes. But when the bank suspended payments, the legis-
lature refused to debar its notes from acceptance. s The re-
sult of this was that all who could procure the depreciated
notes turned them in to the Treasury instead of sound funds,
and the entire community suffered by the situation. In ad-
dition to this, the legislature, during the same session, emit-
ted an issue of treasury notes which were made payable in
Huntsville currency. The natural result was that they at once
fell to a par with the Huntsville notes, and the State lost the
difference.
Though the legislature could hardly have misunderstood the
inevitable result of the course which it took in this matter,
the Governor defended its action by arguing that the people
of northern Alabama could not secure other funds than the
notes of the Huntsville bank, and that it would be unjust to re-
fuse to let them pay their taxes with this money.'-' This gover-
nor was not the William Wyatt Bibb who had presided over the
Territory of Alabama and had been elected to the chief of-
fice under the new State government. He had died in 1820
from the effects of a fall from his horse, and was succeeded
by his brother. Thomas Bibb, president of the State Senate.10
It is interesting to note in this connection that Thomas Bibb
was a director of the Huntsville bank in 1823. n
This confusion in financial affairs brought out more strong-
ly than ever the desire for a State bank. The three private
banks in operation had been chartered under territorial gov-
8 Cahawba Press, Oct. 15, 1S21.
r' Alabama, Senate J uirnal, 1821, 8-9.
i° Pickett. History oi Alabenna, 666-668.
11 Huntsville Demnr.rct, Dec. 16, 182.".
&6 ' THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
ernment and there was no intention of chartering any new
ones under the State. The constitution provided for a bank
of the Commonwealth, and efforts were soon on foot to found
such an institution.
The first step in this direction was taken by the legislature
in 1820. Provision was made for a State bank with a capital
of two million dollars. Half of the stock was to be reserved
to the State and the government was to choose the president
and six of the twelve directors, thus controlling the institu-
tion.1- Books were opened for public subscription, but no
capital was found for investment in such a bank, and the
scheme fell through.1'-
But the idea was not abandoned. In 1821 Israel Pickens
succeeded Thomas Bibb as Governor. Pickens came to Ala-
bama from North Carolina in 1817. having served his native
State in Congress since 1811. 'It has been mentioned that he
took up his residence at St. Stephens and became president of
the Tombeckbee Bank. Before Bibb retired from office, com-
missioners had been appointed by the legislature to negotiate
with the private banks and to discover on what terms they
would be willing to become branches of a State bank.14 The
constitution had provided that such an arrangement might be
made, and, since other capital did not seem to be obtainable,
the idea of founding a State institution through the instru-
mentality of those already existing appealed to many. A bill
for carrying this plan into effect was passed by the legislature,
but was vetoed by Governor Pickens at the inception of his
term of office.1" If allowed to become law, this measure would
have committed the credit of the State into the hands of a
few bankers without any careful scrutiny of their affairs.
Considering the way in which the private banks of Alabama
had been conducted, such a move would have been dangerous,
to say the least. There were many who praised Pickens for
stepping in to prevent it and there were many who blamed
him for his action.
The political division in Alabama had previously been due
to the rivalry between the north and the south of the State,
or to the antagonism which grew up against those Georgia
men who, through the friendship of William H. Crawford, en-
12 Toulmin. Alabama Code of 1823.
>» Alabama Republican, June 29, 1821.
i * Alabama, Senate Journal, 1V21. 8-9.
'•"Alabama, House Journal, 1821. 227.
THE BANK QUESTION 97
joyed a practical monopoly of the Federal patronage. Now the
bank question was injected into the midst of the situation.
Though Pickens was not a Georgia man, his being made
register of the land office at St. Stephens would indicate that
he was not at odds with them. It is significant that in 1819
he wrote a letter endorsing Dr. Henry Chambers, who was
running against Col. John Crowell for the seat in the Lower
House of Congress.10 Dr. Chambers was from the Tennes-
see Valley and represented the Georgia faction, while Crow-
ell was from the southern part of the State and not a Georgia
man. In 1821 it was Chambers who opposed Pickens for the
governorship, but he was a weak candidate and carried only
a few of the counties in his own section.17
No political issues seem to have been brought forward in
this campaign. The question of the currency and the State
bank was before the people and had been discussed at random,
but no definite line of action had been proposed. Pickens'
attitude on the subject does not appear to have been canvassed,
but he no sooner took his stand than a general agitation be-
gan.
The Huntsville bank had profited, or was thought to have
profited, at the expense of the people of the State, and the
capital of this institution was largely in the hands of men
from Georgia. The feeling against the bank was added to the
feeling against the Crawford faction, and those who shared
these sentiments rose up to proclaim Pickens the man who had
saved his State from the hands of the spoilers.18
The veto of the charter was followed by an attack on the
Huntsville bank. Its notes were debarred from acceptance
in payment of debts to the State, 10 and this, together with the
failure of the prospect that the institution would become a
branch of the State bank, led to a rapid decline in their value.
In all this, the newspapers of the State, which were edited
largely by Adams men, supported the act of the Governor, the
Alabama Republican, of Huntsville, being a notable exception.
But when it came to the constructive side of Pickens' pro-
gram, there was a greater difference of opinion. Private
capital had failed to come to the support of the State man-
aged bank in 1820, and the existing banks were not to be trust-
16 Cahaicba Press, July 30, 1821.
i" Alabama House Journal, 1822, 25.
is Cahawba Press, Feb. 4. 1822, April 27, 1S22, May 25, 1S22; St. Ste-
phens Halcyon, Feb. 9. 1822.
l» Huntsville Democrat, July 20, 1824.
98 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
ed with the destinies of a public institution. There was but one
other possible chance, and the Governor set his face in that di-
rection: the State was to furnish its own capital and direct
its own bank for the benefit of the people. For procuring the
necessary funds, the State had but one recourse: the lands
which had been granted to it by the National Government. It
was proposed that the proceeds from the sale of these lands be
invested in the bank and that six per cent, interest be paid on
the funds and devoted to the purpose for which the original
grants had been made. The management of the institution
was to be in thei hands of a president and board of directors
chosen by the legislature.20
The bearing of such a proposition in a State where the ma-
jorify of the people were hard-pressed for money can easily
be understood. Those who had some capital and a fairly in-
telligent interest in economic affairs would oppose it. Those
who had no capital, wanted cheap money, and knew little of
business methods, would favor it with all the ardor of frontier
democracy. In other words, here was the material for a po-
litical cleavage along economical lines, but the Governor who
gave the popular party its rallying-ground was not a Jackson
man.
Discussion of the question went on with unabated earnest-
ness, but without practical results, during the whole of Pick-
ens' first term in office. The Alabama Republican, of Hunts-
ville, showed an unmistakable leaning toward the private
banks, while the Mobile papers contended for a commercial
rather than a democratic institution. It was argued with
reason that unless the bank was located at the center of trade,
its notes would not circulate at par at any distance from the
place where they were issued and could be redeemed.21 It was
also questioned whether a bank would be efficiently adminis-
tered under the auspices of the legislature. But the striking
feature in the discussion was the appearance of a new paper
in Huntsville called the Democrat, and edited by a man from
Kentucky. In the fall of 1823 this publication suddenly came
forward and announced itself the champion of "the peo-
ple."22 The people had been without a leader, it said, and had
suffered many things at the hands of the aristocrats. The
20 Alabama, Senate Journal, 1821, 27-34; House Journal, 1822, 9 et seq.
21 Alabama Republican, Aue. 24, 1821; Mobile Are/us, Nov. 6, 1823;
Mobile Advertiser, Dec. 15, 1823.
22 Alabama Republican, Oct. 17, 1823.
THE BANK QUESTION 99
president of the Huntsville bank was accused of several kinds
of rascality, and the administration of the corporation was
condemned as a robbery of the poor. It was alleged that cot-
ton had been shipped to New York, sold there for sound mon-
ey and the proceeds brought back to Huntsville and exchanged
by the bank for its own notes, which it took at a discount.23
This process was known as "shaving," and the term "shavers"
was applied in opprobrium to those connected with the bank.
Color is lent to charges of this kind by the fact that
Pope, the president of the bank, who was also pension agent,
paid pensioners in the depreciated notes of his institution, and
was for this dismissed from his office by the Treasury De-
partment.24
Pickens was again candidate for the governorship in 1823.
The bank question was made a leading issue of the campaign,25
and his second election was followed shortly by the incorpor-
ation of the Bank of the State of Alabama. The capital was
to be derived from the sale of lands donated to the State for
the founding of a university, from the 1640 acres donated for
a seat of government, from the three per cent, which was giv-
en out of the sales of Federal lands for the purpose of con-
structing roads within the State, and from several minor
sources. The amount of university money which could be in-
vested in this manner was limited to $100,000, and $100,000
additional was to be borrowed on the credit of the State. It
was provided that six per cent, was to be paid on all funds,
and the interest on the university fund, the "three per cent."
fund, and other special funds, was to be devoted to the object
for which the original donations had been made. The bank
was to be founded at the seat of government, the president
and directors were to be chosen by the legislature, and all dis-
counts were to be apportioned among the several counties in
proportion to their representation in the legislature.20 In
the Senate, the vote on this measure was thirteen to six, those
who were in the negative coming from the more commercial
communities.27
23 Huntsville Democrat, Oct. 14, 1823; Alabama Republican, Dec. 12,
1823.
24 Huntsville Democrat, March 30, 1824; Franklin Enquirer, Apr. 7,
1824.
25 Alabama Republican, June 13, 1823; Mobile Argus, July 22, 1823.
2«: Act. of Dec. 20. 1823.
-" Alabama, Senate Journal, 1823, 65.
100 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
In July, 1824, the bank was organized with a capital slightly
in excess of $200,000. half ot which was derived from the* re-
sources of the State, and the other half of which was borrow-
ed.28 Its discounts soon exceeded its capital, and its notes be-
,gan to constitute an appreciable part of the local circulation.
This addition to the amount of available money came at an
opportune time, for several of the older issues of notes were
shortly withdrawn from general use. The war against the
Huntsville bank was carried on until 1825, when, on account
of its failure to redeem a pledge to resume specie payments,
its charter was annulled,2'- and though all its notes were not
withdrawn, they ceased to form any appreciable part of the
circulating medium of the Tennessee Valley.
The Tennessee notes, which made up the greater part of the
currency of this section, circulated in abundance as
long as they were not redeemable, for Eastern merchants who
collected debts in Tennessee funds found it profitable to pur-
chase cotton with them rather than to take them into a part
of the country where they were at a great discount.30 But in
1826, the Tennessee banks resumed specie payments and their
notes ceased to circulate extensively in Alabama.31 Thus the
Huntsville region was left almost destitute of a currency, and
"change tickets" appeared in great numbers in spite of the
fact that their issuance was illegal.32 A planter who sold his
cotton in New Orleans and received a draft on New York in
payment could realize cash on his paper by exchanging it in
Nashville for "post notes" issued by the firm of Yeatman and
Woods. These notes were made payable in Philadelphia sev-
eral months after date, which arrangement put them at a dis-
count and kept them in circulation, so that they came to make
up a large part of the currency in northern Alabama.33
In the meantime, the southern part of the State was having
its troubles. In 1826 the United States Bank established a
branch at Mobile in spite of the protests of those who believed
that it would be a menace to the Bank of Alabama.34 The
2$ Alabama, Senate Journal, 1824, 7.
2» Alabama, Senate Journal, 1825; 10; Alabama Republican, Feb. 18,
1825.
so Huntsville Democrat, April 27, 1S24.
Si Southern Advocate, Sept. 8, 1826. Sept. 15, 1826.
32 Huntsville Democrat, March 9, 1827.
33 Southern Advocate, Jan. 5, 1827.
••:* Mobile Register, Nov. 18, 1826; Alabama Journal, May 6, 1826; Ala-
bama, Senate Journal, 1826, 9.
THE BANK QUESTION 101
branch bank refused to receive the notes of the local banks,
but made an exception in the case of the Mobile bank provid-
ed that it would redeem its obligations at frequent intervals.
In turn, the Mobile bank, in order to protect itself, refused to
receive the notes of the St. Stephens bank and of the State
bank unless they would -redeem them at frequent intervals in
Mobile. This was necessary because there was a flow of cur-
rency from the interior toward Mobile, but no counter-flow
to balance the situation. The State bank made terms, but the
St. Stephens bank refused to do so and seems to have damaged
its credit by the stand which it took. At any rate, it closed
its doors in 1827 and its notes ceased to pass as currency.35
By 1828 the capital of the State bank had increased to
$409,000, and arrangements were made for borrowing an-
other $100, 000. 30 In addition to this, permission had been
obtained from Congress for selling the sixteenth section in
each township which had been donated for the establishment
of public schools, and provision was made by the legislature
for investing the proceeds in the bank.37 The discounts of
the institution were now more than $600,000 ; its notes in cir-
culation amounted to $395,000; and its cash funds to $294,-
000.3S Here was an establishment of portentous possibilities.
35 Alabama, Senate Journal, 1827, 184-185; Huntsville Democrat, April
13, 1827; Mobile Register, June 25, 1828.
36 Act. of Jan. 12, 1828.
37 American State Papers, Lands, VI, 891; Sotithern Advocate, Feb. 1.
1828.
3S Alabama, Senate Journal, 1828, 18.
Chapter XI
POLITICS AND THE ELECTION OF 1824
Something has been said of the influence of Georgia on the
early politics of Alabama. It remains to trace the conse-
quences of the situation. The fraudulent Yazoo land specu-
lation had split the former state into two factions ; those who
attacked and annulled the sales were led by General James
Jackson, while the defenders adhered to General Elijah Clarke.
In time the leadership of the Jackson party passed into the
hands of William H. Crawford, while the opposition was main-
tained by John Clarke, son of the General.1
Between these factions there were no standing political dif-
ferences, but the rivalry between the leaders on each side was
backed by certain economic and sectional differences be-
tween their respective followings. There had been two cen-
ters of settlement in Georgia : one along the tide-water region
where sea-island cotton formed the basis for a planting
aristocracy; and the other in the piedmont region where the
Savannah River cut through the red hills and afforded trans-
portation facilities for planters of upland cotton. The older
settlements were those of the tide-water region, but after the
Revolution, while upland cotton was coming into its own, num-
erous emigrants had come from Virginia and North Carolina
and established themselves in the piedmont section. Elbert
County came to be a center of Virginia influence, while Wilkes
County, just to the northward, came to be a center of North
Carolina influence. A marked rivalry grew up between the
two groups of settlers, both of which tended toward exclusive-
ness.
James Jackson, and later, Troup, stood for the tide-water
aristocracy, while Clarke represented the plain men of the
frontier sections of the State. Crawford was a Virginian of
the piedmont section, and his co-operation with Jackson
brought about an alliance of the two groups which they repre-
sented. The North Carolinians were thus thrown into the
arms of the Clarke party.
1 On the subiect of rVie Georgia parties, see U. B. Phillips, Georgia and
State Rights, Chap. IY;
POLITICS AND THE ELECTION OF 1824 103
The majority of the leading men of the State were of the
Crawford faction and for a long time they succeeded in main-,
taining political control. When the new lands in Alabama
were opened up, however, the exodus of cotton planters was a
severe blow to the party. A substantial number of wealthy
Georgians, including Leroy Pope and his son-in-law, John W.
Walker, had gone from Elbert County and established Hunts-
ville in 1809 and 1810. But it was in 1817 and 1818 that a great
body of them bought land at the Government sales at Milledge-
ville and moved out into the basin of the Alabama River to be-
come the back-bone of the planter class in that section.
It was during this time that Georgia's two Senators, Charles
Tait and William W. Bibb, voted for a bill to increase the sal-
aries of the members of their body, and thereby brought down
a storm upon their heads which resulted in their withdrawal
from Congress, and which was instrumental in causing them to
remove to Alabama. Bibb at once became Governor of the new
Territory; but Tait remained in the Senate until the end of
his term, and then, statehood having been obtained for Ala-
bama, reaped his reward for senatorial service by being made
a district judge of the new commonwealth. These men were
accompanied to Alabama by other strong supporters of Craw-
ford, among whom was Boiling Hall, who had sat in the House
of Representatives for his native state, and who nowT took up
his residence in Autauga County across the river from Mont-
gomery.
