USA > Georgia > Fulton County > Atlanta > History of Atlanta, Georgia : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 14
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distinguished gentlemen whose names are mentioned, that as a Georgian he owed his allegiance first to the State of his nativity, of his manhood, and of his home ; that her people were his people, and her fate should be his fate.
After the State had seceded, Mr. Hill was chosen one of the delegates to the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Ala. In that convention he took an able and distinguished part. Soon after the convention adjourned, when the time came to elect Confederate senators, he was chosen for the long term, and took his seat in the Confederate Senate, which he occupied till the end of the war. He was made chairman of the judiciary committee, and had the confidence of President Davis to the fullest extent, and was regarded the ablest supporter of Mr. Davis's policy in the Senate. And when the cause was wan- ing, and our people were deeply depressed, Mr. Hill left the Senate and went upon the stump, and was making an able effort to arouse the spirits of the peo- ple of Georgia and of the Confederacy to renewed resistance, when General Lee surrendered.
Soon after the Confederacy failed, when many of those who had been con- sidered the leaders were arrested, Mr. Hill was among the number. While President Davis was consigned to a cell in Fortress Monroe, and Vice- Presi- dent Stephens to one in Fort Warren, and Governor Joseph E. Brown was incar- cerated in the Carroll Prison, in Washington, D. C., Mr. Hill was assigned to quarters in Fort Lafayette, in New York harbor.
After the release of Mr. Hill from prison he returned to Georgia and re- sumed the practice of his profession with great energy and splendid success. He pursued his profession, taking little part in politics until after the passage of the reconstruction acts in March, 1867. He then believed by an able and bold opposition to the measures prescribed by Congress, and by resistance to them in every manner not forcible, the people of the Northern and Western States would condemn the action of Congress, restore the Democratic party to power, and the people of Georgia would be saved much of the humiliation they had been exposed to by acts of Congress which were regarded by a ma- jority of the white people of the State as illiberal and unjust.
When Mr. Hill espoused the cause on this line, he did it with all the ability, earnestness, energy, and enthusiasm of his nature. He attended the first Democratic convention held in Georgia, and was the leading spirit and director of it. In the face of the military, with undaunted spirit, he made what was known as his " Davis Hall speech," in the city of Atlanta, which, as a master- piece of denunciation, philippic and invective, has scarcely ever been equaled, except in what were known as his " Rush-arbor speech " and his " Notes on the Situation." The magic power of his declamation and of his denunciation were overwhelming and terrific. Probably no one of the masters of elocution who has lived on this continent has surpassed it. The period was a stormy one. The debates were bitter and even vindictive on both sides. It was a
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time of madness. Social relations were sundered in many cases, and there was for a time an upheaval of the very foundations of society. During this extraordinary period, when the whole political fabric of the State seemed to rock amid the throes of dissolution, no one figured so grandly as Mr. Hill, and no one was so idolized as he.
In the fall of 1870, after the reconstruction of the States was completed under the plan dictated by Congress, and the constitutional amendments were adopted and incorporated into and became part of that instrument, it was dis- covered by all that both the Congress and the courts would unquestionably sustain those new provisions of the constitution, Mr. Hill became fully con- vinced of the fact that further resistance was useless. And while he believed he had saved much to the State by the course he had pursued in rallying and holding the people together and reorganizing the Democracy upon a firm basis, he did not hesitate to advise the people of Georgia to cease further re- sistance to what was then an accomplished fact. This announcement on his part exposed him for a time to severe criticism by those who did not under- stand his motives. But he was as firm and lion-like in maintaining the stand he then took as he had been in the terrible resistance which he made to the reconstruction measures as long as he entertained any hope that resistance might be successful. From this time forward Mr. Hill renewed his allegiance to the government to the fullest extent, and did all in his power to produce quiet and contentment, which he saw were necessary to a return of peace and prosperity to the people of his State.
During the period that intervened, for the next two or three years, he pur- sued his law practice with his usual ability and success, and also again em- barked in a large planting business in Southwestern Georgia.
