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 50

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 50

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MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA.

In 1855 a strong effort was made to require all free persons of color to leave the state in a given time. Senator Hardeman was not noted for the fairness of liis complexion, nor was a certain other senator who was serving with him. The house had passed this bill, and on its third reading a viva-voce vote had been taken in the senate, but before it was announced, Mr. Hardeman moved to amend the same, so that the bill should read "to require all free persons of color to leave the state, except the senators from the counties of Kinchefonee and Bibb."

Not appreciating the joke, the other senator at once made his way to the senator from Bibb, demanding explanations, much to the amusement of all the senate. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Mr. Hardeman at once moved to indefinitely postpone the bill, which motion was carried.

He secured from a special committee on the Georgia military institute a bill to appropriate $15,000 for two years, which passed by a vote of 48 to 46, he being at that time one of the committee. In 1857 he succeeded in having passed a bill to erect a monument in Macon to Capt. Isaac Holmes, who commanded the Macon Guards in the Mexican war, and who died while in that country. He strenuously tried to obtain an appropriation of $3,000 to the military, which he failed to do. He again championed a bill to remove the capital to Macon or Atlanta and to submit it to the voters. In each of these three legislatures he had a prominent place on the committees on banks, finance, internal improvements, etc., and at each session was on the committee that had charge of the inaugurals of Govs. Johnson and Brown.

In 1863 and 1864 he still performed military duties at all times, except when the legislature was in session. The legislature meeting in Macon on Feb. 15, 1865, Mr. Hardeman urged upon the people, the citizens of Macon, to do all in their power to secure the location of the capital there, but leading men of the city did not approve it. In the sessions of 1865 and 1866 he championed state aid to the Macon & Brunswick railroad, and the woman's bills, of one of which he was the author. These were making wife-whipping or mal-treatment a misdemeanor, the wife to be a competent witness; and the other to allow a woman to own and inherit or buy property in her own right, whether feme covert or feme sole.

He was the last speaker of the Georgia house of representatives under the Con- federate government, and the first under the United States in the new regime.

He earnestly favored the rehabiliment of Georgia as a state in the Union, and at the same time lifted his voice in two-thirds of the counties for his race to stand to- gether. He voted to accord to the negro his legal rights, but eloquently battled for the supremacy of the white race.

Having been in congress prior to the war, and being in the Confederate army, brought upon him disabilities. President Johnson granted him the following pardon under the great seal of the United States:

"Andrew Johnson, President of the United States of America.

"To All To Whom These Presents Shall Come, Greeting:

"Whereas, Thomas Hardeman, of Macon, Ga., by taking part in the late rebellion against the government of the United States, has made himself liable to heavy pains and penalties;

"And whereas the circumstances of the case render him a proper object of executive clemency ;

"Now, therefore, be it known that I. Andrew Johnson, president of the United States of America, in consideration of the premises, and divers other good and sufficient reasons to me thereunto moving, do hereby grant to the said Thomas Hardeman a full pardon and amnesty for all offenses by him committed, arising

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from a participation, direct or implied, in said rebellion, conditioned as follows, to- wit: This pardon is given to take effect from the date on which the said Thomas Hardeman shall take the oath prescribed in the proclamation of the president, dated May 29, 1865, and to be void and of no effect if the said Thomas Hardeman shall hereafter, at any time, acquire any property whatever in slaves or make use of slave labor, and that he first pay all costs which may have accrued in any proceed- ings hitherto instituted against his person or property up to the date of the acceptance of this warrant;

"And upon the further consideration that the said Thomas Hardeman shall notify the secretary of state in writing that he has received and accepted the fore- going pardon.

"In testimony whereof I have hereto signed my name and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

(Seal.)

"ANDREW JOHNSON.

"By the President.

WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

"Done at the city of Washington this, the 28th day of August, A. D. 1865, and of the independence of the United States 90th."

The United States congress fettered all of those of the south who had held any position of prominence by imposing pains and penalties from which congressional action alone could free them. Despite the fact that no political honors or prefer- ment could be in store for him, Col. Hardeman kept up the fight for democracy, traveling over more counties and making more speeches in 1872 and 1874 and prior thereto than any man in Georgia.

