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 7
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THE BATTLE OF THE BANKS.
Stephens was unable to stem the revolution. The storm was coming, and Toombs was its genius.
Recurring to the battle of the Banks, from which digression has been made to fill out the personal features of this important period of Georgia history, there probably has never been witnessed a more stubborn and heated contest in legislative walls than was fought in the Georgia Legis- lature of 1857, over the bank question. It was soon found that Gov- ernor Brown was in deadly earnest in the resolve to hold the banks to their full legal responsibility. The lobbies were thronged with bank men and their friends. The cool young country Governor met the issue unquailingly. Every argument and influence was brought to bear upon him, but vainly. It was a crucial test of his nerve. Even a very brave and firm man would have wavered. It was boldly claimed that he would ruin the state and shock irreparably the public weal in thus warring upon the banking capital of the commonwealth. Neither appeal nor menace moved him from his position. It was a fearful responsibility that he assumed, but he never shrank from it. It involved, too, an appeal to the people, and public condemnation if he failed in the contest. It portended a no-quarter fight with capital and leader- ship and commercial power. He defied them all. He had announced his purpose in his ringing inaugural to hold the banks to the law, and he stuck to his purpose. A bill was introduced, and after infinite and elaborate discussion, passed, suspending forfeiture proceedings against the suspended banks for one year. The act went to the Governor. Few believed that he would dare to veto the act. The vote in the House was 68 yeas and 33 nays ; in the Senate 58 yeas and 27 nays. The excitement was very great. While it was true that the bill had passed both houses by a two-thirds majority, which, if it could be held, would render an Executive veto a nullity, yet in the heated temper of the Assembly and the changing influences of the time, there was no telling what might happen. A change of two or three votes would alter the result. It was represented to Governor Brown that he had made a fair, brave fight, and after a full discussion the legislature had given a two-thirds majority, and he could well rest the matter there. These importunities fell like water upon a rock. The placid and rural Executive was in no terror of majorities, and then, as later, failed to learn the lesson of yielding his convictions to any pressure. He gently waved aside these advisers, and smilingly ignored counsel that he did not want, and shutting himself up in his quiet, he fulminated one of the boldest state papers he ever wrote, in sharp and unqualified veto of
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GOVERNOR BROWN AND THE BANKS.
the act. Reading that veto message in the light of all of the surround- ings, and testing it by cool criticism, lifted above the heat of the strug- gle, it is a very remarkable document. Gov. Brown, it must be remem- bered, was bred up far from commercial influences and habits. He had little practical experience of banks. He had known little of capitalists and had few dealings with capital. His views were not the cultivated experiences of the commercial world, but they were the instinctive notions of an uncommonly sharp mind, entirely unprejudiced, and look- ing at the matter with a keen vision of the equities of the great subject, and seeking abstract justice at any cost. The views of his message clad in this light, are remarkable. He never wrote a more sinewy, even- handed and abstractly logical paper, while his personal attitude was romantic in the extreme, and eminently characteristic of his self-reliance and intrepidity. Take a youthful countryman, unused to the dazzle of such high station, with its bewildering accompaniments, and put him in Gov. Brown's place in this matter, subject to the pressure of every powerful influence of social splendor and worldly prestige, and his firm- ness in pursuing his convictions to their conclusion, unbacked as he was by any support whatever, and perplexed by the gravity of result that hung upon his action, was a striking 'exhibition of personal firmness and official duty. It illustrated the man perfectly. It demonstrated his superlative fiber. It stamped his exalted power of leadership indis- putably. He might be wrong, and doubtless in a calm review of his views then uttered so incisively, made now in the light of a quarter of a century of unusual practical experience, he would recall much that he said then. But the fact still stands out saliently that his attitude was one of grand courage, and put him at one bound as an established force in the state. His veto was a brave appeal to the august tribunal of public opinion, against one of the ablest legislative bodies Georgia has ever had, and he struck the popular judgment with masterly power and a keen discrimination. There is in the message, too, a plain, direct, ungloved style of speech that was far removed from the diplomatic politeness of the accustomed state papers. The veto indulged in no regrets or Piekwiekian expressions, but it handled the vital matters touched upon with simple practicality, and gave facts and views in unmincing words.
