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 7
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
GOV. BROWN OPPOSES BULLOCK'S GRATUITOUS RECONSTRUCTION. 417
to supplant him as superintendent, a change that did soon come, and that was followed by a year of the most reckless and wholesale mis- management and extravagance that ever marked the administration of a public trust.
During this year there was a legitimate outcome of the pernicious Republican tampering with the colored race. A frightful negro riot occurred near Savannah, on the Ogeechee, where the man A. A. Bradley had sway. Col. R. W. Flourney, a Democratic member of the Legisla- ture, a bright young citizen, was murdered by negroes. Mr. Charles Wallace, editor of the Warrenton Clipper, was assassinated, and Dr. G. W. Darden, a noted Republican, arrested and in jail for the atro- cious murder, was shot.
In reviewing that period, with all the bad influences at work upon the ignorant colored race, and the unspeakable provocation against the whites, one is surprised that there was not more violence. The radical régime of. that day stimulated the blacks to deviltry, and fired the whites to a righteous exasperation. And the natural resentment of honest Democrats was evoked and used as the intended weapon of their political injury. We had suffered enough, and should have been near our redemption. But the end was far off, and mockeries were to be enacted that were to surpass even the previous shocking experiences of this monstrous reconstruction.
The warfare between Gov. Bullock and Treasurer Angier continued, growing daily more embittered. The Governor brought heavy suits against the treasurer. Gen. Alfred A. Terry had been assigned to military command in Georgia, to aid in preserving order. He was in- voked as a pacificator between these two belligerents. He had made peace between Gov. Bullock and the New Era, which, under Dr. Bard, had been warring upon His Excellency. The truth is that there was a decided schism in the Republican ranks, growing out of Bullock's reso- lute proclivity to a rehash of reconstruction. The more patriotic men of that party rebelled against it. And no man wielded a more powerful influence in antagonizing and eventually thwarting the ultimate phases of this partisan monstrosity than Chief Justice Brown. His whole course was simply acceptance of only necessary and inevitable terms of evil, and condemnation of every gratuitous abomination. From all the unholy crusades of the Bullock dynasty he kept firmly aloof, and this when he was cruelly bespattered and falsely classed as one of the com- mon enemy.
Dr. Angier wrote a letter to the Federal Union in September, stating
27
418
DR. ANGIER'S WARFARE ON BULLOCK.
that Gov. Bullock had paid $12,000 out of the State treasury as retain- ers to lawyers, 89,000 of it in the last thirty days, of which $1,500 was . to F. S. Fitch, the editor of a Griffin paper, besides large amounts to the Attorney General, H. P. Farrow, and other amounts out of the State road funds. He also charged that Gov. Bullock was offering excessive amounts, from one to five thousand dollars of rewards. In December, Dr. Angier wrote to one of the members of the Recon- struction Committee of Congress, in reply to a letter, stating that in the teeth of two adverse and condemnatory reports of a legislative committee upon his advance of $31,000 to the Kimballs on the opera. house building, he had made a further illegal advance to the Kimballs, on the same account, of $20,000 since the Legislature adjourned. Dr. Angier charged that to cover these unlawful amounts, Gov. Bullock had hypothecated seven per cent. State Railroad mortgage bonds, that under the law were to be issued only in renewal of bonds then due. He further charged that Gov. Bullock exhausted the contingent fund of $20,000 in less than six months, and under a vague " India rubber blanket " section of the appropriation act, he had drawn nearly $100,000, the greater part in the way of patronage to buy influence.
There is no doubt that Dr. Angier was the most hurtful opponent that Gov. Bullock had, and the people of Georgia owe him a deep debt of gratitude for the revelations he made. It was indeed a for- tunate antagonism for the State, this angry combat between the Execu- tive and Treasurer. All efforts to heal it failed. The writer, then con- ducting the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, the leading Democratic journal at the seat of government, and while striving to do even-tem- pered justice to Gov. Bullock, yet thundering daily at the palpable wrongs of his administration, was under obligation to Treasurer Angier for many a valuable piece of information that served materially the public welfare.
Gov. Bullock struck fiercely at Dr. Angier to crush him. He tried to break him down with heavy prosecutions, and sought a mandamus to make him pay refused warrants. But the game Treasurer stood undaunt- edly to his fight, and the ponderous blows he dealt the Executive, resounded over the State, and brought him many a glad acclaim from the grateful tax-payers.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
A BURNING CHAPTER OF FOLLY AND SHAME.
