18 



ALABAMA. 



VII. The commanding officer of each district will 

 give public notice when and where the registers will 

 commence the registration, which notice will be kept 

 public by the registers in each district during the 

 whole time occupied in registration. 



VIII. Interference by violence, or threats of vio- 

 lence, or other oppressive means to prevent the re- 

 gistration of any voter, is positively prohibited, and 

 any person guilty of such interference shall be ar- 

 rested and tried by the military authorities. 



By command of 



Brevet Major-General JOHN POPE. 

 Official: 

 J. F. CONTNGHAM, 1st Lieut. D. S. Inf., A. A. G. 



The persons excluded from the right of suf- 

 frage in the elections for members to a State 

 convention to form a new constitution accord- 

 ing to the Act of Eeconstruction, and its first 

 supplement, at this -period of time in force, 

 were: 1. All persons who had been, prior to 

 the war, members of Congress or officers of the 

 United States, and who afterward participated 

 in the war against the Federal Government. 

 2. All persons who, previous to the war, filled 

 positions or exercised functions in the executive, 

 legislative, or judicial department of any State, 

 and who, in such capacity, took an oath to sup- 

 port the Union, and afterward aided or par- 

 ticipated in the war against the Federal Gov- 

 ernment. 



On the other hand, all persons admitted to 

 have such right of suffrage were designated as 

 follows: 1. None were excluded by reason of 

 having accepted any office under the Confeder- 

 ate States, or served in their army, if not in- 

 cluded in the two above-mentioned exceptions. 

 Thus Senators, representatives, military or 

 naval officers of the Confederate States, as such, 

 were not excluded. 2. Attorneys-at-law, sher- 

 iffs, clerks of State courts, members of city 

 boards, and municipal officers, were not ex- 

 cluded, because they were not, as such, required 

 to subscribe to an oath of allegiance to the 

 Federal Government. 3. No individual who, 

 when the war broke out, had not reached the 

 age of twenty-one years, was excluded from the 

 electoral franchise, no matter what part he took 

 in that war. 4. Officers of the State militia 

 were not excluded. 



Subsequently, on June 21st, General Pope 

 issued special instructions to the boards of 

 registers, which declared that clerks and re- 

 porters of the Supreme Court and inferior courts, 

 and clerks to ordinary county courts, treasurers, 

 county surveyors, receivers of tax returns, tax- 

 collectors, tax-receivers, sheriffs, justices of the 

 peace, coroners, mayors, recorders, aldermen, 

 councilmen of any incorporated city or town, 

 who are ex-officers of the Confederacy, and who, 

 previous to the war, occupied these offices, and 

 afterward participated in the war, were all 

 disqualified and not entitled to registration. 



On June 20th the War Department at "Wash- 

 ington issued instructions to commanders of the 

 five military districts relative to their powers 

 and duties. (See UNITED STATES.) 



Public meetings now began to be held by the 

 freedmen to appoint delegates to a State con- 



vention at Mobile on May 1st. At Opelika a 

 body of some three hundred assembled from 

 the adjacent country to take into consideration 

 the propriety of sending delegates to the con- 

 vention. At their invitation, Colonel Swearin- 

 gen made an address explaining to them fully 

 their new relations toward the white inhabit- 

 ants. He said their interests were identical, 

 and they should be united in a common effort 

 to promote the welfare and prosperity of the 

 State. Upon its political and social prosperity 

 depended the welfare of the freedmen. Several 

 freedmen subsequently spoke, one of whom 

 told those present that they were yet in their 

 infancy so far as freedom was concerned. As 

 they were ignorant of the real object of the con- 

 vention at Mobile, it behooved them to be cau- 

 tious what steps were taken toward sending 

 delegates. They had much to learn yet, and 

 were liable to be misled by evil and designing 

 men. 



In other towns freedmen's meetings were 

 also held, but the numbers in attendance were 

 generally small. In Mobile, on April 17th, in 

 the evening, a meeting of the freedmen was 

 held. The chairman, "W. "W. D. Turner, on 

 taking his seat, addressed the meeting. The 

 substance of his remarks was of a general na- 

 ture : 



That it would seem as if they were in an auction 

 establishment; they were up to be knocked down to 

 the highest bidder ; they knew their rights, and would 

 call upon the law to defend them in the exercise of 

 those rights ; they supported and were a portion of 

 the Republican Radical party, and if the Southern 

 party that would meet on Friday night would offer 

 them better terms than the former they would 

 go and join it. The speaker then alluded to the 

 late case respecting the colored people riding in 

 the cars, and claimed that it was their inalienable 

 and undeniable right to ride in those cars under the 

 law of the land. It was a contest between the pre- 

 judices of the people and the Civil Rights Bill, and the 

 latter must overcome the former. 



The colored people claimed to have a knowledge 

 of their rights as citizens ; they were fools as schol- 

 ars, but they had been well instructed in their rights. 

 They meant, not only to enjoy the privileges of the 

 ballot-box, but claimed also the right to sit in the 

 jury box when the lives or liberties of their mothers, 

 daughters, wives, arid sisters were at stake. Although 

 the colored people were no scholars, they were not 

 going to send any fools to represent them either at 

 Slontgomery or in Congress. Three-fourths of the 

 white men of Alabama were very ignorant. At the 

 salt-works, at which he was employed as a slave dur- 

 ing the war, there were three white men, not one of 

 whom could read or write his own name, and he, a 

 slave, had to do all the work for them, and had to 

 read and answer all the letters that his master would 

 send from England to his overseer. The reason he 

 mentioned this was because he wished to show that 

 the mass of ignorant white men who had voted here- 

 tofore have not sent ignorant numskulls to Congress, 

 and neither would the colored people. 



They had not the educated men among themselves 

 to send, but they would send representatives from 

 among their white friends who were to be depended 

 upon, and who had the ability and the will to look 

 after their interests, and in the mean time they would 

 educate their own people up to the proper point. 



A prominent government official had told him that 

 the negroes did not owe their enfranchisement to 



