.'.~ '\' . .. . .". .~ .....~~~ ......\ ~~..... FAMOUS GEORGIANS Georgia Department of Archives and History Publication Number 76-BC-1 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 76-3241 Coleman, Kenneth and Erney, Jackie. Famous Georgians. Atlanta: Georgia Department of Archives and History, 1976. Famous Georgians is a Bicentennial publication of the Georgia Department of Archives and History and the Georgia Commission for the National Bicentennial Celebration, divisions of the Office of Secretary of State, Ben W. Fortson, Jr. Additional copies of Famous Georgians may be ordered by sending a $2.50 check or money order post paid to: Famous Georgians Georgia Commission for the National Bicentennial Celebration Suite 520, South Wing 1776 Peachtree Street Northwest Atlanta, Georgia 30309 Additional copies available for sale at the Georgia Department of Archives and History, 330 Capitol Ave., SE, Atlanta, Georgia 30334 8 '~~~' ~ r~-~~.~~.i r_:-:.-.t I'.,-~....\.'..;~ ,il",,.' Contents FAMOUS 4 An Introduction to Georgia History 16 James Edward Oglethorpe 18 Sir James Wright 20 Button Gwinnett 22 Lyman Hall 24 George Walton 26 Abraham Baldwin 28 William Few 30 Elijah Clarke 32 William Harris Crawford 34 Sequoyah 36 Augustus Baldwin Longstreet 38 Crawford Williamson Long 40 Sidney Clopton Lanier 42 Alexander Hamilton Stephens 44 Robert Augustus Toombs 46 Joseph Emerson Brown 48 Howell Cobb 50 Benjamin Harvey Hill 52 John Brown Gordon 54 Henry Woodfin Grady 56 Joel Chandler Harris 58 Thomas Edward Watson 60 Rebecca Latimer Felton 62 Hoke Smith 64 Martha Berry 66 Margaret Mitchell 68 Walter Franklin George 70 Martin Luther King, J r. 72 Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. APPENDIX 74 Editors and Authors 76 Bibliography 80 Credits and Acknowledgements GEORGIANS ~~~"~~ ~ltfI>. .(1 An Introduction to Georgia History by James C. Bonner r------ J'--~ r: O~~l a O'fiii~ \fiI 4 _r ,Joo~-::-S"~~.' COLONIAL GEORGIA Founded against a backdrop of imperialistic rivalry among England, France and Spain, in a time tempered by humanitarianism, the colony of Georgia reflected from the start diverse political goals. The bold experiment, as conceived by British political leaders in the late 1720s, was to fulfill England's needs for both military security and social reform. In 1729, James Edward Oglethorpe, a member of Parliament, chaired a committee appointed to investigate conditions in the English penal system. Appalled by the plight of imprisoned debtors ofgood character, Oglethorpe and a group of humanitarian reformers sought alternatives to jail for the financially distressed. (See: Oglethorpe, pp. 16-17) Oglethorpe suggested, and others agreed, that the more respectable inmates in debtors' prisons would be excellent settlers of a new colony in America. There they could be saved from decay and, at the same time, become an economic asset to the nation. The widely promoted idea for the new colony swept England, and other charitable impulses soon entered discussions on the project. English Protestants suggested that the new colony should be a refuge for Protestants in other countries suffering religious persecution. Philanthropists hoped Georgia would offer the poor a new start with free land, Christian fellowship, and protection from such moral evils as liquor and slavery. The purely charitable objectives for Georgia were soon modified to include more practical ones. Militarists argued that a buffer colony south of the Savannah River would relieve Carolinians of the dread of Spanish invasion from Florida, and, at the same time, substitute debtor blood for that of established Carolinians in the event of an attack from the south. British merchants also injected the profit motive into the scheme, arguing that Georgia's rich coastal areas could produce many products such as silk, olives, wines and tropical fruits. These products had to be procured from foreigners in distant lands, a practice which drained England's monetary resources contrary to the mercantilist theory. The conflicting purposes of genuine charity, Although Georgia's founding was closely identified national defense, and mercantile profit proved to be with Oglethorpe's concern for freeing imprisoned an unbeatable combination. Georgia received finan- debtors, Georgia never became a haven for the incar- cial support from both private charity and public cerated. Probably no more than a dozen men were funds. Parliament contributed more money to the ever sent to the colony directly from English prisons. Georgia experiment than to any other colony in There were also few blacks in Georgia during the America. trustee period because slavery was prohibited in the The privately-founded colony was managed by a colony until 1750. However, once the prohibition board of trustees who obtained their authority was removed, the black population grew rapidly. through a twenty-one-year charter from the king. Despite the efforts of the trustees to achieve The group of 125 carefully screened settlers who first their novel objectives, all of their idealistic plans arrived on February 12, 1733 were governed initially collapsed by 1750. Silk production was both un- by General Oglethorpe, the first administrative head profitable and unpopular. The people protested the of the colony. As resident trustee, Oglethorpe was prohibition against rum as well as the law banning often considered superior to the officials in Savannah. slavery. They also objected to the policy of making A little more than a year later, the first group of pitifully small grants of land and to the lack of a Salzburgers arrived and settled at Ebenezer a few representative assembly. Practically all of these de- miles north of Savannah. The Salzburgers were Aus- mands had been met by the trustees when they sur- trian Germans of the Lutheran faith who had been rendered their charter in 1752 and Georgia became persecuted by Catholic authorities. They were de- a royal colony. vout, industrious and intelligent, and they became the best farmers in the colony. Approximately fifty women and children accom- THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION panied the 130 Scotchmen who reached Georgia in Under the crown the colony prospered and grew. 1735. Seasoned fighters from the Highlands, they With the elimination of the trustees' old restrictions, were sent by Oglethorpe to the frontier outpost of Georgia became remarkably similar to the Carolinas Darien. Others followed, and soon the Scotch spread with a governor, a council, an elected assembly, to St. Simons Island where Fort Frederica was con- and a court system. In 1758, Georgia was divided 5 structed in 1736. Frederica was the most expensive into eight parishes or administrative areas; four more fortification ever built by the British in North Ameri- were added in 1765. ca for defense against the Spanish. Small groups of Sir James Wright, the last of Georgia's three royal Portugese Jews and Italians also came to Georgia, governors, came to office in 1760. He was an honest, settling near Savannah and in outlying areas. able and efficient administrator and was well liked Tensions between the colonists and the neigh- by the people. A devoted loyalist, it was his misfor- boring Creek Indians, although never great, were tune to be in office at the time of the colony's revolt reduced by 1735 following the building of a fort at against the mother country. (See: Wright, pp. 18-19) the falls of the Savannah River. The town of Augusta Georgia's population grew rapidly under Wright's grew up around the fort and it became an important administration to include between 40,000 and center for the Indian trade. 50,000 people by the outbreak of the Revolution. Oglethorpe made two trips to England, in 1735 and The Scotch-Irish arrived in increasing numbers after 1738, each time returning with more settlers. In 1738, 1768, and the Negro population had increased dra- after having been commissioned as commander-in- matically to nearly half of this total. chief of the British forces in Georgia and South Migration to Georgia was encouraged by the Carolina, Oglethorpe brought a regiment of troops to cession of Indian lands after the Treaty of Paris Georgia. ended the French and Indian War in 1763. The War broke out between the British and the Spanish availability of fertile land drew new settlers from the in 1739, but the Georgia-Florida border proved to be older colonies who were well steeped in British only a minor battleground in the War of Jenkins' Ear. political traditions. Most of these newcomers settled Oglethorpe made several unsuccessful advances against in Georgia's frontier up-country with the exception the Spanish in 1740 before finally defeating them at of 350 Puritans who established their home at Mid- the Battle of Bloody Marsh. When the threat of way in 1752. These liberty-minded Congregational- Spanish invasion was over and there were no more ists would form the strongest single block of revo- battles to fight, Oglethorpe returned to England for lutionary opposition to the crown anywhere on the the last time in 1743. coast of Georgia. In the 1760s a few Georgians owned large planta- tions near the coast, but most citizens were small, independent farmers with holdings of 100 to 250 acres. The colony's proximity to the British West Indies provided a ready market for their agricultural products of rice, indigo, naval stores and lumber. From the islands came imports of molasses, rum, sugar and slaves. Georgia was still largely dependent upon England for manufactured goods and therefore closely tied to the mother country. Many Georgians were confused and politically dis- organized in the 1760s when the more radical north- ern colonists began to polarize into anti- and pro- British groups. The British policy changes which antagonized other American colonies had less ap- Patriots break open the British powder ma,~azine in Savannah. plication in Georgia where there were many reasons - political, ideological and economic - for remaining sembly. By 1774, meetings were held in Savannah to loyal to the crown. discuss possible courses of action and to establish Settled just thirty years, Georgia had a limited a committee of correspondence. The most inde- import/export industry and ample lands for westward pendence-minded parish, St. John's, was led by settlement. Georgia also had one of the longest and Button Gwinnett and Lyman Hall, two of Georgia's most dangerously exposed frontiers of any of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. (See: thirteen rebel colonies. In the event of war she Gwinnett, pp. 20-21; Hall, pp. 22-23) would be attacked from Florida which had been in The first six months of 177 5 were marked by British hands since 1763, and she would be open riots, occasional violence, and a raid upon the powder to Indian attacks on her northern and western bor- magazine in Savannah. In June, Governor Wright ders. announced to the king that he no longer had control (j Sporadic protests against the Sugar Act in 1764 of the colony. During July, the Whig provincial and the Stamp Act in 1765 were non-violent and congress met in Savannah and created an interim short-lived. With the passage of the Townsend Reve- civil government for Georgia. The Georgia congress nue Acts in 1767, however, more Georgians became voted to end all diplomatic and trade relations increasingly sympathetic to the anti-British senti- with Britain and to support all the measures of the ments developing in the northern colonies. Continental Congress. Representatives from Georgia Georgia's position as a small, poor colony pro- were selected to attend the Second Continental duced a unique political division between the older Congress, then in session in Philadelphia. In Febru- inhabitants and the young. Many established settlers ary, 1776, Governor Wright abandoned his efforts and recent arrivals from Britain still had close ties to retain royal control over the colony and fled with of sentiment and kinship with the mother country, other British officials to England. and they pursued a conservative loyalist course. The Whigs were in control of the government at Younger citizens often felt more distinctly American Savannah by 1776, and, thereafter, most Georgians and aligned themselves with the anti-British militant supported the goal of independence. A great many Whigs. Such divisions often appeared within indi- Georgians remained loyal to George III, however, vidual families, resulting in tragic, if not irreversible because the Whigs were frequently disorganized and splits between father and son. There were also many ineffective. Over 1,000 loyalists left the colony for citizens - perhaps even a majority - who did not the British strongholds of St. Augustine, Florida and wish to commit themselves either to the patriot or the West Indies. to the loyalist cause. Many of them, like John J. Zub- In April of 1776, Georgia organized an official ley, opposed Parliament's right to rule the people revolutionary government by adopting a set of without representation, but they firmly rejected the temporary "rules and regulations." Early in the idea of total independence. following year, a more permanent document was The revolutionary zeal of other colonies gradually drawn up. This state constitution was extremely stirred some Georgians. From 1769 to 1773, patriotic democratic by the standards of that day as it gave leaders argued endlessly with Governor Wright over voting power to most of the white, adult male popu- such matters as taxation and the rights of the as- lation. THE REVOLUTION IN GEORGIA During the first three years of the war, from 1776 through most of 177 8, Georgia authorities carried out three separate attempts to capture the British stronghold at St. Augustine. All of these expeditions failed due to poor planning, faulty logistics and personal quarrels among the Whig leaders. In late 1778, the British shifted their own offensive to the south where they hoped to find allies among the local Indians and loyalists. The southern theatre of war was directed by Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell. In Georgia he led 2,000 Hessians and Tories against Savannah where the defender, General Robert Howe, had fewer than 700 troops. Howe failed to use the impassable marshes around Savannah for an effective defense, and Campbell battled on to Augusta, arriving without the loss of a single man. The river town quickly fell to Campbell's forces. The British were unable to maintain their initial advantage, however, because the rebels quickly recovered and Campbell's anticipated flood of Indian and loyalist support never materialized. The British withdrew from Augusta in February, 1779, when General John Ashe arrived at the fort with 1,200 patriot troops. At the same time, a group of 700 Tories were defeated at Kettle Creek in Wilkes County by Whig militia units under colonels Andrew Pickens, John Dooley and Elijah Clarke. Despite this major victory, disunity continued to plague the Whig forces and confuse the political situation in Georgia. Instead of following the state constitution, the re-established Whig government named a supreme executive council of nine men which claimed almost dictatorial control over the state. Dissention among the Whigs resulted in the formation of a second Whig government which, under the direction of George Walton, challenged the control of the council. (See: Walton, pp. 24-25) While the Whigs quarrelled over ideology and jurisdiction, Sir James Wright, the ousted royal governor, returned to Savannah and restored the crown's authority along the coast. With approximately 50,000 people, Georgia now had three governments, none of which could exercise complete authority. Augusta was then reoccupied by the British. The shaken rebels regrouped, establishing the new Whig capitol at Heard's Fort, a stockade deep in the backcountry at the future site of Washington in Wilkes County. The crowning patriot disaster of the war in Georgia came in the wake of these bleak events. In the fall of 1779, a gigantic effort was mounted to drive the British from Savannah by a combination of Continental troops under General Benjamin Lincoln and a strong French naval force under Count d'Estaing. After three weeks of seige operations, the effort ended in dismal failure. Encouraged by these Whig defeats, nearly 1,400 Georgia loyalists returned from hiding to announce their allegiance to King George III. The only remaining stronghold of real Whig power anywhere in the state was Wilkes County, an area which had been settled after 1773 by colonials largely from the backcountry of Virginia and the Carolinas. They held a stronger commitment to independence and the Revolution than Georgians living along the coast, and they simply refused to acknowledge defeat. Savage guerilla fighting continued among the Tories and Whigs in the backcountry where the Whigs maintained the advantage. Georgia's principal folk heroes of the Revolution emerged from the skirmishes carried on in the area north of Augusta. Elijah Clarke was undoubtedly the most significant of these heroes. Although illiterate, he was endowed with a tenacious courage which made him the kind of leader the times demanded. During the darkest hours of the war, when the military situation seemed utterly hopeless, Clarke worked tirelessly to recapture the frontier from Tory control. In May, 1781, Clarke assisted Continental commander Anthony Wayne in an effort to retake Augusta from the Tories. The seige was successful, and the fort returned to Whig control. (See: Clarke, pp. 30-31) Coastal Georgia remained in British hands long after the patriot victories in the up-country. Savannah was not reoccupied by patriot forces until six months after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown when the war had virtually ended. The British actually made a quiet and orderly withdrawal from the port under orders from supreme headquarters in New York. Thus, whatever claims Georgians might make in the future for having defeated the British would have to be based on patriot victories in the upcountry. ANTEBELLUM GEORGIA By the end of the Revolution nearly a third of Georgia's population resided north of Augusta. The important role which these settlers had played in the war led to a shift in political power from the coast to to backwoods. One result of this was the transfer of the capital from the coast to the frontier. From 1786 to 1795, Augusta served as the seat of the new government, after which time it was moved to Louis- ville. Later still, in 1803, a new capital was laid out on the west bank of the Oconee River. Known as Milledgeville, it remained the capital city from 1807 to 1868. After the war, the rebels began to strengthen themselves for effective government. Two Geor- gians, Abraham Baldwin and William Few, signed the U.S. Constitution in 1788 on behalf of Georgia. Georgia's capitol at Milledgeville. During the seven years of the war, growth and de- velopment had ceased. After the fighting, the govern- Republicans and they tagged the pro-Yazoo poli- ment of Georgia began to encourage settlement, to ticians as Tories and Federalists. By turning these deal with the returning Tories and to award war corruptionists out of office and inaugurating a highly veterans with land. (See: Baldwin, pp. 26-27; Few, democratic system of land distribution, the anti- pp. 28-29) Yazooists did much to give Georgia a strong J effer- A unifying theme of Georgia history for fifty years sonian following. following the Revolution was the organization and The new land distribution system required that all distribution of the state's vast public domain. When Indian territorial cessions be surveyed in orderly, 8 the war ended, Georgia's unsettled lands stretched rectilinear, farm-sized parcels and then given away from the Ogeechee River to the Mississippi and em- by lottery to eligible Georgia citizens. At the same braced more than ninety million acres. The state time, the state handed the Yazoo problem to the was generous in its bounty grants to war veterans, and federal government. Georgia's western boundary was speculation in its lands was rampant. Unsuspecting established when the state transferred to the federal buyers from other states were often sold bogus grants government all of its lands west of the Chattahoochee to nonexistent lands in the 1790s. Known as the Pine River. Barrens Speculation, the fraud was conceived and Settlement and agriculture flourished between carried out by dishonest public officials. 1803 and 1832 as people moved into the thirty In 1794, war-hero Elijah Clarke attempted to take million acres which the state distributed in seven land advantage of the state's difficulties in obtaining lotteries. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 cessions of land from the Creek Indians. Leading a gave these lands added value, and the state's farmers small private army, he endeavored to carve out a paid increasing attention to cotton, a new cash crop. "Trans-Oconee Republic" along the western bank of Georgia's population more than tripled between 1800 the Oconee River. The venture had vast speculative and 1830, rising from 162,682 to 516,823 persons. implications; and when state government officials Most of the land given away in the lotteries became intervened at federal insistence, Clarke's scheme col- the finest cotton land in middle Georgia. lapsed. Clarke was never brought to trial and it is From 1800 to 1860, the state struggled with the doubtful that any Georgia jury would have convicted problems of rapid growth and expansion. A program him of treason. of constructive liberalism was formulated from the During the following year, the corrupt state legis- politics of the rough frontier society, and significant lature sold to land companies thirty-five million acres changes occurred in Georgia. Government liberalism of Georgia's western territory at one-and-one-half had already been manifested as early as 1785 when cents an acre. Known as the Yazoo Fraud, it had Georgia became the first state to charter a public violent and far-reaching repercussions which traveled university and to plan for statewide public education. all the way to the nation's capital. Led by ex-Senator The trend continued with the establishment of a James Jackson, the anti-Yazooists called themselves penal system which replaced the barbaric practice Georgia's cotton industry boomed after Eli Whitney's gin mechanized the fiber cleaning process. 