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 5
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The joint ballot showed Brown, 102; A. H. Stephens, 96; Joshua Hill, 13, and C. H. Hopkins, 1. . It was anything and anybody to beat Brown. The Stephens phalanx broke in a rushing body to Hill, and the second joint ballot showed Hill 110 votes; Brown, 94; Stephens, 1; C. W. Stiles 1; and Brown defeated. Dr. H. V. M. Miller, on the second ballot, defeated Foster Blodgett. The election of Hill and defeat of Brown, were received in the gallery with a tornado of applause. The president ordered it cleared. Bryant, pale and excited, suggested that the police be called. Amid wild confusion, and waving of hats and handkerchiefs, the Senate retired from the Representative chamber. The city of Atlanta became delirious, with excitement and congratula- tions. Buildings were illuminated that night, and bonfires made. An immense assemblage was gathered before the United States hotel and speeches made by Joshua Hill, Dr. Miller, Gen. J. B. Gordon, Col. Warren Akin, and Col. R. J. Cowart. Said Dr. Miller, one of the most thrilling public speakers the State has ever had, in the conclusion of an impassioned appeal for constitutional liberty :
"God preserve Georgia; God preserve the people; God preserve the country."
The State took up the throbbing refrain of exultation over Gov. Brown's defeat, and gave back one responsive echo of universal rejoic- ing. From one end of the State to the other, the result was triumph-
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GOVERNOR BROWN MADE CHIEF JUSTICE. 399
antly claimed as a Democratic victory. In the crazy hurly-burly it was lost out of memory, that the cherished Stephens, the overwhelming choice of the Democrats, had been slaughtered, and that by an original and incurable Republican, and the uncompromising opponent of the war Democracy. It was a curious inconsistency of the fever raging, and the dis-illusion came soon enough, and with crushing effect. Joshua Hill has always been a very brave and an uncommonly honest public man. He hastened with swift candor to correct the misconception of his attitude. He coolly destroyed any Democratic fervor over his elec- tion by announcing that he was elected as a Republican, and he should act as one. It was a grim piece of political retribution. Brown was never a conviction Republican, while Hill was. Brown was a chooser between evils, but Hill believed in the principles of Reconstruction. It was a complete realization of the story of the witch and the devil.
In this hour of defeat, the only one suffered by Gov. Brown in his long public life, Gov. Bullock, with a creditable sense of valuable service and a grateful appreciation of sacrifice endured, tendered Gov. Brown the place of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. It was an unsolicited proffer, and was gratefully accepted by Gov. Brown in view of his defeat for the senate. This defeat of Gov. Brown was the culmi- nation of his political eclipse. It was the turning point of his long episode of proscription.
Gov. Brown's adventurous career, however, was destined to have every possible phase of incident. It was during this year that the most anomalous calumny of his life was brought against him and shivered to fragments. Of all men in the world, Gov. Brown should be the last that a sensible person would accuse of gallantry with females. His life-long christianity, his pure, domestic life, his absorption in high intellectual labors, and the very physical personality of the man, spare, nervous and bloodless, should have stamped the aspersion as utterly improbable. It looked, therefore, that political enmity had run to a crazy length when Gov. Brown was charged with unchaste relations with a lady by the name of Mrs. Fannie Martin.
It looked as if in the fabrication of such an incongruous calumny as this, an adventurous destiny was simply coquetting with a dramatic life to endow it with all possible and impossible experiences. The whole basis of the charge was several letters purporting to be from Gov. Brown to Mrs. Martin, and these were declared by examination of Rev. C. W. Thomas, Rev. Dr. Wm. T.Brantley, Rev. Wm. H. Hunt, Hon. John Erskine, Judge J. D. Pope, Judge J. I. Whitaker, Judge L. E.
400
HON. RUFUS E. LESTER.
Bleckley, Maj. E. B. Walker, J. H. Steele, E. L. Jones, H. H. Waters, H. J. G. Williams and John B. Campbell to be forgeries. Gov. Brown in his calm, effective way, published a card with irrefutable proof, de- molishing this incredible accusation, and it fell by the wayside, a queer addition to the episodes of an affluent career.
On the 28th of July, 1868, the proper order was issued declaring mil- itary rule under the reconstruction acts at an end in Georgia, and it seemed that we had, after a stormy voyage, reached the promised land of a sovereign restoration. But we were wofully mistaken. The end was not yet. Some of the sharpest experiences of this mongrel recon- struction were yet in reserve.
