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 12
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The House also had some marked men on its roll. There was John W. Wofford, W. H. Payne, Isaac Russell, Emanuel Heidt, W. D. An- derson, E. D. Graham, R. W. Phillips, Morgan Rawls, Dunlap Scott, M. R. Ballenger, E. F. Hoge, Henry Jackson, J. C. Fain, R. L. Mc- Whorter, W. E. Simmons, Garnett McMillan, Geo. F. Pierce, J. W. Murphy, G. W. Bryan, W. P. Johnson, H. W. Riley, S. E. Field, J. M. Smith, J. F. Pou, L. J. Alred, M. H. Bunn, J. H. Guerry, J. B. Cum- ming, Claiborne Snead, C. B. Hudson, J. C. Dell, John I. Hall, J. W. Renfroe. Of all these bright gentlemen, perhaps there was none of them more brilliant than Garnett McMillan. He possessed a fervent, flashing mind. He died several years after. W. E. Simmons was a person of unusually strong intelligence. W. II. Payne was a man of cool, substantial caliber. George F. Pierce has been almost continu- ously since in legislatures and conventions, and has an oratory almost equal to his gifted uncle, Bishop Pierce. He is now Solicitor of one of the judicial circuits.
W. P. Johnson was a son of H. V. Johnson, and a young man of bright brain. J. W. Renfroe has since been State Treasurer for five years, making a wonderful administration. Claiborne Snead is now Judge of the Augusta Circuit, and a young man of uncommon power. One of the most notable men in this body was John I. Hall, who has been Judge of the Flint Circuit. He has been a warm friend of Gov. James M. Smith. Judge Hall has been one of the cleverest political managers in the State, with a singularly practical vision of the public temper, and a wary, shrewd use of political opportunities. A very promising young man was Henry Jackson, eldest son of Gen. Henry R. Jackson, who has figured so brilliantly in Georgia History in the last quarter of a century. Whether as a lawyer or legislator, Capt. Henry Jackson has been a marked young man. He has been Reporter of the
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THE BATTLE FOR THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE.
Supreme Court for nearly ten years, making as efficient an official as the lamented Thos. R. R. Cobb, whose daughter he married. .
. The House organized by the selection of James M. Smith as speaker. Col. Smith had been a gallant officer in the war, and a member of Cou- gress. He was a person of solid, powerful build, with a square resolute face, and an appearance of rugged strength that betokened the type of his mind. A self-made man, originally a blacksmith, Col. Smith, who afterwards became Governor, was a strong and rising character. IIe was an able lawyer and an effective political speaker. At the time of his election as Speaker, he was in a law co-partnership with Col. P. W. Alexander, the famous war correspondent, "P. W. A." Col. James D). Waddell was elected Clerk of the House.
The important question that confronted the Legislature was, who should be Governor, Benjamin Conley, President of the last Senate, whose term had expired, and who was no longer a senator or president, or L. N. Trammell, who was the President of the existing Senate? The Con- stitution devolved the duties of Governor upon the President of the Senate. The Democrats claimed that when Mr. Conley ceased to be President of the Senate, he had no right to act as Governor, and when Mr. Trammell became President of the Senate he became endowed with the right to discharge the Executive duties. That this was the law the best lawyers agreed, and it was the legal solution of this very vital issue.
Gov. Conley not only claimed the right to be Governor, but he main- tained that he should serve as Executive for the whole balance of Gov. Bullock's term. Prolongation had been the Republican theory, and it was pursued in this instance fearlessly. It was a fitting and picturesque termination of reconstruction rule, that it should be marked by this battle for the Governorship, this contest for the executive authority. There never has been a finer piece of political moderation than the con- duct of the Democrats in this emergency. Nor has there ever been a loftier exhibition of patriotic self-sacrifice than the action of President Trammell in foregoing his undeniable right to step into the august hon- ors of the executive office.
In a spirit of conciliation and conservatism, admirable and conclu- sive in falsifying the slanderous aspersions upon democratic peacefulness, the Legislature permitted Gov. Conley to hold until an election, and passed a bill to have an election on the 3d of December, 1871. Gov. Conley vetoed the bill. But it was passed over his veto. The Repub- licans made a prodigious noise over this measure, and denounced it as
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GOVERNOR CONLEY'S ADMINISTRATION.
revolutionary. But it was all in vain. With a quiet firmness, the Democratic policy was carried out, and the work of State regeneration proceeded to its complete consummation.
