USA > Georgia > The history of the State of Georgia from 1850 to 1881, embracing the three important epochs: the decade before the war of 1861-5; the war; the period of Reconstruction, v. 1 > Part 14
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"I am tired of this endless controversy. I am wearied with seeing this threatening cloud forever above our heads. If the storm is to come, and it seems to me as though it must, be its fury ever so great, I court it now in the day of my vigor and strength. (Applause). If any man is to peril life, fortune and honor in defense of our rights, I claim to be one of these men. (Immense applanse.) Let it come now, I am ready for it. Put it not off until to-morrow, or the next day, we shall not be stronger by waiting. (Continued applause.) I do not wish to destroy the government. I am a Union man in every fiber of my heart. I have gloried in its missions of humanity, in its heroic birth, and youthful struggles, and in the grandeur of its maturity. God never launched a nation on a more magnificent career. It has been the home of the oppressed and the asylum of the desolate from every land. In it to day are wrapped the hopes of universal man -- but I will peril all-ALL before I will abandon our rights in the Union or submit to be governed by an unprincipled majority. (Great applause)."
It is the nature of manly men-men of high spirit, to fret under sus- pense, and to precipitate impending and inevitable issues. It was this spirit which made the situation in 1860 so full of delirium and peril. Southern men saw no end to the slavery agitation save in submission or
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A CARNIVAL OF ELOQUENCE.
fight. The former was out of the question. They invited the latter as the only means of settling the struggle. It was a desperate feeling, and it seized the most tame-spirited. There perhaps has never been a time that brought to the front more vehement and maddening elo- quence than that stormy year of 1860. Georgia was full of superb orators, and in the themes of that wild day they found constant and congenial material for impassioned and irresistible oratory. It is in such whirling times of upheaval and passion and madness that eloquent men find their most thrilling mission. The canvass was a carnival of splendid speaking. Men's blood was at fever heat under a long felt and long-repressed sense of wrong. It was no day for reason or argument save what rolled with the passions, that were rising higher daily. Georgia has never been so affluent in great minds and superlative speakers as in that time. There was a superb galaxy of mental giants and genuine orators. Toombs, Johnson, Cobb, the Stephens brothers, Jackson, Bartow, Miller, the two Wrights, Hill, and Colquitt were all men of splendid power on the stump, all magnetic, and all threw themselves into that dramatic agita- tion with the whole fervor of their souls. Any one of these men was fitted to lead in any assemblage anywhere, while several enjoyed a national reputation of the very largest measure. Mr. Douglas himself came to Georgia and spoke in Atlanta during the canvass to an immense audience. Ben Hill and Warren Akin bore the brunt of the battle on the Bell and Everett side, and did it well. Mr. Hill, near the close of the can- vass, published a letter urging the fusion of parties for the sake of the country, but he was unmercifully lampooned for the suggestion by the Breckenridge and Lane press and speakers. And Col. Wm. Mckinley, the chairman of the Breckenridge executive committee, published a card officially denying for the committee any idea of such a fusion. It was charged that the movement was a confession of weakness and a trick to defeat Breckenridge, but in the light of results, it was a wise and a patriotic proposition.
As an illustration of the spirit that prevailed, the treatment of Col. Varney A. Gaskill is in point. He was chairman of the Fulton county Breckenridge executive committee. Believing that he was coquetting with the Bell and Everett people, the committee mnet and passed, and published the following bitter resolution:
"Whereas, V. A. Gaskill having forfeited all confidence of this Executive Committee, by his political course in the presidential canvass, by his public and private political ter- giversations, therefore,
Resolved, That V. A. Gaskill be expelled from this Executive committee, and that he is no longer worthy of our political fellowship."
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BRECKENRIDGE AND LANE ELECTED.
An organization was established in the state that was originated in Macon, called the " Minute Men," irrespective of party, whose purpose was to " sustain southern constitutional equality in the Union, or fail- ing in that, to establish our, independence out of it." In Atlanta, the " Minute Men" was started by Col. T. C. Howard, and numbered over 400 members. Such men as Howell Cobb, noted as Unionists, emphatically menaced and foreshadowed disunion. Said Mr. Cobb at Marietta, but a short while before the election in a most powerful and effective speech: "The hour of Georgia's dishonor in the Union should be the hour of her independence out of the Union."