The following gentlemen were elected State House officers: D. G. Cotting Secretary of State, Madison Bell Comptroller-General, N. L. Angier Treasurer, Samuel Bard Public Printer. Col. E. Hulburt, who had been so conspicuous as a masterly Superintendent of Registra- tion, was appointed by Gov. Bullock the Superintendent of the State Road. The notorious Aaron Alpeoria Bradley, one of the Senators, who had been expelled from the Constitutional Convention on account of conviction for seduction in New York, and sentenced to the peniten- tiary, resigned from the Senate to avoid expulsion, and in his place a young gentleman was seated as State Senator who has since then filled an important place in the public affairs of the State, and whose . career, if he continues in public life, will be brilliant and useful. This was Hon. Rufus E. Lester of Savannah. Repeatedly sent to the Senate by the polished constituency of his District, twice President of the Senate, and one of the leading favorites for Governor in the last cam- paign, when Gov. Colquitt was elected, Mr. Lester has richly deserved his unusual enjoyment of political leadership.
He is one of the promising young men of the State, and the pos- sessor of ability, eloquence and decision. Rather a small person, yet with an erect, sturdy figure and an open, characterful face, he has an unusually winning style of public speaking. His voice is silvery and resonant, his logic concise and clear-cut, and his language terse and fluent. Men have not been made firmer and more sincere than Lester. Possessing a blended simplicity and amiability of manner, he is a most fearless and positive person. An incident will illustrate the man, and it is an incident as uncommon as it is striking. He gave a client some advice about a deed that proved, after a stubborn litigation, to be unsustained by the Courts. Several thousand dollars of property were lost. As soon as he was able to do so, Col. Lester handed his client a
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HON. RUFUS E. LESTER,
PRESIDENT OF THE GEORGIA SENATE.
401
NEGRO INELIGIBILITY.
check for the amount, and thus re-imbursed his loss. It was a noble act of punctilious professional integrity, and it indicated an uncommon man.
One of the richest characters of that racy era, was Dr. Sam Bard. It will be long before Georgia will ever see his like. There was an unction about this dramatic comedian of the press that we shall never have again in Georgia journalism. It is difficult to portray the man. He was very clever and companionable and had a perennial sweetness of temper in conducting the most muddy discussions. He reveled in the coup-d'etat. His surprises were bouncing. He shot them upon the State with a luscious enjoyment. His political flops were something piquant. From the very heart of an advanced radicalism, he became without a note of warning a quadruple-dyed Democrat. His mastery of vitu- perative paragraphing was unequaled. The governorship of Idaho tickled his ambitious fancy, but that remote wild could not seduce him from the more civilized territory of the Atlanta post office, whose emoluments he enjoyed for the industriously claimed distinction of having been the pioneer in nominating Grant for President. He was one of the most typical blossoms of reconstruction, whose unctuous memory will linger long with the journalists of that day.
The momentous action of this Legislature, that had a larger conse- quence following it than any other, and that was the immediate cause of the imposition of a new installment of this ever-shifting reconstruc- tion upon the State, was the expulsion of the negro members. The question of the ineligibility of colored men to hold office under the new Constitution, was first sprung by Mr. Candler, and in his resolution he quoted that Gov. Brown favored this view. The issue was a vital one and evoked a protracted and heated discussion. The debate upon it continued until the early part of September. A number of the white Republicans sided with the Democrats in this matter. The vote in the House stood 83 to 23, and in the Senate 24 to 11. Some of the speeches were very unique affairs. The subject provoked a picturesque variety of eloquence. The following rare quotation from the speech of Hon. W. M. Tumlin will afford a vivid conception of the lively range of this discursive discussion:
"Common-sense, common reason, the welfare of the black race and of the white race, require every thinking man to turn them out. The Constitution of the State of Georgia says turn them out. The Constitution of the United States, with all its damnable amendments, says turn them out. Therefore, Sir, if we fail to comply with the solemn oath we have subscribed to, when this House is the judge of the qualification of its members, by retaining men here who are clearly ineligible, we will be held to account for it by our constituency and our God."
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402
GOVERNOR BULLOCK.
A colored member, Romulus Moore, made an exceedingly clear state- ment of his claims to his seat, and closed with the use of the following unique assertion:
" If God is pleased with the Constitutional amendment, you can't change it-you can't change it unless you can overcome the armies of the United States."
