USA > Georgia > The Confederate records of the State of Georgia, Vol 4 > Part 19
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Mr. Holt of Bibb, chairman of committee of five, made the following report :
The committee of five who were appointed to memo- rialize the President of the United States in behalf of citizens not yet pardoned, make the following
REPORT:
His Excellency, ANDREW JOHNSON,
President of the United States :
The people of Georgia, through her delegates in Con- vention assembled, respectfully and earnestly invoke the exercise of the executive clemency in behalf of those of
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our fellow-citizens embraced within the exceptions of the late amnesty proclamation who may be as yet unpar- doned.
Including as the vast roll of her disfranchised citi- zens does, many of her finest intellects and purest pat- riots, and involving much of her available wealth, the Convention of our State respectfully recommend those men to your magnanimous clemency as our needed coad- jutors in the mighty task of reorganization, and as worthy subjects of your most generous kindness.
The Convention pledges their future fidelity to the Government of the United States. The very tenacity of their devotion to the South in the late struggle, the very heroism and magnitude of their efforts in an unsuccess- ful cause, and the very chivalry of their characters as evinced in the trying vicissitudes of a gigantic war, will be your last guarantee of the virtue of their resignation to the result, and of the security of their allegiance to a Government which disarms them by its magnanimity, enchains their gratitude by its kindness, and punishes them only with its clement pardon.
Believe us, Sir, there is no looking back, the State of Georgia is prepared to do her whole duty in and to the Government, and she now asks for the restitution to her control, and use of her entire citizens, for whose integ- rity and loyalty she gives you her most solemn pledge, in order that they may assist her to work out from her travail and desolation the high destiny she still trusts is in store for her and them, under a Government that has just emerged unharmed from the most desperate con- vulsion of the world's history, and whose tremendous
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power will be infinitely strengthened by its immeasur- able benignity.
T. G. HOLT, JR. .
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MILTON A. CANDLER C. T. GOODE, J. J. WHITAKER, G. R. BLACK, Committee.
Which report was read and adopted.
Mr. Goode of Houston, moved that the President of the convention forward the memorial to the President of the United States by mail. Agreed to.
Mr. Whitaker of Fulton, introduced the following resolution :
Resolved, That a Committee of three be appointed to notify His Excellency, the Governor, that this conven- tion has agreed to adjourn this day at 12 o'clock, meri- dian, and to enquire if in the meantime he has any fur- ther communication to make. Agreed to.
The President appointed as that committee :
Messrs. Whitaker of Fulton, Hill of Morgan and Chappell of Muscogee.
The following committee was announced under the resolution of Mr. Jenkins, to memorialize the Treasurer of the United States:
Mr. President, Mr. Jenkins of Richmond, Mr. Floyd of Newton, Mr. Warner of Meriwether, Mr. Warren of Houston. .
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Mr. Hansell introduced the following resolution :
Resolved, That the thanks of this convention are due and are hereby tendered to the President of this conven- tion, the Honorable H. V. Johnson, for the ability, im- partiality and courtesy that have characterized his ad- ministration as our presiding officer. Adopted.
Mr. Hansell introduced the following resolution :
Resolved, That the thanks of this convention are ten- dered to the Secretary and his assistants for the faithful discharge of their duties and their polite and gentle- manly bearing in their intercourse with this body. Adopted.
Mr. Harris of Clark, introduced the following reso- lution :
Resolved, That the thanks of this convention be and they are hereby tendered to the Committee of Sixteen appointed to prepare and report business for this con- vention for the diligence, ability and untiring zeal dis- played in the very laborious and satisfactory discharge of the duties devolved upon them. Adopted.
The next business in order was the resolution of Mr. Boyd, requesting our Representatives and Senators in Congress to urge upon the Federal authorities the im- portance of early resuming the coining of gold at the mint at Dahlonega.
It was read and adopted.
Mr. Mallard's resolution respecting economy in the administration of public affairs, and recommending the same to the consideration of the General Assembly, was read and adopted.
