18 



ALABAMA. 



the inscription on the same. They said that 

 they had had occasion to examine several bal- 

 lot-boxes, and it would astonish the House if 

 it knew the want of uniformity in the ballots 

 handed in by the electors. They were written 

 on every conceivable kind of paper and in almost 

 every conceivable shape, from a square piece of 

 paper to one more nearly resembling a shoe- 

 string than otherwise, the handling of which, 

 though lightly or carefully done, would endan- 

 ger it with rents likely to destroy its complete- 

 ness, if not its expression of the elector's vote. 

 In consequence of memorials sent to the 

 Legislature, the Committee on Foreign Rela- 

 tions of the House were ordered to investigate 

 the misuse and abuse of power by certain 

 United States officials in the State against citi- 

 zens of the State, as alleged ; which resulted 

 in the adoption of the following joint memorial 

 to Congress: 



To the Honorable the Seriate and House of Representa- 

 tives of the United States in, Congress assembled ; 

 The joint memorial of the Senate and House of 

 Representatives, composing the General Assembly of 

 Alabama, complaining, respectfully calls the attention 

 of your honorable bodies to the injuries inflicted on 

 the citizens of Alabama by the misuse and abuse, by 

 certain United States officials in this State, of the 

 power intrusted to them. It is apparent to all who see 

 them, that the juries of the United States Courts are 

 not generally a fair representation of the country, but 

 that they are manipulated for n purpose, and for the 

 conviction of petty offenses which, are not prosecuted 

 in the true interest of the United States, but to pro- 

 duce fees for those interested in them. It has also 

 been brought to the attention of your memorialists by 

 the representations and petitions of a large number of 

 worthy and reputable citizens, as well as by the state- 

 ments of many members of this body and of the Sen- 

 ate, that in the Northern and Middle judicial districts 

 of Alabama the internal revenue officers, marshal's 

 deputies and agents, along with traveling United 

 States Commissioner W. H. Hunter, have practiced 

 the grossest abuses under pretense of enforcing the 

 internal revenue laws of the United States. That 

 under this pretense they have raided over the country 

 with large bodies of armed men and, regardless of law 

 and decency, have abused and insulted the people 

 without cause. That they have unlawfully and with- 

 out pretext broken open storehouses and private 

 trunks, and have either taken the contents or have al- 

 lowed others to do so. That they have foraged on the 

 country without p_ay, or upon a tender of the merest 

 pittances for subsistence they have taken. That they 

 have wantonly broken down fences and turned stock 

 in on the growing crops of the people. That they 

 have in mere mischief shot down the cattle and hogs 

 of private citizens. That they have conducted them- 

 selves in a riotous and disorderly manner, and in mere 

 wantonness have fired into the yards and around the 

 dwellings of defenseless females for the brutal gratifi- 

 cation of terrifying them. That they have arrested 

 persons and carried them long distances, when they 

 were at once discharged, without cause ; and it has 

 been a common occurrence to arrest and handcuff and 

 carry citizens before United States commissioners at 

 long distances from the homes of such persons, for 

 preliminary investigations, where they have no friends 

 to bail them if bound over, and no meaus to defray 

 their expenses back in cases of discharge, when there 

 were commissioners of character and standing near to 

 the places of arrest. That they have repeatedly re- 

 fused to take persons so arrested in the near neighbor- 

 hood of General Joseph W. Burke, a commissioner 

 of the United States residing in Calhoun County, 

 lately of the United States Army, and holding re- 



sponsible positions under the courts of the United 

 States, but have taken them to Huntsville for pre- 

 liminary hearing, in a distant part of the State, and 

 that they have in many other cases traveled circuitous 

 routes to avoid nearer commissioners. And that 

 they have arrested, and without preliminary trial con- 

 fined one John Jackson in jail for fifty days, during 

 the severe rigor of the late cold weather. Collector 

 Booth, Deputy-Collector Smith, W. II. Hunter, Com- 

 missioner, Deputy - Marshals Kandolph and G. W. 

 Golson, and others, are charged with these abuses. 



The information so laid oefore your memorialists 

 shows that these officials have not pursued their inves- 

 tigations with any great view to serve the true inter- 

 ests of the United States, nor as agents of a great jus- 

 tice-loving power which was seeking to enforce its 

 laws by necessary but orderly force ; but they have 

 acted as if they were the ruthless myrmidons of a 

 power at enmity with its people, and whose laws were 

 enacted, not to shelter and protect, as well as punish, 

 but only to harass and destroy. 



As the terms of the courts of the Northern judi- 

 cial district of Alabama approach, these statements 

 show that the roads and the courtyards are thronged 

 with poverty - stricken witnesses in vast numbers, 

 called term after term, and present a picture which is 

 sad to look upon. The historian Gibbon elegantly but 

 feelingly portrays the vengeance visited by Theodosius 

 upon Antioch, and tells us that " the tribunal of 

 Hellebricus and Caesarius, encompassed with armed 

 soldiers, was erected in the midst of the forum. The 

 noblest and most wealthy of the citizens of Antioch 

 appeared before them in chains ; the examination was 

 assisted bv the use of torture, and their sentence was 

 announced or suspended according to the judgment of 

 these extraordinary magistrates. The houses of the 

 citizens were exposed to sale, and their wives and chil- 

 dren were suddenly reduced from affluence and luxury 

 to the most absolute distress." The abuses of the 

 United States officials in Alabama, thus brought to the 

 knowledge of your memorialists, show that vengeance 

 of officials has lost nothing in the destructive abuses of 

 power since the days of Thcodosius, and that the his- 

 tory of the miseries of Antioch repeats itself in mod- 

 ern times. Your memorialists pray your honorable 

 bodies to relieve our people from a repetition of tlicsc 

 disgraceful scenes, and to let them feel more of the 

 protection which will follow from a gentler though it 

 may be a stern administration of the laws of the United 

 States^ and so teach them to love, not drive them to 

 hate, its administration. 



An act was passed to donate $75 to any res- 

 ident of the State who, while in the military 

 service of the State or of the Confederate 

 States, lost an arm or a leg. 



On the bill to repeal the section of the Code 

 which requires ballots to be numbered at elec- 

 tions, it was urged in its favor as follows : 



This is intended to preserve the purity of the ballot- 

 box, whoso purity and sanctity are synonymous. 

 Unless the law shuts out every approach to destroy 

 the sanctity of the ballot-box, how shall the weak vote 

 against the strong, the poor against the rich, or the 

 low against the high ? The Supreme Courts of eight 

 Northern States have declared by decisions that the 

 violation of the sanctity of the ballot-box in any way 

 is unconstitutional ; and the State of Indiana has not 

 only declared this principle by its highest court, but 

 has also cited the numbering of a ballot as a violation 

 of this sanctity, and declared a statute of the State 

 void because it required the ballots to be numbered. 

 It may be asked. Has this decision "been acted upon ? 

 I can answer, It has. The State of Ohio, one of the 

 greatest Northern States, makes it a violation of 

 law for any one to number, mark, or so designate a 

 vote that it may be known, thereby stamping the 

 numbering of a vote as an infringement and violation 

 of the secrecy of the ballot-box, which is its only safe- 



