USA > Georgia > The Confederate records of the State of Georgia, Vol 2 pt 2 > Part 6
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for organizing that already in existence without sufficient organization-the militia or arms-bearing people of the States. When Congress has provided for the organiza- tion, and the States have organized the militia, congress may authorize the President to employ them in the service of the Confederate States, but in that case the States expressly reserve to themselves the right to appoint the officers to command them, and Congress can not, without usurpation, exercise that power or confer it upon the President.
The President (has made repeated calls upon this State, for organized bodies of her troops for Confederate service, and his requisitions have invariably been filled by the tender of militia organized and officered by the State, and they have been accepted by him with their offi- cers as organized. In addition to this, the Conscript Act has been passed, which has made all persons between 18 and 45, (except those exempted by the Act), subject by compulsion to Confederate service. This Act has been executed in Georgia. In contemplation of law, every person in this State between 18 and 45, not specially exempt, is now in Confederate service; and the fact cor- responds very nearly with this contemplation of law. Thus the whole organized militia of the State is now employed in the service of the Confederate States; and, notwithstanding the State in such case has expressly re- served the right to appoint every officer to command them, her right to appoint a single officer to fill a single vacancy in a single company, battalion or regiment, is now denied ; and it is claimed that they are all in future to be ap- pointed, not by the State, but by the President. 1.
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One of the reasons given for this extraordinary pre- tension is that it will not do to trust the troops after they are in service, with this important right of choosing their own officers, as they would not elect officers who are faith- ful and who maintain discipline and do their duty. This objection would certainly apply with equal force to the first election, when a regiment or company is being or- ganized. If the men are competent on entering the serv- ice to elect those who shall command them, why are they not equally competent to elect to fill vacancies which af- terwards occur? Do experiences in the military field and intimate acquaintance with their comrades in arms, make them less competent to judge of the qualifications of those who aspire to command? The simple statement of the proposition is a sufficient expose of its fallacy. At the organization of our regiments, the men elected officers on short acquaintance, as but little time was allowed them, and doubtless made some mistakes, putting in men less competent than some others left out. They have since seen them tried in service, and now know who is best qualified. But when a vacancy occurs, they are now to be confined to those who were first elected to lower posi- tions, to fill the higher positions to which they never chose them. And if an officer who claims promotion is set aside for incompetency by an examining board, the next in rank may step forward and claim the place, and is held to be entitled to it over the best man in the regiment if he is a private, though he may be the choice of every man in the command. It is only the lowest commissioned officer in the company who is taken from the ranks; and if the best and most competent man failed to get a commission at the first election, he can not now aspire from the ranks to a higher position than the lowest lieutenancy. The
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policy of filling all vacancies by promotion, not only dis- regards the Constitutional rights of all the States, but it does the grossest injustice to those who are often thie most deserving of promotion, and denies to the men the valuable right of selecting their own rulers.
If it is said the President may go out of the regular line of promotion, and reward merit in the ranks, it may be truly replied that this is seldom done; and that the men can not look to their companions in arms, but can look only to the President for promotion. This not only concentrates all power in his hands, but subjects every man's claims to his favoritism, prejudice or caprice; and destroys independence of thought and action, by compell- ing all to depend for promotion upon their capacity to flatter or their ability to please a single individual. Geor- gia's troops have done their duty nobly in the field, and they have a right to look to the government of their State for the protection of their rights. Many of them now claim this protection. Shall they have it?
I recommend that this General Assembly pass a joint resolution declaratory of the reserved rights of the State, and of the Constitutional right of election by her troops, and demanding of the Confederate Government the recog- nition of this right.
While they took no formal action upon this particular point, your predecessors of the last General Assembly virtually decided the question in favor of the right of the State to appoint her own officers to command her militia now in Confederate service, and determined further that the troops which the State has furnished for the field are the militia of Georgia, "employed in the service of
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the Confederate States," and not the armies of the Con- federacy, in the sense in which the Constitution uses that term.