Another colored member, G. H. Clower, is thus reported:
" Whenever you cast your votes against us, dis nigger will take his hat and walk right straight out, but, like Christ, I shall come again. I go to prepare a place for them. Stop, Democrats ; stop, white folks! Draw de resolution off de table, and let's go to work."
Gov. Bullock sent in a message to the House of Representatives, stating who had received the next highest number of votes, and argu- ing against the expulsion of the colored members. He thus wound up his message:
" In conclusion I most respectfully and earnestly call upon you, as lovers of our com- mon country, and well-wishers of the peace and good order of the State, to pause in the suicidal course upon which you have entered, urged on, as you are, by bold, bad meu outside your body, whose wicked counsels have once drenched our land in blood, and whose ambition now is to ruin that which they cannot rule."
The House promptly passed a resolution offered by Mr. Duncan of Houston, rebuking the Governor for interfering in a matter in which the House was, by the Constitution, made the sole judge. Gov. Bul- lock had an unexampled opportunity, during his term, to have made himself a great name and a desirable fame. He had borne a good rec- ord before and during the war. ' He came into politics in a convulsion, and by espousing the strong side, obtained a high trust. Had he have made himself the Executive of the people, and not of a party, he would soon have overcome the prejudices of the Democrats. But he played the partisan to the full, and it became a no-quarter war between him and the Democracy. He soon dissolved his reliance upon the counsel of such men as Gov. Brown, and pursued the advice of the worst men of his party. He had plenty of provocation, for the Demo- crats were unsparing and implacable. The writer of this volume took editorial charge of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper in May, 1869, and conducted that journal's politics during the whole turbulent period until Gov. Bullock resigned and became a fugitive from the State, and was therefore in close and responsible watchfulness and criticism of Gov. Bullock's administration. Never making Gov. Bullock's acquaintance in that time, and viewing his régime solely on its official merits, without any prejudice whatever against him, and never failing to commend
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403
STATE TREASURER, JOHN JONES.
what was worthy of approval, the retrospection of his term of Execu- tive incumbency shows an administration with little to redeem it.
It is also equally due to truth to say that Gov. Bullock was fired by the unceasing hostility of a relentless opposition. How far an implaca- ble warfare can justify an official in acts that call for censure, an impartial public judgment must decide for itself. Gov. Bullock was undoubtedly stimulated by the fever of an acrimonious strife to much of his course that deserves condemnation. He stood faithfully to some very bad colleagues, and adhered manfully to his side with eyes closed to moral considerations or physical consequences. There is no denying that he showed gameness and fidelity.
The legislature ousted twenty-five colored Representatives and two Senators, and seated in their places the same number of white Demo- crats. There were very strong young men among the substituted mem- bers, among them J. R. Saussy and Thomas W. Grimes. Mr. Saussy was a fine young lawyer from Chatham county, a"gentleman of sprightly humor, with an industrious energy and a vigorous intelli- gence. He had worked into a large law practice in a city noted for its able bar. Mr. Grimes has been a State Senator since, and is now the Solicitor General of his circuit. He has shown an exceptional degree of political independence, resigning his seat in the legislature to test popu- lar sentiment upon one of his measures, and winning a re-election by a handsome majority. The incident is a rare one for so young a legisla- tor, and demonstrated his positive character. Both these gentlemen, as many others of the new members, became valuable legislators.
Col. John Jones, the Treasurer, removed by Gen. Meade, made a report to this General Assembly, showing that he had taken with, in removal, 8426,704.27 of the State's money, every dollar of which he accounted for, principally in payment upon the public debt. Col. Jones makes these interesting statements in connection with this novel chap- ter of Georgia reconstruction:
" In these transactions I am aware that I have incurred the high displeasure of some, and aroused the suspicions of others; and I was satisfied in the beginning that such would be the case ; but having taken an oath to obey the laws under which I was elected, and given heavy bonds for the performance of the duties of my office, I conscientiously felt that I had no right, while reason and honesty of purpose were vouchsafed to me, to act otherwise. Not the least gratifying circumstance since my removal has been, that although it was deemed imperative that I should be removed, I have been allowed and trusted by the Commanding-General and Provisional Governor Ruger, to carry out the course I had adopted, and preserve the credit and honor of the State, up to the surren- der of the government to the civil authorities.