The most notable Events of Georgia History,-Gov. Bullock Then and Now .- His Plan for Another Reconstruction -The Central Radical Committee .- A Cruel Procla- mation .- The State Indicted by Her Executive .- The Slander Mill .- The Writer's Editorial Then .- The Fifteenth Amendment Hanging on Georgia's Vote .- " The Gospel of Anarchy."-Bullock in Congress .- The New Reconstruction .- Bullock's Rejoicing .- The Georgia Legislature .- Farrow's Opinion .- Intimidation .- Chief- Justice Brown's Patriotic Course .- Opinions of Leading Men .- Thomas Harde- man .- Chief Justice Brown .- Warren Akin .- The Radical Committee .- Bluff .-- Attorneys Employed .- The Reorganization .- J. W. G. Mills and A. L. Harris .- The Conservative Republicans Split from Bullock .- J. E. Bryan .- B. Conley .- A Bitter Speech .- Harris the Autocrat .- Bold Despotism .- Pistols Drawn .- An Astounding Turn .- Gen. Terry and His Military Board .- The Soldiers to Purge the Body -Selling Beef Creates Ineligibility .- Five Members Kicked Out .- Nine- teen Frightened Off .- Minority Men Seated .- The Speaker's Election a Vital Point .- The Bullock Men Elect MeWhorter through Democratic Division and Folly .- Bullock's Victory Complete .- Bullock's Message .- A New Deal and Pro- longation .- The Fight Remitted to Congress .- Bullock Goes to Washington .- A Stirring Battle .- Bullock's Discomfiture .- Prolongation Scotched .- Bullock's Bribery Investigation .- A Republican Committee Censure Him .- Hard Press Com- ment on Bullock .- The Georgia Legislature takes another Recess .- Bullock and Angier Investigation Committee .- Congress Admits Georgia at Last.
PERHAPS, take them all in all, the events recorded in this chapter are the most notable of Georgia history. They present a picture so novel that aftertimes will find it hard to believe the amazing reality. It seemed as if a comical fate had in pure whimsiness sought to twist every possible travesty out of the gravest concerns of state government. See- ing Gov. Bullock to-day, a quiet, autumnal figure moving in the streets of Atlanta, attending to the prosaic matters of cotton manufacture, one finds it difficult to recall the portly, gorgeous personage that in the year of our Lord, 1870, only eleven years ago, was the central power of a successful partisan crusade that dismantled our goodly State and made him autocrat of Georgia amid the unqualified abhorrence of her virtuous citizens. Reveling in a brief enjoyment of such rule as worthy men hope may never come again to a proud commonwealth of enlightened freemen, it was a stirring culmination of this dynasty of revolution to see its head, dropping the imperial authority in hot haste and for years
420
BULLOCK'S ARRAIGNMENT OF THE STATE.
a hidden fugitive from criminal indictments. Repeated attempts to secure had failed, but finally the ex-Executive was brought to trial when years had effaced the bitterest memories of the time of wrong, and criminal acquittal was given after a hard forensic fight.
The proper tribunal for such public charges was an impeachment court, which was costly, ponderous and barren, and its penalty of removal from office, pointless. The career of this official is one of the marked elements of Georgia reconstruction, and the simple, unembellished record makes a striking chapter of that unique epoch. .
Before Congress met in the winter of 1869, Gov. Bullock had per- fected his plans for revolutionizing again our State government, that had already undergone so many shifting farces of reconstruction, that it seemed as if a grim destiny had exhausted both folly and malice in our case. On the 24th of November, a secret meeting of the Radi- cal Executive Committee of the State was called. The Atlanta Consti- tution gave an account of the meeting that was never denied. Among those present were Bullock, Blodgett, Hulburt, Farrow, Blount, Con- ley, Long and others. A sub-committee, composed of Farrow, Hulburt, Conley, Jeff Long and a negro, was appointed to report on urging Con- gress to reconstruct Georgia again. All of this sub-committee were said to be against such action, except Mr. Conley. Majority and mi- nority reports were made. The discussion in the main committee was said to be stormy. Through the efforts of Bullock and Blodgett, the minority recommendation of Conley was sustained. Armed with this formidable document, Gov. Bullock proceeded to Washington, to work out in person his revolutionary scheme.
