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 19
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As soon as the Democrats came into power the agitation began for a convention to frame a new Constitution that should be the product of the State's free volition. The theme continued to be discussed, and excite a growing interest, until the Legislature of 1877, after a pro- tracted discussion of the subject, passed a bill introduced by Hon. A. D. Candler, of Hall county, submitting the issue to the people to say by a popular election, whether a convention should be held. The elec- tion was held on the second Tuesday in June, 1877, and resulted in the
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529
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1877.
success of the convention movement. The vote was small, aggregating only 87,238, out of the 214,665 polls in the State, of which 48,181 were for, and 39,057 against, the convention, the majority being 9,124.
The Convention was called together on the 11th day of July, 1877, by the Governor. There were 194 delegates. The body was a very able one, and its deliberations were marked by dignity. Ex-Gov. Charles J. Jenkins was elected President, a fitting conclusion to his honored, useful and illustrious public career. There were some very strong men in the convention. It included among others, Gen. Robert Toombs, Judge W. M. Reese, Gen. L. J. Gartrell, Judge Thos. G. Lawson, Judge Augustus Reese, Hon. Joshua Hill, Gen. A. R. Lawton, Judge M. L. Mershon, Judge A. H. Hansell, Hon. J. L. Seward, Hon. Nelson Tift, Hon. T. L. Guerry, Judge D. B. Harrell, Hon. T. M. Furlow, Col. M. W. Lewis, Judge T. J. Simmons, Gen. Eli Warren, Judge J. T. Willis, Col. N. J. Hammond, Judge Hugh Buchanan, Judge L. H. Featherston, Judge S. W. Harris, Judge J. R. Brown, Gen. W. T. Wofford, Judge Aug. R. Wright, Hon. L. N. Trammell, Judge J. C. Fain, Col. W. K. Moore, S. Hawkins, C. J. Wellborn, A. W. Holcombe, W. O. Tuggle, Col. John Collier, Col. P. L. Mynatt, Col. Wier Boyd, Dr. H. R. Casey, Hon. Pope Barrow, Col. J. M. Pace, W. R. Gorman, Col. Wm. T. Thompson, Porter Ingram, E. C. Grier, Judge J. L. Wimberley, B. E. Russell, Hon. J. L. Seward, Col. John Sereven, J. L. Warren, W. R. Gignilliatt, War- ing Russell, Col. John M. Guerard, Geo. F. Pierce, Jr., R. L. Warthen.
There was in the body one ex-Governor, two United States Senators, eight Congressmen, seventeen Judges, and ex-legislators innumerable. The convention continued in session from the 11th day of July until the 25th day of August, 1877. There was much discussion and some of it was very able. Some very radical changes were made and striking innovations were grafted upon the organic law. The theory of State aid was killed and buried, and a prohibition against increase of the pub- lic debt or any expenditure of public money for any purpose save run- ning the State government was passed. The terms of officers were shortened one-half and salaries reduced, making elections more frequent. The selection of Judges and Solicitors was taken from the appointment of the Executive with the consent of the Senate, and changed to an election by the General Assembly. The largest subject before the con- vention was the control of railroads by the State. This was a pet meas- ure of Gen. Toombs, and was pressed by him with vigor and ability, and finally was carried. The homestead was largely reduced. The payment of the fraudulent bonds was forever prohibited. An endeavor
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530
THIE LIVELY CONTEST OVER THE CAPITAL.
was made to check local legislation by requiring notice to be given in the counties affected by it, and by cumbering legislative action upon it by unusual formalities, the practical operation of which has been to protract the time and increase the trouble without diminishing the quantity of local legislation. Biennial sessions were adopted.
The location of the capital at Atlanta or Milledgeville was left to the people to decide by an election, as also the choice of the homestead of 1868 or the one of 1877. The election for ratification of the new constitution, the location of the capital and the choice of a Homestead was held on the 5th day of December. Atlanta and Milledgeville had a warm contest for the capital. The battle was lively and somewhat acrimonious. The arguments used were some of them of a novel and farcical character. That Milledgeville was a stagnant locality where the average legislator would browse in public retrogradation, and that Atlanta was a den of immeasurable iniquity whose atmosphere would ruthlessly poison the virtue of the most faultless legislative body, was irrefutably proven by incontestible evidence. The press entered into the fight with wonderful earnestness. Atlanta was mathematically demonstrated to be responsible for every enormity of the Bullock régime and a despotie reconstruction, while in the same unanswerable manner Milledgeville was shown to be only fit for a conclave of fossils. Atlanta fought the struggle with characteristic liberality and enterprise. She had her committees and flooded the State with documents.