Several gentlemen holding commissions in command of Georgia troops in Confederate service, furnished by the State as organized by her to fill requisitions made by the President, were members of the last General Assem- bly. The question of their right to hold seats was raised and decided in their favor, on the express ground, as I understood from the discussions, that they were officers of the militia of this State, and not officers of the armies of the Confederacy. Indeed, it was impossible. under the oaths which the members had taken to support the Constitution, for them to have determined that these were officers of the armies of the Confederacy, and not officers of the militia of Georgia, and still have permitted them to have their seats as members of the General As- sembly. The 5th paragraph of the 1st Section of the 2nd Article of the Constitution of this State declares that,
"No person holding any military commission, or other appointment having any emolument or compensa- tion annexed thereto, under this State or the Confeder- ate States, or either of them, (except Justices of the In- ferior Court, Justices of the Peace and officers of the militia), shall have a seat in either branch of the Gen- eral Assembly."
This language of the Constitution is plain, positive and unequivocal. No person holding a military com- mission under this State or the Confederate States, hav- ing any emolument or compensation annexed thereto,
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(except officers of the militia), shall have a seat in either branch of the General Assembly. If the Georgia troops in Confederate service are not the militia of the State employed in the service of the Confederate States, then their officers are not officers of the militia. If they are part of the armies of the Confederate States, then their officers are officers of the armies of the Confederate States, and not officers of the militia of Georgia, and are, by the express language of the Constitution, excluded from seats in either branch of the General Assembly. And if their officers are officers of the militia of Georgia, "employed in the service of the Confederate States," and are entitled to the Constitutional privilege of having seats in the General Assembly, then the men whom they command are the militia of Georgia, "employed in the. service of the Confederate States," and are equally en- titled to the exercise of their Constitutional right to elect officers to command them. The one right is as plain, as broad, and as valuable as the other. If the General Assembly recognizes and protects the right of the officers to have their seats, as I think it should do, I am unable to see upon what principle of justice, right or equality, it can refuse to recognize and protect the right of the pri- vates to elect their own officers. They are co-extensive and co-equal rights, and he who claims the privilege to exercise the one, is obliged to admit the existence of the other, and is bound to protect it.
GEORGIA MILITARY INSTITUTE.
This Institution is in a very flourishing condition, and is entitled to the fostering care of the legislature.
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Its efficiency and usefulness would be greatly promoted by the erection of additional dormitories, so as to pro- vide for the reception of a larger number of cadets. Numerous applicants for admission have been rejected during the past year for want of room to accommodate them. Difficulty in procuring building material may, however, be in the way of extending the accommodations for the present. The Faculty and Cadets have responded to every call made upon them for military service, and stand ready to do their duty in every emergency.
THE STATE UNIVERSITY.
The exercises of the University have been suspended for a time, by the patriotic response, made by the Chan- cellor and Faculty, to their country's call. When the soil of Georgia was invaded by a large army of the enemy, and I, in compliance with the request of the President, called for volunteers to rally to the rescue, the whole fac- ulty responded nobly and promptly, and laying aside for a time the scientific and literary pursuits in which they stand so deservedly high, they assumed the habit and garb of the soldier, and have undergone the hardships and fatigues of the camp. Rev. Dr. Mell, the Vice-Chan- cellor, was called by his fellow soldiers to the command of a regiment, and Rev. Dr. Lipscomb, the Chancellor, preferring not to accept official position entered the ranks as a private. I have had the pleasure of visiting these gentlemen with the balance of the faculty around their camp fires with their gallant comrades in arms, and have been assured by other persons connected with the com- mand, that every member of the faculty has discharged promptly and cheerfully every duty of the soldier.
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This does not exhibit the spirit of a people prepared for subjugation. There is indeed a moral grandeur in this conduct of the faculty of the University which is worth thousands of men to our cause. What State can exhibit more encouraging evidence of the patriotie de- termination of her citizens, to uphold her honor and her sovereignty at every hazard. Every Georgian should be proud of the University, and of its noble, patriotic, self- sacrificing faculty.