9 of hanging criminals in public. After 1817, the courts sent offenders to the penitentiary where they could learn a useful trade. In 1824, the governorship By 1830 political leaders began to identify them- became elective by popular vote, long before J ack- selves with economic problems and national issues sonian Democracy brought this change in many such as the tariff, nullification, slavery, and the other states. About the same time, a central state national banking system. The Clarkites generally bank opened to grant long-term loans at low interest became unionists and followers of Andrew Jackson, rates; and, by 1850, a state-owned railroad ran from and eventually drifted into the Democratic party. Atlanta to Chattanooga. During the early 1800s, The Troupites tended to oppose Andrew Jackson as great advances in science and art were made by a national leader and to call themselves State Right- people like Crawford W. Long, Sequoyah, and Au- ers. During the 1840s most Troupites drifted into the gustus Baldwin Longstreet. (See: Long, pp. 38-39; newly formed Whig party. Sequoyah, pp. 34-35; Longstreet, pp. 36-37) The decade of the 1850s was generally a prosper- Political life in Georgia did not center around ous one; and, by 1860, there were 1,890 manufactur- issues until two decades before the Civil War. Per- ing plants in Georgia. Despite a rise in manufacturing sonal, family, and sectional loyalties often were prin- activity, the vast bulk of Georgians remained small cipal considerations in an election contest. When farmers in the years preceding the Civil War. In the James Jackson died in 1806 his following was in- census of 1860, only 2,858 white families out of a herited by William H. Crawford and later by George total of 118,000 described themselves as planters, M. Troup who appealed largely to plantation masters and only 6,363 Georgians owned twenty slaves or and the coastal merchants. Georgia's up-country more. Specializing in the production of cotton and pioneers and small farmers aligned themselves with rice, the small planter elite exercised an influence far leader John Clark. Political differences were often in excess of its numbers. Their superior wealth, resolved with bloody and fatal duels, many of them leisure, training and abilities enabled the planters to involving the state's highest officials. (See: Crawford, dominate the social, political and economic life of pp. 32-33) the state. ifU.l Although initially reluctant to secede from the Union, Georgia committed herself to the cause and made a valiant effort in the armed conflict which followed. Georgia supplied over 120,000 soldiers to SECESSION AND CIVIL WAR the Confederate military establishment, and many of Georgians, like other Southerners, were in general her leaders played important roles in the newly agreement on the expansion of slavery into the formed Confederate government. Robert Toombs western territories, the Mexican War, the annexation served as secretary of state, and Alexander H. of Texas, and the admission of California to the Stephens, although opposed to secession, was elected Union. However, only on abolition and its social vice-president. Georgian Thomas R. R. Cobb was the implications to a dominant white society were some principal author of the Confederate constitution, inclined to form what could be called hard-core and Benjamin Harvey Hill served in the Confederate opposition. senate throughout the war. (See: Toombs, pp. 44-45; Since the great majority of Georgians owned no Stephens, pp. 42-43; Hill, pp. 50-51) slaves and had no direct economic interest in pre- At first the war acted as a great stimulus to the serving that institution, it is sometimes puzzling to state's economy, particularly in the manufacturing understand why the state was swept into secession sector as arms, munitions, clothing and textiles were in 1861. A brief summary of the political stance of in great demand. In the last two years of the war, Joseph E. Brown sheds some light on the situation. however, great shortages developed in skilled labor, (See: Brown, pp. 46-47) machinery, materials, and in cotton and food pro- Brown was elected governor as a dark horse candi- duction. Higher education suffered with army enlist- date in 1857, and he held that office throughout the ments, and most of Georgia's colleges were closed for Civil War until his arrest by federal authorities in a time during the war. 1865. Although raised among slaveless small farmers Protection of the port of Savannah and Georgia's in a mountain community where very little cotton vulnerable coast were primary concerns in the first was grown, Brown favored secession. He ardently years of the war. The Confederacy's inadequate navy believed that withdrawal from the Union would serve could not repel the Union forces. In late 1861 Tybee 10 the best interests of mountaineers and non-slave Island was occupied; Fort Pulaski fell in April, 1862; owners alike. Brown argued that freeing slaves would and the town of Darien was burned in July, 1863. reduce small land owners to the status of tenant Union occupation of these coastal areas effectively farmers by placing them in direct competition with eliminated Savannah as a major port for the Con- the black man. He championed white rights based federacy. Throughout 1862 and 1863, military action on his personal fears of social and political equality, in Georgia centered around protection of both river and his belief that the mixing of the races would and canal access to the interior of the state and the inevitably result. Western Atlantic Railroad, an important Confederate Howell Cobb and Robert Toombs also urged supply carrier. secession, but they spoke more for the affluent Joseph E. Brown served as governor throughout planters and did not use the theme of the "White the war with the great mass of the common people Man's Country." Significantly, they represented loyally supporting him. Great criticism was leveled the group which had little to fear from the threat at Brown, however, for his continuing opposition to of social and political equality. (See: Cobb, pp. the policies of Jefferson Davis and for his placement 48-49) of Georgia's rights before those of the Confederacy In the election of delegates to the secession con- as a whole. Known as the Confederacy's most un- vention, it is noteworthy that 37,000 Georgians cooperative governor, he battled with authorities in voted for delegates who opposed the movement Richmond throughout the war. Brown stubbornly while only 50,000 stood for immediate action to refused to compromise even when General William dissolve the Union. Despite Brown's crusade to lead T. Sherman was hammering at Georgia's northern them toward secession, the people of the mountains passes with Atlanta as his principal target. That and those living in the Pine Barrens cast a majority youthful city, with less than 12,000 inhabitants, had vote in support of the Union. The convention made become one of the more strategic transportation Georgia an independent nation similar in law to the centers in the Confederacy. Atlanta's railroads, shops, Union it rejected, and appointed delegates to a warehouses and ordnance stores were essential to the Confederate convention of representatives from all supply of Confederate armies in both Virginia and seceding states. Tennessee. Freedmen register to vote for the first time. RECONSTRUCTION AND RECOVERY At the end of the war, Georgia's state government was replaced by federal military authorities who were charged with re-orienting Georgia to its proper place in the Union. The Constitutional Convention of 1865, although Georgia's major military action began in 1864 not a brilliant one, complied with the moderate rewith the invasion of 99,000 Union troops under the guirements of President Andrew Johnson for the command of General Sherman. Confederate General readmission of a state into the Union. However, beJoseph E. Johnston had fought Sherman from Chatta- fore Georgia's representatives could be seated in nooga to Kennesaw Mountain, but he was replaced by Congress, the Radical Republicans in Washington General John B. Hood just as the forty-five-day seige passed more severe readmission reguirements. The of Atlanta began. After some gallant fighting against new demands included, among other things, a guaran- overwhelming odds, Hood turned northward into tee of state and national citizenship to all black freed- 11 Tennessee hoping to lure his antagonist out of Geor- men. Georgia and ten other Southern states rejected gia. The ruse failed, and Sherman's response was to the plan and were denied readmission to the Union. destroy Atlanta and cut across Georgia to Savannah. Subseguently, in March, 1867, Georgia became He left Atlanta a charred ruin on November 15, 1864, part of the Third Military District under General then carved a path of destruction more than forty John Pope, who was later succeeded by General miles wide through middle Georgia. Espousing the George Meade. Following instructions from Congress, concept of total war, Sherman's armies lived on Pope began a process of "de-rebelizing" the area plunder gleaned from the rich plantation belt. They under his jurisdiction. Pope's plan excluded Georgia's burned bridges and some civilian establishments, more experienced and capable white leaders from the killed livestock and wrecked most of Georgia's railroads. Sherman arrived in Savannah in late December of the same year, leaving behind a legacy of over $100 million in property damage. With Sherman's occupation of the coast, military opposition to the federal government came to a virtual end. The war ended just four months later, in April, 1865. Soon after General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, President Jefferson Davis was captured in a flight across southern Georgia, near Irwinville. Federal military authorities arrested electorate. More than 10,000 white Georgians were barred from the political process while 93,000 freedmen were registered to vote. In December, 1867, the constitutional convention chosen by this new electorate met at the Atlanta City Hall. In the political confusion which preceded and followed the selection of this site, the capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta, the new hub of Georgia's economic recovery and development. The convention included several prominent black delegates, among them Henry McNeal Turner of Macon. Governor Brown and other prominent leaders, often Aaron Bradley, a New York-born Savannah resident, taking many of them to northern prisons to await a and Tunis G. Campbell of Mclntosh County. There Union trial. Vengeance was not uncommon in the were approximately thirty additional black members post-war hysteria and some Confederate officials of the convention. Mostly all of the delegates, black like Henry Wirz, commandant of Andersonville and white, were handicapped by their lack of pre- prison, were hanged. ~ vious political experience. The constitution which they framed and ratified in July, 1868, was not entirely bad. Among other things, it provided for a real public school system, porations. A new form of legal slavery, this inhumane even though it did not guarantee funds for its sup- and shameful practice became the principal target port. By ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment, it of such reformers as Rebecca Latimer Felton during approved of the enfranchisement of the blacks. the latter part of the nineteenth century. (See: Many of the white Republicans were newcomers to Felton, pp. 60-61) the state, and soon became known among native The post-Reconstruction rulers were dominated by Georgians as Carpetbaggers. a new class of industrialists and businessmen who Since actions taken by the new government were stood for low taxes and minimum services by govern- backed by federal occupation troops, the threat of ment. Rising to the unprecedented leadership of this political domination by blacks and Unionists en- group were ex-Governor Joseph E. Brown; a former couraged most whites to vote solidly as Democrats. planter, Alfred H. Colquitt; and ex-Confederate The Democrats controlled the legislature and often General John B. Gordon. This Janus-like triad repre- countermanded the orders of Republican Governor sented the most appealing characteristics of the re- Rufus B. Bullock. The actions of this legislature cent past as well as the developing concepts of the caused Georgia to be placed under political Recon- New South. Known as the "Bourbon Triumvirate," struction two more times before the state was finally they swapped the governorship and congressional admitted into the Union in 1870. After the removal posts among themselves from 1876 to 1890. Al- of the troops in 1871, the native whites regained though Democrats, they found congenial company control of the state by clinging tenaciously to the among the northern industrial leaders who were one-party system which had been their means of Republicans. Henry W. Grady, editor of the Atlanta victory. Constitution, was closely identified with this group. Three political reconstructions and six years of In his editorials he insisted that the South repudiate effort to be readmitted to the Union left the state its old agrarian traditions and get aboard the in- with a crushing debt, a legacy of bitter hatred be- dustrial bandwagon. (See: Gordon, pp. 52-53; Grady, tween blacks and whites, and a penchant for violence pp. 54-55) 12 and corruption in political life. Sherman's invasion The Bourbons' strong attachment to the dispensa- was transitory and of less significance than the tion of industry and their inattentiveness to the prob- dreadful spiritual hangover which resulted from lems of small farmers ultimately aroused great opposi- Reconstruction. tion. Defection appeared in the Democratic party as Escape from the dreary post-war realities for many early as 1874 when William H. Felton began the In- took the form of glorifying the antebellum years. The dependent movement in Georgia. This movement was romance of Georgia's former plantation life and the premature and short-lived because Bourbon control pathos of the Lost Cause have been vividly recorded of election machinery helped them to prolong their in works by literary giants like poet Sidney Lanier, rule. The demise of the movement was also due to a southern journalist and folklorist Joel Chandler Harris wide-spread fear that a split of the Democratic party and modern novelist Margaret Mitchell. (See: Lanier, into Bourbons and Independents would bring a return pp. 40-41; Harris, pp. 56-57; Mitchell, pp. 66-67) of the Republicans who, with black votes, could In economic life the problems and adjustments regain control of the state. This fear proved ground- were severe. The new farm labor system was based on less, however, because the Republican party was the unprofitable and exploitive practice of share- hopelessly rent with its own internal racial struggles. cropping which victimized both black and poor white A second radical movement in the late nineteenth families. While most of the blacks tended to remain century was the Farmers Alliance. While organized in the communities where they had worked before for the general well-being of farmers, it had a broad the war, many drifted to the towns where they lived political program which included government regula- in jerry~built houses on the periphery of the white tion of big business, road building, better public community. Here they found menial employment schools and abolition of the convict lease system. By and fell victim to disease and to an equally sinister 1890 its membership had grown to such an extent presence - local law enforcement officers. The law that the Democratic party was forced to embrace was used as a method of re-establishing white racial many Alliance platforms in order to win elections. dominance and many blacks were sent to prison. The Democratic party, displaying its digestive Overcrowded conditions in the penitentiary led to a capacity for any program which carried votes, swal- plan of leasing convicts to private persons and cor- lowed the Alliance. The Democrats failed to defeat The Populist movement in Georgia began to wane by 1900, but for the next two decades it continued The exploitive practice of sharecropping victimized both to hold together a number of die-hard followers. Fre- black and white farmers after the Civil War. quently it held the balance of power in state elections through the often sinister manipulations of its leader, -~ - - - - Thomas E. Watson, who used his influence to sway votes. In 1906, for example, he agreed to throw his influence behind Hoke Smith for governor in return for the latter's support of a law to disfranchise the Negro. This was executed two years later through passage of a re-registration law with such stringent requirements that blacks found it difficult to qualify. (See: Watson, pp. 58-59; Smith, pp. 62-63) In the early decades of the twentieth century nearly all Georgia politicians supported white su- premacy, lower taxes, minimum government services and the Democratic party which had now embraced some Populist principles. Racism remained rampant and the Ku Klux Klan was a major force in state politics. The social condition of the Negro had improved little by the turn of the century. Neither in the factory nor on the diversified farm was the Negro able to find room for advancement. He remained essentially a cotton-growing tenant farmer, and in the towns he was largely confined to menial labor. With- out a viable party and in the face of discriminatory voting laws, many black leaders turned away from 13 politics and began the task of improving the lives of their people through the slow and tedious process of education. In this they faced many obstacles, but they were aided by the establishment of the heavily endowed Atlanta University Center which would become the largest educational institution for black people in the world. Spurred by the Civil War and encouraged by the Bourbons, industry continued to develop, although largely limited to the production of cheap cotton textiles. Mill workers were recruited from the ranks of tenant farmers, and the mill village became an ugly by-product of Georgia's unbalanced industrial growth. Wages were low, hours were long, and the working day was regulated by the factory whistle. Despite a slight rise in manufacturing activity, Geor- gia was still chiefly agricultural, with cotton serving their Bourbon enemies, however, and the result was as the most important crop until the scourge of the the formation of the Peoples party whose adherents boll weevil in the 1920s. Two decades of agricultural were called Populists. The Populists were even more prosperity ended just after World War I when an radical than the Alliance supporters had been, and agricultural depression struck rural Georgia. The they suffered the same fate, although they waged a decline in agricultural production forced many people, longer and more valiant battle. One lasting and sig- black and white, to leave the farms and seek employ- nificant result of Populism was that it brought the ment in the towns and cities. Diversification in indus- plain, inarticulate farmer into the political arena in try and agriculture progressed little until after the notable numbers. first quarter of the twentieth century. Illtlllllll!111111111 III 'III!;', '" . LI I' I" Ii"" II , II I " I' II:: : II 1,1 11: ",'1 1II11 1',:11''1111: ' 1 1;11:' .I.U~~.~l.IlU.l~.U'.iUl.l~,I~l!I!i~!