The veto was : lengthy and elaborate one, discussing the subject fully. It began by contrasting the money privileges of banks and those allowed individuals. The citizen could only loan money, dollar for dol- lar, at seven per cent. The bank could issue three dollars for one and
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GOVERNOR BROWN'S BANK VETO.
use all four, realizing from thirty to fifty per cent. The privilege was unreasonable, and he branded banking as a " legalized system of specu- lation, oppression and wrong." After using their unlimited privileges to amass fortunes, the banks in a pressure suspend, close doors, lock up specie, let their bills depreciate, buy them up at a discount, make further distress, and then when the storm is over, step out with in- creased wealth amid general disaster. It was not right. The banks could pay specie by buying it at a small premium with their large carn- ings. Why did they not resume. Because it was to their interest not to do so. They made money out of the suspension. Warming up, the
plain-spoken Governor said that the banks that had suspended, and so con- tinued were guilty of a " high commercial, moral and legal crime," depre- ciating the value of property, causing pecuniary depression, injuring the public credit, and violating the law of the state. Private citizens had to meet their obligations. Banks should do so. The citizen could not suspend. The banks should not.
Since the establishment of the Banking system in Georgia, several periods of distress had occurred, in which the banks made money, while the people bore the loss. The banks claimed to be obliged to suspend, but it was because of their speculations, The merchant that overtrades, gets no sympathy when trouble overtakes him. The banks suspended as a speculation. In 1840 there was a financial crisis, when the bad con- duct of the banks caused the passage of the very law of forfeiture for suspension that was sought to be set aside now. The banks were wealthy and powerful, and illustrated the growing power of corpora- tions. Who doubts that they could, by a little sacrifice, have avoided suspension at the present, have bought gold and redeemed their prom- ises. Instead of doing this they set the law at defiance, relying upon their power. They demand legalization of the wrong, threatening in- jury to the public interest unless it is done. The issue was boldly ten- dered. In his opinion the richest corporation should be compelled to obey the law like the humblest citizen. He was resolved to know no man or association of men, and that all should bow to the authority of the law without regard to wealth, power or influence.
Ile alluded to the fact that numbers of banks in other states, and four or five in Georgia had not been obliged to suspend. He answered the point that our specie would be drawn out from the North by saying that too few of our bills were held North to injure us in this way. The further point was made that our banks had suspended in response to the suggestion of public meetings. His sharp reply was that bank men
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JOHN E. WARD'S GREAT SPEECHI.
could easily get up such meetings. The people generally did not want suspension. Their hundred dollars fell to ninety in value by suspension. Every point ingeniously made for suspension he as ingeniously met. in his sledge-hammer way, running through the whole paper an adroit comparison of the advantages the banks had over the citizen. He struck hard. His last point was that there was a contract between the banks and the people to redeem their bills in specie on demand or pre- sentation, and this had been violated. The law legalizing suspension was a law impairing the obligation of contract, and therefore unconsti- tutional. He wound up this caustic and aggressive message with these words :
" I feel it to be my duty I owe the people of Georgia, to do all in my power to avert the evils which would follow the passage of an act legalizing the suspension of the banks. All solvent banks will doubtless soon resume specie payment. I shall do all which the law makes it my duty to do, to have the charters of such as do not resume forfeited, and their assets placed in the hands of receivers, and converted into money and paid to their creditors as soon as possible. No serious inconvenience will follow, as it is believed most of them are solvent, and will resume. Those which are not solvent will be wound up, and the sooner the better for the people."
