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 23
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Some correspondent in the Atlanta Intelligencer aptly satirized the matter and avowed that the country was witnessing two well-established
218
GOVERNOR BROWN'S BOLD MESSAGE.
wars,-that of the North against the South, and the other of the legis- ture against Joe Brown. There was no mistake about it either. The legislature took the war-path and made a lively fusilade against the un- quailing and responsive Governor. Right in the midst of the discussion upon the transfer of our short-term state troops to the Confederacy, Governor Brown plumped a stiff, daring message into the body arguing against the proposed policy. The message fell upon the body like an exploding bomb-shell. The storm it created was something extraordi- nary. It precipitated the long-brooding battle. Recounting the emer- gency that led him to call out these state troops when the Confederacy had not placed adequate defenses upon the Georgia coast, and showing that he had foreseen and provided for the very emergency that had come, he proceeded to discuss what he termed the " fatal policy " that with the enemy on our soil in force and our safety imperilled would pause to count cost, and look to the contingency of disbandment of de- fense, and the abandonment of the state to the invader.
The Governor's message on this exciting subject at that heated time was a model of force and unanswerable logic, and the wonder is that any such proposition as he was combating was entertained. He showed that the destruction of property if the enemy took possession, would be ten times any cost of defense. He argued the right of the legislature to transfer the troops to the Confederacy without their con- sent, claiming such forced transfer as a violation of faith. While the President of the Confederacy could not accept thein under the Confed- erate law, as they were organized under the different state law, with their brigade and company organizations in conflict with the Confeder- ate law. He thus boldly ended this intrepid and aggressive message:
"If this fatal policy should be determined upon by the General Assembly, I will be responsible for none of the consequences growing out of it; and in the name of the peo- ple of Georgia, I now in advance enter my solemn protest against it. If the State troops are disbanded, or the appropriations to maintain them are made upon the condition that they be transferred or disbanded, which is equivalent to an order to disband them, it will become my duty, as the Executive of the State to proclaim to her people, that while the enemy is thundering at her gates, her representatives have left me powerless for her defense, by withholding the necessary means, and even taking from me those already at my command.
" If I have used strong language, I mean no disrespect. When all that is dear to a peo- ple is at stake, the occasion requires the utmost frankness and candor."
It is doubtful if in any of Gov. Brown's series of high-spirited con- flicts with the legislative assemblies of Georgia, there was any one which exhibited more strongly the man's absolutely unconquerable
219
COLONEL WARREN AKIN'S ATTACK ON GOVERNOR BROWN.
intrepidity and independence than this the stormiest of them all, and the culminating one. In none did he display so conspicuously that unhesi- tating self-reliance and fearless contempt of any amount of opposition that belonged to him. He never quailed for a moment or yielded an inch of his position. Even amid the clash of arms, this conflict stirred the state. An intense interest was felt all over the commonwealth, and the people endorsed the game Governor.
When the message was delivered to the House, the Secretary who transmitted it to that body, Mr. Buleau Campbell, stated that it was on the subject of "State defence." Offence was immediately taken at this, the Speaker, Col. Akin and others declaring that the message was an unwarrantable interference on the part of the Governor with the legislation then progressing. Mr. Whittle moved to take up the mes- sage, but the motion was lost. The message was read the next day, and Mr. Cabaniss moved to suspend the rules to introduce some resolu- tions denouncing the action of the Governor in sending into the House of Representatives an argument against the passage of the bill then under consideration for the public defense. The motion to suspend was lost. The bill was passed. The discussion was fiery and acrimoni- ous. The bill was reconsidered the next day, and Mr. Cabaniss again attempted to get his resolution of censure in. The Speaker, Mr. Akin, yielded the chair to Judge Cochran and came upon the floor, and attacked the Governor's message unsparingly. His remarks were thus reported in the Milledgeville Union:
"Col. Akin remarked that the Governor had offered the grossest indignity to this House in the message thrust as an argument before us on yesterday. He proceeded to review the message. The Governor argued that the troops would not submit to the pro- visions of the bill displacing their officers. He bid the commander-in-chief and all his troops defiance to-day. Let them come with bayonets in their hands, and drive us from these halls, if they are not willing to acquiesce in the legislative action. He would bare his bosom to their bayouets and be the last to jump from these windows on their approach."
