Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. I, Part 34

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1294

USA > Georgia > Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. I > Part 34

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BROWN, JOSEPH EMERSON, was born in Pickens district, S. C., April 15, 1821. His paternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish. The grandfather, Joseph Brown, was a whig rebel, and took an active part in the war for Independence. The father, Mackey Brown, was a native of South Carolina, and served under Jackson, in the campaign of New Orleans, in the war of 1812. He married Sally Rice, of Virginia ancestry, in Tennessee, and then moved to South Carolina. During the boyhood of Joseph, the Browns removed to, and settled in, Union county, which is in northeastern Georgia. He labored in the field and attended stock to aid in the family support until nineteen years of age. He had mastered

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the elementary branches in the country schools, when he heard of the educational advantages offered at Calhoun academy, in Anderson district, S. C. It was 130 miles distant, and his sole possessions consisted of a yoke of steers. He borrowed a horse and drove them to the vicinity of the school, where he traded them for eight months' board, and entered the college, going in debt for the tuition. By teaching school he got through the second term, when, in January, 1844, he took hold of the town academy at Canton, Ga. While teaching this school he read law of nights and Saturdays without an instructor. In 1845 he pursued the study of law with a view to its practice, and, at the same time, earned his board by teaching the children of Dr. John W. Lewis. The latter, appreciating the mind and energy of the young man, loaned him money to attend the law school at Yale college, where he entered in October, 1845. In addition, he took a literary course, and was graduated in 1846, when he returned to Canton, and entered into practice, which soon became extensive and lucrative. Joseph Brown's first election to public office was in 1849, when nominated by the democrats of the senatorial district of Cobb and Cherokee counties, he was elected by a big majority. This general assembly was a body of the first significance and importance on account of the state's rapid development, and embraced many men of mark and merit. In the debates and matters attending the alleged fraudulent organization of the territory of California, Mr. Brown, while "not a disunionist or secessionist, was firmly in favor of such a course as might lend to aggression and preserve the Union and constitution by providing safeguards, or enforcing those we had, for the rights of the states, and the honor and interest of the householding people of the south." He was chosen presidential elector on the Pierce ticket in 1852, and in 1855, was elected judge of the superior courts of the Blue Ridge circuit over Hon. David Irwin. He was nominated and elected governor over Ben. H. Hill in 1857, and re-elected in 1859, defeating Hon. Warren Akin of Bartow county. In 1861 he was the third time elected defeating Hon. Eugenius A. Nesbit, and in 1863, he was elected over Joshua Hill, a Union candidate, and an old whig, and T. M. Furlow, a strong secessionist, who was supported by the faction not approving of Gov- ernor Brown's opposition to President Davis' policy. Governor Brown was an active secessionist and on Jan. 2, 1861, ordered Colonel Alexander R. Law- ton to take possession of Forts Pulaski and Jackson, near Savannah, which was done on the 3d. He put two regiments in the field before the Confederacy was organized, and personally seized the government arsenal at Augusta, and held it under the authority of Georgia. During the war he was a vigorous supporter of the Confederate government, but disputed with Mr. Davis the constitutionality of the conscript measures. During Sherman's invasion he put into the field an army of 10,000 men made up of state officers, youth, aged men and others usually exempt from military duty, but refused to send them out of the state when requisition was made for them by the Confederate government. The collapse of the Confederacy abruptly closed his fourth term, and he was arrested, carried to Washington and confined in a military prison. In a few days he was released and returning home, went to work to upbuild his state. During the reconstruction era his course was criticised, but the final conclusion of affairs vindicated his patriotism and purity of motives. He strongly advised his state to accept the situation, and comply with the terms of reconstruction. This position made him unpopular, and for a time, to sustain his views, he voted with the republicans, openly supporting General Grant for president in 1872. Under Governor Bulloch he was appointed chief justice of the supreme court for the term of twelve years, a position he resigned in 1870 to accept the presi- dency of the company that had leased the Western & Atlantic Railroad for the

