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. 2 > Part 11
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There is no stranger and more suggestive instance of the instability of human passion and the evanescence of human prejudice than the savagery of proscription endured by these two remarkable men, rounded as it has been by an elevation so august, in a time so short. The coincidence continues markedly, in the fact, that in every particular their experiences have been identical, and .that so antagonistic once, their accord now is complete-a conjunction of absolute diversities. It was a wonderful triumph for Brown to see his old foeman with him. But it was only the beginning of a broader political corroboration in a practical point of view.
456
THE STATE ROAD LEASE.
On the 26th day of October, 1870, Gov. Bullock advertised the West- ern and Atlantic railroad for lease under the lease act. On the 27th of December, 1870, the road was leased to the present company at a rental of $25,000 per month for twenty years, the company giving a bond of eight millions of dollars with the Georgia, Central, South Western, Macon and Western, Atlanta and West Point, Macon and Brunswick, Brunswick and Albany, Nashville and Chattanooga, and St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroads for security. Gov. Brown was elected President of the company, having resigned his position as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court before he made a bid for the lease, and having served a little over two years, renouncing ten years of his term. His resignation testifies conclusively to the fact that he did not desire office, and that place was not the inspiration of his political attitude upon reconstruction.
As a Supreme Court Justice, Judge Brown maintained to the fullest extent his admittedly great abilities. A perusal of his decisions, cov- ering every topic of jurisprudence and every principle of civil and criminal law, shows careful discrimination, profound discernment of the spirit of laws, wide and accurate legal learning, and the very perfection of a judicial temper, impartial, equipoised and punctilious. The truth is that Chief Justice Brown was the very paragon of a Judge, and adorned the ermine as much as any jurist that has ever sat in the Supreme tri- bunal of the State. He possessed an exceptional blending of a placid and untiring patience with fixedness of decision and luminous legal acumen.
Gov. Bullock appointed as Chief Justice in Gov. Brown's place, until the meeting of the General Assembly in Nov., 1871, Judge O. A. Lochrane. This gentleman had sustained himself upon the Superior Court Bench with rare success. Appointed by Gov. Brown as Judge of the Macon circuit at the beginning of the war, and taking his seat under. heavy and open opposition, due to a certain jovial vein in his versatile compo- sition, he had handled a number of grave and novel questions with originality and undoubted legal power. He had upheld both the dignity and ability of the bench. Some attorneys at Twiggs court agreed to carry their case by consent to the Supreme Court to avoid his jurisdic- tion. With placid poise he marked and announced the case dismissed for want of prosecution, and had the humbled lawyers pleading for the restoration of their case to the docket with much earnest compliment to his Honor. He enforced the writ of Habeas Corpus against .Confeder- ate suspension; he decided the conscript law unconstitutional; he refused
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THE DOWNFALL OF THE BULLOCK REGIME FORESHADOWED. 457
to recognize the government of England that did not recognize the Confederacy; he held that the State of Georgia had the right to a writ of possession for arms loaned the Confederacy, and called on Gov. Brown for means to enforce his order. These rulings indicate legal ability and inflexible decision.
After the war he resigned, and moved to Atlanta. He was appointed Judge of the Atlanta Circuit, and served from August, 1869, to August, 1870, when he resigned, to be appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in January, 1871.
Among the historic landmarks of the reconstruction is that magnificent building and most valuable instrument of Atlanta progress, the Kimball House. It was a superb hostelrie, far ahead of the growth of Atlanta. It was begun in April and finished on the 17th of October, and its con- struction was a marvel of rapid work. It cost over $600,000, and the agent of Henry Clews, Mr. Crosby, told the writer that $300,000 of the money advanced on State endorsed bonds to build the Brunswick and Albany railroad had been traced into this hotel. Its history is one of vicissitudes, litigation and strange changes of ownership.
The year 1871 was another eventful twelve months of Georgia history, winding up with a most dramatic surprise. The absolutism of Radical rule had seen its culmination when Congress passed the law of July 15th, 1870, for the admission of Georgia, and when under it a Democratic legislature was elected in December, 1870. It must be held in thought, in order to comprehend the situation and the starting denouement, that the Republican regime had before it the certainty of a full Democratic inquiry into matters. There had been enough open acts of wrong and unlawful extravagance to justify grave apprehensions of trouble for their authors. As was afterwards developed, there were worse derelic- tions concealed. From this time on the Bullock administration was in a fearful strain to secure the success of its projects, and in final triumph make temporary illegalities forgotten or justified. But it was an uphill business. Kimball was carrying more than mortal man could bear. He was President of seven railroads, and the master of a monster hotel. The bonds were poured out so freely as to overstock the market, and the load was the heavier that dimly discerned irregularities were battered at by the opposition, until the enterprises staggered un- der the growing burden of discredit.
