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 22
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To this letter Gov. Brown, on the 13th day of August, 1861, replied. He advised against holding conventions. There were no political divisions and no need for any party machinery, while the people had no time for any unnecessary assemblages. In regard to liis being Governor a third time, he frankly stated that neither his personal interest nor inclinations prompted him to give his consent to run again. He made this allusion to the past:
"In the days of your honored grandfather, Jared Irwin, who served with so much ability as Governor of Georgia, there was no such usage as that of a first or second term only, for he was called to the executive chair the third time. The political usage has since been for the executive to retire at the end of the first or second terin. It has, how- ever, been but a usage, as there is no constitutional difficulty in the way of the same person holding the office for a third term. I have had no inclination to violate this usage. If I have made no character in the office in four years, I may not expect to do so in six. If I have made any reputation during that time, I have then something to risk by holding the office another term in the midst of a revolution."
It was a right interesting coincidence, that the grandson of the only
20S
A STATE CONVENTION CALLED.
Governor in the history of the State who had been elected for three terms, should be the instrument of pressing upon Gov. Brown the popular wish for his undertaking the responsibilities and wearing the honors of a third term. Gov. Brown continued his letter, quoting the reasons that had been urged' for his taking a third. These were, his familiarity with the duties and the situation, and the danger of putting a new and inexperienced man in the place, and his duty as one who had done so much to bring about secession to now stand to his post and bear his burden of the revolution. He, therefore, felt that he could not refuse if the people desired his services, but that he could not and would not make any canvass for the election.
This permission of Gov. Brown for the popular use of his name for Governor was the signal for a heavy assault upon him. In his positive administration he had awakened some bitter personal enmities. His wonderful popularity excited a wide jealousy among the leaders of public opinion in the State. Before his letter some of the press had suggested and advocated a convention for September, and the opposition pushed the movement. A convention was called for the 11th of September, 1861, in Milledgeville. Numbers of counties called meetings and by resolu- tions refused to send delegates. Herschell V. Johnson was chosen a delegate to the convention, and declined in a strong letter. He said the contest before the convention for the nomination would be purely a personal one, in which he took no interest, the candidates being all worthy; that the State needed a united people, and the convention would not concentrate public opinion; that a large part of the people, not being represented in the convention, would not be bound by its action; that Gov. Brown was virtually an independent candidate, and thus two candidates were a certainty; that under these circumstances he would not be trammeled, but should. vote for the man whose elevation he deemed best " calculated to promote the public welfare irrespective of partisan or personal considerations."
There is no doubt that this pertinent letter of ex-Gov. Johnson had a powerful effect in checking representation in the convention. There is no doubt, either, that the people were with Gov. Brown. The homely words of Trice had struck a bed-rock basis of popular endorsement. The convention had 124 representatives from only fifty-eight counties out of 132, and it was claimed that only forty of these had delegates actually empowered. Col. Cincinnatus Peeples was temporary chairman, and Judge Dennis F. Hammond permanent president. Win. I. Mitchell, chairman of the committee on business, reported the nomination of
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by JC Better Now & Dag"
E. A. Nisbet. -
209
EUGENIUS A. NISBET NOMINATED FOR GOVERNOR.
Judge Eugenius A. Nisbet for Governor. Hon. George N. Lester moved the appointment of a committee, which reported an electoral ticket, headed by David Irwin of Cobb and Thos. E. Lloyd of Chatham. The district electoral nominees were John L. Harris, Arthur Hood, J. L. Wimberly, Dr. E. McGehee, I. P. Garvin, I. G. Fannin, O. C. Gibson, John Ray, H. H. Cannon and H. F. Price.
Of these gentlemen, Hon. Thomas E. Lloyd of Savannah was the admitted leader of the bar in that city of accomplished lawyers. A modest gentleman of fortune and old family, indifferent to politics, nothing of an advocate, lacking wholly the charm of eloquence, he was yet a profound and learned counselor of law, and the very head of the civil branch of jurisprudence. A good liver, fond of his billiards and . his wine, a luxurious bachelor, he was yet an unwearied student of his profession, and the most pains-taking, crudite and accurate attorney at a bar noted for its able and learned members. He was a legal umpire in disputed points of law. He had a purely legal mind, clear, philosoph- ical, discriminating, quick, powerful and analytic. He read widely, he digested fully. His temper was exquisite, and. his spirit thoroughly balanced. His truth and sense of honor were perfect. He was the finest specimen of a civil lawyer that we have ever had in Georgia. His quiet manners and retiring disposition prevented him from earning that State repute that his extraordinary legal abilities and attainments entitled him to receive. Where he was known he passed for his remarkable value. He never sought office, and when it was thrust upon him he took it reluctantly and laid it down with delight.
