USA > Georgia > A school history of Georgia. Georgia as a colony and a state, 1733-1893 > Part 10
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I35
WHY GEORGIA WITHDREW FROM THE UNION.
Carolina seceded, "The Declaration of Independence justifies her in doing so," and after other states had seceded he said, "Wayward sisters, depart in peace." It was not treason, and . when it was proposed to try Jefferson Davis after the surrender for high treason, the greatest lawyers of the North advised against it, and assured the government that he could not be convicted, for no one could be convicted of treason for seceding.
9. The South saw that it was useless to cry peace when there was no peace. Compromise after compromise had been offered by Crittenden and Douglas and other conservative statesmen, but all were rejected, and at last, when Lincoln was elected on a sectional platform, and while the North was singing, "John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave," the Southern members withdrew from the Congress of the nation and came home for counsel. It seemed that it was better to separate in peace than to remain longer in discord. South Carolina was the first to break the chain, Georgia followed. The Southern people did not doubt the right of secession, but many good men doubted its policy. Even Daniel Webster, the great expounder, said in his last great speech at Capon Springs the year before he died, "I repeat that if the Northern states refuse wilfully and deliberately to carry into effect that part of the Constitution which respects the restoration of fugitive slaves, and Congress provides no remedy, the South would not longer be bound to observe the compact. A bargain cannot be broken on one side and still bind the other side."
Io. The Northern states did refuse and Congress provided no remedy. Hence the Southern states withdrew from the Union, withdrew peaceably, claiming nothing but what was on their soil and leaving to the North the capital and all the nation's treasures.
II. This secession resulted speedily in a war, a horrible, terrible war, but the negro did not cut his master's throat nor detile his hearthstone.
I36
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE COMMON PEOPLE AND THE ARISTOCRACY.
I. Before the late war there were two distinct types of Anglo- Saxon civilization occupying the Southern states, especially those states lying east of the Mississippi River. They were the common people and the aristocracy. While these classes intermingled and sometimes intermarried, the line was plainly marked and seemed to grow more visible as the years rolled on. The institution of slavery helped to keep it bright.
2. It was not a line between the poor and rich, nor between the ignorant and the educated, nor between slave-holders and non-slave-holders. It was not a political line dividing the Whigs from the Democrats, but nevertheless it was a line which all of these helped to make, and it gradually grew into one of social equality, or inequality. The toilers did not often mate with the aristocrats nor intrude upon them socially. Indeed, they occupied for the most part, different sections of the state, the common people settling in the mountain region or down in the piney woods, while the wealthier class lived in middle Georgia, or on the coast, where their slaves could grow cotton and rice to advantage.
3. These common people had settled down in advance of the schoolmaster and long before railroads were built, so their children grew up without education, and their only chance for learning was a mother's love and solicitude. She would teach them all that she had not forgotten -she always does. The father may be educated but he will not trouble himself to teach his children. He is too busy by day, too tired at night. Before the war there were in north Georgia at least two gener- ations that had grown up with but a limited education - in fact, with none to speak of, for it was rare to find a man among them who could read or write. It was history repeating itself.
I37
THE COMMON PEOPLE AND THE ARISTOCRACY.
Daniel Boone could read, but his children could not. The year before the war the percentage of illiteracy in Georgia was twenty-six. Twenty-six white persons over eight years of age in every hundred could neither read nor write. This was for the whole state; but in some of the mountain counties the average was sixty-six. The itinerant preacher had been there, but not the schoolmaster. The rude people had been taught how to live and how to die. Their morals had been preserved but not their manners.