~lIrillm,mllllllllllllllr'II. MODERN GEORGIA I 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111, The year 1930 marks the beginning of modern Georgia, an era which has witnessed the state's slow improvements also included changing the state's emergence from its conservative, agrarian past. The educational programs by establishing a unified uni- Great Depression of the 1930s and world War II were versity system under the board of regents. Martha 14 largely responsible for stimulating Georgia's progress Berry, founder of the Berry Schools, became the first toward becoming a modern and economically diversi- female member of this board. (See: Berry, pp. 64-65) fied state. These two national catastrophes brought Twentieth-century Georgia has remained primarily changes which bore heavily upon government, upon Democratic although the two-party system has be- the political and civil rights of the black man, and on come fully operative since mid-century. Racial prob- the place of agriculture in the state's economy. lems have been a major political issue in Georgia until The severe economic depression in the 1930s recent years because many office seekers ran on white created a multitude of problems to be dealt with for supremacy platforms or embraced racist ideas. Even the first time by state government. Social services and Richard Russell and Walter F. George, two of the welfare programs under President Franklin D. Roose- century's outstanding national leaders, aligned them- velt's New Deal led to an expansion in government selves with a majority of their Georgia constituents administration and to the responsibilities of agencies on matters of race. (See: George, pp. 68-69) at all levels. Discriminatory voting laws prohibiting blacks from Abandoned farm lands, high unemployment, a full participation in the political process continued reduction in both agricultural and industrial produc- in force until the early 1960s. The Neill Primary Act, tions, and an accumulated state debt faced Richard enacted in 1917 after the "grandfather clause" of B. Russell, Jr. when he became governor of Georgia 1908 became inoperative, excluded blacks from in 1931 at the depth of the depression. (See: Russell, voting in the Democratic primary which was tanta- pp.72-73) mount to election. Negro voter registration increased At age thirty-three, Russell aggressively reorganized rapidly after the white primary was voided by federal Georgia's government, created an efficient and eco- court order in 1945. Their vote soon began to carry nomical administration and reduced appropriations local weight in urban areas where a few blacks gained to within the state's income. His sweeping reforms seats on municipal councils, school boards, and simi- resulted in a 20 percent reduction in the state's bud- lar offices. Other restrictive measures, however, con- get and a precedent in Georgia politics for efficient tinued to limit the political freedom of blacks. Geor- and conservative fiscal management. Even today, gia's system of allocating one, two or three legislators Georgia has a remarkably low state debt. Russell's to a county regardless of its size, and the county unit II , 'I"I I: , 1'1 I;,; I III "I I II I1,'1 I I! II " 1 I I" I 1;,1 I I" , , I"I II system for determining the outcome of elections were Despite the continuing prominence of agriculture highly prejudicial measures. Both the "three class in Georgia, manufacturing and business have in- system" and county unit voting were finally voided creased dramatically during the century. The state has by federal court order in the early 1960s. become an industrial leader in the production of 15 The integration of Georgia schools and the break- cotton textiles, cottonseed products, fertilizers, pro- down of long-standing segregationist patterns did cessed foods, lumber and lumber products as well as much to lessen racial discrimination in Georgia. in the mining of both marble and granite. The cities Though backed by federal court order, the success of Atlanta, Columbus, Augusta, Savannah, and Macon of the civil rights movement depended upon leader- have taken the lead in industrial productions and have ship within the black community itself. Martin also become the largest commercial centers in the Luther King, Jr., a Georgian, became a national state. Business has progressed rapidly in Georgia with figure in the civil rights effort by mounting an ef- over 430 of the nation's top 500 corporations repre- fective Christian, nonviolent protest against racial sented in Atlanta alone. inequality. The world has seldom witnessed a crusade The role of state government and the number of conducted with more honor and dignity. Responsible agencies charged with administration have increased political leadership on the highly volatile issue began with the complexities of modern society, particularly to emerge perceptibly during the governorship of in the areas of public health and welfare. Georgia James Earl Carter in the 197 Os. (See: King, pp. leaders, despite increased demands for services, con- 70-71) tinue to execute a conservative fiscal policy, one Since World War II, the size of agricultural holdings which keeps Georgia's indebtedness low and her has increased, while the number of farmers has government on a sound financial footing. decreased. Production has increased remarkably, In the past 243 years, by traveling a laborious but however, due to advances in research and in agricul- steadfast course, Georgia has overcome many of the tural science. Cotton began to lose its hegemony social and economic barriers which have held the with New Deal crop control in the 1930s and today South apart from the mainstream of American the state's agriculture is highly diversified. Georgia now progress. In this Bicentennial year of 1976 Georgians leads the nation in the production of peanuts, pecans, are learning the dialogue of a new faith, and can broilers and other poultry products. Forest products, look with confidence toward the future as Georgia corn, fruits and vegetables, livestock, and seafoods continues to rank high as a progressive and growing have also risen in economic importance. state. J ames Edward Oglethorpe's name is almost synony- Oglethorpe was born in London on December 22, mous with the founding of Georgia. His fame lies 1696, the son of Theophilus and Eleanor Wall Ogle- chiefly in what he contributed in both personal thorpe. Both his parents were devoted to the exiled energy and fortune to the establishment and success Stuart line of English kings and were frequently of the last of the original thirteen colonies in America. under suspicion of the English government for being On a broader canvas, however, Oglethorpe's life involved in various plots to return the Stuarts to the consisted of three distinct phases - his early years English throne. Such suspicion was well founded, in England and Europe, his mature years in Georgia, particularly with regard to Oglethorpe's mother, and his final years in England. whose Stuart or Jacobite sympathies were so strong that she maintained a vigorous interest in politics all her life and powerfully influenced her children to follow her inclinations. After attending Eton and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, James Oglethorpe held several army com- missions and gained some distinction as an army officer. Eventually he went to Europe where he joined his family in their close associations with the court of James III, the exiled Stuart who hoped to regain the English throne. Oglethorpe's military experience served him well later in his career, but his Jacobite associations came back to haunt him even after he had long abandoned them. In 1719 Oglethorpe returned to England to his family estate of Westbrook at Godalming, Surrey. After several years of quiet life he was ready to try for a seat in Parliament; and in 1722 he won a seat from Haslemere which he held for thirty-two years, even while he was in Georgia. As a member of Par- 16 liament Oglethorpe filled many committee positions, but his reputation soon came to be that of a man whose primary interests were humanitarian and im- perialistic. His humanitarian concerns came to the fore when he was appointed to a committee to investigate the conditions of jails in England. In spite of fierce opposition, Oglethorpe's committee brought in a scathing indictment of the inhumane practices and sordid state of the English penal system. The plight of those jailed because they could not pay their debts received special attention in the com- mittee's report. In 1728, Oglethorpe also published an expose of the brutal practices of the English Navy, particularly the practice of impressment, in a pamphlet entitled The Sailor's Advocate. To aid the released debtors, Oglethorpe and friends of the deceased Dr. Thomas Bray promoted a new colony in America for them. The most logical place for a new colony was to the south and west of Carolina where it would act as a buffer against further French and Spanish expansion. By this sequence of events, philanthropy and imperialism were united. With characteristic vigor and determina- tion, Oglethorpe threw himself into securing a charter for the proposed colony. This document was granted in 1732 to a group called the Trustees for Establish- ing the Colony of Georgia in America. James Edward Oglethorpe, 1696-1785 After he led the campaign to raise money for the project and to publicize it, Oglethorpe decided to accompany the first group of colonists to Georgia. This intrepid little band of adventurers, who were not released debtors, left England late in 1732 and by January 13, 1733, they had reached Charleston, South Carolina. On February 12, 1733, they landed at the site of what is now the city of Savannah, and the colony of Georgia was launched. During the early days of the colony Oglethorpe was masterful in his leadership. He quickly gained the trust of the Indians, obtained the rights to the land for the colony from them, and put the colony on a sound footing in its wilderness setting. Even though the British government did not encourage the immigration of European religious groups to Georgia, Oglethorpe actively sought the admission Oglethorpe leads a military expedition against the Spanish of the Salzburger Lutherans, Scot Highlander Pres- at St. Augustine. byterians, Moravians, and others. The Indians and the various religious groups that immigrated to year Oglethorpe led a military expedition against Georgia continued to respect and appreciate Ogle- St. Augustine but was unsuccessful. Two years later, thorpe for many years, mainly because of his fair- the Spanish attacked Frederica and were repulsed in ness in dealing with them. the Battle of Bloody Marsh. In the defense of Geor- When Oglethorpe returned to England in 1734, gia, Oglethorpe borrowed heavily upon his English he took along his indian friend, Tomo-Chi-Chi, property and used every resource at his command to mica of the Yamacraws, and several other indians save the colony for the empire. While his attention in what turned out to be a public rclations coup. was given to military matters, internal problems in The personal eloquence of both Oglethorpe and Georgia caused complaints to be registered against Tomo-Chi-Chi, coupled with the dramatic appear- Oglethorpe in London. When a second foray against 17 ances of the Indians in English society, soon in- St. Augustine failed in 1743, Oglethorpe went back creased interest in the colony. Consequently, by to England to answer the charges against him and 1736 Oglethorpe was bac k in Georgia wrestling never again returned to Georgia. with the problems of that young, growing colony. The last phase of Oglethorpe's life began with his One of Georgia's major problems arose out of the return to England and his marriage to Elizabeth fact that the colony's existence was bound up with Wright, heiress of Cranham Hall, Essex, on Septem- Europe's balance of power conflicts, especially with ber 15, 1744. He returned to army life and took part the struggles of Great Britain, France, and Spain in the resistance against the Jacobite invasion of for territory in North America. When Oglethorpe 1745, but his failure to capture a part of the enemy founded Frederica on St. Simons island in 1736, force when ordered to do so led to a revival of old as an outpost against the Spaniards, he set off fu- suspicions of Jacobite sympathies. Oglethorpe was rious diplomatic exchanges in London, Madrid, brought to trial and acquitted in the court martial Havana, and St. Augustine. Because of the rising proceedings, but his military career was seriously wrath of Spain, excessive expenditures for erecting impaired thereafter. in the 1750s he lost his seat forts on the Georgia frontier, and complaints by in Parliament and his public career declined, but South Carolina over Indian trade, Oglethorpe had those reversals did not deter him from an active to return to England again in 1736-37. He was and vigorous life. able to mollify the Trustees and settle the dispute In his late years he participated in the literary with South Carolina, but the Spanish problem proved life of England and became a friend of Samuel more difficult. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact Johnson, James Boswell, and Oliver Goldsmith. that Prime Minister Walpole was caught between When James Oglethorpe died on June 30, 1785, a the defense needs of Georgia and diplomatic pressures career ended that had been characterized by wide from Madrid, Oglethorpe finally secured a regiment interests, courage, life-long stamina, dedication to of men: and in 1738 he returned to Georgia deter- humanitarian causes, and enduring fame for his mined to resist the Spanish at St. Augustine. extraordinary leadership and personal sacrifices in in 1739 England declared war on Spain. The next the founding of the colony of Georgia. by Roger A. Martin 18 Sir James Wright was the last royal governor of the colony of Georgia. He occupied that office from 1760, when Georgia was a growing and prosperous colony, until 1782, by which time the upheaval of revolution had transformed the colony into a state. Wright's importance lies in the courage and dedica- tion to principle he demonstrated during those years of profound changes. James Wright was born in England in 1716, the fourth son of Robert and Isabella Wright. About 1730 the Wright family moved to Charleston, South Carolina where the father was chief justice of the colony. The Wrights sent their son, James, to Gray's Inn, one of the London law schools and James was admitted to the bar. When he returned to South Carolina he became attorney general and held that position until he went to London in 1757 as colonial Protest meetings were held in Savannah when news of the Boston Tea Party and the Intolerable Acts reached Georgia. agent for South Carolina. In 1760 he was appointed lieutenant governor of Georgia and was sent to relieve Governor Henry Ellis. When Ellis returned to England he resigned his commission as governor and J ames Wright became the royal governor of Georgia, a position he retained until it was abolished in 1782. Governor Wright arrived in Georgia at a time when the young colony was ready for growth and success. Fortunately, Wright had just the kind of skills needed to obtain more land for Georgia, encourage new Sir James Wright, 1716-1785 settlers to come, stimulate more agricultural pro- duction and keep peace with the Indians. He was involved in two land cessions by the lndians to Geor- gia - one in 1763 and the other in 1773. He also worked closely with the Assembly to devise means of making the colony attractive to new settlers. Land laws were revised to encourage growth and prosperity, and the governor invested his own for- tunes in Georgia as a demonstration of his whole- hearted support of what he and his fellow Georgians more became the government of Georgia. Sir James were doing. Wright tried to stem the tide of revolution but was Governor Wright allied himself completely with unsuccessful. By the end of summer, 1775, Georgia's Georgia and its success, but at the same time he held revolutionary government had almost complete con- fast to his confidence in the British mercantile system trol and the governor and his council were powerless. and his own personal duty to the king. He was an Wright remained in Georgia until early 1776, but astute politician and often could anticipate problems when the patriots placed him under house arrest he and head them off before they caused trouble in the decided to flee the colony. On February 11. 1776, colony. Hence, under Wright'S guidance Georgia grew Wright escaped to the British ship, Scarbormtgh, strong, stronger than it might otherwise have been and returned to England. He remained there until when the Revolution began. the British recaptured Savannah in 1778. In June of The first break came in 1765 with the passage of the next year he came back to Savannah and took his the Stamp Act. When Parliament attempted to levy place as royal governor during the British occupation taxes in America, Georgians protested along with of lower Georgia. other Americans. When the stamp distributor, George During the war years Governor Wright carried on Angus, arrived in December, 1765, Governor Wright the functions of royal government in Georgia as best protected him from the wrath of the Georgia Sons of he could, and sent many urgent requests to the Liberty and for a few days stamps were sold in Geor- British high command for more troops to keep the gia. Having enforced the Stamp Act in Georgia against province secure. Those requests were largely ignored. 19 loud opposition and at considerable personal danger On June 14, 1782, Wright received orders to abandon to himself, Wright was disappointed when the act Georgia and he soon returned to England. In 1783 was repealed early in 1766. More importantly, the he assumed the leadership of a board of agents in governor's actions set the "Liberty Party" against London organized to assist American loyalists who him and he never again enjoyed the almost total were prosecuting their claims for compensation. In support of the people as he had prior to 1765. return for his services and his own personal losses, In the late 1760s and early 1770s things were rela- Sir J ames Wright received a pension of 500 a year. tively quiet in Georgia. Even so, Governor Wright Sir James died in London on November 20, 1785 kept a close watch on the Commons House of As- and was buried in the north cloister of Westminster sembly, the lower house of the colonial legislature, Abbey. He is remembered by Georgians today be- because much of Georgia's opposition to British cause he gave Georgia the leadership it needed as a policies tended to focus in that body. 1n 1771 Gover- young colony in the 1760s struggling to realize its nor Wright disapproved the Assembly's choice for its vast potential. Ironically, it was under Wright's speaker which provoked the Commons House to guidance that Georgia grew strong and prosperous adopt a strong resolution protesting his actions. In and thus was enabled to take its place alongside July, 1771, Wright returned to England where he was the other twelve colonies when the Revolution made a baronet, the lowest order of English nobility, came. as a reward for his services in Georgia. The American Revolution proceeded somewhat slowly in the colony of Georgia. After Governor Wright's return from England in February, 1773, things were quiet for a time. However, when news of the Boston Tea Party and the lntolerable Acts reached Georgia, protest meetings were held. By 1775 Georgia was moving closer to the other colonies. A provincial congress met in Savannah and that body more and by Roger A. Martin Button Gwinnett was one of Georgia's signers of the Declaration of Independence. His career in Geor- gia and his part in the American Revolution were so brief that one historian compared him to a meteor, but in Gwinnett's case brevity does not detract from importance. In the space of a few months of 1776 and 1777 he made some enduring contributions to 20 his state and country. Gwinnett's interest in politics, and by 1767 he began Gwinnett was born in 1735 at Down Hatherley, his political career as a justice of the peace for his Gloucestershire, England, the son of Samuel and Ann parish. In 1769 he was elected to the colonial Com- Gwinnett. His father's family came originally from mons House of Assembly, but after one session he Wales (where the name was spelled Gwynn-edd) and dropped out of public life for nearly five years. In his mother was from a well-to-do family related to July, 1774, when anti-British sentiments stirred the Buttons of Glamorganshire. In 1757 Gwinnett in Georgia, Gwinnett attended a public meeting at married Anne Bourne of Wolverhampton and they Tondee's Tavern, Savannah, and from that time on had three daughters only one of whom, Elizabeth, he was ardently devoted to the revolutionary party. survived to maturity. For a time Gwinnett engaged Lyman Hall once said of Gwinnett, "He was, if pos- in the exporting business with his father-in-law, a sible, a Whig to excess." The next year Gwinnett pursuit which familiarized him with merchants in was elected to the Georgia Council of Safety, and in England and America, particularly those at the February 1776, the Second Provincial Congress of prosperous port of Savannah, Georgia. Georgia sent this enthusiastic patriot to the Con- The exact date of Gwinnett's arrival in Georgia tinental Congress. Consequently, Gwinnett, along is not known, but by 1765 he had settled at Savannah with Lyman Hall and George Walton, became one of as a merchant. In October of that year he purchased Georgia's signers of the Declaration of Independence. St. Catherines Island, which lies just off the Georgia On his return to Georgia Gwinnett played a key coast from the then flourishing port of Sunbury. role in setting up the state government and in writing Gwinnett did not have much success as a planter, the state constitution of 1777. He strongly desired but the location of his plantation brought him into to become the commander of Georgia troops at this close association with the liberty-minded Congrega- time, but in spite of the prestige he had gained tionalists at Sunbury and in St. John's Parish, the through his service at the Continental Congress he parish within which Sunbury lay. Gwinnett's friend- was passed over and the honor went to Lachlan ship with Dr. Lyman Hall of that community was McIntosh. Gwinnett was a member of the Provincial perhaps the most decisive friendship of his life. Congress, and when elections were held again to Identification with St. John's Parish stimulated select delegates to the Continental Congress he was Button Gwinnett, 1735-1777 Button Gwinnett is fatally wounded by Lachlan McIntosh in The Duel, an 1865 woodcut. re-elected. Gwinnett reached the pinnacle of his One interesting phenomenon surrounding Gwin- 21 career in state politics in March, 1777, when Presi- nett's life is that his signature has become quite dent Archibald Bulloch died suddenly, and he was valuable because it is so rare. As far as can be ascer- succeeded by Gwinnett, who remained in office tained, there are only thirty-six of his signatures until the new constitution went into effect in May. known to exist, including the one on the original General McIntosh grew resentful when, later, parchment of the Declaration of Independence. Gwinnett used his powers as chief executive to inter- In November, 1927, his name on a letter brought fere with plans for an attack upon the British at $14,000.00 at an auction. Subsequently, one of St. Augustine. That resentment was whipped into Gwinnett's signatures brought $51,000.00 when pur- anger when President Gwinnett had McIntosh's chased by an autograph collector. "On July 4, 1943, brother, George, arrested and thrown into jail on Governor Ellis Arnall of Georgia announced that the suspicion of treason. Because the expedition against vault in the State Treasury in Atlanta contains a Gwin- the British in Florida turned into a fiasco, the Georgia nett signature valued by the State at $52,000.00" Assembly held an inquiry to determine whether the (Robertson, 297). civil authority had hampered military effectiveness. Much more important than Gwinnett's signature, The Assembly took sides with Gwinnett, a decision however, is his legacy to modern Americans through which provoked McIntosh to publicly call Gwinnett his fierce love of liberty and his service to his country a "Scbundrel and a lying rascal." in the critical moments of its birth. To obtain satisfaction for this insult Gwinnett challenged McIntosh to a duel and the two of them met at dawn, just outside Savannah, on May 16, 1777. Shots were fired almost simultaneously and both men were wounded, Gwinnett seriously. He died three days later. General McIntosh recovered from his wound and later served with distinction under Wash- ington, but for a time there was some ill feeling toward him in Georgia. by Roger A. Martin . Independence Hall, . . Philadelphia, 1776. re"-i;~>;:r:.