STATE CAPITOL

A STANDARD HISTORY OF
Georgia and Georgians
By LUCIAN LAMAR KNIGHT
ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME III

THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY

CHICAGO : : NEW YORK

'

1917

COPYRIGHT 1917 BY
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING Co,

PART I
GEORGIA IN THE REALM OF ANECDOTE, WIT, HUMOR, EPISODE AND INCIDENT

Georgia and Georgians
SHELLMAN HEIGHTS: A KOMANCE OP SHERMAN's MARCH
On January 1, 1911, there fell a prey to the devouring flames, a splendid old mansion on the Etowah, near Cartersville, Georgia, known as Shellman Heights. It crowned an eminence overlooking the river and represented an investment of several thousands of dollars, not a penny of which, for lack of insurance, could be recovered. Little sur vives to mark the spot; hut associated with it there is a romance of the '60s surpassing anything to be found in the melodramas. Shellman Heights was built in 1861 by Capt. Charles Shellman, and the first mistress of the mansion was one of the most famous belles of her day. As Miss Cecilia Stovall, she spent her summers at West Point, and there she became a prime favorite with the handsome young cadets. The circle of her admirers included two stalwart youths who were destined to attain high honors in the iron days of battle: Joseph Hooker and William Tecumseh Sherman. Both were captivated by this bewitchingly beauti ful Georgia girl. But she married a man from her own section, much to the chagrin of her disappointed lovers.
Years elapsed. In the spring of 1864, en route to New Hope Church, where one of the great battles of the campaign was fought, General Sherman and General Hooker both halted at Shellman Heights. General Sherman was the first to arrive. On approaching the mansion .which he was about to ransack, the Federal commander was attracted by the pathetic wail of an old negro woman, who sat at the front entrance and, in accents hysterical with grief and fear, .repeatedly sobbed:
"0, Lawd, what's Miss Celia gwine ter do now?" Catching the sound of a name which was once most charmingly familiar to his ear, there flashed across the old soldier's mind a vision of West Point, and, in a tone of inquiry which was not without some touch of tenderness, he inquired: "What is the full name of your mistress? Come, answer me quick." "Her name," replied the distracted servant. "Hit's Miss Cecilia Stovall Shellman." General Sherman started. But instantly a smile broke over his rugged face. "Why, that's my old sweetheart!" exclaimed he; and into the eyes of the man of blood and iron there crept a far away look. . But it was only for. a moment. Tearing a leaf from his note book, the grim warrior hastily scratched the following lines, addressed to Mrs. Shellman:
1273

1274

GEOKGIA AND GEORGIANS

'' My dear Madam You once said that you pitied the man who would ever become my foe. My answer was that I would ever protect and shield you. That I have done. Forgive all else. I am but a soldier.
"W. T. SHERMAN."

Orders were immediately given to the soldiers to replace what they had taken, while a guard was stationed about the mansion to protect it from further molestation. Even iron will melt in the heat of a blaze fervent enough to soften it; and for the sake of an old love affair of his youth, the grim despoiler spared Shellman Heights. Sentiment often crops out in unexpected places. Now and then we find violets growing in the clefts of volcanic rocks. Sherman moved on. Later came Hooker, who learning the same particulars in regard to the ownership of the mansion issued the same order to his troops.

It is said that another unsuccessful suitor for the hand of this beautiful southern ^woman was gallant Dick Garnett, a young West Pointer, in charge of the arsenal at Augusta, then the girlhood home of Miss Stovall. To the handsome youth's proposal of marriage, the fair object of his affection was by no means indifferent. But the young girl's father did not favor this match. The lovers were forbidden to meet and the obstinate lass was finally sent to visit relatives in South Carolina. There was probably no objection to the young man himself. The best Virginia blood rippled his veins; but his profession was hazardous and his income small. Mr. Stovall wished to see his daughter wedded to a lord of many acres. In this whim he was gratified. While visiting the Palmetto State, Miss Cecilia smiled on the suit of a gentleman to whom her father interposed no objection arid whose means enabled him to build for his bride the beautiful old home on the Etowah. But the young officer whose suit she was forced to decline always remained true to his first love. He never married; and when he fell on the battlefield of Gettysburg, in 1863, the image of sweet Cecilia Stovall still ruled the heart of Gen. Richard B. Garnett, one of the, bravest soldiers in the army of Northern Virginia.*

