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 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43
Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, early in December, introduced a bill in the United States Senate declaring that Georgia should be reconstructed. The implacable Reconstruction Committee of Congress took the matter in hand. Gov. Bullock went before this potential junta, none the less proscriptive because Thad. Stevens was dead, and recommended the reorganization of the Georgia legislature upon the basis of the enforcement of the test oath, which would re-instate the negroes and put the General Assembly " in the hands of loyal men." Senator Edmunds offered a bill repealing the restoration of Georgia to the Union, and remitting the State back to Provisional Tyranny. This measure revived the military governorship. Our Senators, Joshua Hill and Miller were vainly knocking at the door for admission to their seats.
408
GOVERNOR BULLOCK SEEKS MORE RECONSTRUCTION.
Six of our seven Representatives had been admitted to their seats in the House. Nelson Tift sent a circular to the Judges, Ordinaries and .Mayors in Georgia, asking them to bear witness what was the obedi- ence to law, the feeling to the blacks and northern men and Republi- cans, the desire for peace, and whether there was any necessity to destroy the present State government. He held up in an odious light Gov. Bullock as seeking to remand the State government to military rule or to the dictatorship of a military Governor, with the army to enforce his edicts, on the false ground that there was lawlessness, anarchy, no protection for life or property, and a spirit of persecution of the blacks by the whites.
Little wonder that Gov. Bullock incurred a scathing obloquy in this abhorred rôle. And it was a curious reversal of positions that Bullock was seeking to uptear and demolish the regime he had so toiled to erect, while the people sought to continue the rule of Bullock, whose installation they so resisted, and whose incumbency they detested. This was another of the strange phases of this kaleidoscopic reconstruc- tion, inexhaustible in novel developments. It evoked a deep exasper- ation, that because the Republicans had failed to get control of the legislature, Gov. Bullock and his allies should seek to pull down the very temple of our liberties, that from its ruins might be re-erected a full Republican structure. The regeneration had been made, and as it was not a complete Republican dynasty that was fashioned, a re-de- struction was sought in order to re-mold it. Bullock had failed of complete power. To get it he was willing to even undo his own work, strike down the state government, and remit a great commonwealth to bayonet despotism. And the worst feature of it was that the weapon of this new annihilation of state autonomy was the wholesale ascription of a brutal lawlessness to an entire commonwealth.
This whole inexcusable attempt at the political re-crucifixion of a great state is a matter of cold, official fact. The journals of the Legis- lature of 1869, contain Gov. Bullock's address to the United States Congress on the ?th of December, 1868, as the Executive of Georgia, gravely declaring that Georgia in her reconstruction had not complied with the laws of Congress, that there was no " adequate protection for life and property, the maintenance of peace and good order, and the free expression of political opinion," and asking congressional interfer- ence with the restored sovereignty of the state whose exalted chief magistracy he held.
This endeavor of our own Executive to drag down the state govern-
.
409
EXCITING SCENE IN CONGRESS OVER GEORGIA.
ment, to dethrone its majesty, and make it a dependent military pro- vince aroused a terrible indignation. It was a frightful commentary upon the evil times that our rulers were men who, in their personal ambitions, were willing to sport with the august sovereignty of the state, and degrade the very power they wielded. It was a novel ex- perience in Georgia annals to see an Executive seeking the humiliation of his own commonwealth, and that by the calumny of her honor. The spirit that would invite the rude hand of inimical power to crush our liberties and dominate us with despotism, rather than witness another political party control one of the branches of our state government, was something so unnatural that the people of Georgia regarded it with the same horror that they would have given to the crime of a parricide. All good men felt that no lover of his country would attempt such an unpatriotic and unholy work.
