while under the belief that power was irrevocably theirs, they consented, at the first session of the Legislature, to the enactment of a law relieving of disabilities those who were disfranchised by the State Constitution. Gov. W. H. Smith was understood to be largely instrumental in securing the passage of the bill.

State Credit.

In the first report made by the Republican State Auditor, Mr. R. M. Reynolds, he said: "Alabama stands in a proud position in the financial world. Nothing but gross mismanagement of her finances will cause her credit to decline." Of that credit the State had always been proud. More than one installment of gold was sent through the blockade during the war to pay interest on her foreign debt.

The new state government would have been, even if honestly and carefully administered, more expensive than that which it had displaced. New offices had been created - a Lieutenant-Governor, a Commissioner of Industrial Resources, and a body, with legislative powers, called the Board of Education. Pay and salaries, too, had been increased all along the line; but the figures thus added to expenditures are not worth compiling in view of the vast indebtedness that was soon to overwhelm the state and drive her for years out of the money markets of the world. In the first report of Mr. Reynolds the

Bonded debt of the state was
Educational fund and miscellaneous,

$5,270,000.00

3,085,683.51

$8,355,683.51

The legislative schemes already embarked had not yet begun to bear fruit.

During the session beginning in July, 1868, there was no very important legislation. Per diem pay and mileage seemed to be satisfactory. At the second session a state aid law, endorsing bonds for railroad companies under certain conditions, which had been passed by the preceding state government, February 19th, 1867, was taken up, amended and the aid

increased from $12,000 to $16,000 a mile. The old law was said to be useless. No one would comply with its conditions. But if the state would endorse to the extent of sixteen instead of twelve thousand dollars per mile, capitalists from the North and from Europe were ready, it was claimed, with energy, enterprise and money to build railroads that would at once develop the resources of the state, and in a few years Alabama would rival Pennsylvania. The theory of the law was that these financiers were to put money enough into each enterprise to build the first twenty miles of the road and thus secure the state against loss. But the fact was that most of the pretended capitalists had nothing but audacity and a clever knack of manipulating corrupt legislatures. Some had not even money enough with which to pay bribes, and were forced to rely on such advances as they might obtain, on the faith of their schemes, from the confederates, who were to handle the bonds of the state. Bribery in the Legislature at first is claimed to have been so cheap that one member was reported to have said that some of his brethren "sold their votes for prices that would have disgraced a negro in the time of slavery." Various roads were begun, constructed, after a fashion, for a few miles and then abandoned. The schemers had no funds of their own, or, if they had, they did not invest them in Alabama. They swore falsely to get the bonds and always got them; sometimes for many miles that had not been touched.

Only one road begun under this law was completed, the A. & C. It was two hundred and ninety-five miles in length, and entitled by the statute to endorsement when completed to the extent of $4,420,000. But, when yet lacking one hundred miles of completion, it had received, as shown by the report made to the House of Representatives by B. B. Lewis, Chairman in 1873, bonds to the extent of $5,300,000; and,

not even satisfied with these, it demanded of the Legislature $2,000,000 of straight bonds-and got them.

Governor W. H. Smith issued most of these bonds, including the over-issue to the A. & C. No one believes he accepted any bribe, but he was criminally careless. In a letter dated April 3d, 1871, after explaining the over-issues, he said, "I admit that if I had attended strictly to the endorsement and issue of these bonds that all this never would have occurred." He trusted the railroad company and the bond brokers, who were leagued together to rob the state. Besides the general state aid law, many special acts were passed. February 25th, 1870, a bill authorizing the state to endorse for the M. & M. R. R. Co. to the extent of $2,500; March 3d, 1870, an additional endorsement of $6,000 per mile for the S. & N. R. R. Co. was provided for. The Legislature had also, December 31st, 1868, authorized cities and towns to subscribe. From these the adventurers now secured large amounts of bonds to be issued by counties lying along the lines of their projected roads; from Lee County, $275,000; Pickens, $80,000; Chambers, $150,000; Tallapoosa, $125,000; Randolph, $100,000; Dallas, $140,000. The bonds were received and sold, but the roads were never completed. Several cities and towns also subscribed.