As may be conceived, a controversy between the two great co-ordi- nate branches of the State government, the Legislature and the Execu- tive, as important and hostile as this, and conducted with such heat of temper and vigor of language, stirred a profound excitement all over the State. Gov. Brown's friends of the press roundly declared that the House of Representatives had " disappointed the people in all it has done, and in what it has not done, and from the Speaker down, with some honorable exceptions, demonstrated an incapacity or a want of inclination to maintain the chivalry and honor of Georgia." The offi-
220
GOVERNOR BROWN'S MESSAGE REFERRED.
cers of Col. Chastain's regiment of State volunteers, passed resolutions and sent them to the Governor to be transmitted to the Legislature, declaring that they were not the property of the General Assembly to be sold and transferred from one owner to another, and avowing that while pledging themselves to the Southern cause, they would not be transferred without their consent. And even the papers most inimical to Gov. Brown, like the Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, while quali- fying their commentary so as not to be misunderstood as being his gen- eral champion, approved his position against the transfer of these State troops.
The message of the Governor was referred to a special committee, consisting of Norwood, Love, Cabaniss, Schley and Lester, and with- held from the records until the committee could report. The committee on the 13th of December, 1861, made a savage report. It took ground that the message was an unwarrantable interference in the business of the House and in open, direct and palpable violation of the Constitution. It charged that the Governor had prostituted his high office in holding over the heads of the Legislature the threat of a disobedient soldiery, to deter them from the passage of a bill which he disapproved. It declared that the Governor had misrepresented their bill in saying that it contemplated leaving the State to the invasion of the enemy. It concluded with a series of resolutions, enumerating these charges against the Governor and ordering the message, with the report, to be entered upon the journals of the House. No official notice of this action was given the Governor. The Senate not participating in the action, the report was not the act of the General Assembly.
The report elicited a warm debate. Messrs. Whittle, DuBose, Hook and Cochran maintained that the Governor had the right to communi- cate as he had done. Mr. DuBose thought that the Governor intended no discourtesy, and deemed it unnecessary to spread the report on the journals. Mr. Hood moved as a substitute for the report, to spread the message and bill as passed, on the journals. Judge Cabaniss thought the report just. Mr. Smith, of Brooks, moved to put message, bill and report on the journals. Judge Cochran made a strong speech against the report and resolutions. Col. Akin exclaimed that he had done the Governor an injustice about the refusal of the troops to yieldl to legis- lative action. He did not think the Governor meant to convey the idea that the troops would be guilty of insubordination. He had sought the Governor to personally make the correction. Mr. Hook and Judge Cochran commended Col. Akin's conduct.
the
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221
GOV. BROWN STRIKES BACK AT THE HOUSE.
Gov. Brown came back at the House as aggressively as ever, protest- ing against the "injustice and misrepresentations " of the report. He deemed it due to the office he held to maintain its constitutional pre- rogatives against the unwarrantable assumptions of the House. The Constitution made it the duty of the Governor to give the Legislature " information of the state of the republic, and to recommend to their consideration such measures as he may deem expedient." He gave a synopsis of the bill reported by the finance committee, and showed that he had not misrepresented the measure before the House, and he added that if after his message was received the bill was relieved of its objectionable features, it was an evidence that the argument contained in the message was productive of a good effect. In reply to the charge of prostituting his office by transmitting the protest of the soldiers, he showed that the resolutions of Col. Chastain's regiment were sent to the House after it had acted, but he said that he trusted he might claim the forbearance of all intelligent citizens for "having laid the remon- strance of a regiment of brave State volunteers against an act of gross injustice to them before a body whose action had shown that its will was to perpetrate the act."
The Governor referred to the fact that the message was addressed to the General Assembly, of which the Senate was a part and which had taken no offence. The Governor had so overwhelmingly the best of the argument that he came out of this remarkable altercation with increased reputation for courage and firmness. The Legislature divided hopelessly; the Senate and House split up and antagonized each other; committees of conference were appointed, and finally resolutions of compromise were agreed upon and passed, which embodied Gov. Brown's views. They provided for a transfer of the State troops only with their consent, and for retaining them if not transferred. The sum of $5,000,000 was appropriated for a war fund for 1862; also, $200,000 for a Georgia Re- lief and Hospital Association; $100,000 for the support of the State troops; $100,000 for the relief of sufferers by the great fire in Charles- ton, South Carolina; 850,000 to aid in manufacture of salt. The banks were allowed further relief and privilege of suspension. Resolutions were passed pledging the state to fight until peace was won; recom- mending the farmers to reduce the cotton erop and plant provision crops; and to prevent monopolies and extortions.