The situation daily became more desperate. Ruin threatened every project. In the pitiless stress new illegalities were resorted to, that failed to remedy the perils. Bullock stood gamely to his friend Kim-
458
FOSTER BLODGETT CLOSED OUT OF THE U. S. SENATE.
ball. Illegal endorsements were given in succession. And yet all was unavailing. Angier in the Treasury prompted the clue to suspicious matters, the Atlanta Constitution probed and ventilated them, and the Democratic press, both in and out of the State, kept up a lively fusillade and publication. And so the final crash was steadily focalizing.
Foster Blodgett went to Washington, and tried to get admitted as United States Senator, on the 4th of March, 1871. The effort was vain. His record was ventilated fully. Senator Thurman made an unanswerable speech against his admission, taking the ground that he was elected by a Legislature that had no right to choose a Senator for the term Blodgett claimed. Senator Joshua Hill made a rare speech against his admission. It was a document full of fearful punishment for Blodgett and his sponsors. It was witty, satirical, caustic and argumentative. Coming from a Republican source, it was irresistibly effective. It alike pilloried not only Mr. Blodgett but the Legislature that elected him. A Republican delegation from Georgia, consisting of Conley, Harris, Tweedy, D. D. Snyder, and A. D. Rockafellow, went on to Congress to press Blodgett's admission for the reason that "it was for the welfare of the Republican party." Congress adjourned without seating Blodgett.
Senator Hill introduced two measures in April, 1871, that have excited great interest. One was the bill for the survey of the Atlantic and Great Western Canal, and the other a pet project of Col. W. P. Price to convey the United States mint building at Dahlonega, Ga., to the trustees of the North Georgia Agricultural College-an institution that has done a great amount of good, and is one of the most valuable educational seminaries in the State. Gen. Young also introduced in the House, a resolution for a post office building. We now have it.
Perhaps nothing could better show the downward drift of Gov. Bullock's administration in the popular opinion, than certain present- ments of the Grand Jury of Greene county, in March, 1871, of which ex-Speaker Me Whorter was a member of the one, and signer of the other, censuring Bullock's " wasteful expenditures of the public money and his wicked and heartless abuse of the public credit." Nor was Bullock without the leverage to help him, given by the incessant Republican agitation of the "Southern outrage " crusade. In Con- gress a committee was engaged in perpetual investigation of Ku Klux enormities. This was the stock in trade of extreme Radicalism. It was a striking evidence of Bullock's waning influence with the national leaders of his own party, that his contributions to this wretched campaign
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459
THE BULLOCK DYNASTY GIVES WAY.
of calumny availed him nothing. He issued a detestable proclamation of rewards for an imaginary batch of hideous Ku Klux outrages. The slanderous pronunciamento under the Executive impress was advertised broadcast at the public expense, disseminating its envenomed poison everywhere. In July, 1871, he wrote a letter to Congressman Scott, on the condition of Georgia, rendering a bad account of the afflicted old commonwealth, that had fallen into the cruel hands of political Philis- tines. Gen. Gordon went before the Ku Klux committee, and endeav- ored to neutralize the mischief.
It was an appalling criminality for men with the prestige of author- ity giving them weight, and with every incentive of State patriotism to conserve the interest and foster the fame of Georgia, deliberately seek- ing to re-crucify the State, their own mother. But the power to harm was rapidly diminishing. The reign of evil was passing away. The Bullock rule was swiftly drawing to a tragic close. There came out whispers of Kimball's embarrassment. Gov. Bullock went away, and was gone nearly three months. Finally the irrepressible Angier gave notice that he would pay no warrants not signed by a resident Gover- nor, as the law requires. The State road mismanagement was giving out a noisome odor. The Treasurer of the road was arrested. A com- mittee of citizens, Judge Hammock, Dr. Redwine and Judge Collier were appointed to examine the State road books. A large array of able counsel, led by Gen. Toombs, volunteered in the investigation.