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term of twenty years. The only political defeat of his life was in 1868 when Joshua Hill was elected United States senator by the legislature. After 1872, he acted with the Democrats, and in 1880, was chosen United States senator to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of General Gordon. In 1884 he was re-elected with but one vote against him. After his election in 1880, he made a speech before the assembly justifying his course in 1866, and declaring the results of the war must be accepted as final. Governor Brown as president of the Western & Atlantic railroad pursued a progressive and liberal policy, which built up and developed the interests of the road, and protected it against the intrigues and machinations of immense and pushing systems. Governor Brown was married in 1847, to Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Joseph Grisham, a Baptist clergyman of South Carolina. To them have been born the following children: Julius L., prominent in the legal profession of Atlanta; Joseph M., engaged in the railroad business; Elijah A., engaged in agriculture; Mary, the wife of Dr. E. L. Connally of Atlanta; George M. and Sarah. Franklin Pierce Brown and Charles M. Brown, deceased. Governor Brown's career was one of success in every field. He was a statesman, jurist, lawyer, railroader, financier, manufacturer, miner, business man and farmer. No man has more impressed his brain and will upon the events with which he has been connected. He died in 1895.

JENKINS, CHARLES JONES, was born in Beaufort district, S. C., Jan. 6, 1805. He removed with his parents to Jefferson county, Ga., in 1816, and was educated at the state university and at Union college, where was graduated in 1824. He studied law in Savannah under Hon. J. M. Berrien and was admitted to the bar in 1822. He became a member of the Georgia assembly in 1830, was attorney-general of the state in 1831, and again a legislative member from 1836 to 1850. He was speaker of the house in 1840, 1843 and 1845. He was a firm advocate of the principles of state rights, but supported Harrison in 1840 and Clay in 1844, for president. He was a Union member of the Georgia convention of 1850 and voted for the famous "Georgia platform of 1850." President Fill- more offered him the secretaryship of the interior in 1850, but he declined it. In 1860 he was appointed to the supreme court bench, to fill the vacancy caused by Linton Stephens' resignation. He was elected member of the Georgia recon- struction convention called by President Johnson and became governor in 1865, but was removed by Gen. Meade in January, 1865, for refusing to draw a voucher on the treasury to pay the state convention, without an appropriation. Gen. Meade detailed Gen. Thomas H. Ruger to fill the executive chair. Gov. Jenkins left the state carrying with him the seal of state and did not return until 1869. In 1872 when the democrats were in possession of the gubernatorial chair and general assembly Gov. Jenkins delivered over the seal, books and money to the state. For years he was president of the board of trustees of the state university and in 1877 he closed his public life as president of the constitutional convention. He died near Augusta, Ga., June 13, 1883.

CONLEY, BENJAMIN, governor of Georgia from October, 1871, to January, 1872, was born in Newark, N. J., in 1815. At fifteen years of age he removed to Georgia and entered mercantile business in Augusta, of which city he was mayor in 1858. He was a republican and a champion of the congressional plan of recon- struction, holding various public positions until January, 1869, when he was elected to, and president of, the senate. On Oct. 30, 1871, Gov. Bullock having resigned, Mr. Conley by virtue of his office succeeded to the gubernatorial chair. The question arose whether he was entitled to hold the office as his term as senator

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expired Nov. I. The democrats maintained that L. N. Trammell, president of the new senate, was the one to be elected governor. Mr. Trammell declined the office and his party permitted Mr. Conley to serve until December, when a special election was held and Mr. Smith chosen to fill out the unexpired term of Mr. Bullock. President Grant appointed Mr. Conley postmaster of Atlanta, a position he held for several years. Mr. Conley was a strong partisan, but showed himself a person of integrity at times when his party associates were bad men. He was a prominent Odd Fellow and a member of the Episcopal church. He died in Atlanta in 1885.