Before going, however, he issued a lengthy proclamation, which he published all over the State, that both as an instrument for his destructive purpose, and as a cool, deliberate piece of premeditated malice, was never surpassed. The pronunciamento began with these venomous words:
"To the People of Georgia :- The recent renewal of active hostilities against the per- son and property of colored citizens and white Republicans, by the organized bands of secret assassins in certain portions of the State, seems to indicate a concert of action and a purpose on the part of said organizations to persist in defying the civil law."
With this wholesale indictment of the good order of the State, accompanied by the bold assertion, wholly unfounded, that "under the statutes at present in force, the Executive is prevented from taking active measures for the suppression of civil disorders;" he proceeded to offer five thousand dollars reward each, for the alleged
421
ATLANTA CONSTITUTION AGAINST BULLOCK.
perpetrators of a long list of crimes, covering the State and including hundreds of men, and whose aggregate payment would have taken a million of dollars. And it was a significant part of the chapter of these, and a host of other like extravagant rewards so lavishly offered, by this generous-handed Executive, that the alleged criminals were so uniformly uncaught. It would be difficult to more conclusively explode the calumnies of the public peace, so malignantly used in that day as the most potential weapon of Radical success, than by this single fact.
That potential institution, the " Slander-mill," was revived in all its vigor, and outrages of every kind ground out unceasingly. The New York Times had an editorial on Georgia's condition that came in nicely as a help to the new crusade. And this was followed by a congratula- tory letter from Gov. Bullock to that journal. Gen. Alfred H. Terry furnished his quota to the scheme in a lengthy report that the state of disorder in Georgia demanded the interposition of Congress.
The following earnest editorial of the writer in the Atlanta Consti- tution, published on the 12th of December, 1869, reflected the feeling of the good citizens of that day towards Gov. Bullock:
" Suppose that in the days when Geo. M. Troup, or any of Georgia's sons and states- men filled her Executive Chair, the President of the United States had advised, and Congress had contemplated a blow at her sovereignty ?
"Can any man doubt what would have been their course ? Every sentiment of State fealty, every impulse of patriotism, would have quivered under the peril and the indignity to our beloved commonwealth. They would have been stung by the shame of the iusult, as well as concerned in the damage to her welfare. Having the interest of the State at heart, identified with her honor, and alive to the weal of her great people, they would have consecrated their lives to her defense, and engaged with an unalterable heroism in her redemption.
"To-day, is seen the sad, piteous, shameful spectacle of her Executive conspiring with her enemies for the overthrow of her liberties. Plotting, scheming, bribing, truckling, maligning, toiling for her injury and abasement, he is alike blind to her sufferings, callous to her dignity, inimical to her interests.
" No state of facts can justify such an act in such an official. The people overwhelm- ingly differ with him on great public questions involving their welfare, not his. Yet, forsooth, because his personal views are not carried out, he leaves his duty to machinate against the people for their injury, recking nothing that the government of a million virtuous people is demolished by the act, and anarchy and the rule of ignorance substi- tuted therefor.
" ' How long, Oh ! Cataline !' As old as time, and stamped with the imprimatur of Holy Book, is the utterance, that when the wicked are in power their people groan in tribulation.
" Georgia is no exception. Her rulers are against her, not for her; they are seeking personal aggrandizement. not the public weal; they govern for plunder and despotic control, not for the interest of their people.
422
BULLOCK IN WASHINGTON PRESSING GEORGIA'S CRUCIFIXION.
"Can Gov. Bullock wonder that he enjoys the scorn of the good ? It is not nature for men to love the enemy to their liberties and their prosperity.
" He may succeed in his fell purpose, but success can bring him neither respect nor honor. It will be the triumph of reckless cupidity and unholy ambition. That man, who for personal interest can drag his country down, is a foe to humanity itself."
