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 19
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The Provisional Government of the Confederate States had been organized on the 9th of February, 1860, and the Provisional Congress was in session in Montgomery. This Congress condemned the action of Governor Brown in seizing these vessels, on the ground that it was wrong in Gov. Brown to take such independent State action, as this was the province of the Confederate government. It is needless to say that the censure weighed not a feather in the estimation of the intrepid and independent Executive of Georgia, whose action was based upon a careful and deliberate investigation of his authority, and under a sense of duty as to the protection he owed the citizens of Georgia. Nor did it swerve him one hairs-breadth from his course. It was a specimen of his practical and direct ways that he went straight to results. While the Confederate states' authorities with the multiplicity of great matters upon them, would have necessarily treated this as a minor affair, and pursued it leisurely and with ceremonious diplomacy, sending special envoys and using elaborate manifestoes, Gov. Brown took the short path to success, and wasting time upon no formalities or circumlocution, he made his peremptory demand, and when it was refused, enforced it with an iron-handed retaliation that asked no favors and granted none, but tore justice from unwilling authority.
The matter was pending from the 22d day of January to the 22d day of March, 1861, just two months, and engrossed as the public mind was with the secession of states, the disintegration of the Union, and the formation of a new government, this striking controversy between the two leading states of the hostile sections, involving sacred rights and testing strong remedies, held the popular thought and even evoked the
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COMPLIMENT TO GOVERNOR BROWN.
official consideration of both national governments. Some idea can be formed of how Gov. Brown's conduct in the affair impressed men from a lengthy editorial in Mr. Gardner's paper, the Augusta Constitutionalist. This editorial began by saying that the distinguished gentleman who occupied the Executive chair of Georgia had made sundry marks upon the records of the present, that time will not readily erase, and which the pen of the historian of those days will not forget to copy. . It re- viewed some of his leading acts of rule. Among other things it showed how, when events were crowding upon each other's heels, and while the Federal administration was amusing South Carolina with empty pledges and really occupying the impregnable walls of Sumter, Governor Brown, without the firing of a gun, displaced the Stars and Stripes, wherever they floated on Georgia soil. It took up the last act of the Governor in his daring reprisal upon New York. It referred to the charge that had been made, that Gov. Brown had, in this, made a political move for the Presidency of the Southern Confederate States. It showed that even the New York Herald, the leading journal of the Western world, had in an able discussion of the matter, shown that the policy of reprisals had been conceived and urged upon the legislature of Georgia, by Gov. Brown, in his famous special message on the crisis, and that he was act- ing in conformity with a settled policy. This editorial was remarkable in its unqualified tribute to Gov. Brown's statesmanship, as coming from a paper owned by a defeated rival for the governorship and which had persistently fought him. It declared that Georgia was indebted to South Carolina for this superb Governor, and it used this . culminating language:
" He may reasonably expect anything, for from the poor boy of Pickens, South Caro- lina, he became a Georgia lawyer of good reputation, the Judge of the Superior Court of the Blue Ridge Circuit, then Governor of Georgia; Governor again by the largest majority ever given in the State; and as a distinguished Congressman once remarked to us, ' We might as well send him to the Senate, and nominate him for President, for he is bound to go through, and that will be the quickest way to get rid of him.'"
CHAPTER XX.
THE BIRTH OF THE CONFEDERACY AND THE SHADOW OF WAR.
Georgia Congressmen Withdraw .- Joshma Hill Resigns .- Southern Convention -- Howell Cobb its President .- Georgia Leading .- Toombs and Tom Cobb gover !. ing spirits .- Jeff Davis, President, A. H. Stephens, Vice-President .-- Martin J. Crawford, Commissioner to the United States .- His Mission Ending in a Haugh'; Defiance .- Brown's Vigorous War Preparations .- The Leap to Arms .- Georgia War Appointments .- Davis Speaks through Georgia .- The First Confederate Flag in Georgia .- Capt. G. W. Lee .- The Secession Convention in Savannah. - George W. Crawford's Exquisite Speech .- The Spirit of the South .- Fighting Providence .- Troops Organized .- Guns Ordered .- The Seizure of the Dahlonega Mint -Old Harrison Riley .- Gov. Brown's Admirable Tact in Dealing with the North Georgia Union Sentiment .- The United States Flag in Pickens County.
