Alabama. Constitutional Convention (1867)

Authorities:

Alabama Official and Statistical Register. Montgomery: Brown Printing Co., 1903.

McMillan, Malcolm Cook. Constitutional Development in Alabama, 1798-1901: A Study in Politics, the Negro, and Sectionalism. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1955.

Official Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Alabama, held in the City of Montgomery, commencing on Tuesday, November 5th, A.D. 1867. Montgomery: Barrett and Brown, 1868.

Owen, Thomas McAdory. History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography. Vol. 1. Spartanburg: The Reprint Company, 1978.

The U.S. Congress passed on 1867 Mar. 2 and 1867 Mar. 23, over the veto of President Andrew Johnson, the Reconstruction Act. This act invalidated Johnson's plan of Reconstruction and made Ala. a part of the Third Military District under the supervision of General John Pope. Pope created boards of registration, which allowed only those whites and blacks, who took the test oath of allegience to the U.S. government, the right to register and vote. Ala. was divided into forty-four districts. McMillan states that "two whites and one Negro were appointed as a board of registrars in each district. Since members of the boards had to take the 'iron clad' oath, many of the white registrars were necessarily "carpetbaggers." (p. 111). The public election to hold a constitutional convention and to select delegates was held 1867 Oct. 1-5. Any persons eligible to register and vote was eligible to become a delegate to the convention. "Prior to the election, 104,518 Negroes and 61,295 whites registered. And 90,283, a majority of the registered voters as required by the Reconstruction acts, voted for a convention and for delegates; 71,730 were Negro and 18,553 white voters. Only 5,583 white votes were cast against a convention. The conservatives claimed the Radicals gathered the Negroes together and drove them to the polls." (McMillan, p.113). The conservatives also claimed that the blacks called for "forty acres and a mule" after they had voted.

Aside from the Preamble and the Bill of Rights, the convention added new pro-black, anti-secessionist, and liberal features. The convention also readopted the clauses from the Constitution of 1865, which abolished slavery. The carpetbaggers and the black delegates attempted to write into the bill of rights a guarantee in favor of equal rights for blacks on common carriers and in public places. By the end of the convention, this section was not written into the new constitution, "because the carpetbaggers feared to force the issue." (McMillan, p. 136). The legislative article was changed to state that representation in the state legislature was to be based on the "whole number of inhabitants" instead of "whites inhabitants." (McMillan, p. 136). As in the Constitution of 1865, the Constitution of 1867 called for the nullification of the state's war debt. The delegates reduced the residency requirements, so that carpetbaggers and blacks could become candidates for the legislature. The scalawags and the carpetbaggers argued over the laws of 1865 which forbade intermarriage between the races. Many scalawags were determined to keep these laws. Some carpetbaggers went so far as to call for complete social equality and intermarriage of the races. The final vote was 58 to 22 against the prohibition, a victory for the carpetbaggers. (McMillan, p. 140).

The committee on the executive department made all executive officers elective by the people. It also provided for a lieutenant governor for the first time in Ala. history.

The judiciary committee report and a vote by the delegates provided for the election of judges and solicitors by the people. The attorney general was required to prepare drafts of bills and written opinions on matters under consideration by legislative committees.

The new articles that were incorporated in the 1868 Constitution dealt with education, corporations, the militia, and exempted property. McMillan states that the education article was taken almost completely from the article on education in the Iowa Constitution of 1857 (McMillan, p. 144). Ala. issued a state poll tax of $1.50 which was to be used exclusively for public schools (McMillan, p. 144). Two hundred forty thousand acres of land were set aside to establish a state agricultural school. This article was an attempt to establish a public school system in Ala. A proviso called for the establishment of separate schools for white and black children. (Journal, p. 153).

The convention passed an ordinance which declared that the State of Ala. could establish a volunteer militia without regard to race or color (Journal, p. 258).

The exempted property article was borrowed from the Michigan Constitution of 1850. It exempted the personal property of any resident of Ala. to the value of $1,000 from sale for debt. (McMillan, p. 147). This article also provided that "the real and personal property of any female in this State, acquirable from marriage, and all property real and personal, to which she may afterwards be entitled, by suit, grant, inheritance, or devise, shall be, and remain the separate estate and property of such female, and shall not be liable for any debts, obligations and engagements of her husband, and may be devised or bequeathed by her the same as if she were a femme sole." (Journal, p. 195).

The Constitution of 1868 included a new article on industrial resources. A bureau of industrial resources, headed by a commissioner, was established by the convention.

The final vote on the Constitution of 1868 was sixty-seven for, nine against the Constitution, and twenty-four were absent or did not vote (McMillan, p. 149). The new constitution was liberal: a democratic public school system was established; the rights of women were given constitutional guarantee; imprisonment for debt was abolished; and the property of the poor man was protected from sale for debt by homestead and personal property exemptions.

The convention adjourned on 1867 Dec. 6, and the election date was 1868 Feb. 4. Protests arose against the document by scalawags who claimed that the constitution further disfranchised whites. Even though the constitution was rejected by the people, the U.S. Congress ratified it, and it became operative on 1868 June 25.

The Constitution of 1868 was also known as the Reconstruction or Radical Constitution of 1868.