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 8
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ATTEMPT TO INTIMIDATE DEMOCRATS.
would have been kept in the rut of a safe, capable and honest govern- ment. He had the chance to make an administration of unprecedented power and popularity. As it was he drove the conservatives of his own party away from him, he incurred the righteous hatred of his opponents, and he steered the stout old vessel into the storm and upon the rocks.
Col. Warren Akin in his letter declared the expulsion of the blacks and the seating of the next highest members to be mistakes. He urged all eligible members to attend and vote against the Fifteenth Amend- ment. Gen. Wm. M. Brown said the law was irresistible, and the Democratic members should conform to its requirements. Judge Lin- ton Stephens, in a letter of great power, urged non-action. The Demo- cratic Executive Committee met and conferred with a large number of outsiders. The committee urged attendance, but gave no advice about the Fifteenth Amendment. Col. Nelson Tift urged the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment.
The Radical Central Committee convened and organized an aggres- sive campaign of daring bluff. They declared that there were fifty ineligible Democrats. It was announced in the papers that the law firms of Lochrane & Clark, Dougherty & Culberson, and J. L. Hop- kins had been employed to aid A. T. Akerman in prosecuting such alleged ineligible members for perjury, if they dared to take the oath. Judge R. H. Clarke and W. Dougherty denied such employment for themselves as individuals. Judge Hopkins acknowledged the employment, but disavowed any purpose to be a party to any political persecution.
The Democratic Executive committee met this with a counter decla- ration, that able counsel would be employed both to defend members thus prosecuted, and to prosecute for felony those who should seek to hinder them from qualifying. It was a novel feature of the political situation that there should be this sort of cross-play of threatened pros- ecution. Gov. Bullock subtly offered to aid any, who might be in doubt of their eligibility, in getting relieved by Congress of their disa- bilities. Every effort was made to stiffen the backbone of the Demo- crats, but in spite of it all the Bullock strategy was partially successful.
There never has been and never will be seen in Georgia annals such another wretched, humiliating, arbitrary, lawless farce as the reorgani- zation of that Legislature, beginning the 10th day of January, 1870. That body had undergone two transformations. It was to pass through a third, that violated decency and shocked every principle of law and bond of precedent. It was the vilest travesty of legislative propriety
427
A FOREIGN STRANGER ORGANIZES THE HOUSE.
ever perpetrated in any time among any people. It had neither the semblance of law nor chivalry. It was a mockery of both legal and military honor. It was marked by the brutality of the sword and a jeering contempt of the statute. It kept up a repulsive comedy of blended civil and soldierly harlequinism. It excited the derision of even its supporters. It elicited the hot scorn of its enemies. It evoked the disdain of everybody. Men of respectability absolutely looked on aghast and bewildered at the cool audacity of the nameless outrage. It was a profanation of everything sacred in government. It sprung upon the country a succession of surprises as fantastic and indefensible as would be the pranks of so many irresponsible monkeys. These are strong words, but not overdrawn. The conservative portion of the Republicans branded the outrages openly, while a congressional report of a Republican House officially rebuked the whole proceeding.
When the members assembled, Gov. Bullock selected J. G. W. Mills to organize the Senate, and A. L. Harris, one of the employés of the State road, to organize the House. Harris was a western man of enor- mous corporosity, weighing three or four hundred pounds, a cool, humorous, dry-witted, careless giant, indifferent to abuse, keenly relish- ing the absurdities of the situation, and equal to any emergency. No attack could ruffle, and no inconsistency of order disconcert him. He was an admirable selection for the odious and perplexing service needed. He obeyed orders implicitly, and held to his arbitrary rôle with a fine blending of pluck and fun. The organization was run along capriciously to suit the exigencies of radical necessity. Bullock hoped that he had terrified enough Democrats off, with the re-seated negro members, to give an easy and safe Radical majority. The open- ing not only showed the Democrats unfrightened, but there was quite a sprinkling of the more moderate Republicans, headed by J. E. Bry- ant and Caldwell, who refused to go with the extreme men of their own party.
