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 2
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CHAPTER XXXV.
A THROBBING CHAPTER OF RECONSTRUCTION HARLE- QUINADE ENDING WITH GOV. JENKINS' REMOVAL.
The Georgia Bill .- Gov. Brown's Sagacity .-- The Bill Dismissed .- Gen. Pope and Gov. Jenkins .- The Storm upon Joe Brown .- Alec Stephens .- Gen. Toombs .- H. V. Johnson .- B. H. Hill .- Brown and Hill in a Stern Controversy .- Brown's Iron Res- olution Fearfully Tested .- Gen. Pope's Curious Letter .- Judge J.W. H. Underwood. -Judge I. L. Harris .- Judge Hiram Warner .- The Drift of Personal Government to Absolutism .- Judge A. Reese removed .- E. Hulburt .- The Democratic Convention at Macon .- Fight over Resolutions .- A Crisis in the Democratic party .- The Recon- struction Constitutional Convention of 1868 .- Its Personelle .- Colored Delegates .--- The Detested Symbol of Conquest and Odious Change .- The Proscription of Recon- structionists .- Ludicrous Incident .- Gov. Brown's Strong Influence for Good .- His Position .- Gen. Pope calls on Gov. Jenkins for Money .- Gov. Jenkins' Refusal. -Gen. Meade Succeeds Gen. Pope .- Gen. Meade Re-applies to Gov. Jenkins .- Gov. Jenkins Declines .- His Flavorous Sarcasm .- Gen. Meade Removes Gov. Jenkins, and details Gen. Ruger as Governor .- Soldierly Moderation under Unlimited Des- potism .- Gen. Hancock.
BEFORE the bill was filed for Gov. Jenkins in the Supreme Court of the United States to test the constitutionality of the Sherman act, a similar bill was filed by Gov. Sharkey of Mississippi, but it was dis- missed for its severe terms. It was a notable continuation of Georgia's foremost place in every phase of the war, that she should stand in the period following its close, as the pivot of reconstruction. Her destiny as the regnant factor of the revolution seemed unavoidable. The attention of the country was focalized upon the brave state and its characteristic effort, in the highest legal tribunal of the land, to resist degradation. But her attempt was unavailing. It was ably argued. Mr. Stanberry, the Attorney General of the United States, opened and concluded the argument for the government, and Mr. O'Connor, for Georgia, and Mr. Walker, for Mississippi, made masterly addresses. The ease was dismissed, and the ruthless crusade of Reconstruction continued, the stronger and harsher for the futile spurt of impediment.
It was a striking instance of Gov. Brown's sagacity that he opposed the action of Gov. Jenkins in filing the bill for Georgia and predicted its failure on the very ground upon which it was dismissed, that it in- volved political questions over which the Congress and President were
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GEORGIA SENTIMENT ALL AGAINST GOVERNOR BROWN.
the arbiters and not the court. The defeat in the Supreme Court left the South remediless. Gen. Pope wrote to Gov. Jenkins, asking him if he had seen his order prohibiting any attempt of officials to influence the people on reconstruction before he issued his address advising them against accepting the Sherman bill. Gov. Jenkins replied that he had not seen it, but that he should in the future do and say whatever his oath required of him. Gen. Pope replied that State officers would not be allowed to denounce the act of Congress under which he was acting.
The press poured hot shot into Gov. Brown. He was the subject of a torrent of vituperation. Denunciations streamed upon him as " trai- tor," " betrayer of the honor and interest of his State," " unduly fright- ened," " weak-kneed," "desired to save his neck," " currying favor with the Radicals," and a volley of such abuse. He was accustomed to spir- ited hitting from his enemies. But such rasping censure from friends came hard. Gov. Brown, however, met it gamely. He stood reso- lutely to his disagreeable views, and he made strong, even-tempered speeches in the leading cities of the State, urging the people to accept- ance of the terms of Congress. It was a complete separation from his old allies-an acrid divergence of political course. Mr. Stephens was silent, Gen. Toombs had returned home from Europe in March and wrote a letter to Mr. M. C. Corry, Corresponding Secretary of the Democratic Central Committee at Cincinnati, declaring his readiness to establish the right of secession. Ex-Gov. H. V. Johnson wrote a letter in July, 1867, urging registration but advising against acceptance of the terms proposed. His advice was " never to embrace their despotism," and to hope for a reaction in the North and West against the overthrow of constitutional liberty. Hon. B. H. Hill made a speech in Atlanta in July of this year, in which he denounced the reconstruction measures with unsurpassable and flaming eloquence ; and he followed it up later with a series of " notes on the situation " on the same line, that for magnificent invective equal anything in ancient or modern annals. There is no doubt that Mr. Hill was the undisputed leader in this savage anti-reconstruction campaign.