Governor Bibb was popular in Alabama, and Walker seems
to have won his way to the Senate through sheer worth. Tait
also had senatorial aspirations, but yielded to William R. King
when jealousy of the Georgia group made it clear that it was
dangerous to push too far. William H. Crawford was not so
cautious, however, in dispensing the Federal patronage for the
State. He controlled practically all appointments and his
friends were invariably put into office except when it became
expedient to shelve an opponent. Bait was held out to King
in the hope of diverting him from his race for the Senate, but
he refused to be diverted.2 William Crawford, who succeed-
ed Pickens as president of the Tombeckbee Bank, was district
attorney and, at the same time, receiver for the St. Stephens
land office. If the receiver had been irregular in his ac-
2 Tait Paper?, Wm. H. Craw-ford to C. Tait, Nov. 7, 1819.
104 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
counts, the attorney would hardly have been eager to prose-
cute the case!3
Such a condition as this necessarily aroused the anger of
those who did not have a finger in the pie, and complaints of
partisanship and inefficiency went up on all sides. It was not
a struggle which would greatly concern the mass of the people,
who were absorbed in other things, but it concerned the poli-
ticians and they, in turn, had some power to arouse the people.
This power seems to have been more limited than would be
imagined. There were no parties, nor even any standing is-
sues. The people, busy with their clearings and their crops,
appear to have elected their more ambitious neighbors to go up
to the legislature and relieve them of anxiety about all politi-
cal questions excepting only such as concerned immediate
economic interests. No serious attempt was made to arouse
them until Pickens seized upon the bank question and made an
issue of it.
The relation existing between the champion of the State
Bank and the Crawford men is not easy to trace. It is stated
that Pickens, then a Congressman from North Carolina, sup-
ported Crawford when he stood for the Presidency against
Monroe in 1816. But when Crawford refused him the ap-
pointment as register of the land office at Cahawba, which
place had been promised him by Dallas, Pickens turned
against the Georgia men and threatened to become the head
of an opposition.4 It was probably Tait who secured for him
the appointment as register of the land office at St. Stephens,5
and this seems to have prevented hostilities until the guber-
natorial campaign of 1821, when Pickens denied all connection
with the Crawford party.0
It has been mentioned that Crawford stood for the aristo-
cratic group in Georgia and that the majority of his followers
who came to Alabama were planters of some means. The
connection of a few of them with the unfortunate Huntsville
bank made it possible for their enemies to call them "oppres-
sors of the poor," and the fight for the State Bank was made
a fight against the Georgia faction. The challenge was ac-
3 Mobile Argus, March 3, 1823, letter copied from the Franklin Ga-
zette.
■* Hall Papers, Jack F. Ross to Boiling: Hall, Aug. 2n, 1821; Tait Pa-
pers, William H. Crawford to C. Tait. Nov. 27, 1819.
5 Tait Papers, Wm. H. Crawford to C. Tait, Nov. 29, 1819
c Bibb Papers, C. Tait to W. W. Bibb, Nov. 28, 1820.
POLITICS AND THE ELECTION OF 1824 105
cepted, and the Crawford men led the defense of the private
banks, while their opponents combined against them to es-
tablish the "people's bank."'7
It is an interesting alignment of factions that was brought
about by this situation. Farmers on a small scale had come
into Alabama primarily from Tennessee, Georgia, and South
Carolina ; but whatever their origin, they were preponderant-
ly Jackson men. Among the planters there was no such unan-
imity. Those from Georgia were most numerous along the
upper Alabama River, and they were the principal supporters
of Crawford. Those from the Carclinas and Virginia pre-
dominated in the Tombigbee basin as far up as Tuscaloosa,
and Adams was strongest in this section. In the Tennessee
Valley, the Georgia planters mingled with the planters from
Virginia and the Carolinas and produced a variety of political
sentiments, the Georgia influence being strong in Madison
County but dwindling away toward the west. On the bank
question, the Adams planters were allied with the Jackson
farmers to defeat the Crawford men.8
The election of Pickens was the beginning of hard times for
the Georgia faction. They had at first made Alabama their
own, and the new State was glad to have their powerful in-
fluence in Washington. Their monopoly of the Federal pat-
ronage raised up enemies among the politicians from other
states. In the untimely death of Governor Bibb, they lost a
strong leader. This misfortune was followed in 1823 by the
death of Senator John W. Walker. These two men had won
much respect in the community, and there were no others of
equal caliber to take their places. In the contest to fill the va-
cant seat in the Senate, the Crawford men supported John
McKinley, while their opponents, the "friends of the people,"
backed William Kelly. The latter won the contest by a narrow
majority, and when the unexpired term was completed, he
stood for re-election, being opposed this time by Dr. Henry
Chambers. Chambers won the race and thereby restored the
balance, for William R. King, who, like Pickens, was from
North Carolina and no friend of the Georgia faction, retained
"Alabama Republican, March 25, 1824; Huntsville Democrat, Nov. 11,
1823, July 20, 1824.
s The origin of the population in different sections of the State has
been discussed in Chapter III. The statement of the political tendencies
of the various sections is based upon the attitude of the press and the
presidential vote of 1824.
106 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
his seat continuously in the Senate, for twenty-five years after
Alabama became a State.0
But the Crawford men, while able to maintain a condition
of political balance in the legislature, were not nearly so
strong when elections went straight to the people. None of
the early Congressmen were of their number, nor were they
able to elect a governor after IS 19. It is indeed surprising
to consider how small was the group of men who all but dom-
inated the legislature of the State. The planters were but
few compared to the total number of settlers, nor did the
Georgians constitute a majority of the planters, yet they made
up the predominant class in an important section of the State
and found their way into politics in relatively large numbers.
This was possible because of their prominence as office-hold-
ers ; because there were no organized parties ; and because
there was no standing antagonism between the planter and the
farmer. There were politicians who wanted to teach the peo-
ple to know their rights, and in the matter of the Bank, they
succeeded in their aim. But ordinarily the people did not feel
a great need of instruction. In the absence of parties, poli-
tics were largely personal. Only men of some station thought
of running for office, and the lesser sort selected their favor-
ite and voted for him without asking many questions as to his
creed. While a study of the popular elections shows very
clearly that the people knew what they wanted when a matter
of political interest was put squarely before them, a compari-
son of the votes of the legislature indicates that popular con-
trol was, under ordinary circumstances, very slight.
Until the campaign of 1824 approached, local matters tend-
ed to push national issues into the background, and the reason
was that there was a nearly unanimous agreement upon all
Federal questions excepting as to who should be President af-
ter Monroe. Clay had a few strong friends in Alabama, but
his advocacy of the tariff rendered him unpopular; and Craw-
ford had no followers excepting the Georgia planters. The
plain people were devotedly attached to Andrew Jackson,
while Adams had strong support among the Carolina and Vir-
ginia planters. New Englanders were generally disliked in
this section of the country and the popularity of Adams indi-
"Crhaicb- Pr»s&, Dec. 14. 1S22: HtnitsviUe Democrat. July 20, 1S24,
Dec. 14. 1S24. Dec. 21, 1824: Atebnmo Republican Doe. IT, 1824; Tait
P-^-rs* Wm. H. Crr.-.vford to C. Tait, Feb. 1(5. 1823; Hall Papers. Au^. 21,
1823.
POLITICS AND THE ELECTION OF 1824 107
cates that the conservative element entertained a strong prej-
udice against the aggressive democracy of the Jackson men.
The support which Adams gave to the cause of internal im-
provements was an asset in a state where improvements were
badly needed, and his friends claimed that he was safer on the
question of the tariff than any of the other candidates.10
The tariff question was the disturbing one. Alabama was
a unit in condemning the system of protection, and the sup-
porters of Jackson found their greatest difficulty here. The
hero of New Orleans voted for the increased duties that were
established in 1824, and this fact was used against him by his
enemies, nor could they have found a better weapon. It be-
came necessary for the Jackson men to bestir themselves in
the matter. A direct question on the subject was propounded
to the General and his answer was published in the Mobile
Advertiser. Here he stated clearly that he favored protection
for those industries which were of military importance, such
as the manufacture of iron and cheap woolen goods, but that
he was otherwise for a revenue tariff only.11 No clear case
could be made for Adams, however, and the cause of Jackson
was not seriously hurt by the issue.
A strong section of the local press favored Adams, and it
was conceded that he would carry the southern part of the
State, while Jackson was expected to carry the northern.12 An
attempt was made to have the presidential electors chosen by
district with the hope that two of the five could be carried for
the New England candidate,13 but the plan was defeated and
in 1823 the legislature declared Jackson to be the choice of the
State.14 So great was the popularity of the General that even
his enemies had to speak respectfully of him. Those mem-
bers of the legislature who voted against the nomination took
the trouble to explain that they did so, not because of hostili-
ty, but because they did not consider the question a proper one
io Alabama Republican, May 21, 1824, Oct. 8, 1824; Cahaicba Press,
July 10, 1824; Huntsville Democrat, June 24. 1824.
ii Tuscaloosa Mh-ror, May 29, 1824. Jackson did not refer simply to
munitions of war, but meant to include all articles necessary to put the
country in a condition of economic independence, considering: this neces-
sary to mi'itary safety. See letters to John Coffee, dated May 7, and
June 18, 1S24, in the Coffee correspondence.
12 Huntsville Democrat, Aug. 24, 1824; Alabayna Republican, August
8, Oct. 1, 1824. ,. 0.
13 Alabama, Senate Journal, 182", 12; Alabama Republican, Sept. 2b,
1823
14 Alabama, Senate Journal, 1823, 82; House Journal, 1823, 77.
108 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
for legislative action.15 Governor Pickens explained on the
same grounds his failure to sign the nominating resolution.10
Indeed, the loss of popularity which one suffered by opposing
Jackson brought many men to a new way of thinking. Dr.
Henry Chambers was backed by the Georgia group when he
ran for the governorship in 1821 and 1823,17 but he became a
supporter of Jackson and was made presidential elector on the
popular ticket in 1824. Nicholas Davis, who for five years
was president of the State Senate, was an opponent of the
State Bank and no friend of Jackson's,1 8 but he so far gave
way as to vote for the nomination by the legislature in 1823.
There was no regularly established political machinery in
1824, but co-operation was necessary in order to win a spirit-
ed contest, and this was accomplished in an informal but ef-
fective way. Public meetings of the friends of the several
candidates were announced in the newspapers and held in the
leading towns. These gatherings proposed electoral tickets
and chose committees of correspondence. One of them, which
was held at the court-house in Perry County on May 8, 1824,
proposed that representatives be chosen by friends of Jackson
in the various parts of the State and sent to a convention
which should meet at Cahawba during the following session
of the Supreme Court,1'1 The friends of Adams and Craw-
ford followed this example, and accordingly there were three
conventions held in due time at the seat of government. These
were informally constituted bodies, consisting partly of rep-
resentatives from various public meetings and partly of men
who came without any public authorization. The Jackson
delegation appears to have been the most representative. It
considered the electoral ticket which had been promulgated
by the local press; made some changes in it; and appointed a
correspondence committee for each judicial circuit, authoriz-
ing them to notify the nominated electors and to replace any
who might decline to serve.'-0 The other conventions followed
much the same lines of procedure, and placed before the vot-
ers the electoral tickets which had already been generally
agreed upon through the press.-1
15 Alabama, House Journal, 1823, 120-125.
MNiles' Register, XXV, 323-324, 362.
17 Greensboro Halcyon, Nov. 1, 1823.
is Pickett, Histon/ of Alabama, 653-654.
MCakawba Pre**, May 8, 1824.
20 Cakatvba Pres>-, June 18, 1824.
21 Cahawba Press, .June 28, 1824, July 7, 1824.
POLITICS AND THE ELECTION OF 1824 109
When the returns from the election came in, it was found
that Jackson had a majority in every county in the State ex-
cept three, — Greene, Butler, and Montgomery.-- This
unexpected strength of the General emphasizes the very im-
portant point that it was not the editor, nor the politician, nor
the planter who furnished the main support of Jackson, but
the plain farmer who could vote more potently than he could
talk. It became clear that the small farmer had the balance
of power even in the counties where slaves were most numer-
ous. He spoke his mind very clearly and carried his point
when his mind was made up, but he did not differ from the
planter on principle and never tried for separate control.
Some interesting information is obtainable from a study of
the election of 1824. Over seventy-five per cent, of the vote
went to Jackson in all the counties of the Tennessee Valley and
the hilly region lying below it. The predominance of Tennes-
seeans in the Valley and of small farmers in the hilly region
accounts for this situation. The counties of the extreme south-
east were also overwhelmingly for Jackson, and these, like the
hill counties, had a minimum slave population. But in the
basins of the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, the General fail-
ed of a majority in three counties and carried but two with a
vote as high as seventy-five per cent. Here the Tennesseeans
were relatively few in numbers and the planters made up a
greater proportion of the population. Crawford received an ap-
preciable vote in only two counties, while Adams attracted the
greater part of the opposition.
It is a significant fact that the Alabama-Tombigbee River
basin, which later became the stronghold of Whigism, was car-
ried for Jackson in 1824, yet with a smaller margin than he
obtained in the other sections of the State. There was the
nucleus here among the planters for a strong fight when cir-
cumstances should give them an argument which could attract
allies.
-'- The returns are to be found in the Huntsville Democrat for Nov. 22,
1824, and in the Cahivba Press of the same date.
Chapter XII.
LOCAL POLITICS AND FEDERAL RELATIONS,
1824-1828.
After the election of 1824, there was a distinct change in
the political situation in Alabama. No sooner was Jackson
defeated than his friends announced their determination to
"fight the battle o'er again,"1 and their opponents recognized
the futility of a further struggle against the General. The
administration was able to hold a few scattered supporters,
but even the Southern Advocate, of Huntsville, which had been
an ardent friend of Adams before the election, now went
over to the cause of Jackson, though this change was clearly
one of letter rather than of spirit. Among the Crawford men
the defection was even more general. Their hero was no long-
er in the race, and it was left for them to make the best terms
they could for themselves. The new editor of the Huntsville
Democrat, the acknowledged champion of "The People" in the
State, admitted that he had supported Crawford in 1824,2 but
former allegiance was not held against any man in those days
unless there was some special reason for doing so. When
resolutions proposing Jackson for the presidency were passed
by the legislature in 1827, their mover was no other than
Dixon H. Lewis, nephew of Boiling Hall, and closely connect-
ed with all the supporters of Crawford who had led the Geor-
gia faction in Alabama. Adams had to be beaten and only
Jackson could beat him.
Yet beneath this general accord regarding Jackson, there
were political divisions on local questions which were more sig-
nificant of the true state of the public mind. In 1825 the
term of Israel Pickens expired and John Murphy was elected
to the governorship without opposition. Murphy, like Pickens,
was from North Carolina, and a supporter of the State Bank.
His unopposed election indicates the completeness of the tri-
umph of the popular cause and is a tribute to the political sa-
gacity of the retiring Governor.
The first important question to come up was the location of
the capitol. The constitution had provided that, during the
1 Tusci'.mbian, March 7, 1825, from the Nashville Gazette.
- Huntsville Democrat, Nov. 7, 1826.
LOCAL POLITICS AND FEDERAL RELATIONS, 1824-1828 111
session of 1825, the legislature might remove the seat of gov-
ernment from Cahawba, but if no removal were made at that'
time, the original seat would be permanent. The subject was
taken up with alacrity and several new locations were propos-
ed. The fight developed mainly between Cahawba and Tus-
caloosa, the former being favored by the southern and south-
eastern, the lattter by the northern and northwestern portions
of the State. Cahawba was accessible to all the Alabama Riv-
er region, while Tuscaloosa had the advantage of accessibility
from the Tenessee Valley as well as water communication
with the Tombigbee region. In the final struggle, the Ten-
nessee, Tombigee, and Warrior valleys were able to outvote
the Alabama River region, and the capitol went to Tuscaloosa.3
Cahawba had proved to be an unhealthy location, but it was
urged against Tuscaloosa that it was too near the Mississippi
line, and there was little prospect that the capital could remain
there after the Indian lands east of the Coosa River should be
opened up.
Such a question was not good for party purposes, but an-
other came up at this time which was ridden for all it was
worth by the seekers for office.
In 1818 the legislature of Alabama Territory had passed an
act which abolished all limitations on the amount of interest
which might be charged on loans. John W. Walker then
wrote to Tait saying that he was largely responsible for the
measure, and asking his friend what he thought of it.4 It
looks like a work of ignorance or, more probably, of self-ag-
grandizement on the part of the law-makers, and it aroused
such strong opposition at the time that it was repealed the next
year without struggle. But, in the meantime, numerous con-
tracts had been made under its provisions and the interest
called for ranged from 60 to 240 per cent, a year. Many of
these contracts provided that a certain sum was to be paid on
a certain date, put that if the debt were not discharged as pre-
scribed, it was to bear interest of from five to twenty per cent,
a month until paid. A number of such contracts were carried
out, but finally legal opposition was made and in 1824 it was
decided by the Supreme Court of Alabama that the interest in
contracts of this kind Was in the nature of a penalty and hence
illegal. This protected those who had not already paid, but
3 Alabama, House Journal, 1825, 75; Senate Journal. 1825, 47.
* Tait Papers, J. W. V alker to C. Tait, Sept. 22, 1818.
