Montgomery, Alabama

“ On the Capitol grounds is placed a handsome monument to the memory of the Confederate dead of Alabama. Its erection is due to the Ladies' Memorial Association of Montgomery. It is said to have cost forty-six thousand dollars. The corner stone was laid by Jefferson Davis, first and only President of the Confederate States of America, on April 26, 1886. It was completed and dedicated December 7, 1898.
In 1861, when the Southern States were planning for the formation of a new Confederacy, Montgomery was chosen as the place for the meeting of delegates to a Provisional Congress. ”

“ By November he had 2,000 volunteers and early in that month marched from Fort Montgomery (Montgomery, Alabama) upon Pensacola. November 6 he was two miles from that city. To ascertain the Spaniard’s intentions he sent Major Pierre to wait upon the commandant of the city and was rewarded for his pains by having his envoy fired upon. By midnight Jackson had his men in motion against the city, and in the hot engagement which followed the Spanish and British were badly worsted. ”

“ In this action the United States District Court at Montgomery, Alabama, ordered the local Montgomery County Board of Education to bring about a racial desegregation of the faculty and the staff of the local county school system. ”

“ When it is added that the Alabama river, navigable all the year round, connects her with the Gulf of Mexico, it will be seen that her facilities as a trade and business center leave little to be desired.
No city is more completely equipped with all the conveniences that make the modern city than Montgomery. ”

“ The city has about 100 acres of parks, Oak Park being the most important. Situated in the “Cotton Belt” of Alabama, Montgomery handles 160,000–200,000 bales annually. Truck-gardening is an important industry. The Alabama state fair is held here annually. Among the manufactures are fertilizers, machine-shop products, cotton goods, lumber products, cigars, harness, beer, stoneware, and bricks. The value of the factory products in 1905 was $3,877,653 (an increase of 31·7% over that in 1900) . The leading newspapers are the Montgomery Advertiser (morning) and the Montgomery Journal (evening) . ”

“ Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser, September 27, 1916.
Footnote 71: (return)
The investigator had been in Union Springs on a Saturday before there was a migration. The crowds on the streets were so great that it was difficult for one to pass. On Saturday, November 17, 1917, the investigator was again in Union Springs. It was an ideal autumn day. Good crops had been made in the county. Especially high prices were being paid for all sorts of farm produce. The market season was on. ”

“ The citizens were not wanting in enterprise. Andrew Dexter, the leading spirit, foresaw the metropolitan importance of the town and promptly laid aside a square, on which the State Capitol was subsequently to be erected, as he confidently believed. By 1821 steamboats were making regular trips from Mobile to Montgomery, and in the same year the Montgomery Republican was issued by Jonathan Battelle. ”

“ Both enterprise and capital are turning to the South now, and both have found Alabama their best field of operation. It is the purpose of this little pamphlet to show that Montgomery is the place of places for the enterprise that seeks a field for development, for the capital that seeks investment, and for the citizen of a more northern latitude who desires a change of residence to a prosperous city in a more genial clime. ”

“ His settlement in this rural village was a brief one, for he soon removed to Montgomery. His quiet and studious habits and his habituation to hard work served him well in his new environments, for naturally such a young man would excite attention and win confidence. His practice steadily grew and his reputation for close and rigid attention to business and ability to transact it, rapidly raised him above the man of plodding mediocrity and won for him a place of public esteem. Yielding to the solicitations of friends, he offered for the legislature from Montgomery County, but was defeated. ”

“ Once within the confines of civilization the journey to Montgomery and beyond was relieved by the cultivated fields of the white man, now in the bloom of young and promising crops, and the homes of refinement dotting the country over. This was a great relief to LaFayette, who had been buried for almost a week in the depths of an uncultivated wilderness. The improved roads enabled the procession to make greater speed as it moved toward the village of Montgomery. ”

“ As stated, at the time he laid off New Philadelphia, Andrew Dexter, reserved a square at the head of what was first known as Market Street, later to bear his name, as that of the real founder of Montgomery, on which he anticipated the ultimate placing of the State Capitol. The Capitol had been removed from Cahaba to Tuscaloosa, in 1826, and from time to time thereafter discussion arose as to its removal from the latter point. At the session of the Legislature, 1845-46, the subject was again advanced, and in January, 1846, Montgomery was chosen. ”