Among the other matters done by this General Assembly were the confirmation of the appointments made by Gov. Brown, of Charles J. Jenkins as Judge of the Supreme Court, and O. A. Lochrane, Judge
ROBERT TOOMBS DECLINES TO BE C. S. SENATOR.
Macon Circuit, G. D. Rice, Judge Blue Ridge Circuit, N. L. Hutchins, Judge Western Circuit, E. H. Worrill, Judge Chattahoochee Circuit and W. W. Montgomery, Attorney General. The election for two Confederate State Senators resulted in Hon. Benjamin Hill being elected on the first ballot over Toombs, Johnson, Win. Law, James Jackson and Alfred Iverson. The contest over the other senatorship was animated and protracted. The first ballot stood, Iverson, 85, Jack- son, 35, Toombs, 49, Johnson, 22, James Bethune, 5, John P. King, 3, G. E. Thomas and J. E. Brown, 1 each. On the third ballot the vote stood, Iverson, 73, Jackson, 4-1, Toombs, 82. After the 5th ballot Iverson was withdrawn, and Toombs receiving 129 votes and Jackson 67, Robert Toombs was declared elected. Gov. Brown notified Mr. Toombs of his election, who declined the office, stating that he could better serve his state and country in the army than in the Senate. He went on to say in deep displeasure at the struggle over the election, " I deem it not inappropriate on this occasion, to say that the manner in which the. legislature thought proper to confer this trust relieves me from any obligation to sacrifice either my personal wishes or my con- victions of public duty in order to accept it." It was a characteristic thing in Mr. Toombs, a spoiled pet of popular favor, accustomed to win his political victories in a lordly way, and with the ease of Kingly right, to angrily spurn a triumph obtained after a close fight and when he had run through many ballots one of the minority candidates. It was openly charged at the time that the whigs had clutched the legislature, and it was a sort of confirmation of it that none but old whigs were elected, with one or two exceptions. And it was said that Mr. Toombs did not go through until the issue narrowed to him and Democrats of longer standing than himself.
The election for members of the Confederate Congress had resulted in the success of the following gentlemen:
1st District, Julian Hartridge.
C. J. Munnerlyn.
3rd Ilines Holt.
4th
A. H. Kenan.
5th David W. Lewis.
6th W. W. Clark.
R. P. Trippe.
Sthı 1 .. J. Gartrell.
9th Ilardy Strickland.
10th Augustus R. Wright.
223
RESIGNATION OF JUDGE NISBET.
The dissolving of party lines had resulted in bringing in nearly every opposition leader. Judge Nisbet resigned from the Provisional Con- federate Congress on account of ill-health. The ticket of electors put out by the convention that nominated Judge Nisbet, had no oppo- sition and was elected, and cast the vote of the state for Davis and Stephens.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
THE ORGANIZATION OF STATE TROOPS UNDER MAJOR GENERAL HENRY R. JACKSON.
The Permanent Confederate State's Government .- Georgians in High Civil and Military Office .- Gov. Brown's Famous Controversies with the Confederate Authorities and their Continuance of Georgia's Foremost Agency in the Revolution .- Georgia The Champion of Constitutionalism .- Old Leaders Swallowed Up .- Brown Lifts the State Supremacy .--- Year 1862 begins Calamitously .- Address of Cobb, Toombs and Crawford .- Georgia's War Tax .- State Forces Organized .- Maj. Gen. Henry R. Jackson and His Patriotic Self-Sacrifice .- Tribute to Gen. Jackson by Gov. Brown .- Col. Chastain .- Funny Feminine Suggestion to Whip The Federal :.- Pemberton Succeeds Lee .- Fort Pulaski Capture .- Col. C. H. Olmstead .- A Gallant Act .- Effect of This Loss .- Reorganization of State Militia .- Gov. Brown's Letter on Planting Cotton .-- Gen. Toombs.