The vote stood: for ratification of the Constitution 110,442: against, 40,947: whole vote, 151,389, out of 214,665: majority for Constitution, 69,495. The vote on the capital was for Atlanta 99,147: for Milled re- ville, 55,201: . majority for Atlanta, 43,946. The vote for the Homestead of 1877 was 94,722: for that of 1868, 52,000: majority for Homestead of 1877, 42,722.
It was an interesting incident of the convention that it exceeded the $25,000, prescribed in the Act of the legislature calling it, to pay its expenses. Under the written opinion of the Attorney General, R. N. Ely, the Treasurer, J. W. Renfroe, declined to pay beyond the $25.000. Gen. Toombs vowed that its deliberations should not be stopped for want of funds, and he advanced $20,000 to pay its further expenses. The convention passed an ordinance covering the amount, and Gov. Colquitt repaid the loan. It was made quite a cause of complaint in the gubernatorial campaign of 1880, that Gov. Colquitt had no right to repay the money without an act of the Legislature authorizing it. But the people brushed away the causeless censure. Gen. Toombs did a
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531
THE JUDICIARY OF 1877.
similar thing when Gov. Smith was first elected. Money was needed to run the State. Bullock had left us stranded and without credit. Gen. Toombs raised $300,000 on his own account to bridge over the emergency, until money could come in by taxes.
Gov. Colquitt appointed in January, 1877, the following Judges: Geo. N. Lester, Blue Ridge Circuit: Martin J. Crawford, Chattahoochee Circuit: C. D. Mccutchen, Cherokee Circuit: H. Buchanan, Coweta Circuit: H. Tompkins, Eastern Circuit: C. Peeples, Atlanta Circuit: E. H. Pottle, Northern Circuit: J. M. Clark, South Western Circuit. Judge C. D. Mccutchen was a gallant cavalry officer. in the Regiment of Col. I. W. Avery. He had been a State Senator. He was a lawyer of unusual ability and legal discernment, and a gentleman of the highest social and Christian character, possessing a punctilious integrity, severe truthfulness, and a finely balanced temper and judgment. He made one of the best judges in the State. Notwithstanding his admirable spirit of equable temper, he was a very positive Judge, evincing his sturdy decision conspicuously in making the Grand Jury of Bartow county strike some objectionable matter from its presentments, the novel altercation exciting State interest, and resulting in the complete popular endorsement of Judge Mccutchen.
Judge Henry Tompkins, of the Eastern Circuit, was a handsome young Alabamian, who fought at sixteen years of age, in the war, and located in Savannah after the surrender. He made a capable and pop- ular Judge. Judge Peeples died in June, 1877, and Gov. Colquitt appointed George Hillyer in his place. Judge B. Hill, of the Macon Circuit, died in September, 1877, and Gov. Colquitt appointed W. L. Grice in the vacancy. Judge J. M. Clark, of the South-western circuit, died in June, 1877, and Gov. Colquitt appointed on that bench a very bright, handsome young lawyer, who had been Solicitor of that circuit, Charles F. Crisp, a son of the well-known tragedian, and a character full of fine promise.
In November, 1878, the following Judges were elected under the new Constitution of 1877; George Hillyer, Atlanta circuit; C. Snead, Augusta circuit; J. L. Harris, Brunswick circuit; Alex. M. Speer, Flint circuit; Thomas J. Simmons, Macon circuit; H. V. Johnson, Middle circuit; Thomas G. Lawson, Ocmulgee circuit; J. W. H. Underwood, Rome cir- cuit; C. F. Crisp, S. Western circuit; and Alex. S. Erwin, Western circuit. The election of Judges by the General Assembly, has proven to be very objectionable, consuming much time of the body, creating a disagreeable experience of electioneering, resulting in combinations of
532
GOVERNOR COLQUITT'S FINE FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION.
influence injurious to a choice by merit, and not beneficial to the State Judiciary.
During October, of the year 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes, the Presi- dent of the United States, visited Georgia, accompanied by his wife, Mr. Wm. M. Evarts, Secretary of State, and D. M. Key, Postmaster- General. The demonstration of respect in Atlanta was overwhelming. Gov. Colquitt and the Mayor of Atlanta, Dr. N. L. Angier, both made addresses of welcome. The speech of Gov. Colquitt was the perfection of good taste and eloquence, and was copied over the whole Union. It was a singularly felicitous utterance. A banquet was given to the distinguished guest, and Gov. Colquitt honored him with a reception at the Executive mansion.