Gov. Conley's administration was a very great improvement on Gov. Bullock's. He did some commendable things. He did some acts for which he was severely censured. He stopped immediately Gov. Bul- lock's extravagant proclamation business. He paid out some $25,188 of the contingent fund in the two months and twelve days of his incumbency. He also pardoned Foster Blodgett for all possible charges against him growing out of the State Road administration. For these two acts he received much popular animadversion. He had several lively conflicts with the Legislature. He vetoed a bill reducing legisla- tive pay to seven dollars from nine; another continuing the session five days beyond the constitutional forty days; another repealing a Bullock law remitting the payment of poll tax for the past three years; another repealing the District court law; another repealing the India rubber twentieth section of the appropriation act under which Gov. Bullock had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on every species of claim; and another authorizing an investigation of our bonds.
These were all party battles, and were made by Gov. Conley to press Republican strategy. The tussle between Conley and the Democrats became right animated. He was game and personally honest, but he was an uncompromising partisan, and struck the democracy every hard blow that he could. No charge of inconsistency could move him. He had prolonged hundreds of days in the Bullock Legislature, but yet he vigorously stormed over the alleged outrage of Democratic prolonga- tion of five days to wind up business. He took $9 a day for 320 days, but condemned Democratic extravagance that wanted 87 a day. He was scored roundly with these inconsistencies, but it made no difference. He pounded away vigorously upon the Democrats, and he gave them a deal of trouble, and kept them actively retorting.
The Democratic convention to nominate a candidate for Governor, met in Atlanta, on the 6th day of December, 1871. There were 372 delegates from 134 counties. Among the delegates were Barney Hill, T. G. Holt, C. C. Kibbee, M. Rawls, R. T. Fouche, J. C. Fain, T. M. Peeples, W. E. Simmons, A. D. Candler, G. F. Pierce, B. B. Hinton, H. L. Benning, M. Blanford, L. F. Garrard, P. W. Alexander, A. R. Lamar, L. J. Alred, J. C. Nicholls, J. T. Clarke, J. B. Cumming, C. F. Crisp, C. W. Hancock, C. J. Wellborn, I. E. Shumate, J. A. W. John- son and William M. Reese. This was the first political appearance of a
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GOV. JAMES M. SMITH ELECTED AND INAUGURATED.
very bright young man, C. F. Crisp, son of a distinguished theatrical actor. Mr. Crisp is now Judge of the South-western Circuit, and is a rising jurist.
Hon. Julian Hartridge was elected Chairman of the Convention. The contest was between Herbert Fielder, Gen. W. T. Wofford and Col. James M. Smith. Fielder and Wofford withdrew, and Smith was unanimously nominated. A new Executive Committee was appointed, consisting of Clifford Anderson, E. F. Hoge, J. B. Cumming, C. W. Styles, J. C. Dell, J. H. Hunter, C. C. Kibbee, W. O. Fleming, A. R. Lamar, H. Buchanan, A. D. Hammond, J. I. Hall, G. F. Pierce, J. D. Mathews, G. McMillan, W. E. Simmons, J. T. Burns, and C. D. Mc- Cutchen.
The Republicans finally declined to run a candidate. Col. H. P. Far- row published a letter afterwards, giving an interesting account of the Republican perplexity. A caucus was held at the capitol, consisting of J. Johnson, John S. Bigby, J. R. Parrott, Madison Bell, R. L. Mott and others. The Bullock administration was the incubus. There seems to have been an entire repudiation of Bullock's rule. They "were in no way connected with the Bullock ring." Foster Blodgett's resignation as Chairman of the Executive Committee was received, and James At- kins was nominated for Governor. Col. Atkins declined. Among the phrases used in this Republican caucus were such as "the shameful administration of Gov. Bullock; " " fled the country dishonored, yet 'unwept, unhonored and unsung !'" and "betrayed in every essential particular the confidence of the party."
James M. Smith was elected Governor, the fact that there was no opposition causing a light vote, only 39,205; and Gov. Conley in his message transmitting the ballots to the General Assembly, with some bitterness, but incorrectly, claimed that the smallness of the vote dem- onstrated that the people of Georgia did not desire an election to fill the unexpired term of Gov. Bullock. The Governor elect resigned his place as Speaker, and Jos. B. Cumming was elected in his place.