Ox the 23d day of January, 1861, all of the Georgia Representatives in Congress, except Hon. Joshua Hill, withdrew from the body in a letter addressed to Hon. William Pennington, Speaker of the House. Tin. letter recited the fact of Georgia's secession, quoting the ordinance and concluded thus:
" The sovereign State of Georgia, of which we are representatives in this House. having thereby dissolved the political connection between that State and the Government of the United States, and having thereby repealed the ordinance of 1788, by which the Constitution of the United States was ratified, and having resumed all the powers del .. gated to the Federal Government, we hereby announce to you that we are no longer members of the House of representatives of the United States Congress. Martin J Crawford, Peter E. Love, Thomas J. Hardeman, Jr., Lucius J. Gartrell, Jolm W. H. Underwood, James Jackson, John Jones."
Hon. Joshua Hill did not withdraw, but resigned in the following brief letter to Mr. Pennington, dated the 231 of January, 1861, also.
" Sir,-Satisfied as I am, that a majority of the convention of the people of Georgi.l. now sitting, desire that the State should no longer be Represented upon this floor, I io obedience to this wish of the people's representatives, hereby resign the seat I hold a- a member of this House."
Mr. Hill, upon the seizure of Fort Pulaski by Gov. Brown, had made a speech in opposition to this action of the Governor. This speech was made in Congress, and on the 24th of January a large number of citi- zens of Geneva, Talbot county, assembled and hung Mr. Hill in effigy
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THE PROVISIONAL CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT.
for this speech. Gen. Scott was also burned in effigy by the students of Franklin college. Mr. John Boston, collector of the port of Savan- nah, resigned his place. The flag of Georgia was immediately hoisted on the staff over the custom house by Major Lachlan MeIntosh, who had resigned from the United States army. The flag raised was of a neat design, bearing the coat of arms of the State, surmounted by six stars, the number of the seceded states. Over the whole was an eye, The flag was white, with the stars all deep red save Georgia, which was blue.
At 123 o'clock on the 4th day of February, 1861, the convention of the seceded states met in Montgomery, Alabama. Hon. Howell Cobb was made permanent president, and J. J. Hooper of Alabama, secretary. Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina were represented. A provisional goverment was formed; and on the 9th of February, 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected Provisional Presi- dent, and Alexander H. Stephens Vice-President. There is no doubt but that Mr. Toombs was expected to be the President. The Georgia delegation held a meeting, all being present except Mr. Hill and Mr. Wright, and agreed to present the name of Mr. Toombs. It was sub- sequently rumored that Mr. Toombs said his name was not to be pre- sented, and it was then determined, if this was true, that the Georgians would support Mr. Davis for President, and Mr. Stephens for Vice-Presi- dent. The motion to put Mr. Stephens in the second place, if Mr. Toombs should not be presented for the first office, was made in the Georgia delegation by Mr. Kenan and seconded by Mr. Nisbet. The name of Howell Cobb was also spoken of, but some of the delegations from Carolina, Florida and Alabama, who heard of the proposition to elect Mr. Cobb were unwilling to support him on account of old party conflicts. Mr. Toombs did forbid the use of his name, and Davis and Stephens were unanimously chosen. It will thus be seen that Georgia carried into the new Southern movement the same controlling influence that she had been accustomed to wield, furnishing a President for the convention, two strong men for the Presidency of the Government, and the Vice-President of the Confederacy. Mr. Toombs and Thomas R. R. Cobb were the leading spirits of the committee to draft a constitution for a permanent government, and Mr. Bartow, chairman of the military com- mittee. Ou the 18th of February, 1861, Jefferson Davis was inau- gurated as Provisional President, and he made Robert Toombs his Secretary of State. A commission of three persons was appointed by Mr. Davis under resolution of the Confederate Congress, to go to Washington and negotiate friendly relations with the United States
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WM. H. SEWARD AND MARTIN J. CRAWFORD.
Government. This commission consisted of Hon. Martin J. Crawford of Georgia, John Forsyth of Alabama, and A. B. Roman of Louisiana. Mr. Crawford of Georgia was the leading spirit in this important com- mission, clothed as it was with powers of the broadest extent and most delicate responsibility, in the settlement of the great and difficult ques- tions that involved the two governments.