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The resolution introduced by Mr. Rawls, for the "re- lief of taxpayers of the State of Georgia," was read and adopted.
The resolution of Mr. Mallard, respecting the per diem compensation of members absent from the conven- tion for reasons other than personal sickness or sickness in the family, was indefinitely postponed.
The resolution of Mr. Wright of Coweta, to "appoint a committee to ascertain what part of the State debt was contracted to carry on the war, and to report to the next session of the Legislature, etc., was indefinitely post- poned.
The resolution of Mr. Cook approving of the course of Ex-Governor, Joseph E. Brown, and Provisional Gov- ernor, Jas. Johnson, respecting the sale of cotton, etc., was indefinitely postponed.
The resolution of Mr. Matthews of Oglethorpe, re- specting the sale of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, was indefinitely postponed.
The resolution of Mr. Ridley of Troup, respecting the appointment of three commissioners to examine into the finances, etc., was indefinitely postponed.
Mr. Barnes' preamble and resolutions requesting the President to proclaim a general amnesty, etc., were in- definitely postponed.
The ordinance of Mr. Martin of Habersham, to legal- ize and make valid the civil and criminal laws in the code of Georgia, was indefinitely postponed.
The ordinance of Mr. Cohen, providing for the sale
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of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, was indefinitely postponed.
Mr. Hansell introduced the following resolution :
Whereas, there is now standing to the credit of John Jones, State Treasurer, in the Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia, an amount of funds used as currency in 1864,
And whereas, The agent of the State did in the month of November, 1864, borrow from the said Central Rail- road and Banking Company, the sum of one hundred and seventy-thousand dollars to pay for cotton purchased in middle Georgia, and for which drafts were drawn by the agent of the State road upon the agent of the State; therefore be it
Resolved, That the Treasurer be authorized to trans- fer the account in the Central Railroad Bank so as to settle the two amounts amounting to one hundred and seventy thousand dollars.
Mr. Kenan moved to refer to committee recommended to be appointed in the report of the committee whereof Mr. Wikle is chairman. Lost.
The resolution was disagreed to.
Mr. Whitaker, chairman of the committee of three appointed to wait upon the Provisional Governor, re- ported the following communication from His Excellency.
Gentlemen of the Committee: I have the pleasure to inform you that I have nothing further to communicate to the convention.
Permit me, gentlemen (through you, to return iny thanks to the convention for their kindness to me, and
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for the manner in which they have discharged their duties to the country.
My earnest desire is, that peace and good will may extend throughout our borders.
J. JOHNSON,
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Governor.
Mr. Barnes, chairman of Committee on Enrollment, made the following report :
Mr. President : The following ordinances and reso- lutions are duly enrolled and ready for the signature of the President and attestation of the Secretary :
A resolution to provide for the payment of ordinaries and clerks of the courts of this State for certain services rendered by said officers.
An ordinance extending the time of election of mem- bers of the General Assembly, until the 25th instant, in certain counties.
An ordinance to provide for the payment of the offi- cers and members of the convention.
Also the several resolutions reported by the Commit- tee of Sixteen.
Also, resolution asking the executive clemency in be- half of citizens not yet pardoned.
Also, resolution to raise a commission of five consist- ing of Messrs. Starnes, Stephens and others to provide a code.
Also, a memorial to the Secretary of the Treasury, as to assessment of taxes, etc.
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Also, an ordinance to make valid private contracts entered into and not executed during the war, against the United States and to authorize the courts of this State to adjust the equities between parties to contracts made but not executed, and to authorize settlements of such contracts by persons acting in a fiduciary character.
Also, resolution authorizing the Governor to appoint three commissioners for the State to enquire into the finances of the State, etc.
Also, resolution to pay Rev. W. Flinn, fifty dollars for his services as chaplain of this convention.
Also, an ordinance to authorize the Provisional Gov- ernor or his successor to borrow a sum of money for the pressing necessities of the Western and Atlantic Railroad.
