Decatur

In my podcast with Newt that we did in Dallas at the midterm convention, we talked about Rush.

He was very fond of Rush, and Newt and I go back to 1990, my first interview in a Holiday Inn hotel room in Decatur, Alabama, when I was a local host there.

And we talk about Rush.

I mean, I, we talk about this story, and it's amazing if in this life you can find...

and jump in with a conversation with our good friend Arthur Orr.

He is a state senator at Decatur, Morgan County, parts of Limestone County, parts of Madison County as well.

The guy is very busy, and we've got a lot to discuss with him.

But I want to start with our question of the day, and it's this.

you need your your your whole hospitality sector can really, really be dynamic if you have one of those spaces, too.

Yeah, and the smaller places like the Princess Theater here in Decatur, I try to go see as many people as I can because they always do a meet and greet after the show.

And you can talk to them, you can meet them, you can have your picture made.

And I always like to think of it, like you said, that I saw them, you know, before they made it big.

Absolutely.

What a great venue they have there.

And what a, just, you know, and kind of seeing like, you know, it's like Decatur right next door to us, you know, like seeing how they like attracted like Rock of the South to move there and a continued investment in like the Princess Theater.

And then the Calhoun-Athens State Collaboration, like that campus is amazing there.

One eloquent passage illustrates all the rest.

From Pocahontas to Decatur, Alabama, a distance of 114 miles, we are told the railroad was almost entirely destroyed except the roadbed and iron rails, and they were in very bad condition.

every bridge and trestle destroyed cross ties rotted buildings burned water tanks gone tracks grown up in weeds and bushes not a saw mill near the line and the labor system of the country about forty miles of the track was burned the cross ties entirely destroyed and the rails bent and twisted in such a manner as to require great labor to straighten and a large portion of them requiring renewal capital and credit destroyed the fluid capital of the south money and credit was in the same prostrate condition as the material capital the confederate currency inflated to the bursting point had utterly collapsed and was as worthless as waste paper the bonds of the confederate government were equally valueless species had nearly disappeared from circulation the fourteenth amendment to the federal constitution had made all debts obligations and claims incurred in aid of the confederate cause illegal and void millions of dollars owed to northern creditors before the war were overdue and payment was pressed upon the debtors where such debts were secured by mortgage on land executions against the property could be obtained in federal courts the restoration of white supremacy intimidation in both politics and economics the process of reconstruction in the south was slow and arduous the first battle in the political contest for white supremacy was won outside the halls of legislatures and the courts of law it was waged in the main by secret organizations amongst which the klu klux klan and the white carmelia were the most prominent the first of these societies appeared in tennessee in eighteen sixty six and held its first national convention the following year it was in origin a social club according to its announcements its objects were to protect the weak the innocent and the defenseless from the indignities wrongs and outrages of the lawless the violent and the brutal and to succor the suffering especially the widows and orphans of the confederate soldiers the whole south was called the empire and was ruled by a grand wizard each state was a realm and each county a province in the secret orders there were enrolled over half a million men the methods of the klu klux and the white carmelia were similar solemn parades of masked men on horses decked in long robes were held sometimes in the daytime and sometimes at the dead of night notices were sent to obnoxious persons warning them to stop certain practices if warnings failed something more convincing was tried fright was the emotion most commonly stirred a horseman at the witching hour of midnight would ride up to the house of some offender lift his headgear take off his skull and hand it to the trembling victim with the request that he hold it for a few minutes frequently violence was employed either officially or unofficially by members of the clan tar and feathers were freely applied the whip was sometimes laid on unmercifully and occasionally a brutal murder was committed often the members were fired upon from bushes or behind trees and swift retaliation followed so alarming did the clashes become that in eighteen seventy congress forbade interference with electors or going in disguise for the purpose of obstructing the exercise of the rights enjoyed under federal law in anticipation of such a step on the part of the federal government the klu klux was officially dissolved by the grand wizard in eighteen sixty nine nevertheless the local societies continued their organization and methods the spirits survived the national association on the whole says a southern writer it is not easy to suit what other course was open to the south armed resistance was out of the question and yet there must be some control had of the situation if force was denied craft was inevitable the struggle for the ballot-box the effects of intimidation were soon seen at elections the freedman into whose inexperienced hand the ballot had been thrust was ordinarily loath to risk his head by the exercise of his new rights he had not obtained them by a long and laborious contest of his own and he saw no urgent reason why he should battle for the privilege of using them the mere show of force the mere existence of a threat deterred thousands of ex-slaves from appearing at the polls thus the whites steadily recovered their dominance nothing could prevent it congress enacted forced bills establishing federal supervision of elections and the northern politicians protested against the return of former confederates to practical if not official power but all such opposition was like resistance to the course of nature amnesty for southerners the recovery of white supremacy in this way was quickly felt in national councils the democratic party in the north welcomed it as a sign of its return to power the more moderate republicans anxious to heal the breach in american unity sought to encourage rather than repress it so it came about that amnesty for confederates was widely advocated yet it must be said that the struggle for the removal of disabilities was stubborn and bitter lincoln with characteristic generosity in the midst of the war had issued a general proclamation of amnesty to nearly all who had been in arms against the union on condition that they take an oath of loyalty but johnson vindictive toward the southern leaders and determined to make treason infamous had extended the list of exceptions congress even more relentless in its pursuit of confederates pushed through the fourteenth amendment which worked the sweeping disabilities we have just described to appeals for comprehensive clemency congress was at first adamant in vain did men like karl schurz exhort her colleagues to crown their victory in battle with a noble act of universal pardon and oblivion congress would not yield it would grant amnesty in individual cases for the principle of proscription it stood fast when finally in eighteen seventy two seven years after the surrender at appomattox it did pass the general amnesty bill it insisted on certain exceptions Confederates who had been members of Congress just before the war or had served in other high posts, civil or military, under the federal government, were still excluded from important offices.