But the people of Georgia were not content that he should remain a pri- vate citizen. They desired the benefit of his superb talents in the national councils; and on the death of Hon. Garnet McMillan, who was a member of the House of Representatives from the ninth district of Georgia, Mr. Hill, by an overwhelming majority, was elected to fill the vacancy ; and he took his seat in the house March 5, 1877. His course there is familiar to the entire country. Some splendid exhibitions of his oratorical powers in that body soon gave him an extensive national reputation. His celebrated discussion with the distinguished representative from Maine, Mr. Blaine, was one of the most memorable that has ever occurred in the House of Representatives. Each of the able antagonists sustained his cause in a manner entirely satisfac- tory to his friends. Heated, earnest and almost vituperative as the debate was between them, they learned to know each other's ability and worth and were mutually benefited. Each was soon called by his State to occupy a seat in the Senate ; and as their acquaintance was prolonged, it grew first into friendship and then into an earnest admiration of each other.
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A little more than a year before his death Senator Hill was attacked with that singular, fatal and insidious disease known as cancer, which up to the pres- ent has defied the power of medical skill. The inroads of this malady were slow, and his sufferings were very great. Neither nature nor art could arrest its progress. With mind unimpaired he waited and patiently suffered the tor- tures which preceded death. During this long and trying period his mind re- verted back to the family altar, to his church relations, and to his religious privileges and duties. He calmly surveyed the situation and reviewed his life, and his faith became still more firmly anchored within the veil. He met his sufferings with a patience and Christian fortitude that in its lessons and teach- ings were absolutely sublime.
While his sufferings were intense and his pain often excruciating he never murmured, but said : " Let God's will be done, not mine." Nothing pleased him better than the conversation of ministers of the Gospel on religious sub- jects. He spoke of the atonement made by our Saviour, of its efficiency, and of the hope that he entertained. He delighted to dwell on these subjects. While he suffered from day to day and from night to night nothing disturbed his equanimity, nothing for a moment brought a murmur to his lips. Brilliant and surpassing as had been many of the triumphs of his life, his Christian resig- nation and fortitude and his triumph in death were much more brilliant, much more sublime.
A few days preceding his death, which occurred on August 16, 1882, when his powers of speech had failed and his once eloquent tongue has ceased to ar- ticulate, and he was gently and peacefully sinking into the embrace of death, the dying senator, with a heart full of love and his countenance beaming with heavenly visions, after struggling with the impediment that bound his tongue in silence, uttered audibly his last sentence : " Almost home."
His long suffering had mellowed admiration into love, and when it was an- nounced that the great Georgian was no more, sorrow was universal. Atlanta, his home, was draped in mourning, its business stopped, and its organzations, private and public, vied with each other in expression of grief, and here, where he was loved as few men are ever loved, in 1885 was erected a full length mar- ble statue to perpetuate the name and deeds of this illustrious Georgian. The public press all over the country, the representative men of every section mourned his loss and bore united testimony to his worth as a statesman and a patriot. The Philadelphia Times paid the following tribute to his memory, which found an echo in every lover of a true and noble manhood :
" Not the State of Georgia alone, nor the South alone, if sectional divisions must still be recognized, but the whole country suffers a loss in the death of Benjamin H. Hill. He was one of the strong men of his generation, with ca- pacities of public usefulness that were not bounded by sectional lines. Earnest, eloquent, impulsive, often wrong headed, but always true of heart, the South
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might well be content to recognize him as a representative man. He was never a wire worker. He opposed secession while he could ; went with his State and served it and the Confederacy wisely while the Confederacy lasted, and then accepted the inevitable and frankly devoted his ability, experience, eloquence and influence to the restoration of peace, prosperity and cordial union. That he should find himself opposed and misrepresented by jealous partisans was inevitable, and scheming politicians did what they could to drive him back into Bourbonism, but through all the controversies of the last few years 'Ben' Hill had steadily made his way in the public esteem and confidence, and in this last year of his patient suffering has added to this large measure of affectionate ad- miration. Georgia will treasure his memory as one of the most brilliant of her many brilliant sons, and in her loss she will have the cordial sympathy of the whole American people."
