When he entered the gubernatorial office conditions were necessarily in an inchoate form. Rudeness and crudeness characterized the initial conditions on every hand. Valuable as the service of his predecessors had been, his lot was to raise into symmetrical proportions with every part perfectly adjusted a mighty commonwealth, ready to enter on its career worthily, alongside the older states. Existing conditions were incident to the emergence of a wilderness territory into the dignity of statehood. But when Governor Pickens retired from office as the state’s chief executive the structure was complete in all its parts. In the recent work of twelve large volumes, “The South in the Building of the Nation,” issued under the auspices of the Southern Historical Publication Society of Richmond, Va., Governor Pickens is alluded to as “one of the great state builders of the southwest.”
Nor did his career end with the expiration of his term of office as governor. The year following his retirement from the gubernatorial chair he was appointed a United States Senator by Governor Murphy. Almost simultaneously with this appointment came the offer of the federal judgeship of Alabama from President John Quincy Adams, but the latter offer was declined, and Governor Pickens entered the federal senate.
But Mr. Pickens was destined to enjoy senatorial honors but a short while. In the latter part of the same year of his appointment as a national senator, his lungs became seriously involved, tuberculosis was speedily developed, and he was forced to resign his exalted station and seek another and softer climate. At that time the West Indies was the favorite resort of those thus affected, and Mr. Pickens repaired to Cuba with the hope of recuperation in its balmy climate. But he survived his retirement from Washington only five months.
Senator Pickens had not reached the zenith of manhood and usefulness before he was stricken down, for at his death he was only forty-seven years old. His body was brought back to Alabama for interment, and he was buried within a few miles of Greensboro. In his death Alabama lost one of her most popular and eminent citizens, and one of her foremost statesmen. To him belongs the chief distinction of erecting Alabama into symmetrical statehood.
CLEMENT COMER CLAY
Governor Clay was among the pioneers of Alabama. He was a native of Virginia, the son of a revolutionary soldier, and was educated at Knoxville, Tenn. Law was his choice as a profession, to the practice of which he was admitted in 1809, and in 1811 he located at Huntsville, which continued to be his home till his death in 1866.
From the outset, he showed profound interest in the territory and in the promotion of its affairs, and two years after making Huntsville his home he enlisted against the Indians, and was chosen the adjutant of his command. His name is prominent among the territorial legislators in the two sessions held prior to the admission of Alabama into the Union.
When the constitutional convention was held, Mr. Clay was not alone a member, but was chosen the chairman of the committee charged with submitting the original draft of the constitution. In one especial sense he is, therefore, the father of the state of Alabama.