Also, resolution to allow the Secretary of this con- vention the sum of two hundred dollars for certain labor therein specified.
Also, resolution of thanks to the Governor, and au- thorizing him to pay for printing, etc.
Also, an address to the President of the United States.
Also, an ordinance to render null and void all debts of this State created for the purpose of carrying on the late war against the United States.
Also, resolution to authorize the Provisional Gover- nor to draw his warrant for the payment of Mr. Orme and Son, for the printing of this convention.
Mr. Barnes, chairman of Committee on Enrollment, made the following report :
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Mr. President: I have the honor to report the fol- lowing resolutions enrolled and ready for the signature of the President and attestation of the Secretary :
Resolution of thanks to the President of this conven- tion, the Hon. H. V. Johnson.
Also, resolution of thanks to the Secretary and his assistants.
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Also, an address to the President of the United States, by the Committee of Five, appointed in pur- suance of a resolution to memorialize His Excellency, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States.
Also, resolution of thanks to the Committee of Six- teen.
Also, resolution respecting economy and condemning the multiplication of unnecessary officers.
Also, resolution to notify His Excellency, the Gover- nor, that this convention have agreed to adjourn at 12 o'clock meridian this day, and if he have any further com- munication to make.
Also, resolution for the relief of the tax payers of the State of Georgia.
Also, resolution authorizing the President of this convention to convene the same under certain contingen- cies, etc.
The hour of adjournment having almost arrived and there being no further business before the convention, the President arose and delivered the following masterly address :
Gentlemen of the convention: "The hour designated in the resolution which you have adopted, for the ad-
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journment of this body, has now arrived. The labors which we have been convened to perform have been com- pleted, and we are now about to separate and return to our respective homes.
You have, in the kindness of your hearts, tendered to me your unanimous thanks for the manner in which I have discharged the duties devolved upon me as your presiding officer. It is grateful to my feelings, gentle- men, to have received this evidence of your approba- tion.
When I assumed the duties assigned me, I promised you that I would do the very best I could. I have re- deemed that pledge with fidelity. My shortcomings are before you, and for these I ask indulgence. If I have erred, it has been unintentional, and I know I have erred, and for these errors I ask your pardon. If, in the dis- charge of my duties, I have been so unfortunate as to appear unjust or harsh, or have inflicted the slightest wound upon the feelings of a single member of this body, now, in this parting hour and in this presence, I humbly make the amende honorable.
We have had confided to us grave and responsible trusts. We have been acting not for ourselves, but for those who are to come after us. Many of us will scarcely live to see the fruits of our labors. Some here are in the prime and vigor of life-they will live to know whether we have acted wisely or unwisely. Others of us are already upon the verge of that other land whither all are tending, and in which all will render an account for the manner in which they have performed their duties, but our children will live to know whether their fathers have been wise in caring for their interests, and in plac-
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ing our civil and political institutions upon such a basis as to render them permanent and benign.
We have performed the labors assigned us under very unusual circumstances, and in the midst of an extraor- dinary and perilous crisis. We have passed through a bloody struggle with those with whom we have been pre- viously associated as fellow-citizens, as members of the same great republic, as descendants of the same glorious ancestry, speaking the same language, worshipping the same God, and believing in the same revelation. How sad the event, that a bloody strife should have existed among a people so situated, and looking back to the same scenes of pride and glory which illuminate our past his- tory ! How sadder still, to think, that at the end of such a contest, our country-I mean that portion of it which we call the South-is prostrated, all its enterprises crip- pled, its pursuits disorganized, its labor destroyed, its agriculture rendered inefficient and unproductive, all our permanent investments in the way of stocks and bonds rendered valueless-in a word, coming out of such a struggle with the conviction which we must realize, in reference to ourselves, that we are indeed a poor people, thrown at a single leap from the highest pinnacle of prosperity down to the most abject humiliating circum- stances of poverty and political impotency.