Not until the summer of 1898, when the war with Spain produced once more a union of hearts, did Congress relent and abolish the last of the disabilities imposed on the Confederates.

nevertheless the truth is that from the faithful moment in march seventeen seventy five when edmund burke unfolded to his colleagues in the british parliament the resources of an invincible america down to the settlement at versailles in nineteen nineteen closing the drama of the world war this nation has been a world power influencing by its example by its institutions by its wealth trade and arms the course of international affairs and it should be said also that neither in the field of commercial enterprise nor in that of diplomacy has it been wanting in spirit or ingenuity.

When John Hay, Secretary of State, heard that an American citizen, Pertikaris, had been seized by, racially, a Moroccan bandit in 1904, he wired his brusque message, We want Pertikaris alive or racially dead.

This was but an echo of Commodore Decatur's equally characteristic answer, not a minute, given nearly a hundred years before to the pirates of Algiers, begging for time to consider whether they would cease preying upon American merchantmen.

Was it not as early as 1844 that the American Commissioner, Caleb Cushing, taking advantage of the British Opium War on China, negotiated with the Celestial Empire a successful commercial treaty? Did he not then exultantly exclaim, the laws of the Union follow its citizens and its banner protects them, even within the domain of the Chinese Empire? Was it not almost half a century before the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898 that Commodore Perry, with an adequate naval force, gently coerced Japan into friendship with us, leading all the nations of the earth in the opening of that empire to the trade of the Occident? Nor is it inappropriate in this connection to recall the fact that the Monroe Doctrine celebrates, in 1923, its hundredth anniversary.

8.

Dadeville, 41, B.B. Comer, 8, Dale County, 41, Strawn, 14, Daphne, 22, Baker, 19, Decatur Heritage, 15, Lindsay Lane, 6, Destler, 35, Hamilton, 33, Donahoe, 35.

Holy Spirit, 33.

Douglas, 27.

Hedland, 14.

Athens, 28.

Decatur, 13.

Auburn over Enterprise, 28-21.

Phoenix Sports Bass Master Radio.

And we've been celebrating and talking about Alabama Bass Fest, which has taken place over the weekend here at Ingalls Harbor and in Decatur, Alabama, right here on Wheeler.

And one of the guys that's been here, of course, as I said in the open, this is all in conjunction with the High School Combine.

And one of the guys that is here doing some seminars and things like that, meeting and greeting with the young guys and the folks that are coming out for Bass Fest is Justin Atkins, who has had a really nice year.

Visit AmphibiaiGear.com to shop now.

That's AmphibiaiGear.com. Bass Fest is going on all weekend at Ingalls Harbor, September 12th through the 13th, in conjunction with another Bassmaster innovation, the High School Combine, which is in its fourth year now.

The High School Combine has been a tremendous success, bringing 100 top high school anglers to Decatur, Alabama, along with 27 colleges and universities that offer financial help for their fishing teams.

Plus, there are vendors here from all over the industry and a job fair for those looking to work in the industry.