The most brilliant and successful single feature of Gov. Colquitt's remarkably beneficial administration has been its financial results. Watching the minutest details of expenditure in his control, he has, in all matters requiring it, maintained the good faith and proper liberality of the State. And, singularly noticeable, the improvement of the public finances has not only been shown in the ordinary, but in unusual ways. It seems as if some fortunate fatality had guided the pecuniary affairs of the commonwealth during this long rule of Gov. Colquitt, while by a curious piece of fortune, no Executive ever suffered so much of annoying animadversion. While every year has shown the State's progress so far as her treasury is concerned, concurrently with such betterment of money matters, there has been incessant growling at the Chief Magistrate. Large measures of public good were only regarded from a stand-point of dissatisfaction at alleged defects. Heavy pay- ments into the public treasury from unexpected sources, literally picked up, afforded themes for such envenomed grumbling as would indicate that the instrument of these benefactions was an enemy to the com- monwealth and the source of injury to the popular interests. The instances of this sort of treatment are numerous and interesting.
The State bought the equipments of the State Road from the United States Government, after the war, and paid for them. Gov. Bullock employed Col. Baugh to re-open the settlement and get back some of the money in excess of the real value. A number of men joined Baugh. Gov. Smith enlarged the contract from 12 1-2 per cent. to not exceed 25 per cent. commission, and allowed more attorneys to come in. The gentlemen engaged were Robert Baugh, Gen. A. C. Garling- ton, Col. R. A. Alston, J. C. Fain, Henry R. Jackson, A. R. Lawton, W. S. Basinger, W. A. Prescott and C. D. Willard. The claim was
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533
THE TUGGLE FEE.
pushed through by that very electrical worker, Col. R. A. Alston, and $199,038.58 was collected from the United States Government. Gov. Colquitt allowed the ten attorneys to have their 25 per cent., and $152,278.94 went into the State Treasury to relieve the people. Yet, strange to say, there was less rejoicing over the large gain of money than growling over the fees paid the attorneys under a contract fixed by Gov. Colquitt's predecessors.
But it was impossible to balk Gov. Colquitt's evidently inevitable mission of financial benefit to the State. He kept up his enlargement of State funds. Col. W. O. Tuggle found out that there had been an error of interest growing out of a claim of the State against the United States Government, connected with the Indian hostilities of 1836, in Georgia. The claim was settled. Gov. Colquitt gave Col. Tuggle authority to re-open the matter, having first written to Hon. A. H. Stephens and Hon. H. P. Bell to learn if any such claim was being prosecuted at Washington, and receiving reply in the negative. Col. Tuggle collected the sum of $72,296.94, received his fee of 15 per cent., amounting to 10,844.54, and paid the balance into the State Treasury, of $61,452.40. It was not an unreasonable thing to suppose that some considerable flush of popular satisfaction would have ensued over this spontaneous and munificent chance of good fortune. But there was a lively episode of altercation over the rich dropping.
Hon. James A. Green of Baldwin county was agent of the State for some claims, and thought he ought to have a portion of Col. Tuggle's fee. Mr. Green had done none of the work, but he memorialized the General Assembly of which he was a member on the subject. A com- mittee was appointed, C. J. Harris, R. C. Humber and H. T. Hollis. The House passed a resolution asking the Governor for the facts, and he gave them in a message. Mr. Humber moved to lay the message on the table. Mr. Green's authority covered claims of the war of 1812 and "former wars." The committee thought "former wars " included the war of 1836, and that Mr. Green had rights, "though he does not appear to have had anything to do with this particular claim," but pro- posed " to leave the contestants to the courts of the country." Mr. Tuggle has not been disturbed in his fee.
Thus had the Governor seen in the first two years of his fortunate administration $213,:31.34 picked up and put in the public purse. But this was not all. In 1874 an act passed to tax railroads like other property. Many roads claimed chartered exemptions. Gov. Smith pressed the matter by suits and obtained some money.
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SAVINGS AND REDUCTIONS . BY THE MILLION.
The decisions of the courts were mostly against the State. The lit: gation was re-opened by Major R. N. Ely, Governor Colquitt's Attor ney General, by the authority of the Governor. Major Ely, aided by Gen. Robert Toombs, pressed new suits vigorously and ably. Th. handsome amount of $216,683.27 of back taxes was collected for the State for the years 1874, 1875 and subsequent years. And a principle was established that will bring a large annual revenue into the State from this source. This was a valuable installment for the Treasury, but there was yet some very acrimonious howling at the Executive, Major Ely and Gen. Toombs, on account of their fees. Legislative committees were appointed and sent for witnesses and investigated, and there was a mighty stir to no purpose. Here now was 8430,414.61 plumped into the people's purse from extraneous and extraordinary sources, and yet every dollar had been the subject of growling and censure.