112 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
those who had paid were in another situation. They applied
for relief, but the court decided in 1827 that a statute of limi-
tations barred the recovery of money which had already been
paid out under such contracts.5
This has the appearance of a purely legal matter, and so it
should have been, but it was turned into a political question
chiefly through the instrumentality of William Kelly who,
having failed of re-election to the Senate in 1824, had returned
to the legislature and was counsel for a number of those who
were seeking to recover money paid out under the "big-inter-
est" contracts and who lost their cases by the decision of 1827.
Whereas the judges had been very popular because of their
decision of 1824, a cry was now raised against them. They
were accused of being enemies of the people and in league
with the money-lenders. The old cry against the "Royal Par-
ty" of Huntsville was revived and there was said to be a "Rad-
ical Party" in the south which was the counterpart of the
northern royalists. This party was not supposed to be made
up of any section of the public, but of a small group of men
in the legislature, — the old guard of the Crawford faction —
who were working for their own interest. The Huntsville
Democrat presented its view of the situation as follows:
"In no county in the State, has the spirit of local partyism
raged with equal violence as in Madison County But
this local feeling has pervaded the whole state, in some coun-
ties quite covertly ; while in others, it has burned with the ut-
most intensity. Some twelve or fifteen years ago, the Indian
title to a large portion of Alabama was extinguished and
straighway the tide of emigration set strongly towards this
fertile territory. Persons flocked to it from all quarters ; few
of them wealthy — most from the expectation of bettering their
fortunes. It was not to be presumed that a mass thrown thus
loosely together could have pursued any systematic plan of in-
ternal policy, or have been actuated by anything like an iden-
tity of interests. It was consequently easy for an inconsid-
erable minority acting in concert, and with a determinate and
well understood purpose to give tone to public sentiment, to
carry their measures, and possess themselves of all valuable
offices. Now, such a minority did exist in this state. They
were chiefly composed of Georgians, who, from previous ac-
5 Somerville. Trial of the Judges, 62-73; Brickel's Digest, Vol. II, Pt. 1,
pages 4-5; Southern Advocate, Feb. 9, 1S27, March 9, 1827; Huntsville
Democrat, Jan. 19, 1827.
LOCAL POLITICS AND FEDERAL RELATIONS, 1824-1828 113
quaintance, attachment to the civil institutions of Georgia,
and a more than common portion of wealth, seemed to be con-
nected together by a tie, the strength ct which they all recog-
nized by the support which they mutually extended to each
other These circumstances inspired greater confi-
dence, and led to such developments of their views, as to cre-
ate a distrust of that purity of character for which they had
heretofore obtained credit. They evinced a determination to
monopolize all power, and to fill every office with their own
creatures. Many of these were so glaringly deficient in the
requisite qualifications, that the people began to discover the
"family" arrangements which were making to impose rulers
over them. The yeomanry of this country, devotedly attach-
ed to Democratic principles, could but illy brook this assump-
tion of superiority It is to Israel Pickens that the
people are chiefly indebted for their dethronement ; it was he
who first broke the charm and showed that the Georgians with
all their management and manoeuvering were not invincible.
Madison County was their great headquarters ; here it was
that the plan of operations was generally framed; and from
thence communicated to their partisans throughout the State."
The article goes on to say that these men had control of the
Huntsville bank, and that they were responsible for the pas-
sage of the act abolishing interest limitations in 1818.°
In 1826 Henry Chambers died and the vacancy thus left in
the Senate was filled by the appointment of Israel Pickens.
But ill health forced Pickens to resign during the same year,
and the election of a successor soon occupied the attention of
the legislature. The opposing candidates were John McKin-
ley, a wealthy lawyer of Florence, and Clement C. Clay, a
prominent attorney of Huntsville. Though Clay was a mem-
ber of the Territorial Council and is said to have voted for the
fateful interest bill of 1818, and though he was at one time a
stock-holder in the Merchants' and Planters' Bank of Hunts-
ville, he did not become identified with the capitalist group at
Huntsville and seems to have kept himself square with the
people. In 1820 he became Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of Alabama, but resigned that position in 1823 to re-
sume his legal practice.7 This was his first appearance be-
fore the public since that time, and there seems to have been
no reason why he should not have received the support of the
8 Huntsville Democrat, Feb. 9, 1827.
114 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD UN ALABAMA
popular party, but the Huntsville Democrat opposed him for
reasons which are not evident and gave its support to McKin-
ley, whom the same paper had opposed and labeled an aristo-
crat when he stood against Kelley for the Senate in 1822.^
That all this talk about party, though based upon certain
concrete facts, was largely worked up for campaign purposes,
is indicated by an apparently candid statement made by Mc-
Kinley shortly before the election of ] 826. It runs as follows :
"I know nothing of the Royal party or its policy, further
than I have seen the subject discussed in the newspapers, and
as far as comprehended by that discussion, I have no personal
or political interest in it. I had been a citizen of this state
about a year before I ever heard of the existence of a party in
it. I was then informed by a friend, if I supported a particu-
lar individual for Governor, I would be considered as belong-
ing to the Georgia party. What was meant by this party, I
did not know, nor could my friend inform me as he was equal-
ly a stranger to its meaning or object. In 1821, I heard
for the first time of the Royal party, and was equally at a loss
to know what was the meaning of the name or the object of
that party. In the fail of that year, I removed to this place
where I heard but little more of parties until the fall of 1822,
when I became a candidate for the same office for which I am
now a candidate. When at the seat of government pending
the election between Judge Kelly and myself, the charge of
belonging to the Georgia party, Huntsville, and Royal party,
was brought to bear upon my election. I had no mode of de-
fending myself against the charge, but simply denying that I
belonged to any party, which was the fact. In that contest
I was beaten by a single vote, to which I submitted, I hope,
with becoming propriety. I continued to reside in this place
until February, 1825, without hearing my name connected
with party, and having kept myself aloof from all party con-
tests, had hoped to escape such an unfounded, and as I con-
ceived, ungenerous imputation. But shortly after my return
to Huntsville in the early part of 1825 this charge was revived
against me, although I was a candidate for no office, nor took
any active part in the local or general politics of the country.
In the year 1823 a newspaper discussion took place in the
• For a sketch of Clay's career, see Pickett, History of AUtbtma, 648-
653.
8 Southern Advocate, Jan. 12, 1827; Huntsville Democrat, Dec. 29, 182b
LOCAL POLITICS AND FEDERAL RELATIONS, 1824-1828 115
Democrat and Advocate upon the subject of party, when it
assumed a more tangible shape. The principal cause of com4
plaint, as well as I now recollect, against what was termed the
Royal party, was the statute of February, 1818, the combin-
ation of certain men to procure its passage, and the aid af-
forded by the Huntsville bank to those men, to obtain funds to
lend at exorbitant interest."1'
This election, in which no question of policy was involved,
and in which the two candidates seem to have been so nearly
equal in regard to fitness for popular leadership, yet which was
waged with so much bitterness of partisan feeling, marks the
point at which the popular party, having gained an undis-
puted ascendancy, was becoming a prey to factious contests
among its leaders. The struggle, though close, resulted in fa-
vor of McKinley.10
But Kelly and the Democrat did not mean to be without an
issue of some sort. The fight against the Supreme Court
judges was pressed. Kelly brought charges before the legis-
lature against three of them on the plea that their decision of
1827 had gone counter to the precedent established by the cas-
es of 1824 and that this was an improper application of law on
their part. The complaint was not sustained, however, and
the judges were exonerated by an overwhelming vote.11 But
the matter was not allowed to drop here. A constitutional
amendment reducing judicial tenure from the period of good
behaviour to a term of six years was passed by the legislature
in 1827 ; approved the next year by popular vote, 12 and incor-
porated as the first amendment to the State constitution in
1830.
But while the disintegration of the Crawford faction after
1824 had deprived local politics of a real issue, national ques-
tions were coming more to the front. On some of these, such
as the tariff, internal improvements, and slavery, the popular
mind was well made up. On others, such as Indian policy and
state rights, there was much more divergence of opinion. No
one in the State had formulated any policies in regard to these
questions, nor were there any political divisions along these
lines. The legislature had to act from time to time on ques-
tions connected with such subjects, but the votes showed no
» Huntsville Democrat, Oct. 27, 1826.
io Alabama, Senate Journal. 1826. 20-21.
n Alabama, Senate Journal, 1826, 193.
12 Alabama, Senate Journal, 1828, 76; Mobile Register, Nov. 21, 1828.
116 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
definite alignments and seem to have been dictated by person-
al convictions or temporary considerations.
As to the tariff, there was a general and strong conviction
that it was wrong to tax the agriculture of one section of the
country for the benefit of the manufactures of another. Yet
there was a minority, led by the Southern Advocate and the
supporters of Adams, which advocated a "competitive" tariff
and insisted that the South must develop manufactures.
The interest of Alabama in the Muscle Shoals and the Coosa-
Hiwassee canal projects, and the proposed road from Wash-
ington to New Orleans, brought about a general demand for
internal improvements constructed with Federal aid.13 This
threw the State astride on the question of state rights, for it
was difficult to support improvements and denounce the tar-
iff at the same time ; and Randolph and Macon were never tired
of warning that to give the Government the right to con-
struct public works within the states would give it the right
also to free the slaves.
This situation necessitated a certain amount of hedging
when it became necessary to formulate general political doc-
trines, or to make out a case for favorite presidential aspir-
ants. Before the election of 1828, Jackson was questioned as
to his views and replied that they were the same as they had
been in 1824 when he supported the tariff and internal im-
provement measures.14 The friends of Adams stated that no
distinction between the two men could be made on these
grounds, and the contention, at this time, was at least reason-
able. The preference for Jackson was personal, sectional, and
democratic.
But while the position of Alabama was not strictly logical
according to the political schools of the time, it was practical
and well-defined. Very little sympathy was extended to
Troup while he was making his fight against the Administra-
tion on the question of the removal of the Creek Indians; and
Georgia was roundly denounced for presuming that one state
could upset the operations of the National Government.15 The
prevalent opinion was that both Troup and Adams had behav-
13 The Southern Advocate for Sept. 19, 1828, published toasts drunk
at a dinner given the Congressional delegation of Alabama. Here the
tariff was condemned and internal improvements supported.
i-* Southern Advocate, April 25, 1828. Jackson's letter is dated Feb-
ruary 28, 1828.
is Southern Adv cite, Oct. 14. 1S25, March 16, 1827; Huntsville Dem-
ocrat, Sept. 16, 1825, July 29, 1825; Tuscumbian, Nov. 7, 1S25.
LOCAL POLITICS AND FEDERAL RELATIONS, 1824-1828 117
ed rashly; that the Government was under obligations to re-
move the Indians from the State ; and that Adams had blunder-1
ed when he threatened to use Federal troops to enforce his
policy, just as Troup had erred in his attitude of uncompro-
mising defiance. The original treaty with the Indians, which
was later annulled and became the bone of contention, had se-
cured a small tract of the Creek lands which lay within the
limits of Alabama. Governor Murphy raised the question
whether a third party could be deprived of rights under a con-
tract even though it were not enforced as to the contracting
parties.10 The question was taken up in the legislature and a
bill passed extending the jurisdiction of the State over the
lands concerned.17 But this was looked upon as merely the
testing of a legal proposition, and the matter was carried no
further.
A more severe strain upon the loyalty of the State came
when the "tariff of abominations" was passed in 1828. There
was universal dissatisfaction and even disgust with the policy
pursued. It was felt that the interests of the cotton states
were being sacrificed to the ambition of the manufacturing
district and, whether it was wise, whether it was constitution-
al as the Constitution had originally been intended, there is no
question but that the planters were right as to the practical
bearing of the situation. Protests went up on all sides; the
development of home manufactures was urged; and the boy-
cotting of imports from the manufacturing states was advocat-
ed. It was even urged that it would be possible to lay duties
upon such imports, but it was always made clear that all re-
sistance was to be peaceable. When forcible resistance was
suggested or threatened in resolutions which were brought up
before the legislature, the portentous clauses were stricken out
by decisive votes;18 and Senator Willam R. King, while con-
demning the tariff in an address at Selma, made the following
statement :
"With a view, Gentlemen, to effect political objects, a sys-
tematic effort has been made to impress the belief upon the
people of our country, that the high minded and patriotic in-
ie Alabama, Senate Journal, 1826, 11.
i" Alabama, Sessional Acts. 1821, 32.
*8 Alabama, Senate Journal. 1826, 101-102; Ibid., 1828. 207. In the
latter instance there were srricken from a resolution condemning the tar-
iff the following words: "and that open and unqualified resistance should
only be the dernier reasort"
118 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
habitants of the South and South West — the advocates and
supporters of a most distinguished and meritorious citizen —
are engaged in planning the dissolution of our union; the de-
struction of this federative Government — the legacy of our
patriotic and sainted Fathers."19
On this occasion the following toasts were drunk: "The
Union of the States — Palsied be the arm that shall be raised to
sever it," and, "The Tariff — Unconstitutional in principle, un-
just and unequal in its operation — We will not oppose it with
violence and passion, but by relying on our own resources."-0
The editor of the Mobile Register, referring to an address of
the citizens of Colleton district, South Carolina, wrote: "We
will frankly declare, it was not from the State of South Caro-
lina that we ever expected a proposition the bare contempla-
tion of which must cause the heart of a patriot to sink within
him."21
But there was another movement on foot which led in a dif-
ferent direction and which was big with meaning for the fu-
ture. This movement, though not original in conception, was
a new influence in Alabama and it was important at that time
only because its leader, who knew what he believed and where
he was going, was able to fit his purpose to the material in
hand and secure the temporary support of men who did not
understand whither he was leading them. This new influence
is interesting not only because of its significance for the fu-
ture, but for its connection with the past.
Dixon H. Lewis was born, according to Yancey's sketch of
him,22 in Hancock County, Virginia, in 1802. His father was
among those Virginians who moved to Georgia in the days
when upland cotton was coming to supplant tobacco as the
main agricultural staple of the South. From Georgia he mov-
ed to Autauga County, Alabama, in 1820.
Young Lewis studied law at Cahawba in the office of Henry
Hitchcock, a New England man who had come out to Alabama
as secretary to the Territorial governor, and who was now At-
torney General of the State. The political influence in the life
of Lewis was exerted largely by his uncle, Boiling Hall, the
Georgia Congressman who had come to Alabama with Tait,
is Huntsville Democrat, Nov. 7, 1828.
20 Southern Advocate, Nov. 7, 1828.
21 Mobile Register, July 12, 1828.
22 Obituary of Dixon Hall Lewis, MS. Yancey Papers. See also Dixon
H. Lewis, by T. M. Williams, in .Alabama Polytechnic Institute Histori-
cal Studies, 1912.
LOCAL POLITICS AND FEDERAL RELATIONS, 1824-1828 119
Walker, and the other supporters of Crawford. Hall was not
only a friend of Crawford, but of Nathaniel Macon, John Tay-
lor, and others who had long stood for strict construction of
the Constitution.
The views of Lewis were essentially the views of these
men, whom Alabama had heard from afar and ignored. But
in 1826 the gigantic young lawyer won a spirited election in
Montgomery County and went up to the legislature to make his
debut in politics. He had not been there more than twenty-
four hours when he drew up a set of resolutions condemning
the exercise of implied, constructive, and unconstitutional
powers on the part of the Federal Government, and had it pre-
sented before the Senate by his friend, Matt Clay. These
resolutions were passed with but one dissenting vote after
there had been stricken from them the following clause :
"Resolved, That we believe the time has again arrived when
it is necessary for the States to assert their constitutional
rights, and with becoming firmness to resist the increasing
progress of federal power."23
In pursuance of his views, Lewis took up the Indian ques-
tion and in 1828 presented a report in the House of Repre-
sentatives in which it was argued that the State had jurisdic-
tion over the natives within her borders and that the United
States had no right to interfere between them.24 Along with
the report he presented a bill proposing to extend the juris-
diction of the State over the Creeks, and though almost every
member of the House at first disapproved the idea, the
measure was finally passed, receiving the bulk of its support
from the counties bordering the Creek reservation.2"'
But it was not only on National questions that Lewis had
convictions. He had inherited from Boiling Hall and the
Crawford men a sincere dislike for the State Bank and, though
at this time the foundations of that institution were unassail-
able, he began to attack it at vulnerable points. There had
been a noisy contest in the legislature over the question as to
whether that body was permitted to inspect the private ac-
counts of the bank. The cashier refused to show the private
books to the visiting committee and the opponents of the in-
stitution at once raised their voices in protest. They appar-
ently failed in their attempt to cast discredit upon the manage-
23 Alabama, Senate Jouvns I, 1826, 101-102.
2-J Alabama. House Journal. 1828, 220. 223.
