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Conditions in Alabama
After the War.
When the War of Secession
ended, organized society in Alabama scarcely existed. The social and
economic results of the war were appalling. It was estimated that 35,000
men had died in the military service, and that as many more were wounded
or in broken health from hard service. Five years after the war the census
of 1870 showed that the number of whites in Alabama was then about 100,000
less than it would have been had the population increased as it did
between 1850 and 1860, and the black population was about 80,000 less than
it should have been.
Destruction of Property.
Half a billion dollars
worth of property, including slaves worth $200,000,000, had been lost;
public buildings,. railroads, steamboats, factories, banks and capital,
money, farm implements and farm stock, mills and gins-all such
accumulations of property had been partially or totally destroyed. North
Alabama had been for three years the contending ground of both armies, and
in twelve counties of that section property had almost disappeared. The
raids of Rousseau in 1864, and of Wilson in 1865, carried destruction down
from the northern part of the state to Central Alabama as far as
Montgomery, and the invading armies coming up from Mobile in 1865
completed the wasting of the central and southern counties. Several towns,
among them Selma, Decatur, Athens and Guntersville, were burned; other
towns, among them Huntsville, Florence, Courtland, Mobile and Montgomery,
were partially destroyed. Thousands of dwellings along the paths of the
raids had been burned and hundreds had been deserted. In North Alabama and
in the southeastern counties, constituting over a third of the state,
tories and deserters roamed and looted almost at will from the early part
of 1864 to the latter part of 1865. After the surrender, the negroes in
the Black Belt frequently seized what teams and supplies they found at
hand and set out to join the Federals, thus helping to complete the ruin.
Confiscation Laws.
To make matters worse the Washington
administration began a general enforcement of the Federal confiscation
laws. In this the most unscrupulous agents were engaged, and many persons
pretending to be Federal agents perpetrated frauds upon the people.
Legally, all war supplies and cotton owned by the Confederate government
were subject to confiscation by the United States government. But the
treasury agents and pretended agents made little distinction between
Confederate property and private property, and stole impartially from
individuals and from the government. The Federal grand jury at Mobile,
which, in 1865, investigated the confiscation frauds, reported that the
agents stole in Alabama 125,000 bales of cotton, worth then at least
$50,000,000, and that most of this was private property. Two of these
cotton agents-T. C. A. Dexter and T. J. Carver-were tried and fined
$90,000 and $250,000 respectively; the others escaped capture. The loss of
the cotton removed the only important source of revenue still existing in
the lower South.
Another burden felt for the next three years was the Federal cotton tax.
This tax was two and a half cents a pound in 1865, three cents in 1866,
and two and a half cents in 1867. It was estimated that first and last the
people of Alabama paid $15,000,000 of the cotton tax, of which
$10,388,072.10 was paid before the cotton left the state.
Economic and Social Conditions.
The general economic collapse resulted in
distressing destitution and suffering. Especially was this the case in the
"white" counties where, during the war, there had been few negroes to
raise supplies plies and whence had been recruited most of the state's
quota of soldiers. Consequently the loss of life fell most heavily here,
and here, also, the economic losses were most keenly felt, for in these
districts there had been slenderer resources than in the Black Belt.
Nowhere in the state was there a supply of money. The crops failed in
1865, and were poor for years after the war. Nowhere in the state was
there plenty, and the bare necessities of life were lacking in many of the
northern counties. There were several cases of starvation. In September,
1865, the state authorities reported that 139,000 whites were totally
destitute and suffering. In December of that year the number had increased
to 200,000, and in May, 1866, 80,000 widows and orphans alone were
reported. Society was
in a disorganized state. Families were broken up; feuds and quarrels among
neighbors had begun during the war, and still lasted; public opinion no
longer had its proper influence in controlling and directing the social
order. In North Alabama several thousand tories and deserters, persecuted
and persecuting during the war, had now become practically outlaws, and
over the entire state the lowest class of the population, recruited by the
scum of both armies, threatened a reign of lawlessness. The negroes added
another element of insecurity to the situation. To test their newfound
freedom they left, in great numbers, their former masters and flocked to
the towns where the army posts were located and where the Freedmen's
Bureau distributed scanty rations twice a week. Here disease and death in
their closely packed quarters soon thinned their numbers, and the removal
of the protecting influence of their masters left the race exposed to
imposition by the low whites, and race friction began and continued.