The first note of an impending general crash came in the disintegra- tion of the huge enterprise known as the Brunswick and Albany rail- road, the recipient of a double State aid, and an indistinguishable com- pound of equity and fraud. Claims poured upon it, which were not met. The Superintendent, J. A. Burns, dropped it and left. The road was seized by the Governor. This was after the middle of October. Every one felt that the end was approaching. The radical edifice began to shiver. The portents were unmistakable. The conclusion was at hand. But it must be confessed the finale took an unexpected shape. When it was announced that Gov. Bullock had fled the State, leaving his resignation, it was like an overwhelming electric shock. The sur- prise over, one flashing note of universal rejoicing resounded over the. State.
460
GOVERNOR BULLOCK'S RESIGNATION AND FLIGIIT.
The minutes of the Executive Department, show that on the 23rd of October, 1871, the resignation was written and reads as follows:
"EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, October 23, 1871. )
" To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN-GREETING :
" Be it known, that good and sufficient reasons, me thereunto moving, I do hereby resign the office of Governor of this State, to take effect on Monday next, the 30th day of October, in the year of our Lord, 1871, and on that day and date, deliver over to the Hon. Benjamin Conley, President of the Senate, the Executive powers of the Govern- ment, until the election and qualification of a Governor, in the mode prescribed by paragraph IV., Article IV., Section 1 of the Constitution of this State. And the Secre- tary of the Executive Department will enter the foregoing of record in the Executive Minutes, and place the Capitol building, Executive records, Documents, Seals, and Mansion in the control of the said Benjamin Conley, upon his taking the oath of office prescribed by Paragraph V., Section I., Article IV. of the Constitution.
"RUFUS B. BULLOCK, Governor."
On the 23rd of October, 1871, the Executive Minutes show that R. H. Atkinson, Secretary of the Executive Department, says that he trans- mitted, by direction of Governor Bullock, this resignation to the Hon. D. G. Cotting, Secretary of State, to be filed in his office. On the 30th day of October, 1871, at 3 o'clock P. M., seven days after the resig- nation, and after Mr. Atkinson's claimed transmission of the same to Mr. Cotting, the Executive Minutes show that Mr. Cotting thus addressed Hon. Benjamin Conley, President of the Senate:
" SIR :- I have at this moment been placed in possession of the enclosed communica- tion, from the Hon. R. B. Bullock, being his resignation of the office of Governor of the State of Georgia, said communication being transmitted to me through the hands of Col. R H. Atkinson, Secretary of the Executive Department.
"I hereby give you notice to repair to the Capitol, in Atlanta, within ten days of the date hereof, and take the oath of office, as Governor, before any Judge of the Supreme, or Judge of the Superior Court, otherwise it will be my duty to consider you as having resigned, and I shall proceed to inform the Speaker of the House of Representatives."
The Executive Minutes show that on the same day, the Hon. Benjamin Conley, President of the Senate, took the oath of office, and was installed as Governor, by Chief Justice O. A. Lochrane.
Though the resignation was seven days made before announcement, . no whisper of it got out. It was managed with wonderful secrecy, and when it was given to the public, Gov. Bullock was out of the State, and Mr. Conley acting Governor. The Washington Patriot stated that Gov. Bullock admitted to a United States Senator, that he did not like the course politics were taking, and he feared impeachment. There is no doubt that Gov. Bullock apprehended impeachment, and it was a
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461
SEVERE COMMENTARY UPON GOVERNOR BULLOCK.
subtle stroke to resign, before the new Legislature met, and not only escape this, but devolve the State government upon Mr. Conley, instead of the President of the new Senate.
Gov. Bullock wrote a letter from New York giving his reasons for resignation, in which he took a parting and malicious blow at the State. He stated that a majority of the House of Representatives had pledged themselves to vote for articles of impeachment against him without in- vestigation, and that the Senate had determined to unseat a sufficient number of Republican Senators to secure his conviction without regard to the truth and validity of the charges. He also charged that the peo- ple of Georgia had recently denounced or ignored the Constitution of the United States. This letter created a deep indignation against the fugitive, and the General Assembly by solemn resolution branded it as false and defamatory.
The resignation of Gov. Bullock evoked earnest attention over the whole country. The comment was uniformly unfavorable, and some of it stinging. The New York World said he was
"No bleeding martyr, but a spavined rogue."
The Boston Post declared that he
" Preferred speedy slaughter by his own act, to the more painful fate-a living Bar- becue in fact."
