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 6
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Before Governor Brown's inauguration and during Governor John- son's incumbency the banks had suspended specie payment. Gov. Johnson in his message stated that "in the midst of prosperity and remunerating prices for the products of agriculture our banks have generally suspended specie payments, resulting in panic, broken confi- dence and general stagnation in commerce."
He stated further that he had taken no action, as the banks claimed
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BROWN'S WAR AGAINST SUSPENDING BANKS.
to have acted in self-defense against heavy drafts on their coin from the North, and he thought it prudent to submit the matter to the Legisla- ture soon to assemble, and he left it to them whether they would legal- ize the suspension ; and he cautiously intimated that perhaps it would be better to do so, first, however, instituting rigid inquiry to ascertain the sound banks. At this time the banks of Georgia had 812,040,000 of capital with $5,663,000 circulation, and were in a fine condition. Enthroned in the cities, representing the available money of the State, animated by the shrewd and cultured financial intelligence and wisdom of the successful capitalist, these banks constituted a formidable power, and any interference with them was a tremendous responsibility. Gov. Johnson, always a cautious man, handled the vast subject tenderly, and finally threw the grave responsibility on the Legislature.
Estimating the question properly, its magnitude and consequences, some conception may be formed of how the placid young, rustic Gov- ernor stirred the State by announcing in his provincial accents, that in their unimpassioned utterance gave no indication of the grim nerve and intelligent purpose that lay behind them, that in his judgment the sus- pension was unnecessary, and he should at .once begin proceedings under the law to forfeit their charters. At first men thought it was a meaningless menace, uttered in ignorance of the subject, and even if intended, the colossal influence of the banks and their friends could bring such pressure as would turn the inexperienced executive right. But it was no hap-hazard announcement. And circumstances proved the country Governor to be the least malleable of metal, and rock-firm against any pressure. The excitement soon created, upon the realiza- tion that the Governor was in earnest, was overwhelming. Capital is easy to be terror-stricken. It is the most tremulously impressible of all the mighty powers of the world. And this potential mass of twelve millions of solid Bank capital of Georgia became alarmed and aroused to frenzy. And it focalized its thunder upon the country Governor, who met the storm, the combative commencement of his eventful admin- istration, as cool and game and cager as a gladiator.
Before giving this remarkable Battle of the Banks, it is necessary to present some idea of the General Assembly that Gov. Brown had to deal with. The Legislature of 1857 and 1858 was a very strong one, especially in its Bank representatives. It consisted of 154 Representa- tives and 115 Senators. The Senatorial representation had been changed since Governor Brown was Senator in 1819 and 1850, when there were forty-seven Senators to a system that gave a Senator to each county.
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HON. JOHN E. WARD, Ex-U. S. MINISTER TO CHINA.
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JOHN E. WARD.
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The joint assembly consisted of 269 members, a very large body. In its men the legislature was strong. John W. H. Underwood of Rome was Speaker of the House, and John E. Ward of Savannah, President of the Senate, both brilliantly able men. Mr. Ward was one of the most sparkling of our public leaders, a fluent, graceful speaker, a logical thinker, capable of effective effort though an indolent man, of inimita- ble tact, delightful manners and sweet temper, a charming companion, generous, hospitable, genial, and withal, shrewd, able, practical and ambitious. Mr. Ward was a born leader of men, and led wherever he went. He was strikingly handsome, and a magnificent type of the courtly Southern gentleman. He was president of the National Dem- ocratic convention that nominated Buchanan, and was United States minister to China at the beginning of the war, and conducted the diffi- cult diplomatic relations with that country connected with our Chinese troubles of those days. He had capacities for anything, and was one of our most promising Southern men at the commencement of the war. He was a rare advocate, in the lead of his profession of the law, ranking among the foremost in the able and brilliant bar of Savannah. He opposed secession; he had no confidence in the success of the South in the war; he was very quiet during the war, and after the surrender moved to New York to practice law, thus removing from the most flat- tering prospects of public distinction at the hands of his native state. It was a cruel sacrifice of rare political promise. Mr. Ward had made several fortunes at the bar, but spent them in his lavish hospitality. He was the leader of the Bank men in the legislature, and a consummate one.