Under such conditions the temper of the white
people was sorely tried. The great majority were feeling the bitterness of
defeat, while a few thousand "unionists" wanted vengeance for the
persecution they had endured during the war. The soldiers were willing to
accept in good faith the results of the war, but were sensitive to every
appearance of a desire to humiliate them. The women had bitter memories of
suffering and suspense endured, and of relatives lost. A class of noisy
people, mostly critics of the war period, were searching for scapegoats
and directing, especially through the local press, irritating language at
the "Yankees." The arrest of Davis and other Confederate leaders, among
whom were the Alabama war governors Moore, Shorter and Watts, checked the
desire for reconciliation, and the coming in of Northern people as
business men, speculators and missionaries served to complicate the
situation. The Northern churches generally announced towards the formerly
separate Southern organizations a policy of "disintegration and
absorption." The Episcopal churches were closed for several months by the
army and Bishop Wilmer suspended from his duties because he refused to
pray for the President of the United States.
No State Organization.
Politically the state had no organization for
a period of six months in the middle of 1865. During the latter part of
1864 and the spring of 1865 the Confederate government had gradually
weakened, and in many parts of the state had gone to pieces. The surrender
of the armies left the state without civil government. After the Federal
occupation the military posts were few in number and widely separated.
Over the most of the people there was no government from March to
September, 1865. A sort of lynch law, an early manifestation of the Ku
Klux movement, served to check in some degree the disorderly negroes, the
horse thieves and outlaws.
Under such conditions reconstruction in
Alabama began, and these conditions seriously influenced the course of the
restoration of the state to the Union.
The Attempt at Restoration by President
Johnson, 1865-1867
As soon as the Confederate government fell, in
several districts of Alabama-in the Tennessee valley even before the news
of Lee's surrender came the people began to hold "reconstruction"
meetings, at which they pledged to President Johnson their support of any
plan of restoration that might be offered. Some wanted the President to
appoint a governor; others wanted him to recognize Governor Watts and the
legislature elected in 1863. A movement was started in central Alabama to
have the legislature to convene and take steps to get the state back into
the Union, but this was stopped by the military authorities.
Johnson, who had adopted in essentials the
plan of reconstruction worked out by Lincoln, issued on May 29, 1865, a
proclamation granting amnesty to all Confederates except the higher
officials, civil and military. In May and June he appointed provisional
governors over the late Confederate states. In Alabama there were several
candidates for the provisional governorship among those who had at some
time opposed the Confederacy. The best known were William H. Smith, D. C.
Humphreys and D. H. Bingham, all tories or deserters and none of them
fitted to be governor. Lewis E. Parsons, who was finally appointed
provisional or military governor on June 21, was a New Yorker by birth who
had submitted to but had given slight support to the Confederacy. He was
directed by the President to call a constitutional convention which should
reorganize the state government and amend the constitution of 1861 to suit
the changed conditions of 1865. At this time the various Federal offices
were again opened in Alabama. During the summer Parsons called a
convention to meet on September 10, proclaimed in force the laws of 1861,
with the exception of those relating to slavery, and directed the
Confederate local officials to resume and continue in office until
superseded. Before
the end of September Parsons had in fair working order the state and local
administrations, and was using his efforts with the President to secure
the pardon of those who were excepted from the Amnesty Proclamation of May
29. His administration would have been stronger and more respected had it
not been for the frequent interference of the President and the military
authorities with the civil officials of Alabama, and for the interference
of the Freedmen's Bureau in all matters relating to the negroes. The
Freedmen's Bureau removed a whole race from the jurisdiction of the state
government ; the President and the army officers frequently reversed or
disregarded the action of the state administration; consequently, the
Parsons government was discredited and weakened.
Constitutional Convention.
The convention, which met in September, was a
fairly respectable but not an able body. It was divided into violent
Unionists and Confederate sympathizers, the latter being in the majority.
During its short session of ten days it declared slavery abolished,
repudiated the war debt and declared null and void the ordinance of
secession. It admitted the negro to civil rights and ordered elections of
state and county officers and members of Congress to be held during
October and November.