This was an alarming surprise, but it was met daringly by Bullock. His resolve was to have no organization until he could get such a one as he wished, and this programme was carried out to the letter. It was · the richest puppet show of the age. The proceedings were interrupted and adjournments ordered at any time. For days the farce was run of a fat, jolly Westerner, a foreigner to Georgia institutions, a paid subor- dinate of the State railroad, organizing a sovereign Assembly of Georgia Legislators at his imperial caprice, backed by Terry's bayonets, setting aside parliamentary law and the remonstrance of representatives,
428
SENATOR JOSHUA HILL'S IRONICAL SPEECII.
with a sportive sneer and an unappealable absolutism. Such a specta- cle has no parallel save in the fantastics of reconstruction.
The Hon. Joshua Hill in the United States Senate, in April, 1871, in a powerful speech against the admission of Foster Blodgett as United States Senator, made the following graphic reference to this outrage, which shows that even an honest Republican sentiment revolted from it:
" There is a good deal of curious history about the assembling of that Legislature under the act of Congress of December, 1869. It was a very memorable occasion in Georgia, a most remarkable event in its history. I happened to be a spectator of some of the scenes that occurred there. They were curious ; and if it had not been for the gravity of their consequences, they would have been ludicrous enough to have tempted the pen of a Cervantes or the pencil of a Cruikshanks. Why, sir, there sat on that occa- sion, with the representatives of the people called together under this Congressional act, a great "ton of man," from the State of Ohio, I believe, or somewhere else, who, enthroned like another Falstaff, acting the part of King Henry IV. before his profligate son, overawed and thundered into silence the representatives of the people. Who was he and whence came he ?
" Mr. Sherman-' If that gentleman was from Ohio, I should like to know his name.' " Mr. Hill-He is big enough to come from Ohio, from Porkopolis, or anywhere else. His name is Harris. Mr. Blodgett had been appointed, by the Governor of Georgia, Superintendent of the Western and Atlantic railway. As I am informed, Mr. Harris was the Supervisor of that great public work, appointed by Mr. Blodgett, and by some hocus pocus, he appeared there on that occasion to organize this Legislature, taking his chair of State, and looking as I fancy Norbury did when he rode the bloody assizes in 1798.
" Men looked amazed and aghast. If there were ever Ku Klux in Georgia, it occurred to me that that was about the time they ought to have showed themselves-when a stranger, a man wholly a stranger to the Legislature, and almost to the whole people of the State, appeared there, and occupied the chair of the Speaker, thundering out his edicts to the representatives of the people, ordering them to disperse and begone to their homes, adjourning them at his pleasure and calling them back when he pleased, and these obedient servants of the people going and doing his behests! Why, sir, the scene was pitiable."
The Senate swore in swiftly, and Benjamin Conley was elected presi- dent. While the members were taking the oath, printed protests were offered by the colored Senator Campbell, against a number of Demo- cratic Senators qualifying, and the same thing was done in the House by O'Neal. It was confidently relied that the fear of prosecution for perjury by the Democrats against whom the protests were filed, would frighten them from qualifying, and it was a significant fact that negroes were selected to present these protests which really made their authors liable to prosecution for hindering members from swearing in.
But the game failed, and a change of tactics became necessary. Mr. Conley, in his address on taking the presidency of the Senate, made as
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429
STORMY SCENES.
bitter a speech as was delivered during the whole reconstruction era. He denounced the good order of the State, savagely assailed the Demo- crats and intensified its hot blaze of rancor with this extraordinary utterance:
" The Government has determined that in this republic, which is not, never was, and never can be a democracy, that in this republic Republicans shall rule."
It must ever be among the unexplainable anomalies of that time that a man like Mr. Conley, of evident and acknowledged personal integrity, should have become so warped, and said, and lent himself to, such grave deviations alike from good feeling and public right. It illustrates to what extremes worthy men can go in partisan conflict.
In the House there was a lively time the first day. Harris refused to answer questions upon points upon which he was unloaded, and curtly nipped off suggestions. Bryant, before he was sworn in, objected to reading Col. Farrow's construction of the Georgia bill. Harris called him to order. Bryant declared Harris had no authority to be where he was. Harris ordered the sergeant-at-arms to arrest Bryant. Bryant refused to be arrested, declaring this was an attempt to intimidate members. Hinton and a son of Foster Blodgett attempted the arrest. Great excitement prevailed. A negro drew a pistol on Bryant. There were some violent harangues. Order was at length restored, and the swearing proceeded.