In his Notes on the Situation he attacked Gov. Brown, and that in- domitable fighter came back with an unsheathed sword. The conflict was a famous one. They were two ripe controversialists, mental Titans, and the theme was big enough for any minds. They had met in the gubernatorial race ten years back, when Brown was untried and yet had won the Executive guerdon. They were at it again in the fiercest era of the century, representing implacably hostile forces and theories
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BEN HILL AND JOE BROWN. 321
vengefully inimical. Hill had the public pulse on his side. Brown was breasting an overwhelming popular sentiment. Hill rode a very flood tide of the people's endorsement. Brown fought, crowded down with public odium. The agitation gained intensity and bitterness as it pro- gressed. It became more venomous every day. Northern adventurers thronged into the State and began their operations upon the credulous blacks, poisoning their minds, working on their cupidity, and inciting them to hatred of the whites. It was a frightful time. The war was more bearable and peaceful. The robust delusion of " forty acres and a mule," and other impracticable schemes of spontaneous profit, were used freely upon the bewildered colored people with wonderful success. These rosy fictions were swallowed eagerly without a suggestion of dis- belief. The people hotly resented this invasion of the Vandals ; and in the abhorrence of a moral pestilence, the sincere, honest advisers of the acceptance of reconstruction, as the best that could be done in our desperate stress, were pilloried in public scorn.
It was a dreadful alternative for a proud man like Gov. Brown to be exposed to, either to adhere to his convictions of public duty under an appalling ordeal of popular hatred, and under alliance with men he contemned, or cravenly yield to a tornado of public passion that he could not control, and whose policy he condemned. But there was no giving up in Gov. Brown's iron composition. As the hail of public indig- nation pelted upon him with an accumulating force, he with set lips and a grim defiance confronted the hurricane and defied its fury. He never faltered in his chosen course. It was proscription, fell and remorseless, that he fought-proscription, social and political. Some idea of the burning fever of the time may be gleaned from some of Mr. Hill's white-heated invectives: "Hellish dynasty," " On, on with your work of ruin, ye hell-born rioters in sacred things!" "Perjured assassins of liberty, blasphemous conclave of a Congress," and a host of such expressions testified alike to the violence of the epoch and the abusive capacity of the orator.
These letters and speeches of Mr. Hill, Gov. Johnson and others, were made the text of a lengthy and right curious letter by Gen. Pope to Gen. Grant on the subject of reconstruction. It made the strong expressions and stern spirit of those utterances a justification of the disfranchisement of their authors, but at the same time it urged perfect freedom of speech and the press. It candidly owned that some of the reconstructionists were as bitter and proscriptive as the "reactionary anti-reconstructionists," as he called them. It further said that if the
312
GENERAL POPE AND THE STATE UNIVERSITY.
colored people progressed as rapidly as they had done, "five years will have transferred intelligence and education, so far as the masses are ·concerned," to them.
Judge J. W. H. Underwood and Judge Iverson L. Harris wrote letters in response to some gentlemen asking their opinion, in which they advised the people to register and vote for a convention. Judge Hiram Warner counseled the acceptance of the terms, saying, "It would be a useless waste of time to discuss political principles or constitutional rights for any practical purpose." The division of opinion was very marked, and views were extremely varied. As a general thing in North Georgia, in the white belt, a majority favored accepting reconstruction simply as a choice of evils. A large number of men were for non-action. In the negro belt the whites were solid against the measures to the last.
The steady drift of a personal government, unrestrained by fixed law, is to despotism. The arbitrary exercise of authority is simply inevitable. The South, under the rule of the Brigadier Generals in this year of 1867, illustrated this tendency. Gen. Pope began well, but he soon drove into autocratic grooves. His orders show a swift growth of abso- lutism. Men who displeased him were removed upon pretexts and, perhaps, considerable provocation. First, mayors of cities were both removed and appointed. Foster Blodgett was appointed mayor of Augusta, Capt. Joe Blance, solicitor general of the Tallapoosa circuit, and Col. Albert Lamar, solicitor general of the Muscogee circuit, were removed. Sheriffs were displaced. A man charged with homicide, in Bartow county, and acquitted, was re-arrested and ironed. The State university at Athens was closed because a student made a speech objectionable to Gen. Pope, and it was then re-opened, with the condi- tion expressed, that the press of the State should say nothing of the affair, but the appropriation was withheld for a while. The student was Albert H. Cox, a brilliant young man, and a member of the last General Assembly. His speech was upon "The Vital Principle of Nations- Obedience to Organic Law." A copy of the speech was sent to Gen. Pope for him to critically examine. And when the college term was resumed, Mr. Cox offered to retire from the institution if it was deemed necessary to pacify the military monarch of our destinies. This was not required. Men were prevented from sitting as jurors who had not regis- tered. Military officers were relieved from all civil process.
