THE STATE CONVENTIONS OF 1892

The memorable convention of 1890 was to be eclipsed68 by that of 1892 which met June 8. A preliminary meeting had been held by the state committee in June to settle certain details regarding contests in numerous counties. Most of these contests turned on the rule of the 1890 convention "that county representation" in the convention in 1892 should be based on the vote cast for governor44 in 1890. The Kolb men now condemned this rule, first because they claimed there was no opposition at the polls to Governor Jones in 1890 sufficient to bring out the vote in the white counties for him, and therefore those counties which now claimed to be favorable to the nomination of Kolb were inadequately represented in the nominating convention. A second complaint was that the negro vote returned from counties with a large negro population as cast for Jones in 1890 was in a large measure fictitious, thus securing to those counties which were now for Jones a false weight in the convention.65 Kolb said the negroes were not Democrats and that it was absurd to claim such, that it was a fight in the party istelf for party domination, and that the negroes had been forced into the electorate by action from without the state. Thus one of the real bones of contention between the Jones and Kolb factions was the basis of apportionment of delegates to the convention. Both wings of the party of 1874 claimed white supremacy as their goal, yet as Kolb contended, the representation was based on the Jones vote of 1890 which clearly included many negroes.66 Another grievance of the Kolb forces was that the State Executive Committee of 15 Jones men and 7 Kolb men,- -a partisan committee named by the 1890 convention,-was still fostering partisanship and dominating unfairly the party machinery. However, in the convention of 1890 Kolb controlled the vote of all but two or four black-belt counties and he made no complaint over it. There was no question of

68 News, April 15 and June 8, 1892; DuBose, Articles Nos. 111 and 112.

64 DuBose, Articles Nos. 111 and 112.

65 DuBose, Article No. 107; News, April 15, 1892.

66 DuBose, Article No. 110, in Jones V, p. 106. In Dallas county, for instance, Jones got 7,883 votes and his Republican opponent, B. M. Long, received only 1128. Barbour gave Jones 4,892 and Long only 389. Certain other counties showed similar eccentricities and discrepancies. This gave a few men in the black counties much power in the convention based on fictitious negro votes.

democracy then, said the Jones cohorts. Now since Jones had carried to the convention all but four of these counties there was complaint on all sides. Thus the Fifteenth Amendment was back of the split in Alabama Democracy.

Political pandemonium predominated. Instead of one state convention, there were two, with rival tickets and rival platforms. The Democratic party of 1892 was a split, dismembered party. There was a complete rupture in the Democratic party67 of 1874-a rupture planned well in advance. On Tuesday night, June 7, before the convention was to assemble the following day, Captain Kolb and his forces met in McDonald's Opera House in response to a circular which he had sent to his supporters. Plans had been arranged in advance, admissions were by ticket and the session was secret. Captain Goodwyn, Alliance leader, presided. The object of the caucus it was claimed was to prepare certain proposals to present to the Democratic convention.68 Some 300 persons were present, probably 75 of whom were delegates due to attend the Capitol Convention the next day. The others were Kolb supporters but not delegates.69

O. R. Hundley, in the Opera House caucus, proposed a resolution to appoint a committee of nine, one from each congressional district, to confer with a similar committee to be appointed by the Capitol Convention to work out a harmonious settlement of the differences in the Democratic party. The resolution being passed unanimously Chairman Goodwyn named P. G. Bowman as chairman of the conference committee. S. M. Adams was one of the members. The resolution was read before the state convention the next day and upon motion of General E. W. Pettus, it was "placed under the table." Governor Jones was reported to favor a joint conference. The gist of the Kolb plan was to have the whole battle fought over again and on June 28 hold primaries over the entire state to determine who would be the nominee of the Democratic party for governor.70 The Kolb faction claimed 280 delegates, which was a majority.

67 DuBose, Article No. 111.

68 Advertiser, June 8, 1892; DuBose, Article No. 111. 69 Advertiser, June 9, 1892.

70 DuBose, Article No. 111; Advertiser, June 8, 1892; News, June 11, 1892. One paper characterized the Opera House Convention thus: "The Bastard Convention was a puny infant. Like a mule, it has neither pride of ancestry nor hope of posterity. Its

Receiving no favor from the "stand pat" Democrats, the Opera House Convention met again at 2 P.M. on Wednesday, June 8, while the state convention was in session at the Capitol, where Hundley, Taliaferro, Goodwyn and many other Kolb supporters were now present. Attorney P. C. Bowman was now made president of the "Rump Convenetion." President Adams was on the stage and made a "redhot" speech as did Augustus Hobson, brother of the "Hero of the Merrimac."71 Upon roll call 40 of the 66 counties responded, however, many of the delegates were said to be volunteers without credentials. Barbour, Kolb's home county was not represented. After the appointment of a platform committee, the caucus adjourned to meet again at 8 P.M. The platform committee consisted of Bowman of Jefferson as Chairman, S. M. Adams of Bibb, and Zell Gaston of Butler.