At length Bryant moved that J. H. Caldwell be made chairman of the meeting. The motion was carried in a storm of applause. Bryant started with Caldwell to the chair, but Caldwell got alarmed and drew off. Dunlap Scott nominated Bryant for chairman, which was carried. Bryant mounted a chair, and a motion being made to adjourn until ten o'clock the next morning, he put the motion which was carried, and he declared the House adjourned. He appointed Caldwell, Scott and Osgood a committee to wait on Gen. Terry. Harris, cool and undis- turbed, proceeded with his call of the roll. The committee returned from a conference with Gen. Terry, who said that the attempt to read Farrow's opinion was wrong. Harris refused to let the committee report, and when he was charged with treating Gen. Terry with disrespect he ordered Scott to take his seat. Harris carried his authority with a high hand. A messenger came in from the Executive department, and whispered to him, and he adjourned the House. A Radical caucus was called to consider the situation. Another matter that created a lively comment was, that the proceedings were conducted with closed doors,
430
A MILITARY COURT MARTIAL TO PURGE THE LEGISLATURE.
and parties had to get printed tickets of admission. And between sessions Bullock kept the rolls of the House.
But matters took a most startling turn when the roll of the House was nearly finished. Between the Conservative Republicans and the unalarmed Democrats the control of the Legislature by the Bullock men was in doubt. The strategy resorted to was desperate indeed. Like a clap of thunder in a clear sky, an order was plumped into the General Assembly, on the 14th of January, by Bullock, approved by Gen. Terry, directing a recess until Monday the 17th, after the roll-call was finished, for inquiry into the eligibility of certain members. And following right on, taking the people's breath away, was a military order from Gen. Terry, creating a board of officers, composed of Maj. Gen. T. H. Ruger, Brig. Gen. T. J. Haines and Maj. H. Goodfellow, to inquire into the eligibility of Senators W. T. Winn, J. J. Collier, A. W. Holcombe, W. J. Anderson, B. B. Hinton and .C. J. Wellborn.
When this astounding turn was given to affairs, it may well be imagined how the public quivered in its indignation. This was recon- struction with a vengeance. The setting up of an absolute autocrat in the person of the gigantic Harris, to tyrannically twist as he pleased the organization of the elected representatives of a free people and a great commonwealth, was a revolting usurpation. But great as was this wrong, it paled before the enormity of flagrantly violating the very law under which the reorganization was proceeding, which made every member the keeper of his own conscience in taking the oath, and . of seeking to purge the Legislature by a court martial. The law prescribed indictment in the Federal Court as the remedy for any perjured qualification of members. And yet here was the bayonet invoked to mutilate the Legislature and thwart the solemn rights of the people without a shadow of authority. It seemed as if this rang- ing abomination of reconstruction was to invent and enforce every iniquity and fantasy in the scope of an unbridled and malignant inven- tion. And not the least curious thing of it all was that this miserable business of a crazy tampering with rights and laws, while evoking the derision and contempt of everybody, and while condemned and repu- diated by Congress itself, was permitted to stand in its wanton exclu- sion of legislators from their constitutional rights. Such crimes against the government were like the defilement of sanctuaries. Our people shuddered and suffered them in impotent horror, and bestowed upon Gov. Bullock and his coadjutors in the fell work an immeasurable loathing.
431
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LEGISLATORS EXPELLED BY THE MILITARY.
The Senators had as counsel before the Military Board, John Collier, R. H. Clark, and George N. Lester. They made a protest against the jurisdiction of the Board. Attorney General Farrow conducted the prosecution. After getting through with the Senators, the Board took up the Representatives. A committee of the Legislature applied to Gen. Terry to allow the Court to determine the questions involved. The Legislature was adjourned to a later date to await the investiga- tion. The Board made the remarkable announcement, after a while, that . whiffe it could compel witnesses to be present, it had no authority to force members to attend. The tremendous public odium against the proceeding was having its effect. Senator Morton in a speech denied that President Grant had authorized the Board. Gen. Sherman said that Gen. Terry might have appointed a board of three citizens as well as a board of officers, but still the mischievous and illegal commission pursued the tenor of its way. And only Democrats were the objects of its inquisition.
