COMPROMISE OF 1850.

209

During this administration some changes occured in the Supreme Court. The learned Judge Edward S. Dargan succeeded to the post of chief justice left vacant by Governor Collier's resignation. In 1851 the number of judges was increased to five, and the next year Chief Justice Dargan resigned and Judge William P. Chilton was made the head of the court.

But for a time nothing in the affairs of the State itself was sufficient to draw the attention of

the people from the great national question of the day.

The politicians in 1850 were hotly debating a series of measures which passed the Congress at Washington that year, and which were known collectively as the Compromise of 1850. These measures were devised by the great Whig leader, Henry Clay, to settle the trouble that had arisen between the North and the South, chiefly over the Territories acquired from Mexico. The North desired to see slavery prohibited in this region; Southern men claimed the right to carry their slaves into it. The Compromise had three main features: 1. The people of the Territories of New Mexico and Utah were to decide the slavery question for themselves when they were ready to come into the Union as States. 2. California was admitted to the Union as a free State. 3. A new law was passed to compel Northern people to return fugitive slaves to their masters. Clay, who proposed the compromise, was the leader of the Whigs, but a majority of the Democratic congressmen voted for it, and some Southern Whigs opposed it.

While Congress was discussing the compromise, the excitement in Alabama, as in other Southern States, was intense.

A Southern convention, held at Nashville, in which Alabama was represented, stated the Southern claims in a somewhat moderate form and then adjourned, with a view to a second meeting if the final action of Congress should prove unfavorable; but there was no second meeting.

The people in Alabama who, like Mr. Yancey, opposed the compromise, organized as a separate party. They were called the Southern Rights Party. They took the ground that the rights of the Southern States had been disregarded in the matter of the protection of slave property in the Territories. They began to question the value of the Union. They held a State convention at Montgomery, and in 1851 they nominated candidates in all the congressional districts. On the other side were the "Conservatives or "Union men, who received the support of the main body of the Whigs, and Mr. Hilliard became their foremost advocate. Governor Collier was reckoned a Conservative. The result was that the Southern Rights men, who were also called disunionists, succeeded in electing two congressmen, John Bragg and Sampson W. Harris, while the Conservatives won in the other five districts, and Governor Collier was elected with little opposition. The new men who appeared in Congress as the result of the Conservative victory were Judge William R. Smith, Alexander White, and James Abercrombie, who won in a most exciting contest in the Montgomery district. Abercrombie and White had been identified with the Whigs; the others, Conservatives and Southern Rights men, were all Democrats.

The people of Alabama had again refused to follow Mr. Yancey, but he did not change his mind as to the best course for the South to take. The election showed that Alabama accepted the Compromise, and this seemed to be the decision of the whole country, for the next year, in the presidential contest, both the Whigs and the Democrats announced that they would stand by it. The Democrats

A TIME OF HOPEFULNESS.

211

chose Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, as their candidate for President, and for Vice-President they named William Rufus King, of Alabama. The ticket was elected, and the Whigs never recovered from their defeat. But the accom

plished Alabama statesman did not live to occupy the high station to which he had been chosen. He took the oath of office in Cuba, whither he had gone to restore his broken health, but his strength barely enabled him to reach his home in Dallas County, where he died in April, 1853. Eulogies pronounced in Congress show that he was held in high esteem by men of all parties and

Many

The last year of Governor Collier's administration was a time of hopefulness. thought that the compromise measures would make an end of the sectional troubles that had excited the country and endangered the Union. Mr. Yancey found few to agree with him in his gloomy view of the situation. The people turned their attention to industrial enterprises, and the legislature chosen in 1853 was fully in sympathy with the popular feeling. A strong impulse developed in favor of State aid to railroads, and for a time this took the place of the great national questions as a subject for popular discussion. The temperance question also excited consid

erable interest, and a convention which met at Selma adopted a bill in favor of prohibition, and asked the legislature to pass it. In the congressional elections the Democrats, united once more, carried every district except one, the Montgomery district, which again returned Mr. Abercrombie. In the State election (1853) they carried both houses of the legislature, the Senate for the first time since 1847, and their candidate for governor, John Anthony Winston, was elected without opposition. The Whigs as a separate party now practically disappeared.

When Vice-President King died, he had been in the public service almost continuously for more than forty years. In 1810 he was chosen to represent a North Carolina district in Congress; and we have seen how repeatedly the people of Alabama, after he had made his home among them, honored him by electing him to the Federal Senate. In 1850, when Vice-President Fillmore succeeded President Taylor, Mr. King was made president of the Senate, and was thus, even before his own election as Vice-President, only one step from the presidency. No other Alabamian has ever occupied so high a public station.

Mr. King was a very fine representative of the old-time Southern statesmen. He was polished in manner, thoughtful, modest, courteous, of good judgment, having the courage of his convictions, but respecting the convictions of others.

QUESTIONS.

What is said of Governor Collier? What was done in the matter of the capitol? Give an account of the hospital for the insane. Give, in round numbers, the census returns of 1850. What new county was formed, and for whom was it named? What is said of the industrial progress in this period? What did Commissioner Lyon's final report show about the banks and the State debt? Mention the changes in the Supreme Court in this period. Tell of the Compromise of 1850; of the Southern Rights Party; of the election of 1851. Tell of the presidential election of 1852. Of William R. King. What changes were made in Alabama's representation in the Senate of the United States? What questions arose in the last year of Governor Collier's administration? What was the result of the congressional elections in 1853? Of the State election?

CHAPTER XXVII.

ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR WINSTON.

GOVERNOR WINSTON was the first native of Alabama ever chosen to be chief magistrate of the State. He was born in Madison County in 1812, but in his early manhood settled in Sumter as a planter. His public services had been confined to the legislature, but his firm character and his ability gave him a leading place in the Democratic party. While he was governor, his quality of firmness was much tested, for he frequently had differences with the legislature, particularly on the question of granting loans to railroads and other industrial enterprises. He vetoed no less than thirty-three measures of this kind, and thus won the title of "veto governor.

GOVERNOR JOHN A. WINSTON.

His inaugural address was largely concerned with two important subjects which, at once engaged the attention of the legislature and the people. He declared that the State should not engage directly in works of internal improvement until the public debt was paid; but he favored popular education. He soon found that on the first point the legislature disagreed with him. During the whole time he was governor the subject of railroads was uppermost in the minds. of the legislators, and the majority favored State aid to such enterprises.