The earnings of the Macon and Brunswick road, as before stated, running to $164,608.12, can be added to this amount. When Gov. Col- quitt was inaugurated, the State was carrying a floating debt of $350,000. In 1877 this was reduced to $200,000, and in 1878 com- pletely wiped out. The public debt, when Gov. Colquitt came in, was $11,095,879. It is now $9,643,500, having been reduced $1,452,379, besides four per cent. bonds issued and redeemed. The rate of taxation in 1876 was five-tenths of one per cent., or fifty cents on the hundred dollars, and raised $1,229,268 on a taxable property of $245,853,750. The rate of taxation has been reduced under Gov. Colquitt's régime to three-tenths of one per cent., or thirty cents on the hundred dollars, and will raise in 1881 8750,000 on the taxable property of $250,000,000. This is a marvelous result in five years-a reduction of taxes, two-fifths or almost a half, and relieving the people from $679,268 that they paid in tax burdens in 1876. And so far as the Executive of the State can bring such an end, credit is due to Governor Colquitt.
It has not been simply in large matters that there has occurred a marked reduction of expense, but, also, in the smaller affairs of State administration, under the good rule of this conscientious chief magis- trate, the Christian Colquitt. The saving in the cost of running the lunatic asylum was $40,000 in the years 1877 and 1878, and out of the retrenchment was erected a $25,000 addition to the institution for colored patients. The deaf and dumb and blind asylums were also more economically administered. The expenditures under the contin- gent, printing and public building funds were diminished one-third. Even in the minor items of postage, proclamations, gas, coal and sta-
GOV. COLQUITT AS PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL S. S. CONVENTION. 535
tionery, there were substantial economizings. Proclamation printing was decreased from over $3,000 to less than $1,000 for instance. And as these economies were begun before the convention of 1877 and the legislatures that followed, and, as Gov. Colquitt suggested the reforms inaugurated by these bodies in his first special message in January, 1877, the credit of the valuable retrenchments that have been made must be accorded to him.
And in spite of the active and unceasing misrepresentation of his acts, the masses of the people appreciated his course and overwhelmingly endorsed him. The anomalies of his public career have been many and striking, but none more than that one of the most valuable administra- tions of Georgia history has been so rancorously assailed and so signally approved. The crusades against him have been aggressive and impla- cable, and have seemed to be mighty and invincible. Yet when the test. has come, and the public has spoken its verdicts, the popular opinion has shown itself so crushingly against his assailants, and given in this age and country of small political majorities such ponderous endorse- ment as to make men doubt the evidence of their own senses, and wonder that minorities can be so disproportionately noisy and phenom- enal majorities be so quiet.
An event worthy of noting in the early part of Gov. Colquitt's adminis- tration, was the assembling of the International Sunday School conven- tion in 1878, in Atlanta. This body, representing a constituency of eight millions of Sunday School teachers and scholars, the Christian children of the English-speaking world of all denominations, was the grandest and most important convocation of the century. It had as delegates the leading spirits of the world in eloquence, piety and Christian influ- ence-the men of power and genius in every section-profound thinkers, transcendent orators, learned and devout divines of world-wide fame. There never has been a gathering of brighter and more illustrious men. It was an unbroken galaxy of Christian intellectualities.
It was a proud, personal triumph as well as a rare tribute to the State that the Governor, by his personal magnetism and moral and mental power, captured this body of superior men. Gov. Colquitt was unani- mously chosen as the President of this impressive convention for four years. He made some of the most eloquent speeches of the session, and left an impress upon its sacred deliberations and critical membership that was an honor to himself and Georgia. To the four corners of the globe was carried the praises of our enlightened commonwealth and her representative Christian Governor.
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GOVERNOR COLQUITT AT THE NORTII.
It was a gratifying continuation of this unusual and enviable in- fluence and repute, that Governor Colquitt was invited to, and attended vast religious gatherings of the Christian thinkers and workers of the North, at Chatauqua and Brooklyn. His speeches were equal to the great occasions, and reacted nobly upon the State. Among recognized intellectual powers he took a foremost stand. He contributed some potential outgivings in the cause of national fraternization, and gave to Georgia the lofty prestige due to a sectional harmonizer. It was an august mission for any man, a mission requiring brain and eloquence and spiritual fervor-a mission strengthened by a handsome presence, a noble face, and the warm, genial and magnetic Southern manner that make up the physical personality of Gov. Colquitt. Few men could have gone to these focal centers of critical intelligence and have sus- tained, so brilliantly and with such harvest of fame, so trying an ordeal. And not the least of its superb results was that the State of Georgia was thereby placed foremost among the admitted agencies of moral civilization.