On the 25th of January, 1870, Gen. Terry sent in his order to the House to the effect that R. A. Donaldson, E. M. Taliaferro and J. H. Nunn were ineligible, and prohibited them from qualifying, and that J. B. Burke, J. A. Brinson, A. T. Bennett, A. M. George, David Groff, W. J. Hudson, D. Johnson, H. C. Kellogg, J. W. Meadows, J. H. Pen- land, R. C. Surrency, J. R. Smith, H. Williams, J. C. Drake, J. T. Ellis and J. M. Rouse, having refused to take the oaths, and having filed with Gov. Bullock applications for relief of their disabilities by Con- gress, admit thereby their ineligibility, and were therefore prohibited from taking their seats.
On the 28th an order was issued declaring Senators W. T. Winn and W. J. Anderson ousted, and E. D. Graham and C. R. Moore ineligible because they had failed to qualify, and filed applications for relief. Senator J. J. Collier had taken the oath, but applied to withdraw it, and filed his application for relief, and was therefore declared ineligi- ble. Senator Winn had sold some beef to Confederate soldiers, for which he was deprived of his high trust as a State Senator. Certainly it would be difficult to find a better illustration of the tragic silliness of this high-handed procedure.
The result was that five Senators and Representatives were kicked out under this bayonet process, and nineteen frightened from taking their seats. And months after, a correspondent of the Augusta Chron- icle reported that some of the applications of the credulous gentlemen who had filed their applications with Gov. Bullock for relief from their
432
BULLOCK'S VICTORY COMPLETE.
disabilities, were lying in the Executive office. The mingled game of intimidation and relief had been partially successful.
The next step in the programme was learned from the Democrats themselves, and that was seating the next highest candidates. Gov. Bullock recommended this, afraid to run the gauntlet of an election. The highest were seated. There were vacancies, but the Executive withheld orders to fill them by election for months.
The next battle was over the election of a Speaker of the House, and an important one it was. With a friendly presiding officer the Demo- crats had much to gain. Here, with an inexcusable blundering, they threw away the chance. Bryant was selected as the candidate of the Democrats and Conservative Republicans, and was defeated by R. L. Mc Whorter, because ten Democrats refused to go for Bryant. Five of them, Harrison, McArthur, Parks, Radish and Smith voted for Mc- Whorter. V. P. Sisson threw away his vote on John Smith, and Rawls, Irwin, Tumlin and Welchell voted for Price, who refused to be a candi- date. A personal collision occurred between J. E. Bryant on the one side, and the Blodgetts, Tweedy and Fitzpatrick, in which they bruised Bryant.
The victory of Bullock was complete. He had absolute control of the legislature. Thirty-one negroes re-seated, and twenty-four Demo- crats ousted and Republicans in their places made the General Assem- bly overwhelmingly Republican. There was an under-current of move- ment running along concurrently with the public events that would be very interesting. The restless conflict of secret chicanery, the partial successes on cach side, nipped untimely, would make a readable chapter. There is no doubt that Gov. Bullock's bold usurpations endangered his official tenure. Several times the Democrats, by unity, had in their grasp control of the situation. Every conceivable influence was brought to bear to destroy the compact integrity of the Democratic organiza- tion. And sometimes honest weakness was as damaging as venality.
Nothing will better show the spirit of the men controlling this body than the offering of a resolution, that only those reporters should be allowed to be present that gave fair reports.
Gov. Bullock sent in a message to the legislature that foreshadowed the balance of his comprehensive and revolutionary programme. He was certainly playing a bold and desperate game of ambition. The message was an able one, but bitter as gall. It slandered the peaceful- ness of the State to the full. It argued that the State was simply a mili- tary province, with a provisional government existing by caprice. The
433
1
EXTRAORDINARY RECONSTRUCTION STRUGGLE.
whole purpose of the message was to secure new United States Sena- tors, and pave the way for getting Congress to prolong his term, and the term of the legislature two additional years. He advised the rati- fication of both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, though the Fourteenth had already been ratified. But his theory was that there had been no reconstruction, that the first ratification was invalid, and that every thing must be done over again. The obedient legislature, in spite of Democratic protest, ratified the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and the expurgation of the Relief clause in the Con- stitution, and adjourned until the 14th of February. On the 15th of February the body elected a new batch of United States Senators. R. II. Whitely was elected in Dr. Miller's place, until March, 1871, and HI. P. Farrow in Joshua Hill's place, until March, 1873. The duty of select- ing a senator for the term ending March, 1877, belonged properly to the next General Assembly that would follow this one. This body was not to be chouselled out of the privilege, and elected Foster Blodgett Sena- tor for that long term. The legislature then adjourned on the 2nd, un- til the 14th of February.