William Markham, one of the most pronounced Republicans in Georgia, was reported in the press to have said of Bullock:
" His whole administration has been in violation of every principle of honor, and dis- graceful to the Republican party, and regardless of the interest of the people of the State."
Gen. Toombs expressed, perhaps, the justest judgment upon Gov. Bullock's administration in these words:
" He certainly deserves to be impeached. He has committed a hundred offenses, any one of which is sufficient to convict him. The trouble with the fellow is that he don't know half the time when he does wrong. He does not understand the law nor the duties of his position."
In 1872, when Gov. Smith was the Executive, and the bond investi- gating committee discovered that the City bonds of Atlanta pledged for the payment of the $60,000 mortgage upon the Opera House had been abstracted from the State, leaving the mortgage unpaid, a warrant drawn by Gen. Toombs charging Gov. Bullock with the larceny of these bonds was issued, and upon it a Requisition was made upon Governor Hoffman of New York for Gov. Bullock, Col. John B. Cumming being the State's agent. Gov. Hoffman objected to the affidavit. Gen.
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462
BULLOCK'S EXTRAORDINARY CAREER.
Toombs drew another one, very lengthy and technical, and a new Requisition was issued, Col. Cumming reaching Albany Saturday, March 30, 18:2. Gov. Hoffman still objected. Gov. Smith sent a tart telegraph, expressing the opinion that Gov. Hoffman was quibbling. On Tuesday Gov. Hoffman issued his warrant for Gov. Bullock's arrest, and Col. Cumming proceeded to Albion, New York, to find his game gone, and a broken down horse in the stable. From this time on he was hiding out, avoiding arrest.
The Atlanta Constitution had this editorial written by the writer at that time, that expressed the sentiment of the good people of Georgia: " The career of Bullock is a fine instance of extraordinary alternations of human vicissitude.
"Bubbled to the surface amid the convulsions of political disorder and social turmoil, he rode for a while on a despotic pre-eminence as a stranger Executive of the proud State of Georgia. The absolute supremacy of his power and his cool disdain of tram- mels for three years constitute a picture of bold, evil rule not often seen, and admirable in its malicious and tyrannical consistency. The man made and unmade Legislatures, toyed with the State's sacred sovereignty like a worthless bauble, swayed the judiciary, and scattered the people's money with the lavish liberality of a prince, and the reckless caprice of a munificent madman.
" He preserved his gorgeous deportment amid it all, arrayed like a monarch, imposing in presence, smiling and affable, the princely, imperturbable and benignant patron of thieves and adventurers.
" His abdication came like a lightning stroke in the very zenith of his power. Down the metallic deity fell with a long descent and a dull thud. Governors have played the game of justice over the highcockolorum fugitive, and to-day sees him a miserable skulker from the offended law; and an outcast from home, friends, society and govern- ment."
In 1876, Gov. Smith made a successful attempt to arrest Gov. Bullock, sending Col. O. P. Fitzsimmons, recent United States Marshal of Georgia. Gov. Bullock gave bail easily. The case lingered for a year or two in the courts. Gen. L. J. Gartrell was his leading counsel. On the final trial, the proof connecting him criminally with the frauds on the State was not sufficient, and he was acquitted.
In estimating Gov. Bullock's administration, the time has hardly come to do it exact justice. It has been too recent. It was an event- ful one all through. It was rancorous, turbulent, revolutionary. It was in antagonism to the good people of the State. It was frightfully bad. And yet the times were conducive to much of the wrong. Bul- lock was warped by provocation, by necessity, by desperate stress, by unprincipled connections, by horribly evil counsel. He was naturally a clever, amiable, correctly disposed person. He started wrong and never got right.
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463
A CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF GOV. BULLOCK'S ADMINISTRATION.
He had to contend with an opposition that was sensitive and soured, that had been harried and was resentful, whose chivalry and honor were both inflamed almost to madness by believed outrage, that he justified. He had neither tact, statesmanship nor congeniality with the people of Georgia. He represented a party, composed mainly of newly enfran- chised negroes and foreign adventurers, that pressed an odious public policy. He was the agent of a disagreeable mission. He not only did not lighten its severities, but he increased them. At best, he must have evoked dissatisfaction. He did the worst that could have been done, and he drew execration. He resented it, and the conflict between him and the people became reckless and unsparing on both sides.