~ ,~~_ 22 To those who hold the principles of the American Lyman Hall was born on April 12, 1724, at Wal- Revolution in high regard the name of Lyman Hall lingford, Connecticut. His parents were John Hall evokes a warm admiration. In a quite literal sense he and Mary Street Hall, both of whose families had was the leader of the spirit of independence in Geor- been prominent in Connecticut for many years. gia. Hence, it seems distinctly appropriate that he was Lyman Hall graduated from Yale College in 1747 one of the signers of the Declaration of Indepen- after which he studied theology with his uncle, dence. ~n-Y;~ the Reverend Samual Hall. He was ordained into the Congregationalist ministry in 1749 and, for a time, was the pastor of a church at Bridgeport. However, disputes within his church and other frustrations led Hall to abandon the ministry to pursue the study () f medicine, and from about 1753 to the end of his career he was a practicing physician. In 1757 Hall decided to move south to a New England Congregationalist settlement near Charles- ton, South Carolina, called Dorchester. He arrived at Dorchester during a time when many people from that settlement were moving to the "Midway Dis- trict" of Georgia and by his decision to join that migration Georgia received one of her most famous citizens. Hall soon became one of the leading men of St. John's Parish and of Sunbury, the port town built by the New Englanders in Georgia. He also formed a significant friendship with Button Gwinnett whose plantation was on St. Catherines Island, just off the Georgia coast from Sunbury. Lyman Hall, 1724-1790 In the early days of the revolutionary movement many Georgians retained a close attachment to the English crown and were hesitant to make "common cause" with the other colonies, but St. John's Parish became a center of revolutionary action. Royal Governor James Wright believed the parish took that stance because its citizens were "decendants of New England people of the Puritan independent sect." Among those Puritans Lyman Hall was a key figure in advocating American resistance to England. When the Georgia Provincial Congress rejected an appeal from St. John's Parish that delegates be sent to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, the people of St. John's took independent action. In March, 177 5, they elected Dr. Lyman Hall to repre- sent them in Philadelphia; and in May, Hall took his seat in the Continental Congress. He participated in the debates there but did not vote since he did not represent the entire colony. Subsequently, when Georgia did elect delegates to the Continental Con- gress, Hall was chosen as one of them. He was in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776 when he signed the Declaration of Independence along with Georgia's two other delegates, Button Gwinnett and George Walton. When the British invaded the Georgia coast in 1778 Hall's residence at Sunbury and his rice plantation near Midway Meetinghouse were d~stroyed and he was forced to move his family to a place of safety he purchased a plantation to enjoy retirement from 23 until the war ended. Following the British evacuation public life. Within a few months, on October 19, 1790, in 1782 Hall returned to Savannah to take up his he died and was buried on a bluff overlooking the medical practice and to regain what he could of Savannah River. In 1848 Dr. Hall's remains were his lost personal fortunes. moved to Augusta where, along with those of George In 1783 he was elected governor of the state for Walton, they were placed beneath a monument erect- one term during which he attempted to assist Georgia ed in honor of Georgia's signers of the Declaration in its recovery from the ravages of war. Hall labored of Independence. Another tribute was paid Hall by diligently to secure treaties with the Creek and Charles C. Jones when he wrote: Cherokee Indians, make necessary changes in the On the revolutionary altars erected land laws, and to put the state on a sound financial within the Midway district were the fires of footing by dealing with pre-war debts and post-war resistance to the dominion of England tax measures. In his message to the Assembly, Hall earliest kindled; and of all the patriots also recommended that steps be taken to encourage of that uncompromising community Ly- both education and religion in Georgia. Thus, Con- man Hall, by his counsel, exhortations, necticut's legacy to Georgia made its impact in yet and determined spirit, added stoutest fuel another fashion and, as one Georgia scholar wrote, to the flames. (Jones, 93). "The movement for a university got its beginning Lyman Hall's name is remembered mainly because from New England-born and Yale-educated men, of his support of the American Revolution and as a Governor Lyman Hall and Abraham Baldwin"(Cole- signer of the Declaration of Independence. Georgians man, 227). The University of Georgia was chartered can take pride in the fact, too, that he was one of in 1785 and became the first chartered state univer- the state's best governors of the 1780s and because sity in the United States. of Hall's vision the state of Georgia was stronger in After leaving the governor's office Dr. Hall con- those critical years. In brief, the name of Lyman Hall tinued in Savannah as a physician and for a brief is remembered proudly by Georgians and many period was a judge of the inferior court of Chatham other Americans as welL County. In 1790 he moved to Burke County where by Roger A. Martin George Walton was one of Georgia's signers of the Declaration of Independence. In broader perspective, he was a political leader who served his state and nation in many ways during the course of a dis- tinguished career. Walton was born in Goochland, later Cumberland County, Virginia, in 1749. His parents, Robert and Mary Walton, died when he was quite young and for a time the child lived with an uncle. His first opportuni- ty came when he was apprenticed to a carpenter who took notice of Walton's keen mind and encouraged him to read and study. With that encouragement Walton began a program of self-education that lasted as long as he lived. In 1769 he moved to the flourish- ing city of Savannah, Georgia, where he began the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1773. When revolutionary forces began to stir in Georgia, George Walton took part in the organization of re- sistance to British authority. He signed the call sent out to invite Georgians to a meeting at the Liberty Pole in Savannah on June 22, 177 5, and when Geor- gia's Council of Safety was formed Walton became its president. At the meeting of the Provincial Con- 24 gress of Georgia in July, 1775, Walton was elected secretary and also helped to draft an address to the people of Georgia informing them of the state of affairs in America. In February, 1776, Walton was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress where he served continu- ously until September, 1781, with the exception of of the letter, registered a strong complaint. After the 1778 and 1779. In Congress Walton was a member war the Georgia legislature took up the matter, cen- of important committees on Indian affairs, western sured Walton, and ordered the attorney-general to lands, and the treasury board. In January, 1777, the investigate the case. This may have been merely a Congress sent Walton and George Taylor to Easton, matter of form on the legislature's part, however, Pennsylvania to negotiate a treaty with the Six since it had appointed Walton as chief justice of Nations. Georgia on the day prior to its action against him. In late 1779 Walton was elected governor by an On January 9, 1778, George Walton was com- irregular legislature, and in the two months he missioned a colonel in the First Regiment of Geor- claimed to be governor he forged in the speaker's gia Militia. He fought at Savannah in 177 8 when the name a letter to the Continental Congress which British captured it, and in 1779 when the French contained information libelous to General Lachlan and Americans tried to recapture it, he was wounded McIntosh. The letter aroused suspicion in Congress and captured by the British. They later exchanged and in Georgia. General McIntosh, when he learned him for a British naval captain held by the Americans. When the British seized lower Georgia, the Whig or Photograph and document courtesy Revolutionary government moved into the back- of Georgia Archives. country where it continued to perform its regular functions. That government returned Walton to Congress in 1780, where he and other Georgia dele- gates protested against making peace with Great Britain on the principle of uti possidetis - that is, George Walton, 1749-1804 Savanna.h, Georgia, July 14, 177.t. The critical situation to \vhich the British Colonies in America are likely to be reduced, froln the alarruing and arhitrary irnpositions of the late Acts of the British Parlia- lllent, respectin~ the town of Boston, as well as the Acts that at pre~ellt extend to the raising of a perpetual reve- Due, \vithout the consent of the people or their Representa- tives, is considered as (In object extrelnely itnportant at this critical juncture, and particularly calculated to deprive the Alnerican subjects of their constitutional rights and liber- ties~ as a part of the IJritish ~:lnpire. It is therefore requested, that all persons \vithin the lirnits of this IJrovince do attend at the Liberty l~ole at FanJee's Tavern, in ~Sllvannah, all TVerlnesday, the 27th instant, in order that the said lllatters lnay be taken under consideration: and such other constitut~onal measures pur- sued as Inay then appear to be luost eligible. 25 NOBLE 'V. J()~ES, JOHN flocsTON, ARCHIBALD BULLOCH, GEORGE \VALTON. that the Lhitish would retain any American territory occupied by their forces when the shooting stopped. Toward the end of that term in Congress. in 1783. Walton went to Tennessee to negotiat~ a treaty with the Cherokee Indians. Intermittentlv. from 1783 to 1789. Walton was chief justice o(Georgia. He was elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 but did not attend. However. he was present at the state's ratify- ing convention of 1788. The next year he was elected governor once more and during that term a new state constitution was adopted and Indian relations were improved. During the final years of his career Walton was chosen several times as a superior court judge. and in 1795 he was asked to fill out the unexpired term of James Jackson in the United States Senate. Realizing the importance of learning in his own life, Walton worked to improve the lJuality of educa- tion in Georgia. He was one of the founders and a trustee of Richmond Academv. He was also a trustee of the University of Ceorgia a;ld stressed the need for , L by Roger A. Martin a plan of higher education in the state. When George Walton died on February 2, 1804, he was survived by his wife, Dorothy Camber Walton. and one of their two sons. He was buried in the Rosney Cemetery. but on July 4. 1848. his remains were moved to Augusta and placed beneath a monument erected there in honor of Georgia's signers of the Declaration of Jndependence. Walton achieved success in the rough and tumble world of politics in revolutionary Georgia. He never feared to step into the midst of controversy if he felt strongly about the issues involved. Most people either liked him or strongly disliked him. for with Walton there was little middle ground upon which to stand. He had a violent temper and would not allow the slightest deviation from what he thought his due. Yet. the people respected his abilities and elected him to many offices during his career. Along the way of that career Walton proved himself to be an astute politician and he made some important contributions to his state and nation. ",. The University of Georgia as it looked in the 1850s. '", - '- ( ' ... ~'.: 26 Abraham Baldwin's name is associated with two Three years earlier the Baldwins' son, Abraham, important events in the early history of the state of had graduated from Yale College and in 1775 he Georgia. First, Baldwin was one of Georgia's signers became a licensed minister of the Congregational of the Constitution in 1787. Secondly, he played a Church. From that time until 1779 Abraham Bald- key role in establishing the University of Georgia. win served as a tutor at Yale. During those years Abraham Baldwin was born in North Guilford. as a tutor he earned the admiration of both the Connecticut on November 22, 1754, the son of faculty and President Ezra Stiles because of his in- Michael and Lucy Baldwin. Baldwin's father was a tellectual abilities and his excellence as a teacher. In blacksmith, but he was also very ambitious for his 1779 Baldwin resigned from the Yale position to children and stressed the importance of their edu- become a chaplain in the American Army. Three cation. In 1775 he moved his family to New Haven years later the college invited him to become a so that his children would have better opportunities member of its faculty, an invitation which Baldwin to be educated. declined. When he left the army he did not return ~~ to education or the ministry, but to law, and in 1783 he was admitted to the bar in Fairfield County, Connecticut. By this sequence of events one of America's statesmen was prepared for a distinguished career in Georgia. Sometime during the year 1784, Abraham Baldwin moved to Georgia where he soon acquired enough land in Wilkes County to qualify for membership in the state legislature. The next year he was elected to the House of Assembly and began his public career. From the time of his arrival in Georgia, Baldwin displayed a genuine interest in education. Lyman Hall, as governor in 1783, stressed the need for state Abraham Baldwin, 1754-1807 supported higher education in Georgia. As a result of Governor Hall's efforts and that of other interested Georgians, the Assembly of 1785, of which Baldwin was a member, granted a charter to the University of Georgia. It was the first chartered state university in America. Most scholars agree that Abraham Bald- win wrote that charter which not only provided for an educational system throughout the state but also placed Baldwin among the pioneers of education in eighteenth century America. For various reasons, until 1798, the university re- mained in the planning stage, but during those years Baldwin maintained a lively interest in its realization. He was appointed to the original board of trustees and for a time served as the titular president. Once the legislature made adequate provisions for the sup- port of the university, Baldwin led in its organization and served on the committee to select the site upon which it was built. He was instrumental also in secur- ing Josiah Meigs, another Yale man, as the first actual president of the university. Subsequently, Baldwin continued as chairman of the board of trustees for several years and he, more than any other single person, deserves to be called the father of the Univer- sity of Georgia. Baldwin's biographer insisted that interest in edu- cation was the primary factor in his immigrating to Georgia (White, A {Jrallaln Baldwin). Yet, long before his dreams for an educational system in Georgia in 1807. As a congressman and senator, Baldwin 27 became a reality, Baldwin's natural talents and ex- took sides with the Jeffersonian Republicans. At first cellent education brought him into political promi- he warmly supported the federal government, but by nence. His fellow Georgians recognized him immedi- the late 1790s he shared Jefferson's fear of centrali- ately as an outstanding man and his easy-going zation and he strongly opposed the Alien and Sedi- temperament won him friends across the state. tion Acts. In the Senate he was president pro tempore In May, 1785, he became one of the state's dele- during the first session of the Seventh Congress. gates to the Continental Congress, and when delegates Also, during his career in national government Bald- to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were win consistently opposed federal intervention upon chosen Baldwin was one of them. Baldwin served on state control of slavery. several committees at Philadelphia, and his influence Baldwins legacy to his adopted state of Georgia was considerable on the committee to resolve the was his vision as an educator and his outstanding dispute between the large states and the small states national leadership during the early years of the on the question of representation in the national Republic. As a result of his statesmanship, Georgians Congress. Baldwin took sides with the large states have conferred the following honors upon him: at first, but his friends from Connecticut persuaded Baldwin County was designated as such in 1803; an him to work for the compromise by which all states appropriate historical marker stands in front of have equal representation in the Senate and represen- Old College on the University of Georgia campus, tation is based upon population in the House of upon which a brief account of Baldwin's life is Representatives. When the United States Constitution inscribed; and, Abraham Baldwin College is located was completed, in September, 1787, Abraham Bald- at Tifton, Georgia. Because of his devotion to Geor- win and William Few signed it on behalf of Georgia. gia and his constructive leadership at both the state Under the new Constitution Baldwin was elected and national levels, Abraham Baldwin richly deserves by Georgia to the United States House of Representa- those honors. tives and served continuously in that body until 1799. In that year he was elected to the United States Senate and his service there continued until his death by Roger A. Martin ~ .~(JtV'kwfe, : ~ 7Jj;-Je7iiT.T~~FbL ? 7 7 UV ~ ~~V~hU~~~.~~~'/~, ~4u~-/-U.w, ~~~~~ruJ+~~ ~b /",..,~/ ~tZbV3'7e~47~;J.,! ...A~ 28 IUT.