The state gradually settled down, the
elections were held, members of Congress chosen, and Robert M. Patton, a
North Alabama man who had taken no part in the war or in the events
leading to it, was elected governor. The legislature met on November 20
and proceeded at once to enact much needed legislation. On December 13
Patton was inaugurated; Governor Parsons and George S. Houston, a member
of Congress before the war, were elected to the United States Senate. But
neither the senators nor the congressmen-elect were admitted to seats by
the radicals at Washington. Patton's administration from beginning to end,
though recognized by the President, was constantly interfered with by the
army officials, the Freedmen's Bureau and the President himself. It was
merely a provisional government under the control of the President, just
as Parson's administration had been. The legislature in 1865 and 1866, in
addition to much other constructive work, endeavored to make a place in
the social order for the emancipated blacks. It gave them civil, not
political, rights - the right to hold property, to testify in court, to
sue and be sued, to intermarry, etc. To check their alarming tendency to
idleness and thieving and to prevent the enticing away of labor, strict
laws were passed to prevent vagrancy and to regulate the relations of
employer and employed. This was the so-called "Black Code," which
furnished the Northern politicians with so much campaign material.
Meanwhile the struggle between President
Johnson and Congress, begun in December, 1865, was going on, and until
that was decided the fate of the seceding states would be in doubt. For
political and other reasons the Bureau agents and the missionaries,
religious and educational, had begun to cause irritation between the
blacks and the whites by their methods of inculcating the new doctrines of
freedom and equality; the labor system was already demoralized by the
unwise meddling of the Freedmen's Bureau, and the blacks, by the closing
months of 1866, were wild for political equality.
Soon it was seen that Congress would win
against the President, and over his veto the Civil Rights Act and a new
Freedmen's Bureau Act were passed in 1866, and the proposed Fourteenth
amendment sent out to the states for ratification or rejection.
In Alabama, in anticipation of the victory of
Congress, the people, in 1866 and early in 1867, ranged themselves in two
parties. The great majority of the whites, regardless of former political
affiliations, united into the Conservative (later called the Democratic)
party and endorsed the policy of President Johnson. A small number of the
leading whites were willing to accept a limited negro suffrage if it could
be tried under proper conditions ; the majority were opposed to negro
suffrage of any kind. About 15,000 whites, for various reasons, favored
reconstruction by Congress, and for a few months most of them acted with
the radical Republican party. The blacks were, in 1866-1867, organized by
the carpet-baggers - white adventurers from the North -into a secret
political society known as the Union or Loyal League, and this
organization held them safely for the radical Republican party.
Meanwhile the state legislature considered and
rejected the proposed Fourteenth amendment on the ground that to ratify it
would be humiliating to the legislature and to the people of Alabama, and
disgraceful conduct toward those who would be disfranchised by it. Two
years had passed since the close of the war, and now it was clear that the
great problems were still to be settled. The negro question in politics
was the disturbing factor. The President's plan had failed and his
experiment drew to a close. Had it not been for the unsettling influence
of politics the state would now have been in a fair way towards recovering
from the results of war. As it was, nothing could be settled until
Congress tried its plan.
Reconstruction by Congress, 1867-1868.
By the Reconstruction Acts of March 2 and 23,
and July 19, 1867, Alabama, along with the other Southern states, was
placed under military rule until the negroes and the whites who were not
disfranchised could be enrolled and a new government organized on the
basis of this new citizenship. Alabama, with Georgia and Florida, formed
the Third Military District, which was commanded by Gen. John Pope, who
had headquarters at Atlanta. The state was under the immediate command of
Gen. Wager Swayne, Assistant Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau in
Alabama from 1865 to 1868. Governor Patton was directed by Pope to
continue the civil administration, subject to control by the military
authorities. During
the summer of 1867 the registrars appointed by Pope rapidly carried on the
enrollment of voters. The disfranchisement of whites included practically
all who had had experience in civil life, or held high office in the
Confederate army-a total of 40,000 according to one estimate.
Constitutional Convention.
In October, 1867, elections were held under
the direction of the military authorities for the election of delegates to
a constitutional convention. The whites were in the minority, without
organization and leaders, and made no show against the blacks closely
organized in the Union League and led by able and unscrupulous
adventurers. Ninety-eight radicals, of whom eighteen were negroes and two
conservatives, were elected to the convention. The white radicals were
carpet-baggers and native "scalawags" of little note or ability. The
carpet-baggers, with their negro followers, controlled the convention. The
constitution framed by it was copied from Northern models, and was not
remarkable except for its disfranchising provisions. The proceedings of
the convention showed, that the blacks had come under the control of the
outsiders, and that, therefore, the native white radicals were much
dissatisfied. In
February, 1868, the constitution was sent before the people for
ratification; state and local officials were to be elected at the same
time. About 75,000 whites and 93,000 blacks were registered; a majority of
the registered voters, or about 84,000, must vote in the election or,
according to the Reconstruction Act, the constitution would fail of
adoption. Only 70,812 votes were cast, about 14,000 less than necessary.
