28 



ALABAMA. 



morning of the 4th day of October. And the sheriff 

 of the county shall be held responsible for the strict 

 enforcement of this prohibition by the arrest of all 

 parties who may transgress the same. 



XII. The sheriff of each county is further required 

 to be present at the place of voting during the whole 

 time tnat the polls are kept open, and until the elec- 

 tion is completed, and is made responsible that 'no 

 interference with the judges of election, or other in- 

 terruption of good order, shall occur. And any 

 sheriff or other civil officer failing to perform, with 

 energy and good faith, the duty required of him by 

 this order, will, upon report made by the judges of 

 the election, be arrested and dealt with by military 

 authority. 



XIII. The following extracts from General Orders, 

 No. 20, from these headquarters, are republished for 

 the information and guidance of all herewith con- 

 cerned : 



"12. Violence, or threats of violence, or any other oppres- 

 sive means to prevent any person from registering his name 

 or exercising his political rights, are positively prohibited ; 

 and it is distinctly announced that no contract or agreement 

 with laborers, which deprives them of their wages for any 

 longer time than that actually consumed in registering or 

 voting, will be permitted to be enforced against them in this 

 district ; and this offence, or any previously mentioned in 

 this paragraph, will cause the immediate arrest of the of- 

 fender, and his trial before a military commission. 



"13. The exercise of the right of every duly authorized 

 voter, under the late acts of Congress, to register and vote, 

 is guaranteed by the military authorities of this district, and 

 all persons whosoever are warned against any attempt to in- 

 terfere to prevent any man from exercising this right under 

 any' pretest whatever, other than objection by the usual 

 legal mode." 



XIV. The registered voters of the several counties 

 of the State of Alabama shall vote at said election for 

 delegates to the convention, according to the follow- 

 ing apportionment, made in conformity to the pro- 

 visions of the second section of the supplementary 

 act, dated March 28, 1867. 



JOHN POPE, Major-General commanding. 



(For the supplementary act of Congress, see 

 ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA, 1867, CONGRESS, UNITED 

 STATES.) 



The number of delegates thus apportioned to 

 the State was one hundred. 



On September 4th a Conservative State con- 

 vention assembled at Montgomery. It convened 

 under a call previously issued, of which the fol- 

 lowing is an extract: "The chairman of the 

 Central Executive Committee of the Constitu- 

 tional Union men of Alabama, who assembled 

 in convention at Selma last year, suggests the 

 holding of a State Conservative convention at 

 the capitol, in the city of Montgomery, on 

 Wednesday, the fourth day of September. 



''Let every county of the State, laying aside 

 political prejudice, and without reference to dif- 

 ferences upon present questions of policy, send 

 large and intelligent delegations to the Con- 

 servative convention, for the purpose of uniting 

 in opposition to the enemies of the Constitution, 

 and of securing the welfare of Alabama, and 

 the peace and prosperity of the Union." 



This convention was organized by the choice 

 of General J. M. Bulger as chairman, and 

 adopted the following resolutions : 



The Conservative men of the State of Alabama, in 

 convention assembled in the city of Montgomery, 

 adopt, as an expression of their views, the following 

 resolutions of the Conservative men of the State of 

 Pennsylvania, adopted at a recent convention in 

 that State : 



1. The Constitution of the United States, being 

 that frame of civil government established by the 

 founders of the Union, with such changes as 'have 

 been subsequently made therein in the manner pre- 

 scribed by its rightful government, is binding upon 

 every inhabitant of all ranks, sexes, colors, ages, and 

 conditions, and it is the duty of each and every one, 

 without exception, or modification under any circum- 

 tances, to adhere to, protect, and defend the same. 



2. In all conflict of powers under that instrument 

 the supreme judiciary power is the only arbiter, 

 which is independent of, and in its province superior 

 to, each of the others, and which they are bound to 

 obey. 



3. The Union of the States is decided by the war, 

 and accepted by the Southern people to be perpetual, 

 and the authority of the Federal Government is su- 

 preme within its constitutional limits. 



4. Congress is not the Federal Government, nor is 

 the President, nor the Supreme Court. The Federal 

 Government is that frame of civil polity established 

 by the Constitution, consisting of all three, each 

 supreme in its own limits, and each entitled, equally 

 with the others, to the loyal obedience of everv in- 

 habitant of all the States. 



5. By the Constitution and under the fundamental 

 law of the Federal Government, which is superior to 

 Congress, and of which Congress itself is the creature, 

 "representation in Congress and the electoral col- 

 leges is a right, fundamental and indestructible in its 

 nature, and abiding in every State ; being a duty as 

 well as a right pertaining to the people of every State, 

 and the denial of which is the destruction of the 

 Federal Government." 



The Conservative men of Alabama adopt, as a 

 further expression of their opinions and purposes, 

 the following : 



<>. Each State under the Constitution has the ex- 

 clusive right to prescribe the qualification of its own 

 electors. 



7. Resolved, That it is our earnest aim and purpose 

 to cultivate relations of friendship, harmony, and 

 peace between the two races to deal justly with the 

 blacks to instruct, and aid in instructing them in a 

 proper understanding of all their duties to them- 

 selves, to society, and to the country and we de- 

 nounce as treacherous and base all attempts by bad 

 men to engender or encourage antagonism between 

 the two races. 



8. That we are inhabitants of a common country, 

 sharers and sufferers of a common destiny and we 

 will do all in our power to instruct and elevate the 

 colored race in its moral, social, and political respon- . 

 sibilities. 



9. That while we have much charity for the col- 

 ored man, and feel inclined to look indulgently and 

 tolerantly on his prejudices of race, inculcated and 

 encouraged as they have been by recent events, and 

 by insidious counsel of bad men, we appeal to him, 

 by the common interests of a common country, to 

 place his trust in those he knows to be honorable, 

 and to deal cautiously with strangers who bear no 

 evidence that they were honored where they are 

 better known. 



A committee of three was appointed to pre- 

 pare an address to the people of the United 

 States. It was declared to be the unanimous 

 sentiment of the convention that no issue 

 should be made on the programme of the Re- 

 construction acts of Congress, and the result 

 aimed at was to infuse into the approaching 

 State convention a conservative element 

 which would by proper alliances "save the 

 State, if not from the measures proposed by 

 Congress, at least from such measures as the 

 Republicans were now clamorous for in the 

 North and elsewhere." " If the people should 