I transmit herewith the annual report of the Board of Trustees of the University, by which it will be seen that not only the faculty, but a large number of the students have entered the military service in defence of our honor and our independence.
DAY OF FASTING, HUMILIATION AND PRAYER.
Believing that the present miseries of the country have overtaken us on account of the wickedness and transgressions of the people, and that the Almighty Ruler of the Universe who controls as well the Hosts of Heaven as the armies of earth, and has the powers to cause wars to cease at his pleasure, will enable us to drive our ene- mies from our territory, and will restore peace and pros- perity to the country, when our rulers and people shall have forsaken their transgressions, and have humbled their hearts in deep penitence before Him. And believ- ing that it is the imperative duty of a Christian people in times of national calamity and distress, to assemble together and publicly acknowledge God as their Ruler, and implore his forgiveness, through the merits of His Son, Jesus Christ, I recommend the General Assembly of this State, by joint resolution, to set apart Thursday, the 10th of December next, as a day of fasting, deep humilia-
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tion and prayer; and that the Congress of the Confeder- ate States, and the Legislatures of the different States, together with all the people of the Confederate States, and all our armies in the field, be respectfully requested to unite with us in the religious observance of the day.
Let it be no formal observance, but let all public and private business be suspended, and let the people assem- ble with the Reverend Clergy, at their respective places of worship, and let us present before God a whole nation on its knees, fasting, in deep humility, and penitential confession ; and it is my solemn conviction that God will hear our prayers, strike terror and dismay into the hearts of our enemies, and give such victories to our arms as will soon establish our independence, and restore peace in all our borders.
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT,
Milledgeville, November 5th, 1863.
I have this day received of Joseph E. Brown, Gover- nor of Georgia, seven thousand five hundred dollars, (7,500) which said Brown pays on account of sale of Con- federate bonds, etc., and which I received and am to appropriate in payment of accounts against my Depart- ment, and am to account for it in my report under the same liability as if I had drawn it from the Treasury under appropriation, as I receive it as public money to be paid out in satisfaction of dues against the State.
(Signed) LACHLAN H. MCINTOSH, Major and Chief of Ordnance, State of Georgia.
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The original of which the above receipt is a copy, is filed, by order of the Governor in the Executive Depart- ment and is here entered of record.
H. J. G. WILLIAMS, Recording Clerk Ex. Dept.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7th, 1863.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA, November 7th, 1863.
His Excellency Joseph E. Brown, of the county of Cherokee, elected by the people for the Fourth Term, on the first Wednesday in October last, Governor and Com- mander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of this State, and the Militia thereof, for two years next ensuing, was this day, at 12 o'clock M., inaugurated in the Representative Chamber, at the Capitol, and being conducted by a Com- mittee to the Executive Office, entered upon the discharge of his duties.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA, November 10th, 1863.
Whereas, on the 26th day of December, 1863, at the instance and request of Captain A. M. Allen, as the agent of the Commissary Department of the Confederate Gov- ernment, I issued, under the Act of 22d November, 1862,
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STATE PAPERS OF GOVERNOR JOS. E. BROWN
entitled, "An act to prevent the unnecessary consump- tion of grain by distillers and manufacturers of spirit- uons liquors in Georgia," a license to Andrew Dunn of the county of Monroe in this State, authorizing him to distill out of grain at his distillery in said county, twenty thousand gallons of whiskey for the use of the said Com- missary Department; And Whereas, I have been re- quested by Maj. J. L. Locke, Chief Commissary, to with- draw said license, it is
Ordered, That the said license issued as aforesaid to said Andrew Dunn of said county of Monroe, authoriz- ing him to distill in said county, twenty thousand gallons of whiskey for said Commissary Department, being license No. 1, issued on the 26th day of December, 1862, be, and the same is, hereby revoked and annulled; And it is further Ordered, That the sheriff or his deputy of said county do serve personally upon the said Andrew Dunn a certified copy of this order, and that he return to this Department this original order with this entry of such service thereon.