SMITH, JAMES MILTON, governor of Georgia (1872-1874), was born in Twiggs county, Ga., Oct. 24, 1823, and in his boyhood days was a helper in a blacksmith shop. Culloden academy in Monroe county furnished him with an education, and in 1846 he commenced the practice of law in Columbus, Ga. As an independent state's rights democrat he was defeated in 1855. He served in the Confederate army and became colonel of the Thirteenth Georgia infantry. He was engaged in all the battles of the Virginia army until 1863, when he took a seat in the Confederate congress. He resumed law after the war, and aided in the defense of the Columbus prisoners charged with murdering Ashburn. Mr. Smith was elected a representative to the legislature and speaker of the house in 1870, governor in 1872 to fill out Mr. Bullock's unexpired term, and again in October, 1872, for four years. In 1877, he was defeated for United States senator. Gov. Colquitt appointed him chairman of the railroad commission of Georgia in 1879. In 1888 he was made judge of the superior court. He died Nov. 20, 1890.

STEPHENS, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, was born on a farm near Craw- fordsville, Ga., Feb. 11, 1812. His grandfather, a native of England, was a brave soldier in the French and Indian war, and in the war of independence, serving with distinction under Gen. Washington. He had eight children, of whom Andrew B., the father of Alexander, was the youngest son. Andrew B. was permitted to attend the school of Rev. Hope Hull, at Washington, a famous institution of learning in that day. When fourteen years old he was recommended by his instructor as competent to teach, and was placed at the head of a school on Little Creek. His first earnings were used in purchasing the 100-acre tract of land upon which his parents lived, and this tract was the nucleus of that home- stead, which, except for a few years after the death of Andrew B., has ever since been in the possession of the family. Andrew B. married Margaret Grier, whose parents were natives of Ireland, and took up the avocation of a farmer. To them were born four children: Mary, Aaron, Grier and Alexander. The mother was of a frail constitution, mild, industrious, charitable, intelligent and a great help to the husband. She died soon after Alexander's birth. Andrew B. Stephens again married, his wife being Matilda Lindsay, the daughter of Col. John Lindsay, distinguished in the revolutionary war. From the second marriage four sons sprang: John L., Andrew Baskins, Benjamin F. and Linton. Until he was fifteen years old Alexander Stephens had few opportunities for schooling. He was the general messenger boy and errand-goer, at ten he worked in the fields and at eleven he handled the plow. His childhood was passed in sickness and menial toil. Upon the death of his father and mother, he was taken to the home of his uncle, Gen. A. W. Grier, of Warren county. He placed him in a school at Wash- ington, presided over by Rev. Alexander Hamilton Webster. This tutor, a most worthy Christian gentleman, took great interest in the pupil. His extremely frail physical organization, his delicate health, the loss of his parents, and his

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poverty had produced a frame of mind of habitual melancholy, which, associated with his constant Bible reading, had induced Mr. Webster to see in Alexander the subject of religious convictions. This prompted him to send the youth to Franklin college, now the state university, and in so doing he gave to Alexander his middle name. His tuition and expenses were paid by the Presbyterian Edu- cational society, but before he was graduated, Alexander reimbursed them from a small patrimony. He was graduated in 1832, and was employed two years in Liberty county teaching the children of Dr. Le Conte and those of Mr. Varnadoe. In 1834 he decided to adopt the profession of law, and three months of study enabled him to be admitted, upon examination by Joseph H. Lumpkin and William H. Crawford. His first political speech was made July 4, 1834, and in this he distinctly took the grounds from which his convictions never afterward wavered. While denying the asserted right of nullification, the right of a state to remain in the Union and yet disobey the Federal laws, he insisted upon the sovereignty of the states, and the right of any to withdraw from the Union, if the