These are circumstances, gentlemen, under which we have been discharging the duties assigned to us by our constituents. I refer to them, not for the purpose of reviving in the breast of any one bitter remembrances of the past, nor yet, for the purpose of producing in your hearts, or in the minds of my countrymen anywhere, an unmanly whining and whimpering over our situation. I feel it was the necessary result of superiority of num-
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bers and resources. But, thank God! our manhood re- mains. (Applause.)
I submit those facts for another purpose. It is to remind ourselves that, whilst we have thus been crip- pled in our resources, paralyzed in our energies, and shrouded in mourning and sorrow, it is the duty of each of us, with courageous manhood, to look the future in the face, and to hope on and hope ever. Something is left. A kind Providence has cast our lot in the midst of a land unparalleled in the richness of its soil and re- sources, and unsurpassed in the material elements nee- essary for a great, prosperous, powerful and happy State.
So far as the development of resources is concerned, Georgia is yet in her infancy. Inexhaustible mineral wealth sleeps in the bosom of her gigantic mountains: and with the application of enterprise, these rich mate- rials will be exhumed, and under the skill of science and of art, united with industry and energy they will be com- pelled to contribute to the elevation of our people, to their enhancement in prosperity, and to their growth in power.
It is true our labor system has been entirely de- ranged, disorganized, almost destroyed; and we are now to enter upon the experiment, whether or not the means of labor which are left to us, the class of people to which we are to look in the future as our laboring class, can be organized into efficient and trustworthy laborers. That may be done, or I hope it may be done if left to our- selves. If I could have the ear of the entire people of the United States, and if I might be permitted, humble though I be, to utter an admonition, not by way of threat,
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but for the purpose of animating them to the pursuit of a policy which would be wise, and salutary, and frater- nal, and best for the country, I would implore them that, so far as providing for this branch of our population is concerned, and their organization into a class of efficient and trustworthy laborers, the Federal government should just simply let us alone. We understand the character of that class of people, their capacities, their instincts, and the motives which control their conduct. If we can not succeed in making them trustworthy and efficient as laborers, I think it is not saying too much, when we af- firm that the Federal government need not attempt it. I trust they will not, and that we will have the poor priv- ilege of being let alone, in the future, in reference to this class of our people.
So far as we are concerned, and so far as the rela- tionship we sustain to them are concerned, we have duties to perform. I am a Georgian, and speak to Geor- gians, an honorable, conscientious, high-minded people, who are prepared to discharge their duties, and ready to learn their duty from surrounding circumstances. I beg to suggest, and I would that I could be heard by every citizen of my beloved State, that of all things it is most unwise and unjust for the former owners of slaves to cultivate towards them a feeling of dislike or unkindness. Their emancipation has not been brought about by their act; and in reference to the scenes through which we have been passing, it is one of the most remarkable events in all history, that such a people, with such a temptation to insubordination and insurrection as was constantly presented to them during all the period of the revolution, and most especially during the latter portion of it, should have been so quiet, so circumspect, so well
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behaved, so subordinate. All over our State, women and children have been left alone in their houses of abode without one single solitary male protector : the husband .; , the sons and the brothers far away upon the tented field -and yet our women and children, thus unprotected, have been unmolested by the colored population, and per- mitted to enjoy safety and security, and as much of the comforts of home as was compatible with the condition of the country.
I say, therefore, that the emancipation of the negroes amongst us is not the work of their own doing. They be- haved themselves well during the war, and the shackles of slavery being knocked off, it is not strange that we should see listlessness, idleness, thriftlessness exhibited by them, and in some cases even insubordination and a spirit of mutiny-not more, however, than under the cir- cumstances, reasonable men might have expected.
I speak this for a two-fold purpose; first, to pay a just tribute to that unfortunate class of our people, and second, to remind ourselves of the spirit which ought to animate us in our conduct towards them, and in maintain- ing the relationship which must necessarily exist between us in the future. Our conduct should be kind, magnani- mous, just. The result of this will be the production of a feeling of mutual confidence between the two races.
