Alabama. Governor (1857-1861 : A.B. Moore). Administrative files, 1857-1861.
Title:
Administrative files, 1857-1861.
This series consists of Gov. A.B. Moore's administrative files, containing correspondence, reports, legislative bills and resolutions, oaths, bonds, petitions, proclamations, and financial records. Topics discussed include banking, railroads, prisons, education, taxes, slaves, abolition, states' rights, secession, and preparations for military defenses. Included are financial statements from railroad companies receiving donations of land and low-interest state loans for railroad construction; charters, bond agreements, and quarterly financial statements of banks; letters to Moore from the Comptroller's office of the U.S. Dept. of Treasury regarding the balance of the two and three percent funds accruing from the sale of public lands within the state; reports on conditions at the State Penitentiary; and correspondence with public officials and private individuals concerning the developing sectional crisis in national politics. Included is correspondence to Peter Bryce and James Searcy at the Ala. Insane Hospital; reports from engineer John T. Milner about a survey of the mineral district near Elyton, Jefferson Co. (Ala.); reports from Dr. Thomas Mason, physician at the State Penitentiary; and a request from Benjamin Fitzpatrick for copies of Smith's Alabama Justice. There is a large amount of correspondence regarding bank loans to the state to help finance the war. Banks frequently mentioned are Central Bank of Ala., Eastern Bank of Ala., Southern Bank of Ala., and the Bank of Mobile. There are a number of letters to Moore from Howell Cobb, Sec. of the U.S. Treasury, concerning sums of money from the three percent fund that were loaned to railroads. Railroads frequently mentioned are the Tennessee and Coosa, the Ala. and Florida, the Ala. and Tennessee River, and the Selma and Gulf Railroad. Significant items in the series include correspondence between Moore and S.C. Gov. W.H. Gist regarding the 1860 June Democratic Convention in Charleston, S.C., and the appointment of delegates to a convention of Southern States; letters from Edmond W. Pettus, I.W. Garrott, John A. Winston, and John Gill Shorter in their capacity as commissioners of Ala. to other slaveholding states. A letter to Moore from U.S. Congressman J.L.M. Curry discusses the Dred Scott decision, Stephen A. Douglas, William Seward, and states' rights. Correspondence with Edward C. Bullock, Septimus Cabaniss, Tennent Lomax, and Robert Livingston concern the election of Abraham Lincoln, the election of delegates to the Ala. Secession Convention, and efforts to establish direct trade between Ala. and foreign countries. Also present is a letter from Alfred C. McKeen about his invention for lifting ships over sand bars, the blueprints of which are contained in an oversized folder.
ArchivalResource:
Originals: 0.5 cubic ft. (1 archives box and 1 oversized box).Copies: 2 microfilm reels.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/78390306 View
View in SNAC
