by Alliancemen.58 The last of April, Montgomery county held its convention, with mixed results, but after a hard battle it instructed for Colonel Jones. In May, Barbour, the home of Kolb, held a stormy convention, dominated by Alliance members, who instructed the county delegates for Captain Kolb. Thus five candidates had been launched.59 One county after another held a primary or convention, electing delegates, some instructing, others not. Lowndes' convention, a ten to one black county, unanimously instructed its delegates to vote "first, last and all the time for Honorable R. F. Kolb for governor."60 It was practically admitted by the Alliance Herald that the Kolb forces had captured the Lowndes convention by strategy that "each primary had a ticket made out for the delegates, and each member was given one.' Butler, Madison, Marengo, Pike and Geneva, "throttled by the Alliance" and Kolb's machine," instructed for Kolb.61 Selection of delegates continued until late in May. On May 25, three days before the state convention, the Advertiser announced that the county campaigns had closed and recorded the standing of the delegates thus: Crook Jones 53 50 100 Kolb 215 87 14 Although this number was somewhat short of the total, it shows Captain Kolb had more delegates than any other two men. Little active campaigning over the state had been done by any candidate other than the commissioner who, in the performance of his legal duties, was almost continually among the "dear people." In two circulars he urged the Alliance to support him, to go to the county and state conventions and aid him and the delegates selected for him "to defeat the plutocrats who, in unholy alliance, are against the people." None of the other candidates, except Jones ever took the stump.62 Immediately after the Montgomery county convention Jones made a few speeches, his first being at Dadeville, a "hotbed of the 58 Age-Herald, May 2, 1890; DuBose, Articles Nos. 88, 89. 59 Advertiser, May. 18, 1890; see Advertiser, April 20, 1890. 60 Age-Herald, April 23, 1890; Advertiser, April 22, 24, 1890. 61 Advertiser, April 27, 1890; DuBose, Article No. 88; AgeHerald, May 21, 28, 1890; see Brown, Alabama, p. 307. 62 DuBose, Article No. 89, Advertiser, Sept. 17, 1911. Alliance and a Kolb stronghold." Here he, as an able lawyer and hence ineligible to the Alliance, with whose original purposes he sympathized, put the issues before the people in a potent and pungent fashion. "I am," said he, "a candidate for your suffrage, but I would rather have your respect than your votes." By his enemies, Mr. Jones was accused of being a railroad lawyer, something no office seeker desires to be accused of.63 He did have one railroad as a client, but he had, in opposition to the advice of some of his railroad friends, urged the establishment of a railroad commission. He saw no objection to the farmers organizing, as other crafts had organized. He said the farmers had demanded railroad commissions, both state and interstate, and got them; a ten-hour work day, and got it; a crop lien law and got it; stock laws (fence laws) and got them; and also a reduced tax rate. He opposed the subtreasury scheme of the Alliance as embodied in the two bills then before Congress, their plans being impracticable, and the results would be more direct than the Black Friday of 1869. He believed the money situation, i.e., money scarcity and the high rate of interest, could be remedied by free coinage and tariff revision, and that time and patience would correct the other economic ills. As the state convention drew nearer, excitement became intense among the people as among the press. One writer said64 such excitement had not been witnessed in Montgomery since the Secession Convention of January, 1861. Upon the results of this convention would hang the fate of Alabama for years to come. Betting on the results ran high, usually favoring Kolb's nomination on the third or fourth ballot. The Alliance Herald, although almost on financial rocks, fought boldly for Kolb and the Alliance. May 15, Baltzell, the editor, as Kolb's circulars had done, urged the Alliance delegates to arrive in Montgomery a day before the convention, stating that he would have the convention work "laid out and pushed through without unnecessary delay."65 63 Ibid.; J. C. DuBose, Alabama, p. 294. For a virulent controversy between Ex-Governor B. B. Comer and Judge Jones over the question of railroad favoritism, see Advertiser for June 11 and Sept. 17, 1911; see also pamphlet by Judge Jones, Montgomery, Nov. 28, 1913. 64 DuBose, Article No. 89, in Jones, Scrap Book, V, p. 62. 65 DuBose, Article No. 91, in Jones, Scrap Book, V, p. 63; AgeHerald, June 4, 1890. Before describing the convention proceedings, especially since the State Democratic Convention was, by some referred to as "the crime of 1890", it is appropriate to refer briefly to some of its antecedents. For seventy years Alabama had used exclusively, and with fair satisfaction, the convention method of nominating party candidates, and the convention of 1890 was a regularly called convention, notwithstanding it gave decided impetus to the demand for primaries rather than conventions.66 County delegates were chosen in the customary fashion either by primary or convention, usually the latter, and delegates were instructed or not as the county convention decided. The question of representation, i.e., the method of apportionment was of grave importance, the custom being to apportion on the basis of the Democratic vote for governor at the last election. A prospective candidate could usually forecast his chances in advance of the convention. The apportionment was made by the Democratic State Executive Committee and for 1890 it was based on Seay's vote in 1888 (each county having one delegate for a given number of votes cast in the general election for governor in August, 1888. As it was revealed Seay68 in 1888 had received his largest vote from the black-belt counties which had a small white population. Kolb was typically, though from Barbour, the white-county candidate, although Blount, a white county, had recommended Richardson, and Calhoun Crook. However, Kolb as the Alliance candidate was the impersonation of the white votes, for the Alliance members were white and with few exceptions in white counties Alliance members were Democrats. As DuBose says,69 Dallas county had 9,285 white population and 45,372 negroes, Cherokee, 18,080 whites and only 3,618 blacks, yet Dallas in 1888 had cast 9,084 votes for Seay, almost equal to its total population, black and white, of all ages,70 while Cherokee's vote was only 66 DuBose, Article No. 90, in Jones V, p. 62. 