The action of the Georgia Legislature in expelling the negro mem- bers continued an absorbing subject of public discussion, not only in the State, but over the whole country. The press of the North, and Congress chattered incessantly over it. There were many lively scenes that it provoked. Congress was kept in an acrimonious turmoil. When the Presidential vote was counted on the 10th of February, 1869, Ben. Butler objected to counting the Georgia ballot. Wade said his view was that Georgia's vote should be counted if it would not alter the result, and should not be counted if it would, a decision received with shouts of laughter. A wild confusion ensued. Ben. Wade, presiding over the joint session, ordered the Senate to its own chamber. The House voted 150 to 41 against Georgia being counted. The Senate, after a lively struggle, decided in favor of Georgia. . The joint session was resumed, and the conflict was fierce. Wade ordered Georgia's vote read. Butler objected. Wade refused to hear objec- tions. . Butler appealed from Wade's decision. Wade refused an appeal and ordered the count to proceed. : Butler moved that the Sen- ate have permission to retire. He was declared out of order. Butler demanded that the House should control its own hall. Wade, in the midst of an intense excitement, ordered the count to proceed. Conk- ling began reading the result, but his voice was drowned by cries of order. In the deafening clamor Speaker Colfax sprang to the desk, saying the Vice-President must be obeyed in joint session, and ordered the Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest disorderly persons. Order was sufii- ciently restored to read the result, when the joint session terminated.
Butler offered a resolution denouncing the action of Wade and the
410
THE NEGRO EXPULSION ISSUE IN THE LEGISLATURE.
Senate. Davis introduced a resolution in the Senate declaring the con- duct of Butler and other members disreputable, and an insult to the people of the United States. Butler and Bingham had a bitter debate over Butler's resolution. Bingham denounced it as a resolution of revolution and anarchy. While Georgia was thus stirring up the country, she was having an equally lively time at home. The Legisla- ture met on the 13th of January, 1869. Gov. Bullock's message dealt. mainly with the disturbing problem of negro expulsion. He insisted on the Legislature undoing its work, and again assailed the order of the State. The Democrats themselves divided upon the line of policy. Nelson Tift, one of our Congressmen, telegraphed that Grant, the President elect, favored the policy of submitting the matter to the courts. W. P. Price introduced a resolution to this effect. It evoked a warm discussion. Such men as Dunlap Scott opposed it. He pro- posed to stick to the expulsion. While he was speaking, an incident occurred that was much remarked upon at the time. Speeches were limited to fifteen minutes. When Scott had spoken ten minutes, the clock stopped, stood still thirty minutes, and started again just as he was closing. But Price's resolution passed. Mr. Adkins introduced a resolution to re-seat the negroes. Some idea may be formed of the spirit of the Legislature from the following remarks of Senator Winn on Adkins' bill.
" Mr. President :- The Senator from the nineteenth, since the expulsion of the negro, looks like ' Patience on a monument smiling at grief.' He wants that delicious aroma so needful to his comfort.
" 'Like the vase in which roses have once been distilled, You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will, But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.' "
Cries of "order" were heard, and the President decided the remarks personal and out of order. To the astonishment of all, Gov. Bullock vetoed the resolution of Mr. Price, submitting the eligibility of negroes to hold office to the courts. The resolution did not go far enough for him. He was for ripping up the whole organization, and not only re-seating the negroes, but purging the Legislature of men who could not take the test oath. And to add to the perplexities of the situation, Congress was discussing the expulsion of our representatives from their seats.
The Fifteenth Amendment was passed by Congress and came before the Georgia Legislature in a special message of Gov. Bullock, on the 10th of March, 1869. The action upon this measure, which enforced
2
411
DOUBLE DEALING ABOUT THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.
negro suffrage, was strangely complicated, and on the part of Gov. Bullock and his allies in the movement of securing another reconstruc- tion of the State, suggestively disingenuous. Both Democrats and Republicans split upon it. Gov. Bullock was charged by Republicans with withholding the amendment from the Legislature as long as possi- ble, and with recommending its passage in such taunting language as would drive the Democrats from its support. His policy was said to be, to secure its defeat in order to aid his project of further reconstruction. The charge against him was flatly made, by the more moderate Repub- licans, of duplicity in making it appear at Washington that he favored the amendment, while he privately worked to prevent its passage.
The votes in both branches strongly confirm these accusations. In the House, 25 Republicans on the first action, when the amendment was carried, voted for the amendment, 4 against it, and 24 dodged a vote, including Gov. Bullock's fast friends, Adkins, Tweedy, O'Neal and others. On the motion in the House to reconsider, the next day, which was carried, 17 of these dodgers voted for reconsideration. In the House a majority of Republicans thus defeated this Republican measure. In the Senate, 13 Republicans, including President Conley, voted for the indefinite postponement of the amendment, and 6 against. Upon a reconsideration of the indefinite postponement, 8 Republicans voted for the passage of the amendment, 8 voted against it, and 8 dodged, and the amendment was defeated by a Republican Senate, after it had passed first a Democratic House. Gov. Bullock's friends voted against it, and many of his appointees electioneered against its passage.