The black race must feel that the white man is not his enemy-that he is just and magnanimous, and that, on the other hand will beget conduct on the part of the African race, so far as they are now capable of being operated upon by such influences, a feeling of trust, con- fidence and kindness, and a willingness to respond to the duties obligatory upon them, and thus enable both to
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move along harmoniously in the prosecution of enter- prises, and perhaps successfully, in the promotion of mutual interests.
Now, if we cultivate this feeling, (and any other feel- ing will not comport with our duties towards them,) and . this feeling shall be embodied in a wise and well adjusted code of laws for their government; a code of laws that will give embodiment to these feelings of justice, kindness and humanity, which I think it is our duty to cultivate to- wards them, we may indulge a hope that we may organize them into a class of trustworthy laborers. We can not succeed in doing this unless our course with reference to that class of people shall be regulated by these high considerations. We may succeed if we are so animated. If we do not, the experiment will only prove to be a fail- ure; and I fear it will be a failure. But let us make the experiment in good faith, and in proportion as we suc- ceed we shall be remunerated for the effort, and in pro- portion as we shall fail, let us inaugurate such a policy as will bring into our midst a sturdy, energetic class of laborers from other nations, so that our country shall not be a howling and desolate waste, so that our farms may be repaired, our fences rebuilt, and our homesteads made comfortable, and all over our State we may again witness evidences of prosperity and thrift.
Gentlemen, these remarks have been suggested by the occasion, without any intention of making a set speech, but simply as the utterance of my mind, prompted by the circumstances of the moment.
I will not detain you longer. The resolution which provides for the adjournment of this convention, this day, reserves the duty upon your presiding officer, with-
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in six months hereafter, if it should become necessary, to call you together again. That resolution also con- tains a provision, that if from resignation, disability, or death, your presiding officer should not be able to per- form this duty, it will devolve upon the chief executive of the State. If not removed by death ! I confess to you, gentlemen, when that clause was read in the resolution, a thrill went through my frame. Is it possible that in the opinion of three hundred intelligent men of Georgia, there is such a conviction of the probabilities of the death of a healthy man within six months, that it should be pro- vided for, by a solemn act of the conviction? So it is, gentlemen. It was well put in. Two of our body have passed away. We shall never all meet again. Whether I shall be called hence or you, it is not at all probable that we shall meet again. Gentlemen, in view of this, and in view of our surroundings, in view of the chastis- ing scenes through which we have passed, in view of the sorrows which hang around the hearthstones of almost every family within the borders of our beloved State, in view of the hallowed memories of those that sleep un- known upon the battlefield, let us go home and cultivate among our fellow-citizens feelings of kindness, eschew- ing everything like discord, heart burnings and bitter strife.
We have been divided in other times upon party is- sues. Great principles have divided us, and in the con- duct of our political contests we have been intolerant, vituperative, unforgiving, uncharitable. That we may avoid such feelings hereafter, let us return home, as if from attending the funeral of our mother. Our old mother, thank God! is not dead but she has been re- duced to extremity. We have been called together to
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nurse around her bedside, and to endeavor, if possible, to reanimate and reinvigorate her wasted body and now almost paralyzed limbs, and to drive back into her heart the vital blood, and bid it throb until the vital current shall stream through every vein and artery, and she shall bloom again in the beauty and vigor of health. (Sensa- tion and applause.)
We have met here as friends; the experience of the past bids us continue to be friends. When we return home let us disseminate the sentiment, among all classes of our neighbors, of charity and love. Let us admonish them to love their country, and to obey the Constitution and laws of the land.
In view of that certain, sad event, which must sooner or later come to us all, gentlemen, be circumspect, and let us walk thoughtfully upon the shore of that vast ocean which we must sail so soon.
God bless you, gentlemen! God bless our beloved State; and may prosperity and happiness be the boon which a kind Providence shall confer upon our country throughout all her borders.
You are now adjourned sine die, unless it shall be- come necessary to call you together again. (Immense applause.)
Which on motion of Mr. Thomas of Coweta, was or- dered to be spread upon the journal.
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