In illustration of Mr. Ward's wonderful tact, it may be said that he did more to break down the powerful sectional prejudice that a long time existed among the up-country Georgians against the people of the sea-coast, and especially against the citizens of Savannah, whom they regarded as "stuck up," to use a homely phrase of those days. There was a sort of aristocratic assumacy, or the people of Upper Georgia so thought in the low country folk, that rendered them very unpopular, and raised constant antagonism. It was perilous to any measure in the General Assembly to originate from a Savannah man. The extent of this feeling cannot be conceived now when it has entirely disappeared. Mr. Ward, with his wonted sagacity, struck it down by a course of kind- ness and conciliation, and he gained a wonderful hold upon the up- country members.
Col. Underwood, the Speaker of the House, was a very bright young
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COL. JOHN UNDERWOOD.
man, who has since been a Congressman and a Judge of the Superior Court. His father was a noted wag, who is said to have given his son John a letter of recommendation sealed, which the young man took the precaution to read before delivery, and which, to his dismay, stated that "My son John is introduced by this letter as having the largest aspirations and smallest qualifications of any young man I know." The letter, tradi- tion says, was not delivered. In spite of the waggish father's badinage young Underwood possessed both large aspirations and very considera- ble qualifications. A racy talker, a fluent, effective speaker and a good lawyer, with a portly, fine presence and manner, he would have made a far more commanding figure in Georgia politics, even, than he has with the possession of a greater quota of stability. Among the more notable men of the House were Augustus H. Kenan of Milledgeville, Thomas Hardeman of Bibb county, H. J. Sprayberry of Catoosa county, George A. Gordon of Savannah, R. L. Mc Whorter and M. W. Lewis of Greene, D. W. Lewis of Hancock, I. L. Fannin of Morgan, Wm. Luffman of Murray, Wm. A. Reid of Putnam, John Milledge of Augusta, B. H. Bigham of Troup, George Hillyer of Walton. In the Senate were L. H. Briscoe of Milledgeville, Peter Cone of Bullock, Hugh Buchanan of Coweta, Jared I. Whitaker of Atlanta, Joel A. Billups of Morgan, Ran- dolph Spalding of McIntosh, James Edmondson of Murray, Permetus Reynolds of Newton, William Gibson of Richmond, T. L. Guerry of Randolph, Wm. W. Paine of Telfair, A. G. Fambro of Upson, and W. A. Harris of Worth.
Col. George A. Gordon, of Savannah, was chairman of the House Committee on Banking, an ambitious, talented young lawyer, who be- came a colonel of infantry in the war, moved to Alabama and died there after the surrender. Augustus H. Kenan was a stately, imperious gentleman, a despotic power in middle Georgia local politics. Thomas Hardeman of Macon went to Congress, served brilliantly in the war, has been a prominent candidate for Governor, has served repeatedly as Speaker of the House of Representatives and President of Democratic State Conventions, and is one of the most popular and eloquent public men in Georgia. H. J. Sprayberry of Catoosa county was a character ; a grotesque, keen-witted, rough backwoods lawyer, with a homely, homespun way of talking to rural juries that was wonderfully success- ful. He died several years ago. Dave Lewis of Hancock, as he was called, was quite a power in those days, a capital speaker. He is now president of the Dahlanego college. A bright youngster full of talent was George Hillyer of Walton, barely out of his teens, who made an
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LEADING LEGISLATORS.
entrance into politics and gave high promise of usefulness. He wisely after this retired from politics as an unprofitable business for young men, moved to Atlanta after the war, was State Senator, is now a Judge of the Superior Court and growing in fame and fortune. M. W. Lewis of Greene county, was a lawyer of much influence, was. nomi- natel for the present State Senate and died shortly after. R. L. Mc- Whorter has been a power in Greene county, controlling it politically like a local king. During the stormy days of reconstruction he was a mem- ber of the Georgia Republican party, and one of the ablest, boldest and shrewdest of its leaders. He was Speaker of the House. He is a large, powerful man of uncommon capacity for political management. He is a member of the Senate in the present General Assembly, and will be a force in politics while he lives.