The Democrats were equally divided. The leverage given to the enemies of the State by the expulsion of the negro members had created " a reaction, and the more conservative of the Democrats had come to the conclusion that it was wiser to promptly perform disagreeable neces- sities. There was some spirited discussion over the matter and some feeling speeches against it. The vote first stood in the House seventy- four and sixty-nine against the amendment. Mr. Anderson of Cobb voiced the conservative view in voting for the measure with this explan- atory remark.
" Mr. Speaker : - Passion, prejudice and pride say vote, 'No': wisdom and respon- sibility say vote, 'Yes.'"
Of the Democrats 42 in the House voted for the Amendment and 56 against. In the Senate 5 Democrats voted for and 9 against the amendment on its final defeat. The picture of inconsistency as to this amendment is not complete without recalling the fact that
· 412
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN BULLOCK AND ANGIER.
Foster Blodgett, Gov. Bullock's Achates, visited Washington, and in a conversation with Grant, the President, predicted that the Demo- crats in the Georgia Legislature would support the Fifteenth Amend- ment " for the purpose of inflicting negro suffrage in turn on the d --- Yankees." The occasion of this visit to Washington was in company with H. M. Turner and J. M. Simms, two of the expelled negro members of the Georgia Legislature, to present the resolutions of the Colored Convention in Macon, to which allusion has been made.
The Legislature adjourned on the 18th of March, 1869. This body had granted State aid to seven railroads, covering millions of dollars .. Heavy assaults had been made upon Gov. Bullock's management of the state finances. A legislative joint committee appointed to look into the matter of which M. A. Candler was Chairman of the Senate portion, and O. G. Sparks of the House, reported censuring Gov. Bullock for various unauthorized acts. They charged that over $32,000 was drawn on unauthorized warrants. They rasped Gov. Bullock for inaugurating the expensive and needless practice of gener- ally publishing proclamations of pardon, and appointments of county inspectors of fertilizers, this waste already running to over $10,000. They condemned large extra pay to salaried officers, running to $4,421.
The most animated financial battle of that day was between Gov. Bullock and Treasurer N. L. Angier over an advance made by the Governor of some $31,000 to H. I. Kimball, to heat and fix up the present capitol building. This difficulty between Dr. Angier and Gov. Bullock became more rancorous with the passage of time, andl had a material effect upon subsequent events. The war between these two officials was an important episode of that day, and involved large public consequences. It broke the unity of Gov. Bullock's administration. It made a formidable breach in the Republican ranks, and it furnished the Democrats substantial help in fighting the excesses of that damag- ing rule. This trouble will involve some allusion to the change of the capital from Milledgeville to Atlanta, and the purchase of the capitol building, that have given rise to so much public agitation.
When the Constitutional convention of 1868 was in session, the city of Atlanta made the proposition that if the capital should be located in this city, the City Council agreed to furnish to the State, free of cost, for the space of ten years if needed, suitable buildings for the General Assembly, for the residence of the Governor, and for all the offices needed by such officers as are generally located in the State House, and all suitable rooms for the State library and for the Supreme Court.
:
413
THE CHANGE OF CAPITAL.
The city further agreed to. donate to the State of Georgia, the Fair Grounds, containing twenty-five acres, as a location for the capitol, or in lieu thereof, any unoccupied ten acres of ground in the city that might be selected by the General Assembly as a more appropriate place for the capitol and Governor's mansion.