The day of election came at last, and Lincoln and Hamlin were elected. In Georgia the vote stood as follows: Breckenridge and Lane, 51,893, Douglas and Johnson, 11,580, Bell and Everett, 42,855. None of the electoral tickets having received a majority of the whole vote, the choice of the electors was therefore thrown into the legislature. The success of the Black Republican ticket fell upon the South with maddening effect. There had been a fixed belief that somehow such a result would not happen, and the Breckenridge men in Georgia were pretty sure of carrying the presidency. But there stood the inexorable result, and it produced the effect of a volcanic eruption. The Georgia legislature assembled for its regular annual session, the same legislature that had held in 1859. The speaker of the House, Hon. I. T. Irwin, had died, and Gen. C. J. Williams was elected in his place. Several new senators and representatives had been elected, among them, R. C. Humber, George T. Barnes and John Davison, who have been prominent since the war. Mr. Barnes is at present the Georgia member of the National Democratic Executive Committee, this being his second term iu that capacity. He is a gentleman of fine talent and character.
The annual message of Gov. Brown was devoted to the business mat- ters of the state, and made a striking exhibit. The state road had paid $450,000 into the Treasury. Of the state debt not due, $114,000 had been paid in addition to the interest and principal due. The School Fund had been increased $200,000, besides $150,000 paid out for educa- tional purposes. The sum of $75,000 had been appropriated at the last session to buy arms for the state military. An increase of the appro- priation was recommended. All of the institutions of the state were in the best condition. The subject of our Federal relations, Gov. Brown made the occasion of a special message of great length and elaboration, and practical ability. The message was written before it was certain that the Black Republican ticket was elected, but when sufficient re-
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130
GOVERNOR BROWN'S MESSAGE.
turns had come in to render it probable. Reviewing the anti-fugitive slave law legislation of half a dozen of the northern states, he urged as the only means to meet such aggression, a system of retaliatory legisla- tion against such states. He recommended measures of reprisal upon the property of Massachusetts citizens for instance in Georgia, and with- drawal of protection to such citizens, besides discrimination against the manufactures and products of the offending states. In the event that the Black Republican ticket was elected, he advised the calling of a con- vention of the people of the state, to devise a proper course. He con- cluded with the recommendation that the sum of one million of dollars be appropriated for a military fund, with the view of armed resistance to any further aggression.
This message of Gov. Brown was a typical instance of the man's methods. Its keen discernment of the situation, its stern recognition of disagreeable facts, its thoughtful consideration of remedies, its thorough preparation for the worst, its bold assumption of responsibility, its daring aggressiveness, its large comprehension of probable needs, and its magnitude of plan, all inspired by prompt and iron-willed nerve, and conducted with confidence and practical sense, were all just what the people had learned to expect from this remarkable man. The mes- sage awakened a general interest over the whole Union. 'It evoked bitter denunciations from abroad. For a month the table of the execu- tive office was covered with letters from every factory in the North, representing in every variety of penmanship, orthography and rhetoric, the ills which would befall any number of men, women and children, should Georgia carry out the policy of her Governor.
It was but a few days until the election of Lincoln and Hamlin was a certainty. County meetings were held in all parts of Georgia, and resolutions poured in a steady current upon the General Assembly urging action. Savannah led off under inspiration of the impetuous Bartow, and declared that the election of Lincoln and Hamlin ought not to be submitted to, and asking for a convention, and measures to organize and arm the forces of the State. A convention of military companies presided over by John W. Anderson, resolved that "Georgia can no longer remain in the Union consistently with her safety and best interest." The appropriation of a million of dollars for military purposes, recommended by the Governor, was endorsed by this convention of soldiers, and their services tendered to the Governor.
Governor Brown issued his proclamation announcing that there had been no selection of electors by the people, and the duty devolved upon
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131
THE FIRST STEP IN SECESSION.
the General Assembly, and he suggested that in view of the fact that the Black Republican candidates were elected, and the Georgia vote would not alter the result, that for the sake of harmony, so essential now in the South, a refusal to go through the forms of an election would be politic. He also announced by authority that ex-Gov. McDonald, one of the electors on the Breckenridge ticket, would not allow his name used, as he was too feeble to cast the vote. The legislature, however, deemed it imperative to choose the electors, and the Brecken- ridge ticket was elected, substituting Alfred H. Colquitt for ex-Gov. McDonald.