On the 12th day of January, 1872, Gov. James M. Smith was inau- gurated amid universal rejoicing. The Representative Chamber was packed. Gov. Smith was accompanied by the State officials and Judges, Gen. Toombs, Gen. Colquitt, ex-Gov. Joseph E. Brown, P. W. Alex- ander and others. His inaugural was a concise, earnest address, that was fully applauded. He used this expression:
" Recurring to the occasion which has brought us together to-day, it cannot escape the most careless observer, that we have assembled under circumstances of an extraor-
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GEORGIA'S REDEMPTION.
dinary character. The late Governor, whose unexpired term of office I have been chosen to fill, is a voluntary fugitive from the State of his adoption. During his brief incum- bency there has been an addition of untold millions to the public debt. He has left the finances of the State in the utmost confusion aud disorder."
No words can convey the depth and fervor of the public joy over this restoration of a rule resting on the free choice of the people. Over the length and breadth of the commonwealth welled up one universal, deep- souled acclaim of gladness. There was a double satisfaction in the event, the end of misrule and the inauguration of good government. The despotism of the bayonet was gone, and it seemed as if we had, after an unspeakable pilgrimage, reached the promised land.
Nor was the rejoicing confined to Georgia. From every part of the Union came back to us congratulations and the responsive echoes of our delight. Some of the comments were very striking. The New York World in particular made the event the subject of some reflections that contain a profound philosophy, and well merit quotation. Said this journal:
"Georgia, more than any of the Southern states, has suffered from the process of reconstruction, and her present deliverance is an ample proof of how futile that process has been. All the powers of the Federal Government-the army, the treasury, the courts-have been exhausted to keep her in a certain position, and at the first election we find her escaping out of that condition and assuming a position of her own. Had it been some powerful Northern state, like New York, or Massachusetts, or Illinois, that had been time and again bound hand and foot, and yet burst its bonds almost in the instant they had been completed, the wonder would not be great ; but that a beaten and impoverished commonwealth like Georgia has risen superior to the whole strength of the Administration is something amazing. It shows how little real root there is in centrali- zation, and how fully able a State is to cope with the whole Federal Government when that Government is prostituted to party ends. Nothing that Congress could do-nothing that the President could do-has been able to keep this State in that vassalage to which Congress and the President bent all their energies to reduce her. It has been impossible to keep the cork under water, whatever the superimposed force. No less than seven acts of Congress were leveled at Georgia ; no less than three times was her civil establish- ment superseded by martial law ; and the end of it all is that the State is to-day just where it was in 1866-in absolute and entire control of her own people. The recon- structed legislature is gone, the reconstructed judiciary is gone, the reconstructed Gov- ernor is a fugitive thief, the bayonets are gone, the laws are inoperative, and, in the language of the ring, the State, after an infinitude of punishment, comes up to the scratch smiling and knocks its antagonist out of time."
If the public happiness was great over the exhilarating spectacle, that one of Georgia's own sons, by her own untrammeled suffrages, sat in her honorable Executive seat, there was an equally profound sense of relief, that the dismal reign of Radical misgovernment had ended forever.
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OBITUARY OF GEORGIA RADICALISM.
The writer at that time gave expression to the popular feeling in the following editorial article in the Atlanta Constitution, which a general reproduction in the State press attested to be the public conception of the defunct reconstruction dynasty, and which, though written in the haste of rapid preparation and with the over-coloring due the feverish times, presents the truth:
"OBITUARY.
GEORGIA RADICALISM. Perished through its own corruption, 12 M., January 12th, 1872, In Atlanta, Ga., In the Representative Chamber of the General Assembly, And by the free bollots of the virtuous people it outraged, The detestable body of GEORGIA RADICALISMI. It was aborted January 30th, 1868, Of the horrible rape of State Sovereignty By the brutal Bayonet. It lived three years, eleven months and twenty seven days, A ghastly thing Of ceaseless, infinite, unnamable VILLAINT. It debauched the STATE'S CHIEF MAGISTRACY Into a hissing term of loathsome scorn, And a glaring by-word of ignominious reproach. It clutched in its leprous grasp the STATE'S PURE JUDICIARY, And bedraggled it in slime
Until its spotless ermine was as black and offensive, As Radicalism's own adored Africa. It transformed the STATE'S GREAT LEGISLATURE
Into a howling pandemonium of indecency and plunder, An unconvicted penitentiary of thieves, blackguards and felons, In which a few good men Made the large majority of its members More conspicuously infernal by the tremendous contrast. Politics it reduced to a scientific scheme of POLITICAL HARLOTRY. Hypocritically making a hobby of Education, It Stole Every dollar of the State Educational Fund. In the name of justice, It turned loose the imprisoned convicts
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OBITUARY OF RADICALISM CONTINUED.