The convention further presented Davis and Stephens for re-election as President and Vice-President of the Confederacy. The nomination of Judge Nisbet was a very strong one, the strongest, perhaps, that could have been made. He was an opponent well worthy of Gov. Brown, and fitted to test to the utmost his popular strength. He had been the leader of the secession convention, and enjoyed all the popularity that fact was calculated to give him. He was pure, able, eloquent, learned, distinguished. He had illustrated the State in Congress. He had graced private life, ornamented his profession and adorned the supreme bench. The opposition hailed his nomination enthusiastically. The press of the State, with but a few exceptions, took up his cause and went against Gov. Brown in a solid phalanx. The Savannah Republican led a bitter, unsparing warfare against the Governor. The Augusta papers followed in the same line zealously. The Federal Union of Milledge- ville and the Atlanta Intelligencer were the principal journalistic cham-
14
210
GOVERNOR BROWN'S ADDRESS.
pions of Gov. Brown, and made pretty nearly a single-handed fight. The campaign waxed warm. The papers showered their diatribes against the unquailing Brown, who, refusing to make any canvass, devoted his energies to the gathering storm of war, leaving the people to attend to his campaign. He made but one public manifesto,-a sharp, tren- chant, but well-tempered paper, stating his position clearly and firmly.
This short address to the people of Georgia was dated the 19th day of September, 1861. He showed that he was before the people of the State as a candidate before the convention assembled, and when there were no party organizations to render a convention or caucus necessary. Mr. Chambers, of Columbus, was also a candidate. The convention, if it had been a full one, representing the people, might have justly asked obedience to its mandates. But the convention did not even represent half of the counties of the State, while in many counties that had delegates the masses of the people had declared against the convention. The convention had failed to condemn his administration, and this failure he used effectively. He charged that the convention movement was simply a caucus of the politicians and office-seekers to rekindle the fires of party strife when our whole people should be a unit, for the protection of life, liberty, property and all that was dear to us. This point he pushed with vigor and plausibility. Perhaps the most character- istic part of this unmincing address was his frank way of dealing with the value of his executive experience to the State. He thus put this delicate matter:
"But it is insisted with much earnestness, that it has not been the usage for the same person to hold the office of Governor for three terms. This is certainly true, and it is equally true that it has not been the usage to have revolution, or to have a wicked war waged upon us, and the soil of our own State threatened to be drenched with the blood of her sons, shed by an invading army ; nor has it been the usage for Georgia to have in the field thirty thousand troops, called out by her executive, whose duty it is to know when, and with what preparation each company went to the field, what had been sup- plied to them and what they lack, and to know the condition of the finances of the State, and her present means of affording the most speedy assistance to her suffering troops, as emergencies may require prompt action. Whether the public good requires that he who has conducted these affairs from the beginning, should retire in the midst of them, and give place to a new man, who has yet to learn the condition of the financial affairs of the State, and the location and necessities of our troops, is a question which the farmers, merchants and mechanics of our State are, I think, as competent to decide at the ballot-box, as a few politicians and political aspirants are to decide in caucus at Milledgeville."
Gov. Brown concluded by stating that he left the matter for the people to pass upon, not doubting that they would act for their best
211
GOVERNOR BROWN RE-ELECTED A THIRD TIME.
interest. Like all of Gov. Brown's documents for the people, this plain, . matter-of-fact business presentation of his cause was effective. It elicited criticism, abuse, raillery, but its common-sense notions seized the public intelligence. Every sort of accusation was heaped upon the Governor. He was charged with being arbitrary, unconstitutional, self- opinionated, greedy of power, assuming to be the State, inflated and vain. But the fighting went on, and he continued his grim war energy, and the newspapers thundered at him, and the people bent their souls to the bloodshed, unheeding the journalistic cannonade at his indifferent head, and when the day came to vote, they put him back in the great chair of state, then a herculean responsibility, by a splendid popular majority of 13,691 in a vote of 79,295. Gov. Brown received 46,493 votes, and Nisbet 32,802. The fight was whipped, and it was a remarkable personal victory, a tribute of popular esteem, of which any man might be proud, and crowning as it did, four years of exalted official trust, and overriding the precedent of a century, it was the grandest endorsement public opinion had ever given a public official in the annals of the good old Commonwealth.
