12 



ALABAMA. 



of Mobile, in the manner described in the act 

 of February 21, 1860, is an undertaking fully 

 authorized by observation and study, and may 

 be entered upon with fair prospect of suc- 

 cess." The probable cost of the work they 

 estimated not to exceed half a million dollars. 

 The civil war, which broke out almost immedi- 

 ately after these preliminary steps had been 

 made, stopped all further proceedings, which 

 have now been resumed. The Alabama repre- 

 sentative from the Mobile district, at Wash- 

 ington, introduced a bill into Congress last 

 year, asking " an appropriation of $300,000 

 for the improvement of the bay and harbor 

 of Mobile." The State Legislature also took 

 the matter in hand during the session of 1870. 

 On February 2d, a member of the Lower 

 House introduced " a substitute for the bill for 

 the improvement of the bay and harbor of 

 Mobile." It provided " that the Governor 

 may issue State bonds to the amount of $500,- 

 000 in aid of that work." The matter was 

 not finally settled at the last session. 



Concerning the city of Mobile, a remarkable 

 bill was introduced into the Senate early in the 

 session, declaring all her offices vacant, and 

 depriving her citizens of the right to hold an 

 election for the purpose of choosing their muni- 

 cipal officers, until the city had been reorgan- 

 ized in accordance with the prescriptions of 

 the bill. The advocates of the measure justi- 

 fied it as necessary on account of disturbances 

 said to have taken place in Mobile at a previ- 

 ous election, negroes having been frightened 

 from the polls by open, organized force. It 

 was loudly condemned by many among the 

 Republicans themselves, and more by the Dem- 

 ocrats, who denied the charge and termed the 

 bill "an insult to the Governor, an outrage to 

 the people of Mobile, and a violation of the 

 fundamental principles of self-government," a 

 measure prompted only by partisan spirit to 

 realize partisan ends. They said the Mayor 

 of Mobile was a Republican, but had become 

 obnoxious to some members of the Legisla- 

 ture, and must be removed ; besides, the city 

 of Mobile, having a large majority of white 

 voters and being looked upon as Democratic, 

 must be turned Republican ; all which could 

 not be effected except by declaring, as the bill 

 declares, all the municipal offices vacant at 

 once, and placing every part of the city gov- 

 ernment in the hands of persons most devoted 

 to the Republican party, who, by redistricting 

 the city (which is a distinct provision of the 

 bill), and by other means, might succeed in 

 moulding her so as to become Republican. The 

 bill passed both the Senate and the Lower 

 House, the latter having made some amend- 

 ments which were concurred in by the former 

 on February 2d. The Governor signed and re- 

 turned the bill on the 8th, yet declaring in his 

 message: "My mind is not entirely free from 

 doubt as to the constitutionality of the bill. But, 

 as this doubt does not amount to a positive con- 

 viction, I consider it right that the benefit of it 



should be given to the General Assembly." A 

 motion to print one thousand copies of this mes- 

 sage Avas carried, though several Senators 

 strongly opposed it as bringing the Senate into 

 discredit. A resolution offered by another Sen- 

 ator, " That the thanks of the Senate are ten- 

 dered to the Governor of Alabama for the terms 

 in which his message is couched touching his ap- 

 proval of the ' act to reorganize the municipal 

 government of the city of Mobile, and to pro- 

 vide for the election of the officers thereof,' " 

 was also adopted. 



Soon after this bill had passed the Lower 

 House, and before it went to the Governor for 

 his approval, it was fraudulently taken hold 

 of by strange hands, and altered in two places. 

 At the end of section 1, which declares all of 

 the offices in the city vacant, an addition was 

 made in the following words : "Provided this 

 shall not apply to the city tax assessor and 

 city engineer," and, in the body of section 11, 

 the words "tax assessor" were erased. The 

 discovery of the frauds created intense excite- 

 ment, and each of the two Houses separately 

 appointed a special committee to investigate 

 the matter. Many witnesses were then ex- 

 amined, and facts brought to light which might 

 spread suspicion on other acts of the Legis- 

 lature of Alabama, besides the subject of that 

 inquiry. The guilty parties, however, were 

 not found out. The Clerk of the House testi- 

 fied that, the bill having passed on February 

 1st, he left it in his drawer, locked, and found 

 it next morning lying on his desk, when he 

 discovered the alterations; that he immediately 

 showed them to a member of the House, and 

 to the Speaker, who directed him to write a 

 message and send the bill to the Senate as soon 

 as the House was called to order. He testified 

 further that this bill had disappeared from his 

 desk, and been stolen out of his locked drawer, 

 several times before the present occurrence, 

 of which he had given notice to the Secretary 

 of State, cautioning him to be on his guard and 

 watch that bill. He made also the follow- 

 ing statement : " I have frequently found my 

 drawer unlocked, although I am satisfied of its 

 having been locked by me. Frequent applica- 

 tions on my part, to the Speaker and Sergeant- 

 at-arms, to have the locks changed, resulted in 

 a change of locks at two different times. The 

 lock has not been changed since the recess." 

 The Sergeant-at-arms testified : " On the next 

 morning I was requested by J. W. Squires to 

 procure the bill for him for examination. I 

 received the same, at my request, from the 

 Assistant Clerk of the house, and handed the 

 bill to Squires, and directed him to an unoc- 

 cupied seat within the House, where he looked 

 over the same. I was not with him during 

 the time that he examined the bill. This was 

 about half an hour before the House met. 

 Squires returned the bill to me about the time 

 that the House was called to order, or a little 

 before, and I returned the same, without 

 further examination on my part, to the As- 