Of the whole broad State, To recruit its corrupt ranks and create crime. It ascribed this crime to the virtuous people, To perpetuate its power By making such purposed disorder A diabolical pretext For the overthrow of State government, And the interference of national despotism To crucify the commonwealth For the Radical benefit. It made the State A HELL, In practice for its own certain destination. It pounced its ravenous claws
On the State's giant property, its great railroad,
With the rabid rapacity of a hungry hyena, And its plan of gobblement will glare Through the accumulated rottenness of ages An unequaled model for all Big and bold-schemed bandits. If it had a single virtue, Concentrated microscopic partiality Has failed to find it. Malice knows no crime it has not committed, While it has enriched The catalogue of Satan With its new and devilish devices Of Evil. To the State's honor Be it eternally said
That it found little State stuff, Vile enough for its use. It imported Its scamps from the moral North, And the hegira Of its gorged buzzards home Under the law's lash,
Leaves little of its organism Save the deluded masses Of its despised, robbed and ignorant AFRICANS, Who rue its rule, And curse its existence. It spewed all the good men from its association, And left them sick, shocked and stranded On the great rock Of a remediless political blunder. But we cannot hope to do it justice.
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THE RECONSTRUCTION RULE.
Words are unequal to the task. What evil it did not do
Was not from want of venom But of physical capacity. The hottest torture It will know in the flames
Of its inevitable home will be Its own unappeased malignity, Jts hungry disappointment at unaccomplished crimes. To sum up its record It has broken every law, Violated every decency, betrayed every trust,
Injured every interest, hurt every industry,
Wronged every citizen, neglected every duty, Committed every crime, omitted every virtue. It has done falsehood, theft, hypocrisy,
Slander, perjury, oppression, blasphemy, Murder, treason and sacrilege. Hereafter among Shame's penalties,
The most stinging blazonry of Scorn Will be the mere fact That a man was Of it. Its short career constituted GEORGIA'S DARK DAYS. Its downfall Makes up a joy and a blessing As bright and blissful As its rule was dark. And language cannot convey that. Its epitaph No time can obliterate From the hearts of future As well as present generations. It is this : CURSES ON ITS MEMORY."
It may well be conceived that a rule that drew such contemporaneous expression of conservative opinion had been black and heavy indeed. On the 30th day of January, 1868, Gov. Jenkins was removed by Gen. Meade. On the 4th day of July, 1868, Gov. Bullock assumed to be Chief Magistrate as Provisional Governor. On the 21st day of July, 1868, he was sworn in to the Executive trust. On the 30th day of Oc- tober, 1871, he resigned. And on the 12th day of January, 1872, Gov. James M. Smith was installed as the Executive. From the 30th day of January, 1868, to the 12th day of January, 1872, of this never-to-be
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EX-GOV. JENKINS RETURNS THE GREAT SEAL OF STATE.
forgotten epoch of a foreign and hostile rule, it was four years lacking eighteen days.
One touching act of restored sovereignty needs record to complete the picture of joyful State redemption. Ex-Gov. Charles J. Jenkins, with the conclusion of military domination, returned from his long exile and gave back to the custody of a lawful Executive the great Seal of State, and certain executive papers that he had taken with him. The letter of ex-Gov. Jenkins, in discharging this agreeable duty, is a paper of exquisite diction, lofty sentiment and noble dignity. There is no. document among the great records of this or any other State or Govern- ment to surpass this superb emanation of an exalted and patriotic states- manship. It presents the chronicle of the abhorred rape of our State's sovereignty, and his own dutiful efforts to protect the commonwealth from ignominy, in fitting language and an heroic spirit. Breathing the sentiment of liberty and law, speaking a broad devotion to the princi- ples of a constitutional government, imbued with the heroism of martyr- dom for the right, and maintaining in lofty words the obligations of, personal honor and official responsibility, this great enunciation of the noble Jenkins was alike an immeasurable rebuke to the evil dynasty it followed and a glorious inauguration of Georgia's regenerated majesty.
This peerless paper thus characteristically concluded in words desery- ing forever to live:
" The removal of the books and papers was simply a cautionary measure for my own protection. Not so with the seal. That was a symbol of the Executive authority, and although devoid of intrinsic material valne, was hallowed by a sentiment which forbade its surrender to unauthorized hands. Afterwards, whilst I was in Washington, vainly seeking the interposition of the Supreme Court, a formal, written demand was made upon me by General Ruger for a return of these articles, with which I declined to com- ply. The books and papers I herewith transmit to your Excellency, that they may re- sume their place among the archives of the State. With them I also deliver to you the seal of the Executive Department. I derive high satisfaction from the reflection that it has never been desecrated by the grasp of a military usurper's hand, never been prosti- tuted to authenticate official misdeeds of an upstart pretender. Unpolluted as it came to me, I gladly place it in the hands of a worthy son of Georgia-her freely chosen Ex- ecutive-my first legitimate successor."