The whites had seemingly won by organizing their forces to stay away from
the polls. But in
June, in spite of the fact that under its own law reconstruction in
Alabama was defeated, Congress voted to include the state with six other
states in an act of readmission. So in July General Meade, who had
succeeded Pope, turned Patton out of office and put in his place William
H. Smith, the radical governor-elect. The radical legislature met,
senators and representatives-all new-comers to the state-were elected and
admitted to Congress, and the state was again in the Union.
Carpet-Bag and Negro Rule, 1868-1874.
From June, 1868, to December, 1874, the state
was in the hands of a ruling party composed mainly of negroes, with
sufficient carpet-baggers and scalawags for leaders and office holders.
The mass of whites representing intelligence and property had little
influence in the government, which was inefficient and corrupt. The
leaders of the blacks, in order to retain their control, kept alive the
irritation between the races, and the whites secured protection by violent
and revolutionary methods which, in time, caused a loss of respect for
law. During this
period, in which the government was growing weaker and weaker, the general
character of the state and local administration was, however, growing
better. This was due partially to the fact that the officials chosen in
1868 were the poorest possible, and all changes could be only for the
better. William H. Smith, the governor, was a Confederate deserter. He was
weak, but though used by corrupt men was not himself corrupt; and although
at the head of a negro party he wanted a white man's government, and did
not favor the carpet-bag element. The other state officials and the
members of Congress were, from 1868 to 1870, all carpet-baggers. In the
first legislature, 1868-1870, the Senate had thirty-two radical members
and one conservative; the House had ninety-seven radical and three
conservative members. Since the local elections in 1868 had not been
contested by the whites who planned, by abstaining from voting, to defeat
the constitution, the radicals had gained nearly all offices, both county
and state. No other reconstructed state was afflicted at the beginning
with such a uniformly bad lot of office holders. But in this condition lay
the hope : the worst came first. In other states the reverse was true. At
every subsequent election, office after office and county after county
came into the control of the whites until nothing was left the radicals
except the Black Belt. It was the same with the members of Congress, for
gradually native whites-first scalawags, then conservatives-replaced the
adventurers. This change was hastened by the growing breach between the
scalawags and the carpet-baggers, and by the hostility between the former
and the negroes. Only the support of the Federal troops kept the
reconstruction administration in control. Governor Smith disliked negroes
and would organize no negro militia, and thus the state was saved that
humiliation; on the other hand he would organize no white troops, fearing
lest they might overthrow his administration.
In 1870 the division in the radical party
enabled the conservatives to elect as governor Robert B. Lindsay, a
Scotchman by birth, who was well-intentioned but rather inefficient, and
in politics colorless. He was unable to accomplish any but negative
reforms, being opposed by a radical Senate and administration. Two years
later the radicals were united, and Davis P. Lewis, a scalawag of
considerable ability and decency, was elected. He was hostile to the
corrupt elements of his party, but had no control over it or over his
administration. Before the end of his term the government practically went
to pieces from weakness and lack of support.
The misrule of reconstruction was, as stated,
worst at first, gradually getting better as the whites secured more and
more control over the government. The worst abuses were in regard to the
taxation, the finances, the endorsement of railroads and the schools.
Under the first reconstruction administration the rate of taxation was
increased from one-fifth of one per cent. on a portion of the wealth of
the state in 1860 to three-fourths of one per cent. on all property in
1868, an increase which, considering the loss of property, was about
eightfold. The state expenditures increased from $530,107 in 1860 to
$2,081,649.39 in 1873. The bonded debt grew from $4,065,410 in 1866 to
$30,037,563 in 1874, which, ,added to a city and county debt of about
$12,000,000, amounted to about 65 per cent. of the value of the farm lands
of the state. Property rapidly decreased in value and thousands of people
emigrated to the West. Salaries of officials were doubled and the number
of offices increased.
A great part of the public debt resulted from
the fraudulent endorsement of new railroads. A law was passed in 1867
authorizing the endorsement by the state of the bonds of new railroads at
the rate of $16,000 for each mile actually constructed. The roads secured
the endorsement not only for what little they constructed but for hundreds
of miles that were never built; one road alone-the Alabama and Chattanooga
Railway-secured an endorsement of $5,300,000, of which $1,300,000 was
fraudulent. The roads, with one exception, defaulted and left the state to
pay interest on their bonds. The total liabilities due to the railroad
frauds were never exactly known, because Governor Smith, under whom most
of the endorsements were made, kept no records, but they were estimated at
$14,000,000. The
school system begun in 1868 might, under different circumstances, have
succeeded, but neither the administration nor the teaching force was
competent, and the system, borrowed from Northern states, was too
complicated for Alabama. Dr. N. B. Cloud, the state superintendent of
education, was not a person of ability or of strong character, and his
assistants in his own office and in the counties were neither honest nor
efficient. In several counties the school fund was embezzled by officers.