CHAPTER XXIII.
GOV. BROWN'S STORMY TIME WITH THE LEGISLATURE OF 1861-2.
" A Nisbet Legislature that will give Brown the Devil."-Its Personelle .- T. M. Nor- wood .- Gov. Brown's Message .- Criticism of Confederate Legislation .- Gov. Brown's Third Inauguration in a Suit of Georgia-made Jeans .- Georgia War Mat- ters .- The Transfer of Georgia Coast Troops to the Confederacy .- Our Coast Threatened .- Gov. Brown Urges Defense .- E. C. Anderson Runs the Blockade with Arms .-- Vetoes .- The Two Wars-the North against the South, and the Legisla- ture against Brown .- Brown's Message pending the Bill to Transfer Our Troops .- Legislative Anger .- Warren Akin Denounces Gov. Brown .- Judge E. G. Cabaniss. -Col. Chastain's Regiment Refused to be Transferred .- Savage Committee Report of Norwood .- Gov. Brown's Severe Reply .- The General Assembly hopelessly Divided .- Gov. Brown's Views finally Embodied .- Judges .- Toombs Elected C. S. . Senator, and Scornfully Rejects it .- Confederate Congressmen.
"BROWN is elected, but we have a Nisbet Legislature that will give him the devil," was currently reported to be the street gossip of the opposition. A lively session was betokened in this floating chaff, and the promise was fulfilled. The legislative deliberations of November and December, 1861, were unusually important, and in their picturesque animation suited well the war times. The body convened on Wednes- day the 6th day of November. Hon. John Billups was elected Presi- dent of the Senate, and Hon. Warren Akin Speaker of the House. In the Senate were the following gentlemen: George A. Gordon of Savan- nah; James L. Seward; D. A. Vason of Georgia, afterwards Judge; T. M. Furlow of Americus; J. T. Shewmake; W. Gibson of Richmond; M. W. Lewis of Greene; Wier Boyd of Lumpkin; A. J. Hansell of Cobb and Hiram P. Bell, afterward a member of Congress.
In the House among the leaders were, L. H. Briscoe; L. N. Whittle of Bibb; Thomas M. Norwood of Chatham, a United States Senator since the war; L. N. Trammell of Catoosa, afterward president of the Georgia Senate; George N. Lester of Cobb, elected subsequently to the Confederate Congress; Milton A. Candler of DeKalb, since the war a member of Congress; Robert Hester of Elbert; Z. B. Hargrove, a prom- inent Republican Icader since the war; A. E. Cochrane; C. W. DuBose of Sparta; W. II. Felton of Macon; E. G. Cabiniss of Monroe; G. T. Barnes of Richmond; Peter E. Love of Thomas, ex-member of Con-
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213
THE TURBULENT TEMPER OF THE TIME.
gress; B. H. Bigham of Troup and James S. Hook, afterward Judge of the superior court. Hon. Thomas M. Norwood was a small, unattractive looking gentleman, of little grace of oratory, but a person of some uncommon intellectual characteristics. He had a capacity of cold, strong logic and elaborate argumentation, coupled with a rich vein of caustic satire. Not a prolific speaker, he yet was after preparation a very strong one, and made, as a United States Senator, two elaborate speeches, that won him a national reputation. Another small, homely person, who developed after the war into a good prominence, and won some very flattering political victories, was M. A. Candler of DeKalb. A pale, low-browed, slender individual; he possessed a full, sonorous voice and an unusual energy of expression and delivery. He was a positive character, and earned justly his promotion.
The General Assembly met under circumstances of unparalleled inter- est and overwhelming import. We were in the very flood tide of war, straining every power, and threatened with an invasion of our own soil. The enemy was thundering at our portals, a large fleet beleaguering our coast. The emergency had to be met promptly and fully. It was unfortunate that there was a strong fragment of the body disposed to antagonize the Executive. If ever unity was desirable it was in that grave crisis. But somehow the drift to turbulence was irresistible. Men were affected by the temper of a revolutionary era. Difference of opinion rushed to extremes and speedily grew to acrimony. Discussions degenerated into disputes, and debates became altercations. There was, perhaps, no man in the State who was more fitted by nature for the combative spirit of the times than Gov. Brown. A belligerent campaign suited him wonderfully. Opposition brought him cordially to the front always, and aggression nerved every fiber of his soul to an indomitable resistance. His career shows that he never gave up while he could battle.
