
The eventful summer of constitution making behind it, Alabama’s state legislature opened its first session on October 25, 1819, in Huntsville. Gov. William Wyatt Bibb attempted to impress upon the legislators the solemnity of the occasion in a written address read to the body at its commencement by observing the gathering would “form a memorable epoch in our history…you cannot estimate too highly the great interests committed to your charge, or the important consequences which may flow from your deliberations.”