He was put upon the state democratic executive committee in 1872, and served four years as chairman.

On April 3, 1874, by a special act, congress removed his political disabilities, he being one of the very last in the state to have this ban set aside; in three months thereafter he was nominated by the democrats of Bibb county to the legislature, again leading the ticket, as he afterward did in the election.

On the assembling of the legislature on Jan. 13, 1875, Col. Hardeman was elected speaker over Hon. A. O. Bacon, the speaker of the last house, by two votes, Capt. Bacon being then elected speaker pro tem. Thomas J. Simmons, of Bibb, was elected president of the senate.

This house was rich in its membership. A. R. Lawton, O. Warner, H. G. Turner, A. O. Bacon, J. L. Warren, W. D. Anderson, H. H. Carlton, Allen D. Candler, W. T. Wofford, L. F. Livingston, Patrick Walsh, A. M. Speer, W. M. Hammond, T. M. Furlow, J. C. C. Black, and a host of others, who, since that time, have made not only state, but national reputations.

In this legislature he took an active part in securing aid to the Marietta & North Georgia R. R., he prior thereto having stumped that section of the state to arouse the people to the importance of having this road.

In 1876 he was a candidate for the democratic nomination for governor, being the chief opponent of Gen. Colquitt; there existing between them the warmest personal friendship, the friends of one, were, as a rule, the friends of the other. The rule for the democratic nomination was the two-thirds rule. As soon as Colquitt delegates had been selected in enough of the counties to indicate a majority vote, Col. Hardeman, never having believed in the two-thirds rule, but in the old whig doctrine of a majority, retired in Gen. Colquitt's favor, and in the cam- paign devoted all of his energies to the election of the full democratic ticket.

In 1880, he was again a candidate for the nomination, Gov. Colquitt not receiv- ing the two-thirds, but approaching it so near and harmony being the watchword

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of Col. Hardeman, he ceased opposition to Colquitt, and advised all of his friends to do the same, which advice only a few followed.

In 1882, the state by the new apportionment being allowed another representa- tive in congress and there having been noredistricting, without being a candidate he was nominated by an overwhelming vote by the democratic state convention for rep- resentative from the state at large, Hon. George T. Barnes, John I. Hall and H. H. Carlton being among those receiving high votes. In the election he received 81,443 votes, against 24,930 for C. D. Forsythe, the republican nominee, this being 14,220 more than the combined votes of Hons. John C. Nichols, H. G. Turner, C. F. Crisp, Hugh Buchanan, N. J. Hammond, J. H. Blount, J. C. Clemments, Seaborn Reese and Allen D. Candler, the district democratic candidates, he running ahead of the ticket in every district, thus showing his popularity, not only within the party, but among its opponents ; and this, despite the fact that in 1870 and '72 and '74, of all the democratic campaigners in Georgia, he waged the most persistent warfare against independents and republicans, and had stumped those districts wherein was their stronghold more thoroughly than any one else.

In this congress he was chairman of the committee on expenditures in the department of state. He was in congress when the republicans elected their first president, and there again when the democrats elected their first after their long absence from power. At the expiration of his term he was, by President Cleveland, appointed postmaster at Macon for four years.

In 1890 the democrats of Houston county petitioned that he become a candidate for governor. Hon. W. J. Northen had been in the field for some time, and the farmers' alliance seemed to be flocking to him. Col. Hardeman consented to enter the race, but after making two speeches his health completely failed him, owing to heart disease, and his physicians peremptorily ordered him to give up the candidacy.

In doing so he appeared his last in public life, although he was a member from the state at large on the democratic state executive committee at the time of his death.

Having succeeded his father in the firm of Hardeman & Sparks, which at one time had the largest cotton warehouse business in middle and upper Georgia, he was thrown most intimately with the farmers (southwest Georgia then being altogether tributary to Macon), so in 1876 it was no surprise that he was elected president of the Georgia State Agricultural society, and was re-elected annually to 1883, when he declined further election. His addresses to that body, and on other agricultural occasions, together with his efforts in the legislature and in con- gress in behalf of farmers, kept him in close touch with the agriculturists.