Old Peter Cone of Bullock county was another county king, an odd, blunt, comical old fellow, who in spite of his oddities had the respect of everybody for his honesty and good sense. He is dead. Hugh Buchanan of Coweta was one of the most prominent men of that Sen- ate-a man of sterling character and fine ability. He has been judge of the Superior Court and recently elected to Congress in the Fourth District. Of the men who were strong in those days perhaps none has had such marked vicissitudes of fortune as Jared Irwin Whitaker of Atlanta. Wealthy and influential, the proprietor of one of the leading papers, the Atlanta Intelligencer, representing his county in legislatures or conventions whenever he wished, member of the State Democratic Executive committee and State Commissary General during the whole war, handling millions, he was a recognized political power in the State. Losing his fortune, then his influence, illy fitted to be a poor man, taking to drink, falling lower and lower, drifting down socially and pecuniarily, he is to-day to those who knew him in his better days a sad spectacle, seedy, impecunious and pitiful. Col. J. A. Billups of Morgan county, was a strong man in the Senate of 1857, and is to-day a gentle- man of high character and standing. Randolph Spalding of MeIntosh, James Edmondson of Murray, and Permetus Reynolds of Newton are dead. Spalding was a good liver, luxurious, aristocratic, but a rare fel- low; Edmondson and Reynokls were both men of note. William Gibson of Augusta was a very able man, a gallant colonel in the Con- federaey, and a Judge of high repute since the war. He is still living. T. 1 .. Guerry of Randolph was a strong spirit in that legislature, and had large promise of political promotion, but since the war seems to have retired into quiet privacy. W. W. Paine of Telfair, a practical
JOSEPH HENRY LUMPKIN.
useful member is now living in Savannah. He has been to Congress and to the legislature since the war. W. A. Harris of Worth, bluff hearty Bill Harris as he is known, will always be a strong influence in politics while he lives. A positive, one-sided man, a true friend and an implacable enemy, fighting open handed for or against men or measures, he has been delegate to state conventions, State Senator, and repeatedly Secretary of the Senate, and is prominently spoken of for Congress from his district. John Milledge of Richmond was a notable man in that day, of ancient and honored blood, his father having been Governor of Georgia from 1802 to 1806. He was a stout blondish person of most genial manners and address, a gentleman of the old school. He died a few years ago, leaving a bright son to wear the distinguished name, who is a prominent young lawyer of Atlanta.
The legislature of 1857-8, was a strong body, made up of men of mark and it did important legislation. It was a fitting legislative ac- companiment to the new Governor. A body of ability and decision, it was a worthy opponent for the combative young Executive. This gen- eral assembly re-elected Hon. Robert Toombs to the United States Sen- ate, and put Joseph Henry Lumpkin on the Supreme Bench. These were two notable men, who will live long in the memory of Georgians. Lumpkin was the most genial hearted public man we have ever had in the state, and the most liberal in his culture. To the sweetest nature he added an exquisite learning. To the most gracious benevolence he sup- plemented intellect of the highest order. He was a beautiful old man, with such grace and dignity as rarely falls to men. He wore his hair long, which set off his gentle, handsome, intelligent face, and well proportioned figure. He was well grounded in the rigid principles of the law, and yet he broadened their application with a magnificent erudition. His mind was buoyant with vital force, and was strengthened and ornamented by great learning and a robust, healthy imagination. He loved young men, and his kind words have cheered many a struggling young spirit.
Robert Toombs was one of the princely-brained men of the Union, the kingliest character the commonwealth has gloried in, the man of all the most affluent in personal gifts. Gov. Brown states that he first met him in Milledgeville in 1849, when he was State senator and Toombs was a Whig congressman, idolized by his party, and with a national fame for eloquence. Toombs, he said, was the " handsomest man he ever saw. His physique was superb, his grand head fit for a crown, his presence that of a king, overflowing with vitality, his majestic face illu- mined with his divine genius." Toombs was about forty years of age,
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and in the very prime of his magnificent manhood. He had a figure like an Antinous, the very perfection of manly symmetry, and an impe- rial grace of carriage that sat upon him well. His face was noble and superbly handsome, with great luminous dark eyes full of flashing soul, every feature perfect, a royal forehead, a matchless dome of thought that gained in power, through the rich glossy black hair that hung about it straying carelessly over its marble front, suggesting rather than reveal- ing its extent. His skin was clear with health. He talked constantly, his mobile countenance lit with an irradiating smile, or intense with some dominating and fiery impulse. His conversation was a torrent of striking thoughts, strikingly expressed. His vivacity never flagged. The man's mind and spirit were absolutely perennial. He never seemed to have a moment of mental or physical weariness. He scattered hu- mor, wit, wisdom, with a limitless prodigality. He started