In the State of Georgia, and especially in Atlanta, the city of his home, the death of no public man ever was so genuinely mourned. The day following his death the Atlanta Constitution said :
" It all seems like a dream-a dream of life curiously confused with an ex- perience of the reality of death. And yet, when death exalts, as its gradual approach and presence exalted this man, it is no longer to be feared. Months ago, when the great Georgian was in the very prime of life, in the full maturity of perfect manhood, the dread shadow placed itself at his side. It brought no terrors then, and at the last it was a welcome guest. It took the senator from the tumult of politics, where the eloquent tongue, the grand intellect and the fiery magnetism of a high and earnest purpose carried him always to the front, and bore him gently into the bosom of his family, where peace, comfort and utter devotion awaited him. It gave him an opportunity to test the love of his people ; an opportunity to discover before he died that he had not lived in vain. He beheld, in some measure, the fruition of his life's purpose. He saw Georgia prosperous, contented and free, and he was satisfied ; nay, more, he was happy. He was hopeful, not for himself, but for the people. He had no troubles of his own. The complacency of profound rest fell upon him and wrapped him round about ; so that his sufferings seemed to come to him as angels and ministers of peace.
" And yet, in the midst of the serenity that surrounded him, there was one trouble that obtruded itself. He had a message to deliver to the people that could not be delivered. Communicating with a friend, he wrote out this desire. If he could only gather the strength that remained he would write out his re- flections, which he was confident would be of greater service to the people than all the acts of his life. This desire was the burden of his thoughts. His own personality, his own suffering he had placed aside ; waking or dreaming. his thoughts were of his country, his State. He had measured the spirit of sec- tionalism, and he feared it; he appreciated the social and political problems
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which the South inherited from the chaos of war. He desired, as a last effort, to give the people the benefit of his maturest thoughts. But it was not to be. His strength ebbed away and his last thoughts remained unwritten.
"Nevertheless, his best thoughts and his high purposes live in the hearts of the people. Though he is dead, yet the day has never been when he was a more potent influence in Georgia. Happy are they who die young, but hap- pier are they who die mourned by old and young."
H OWELL, EVAN P. There is something inspiring in the records of a busy and useful life; something stimulating in the details of a career that is marked by a generous and beneficent purpose; something worthy of emulation in the success that has been wrought by unselfish means. Such is the record of Evan P. Howell's life.
He was born at Warsaw, in Forsyth (now Milton) county, on the 10th day of December, 1839. In 1851 his father, the late Judge Howell, moved with his family to Atlanta. While in Atlanta young Howell learned telegraphy under D. U. Sloan, and was the first telegraph operator ever taught in Atlanta. Young Evan attended the common schools of Warsaw and Atlanta until 1855, when he entered the Georgia Military Institute at Marietta. At that time the institute was one of the best schools to be found in the country, and its students numbered representatives from all parts of the country. Its discipline was perfect, and its curriculum as complete as that of any of our modern colleges.
Young Howell remained at Marietta two years and then went to Sanders- ville, Ga., where he read law until 1859, when he entered the Lumpkin Law School at Athens. In 1860 he began the practice of law at Sandersville ; but he had hardly warmed to his work, as the phrase goes, before hostilities be- tween the North and the South had broken out. He left Georgia in 1861 with the First Georgia Regiment as orderly-sergeant, but was elected lieuten- ant before he had been in the service a month. Afterwards he was promoted to the position of first lieutenant. At the expiration of the twelve months ser- vice of his regiment he organized the company into a light battery and was elected captain. He served in Virginia under Jackson in the valley, and was transferred with his command to the Western Army in time to take part in the battle of Chickamauga. Captain Howell remained with the Western Army until the end of the war-with Claiborne's Division the most of the time, and was in every engagement, from Chickamauga to Lovejoy's Station.