Counting the years from the 19th of January, 1861, the day of seces- sion, to the 12th of January, 18:2, which witnessed the complete restora- tion of the wandering star of Georgia to the orbit of the Union, a period of eleven years lacking one week, and we see what must ever be the most stupendous era of her history in its events and changes. The mind fairly reels in the retrospection of this turbulent decade. It is such an
474 GEORGIA'S FATEFUL CAREER FROM SECESSION TO REDEMPTION.
historic picture as the future chronicler will dwell upon with wonder and awe, and portray with a pulsing pen.
Starting from an unparalleled prosperity and progress in a sunny peace, the lordly craft, cut from its moorings by its own friendly hands, shot into the fiercest storm of human annals. There was no extreme of woe, blood, wreck, ravage, anarchy, misrule, despotism and shame that it had not suffered to the very dregs. War was terrible; peace proved more so. Failure seemed the culmination of ignominy; fortune showed the mistake. An evil destiny fatigued its invention in the supplement of grotesque dishonors it swarmed upon a shattered commonwealth.
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The story of shade, blight and rancor can never be exceeded. To see a community of a million of people tossed for eleven long years in such a drift of mad event is something touching, and full of awe. 'It looked as if a dark fate delighted in expending its endless catalogue of hor- rors upon one poor republic. The unconquerable vitality of a fine state- hood was shown in this iron ordeal. Like a repressed giant, the spirit of our free people was indomitable and asserted itself with resistless force. As soon can the untamable wind be cribbed, as to curb the aspiring life of a manly breed of men.
· It was a decade picturesque with red terror and black misrule. It piled woe after woe upon the State. It furnished prodigally every experience of human suffering, and every fantastic phase of misgovern- ment. But through it all, a Christian citizenry carried its honor, its spirit of freedom, its integrity and its religious civilization, sacredly preserved, and the very second that marked the withdrawal of the rude grasp of repressive power saw the proud and instantaneous spectacle of a re-established State nationality, erect, perfect, and august, the very incarnation of an enlightened popular sovereignty-REGENERATED GEORGIA.
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CHAPTER XLIII. GEORGIA'S FAMOUS EXPURGATION OF FRAUDULENT BONDS.
Ex-Gov. Joseph E. Brown's Emergence from Odium .- His Opposition to Bullock's Schemes .- The Seeley Trick Rebuked .- The State Road Lease .- Gov. Brown Re-" solves to Fight a Duel with Gen. Toombs .- The Correspondence .- Official Changes. -J. G. Orr .- Gov. Smith's Staff .- P. W. Alexander .- J. W. Warren .- T. M. Norwood Elected United States Senator .- The Great Bond Question .- The Bond Committee, Simmons, Hall and McMillan .- Report .- Statement of Bonds .- The Bonds Rejected .- The New Legislature .- Its Personelle .- T. L. Snead and his Bond Compromise .- A Measure of State and National Agitation .- Letters of Leading Georgians upon it .- The Constitution of 1877 Settles the Bond Matter Finally.
IT was a significant fact that ex-Gov. Joseph E. Brown accompanied Gov. Smith to be inaugurated. The long and painful separation from his former political allies was coming to a fitting close. It was destined to be still a long time before he came back to the full political fellow- ship that was due to his sincerity of conviction and thorough courage. While in no way had the merited bitterness against the venal recon- structionists abated, the public mind was discriminating, and men occu- pying Gov. Brown's position were getting a correcter judgment. Gov. Brown sturdily antagonized the wrongs of the Bullock régime, and he effectively opposed the iniquitous attempts at additional gratuitous re- construction acts for Radical partisan purposes. No man was more devoted to the best interest of Georgia than he, and while he was for acquiescing in inevitable hardship, he was the last man in the State to seek the imposition of superfluous ignominy upon the people.
A man by the name of Isaac Seeley sent out a circular urging that affidavits be gotten up to show that voters were denied the right to vote by challenges for non-payment of taxes, and if necessary, Repub- licans must challenge each other at the polls. The object of this swin- dling trickery was to manufacture a foundation for Congress to pass an act to prevent abridgment of voting by the assessment of taxes. This was one of the innumerable Radical schemes for controlling the State through Congress that were so ingeniously used in that day. Seeley sent a circular to Gov. Brown, who, in an open letter, exposed and
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