in life mu- nificently equipped in fortune and education. His father was rich, and he had every advantage. He succeeded right away at his profession, making, it is said, $50,000 in five years, achieving success easily. It is rare that men so brilliant and impulsive as Toombs have the faculty of business. His pecuniary sagacity has been a marvel like his other gifts. No man has been a more careful manager of money, making it wisely, spending it in a princely way, yet handling it carefully and prudently. He bought immense tracts of Texan land, of which he has a hundred thousand dollars profit, and has enough to realize a quarter of a million more. In politics he was as swiftly successful as at the law. He went to the Legislature, then to Congress, and then to the Senate, grasping these honors by a sort of easy, natural right. He was lordly, grand, irresistible. Nothing could daunt, nothing vanquish him. Toombs had genius, and men recognized it. He was like an inspired man in his speeches. IIe reveled in public life and intellectual con- flict. No man ever tripped him in debate. He was as ready. and deadly as lightning. A rival on the stump threw up to him a very un- popular vote he had made in the Legislature. "Yes," thundered the quick-witted and audacious Toombs, "it was a d-d bad vote ! What have you got to say of it !" And the storm of cheers from the crowd told how well he had bafiled a wound. In a period of crazy contention, and when the public pulse was perilously inflamed, the opposition at a public meeting resolved he should not speak. Weapons flashed in the sunlight. Blazing with indomitable fire, declaring they might kill, but they should hear him, the man awed down the infuriate mob and forced a listening to his bold words.
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SLAVERY.
General Toombs was born for a revolutionary era. No other man did as much to precipitate the war as he did. Notwithstanding he came of a blood that had the hereditary instinct of loyalty to the crown, he has shown a wild tendency all of his tumultuous life to rebellion. He be- gan it at college ; he continued his destructive instinct upon the Union ; he was a defiant officer in the army ; he split from the Confederate authorities in fierce altercation ; and since the surrender he has gloried in being the single untamed and unappeasable rebel against Federal rule. Believing as the writer does, that in the mighty scheme of human progress a Providential power fashions the order of things, and that great events like our colossal civil war, long preparing and long con- tinuing, and long lasting in great result, are part of the divine plan of philosophical advancement, it is but a second step of belief to note that human agencies suitable to such crises are furnished by the same over- ruling intelligence that framed the gigantic evolution of history. Slavery was a wrong for which the South was not responsible. Its ex- tinction was inevitable. And some such convulsion had to tear it up from its terribly strong rooting. We of the South, had become blunted by hereditary training and education of centuries to the proper human repulsion at the awful fact of property in human souls. A striking ex- ample of the natural sentiment of humanity upon this, occurred in the writer's family a short while ago. A little daughter of eight years of age in her reading came across the word " slave " and asked its defini- tion. Her look of horror, as she understood it, was a revelation alike, that a thing that inspires such a feeling in the impartial instincts of a pure nature must be appallingly wrong, and that the public condemna- tion of the non-slaveholding world would never cease to wage war upon the wrong until it was extirpated from christian civilization.
Toombs was one of the Provideutial agencies of this inevitable revolu- tion, the creature of what was so happily called the " irrepressible conflict" between freedom and slavery, and its resultant emancipation. He was a superb type of the Southerner, the " corner stone " of whose social and political system was slavery. He was careless, imperial, defiant, auda- cious, volcanic. Toombs represented alike a kingly race of men devoted to their institutions, and the grand principle of chartered rights. He was aggressive, denunciatory, taunting. He struck for disunion, be- lieving that safety lay alone in the severance, and the bond would make unceasing strife. Looking at the situation as pregnant with an inevit- able issue of attempted separation, and the cure by a storm of an evil, Toombs was the man for the work. He inspirited the South and he
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PROVIDENCE AGAINST SLAVERY.
angered the North. The South was not responsible for slavery, and had for it the sacred guarantee of the Constitution. The North had put slavery upon us and was under bond to protect it. The South had legal rights in a great wrong. The North could only do its duty to civilization by breaking its obligations. To stimulate the South to de- fend its rights, to incense the North in its aggression upon the evil of the Union that was its reproach in the eyes of the world, was the work that Toombs and his compeers well performed. It was a conflict between legally fortified wrong and unconstitutional and high-handed right. And Providence gave the victory to civilization against the forms of law, heroic devotion to a beloved duty and as grand a chivalry as the world ever knew. Toombs was the genius of the revolution, and will so live in history.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIERY BATTLE OF THE BANKS.