~ "'~~I ~ ~--uv~U'~~ ~ ~ ~t'/Z4 -td~ fU /iv~ 4~~~~~~r~~/'r~HV~+7h4~~ 7 ~~ PU-f.. ~ ~~/ ~ I'4JM y~~ratf7 ~t:L aa/~~.ud~. William Few's life unfolded along the lines of the much heralded American success story. It began with the obscurity of backcountry, pioneer farm life and rose to prominence in Revolutionary and early national America. The eighty-year span of Few's life was a time of profound changes in America. He was born just before the French and Indian War and died the year Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States. Few is remembered by Georgians as one of the two delegates from their state who helped to write and who signed the Constitution in 1787. William Few was born just outside Baltimore on June 8, 1748, the son of William and Mary Wheeler Few. When the father's tobacco plantation failed, he moved his family to Orange County, North Carolina, where they had to learn the rigorous ways of frontier life. That move came in 1758 and young Few, a mere ten years old, had to learn to wield an axe and man the plow along with his father and brothers. Later the family moved to Hillsboro, North Carolina, a town large enough to have periodic sessions of court. It was there that the young Few attended court and by watching lawyers try their cases he gained a taste for law. Since teachers were available only at rare intervals, the responsibility for Few's education fell upon his own shoulders. He accepted that responsibility, developed an enormous appetite for reading, and quite literally educated himself. In the early 1770s the Few family became in-' volved in the Regulator movement in North Carolina. Following the brutal Battle of Alamance in 1771, Few's brother, James, was hanged for his part in the struggle. Not long afterwards, when the elder Few got into financial difficulties, the family moved on to Georgia and settled near Wrightsboro. The younger William Few was left behind to sell the North Carolina property and settle the family's debts. He came to Georgia in 177 6. By that time the entire family warmly supported the American Revolution. Ben- William Few, 1748-1828 Photograph and document courtesy of Georgia Archives. jamin Few, an older brother, was a colonel of the William Few was fifty-two years old in 1799. At 29 militia, younger William became a lieutenant colonel, that point in his life he decided to move to New and Ignatius, the youngest brother, was the captain York City. There he immediately assumed a place of of a cavalry unit. All of them saw action during the prominence and was elected to both state and city War for Independence. offices. For a time he was inspector of state prisons, In the 1770s William Few was involved also in and later he became an alderman in New York City. Georgia politics. He served twice as a member of the From 1804 until 1814 he was on the board of di- General Assembly of Georgia, was on the Executive rectors of the Manhattan Bank, and the last years of Council and served as commissioner to the Indians. his public life were spent as the president of the City From 1780 to 1782 he was a delegate to the Conti~ Bank. nental Congress. After the war he was elected again to On July 16, 1828, William Few died at the home the General Assembly and was sent once more (1786- of his son-in-law, Albert Chrystie, at Fishkill-on-the- 88) to the Continental Congress. Hudson. His death brought to a close the long and In 1787 he reached a pinnacle of distinction by remarkable career of a man whose life stretched from being chosen as one of Georgia's six delegates to the humble, wilderness beginnings in colonial America, Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He and across the hectic years of the Revolutionary War, Abraham Baldwin were the Georgians present in to the urbane and comfortable life of New York September of that year for the signing of the Con- City in the early 1800s. stitution. Few ardently supported the Constitution at In October, 1973, Few's remains were brought Georgia's ratifying convention, and when United back to Georgia and buried in the churchyard of States senators were selected under the new govern- St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Augusta as a part of ment he was among the first sent to the Senate from the bicentennial commemoration of Georgia and Georgia. When his term in the Senate expired Few did Augusta. A monument at the head of Few's new not stand for re-election. Instead, he returned to grave recounts the major events of his career. Georgia and won a fourth teqn in the state legisla- ture, after which he was appointed to a federal circuit judgeship, an office he held until 1799. by Roger A. Martin Elijah Clarke was Georgia's Andrew] ackson. He came out of the same type backcountry, Scotch-Irish heritage and never had a formal education. Never- the less, by his tough-mindedness, common sense, raw courage and a native gift for leadership he won the admiration and respect of his neighbors and rose to a place of prominence in Georgia during and after the Revolutionary War. Clarke was born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina in 1733. Unsettled by political tensions and economic difficulties, Clarke moved his family to Craven County, South Carolina in 1771 or 1772. When new lands became available in Georgia, as a result of territorial cessions by the Creek Indians, Sc Clarke and a group of his North Carolina friends came to Georgia to seek their fortunes on the rugged frontier. It was in that environment that Clarke launched his remarkable career which was primarily a military one. OR DIE Clarke and his friends from the Carolinas settled northwest of Augusta in 177 3. From the beginning their lives were imperiled by Indian attacks. When Patriot newspapers and handbills often carried this the colonial government failed to provide adequate inspirational "Unite or Die" emblem. protection in the backcountry, the people there 30 organized their own militia and elected Elijah Clarke as captain. From that beginning as an Indian fighter, Clarke began his long military career that eventually led him into over twenty-five battles ranging from Florida and Georgia to Tennessee and the Carolinas. 'When the Revolutionary War broke out Clarke took sides with the Whigs and participated in much of the savage fighting between the Whigs and Tories in upper Georgia and South Carolina. He also served under General Andrew Pickens when the British forces were sweeping the South. Clarke fought at Alligator Creek in 1778 and was wounded. The next year he dispia yed skill as a commander and tactician at the Battle of Kettle Creek. Later in the war he took im portan t parts in the South Carolina engage- ments at Musgrove Mill, Fishdam Ford and Long Cane. Late in the war, after failing a first attempt, Clarke, together with General Pickens and Colonel Light Horse Harry Lee, was able to recapture Augusta. In recognition of his services to Georgia the House of Assembly, in 1781, granted Clarke a plantation in Wilkes County. In the same year the North Carolina legislature voted him a gift of $30,000 for his contri- bution to the American cause. After the war Clarke continued as a militia officer and before his retire- ment he attained the rank of Major General. Elijah Clarke, 1733-1799 The peace settlement with Great Britain did not bring peace to frontier Georgia. General Clarke and his militia continued the struggle with the Indians - either fighting them or trying to arrange peace treaties with them. While the war was still in progress, in 1781, Clarke's troops had inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Indians at Jack's Creek in Walton County. That was but one of many hostile engage- ments between Indians and white settlers on the Georgia frontier during the 1780s and 1790s. In 1793 Clarke became involved in the grandiose settlers. When the governor issued a proclamation schemes of Citizen Genet, the French minister who calling for Clarke's arrest, the general voluntarily came to America and organized an expedition against submitted to trial in Wilkes County where he was the Spanish in Florida. Clarke entered the French speedily acquitted. Ultimately, the governor sent service, a custom not uncommon in that day, raised troops to the border of the "Trans-Oconee Republic" an impressive body of troops which he led to the and General Clarke surrendered rather than fire upon 31 St. Marys River and was ready to attack St. Augustine his fellow Georgians. in early 1794. However, at the last moment the plan Later in his career, Clarke was accused of scheming was cancelled when the Secretary of State Thomas with the British against Florida. He became involved Jefferson demanded that France recall Genet for also in the land speculations known as the Yazoo violating the American policy of strict neutrality, and land frauds. However, none of these things were Genet's successor, Fauchet, stopped the invasion of sufficient to undercut his popularity in Georgia and Florida. his reputation continued to be highly regarded In the summer of 1794, Clarke used his military throughout the state. popularity to carry out a plan which at first seemed As a young man in North Carolina Elijah Clarke good but eventually brought Georgia to the verge of married Hannah Arrington, who accompanied him to civil war. This adventure is referred to as the "Trans- Georgia, bore him many children and proved herself Oconee Republic." Returning from the abortive a woman of extraordinary abilities in managing their Florida campaign, General Clarke led a number of home both in the harsh, perilous frontier days and in his seasoned veterans into the Indian territory west of later more comfortable years. Elijah and Hannah's the Oconee River and built several forts there. The son. General John Clark, served Georgia as a state region was organized into an independent republic. senator in 1803-04 and as governor from 1819 to complete with a constitution and a committee of 1823. safety. On December 15, 1799, Elijah Clarke died in Rich- This seemed like a perfect buffer settlement be- mond County and was buried at Woodburn in Lin- tween Georgia and the Indians and in the beginning coln County. His remains and those of Mrs. Clarke Georgia's leaders did not worry about it. President were moved to the National Cemetery at Marietta in Washington was alarmed, however, and thought it 1925. In 1801, the Georgia legislature passed an act a bad precedent. He urged Governor George Mathews naming Clarke County in honor of Elijah Clarke, to dissolve Clarke's republic before it was too late. and the city of Athens. county seat of Clarke County, Governor Mathews moved cautiously at first. then later erected a monument to him on Broad Street, with alacrity, to force the removal of Clarke and his near the entrance to the University of Georgia. by Roger A. Martin 32 William H. Crawford, from Oglethorpe County, old field schools and work as a teacher prepared was one of Georgia's most successful national politi- twenty-two-year-old William for admission to Moses cians. On two occasions, in 1816 and again in 1824, Waddel's Carmel Academy in 1794. Waddel, one of misfortune thwarted an otherwise excellent oppor- antebellum America's greatest educators, also taught tunity for him to be elected president of the United Thomas W. Cobb and John C. Calhoun during the States. Still, his long years of public service in state two years that Crawford studied under him. In 1796, and national offices mark him as one of the most William accepted a S300-a-year position in Augusta important (and one of the most historically neglect- as Richmond Academy's first English teacher. Later ed) men of the antebellum period. William assumed the duties of rector, also, and held William, the son of Joel and Fannie Harris Craw- this joint appointment until January 1, 1799. In ford, was born February 24, 1772 in Amherst County, 1798 he began studying law, and by the spring of Virginia of sturdy pioneer stock. During the Revo- 1799 he was practicing in Lexington, Oglethorpe lutionary War, William's father moved his wife and County. family (William was the sixth of eleven children) to By 1804 his personal finances had risen to a point South Carolina, and after the war they moved to where he could afford to marry his long-time fiancee, Columbia County, Georgia. When William was six- Susanna Geradin. Together they built a plantation teen, the difficulties of frontier life were accentuated home, "Woodlawn," near Lexington. William and by his father's death. Yet he overcame environmental Susanna had three daughters and five sons. They obstacles and gained a good education. raised their children and managed their plantation in a manner that was progressive and forward-looking for their day. William Crawford's political success was built on the solid foundation of personal happi- ness. Crawford's legal practice was the springboard to a long career in state and national politics. After coauthoring a digest of Georgia laws, he was elected to the state House of Representatives (1803-07). William Harris Crawford, 1772-1834 Here he aided James Jackson and George M. Troup As the election approached, it became obvious that in creating an effective state and national party a number of presidential aspirants valued their organization. ambitions more than party unity. John Quincy When Abraham Baldwin died in 1807, Crawford Adams, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Andrew was elected to serve the remainder of Baldwin's term in the United States Senate and was re-elected in 1811. When Vice-President George Clinton died in 1812, Crawford served as president pro tempore of Jackson were not going to be as self-sacrificing as Crawford had been in 1816. During the heated campaign year of 1823, Crawford became desperately ill. He probably suffered a stroke, and his condition the Senate for two years (1812-13). He then de- worsened with inept medical attention. While his clined Madison's offer of a cabinet position and opponents fought for votes, Crawford was fighting accepted appointment as United States minister for his life. to France (1813-15). On his return in August, 1815, When the electoral votes were counted in No- Crawford discovered that President Madison had vember 1824, Crawford, whose health had improved already appointed him secretary of war. In October somewhat, finished a distant third behind Jackson 1816, Madison appointed him secretary of the and Adams in the balloting. Since no candidate had treasury. Crawford's meteoric rise to national pro- gained a majority of the electoral votes, under consti- minence had been marred by two bloody pistol tutional provisions the election went to the House of duels with Georgia political opponents, but neither Representatives. Crawford's last dim chance for the incident adversely affected his political career. White House was dashed when Clay threw his sup- 33 While Crawford served in Madison's cabinet, the port, and the presidency, to Adams. After his inaugu- American people prepared for the presidential elec- ration, Adams asked Crawford to remain in his tion of 1816. For a variety of reasons, including its cabinet position, but the Georgian declined and re- failure to support the American effort in the War of turned to Woodlawn. In 1827, he accepted appoint- 1812, the Federalist party was dying, and Crawford's ment as judge of Georgia's northern superior court Republican party was sure to win the presidency. and served in this capacity until his death on Sep- The handsome, affable, independent-thinking young tember 15, 1834. Georgian was one of the popular choices to succeed During his last nine years, Crawford played an ac- Madison. However, Madison favored James Monroe tive role in the educational, political, and judicial as a successor and felt that Crawford was young activities of his home state. Although he was never enough to wait and not lose the chance to be Presi- elected president, William H. Crawford had proven dent. Out of party loyalty and personal friendship himself to be an honest, efficient secretary of the to Monroe, Crawford publicly disavowed his claim treasury, a well-liked and respected party man, and for the Republican nomination. Nevertheless, when one of the major leaders of the early Republic. the Congressional caucus made a choice, Crawford received fifty-four votes, only eleven fewer than Monroe's winning total. In the presidential election, Monroe easily defeated the Federalist candidate, Rufus King. Crawford loyally waited for his turn in the White House and continued to serve as secretary of the treasury for the rest of the Madison and both of the Monroe administrations (1816-25). The election of 1824 should have been his greatest moment of glory, but, once again, circumstances beyond his control defeated him. by James M. Gifford 34 Sequoyah invented the Cherokee syllabary. His work is probably the single greatest achievement in the recorded history of languages. Like a number of great Americans, Sequoyah overcame the difficulties of his environment to achieve greatness. He was born in Taskigi, near the tribal capital of Chota, in the Cherokee Nation. His father, Nathaniel Gist, who deserted Sequoyah's mother before the child was born, was a white hunter, explorer, and soldier from a prominent family. Wurteh, his mother, was from a family equally prominent among the Cherokees, the Paint Clan. As a young man, Sequoyah discovered his father's identity and assumed what he thought to be his Christian name; he called himself George Guess. Sequoyah was raised as an Indian, but he was shunned by both cultures. He never received traditional Indian training, Sequoyah, 1770-1843 modified English letters; Sequoyah invented the form for the remaining thirty-eight characters. When he taught his young daughter Ayogu to read his new written language, his skeptical and frightened people accused him of sorcery and magic. On trial for his life, Sequoyah proved his syllabary so success- fully that some of his critics mastered the new written language within a week; soon thousands of and, as a youth, he was crippled in a hunting acci- Cherokees from Georgia to Oklahoma were using it. dent. After that, his future activities brought him Sequoyah spent the rest of his life working to closer to the white world. advance the Cherokees, and in 1841 the Cherokee His mother died around 1800, and Sequoyah in- National Council granted him an annual pension for herited and managed her trading post. Later he his contributions to Cherokee life. Two years later moved to a farm near wills Valley, Alabama, and, the gift was altered to an annuity of $300 that would in 1828, he went to Indian territory - present-day continue to go to his widow when he died. In the Oklahoma. Wherever he went, he learned new skills early 1840s he began trying to develop an inter- and developed his raw, creative and artistic genius. tribal language and visited a number of American At various times, he was a merchant, soldier, farmer, tribes searching for common elements of Indian blacksmith, silversmith, and artist. Innovative, as well languages. He died in August 1843 searching for a as creative, he made beautiful things with his hands. legendary band of Cherokees, who supposedly had Indians and whites placed high value on his jewelry, removed to Mexico before the Revolutionary War, woodcarvings, and metalwork. Sequoyah encountered and was buried in Sanfernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico. white men in a variety of ways, and each year he He was survived by seven children, four by his first became more impressed with some of the advance- wife, Sallie of the Bird Clan, and three daughters by ments of their culture. In particular, he became con- his second wife, U-ti-yu of the Blind Savannah Clan. sumately intrigued by their ability to communicate Sequoyah's syllabary enabled missionaries to in writing. communicate with the Cherokees and soon a portion Around 1809, he quietly resolved to create a of the Bible was translated into Cherokee. The Ameri- 35 written language for the Cherokees and give them the can Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions advantage and power of the "talking leaves." For financed the development of a special Cherokee press the next twelve years his efforts were met with at New Echota, Georgia, superintended by the laughter and derision. His first plan, to develop a Reverend Samuel A. Worcester. In addition to re- written sign for every word in Cherokee spoken ligious tracts, this press printed the first Indian news- language, failed. An alphabet needed to be more paper, The Cherokee ]J/lOenix, in 1828 with Cherokee compact. Next, Sequoyah began trying to develop leader Elias Boudinot as editor. Later the press at a written symbol or character for each sound in the New Echota printed the laws and constitution of the Cherokee language. Every word had to be analyzed, Cherokee Nation. and he was constantly preoccupied with sounds Today, tributes to Sequoyah's greatness stand from and repetition of words. He neglected other re- coast to coast; towns and counties bear his name, and sponsibilities and built a small log cabin "study" statues and historical markers memorialize his great- away from his home so that he would not be in- ness. In Calhoun, Gordon County, Georgia, there are terrupted. In frustration, his wife burned the notes two statues of Sequoyah, and nearby, in the same he had made on flat pieces of bark, but he redid county, stands a granite marker erected by the United them. In 1821 his long years of frustration were States government in 1931 to honor Sequoyah and rewarded with success. the Cherokee Nation. The State Legislature of Okla- His complete syllabary had eighty-five characters homa presented a statue of Sequoyah to the people representing the different sounds he had isolated of the United States in 1917 that stands today in in the Cherokee language. Thirty-five characters Statuary Hall, Washington, O.c. In 1847 Austrian were letters he borrowed from the English alphabet. botanist Stephen Endlicher discovered that the great Since Sequoyah could not read English there was no redwood trees of California belonged to a new and value relationship between the Cherokee character unnamed genus. and he reclassified them Sequoia and the English letter. For example "T" in English Cigantea. They rise majestically as a fitting tribute to represented the "i" sound in Cherokee and "0" a man whose contributions to American life made equalled 'a." Twelve additional characters were him a giant among men. by James M. Gifford 36 Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, Georgia's best known antebellum author, was one of the most capable and versatile Georgians of his time. He was also a lawyer, legislator, jurist, minister, editor, and educator. Ironically, the facet of his life that he considered least important, his literary production, was the one that made him regionally famous and historically significant. His Georgia Scenes is acclaimed as one of the cornerstones of American humor. Its classic insights into the humanity and good fun of the antebellum period started a school of realistic, "down-home," frontier humor that attracted a number of devotees, including Mark Twain. Although Longstreet was often embarrassed in later years by the colloquial language and local color of Georgia Scenes, his work is a valuable social history and a delight to general readers. His parents, William and Hannah Randolph Longstreet, moved from New Jersey to Georgia in 1785. They were talented and ambitious young people of Dutch (Langstraats) and Anglo-French ancestry. They settled in Augusta, where their fifth child, Augustus, was born in 1790. His childhood was happy, if unauspicious; young Gus never revealed the brilliance that would win him national acclaim until his mid-teens. When he was fifteen and sixteen he attended Moses Waddel's famous Willington Academy. He matured mentally during those years (1808-10) and followed his friend and classmate, John C. Calhoun, to Yale. He graduated in 1813 and continued his studies at Litchfield (Conn.) Law School. Then he returned to his home town to begin law practice and later moved to Greensboro. His engaging manner and wit made him personally popular and professionally successful. Like a number of his ambitious contemporaries, he proved his ability, married a wealthy woman, and used his marriage as a springboard to greater success. Soon after his marriage to beautiful eighteen-year-old Frances Eliza Parke in 1817, he was elected to the state legislature (1821), served as superior court judge (1822-25), and was running for Congress in 1824 Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, 1790-1870 when the tragic death of his oldest son turned him away from secular life and eventually into the Me- thodist ministry. Georgian through and through, with the heart of a southern countryman, Longstreet returned to Augusta in 1827 to establish a newspaper, The States Rights Sentinel. Soon he began writing the delightful sketches of "cracker" life that first appeared anony- mously in the Milledgeville Southern Recorder. Their immediate popularity prompted Longstreet to pub- lish the sketches in 1835 on his own press in book form, Georgia Scenes by a Native Georgian. Long- street portrayed fights, gander pullings, shooting matches, horse swapping, and militia drills. Soon Georgia Scenes was nationally popular, and in 1840, Harpers, a New York press, published the first of "- many editions. Longstreet and his clay-eating redneck hero, Ransy Sniffle, counterbalance the "moonlight and magnolia" version of the Old South in their por- trayal of crude, frontier life. In 1839 Longstreet, who thought of literature as a 37 pleasant diversion from the basics of religion and politics, was appointed president of the newlyfounded Emory College at Oxford and served for ten years. Then "the Judge" ~ as his friends called him-resigned his post at Emory because he thought he balanced bitterness. He never forgot or forgave the blue-coated soldier who put an axe through his cousin's piano. The real A. B. Longstreet had not survived the war; the man who remained was an empty was going to be offered the presidency of the Uni- relic of the past. versity of Mississippi. When that did not materialize, Once when Longstreet was teaching at South he accepted the presidency of Centenary College, a Carolina College, he entered his classroom and found Methodist school in Louisiana. One year later he that prankish students had tied a jackass to a front- was elected president of the University of Mississippi. row seat. Peering over his glasses with customary He held that post until 1856, and then he retired to dignity, he said, "Young man, I don't know your enjoy his children and grandchildren and live the life name, but from your appearance, I should judge of a plantation patriarch. Two years later he came that you are a member of this class. Let us proceed out of retirement to become president of South with the lesson." Apocryphal as the story may be, Carolina College, later the University of South it illustrates the warmth and humor that made Carolina. He was a popular and a respected educator. Augustus Baldwin Longstreet's Georgia Scenes a When the Civil War came, seventy-year-old Long- significant contribution to the American record. street, who had always been an ardent champion of states rights, nullification, and slavery, lost his per- spective. Either slightly mad or senile, he wrote voluminous letters to his nephew, General James Longstreet, and his son-in-law, L. Q. C. Lamar, telling them how to win the war. When the fighting was over he left his refugee home in Enon, Alabama and re- turned to live out his days in Mississippi. The massive literary output of his final five years reflects un- by James M. Gifford Photographs courtesy of A. w. Calhoun Medical Library, Emory University. Dr. Crawford W. Long uses ether as a surgical anesthetic for the first time on March 30, 1842 in Jefferson, Georgia. From a painting by Maurice Siegler. 38 Crawford W. Long spent a productive life as a One of his classmates was Howell Cobb, and his general practitioner, surgeon, and druggist in north roommate and closest friend was Alexander H. Georgia. He pioneered the use of ether as a surgical Stephens. After graduating in 1835, he taught in Dan- anesthetic - an event that altered the course of ielsville for a year at an academy his father had found- medical history. In 1923, a doctor, reviewing Long's ed. Then, at the age of twenty-one, he committed life and accomplishments in the Georgia Historical himself to a lifetime of medical study and service. Quarterly, concluded that Crawford Long's discovery Following the customary procedures of the ante- of ether anesthesia in 1842 and Joseph Lister's bellum period, Long began his studies by "reading" discovery of antiseptic surgery some years later medicine under the guidance of a practicing physician. were "the two greatest events in the history of Long's first mentor was Dr. George R. Grant of medicine" (Boland, "CWL," 135). Jefferson, Georgia. Following a year of "practice" Crawford, the son of James and Elizabeth Ware Long entered the Medical School at Transylvania Long, was born into an established family in Daniels- University, Lexington, Kentucky, in 1836. He trans- ville, Georgia November 1, 1815. He was named after ferred to the University of Pennsylvania in 1838 and another famous Georgian, William H. Crawford. His received his medical degree from that institution the grandfather served in the Revolutionary War, and his following year. Next he served an eighteen-month father was a successful planter. Crawford, an extreme- internship in a New York hospital, where he estab- ly intelligent young man, entered the University of lished a reputation as a fine doctor and a skilled Georgia, and, at the age of twenty, he graduated surgeon. With five years of study and experience second in his class. While a student, he met other behind him, he returned to Georgia in 1841 and young men who distinguished themselves in later life. assumed the practice of his old teacher, Dr. Grant, in Jefferson. The next year on August 11, 1842 he married Caroline Swain. Their happy marriage eventu- ally produced twelve children. During his early years in Jefferson, Long made the discovery which made him famous. In the 1840s the effects of laughing gas (nitrous oxide) fascinated Crawford Williamson Long, 1815-1878 felt no pain during the operation. Having carefully and cautiously tested his theories about ether and being fully convinced of the success of his experi- mentation, Long published his results in 1849. Soon he found himself embroiled in a heated controversy with three other American doctors, Charles T. Jackson, Horace Wells and William T. G. Morton, who also claimed to be first in their dis- covery of ether anesthesia. Wells, a dentist in Hart- ford, Connecticut, used ether as an anesthetic during dental surgery in 1842. Morton, Wells' former partner, gave a public demonstration of ether's anesthetic qualities in 1846, but he admitted borrowing the idea from Jackson who had made some earlier, unwitnessed self-experimentations. After more than a century of unresolved debate, each claimant still has champions, but the general consensus among scholars is that Long's claim is legitimate - that he was indeed the first practitioner of ether anesthesia in non-dental surgery. In 1850 Long moved to Athens and soon de- veloped a large, successful practice. During the Civil War, he managed a military hospital on the Uni- young Americans. In January 1842, several people versity of Georgia campus. When the war was over, 39 in Jefferson asked Long to sponsor a nitrous oxide he remained in Athens, leading the quiet, contribut- "frolic" similar to those taking place around the ing life of a small-town doctor until his death on country. Writing about that episode later in the June 16, 1878. Southern Medical and Surgical Journal (1849), Long Tributes to Long's work can be found throughout said that he told his friends that he had no nitrous the United States. In 191 0 an obelisk, given by a oxide, but he suggested to the fun-seekers that he local doctor, was erected to Crawford Long's memory had a substance, ether, "which would produce equal- in Athens. In 1957 the Crawford W. Long Memorial ly exhilarating effects; that I had inhaled it myself, Museum was dedicated in Jefferson, Georgia on the and considered it as safe as the nitrous oxide gas." spot where Long performed his history-changing While they were "high" on ether, Long noted that operation. Today Long and his former college room- his friends were quite literally "feeling no pain." mate, Alexander H. Stephens, stand side-by-side in They seemed insensible to the bumps and bruises Statuary Hall, Washington, D.C. However, like so they were acquiring. Long's medical career had made many dedicated public servants, Long's greatest him acutely aware of the need of some sort of anes- tribute was the heartfelt thanks he received from thetizing agent for surgical practices, and he deter- thousands of people whose lives had been improved mined to test ether's potential in this regard. - and in many instances saved - by the quiet, Between March 1842 and September 1846, Dr. scholarly doctor who had his moment of national Long performed eight surgical operations in which glory in a discovery that has rebounded to the im- the patient was anesthetized with ether. On March 30 provement of a profession to which he devoted a and June 6, 1842, he removed cysts from a man's lifetime. neck, and on July 3 of that same year he amputated a child's toe. On September 9, 1843 he removed a tu- mor from a woman's head, and two years later, January 8, 1845, he amputated a man's finger. Three subsequent operations proved equally successful. Without exception, the patients testified that they by James M. Gifford Against the backdrop of Civil War and Recon- next three months. The unexaggerated trauma of struction, Sidney Lanier, a native of Macon, Georgia, war and prison life pours forth in his only novel, emerged as one of nineteenth century America's emi- Tiger- Lilies. nent poets. He was also a novelist, critic, musician, The rest of Lanier's life was a struggle for survival, lecturer, university professor, soldier, and lawyer yet he managed to write a number of enduring during his short lifetime. When the late Edd winfield works. Following a number of tangled war-time ro- Parks delivered the Eugenia Dorothy Blount Lamar mances, he married Mary Day on December 21,1867. Lecture Series at Wesleyan College in 1968, he con- For the next seven years Lanier tried to balance his cluded that Sidney Lanier was one of America's need for creativity and the pressing necessity of pro- "most vital and most interesting minor poets." viding for a wife and four sons during the "dark Sidney, the son of Robert Sampson and Mary raven days" of Reconstruction. Often he awoke Anderson Lanier, was born February 3, 1842 in hemorrhaging with his mouth full of blood, and his Macon, Georgia. His father was a lawyer, and his illnesses forced long separations from his family. His grandfather, Sterling Lanier, was a successful busi- wife suffered from malaria, but in spite of numerous nessman. Sidney and his brother Clifford and sister problems they had an excellent marriage. Gertrude grew up in a serious Presbyterian household Between 1867 and 1873 Lanier tried a variety of where family life and education were stressed. As a jobs. He taught in Prattville, Alabama. He clerked in child, he showed precocious musical abilities while a hotel. In July 1869 he was admitted to the bar and gaining a more general education in a local academy. began practicing law. He gave several flute concerts. He entered the sophomore class at Oglethorpe Most importantly, he continued to write. In addition University, a staunch Presbyterian school near the to the strong support of his family, Lanier was rein- state capital of Milledgeville, on January 6, 1857. forced by the praise of literary people like Joel While enjoying his student days, Sidney belonged to Chandler Harris and Paul Hamilton Hayne. the Thalian Literary Society, played the flute to By 1873 the frustrations of being a part-time entertain his classmates, and had a series of platonic writer had taken their toll. Lanier decided not to be romances. He matured intellectually under the in- a "third rate struggling lawyer" for the rest of his life fluence of one of his teachers, J ames Woodrow, a when he could do "other things so much better." 40 fine young scholar who had studied under Louis As he told his father, he had suffered twenty years Agassiz at Harvard and later graduated summa cum "through poverty, through pain, through weariness, laude from his doctoral work at Heidelberg. Sidney through sickness, through the uncongenial atmos- graduated from Oglethorpe in the spring of 1860 phere of a farcical college and of a bare army and first in his class and accepted an appointment there then of an exacting business life, through all the dis- as tutor. That fall he decided to eventually take a couragements of being born on the wrong side of doctoral degree at Heidelberg and prepare himself Mason and Dickson's line and of being wholly un- for life as a university professor, but Georgia seceded acguainted with literary people and literary ways" from the Union on January 19, 1861, and his plans (Quoted in Parks, 25-6). Lanier resolved to devote were disrupted by Civil War. the rest of his life to literature and music. In July 1861 Lanier joined the Macon volunteers Still, much of his remaining years were spent and was soon transferred to Virginia, where he writing "potboilers," like Florida and The Boy's witnessed the famous battle between the Merrimac Froissart, to support his family. Sadly he confessed and the i\:lonitor. After participating in the seven to a friend that his "head and heart" were "full of days fight at Chickahominy and the battle of Mal- poems," but "the dreadful struggle for bread" did vern Hill, he and his brother transferred to the not give him ample time to write (Quoted in Basker- Mounted Signal Corps. He experienced more of the vill, 211). Yet he did the best he could under the grim realities of war in North Carolina, and on circumstances and began to receive some national November 2, 1864 he was captured by Union troops. recognition. "Corn" and "The Symphony" were Lanier spent four months as a P.O.W. in the "hell- published in Lippincott's Magazine in 1875. He hole" prison at Point Lookout, Maryland, where published a volume of his poetry in 1877. Two years fifteen to twenty men died daily from the deplorable later he was appointed lecturer in English literature conditions. The tuberculosis he inherited from both at Johns Hopkins University, where he made some parents became worse, and he probably would have very interesting scientific analyses of English verse. died in prison had he not made his escape through "The Marshes of Glynn" (1878), reflecting on his bribery. He reached Macon on March 15, 1865 native Georgia, may be his best work. In all, he wrote exhausted, near death and delirious for parts of the more than 100 poems; nature and religion were two Sidney Clopton Lanier, 1842-1881 of the dominant themes of his work. Throughout the years 1873-81 his health had been getting worse. In June 1881 he took his family to a mountain retreat in North Carolina. He was jotting down outlines for future poems and dictating to his wife until his death on September 7, 1881. Today on the Duke University campus three statues guard the southern past: Thomas Jefferson, "Statesman of the South;" Robert E. Lee, "Soldier of the South;" and Sidney Lanier, "Poet of the South." Had the circumstances of his life been more favorable, Lanier might have been a poet of the world. by James M. Gifford SONG OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE Out of the hills of Habersham, Down the valleys of Hall, I hurry amain to reach the plain, Run the rapid and leap the fall, Split at the rock and together again, Accept my bed, or narrow or wide, And flee from folly on every side With a lover's pain to attain the plain Far from the hills of Habersham, Far from the valleys of Hall. All down the hills of Habersham, All through the valleys of Hall, The rushes cried Abide, abide, The willful waterweeds held me thrall, The laving laurel turned my tide, The ferns and the fondling grass said Stay, The dewberry dipped for to work delay, And the little reeds si,ghed Abide, abide, Here in the hills of Habersham, Here in the valleys of Hall. High o'er the hills of Habersham, Veiling the valleys of Hall, The hickory told me manifold Fair tales of shade, the poplar tall Wrought me her shadowy self to hold, The chestnut, the oak, the walnut, the pine, Overleaning, with flickering meaning and sign, Said, Pass not, so cold, these manifold Deep shades of the hills of Habersham, 41 These glades in the valleys of Hall. And oft in the hills of Habersham, And oft in the valleys of Hall, The white quartz shone, and the smooth brookstone Did bar me of passage with friendly brawl, And many a luminous jewel lone - Crystals clear or a-cloud with mist, Ruby, garnet, and amethyst Made lures with the lights of streaming stone In the clefts of the hills of Habersham, In the beds of the valleys of Hall. But oh, not the hills of Habersham, And oh, not the valleys of Hall Avail: I am fain for to water the plain. Downward the voices of Duty call Downward, to toil and be mixed with the main, The dry fields burn, and the mills are to turn, And a myriad flowers mortally yearn, And the lordly main from beyond the plain calls o'er the hills of Habersham, Calls through the valleys of Hall. - Sidney Lanier As a state and national legislator, vice-president of the Confederacy, and governor, Alexander Stephens gave more than forty years of devoted political service to mid-nineteenth century Georgians. He played a major role in guiding Georgians through the momentous years of compromise, secession, civil War, and Reconstruction. Stephens was one of the unique state leaders of his day. Most of Georgia's antebellum heroes were cast from the same healthy, happily-married mold, but "Little Aleck" was a Stephens taught in Madison for a year but showed ninety-six pound, pain-ridden semi-invalid who never little enthusiasm for his work. He apparently fell in married and desperately sought political greatness to love with one of his students, but he was poor, sick, compensate for his physical shortcomings. shy and remained silent. The next year he took a job Andrew Baskin Stephens, a poor farmer and a in Liberty County tutoring the children of Dr. Louis country school teacher from Wilkes County, and his LeConte. Of these thirteen pupils, John and Joseph 42 first wife Margaret Grier had two children, and would particularly distinguish themselves in later Margaret died the same year her second child, Alexan- years. After a year with the LeContes, Stephens der, was born. Alexander was frail and sickly, but he decided to study law. He worked feverishly for ten spent his boyhood doing hard farm work and oc- weeks and was examined on July 22, 1834 by four of casionally attending school. When he was fourteen, antebellum Georgia's finest lawyers, including William his father, whom he loved dearly, died of pneumonia. H. Crawford and Joseph Henry Lumpkin. He passed His stepmother, Matilda Lindsay, who had borne the exam - the last to be administered by Crawford Andrew five children, died the next week. Or- who died one week later - and practiced law in phaned, Alexander was sent to live with an uncle, Crawfordville for the next two years. and the boy attended school with the meager inheri- His interest in politics grew with his law practice, tance from his father's estate. and in 1836 he was elected to the state legislature. By 1827 his money was spent, and he had sadly His conservative orthodoxy and general popularity resolved to seek a clerk's job when his Sunday won him re-election five times. Then in 1843 he was school teacher, Charles C. Mills, who had been im- elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, a post pressed with the lad's serious-mindedness and aca- he retained until his resignation in 1859. Well-known demic aptitude, volunteered to send Aleck to an for his wit and intelligence, Stephens tried to main- academy in nearby Washington, Georgia. He did well tain the Union and the rights of the states. However, at the academy, and he became so devoted to his during the debates that preceded the Compromise of teacher, Alexander Hamilton Webster, that young 1850, he warned Congress that the South would fight Stephens adopted his middle name. in the fall of 1828 if "conciliation" could not be made on "reasonable he accepted a loan from a Presbyterian organization, and just principles." Like Howell Cobb and Robert the Georgia Education Society, and entered the Toombs, he hurried home to Georgia to encourage freshman class at the University of Georgia. As an support of the Compromise of 1850 after the com- undergraduate, he was happy and popular, and he promise measures had been enacted by Congress. graduated in 1832 at the head of his class. Eschewing Stephens was one of the mainstays of Unionism in a ministerial career. he set out to teach in Madison Georgia, working toward moderation throughout the and repay his college loan. sectional conflict until the secession convention had Alexander Hamilton Stephens, 1812-1883 THE FIRST CONFEDERATE CABINET. Seated, left to right: Judah P. Benjamin, attorney general; Stephen R. Mallory, navy; Alexander H. Stephens, vice-president; Jefferson Davis, president; John H. Reagan, postmaster general; Robert Toombs, secretary of state. Standing, left to right: Christopher G. Memminger, treasury; Leroy P. Walker, war. acted. In January 1861, with the Georgia legislature tried to reaffirm the concept of state sovereignty in considering secession, Stephens ardently spoke for a two-volume work (1868 & 1870) entitled A Consti- the "government of our fathers," but his advice went tutional View of the Late War Between the States. unheeded, and Georgia seceded. The secession con- Turning down a professorship in history and poli- vention sent delegates to the Montgomery conven- tical science at the state university, Stephens con- tion. When the Confederate government was or- tinued to write, producing a school history in 1872 43 ganized, Stephens, a member of the Georgia delega- and ten years later an illustrated version that never tion, was elected vice-president on February 9, 1861. enjoyed the success of the first edition. He also He soon lost faith in Jefferson Davis' executive bought interest in an Atlanta newspaper, the Southern ability and conduct of the war. Suspension of habeas Sun, but his journalistic efforts were not profitable corp u.s, conscription of troops, and other actions and he turned to other ventures. which Stephens saw as unconstitutional under the Although he was ill and crippled, Stephens was Confederate government, caused him to encourage elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1872 opposition to Davis' policies in his home state. and served for ten years before he resigned. He again Stephens was also much more oriented toward ending proved himself to be an able spokesman for the South, the war through compromise than Davis was. and he played an important role in encouraging the Beginning in June 1863 and continuing through compromise of 1877. After a year of retirement, the Hampton Roads conference in February 1865, Alexander Stephens was elected governor. He died Stephens negotiated for Confederate independence. in 1883, shortly after his inaugration. After the Hampton Roads conference failed, he Stephens typifies the white Southern political realized the inevitability of unconditional surrender leaders of his day who were never able to effectively and went home to his "Liberty Hall" plantation to balance conflicting loyalties to nation and state. His await the collapse of the Confederacy. He was arrest- racism was also typical. In 1859 he defended slavery ed when the war was over and spent five months in based on his beliefs that blacks were inferior and that prison before he was paroled. class order was essential to society. In spite of his Unlike many, Stephens survived the war traumas, shortcomings, he gave a lifetime of devoted public adjusted to changing circumstances, and continued service to his fellow Georgians. His successes are a to serve his state. He was elected to the Senate in tribute to his courage, his wit, and his persistence. 