THE organization of the Confederate States Government under its permanent constitution was made on the 22nd day of February, 1862. Mr. Stephens was Vice-President. Mr. Toombs had gone into the army, giving up his place as Secretary of State. Mr. Philip Clayton of Georgia was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. G. E. W. Nelson of Georgia was Superintendent of Public Printing. Gov. Brown appointed his old friend, Dr. John W. Lewis, Confederate State Senator in place of Gen. Toombs. Up to this time we had in the Confederate army from Georgia, Major Generals, David E. Twiggs, Win. J. Hardee. Brigadier Generals, Henry R. Jackson, Win. H. T. Walker, A. R. Lawton, Robert Toombs, W. H. C. Whiting, L. MeLaws, H. W. Mercer, W. M. Gardner, John K. Jackson, Howell Cobb, J. B. Villepigue, T. R. R. Cobb, Ambrose R. Wright, Henry L. Benning, J. R. Ramsay, Paul Semmes, and Alfred II. Colquitt.
Some of Georgia's strongest men in statesmanship had gone into the army. Mr. Stephens soon became powerless with the Confederate administration on account of his decided difference of view with Mr. Davis upon vital measures. Neither of them were men to yield, and thus they soon drifted hopelessly apart. It therefore happened that Georgia, from having been a controlling power in the revolution, became almost a nullity at this time so far as concerned the guidance of its policy. But the time was soon coming when the state was to
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225
GEORGIA'S STAND FOR CONSTITUTIONALISM.
resume her agency in matters, but it was to be on a different line entirely, and yet a consistent one. Georgia had led in breaking the Union to preserve the principles of constitutional government. She was destined to figure as an uncompromising opponent of Confederate encroachment upon the spirit and the law of the Constitution. And the man who was fated to bear the colors in this struggle was the Governor of Georgia, Joseph E. Brown.
There has been much stricture upon his course, to the effect that the resistance to unconstitutional legislation should have been pretermitted in the hour of war. The time has come to discuss this question fairly and dispassionately. Was Governor Brown right or wrong in princi- ple ? It is admitted that he contended for a right thing, but it is claimed that it was done at an inexpedient time. No time is inex- pedient to maintain the right. Right is always expedient. Where was the greater danger, from unconstitutional legislation, in a Federal or a Confederate government ? If it was right to destroy the Union to preserve the Constitution, it was no less right to deny the sanction of endorsement to the extra-constitutional acts of the Confederacy. It is also true that the final result was not endangered by these conflicts of constitutional argument that placed Georgia in a noble attitude as the champion of that constitutional law and liberty for which we were fight- ing. If we were right and sincere in our going to war to secure our ideas of government, we then did right in maintaining them in the Southern republic. The reasoning is irresistible. Georgia in standing up for a strict observance of constitutional limitations did her duty, and she deserves the more credit that she did it amid all the temptation to ignore it that arose from the dangers of war and the anarchy of revolu- tion. The consistency of the South was preserved by this splendid role that Georgia, under the leadership of Gov. Brown, pursued. It was a dutiful vindication of the conduct of the South in going into the war, and must so be regarded in the calm light of historic truth. There is no escaping the verdict. If we were right to fight for constitutionalism, we were right to oppose its sacrifice even in the stern exigencies of war.
The war absorbed our old leaders, swallowed them up, as it were, in the leveling atmosphere of the bayonet. Toombs and the Cobbs and other great spirits of statesmanship sank into excellent brigadiers among a host of others. Men like Stonewall Jackson, who in the cahn of peace would have gone through life obscure and undistinguished; or like For- rest, who would have achieved an undesirable notoriety as successful negro traders, flamed into fame legitimately due to military genius and 15
226
THE CONFEDERATE SITUATION GLOOMY.
surpassing achievement. Georgia had a host of brilliant soldiers and dazzling officers. She had her Hardees, Gordons, Wheelers, Tattnalls and a host of others of lower rank equally heroie and faithful. But so had other states, and we had no superiority. The whole South was brave and true. It was in this monotony of heroism that Gov. Brown raised the State to her wonted supremacy of influence by his bold, able and unanswerable maintenance of our constitutional consistency. And at this long day from that era, reading his masterly and exhaustive papers, written amid all the distractions of those tumultuous times, under all the tremendous inducements to passive subservience, they stand as unequaled demonstrations of intrepid personal conviction and exalted acts of august official duty. This is strong language, but it is due. There may have been an infusion of considerations not relevant, and an occasional betrayal of a stern temper into the indiscretion of severity, but admitting these minor defects, Gov. Brown's defenses of constitutional principle in his great and memorable controversies with the Confederate authorities, must be his most striking record of cour- ageous and, masterful statesmanship, and will constitute Georgia's most enduring claim to historie glory in connection with her sacrifices and contributions to the cause of Southern independence, State sovereignty and Constitutional government.