Brown and Toombs .- Howell Cobb, Alexander Stephens, Pen Pictures .- The young country Governor defies the capital and its leaders .- The Tremendous Pressure .- Brown single-handed .- Bank Suspension legalized .- Brown's hard-hitting Veto .- A striking instance of Nerve .- The white-heated Excitement .- The great Speech of Mr. Ward, President of the Senate .- The Veto overwhelmed .- Doggerel of the Day .- " Balanced to a Quarter of a Cent."-The Issue remitted to the People .- A hot Campaign of Ridicule, Abuse and Passion .- " Who is Brown ? "-" A d-n fool."-Brown Solidly Endorsed .- An Irresistible Torrent of Public Approval for Brown .- A Universal Victory over the colossal Moneyed Power for the new rock- willed " People's Governor."
GOVERNOR BROWN and Gen. Toombs have been dramatically con- nected through this long period of Georgia history that constitutes the theme of this work. The election that put Brown in the Executive chair, placed Toombs again in the Senate of the United States. Dur- ing the war, Toombs stood by Brown in his controversies with the Con- federate authorities. After the surrender, they were in a deadly antag- onism, which nearly resulted in a duel. And in this progressive era of the state and nation, in 1881, they represent antipodal ideas and con- flicting public theories.
In 1857, of which time we write, there were two others of Georgia's gifted sons that wielded a large national influence. Howell Cobb was Secretary of the Navy in the cabinet of President Buchanan, and thus had the ear of that official in all of the Presidential policy of those dis- tracting and momentous public events that so soon were to culminate so dramatically. Cobb was an ardent Union man, while intensely Southern. He was a wise, conservative man, and firm. If any one could have used official opportunity in administrative position to keep a harmonious Union, he was the one. He had carried the state trium- phantly on the Union issue, against extreme Southern Rights, in 1851. He was powerful at home, and honored beyond. He had unconnon statesmanship and extraordinary personal taet. But the drift of events was beyond the power of men to control. A higher power was at work in its own mysterious ways. The revolution was pending, and its genius was the destructive Toombs, and not the conservative Cobb.
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ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.
Another vital personality was that remarkable man, Alexander H. Stephens. He too was a Union man. It is hard to write about Alec Stephens. He has been all of his life a human miracle. His advent into public life nearly half a century ago was, and his career ever since has continued to be, a wonder. Antithesis has been exhausted in de- scribing the man, and yet there is no adequate portraiture of him. For forty years and more Mr. Stephens has held a foremost place in the affairs of the state and nation, and his name and speeches, overleaping the bounds of the continent, reached the old world, rendering him famous and illustrating Georgia. His purity of life, public spirit, stainless integrity, devotion to principle, love of truth, simplicity of character, munificent charity, lofty patriotism, independence of popular prejudice, sincerity of conviction, indomitable courage, magnetic elo- quence and vigorous statesmanship have all been continuously displayed in his long, useful and brilliant public career, and form a noble example for the imitation of our ambitious young men.
That a mind so powerful and a spirit so knightly should inhabit a body so diseased and frail, has been the miracle of his conspicuous life. At any time during his laborious and honored existence, his death could not have surprised. Yet his physical frailty never impaired his public usefulness. Nearly seventy years of age, he is still at his post of duty, filling, in his own unequaled way, the place in which he has won his proudest triumphs and most lasting fame --- a Congressman from Georgia, a representative of the people and chosen by the people- Georgia's great Commoner. The people that he has loved so well, and the state that he has so faithfully served and resplendently illustrated, delight to honor him and hold his solid fame as one of her most pre- cious lieritages.
Mr. Stephens, too, was one of the strong union men, and to the very last his potential voice was heard eloquently protesting and unanswera- bly arguing against secession. Mr. Stephens has been a statesman and an orator, but the quality that more than all others has tended to give him his vast public influence has been his wonderful moral intrepidity. It is a rare quality, heaven-born and God-like,-such moral courage as he has shown all of his life long. No adverse public opinion has had any terrors for this fearless statesman. Majorities have been utterly powerless to sway him. No unpopularity, no prejudice, no popular frenzy has ever moved his firm soul one hair's-breadth from any con- viction or prevented any utterance he deemed the truth. This is remarkable praise, but it is due to the man. But even the miraculous
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