The reading of the message created an intense feeling in both branches of the General Assembly. Mr. Ward, the President of the Senate was the bank leader in that body. The veto made a keen sense of alarm among the bank men. It was known that it was coming. Mr. Ward was selected to reply to it. He sat up all night preparing a speech. The message made a sensation. Its exhaustive, common sense discussion of the subject, and its determined views, fell upon the body, engendering dismay. Mr. Hill of Harris moved to take up the message and read it. After the reading Mr. Spalding moved to take up the vetoed bill. The yeas and nays were called on this motion, and resulted in sixty-one yeas and twenty-one nays. This was an ominous vote for the anti-bank men, being a loss of six votes from the twenty-seven that voted on its passage against it. Mr. Young of the negative voters then moved to adjourn, fighting for time. Upon this the yeas and nays were called, yeas nineteen, nays fifty-nine. This was a still farther loss on the anti-bank side. Mr. Ward had come from the President's seat and he took the floor. He made a speech of great power and eloquence, an adroit, persuasive, subtle speech, by long odds the best of the session on any subject. With wonderful effect he songht to put the Governor in a position of hostility to the cities, and then proceeded to defend the cities, blending a careful indignation with a judicious pathos. His eulogy upon the banks and his picture of the bad results of interference
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BANK DOGGEREL.
with them, were drawn with eloquent vividness. Every utterance of this admirable speech was conciliatory and plausible. It was a model of elocution and at the same time the very perfection of argument and appeal. It made Mr. Ward great reputation in the state. He closed his speech by moving the passage of the vetoed bill and upon that motion called the "previous question " to cut off reply. The vote stood on this fifty-six yeas and twenty-four nays, a small gain for the anti- bank men. The vote upon the passage of the bill was then taken and stood sixty-one yeas to twenty-two nays, a loss of five votes from the nays on its original passage-a loss due to Mr. Ward's powerful speech. In the House the vote stood the same as on its first passage, showing no change.
A classification of the voting made a month afterwards in the heated discussion the matter continued to evoke, showed that in the House, where the vote stood sixty-eight yeas to thirty-four nays, forty-eight members voted "yea ". both times and twenty-nine "nay " both times; that thirteen members voted nay first and yea afterwards; that two voted yea first and then nay; that fourteen voted yea at first and did not vote afterwards; that eight voted nay first and did not vote afterwards; and that one voted against and three for the bill on its second passage who did not vote first. And forty-four members did not vote at all on the perilous question. On the last ballot sixty, or more than a third of the House, dodged a vote.
The following piece of doggerel took the public attention at the time, and had a wide circulation:
A LEGISLATIVE LAY. BY BILL VETO BANKS, ESQ.
On a night before Christmas when all through the " house "
Not a member was stirring, not even a mouse ;
. The Sec'taries stood at the Desk in great awe,
As if 'twas the Devil himself that they saw.
The members all nestled down close in their chairs ;
Their hearts alternating with hopes and with fears ;
When up from the Senate arose such a clatter,
The Speaker sent " Jess" to report on the matter. Away to the Senate he flew with a chill-
He heard that the Senate had passed the Bank bill.
Then T-e came in, and the House got so still,-
His hair stood erect like the porcupine's quill.
Ile read what the Senate had done, in the aisle,
Then bowed himself out with such a sweet smile !
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BANK BOOK-KEEPING.
I knew by the walk, 'twas the "Cherokee brave," The Divil may take me, if he could desare !
But the fun was not yet over, not by a half, Which I'll tell you directly, provided you laugh. " As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly," Swept clear thro' the House, Bill Vetos' wild cry. Confusion at once seized the House with a vim,
And the shout went around, " up Bankey, at him !"
Then the Secretary called the roll over with care,
While the friends of dear Bankey sank deep in despair ;
For none in that House could certainly know,
The result which the ayes and the noes would soon show. Not a breath of disturbance the quietness stirred, Not a hem, nor a cough, nor an audible word, The roll being called and the vote counted out,
The Speaker said, passed, then as if in doubt,
Said no, it was lost ; and then in the Mess, Some man changed his vote, and settled the fuss. And then such a shout! Ye Gods and small fishes!
What rattling it made among Cunningham's dishes! So Bankey whipped Veto-and winks at his foes, And wiggles his thumb at the end of his nose ; He exclaimed as he left in the cars the next night, Happy Christmas to all and Bill Veto good night ! But Bankey will find before he 's much older,
The people will turn him a very cold shoulder, Unless he behaves like honest men should, And ceases to speak in the imperative mood.