It was one of those mysterious strokes of evil fortune that steadily accompanied our ill-fated State in those evil days, that just at that juncture the success of the Fifteenth Amendment hinged on Georgia's vote. This stern necessity fixed our fate. Morton introduced a bill in the United States Senate to reconstruct Georgia, and making the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment the condition of admission to the Union. President Grant, in his message, recommended further tinkering with Georgia. Senator Edmunds had postponed his bill to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment in Georgia, so as to allow the new measure a chance. Representative Shanks, in the House, introduced a bill to complete reconstruction in Georgia. Bullock went before the reconstruction committee, and pressed the crucifixion of the gallant old commonwealth. The measure came up in the Senate, Bullock on the floor, urging the rape of his own State's sovereignty. He had taken · expensive apartments, kept a carriage, and wined and dined with a royal prodigality. The State road had paid no money in three months into the State treasury, and the press indulged in every species of insinuation as to where the money went.
The Senate passed the despotic measure by a vote of 40 to 9. The House then passed it swiftly. Warm debates in both houses transpired. Georgia filled a large measure of the public attention. Dr. Angier's · letter on Gov. Bullock's financial errors was sprung in Congress, and staggered a number of the supporters of the measure. Trumbull and Thurman both fought the bill, and also Mr. Bayard. The New York World's report said:
" While Mr. Bayard was speaking, the author of all this rascality was sitting on a sofa in the Senate, with folded arms and dramatic style, but he changed position repeat- edly, wandered about uneasily, and finally took a seat by Mr. Morton. Bullock is a large, portly, vulgar-looking man of about fifty-five, wears a full, reddish beard, and a large neck-tie, with long, projecting ends."
The correspondent of the Augusta Chronicle thus wrote:
" Bullock has been lying around the Senate chamber all day, and seemed to be greatly interested in the discussion. Between the acts he has been gorging himself with the Senators in the lunch-room, or restaurant in the Senate. He is still going it with a high hand, and is spending somebody's money like water. He gave another supper to Con- gressmen and other officials, last Thursday night, which is represented to have been a most magnificent affair."
423
BULLOCK FEASTS OVER GEORGIA'S DISMANTLEMENT.
In the House there was an even warmer time than in the Senate. Mr. Beck, of Kentucky, made a speech and had Dr. Angier's letter read, stating that the " letter had been read by himself this morning, to Gov. Bullock, so he might contradict the charges if he could, but neither he nor any friend of his had successfully done so." Hon. S. S. Cox made a biting speech against the bill, declaring
" It is the gospel of anarchy, and the philosophy of dissolution."
One of the papers had this to say of Bullock's agency in the House:
"Gov. Bullock seemed, in fact, to be managing the bill in the House. He was on the floor all day, and was consulted by Butler at every stage. His presence was remarked as being about the boldest piece of lobbying ever witnessed in Congress."
The House passed the bill by 121 yeas to 51 nays. Bullock con- tinued as accoucher to the bill, accompanying Senator Thayer, chair- man of the committee on enrolled bills, to President Grant for his sig- nature. The President signed without reading. The National Intelli- gencer published in Washington, thus records Gov. Bullock's feasting over the result:
" The celebrated Cafe Francaise was the scene on Wednesday night of a Bacchana- lian feast, given by Gov. Bullock, in honor of his triumph over the people of Georgia, to the aiders and abettors of the scheme. Wine flowed like water, and rich viands were greedily devoured ; in the midst of which the company gloated in fiendish triumph over the vengeance they had wreaked upon an unhappy and defenseless people. What mattered the expense? The people of Georgia would be made to foot this and many other bills of like nature. With his hands to the elbow in the State Treasury, Mr. Carpet-bagger Bullock can well afford to be sumptuous, and to dine and wine, and feast and flatter the men who have done his bidding on the floor of Congress. Whether or not he has inaugurated a gift enterprise, in which these servile and traitorous Congress- men are to participate, we cannot say."
The act directed the Governor of the State of Georgia by proclama- tion to convene the legislature. Members must be required to take an oath that they had not shared in the rebellion after holding an office, or that they had been relieved by Congress. Any one taking a false oath should be punishable for perjury. Any one hindering a member from taking the oath or acting as member after taking the oath, would com- mit a felony. The exclusion of members for race or color was forbid- den. The Governor was authorized to call for the military. And the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment was required before senators and representatives could be admitted.
It was a curious piece of legislative inconsistency, and evoked some scathing criticism. The validity of the Fourteenth Amendment was par- tially resting on Georgia's ratification as a State, and yet she was declared
424
GEORGIA PROFOUNDLY DEPRESSED.
not a State, while the said ratification was claimed as good. The State was not allowed to be a State, and yet its ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment was sought, the act of a State, before it should become a State. Such a blaze of political incongruities will find no parallel.
