Show The Story of the States L Alabama I. Motto Here We Rest BY ALBERT ALBEnT PA PAY SON N The Press Co Copyright lt bj by The Now New C York World u HANDFUL o of rOU rough h French soldiers soldiers SOldiers sol sol- sol SOl- A diers of oC fortune headed heade by the I explorer Blen burst through I a hostile southern wilderness in 1702 liO and built u a fort tort on the Mobile river banks banes They Thc were wert not the first white men mento mento to taco face wild beasts and wilder savages a there De Soto In 1539 hind had fought his hopeless wa way war through that region on his Journey journe to tho Mississippi England England Eng Eng- land and Spain both claimed tho tract But might meant right In those da days an and while the powers were snarling over tho the choice morsel seized It In Francos Franco's name And nd tho the second of ot his two forts torts was tho germ berm of ot tho thu ell city of ot Mobile For the next century the thc whole surrounding surrounding sur sur- rounding country was WUN a scene of ot strife There wele vere Indian wars as the tho redskins redskins redskins red red- skins fought desperately t to stem tho the spread of civilization European nations too too squa squabbled ThIel for the possession of tho thu rich territory Franco France In 1763 lost all her American n possessions a as a result of the tho French und and Indian war And AndIn Andin in n 1779 the land conquered IJ by was split up between Spain nn and the Iho new United States Spain un and the Indians Indians Indians In In- were at l lost last t bought off or 01 outmaneuvered outmaneuvered out out- maneuvered ere and It all became United States soil soU Tho The tract had ocen Deen part of ot Louisiana Louisi Louisi- ana in fact Mobile was Louisiana's first capital next it was IlS Incorporated with ith Georgia and in 1817 It was wa reapportIoned reapportioned reap reap- portIoned as Alabama Territory Tho The name was derived from the ba Ala mo tribe of Creek Indians and Is said to mean Here We Rest Rest a a motto which Alabama has taken for Cor her own Alabama Territory became the state of ot Alabama in 1819 being admitted admitted admit admit- te ted to time the Union as a slave state to pair off ott with Maine which was admitted admitted admit admit- te ted as free at the same ame time For tho the next forty ort years cars tho the stor story of or Alabama was more or less the stor story of the whole South Then came the rumble of the civil war ar Alabama was one ono of or the first states to secede from tho Union Nowhere did secession receive recel more mere ardent support And yet et there thero were man many of or note who did not wish to leave tho the Union An And when the they found secession could not be avoided the they strained er c every nervo nerve to lo cut off oft northern Alabama Alabama Ala Ala- bama into a n. separate and neutral state under the name of The Time plan failed falle When the South seceded Alabama's capital Montgomery was chosen a as the tho first capital of f the Conte Confederacy erae There Jefferson Davis was inaugurated President Alabama sent practically all her a able o bo bodied led male malo population to the thc civil war And no les less than thirty thirty- 1 I I nine Confederate generals came from rom that single Ingle state During the tho year four conflict she suffered bitterly from all tho the horror horrors of oC warfare Invasion siege and battle battlo were hers Not once but again and again Not until April 1865 1565 was wa the whole state recovered reco b by the Union Then followed tho the bitter reconstruction reconstruction tion period when Alabama was once more rent n. n sunder asunder nn anti and nna yeas wa a plundered and bankrupted The dreaded carpet carpetbag carpetbag carpetbag bag regime exacted from her hor a to toll almost as terrible as os tho war Itself Not until 1876 1576 did the tortured state begin to lo regain her strength Then Thon the recovery recover that came so lato late was rapid To Today a Alabama is in size the eighteenth state In tho the Union with n population of oC about The he wilderness claimed b by three nations and devastated h by war after war has outlived Us its countless misfortunes misfortunes misfortunes tunes and has rIsen ilsen through them to greatness Next Next Arizona Arizona g. g |