404
THE CAMILLA RIOT.
" My personal intercourse with the provisional officers has been as pleasant, as under the extraordinary state of things, could be expected, and their bearing towards me has been ever that of gentlemen to one for whom they entertain sincere respect. Their kindness will not be forgotten, nor shall they ever feel that their sympathy has been misplaced."
In the month of September, during this session of the General Atombly, occurred an incident that created great excitement, not only in ( corgia but over the whole country, and that contributed a large quota of political capital to the Republican campaigns. There has been no stock in trade so serviceable to the Republican party as the fabrica- tion of Southern outrages upon Union men and negroes. The heaviest indictment made against Gov. Bullock was for his part in this so-called " slander mill" business. From all parts of Georgia were gathered absolutely incredible accounts of white brutality to the black, and Gov. Bullock gave these dark narratives the whole sanction of his- official place. The incident alluded to was the first important episode of so-called Southern outrage.
The facts were these: A body of armed negroes, headed by a man named William R. Pierce, the Republican candidate for Congress, John Murphy and a man named F. F. Putney, approached Camilla, Mitchell county, to hold a public meeting. The sheriff, M. J. Poore, notified the parties that they must not hold a meeting with armed men. They persisted, a collision ensued and seven persons were killed and forty wounded. Gov. Bullock, in reporting the matter to the Legislature, asserted that the right to peacefully assemble had been "violently and barbarously impaired," and the civil officers of Mitchell county were wholly unable to maintain peace. He urged the Legislature to call on the President for troops to protect the citizens. Gov. Bullock's attempt to throw the blame of this affair upon the white Democrats evoked much indignation. The arming of the negroes over the State was a notorious fact, creating alarm and foreshadowing trouble. Gov. Bullock had issued his proclamation upon this matter, adroitly ascribing what he called "the rapid spread of a disposition on the part of those who maintain the validity of the laws of Congress, and of the state govern- ments established thereunder, to protect themselves by arms," to acts of violence by "persons distinguished for their hostility to the govern- ment of the United States."
With an ingenious subtlety that stirred a deep resentment, his pro- clamation was leveled at those citizens supposed to interfere with "the constitutional right of persons to assemble for political or other peace- ful purpose," while for the illegal armed bodies he merely communicated
405
THE COLORED CONVENTION OF 1SC8.
the information that no authority had been granted for such organiza- tions which were unlawful.
The legislature properly declared that "the civil authorities had shown themselves able to execute the law, and there was no necessity for any military i torference." Mr. Marion Bethune made a minority report that presented some very truthful reflections. He argued that it was apparent that the people were inflamed and divided, and he urged all parties to meet on a common ground and endeavor to provide some measure that will give peace and rest to the excited public mind.
The legislature adjourned on the 5th of October, 1868. The commit- tee on the State of the Republic made a report written by the chairman, Hon. I. E. Shumate, which was regarded as a masterly and statesman- like paper, and portrayed the political status of the white people of the State admirably. It reviewed the various steps of reconstruction with philosophical temper; it deprecated any attempt to antagonize the races, and it declared the purpose of the whites to protect the black in his rights. The style of this document was singularly felicitous and forci- ble. The members who took the places of the ousted negroes presented, through Mr. Saussy, a gold watch and chain to Hon. Wm. M. Tumlin, as the one to whom was mainly due the credit of this famous expurga- tion of the blacks. A colored convention was held in Macon, presided over by H. M. Turner, consisting of 136 delegates, from eighty-two counties, which started the movement that ultimately ended in another reconstruction of the State.
This colored convention was an important and a very melodramatic body. It held closed meetings, excluding white men. In nothing was it more remarkable than its bitter characterization of the white Radicals who had voted for their repulsion from the General Assembly. There were some venomous and incendiary speeches, but these unlettered men went to work to do their business of retribution and recovery of their privileges in an extraordinarily practical way. Turner made a strong speech, declaring he would break up the legislature. He welded his sable hearers in a solid purpose. Committees were appointed for various duties, among them to memorialize Congress, and get up re- ports of outrages and murders.