compact should be violated by others. immediately successful in law. On a platform opposing nullification he was elected to the legislature from Taliaferro county, in 1836, and re-elected in 1837, 1838, 1839, 1840. In 1842, he was elected state senator and in 1843, at the age of thirty-one, to congress on the whig ticket. He was re-elected continuously until 1849. When the whig party was disorganized and the know-nothing party framed in 1855, he made an independent canvass for congress in opposition to the principles of the new party, which was one of the most remarkable political fights in his career; and was elected by 3,000 majority. He retired in 1859, and in a farewell address congratulated the country upon the peaceful settlement at that time of all the agitating questions which were disturbing the country when he entered congress in 1843. These were settled on the principles set forth in the Cincinnati platform, he said, and by adherence to those there was a bright prospect of peace for the country; but if they departed from them they might expect disaster. His name was mentioned in connection with the democratic nomination for the presidency, but he declined the use of his name in the Charles- ton convention, supporting Mr. Douglas. In a speech before the legislature of Georgia, in November, 1860, he advised against secession, and voted against it in the convention at Milledgeville, when the ordinance was adopted, though he signed the same. He was chosen a member of the Confederate convention to organize a provisional government, and was elected successively provisional and permanent vice-president of the Confederacy. He was one of the commissioners from the Confederacy to the celebrated Hampton roads peace conference in 1865. After Lee's surrender, in May, 1865, he was arrested and incarcerated at Fort Warren, Boston. In 1866, after much persuasion, he accepted the election to the United States senate, but was not allowed to take his seat. He was a delegate to the National Union convention at Philadelphia, and was defeated by Joshua Hill for the United States senate in 1868. He was again defeated for the senate by Gen. J. B. Gordon, in 1873, but was elected to congress that year, and con- tinuously up to and including the term beginning in 1882, when he resigned shortly after taking his seat, having been elected governor. He died March 4, 1883. For forty-five years Alexander H. Stephens held a foremost place in state and nation. His career was remarkable, and unequalled in the history of the nation. At any time during his life, his death would not have been a surprise, and yet his physical weakness never impaired his usefulness. Although a giant, intel- lectually, he was a pigmy physically; he never even in his prime attained a weight over ninety-four pounds, and on leaving college his weight was but seventy. Mr.

Though his health was delicate he was

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Stephens was strong by his moral intrepidity. No public opinion could frighten him, nor public frenzy awe him. He fought know-nothingism when it threatened the state, battled against secession and spoke for Union when it was hopeless. In congress he opposed Polk on the Mexican war; favored California's admission as a free state, and was one of the authors of the "Georgia platform of 1850." In 1840, though a state's rights man he voted for Harrison. He desired Texas annexed, but was for Clay, who said if annexed it would cause war. In 1848, he supported Taylor over Clay for the whig nomination for the presidency, and though generally acting with the whigs he refused to vote for Scott, casting his ballot for Webster, who was then dead. He voted to admit Texas. In 1854, he defended the Kansas-Nebraska act. He was for Douglas-against Breckinridge. During the war he opposed President Davis' conscription policy. He was a great orator and during his life made many historical addresses. He once chal- lenged Gov. Herschel V. Johnson to a duel, and at another time Senator Benj. H. Hill, but they declined to meet him. In his life he educated more than a hundred young men. He published in 1867-70 The War Between the States; and 1870-71, a School History of the United States. He died a few months after his inauguration as governor, having caught cold from exposure attending the trip to Savannah, when he made his greatest speech at Georgia sesqui-centennial celebration.