Mr. Crawford and Mr. Forsyth proceeded immediately to Washington, arriving there just as Mr. Buchanan was about retiring from office. On the 12th of March, 1861, they addressed a communication to Mr. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State under President Lincoln, notifying him of their mission and asking the appointment of an early day to present their credentials and enter upon their duties. On the 15th of March, Mr. Seward prepared what he termed a " Memorandum," declining official intercourse with Messrs. Crawford and Forsyth. Under various pretexts and infinite duplicity the decision of Mr. Seward was withhe !! and the commissioners deceived until the Sth of April, when it was delivered to them, they remaining under pledges that Fort Sumter would be given up to the South, and a peaceful solution of troubles he made. The commissioners on the 9th of April addressed a reply to Mr. Seward -- a powerful, incisive document, in which they clearly set forth the attitude of the seceded states, and the duplicity that had been shown to them. They declared that the refusal to entertain their over- tures connected with concurrent action of the United States govern- ment was viewed by them, and could only be received by the world. as a declaration of war against the Confederate States. They climaxed this declaration with these haughty words:
" The undersigned, in behalf of their government and people, accept the gauge of battle thus thrown down to them ; and appealing to God and the judgment of mankind for the righteousness of their cause, the people of the Confederate States will defend their liberties to the last against this flagrant and open attempt at their subjugation to sectional power."
Georgia was still in the lead of this great revolution. Her destiny seemed inevitable for a foremost agency in the now certain strife. It was through one of her bold sons that a peaceful solution of the matter was sought, and when that failed, that the prompt, ringing, defiant acceptance of the issue was with heroic emphasis and a lofty spirit formulated to the foc and the world. The war was a settled fact. The retention of Sumter, the war-like preparations and the refusal to treat with the Southern Commissioners, were simply the preface to the blood- shed so soon to come. Both sides girded for the fight. Georgia espe-
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THE WAR FEVER. 183
cially, under her prompt and thorough-going Governor, went to work in dead earnest, getting ready for genuine war. The people, though they had been divided in the policy of disunion, rallied to the cause when it was decided. There was a considerable union element in the mountain section that clung to the Federal government, and that stood stubbornly union to the end. It was quite a liberal sprinkling of the citizens populating the hilly belt far from the railroads, but with this exception the million of Georgia inhabitants backed loyally the South- ern cause. Voting not much over 100,000 citizens, the state of Georgia gave 120,000 soldiers to the war, or 20,000 excess of her voting popu- lation. This constitutes a wonderful record of chivalry, not surpassed in the world's history.
The war flush was on the state, and there was a good deal of demon- stration of enthusiasm, but with a settling of the public mind to the business of fighting, there came a deeper real intensity, more quiet. We felt the heat, but the flash diminished. Men, too, were right noisy over the situation. There was much flurry, and occasionally the enthu- siasm boiled over, but the consciousness of serious work ahead made thinking people serious, and toned down the effervescence. There was an unbounded confidence in the future, save among a few. The leaders believed in success. The masses exaggerated the ease of whipping out the North. There was a curious aud strange undervaluation of the so- called Yankee as a fighter, the belief prevailing that one sturdy South- erner could vanquish several Northerners. This idea prevailed largely, and gave an over confidence to our soldiers. Such men as Herschell V. Johnson and John E. Ward doubted the final success and were pro- foundly depressed. But the general feeling was buoyant and hopeful. Gov. Brown promptly proceeded to organize the two regular regiments authorized by the Convention. He appointed as Colonels, William J. Hardee and Wm. H. T. Walker; Lieutenant Colonels, Chas. J. Williams and E. W. Chastain; Majors, L. B. MeLaws, Wm. M. Gardner, Alfred Cumming and E. R. Harden. Among the other officers appointed were Joseph Wheeler, afterwards Lieutenant General of Cavalry, W. W. Kirkland, R. II. Anderson, Alfred Iverson, Jr., Geo. P. Harrison, Jr., and J. Alexander, Brigadier Generals, and P. M. B. Young, Major General.
Jefferson Davis came through Georgia on his way to Montgomery, to be inaugurated as President of the Confederacy. His trip from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and thence to Montgomery, was an ovation. At Ringgold, Dalton, Resaca, Adairsville, Cartersville and Marietta he
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THE FIRST CONFEDERATE FLAG IN GEORGIA ..
was greeted by crowds. Atlanta sent a delegation to meet him, of which Dr. W. F. Westmoreland was a member. Bartow county was then called Cass county, and its name was afterwards changed in honor of Francis S. Bartow. Mr. Davis made a speech at Cartersville which he thus commenced.