In 1876 he was grand commander of the grand commandery Knights Templar of the state of Georgia.

In 1874-5 and 1875-6 he was grand chancellor of the grand lodge Knights of Pythias of Georgia.

In 1870 Gov. Bullock appointed him a delegate to represent the state at the southern commercial convention at Cincinnati.

In 1872, upon the formal reorganization of the Floyd Rifles, he was again elected captain, resigning in less than two years. In 1875 he was appointed by President Grant Georgia's commissioner for the Centennial celebration at Phila- delphia.

In 1883 President Arthur made him the state commissioner to the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial exposition at New Orleans.

It is not necessary to speak of the condition of affairs in Georgia in 1865-6-7,

BIBB COUNTY SKETCHES.

347

and what is known as the reconstruction period. The dark clouds hung low, but he faltered not in endeavoring to lead his people.

In July, 1866, a call signed by A. W. Randall, J. R. Doolittle, Thomas A. Hendricks and others was issued for a national union convention of two from each district and four from the state at large, to assemble in Philadelphia on Aug. 16 (to be elected by the state electors) to sustain the administration in maintaining the union of the states under the constitution our forefathers established, and to take action for the rights, dignity and equality of the states; that there is no right to dissolve the union; that slavery is abolished; that each state shall have the right to establish the qualification of its own electors, and no international power can or ought to dictate ; to maintain inviolate the rights of the state-and that all resistance to the general government being at an end, war measures should be abolished.

At this time there was no party organization, or head, in Georgia; so Col. Hardeman at once issued a call for the citizens of Bibb county to meet and act. In that meeting, on July 12, presided over by Eugenius A. Nisbet (the author of the ordinance of secession), Col. Hardeman introduced the following resolutions :

"That we approve of the call for a national union convention at Philadelphia, Aug. 16. Resolved, That counties of this and other districts be, and they are hereby requested to meet at the earliest practical time, and appoint delegates to a convention of their respective districts, to be held for the purpose of electing delegates to the national union convention, in conformity with a call for that convention.

"Resolved, That in the event there should be no convention held, on account of the shortness of the time and absence of postal communication, then we request . the governor of the state to appoint delegates for the state at large, and also for such congressional districts as fail to appoint.

"Resolved, That the people of the counties of this district be requested to meet and endorse this action calling for a convention of the fourth district on July 25, at Macon."

J. J. Gresham, Thomas Hardeman and W. S. Holt were appointed the county delegates.

This congressional district was the first to hold a meeting. They elected Thomas Hardeman and P. W. Alexander as delegates to the national convention, and voted for A. H. Stephens, H. V. Johnson, D. A. Walker and A. H. Chappell as delegates from the state at large.

All of the districts soon held meetings and ratified the delegates from the state at large, electing the following as the district delegation: First, Judge W. B. Flemming and Gen. John B. Gordon; second, Gen. Eli Warren and Col. J. L. Wimberly; third, Judge Hiram Warner and Judge E. H. Worrill; fourth, Thomas Hardeman and P. WV. Alexander; fifth, Linton Stephens and Gen. A. R. Wright; sixth, J. H. Christy and Robert McMillan; seventh, R. F. Lyon and James Milner. Much good resulted from that convention.

In 1867 a constitutional convention controlled and governed by the republicans had adopted a new constitution for the state, which was to be submitted to the people. Notes on the situation by Benjamin H. Hill had aroused the people. Great discussion was being carried on to keep the white voters from voting in the election to be held under the new constitution. New congressional bills had been passed affecting the status of Georgia, so a voluntary convention assembled in Macon on Dec. 5, 1867, composed of 253 delegates, representing sev- enty counties. Mr. Hill was chosen president, and his address on taking the chair was not only characterized by great ability, but was calculated to arouse the people to opposition. A committee of two from each congressional district was

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appointed to express the views of the convention. On this committee may be found George A. Mercer, C. H. C. Willingham, C. B. Richardson, Gen. Phillip Cook, T. M. Furlow, P. W. Alexander, D. E. Butler, Judge Bottle, L. J. Glenn and J. D. Stewart, while the committee from this district were Thomas Hardeman and Dan Hughes, the Hon. J. J. Gresham, of Bibb county being chairman of the committee. This committee shaped the action of that convention, which was expressed in the address of a special committee composed of Herschel V. Johnson, A. H. Chappell, B. H. Hill, Warren Aiken and T. L. Guerry. In their preamble and resolution may be found such expressions as these: "The season for honest discussion of principles, and for lawful opposition to existing abuses and their growth, is ever present and pressing.