25 Ibid., 263.
120 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
merit. The procedure of Lewis was less spectacular, but more
to the point.-'1 The legislature was in the habit of levying tax-
es in excess of disbursements and using the balance for bank-
ing purposes. It was this practice which Lewis now attacked
and succeeded in stopping.27
The attitude of the new leader on the question of the State
Bank brings out his connection with the earlier opponents of
the popular party, but the manner in which political ground
had shifted is shown by the fact that, when resolutions pro-
posing Jackson for the Presidency were to be brought before
the legislature in 1827, it was Lewis who was chosen to pre-
sent them.
After condemning the existing Administration because it
had departed from the principle of strict construction ; because
it had accepted internal improvements as a fixed policy — and
one destructive of State sovereignty; because of its attitude
on the Panama mission ; and because it had adopted the policy
of encouraging one industry at the expense of another by pro-
hibitory duties ; the resolutions go on to say :
"Another prominent act of Mr. Adams requires particular
notice, viz : his threat to employ military force against one of
the sovereign members of the confederacy. So great a want
of temper, such an entire misconception of the character of the
American people, and so extraordinary a claim to power is be-
lieved to be unparalleled in the history of any preceding ad-
ministration. More forbearance might have been expected
from a prince of unlimited powers to one of the most rebel-
lious provinces of his dominions. Before any negotiation of
a friendly character was attempted, or even a measure of com-
promise proposed, the State of Georgia was threatened with
the military force of the Union for the purpose of forcing her
into an unconstitutional abandonment of substantial rights of
sovereignty, secured to her by the solemn stipulation of treaty
— This State cannot but share some portion of the responsi-
bility thrown upon Georgia in this matter, inasmuch as an en-
actment of the last legislature, and a resolution of the same
body recognized the principles for which Georgia was then
contending. As Alabamians, therefore, the committee feel
bound to protest against this violent measure of the President
of the United States To counteract so powerful an
2* Cahcuba Press, March 18, 1826.
-"Yancey, Obituary Notice of Lewis, 15; See House Journal, 1826,
223-224, for report on finances.
LOCAL POLITICS AND FEDERAL RELATIONS, 1824-1828 121
influence, a systematic effort is required of the people, and a
concentration of their entire strength on some distinguished
individual."25
General Jackson was named as that individual and the res-
olutions passed by a vote of fifty-four to eight, but they do not
represent the kind of Jackson ism which was characteristic of
the earlier supporters of the General. The young lawyer from
Montgomery had a remarkable faculty for bringing the legis-
lature to his way of thinking when he did not have strong con-
victions to overcome, and here was a fine denunciation of
Adams. It was gladly accepted because it served the purpose
in hand, and no one thought it worth-while to criticise its
purely negative support of Jackson and its very positive sup-
port of state rights, to which the majority of the people did
not subscribe.
Though Adams electors were nominated, the General car-
ried the State almost without opposition29 and soon entered
upon the administration that was to see the birth of questions
which would divide his followers. In Alabama, under the
leadership of Lewis, the planters were to add a plea for the
safety of the slave states to their old distrust of mass-govern-
ment, and divide the Commonwealth into two distinct, well-
defined, and fairly-balanced parties.
28 Alabama, House Journal, 1827, 182 et seq.
29 The Huntsville Democrat for Dec. 5, 1828, gives the vote as follows:
Jackson, 13,384; Adams, 1,629.
Chapter XIII.
RELIGION, EDUCATION, AND THE PRESS
The press came into Alabama with the settlers and exer-
cised a strong influence during the formative period of the
State. The little four-page sheets which came out once or
twice a week were largely taken up with advertisements and
notices. A crude system of classifying advertisements enabl-
ed the reader to select readily those in which he was interest-
ed. This was accomplished by inserting a small cut indica-
tive of the subject-matter; a picture of a tree, for instance,
would indicate that the advertiser had land for sale; a cut of
a house would show that buildings were for rent or sale ; while
a negro with a bundle swung over his shoulder at the end of a
stick would proclaim the escape of a slave.
That portion of the paper, usually amounting to less than
two of the four pages, which was devoted to the
news was principally taken up with extracts from the leading
papers of the older states. The most of these articles related
to political affairs, but foreign news, though much belated, re-
ceived relatively more attention than it does now. A florid
style was typical of the press of that day, and words were
used with especial freedom when a political subject claimed
the attention of the editor or contributor. In fact, it seems
to have been the universal practice to treat a political oppon-
ent as a moral or mental delinquent.
The editors of the Alabama papers confined their remarks
to one or two columns, where they expressed their opinions
upon National politics, or subjects of local interest. Person-
al affairs were never paraded in print, nor was mention ever
made of social activities. This was due, not only to ideas of
decorum which differ from ours, but also to the conception
that the press was strictly a public institution. Letters from
subscribers on political matters were frequently published,
and these formed an important element in every discussion.
The first newspaper founded in Alabama was the Madison
Gazette, established at Huntsville in 1812 -,1 in 1816 its name
i Smith and DeLand (Pub.), Northern Alabama, 251.
RELIGION, EDUCATION, AND THE PRESS 123
was changed to the Alabama Republican;2 and in 1825 this
was consolidated with the Alabamian to become the Southern
Advocate.* John Boardman, a Massachusetts man who allied
himself with the "Aristocratic Party" of Huntsville, was editor
first of the Republican and later of the Advocate. He sup-
ported Adams for the Presidency in 1824 and, though going
over to Jackson in 1828, he always opposed the State Bank and
its adherents.
In 1823 an opposition paper called the Democrat was found-
ed at Huntsville.4 Its editor, Mr. William B. Long, of Ken-
tucky, was a supporter of Clay. Claiming to be a leader of
"the people" as opposed to "the aristocracy" and the Alabama
Republican, he hotly took issue with Boardman on the ques-
tion of the State Bank ; and presently came over to the support
of Jackson for the Presidency. Crawford men, the Mer-
chants' and Planters' Bank of Huntsville, and "aristocrats"
in general were the particular antipathies of the Democrat; at
the same time it was lenient toward those who combined the
support of the State Bank with that of Adams. So bitter was
its attitude toward its opponents that the successor of Long, a
Mr. Andrew Wills, who had come from Virginia to Huntsville
as a school teacher, was shot down on the street by a political
enemy.
The storm center of Alabama was in the Tennessee Valley,
and the Democrat and the Republican expressed the extreme
views of the two factions. In the remainder of the State
there was less agitation, the interior towns usually having but
one paper which, while expressing its own views, took a mild
attitude so as to retain the good-will of all moderate men.
• In Mobile, commercial affairs were given the precedence
over politics. The first paper published here,— the Mobile
Gazette, — was established in 1816 by a Mr. Cotton.- In 1821,
Mr. John Battelle, having established the Montgomery Repub-
lican in the same year, formed a partnership with Mr. J. W.
Townsend and founded the Mobile Commercial Register/' John
Battelle was a native of Boston and a member of the Alabama
Company which helped to found the town of Montgomery. The
Register supported Crawford for the Presidency, and in 1822
2 Betts, History of Huntsville, 80.
3 Southern Advocate, May 6, 1823.
* Alabama Republican, Oct. 10. 1S23.
5 Meek, Romantic Passages, 103-104.
6 Blue, History of Montgomery, 12.
124 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
it bought out the Gazette/ a, move which its enemies attribut-
ed to political motives. Its principal interest was in com-
mercial affairs, and it opposed the establishment of a State
Bank upon the plan advocated by Pickens. In 1822, the Mo-
bile Argus was founded by Charles A. Henry,* but the follow-
ing year the firm of Nicholas and Henry succeeded to the
ownership and charged the name to the Mercantile Advertis-
er.9 This paper supported Adams for the Presidency, but,
like practically all the others of that faith, it claimed "to do
justice to all."
The Montgomery Repiib'doan, founded by Battelle in 1821,
changed its name in 1825 and became the Montgomery Journ-
al.10 It supported Adams from the first. The Cahazuba
Press, founded in 1819 at the State Capital by William B. Al-
len,11 a native of Boston, joined the support of Adams with
that of Pickens and the State Bank. In 1824, Allen sold his
paper to a Mr. Lumpkin, but when the purchaser proceeded
to support Crawford, the friends of the State Bank, both Jack-
son and Adams men, combined to set Allen up in business
again and to give a new lease of life to the Press.12 The fact
that Allen, in spite of the competition of Lumpkin and others,
was elected State printer as long as the capital remained at Ca-
hawba, shows that the support of Adams was not particularly
prejudicial to the popularity of an editor so long as he was a
friend of "the people's Bank."13
In 1819, there were six papers in Alabama: the Alabama
Republican of Huntsville, the Halcyon (established at St. Ste-
phens in 1814), the Mobile Gazette, the Cahaiuba Press, the
Blakely Sun, and the Tuscaloosa Mirror. By 1823 the num-
ber had risen to ten,14 and the next year it amounted to fif-
teen.15 During 1825, there were sixteen or seventeen papers
published in the State,16 but the following year saw the num-
ber reduced again to ten.17
'Mobile Register, Mav 9, 1822.
8 St. Stephens Halcyon, Nov. 2. 1822; Cahawba Press, Nov. 22, 1822.
» Cahaicba Press, Nov. 29, 1823.
1° Blue, History of Montgomery, 12.
ii Blue MS.. Dallas County, 16.
12 Cahaivba Press. Sept. 25, 1824; Tuscaloosa Mirror, Sept. 11, 1824.
13 Alabama, Senate Journal, 1823, 96-97; Ibid., 1824, 38-39; Ibid., 1825,
35.
a Cahaicba Press, June 21, 1823.
13 Alabama Republican, June 11, 1824.
is tuscumbian, April 18, 1825.
17 Huntsville Democrat, Sept. 15, 1826.
RELIGION, EDUCATION, AND THE PRESS 125
The great publishing activity of 1824 was undoubtedly a re-
sult of the presidential campaign of that year, and it speaks
much for the political influence of the press at that time. In
1824 it was said that, of the fifteen papers in Alabama, seven,
edited by Northern men, were for Adams ; but all of these ex-
cept the Huntsville Republican, were published in the south-
ern part of the State.18 Two years later, when the number of
papers had been reduced to ten and the support of Jackson
had become almost universal among the people, three publica-
tions were said to have remained steadfast in their support of
Adams, three or four were said to have opposed him consist-
ently, while the rest maintained an uncertain attitude.19 The
popularity of the New Englander in the Alabama press can
be ascribed primarily to the northern origin of so many of the
editors. The combination of the support of Pickens and the
State Bank with that of Adams increased the popularity of
publications which differed from the majority of their pat-
rons on the subject of the Presidency. Nevertheless, there
was a tendency among the newspaper men to modify their
opinions gradually in order to accomodate themselves to the
trend of public sentiment.
The early settlers of Alabama were not indifferent to the
problem of education, and the grant of the sixteenth section
in each township for local schools afforded a solid foundation
upon which to build, but the results were not as favorable as
might have been expected. In good agricultural districts,
the sixteenth section usually yielded sufficient income to sup-
port, or partially support, several schools with fairly well-paid
teachers. But in areas where the soil was poor, there was
little income from the land, and the zeal of the population was
usually not sufficient to make up the deficit.20 Travelers
noted the existence of creditable free schools as early as
1820, 21 but these were not universal — perhaps not even usual.
One of the main difficulties lay in the management of the
school property. This was vested in a board of commission-
ers appointed by the county authorities.22 Supervision over
is Ibid., Aug. 24, 1824.
19 Ibid., Sept. 15, 182G.
20 Blandin, Education of Women in the South, 59.
21 Hodgson, Letters from North America, I, 144, 269.
-- Acts of Dec. 18. I8ij, and Jan. 1, 1823.
126 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
these commissions was vague or non-existent, and their con-
duct of affairs was a frequent source of complaint.23
Even such support as the public schools possessed was men-
aced when the lure of the State Bank induced the legislature
to promote a scheme for selling the sixteenth sections and in-
vesting the proceeds in the popular institution. In 1826, the
Alabama delegation was instructed by the legislature to se-
cure from Congress permission to sell these lands and devote
the proceeds to the maintenance of the schools.24 In 1827,
Congress granted the request, providing that the sale should
be made only with the consent of the township concerned.25
The next year the legislature made provisions for carrying out
the plan. The proceeds of the lands were to be invested in
the State Bank at six per cent, interest and the income devoted
to the purpose for which the grant had been made.26 Thus
the Bank could look forward to a considerable extension of its
resources, and the schools could contemplate an uncertain fu-
ture.
In addition to the public schools, private schools were es-
tablished from time to time in the larger towns, and by 1823
as many as eight academies had been chartered.27 Apparent-
ly, the first of these to go into actual operation was the Green
Academy, chartered by the legislature of Mississippi Territory
in 1812. Though a grant of five hundred dollars was made
to this institution in 1816, and funds provided later brought
the total up to about two thousand dollars, nothing had been
done toward putting the school in operation before 1820. 28 At
about this time, however, the trustees bestirred themselves,
raised funds by popular subscription, and had a creditable in-
stitution in operation within a year or two.29
The first academy for girls was founded at Athens in 1822,
and appears to have been a successful enterprise.30 At about
the same time, a private school for girls was opened in Hunts-
ville by a Mr. and Mrs. DeVendel.
23 Huntsviile Democrat, Feb. 9, May 18, and June 29, 1827.
24 Alabama, House Journal. 1826, 244.
2.-, Statutes at Larue, IV. 237.
26 Act. of Jan. 15. 1828.
2? Toulmin, Code of 1823.
2s Alabama Republican, Nov. 10, 1820.
2" Mention of the subscription papers is made in the Alabama Republi-
can for Aug:. 3, 1821, and the address of the trustees is anions the Walk-
er Papers.
3" Incorporated Dec. 9, 1822; Southern Advocate, May 19, 1826.
RELIGION, EDUCATION, AND THE PRESS 127
The subjects usually taught during this period included
grammar, history, mathematics, and geography, while the,
schools for girls included in their curriculum also music,
needle-work, painting, and dancing. The academies took up
instruction in Latin, some of the sciences, and rhetoric.
The Federal Government had granted two townships to the
State of Alabama for the purpose of founding a university,
and in 1820 that institution was given a formal existence by
the legislature, but nothirg more than a name was establish-
ed at this time.31 In 1321 a board of trustees was appointed
and given power to dispose of the university lands, invest the
proceeds and establish the institution as soon as a site should
be designated by the legislature.3- The first meeting of the
board was held during the next year and arrangements were
made for disposing of the property. It was decided to adopt
a credit system of sales, requiring one-fourth of the purchase
money to be paid down, and the remainder in three install-
ments.33 During the first few years there was a good demand
for the lands, and by 1828 the total sales amounted to $285,-
000.34
But the State Bank interfered here also and the establish-
ment of the University was delayed. The trustees could not
move until the legislature had decided on the location, and
Governor Pickens, being anxious to use the university funds
as capital for the Bank, secured the postponement of the loca-
tion until after his term of office had expired.35 It was in-
tended from the first that the greater part of the fund should
be used as an endowment, and, considering the hopes that were
entertained for the success of the Bank, there was nothing
morally wrong in the Governor's plan for investment, but his
attitude shows where his interest chiefly lay. About $89,000,
or practically all the cash received in payment on the lands
sold, was invested by the trustees of the university in the Bank
before anything was done to give the institution of learning
a practical existence.36
Governor Murphy, on coming into office, advised the legis-
lature to locate the university,37 and in 1827 Tuscaloosa was
31 Act of Dec. 18, 1820.
32 Act of Deo. 18. 1821.
33 Alabama, Hou.-e Journal. 7-t ft sen,; Cnhavbn Press, June 29, 1822.
34 Alabama, Senate Journal, 1S28, f>8.
35 Franklin Enquirer, April 21, 1824; Alabama, Senate Journal, 1825,
8.
30 Alabama, Senate Journal, 1328, 98.
27 Ibid., 1826, 6.
128 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
selected as its site.38 In 182S the trustees drew up a plan in-
cluding the construction of the following- buildings : one cen-
tral building to be used as a chapel, lecture hall, and library;
one chemical laboratory and lecture hall; four professors'
houses, each accomodating two professors; two or more ho-
tels or boarding houses : and six dormitories. It was propos-
ed that the central building, the laboratory, two of the profes-
sors' houses, one hotel, and two dormitories be erected at once,
and contracts were let accordingly.39 A tract of fifty acres
adjoining the university site was purchased so that clay for
brick and timber for structural purposes could be obtained
close at hand.40 The corner-stone was laid during the same
year,41 and in 1831 the University of Alabama opened its
doors, with Dr. Alva Woods, formerly at the head of Transyl-
vania University, as its first president.4-
In religious matters, tho Methodists and Baptists have al-
ways held the center of the field in Alabama. The predomi-
nance of these two denominations in the old Southwest is an
interesting phenomenon, and the development in one State
would probably be paralleled by the situation in most of the
others.