It was on the retreat from Laurel Hill, in West Virginia, that Captain Howell caught his first serious glimpse of war. In that retreat the Confeder- ates dispersed in squads, and Captain Howell and his companions soon discov- ered that they were lost in the mountains. By a tacit understanding he was looked on as the leader of the party, and this understanding was reached be-
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cause his companions had an instinctive appreciation of those qualities that have distinguished both the civil and military career of Captain Howell -an undaunted courage and an indomitable will. For days and days Captain Howell and his fellow-soldiers wandered through the mountain fastnesses of West Virginia, enduring what were undoubtedly the severest privations of the war. They lived on the bark and roots of trees, and in other ways known only to those who find famine staring them in the face. When the faint- hearted, weary and exhausted were inclined to give up, it was the voice and the example of Captain Howell that cheered them on.
After the war he farmed for two years in Fulton county, near the Chatta- hoochee River. In 1868 he returned to Atlanta and became city editor of the Atlanta Intelligence. He held this position a year, and then resumed the prac- tice of law. In 1869 he was made chairman of the Democratic executive com- mittee of Fulton county, and was elected a member of the city council for two terms. As chairman of the executive committee and as member of the coun- cil he had much to do with the reorganization of the Democratic party of Ful- ton county, and of the city government of Atlanta.
For two years Captain Howell acted as solicitor general of this circuit, and these two covered a period of almost vital importance to the people of Georgia. Many portions of the State were still afflicted with the chaos and confusion resulting from the war, and Captain Howell, as solicitor- general of the Atlanta circuit, bore an important part in restoring peace and good order. That dis- tinguished jurist, John L. Hopkins, was on the bench, and his administration of justice was so swift and so severe that he became the terror of evil-doers all over the State. It has already been stated that Captain Howell bore an im- portant part in this rehabilitation -this resuscitation, rather, of law and order in Georgia. To an energy and zeal that were untiring and aggressive, he added a remarkable knowledge of human nature. He had a knack of sifting evidence in a way that generally proved irresistible to juries. His aim was to simplify and make plain the law rather than to confuse its terms, and to this end he endeavored to conform it to the standard of common sense. At that time the criminal harvest was a large one ; but even taking that fact into ac- count, Captain Howell's success in bringing evil-doers to justice was something phenomenal. As prosecuting attorney he drew the indictments against the men charged with the swindles connected with the Western and Atlantic Rail- road, and it was on his motion that a citizens' meeting was called for the pur- pose of taking forcible possession of the books of the State road. The move- ment was successful ; the books were forcibly taken possession of and placed in custody of E. E. Rawson, C. C. Hammock and C. L. Redwine. By this summary process much valuable testimony was secured to be used against the officers of the road.
In 1873 Captain Howell was elected to the State Senate, and was re-elected
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in 1876. He was a delegate to the St. Louis Convention of 1876, and served on the committee on resolutions. He was a delegate to the Cincinnati Con- vention of 1880, and served on the same committee ; and he was also a dele- gate to the Chicago Convention of 1884, and again served on the platform committee. Recognizing the extent and character of the services Captain Howell had rendered to the party, President Cleveland tendered him the posi- tion of United States consul at Manchester. In 1886 he was appointed capi- tol commissioner by Governor McDaniel.
Perhaps the best and most successful political work Captain Howell ever did was in what is known as the capital campaign. Atlanta had been made the capital of the State by the Republicans, and there was so much dissatisfac- tion throughout the State that the framers of the constitution of 1877 pro- vided for an election at which the capital question could be definitely settled by the people. The contest was between Atlanta and Milledgeville. When the campaign fairly opened, the city council of Atlanta selected Senator Joseph E. Brown, Major Campbell Wallace and Captain Howell to manage the cam- paign in behalf of Atlanta. In all probability it was one of the liveliest and most hotly contested campaigns that ever took place in the State. As the youngest and most active member of the campaign committee, the hardest work fell to the share of Captain Howell. Guided by the two wise men who were his colleagues, he left nothing undone that would aid the cause of Atlanta. A part of his work may be seen in the editorial columns of the Constitution, which for several months fairly bristled with articles on the subject, ranging from grave to gay, from lively to severe. His work in behalf of Atlanta cov- ered the entire State, and the result was that the people, by an overwhelming majority, voted for the capitol to remain in this city.
