Alabama Day, December 14th
Timeline
| 1819
March 2 U.S. Congress passed an enabling act to allow the inhabitants of Alabama Territory to create a constitution for a state government. May 3-4 Elections for constitutional convention delegates held. June 5-August 2 Alabama Constitutional Convention, meeting in Huntsville, drafted and adopted constitution. September 20-21 General elections held for state officers and representatives to the General Assembly. October 25-December 17 First session of the General Assembly for the State of Alabama met in temporary capital of Huntsville. November 9 Territorial Governor William W. Bibb, newly elected as the state’s first governor, took the oath of office. December 14 President James Monroe signed a congressional resolution admitting Alabama as the 22nd state in the United States of America (both the House and Senate of the state’s General Assembly were in session on that Tuesday, meeting jointly in the afternoon to make judicial appointments). December 17 Governor Bibb and the Legislature in Huntsville receive news of statehood and adopt resolution of thanks to President Monroe. 1903 December 14 “Alabama Day” first celebrated statewide by public schools at the urging of the State Department of Education and the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Principal Source: William H. Brantley, Three Capitals (University of Alabama Press, 1976 reprint). OF THE STATE OF ALABAMA 1819 Following the regulations prescribed by Congress for the admission of new states to the Union, the Alabama Territory called a Constitutional Convention to meet in Huntsville, Alabama, on July 5, 1819. By August 2nd the Constitution was drafted, approved, inscribed on parchment, and signed by the delegates attending the Convention. Copies were sent to Washington where they were submitted to the United States Senate and House of Representatives. On December 14, 1819, Resolutions for the admission of Alabama were passed and Alabama became the 22ND state in the Union.
The original Constitution was kept by the Secretary of State of Alabama until it was turned over to the Alabama Department of Archives and History where it is stored in a sealed metal case. The document is written on 26 sheets of parchment, each attached to the sheet below it by blue grosgrain silk ribbon and sealing wax. The last two pages of the 31 1/2 foot-long document contain the ordinance adopting the Constitution and the signatures of the President of the Convention, the 43 delegates, and the Secretary of the Convention. DELEGATES TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION HELD AT HUNTSVILLE President: John Williams Walker (Madison) Secretary: John Campbell (Madison) Doorkeeper: Daniel Rather (Madison) Autauga: James Jackson Baldwin: Harry Toulmin Blount: Isaac Brown, John Brown, Gabriel Hanby Cahawba (now Bibb): Littlepage Sims Clarke: Reuben Saffold, James Magoffin Conecuh: Samuel Cook Cotaco (now Morgan): Melkijah Vaughn, Thomas D. Crabb Dallas: William Rufus King Franklin: Richard Ellis, William Metcalf Lauderdale: Hugh McVay Lawrence: Arthur Francis Hopkins, Daniel Wright Limestone: Thomas Bibb, Beverly Hughes, Nicholas Davis Madison: Clement C. Clay, John Leigh Townes, Henry Chambers, Samuel Mead, Henry Minor, Gabriel Moore, John Williams Walker, John M. Taylor Marengo: Washington Thompson Marion: John D. Terrell Mobile: Samuel H. Garrow Monroe: John Murphy, John Watkins, James Pickens, Thomas Wiggins Montgomery: John Dandridge Bibb, James W. Armstrong St. Clair: David Conner Shelby: George Phillips, Thomas A. Rodgers Tuscaloosa: Marmaduke Williams, John L. Tindal Washington: Israel Pickens, Henry Hitchcock
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