A LOOK BACK AT STATE LEGISLATION
By Dr. Bill Stewart
As a result of yesterday’s elections, Alabama’s 140 legislators (35 senators and 105 representatives) begin new terms today.
Unlike executive and judicial officials, they don’t have to wait until January to assume (either newcomers or returning veterans) their positions. If Gov. Kay Ivey, now endorsed for a full term, should wish to do so, she could call the new legislators to assemble for a special session. This is what former Gov. Bob Riley did eight years ago when Republicans first took control of the Legislature.
Here are some of the bills legislators were considering back in the last quarter of the 19th century. It’s doubtful we’ll see the same bills introduced when the members of the new state assembly begin dropping proposed measures into legislative hoppers.
- To prohibit the use of sling shots
- To prohibit the punishment of convicts by use of the lash
- To suppress the introduction and sale of obscene literature and
obscene papers in this state
- To punish the rude and angry and reckless handling or flourishing of
fire-arms or other deadly weapons in public places
- To prevent cruelty to animals
- To make Shrove Tuesday, or the day commonly known as Mardi
Gras, a legal holiday in the cities in and in the County of Mobile
- To authorize the governor, in his discretion, to issue arms and equipment to chartered institutions in this State which have a
military system
- To punish the malicious spiking of saw logs
- For the relief of soldiers maimed or disabled during the late war
(Civil War)
- To preserve game animals and birds in DeKalb County
- To release Wm. J. Bowling, of Fayette County, from the bonds of
matrimony
- To authorize the treasurer of Winston County to pay certain claims
against said county to the persons who will take the least for their claims
- To authorize manufacturing companies to appoint one or more guards or watchmen with police powers. (These guards were frequently used against workers striking for higher wages and better working conditions.)
- To prevent the obstruction of fish from running up Choctawhatchie River
- To define and punish the offense of illegal conspiracies on the part of railroad companies to advance rates beyond what is reasonable compensation
John McMillan will be Alabama’s new state treasurer beginning in January 2019, having been elected yesterday.
Alabama’ most notorious treasurer was Isaac Harvey (Ike) Vincent (1878-1883). Vincent had taken an active part in the 1874 state election, which saw Democrats replace Republicans in positions of leadership in state government. As a reward for his service, Vincent was named private secretary to the new Democratic governor, George Smith Houston, for whom Houston County in the Wiregrass is named.
In 1878 Vincent was elected to his initial term of state treasurer. He subsequently was elected to two more terms. At present, the treasurer, like other executive officials, can only serve two terms in succession.
In 1883 Gov. Edward A. O’Neal, a Florence native, told a shocked state populace that Ike Vincent had surreptitiously left Alabama and that $200,000 in state funds were missing. The disgraced treasurer was able to avoid capture for in excess of four years. Finally, in 1887, he was captured in Texas, extradited to Alabama, tried, convicted and sentenced to a prison term of five years.
A merciful Gov. Thomas Goode Jones, father of the man for whom Jones School of Law at Faulkner University in Montgomery is named, pardoned Ike Vincent in 1895. He died at his new home in the Lone Star State two years later.
Three years before Vincent was captured in 1887, H. B. 621. To authorize the governor to offer a reward for the apprehension, arrest and delivery of Isaac H. Vincent, late state treasurer, had been introduced in the Alabama House and
passed by both the House and Senate within a period of only 10 days – the minimum time required for the approval of new legislation.