14 



ALABAMA. 



sissippi bottom, and a large portion of it is 

 under cultivatioD, though the area planted is 

 less than before the war. Cotton is the lead- 

 ing product, but corn, wheat, and other cere- 

 als may be as easily grown. West Point, an 

 important station on this division, near Oko- 

 lona, is the county-seat of Clay County. Its 

 population is among the thousands, and the 

 town is an important shipping point for cot- 

 ton, and the various products of this agricul- 

 tural region. It is situated two hundred miles 

 from Mobile, and two hundred and thirty-nine 

 from Columbus, Kentucky, making it the half- 

 way station of the road. 



A case between the Southern Express Com- 

 pany and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, 

 which organized an express company of its 

 own in opposition to the former, was decided 

 in the United States Circuit Court, at Nash- 

 ville, against the latter. The rights of express 

 companies, in their relations with railroads, 

 were very distinctly defined. The points set 

 forth in the decision were " that the express 

 business is separate and distinct in every way 

 from the railroad business, and that railroad 

 corporations desiring to embark in this pur- 

 suit must do so as expressmen, subject to all 

 the rules and restrictions imposed upon that 

 class of persons. If a railroad desires to have 

 an express department, it must be a separate 

 and distinct branch of its business, which must 

 deal with the railroad proper upon the same 

 basis with other express companies. The rail- 

 roads are prohibited from making discrimina- 

 tions in favor of their own express depart- 

 ments as against other express companies. 

 The practical result of the decision, so far as 

 the interest of the public is concerned, is that 

 the great railroad corporations will be pre- 

 vented from making the express business a 

 monopoly by the exclusion from their lines ot 

 mere express companies. 



The Democratic State Convention met June 

 2, 1880, at Montgomery. Dennis M. Stone 

 was elected President, and the following per- 

 sons were nominated for office : R. W. Cobb for 

 Governor ; W. W. Screws, Secretary of State ; 

 H. C. Tompkins, Attorney-General ; I. H. Vin- 

 cent, Treasurer. For Chief Justice of the Su- 

 preme Court, Robert 0. Brickell was nomi- 

 nated ; George W. Stone and Amos R. Manning, 

 Associate Justices ; J. M. Carmichael for Au- 

 ditor, and H. C. Armstrong, Superintendent of 

 Education. E. A. O'Neal and Walter Bragg 

 were nominated for Presidential Electors at 

 large. The platform of the last Convention, 

 without the resolution relating to paper money, 

 was adopted. The delegates to Cincinnati 

 were instructed to adhere to the two-thirds 

 rule. 



The committee upon resolutions reported a 

 platform, the concluding resolution of which 

 was as follows : 



That we favor the just payment of the public debt 

 and a stable currency. We are opposed to the refund- 

 ing of the public debt beyond the reach of the Gov- 



ernment to pay it as soon as it is able. We favor the 

 retirement of the national-bank notes as soon as the 

 same can be done without injury to the business of 

 the country, and the issue of Treasury notes, common- 

 ly called greenbacks, sufficient in volume to meet the 

 commercial and business demands of the country, and 

 redeemable at the option of the holder, and that we 

 oppose any unnecessary restriction on the coinage of 

 the silver dollar. 



The Convention voted to strike out the reso- 

 lution, because it was deemed that the proper 

 place to consider a national question was in 

 the Democratic Convention at Cincinnati. 



The platform adopted was as follows : 



1. The Democratic party in convention assembled 

 declares its confidence in and unshaken adherence 

 to the great principles of democratic government; 

 its devotion to the Union and Constitution, with the 

 amendments thereto ; its imswerving maintenance of 

 the following principles, viz. : strict subordination of 

 the military to the civil power ; purity of elections, 

 and their absolute freedom from all interferences by 

 the officers of the Federal Government, civil or mili- 

 tary : profound respect for the popular will fairly and 

 legally expressed at the ballot-box ; a fixed purpose to 

 expose and punish all political fraud and corruption ; 

 the political equality of all citizens ; the largest rights 

 of individual liberty consistent with the rights of 

 others, and general participation by the body of the 

 people in public affairs. 



2. That our present tariff laws are an impediment 

 to American industry^ devised in the interest of mo- 

 nopolies, and maintained in opposition to the de- 

 mands of the ceople. We therefore demand their re- 

 peal and substitution of a simple revenue which shall 

 be productive without being oppressive. We demand 

 the restoration of the Federal Government to its con- 

 stitutional limits, and a return of its administration to 

 its original economy, simplicity, and impartiality. 



3. In the name of the Democracy of Alabama we 

 most solemnly arraign the Republican party before 

 the bar of public opinion as the authors of all the 

 evils of government which threaten and oppress the 

 people ; protesting its friendship for the Federal 

 Union, it sought to destroy it in centralization ; de- 

 claring its purpose to establish justice, it trampled it 

 under its feet; " to insure domestic tranquillity," its 

 proclaimed mission, it preached the gospel of hate, and 

 filled the land with misrule and anarchy and blood. 

 As the legitimate fruit of its administration it has par- 

 alyzed all our industrial pursuits ; it has destroyed 

 the value of our property ; it has impoverished tho 

 country, and it has filled the land with discontent and 

 agitation. For these crimes against humanity and 

 constitutional government, we denounce the Republi-' 

 can party as unworthy the trust and confidence of an 

 intelligent and patriotic people. 



4. That the fraud, first triumphant in American poli- 

 tics and unparalleled in the world, whereby the will 

 of the freemen of the republic was defied and sub- 

 verted, and a defeated candidate placed in the Presi- 

 dential chair, shall never be ignored, and we call upon 

 the Democracy and the people throughout the land to 

 stand with us in demanding the vindication of the 

 right, and the condemnation and punishment of the 

 wrong, to the end that fraud shall henceforth be pow- 

 erless and odious, and free government a reality in 

 America. 



5. By the levy of excessive duties upon tobacco and 

 alcoholic productions it has encouraged violations of 

 the revenue laws, and, under pretense of protecting 

 the revenue service, it has turned loose on our people 

 irresponsible and reckless men, who maltreat and im- 

 prison our citizens, and who destroy property at will, 

 yet refuse to allow these enemies to society to be tried 

 in the State courts for the violation of State laws. 



6. That we rely, to a great extent, upon the educa- 

 tion of the masses of the people for the perpetuity and 