Gov. Bullock called the legislature to convene on the 10th of Jan- uary, 1870. In entire lack of authority from the act he signed this proclamation as "Provisional Governor." Gen. Terry was announced from Washington as commander of the district of Georgia, under the Reconstruction Acts, instead of as Department commander, in order to give him civil authority.
The action of Congress excited a profound feeling. The year 1870 began in deep gloom for the people. The apprehension of calamity was wide spread and universal. While men had become wearied in their very powers of indignation at the recurring oppressions and caprices of reconstruction, they felt keenly this last stroke and regarded Bullock and his allies in the abhorred work with an intense loathing. Yet never did a people deport themselves with more dignity and patience. The new reconstruction act had been drawn with great shrewdness and forethought. The clauses imposing the penalties of perjury for a false oath, and making it a felony to hinder men taking the oath, were meant, the one to intimidate Democrats, and the other to strengthen timid Republicans. But by a curious reversal of results the felony clause was vigorously used to check the radical effort to alarm the Democrats from taking the oath.
Gov. Bullock immediately called upon Col. H. P. Farrow, the Attor- ney General, for an opinion, who gave a sweeping one, that no officers, from Notary Public up, could qualify themselves. And to clinch this ruling, he got an approval of it from Gen. Terry. The whole policy was to deter and frighten enough Democrats from taking the oath under fear of a prosecution for perjury, to give in addition to the negro members, enough Republicans to control the Legislature. And it will be seen that this policy was pursued to success under the most audacious assumptions of unauthorized power, and daring disregard of rights and law. The Democrats saw the drift and set to work to remedy it.
A committee composed of members of the Legislature, including both Democrats and a few conservative Republicans, addressed a letter to Chief Justice Joseph E. Brown, who had opposed every scheme of unnecessary reconstruction, asking his view of the principle urged by Farrow that Notaries Public, Road Commissioners, officers of the
GOVERNOR BROWN'S LETTER AGAINST THE CONSPIRATORS. 425
militia, officers of municipal corporations and State Librarians were disqualified from being members. Judge Brown responded, giving his opinion, as questions about disabilities of Legislators could not come before him as Chief Justice for adjudication. He made a strong, unan- swerable argument, squarely antagonizing Col. Farrow, and demonstrat- ing that none of these officers were disqualified from being members. The paper was a very able one, and had great weight. It was a heavy blow to the Bullock wing, and gave them a good deal of trouble.
Col. Avery, editor of the Constitution, addressed a circular letter to a number of leading men, asking their views upon two points:
"1. Upon the legal scope of the bill (the late act of Congress to promote the recon- struction of Georgia), and the full extent to which the General Assembly can go under its provisos in disturbing the present State government.
" 2. What is the course that patriotic members of the Legislature should pursue for the interest of the State."
Some of the responses were very striking papers. Perhaps the most remarkable of them all was from Hon. Thomas Hardeman. It was both a brave and an exceptionably able document. He put some very unpleasant truths in fearless language. He said Democrats must quit defying Congress, stop the foolish non-action policy, cease driving men into the Republican ranks by denunciation, and adopt a kind and con- ciliatory course to the blacks. The reply of Chief Justice Brown urged that the legislature submit to the inevitable and promptly ratify the Fifteenth Amendment. Negro suffrage was already a fixed fact in Georgia. This Amendment made it a certainty in the North. The objection urged against the Chicago platform, on which Grant was elected, was that it approved negro suffrage as good enough for Georgia, but not good enough for Ohio. Why should Georgia be shut out from representation rather than impose negro suffrage upon those who put it on us. Judge Brown placidly referred to the verification of his prophecies of harsher terms for rejecting the original reconstruction, and condemned the policy of non-action. He intimated his perception of the purposes of the champions of additional reconstruction in these significant words:
" Many patriotic citizens believe they see in the present movement schemes of per- sonal ambition and personal gain at the expense of the State. If they are right, it is all important that every friend of Georgia, who is in a position to serve her, should be at his post, to protect the public property, the public credit, and the public interest."
Gov. Bullock made the blunder of his administration when he cut loose from the calm, conservative, firm counsel of Gov. Brown. He
426
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.