The period following the American Revolution was a fertile
one for the sowing of religious seed. The events of the
French Revolution had left the world more or less in doubt
concerning its old creeds, and the French philosophers, follow-
ed by Jefferson in this Country, gave skepticism a wide vogue.
But the coming of the Wesleys and Whitfield had earlier
brought a new faith, and at a time when America was begin-
ning to spread westward.
The organization of the Methodist society was peculiarly fit-
ted to frontier conditions. With a central governing body
made up of the bishops, a definite policy could be adopted and
carried out in an effective manner. With its "free-for-all"
ideas regarding the ministry, men could be drawn into the
service of the church whose lack of education was atoned for
by a zeal which strengthened them to endure the hardships of
the forest and to work for the love of their creed with very lit-
tle compensation in a material way. The institution of the
3» Ibid., 1827, 109-110. ~"
3" Alabama. Senate Journal, 1828, 13, 100, 207-208.
-K' Ibid.. 1S28, 98.
n Mobile Register. Nov. 4, 1S2S.
*2 University of Alabama, Bulletin, November, 1906.
RELIGION, EDUCATION, AND THE PRESS 129
circuit rider enabled one man to do the work of several, and
was a most efficient means of meeting frontier conditions.
Finally the development of the '"camp meeting" brought the
scattered people together under conditions which made a
strong emotional appeal to the pioneer, and enabled a few men
to exert a powerful influence over many.43
In the combination of these means, the Methodists had an
advantage over all other denominations in the thinly-settled
frontier; but the Baptists, though lacking organization, had
a zeal which largely overcame this difficulty. Their appeal,
like that of the Methodists, was to the emotions of the plain
man, and their ministry was also adapted to frontier con-
ditions. They brought their gospel to the pioneer by much
the same means as those employed by the followers of Wesley,
and the local independence of their churches seems to have
been so agreeable to the free spirit of the West that it enabled
them to compete on equal terms with their religious rivals.
In the early part of the Nineteenth Century, religion was
neither accepted nor rejected with the indifference that is ac-
corded it today. The average back-woodsman was not by na-
ture inclined to be strictly religious, but he was inclined to be
positive. When the question came to him he took his stand
either for it or against it, and made a good supporter or an
out-spoken antagonist. Neither was he inclined to be theoret-
ical, and in the struggle between the Methodists and the Bap-
tists, he seems to have been more interested in the spirit in
which the rivals worked than in their rival creeds.
But all this does not apply to the planters. It was said that
the cultivated people never went to the camp meetings,44 and
it is certain that these were attended by a degree of emotion-
alism which is often repulsive to the more refined. The
strongholds of the Methodists and Baptists were in the rural
districts,4"' and that the townspeople were more or less unfa-
miliar with camp meeting procedure is indicated by a descrip-
tion which the editor of the Huntsville Democrat, who was a
defender of religion, thought it worth-while to print.4'"' A
*3 In the Minutes of Conferences, Vol. I, may be found lists of all the
Alabama Methodist congregations, giving the number of members for
each year, beginning with 1820.
*■* Royall, Letters from Alabama, 122.
*5 Riley. Baptists in Alabama, 64; McDonnold, Cumberland Presbyteri-
an History, 162-163.
*6 Huntsville Democrat, Oct. 14, 1823; See also Southern Advocate,
Sept. 9, 1825. and July 28, L826; Huntsville Democrat, Oct. 14, 1823, and
Oct. 27, 1826.
130 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
favorable spot in the woods was selected as the place of wor-
ship, and a pulpit and altar erected in a crude way. Benches
were arranged around this, and tents for the accomodation of
tables and guests were pitched about the grounds. Two ser-
mons were usually preached in the morning, and then a short
recess was allowed for dinner. At this time, the worshippers
would repair to the tents where abundant supplies of food
were laid out for the benefit of all. People from the sur-
rounding country came on horseback, in carriages, or afoot, as
circumstances permitted, and brought their picnic lunches
with them. The occasion was one of social as well as religious
enjoyment ; and crowds of thousands were sometimes assembl-
ed to hear favorite exhorters. After dinner, the services
were resumed, and they were always concluded by an invita-
tion to repentant sinners to come up to the altar. Large num-
bers usually went forward, and as the minister prayed for
them, the congregation went into a religious ecstacy of pray-
ing, moaning, and shouting. But it must not be inferred that
these were disorderly gatherings. There was a spirit of so-
ciability and festivity on the part of the people and of gravity
on the part of the leaders which gave them a dignity of their
own.
The planters usually had at least some latent religious belief.
There were Episcopalians among them, but they were not of a
missionary spirit and their numbers were too few to found
many churches in the early days.47 Presbyterians were present
in larger numbers and a church of that faith was usually estab-
lished in the leading towns.48 Here they were active rivals of
the Methodists and Baptists, who also established churches
and held "protracted" meetings. 4J Bible societies were or-
ganized in several places,50 and Huntsville had an inter-de-
nominational Sunday School.51 In Mobile the Episcopalians
formed the nucleus of an inter-denominational protestant
church, which was the only rival of the older Catholic congre-
gation of that place.52
47 Whitaker, Episcopal Church. 13.
48 Wyman. Geographical Sketch of Alabama, in Transactions, Ala. His.
Soc, 1898-1899. Ill, 118; Mobile Register, April 29, 1828, and Nov. 4.
1828; Franklin Enquirer, March 20. 1824.
« Huntsville Democrat, May 16, 1828.
so Southern Advocate, Aug:. 12, 1825; Tuscumbian, Apr. 18. 1825.
51 Huntsville Democrat, Sept. 5, 1828.
52 Mobile Register, Jan. 1, 1828, and Feb. 28. 1828.
Chapter XIV.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS AND SLAVERY
In a newly-settled area to which people have flocked from
many places and for many purposes, one would expect to find
varied social conditions, and in Alabama they ran all the way
from one extreme to the other. To begin at the bottom, the
Indian border offered a favorite location for fugitives from
justice, traffickers in whisky, and rascals of every description.
The State had no jurisdiction within the reservations, and this
fact was taken advantage of by all such persons. It worked
a great hardship on the natives and gave rise to complaints
which were fully justified, but very hard to meet.1 It was
often said that the contact of the red men with the whites was
sadly detrimental to the former, and since their associations
were usually with the worst of the whites, this is not hard to
understand.
But the miscreants were not confined to the borders. New
country is attractive to adventurers of every sort; the lonely
roads through the forests afforded robbers a choice field of
operations, while the towns were alluring to gamblers of va-
rious breeds.- There is an account of a band of men inter-
cepted on their way to Huntsville whose baggage was found to
contain counterfeit notes and gambling devices of every de-
scription.3 Complaint was made that gamesters in that town
often assumed an air of importance because they were noticed
by men of standing,4 and the young men seem generally to
have fallen an easy prey to the wandering gamblers."
The towns were infested also with a set of people who were
not criminals, but who might be included under the term
"rowdy."6 While the young men of the towns appear to have
i Southern Advocate, April 14. and Dec. 15, 1826; Alabama, Senate
Journal, 1821, 11; Birney's Birney, 55; Levasseur, Lafayette en Arncri-
que, II, 335-339.
2 Alabama. Senate Journal, 1825; 12; Huntsville Democrat, Apr. 6,
1827, and June 30, 1826; Hall Papers, Report of a committee of the leg-
islature appointed to investigate causes of crime.
3 Southern Advocate. July 22, 1825.
4 Huntsville Democrat, June 16. 1826.
5 Huntsville Democrat, June 16, 1826, and May 25, 1827; Saunders.
Early Settlers hi Ala'n ■(, 45.
6 Riley, Conecuh Con «'/. 93; Saunders, Early Settlers in Alabama, 45-
46; Yerby, Greensboro, 8, 12; Tuscumbian, Oct. 22, 1824.
132 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
been victims to dandyism, idleness, and gambling rather than
to boorishness,7 the rowdies were apparently visitors from
the surrounding country who came in to make a holiday in a
boisterous manner. It is stated that in Greensboro horse rac-
ing through the main street became such a nuisance that the
citizens were provoked to threaten to shoot any one who per-
sisted in the practice,8
It was, however, at the cross-roads store, the militia mus-
ter, and the barbecue that the rustics mostly congregated.
Horse-play was the rule at such places, and assemblies
usually ended in drunkenness and fighting. Yet these frays
were not blood-thirsty affairs, but merely a hardy form of
sport. Those who engaged in them were not brutal, but mere-
ly vigorous pioneers who loved a struggle with nature or with
man.9
The barbecue, like the camp-meeting, was an institution.
Its use was largely political and its appeal seems to have been
almost irresistible. Before an election, these gatherings were
arranged and advertised by men whose interest was primarily
financial. Shoat and whisky in abundance were always taken
for granted, and the candidates were bound to appear to assert
their claims and prove their democracy.10 Sentiment against
the barbecues began to be aroused about 1826 and the Hunts-
ville papers instituted a campaign against them. The candi-
dates seem to have been willing enough to drop the practice,
and some of them began to refrain from attendance.11 But
whisky was always one of the strongest arguments in a politi-
cal campaign. A Mobile paper published an ironical offer to
furnish any man enough whisky to drown his reason on elec-
tion day, which was a jibe at the custom of "treating" by the
candidates.1- A Huntsville paper makes the statement that
bottles of liquor were arranged in rows with labels on them
which the casual observer would take for designations of
brand, but which in reality designated the candidate who
furnished the drink.13
~ Tuscumbian, Feb. 28, 1825.
s Yerby, Greensboro, 14.
s Riley, Makers and Romance of Alabama History, 584-588.
10 Royall, Letters from North America, 120; Southern Advocate, July
8, 1825, and June 1, 1827.
11 Southern Advocate, Aug. 5, 1825, July 13, 1S27, April, IS. 1828, Apr.
25, 182S, May 2, 1828, and June 6, 1S2^: Mobile Register, Julv 19, 1S2S.
iZNiles Register, XXXVI, 165.
13 Southern Advocate, Aug. 5, 1825.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS AND SLAVERY 133
This is the darker side of a picture which was not all dark. >
The habit of drinking was almost universal at the time, and
the practice of "treating" was looked upon more as hospitali-
ty than as bribery. To let this and the other conditions which
have been described prejudice one's mind against the people of
early Alabama would be to do an injustice to the great mass of
them who farmed their patches of cotton and corn ; lived a
hardy, rugged life close to nature ; were friendly toward their
neighbors and hospitable toward strangers; made an honest
living for themselves and their families ; attended to their own
business most of the time and only stopped now and then to
celebrate.14
The planters formed a class to themselves, yet it was neither
a closed nor a homogeneous class. The smaller ones lived much
as did the farmers, while those with extensive estates some-
times attained an elegance which was impressive. The great
majority of them, however, were merely in comfortable cir-
cumstances and their pride was based, not upon wealth or dis-
play, but upon the sense of independence and authority which
their position in society gave them.
Perhaps Montgomery County best represents the planter
life of the early days. The soil here was more uniformly fer-
tile than that of most other counties, and consequently it was
more uniformly taken up by men of the planter type. Prosperi-
ty and independence came to be the rule. Being in easy water
communication with Mobile and doing business on a sufficient
scale to warrant it, the planters had few dealings with local
merchants, but traded directly with the port on the Gulf, gen-
erally going down once a year to purchase supplies. The soci-
ability of the people and the law-abiding nature of the com-
munity are pictured as ideal, no jail having been maintained
and only one duel having been fought during the early period.15
It is true that the combination of rural simplicity and native
refinement on the plantation at its best furnished the basis
for a picturesque and pleasant civilization, but the best is not
often attained. In Madison County, for instance, there was a
large planting community, but some of the planters were ex-
cessively wealthy and used their wealth to secure commercial
and political advantages. This aroused the antagonism of
n Blue MS., St. Clair County, 10; Fayette County. 10; Pickens Coun-
ty, 10.
15 Robertson, Montgomery County, 11-13, 15-16, 3G-3S, 123, 139-140.
134 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
men who were not financially independent, and there was a
strong element of Tennessee farmers to wage the fight. In
fact there was generally a tendency for the poor to be jealous
of the rich, but there was no antagonism against the planters,
as such10 The plainer people had no political leaders of their
own and appear to have been perfectly willing to support
planters of means when they made it their business to court
popular favor by advocating popular measures.
The social atmosphere of Alabama, as established by the
planters, varied from place to place. Where wealth was even-
ly distributed and notable fortunes and town-life were large-
ly lacking, there does not appear to have been that gaiety of
social intercourse which is usually thought of in connection
with the plantation. The people spent their time in an unas-
suming and largely self-sufficient way. But neighborliness
and hospitality were not wanting even under these circum-
stances.17 Gaiety was the rule, however, in the towns, which
furnished the centers of recreation.1 s Dramatic clubs were
formed among the younger people, theatres were built in the
larger communities, and dances and parties were of frequent
occurrence. There was a greater freedom in Western society
than in that of the East ;1;) calling was more informally done,
and women were somewhat less restricted by convention. An
Eastern paper criticised the ladies of Huntsville for attending
a Fourth of July celebration at the local inn, and a local editor
defended them, saying that he saw nothing improper in their
having done so.2" There was a general diffusion of informa-
tion concerning matters of common knowledge, but though li-
braries were established in Huntsville and Montgomery, little
attention was, as a rule, paid to purely intellectual cultivation.
Among the men, horse-racing was a favorite sport and courses
were established in the vicinity of the more important towns.
Some fanciers had fast horses of English breed and kept race-
i« Huntsville Democrat, April 12, 1825, March 17, 1826, July 6, 1827,
March 23, 1S27; Royall, Letters from Alabama, 95, 100.
i" Saunders, Eariy Settlers in Alabama, 42; Meek, The Southwest, 32-
33; Blue MS. Baldwin County, 10, Autauga County, II, 10, Lowndes
County, 5, 10, Wilcox County, 10, Lawrence County, 10, Limestone
County, 10.
1S Yerby, Greensboro, 17-19; Royall, Letters from Xorth America, 48;
Hodgson, Letters from S'orth America, I, 185; Huntsville Democrat,
April 13, 1827.
19 Royall, Letters From America, 46.
20 Huntsville Democrat, Sept. 9, 1825.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS AND SLAVERY 135
tracks of their own. Playing- for stakes was a common diver-
sion, and drinking was as prevalent among the wealthy as it
was among the poorer people. It is stated in the biography of
James G. Birney that he, while living in Huntsville, followed
the fashion in all these things,-1 and the historian of the Bap-
tist denomination in Alabama asserts that even ministers were
often patrons of the bottle and carried potions of their favor-
ite brands in their pockets when they went to meetings.22 But
gentlemen prided themselves on knowing when they had had
enough, nor were such practices confined to Alabama at that
time. As always, the ear-iest days were the roughest. A set-
tler of this period who had not attended a trial in many years,
was so much impressed by the improved order which he found
in the court-room after his long absence, that he said he felt as
though he were attending church services.23
The conditions under which slavery adjusted itself to a new
frontier afford an interesting topic for study, but, since mat-
ters of domestic economy were taken for granted, specific in-
formation has been difficult to obtain.
Basil Hall gives an excellent description of the plantation
system as it existed on a sea-island estate of Georgia in
1828. 24 The hands were rated in accordance with their physi-
cal ability and given daily "tasks" in proportion to their
strength. The fields were divided into quarter-acre tracts,
and one, two, or three of these tracts, depending uoon the na-
ture of the work to be done, constituted the task for the day.
Diligence enabled the slave to finish his assignment early in
the afternoon and he was allowed to spend the remainder of
the day at leisure. In this way discipline was maintained and
the necessity for compulsion reduced to a minimum.
Hall states that this system was universally employed, say-
ing that the existence of distinct classes in the South discour-
aged all innovation. Other accounts show that the tasking
system existed in South Carolina. Writers of the period stress
the necessity for well-defined and clearly-understood regula-
tions in the management of slaves, and the strict enforcement
of discipline is insisted upon as a prime necessity.25 The dis-
gruntled slave had the recourse of running away, and in order
21 Birney's Birney, 42, 47-48.
22 Riley, Baptists in Alabama, 61.
23 Saunders, Early Settlers in Alabama, 45.
2» Basil Hall, Travels in North America, 230-239.
23 Southern Agriculturist, II, 575-576.
136 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
to prevent this and secure effective organization, regularity,
kindness, and firmness were essential.