The Liberality of the Colored Man.

Whenever the question of subscription was before the people, the colored man, paying little or no taxes, was relied upon to vote down the unwilling tax-payer. Some striking instances of the liberality of the negro in official position are furnished the writer by Judge P. G. Wood, of Dallas County, who, as Probate Judge, is in charge of the books and speaks advisedly. These are here given as samples.

The Court of County Commissioners has entire control of county finances. Four Republicans with the Probate Judge composed this court in Dallas County, two white and two colored, and one of the latter always signed his mark because he could not write. September 11th, 1864, a question being before the court of the rate of taxation, both the whites voted

for the lower and both the colored men voted for the higher rate, "although their names do not appear on the tax books."

This same court elected a physician for the jail prisoners at $600 per year. The Sheriff, who was jailer, denied their right to elect, refused admittance to their physician and employed one himself. On September 4th, 1874, the court allowed the claim of its doctor, who had not performed the service, and on the same day allowed the claim of the Sheriff's doctor, who had. Equality is equity."

This county, though in that respect it was by no means alone, was blessed with illiterate office-holders; and it was one of the richest counties in the state. November 7th, 1871, it elected nine colored Justices of the Peace, several of whom could scarcely write their names. One of them made no claim to education, and, scorning all false pretences, made his cross-mark on his official bond. A Justice of the Peace in Alabama has authority among other things, to try possessory actions relating to lands of whatever value, and may incarcerate to await trial, or discharge even persons accused of murder. At the same time, November 7th, 1871, three colored constables were elected, who signed their official bonds by cross-marks. Constables execute process civil and criminal, including such as require sales of property to satisfy

executions.

That it was deemed the proper thing in those days to put illiterates in high and responsible positions is shown by the fact that the Republican Governor, Lewis, in December, 1873, appointed to a vacancy in the Court of County Commissioners of Dallas, Oscar Huntley, who could not write. His name is signed to the minutes of the court by his cross-mark, and he possessed not more than the average capacity of the uneducated colored man. These and other like occurrences elsewhere in the state demonstrate that "the black man's party," the formation of which Mr. Greeley had feared, was in full control; for not only did the negroes themselves select of their own color incompetent men for office, but they compelled their Governor to do the same thing. A representative Republic is representative in fact as well as in name.

The Election of 1870.

In November, 1870, an election was held for Governor and other officers, and for members of the Lower House of the Legislature. The Senators all held over, refusing to classify and allow half of their number to be elected, as the Democrats contended their Constitution required. The canvass was an exciting one. During the previous year certain leading Republicans had petitioned Gov. Smith to call out the negro militia under the pretence of enforcing the law. The Governor, as his letter hereafter quoted shows, understood the motive perfectly. He was a Republican and desired the success of his party; but he refused to enter into the plans of these conspirators against the peace of the state, and, in his message of November 15th, 1869, replied to this demand, without mentioning it, by the statement: "Nowhere have the courts been interrupted. No resistance has been encountered by officers of court in their efforts to discharge the duties imposed upon them by law." Eight months afterwards, when the Republican primaries began to be held, the County Convention of Madison, dominated by certain of these men, criticised the Governor for not having complied with their demand. In a letter to the Huntsville Advocate, dated July 25th, 1870, Governor Smith replied, denouncing "Geo. E. "Spencer (Senator), J. D. Sibley, J. J. Hinds and others" as systematically uttering every conceivable falsehood. . . . During my entire administration of the State Government but one officer has certified to me that he was unable, on account of lawlessness, to execute his official duties. That officer was the Sheriff of Morgan County. I immediately made application to Gen. Crawford for troops. They were sent, and the said sheriff refused their assistance. candid opinion is that Sibley does not want the law executed, because that would put down crime, and crime is his life's blood. He would like very much to have a ku-klux outrage every week to assist him in keeping up strife between the whites and the blacks, that he might be more certain of the votes of the latter. He would like to have a few colored men killed every week to furnish semblance of truth to Spencer's libels upon

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