This legislature of 1860 did important work. A convention of the people of Georgia was called for the 16th day of January, 1861, the election of delegates to take place on the first Wednesday in January, 1861. The act passed unanimously.
The committee upon the State of Republic addressed a communica- tion to the following gentlemen, asking them to meet together in a practical and conciliatory counsel, and suggest a line of policy for the legislature: Joseph E. Brown, Alex. HI. Stephens, R. Toombs, Jos. H. Lumpkin, R. F. Lyon, Charles J. Jenkins, J. W. A. Sanford, H. L. Benning, G. Andrews, Linton Stephens, M. J. Crawford, B. H. Hill, F. S. Bartow, James Jackson, T. R. R. Cobb, H. V. Johnson, E. H. Baxter, J. H. Howard. These gentlemen assembled and recommended the call- ing of a convention with the following preamble:
" Whereas, the present crisis in our national affairs, in the judgment of this General Assembly, demands resistance ; and, whereas, it is the privilege and right of the sovereign people to determine upon the mode, measure and time of such resistance."
The office of Adjutant General of the state was created; the accept- ance by the Governor of 10,000 troops was authorized; the purchase of 1,000 Maynard rifles and carbines for the coast defence ordered; and an appropriation of one million of dollars for military purposes made. A Direct Trade Company was incorporated; the sum of $2,500 appropri- ated yearly to the State Agricultural Society, a practice still kept up: and $2,500 appropriated to the Cotton Planters' Convention. All of these were practical matters, looking to preparation for the troubles impending, and for a changed condition of affairs.
The menacing state of politics could, of course, have but one effect upon business. Capital became alarmed. All classes of business felt the shock of apprehension. Trade was disturbed, investments ceased, and general commerce was paralyzed. Money was locked up, and the cloud of financial distress darkened the country. The banks, North and
132
ANOTHER BATTLE OF THE BANKS.
South, looked forward to suspension, and a bill was introduced and passed, granting relief to the Georgia banks. It seemed as if the banks were destined to be a fruitful and constant source of combat between Governor Brown and the legislatures of the State. Somehow or other they could not agree, and the Executive was not the sort of a person to yield his convictions to any pressure, nor to pin his opinions upon any number of coat sleeves. He promptly sent back a veto of the bank relief bill. He said that he had been opposed in 1857 to bank suspen- sions, and his views had been sustained by the people. There was less reason now for a bank suspension than then. The advocates of bank relief admitted that the banks could meet their liabilities, but it would cost something. In view of their superior advantages some sacrifice is due from them. Bank men practiced upon popular credulity with the absurdity that suspensions were for the benefit of the people. If so, why were the lobbies filled with bank officers spending money to secure the passage of relief bills. He had seen such influences brought before in 1852. The people had not asked for suspension. The relief measure freed the banks from the penalties of not redeeming their bills, and left the bill holder to suffer loss. Was this a benefit to the people ? It would be time enough to legalize suspension on account of the political state of affairs when an occasion arose, and as far as they should go would be to put in the Executive discretion to withhold proceedings against the banks if it was required. In the event of suspension of any Savannah, Augusta or Atlanta bank, the collection of debts in the state ceased until December 1st, 1861, and executions became stopped with- out security. These provisions were an injustice to plaintiff's in fi fo and to creditors, and gave all advantage to creditors out of the state who could resort to the United States Courts. Northern merchants could enforce claims against Southern merchants, while Southern mer- chants would be powerless to raise money from their debtors. Was this resistance to Northern aggression ? Regretting to differ from the legislature, he yet was compelled to veto the bill because objectionable and unjust.
The bill was promptly passed over his veto, but the matter did not stop here. His utterances in the veto message about lobbyists seemed to have given offense. Mr. Dixon of Muscogee, offered a resolution requesting the Governor to give information showing that any member had voted for the relief bill for money, or that any bank had used money to secure the passage of the bill. The words about which expla- nation was asked, were these:
133
THE HOUSE RASPS GOVERNOR BROWN.