But the matter was not ended. The legislative storm was but child's play to the public agitation. The young country Governor had awakened a popular tornado. Abuse and ridicule were heaped upon him. The use of the expression that the bank accounts " balanced to a quarter of a cent " was the theme of unlimited raillery over the alleged ignorance of the Governor, of Bank book-keeping. The bank cham- pions had stated as a reason for legalizing the suspension, that the peo- ple owed the banks twenty-two millions, and the banks only owed the people five millions. In response to this argument the Governor said in his message that the sworn returns of the banks made to the Execu- tive Department showed that the assets and liabilities of the banks " balanced to a quarter of a cent," a proper phrase to render the an- tithesis striking.
The bank question became a veritable sensation. The agitation was warm enough in the legislature. It grew hotter with its transfer to the tribunal of the entire state. The Milledgeville Federal Union at first
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THE STATE ON THE BANK QUESTION.
was the Governor's only newspaper advocate. The Augusta Chronicle and the Savannah Republican were the two champions of the bank side of the question. One after another the state press took sides with the Governor. The papers were full of it. And the discussion was bitter. The Augusta Chronicle thus fulminated :
"Never have we witnessed in all our experience such a display of stupidity, igno- rance, and low groveling demagogism as Gov. Brown has made in his veto message. It is throughout the low and miserable effort of a most contemptible demagogue, to array the prejudices of the poor against the rich. *
"In conclusion we cannot but congratulate the Democracy on their triumphant success in finding out thus early, 'Who is Brown ?' This was a question which excited no little solicitude in the outset of the late Gubernatorial canvass, and the faithful in this region were very much exercised to ascertain its true solution. Now when asked, 'Who is Brown ?' they unhesitatingly respond, 'a d-d fool ?'"
The Savannah Republican was no less savage. Said this paper:
" The friends of the Governor should hang their heads with mortification and shame, while the author himself should forthwith be subjected to the surgical operation recom- mended by Benton to Cass, viz, to be 'cut for the simples.' "
But to the supreme astonishment of the Bank men, the people of the state rallied to the Governor in almost solid array. Public meetings were held on the subject, and the Governor endorsed by strong resolu- tions. A meeting for instance, in Carroll county presided over by W. W. Merrell, passed unanimously resolutions denouncing the suspension act as " unwise and lawless legislation." In Wilkinson county Dr. R. J. Cochran offered a resolution that was passed without a dissenting voice declaring the Governor's veto " elaborate, full, clear and unanswerable;" and a resolution was also passed unqualifiedly condemning Hon. John E. Ward for calling the previous question, and depriving the anti-bank men of a chance to reply to him. Whitfield county had a rousing meet- ing and passed a strong set of resolutions reported by a committee com- posed of W. H. Stansel, C. B. Wellborn, Wm. J. Underwood, Dr. B. B. Brown and Rey. John M. Richardson. These resolutions commended the "Jacksonian firmness" of Gov. Brown. Even Bibb county en- dorsed the Governor. In Monroe county resolutions were passed de- manding that the state Constitution be altered so as to prevent the passage of laws legalizing bank suspensions. A meeting at Culloden presided over by W. Rutherford declared that Gov. Brown doserved the more credit because he did his duty in the very teeth of his own party. A Pickens county meeting denounced the papers abusing Gov. Brown as " hireling bank organs." A Campbell county meeting resolved that Gov. Brown was " under all circumstances the friend of the people when
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"WHO IS JOE BROWN" ANSWERED.
their rights are threatened." Wesley Camp was chairman of this meet- ing. A Cherokee county meeting declared its pride in Gov. Brown as a Cherokee citizen. Clinch county went ahead of all in declaring that the members who supported the suspension bill after hearing the Governor's veto were not deserving support a second time by their constituency.
These public expressions of opinion taken at random from the action of meetings in all parts of the state will give some idea of the emphatic unanimity of endorsement that Gov. Brown received from the people. It is not ascertainable that a single public meeting sided with the banks and condemned the Governor. In spite of the colossal moneyed power of the Banks the Executive single handed carried popular sentiment overwhelmingly. It constitutes a remarkable victory, and it put Gov. Brown, at the very inception of his career, solidly entrenched in the hearts of the masses as the friend of the people's rights, a position from which no effort was ever able to shake him until the fiery days of recon- struction, but which he has regained since then in the most marvelous manner.