Judge Augustus Reese, of the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit, declined to obey the order that unregistered voters should not act as jurors, and he was prohibited from exercising the duties of his office, after refusing to
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A STATE CONVENTION CALLED UNDER MILITARY AUSPICES.
resign. This able and courageous jurist was warmly regarded for this action.
September 19th, 1867, Gen. Pope ordered an election to be held on the 29th, 30th and 31st of October, for a convention, and for delegates to the convention. The superintendent of registration was Col. E. Hulburt, who had been Superintendent of the Express company, an un- common individual. Cool, adroit, managing, energetic, bold, personally very clever, Hulburt was a marked character, and the most useful in- strument Gen. Pope had. A large powerful man, prompt, decisive, with superior administrative ability, he handled the problem of registra- tion with unvarying success, for any measure he championed. He had large ideas, and a proportionate executive capacity, and he played a vital part in this complicated drama of reconstruction. The registered voters numbered, according to Col. Hulburt, 188,647. The election con- tinued three days, and then was protracted two days longer. A conven- ient order, issued at the proper time, allowed men to vote in other coun- ties than where they registered, upon their own oaths that they were entitled to vote. How far the repetition of votes was done under this ambulatory method will never be known. There were 106,410 votes polled on the question of convention, and 102,283 in favor of it, thou- sands of voters who had registered, abstaining from the polls under the suicidal non-action policy.
The Democrats called a state convention to meet at Macon, on the 5th day of December, 1867, to consult on the situation. This was the first political state convention held since the surrender. There were delegates from sixty counties. Benjamin H. Hill was elected presi- dent. The convention was very stormy, and came near being broken up. Among the delegates were Thomas Hardeman, Gen. A. R. Wright, C. A. Nutting, T. G. Holt, L. N. Whittle, W. S. Holt, A. W. Reese, W. T. Thompson, G. A. Mercer, William M. Browne, W. F. Wright, J. C. Nisbet, R. A. Alston, M. A. Candler, Nelson Tift, Augustus R. Wright, M. Dwinell, W. G. Northern, G. F. Pierce, Jr., Eli Warren, C. C. Duncan, J. W. Preston, J. H. Blount, D. E. Butler, P. W. Alexan- der, Thomas W. Grimes, C. C. Kibbee, Herbert Fielder, C. W. Han- cock, T. M. Furlow, C. T. Goode, C. H. C. Willingham, E. H. Pottle, I. W. Avery and W. K. Kiddoo. There was a very small representa- tion from North Georgia, only seven counties North of the Chattahoo- chee, having delegates.
The two main points of difference were the non-action policy and a resolution denouncing advocates of reconstruction as criminals. These
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374 THE FIRST POLITICAL CONVENTION AFTER THE WAR.
were both measures of Mr. Hill, and were warmly discussed. The question of non-action was referred finally, to the State Executive Com- mittee. Mr. Hill pressed the resolution in regard to reconstructionists upon the platform committee, who rejected it. Nothing daunted, Mr. Hill offered it as an amendment to the report of the committee in the convention, supporting it splendidly. At this juncture, Col. I. W. Avery, the delegate from Whitfield, having vainly urged Judge Wright, of Rome, to present the reasons for opposing the resolution, who declared it useless to confront the current, took the floor against it, urging that in the white belt, fully 25,000 white Democrats had sup- ported reconstruction as the best thing they could do, and to denounce these sincere and patriotic men as criminals would drive them from the party. Gen. A. R. Wright, Col. Thomas Hardeman, L. N. Whittle and others supported this view. Mr. Hill still pressed his resolution with an evidently large support. The matter was re-committed and additional committeemen appointed. The original committee was: George A. Mercer, C. B. Richardson, Gen. Phil Cook, T. M. Furlow, P. W. Alex- ander, C. H. C. Willingham, Thomas Hardeman, Jr., D. G. Hughes, D. E. Butler, E. H. Pottle, J. Graham, W. W. McLester, L. J. Glenn, and J. A. Stewart. The added committeemen were W. T. Thompson, T. L. Guerry, J. A. L. Lee, T. G. IIolt, A. R. Wright of Richmond, I. W. Avery and J. P. Hambleton.