When the system was transplanted to the new soil of Ala-
bama, differences in spirit, if not in form, would necessarily
arise; but the available information is too scant to allow a
thorough study of the changes. The provisions for slavery
which were incorporated in the constitution of 1819 were of a
liberal spirit. The legislature might not forbid the importa-
tion of slaves who were the bona fide property of their owners,
but it was empowered to prohibit the introduction of negroes
for sale. Slaves might be freed by their owners with the con-
sent of the legislature, or the legislature might take the initi-
ative in liberating negroes provided the consent of their own-
ers had been obtained, or remuneration made. In addition,
slaves were not to be deprived of trial by petit jury when ar-
raigned for crimes more serious than petty larceny ; and in the
case one were murdered or dismembered, the punishment for
the crime was to be the same as though a white man had been
the victim. The provisions show a desire to treat the unfor-
tunate race with consideration, but the problem of managing
slaves was a delicate one, and difficulties developed. The
negroes were irresponsible and often faithless. When they
were displeased, they frequently ran away and lodged in
swamps to prey upon the surrounding country; when they
were allowed to go at large on Sundays, they congregated in
the towns and became a public nuisance; when they were al-
lowed to hire out their own time, they often became idlers in
the streets ; when they were allowed to sell the produce of their
leisure hours, they often stole and sold the property of their
masters.26 In order to meet this situation, acts were passed
forbidding slaves to sell any articles except such simple things
as they could make with their own hands.27 Passes were re-
quired of negroes who wished to visit premises belonging to
others than their masters,28 and in order to prevent slaves
from wandering around the country or holding unauthorized
meetings where dangerous doctrines might be inculcated, a
patrol system was kept up. Military districts were establish-
ed, all able-bodied men were required to serve in the militia,
2* Alabama Republican, Sept. 13, 1822; Ibid., Aug:. 29, 1823; Alabama
Journal, Jan. 6. 182(5; Ibid., May 19, 1826; Ibid.. Sept. 15, 1826; Tuscum-
bian, June 28, 1826; Southern Advocate, June 22, 1827.
-" Act of January 2, 1S26.
28 Act of March 6, 1805.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS AND SLAVERY 137
and the captain of each company was required to detail pa-
trols whose duty it was to enforce the law.-'J But the admin-
istration of the system was frequently lax, and it, therefore,
lacked effectiveness.
Slavery was, at this period, looked upon by Southerners as
a necessary evil, and the slave-trader was heartily detested by
the planters in general.3" This spirit found its expression in
Alabama through the act of the legislature in 1826 which for-
bade the introduction of slaves for purposes of sale."1 It is
apparent, too, that this move was assisted by the depressed
state of the cotton market which accompanied the panic of
1825, and which caused many to feel that over-production of
the staple would result from an increase in the number of la-
borers.3- But in this matter, Alabama was merely following
the lead of most of the other cotton-producing states.
The question of slavery was open to debate in the South
until the activity of the Abolitionists and the Nat Turner in-
surrection in Virginia convinced the planters that agitation
was dangerous to their system and their safety.'53 James G.
Birney, who was a resident of Huntsville during these years,
was instrumental in the enactment of the lenient provisions
in regard to slavery which have been mentioned, and his biog-
rapher states that his ideas were not in advance of the senti-
ment of the planters of that day.34 Opinions deprecating the
existence of slavery were printed by some of the editors who
published papers in Alabama,35 and in 1824 the Tuscaloosa
Miwor advertised that subscriptions to Benjamin Lundy's pi-
oneer abolitionist paper, the Genius of Universal Emancipa-
tion, would be received at the office of the local publication.36
In discussing a memorial from the legislature of Ohio, which
advocated general emancipation, the Governor of Alabama
spoke mildly and said that an offer of remuneration by the
Government might some day be opportune.37
29 Act of Dec. 18, 1812.
30 Southern Advocate, Oct. 21, 1826; Ibid., June 23, 1826; Birney's
Birney, 56; Alabama. Senate Journal, 1823, 15.
3i Act of Jan. 13. 1827.
32 Huntsville Democrat, Dec. 22, 1826.
83 Birney's Birney, 72.
34 Ibid., 72.
35 Southern Advocate, Dec. 30, 1825. Speaking of the slave trade, the
editor of this paper says: "On one vessel the slaves happily revolted
and killed the crew."
36 Tuscaloosa, Mirror, Ausr. 7, 1825.
3" Alabama, Senate Journal, 1825, 13-14.
138 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
The first step toward the defensive attitude was taken when
the legislature attempted in 1827 to pass an act forbidding the
teaching of slaves by free persons. Though receiving the sup-
port of a good part of the southern portion of the State, the
measure was defeated by the opposition which it encountered
in the Tennessee Valley.3,5
This is the only_ instance where any degree of sectionalism
is betrayed in the treatment of a question related to slavery
in Alabama during the 'twenties. Even in the vote on the bill
to prohibit the further introduction of slaves for sale, there
is no alignment of slave-holding against non-slave-holding
counties. The Tennessee Valley and the Alabama-Tombigbee
Valleys were the principal cotton-producing areas, but this
fact would never be discovered by a study of the votes. There
were some planters who thought that enough slaves had al-
ready been introduced, while there were farmers who expect-
ed some day to purchase slaves and become planters them-
selves. Such a situation emphasizes the point previously
brought out that there was no class antagonism between the
cotton planter and the small farmer.
In the Tennessee Valley there were a few estates numbering
several hundred slaves, but the majority of men who come out
to Alabama were in moderate circumstances. It was not
those who had made their fortunes, but those who sought to
make them, who were willing to sever the old ties and move in-
to the new country. Twenty or thirty negroes seem to have
been a normal force for the average estate, but the majority
of men who emigrated to Alabama had, it would seem, not so
many as this.
The early history of Alabama appears to have been deeply
influenced by the relatively close contact between the planters
and the farmers. The frontier conditions which threw men
upon their own resources and promoted rapid changes in sta-
tion ; the relatively narrow extent of the cotton-producing
areas and the consequent proximity of planting and farming
districts; the moderate estates of the planters and the lack of
exclusive society outside the largest towns ; the relatively small
number of planters as compared with the farmers, — all these
conditions made Alabama a state where democracy was the
rule in spite of slavery.
as Alabama, House Journal, 1827, 209.
Chapter XV.
CONCLUSION
Having attempted to trace the economic and political de-
velopment of Alabama during the formative period, it remains
to point out those factors which appear to have had special
significance. We begin with a country which contained but
one white settlement isolated in the midst of Indian tribes.
The native had long dreaded the continued intrusion of the
white man, and the effects of the unwelcome contact were tell-
ing upon him in several important ways. The sturdy self-re-
liance which the wilderness had instilled in him was being un-
dermined by a state of semi-dependence, while whisky and the
sharpers who sold it to him were combining to degrade his
natural honesty. But the white man was striking at the roots
of his existence in another way. As his land was taken from
him bit by bit, the problem of living by the chase became ever
more difficult. It was already impossible to rely altogether
upon game for subsistence, and all the southern Indians en-
gaged in primitive agriculture, the agents sent among them
by the Government doing all they could to promote the indus-
try by the introduction of new crops and improved methods.
But the Red Man looked ahead and adopted one or the other of
two policies against the future. He either strove to adapt him-
self to the conditions of civilization, or he assumed an atti-
tude of hostile resistance to the invasion of the whites.
The white men who pushed ahead of civilization into the
Alabama region came partly as traders and partly as settlers.
Some of the traders took up their abode among the Indians
and chose native wives from among them. Those who came
for agricultural purposes gathered upon the lower Tombigbee,
where the land had been cleared of the Indian title. Some of
them used large numbers of slaves in the culture of indigo and
cotton, while others raised great herds of cattle which roamed
throughout the year in the cane-brakes. English, Scottish,
and American blood was mixed with that of the natives in this
crude frontier society.
When the War of 1812 was over; when the Creeks had been
defeated by Jackson and new lands thrown open to settlement,
140 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
squatters rushed in ahead of the Government sales. The best
lands were first put on the marker, and by the time they were
offered at public auction, the high price of cotton had cre-
ated a feverish demand for these tracts. Currency disorders
added to the excitement of speculation, and the result was that
the actual settlers, who were men without means, could not
compete for possession. It was in the years 1817, 1818, and
1819, during which time the boom rose and fell, that the cot-
ton kingdom was planted in Alabama. The planters from the
very first took the river valleys for their own, but the prairie
region, passing just south of Montgomery and Tuscaloosa and
joining the upper Alabama basin with that of the Black War-
rior, was not extensively settled until the period of the 'thir-
ties. With this exception, the cotton producing areas were
marked out during the period of first settlement. The men
who were not wealthy enough to own slaves or to purchase
the most desirable cotton lands took up their abode in the back
country, which offered fertile though isolated fields ; and here
they were usually able to purchase their farms at the minimum
price of a dollar and a quarter an acre which prevailed after
the speculative period was over. Thus there was not a great
deal of active competition between the two agricultural class-
es in the purchase of lands, and circumstances effected such a
distribution of the territory between them that no general re-
adjustment was afterward necessary. It is true that the per-
centage of slaves in Alabama gradually increased, but the only
counties in which the change was marked were those of the
prairie region, which had not been extensively settled by men
of the farming class.
The outstanding economic factor during the period of set-
tlement was the condition of indebtedness which applied to
the community as a whole. Money was in great demand for
investment in lands and slaves, and though the production of
cotton brought in considerable funds, much was reinvested in
agricultural equipment, while a large part went for supplies
of flour, ccrn, and pork. So great was the interest in cotton
planting that it was quite difficult to secure capital for other
business. The result was that merchandising was left large-
ly to men from the Northern States, while banking had to be
carried on either by those who were able to secure special priv-
ileges through their operations, or by the State.
While the planter who operated on a large scale could deal
directly with Mobile or New Orleans and thereby render him-
CONCLUSION 141
self largely independent of country merchants and bankers,
the small farmer, dependent upon a local market and a disord-
ered currency, was at a disadvantage in financial transactions.
The remoteness of the Tennessee Valley region from New Or-
leans, and the questionable transactions of the Merchants' and
Planters' Bank of Huntsville rendered this situation particu-
larly acute, and promoted a class antagonism between the
small farmers, predominantly of Tennessee origin, and the
Georgia financiers and their associates. It was out of this
antagonism that partisan differences first arose among the
people in Alabama ; and, though spreading to the rest of the
State, the storm-center was always in the north.
Of course there had been political differences from the very
first, but these agitated the office-seekers rather than the set-
tlers. It is of much significance for later developments that
William H. Crawford, then Secretary of the Treasury under
Monroe, controlled the Federal patronage of Alabama during
the first years of her existence. Tait, Walker, and the Bibbs
were his principal adherents within the State. The jealousy
created by this situation cemented the anti-Crawford leaders
into a union against the Georgia men. It was probably be-
cause North Carolina had sent a number of her prominent cit-
izens to Alabama that she furnished the leading antagonists
of the Crawford faction.
Israel Pickens stands out as the first to see the possibilities
of the situation and to bring forward an issue which would
transform personal differences into real party issues. Pro-
vision had been made in the constitution for the establishment
of a State Bank and an attempt had been made to found such
an institution by private subscription, but the necessary capi-
tal was not forthcoming and the plan failed. When Pickens
came into office, there was pending a scheme for entrusting
the fate of the State corporation to the care of the existing
private banks, but Pickens vetoed the bill and proposed a.
bank the capital of which should consist entirely of the funds
of the State. The people needed money, and this was to be a
people's bank. Though it was not until the beginning of his
second term of office that he was able to put the scheme
through, the Bank, which was founded upon democratic rath-
er than upon financial principles, finally went into operation
in 1824, to the great delight of all those who had everything
to gain and nothing to lose by the experiment.
142 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
By this stroke, Pickens had united the anti-Crawford lead-
ers with the men of the small-farmer class, as opposed to the,
Crawford men from Georgia and the conservative class among
the planters and merchants.
In the face of such a combination, the Crawford men had no
chance at all and, William Wyatt Bibb and John W. Walker
having died, practically all the more desirable offices were
wrested from them. The Georgia men had never been strong
at general elections, but in the legislature their power had been
great, and even now their partisans were able to make a strong
fight in that body.
This situation brings out an important point in Alabama
politics. The constitution of 1819 is one of the few original
frames of State government which lasted without substantial
changes until the Civil War. This stability was due, in part
at least, to the combination of conservatism with progressive-
ness in the charter and this character was due to conditions
surrounding its origin. In 1819, Alabama had a large number
of poor settlers and a small number of wealthy planters
and speculators. The former class had little interest in poli-
tics, as such, while the latter had many reasons for such an
interest. As a matter of course, the men who had the time,
the ambition, the ability, and the means to engage in politics
were chosen to the convention. Thus the unsuspecting set-
tler sent to represent him a man whose point of view was en-
tirely different from his own. Knowing that they could not
afford to antagonize the poorer men who greatly outnumbered
them, yet wishing to keep the management of the government
in their own hands, the framers of the constitution drew up an
instrument which was admirably suited to their purposes.
While granting manhood suffrage and apportioning repre-
sentation according to white population, it gave almost su-
preme authority to the legislature, which, in the natural
course of events, would be made up largely of men of some
property.
This arrangement would not have worked as intended had
the poorer men ever united to support candidates from among
themselves, but this they never did. They accepted their
wealthier neighbors as leaders and secured legislation in their
favor only when an ambitious politician, such as Pickens,
sought popular favor through popular measures.
The lack of consistency in the votes of the legislature pro-
claims an absence of fixed partisan principles and a prepond-
CONCLUSION 143
erance of personal vagaries, but when the people voted, they
spoke clearly, and 'two convictions stand out to show the bent
of their minds: there was a strong- antagonism between the
north and south of the State, and there was a decided prefer-
ence for Jackson on the part of the plain men. The conserva-
tive class showed a strong- prejudice against Jackson, but in
1824 they were outvoted in almost every county in Alabama.
It is significant that both sections of the State were carried
for Jackson in 1824. It is also significant that the strongest
opposition to him was made in the southern cotton-producing
area. The percentage of slaves, and hence the strength of
the planting interest, was practically the same in the Ten-
nessee Valley as in the Alabama-Tombigbee region. The
stronger vote which Jackson received in the former section
was due, it would seem, to the greater contrast which existed
there between wealth and poverty, and to the class antagon-
ism which the situation engendered. This was aggravated by
the fact that, though Tennesseeans greatly predominated in
the population of the Valley, the planters were largely from
other states.
Before the election of 1824, it was generally expected that
Adams would carry the southern cotton section of Alabama.
The press was strongly in his favor, and the Warrior-Tombig-
bee section showed a consistent opposition to Jackson in the
legislature. The General's unexpected strength in this region
may reasonably be taken to indicate the predominance, even
in the heart of the cotton belt, of the men whose votes spoke
more powerfully than their arguments — the small farmers.
As has been mentioned, the prairie country was the only ex-
tensive region where a large proportion of the soil was suitable
for cotton culture, and it was only here that the percentage of
slaves increased markedly after the first period of settlement
was over. Farmers mingled with the planters in all sections
of the State, and it is doubtful whether the planters, as a class,
could ever have carried more than a few counties of the Black
Belt, if even they could have done so much. Their success de-
pended upon their ability to draw support from among their
neighbors, and the alliance of the anti-Crawford leaders with
the farmers on the bank question shows that there was no
aversion to such co-operation.
In the matter of the Presidency, it seems that the farmers
and the planters were very clearly divided on the question of
Jacksonism, but in 1S28 the desire to defeat Adams was strong
144 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
enough to unite both classes in support of the General. His
old enemies went over with reservations, and their support
was but temporary.
Though the Crawford faction had been discredited, and the
opposition to Jackson had completely lost its hold by 1828, a
movement was already on foot which was fraught with signifi-
cance for the future, and which was to put a new face upon
the political situation.
The belief in a strict construction of the Constitution is as
old as the Government, but when Jefferson and his party ob-
tained control, agitation of ihe point no longer seemed neces-
sary. Posession of power, however, soon changed the point of
view of the Republicans, and when the South and the West
combined to bring on the War of 1812, the old views seemed
to have lost much of their weight with Madison and the slave
states. It was at this period of Republican supremacy that
John Randolph came forward as the champion of state rights,
declaring that his party had forsaken its original principles.'
Henry Adams says that it was Randolph who forecast the pol-
icy of Calhoun by uniting the slave interest with the advo-
cacy of strict construction.1
It was not until the free states outstripped the slave states
in growth and political power that the South as a whole came
to realize that its only hope lay in decentralization. But Ran-
dolph looked before him and shaped his policy to the future.
There were others who shared his views, however. Among
these Nathaniel Macon and John Taylor were prominent. The
connection between these men and the Crawford party of
Georgia was close, and in a letter to Boiling Hall, Macon urg-
ed the point that to give Congress the right to make internal
improvements would be to give it the right to free everv slave
in the United States. -
Under these circumstances, it was not strange that Dixon
H. Lewis, the nephew of Boiling Hall, was the first advocate
of state rights in Alabama, but the movement was not isolat-
ed. The election of John Quincy Adams and the enactment
of the tariff of 1824 gave the signal for the revival of anti-
nationalistic propaganda in the South. South Carolina, under
the influence of William Smith and Thomas Cooper, took the
i Adams, John Randolph, 2SS-2S9.