"The southern people are true to constitutional liberty, and ready to acquiesce in any policy looking to the honor and good of the whole country, and securing the rights of all classes of people.

"We regard the effort of the present ruling power to change the fundamental institutions of the United States government as false in principle, impolitic in action, injurious in result, injurious to the south, and detrimental to the general government. Silence under wrong may be construed as endorsement. Be it, therefore,

"Resolved, First, that we recognize the duty to sustain law and order and to support truthfully all constitutional measures of the United States government, and maintain the rights of all classes under enlightened and liberal laws.

"Resolved, Second, that the people of Georgia accept in good faith the legitimate results of the late war, and renew their expression of allegiance to the union of the states, and reiterate their determination to maintain inviolate the constitution framed by our fathers."

The third resolution was to protest dispassionately, yet firmly, against what was known as the reconstruction acts of congress and against the vindictive, partisan administration of those acts as oppressive and ruinous to the states of the south as well as hurtful to the true welfare of every portion of the country.

The fourth resolution protested against the policy of the dominant party in congress to inflict upon the states of the south bad government as wrong, not only against all races of the south, but as to the people of all parts of the Union and as a crime against civilization, which was the duty of all right-minded men to discountenance and condemn.

On June 26, 1872, the state democratic convention assembled in Atlanta. A. H. Stephens was opposed to Horace Greeley, who was at that time an inde- pendent republican candidate for president, and fought any action being taken that would commit the democratic party to his support, but the following delegates to Baltimore were elected from the state at large: Gen. Henry L. Benning, Col. Julian Hartridge, Gen. A. R. Wright, Col. Thomas Hardeman, Col. C. T. Goode and Col. I. W. Avery, who attended the Baltimore convention and participated in the nomination of Greeley.

On July 24, 1872, the state democratic convention was called, over which Thomas Hardeman presided, which ratified the nomination of Greeley and Brown.

On Feb. 23, 1848, he was married in Eatonton to Jane S. Lumsden, by whom he had three children, one dying in infancy, and their only daughter, Jessie, dying in June, 1887.

In a few days after the death of the daughter (an affliction from which he never recovered) he wrote the following:

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Asleep in Jesus; cease to weep; Our children with the Savior sleep. Side by side, they safely rest, Sweetly sleeping on his breast.

Asleep in Jesus; years long gone, The Savior took our first-born home; Ere earthly sorrow racked his breast, Our angel boy was with the blest.

Asleep in Jesus; chastening love Has called another child above- Our daughter dear, our pride, our joy,

Has gone to meet our baby boy.

Asleep in Jesus; life's troubles o'er,

Eternal rest, joys evermore;

The conflict fought, the battle won, The conqueror's shout, the victor's crown.

Asleep in Jesus; dearest Lord,

Support us with thy precious word, For thou hast said, "in deep distress Your every sorrow I will bless."

Asleep in Jesus; oh, how sweet, The precious promise, "You may meet The much loved lost ones in that home Where death and parting never come."

Asleep in Jesus; make us feel Submissive to thy sovereign will; In every thought, and act, and word Say "Blessed be thy name, O Lord."

On Jan. 14, 1891, he was partially paralyzed and died in the only home he ever owned, in Vineville, on March 7, his wife following him to the grave in October, only one member of the family surviving, J. L. Hardeman, who is now judge of the superior court of the Macon circuit.

His wife, the daughter of John G. and Malinda (Sanford) Lumsden, was truly a helpmate in all things. His equal in intellect and culture, she was most am- bitious for him.