His message to the Legislature was a very lengthy and a strong state paper, breathing a spirit of stern manhood that represented faithfully the sentiment of the people. The philosophy of the war and the needs of the hour were masterfully argued. He criticised two acts of Confederate legislation that he deemed wrong, the one authorizing the President to accept State troops without reference to the State authori- ties, and the other, giving to the President the appointment of the field officers of the State volunteers. His recital of the war measures he had taken constituted a remarkable record of energy and responsibility. Georgia had on the first day of November, 1861, fifty regiments in ser
214
GOVERNOR BROWN'S THIRD INAUGURATION.
vice, of which she had armed and equipped thirty. It was an astonish- ing work. He urged an appropriation of three and a half millions for the military needs of 1862, the passage of a stay law, the legalizing further bank suspension and other vigorous war measures. He con- cluded his message with this ringing paragraph:
"I would cheerfully expend in the cause the last dollar I could raise, and would fer- vently pray, like Samson of old, that God would give me strength to lay hold upon the pillars of the edifice, and would enable me while bending with its weight, to die a glo- rious death beneath the crumbling ruins of that temple of Southern freedom which has so long attracted the world by the splendor of its magnificence."
The message elicited very high encomiums, and was especially com- plimented for its discussion of the means of perpetuating our institu- tions and preserving our commercial independence. The message, like the inaugural which followed his installation as Governor for his third term, urged unity and harmony among the members, and co-operation cordially in the trying ordeal through which they were then passing. Gov. Brown was re-inaugurated on the Sth of November, at 12 o'clock, dressed in a suit of Georgia-made jeans, and the accounts represent him as " deeply impressive and solemnly eloquent." It was certainly a striking situation that he held. His force of character and supreme leadership in a great public crisis had made the people demand the con- tinuance of his administration in the face of long-honored custom. The Atlanta Intelligencer had stated by his authority that it was his per- sonal desire to retire from the office. He had been re-elected over the most potential representative of the popular secession element in the State, by a splendid majority without making a speech. And he stood the chosen leader of a great commonwealth under all these impressive cir- cumstances confronting the mighty revolution. His inaugural revealed his consciousness alike of the tribute and the burden. Nor was his attitude less dramatic because an organized and implacable minority stood facing him, cager and resolute to batter him down and crush him before the people. He was aware to the fullest extent of the deter- mined hostility threatening him.
The report of the Comptroller General gave the details of the year's work. One million of dollars had been spent for military purposes. The banks had loaned the state $842,500. The following regiments had been organized:
1st Regiment, Colonel C. J. Williams, Regular.
H. W. Mercer,
1st
J. R. Ramsay, Volunteer.
215
GEORGIA CONFEDERATE REGIMENTS.
2d. Regiment, Colonel Paul J. Semmes, Volunteer. 3d
A. R. Wright,
4th
Geo. Doles,
5th
66
Jno. K. Jackson, 66
6th 66
66
A. H. Colquitt,
. 7th 8th
66
W. M. Gardner, 66
66
10th 66
L. McLaws,
11th
12th
66
Ed. Johnson,
13th
66
W. Ector,
14th 66
15th 66 T. W. Thomas,
66
10th 66
H. Cobb,
17th
18th
66
66
W. T. Wofford,
19th
66 W. W. Boyd,
20th
66 W. D. Smith, 66
21st 66
J. T. Mercer,
22d
Robert Jones,
23d
T. Hutcheson,
66
24th
R. McMillan,
66
25th 66 C. C. Wilson,
66
Georgia Legion, "
T. R. R. Cobb, Wm. Phillips,
"
1st Battalion, Lt. Col. J. B. Villepigue,
2d
Major T. Hardeman, " Stoval,
66
Independent Georgia Dragoons, Captain I. W. Avery. In camp in Georgia were also the following: . Regiment, Colonel T. J. Warthen, Volunteer.
Levi B. Smith, David J. Bailey,
66 A. Littlefield, 66
5 Companies,
Wm. HI. Stiles, 66
7
E. L. Thomas, 66
S
Aug. R. Wright, 66
.
A. R. Lamar,
1 Regiment,
66 C. W. Styles, 66
L. J. Gartrell,
66
9th 66 E. R. Goulding,
G. T. Anderson,
A. V. Brumby,
66
" H. L. Benning,
Phillips Legion, "
3d 66
216 -
MILITARY CHANGES.