“ Alabama was equally alive to the need to suppress the migration propaganda among negroes. To this end the Montgomery City Commission on September 19, 1916, passed an ordinance to the effect that any person who would entice, persuade or influence any laborer or other person to leave the city of Montgomery for the purpose of being employed at any other place as a laborer must on conviction be fined not less than one nor more than one hundred dollars, or may be sentenced to hard labor for the city, for not more than six months, one or both in the discretion of the court. ”

“ In the heart of this Agricultural belt, sits Montgomery, with her river and six railroads. She is the commercial emporium of this farming region, while a few miles north or south brings her to the cheap fuel [Pg 8] and the cheap lumber of the Mineral and Timber regions of a State more richly endowed in these respects than any State in the American Union. ”

“ Harry, Arthur, and their older friends began the momentous journey across the land of King Cotton, passing through the very heart of the lower South, as they went from Charleston to Montgomery. Davis and Stephens would be inaugurated on the 17th of that month, which was February. But the Palmetto Guards would arrive at Montgomery before Davis himself, who had left his home and who would cross Mississippi, Alabama, and a corner of Georgia before he reached the new capital to receive the chief honor. ”

“ The population of such a city is like nothing in Europe. The middle class is small—the lower class is wanting. There is more wealth, style, and fashion in a town like Montgomery, of ten thousand inhabitants, than in a European town of eighty or a hundred thousand.
When I arrived in Montgomery, the good citizens had a new sensation. Since the abolition of the slave trade, no negroes had ever been imported from Africa, until the owner of the yacht Wanderer took a fancy to buy a small cargo at Dahomey, and distribute them, as an experiment, among the planters of Alabama. ”

“ DEMENT, LEVON, Pvt., 108 Pearl St., Birmingham, Alabama. DENT, GEORGE H., Sgt., 207 Barber St., Eufaula, Alabama. DOLIVE, DILLION S., Pvt., Mobile, Alabama. DUNN, WILLIAM, Wag., Montgomery, Alabama. EDINS, JAMES L., Pvt., Oxmore, Alabama. EUBANKS, EUGENE, Wag., 127 Rembert Ave., Macon, Georgia. FINLEY, LONNIE A., Pvt., Jasper, Alabama. FLEMING, ALBERT, Pvt., Star Route, Geneva County, Alabama. FOSHEE, SIE, Saddler, Montgomery, Alabama. FULLER, IRA, Pvt., R.F.D. 6, Dothan, Alabama. GALATAS, JULES J., Wag., 1254 S. Court St., Montgomery, Alabama. GARY, JOHN, Pvt., R.F.D. 5, Clanton, Alabama. ”

“ A band of music attended on the procession, the notes of which were mingled with the acclamation of the multitude, the volume of sound increasing as Montgomery was approached, as fresh accessions were made to the procession. Every object that could create noise and din was brought into use, among which were the detonations of powder, which in the absence of guns was confined in such a way as to cause a loud explosion, and bells of every size were rung, the people seeming determined to make up in noise the deficiency of population, for at that time Montgomery was nothing more than a small town. ”

“ WINN, ROLAND W., Pvt., 1213 N. 19th St., Birmingham, Alabama. WYNN, RUSH P., Pvt., 1208 Madison Ave., Montgomery, Alabama. ZANER, SAM, Pvt., 131 F St., Anniston, Alabama. ZIMMERMAN, HORACE J., Sgt., Burnsville, Alabama.
379 Supply Company Capt. JOHN M. SMITH, 424 S. Hull St., Montgomery, Alabama. Lieut. JOSEPH M. DICKERSON, Montgomery, Alabama. Lieut. ROGER E. WYCLINE, Austin, Texas. ANDRADE, ALBERT, Pvt., Mobile, Alabama. ANTLEY, ASA, Pvt., Webb, Alabama. AVANT, WILLIAM F., Wag., Skipperville, Alabama. BAILEY, HOWARD M., Pvt., Florala, Alabama. BATES, MOSES E., Pvt., LaGrange, Georgia. ”