The committee reported the resolution of Mr. Hill, and the battle over it in the convention was resumed with a lively animation and de- termined earnestness. The Macon Telegraph, in its report of the dis- cussion, stated the opposition to the resolution in these words:
"The gallant young delegate from Whitfield, Col. Avery, fought manfully for the people of his section on this point. He was opposed to their views, but knew that they were honestly entertained, and would never consent to denounce them as traitors or criminals. He believed they were wrong, but preferred to show them their error, and persuade them to abandon it."
Finally, Col. Avery stated that he was so thoroughly convinced of the impolicy of the resolution, and its peril to the party in estranging North Georgia, that if it passed, he should feel it his painful duty to withdraw from the convention, as much as he should dislike to break its harmony. Upon this declaration, the question was asked whether the resolution would be acceptable if it was amended so as to denounce the crime of reconstruction, and say nothing of its supporters. This change being satisfactory, the resolution was thus amended and unani- mously adopted. Had the resolution, as originally offered, have been
375
THE RECONSTRUCTION CONVENTION.
passed, as the solemn action of this convention, it would have split the party asunder in a bitter antagonism. It was a curious coincidence that the preamble and resolutions adopted by the convention were the reso- lutions (with some additions) written by Col. Avery, and passed at the county meeting in Whitfield county, to select delegates to the conven- tion, and read thus:
" Manly protest against bad public policy is the duty, as well as the right, of all true patriots. And this, without factious opposition to government, or untimely interruption of public harmony. The season for honest discussion of principles, and for lawful op- position to existing abuses and their growth, is ever present and pressing."-
" The Southern people are true to constitutional liberty, and ready to acquiesce in any policy looking to the honor and good of the whole country, and securing the rights of all classes of people.
" We regard the efforts of the present ruling power to change the fundamental insti- tutions of the United States government as false in principle, impolitic in action, in- jurious in result, unjust and detrimental to the general government.
" Silence under wrong may be construed as endorsement. Be it therefore
" Resolved, That we pledge ourselves to sustain law and order, to support cheerfully all constitutional measures of the United States government, and to recognize the rights of all classes of people under enlightened and liberal laws."
To these were added by the Convention resolutions protesting against the reconstruction measures. H. V. Johnson, A. H. Chappell, B. H. Hill, Warren Akin and T. L. Guerry were appointed to issue an address to the people. Gov. Johnson wrote the address, which was a very able one and appealed for a united effort to restore constitutional govern- ment.
The reconstruction Convention met in Atlanta, on the 9th day of De- cember, 1867. It consisted of 170 delegates. The majority of them were unknown names. Gov. Brown had advised the people to take part, and send their best men. The mistaken non-action policy had been followed in many parts of the state. A gallant attempt had been made in many sections, however, in conformity with the counsel of Gov. Brown, and there was quite a liberal sprinkling of good and true Demo- crats. Among this class were H. V. M. Miller, David Irwin, A. W. Hol- combe, L. N. Trammell, S. E. Field, and J. D. Waddell. There was another class of men who were pronounced Republicans, who were sin- cere in their politics and enjoyed personal esteem. In this class were H. K. MeCay, T. P. Saffold, Benjamin Conley, R. B. Bullock, D. G. Cotting, A. T. Akerman, Madison Bell, N. L. Angier, J. L. Dunning, J. H. Flynn, H. G. Cole, J. R. Farrott, and A. G. Foster. There were others who have been prominent in the republican party: A. L. Harris, R. H. Whitely, Foster Blodgett, J. E. Bryant, J. Adkins, C. H. Prince,
376
A BODY ODIOUS TO TIIE PEOPLE.
T. J. Speer, H. M. Turner, G. W. Ashburn, Tunis Campbell, A. A. Bradley, N. P. Hotchkiss, G. P. Burnett, M. H. Bentley, Isaac Seely, C. H. Hopkins, W. L. Clift, Samuel Gove, J. Sherman, and J. S. Bigby, whose names have become very familiar to the people of Georgia in the years since, in the political conflicts that have transpired.
