The Code of Ordinances of the City of Mobile: With the Charter and an Appendix (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The Code of Ordinances of the City of Mobile...)
Excerpt from The Code of Ordinances of the City of Mobile: With the Charter and an Appendix
A on authority to pass all by-laws and ordinances to regulate the {fié'fififii stationary anchorage and moorings of vessels within their vessels' jurisdiction.
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Alexander McKinstry was an American lawyer, Confederate soldier.
Background
Alexander McKinstry was born on March 7, 1822, at Augusta, Georgia. He was the son of Alexander and Elizabeth (Thompson) McKinstry. His father was of Scotch-Irish descent, the great-grandson of Rev. John McKinstry who came from County Antrim, Ireland, to New England in 1718, settling in Connecticut in 1728. Orphaned before he was fourteen, Alexander went to Mobile, Ala. , where he had relatives.
Career
At the begining of his career, McKinstry served as clerk in a drugstore, read law in the office of John A. Campbell, and was admitted to the bar when he was twenty-three. He immediately began the practice of his profession and at the same time began to take an active part in local politics. Before 1860 he had held various city and county offices. Although he was opposed to secession, he accepted the decision of the majority in the state when in January 1861, Alabama withdrew from the Union. Joining the Confederate army, he was commissioned colonel and assigned to the 32nd Regiment of Alabama Infantry when it was organized at Mobile in 1862. This regiment was attached to the Army of Tennessee under Gen. N. B. Forrest. McKinstry was mentioned in dispatches for able service in the field at Bridgeport, Alabama, and Battle Creek, Tennessee, August 27, 1862, and was in command in Chattanooga in September and October. The following year he was on detached service, acting as provost marshal-general to the Army of Tennessee. On April 6, 1864, he was made colonel of cavalry and assigned to serve on the court of military justice of Forrest's division. He was presiding judge of this court until the end of the war. Paroled at Gainesville, Alabama, May 9, 1865, McKinstry returned to Mobile and resumed the practice of his profession.
Elected to the state legislature in 1865 and again in 1867, he was chairman of the judiciary committee and largely instrumental in securing the adoption of the Alabama Code of 1867 by the legislature. In 1872, he was elected lieutenant-governor of the state. By virtue of this office, created by the constitutional convention of 1867, he became presiding officer of the state Senate at a critical point in the reconstruction struggle. The Democrats had won a majority in both houses of the legislature, although the Radicals had succeeded in electing their candidates for governor and lieutenant-governor. This situation was particularly displeasing to the Radicals because they were anxious to send one of their number to the United States Senate and it fell to the legislature to elect him in joint session. It was McKinstry who, by the exercise of his authority as presiding officer of the Senate, enabled the Radical group to overcome the Democratic majority and send their candidate to Washington. With the return of the Democrats to power in 1874, McKinstry retired from politics. He died at Mobile in 1879.
(Excerpt from The Code of Ordinances of the City of Mobile...)
Politics
McKinstry took an active interest in politics, identifying himself with the Radical party which was then being formed in the state to oppose the Democratic party.
Connections
On March 20, 1845, McKinstry had married Virginia Thompson Dade of Mobile, descendant of an old Virginia family; of their eleven children, five lived to maturity.