2 Hall Papers, Nathaniel Macon to Boiling Hall, Feb. 13, 1820, and Jan.
•3 1R25
CONCLUSION 145
lead in this movement, evhile in Congress, Giles and Randolph
attacked the Administration from the strict constructionist
point of view. But Calhoun did not come out as leader of the
state rights movement until after 1828. '■'>
Though the Alabama papers took sides with Giles and Ran-
dolph or with Adams, according as they were Administration
or anti-Administration publications, no state excepting Geor-
gia seems to have influenced Alabama politics directly. Lead-
ers from the Caroiinas and Virginia did not form individual
groups, but worked in combinations, while those from Georgia
formed a distinct faction and thus gave their State a political
status in Alabama. Yet, afcer the fall of the Crawford fac-
tion, there was not much sympathy between the two common-
wealths. The quarrel between Governor Troup and Presi-
dent Adams over the question of the removal of the Creek In-
dians from Georgia excited little friendly interest, most of the
local editors taking a critical attitude toward the fiery Gov-
ernor. But in Montgomery County a meeting was held in
November, 1826, and here Troup's policy was upheld by some
of the leading men of the community.4 It is natural that such
a feeling should have been manifest in this locality, for it was
here that the influence of planters from Georgia was strong-
est. It is also natural that it should have been this County
which sent Dixon Hall Lewis to the legislature.
The political ideas of this young man had been shaped by
his uncle, Boiling Hall, who was so closely connected with the
Crawford faction. Lewis had worked for Crawford in the
election of 1824, and now in 1826 he went to Cahawba as a
representative in the legislature. His course in opposition to
internal improvements and a liberal interpretation of the Con-
stitution was a reflection of a general movement throughout
the South. His attitude toward the Troup controversy, and his
advocacy of a policy extending the jurisdiction of the State
over the Creeks, show his sympathy with the position of the
Georgia Governor; while his attack upon the State Bank ex-
hibits his connection with the old Crawford faction.
The majority of men in Alabama at this time were strongly
opposed to the Crawford group, strongly in favor of the State
Bank, and strongly Nationalistic in their feelings. Yet, by
good political management, Lewis succeeded in gaining some
3 Houston, A Study of Nullification i?i South Carolina, Chap. IX;
Boucher, The Nullification Controversy in Smith Carolina, Chap. I.
* Mobile Rcpixtrr. Nov. 28. 1826.
146 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
ground for his ideas. The important point is, however, that
this scion of the Crawford party was the first leader in Ala*
bama to advocate state rights, and thus he revived a faction
which seemed politically dead by making it the bulwark of the
slave power through the policy of strict construction.
The significance of this movement was not to become evi-
dent until Jackson's attitude toward South Carolina in the nul-
lification controversy raised up enemies from among his
friends. Then Lewis and the men who believed as he did
found their numbers greatly strengthened. Then the Whig-
party grew up in the South and, advocating state rights, it
became the mouth-piece of the slave-holders. Thus it was
Lewis who formed the transition link between the Crawford
faction of 1824 and the Whig party of 1840.
While the slave-holding counties usually came to support
the Whigs, those where the small farmer predominated usual-
ly remained Democratic. Yet it must be remembered that the
slave question never entered directly into partisan divisions.
If the farmers had united against slavery, they could still have
carried practically the entire State, as they did in 1824; for,
even in the strongest slave-holding counties, the planters alone
could rarely have commanded a majority of the votes. Their
success depended upon their ability to carry their farming
neighbors with them, which fact is attested by the great fluc-
tuation in the Whig vote from one campaign to the next.
Other factors, too, are necessary in order to understand the
relations between the two parties. The solidly Democratic
vote of northern Alabama, in spite of the large number of
slaves in the Tennessee Valley, indicates that the rivalry be-
tween the two sections of the State had much to do with polit-
ical alignments. The sectional votes in other States show that
local conditions influenced the result, and that slave-holding
was not the only important determining factor. For in-
stance, eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina had a
much smaller percentage of slaves than did the Tennessee Val-
ley of Alabama, yet the former sections showed a strong Whig
tendency, while the latter was uniformly Democratic.5
The writer hopes to continue this study in order to
trace the influence of early conditions upon later political
tendencies and alignments.
5 See maps at the end of The Whig Party in the South, by A. C. Cole
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. Manuscript Letters and Papers.
William W. Bibb MS. This collection of letters, in the pos-
session of the Alabama Department of Archives and His-
tory, is invaluable because of the light which it throws up-
on the relations existing between the first political lead-
ers of Alabama and their friends in Georgia and Wash-
ington.
Biddle MS. This extensive collection of letters, in the Li-
brary of Congress, contains instructions written by Nich-
olas Biddle to the presidents of some of the Southern
branches of the Bank of the United States. These af-
ford some insight into the financial aspects of the cotton
trade.
Blue MS. The Alabama Department of Archives and His-
tory possesses this collection of papers brought together
by Mr. M. P. Blue. It consists of information concern-
ing the early history of the several counties of Alabama,
various men having contributed from their personal
knowledge.
Boiling Hall MS. This collection of letters supplements the
Bibb papers and gives an inside view of political affairs.
It is in the possession of the Alabama Department of Ar-
chives and History. .
Jackson MS. This voluminous collection of the letters of
Andrew Jackson contains scattered information concern-
ing Indian affairs, public lands, and politics in Alabama.
It is in the Library of Congress.
Jackson-Coffee MS. About two hundred letters written by
Andrew Jackson to General John Coffee, of Florence,
Alabama. They contain scattered information such as
that in the above mentioned collection. Typewritten
copies of the originals are in the Library of Congress.
A. B. Meek MS. Papers brought together by Mr. Meek with
the idea of publishing a history of Alabama. In Alabama
Department of Archives and History.
Mississippi Transcripts. Transcripts made by Dr. Thomas
M. Owen from the original records of Mississippi Terri-
148 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
tory, which material is preserved by the Mississippi De-
partment of Archives and History.
Pickett MS. Certain unpublished papers of A. J. Pickett,
author of the History of Alabama. They are preserved
by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
Charles Tait MS. These letters, copied from the originals,
are in Alabama Department of Archives and History.
They supplement the Bibb, Hall, and Walker papers, and
are especially valuable because they contain letters from
such men as William H. Crawford and John C. Calhoun,
giving an insight into the political affiliations of the
leaders in Alabama.
J. W. Walker MS. Containing letters dealing with the most
important events in the early history of Alabama. — Ala-
bama Department of Archives and History.
Yancey Papers. Collection in the Alabama Department of
Archives and History; contains the manuscript of an obit-
uary notice of Dixon Hall Lewis, which gives the best
available account of the early life of that important man.
II. DOCUMENTARY MATERIAL.
The published documents of the Federal Government, es-
pecially the American State Papers and the Statutes at Large,
have been used extensively in this work. In addition, the rec-
ords of the General Land Office and of the Indian Office
have been searched. The local and special documents used are
listed below :
Alabama — Journal of the Constitutional Convention of 1819.
Acts of the Legislature of Alabama Territory,
1819.
Acts of the General Assembly of Alabama, 1819-
1828.
Journal of the Council of Alabama Territory, 1818.
Journal, of the Senate of Alabama, 1819-1828.
Journal, of the House of Representatives of the
State of Alabama, 1819-1828.
Aiken, John G. — Digest of the Laws of the State of Alabama,
Philadelphia, 1833.
Brickel, R. C. — Digest of the Decisions of the Supreme Court
of the State of Alabama, Montgomery, 1874.
Hitchcock, Henry — The Alabama Justice of the Peace, Ca-
hawba, 1822.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 149
Holmes, David — Executive Journal of Governor Holmes, of
Mississippi Territory, 1814-1817, MS.
Morse, Jedidiah — Report on Indian Affairs (1820) , New Hav-
en, 1822.
Owen, Thomas M. — Alabama Archives, Washington, Govern-
ment Printing Office, 1905.
Snedecor, V. Gayle — A Directory of Greene County for 1855-
6, Mobile, 1856.
Tharin, W. C. — A Directory for Marengo County for 1860-61,
Mobile, 1861.
Toulmin, Harry — A Digest of the Laws of the State of Ala-
bama, Cahawba, 1823.
United States, House Documents, 26. Cong., 1 Sess., Doc. 172,
p. 1348. Table showing condition of Alabama banks,
1819-1838.
University of Alabama, Historical Catalogue, 1821-1870, Tus-
caloosa, 1870.
III. CONTEMPORARY SOURCES.
Breckenridge, Richard, Diary, 1816, in Alabama Historical
Society, Transactions, III, 142-153. A good first-hand
account of Alabama as seen by one who came out upon the
first wave of settlement.
Commons, J. R., Documentary History of American Indus-
trial Society. Vols. I and II, by U. B. Phillips, deal with
Southern agriculture, but Alabama receives little atten-
tion. Cleveland, 1910.
Cummins, E. H., A Summary Geography of Alabama, one of
the United States, Philadelphia, 1819. Inaccurate, but in-
teresting.
Darby, William, A Geographical Description of the State of
Louisiana, the Southern Part of the State of Mississippi
and Territory of Alabama, with a Map, New York, 1817.
Darby, William, Emigrant's Guide, New York, 1818. Con-
tains interesting information for this early date.
Fessenden, Thomas G., The Complete Farmer, Philadelphia,
1839.
Gaines, George S., Letters Relating to Events in South Ala-
bama, 1805-1814, Alabama Historical Society, Transac-
tions, III. 184-192.
Garrett, William. Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama
for Thirty Years, Atlanta, 1872. Contains excellent first-
150 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
hand information of men and events daring the period
under consideration.
Thwaites.. Reuben Gold, Early Western Travels. A large col-
lection of accounts by travelers and explorers. The Ten-
nessee River region is touched upon, but there is nothing
for the southern pare of Alabama.
Hall, Basil, 'Travels in North America in the Years 1H27 and
182S, Philadelphia, 1829. Being a captain of the British
Navy, Hall has a point of view different from that of any
other traveler of that period, and his discussion of scenes
in Alabama is instructive.
Hawkins, Benjamin, A Sketch of the Creek Country, 1798-
1799, in Collections of Georgia Historical Society, III, Pt.
I. Published at Savannah, 1848. Hawkins was agent
among the Creeks for many years, and this is the best
available account of that Nation at the time when the
pressure of the white immigration into the southwest was
beginning to tell.
Hodgson, A., Letters from. North America, London, 1824.
These letters written in 1820 by a studious observer, form
an important source of information.
Holland, Edwin C, A Refutation of the Calumnies Circulated
Against the Southern and Western States Respecting
Slavery, Charleston, 1822. This account of slavery is
based upon conditions in South Carolina, but it is the best
available Southern treatise on the subject for the period
under discussion in this paper.
Levasseur, A., Lafayette en Amerique en 1824 et 1825, Brux-
elles, 1829. The author was secretary to Lafayette dur-
ing his tour of America. The account is more interest-
ing than instructive.
Lincecum, Gideon. Autobiography, in Mississippi Historical
Society, Publications, VIII, 443. An interesting account
of his journey by one of the early immigrants to Alabama.
Macaulay, Zachary, Negro Slavery in the United States and
West indies, London, 1823. This gives an English view
of the subject, and is violently critical.
Methodist Episcopal Church, Minutes of the Annual Confer-
ences, 1773-1828, Vol. I, New York, 1840. Here can be
obtained statistics of the various congregations through-
out the Country.
Morse, Jedidiah, Geography, Charleston, 1819.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 151
Owen, John, Journal, 1818, in Southern Historical Association
Publications, I, 90-97. Another account written by an
early immigrant of his journey to Alabama.
Price, T. W., The Life of T. W. Price, Written by Himself, Sel-
ma, 1877. There is little information of a public nature
in this book.
Raymond, James, Prize Essay on the Comparative Economy
of Free and Slave Labor in Agriculture, published by the
Frederick County Agricultural Society, Frederick, Md.,
1827. This view is too superficial to be of value to the
student.
Robertson, W. G., Recollections of the Early Settlers of Mont-
gomery County, 1892. This is an interesting account
of an interesting community, written by one who
says that "the writer was personally acquainted with ev-
ery one of them."
Royall, Anne, Southern Tours, or Second Series of the Black
Book, Washington, 1830. These letters, written on a sec-
ond tour of Alabama, are interesting because they indi-
cate the contrast produced by ten years of development in
the new State.
Royall, Anne, Letters from Alabama on Various Subjects,
1817-1822, Washington, 1830. Written by an erratic
woman, there is a good deal that is personal and a good
deal that is pertinent in these letters.
Saxe-Weimar, Duke Bernhard of, Travels Through North
America During the Years 1825 and 1826, Philadelphia,
1828. Traveling the same route between New York and
New Orleans that was followed by most of the foreign
tourists, and passing through Montgomery and Mobile,
this author gives us still another point of view.
Stuart, James, Three Years in North America, New York,
1833. Another and later account by one who passed along
the same route followed by Saxe-Weimar and others.
Townes, S. A., The History of Marion, Marion, 1844. This is
a good account of the establishing of a new community
in Alabama.
Terry, Jesse, A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery in the United
States, Philadelphia, 1817. A good Northern view.
Warden, D. B., A Statistical, Political, and Historical Account
of the United States of North America, Edinburgh,
1819.
152 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
Welsh, Mary, Reminiscences of Old St. Stephens, in Alabama
Historical Society, Transactions, III, 208-226. This is a*
retrospective account by one who had known the place
long since.
Woodward, Thomas S., Reminiscences of the Creek or Musco-
gee Indians, Montgomery, 1859. There is much here that
does not concern Indians, and, since the author knows the
ground, the information is of value.
Wyman, Justus, A Geographical Sketch of the Alabama Terri-
tory, in Alabama Historical Society, Transactions, III,
107-127. Only a part of the original account is publish-
ed here, the unpublished manuscript being in the posses-
sion of the Woburn, Massachusetts, Public Library.
IV. SPECIAL WORKS AND ARTICLES
Excepting in the case of Pickett's work and the local his-
tories, little reliance has been placed upon the secondary ma-
terial dealing especially with Alabama. This is for the reas-
on that most of it touches but scantily upon the early period
discussed in this monograph.
Ball, T. H., Clarke County and Its Surroundings, title page
missing, 1882. This contains good information of local
character.
Betts, E. C, Early History of Huntsville, Alabama, Montgom-
ery, 1909. This is one of the best of local histories, and,
because of the importance of the community, is of es-
pecial value.
Birney, William, James G. Birney and his Times, New York,
1890. Though only a small part of this book deals with
the Alabama period of Birney's life, it contains some
worth-while information.
Blue, M. P., History of Montgomery, Montgomery, 1878. The
author was a diligent collector of local information, and
his account is of value.
Blue, M. P., Churches of the City of Montgomery, Montgom-
ery, 1878. This account goes back to beginnings.
Brant and Fuller, Compilers, Memorial Record of Alabama,
Madison, Wisconsin, 1893. Too biographical; good for
reference only.
Brewer, W., Alabama: Her History, Resources, War Record,
and Public Men, 15^0-1872, Montgomery, 1872. This
book does not give a good general account, but the discus-
BIBLIOGRAPHY 153
sion of the separate counties contains desirable informa-
tion.
Brown, W. G., A History of Alabama, University Publishing
Company, 1900. A textbook, based upon insufficient ma-
terial.
Burnett, E. C, Bourbon County, in American Historical Re-
view, XV, 66-111, 297-353.
Claiborne, J. F. H., Mississippi as a Province, Territory, and
State, Jackson, 1880. This contains valuable informa-
tion on the question of the division of Mississippi Terri-
tory.
Claiborne, J. F. H., Life and Times of General Sam Dale,
New York, 1860. A good biography of an interesting
man.
Clarke, Willis G., History of Education in Alabama, Washing-
ton, 1889. Contains but little relative to the formative
period.
Cobbs and Whittaker, Statistics of the Protestant Episcopal
Church of Alabama, — Alabama Historical Society, Trans-
actions, II, 83-89.
Denson, John V., Slavery Laics in Alabama; in Alabama Poly-
technic Institute Historical Studies, Auburn, 1908.
Dewey, D. R., Financial History of the United States, New
York, 1915.
Donnell, E. J., Chronological and Statistical History of Cot-
ton, 1879. Exhaustive statistics.
DuBose, Joel C, Ed., Notable Men of Alabama, Southern His-
torical Association, Atlanta, 1904. Little of general in-
terest.
DuBose, Joel C, Sketches of Alabama History, Philadelphia,
1901. This contains good information on special topics.
Flint, Timothy, The History and Geography of the Mississippi
Valley, Cincinnati, 1833. Little information for Ala-
bama.