Many of the teachers secured for the schools were those who came from the
North or were taken from the Freedmen's Bureau schools. The whites
objected to the views of history and the doctrines of social equality
taught by some of the teachers, especially in the negro schools. For a
while there was decided hostility to the schools, and the white children
frequently were not allowed by their parents to attend. Later the more
objectionable teachers were replaced, but by that time the finances were
exhausted. The public school system never equalled in results the
ante-bellum schools. As a result of a difficulty caused by the endeavor to
graft the negro schools of the American Missionary Association into the
Mobile system, the latter, which had flourished for twenty years, was
practically destroyed. To the State University a radical faculty was
supplied, but the attendance of students ceased and it was given back to
conservative control. In 1870 a Democrat, Joseph H. Hodgson, became
superintendent. He reorganized the system, but the educational fund was
now bankrupt, and the public schools were turned into tuition schools. The
radical legislature from the first persistently diverted the funds that,
by the constitution, belonged to the schools. Speed, a radical, was
elected superintendent in 1872, but there was no money and he could do
nothing. By 1873 the shortage from the school fund amounted to
$1,260,511.92, all of which had been illegally diverted by the legislature
to other purposes.
For the churches also there was a reconstruction period. Throughout the
period of political reconstruction the missionaries of the Northern
churches worked to get a foothold in Alabama. They did not succeed in
disintegrating the Southern organizations, for the only whites who joined
them were the few "unionists" in north Alabama, but they did succeed in
organizing the negroes into separate churches removed from any control by
Southern whites. The close of the period left the Northern and Southern
churches still unfriendly to each other.
Industrially, during the reconstruction
period, the state as a whole did not prosper. The white counties showed
signs of progress from the conditions of 1865, and in time attained the
dominant industrial position that was formerly held by the Black Belt. The
latter, with uncontrolled and undirected negro labor, fell into economic
decline. Cities, mines, factories and good crops after this time were
found only in the white counties. Free negro labor was not as -efficient
as slave labor had been. Freed from the competition of efficient slave
labor on fertile soil, the whites began to make headway; they, rather than
the blacks, were emancipated by the destruction of slavery.
The Overthrow of Reconstruction and the
Readjustment. As
already stated, the control of local government in the white districts
after the first elections in 1868 passed gradually into the hands of the
whites, the state government and the Black Belt counties remaining under
the control of the radicals. The whites used not only the legal means of
ousting the latter, but also at times revolutionary and violent methods.
The radicals, at every election under their control, had used fraudulent
methods, and the white man's party, in turn, used similar methods; the
Union League, which held the blacks in line, was opposed and broken up by
the Ku Klux movement, a secret organized movement which succeeded by
frightening and intimidating the negroes, who were thus made to stay away
from the polls. After the solid ranks of the blacks were broken, the power
of the radicals rapidly declined.
The final overthrow of the reconstruction
party was accomplished in 1874. The state administration was weak; the
radical party was seriously divided -carpet-bagger, scalawag and negro,
each demanding more than the others could or would give. The Democrats or
Conservatives, stimulated by victory in other states, were well organized
and well led, and -were determined to endure no longer the rule of the
radicals. The race issue now became an important one and united the
whites, for most of the whites in the radical party deserted when race
lines were drawn. The blacks, having lost confidence in their leaders, did
not vote in full strength. George S. Houston, Democrat, was elected
governor, and the state has since been controlled by the white man's
party. The radicals
were soon driven out of the Black Belt counties, their last stronghold,
the Republican party declined in power and the number of its white members
decreased until it became merely an organization to secure Federal
offices. The whites have remained solidly Democratic, all second party
movements failing because of the fear of the potential negro vote. The
races were left unfriendly by reconstruction, and the churches and schools
still feel the injury of the policies then pursued. The whites have shown
an increasing disposition to follow leaders who hold extreme views on the
race question, but the negro, the unwilling cause of reconstruction, has
suffered most from its results.