On the night of March 4, 1861, she, with two female relations, made a Confed- erate flag from a telegraphic description received from Montgomery as soon as the stars and bars were adopted, and presented it to the Floyd rifles before sunrise on the morning of the fifth, when a salute was fired to it by the company, it being the first military salute received by the flag of the young republic of Georgia. She was president of the Soldiers' Relief society during the war and of the Ladies' Memorial association for a time afterward.

As an orator Col. Hardeman had no superior in the state; the agricultural population flocked to him; the merchant and mechanic were charmed, while on literary occasions his audience was held spell-bound, and on the stump he was almost matchless, but his great forte was as an extempore and social orator. He delivered literary addresses at numbers of colleges, male and female, in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, and the oration on laying the corner-stone of the academy for the blind. In fact there is no class of addresses of which he did not deliver a great number in Georgia.

Among the best of his orations were those delivered at the centennial of the

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battle of King's Mountain in North Carolina; presenting the Ross-Gettysburg medal to the Floyd Rifles; the commencement oration at Emory college in 1866 (in which he advocated industrial education in colleges, and for which he was condemed by some of the trustees, this being a new departure); his eulogy on the dead of Macon lodge; his eulogy on the death of President Garfield as a Knight Templar, and his various memorial addresses.

His was a cheerful, happy disposition; sunlight hovered around him where- ever he went, and his hearty recognition of every person whom he ever met endeared him to the people. Firm in his opinion of right, he was never com- bative to an opponent. Generous to a fault, his endorsement of the farmers' papers in 1873 bankrupted him. He was a Bible scholar of much study, he was apt in his illustrations and quotations every time and never failed to touch the hearts of his hearers. Georgia was his idol, not only his home, but his heaven.

The traits of his character were perhaps better set forth by the Rev. Dr. E. W. Warren at his funeral than we could well do here:

"We have assembled here to-day to bury a friend; your friend and my friend, the friend of the good man and a friend of the bad man, a friend of the rich and a friend of the poor, the friend of those who were prosperous and of the needy, the large-hearted, philanthropic friend of all men, who, from his young manhood and through its bright days down to the present lived among you in the city of Macon as a prominent man, and in his business, political and social life, always enjoyed the deepest affection and the most implicit confidence of the people of this city, as well as of the state of Georgia.

"Whether he floated on the unruffled tide of prosperity, or whirlpool of ad- versity and financial depression, no suspicion of his integrity ever rested upon the mind of a single man. Never unduly depressed by misforune or elated by success, his wonderfully balanced mind was one that could speak peace to the angry passions of man at all times, with a voice not clothed in tones of authority, but with the power to sooth, control and draw men toward him in the strongest bonds of affection. This friend of ours had ambition without jealousy and grand ambition, but never so strong as to induce him to rob a man of his rights. If success was to be gained by a loss of his integrity or by any method that demanded a compromise of his high sense of honor or his God-given manhood, he cast it from him as an unholy trifle not worthy of his possession. His character can be judged from the fact that for the greater part of his life he occupied high positions where the closest critics could examine into his life and almost into the inmost recesses of his heart, and with all this, who ever heard or saw a character more spotless or a life more full of all that makes life bright and fair? Whose hand ever tried to smirch that stainless reputation, and who among the men of Macon does not love the memory of this man?

"With the workingman he was always friendly, kind and cheering and for him he always had a warm and kindly greeting. In society he was ever welcome. Every door was open to the man whose spirit was so cheerful, whose manner so courteous and whose power to please and attract so remarkable. He was indeed a star that shone ever bright, beautiful and constant upon earth. In his home he was the same man as abroad, to the guest he extended the hand of welcome and among his friends gathered around him in that home his heart shed forth a happy influence.

"Nurtured by the most pious parents, rocked, as it were, in the cradle of re- ligion, he never made a public profession of the religion of Christ, but when stricken with disease a short time ago he expressed a wish to recognize the church and he lived to accomplish his desire."

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BIBB COUNTY SKETCHES.

SAMUEL CARRINGTON HOGE is the efficient superintendent of the Main Stem division of the Central railway of Georgia, with headquarters at Macon, Ga. His life has been spent in railroad service, having risen to his present important position from that of junior clerl: in the agent's office of the Georgia railroad at Macon, where he entered the service in 1874.

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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 50

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