Hall, J. H. B., The History of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church in Alabama Prior to 1826; in Alabama Historical
Society, Transactions, IV, 365-394. This gives some idea
of religious conditions during the early period.
Hamilton, P. J., Early Roads in Alabama; in Alabama Histor-
ical Society, Transactions, II, 39-56. Information in-
complete.
Hamilton. P. J., So tie Southern Yankees, American Historical
Magazine, III, 303-312. Personal, but interesting.
154 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
Hamilton, P. J., St. Stephens: Spanish Fort and American
Town; in Alabama Historical Society, Transactions, ifl,
227-234. Not satisfying.
Hamilton, P. J., Colonial Mobile, 1519-1821, Houghton Mif-
flin, 1910. A work signifying much research and con-
taining much information.
Hammond, M. B., The Cotton Industry, New York, 1897. Val-
uable.
Hardy, John, Selma, her Institutions and her Men, Selma,
1879. A good local history.
Harper, Roland M., Economic Botany of Alabama, bulletin of
the Geographical Survey, 1913. Valuable for topograph-
ical information.
Harper, Roland M., A Preliminary Soil Census of Alabama, and
West Florida, Reprint from Soil Science, IV, No. 2., Aug.
1917.
Harvey, Meriwether, Slavery in Auburn, Alabama; in Ala-
bama Polytechnic Institute Historical Studies, Auburn,
1907. A limited view.
Haskins, Charles H., The Yazoo Land Companies, New York,
1891. Important for an understanding of the situation
in regard to the public lands.
Hodgson, Joseph, The Cradle of the Confederacy, Mobile, 1876.
An important work, but contains little information for
the early period.
Jack, Theodore H., Sectionalism and Party Politics in Alabama,
1819-1842, Banta Pub. Company, Menasha, Wisconsin,
1919. This is the only scientific political study for this
period, but little space is devoted to developments previ-
ous to Jackson's administration.
Jones, Charles C, Antiquities of the Southern Indians, New
York, 1873.
Jones, Charles C, The Dead Towns of Georgia, Savannah,
1878.
Leftwich, Geo. J., Cotton Gin Port and Gaines' Trace, in Mis-
sissippi Historical Society, Publications, VII, 263. This
article throws light upon one of the earliest transporta-
tion developments in the Alabama-Mississippi region.
Little, John Buckner, The History of Butler Count]/, Alabama,
Cincinnati, 1885. Scant and unreliable for the early pe-
riod.
Love, Wm. A., General Jackson's Military Road, in Mississip-
pi Historical Society, Publications, XI, 403-417.
BITjLlOGPwAPHY 155
McDonnold, B. W., History of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church Nashville, 1S88.
Martin, W. E., Internal Improvements in Alabama, in Johns
Hopkins University Studies. Series 20, No. 4, Baltimore,
1902. This account is made up of undigested statistics.
Meek, A. B., Romantic Passages in Southwestern History, Mo-
bile, 1857. Thin contains a good treatment of certain
phases.
Monette, John W., History of the Valley of the Mississippi,
New York, 1846.
Mooney, James; Myths of the Cherokee, in the Nineteenth An-
nual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Pt. 1 11-
548.
Owen, Thomas M., History of Alabama and Dictionary of
Alabama Biography, IV Vols., Chicago, 1921. An ency-
clopedic work containing exhaustive information, and in-
valuable to the student of Alabama history. Published
since the writing of this monograph.
Phillips, U. B., American Negro Slavery, New York, 1918. A
most helpful treatise, covering all phases of the subject
from the agricultural point of view.
Phillips, U. B., The Economics of the Plantation, in the South
Atlantic Quarterly, II, 231. A suggestive study.
Phillips, U. B. The Southern Black Belt, American Historical
Review, XI, 798. This is an interesting study of the seg-
regation of the slave interest.
Phillips, U. B., The Slave Labor Problem in the Charleston
Distnct, Boston, 1907.
Phillips, U. B., The Plantation as a Civilizing Factor, Sewanee
Review, XII, 257. An original view.
Phillips, U. B., A History of Transportation in the Eastern
Cotton Belt to i860, New York, 1908. Helpful and sug-
gestive.
Phillips, U. B., Georgia and State Rights, in American Histor-
ical Association. Report, 1901, II, 15-224, Separate,
Government Printing Office, 1902. Owing to the close
relation between Georgia and Alabama politicians during
the period covered by this study, this work has been of
great value.
Pickett, A. J., History of Alabama, Birmingham, 1900. Though
somewhat involved in details, this book represents care-
ful research by a man who also had wide personal knowl-
edge in his field ; on many points, therefore, it is an orig-
156 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
inal source. Though not without error, it is the only sol-
id work covering Alabama history previous to the period
of Statehood.
Pitkin, Timothy, Statistical View of the Commerce of the
United States, Hartford, 1816.
Powell, George, History of Blount County, in Alabama Histor-
ical Society, Transactions, 1855. This gives valuable in-
formation for the period of early settlement.
Reeves, Jesse S., The Napoleonic Exiles in America, in Johns
Hopkins University Studies, XXIII, 525-656.
Riley, B. F., History of Conecuh County, Alabama, Columbus,
Georgia, 1887. Gives vivid pictures of the pioneer peri-
od.
Riley, B. F., History of the Baptists of Alabama, Birmingham,
1895.
Riley, B. F., Makers ami Romance of Alabama History, Birm-
ingham, 1914. This book is made up of chapters on vari-
. ous unrelated topics, some of which are illuminating. Its
biographical sketches are good for reference.
Riley, F. L., Location and Boundaries of Mississippi, in Mis-
sissippi Historical Society, Publications, III, 167-184.
Saunders, J. E., Early Settlers of Alabama, New Orleans,
1899. Contains good general information, and the bio-
graphical portion is sometimes useful for reference.
Shakelford, Josephus, History of the Muscle Shoals Baptist
Association, 1820-1890, Trinity, Ala., 1891. The point of
view is so local that the work is not of much service.
Shea, J. G., History of the Catholic Church in the United
States, Akron, Ohio, 1890. Contains a good account of
the activities of the Catholic Church in Alabama during
the period under review.
Smith, Nelson F., History of Pickens County, Alabama, Car-
rollton, Alabama. 1856. This is one of the best local histor-
ies, giving a good idea of the early development of one of
the counties in the back country.
Smith and DeLand, Publishers. Northern Alabama, Birming-
ham, 1888. Scattered information of general interest;
but valuable principally for biographical reference.
Somerville, H. M., Trial of the Alabama Supreme Court Judges
in 1820, in report of the twenty-second annual meeting
of the Alabama State Bar Association, Montgomery, 1899.
A good brief a< count.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 157
The South in the BuUding of the Nation, Richmond, 1909.
This is a co-operative work. The portions relating- to
Alabama are too general to be of value for the period
under discussion.
Sparks, W. H., The Memories of Fifty Years, Macon, Ga.,
1872. Good material for Georgia and Mississippi, but
little of value for Alabama*
Stone, Alfred H., The Cotton Factorage System of the South-
ern States, in American Historical Review, XX, 557-565.
This is a scientific and suggestive article.
Street, O. D., Marshall County One Hundred Years Ago, Gun-
tersville, Ala., 1903. Contains some good information.
Teeple and Smith, Publishers, Jefferson County and Birming-
ham, Birmingham, 1887. Too biographical to be of real
service.
Thomas, William H., The Birth and Growth of the Constitu-
tion of Alabama, an address delivered before the Alabama
State Bar Association, Montgomery, 1890. Some good
points are made in this paper.
Tompkins, Alma Cole, Charles Tait, in Alabama Polytechnic
Institute Historical Studies, Auburn, 1910. A good brief
account.
United States Department of Agriculture, Atlas of American
Agriadture, Part V, Section A — Cotton, Washington,
1918. Contains valuable statistics and historical infor-
mation.
Wallace, J. H., The Alabama State Capital, Montgomery, 1911.
Contains nothing of value for the early period.
Watkins, J. L., Production and Price of Cotton for a Hundred
Years, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, 1895.
Weeks, Stephen B., History of Public School Education in
Alabama, Washington, Government Printing Office,
1915. Though touching but lightly upon the early peri-
od, this is a reliable work.
West, Anson. A History of Methodism in Alabama, Nashville,
1893. This is not a scholarly work.
WTiitaker, Walter C, History of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in Alabama, Birmingham, 1898. Contains lit-
tle for the early period.
Whitfield, Gaius. Jr.. The French Grant in Alabama, in Ala-
bama Historical Society. Transactions, IV, 321-355. This
is a fairly satisfactory account of the founding of De-
mopolis by the Napoleonic refugees.
158 THE FORMATIVE PERIOD IN ALABAMA
Williams, Thomas M., Dixon H. Lewis, in Alabama Polytech-
nic Institute Historical Studies, Auburn, 1912. Consider-
ing the available material, a satisfactory work.
Yerby, W. E. W., History of Greensboro, Alabama, Montgom-
ery, 1908. This account contains some useful informa-
tion.
V. NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS.
Alabama Journal, Montgomery; in the Library of Congress,
Dec. 9, 1825— July 7, 1826, Nov. 28, 1828; in Ala-
bama Department of Archives, Sept. 8, 1826 — July 27,
1827.
Alabama Republican, Huntsville; in the Library of Congress,
Jan. 5, 1819 — April 22, 1825; in Alabama Department of
Archives, Sept. 15, 1820— Sept. 13, 1822.
Alabama Sentinel, Tuscaloosa; in the Library of Congress,
Dec. 30, 1825.
American Mirror, Tuscaloosa; in the Library of Congress,
Jan. 3, 1824— Feb. 26, 1825.
Cahawba Press and Alabama State Intelligencer, Cahawba;
in the Library of Congress, Dec. 30, 1820 — July 22, 1826.
Democrat, Huntsville; in Alabama Department of Archives,
Oct. 14, 1823— Dec. 29, 1826.
Franklin Enquirer, Tuscumbia; in Alabama Department of
Archives, March 13, 1824— June 9, 1824.
Halcyon, Greensboro; in the Library of Congress, April 24,
1823— Dec. 30, 1823.
Halcyon and Tombeckbee Public Advertiser, St. Stephens; in
the Library of Congress, Jan. 9, 1819 — Dec. 20, 1819;
Jan. 10, 1820— Nov. 27, 1820; Feb. 12, 1821— Dec. 22,
1821; Jan. 5, 1822— Nov. 2, 1822.
Mobile Argus; in the Library of Congress, Dec. 5, 1822 — Nov.
6, 1823.
Mobile Commercial Register; in Alabama Department of Ar-
chives, Nov. 17, 1827— Dec. 5, 1828, and following; in
Association Public Library, Mobile, Dec. 17, 1821 — Dec.
7, 1824; Dec. 9. 1825— Dec. 9, 1826; June 4, 1828— May
29, 1829, and following; in the Library of Congress, Feb.
18, 1825— Dec. 21, 1826.
Mobile Mercantile Advertiser, in the Library of Congress,
May 10, 1825— Dec. 18, 1824.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 159- lLO
Southern Advocate, Huntsville; in the Library of Congress,
May 6, 1825— Dec. 24, 1828 ; in Alabama Department of.
Archives, May 6, 1825— April 27, 1827; May 18, 1827,
and following.
Tuscumbian, Tuscumbia; in Alabama Department of Ar-
chives, Sept. 1, 1824— Jan. 17, 1827.
Washington Republican, Washington, Mississippi Territory;
in Mississippi Department of Archives, April 13, 1813 —
Dec. 27, 1817.
American Farmer, Baltimore, 1820-1828.
Niles Weekly Register, Baltimore, Vols. 11-36.
The Southern Agriculturist, Charleston, Vols. 1 and 2, 1828-
1829.
Chap. I.— Plate 1.
See Maps, Bureau of Ethnology, 18 Annual Report.
(161)
Chap II— Plate 2.
Geological Map of Alabama. From R. M. Harper, Preliminary Soil
Census of Alabama, p. 93.
(162)
Chap. III.— Plate 3. Road Map, 1818.
Roads — Based on map of U. S. by John Melish, 1818.
(163)
Chap. III. --Plate 4. Origin of Population (approximate)
-Predonrino-rrt Elevncnt
L ] . _ JTcuaessee
(161)
?
Chap. V.— Plate 5. Vote for Governor, 1819.
House Journal, 1819, 37.
(165)
Chap. V. — Plate 6. To Disapprove- Act of Certain Members of Con-
gress in Censuring General Jackson. House, 1819.
House Journal, 1819. 45.
(166)
Chap. V.— Plate 7.
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(167)
Chap. V. — Plate 8. To Reduce Judicial Tenure to Six Years.
Constitutional Convention, 1819.
Journal of Constitutional Convention, 1819.
(1GS)
Chap. V.— Plate 9. To Make Majority of Members Elected to Legisla-
ture Sufficient to Establish Branch Bank or Renew Bank
Charter. Constitutional Convention, 1819.
Journal of Constitutional Convention, 1S19.
(169)
5 * '
Chap. VI.— Plato 10. Indian Cessions.
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Chap. VI.— Plate 11. Value of Lands Sold in Alabama.
In $100,000's.
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American State Papers, Lands, V, 384-oS5.
(171)
Chap. VII.— Plate 12. Average Yearly Price of Middling Upland
Cotton.
In cents.
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J. L. Watkins, Production and Price of Cotton, U. S. Department of
Agriculture, Statistics, Miscellaneous Bulletins, No. 9, 8-9,
1895. Also used by later writers.
(172)
Chap. VII. — Plate 13. Average Valuation of Slaves in Mobile.
In dollars.
\%Vk vaS itu* wn n\%. \avs x*?» ^»3■^ <ria- »» u>* wxs vo^ \wt \e»« \*vi m o.
DeBow, Industrial Resources, II, 79.
(173)
Chan. VII.— Plate 14. Cotton Crop of South Alabama, 1818-1330.
In 1,000 bales,
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slaves indicated by — — — —
Hazard, U. S. Commercial and Statistical Register, III, 272.
(From Mobile Letter Sheet.)
(174)
Chap. VII.— Plate 15. Slave Population. Census, 1818
— *
''//
Walker Papers.
(175)
Chan. VII— Plate 16. Slave Population, 1824.
0-10
Huntsville Democrat, Nov. 22, 1824. LaTourette Map.
(176)
Chap. VII.— Plate 17. Slave Population, 1830.
WWW ill
0/er 50 per Cfctit. slcn/es.
40-SO f cy cent, slo-ves.
3o-4 0
See U. S. Census, 1830.
(177)
Chan. VIII.— Plato IS. River Map.
(ITS)
Chap. IX. — Plate 19. Imnorts and Exports at Mobile.
In $100,000.
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Note: Exports include coastwise cotton.
MacGregor, Commercial Statistics, III, 289.
(179)
Chap. XL— Plate 20. Presidential Election of 1824.
ES3 75"-100
*&22k 50-75
EZ3 £5-50
Huntsville Democrat, Nov. 22. 1824. Cahawba Press, Nov. 22, 1824,
et seq.
(180)
Chap. XI. — Plate 21. On Motion Proposing Jackson for Presidency.
Senate, 1823.
Senate tTouTuaA, ^2/5, ^2,
(181)
Chap. XI. — Piate 22. On Motion Proposing Jackson for Presidency.
Hor.se, 182$.
House Journal, 1823, 77.
(182)
Chap. XI.— Plate 23. Election of United States Senator, 1^22.
ttou^e Journal \%TL 23.
(183)
Chap. XL— Plate 24. Election of United States Senator, 1822.
/ t
House <L -turnout, IS 2,2/. $0.
(384)
Chap. XL— Plate 25. Election of United States Senator, 1824.
Senate DVuvvuA., 1*5^^,60
(185)
Chap. XII.— Plate 2G. Vole on Bill to Extei.-l Jurisdiction of State
Over Creeks. House, 1328.
House Journal, 1S2S, 263.
(186)
Chap. XII.— Plate 21
House Vote in Election of Unit(-d States
Senator, 1826.
House lour^ul^Ufc, lQ-%]
(187)
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(188)
Chap. XII.— Plate 29. Vote on Bill Fixinpr the State Capital at
Tuscaloosa. House, 1825.
\uscq.\«»so- ... X /' \
C>U\e.Y L»QCo.V*onc, y,'.y.-.\
House Journal, 1S25, 75.
(189)
Chap. XII.— Plata 30. Vote on Lewi? Report Proposing Jackson for
Presidency. House, 1827
House Journal, 1827, 182 et seq.
(190)
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(191)
Chap. XIV.— Plate 32.
Vote on Bill to Prohibit Import of Slaves to
State. Senate, 1826.
Senate. JiitfrflftX^WAj ™
(192)
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