Gen. Henry R. Jackson had declined the position of Major General in favor of Gen. Walker, and was fighting in West Virginia as a Con- federate Brigadier, and had made fame there winning the Greenbrier battle. Gov. Brown had appointed Gen. W. H. T. Walker Major Gen- eral, who had resigned and accepted a position as a Confederate Briga- dier General. Gen. Paul J. Semmes had been appointed Brigadier General, but resigned and accepted the Colonelcy of the 2d Georgia Confederate regiment. Gen. Phillips had organized a Brigade, but the Confederate government refused to take any Georgia appointed Gene- rals, and he was commanding a legion. Gov. Brown had appointed George P. Harrison and F. W. Capers Brigadier Generals, both of whom had organized Brigades on the coast. Ira R. Foster was the state Quarter Master General, who had exhibited a signal efficiency in the arduous duties of this most important department. Col. J. I. Whitaker was appointed the State Commissary General. The Hon. Thomas Butler King had been sent as Commissioner to Europe to arrange a line of steamers for direct trade, under the act of the last legislature incorporating the "Belgian American Company," and ยท giving the states guarantee for $100,000 for five years.
While the legislature was in session a large Federal naval expedition captured Port Royal on the South Carolina coast, and threatened the Georgia sea-board. The attacking force had forty-one vessels. Com- modore Tattnall had four small gun vessels, the Savannah, Lt. J. N. Maffitt; Resolute, Lt. J. P. Jones; Sampson, Lt. J. Kennard; and Lady Davis, Lt. J. Rutledge. The legislature called upon Gov. Brown for information as to the protection of the Georgia coast, to which Gov. Brown replied, showing the condition of our defences, and asking means to protect the state. He immediately called for additional troops. On the 19th of November he sent a message to the Senate, giving a detailed account of the past operations on the coast and his correspond- ence with the Secretary of War about the matter. On the 26th he ad- dressed a message to the House, as the result of a conference with the House committee, in which he called attention to the fact that the mili- tary appropriation was exhausted, that he was borrowing money every day, and that it was with difficulty that he could maintain the troops in the field. The Confederate government was not doing all that was needed, and yet the state had to be defended, and he implored the representa- tives of the people to lay aside all differences of opinion and furnish the means to protect the commonwealth, reserving the settlement of accounts with the Confederacy for the time when the danger was past.
217
CONFLICT BETWEEN GOV. BROWN AND THE LEGISLATURE.
The foe was perfecting plans to capture Fort Pulaski, and thus control the coast. The danger was imminent. The delay of the legislature in voting means to effectually defend the sea front was the occasion of Gov. Brown's importunities and appeals, and of much popular censure and complaint. The legislature was halting, properly feeling that the Confederate authorities, that had the benefit of so large a contribution of Georgia soldiers and arms in other states, owed it to the state to give her protection. Gov. Brown participated in this feeling, but the aid was not forthcoming and the enemy was at the threshold, his " flag wav- ing over part of our soil and insulting the state's sovereignty while it threatens the existence of her institutions, the liberties of her sons and the safety and purity of her daughters."
Again, on the 5th of December, 1861, Gov. Brown sent in a message to the General Assembly. He had been down in person to Savannah, conferring with Gen. Robert E. Lee, who was in command of the South- ern coast. A timely arrival of 13,311 Enfield rifles, 4 cannons, 409,000 cartridges, ? tons of shell and 500 sabres had been made, brought in by Col. Edward C. Anderson, through the Blockade from Europe where that gallant officer and gentleman had been sent by Gov. Brown, the importation alike testifying to Gov. Brown's providence and Col. An- derson's faithful vigilance and intrepidity. A proposition was before the General Assembly to transfer the Georgia troops called out by the Governor for service on the coast to the Confederacy, and if they were not received to disband them and get rid of the expense. There had been a growing breach between the Governor and the legislature, and it was charged by Gov. Brown's friends that this proposed legislation, involving delay in voting means and taking the short term state troops from Gov. Brown's control was a stroke at him. He had astounded, and displeased the legislature by vetoing a bill reducing the pay of the Judges and Governor fully a third; and a bill fixing the pay of the members at five dollars a day. These vetoes had stirred a bitter feeling in the General Assembly, and were regarded as Executive declarations of war. The reduction of the Governor's salary would not affect him personally, as it did not go into operation during his term. His veto of the pay of members was applying their views of economy to themselves. There is little doubt that a very bad feeling had arisen between the Ex- ecutive, and a controlling majority of the General Assembly, and the battle between them became a stubborn and bitter one.
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