the Indians. Two of the Indians sprang from the boat, and swam for the shore. Caesar, the negro, who paddled the canoe of the whites, was bringing his boat so as to bear on the other, that they would soon be alongside, which so soon as it was effected, the negro gripped the two and held them together while the fearful work of slaughter went on. The result of the hand to hand engagement was that the nine Indians were killed, and pitched into the river, while the whites escaped with wounds only.

In the early territorial struggles General Dale was engaged partly as an independent guerilla, and partly under the commands of Generals Jackson and Claiborne. At the close of hostilities Dale took up his residence in Monroe County from which he was sent as a representative to the legislature for eight terms. In recognition of his services the legislature granted him an appropriation amounting to the half pay of a colonel in the regular army, and at the same time gave him the rank of brigadier general, in which capacity he was to serve in case of war. Later, however, the appropriation was discontinued because of a constitutional quibble, when the legislature memorialized Congress to grant an annuity to the old veteran, but no heed was given to the request.

In order to procure some compensation for his services, General Dale was induced by his friends to go to Washington, and during his stay at the national capital, he was entertained by President Jackson. Together the two old grizzled warriors sat in the apartments of the president, and while they smoked their cob pipes, they recounted the experiences of the troublous times of the past.

General Dale served the state in a number of capacities additional to those already named. He was a member of the convention which divided the territories of Alabama and Mississippi, was on the commission to construct a highway from Tuskaloosa to Pensacola, and assisted in transferring the Choctaws to their new home in the Indian territory.

His last years were spent in Mississippi, where he served the state in the legislature. He died in Mississippi in 1841. His biographer, Honorable J. F. H. Claiborne, says that a Choctaw chief, standing over the grave of Dale the day after his burial, exclaimed: “You sleep here, Sam Thlucco, but your spirit is a chieftain and a brave in the hunting grounds of the sky.”

ISRAEL PICKENS

One of the great commonwealth builders of the southwest was Governor Israel Pickens, the third governor of the state. As a state builder he came on the scene just at a time when his constructive genius was most needed. His two predecessors, the brothers, Governors William W. and Thomas Bibb, had together served the state little more than two years, the former dying while in office and the latter, as president of the senate, succeeding him and filling his unexpired term. Both these had wrought well under raw and chaotic conditions, but the utmost that could be done within so short a time was that of projecting plans for the future of the infant state. While the foundation was well begun, the superstructure still stood unbuilt.

On Governor Israel Pickens was imposed the task of the real erection of Alabama into a state. It was an organization which called alike for skill, wisdom, and executive direction of the highest order. Serious problems lay at the threshold of the young commonwealth, and these had to be met with a sense of delicate adjustment, and yet with a firm and deliberate judgment. The domestic policy of the state was yet to be molded, and such precedents established as would thereafter affect the destiny of Alabama. At this time Governor Pickens was just forty-one years old. There was a demand for extraordinary prudence in calling into conjunction with himself, by the governor, the sagest counsellors that the state then had. Executive leadership at this time must encounter a critical juncture. Fortunately for Alabama, Governor Pickens was amply qualified for the onerous task imposed. He sprang from one of the most eminent of the early families of the south. The name of Pickens lingers in Carolina history today with a flavor of distinction. Himself the son of a revolutionary sire who had rendered gallant service as a captain in the struggle for independence, Governor Pickens bore to the state the prestige of his family when he removed from North Carolina in 1817. His educational advantages had been the best that could be afforded in his native state, and the adjoining state of South Carolina, to which was added a course at Washington College, Pennsylvania, where he completed his legal education. A practitioner at the bar for a period in his native state, a legislative service of a few years and a career of six years in Congress preceded Pickens’ settlement in Alabama in 1817. Locating as an attorney at St. Stephens, he was appointed to the registership of the land office.

It is insisted, and doubtless rightly, that no executive of the state has in thoroughness of efficiency and in comprehensiveness of grasp of a situation ever excelled Israel Pickens.

He became governor in 1821, and was re-elected in 1823, serving till 1825 to the utmost limit of incumbency under the constitution. Within the brief period of four years he had constructed into compactness a state from the crude and incoherent elements within reach. The qualities which he demonstrated were firmness, deliberation, sedulous care, wisdom and administrative force, to all of which was added a zest of labor. Never hasty, but always at work, promptly recognizing any lack of deficiency in the developing structure, and with equal readiness supplying it with a sagacious eye to permanency, the interest of Governor Pickens was undiminished to the close of his term of office.

So distinguished were these traits of statemanship that they excited general comment among his distinguished contemporaries who insisted that in unsuspended fidelity, unselfish devotion, wise projection and skillful execution he has never been surpassed, if indeed equaled. That he succeeded to the fullest in the accomplishment of his difficult task is the verdict of posterity. Other executives since may have possessed more shining qualities, others still may have been more profound, while yet the deeds of others may have been more spectacular, but all who have succeeded Israel Pickens derived the benefit of that so ably done by him.

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