4. The cotter's Saturday night in old Scotland was not more humbly devotional than the gathering of these rough people at the log church on a Sabbath morning. There were none to molest or make them afraid. They came as best they could --- on foot, on horseback, or in the farm-wagon. They came in families, parents and children. They sat upon the puncheon seats and devoutly listened as the preacher stretched forth his arms and said : " Let us worship God." It is a lasting tribute to these people that while their percentage of illiteracy was sixty-six, their percentage of crime was only two in one thousand adults. In portions of the North where illiteracy is from four to six per cent., crime seems to have increased in an inverse ratio, for as illiteracy decreases crime increases, unless morality and religion are taught in the schools. And so since the war, when railroads and revenue laws have penetrated the mountain homes of these people, crime has been on the increase, and the moonshiner has become an outlaw. There was a time when his father and his grandfather distilled their fruit in a limited and honest way, and worshipped God, and violated no law. There was a time when there were no locks on their doors, and the stranger always found a welcome -a tinie when there were no hip-pockets for deadly weapons, when jails were empty, and half the week was sufficient to clear the court-house docket.
5. There was a time when these men so loved their country that on the first alarm they picked their flints, shouldered
I38
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
their rifles and hurried to General Jackson's call ; or, later, to fight the Indians in Florida ; or, still later, to old Virginia to defend what they believed to be their rights under the Consti- tution. What a mistake to say these men were fighting for slavery, when not one in a hundred owned a slave ; when in a single county that sent twelve companies to the war there were less than a hundred negroes ; when in the entire state only fourteen per cent. of the tax-payers were slave-owners. But they fought. They fought as their forefathers did who resisted a little tax on tea, though not one in a thousand drank it.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE COMMON PEOPLE AND THE ARISTOCRACY, - CONTINUED.
1. The aristocracy of the South was before the war mainly an aristocracy of wealth, education and dominion. Either of these gives power and influence. All of them combined lift a man above the toilers and command their respect as well as their envy. The aristocrats were generally gentlemen of education, refinement, manners and a sentiment of adjusting personal conflicts by the code of honor. Money helps to establish their title, of course, but it is not absolutely essential. . Indeed, it is possible that there are rich common people and poor aristocrats. The results of the war developed many of both classes. Our cities are full of the former, and they are generally the leading men in mercantile business and industrial pursuits. The old time aristocrats esteemed themselves to be gentlemen, and generally they were. They were of good stock and thoroughbred. Whether one was riding or walking you could tell him by his carriage-by the vehicle he rode in or the measured dignity with which he walked about.
2. That vehicle was as unique as a Chinaman's palanquin. It did not rest on elliptical springs, but was swung high
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139
THE COMMON PEOPLE AND THE ARISTOCRACY.
between four half circles, and the dickey, or driver's seat, was perched still higher, and the driver's bell-crowned hat was the first thing that came in sight as the equipage rose into view from over a distant hill. There were two folding staircases to this vehicle and nobody but an aristocratic lady could ascend or descend them with aristocratic grace. The gentleman who was born and bred to this luxury was a king in his way - limited it is true, but nevertheless a king. His house was not a palace, but it was large and roomy, having a broad hall and massive chimneys and a verandah ornamented with tall Corinthian columns. This mansion was generally situated in a grove of venerable oaks. It was set back 100 or 200 yards from the big road, and the lane that led to its hospitable gate was enfiladed with cedars or lombardy poplars. Fragments of the cedars are still left, but the poplars died with the old South. They died at the top very like their owners. Prominent in the rear of this mansion was the old gin house with the spacious circus ground underneath where the horses went round and round under the great cog-wheels, and the little darkies rode on the beams and popped their home-made whips. Not far away were the negro cabins and the orchard and the big family garden, and all around were fowls and pigs and pigeons and honey bees and hound dogs and pickaninnies to keep things lively. The owner of this plant was a gentleman and was so regarded by the neighbors. He was a nobleman without the title of nobility. He had been through college and to New York and to Saratoga and had come back and married another gentleman's daughter and settled down. The old folks on both sides had given them a start and built the mansion and sent over a share of the family negroes to multiply and replenish.
3. He dressed well and carried a gold-headed cane and a massive watch and chain that were made of pure gold at Geneva. There was a seal attached -a heavy prismatic seal that had his monogram. The manner in which he toyed with
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
this chain and seal was one of the visible signs of a gentleman. It was as significant as the motion of a lady's fan. The old gentleman's "company suit " was a navy blue swallow-tail coat ornamented with plain brass buttons that were kept bright and burnished; a pair of trousers to match and a white Marseilles waistcoat. When these were set off with a beaver hat, a ruffled shirt and a bandana handkerchief, the visible make-up of the gentleman was complete.