"Georgians-for by no higher title could I address you-your history from the days of the Revolution down to the time that your immortal Troup maintained the rights of your State and of all the states, in his contest with Federal usurpation, has made Georgia sacred soil. Nor have you any reason to be other than proud of the events recently transpiring within your borders, and especially the action of your present Governor iu wresting from the robbers of the North the property of your own citizens which they had stolen. His promptitude in demanding the property from the Governor of Nes York, and in seizing the vessels of citizens of New York, when the demand was not im- mediately complied with, is worthy of all praise."
In Atlanta the demonstration was a magnificent one. Over 5,000 people gave him a reception. Mayor Jared I. Whitaker introduced him to the vast concourse. In his speech he paid high tribute to Georgia. At every point on the Atlanta and West Point railroad crowds gathered to do him honor. At Newnan, Miss Barney Dougherty was delegated to present him with a large bouquet. On the 5th day of . March, 1861, the first Georgia company was tendered for the Confeder- ate service and accepted. It was an Atlanta company called "Lee's Volunteers," and commanded by Capt. G. W. Lee. In connection with this event, the flag of the Southern Confederacy was first raised in the State of Georgia. Capt. Lee was returning from Montgomery to At- lanta after his mission. The passengers obtained at Grantville the requisite material, and the flag was made on the train between Grant- ville and Fairburn, by Mrs. W. T. Wilson and Mrs. H. H. Witt of At- lanta, Miss L. Smith of Albany, Ga., Mrs. Chas. Wallace of Knoxville, Tenn., Mrs. R. F. Butt of New Orleans, and Mrs. S. A. Awtry of Cus- seta, Ala. Col. W. T. Wilson presented the flag to Capt. Lee in a stir- ring speech, to which Capt. Lee replied eloquently. Judge Blalock of Fairburn, and J. W. Beal of Lagrange also spoke. Capt. Lee paraded in Atlanta the next day with his company under this flag, which was an exact copy of the first flag of the Confederate States that had been raised in Montgomery, on the 4th of March, 1861. The flag was com- posed of a blue union with seven stars in a circle, representing the seven Confederate States, with three equal horizontal stripes of red, white and red. The incident created much enthusiasm.
The Georgia Secession Convention resumed its session in Savannah. on the 7th day of March, 1861, and continued its deliberations until Sat-
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THE SECESSION CONVENTION ADJOURNS.
urday, the 23rd day of March, when it adjourned sine die. The Con- stitution was unanimously ratified on the 16th day of March. The Gov- ernor was authorized to raise and expend all of the funds necessary to carry out the acts for public defense, both by issuing bonds and Treas- ury notes. Resolutions were passed offering to cede ten miles square of territory for a capital and permanent seat of government for the Con- federate states. The control of military operations, and forts and arms was transferred to the Confederate government. A new state constitu- tion was adopted. The president of the convention, ex-Gov. George W. Crawford, made an address upon its adjournment, brief, but with some very strong and sententious expressions. Complimenting the body upon its dignity, he thus continued:
" When first assembled there was less disagreement as to the burthen of our grier- ances than to their remedy, and especially as to the time of its application. Happily, conciliation produced concord. When our commou patroness spoke, her sons, less from opinion than instinct, forgetful of the past, and mindful of the future, rallied to the res. cue. Clasping each other with a fraternal grasp, they were less intent on sharing in the glory than participating in a common peril and a common destiny. Thus may the sons of Georgia ever be.
" You have overturned a government which had become sectional in policy and sec- tional in hostility. It had lost nationality, and the first requisite of every government- that of protection of person and property. True you have overthrown the Federal Union, but you have preserved the Federal Constitution. You have retained ancestral wisdom in the formation of your government, separate I only from those abuses which experience has developed. In short you have effectel a political reformation."