" Why is it, that these gentlemen never take upon themselves to guard the people's interest, and spend money to secure the passage of bills through the legislature, except when it is desirable to pass a bank suspension bill."
To this resolution the Governor returned a well-tempered, polite reply, directed to the Senate, in which he said that he took pleasure in saying to the Senate, "that no charge of bribery was intended, that the language was general, and was meant to be directed against what is known as lobby influence, when gentlemen leave their homes, and spend money for traveling. expenses, tavern bills, etc., for the purpose of hanging around the General Assembly to try to influence the minds of members, so as to secure the passage of a particular bill." The unruffled and immovable Executive proceeded to say that he saw nothing in the message "he desired to retract or modify." No member of the Sen- ate to whom his message was addressed appeared to have suspected reflection on himself until the discovery was supposed to have been dis- covered elsewhere. Ile did not doubt that upon a calm review each Senator would now see that he saw in it no imputation upon himself, as " conscious innocence will never appropriate to itself language in which others can see no charge, or even dubious language as an imputation of criminality."
This message gave still farther offense to the House, which passed a resolution offered by Mr. Dixon, which was put on the journals of the House, reciting that the answer had not been communicated to the House, that it was an evasion of a charge the Governor could not main- tain, and the language of the answer was disrespectful to the House, therefore,
" Resolved, That his Excellency, Gov. Brown, has not only abused the privileges of this House, but has failed to maintain in his official intercourse with this body, that dignity of deportment, which becomes the Chief Magistrate of Georgia."
It was a war-like time then. Men's fighting blood was up. And it took, in the sweeping belligerence of the universal atmosphere, little provocation to get up a muss between anybody and about anything. Joe Brown too was the worst person in the country to tackle. Nature, in making him, had rather put an over than an under stock of com- bativeness. It is rather to be suspected that his Excellency had a sort of natural relish for a set-to with other folks. Be this as it may, it stands true that no one ever struck Gov. Brown without getting hit back, and if he ever declined a combat it is not chronicled, nor has it been susceptible of proof. This attack on the Governor was a flimsy one, and it is surprising that it was made, and that the legislative body
134
GOVERNOR BROWN STRIKES BACK AT THE HOUSE.
allowed itself to take part in it. Congregations of men nor official veneer never had any terrors for this level-headed man of the people. He flung back the House censure with a cool, biting defiance and con- tempt. Reviewing the matter concisely he showed that he had not evaded the charge, violated any privilege of the House, nor failed in dignity in his intercourse with the House. He used this language about the resolution of the House.
" They were conceived in passion, prompted by a spirit of personal revenge, and not of public duty-undignified in their bearing, untrue in their statements, and unjust in the assault which they make upon a co-ordinate branch of the government."
He ordered his reply to be entered upon the permanent records of the Executive Department, the legislature having adjourned before he pre- pared the message. Like everything else that he did, this spirited re- ply and the controversy that elicited it, only strengthened Gov. Brown with the people as a fearless champion of the public interest and the bold assailant of evil.
It was a striking evidence of the hold he had on the public confidence and the estimate that was placed upon his judgment, that the electoral ticket chosen by the legislature addressed him alone of all the dis- tinguished public men of the State, a letter asking his views upon the situation as being "eagerly desired." Gov. Brown's response was a . practical common-sense view of affairs, in which he said some very strik- ing truths. The election of Mr. Lincoln, simply as a successful candi- date, would not justify secession, but as the triumph of the Northern section of the Union over the Southern section, upon a platform of ,avowed hostility to Southern rights, justified the South in withdrawing from a confederacy where she could not be protected. Submission to the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln now would result in the final abolition of slavery. If resistance was not made now it would be fruitless here- after. He discussed fully the business effect upon the South of the abolition of slavery. Impartially scrutinizing the outlook, he expressed the opinion that the South could never live in peace with the Northern abolitionists unless we could have new constitutional guarantees that would stop the slavery agitation. These the Northern people would never give. There was no doubt that the States around Georgia would secede, and we would thus be surrounded by free and independent states, with whom we have a common interest, and to refuse to stand with whom would in no way benefit us. Let wise men be sent to the convention, and let them.act for the best to protect our rights and pre- serve our liberties.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE STUBBORN BATTLE IN GEORGIA OVER DISUNION.