4. Most of these old-time gentlemen kept what was called open house, and all who came were welcome. There was no need to send word that you were coming, for food and shelter were always ready. The old gentleman called for Dick or Jack or Cæsar to come and take the horses, put them up and feed them. There was plenty of corn and fodder in the crib, plenty of big fat hams and leaf-lard in the smoke-house, plenty of turkeys and chickens in the back yard, plenty of , preserves in the pantry, plenty of trained servants to do all the work while the lady of the house entertained her guests. How proud were those family servants to show off before the visitors and display their accomplishments in the kitchen, the dining-room and the bed-chamber. They shared the family standing in the community and had but little respect for what they called the "poor white trash " of the neighborhood.
5. This old-time gentleman had a rich man's way even though he was financially embarassed. His name was in the grand jury box, never in the petit jury box. That would have been an indignity that would have been resented. There was no line of demarkation between the common people and aristocracy that was more rigidly drawn than the one that separated the grand jury from the petit jury. The aristocrats not only held all the prominent offices, but they were colonels and majors of the militia. Almost all of the professional men came from this aristocratic stock. They were generally Whigs in politics, and were the patrons of high schools and colleges, and stocked the learned professions with an annual crop of
14I
THE COMMON PEOPLE AND THE ARISTOCRACY.
graduates who were intensely loyal to Henry Clay, Fillmore, Toombs, Stephens, John Bell and the code of honor. They had wealth, dignity and leisure, and Solomon says that in leisure there is wisdom, and so these men became our law- makers, our jurists, our statesmen, and they were the shining lights in the councils of the nation. But it was an aristocracy that was exclusive. It had shut out and overshadowed the masses of the common people, just as a broad spreading oak overshadows and withers the undergrowth beneath it.
6. Of course these aristocrats were not all Whigs. There were many distinguished exceptions, such as the Jacksons, the Cobbs, the Colquitts and the Lumpkins, who were Democrats, though of aristocratic birth. Governor Brown was the first illustrious statesman to come up from among the common people and stay with them and lead them, as Moses led the children of Israel. His whole political life has been a fight against banks and monopolies, and the power and corruption that comes from large fortunes and favoritism.
7. The result of the war was a fearful fall to the aristocracy of Georgia. They lost many of their noble sons in the army, and their property soon after. The extent of their misfortunes no one will ever know, for "the heart only knoweth its own bitterness." Many of them suffered and were strong, but the majority gave up to despondency and their children were left to scuffle for themselves. The collapse to them was awful. They had not been raised to exercise self-denial or economy, and it was humiliating in the extreme for them to have to descend to the level of the common people. But they did it, and did it heroically. And so in the course of time this line of demarkation between the common people and the old aristocracy began to fade. Finally it passed away. A new and a hardier stock came to the front, that class which before the war was under a cloud. The results of the war made an opening for them and developed their latent energies. With no high degree of culture, they nevertheless proved equal to
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
the struggle up the rough hill of life, and began to build up what the war had pulled down. They began at the bottom, just where the war found them and where it left them. They had been reared to work, and their practical energy was soon followed by thrift and a general recovery of wasted fields and fenceless farms. These men now constitute, in the main, the solid men of the state, and have contributed largely to the building up of schools and churches and factories and rail- roads. They are the modern self-made Southerners, a class that forms a striking contrast to the dignity and repose of the old patriarchs whose beautiful homes adorned the hills and groves of the South before the war.
8. But the children of these old patriarchs had to come down some, and the children of the common people came up some, and they have met upon a common plain, and are now working happily together, both in social and business life. Spirit and blood have united with energy and muscle and it makes a good team- the best all-round team the South has ever had.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE LITERATURE OF GEORGIA.
1. Considering that Georgia is half a century younger than her sisters of the colonial states, her advance in literature has been more rapid than any of them. What she has done has not been voluminous, but it has been done well and is widely varied.