These words, so happily chosen, so concisely and clearly put, are remarkable in the definition they present of the loyal devotion of our people to the idea of our constitutional government. Never were any people more faithful to a principle than the South was in the late war to the genius of true republican theory-to the very incarnation of char- tered liberty. It must stand as an unalterable truth, that the millions of the South tried to shatter the Union, the better to preserve the consti- tution and its holy principles. No men were ever truer to the spirit of a government than the seceding Southerners. They understood and felt, and believed its doctrines, and they sought to enforce them when they conscientiously deemed them in danger. And so the verdict of a just and impartial posterity must be. They miscalculated the method, and they staggered under the inenbus of slavery, which closed to them the practical sympathy of the world, as well as that higher and more valuable support, the aid of the Divine Providence. Weaker people than ours have conquered more formidable odds. Our defeat must ever be incredible in the light of the glowing history of successful human
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THE UNITED STATES MINT AT DAHLONEGA.
resistance. But in the illumination of a great Providential plan to uptear a million-rooted evil against human freedom, our failure is lustrously explicable. We fought, not men, but a Providential destiny.
The convention turned over matters of arms and soldiers to the Con- federacy, but Gov. Brown was too provident to cease his organization of State military. He continued to organize the volunteer force. He contemplated creating two divisions, appointing Col. Henry R. Jackson Major-General of the First division, and Col. Win. H. T. Walker Major- General of the Second division; and Paul J. Semmes of Muscogee and Wm. Phillips of Cobb, Brigadiers. Only one division was found prac- ticable, and Gen. Walker was appointed to command it, Gen. Henry R. Jackson generously relinquishing his own chances and urging Walker for the command. Gov. Brown had contracted with an iron company in Pitts- burg, Pa., for a large number of cannon of large caliber and long range for coast defense, but when the guns were made, such was the prejudice of the people of that city against the seceding states, that the contractors declined delivering the guns and abandoned the contract. The Governor gave a new contract to the Tredegar Iron Works of Richmond, Va., and procured these guns from that source. In order to stimulate the building of a foundry for casting cannon, the convention passed an ordinance offering a bonus of $10,000 to any one erecting such a foundry as could furnish three guns a week, and should make a 10-inch columbiad at an early day.
The United States mint at Dahlonega, which had some $20,000 of gold coin belonging to the United States goverment, was taken posses- sion of in a way that demonstrated the discrimination that Gov. Brown exercised in his difficult rôle at this time. Reference has been made to the Union sentiment existing among the mountain people. At the time the secession ordinance passed, Gen. Harrison W. Riley, a leading poli- tician of Lumpkin county, declared that he meant to seize and hold the mint for the United States. The bold avowal created some excitement and aların, as the extent of the Union feeling in North Georgia was not known. Gov. Brown was intimately acquainted with the people of that section and knew precisely how to deal with them. The convention promptly passed an ordinance making it treason for any person to be concerned in any attempt to give aid to the enemies of the State. Gov. Brown did not deem it advisable to make any show of military force in the mountain section, but thought it best to trust to the patriotic spirit of the masses there. Gen. Riley, while a very illiterate man, was a very influential one; a bluff, eccentric, determined spirit, with a wonderful
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GOV. BROWN AND GEN. HARRISON W. RILEY.
local popularity. The report of his threat to seize the mint was tele- graphed to Gov. Brown, and a strong pressure was brought to bear upon him, by several leading men of the State, to send troops at once and secure the mint by force, and not permit the rebellious old Riley to get a foothold. The Governor knew Riley well front his boy- hood, and was satisfied that a very large element in his course was a desire to attract notoriety, and that he was too shrewd to undertake a rebellion against the State in North-east Georgia, unless advantage was given him; and that with so large a proportion of Union sentiment as there was in that section of the State, if any difficulty was raised with Riley about the mint, the popular sympathy would have been with himn, and there would have been serious trouble. Gov. Brown stated this to the gentlemen who approached him on the subject, and told them as he knew Riley well and had been partly raised in that section of Georgia, he would manage the matter rightly if they would leave it to his discre- tion. A few days afterwards the Governor wrote to several prominent citizens of Dahlonega, telling them that he had heard such a report in reference to Gen. Riley, but had known him too long and had too high an appreciation of his good sense and patriotism to believe he would attempt such a thing, and that as old, personal friends he and Riley must have no collision. The Governor did not think it best to write to Riley personally, but wrote to friends who would communicate the facts to him. This course had a soothing effect upon Riley; and toned him down. The Governor also quietly notified the superintendent of the mint that the State now held and possessed it. The superintendent formally recognized the authority of Georgia over and her right to the mint, and consented to act under the Executive, who gave him written orders. If any military support was needed the Governor would give it. It shows the inflamed spirit of the day that, not understanding the course of the Governor, several of the papers condemned his seeming inactivity in making a demonstration upon the mint; but it was all right when understood.
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