There was something peculiarly suggestive in the assembling and deliberations of this colored convention. Mr. Marion Bethune, in his minority report on the Camilla riot, most felicitously stated the feel- ings of the poor race in these words :
, " It must be apparent to the most indifferent observer, that the negro feels disappointed,
406
THE STATE JUDICIARY OF 1868.
and is exasperated in failing to obtain the political rights and privileges that he antici- pated under our new Constitution; whilst, on the other hand, much the larger portion of the white people feel that he is claiming privileges, and aspiring to positions which he is totally unfit to occupy, and which they regard as degrading to the white race. Therefore, it is but natural that each party should feel a deep and abiding interest in the result of the approaching election, as each regards the success of their party as an important step in settling the dispute in their favor."
Deeply chagrined and incensed at the deprivation of the right to hold office, the colored leaders, deserted in this valued matter by their white allies, for the first and only time in the protracted play of Recon- struction, self-reliantly took the bit in their own mouths and organized for a race victory. Against the whites they stood in an unqualified opposition. And they whipped their fight. Illiterate, crude in politics and farcical in aspect, they drove to triumph.
Every effort made by the white people to stop the rush of reconstruc- tion but ended in failure and enlarged the imposition of severities. The most heroic and white-motived resistance to revolutionary innova- tions not only riveted them the tighter but brought new savagery. Every stand for principle simply clinched the changes opposed, and wrought superadded alterations. Whatever the motive the men like Gov. Brown, who counseled acquiescence, saw in the ultimate result a strong vindication of their foresight.
The Democratic electors beat the Republican electors, H. P. Farrow, A. T. Akerman, T. M. Smith, John Murphy, E. J. Higbee, W. H. White- head, J. E. Bryant, S. C. Johnson and J. L. Dunning, by a majority of 44,638 in a vote of 158,596. The highest Democratic vote was 101,- 786, and Republican 57,195.
The following judges were nominated by Gov. Bullock, and confirmed by the Senate: Supreme Court-Chief Justice, Joseph E. Brown; Associate Justices, H. K. McCay and Hiram Warner. Superior Court -J. R. Parrott, Cherokee Circuit; C. W. Davis, Western; Garnett Andrews, Northern; C. B. Cole, Macon; J. R. Alexander, Southern; D. B. Harrell, Pataula; James M. Clark, South-western; J. W. Greene, Flint; J. D. Pope, Coweta; William Gibson, Middle; P. B. Robinson, Ocmulgee; N. B. Knight, Blue Ridge; William Schley, Eastern; J. S. Bigby, Tallapoosa.
There was a tremendous pressure brought against the acceptance of office at the hands of Gov. Bullock, and in that day, the purest men who did take position, were exposed to animadversion. And many whom Gov. Bullock appointed, were deterred by a fear of public opinion from assuming trusts in which they could have benefited the people.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
GOV. BULLOCK'S DESPERATE ENDEAVOR TO RE-ENACT RECONSTRUCTION.
The Evil Effect of the Black Expulsion .- Its Cue to Congress .- Nelson Tift .- Bullock's Obloquy .- Wholesale Aspersion of the State .- Our Rulers Seeking the State's Crucifixion .- Georgia at the Presidential Count .- An Exciting Scene .- Ben. Butler and Wade .- Submitting Negro Eligibility to the Courts .- W. P. Price .- Dunlap Scott .- Senator Winn .- Bullock's Vetoes .- The Fifteenth Amendment .- The Republicans Defeat It .- W. D. Anderson .- Foster Blodgett .- " Inflict Negro Suffrage on the d- Yankees."-State Aid .- The Battle between Bullock and Angier .- The Capitol Question .- Bullock's Illegal Advance to Kimball :- Com- mittee Reports Condemning Bullock .- The Proposition to buy the Capitol .- Post- poned .- Phillips' Resolution on O'Neal .- Republican Convention. - The Supreme Court Decide Negroes Eligible .- Bullock in Washington working for more Recon- struction .- The Bureau of Immigration .- The State Fair .- The State Road .- State Troubles .- Negro Disorders .- Bullock and Angier again .- Chief Justice Brown's Good Work .- Angier's Valuable Services.
THE expulsion of the negro members from the Georgia legislature had an immediate effect for evil. It renewed the fell spirit of Recon- struction. It blew the slumbering coals of race conflict into a lively flame. It was a sad error, viewed in the light of its results. It bred trouble immediately. It gave fuel to the expiring fire of sectional strife. It was to the northern mind the use of the first note of con- ceded peace to declare war. It was as if an unshackled prisoner utilized his initial moment of freedom to strike his releasing captor.
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