It was a desperate conception that he carried through, to uptear accomplished reconstruction, because his power was not as absolute as he wished. His very success in the doing of this unspeakable wrong, made the way easy to every species of Executive dereliction, since Congress, in the caprices of reconstruction tyranny, seemed willing to commit any enormity and approve any crime at the behest of its loyal Southern dynasties. Had the certainty of responsibility been sure, many risks of transcended authority would not have been taken.
But be the temptation what it may, Gov. Bullock's term was contin- uously worthy of censure. It grew in its criminality. It was unbrokenly evil. Every step was marked by personal scheming, disregard of nat- ural feeling, wasteful extravagance, violations of law and wanton attempts to degrade the State's autonomy. These are hard words. But they are coldly deserved. The simple, undeniable official facts justify them. And not the least censurable feature of this painful episode of evil, was that it was successfully achieved by the vile weapon of State defamation under the hypocritical pretext of the public interest.
Honest men enough at the North were made to believe that the Christian people of Georgia were such a set of piratical law-breakers and brutal conspirators against legitimate Federal authority, as to demand the very dissolution of government, and the substitution of an armed anarchy for the protection of society and obedience to Federal power. The whole rule of Gov. Bullock, in the writer's judgment, was crime-against the State, the Nation, and humanity. That rule fitly ended. It went out in disgrace and amid public rejoicing. And it will live in the cool, clear future as the darkest era of Georgia history.
CHAPTER XLII.
THE FINAL ACT OF JOYOUS STATE REDEMPTION.
The Legislature of 1871 .- An able Body .- Its vast Work .- Its Personelle .- L. N. Tram- mell .- James M. Smith .- Prolongation Again .- Gov. Conley and Bullock's Term. -Democratic Moderation .- President Trammell's Patriotic Sacrifice .- Election .-- Conley's Term .- Its Good and Bad .- Democratic Convention .- James M. Smith Nominated and Elected Governor .- The Republican Perplexity .- Gov. Smith's Inauguration-The Public Joy .- Foreign Comment .- The New York World ou Georgia .- Obituary on Georgia Radicalism from the Atlanta Constitution .- Ex- Gov. C. J. Jenkins' Superb Letter .- He Restores the Great Seal of the State .- The Dark Period of Reconstruction Rule,-The Fateful Decade from Secession to Complete Restoration .- An Era of Red Terror and Black Misrule .- The Proud Spectacle of Regenerated Georgia.
THE Legislature convened on the first day of November, 1871, two days after President . Benjamin Conley, of the Senate, took Bullock's place as Governor. This body was an unusually able one, and it assembled under circumstances of unspeakably grave public import. Its work was incalculably important, and while it made some mistakes, its general action was able and patriotic. Twenty-two of the old Senators held over and twenty-two new ones were elected. Among the new ones were some very strong men. In fact, nearly every one of the new Sen- ators was a public man of recognized power in popular leadership. Among them were R. E. Lester, John C. Nichols, L. C. Hoyle, B. B. Hinton, R. Jones, Charles C. Kibbee, T. J. Simmons, E. Steadman, William M. Reese, W. S. Erwin, M. V. Estes, George Hillyer, James R. Brown, and L. N. Trammell.
T. J. Simmons has been President of the Senate, and is now Judge of the Macon Circuit. A tall, fine-looking gentleman with heavy blonde whiskers, a most genial person, Judge Simmons has been a valuable and successful public man. He has never been beaten. Judge William Reese was an ornament to the Bench and an incomparable legislator. Clear, positive, practical, honest, he has had great weight in every delib- erative body in which he has served. George Hillyer is now Judge of the Atlanta Circuit, and fast building into an enviable reputation as a jurist. James R. Brown is a brother of Gov. Brown, and has
465
THE LEGISLATURE OF 1871.
many of the strong characteristics of his more famous kinsman. He is now Judge of the Blue Ridge Circuit, and both in the legislative chamber and upon the bench has been marked by fine practical sense, thorough courage and immovable honesty.
Hon. L. N. Trammell was unanimously elected President of the Senate, by a voice vote, without even the formality of a written ballot. This was a deserved tribute to Mr. Trammell, and no gentleman has ever sustained himself as a presiding officer with more parliamentary skill and personal dignity. His administration was simply perfect. Quick, impartial, firm, courteous, thoroughly versed in parliamentary law, he governed the deliberations of the Senate with consummate tact.
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