The radicals did not give up their control
over Alabama in 1874 without a fight. A committee of Congress was sent to
investigate conditions and to find out why the political change had been
made. The report of this committee was in the usual radical spirit, but it
was too late now to use the "outrage" issue, and the whites of Alabama
were left to work out their own salvation. The first legislature under
Governor Houston set about the readjustment; the number of officials was
reduced, salaries scaled down, and retrenchment began in every place. It
is said that one could not borrow a sheet of paper at the state house. As
nearly as possible the carpetbag laws were repealed, a commission was
appointed with authority to adjust the public debt, a memorial against the
seating of George E. Spencer was sent to the United States Senate, and a
convention ordered for the purpose of framing a new constitution.
The Convention of 1875 met at Montgomery in
September and was in session less than a month. The strongest men of the
state were members, and L. P. Walker, formerly Confederate secretary of
war, was made president. The obnoxious features of the Constitution of
1868 were repealed, and a constitution adopted that the people regarded as
legal and as their own. Biennial instead of annual legislatures were
ordered, taxation was limited, and state and local aid to railroads, etc.,
was forbidden. The mingling of races in schools, etc., and by
intermarriage, was prohibited by law.
The debt commission had a heavy task and took
several years to complete it. The total amount of state obligations was
about $32,000,000. Payment of fraudulent debts was refused; others more or
less tainted were scaled, and the rate of interest was reduced. The
creditors of the state were satisfied with what the commissioners offered.
The debt, after all adjustments, amounted to $12,000,000. Soon the state
securities were selling at par and the treasury was not embarrassed.
Education prospered with the return of home
rule. The law ordered the separation of races, and the whites were no
longer hostile to the school system. For the first time since the war the
teachers were paid promptly. School funds came from three sources-state
appropriation, local taxation and tuition fees. The State University was
revived, and the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Auburn was
developed. For
several years the Democrats devoted their efforts to rooting out the
carpet-bag office holders who still had control of the Black Belt. By
skilful gerrymandering, all of the congressional districts. except one,
were made safely Democratic. The legislature reduced the salaries and
curtailed the powers of the carpet-bag officials in the black counties.
Official ballots were adopted and a residence of thirty days required
before voting. In 1876 the Republicans polled only 55,582 votes to 99,235
for the Democrats. Tilden and Hendricks carried the state in that year. At
this time the last partisan investigation of affairs was made by a
committee of Congress. In 1878 the Republican Convention, consisting
principally of negroes, made no nominations for state offices, but advised
that the Greenback ticket be supported. In 1880 the situation was similar.
The negroes were confused by the suspension of the Republican party, and
in great numbers voted for Democrats in the local elections. When there
was no radical candidate in the field several Democrats would run for the
same office-a "scrub" race, it was called. The attitude of the people
toward the central government and the North grew more friendly, though for
several years there was complaint of the annoyances of the deputy marshals
and the United States commissioners who were stationed in the state.
When it was certain that the whites were again
in secure control of the state, political questions became less important
and economic problems pressed forward for solution. A healthy development
of the railroads followed the collapse of the Reconstruction era, and with
development came questions of rates and regulations. The white county
farmers, emancipated from competition with slave labor, now prospered. The
mineral district was being developed in the late seventies, and in south
Alabama the great forests of pine were being cut for lumber. Conditions
were not prosperous in the Black Belt where the quality of labor had so
deteriorated; the negro laborers were drawn off in such number to work on
the railroads and to go to Texas that the legislature passed a law taxing
immigration agents. "Sunset" laws were passed to prevent the theft of farm
produce. The prohibition movement began in 1875, and never ceased to grow.
Beginning with the seventies the farmers began to organize into "granges"
or Patrons of Husbandry. Congress finally began work designed to open
Mobile harbor, which had not been in good condition since 1864. In 1880
the state was in much worse condition than in 1860, but it was again in
the hands of its best people, and progress, however slow, was certain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. - Annual Cyclopedia (New York,
1865-1877), article "Alabama" in each volume; Cameron Report (Washington,
1877)Senate Report No. 704, 44 Cong. 2 sess.; Coburn Report (Washington,
1875), House Report No. 262, 43 Cong. 2 sess.; Fleming, Walter L.: Civil
War and Reconstruction in Alabama (New York, 1905), and authorities
therein cited, and Documentary History o f Reconstruction, 2 vols.
(Cleveland, 1906-1907); Ku Klux Report (13 vols., Washington, 1871),
Senate Report, No. 41, 42 Cong. 2 sess; Report of the Joint Committee on
Reconstruction (Washington, 1866), House Report No. 30,39 Cong. l sesa.
WALTER L. FLEMING,
Professor of History, Louisiana State University. |