1866, only to be excluded along with other "rebels." He encouraged Georgians to accept Reconstruction, but when congressional policies became more harsh and more drastic than he had envisioned, he again by James M. Gifford Robert Toombs played a major role in mid~ the seventeen-year-old daughter of a wealthy planter, nineteenth century Georgia political life. During the and their happy marriage produced three children. antebellum period. he served as a legislator and a Toombs was immediately successful in his law prac- congressman. When the Civil War erupted, Toombs tice, and he invested his growing wealth in his Wash- was appointed as Jefferson Davis' secretary of state. ington, Wilkes County plantation. In 1836 he raised He also played a military role in the war. After the a company of volunteers and fought under Winfield war he was a determined opponent of Congressional Scott in the Creek Indian Wars. Reconstruction and an important "behind~the~ His political career began when he was elected to scenes" figure in Georgia politics. the state legislature in 1837. For the next six years Robert A. Toombs. the fifth child of Robert his conservative Whiggery and devotion to sound fi- Toombs and his third wife Catherine Huling was born nance won him continued support and in 1844 he near Washington, Georgia on July 2, 1810. His father. was elected to the u.s. House of Representatives. a veteran of the Revolutionary War, died when young As a congressman, he was a background figure who Robert was five years old, leaving his family well~ won friends and kept a careful eye on government provided. Bob had a happy, healthy. mischievous ex penditures. When the crisis of 1850 erupted, he childhood. emerged as a fiery spokesman for his homeland. Fear- At age fourteen he entered the freshman class at the ing a Northern congressional usurpation of Southern University of Georgia and quickly acquired a repu~ rights. he told Congress in his famous "Hamilcar tation for boyish disregard of authority. During the speech" to "give us our just rights. and we are ready. fall of his sophomore year, a running feud with as ever heretofore. to stand by the Union ... Refuse brothers Junius and Granby Hillyer erupted in several it and I for one will strike for independence." But violent fights in which Robert brandished club and Toombs' unionist feelings were equally strong, and pistol. Shortly thereafter he was dismissed from he played a major role in effecting the Compromise school, but the university debating societies inter~ of 1850 and encouraging its acceptance in his home 44 ceded on his behalf and the faculty reinstated him on sta te. probationary status. During his senior year President In 1853 his efforts won him election to the Senate, Moses waddel admonished him frequently for swear- and he held this post for the next seven years. Senator ing and the faculty fined Toombs and his roommate Toombs championed Southern and states' rights, but for "loud laughing and boisterous conversation in he also tried to promote national "peace. equality, their room" which got "worse and worse" after an and fraternitv. Some of his best. and often over- admonition. That January, 1828. as a reuslt of a looked. work in Congress was done in economic long series of accumulated grievances. the faculty matters. He was a shrewd student of government dismissed Toombs from school. (Ironically. his ex pc nd itures and proper financial procedures. next association with the university would be as When Lincoln was elected in 1860, Toombs decid- a member of the board of trustees.) ed that Southern interests could no longer be pre- Probably to escape his reputation, Toombs left for served within the structure of the federal government. Schenectady, New York. enrolled at Union College. He left the Senate in January 1861 and returned to and graduated in July 1828. That fall the Georgia Georgia to encourage secession with the full power firebrand entered the University of Virginia Law of his oratory. He was chosen as one of the delegates School, and in December 1829 the Georgia legis- to meet with representatives from other seceded lature passed a special act permitting him to enter states in Montgomery. Alabama. When this body the bar in his minority. He passed his exams and was created the Confederate States of America, Toombs licensed in March 1830 by Judge William H. Craw~ was not elected president as he had hoped. Reluctant- ford. Eight months later he marriedJulia Ann Dubose. ly he accepted Jefferson Davis' offer to be secretary Robert Augustus Toombs, 1810-1885 45 of state, but he quickly grew hostile to Davis and his policies. Dissatisfied, he resigned his cabinet position for a military commission. Toombs commanded in the battles of Malvern Hill and Antietam, but he did not distinguish himself. Finally, he resigned his commission and spent the rest of the war as a critic of Confederate policy. At the end of the war he barely eluded arrest by Union troops and escaped through New Orleans to Havana, and later London and Paris. He returned to the United States in 1867, but he never applied for a pardon and never regained U.S. citizenship. Nevertheless, Georgia's "unreconstructed rebel" was immensely popular and made a fortune in his law practice. He also became a powerful force in state politics again and was influential in rewriting the state constitution in 1877. Among his other postwar accomplishments, he encouraged the regulation and taxation of railroads in Georgia. Sadness was the theme of his last years. Despondent over the deaths of his wife Julia and best friend "Aleck" Stephens, and depressed by increasing loss of vision due to cataracts, he became an alcoholic in his desolation and loneliness. When he died in December 1885, Henry Grady eulogized "it is doubtful if the records of a lordlier life than his can be found in the history of our republic." Northern papers were less complimentary. In retrospect, Robert Toombs emerges as a man of commanding talents who never focused on one goal long enough to achieve greatness, but, to many Georgians of his day, he was the defiant hero of Reconstruction and a symbol of a "glorious past." by James M. Gifford "And who in the devil is Joe Brown?" asked Robert Toombs when he was told in July 1857 that Brown was the Democratic party's gubernatorial nominee. Historians have been seeking the proper answer to Toombs' question for a century. Brown was a lawyer, businessman, Georgia's war-time governor, and u.s. senator. As one of the Confederacy's most un- Brown's law practice was the springboard to a cooperative governors and, later, as a Republican long political career. In 1849 he was elected to the supporter of Congressional Reconstruction, he was state senate and soon emerged as one of the main denounced as "Judas Escobes Brown," Southern forces in Georgia's Democratic party. In 1855 he traitor. was elected as one of Georgia's superior court judges. Joe Brown was born April 15, 1821 in the Pickens Two years later when the state nominating conven- district of South Carolina, near the home of John tion was deadlocked over five well-known candidates, c. Calhoun. He was the oldest of Mackey and Sally Brown emerged as the Democratic party's compro- Rice Brown's eleven children. His frontier family mise choice in the governor's race, thus prompting 46 was industrious and proud. Joe's grandfather had Toombs' question. Brown proved himself a shrewd fought the British at King's Mountain and Camden, and capable politician by defeating Ben Hill, the and his father had served under "old Hickory" at American party candidate, by 11,000 votes. He was New Orleans. While he was still a child, Joe's family re-elected in 1859, 1861, and 1863 - the only man moved to Union County, in the mountains of north to serve as Georgia's governor for four terms. Georgia. Until he was nineteen Joe worked on the As governor, Brown was his own man. He doggedly family farm and obtained a basic education. In 1840 pursued his beliefs in the face of opposition from his father gave him a pair of oxen and his mother some of the state's most prominent politicians. He donated a suit of homespun clothing, and Joe set advocated free public schools and endowment of the out for Calhoun Academy in South Carolina. He state university and was instrumental in profitably exchanged his animals for eight months board, and reforming the management of the state-owned for the next four years he alternately went to school Western & Atlantic Railroad. and worked to pay his expenses. Governor Brown was an ardent champion of seces- In 1844, he opened a successful academy in sion and an efficient war-time leader, but he was Canton, Cherokee County, Georgia. At night he constantly at odds with Jefferson Davis and the Con- read law. He was admitted to the bar in Augusta federate government throughout the war. Like Alex- the following August. To further his training he ander Stephens, he was particularly disturbed over borrowed money and entered yale Law School in the conscription law and the suspension of habeas October 1845. He graduated the next year and re- corpus. In effect his devotion to states' rights was turned to Canton. The thrifty Baptist Democrat self-defeating and counterproductive to the war developed a successful, lucrative practice. In 1847 effort. At the end of the war he was imprisoned he married Elizabeth Grisham. Brown was devoted but soon pardoned and released. to his wife and their six sons and two daughters, After the war, he advocated conciliation and co- and Elizabeth loved her husband with equal measure, operation and urged Georgians to accept Congres- traveling with him, aiding him in writing speeches, sional Reconstruction as the quickest route to eco- keeping a scrapbook of his career, and generally nomic recovery. Denounced as a traitor to the South- giving him strong support. ern cause, he pragmatically became a Republican Joseph Emerson Brown, 1821-1894 Promoted by men like Joseph E. Brown, Atlanta was enthusiastically hailed as a symbol of the New South in 1877. 47 and unofficially played an important role in moderating the Reconstruction of Georgia. In 1868, the Republicans attempted to reward his efforts by electing him to the u.s. Senate, but Brown's Democratic enemies foiled the scheme in the state legislature. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed chief justice of the state supreme court. When it became obvious that the Republicans were losing control of the state, Brown resigned from the court and skillfully worked his way back into the good grace of the Democratic party leadership. Then he remained in the political background for almost a decade, devoting his energies to increasing his private fortune. In 1880 he was appointed by Governor Alfred H. Colquitt to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate and was then twice re-elected, serving until March 3, 1891. After 1880, Brown allied with John B. Gordon and Alfred H. Colquitt to control state politics until his death, November 30,1894. In his post-war years Brown combined his business ability and his political contacts to build a financial empire of real estate, mines, and railroads. Many felt that Brown built his financial empire through illegal means. Great criticism was also leveled against Brown's use of convict labor in the Dade County coal mines. In her study of Reconstruction in Georgia, C. M. Thompson concludes that Brown was "first in secession, first in reconstruction and very nearly first in the restoration of Democratic home rule. Consequently he came up on top at every revolution of the wheel of destiny." What this phenomenon implies is an unresolved question among historians who are still trying to answer Toombs' famous question. Brown remains a puzzling and contradictory figure. He was passionately loyal to the goal of Southern independence, but his open hostility to Jefferson Davis' war-time measures surely helped to destroy the Confederacy. by James M. Gifford Northerners and Southerners continued to split over the tumultous events of the 1850s, and each new Howell Cobb won state and national fame as one rift seemed capable of tearing the union apart. To of mid-nineteenth century Georgia's prominent quell dissatisfaction with the compromise in his home statesmen and politicians. He served in the House of state, Cobb returned to Georgia to deal the radicals a Representatives during the 1840s and was elected crushing blow by winning the 1851 gubernatorial Speaker of the House from 1849 to 1851. He was election on the Constitutional Union party ticket. governor of Georgia from 1851 to 1853 and James When his term as governor expired in 1853, his wife, Buchanan's secretary of the treasury from 1857 to who was uncomfortable in the spotlight of national 1860. For most of the antebellum period Cobb politics, hoped that Howell would quietly return to espoused Unionism and Southern moderation, but private life. But the dual commitment that Howell after 1853 his views changed with changing circum- Cobb felt to the South and the Union was a burden stances, and by 1860 he had become an outspoken that he could not put down, and he returned to secessionist. Congress in 1855 to wage war against the forces of Howell was born September 7,1815 at Cherry Hill, Northern and Southern extremism that threatened to Jefferson County, Georgia. His parents, John A. and destroy the union. Sarah Rootes Cobb moved to Athens, the site of the According to his biographer, John Eddins Simpson, state university, to give their children better educa- after 1853 Cobb struggled desperately to regain his tional opportunities. Howell attended the University standing in the Democratic party. He campaigned of Georgia and graduated in 1834. That same year hard for Democratic nominee James Buchanan in he married Mary Ann Lamar, the daughter of a 1856 and his efforts were successful. The next year wealthy and socially prominent family. Although his "Old Buck" rewarded Cobb with a cabinet position future was financially secure, young Cobb wanted to as secretary of the treasury, and the Georgian became do more with his life than rest on family laurels. He a leader of the cabinet and Buchanan's close 48 studied law for the next two years and was admitted confidant. to the bar in 1836. The next year he began an in- By 1860 sectional problems had intensified and tensely ambitious career of public service that spanned Civil War was imminent. A new, unified, anti-slavery the rest of the antebellum period. Republican party had emerged to represent Northern In 1837 twenty-two-year-old Howell Cobb was sentiment; but the Democratic party, which had been elected solicitor of Georgia's Western Judicial Circuit. trying to maintain national party unity for two The people of his district, mostly Unionists, respected decades, was splintering. Cobb desperately sought his work and elected him to represent them in Con- the presidential nomination in 1860, but the Demo- gress in 1842. Cobb's devotion to Southern modera- cratic party split insured Lincoln's election. Realizing tion and his love of the Union were dual qualities that his political future in Washington was over, Cobb which made him attractive to the Southern and resigned from Buchanan's cabinet. Northern Democrats who rewarded him with the Returning to Georgia, Cobb capitalized on in- House Speakership in 1849. As Speaker, he presided flamed public opinion and became one of the leaders over some of the most significant and heated contro- of the secession movement in his home state. In versies in congressional history. January 1861, a state convention was held to con- The United States had just acquired a vast expanse sider secession, and, although Cobb was not an of- of southwestern territory, including California, from ficial delegate, he played a major role in Georgia's the Mexican War, and Northerners and Southerners, decision for disunion. When delegates of the seceded who were rapidly polarizing into anti-slavery and pro- states met in Montgomery to organize the Confedera- slavery camps, wanted to promote their respective cy, Cobb was elected chairman of the convention. sectional interests in the new territories. Cobb's He hoped his post would be the springboard to the leadership was important in effecting the Compro- presidency, and he was deeply disappointed when mise of 1850. Unfortunately the compromise was not Jefferson Davis was elected, with Alexander H. a final resolution. It merely postponed a final de- Stephens as his vice-president. Cobb's pride was cision on whether slavery would remain a part of wounded, and he announced that he would not ac- American life. cept a cabinet position. Nevertheless, he remained one of Davis' most loyal supporters. Howell Cobb, 1815-1868 49 The byproduct of secession was Civil War, and Cobb felt a personal obligation to fight for the Confederacy. He was overweight and a poor horseman-not at all the dashing military stereotype. Perhaps he might have contributed more as a non-military leader, but he did what he thought he had to do. He obtained a colonel's commission, raised a regiment of Georgia volunteers, and fought creditably in Virginia and later in defense of his home state. Of greater importance than his military contributions were the efforts he made to coordinate Jefferson Davis' military policies with the "often obstreperous" efforts of Georgia's war-time governor, Joseph E. Brown. During the war he was promoted to brigadier and, by the end of the war, major general. He was arrested at the end of the war. When he was paroled, he returned to his family in Athens. Mary Ann Cobb finally had her wish granted. Her husband, who had spent almost thirty years in politics and war, returned to private life. For the next three years Cobb practiced law and brought stability to the war-torn family economy. In 1868 he died in New York while he and his family were returning from a New England vacation. by James M. Gifford Ben Hill, a successful lawyer and gifted statesman, was one of mid-nineteenth century Georgia's most important politicians. A man of conservative in- stincts, he was flexible and realistic enough to change with the changing circumstances of Civil War and Reconstruction. A number of better-known ante- bellum Southern leaders never adjusted to post-war conditions, but men like Ben Hill quietly guided Georgians through the transition from Old to New South and helped to heal the breach in the Union. Shortly after the turn of the nineteenth century, John and Sarah Parham Hill moved from North Caro- lina to Jasper County, Georgia where Benjamin, the seventh of their nine children, was born. When young Ben was ten years old his family moved to the recently- opened Indian lands in Troup County. As a child, he became accustomed to hard work and infrequent educational opportunities, but, when he had the who had moved into the Democratic party. Hill, chance to go to school, he demonstrated his scholas- unquestionably his party's most able Georgia spokes- tic aptitude so thoroughly that his family made man, successfully debated his former colleagues. considerable sacrifices to send him to the University Toombs came off second best under Hill's withering 50 of Georgia. Four years later, at the age of twenty-one, attacks, and Hill so exasperated Stephens that the he graduated with valedictory honors. That same year emaciated little warrior challenged him to a duel, (1844), he was admitted to the bar and began a life- but Hill was one of the many Americans opposed long practice. to the code duello, and he skillfully declined. Eloquent, confident, and well-trained, Hill soon His popularity was growing, and two years later gained a reputation for success that made him a he ran against, but lost to, Joseph E. Brown in the wealthy man. Before he returned to LaGrange, in gubernatorial election. When the American party Troup County, to begin law practice, he had married died a natural death, Hill returned to the Constitu- Caroline Holt of Athens. Eventually they had six tional Union party and supported John Bell in 1860. children. Following Lincoln's election, he attended the se- After six years of private practice, Hill was elected cession convention held at Milledgeville in January to the state House of Representatives (1851). He was 1861 to fight disunion, but when his best efforts devoted to the South and the Union, so he en- failed he reluctantly signed the ordinance of se- couraged Georgians to accept the Compromise of ceSSIOn. 