A Majority Against Disunion .- The County Appeals to the Legislature .- A Striking Batch of Papers .- The Greene County Resolutions aud M.W. Lewis .- Stately Invec- tive .- Stephens, Johnson and Ben Hill, against Secession .- Dr. Lovick Pierce .- Howell,Cobb .- L. J. Gartrell .- The People Halting .- Toombs Drives the Wedge Finally .- His Master Stroke of Disunion .- His Conservative Danbury Letter .- His Scheme of the Crittenden Resolutions, which Tested the Black Republican Wil- lingness to Compromise .- His Ringing Dispatch for Disunion .- William L. Harris of Mississippi .- Gov. Brown and the Banks Again .- The Choice Pardon .- Charles J. Jenkins.
A PRETTY fair criterion of the disunion sentiment in Georgia before the election of Lincoln and Hamlin was the Breckenridge vote. The union element voted for Douglas and Bell. The Breckenridge plat- form naturally attracted the most pronounced Southern rights men who were for making an unqualified issue for slavery. The vote showed a majority against disunion. The election of Lincoln set the current steadily to secession, and fixed a majority for national dissolution. But there was yet an immense reserve of decided union sentiment, that resolutely sought to stem the disunion tide. Over forty counties held public meetings and transmitted resolutions to the General Assembly. These solemn utterances of public opinion constituted a remarkable body of popular expressions. Whether for or against disunion they were tinged with a white heat, and echoed the tumultuous agitation of the time. The bulk of them demanded secession, but there were some most extraordinary, eloquent and prophetic appeals and pleas for union.
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The resolutions from Greene county, presented to the legislature by Miles W. Lewis, cover seven pages in the House journals of 1860, and furnished a striking and masterly argument for a conservative course. Pronouncing the election of Lincoln a violation of national comity, and not to be submitted to except temporarily, they yet declared it was not per se a sufficient cause for immediate dissolution, for a power- ful array of reasons :- Because it was a constitutional election, against Northern interest to dissolve the union, because the South was not yet united, because time and delay should be given to let the North try to do justice, because haste in the overthrow of the government would cut off sympathy for our movement, because the masses of the Southern
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136
COUNTY RESOLUTIONS ON THE CRISIS.
people were not ripe for disunion, because we were not ready for war, because no serious effort had been made at reconciliation, because we owed a duty to mankind to preserve our republic and its genius, because of the injury to our state and national securities and the terrible pecu- niary results, and because a dissolution if proper ought to be done with slow deliberation and after every effort to preserve it, quoting the example of our colonies which only dissevered finally and irrevocably the bond to the mother country after two years' fighting. State conven- tions, and then a Southern convention, temperate but firm,, should be held, urging our rights before the North and making a last grand united effort for a settlement such as we wished. The last of these powerful and statesmanlike resolutions deserves giving entire.
" Resolved, That in view of the great and solemn crisis which is upon us, we request our fellow citizens to nnite with us in prayer to Almighty God that he would deliver us from discord and disunion, and above all, from civil war and from bloodshed ; and that he would so guide our counsels and actions that we may be able to maintain our rights without revolution."
There were a number of the counties that sent up similar resolutions to the above, Sumter, Milton, Troup and others. But the majority struck hotly for immediate secession. Some were magnificent ebullitions of stately and impassioned invective. No man can read this masterly set of public resolutions without being impressed with their dignity, force, vigor of thought and uncommon excellence of diction and august gravity and intensified fervor of spirit. They were the outcome of an aroused and welded public sentiment, focalized to the most impressive majesty of deep human feeling and conviction. There was an original- ity of conception and a variety of treatment too about them that was wonderful, and indicated the marked ability as well as profound reflec- tion of their authors. The grand problems of our government, the difficult questions of civil, social and political policy, the philosophical relations of sections and classes, and the practical matters of administra- tion were discussed and expounded with a marvelous incisiveness and condensation, and an apothegmatic felicity of language.
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