This extraordinary reconstruction struggle was transferred to the Halls of Congress, and the new phases upon a national arena were among the most notable of this racy farce. Bullock hurried to Wash- ington on the adjournment of the legislature, to engineer his schemes in person. He had been marvelously successful before. He was des- tined this time to some hard defeats. Men cannot always succeed in the wrong.
The Judiciary Committee was instructed to inquire whether the Georgia Legislature was organized properly. Bullock had an uphill time. He found the set of things against him. Bryant, Osgood and Caldwell were there opposing him actively. Bullock had Blodgett, Tweedy, Conley, John Rice and Judge Gibson giving him aid. He . finally left in disgust, and Judge Gibson made an argument for him before the committee. The legislature re-assembled on the 14th, elected Senators as we have stated, and adjourned on the 17th of February until the 18th of April, 18:0, to await the action of Congress.
Gov. Bullock returned to Washington to resume his momentous fight. He went at it with his gloves off. He invoked every influence that could purchase or win. The Slander Mill was put vigorously to work. He sought every aid possible. He argued before the com- mittees. He enlisted every legislative power. A correspondent of the New York World reported that his expenses were 8100 a day. The 28
434
BULLOCK DEFEATED IN THE HOUSE.
matter excited a national interest. The ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment was being delayed for the passage of the Georgia bill. There was no longer any motive to deal any farther harshness. to Georgia. The credentials of Whiteley and Farrow were presented in the Senate and withdrawn. Hill and Miller having been elected before the negro members were expelled, there was a decided disposition to seat them.
The main fight that Bullock was making, however, was to have the whole thing declared provisional with a view to removing objectionable officers who had condemned the extreme measures of the Bullock dynasty, and get Congress to make the term of the dynasty begin with restoration to representation. It was a heavy blow when the House Committee reported against every act of the 're-organization of the Georgia Legislature. It condemned the use of A. L. Harris, the seat- ing of the next highest candidates, and the reference of the question of eligibility to the Military Board. A warm discussion ensued in the House. And finally the action was a grave defeat for Bullock. The bill was passed restoring Georgia with an Amendment of Mr. Bingham preventing interference with officers or prolonging terms. The bill went to the Senate, and the struggle over it there was long and severe.
The crushing disaster in the House nerved Gov. Bullock to renewed efforts. The man's persistence, resources and savagery, were phenom- enal. His gameness was worthy of a better cause. He enlisted Forney's paper to champion his project, paying his establishment $4,459 for work and services. He had a delegation of the negro members of the Georgia Legislature to visit Washington, and file a protest against the Bingham Amendment, to whom he advanced $1,400 for expenses. He induced the negro Senator Revels to make a speech against it. He got up a large meeting in Washington. His expenditures in Washington ran to $14,500, as elicited by the United States Senate investigating committee, that was appointed to look into certain charges of bribery that were made, of which he showed the committee a considerable part spent on private account. His hotel accounts alone were $1,868 for a few weeks, as testified by the proprietors of Willard's hotel.
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The gravest matter connected with this painful Georgia episode in the United States Senate was, that the investigating committee, Messrs. Trumbull, Edmunds, Conkling, Sherman and Carpenter, reported evi- dence showing that improper means had been used to influence the Senate on this Georgia measure. Mr. James Hughes swore that Lewis
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435
REPUBLICAN CONDEMNATION OF BULLOCK.
Porter, assistant postmaster of Washington, told him that $10,000 of Georgia railroad bonds would be "put up" to influence the vote of Senator Carpenter on the Bingham Amendment. H. M. Atkinson, a son-in-law of Senator Tipton, swore that a man named Gibbs offered to give $1,000 if Tipton would vote against the Bingham Amendment. Two members of the committee, Stewart and Rice, dissent from the majority of the committee in censuring Gov. Bullock.
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