2. In historic writing and antiquarian research the late Colonel Charles C. Jones of Augusta, stands at the head - a gentleman of the highest literary culture. His history of Georgia as a colony and her struggles for independence are of great value and will compare favorably with the life works
143-144
HOKE SMITH.
145
THE LITERATURE OF GEORGIA.
of Prescott and Bancroft. Reverend William Bacon Stevens has also written a comprehensive history of the state. The late work by Professor Lawton B. Evans intended for the schools, is an admirable compilation and composition. Alexander H. Stephens has also a school history of the war between the states, and Colonel I. W. Avery has a most delightful history of Georgia that covers secession and the war and the recon- struction period. It reads like a romance and is as graphically written as Macaulay's History of England. Professor Derry and Miss Fields have each written a most excellent history of the United States, and Miss Rutherford's and Professor Sandford's text-books are standards in the schools. Mrs. Cooper has given the schools an admirable work on botany. But for painstaking research and facts in detail White's Statistics and White's Historical Collections are the most useful books for reference that have been compiled.
3. In the field of biography there are many entertaining works. The Life of Alexander H. Stephens by Cleveland and another by Richard M. Johnston, The Life of Linton Stephens by Waddell, The Life of Robert Toombs by Stovall, and The Life of Ben Hill by his son, are all interesting historical treasures.
4. In the domain of fiction and romance Mrs. Wilson (Augusta Evans) takes the lead. She is Georgia born. Mrs. Mary E. Bryan has written much of a high order, and William Henry Peek and Henry W. Hilliard have written some superior romances, and Reverend F. R. Goulding's Young Marooners will go along with every generation of children.
5. In poetry there is a lavish affluence and many of our poets rank well with the best of the century. Beginning with Richard Henry Wilde, the gifted author of My Life is like the Summer Rose, we come down the line of years to General Henry R. Jackson, Paul H. Hayne, Father Ryan, James R. Randall, Charles W. Hubner, Sidney Lanier, Doctor F. O. Tichnor and last, but not least, our own Frank L. Stanton.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
6. In the field of humor Georgia has long been pre-eminent. Beginning with Judge Longstreet and his inimitable Georgia Scenes, we come down to Colonel William Thompson and his Major Jones' Courtship, then to Colonel Richard M. Johnston and his Dukesboro Tales, and still later to Joel Chandler Harris of world - wide fame. We also have Harry Edwards and Maurice Thompson and M. M. Folsom who entertain the reading public with occasional contributions to the press.
7. Of public speakers no state has, since the war, had greater than Toombs, Ben Hill, Brown, Black, Stephens, Colquitt, Gordon, Doctor Miller, Doctor Felton, and last and youngest, Henry W. Grady.
8. But among all the notable men of Georgia, none deserve more special mention than her long line of educators. They begin with Joseph Meigs, the first President of Franklin College (now the State University at Athens) who was a lineal descendant of Return Jonathan Meigs of revolutionary fame. He was succeeded by Reverend Moses Waddell, who was the preceptor of John C. Calhoun, Hugh S. Legare, James L. Pettigrew, Alexander H. Stephens, and many others who became distinguished in after years. Mr. Waddell married a sister of John C. Calhoun. Reverend Alonzo Church was another president of the same institution, and the eminent brothers, Joseph and John LeConte were professors there.
9. In charge of other institutions are to be mentioned Ignatius Few and Judge Longstreet of Emory College. Judge Longstreet was a man of extraordinary talents, and whatever he did was done easily and well. He was the son of William Longstreet, the inventor, who applied steam to boats before Fulton did. His versatile genius made him a great man in many ways, and whether as a law-maker or a judge or an editor or a teacher or a preacher or in the art of conversation or as the author of Georgia Scenes, his work was a success. It was a comfort to know him in the vigor of his splendid manhood, and also in his dignified decay, when, with feeble
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CONDITION OF THE STATE.
and tottering steps he frequented the sanctum of the Columbus Enquirer and wielded his masterly pen for the rights of the states. How much of life he lived. Judge of his circuit when only thirty years of age; editor of the Augusta Sentinel, which in 1838 consolidated with the Chronicle; then a Methodist minister stationed in Augusta, then President of Emory College for nine years, then President of the Centenary College in Louisiana, then President of Oxford University, and last, the President of Columbia College, South Carolina; and all this time writing often and ably for religious papers and literary magazines and agricultural and political journals. All this for solid mental food, besides the Georgia Scenes and Master William Mitten, for a dessert. The late Justice Lamar was a graduate of 'Emory' and married Judge Longstreet's daughter.