The year 1862 began calamitously for the South. Our expectation of a speedy end had been disappointed. The Federals had a force of 800,000 men in the field, and the South had 300,000. Kentucky and Tennessee had fallen into the Federal hands. . Lodgment had been made on the coast of North Carolina by Burnside's expedition. Southern embassies to Europe had failed to secure intervention and even recog- nition. Just before the provisional government of the Confederacy ended, Howell Cobb, R. Toombs, M. J. Crawford and Thos. R. R. Cobb issued an address to the people of Georgia placing the situation clearly before them. What they called "unpalatable facts " were candidly given. The purport of the address was, that we were in a frightful conflict with a determined enemy, whose numbers and resources we could not equal, and we could only succeed by a united and unconquer- able resistance that would put the torch to every home before yielding it to the foc. The address discarded hope of foreign interference as remote, and expressed confidence in the final result.
A requisition was made upon Georgia for twelve additional regiments. The Confederate war tax on Georgia amounted to $2,494,112.41, and was promptly raised by the issue and sale of State bonds, Gov. Brown
.
Hervey Ro. Jackson.
227
GENERAL HENRY R. JACKSON.
having the amount in hand before it was due. Ten per cent. was saved by relieving the Confederate authorities of the direct collection from the people, and in addition to this the Comptroller General, Col. Thweatt, discovered an error in the Confederate assessment of 860,016.16, which his vigilance saved to the State. The banks patriotically advanced two millions of the amount to the Governor as early as February, the tax being due April 1st.
The operations on the Georgia coast in the early part of 1862 were very active. Gov. Brown selected Gen. Henry R. Jackson for the com- inand of the State forces on the coast, and nominated him as Major- General, in chief command of all the State troops, which nomination was unanimously ratified by the Senate of Georgia.
This gallant officer had served brilliantly in the Mexican war as Colonel of a regiment. His service in West Virginia during 1861 had been conspicuous and valuable. The operations in that locality were ended. Gen. Jackson therefore hailed joyfully the prospect of a change to Georgia, his own State, whose coast was the object of Federal attack. The selection of Gen. Jackson for this duty was a deserved recognition of his merit, and a compliment of which he could well be proud. Gor. Brown immediately sought to have him ordered on this congenial and honorable mission, he welcoming gladly a transfer from inactivity to a field of peril and usefulness-that field his own beloved State, and he urged the change. It was one of those strange acts of the Confederate administration that it so frequently did, to disregard this call for this worthy officer. The campaign in Virginia had ended; by far the larger portion of Gen. Jackson's command had been withdrawn from him and sent elsewhere; he had been ordered into winter-quarters within hund- ling distance of the remnant. All'eyes were directed to the Southern sea-board as the scene of operations for the winter. Gen. Lee, who was in command on the Southern coast, as he told Gov. Brown, preferred Gen. Jackson to command the Georgia troops, and had been "negotiat- ing " with the war department for him at the time. Eager to accept the flattering call of his own State from an inactive to active duty, Gen. Jackson applied for leave of absence to take the more perilous service in Georgia, but was sternly and inexplicably refused. With that chiv- alric patriotism that belonged to the man, Gen. Jackson resigned the coveted commission which he held in the Confederate army, feeling that he could not ignore the demands of his own people menaced with danger, to stand peaceful watch in the then quiet mountains of West Virginia. Gen. Jackson as Major-General of the State troops had under him
228
TRIBUTE TO GENERAL HENRY R. JACKSON.
Brigadier Generals George P. Harrison, F. W. Capers, and also, William H. T. Walker, who had resigned from the Confederate service. Gen. Jackson cooperated with Brig. Gen. A. R. Lawton, who had command of the Confederate forces and the territory comprehended in the Depart- ment of Georgia. Brig. Gen. H. W. Mercer of the Confederate army commanded Savannah. Gen. Robert E. Lee was in command of the extreme Southern coast, including Georgia and South Carolina.
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