The debates in the convention over mixed schools, proscription, militia, and representation had seemingly resulted in a division between the carpet-baggers, who controlled the negroes, and the more moderate scalawags. The carpet-baggers and extreme scalawags of the convention resolved themselves into a body for the nomination of candidates for office. This body formed the state Union League convention. Of the 101 delegates to the convention, 67 or 68 had signed the constitution, and of these at least 56 were candidates for office under it. Full tickets were nominated by the convention and by the local councils of the Union League. In the black counties only members of the League were nominated, and it was practically the same in the white counties, where the League then had but few members. Nearly all the election officials were candidates. Men represented one county in the convention, and were candidates in others for office.[1469]
| Name | Nativity | Candidate for |
| Ben Alexander | Negro | Legislature |
| A. J. Applegate | Ohio and Wisconsin | Lieutenant Governor |
| W. A. Austin | Negro | State Senate |
| Arthur Bingham | New York | State Treasurer |
| W. H. Black | Ohio | Probate Judge |
| W. T. Blackford | Illinois | Probate Judge |
| Samuel Blandon | Negro | Legislature |
| Mark Brainard | New York | Clerk Circuit Court |
| Alfred E. Buck | Maine | Clerk Circuit Court |
| C. W. Buckley | New York, Mass., and Illinois | Congress |
| W. M. Buckley* | New York and Massachusetts | State Senator |
| J. H. Burdick | Iowa | Probate Judge |
| John Caraway | Negro | Legislature |
| Pierce Burton | Massachusetts | Legislature |
| J. Collins | North | State Senate |
| Datus E. Coon | Iowa | State Senate |
| Tom Diggs | Negro | Legislature |
| Charles W. Dustan | Iowa | Major-General Militia |
| S. S. Gardner | Massachusetts | Legislature |
| George Ely | New York, Conn., and Mass. | Probate Judge |
| Peyton Finley | Negro | Legislature |
| Jim Green | Negro | Legislature |
| Ovide Gregory | Negro | Legislature |
| Thomas Haughey | Scotland | Congress |
| G. Horton | Massachusetts | Probate Judge |
| Benjamin Inge | Negro | Legislature |
| A. W. Jones* | Alabama | Probate Judge |
| Columbus Jones | Negro | Legislature |
| John C. Keffer | Pennsylvania | Supt. of Industrial Resources |
| S. F. Kennemer | Alabama | Legislature |
| Tom Lee | Negro | Legislature |
| David Lore | Negro (?) | Legislature |
| J. J. Martin | Georgia | Probate Judge |
| B. O. Masterson | Unknown | Legislature |
| C. A. Miller | Massachusetts and Maine | Secretary of State |
| Stephen Moore* | Alabama (?) | Senate |
| A. L. Morgan | Indiana | Clerk Circuit Court |
| J. F. Morton* | Unknown | Senate |
| B. W. Norris | Maine | Congress |
| E. W. Peck | New York | Chief Justice |
| Thomas M. Peters | Tennessee | Supreme Court |
| G. P. Plowman | Alabama | Probate Judge |
| R. M. Reynolds | Iowa | Auditor |
| Benjamin Rolfe | New York | Tax Collector |
| B. F. Royal | Negro | Senate |
| B. F. Saffold | Alabama | Supreme Court |
| J. Silsby* | Massachusetts | Clerk Circuit Court |
| C. P. Simmons | Tennessee | Commissioner |
| William P. Skinner | Alabama | Chancellor |
| L. R. Smith* | Massachusetts | Circuit Judge |
| H. J. Springfield* | Alabama | Legislature |
| N. D. Stanwood* | Maine and Massachusetts | Legislature |
| J. P. Stow | Connecticut | Senate |
| Littleberry Strange | Georgia | Circuit Judge |
| James R. Walker* | Georgia | Sheriff |
| B. L. Whelan | Georgia, Ireland, and Mich. | Circuit Judge |
| C. O. Whitney | North | Senate |
| J. A. Yordy | North | Senate[1470] |
The state of politics in the average Black Belt county was like that in Perry or Montgomery. In Perry, the Radical nominees for probate judge, state senator, sheriff, and tax assessor were from Wisconsin; for representative, two negroes and one white from Ohio, and for tax collector, a northern man.[1471] In Montgomery, for the legislature, one white from Ohio and one from Austria, and three negroes; for probate judge, clerk of circuit court, sheriff, and tax assessor, men from New York and other northern states.[1472] One or two negroes ran independently in each Black Belt county. In the white counties the extreme scalawags had a better chance for office, and most of the moderate reconstructionists fell away at once, leaving the spoils to the Radicals. It is doubtful if there were enough white men in the state who could read and write and who supported the new constitution, to fill the offices created by that instrument. Hence the assignment of candidates to far-off counties, and the admission of negro candidates.[1473] The state ticket was headed by an Alabama tory, William H. Smith, and the other candidates for state offices were from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maine, and New York, five of them being officers of the Freedmen’s Bureau.[1474] The candidates for Congress were from Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Maine, and Nebraska. In several instances the candidate hailed from two or more different states.[1475]
Campaign on the Constitution