Given under my hand and the Seal of the Executive Department, the day and year first above written.
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
By the Governor,
H. H. WATERS,
Sect'y. Ex. Dept.
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To His Excellency JOSEPH E. BROWN,
Governor of Georgia:
We, the undersigned Commissioners, appointed under an Act of the General Assembly of Georgia, entitled, "An Act to alter the Great Seal of the State of Georgia," to prepare, in co-operation with the Secretary of State, a new Great Seal for the State of Georgia, and to make all necessary preparations and arrangements to bring the same as agreed on into use, beg leave to
REPORT:
That they have performed the duty with which they were charged by said Act, and have deposited the new Great Seal, agreed on and prepared by them, in the office of the Secretary of State, of which the following is a de- scription, to-wit: The face of the Seal measures two inches in diameter, and has on it the following device, to- wit :- three pillars, supporting an arch, with the words and figures "Constitution 1861" engraved within the same, emblematic of the Constitution supported by the three Departments of Government, viz., the Legislative, Judicial and Executive; the pillars are enwreathed with a scroll, and on that hanging round the first pillar the word "Wisdom" is engraved; on that hanging on the second pillar, the word "Justice" is engraved; and on that portion of the scroll hanging round the third pillar, the word "Moderation" is engraved. The motto: "State
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of Georgia, 1776": which they respectfully submit to your Excellency, this November 12th, 1863.
S. S. STAFFORD,
G. N. LESTER,
B. H. BIGHAM,
Commissioners.
N. C. BARNETT, Secretary of State.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
Milledgeville, Georgia, November 12, 1863.
The Commissioners above named, with the Secretary of State, having this day deposited the new Great Seal of the State in the office of the Secretary of State, as agreed upon and prepared by them, in compliance with the statute of 14th December, 1861: It is hereby
Ordered, That said new Great Seal be adopted and used, on and after this day, as the Great Seal of the State of Georgia; And it is further
Ordered, That the Report of the Commissioners, with this order, be entered upon the Minutes of this Depart- ment.
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
And it is further Ordered, That the old Great Seal be deposited in the office of the Secretary of State for preservation and future inspection.
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
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The following message was transmitted to the General Assembly, to-wit:
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA, November 16th, 1863.
To the General Assembly:
Complaints are reaching me from different parts of the State that there are large numbers of distilleries now constantly running in violation of law, consuming corn that is absolutely necessary to sustain the lives of help- less women and children.
The law as it now stands, provides that a distillery running in violation of the statute may be abated as a public nuisance by the ordinary process of law. Experi- ence has shown, however, that this provision is wholly inadequate to suppress the evil. If proceedings are com- menced before a justice of the peace to abate the distillery as a nuisance, and the justices rule that it is such and pass an order to abate it, the party may carry the case by certiorari to the Superior Court, and after one or more continuances, if the ruling is against him, then he may carry it to the Supreme Court and thus delay the final judgment for a year or two, within which time he can make enough whiskey to pay all the expense of the litiga- tion and have almost a fortune as clear profits.
This mischief calls for a speedy remedy, for which the people can look only to their Representatives. In my opinion there is but one way to stop it effectually, and that is to destroy, by the use of military force, every still
،.
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that is run in violation of law. I therefore recommend the passage of an Act making it the duty of the Governor when he has satisfactory evidence that any still has been run contrary to law, to order out such military force as may be necessary, and to seize the still and use the metal of which it is made for military purposes, or sell it to the Confederate States for military use, and apply the pro- ceeds of the sale to the support of indigent soldiers' fam- ilies.
This power of military seizure and confiscation will afford an effectual remedy, and, in my judgment, no other will arrest the evil.