The convention, by resolution passed February 27, 1868, accepted this proposition, and in the Constitution placed an article making Atlanta the seat of government. On the 24th of August, 1868, the City Council of Atlanta rented from E. N. Kimball, for $6,000 a. year, for five years, certain parts of the present capitol building, for the use of the State, and by resolution tendered to the State the said rented premises. Mr. Kimball bound himself to have the building ready for the State by the second Tuesday in January, 1869. This building was a brick shell that had been started for an opera house, and the project had fallen through. The contract made with Mr. Kimball by the City Council did not cover the heating and lighting. Instead of exacting of the City Council the fulfillment of its contract, Gov. Bullock, from October to December, 1868, advanced to H. I. Kimball $31,000 of the State's money to heat, furnish, carpet, paint, and light the building, without reporting said advances to the State Treasurer. In September, 1868, the Legislature had tabled a resolution in regard to heating the structure. The City Council of Atlanta regarded their contract with E. N. Kimball as complying with their offer to the State.
Treasurer Angier reported the matter to the Legislature, in response to a resolution calling for the facts about the State bonds. This report drew from Gov. Bullock a tart message, charging upon Dr. Angier " a malicious attempt to discredit the integrity of the Executive." The finance committee was authorized to examine the matter. A majority and minority report were made. Gov. Brown's opinion was asked, as to the propriety of expenditures without authority of law by the Execu- tive. He replied that the practice had been for the Executive in the past, in pressing emergencies that warranted it, to pay the State's money without appropriation, honestly and judiciously for the public service, but that in all such cases the Governor should be prepared to assume the responsibility if the legislature should disapprove his act. The majority report, signed by W. H. F. Hall, chairman, de- clared that there was no legal or urgent necessity for such expendi- ture, while the Governor's motives are not questioned. The minority report, signed by A. S. Fowler, O. G. Sparks and six others, is a sharp, sententious, plain-talking document. It declared the expenditures
414
THE CAPITOL BUILDING CONTINUED.
unauthorized, reckless extravagance, and without precedent. It com- mented upon the fact that there had been ample time to explain the transaction, and no itemized bill of particulars had been furnished; that costly heating, lighting and furniture was not contemplated by either the city or state for a temporary capitol. The House adopted the minority report by a large majority.
The altercation between Dr. Angier and Gov. Bullock grew very bitter. Gov. Bullock charged upon Dr. Angier that he had drawn interest on the public funds, receiving $356. Dr. Angier showed that he received less interest because the bank had loaned Gov. Bullock $17,000 on his private account. The City Council of Atlanta proposed to confer with a joint committee to settle the liability for the $31,000. Gov. Bullock, in transmitting this request, stated in his message that he thought the City Council was responsible for the expense, and that if he had failed to incur that cost, the Legislature would not have had a proper place to assemble. The resolution to appoint a commit- tee was passed. The committee had a conference with the City Council of Atlanta. The committee reported a proposition for the City to pay $100,000 towards the purchase of the Kimball Opera House for a permanent capitol, and recommended that the State appropriate .$200,000 in interest bearing seven per cent. bonds for the balance of the purchase money, the Kimballs to refund the State the $31,000, thus costing the State $169,000. This proposition was not acted upon, but postponed, and the Legislature adjourned. This building was the subject of continued trouble, which will be hereafter noted.
There will never in the history of Georgia be a parallel to this General Assembly. Some of its incidents seem incredible. On the 17th of February, Mr. Phillips, of Echols county, stands responsible for the following resolution:
"Resolved, That the publication which appears in the New Era of this morning, that the Hon. J. W. O'Neal was drunk on yesterday, is infamously false, and it is due to the coun- try and to this House that it be so branded, and should meet with the prompt con- demnation of all lovers of good whisky in the present General Assembly."
The report goes on to say that after a warm discussion the resolution was withdrawn. A Republican convention was held in Atlanta on the 5th of March, 1869. Hon. Ben. Conley was made President. The resolutions adopted were harsh, referring to " rebel-democratic rowdies," and declaring that the State was as practically under the control of those who spurn the Federal government as it was during the rebellion. A committee was appointed of Foster Blodgett, P. M. Sheibley, H. P.
GOV. BULLOCK'S ATTEMPT TO RECONSTRUCT THE STATE AGAIN. 413
Farrow, J. W. Clift, J. M. Simms, J. T. Costin and H. M. Turner to go to Washington to urge Congress to "carry out the desire of this convention."