“ Over the greater part of Alabama there were no class distinctions before 1860; the state was too young. In the wilderness classes had fused and the successful men were often those never heard of in the [Pg 7] older states. A candidate of “the plain people” was always elected, because all were frontier people. This does not mean that in Huntsville, Montgomery, Greensboro, and Mobile there were not the beginnings of an aristocracy based on education, wealth, and family descent. But these were very small spots on the map of Alabama, and there were no heartburnings over social inequalities. ”

“ LOCKE, WALLACE B., Pvt., Brewton, Alabama. LUCAS, JOSEPH, Pvt., Prattville, Alabama. LUDLOW, STEVE, Pvt., Montgomery, Alabama. McBURNETT, SAM E., Corp., Lincoln, Alabama. McCOY, JET, Pvt., Titus, Alabama. McDONALD, EUGENE B., Pvt., 107 N. Jackson St., Montgomery, Ala. McGLAMRY, JAMES G., Pvt., Deatsville, Alabama. McKINNEY, LEO D., Pvt., Prattville, Alabama. MACON, PRESTON A., Pvt., Wetumpka, Alabama. MALONE, JAMES H., Pvt., 651 Warren St., Mobile, Alabama. MANLY, WILLIAM A., Pvt., Birmingham, Alabama. MARCUS, HAROLD F., Mechanic, 1322 Highland Ave., Montgomery, Ala. ”

“ Prior to the coming of the white man, and for generations, the region on the east side of the Alabama river embracing the capital city, was inhabited by an Indian tribe, known as the Alabamas or Alibamons. ”

“ These whites were mainly in north Alabama, though there were some few in the Black Belt,—five, for instance, in Marengo County, and fifty in Dallas. A further source of weakness was the disposition of the [Pg 772] black politician to demand more consideration than had hitherto been accorded to him. The blacks had received much political training of a certain kind since 1867, and the negro leaders were no longer the helpless dupes of the carpet-bagger and the scalawag. A meeting of the negro politicians, called the “Equal Rights Union,” was held in Montgomery in January, 1874. ”

“ Governor Smith, who was with the delegation, spoiled everything by declaring that there was no disorder except along the Tennessee River and in southwestern Alabama and that troops were not needed. No officials had been resisted, he said, and it would be imprudent to send troops. N. Y. Herald, Sept. 27, 1868. The citizens of Montgomery held a mass-meeting and denied in toto the allegations of the memorial, denouncing it as a move of partisan politics. The strangers were sure to fall from power unless upheld by outside force. ”

“ Perhaps more than any other since the Civil War, Major Screws has been instrumental in shaping and directing the policies of the Democratic party in the state. He was a candidate for office once, when in [Pg 355] 1868 he was elected secretary of state, and during the first administration of Mr. Cleveland he was appointed postmaster at Montgomery. These are the only positions he has ever filled. His career is an important component of the forces which have made Alabama great in the galaxy of American states. ”

“ She set sail on her career of destruction, and soon drove nearly every American merchant vessel from the seas. Two years later (1864) she was defeated and sunk by the United States gunboat Kearsarge. After the war the Government of the United States demanded damages from Great Britain for losses caused by the Alabama and other English-built privateers.
[1] The Queen's advocate gave his opinion that the Alabama should be detained, but it reached the Foreign Secretary (Lord Russell) just after she had put out to sea. ”

“ The order continued to spread after the reorganization in 1867. There were scattered Dens over north Alabama and as far south as Tuscaloosa, Selma, and Montgomery. It came first to the towns and then spread into the country. It was less and less an obscure organization, and more and more a band of regulators, using mystery, disguise, and secrecy to terrify the blacks into good behavior. It was in many ways a military organization, the shadowy ghost of the Confederate armies. [1909] The whites were all well-trained military men; they looked to their military chieftains to lead them. ”

“ The Alabama members of Congress, who were Republicans, had voted for such a bill. The Democrats made the most of the issue. The speeches of Boutwell, Morton, and Sumner were circulated among the whites as campaign documents, and were most effective in securing the unionists and independents of north Alabama. [2135]
The following extracts from state papers will indicate the state of mind of the whites. The Montgomery Advertiser of February 19, 1874, declared that “the great struggle in the South is the race struggle of white against black for political supremacy. ”