While whiskey is thirty or forty dollars per gallon in the market, and corn can be purchased at four times the present prices, unprincipled and avaricious men will con- tinue to evade the law or to set it at open defiance as long as they are permitted to retain possession of their still. The exigencies demand a prompt remedy, and I am satis- fied none more tardy than that recommended will answer the purpose.
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
The following Special Message was transmitted to the General Assembly, to-wit :
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA, November 20th, 1863.
To the General Assembly:
Justice to the citizens of Georgia, and to the great cause in which we are struggling, requires that I invite
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your attention to a matter which I consider of vital im- portance and urge upon you to take such action as will lead to the application of the proper remedy for an exist- ing evil. For the last eighteen months I have repeatedly stated that, in my honest opinion, our greatest difficulty will be in maintaining our supply of provisions. If we. can do this, which is in our power with God's blessing, if not abused, we have nothing to fear from the power or armies of the enemy. Deeply impressed with the impor- tance of this subject, I consider the waste of the neces- saries of life as highly culpable, and any action of the government which causes such waste as unfortunate and unwise.
Entertaining these views, I am obliged to conclude that the tithing system adopted by the Congress of the Confederate States was an unfortunate error, which can only be retrieved by an entire and early change of policy.
I think it safe to estimate that at least one-third of the amount of tithe of tax in kind of this State, will be wasted and lost on account of the want of storeroom and the management and carelessness of the government agents who, unfortunately, are seldom practical planters, but are, in very many cases, young and inexperienced men who have but little practical knowledge of the busi- ness in which they are engaged .- The result is that large quantities of shelled corn are thrown together in heaps and left to must and spoil, or to be wasted by hogs and other stock on account of the insufficiency of the store- rooms to protect it. Fodder or hay in bales is hauled to the common place of deposit, and is there thrown out without cover and permitted to take the rain as it falls, and is soon rotten. Potatoes and other like productions,
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collected in places remote from the army, are almost an entire loss. Much of the meat, if collected at the time fixed by law, will be thrown together in heaps before it is well cured, and will be tainted and spoiled.
It is not reasonable to suppose that all the govern- ment agents, appointed as they are, will look after and take care of the government stores with the same care and diligence exercised by planters and producers in looking after their individual property Again, if every agent were as faithful as he would be in the management of his own affairs, it is not possible, in many cases, for them to procure storehouses in which they can safely keep such large quantities of provisions as must be col- lected in many counties of this State. And it is also worthy of consideration that, in a large number of coun- ties in the State, the storehouses are so far from rail- road transportation that it is worth nearly half the tax in kind to haul it to the road, when, in these very coun- ties there is not, on account of the absence of so much of our productive labor in the military field, a sufficient sup- ply of provisions to sustain the lives of the people. The consequence is, the government must pay a very large amount of money for hauling the tithe out of the county, and the State must then appropriate money out of her treasury and purchase corn elsewhere, and pay a large amount to haul it back to the same place to sustain the lives of soldiers' families.
This system is not only working badly and causing the waste of a large quantity of provisions greatly needed by our people, but it has, so far as I am able to learn, given general dissatisfaction.
هہ
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The people are perfectly willing to pay in the cur- rency of the country any amount of taxes which the nec- essities of the government may require, till we are through this struggle. But they are not willing to pay a tax in kind which is very burdensome to them to de- liver, and which, after all their toil, they often have the mortification to see wasted without benefit to the gov- ernment or any one else.
In the present condition of the country, it seems to me that there is but one course left for the government to adopt which will do justice to all, sustain our cause, and be sustained by the people; and that is to repeal the tithe law, or go into the market, purchase its supplies at market value, and impose a tax, payable in currency, sufficient to absorb all that portion of the currency which it can not induce the people to fund, and which is in re- dundancy of healthy circulation. This would not only be the best regulator of prices, but it would relieve the agri- cultural class of the unjust and unequal burdens which are imposed upon them under the impressment acts as now executed, and cause the burden of sustaining the government to fall alike upon all classes of our people.
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