In the winter of 1876 Captain Howell bought an interest in the Atlanta Constitution, and became president of the company and editor-in-chief of .the paper. He called to his aid a staff of experienced writers, and under his man- agement it was not many months before the Constitution had achieved a na- tional reputation. In journalism, as in politics, the success of Captain Howell has been due to a large knowledge of human nature, and a sagacity based on that rare quality known as common sense. The Constitution is a party paper, but under Captain Howell's management it has been something more than this. In season and out of season its manifold energies have been directed toward the building up of Atlanta and the development of the material re- sources of the South. Wherever there is a new industry to be organized, wherever there is a hope or a sign of progress, there the Constitution is to be found, and it is not too much to say that its labors in this particular field have been of incalculable benefit not only to Atlanta and to Georgia, but to the whole South.
While he recognizes the importance of party politics in the South at this 10*
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juncture, Captain Howell believes that the rehabilitation of the South, the de- velopment of its immense natural resources, and the organization of new indus- tries, are infinitely more important than mere partisan politics. On this subject, however, he can best speak for himself.
The following stenographic report of the speech of Captain Evan P. How- ell, delivered at the meeting of the citizens in Bartow county, held in Carters- ville, in May, 1888, is taken from the Cartersville Courant-American.
The meeting was presided over by Mr. Stansell, of Cartersville, who an- nounced that it was the second grand rally of the people of Bartow county, " for the purpose of putting our minds, our hearts and our energies together on the line of internal improvement, especially that of our immediate section."
Colonel J. W. Harris, jr., introduced Captain Howell, who responded as follows :
MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : I was invited up here by our friend, General Young, to a kind of protracted business meeting, and I didn't know but what there was to be a little religious meeting, as well as a furnace meeting. [Laughter.] I came here for the pur- pose of conferring with business men, as I thought, about this great country you have. He told me it was a protracted meeting.
I thank my friend Harris for the complimentary manner in which he alluded to me, but ! want to state right here, in the beginning, that I will not be a candidate for any office, and I never expect to be. I wanted to come here simply on a labor of love, and I am free to talk to you to the best of my ability about the resources of this country, and I will tell you that I have never yet -I have talked about this section of country many times-but I have never yet got- ten anybody to believe what I have said about it, but I believe I have got people before me now that will bear me out in what I say as to what you have around you here.
Now, I had occasion in 1875 to think of emigrating. You know everybody in the world -- all Americans-have this emigration fever. Everybody has it sometime in their life, just like the children have the whooping-cough, the measles, and scarlet fever. They have to have it ; it doesn't matter whether it comes as they attain manhood or get older, or when they fail in business, or when they see something before them that they do not know how to get over, for some reason or other they have the fit and they generally emigrate.
In 1875, after that panic of '73, after having gone through what we all had, returning to our homes and finding them desolate, I made up my mind that I would try to find a better country than Georgia to live in. It seemed to me that we were not progressing. That disastrous panic had swept nver the country, destroyed business interests, and even from the war up to that time I was in as bad a panic as I was at that time. I saw no outcome from it. We had the negro problem before us. It was hard for men to get employment. It was hard to pay wages. It was hard to pay fees to lawyers and to doctors, and it appeared to me that there must be some better country than Georgia was, some place where a man could get a foothold and climb faster and better this rugged road in life, I made up my mind that I would go and hunt for that country, and I started in company with Mr. Glenn and Judge Hopkins, of At- lanta, all of us with the same end in view and with money to buy us homes. We left Georgia in July, 1875, and we traveled all over the northwestern country. We traveled for a thousand miles in California. We spent six months in making a diligent and thorough investigation of all that section of country on the Pacific slope, with a view of finding a place where we could locate better homes and finding better people, if possible, and a better place to obtain the nec- essary comforts of life. Now, I want to admit to you to-night that we all came back here to Georgia and to North Georgia, and within forty miles of where we are to-night, better satisfied
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