No man could ask after this the sneering question, "Who is Joe Brown ?" He had answered the query himself in no uncertain lan- guage. He had shot himself like a cannon ball into the very heart of the state. In every hamlet the people knew him as a man of brain, rock-willed, and the people's friend. He became as exaltedly elevated in public esteem as he had been unexpectedly thrown into high office from obscurity. He demonstrated the fact that his promotion " was the inevitable outcome of his young life-disciplined so marvelously, so full of thought, sagacity and judgment."
CHAPTER IX.
THE WAY GOV. BROWN GASHED INTO OLD CUSTOMS.
The Abolition of Levees .- No Wine at His Table .- Interference by the Legislature with Pardons boldly Tackled .- The case of John Black .- Old time Ideas of Mar- riage .- State Aid .- Salaries Increased .- Peterson Thweatt .- The State Road, and a Vigorous Policy .- The Coincidence of Gov. Brown and the State Road .- The Southern Commercial Convention .- A summary of Georgia's Leaders, Mark A. Cooper, A. H. Chappell, William Dougherty, Junius Wingfield .- The Philosophy of Southern Conventions .- Powerful Instrumentalities of Sectional Division .- Legacies for the Impending Revolution.
THE installation of Joseph E. Brown as Governor of Georgia was truly an establishment of an era of change. The very social features of the executive administration were sweepingly altered by this simple- mannered and resolute young countryman. It seemed as if no institu- tion that he deemed to need correction was sacred against his deter- mined hand. And there was no fuss in his reforms. He quietly up- rooted long-established customs in a way that evoked the horror of the reverential worshipers of venerable follies. It had been the custom for governors to begin their terms with a huge popular LEVEE, when the dear people were allowed to come uninvited in masses. Magnificent supper was provided at tremendous cost. It was a festivity of mash and gluttony and plunder. Crates of crockery were broken. The ple- beians came in swarms as their one social opportunity to mingle in high life, and they gorged their stomachs and stored their pockets with del- icacies. One who has never witnessed one of these hideous levees cannot conceive of their character. Floors were ruined, table ware lost, and toil- ets wrecked. It was jam and crush. It was becoming yearly worse, larger crowds, more disorder, increased destruction, and less regard for good manners. The rabble looked forward to, and improved it. The custom was old, and supposed to be the very symbol of our democratic principles. It was the practical incarnation of equality religiously cherished by the poor and the humble. Of all men, Gov. Brown, the representative of popular privileges, would have been supposed to guard such a custom. His practical intelligence, on the contrary, saw it was an occasion of license and rabble disorder, and not what it was meant to be, the tribute of all orderly citizens to a new Chief Magistrate. He swept it out of existence, declining to conform to the ancient precedent.
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GOV. BROWN'S COLLISIONS WITH THE LEGISLATURE.
IIe instituted in its place a series of Friday night receptions, which proved very pleasant.
Another change he made that drew upon him much bantering com- ment, was abolishing wine from his festal board. He was a temper- ance man, and carried out his temperance principles practically. But the Governor quietly persisted in his plain temperance ways, and the people learned that ridicule or abuse were unable to move him.
He had several collisions with the General Assembly, in every case maintaining his views and asserting the prerogatives of his position in the straight-forward sort of way that was characteristic of the man. The Legislature passed a joint resolution requesting the Governor to pardon forthwith two female convicts. He vetoed the resolution promptly, and his message is a stinging rebuke. Adverting to the fact that no reason was given in the resolution for such clemency, and quoting the section of the constitution that gives the pardoning power to the Governor, he said that he understood that other resolutions of a similar character had been introduced, and gave his decision upon the matter in these incisive words:
" As a general rule, in my opinion, it would be better to leave all these cases where the courts and juries have left them. There are a few excepted cases, and for the pur- pose of finding them out, it is often necessary to investigate the evidence, and the cir- cumstances of the trial. The constitution has assigned the duty of investigation to the Executive Department of the Government, without dividing the responsibility with the General Assembly, and as it would greatly lengthen the sessions, and consume much of the time of the Legislature, which could be as well employed in the consideration of such matters as the constitution has confided to that branch of the government, I would respectfully suggest that it might be better for each department of the government to be content to confine itself within the sphere of action assigned to it by the constitu- tion."
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