The name of William L. Yancey is generally associated with two chief facts, namely, that of secession and that of his brilliant oratory. The beginning of Mr. Yancey’s life was clouded by an unfortunate circumstance, that of killing Dr. Earle, of Greenville, S. C., for which he was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment and a fine, but was pardoned by Governor Noble, after about three months. In the light of subsequent events and after all passion had subsided, this unfortunate occurrence was popularly adjudged a deed of self-defense.

There was something remarkable in the career of Mr. Yancey in that his friends neither in the opening period of his life, nor for some years afterwards, ever suspected him of the qualities either of leadership or of oratory which he developed, and until conditions prevailed by means of which these elements were called into exercise, did Mr. Yancey himself come to discover himself.

First, he was a planter near Greenville, S. C., and later in Dallas County, Ala. This was followed by the editorship of the Cahaba Democrat, and later of the Argus, a democratic paper published at Wetumpka. He had previously studied law at Sparta, Ga., and Greenville, S. C., but had never applied for license to practice.

His advent into public life was when he represented Coosa County in the legislature, which was during the early stages of his professional career. Later he became a state senator from the district composed of the two counties of Coosa and Autauga.

Mr. Yancey’s entrance into national politics was in 1844 when he was elected to Congress to succeed Dickson H. Lewis, who had been promoted to a seat in the National Senate. In his maiden speech on the floor of Congress, Mr. Yancey became the recipient of a great distinction. Though the youngest member of the party, he was chosen to defend the Southern democrats against a furious assault made on them by Mr. Clingman, a whig member from North Carolina. John C. Calhoun, then secretary of state, sent for Mr. Yancey the evening before he was to speak, and advised him not to do his best in his first encounter.

This first effort in Congress gave Yancey national fame. It awoke comment throughout the country. The Baltimore Sun, speaking of the effort, said, among other things: “He is comparable to no predecessor, because no one ever united so many qualities of the orator.” Mr. Clingham’s speech was too well answered at every point for the reply of Mr. Yancey to be satisfactory to him. While himself severe, he was offended at the severity of Mr. Yancey’s arraignment, and according to the custom of that time, challenged the Alabamian to a duel. Both Clingman and Yancey repaired to Baltimore to settle the difficulty on what was then esteemed “the field of honor,” Clingham being the aggressor throughout, but they were interrupted by a civil process, and both returned to Washington, satisfied with the result.

In 1846 Mr. Yancey, having served two years in Congress, resigned his seat from the necessity of repairing his fortune, and entered successfully on the practice of law in Montgomery. Without losing interest in public affairs, he continued rigidly devoted to his profession for about ten years.

In 1848 Mr. Yancey’s relations to the democratic party became impaired because of his withdrawal from the national convention at Baltimore, which convention nominated General Cass for the presidency. His action was based on the refusal of the Baltimore convention to incorporate into the national platform certain resolutions adopted by the Alabama convention, in the event of the rejection by the national convention of which, the Alabama delegation was instructed to withdraw. Only one other and himself withdrew from the convention at Baltimore, and during the succeeding campaign he remained quiet. For all this he was subjected to much censure.

With a period of ebbs and flows which come now and then to a political party, the elements had calmed by 1858, when, at the head of the electoral ticket of Alabama, Mr. Yancey carried the state for Buchanan. Being of decided and pronounced views, and one who did not believe that principle was divisible, Mr. Yancey won the unenviable distinction of being a “fire eater,” but he followed duty as he saw it, and encountered the penalty always accorded to one of stern and fixed adherence to principle.

Meanwhile the drift of the country was toward conflict. A states’ rights democrat, Mr. Yancey insisted on the maintenance of this principle as the only hope of safeguarding the constitution. Accordingly in the Alabama convention held in 1859, to select delegates to the national convention to be held at Charleston, Mr. Yancey procured the adoption of a platform suited to his views. At the head of the Alabama delegation he attended the Charleston convention which declined to adopt the views presented in the platform of the Alabama convention, and as is well known, a disruption of the party followed. The subsequent results of that event are too well known to be repeated here.

The election of Mr. Lincoln in the quadrangular presidential contest, precipitated the crisis. Secession followed with William L. Yancey as its chief apostle. His vast powers now at their zenith, were brought into full exercise, and the country rang throughout with his fearless declaration of states’ rights. In the creation of the new Confederacy, Mr. Yancey bore a conspicuous part, and President Davis left to his choice any position which he might accept, and he chose the mission to Great Britain.

In England he employed every honorable means to induce the recognition of the Southern Confederacy, as an independent power, but his efforts were unavailing. At the end of a year he returned to America and announced that if the South should win her independence it would be the result of her own effort. During his absence abroad Mr. Yancey was chosen as senator to the Confederate congress, but his leadership in that body was obscured by the diversion of public thought to the armies on the field.

Mr. Yancey died near Montgomery in July, 1863. Had the Southern Confederacy succeeded, and had Yancey lived, his popularity would have been boundless, but with the “lost cause” was linked in the minds of many, the diminution of the fame of the splendid and brilliant leader of the cause of secession in the states of the South.