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CHAPTER XLVII.
THE EXTRAORDINARY CRUSADE OF HOSTILITY TO GOV. COLQUITT.
The Democratic Party of the State Overgrown and Unwieldy .- Dissension Inevitable .-- Universal Desire for Office .- Gov. Colquitt's Popularity .- His Friends after Place. -The Torrent of Applications and Disappointments .- Gov. Colquitt's Inaugural. -The Assaults upon Ilim Begin .- The North-eastern Bond Endorsement .- A Great Calumny .- Gov. Colquitt's Ringing Message Demanding Investigation .-.- The Legislature of 1878-79 .- Its Personelle .- H. D. McDaniel-J. B. Cumming .- E. P. Howell .- H. G. Turner .- W. M. Hammond .- A. L. Miller .- L. F. Garrard. -The North-eastern Bond Enquiry .- The Complete Exoneration of Gov. Colquitt. -Wholesale Investigation .- A Carnival of Nosing .- The Comptroller General, W. L. Goldsmith .- Bribery Attempted .- Excitement .- Goldsmith Impeached .- The Trial .- A Defence Full of Mistakes .- Judge Warner as Presiding Officer .- The Defence Breaks Down .- The Comptroller's Conviction and Sentence .- The Treas- urer .- Attempt and Failure of His Impeachment .- Prof. Orr .- Col. N. C. Barnett and His Wax .- Capt. John W. Nelms .- The Principal Keeper of the Penitentiary. -A Lively Investigation .- The Effort to Involve Gov. Colquitt .- An Exciting Epi- sode .- The Recoil of a Personal Attack .- Gov. Colquitt's Fine Attitude Amid an Epidemic of Suspicion.
THE overwhelming majority of the Democratic party in Georgia in 1877, would at first flush seem a favorable augury for Gov. Colquitt and his administration. It was really a state of things full of the worst portent. The organization was overgrown, unwieldy, and heteroge- neous. It was composed of the confused and illy-welded fragments of the conflicting parties of half a century of shifting political strife. Antagonism to reconstruction had, under the inspiration of a common Southern sentiment, united under a common party banner every diver- sity of party adherent, representing every shade of public opinion, and the most irreconcilable party theories. It was a curious jumblement of views and prejudices, destined inevitably to dissensions in the absence of opposition to weld together its incongruous elements.
There were many most potent causes to breed trouble in the vast and loosely organized party. The war had impoverished the whole people, and the aspirants for office were countless. It was a clamorous question of bread. The smallest public salaries had a value strangely dispropor- tioned to their amount, and the character and abilities of the men seek-
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THE RUSH FOR OFFICE IN 1877.
ing them. Places were very few, and applicants innumerable and importunate.
Again Gov. Colquitt had become a sort of public idol. His popu- larity was phenomenal. His wonderful agreeability, captivating tact, and · shining moral life, endeared him to men of all classes. He had hun- dreds upon hundreds of personal friends, who worked zealously for his election, and each one thought that he should be preferred above all others, and granted anything he might wish. It has yet to be recorded that any man's friendship stood the test of a disappointnient of his office aspirations, even though it was a conclusively proper disap- pointment.
There will never, in the history of Georgia, be such another universal rush for office as there was in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and seventy-seven. From the day that Gov. Colquitt was nominated, the torrent of earnest applications poured in upon him. From all parts of the State they came, running to hundreds, for each position in his gift. Friends of long standing, with touching pleas of necessity, appealed to him for the opportunity to make a living. There were pathetic revelations of pecuniary distress, that would have moved any heart, much less, one so sympathetic as Gov. Colquitt's. The ordeal was appalling. This siege of the friendly unfortunates, many of them life- time intimates in sore need, was the most trying situation of his life. The offices were pitifully meager. Five places in the Executive office, an Attorney General, a Keeper of the Penitentiary, a Librarian, ten Superior Court Judges, and as many Solicitors, were the small sunt total of the patronage in his gift,-about thirty, all told. And for these, hungry, desperate men, by the thousand, were fervently entreat- ing. There were over one hundred applications for the office of Prin- cipal Keeper of the Penitentiary; and as many for State Librarian. Thirteen able lawyers wanted to be Solicitor of the South Western Circuit, and eleven to be Judge, making twenty-four in all, in one little circuit of the most intelligent and influential leaders of opinion, of whom twenty-three must be offended. One friend was held, and twenty- three active, prominent, implacable enemies were gained at one stroke.
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