ALABAMA. 



17 



keeping up of fences. All this class of legisla- 

 tion \vas strictly within the legislative preroga- 

 tive to enact police regulations for the pro- 

 tection of the public peace and society. It 

 \vuuld be quite anomalous to say that an evil 

 may exist to the detriment of the best inter- 

 ests of society, and yet the Legislature had no 

 right to suppress it, or to enact measures for 

 its prevention. The bill does not prohibit the 

 sale of cotton. A bill which proposed ab- 

 solutely to prohibit the sale of cotton would 

 be nnconstitutional, but a bill which simply 

 restricts and limits its sale is no more violativo 

 of the Constitution than the bill which restricts 

 the sale of spirituous liquors. It was urged in 

 reply that the sole end of government was to 

 protect the life, liberty, and property of the 

 citizen. Any law that prohibited the sale of 

 property must be in derogation of the right 

 secured to the citizen under the Constitution. 

 It was far more than a police regulation to pro- 

 hibit tho citizen from selling his property in 

 any quantity and manner he pleases. It might 

 possibly be a police regulation to prescribe 

 that the citizen must sell his property at a cer- 

 tain place or within certain specified hours, or 

 that he must pay a license to sell ; but to say 

 that he shall not sell at all is in plain deroga- 

 tion of the Constitution. The bill might as 

 well provide that the citizen shall not sell his 

 corn in the ear, his oats in the sheaf, or he 

 must make his timber in certain shapes. The 

 sale of liquor parallel is far-fetched. Spirituous 

 liquors are not necessary for the existence and 

 support of the human family. Cotton is a pro- 

 duction upon which the people depend in a mea- 

 sure for their means of support, and to say that 

 they shall not dispose of their means of exist- 

 ence as they see fit, is not only a violation of the 

 Constitution, but it is an assault upon magna 

 charta itself that great fountain from which 

 the whole fabric of free constitutional govern- 

 ment is drawn. The bill, however, passed both 

 Houses and became a law. 



Subsequently the trial of an indictment 

 against two persons for buying seed-cotton 

 took place before the Circuit Court of Lown- 

 des County. The argument for tho defense 

 was that the law violated that clause of the 

 Constitution of the State which provides that 

 "no ex post facto law, or any law impairing 

 the obligation of contracts or making any ir- 

 revocable grants of special privileges or immu- 

 nities, shall be passed by the General Assem- 

 bly," and the further clause which provides 

 that " the sole object and only legitimate end 

 of government is to protect the citizen in the 

 enjoyment of life, liberty, and property ; and 

 when the government assumes other functions, 

 it is usurpation and oppressive." The Judge 

 sustained the unconstitutional ity of the law, 

 and the case will likely go up to the Supreme 

 Court. The benefit produced by the law is con- 

 sidered very great on the part of the cotton- 

 planters ; while the members of the bar with 

 equal unanimity regard it as unconstitutional. 

 VOL. xix. 2 A 



A bill was passed to protect planters and 

 fanners against farmers from Texas who come 

 into the State to obtain colored laborers. A 

 large colored emigration from the State to 

 Texas has caused great inconvenience. The 

 bill as passed applies to the counties of Dallas, 

 Perry, Washington, Harbour; Marengo, Pike, 

 Montgomery, Covington, Monroe, Lowndes, 

 Greene, Elmoro, Macon, Talladega, Bibb, Bul- 

 lock, Lee, Tuscaloosa, and Shelby, and requires 

 a license of $100. It also provides that a per- 

 son failing to pay such license shall be fined 

 three times the amount of such license, and 

 may also be imprisoned in the county jail, or 

 required to do hard labor for the county for 

 not more than one year. 



The reduction of taxation was much dis- 

 cussed, and a resolution passed in the House 

 asking the Governor to furnish all statistics 

 and other information in his possession which 

 would or would not justify the Legislature in 

 reducing the rate of taxation. The Governor 

 in reply stated that the taxable property of the 

 State had diminished in value from $160,000,- 

 000 to about $125,000,000, and for the year 

 1879 the reported assessments indicated a still 

 further diminution amounting to ten millions 

 or more. The amount of interest to be paid on 

 the debt increases as additional bonds are ex- 

 changed. This increase will continue until all 

 the bonds covered by the settlement of the 

 debt shall have been exchanged. In 1881 this 

 will be augmented by an increase in the rate 

 of interest from two to three per cent, on one 

 class of bonds, and from two to four upon an- 

 other, which will amount to an annual increase 

 of one third of the present interest, or about 

 $90,000. The balance in the State Treasury at 

 the close of the session would not exceed $60,- 

 000. This would include $40,000 in State ob- 

 ligations and $5,000 in Patton certificates, all 

 of which will be destroyed as provided by law, 

 and thus leave only about $15,000 in cash, 

 which would include all the revenue collected 

 and paid into the Treasury up to that time. If 

 the rate of last year's assessment be maintained 

 for 1879 and 1880, the balance on the 1st of 

 October, 1880, will not exceed $136,000 ; and 

 as but a small amount of the taxes for the year 

 will go into the Treasury by the 1st of Janu- 

 ary, 1881, the demands upon the Treasury oc- 

 casioned by the expense of the session of the 

 General Assembly of 1880, about $40,000, and 

 tne January interest in 1881, about $160,000, 

 will exceed the cash in the Treasury $64,000, 

 for the payment of which a loan will have 

 to be negotiated, until a sufficient amount 

 shall be collected from the taxes of that year 

 to pay the same. After a disagreement be- 

 tween the two Houses, tho tax rate for 1879 

 was left unchanged, and for 1880 it was re- 

 duced to 65 cents on the $100. 



The Committee on Privileges and Elections 

 reported an amendment to the State Code, 

 which directed the form, size, and quality of 

 the paper used as a ballot at elections, and also 