1850. Hoping the acceptance and the compromise Although Hill did not favor war, he could not turn were final, Hill returned to his practice in LaGrange. his back on the South. He attended the Provisional His party loyalties changed from Whig to Con- Congress at Montgomery and helped formalize the stitutional Union to American or "Know-Nothing" Confederate government. In November 1861, he was during the next five years. In 1856, he ardently cam- elected a Confederate senator and served for the paigned for Millard Fillmore, the "Know-Nothing" remainder of the war. Although Hill was not afraid . party's presidential nominee. While "stumping" to change his mind, he was not a man of vascillating the state, he came in conflict with former Whig loyalties. Once committed, Ben Hill remained dedi- friends Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens, cated. In Georgia, he staunchly defended some of Jefferson Davis' controversial war-time measures against the criticisms of Robert Toombs, Joe Brown, Linton Stephens, and other state leaders. Davis later dubbed him "Hill, the faithful." Arrested with Benjamin Harvey Hill, 1823-1882 The wartime devasation of Ben Hill's beloved South is vividly shown in this view of Atlanta after Sherman's invasion. so many other Southern leaders at the end of the By 1870 Hill was encouraging Georgians to accept 51 war, Hill spent three months in a New York jail. the Reconstruction Acts and sacrifice pride to restore When president Johnson pardoned him, he returned national unity. "It will be easier to reconcile the to LaGrange. South to the Union than to reconcile the North to For two years he stayed out of politics and tried the Constitution," he said (Letter, July 4, 1866, re- to rebuild his finances, but eventually his loyalty to printed in Savannah Daily News and Herald, July 9, Georgia and the South made him speak out against 1866). Such feelings were unpopular, and Ben Hill, Radical Reconstruction. In the summer of 1867 he once a "man of the people," was denounced for his made a series of speeches in Atlanta, the most famous perfidy and cast into political oblivion for five years. being the Davis House Speech of July 16, 1867, Then in 1875 he was elected to the United States denouncing the Reconstruction Acts of 1867. House of Representatives. He quickly won a reputa- For the next three years, Hill's courage and elo- tion as an able spokesman for the South and played quent opposition to Reconstruction enhanced his a valuable role in the Hayes-Tilden-election-dispute regional fame and won him national recognition. compromise. His popularity in Georgia was returning, After one of his fiery speeches, someone told Hill's and he was elected to the United States Senate on son: "One hour after that speech of Ben Hill, 1 knew January 26, 1877. His career was cut short when he that the redemption of Georgia was accomplished. All contracted cancer of the tongue and died in agony the bayonets in the United States could not have on August 16, 1882. awed nor all the wealth of the government debauched a people who had listened to that speech" (Quoted in A tlanta Constitution, Oct. 7, 1906, p. 6). But just as he had changed his mind about slavery and secession, Hill changed on Reconstruction. by James M. Gifford General John Brown Gordon returned to Georgia as a popular hero at the end of the Civil War. With- out any prior military training he had risen to major general and corps commander in Lee's army. Gor- don used his popularity and a wide following among Confederate veterans to win election to three terms in the United States Senate and one term as governor of Georgia. A symbol of the Old South, Gordon became a leading promoter of an industrialized New South and a dominant figure in Georgia politics as a member of the "Bourbon Triumvirate." Gordon was born in Upson County, Georgia on February 6, 1832. Entering the University of Georgia in 1851, he compiled a successful record, but left before graduating. After reading law privately he passed the bar examination and entered practice in 52 Atlanta. He did not succeed as a lawyer. After his the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia, an organization that marriage in 1854, he joined his father in developing used violence and intimidation to subvert the political coal mines in northwest Georgia. This venture pros- process. Then he entered politics as the Democratic pered; Gordon soon bought a plantation and slaves. candidate for governor in 1868. He lost the election, He emerged as an outspoken defender of slavery, but established himself as a leader in the Democratic then an ardent secessionist. party. After the Democrats regained control of the At the beginning of the Civil War, Gordon helped state government in 1872, the legislature elected organize a company of volunteers. They named Gordon to the United States Senate where he worked themselves the "Racoon Roughs" and elected Gordon to restore home rule and white supremacy through- captain, then joined the Army of Northern Virginia out the South. at the front. Gordon became one of General Lee's Gordon suddenly resigned his Senate seat in 1880. favorites and rose quickly in rank. He became a Georgians expressed outrage when Governor Alfred brigadier general in 1862 and a major general in 1864. H. Colquitt appointed Joseph E. Brown, who had General Gordon participated effectively in most of formerly cooperated with the Republicans, to replace the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia, from him. Gordon then took a lucrative position with a First Manassas to Appomattox. He performed es- railroad company with which Brown was associated. pecially well in the 1864 Wilderness campaign. At Although all parties denied the existence of a deal, Antietam he was hit five times. His severe wounds recently discovered evidence has proven that the kept him out of action for seven months. arrangement had been carefully worked out in ad- After the war, Gordon traded on his reputation as vance. This series of events did not, however, di- a southern hero. He organized and promoted a text- minish Gordon's tremendous popularity. book company and a life insurance company; both After 1880, Gordon invested in a variety of ven- failed and went into bankruptcy due to irresponsible tures from railroads to real estate schemes; except management. for the railroads, none of his investments succeeded. Gordon worked on two levels to overturn Re- In 1884 he again looked to public office. His friends construction government and black participation in promoted him for a cabinet office, but failed. With Georgia politics. First he became Grand Dragon of help from Henry Grady and the aging Jefferson Davis, John Brown Gordon, 1832-1904 53 Gordon won the 1886 gubernatorial election. Then, in 1890, he won another term in the Senate. He retired from politics in 1896. Throughout his political career Gordon maintained great popularity in spite of widespread charges of corruption and fraudulent business dealings. Along with Joseph E. Brown and Alfred H. Colquitt, Gordon dominated Georgia politics from 1872 into the 1890s. This "Bourbon Triumvirate" represented a conservative political order that glorified the southern past, but advocated an industrialized New South, as proclaimed by Henry Grady. Gordon in particular served as a symbol of the Lost Cause, while promoting new industry and development. During and after his political career Gordon preached a message of national reconciliation. He pictured the Civil War as a noble struggle of conscience, in which both sides fought gallantly. Only the question of the right of states to secede from the Union had caused and sustained the war, he believed. Because the war had settled that issue, Gordon called for an end to sectional strife. His message, in effect, asked the nation to forget the freedom and citizenship of southern blacks, and to allow the South to deal with them as it saw best. This appeal, promoted by Gordon and others, gained gradual nationwide acceptance. Gordon helped organize the United Confederate Veterans Association in 1889, and served as its president until his death. In 1903, he published his romantic Reminisce/Ices of the Ciuil IVar. In both of these endeavors, Gordon continued to glorify the past and stress the need for national reconciliation. He died at his winter home, near Miami, on J anuary 7, 1904. He received a hero's funeral in Atlanta: his popularity among Georgians endured. by Von V. Pittman, Jr. Grady wanted the South to become industrialized Henry Woodfin Grady, renowned journalist and and he apprised northern capitalists of the region's orator, was the most famous apostle of the "New abundant natural resources and cheap labor. If his South" movement which sought to build an industrial- dream came true, urban industrial centers would ized, economically prosperous society from the soon provide home markets for a new scientific. ashes left by the Civil War. Grady was born in 1850, diversified agriculture which would emerge as the in Athens, Georgia, the son of a prosperous merchant South overcame its reliance upon cotton. Grady later killed in the Civil War. His early acquaintance wryly focused attention on the manner in which with business and commercial pursuits and his mar- the South had been economically exploited by the riage into a pioneer cotton manufacturing family North by describing a funeral in Pickens County, may help to account for the zeal with which he later Georgia: sought to free his region from its dependence on They buried him in the midst of a agriculture. marble quarry; they cut through solid mar- A graduate of the University of Georgia, Grady ble to make his grave; and yet a little tomb- briefly studied law at the University of Virginia stone they put above him was from Ver- before becoming editor of the Rome, Georgia, mont. They buried him in the heart of a Courier. When his employer forbade any attempt to pine forest, and yet the pine coffin was im- denounce corruption in local politics, the idealistic ported from Cincinnati. They buried him Grady left his job to buy and combine the town's within touch of an iron mine, and yet the two other papers. This venture ended in bankruptcy nails in his coffin and the iron in the shovel as did his Atlanta Herald soon thereafter. These that dug his grave were imported from failures depleted his inheritance and for a time Pittsburgh. They buried him by the side Grady wrote columns for the A tlanta Constitution of the best sheep-grazing country on the and Augusta Chronicle. An excellent reporter, he earth, and yet the wool in the coffin bands became Atlanta correspondent for the New York themselves were brought from the North. Herald in 1876 and began to establish the ties which The South didn't furnish a thing on earth enhanced his later efforts to affect an economic and for that funeral but the corpse and the 54 ideological union between the South and the indus- hole in the ground. trial Northeast. Grady's ability to anticipate the mood of his In 1880 Cyrus W. Field loaned him $20,000 which audiences and to structure his speeches accordingly he used to buy a one-fourth interest in the Atlanta made him a popular orator in the North as well as Constitution. As editor of the Constitution, which the South. His most famous "New South" speech, quickly became one of the region's most widely read which he delivered before the New England Society newspapers, Grady prescribed optimism and diligent in New York City in 1886, was an attempt to con- pursuit of northern industrial capital as the cure for vince people both North and South that in spite of the desolate South's economic ills. Grady loved his the bitter past, a bright future was possible through native region but he expressed no bitterness concern- cooperation. In a gesture of friendship to the North, ing the Civil War, pointing out that the destruction Grady paid homage to the late President Lincoln, of slavery had freed the South from shackles which but he also devoted much attention to the "glorious had retarded its progress. civilization" of the antebellum South and the heroes of the Confederacy. A skilled propagandist, Grady made reconciliation seem logical and materially appealing to Northerners without offending South- erners. A warm and generous individual, Grady developed a large popular following through personal contacts as well as his writings and speeches. He worked for economic growth throughout the South but he was interested especially in bringing industrial prosperity to Atlanta. In 1888, with the cooperation of Hoke Smith, then the editor of the rival Atlanta Joumal, Grady breathed new life into the Atlanta Manu- facturers Association which had been declining for several years. Henry Woodfin Grady, 1850-1889 The Atlanta Constitution building where Grady wrote his famous New South editorials. L )\ "''0 / , ~; 55 As a foe of sectional strife, a champion of thrift and hard work, and a booster of public education, Grady served his region well. Yet, as was the case with many lesser known prophets of the New South, Grady proved to be shortsighted and unrealistic on certain crucial issues. He used his influence to help insure the election of state officials friendly to the interests of bankers, industrialists, and railroad owners and upheld ideals which were largely materialistic. Grady belittled Northern attempts to intervene in the region's racial affairs, arguing that Southern blacks were contented and well-treated in spite of evidence to the contrary. As an advocate of paternalism Grady condemned lynchings and other racial atrocities, but he maintained his belief in AngloSaxon superiority. Grady was also given to wishful thinking, and in the years before his death he painted glowing but inaccurate portraits of a South now blessed by prosperity and progress. Grady died at the youthful age of thirty-nine after being stricken with pneumonia while enroute home from a speaking engagement in Boston. In the long run he better served his contemporaries than many Southern leaders of subsequent generations who adopted Grady's energetic but blind "boosterism" and vigorously pursued Northern investments instead of attempting to solve the region's severe economic and social problems. In the post-Reconstruction era, however, Henry Grady provided inspiration and philosophical leadership directed toward a new and better day for his native South. by James C. Cobb Photograph courtesy of Woodruff Joel Chandler Harris was born on December 9, Library, Special Collections, Emory University. 1848, at Eatonton, Georgia. He grew up during the years of intense debate on the slave question, and in his teen years he saw the ravages of the Civil War in Georgia. Sherman's army marched through his home county. His early manhood and maturity spanned the years of Reconstruction, the rise of the New South movement, the emergence of the United States as one of the industrial powers of the world, and the Spanish American War. Since most of his career was spent as a journalist, Harris followed these momentous events with keen interest. But, in the meantime, he also drew upon childhood memories of pre-Civil War days and gave to the world the tales which have brought pleasure to millions of people. Joel Harris spent his first thirteen years in Eaton- ton. Life there probably was routine and peaceful, perhaps even boring to a boy with an active, inquisi- tive mind. However, in 1862, a significant turn came when Harris decided to apprentice himself to Joseph Addison Turner who edited a small newspaper, Uncle Remus is better known than the man who The Countryman, at nearby Turnwold plantation. made him famous in American literature. But Joel This launched Harris' career in journalism, but it Chandler Harris would not have minded its being proved to be much more than that. Under Turner's that way. The shy and unassuming Harris eschewed strict tutelage Harris learned to write well, was the public limelight all his life. In the quietness of his encouraged to read widely, and became a proficient office and home, however, Harris' retentive mind journalist. In those same years, his alert eyes and and gifted pen poured forth the stories which assured ears took in the world of the plantation and stored immortality to Uncle Remus, Br'er Rabbit and away rich experiences which later provided the 56 dozens of other figures who belonged to a special material for his stories. It was Turner who molded part of plantation life in the Old South. Simultane- Harris' early career and cultivated his preference for ously, and incidentally almost, this unique author southern writing. carved out an enduring niche for himself in the Harris spent most of his life in Georgia. When he literary world. left Turnwold in 1866, he went to New Orleans for a Harris courted obscurity. He never made a public short time but homesickness soon brought him back speech in his entire life and referred to himself as to Macon, and then to Forsyth, to a job on the "an accidental author." But by such contemporaries Monroe Advertiser. In 1870 he became associate as Mark Twain and James Whitcomb Riley he was editor of the Savannah Morning News, where his judged to be a writer of considerable originality and daily column, "Affairs in Georgia," soon established talent. Walter Hines Page visited Harris in Atlanta him as a highly popular humorist and critic of current shortly after the publication of Uncle Remus: His events. In Savannah he also met Esther LaRose, an Songs and Sayings. Afterwards, Page recorded the eighteen-year-old Catholic girl of French Canadian following impressions: "A little man, just thirty-one, descent, whom he married on September 21, 1873. I believe, with red, unkept hair, a fiery, half-vicious An outbreak of yellow fever in 1876 forced Harris moustache, a freckled face and freckled hands; and and his family to flee the coast of Georgia to the ' I( ' there is nothing striking about him - what strange habitations does genius choose among men ou- sins,117). /. ~ , more healthful climate of Atlanta. There, along with Henry W. Grady, he became an associate editor of the A tlanta Constitution. From their editorial desks Harris and Grady opposed the sectional politicians of Georgia and urged all southerners to participate-in J.I . the industrial progress of the United States by co- operating with other regions of the nation. Some scholars have insisted that Uncle Remus' popularity in all parts of the United States was a significant factor in healing old Civil War wounds and in bringing reconciliation between the North and the South. Joel Chandler Harris, 1848-1908 ~-'/ Shortly after Harris joined the Constitution staff he began writing sketches in dialect, and Uncle Remus eventually made his appearance as a shade-tree philosopher commenting on events in Georgia. The first of the "'tales" appeared on July 20,1879, under the title, "'The Story of Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Fox." After that date Harris' creative output gained momen- tum and, drawing upon the memory of his early years at Eatonton and Turnwold, he produced a number of His Songs and his unique tales. In less than eighteen months after the first one appeared Uncle Remus: His SonJ.[s and Sayings was published. - The strain of founding a new magazine plus other By 1880 readers of the influential New York responsibilities broke Harris' already fragile health, 57 HveninJ.[ Post, the Springfield Republican, and other and by the spring of 1908 he was in serious con- newspapers around the country were already familiar dition. Two weeks before his death on July 3 he was with the Uncle Remus stories. Consequently, there baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, a step he was a vast reading public prepared to receive Harris' had been contemplating for several years. He was first book when it appeared and the modest author buried in Westview Cemetery, Atlanta. became an instant celebrity. That initial success was In the course of his career Joel Chandler Harris enhanced by the publication of Nights with Uncle produced several volumes of children's stories, a few Remus (1883), Daddy Jake and the R.unaway and poems, various articles for the Satli rddY }:' "clli n,I{ IJost, Short Stories Told After Dark (1889), and Uncle vast numbers of miscellaneous newspaper articles and R.emus and His Friends (1892). editorials, two novels, and a number of short stories In 1900 Harris retired from the Constitution to depicting special aspects of life in Georgia. There can devote more time to his private writing. The follow- be little doubt, however, that his world-wide popu- ing years should have been the happiest and most larity and his place in literature derive chiefly from productive of his life. He was in his early fifties and his remarkable tales conveyed through witty his reputation as an author was established. Unfor- and wise storyteller, Uncle Remus. tunately, poor health dogged him throughout his last years. During the first two years of retirement he suffered personal illnesses from which he never fully recovered, and the energy sapped by disease affected the quality of his writing. After many problems and delays, Harris realized in 1907 a cherished dream of founding and editing a southern literary magazine called [Jncle I