ALABAMA. 



13 



si.->t:int Clerk." Suspicions arose against Mr. 

 S.jiiir."*. .-i-i In- was tlio city engineer of Mobile, 



t' UK- two officers in whoso interest the 

 addition to the first section of the bill would 



;( n made, lie testified under oath that 

 In- I Kid the bill in his hands and examined it 

 lor a tVw minutes, but knew nothing of the 

 interpolations in it. Further inquiries were 

 subsequently made by special committees of 

 (ho two Houses, but with the same uncertain 

 result concerning the author of the frauds. In 

 the Lower House this second report, charging 

 Mr. Squires with interpolating the bill, or being 

 " cognizant of such interpolations," was sub- 

 mitted on February 23d, when a motion " to 

 lay it on the table " was carried ; and a reso- 

 lution "forbidding its publication" adopted. 

 In the Senate it was submitted on the 24th, 

 "giving no opinion as to who are the guilty 

 parties in making the interpolations in the 

 Mobile municipal bill." A senator moved 

 " that the first and second reports be printed, 

 'together witu all the evidence," which motion 

 was carried. 



Concerning the validity of the bill after it 

 had been fraudulently altered, a warm con- 

 tention took place among the members of the 

 Legislature, some saying the bill was now a 

 dead thing, not to be resurrected ; others af- 

 firming its force to remain unimpaired, as the 

 fraudulent action of any person or party would 

 not annul the intentions and acts of the legis- 

 lative body. A supplemental bill " to define 

 the meaning of the bill to reorganize the city 

 government of Mobile " was introduced in the 

 House on February 16th, providing "that the 

 interlining and erasures in the original bill 

 after its passage be declared null and void, 

 and that the original bill be declared in full 

 force and effect." On the 18th the bill was 

 discussed, and after some opposition passed by 

 a vote of yeas 44, nays 30. It was taken up 

 and hotly debated in the Senate on the 19th. 

 Notwithstanding several motions to stop its 

 course, it went over to a third reading. This 

 took place on February 22d, when the matter 

 was discussed as db initio during the whole 

 day, and resumed at the night session, at 

 which a motion "to indefinitely postpone pre- 

 vailed by a vote of 13 to 12." One of the 

 senators changed his nay to yea, for the pur- 

 pose of moving a reconsideration of the vote 

 on the next day, but the subject seems not to 

 have been resumed up to the final adjourn- 

 ment on March 3d. 



Many facts relating to the legislative body 

 of Alabama at the session of 1870 were pub- 

 licly announced which were unfavorable to its 

 ability. Several dozens of engrossed bills were 

 returned by the Senate to the Lower House, and 

 others returned by the House to the Senate, for 

 the purpose of having their gross errors in the 

 spelling corrected. In some of them the word 

 expressing the object of the bill was changed 

 into another by mistake. Both Houses ap- 

 pointed committees to inquire into this matter. 



The Lower House expelled ono, and did all but 

 expel another of its clerks on that account. A 

 member of its committee declared, however, 

 that the fault was not in the clerks, but in the 

 members of the House, who could not spell 

 correctly. Hence the appointment of a special 

 clerk was proposed, whoso duty it should be 

 to revise the spelling of the bills, and attend 

 to their correctness. In the Senate the com- 

 mittee reported that they could not find who 

 the incompetent clerk was ; and one of its mem- 

 bers publicly averred that there were senators 

 who could not write three lines correctly. 

 During the session it was insinuated in the 

 public papers that members of the Legislature 

 could not write their names. The Democratic 

 and Conservative State Committee averred the 

 same, and other facts, in an address to the 

 people of Alabama, saying: "You would find 

 members of the General Assembly unable to 

 read or write incapable of understanding the 

 meaning of a law after being enacted by their 

 votes ; and unable, perhaps, to explain what 

 measures they had voted for or against." 



A more serious charge was laid particularly 

 against the Senate, as a body; Republicans 

 joined the Democrats in making the charge. 

 The Senate consists of thirty-three members, of 

 whom thirty-two are Republicans, and one is 

 a Democrat. The new organic law enjoined 

 the Senators first installed in office to divide 

 their number, as nearly equally as possible, 

 into two parts or classes of four and two years' 

 terms, respectively, and to draw lots among 

 themselves to determine who should serve the 

 long and who the short term. Those of the 

 short term should vacate their seats at the end 

 of the session of 1870, and their successors be 

 chosen by the people, at the general election 

 of November in the same year. The class of 

 the long term should continue to occupy their 

 seats for two years longer, which should bo 

 filled by the vote of the people at the expira- 

 tion of that period. During the last session 

 one of the Republican Senators urged his 

 colleagues to comply with this constitutional 

 provision, and, on February 16th, he offered 

 a resolution " that it is the duty of the Senate 

 to classify the term of office for Senators, as 

 required by the constitution." This matter 

 was made the special order for February 21st, 

 when the resolution was debated and put to 

 vote, and rejected; the nays having been 16, 

 the yeas 10. 



The Republican has been the dominant par- 

 ty in Alabama for several years. The Demo- 

 cratic party is more numerous, almost all the 

 white peoplo in the State belonging to it ; but 

 a large portion of them are still laboring under 

 political disabilities, while many of both class- 

 es have voluntarily abstained from taking any 

 part in political movements, even from voting. 

 " A memorial and joint resolution to Congress, 

 for the removal of the political disabilities im- 

 posed by the fourteenth amendment to the 

 Constitution of the United States," were intro- 