10. Reverend Atticus Haygood was also a President of Emory College, and no Georgian has made a greater repu- tation since the war as a writer on religious and ethical subjects.
II. In other institutions and in private schools were Nathaniel Beman, Richard Malcolm Johnston, Simpson Fouche, the Battles and Caldwells and Howards, all of whom have left their impress upon this generation.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
CONDITION OF THE STATE.
I. The state of Georgia extends from the 35th parallel of North latitude southward to the latitude of 30° 22'. Its longitude West from Greenwich is from 80º 52', to $4º 45' 20", or, West from Washington city, from 3° +S' 40", to 7º 42' 20". The greatest length North and South is 320 miles. Its greatest breadth, East and West, 254 miles.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
2. On the North the state is bounded by Tennessee for twenty-three miles, and by North Carolina sixty-three and one- half miles ; on the East by the Savannah River and the Atlantic Ocean : on the South by Florida for 200 miles, and on the West by Alabama and Florida.
3. Georgia contains 58,000 square miles, or 37,120,000 acres. About twenty per cent. of the lands are in cultivation. The remainder is forest. The geographical center of the state is about twenty miles south of Macon.
4. The topography or surface of the state is composed of three distinct parts. The first is known as the coastal plain. or Southern Georgia, and extends from the Atlantic Ocean northwesterly for an average distance of about 110 miles. . 1 line drawn across the state through Americus, Hawkinsville and Millen, approximates the northern boundary of the coastal plain.
5. This part of the state is low, and generally flat, or very slightly undulating, and rises very gradually from the sea-coast. Its elevation above the sea is from 10 to 250 feet.
6. The second part may be designated as Middle Georgia. and extends from the upper edge of the coastal plain to a line drawn across the state about through La Grange and Athens. This section is hilly, high, well drained, and sloping gradually towards the coast plain. Its average elevation above the sea is about 650 feet.
7. The third section, or North Georgia, extends from the last-named line to the northern and western boundaries of the state. It is not only hilly but mountainous, with rapid rivers and long, high ridges and mountain chains. This section ranges from 600 to 4Soo feet above the sea level.
8. All the rivers in Southern and Middle Georgia flow into the Atlantic Ocean, except the Flint and Suwannee, which flow into the Gulf of Mexico.
9. All the rivers in North Georgia flow into the Gulf of Mexico except the Savannah River and branches, which go to
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CONDITION OF THE STATE.
the Atlantic Ocean. The water-shed or ridge that divides the waters, extends from La Grange northeasterly to Atlanta and Gainesville. When it rains in Atlanta part of the water goes to the Ocean and the other part to the Gulf.
10. With such differences in the elevation of different parts of the state, we find corresponding differences in the climate or temperature. In North Georgia it is generally cool, slightly warmer in Middle Georgia, and warmer still as we approach the lowlands of the coast. But even there the temperature is tempered by the sea breezes, and South Georgia is a delightful place of residence at all seasons.
II. The annual average temperature of the state is 60 degrees. In North Georgia the average summer temperature is 72 degrees ; the winter 32. In South Georgia the averages are 80 and 52 degrees for summer and winter respectively. The average yearly rainfall is about 48 inches.
12. The three distinct sections of the state show three general classes of soils : dark red and chocolate lands, with alluvial soil in the Northern part ; red clay and gray soils in Middle Georgia, and sandy alluvial soils in Southern Georgia. These soils are all productive, as is abundantly shown by the Statistics of Agriculture.
13. Southern Georgia is known as the "Pine Belt," from the fact that the natural growth there is mainly the long-leaf pine, so valuable for its lumber, turpentine and rosin. Millions of feet of this lumber are shipped every year to all parts of the world, and taken all together, it is probably the most valuable tree that grows.
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