In June, 1869, the Supreme Court, Judge Warner dissenting, decided in the case of Richard W. White, a colored man, elected Clerk of the Superior Court of Chatham county, that negroes were eligible to office in Georgia. This decision raised the question as to whether the Leg- islature should ro-seat the colored members who were expelled. Gen. A. R. Wright, editor of the Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, sent a circular letter to the leading men of the State, asking their views upon this question. There was a pretty unanimous opinion among the Democrats that new elections should be ordered. The subject engaged the public mind to a very general and intense degree. Hon. A. H. Stephens, Judge Wm. B. Fleming, Col. Warren Akin, Judge J. W. H. Underwood, Gen. A. R. Lawtor, Thomas E. Lloyd, Judge E. J. Harden, Junius Hillyer, Col. Crawford and others, supported the position taken by the Atlanta Constitution that the decision of the Supreme Court should be obeyed, but the parliamentary method would be to have an election to fill the vacancies.
Immediately after the adjournment of the Legislature, Gov. Bullock . went on to Washington, and endeavored to take advantage of the failure of the Georgia General Assembly to ratify the Fifteenth Amend-' ment, a failure due as has been stated to his own Republican friends in that body, to secure further reconstruction of the State. But no plan was desired by him except one that purged the Legislature of Demo- crats under the test oath. The mere re-seating of the negroes would not satisfy these destructionists, because that still left them without control of the Legislature. Every effort was made to get the Butler bill through Congress before adjournment, but Nelson Tift and P. M. B. Young and others succeeded in blocking this game. The weapon that was most potential in preventing the success of this measure of continued reconstruction was the passage by both branches of the Legislature of Georgia of the resolution to test the negro eligibility issue in the State Supreme Court, which Gov. Bullock vetoed, to destroy its effect in preventing his schemes. Congress adjourned without interference with Georgia, and he and his allies returned home baffled, but not defeated. During the summer and fall of 1869 every prepara- tion was made for renewing the baleful design of re-dismantling the good old State.
During this year a number of important State matters transpired. A
416
THE ATTEMPT AT IMMIGRATION.
bureau of immigration was established, and George N. Lester was made Home Commissioner, and Samuel Weil, Foreign Commissioner. The sum of $10,000 was appropriated. The printing was limited to $3,000. The salary of Col. Lester was $2,000 and Mr. Weil $3,000. Faithful efforts were made by both commissioners, but owing to the persistent and rancorous Republican slanders against the good order of the State, no good was accomplished, and Col. Lester, finding his office unavailing for benefit, resigned it before the expiration of his two years' term. Col. Weil returned from Europe after fourteen months absence, bringing his niece with him, and there was a good deal of raillery among the anti-immigration men over the alleged harvest of one immigrant as the result of this elaborate scheme of State immigration. The report of this attempt at immigration showed that Col. Weil had received $3,000 salary, and spent $1,520 for printing; Col. Lester received $2,598 salary, and spent $500 for printing. Weil's expenses exceeded his salary, and Lester's were nearly one-half of salary.
The State fair at Macon, in October, 1869, was largely attended by distinguished Northern gentlemen. A negro labor convention was held in Macon in October, to organize a union to. control prices of labor. The leading spirits in this body were Jeff. Long and H. M. Turner. An immense Southern Commercial convention was held in Louisville, Ky., of which Mr. Fillmore was president. Georgia was largely represented by such men as V. A. Gaskill, A. D. Nunnally, D. E. Butler, H. W. Hilliard, B. C. Yancey, R. H. Chilton, A. Hood, C. Howell and some seventy others. There were committees on every conceivable subject of practical utility, immigration, a Southern Pacific, Mississippi Levees, Agriculture, Manufacture of Cotton, direct trade, and other kindred matters. Some sarcastic journal epitomized the work of the convention in the satirical summary, that its chief result was the resurrection of the buried Fillmore to build continental railways by resolutions.
Col. Hulburt had made a fair administration of the State road, pay- ing in to the. State Treasury pretty regularly, $25,000 a month. He had an undoubted genius for the practical development of public re- sources. His ideas of the necessity and value of cheap coal and iron were far in advance of the time. He steadily worked for these great ends. He was an earnest champion of the Georgia Western road that Gen. Gordon has at last put under way. But Hulburt was handi- capped by his connection with the Republican registration and his " Sharp and Quick " repute. Even then it was said that Foster Blod- gett, who was treasurer of the State road under Hulburt, was striving
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.