67 DuBose Article No. 90, in Jones, V, p. 62. unlimited list of references on this topic. 68 DuBose, Article No. 90, in Jones, V, p. 62. pt. 111, p. 672. There is an almost Eleventh Census, 69 Governor Thomas Seay lived at Greensboro, Hale county, a black belt county. 70 It was not exceptional for the number of votes cast to exceed the number of potential voters; see Brown, Lower South, pp, 250 ff. 2,972. Dallas sent 30 delegates and Cherokee 10 to the 1890 convention and all of the Dallas delegates were white men, each representing one-fifth white and fourfifths colored population, whereas the white delegates of Cherokee were all white, each representing five-sixths white and one-sixth negro population and there was not a delegate in the convention who was not pledged to white supremacy for Alabama candidates, especially in the black belt, were peculiar, and the whites who owned the property, paid taxes, built the churches and schools, promoted trade and commerce, thought they were entitled to a large share in the government. Good government in Alabama, they contended, necessitated the governing of the negroes of the black belt by the whites of those counties and the state and the dominant party's machinery had these things to keep in mind. The city of Montgomery was full of delegates, candidates and Alliancemen several days before the convention assembled.71 The old Exchange Hotel was headquarters for four of the gubernatorial aspirants, while Kolb's headquarters were at the Alliance Exchange on Tallapoosa Street.72 The candidates were as busy as bees mixing, mingling, checking their prospects. The situation was "intense" with Kolb admittedly in the lead. His friends said he could not be beaten and it was clear to all that a break must come in the ranks of the other four candidates if Kolb was to be defeated.73 Train loads of friends of the different candidates with their leaders were arriving from the several counties. Crook, who, according to his friends, failed to arrive Sunday, not wishing to travel on Sunday, came in Monday "buoyant and breezy." Richardson's friends were reported as most conspicuous in the lobbies and he, fit and able, with the eighth district solidly behind him, was described as the most contented looking candidate, with his shirt front "unusually expansive."74 Johnston had made friends with all the redheaded men! Jones, being regarded as the tail-ender, was "beloved by his Montgomery constituents," while Kolb, unlike, his opponentsthe money, champagne and wine crowd who lived in 71 Age-Herald, May 28, 1890; DuBose, Article No. 90, in Jones V, p. 63. 72 DuBose, Article No. 89, in Jones, V, p. 62; Brown, Alabama, p. 307. 73 Age-Herald, May 28, 1890. 74 Advertiser, June 25, 1892. luxury at the Exchange Hotel at $3.50 a day-was busy with his poor "wool-hat boys" at the Alliance Warehouse,75 formulating plans to defeat the "Silk-Hat Bosses"! Kolb's was characterized as the most perfect organization ever seen in Alabama except that of Thomas Seay in 1886. All felt that Kolb was the man to beat, but each was in to win for himself and no one as yet wished to sacrifice himself in order to defeat Kolb.76 As one writer" put it, for about one-fifth of the convention, the real issue was, "Can we beat Kolb?"; and for the other four-fifths, "Can we nominate our man?" It was believed that the delegates would prefer to go home without any nomination rather than put in a dark horse. The State Executive Committee had met in Montgomery just before the convention assembled. This committee was anti-Kolb and "the machinery" was "to that extent against the leading candidate."78 THE GREAT CONVENTION OF 1890. The momentuous occasion had arrived and "The Great Convention" was called to order by Attorney Henry Clay Tompkins of Montgomery, Chairman of the Democratic State Executive Committee. Silence prevailed as the roll of the convention of 541 delegates was called in the famous hall of the House of Representatives where Yancey had often spoken and where Houston and others had taken the oath of office as governor.79 The chairman had the right to name the temporary chairman of the convention, a very delicate and important task in view of the tense situation and of the divided feeling with Alliance and non-Alliance delegates present. As a matter of fact, a preliminary caucus was held in accordance with plans of friends of the four candidates and they had agreed on the name for temporary chairman. This convention was a novelty with the farmers occupying the seats and the politicians in the lobby. Twothirds of the convention delegates were farmers, representing a rural commonwealth, a scene never before observed in Alabama but the fact that the convention was 75 Age-Herald, May 28, 1890. 76 DuBose, Article No. 95, in Jones Scrap Book, V, p. 65. 77 Age-Herald, May 28, 1890; Advertiser, May 28, 1890. 78 Age-Herald, May 28, 1890; Advertiser, May 28, 1890. 79 DuBose, Article No. 91, in Age-Herald, June 4, 1890. AgeHerald, May 28, 1890. |