The campaign in behalf of the constitution did not differ in character from that in behalf of the convention. The Radical candidates for office, working through the Union League, drilled the negroes in the proper political faith. Nearly all the whites having gone over to the Conservatives, or withdrawn from politics, little or no attention was paid to the white voters. All efforts were directed toward securing the negro vote. Agents were sent over the state by the League to organize the negroes, who were again told the old story: If the constitution is not ratified, you will be reënslaved and your wives will be beaten and your children sold; if you do not get your rights now you will never get them. A subsidized press[1476] distributed campaign stories among those negroes who could read, and they spread the news. In this way the remotest darky heard that he was sure to return to slavery if the constitution failed of ratification.[1477] The Union League assessed its members, especially those who happened to be holding office under the military government, for money for campaign purposes.[1478]
The Radicals were forced by the general denunciation of the constitution, both in the North and in the South, to make some statement in regard to the matter. So on January 2, 1868, the Radical campaign committee issued an address stating that there had been general and severe criticism of some features of the constitution, and that Congress would expect a revision, though the state would be admitted promptly even before revision. The existence of political disabilities need not fetter the party, the address stated, in the choice of a candidate. A Republican nomination was a proof that the candidate was a “proper” person, and his disabilities would be at once removed. This was a way to mitigate the proscription.[1479]
From the first the Conservatives[1480] had no hope of carrying the election against the reconstructionists, who had control of the machinery of election and were supported by the army and the government. There was little organized opposition to the convention election, because the people were indifferent and because the leaders feared that a contest at the polls would result in riots with the negroes. To the Conservatives the convention at first was a joke; the disposition was rather to stand off and keep quiet, and let the Radicals try their hands for a while; they could not stay in power forever. Later, the violent opinions and extreme measures of the convention excited the alarm of many of the whites; the moderate reconstructionists deserted their party; a large minority of the convention refused to sign the constitution; and a number made formal protests. The nomination of candidates by the Union League membership of the convention and the character of the nominees showed that rule by alien and negro was threatened. The Conservative party, now embracing nearly all the whites except the Radical candidates, determined to oppose the ratification of the constitution. Many of the whites,[1481] now thoroughly discouraged, left the state forever—going to the north and west, to Texas especially, and to South America and Mexico.[1482]
On December 10 a number of the delegates to the convention, some of whom had signed the constitution, united in an address to the people advising against its adoption. All of them were native whites and former reconstructionists. They declared that under the proposed government designing knaves and political adventurers, who had a jealous hatred of the native whites, would use the blacks for their own selfish purposes; that this was clearly shown in the convention when the black delegation, with one honorable exception, moved like slaves at the command of their masters.[1483] Several hundred citizens sent a petition to the President, setting forth that some of the delegates to the convention were not residents of the state, that others did not, and had not, resided in the counties which they pretended to represent, and that others belonged to the army or were officials of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and were thus not legally qualified to sit in the convention. The petitioners asked for an investigation.[1484] One of the delegates, Graves of Perry County, took the stump against the constitution framed by “strangers, deserters, bushwhackers, and perjured men,” who were characterized by “a fiendish desire to disqualify all southern men from voting or holding office who are unwilling to perjure themselves with a test oath.”[1485]
The so-called “White Man’s Movement” in Alabama is said to have been originated in 1867, by Alexander White and ex-Governor L. E. Parsons.[1486] At a Conservative meeting in Dallas County, in January, 1868, the former offered a series of resolutions declaring that American institutions were the product of the wisdom of white men and were designed to preserve the ascendency of the white race in political affairs; that the United States government was a white man’s government, and that white men should rule America; that the negro was not fit to take part in the government, as he had never achieved civilization nor shown himself capable of directing the affairs of a nation; that the right of suffrage was the fountain of all political power, therefore the negro should not be invested with the right. Parsons proposed the same resolutions at a Conservative conference in Montgomery in January, 1868.[1487]