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Emmet O’Neal / R. B. Rosenburg
- The University of Alabama Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Emmet O’Neal, 1911–1915 r. b. rosenburg like his father,edward,emmet o’neal was president of the state bar association ,framer of a state constitution,presidential elector,and governor of Alabama . born on september 23, 1853, in Florence, Alabama, emmet attended Florence Wesleyan University (now the University of north Alabama) and the University of mississippi before graduating in 1873 from the University of Alabama. in July 1881 he married lizzie Kirkman in Tuscaloosa,and they had three children, two of whom survived him. emmet studied and practiced law with his father until 1882, when he managed his father’s first campaign for governor. Two years later he was on the campaign trail again, canvassing the state on behalf of his father ’s reelection and running as presidential elector for Grover Cleveland.in 1892 o’neal garnered his own political patronage for the first time when he was appointed U.s. attorney for north Alabama,a position he held from 1893 to 1897. he supported William Jennings bryan in the 1896 presidential race, and he was serving as a city alderman in 1901 when he was elected a delegate to the state’s constitutional convention. At that convention,o’neal served as chairman of the Committee on local legislation and on the Committee on suffrage and elections,which disfranchised blacks and poor whites and decided to disallow women voters in state elections. “The paramount purpose of this Convention,” declared o’neal, “is to purify and elevate the political conditions in Alabama [by] secur[ing] emmet o’neal 1911–1915 / 183 permanent white supremacy in this state.” on the issue of women’s suffrage, which the constitution did not include, o’neal asserted: “Women are now our superiors, and when you pass a law of this kind you bring them down to the level of a man. . . . The women of the state have not demanded the vote. . . . They would not exercise it if you granted it to them.” Five years later, while campaigning for lieutenant governor, o’neal included a “purity of the ballot” plank in his platform and portrayed himself as a reform candidate. he advocated railroad rate regulation, liberal funding for education,and better highways.he denounced insurance companies as “a body of freebooters dividing their spoils among their henchmen” and called for campaign finance reform and changes in the primary laws. At the same time,o’neal favored conservative causes,including increased aid to Confederate veterans, local option liquor laws, and immigration restrictions placed on persons of the “wrong sort”—paupers, criminals, anarchists, lunatics, and especially the Chinese. o’neal lost the election for lieutenant governor, but the contest provided him statewide name recognition. Despite that defeat, o’neal remained active in politics and was elected president of the Alabama bar Association from 1909 to 1910. During that period, he led the opposition forces against ratification of a constitutional amendment that prohibited the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors in Alabama.The state was already a dry state effective January 1,1909,through legislative statute, an act that o’neal and others believed to be unconstitutional and a failure as well. o’neal labeled the constitutional amendment an even worse encroachment on personal liberty, one that would put in danger the private actions of people within their own homes. “if this amendment is ratified,” asserted o’neal, “it means the legislature can invade the home. . . . The sanctity of the home must be kept inviolate.” on november 29, 1909, Alabamians agreed with o’neal and rejected the amendment. in January 1910 o’neal announced his candidacy for governor. he attacked Comer’s “diabolical” prohibition amendment but pledged to enforce all laws, including the prohibition statute, until the people voted to revise, modify, or repeal them. o’neal also provided voters with a rehash of the same platform of “reasonable” ideas he had offered in his race for lieutenant governor. he left no doubt, however, that the prohibition issue was foremost in his campaign, declaring: “i believe in temperance and sobriety. i do not believe in force as a moral agent. . . . i believe that if you want liquor in your home that is your affair and not mine. let every man be his own prohibitionist .” o’neal easily won both the Democratic primary and the november general election races to become Alabama’s thirty-sixth governor. o’neal believed the outcome of the election of 1910 reflected the voters’ [44.210.236.0] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 13...