The convention was a new and odious body to the people. The old lead- ers were nearly unanimously disfranchised. Here was an organization, incarnating the idea of force and conquest, based upon negro supremacy and white disfranchisement, and with fully one-sixth of its number colored delegates, in sudden shock of every prejudice and conviction, and thus a fresh set of obscure men hoisted by abhorred means to the leadership of the State. It was a spectacle that intensified the thrilling bitterness of the time. In the course of years we have become accustomed to the sight of colored legislators, but in that day it was a trying experience and it stirred men's resentments implacably. To the State, it seemed as if a menagerie had been ransacked for its stock of pup- pets and harlequins and the mongrel culling converted into the travesty of a convention, to arrange the liberties and remodel the crushed sov- ereignty of a great commonwealth. And the body, symbolizing con- quest, hatred and ignominy, bore the seeming sacred imprimatur of the public suffrage. Little wonder that the people spit upon, and reviled it with a double-dyed loathing. And it was a terrible injustice, something like hanging an innocent man for a murder, to involve in the unsparing odium of the era, pure and patriotic men who conscientiously believed in the necessity of conforming to the situation as the best thing obtain- able, pitiably poor as that was, for the loved ones and the country. Men who favored reconstruction that day, no matter what their motive, were visited with a blind full-bodied damnation, both social and political, that was worse than death. And many a man who would have favored recon- struction was driven in terror from it by the proscription.
Of the new men put forward, R. B. Bullock became afterwards Gov- ernor, Benjamin Conley President of the Senate, J. E. Bryant Represen- tative and a noted leader of the colored men, Foster Blodgett Superintendent of the State Road, R. H. Whitely, Samuel Gove, and T. J. Speer, Congressmen, J. R. Parrott, Judge, H. K. McCay, Judge of the Supreme Court, D. G. Cotting Secretary of State, A. T. Aker- man, Attorney General in Grant's Cabinet, Madison Bell, Comptroller General, and N. L. Angier Treasurer.
J. R. Parrott was elected President of the Convention. A ludicrous incident occurred in the election of President that created much deris-
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THIE WORK OF THE RECONSTRUCTION CONVENTION.
ion. When the name of H. H. Christian, a white delegate, was called, he was absent, and a black negro voted in his place, which made much excitement. Upon being questioned he said his name was "Jones," and he had been sent to vote for Mr. Christian, who was absent, and he was dismissed from the hall amid shouts of laughter. The incident illustrates the colored man's crude conception of his privileges. The convention was in session until the 11th day of March, 1868, taking a recess from December 24, 1867, to January 8, 1868. The Constitution that was created was a very excellent one, containing many valuable new features. Gov. Brown threw his whole influence in giving a con- servative direction to the legislation of the convention. Had his counsel have been followed there would have been a much larger repre- sentation of able and representative men." But still, with the few right men in the convention, and with Gov. Brown's potential guidance of the Republican element in safe grooves, the general line of procedure was kept well guarded and just. It was a fortunate thing in many respects for the public interests that a person like Gov. Brown was aligned with the reconstructionists. Whatever of harm that was done, he nor any one could prevent, and all that was possible of prevention, he checked.
Retrospecting dispassionately, we can see how our righteous passion injured us, increased our difficulties, retarded our restoration, and cre- . ated new and harder terms. Popular fury is a very ruthless tyrant, and none more so than a just and natural fury. It can seek and find justi- fication in its justice. We were very badly treated, and our wrongs involved the cause of law and liberty. Yet the position of Gov. Brown was very logical. "This is all true. It is very bad. But how can you help yourself ? With a half million of armed men you were powerless to remedy smaller ills than these. What can you do now, conquered and tied, except by contumacy to invite superadded harshness ? You had lighter terms. You rejected them and got heavier ones. If you take these, as you cannot help doing, you will regain .your freedom. If you reject them, you will have still harder terms to take. It is not a matter of right, it is a question of force, and you had better yield to it at once, and remove its tyranny." But a gallant people would not see it, and the hopeless battle continued, and the cloud upon Gov. Brown grew blacker and more vital with storm.
During the deliberations of the convention two important changes were made, powerfully affecting the public weal, and illustrating with a sweeping emphasis the capricious and tyrannical tenor of our rule.
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GENERAL MEADE AND GOVERNOR JENKINS.
Gen. Pope was, by order bearing date December 28th, 1867, relieved of the command of our military district, including Georgia, and Maj. Gen. George W. Meade put in his stead as the arbiter of our political des- tinies. The convention needed money for its expenses, and passed an - ordinance directing the Treasurer of the State to pay $40,000 to N. L. Angier, the disbursing officer of the convention, for this purpose. It was a comical travesty of civil government and of the genius of our republican institutions, that here was an august convention of the people, the highest delegated agent of popular sovereignty, and yet every edict it made was formally promulgated and enforced by military order. Was it not an unutterable caricature upon civil liberty and constitutional law that constitutional principles were thus expounded from the mouth of the musket, and interpreted under the whimsical despotism of the bayonet? Gen. Pope issued his order to the Treas- urer, John Jones, to pay the $40,000 for the convention. This order bore date the 20th of December, 1867. Col. Jones responded the 21st of December, declining to pay the amount because ---
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