On June 1, 1819, the city of Huntsville was surprised by an unannounced visit by Pres. James Monroe, whose signature would admit the state of Alabama to the Union later in the year. (Library of Congress) As if to underscore Alabama’s impending arrival on the national scene in the late spring of 1819, on June 1 Pres. James Monroe paid a surprise visit to the territory’s largest city, Huntsville. While Monroe’s arrival during a whirlwind tour of the southern states may have been unannounced, dumbstruck local officials managed to cobble together a proper banquet in his honor in short order. After leading lights paid their respects to the nation’s leader in a series of toasts given over a sumptuous meal, Monroe offered one of his own for the Alabama Territory that struck at the heart of what lay on everyone’s minds: “May her speedy admission into the Union advance her happiness, and augment the national strength and prosperity.” As the president spoke those words, the constitutional convention, which would frame the document to form the new state’s government and remove the final barrier between territory and statehood, lay only a month away.
In early July delegates representing the territory’s twenty-two counties gathered in a vacant cabinet shop in Huntsville for that task. Madison County, being by far the most populous, was represented by an impressive eight man delegation—double the size of the next largest. Ten counties had a lone delegate. The gentlemen representing Mobile and Baldwin counties, Mayor Samuel Garrow and the redoubtable Harry Toulmin, had the farthest distance to travel and understandably arrived fashionably late. In his official capacity as a district judge, Toulmin had effectively been the sole presence of the federal government in the Tensaw-Tombigbee region. It was a distinguished group by frontier or any standards; from the convention would come several of the future state’s governors, judges of its Supreme Court, senators, and even a vice president of the United States (William R. King). John W. Walker served as the convention’s president, but according to witnesses, “informally and with little decorum.” Professionally led or not, the convention’s members took their business seriously and immediately set to work, creating a subcommittee of fifteen to draft the constitution and busying themselves with the body’s housekeeping and numerous other smaller but sometimes knotty associated matters that demanded attention. On July 14, for example, Henry Minor of Madison County introduced a resolution requesting that Congress allow Alabama to annex a portion of Spanish West Florida once the Adams-Onis Treaty, signed earlier in the year and officially ceding all of the peninsula to the United States, was ratified. How Alabama would square the compact’s apparent extension of full citizenship rights to creoles of mixed African and European heritage in the Mobile area, which flew in the face of many of the proscriptions on people of color the constitution’s framers were even then writing into the document, remained to be dealt with on another day.
After leading lights paid their respects to the nation’s leader in a series of toasts given over a sumptuous meal, Monroe offered one of his own for the Alabama Territory that struck at the heart of what lay on everyone’s minds: “May her speedy admission into the Union advance her happiness, and augment the national strength and prosperity.”
As the subcommittee assigned to draft the constitution progressed in its work, the convention periodically met as a whole to consider its language and provisions. Proceeding in this fashion steadily throughout the month of July and working six days a week (excluding Sundays), they soon had a completed document that they formally approved and signed on August 2, 1819. To the surprise of many today, the constitution proved a relatively liberal governing instrument for the time, broadly reflecting the interests of the new state’s significant yeomen farmer population and exhibiting a special understanding of Alabama’s frontier nature. It called for universal adult white male suffrage with no property ownership, taxpayer status, or militia service qualifications. Requirements for holding office were likewise minimal, the framers having eschewed traditional property qualifications and, acknowledging a fact of life in a state undergoing a dramatic increase in population, provided for short periods of residency for candidates. The constitution included a bill of rights, established a state-owned bank, and detailed specific measures for the advancement of education, such as dedicating a section of land in every township for that purpose and establishing a state university. Though Alabama’s governing document expressly sanctioned the institution of slavery, it paid at least lip service to encouraging humane treatment of bondsmen by owners, guaranteeing slaves some limited fundamental rights, and setting specific criteria for emancipation. Despite its egalitarian bent, per their instructions and in step with the political norms of the times, the framers sent their constitution directly to Congress, not to the people of Alabama, for approval.
Virtually as soon as the gavel closing the proceedings fell, campaigning for seats in the first session of the General Assembly of the State of Alabama, called for October, began. In late September 1819, twenty-two senators and fifty representatives won election to the state’s new legislature, as well as a number of other state officials as specified in the constitution. Though the race for the state’s chief executive ended up being tighter than might have been expected, owing to the rising discontent with the “Georgia Faction” in Alabama’s affairs, territorial governor William Wyatt Bibb secured the honor of also heading Alabama’s first state government. As the mild days of early fall replaced the sultry days of summer, he busied himself preparing an address to the legislature which he hoped would set the agenda for the new state’s lawmakers. Once again Alabama’s preeminent city of Huntsville would serve as the backdrop to another landmark gathering.
Virtually as soon as the gavel closing the proceedings fell, campaigning for seats in the first session of the General Assembly of the State of Alabama, called for October, began. In late September 1819, twenty-two senators and fifty representatives won election to the state’s new legislature, as well as a number of other state officials as specified in the constitution. Though the race for the state’s chief executive ended up being tighter than might have been expected, owing to the rising discontent with the “Georgia Faction” in Alabama’s affairs, territorial governor William Wyatt Bibb secured the honor of also heading Alabama’s first state government. As the mild days of early fall replaced the sultry days of summer, he busied himself preparing an address to the legislature which he hoped would set the agenda for the new state’s lawmakers. Once again Alabama’s preeminent city of Huntsville would serve as the backdrop to another landmark gathering.
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