Meanwhile the Capitol Convention had attended to preliminaries,72 appointed a credentials committee of 22, with the young Oscar W. Underwood as chairman, and adjourned till June 9, when the convention renominated Thomas G. Jones over Kolb by a vote of 372 to 67. Upon motion of Jim Brown, Jones' nomination was made unanimous, amid the wildest enthusiasm. Even Hundley of Madison voted for the governor, and Henry D. Clayton, young stalwart of Barbour, spoke amid the Democratic love feast, saying the convention two years before was wiser than he in refusing to nominate Kolb, the present "bolter." Even the erratic Charles P. Lane of the Huntsville Mercury was now for Jones. He had stood for Kolb until he had recently "learned his real character," and "then he left him." Colonel E. T. Taliaferro had also deserted Kolb and would support the Democratic nominee in the future as in the past. With much jubilation a complete Democratic ticket was named. W. L. Martin of Jackson for Attorney-General; John Purifoy of Wilcox, Auditor; Craig Smith of Dallas for Treasurer; J. G. Harris of Chambers, Superintendent of Education; Hector D. Lane of Madison, Commissioner of Agriculture; Joseph D. Barrow of Clay, Secretary of State. Nominees were also named for Supreme Court Justices.

An interesting set of resolutions, with H. D. Clayton as chairman of the committee, was presented and adopted.

name is Kolb Adams.” (Russellville Idea, quoted by the News, June 27, 1892.)

71 Advertiser, June 9. 1892; DuBose, Article No. 111. 72 News, June 8, 10, 1892; DuBose, Article No. 112.

The chief provisions expressed opposition to Federal domination in state affairs, opposition to the Force Bill, the tariff, extravagance of the national administration, monopolies and government ownership of railroads and telegraphs; endorsed Cleveland for President; endorsed Jones' administration, free silver, free labor as against convict labor, better schools, election of railroad commissioners and primary election laws, with a secret ballot. The convention for harmony's sake declined to adopt a resolution for the call of a constitutional convention, but adopted rules for the regulation of elections and recommended that representation in state conventions be based upon population rather than the vote for governor in the last election. This was a vital change, for complaint against the prevailing system, bitterly opposed by the white counties, was one real cause of the Populist movement. Strange enough the motion for the change in representation came from the black belt. In the convention of 1892, there were 466 delegates, but the new plan would call for 514 with considerably more strength going to the white counties.73

Delegates to the Chicago National Convention were named by each of the conventions. Ex-Governor Thomas H. Watts was chairman of the Capitol delegation which was instructed strongly for Cleveland. The Opera House Convention named 23 delegates uninstructed, but were to oppose Cleveland and Wall Street and favor free silver."

74

To turn again to the Opera House Convention where real history was being made, Kolb claimed at least 286 delegates and a popular majority of from 15,000 to 50,000. Putting himself in the hands of his supporters, the "Rump Convention," upon nomination by Zell Gaston, young lawyer of Butler county, named Captain Kolb for governor. The nomination was confirmed by acclamation of "several hundred throats." Kolb who was speaking almost all the time of the convention, now delivered an "address" from a prepared manuscript accepting the nomination. He repeated his old story of fraud but said it was the happiest day of his life to receive the nomination for governor from the people, the highest power in the land.75 He urged the abolition of the existing convict system, and the enactment of election laws to secure

73 Advertiser, June 14, 1892.

74 Advertiser, June 9, 10, 1892.

75 DuBose, Article No. 112; Advertiser, June 8 and 10, 1892; News, June 6, 7, 9, 1892.

and enforce a "fair ballot and an honest count." "Let all," said he, "go forth to battle on these lines and on the first Monday in August we will achieve one of the greatest victories in the history of the party."

The Opera House group put out a full ticket, except for the supreme court justices. Some of Kolb's enemies said they would have named candidates for the supreme court but did not have enough lawyer friends for the positions.76 The convention adopted a set of resolutions77 not so different from those of the Democratic convention, favoring currency expansion, free and unlimited coinage of silver, fair elections, "protection of the colored race in their legal rights" (a bait for negro votes), good schools, equitable and just taxation, legislation for the improvement of agriculture and labor; opposed the convict lease system, national banks, trusts and monopolies; favored election of railroad commissioners by the people, and advocated a national graduated income tax.

The "Kolb Rump Convention" adjourned or "sine died" on June 9 to go forth on its mission of trouble and discord. Tom Long of Walker county78 put the case rather forcefully in the Capitol Convention. Referring to the Reverend Samuel M. Adams' going into a revolt against the Democratic party, he said: "Adams has gone where I can not follow him, much less God!"

"And Kolb did bolt! May the good Lord have mercy on his August remains!" The state election was to be in August! In this fashion did one paper79 express the fulfillment of a phophecy that Kolb would bolt the Democratic party and run as an Independent.80 Yet this irregular procedure was not unexpected by those familiar with his temperament. A bolt had been widely predicted and many would have been surprised had it not

76 Advertiser, July 1, 1892; Brown, Alabama, p. 312. L. C. Ramsey of Montgomery was named for Secretary of State, but declared himself a Democrat and repudiated the nomination; W. Lynch of Macon for Auditor; S. M. Adams of Bibb for Commissioner of Agriculture; B. K. Collier, an Independent-Republican, for Attorney-General; T. K. Jones, Tuscaloosa for Treasurer; J. O. Turner, St. Clair for Superintendent of Education, but they had used his name without authorization and he declined. (Advertiser, June 10, 1892; News, June 10, 12, 1892; Brown, Alabama, p. 312).

77 Advertiser, June 10, 1892; DuBose, Article No. 112. 78 News, June 10, 12, 1892.

79 Birmingham News, June 18, 1892 quoting the Coosa River News; Advertiser, June 12, 1892.

80 News, June 6, 14, 16, 1892.