COLQUITT, ALFRED HOLT, was born in Walton county, Ga., April 20, 1824. He was graduated at Princeton college, New Jersey, in 1844; was admitted to the bar in 1845, and served in the Mexican war as a staff major. In 1855 he was elected to congress, and in 1859 was sent to the state legislature. He was the same year on the Breckinridge and Lane electoral ticket, and was a member of the Georgia secession convention in 1861. He was prominent in the advocacy of secession, and entered the Confederate army at the outbreak of the war, serving with distinction until its close as captain, colonel, brigadier-general and major- general. In 1876 he was chosen governor of Georgia for four years, and in 1880 for two years. In 1883 he was elected to the United States senate, and again in 1888, serving until his death in 1893. For thirty-five years Senator Colquitt was a democratic leader, advocating with courage, eloquence, and energy democratic principles. His public career and private life have been alike stainless. As a lawyer he showed himself learned and profound, a skillful pleader and successful advocate. Mr. Colquitt was a temperance and Sunday school leader of signal power and national reputation, winning celebrity at the intellectual centers of the country. The debates which have transpired during Mr. Colquitt's membership of the senate show his ability, his comprehensive view of public questions, his zeal for the equal rights of citizens, for the moral conditions of society and his recogni- tion of the elements of true progress so unceasingly manifest in the history of his country.

CRAWFORD, WILLIAM H., like many other distinguished Americans, owed nothing to the influence of family or wealth. He was born in the state of Virginia Feb. 24, 1772, of poor but reputable parents. When about fourteen years old he emigrated with them to Georgia. His father was dependent on the labor of himself and sons for the support of a large family. William, after following the plow until about the age of twenty-one, was sent into the world without fortune or patronage. He had received, while at home, a good English education, but aspir- ing beyond the sphere to which his humble attainments as a scholar would have confined him, he determined by his own efforts to repair the deficiencies of fortune

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and to qualify himself for one of the learned professions. In 1794 he was able to place himself under the tuiton of Rev. Dr. Waddell, and by employment as teacher he was enabled to support himself and read law, being admitted to practice in 1799. In 1800 he was appointed, with two others, to revise and digest the laws of the state. While at the bar his reputation as a lawyer was unrivaled in that state, and his professional attainments were accompanied and adorned by an irreproachable moral character. He supported Jefferson for president in 1800, and in the canvass his commanding talents and political firmness led to quarrels, followed by two duels, in one of which he had the misfortune to kill his antagonist, and in the other to be himself severely wounded. In the first his opponent was Peter L. Van Alen, then solicitor-general of the western circuit of Georgia, and in the latter, Gov. Clarke. In 1804 he was elected as a republican in the legislature, and in 1807 to the senate of the United States, as sufficient proof of the estimation of his talents and industrious application to the public business. While Mr. Crawford continued in the senate he was one of the most useful and distinguished members of that body. From 1808 to 1813 he took a conspicuous part. He voted in 1811 in favor of the United States bank, and in consequence of the sickness of Vice-President Clinton was elected to the important station of president of the senate pro tempore, being the youngest man ever elected to the chair. On the resignation of Mr. Eustis as secretary of war in 1812, the place was offered to Mr. Crawford, but he declined it. At the close of the session of congress, in March, 1813, Mr. Crawford was made minister to France, a station which had become vacant by the death of Mr. Barlow. He returned in 1813 and took charge of the war department, an appointment which had been conferred on him in anticipation of his return. Under his administration an extensive system of fortifying the sea-coast was planned and commenced. In March, 1816, a nomination of president and vice-president was made by the repub- lican members of congress. So elevated, even at that early day, was the standing of Mr. Crawford, that he was the only person named as the competitor of Mr. Monroe. He declined to be considered a candidate, yet he received fifty-four votes out of 119. On the resignation of Mr. Dallas, in October, 1816, Mr. Crawford was transferred to the treasury department. He was continued in this station on the accession of Mr. Monroe in March, 1817, and served until 1825. He was nomi- nated for the presidency in 1824 over Mr. Calhoun by the democratic party, and in the election that followed he received the electoral votes of Virginia, Georgia, with scattering votes from New York, Maryland and Delaware, in all forty-one. No choice having been made by the electoral college, the election reverted to the house of representatives, when John Quincy Adams was elected over Jackson and Crawford, a result said to have been brought about by Henry Clay, who as a candidate threw his support to Adams. Crawford's administration of the treasury was criticised and was made the subject of an investigation. The committee, headed by Webster and Randolph, reported sustaining Mr. Crawford. After receiving his wound his health was badly impaired and rendered it impossible for him to continue in public life, and, although he recovered his strength partially, he took no part after this date in politics. Returning to Georgia he became circuit judge, and occupied this office until 1831. He was opposed to the nullification movement, and his last days were spent in retirement. Though powerful as a. debater, the merits of Mr. Crawford were more in the closet and on committees. Gifted with a vigorous, expansive and discriminating mind-a mind guided by discretion and governed by integrity-he forced his way by patient application and persevering industry from obscurity and indigence to the highest stations in the public service. In private life Mr. Crawford was unostentatious in his manners, mild and conciliatory in his deportment, plain and regular in his habits, correct in I-16

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morals, frank and honest in his intercourse with society-a friend of religion and public virtue.

HILL, BENJAMIN HARVEY, was born at Hillsborough, in Jasper county, Ga., Sept. 14, 1823. His father, John Hill, was a man of limited means and little education, but of a flawless reputation and possessed of any amount of good common sense. His mother was a Miss Parham, a Christian lady whose example and teachings had a potent influence in forming the honorable characters of her children. Both parents were consistent members of the Methodist church. When Benjamin was about ten years old his father moved to Long Lane, Troup Co., which was his home until the day of his death. Benjamin grew up on the farm, joining with his brothers in hard labor, and helping his father in the support of the large family, and his only educational advantages were those found in a few months of the country schooling. When eighteen years old, through an arrangement by which his father contributed one-half of the expense, and his mother and an aunt furnished from their slender savings the other half, Benjamin was sent to the state university. He graduated there, taking first honor, also the honors of his literary society. So keen was his intellect that within a year he was admitted to the bar and began practice at La Grange. Here, soon after the commencement of his great career, he was wedded to Miss Caroline Holt, of Athens, a young lady belonging to one of Georgia's old families, of fortune, beauty and accomplishments. Mr. Hill grew rapidly at the bar and his profes- sional fame soon extended all over the state. He began life as a whig and was elected to the legislature in 1851 on that ticket. When that party dissolved he became a know-nothing, or strictly American, and as such was defeated for congress by Judge Hiram Walker, the democratic candidate. In 1856 he was nominated on the Fillmore ticket as an elector-at-large and stumped the state with great ability. At this time he assumed the leadership of the American party, and became their candidate for governor in 1857, being defeated by Gov. Joseph E. Brown. In 1859 he was elected to the state senate as a unionist, and in 1860 his name was on the Bell electoral ticket. He was an open Union man, and in the state secession convention at Milledgeville in 1861 strongly opposed the ordinance of withdrawal from the Union, but on account of the threatened division of his people he afterward voted for secession. He was a member of the Con- federate provisional congress and Confederate senate, and was regarded the ablest supporter of Mr. Davis' policy in the senate. In May, 1865, after Lee's surrender, he was arrested by the United States government and confined in Fort Lafayette, N. Y., but was soon released on parole. Returning home he resumed his activity in politics and was vigorous in his opposition to the reconstruction acts of congress, a speech he made at Atlanta attracting wide and marked attention. During this time he published his Notes on the Situation, being a severe arraignment of the constitutional government of the states. In 1870, after the congressional plan of reconstructing the states was completed, and the constitutional amendments were adopted and incorporated into that instrument, Mr. Hill, believing further resistance useless, advised the people to accept the result. He resumed the prac- tice of law with great success. He supported Horace Greeley for president in 1872 and in 1876 was elected to congress from the ninth district. He supported the electoral commission bill in an eloquent address. His celebrated discussion with Mr. Blaine from Maine was one of the most memorable that has ever occurred in the house of representatives, and gave him a national reputation. In 1877 he was elected to the United States senate, where he served till Aug. 16, 1882, the date of his death, which was caused by cancer.

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Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. I, Part 34

Author: Publication date: 1859 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association Number of Pages: 1294

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1294