JEFFERSON DAVIS'S ARREST

Two miles from Irwinville, Georgia, in what is today a dense thicket of pines, there occurred at the close of the Civil war an incident concern ing which a host of writers have produced for commercial purposes an endless amount of fiction. It was here, in the gray morning twilight of May 10, 1865, while encamped on land today the property of Judge J. B. Clement, of Irwinville, that Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, was overtaken by the Fourth Regiment of Michigan Cavalry and put under arrest. More than half a century lias elapsed since then: and happidly with the flight of time some of the fairy tales of this dramatic period, when the imagination was inflamed by passion, have been dispelled. To prejudice the popular mind against Mr. Davis and to bring upon him speedily the punishment to which he was exposed
* 'Vol. I, "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1275

by reason of his fallen fortunes, there appeared in the northern papers a story concocted by some evil genius with malice aforethought to the effect that when arrested the President was clad in his wife.'s calico wrapper and that, among other articles of feminine attire which he wore at this time, were a hoop-skirt and a sun-bonnet.

Shades of Ananias! The facts are these: Mrs. Davis, with four of her children, left the Confederate capital, under an escort, several days in advance of the final evacuation of Richmond. Mr. Davis followed in the course of a week's time, proceeding southward by slow stages. It was not until Lee and Johnston had both surrendered that he ceased to cherish some hope of ultimate success. After the final meeting of the Confederate Cabinet in AYashington, Georgia, he leisurely resumed his journey toward the trans-Mississippi region, there quietly at home to await results. It was not in the character of a fugitive that he bade adieu to his friends in the little Georgia town; and so deliberate was he in the matter of saying farewell that Dr. H. A. Tupper, an eminent Baptist divine with whom he stopped, turned to Judge Garnett Andrews and said:
'' I really believe that Mr. Davis wishes to be captured.'' It is certain that he manifested every sign of indifference, though he must have known that the country was full of armed men who were panting like blood-hounds upon his track. Word having reached him of a conspiracy on the part of desperate men to rob the wagon train in which Mrs. Davis was journeying, he hastened to overtake her, going some distance out of the direct line of travel. Such a change in his plans meant that he was certain to be either arrested or killed; and, turning to the faithful comrades in misfortune who accompanied him, Mr. Davis urged them to feel in nowise bound to attend him upon this hazardous trip. But not a man in the party availed himself of this loop hole to escape danger, , Mrs. Davis, in the course of time, was finally overtaken; and the President, with his party, was preparing to move in advance of her when, just at the hour of dawn, on May 10, 1865, he was suddenly halted. Besides the members of his family there were with Mr. Davis at the time the arrest was made, Postmaster-General John H. Reagan; Captain Moody, of Mississippi, an old friend; Governor Lubbock, of Texas; and two members of his personal staff, Col. Burton Harrison and Col. William, P. Johnston. At this point we will let PostmasterGeneral Reagan continue the thread of the narrative. Says he:'

; "Under cover of the darkness, Colonel Pritchard (a Federal officer) moved to where we were, and posted one battalion in front of us and another across the creek in our rear, and each took the other in the dimness of the morning for Confederates. Both .battalions were armed with repeating rifles and a rapid fusillade occurred between them, with the result that one or two were killed and a few Wounded. When this firing occurred the troops in our front galloped upon us. The major of the regiment reached the place where I and the members of the Pres ident's staff were encamped, about a hundred yards distant from where the President and his family were located. When he approached me I was watching a struggle between two Federal soldiers and Governor

1276

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Lubbock. They were trying to get his horse and saddle bags away from him and he was holding onto them and refusing to give them up; they threatened to shoot him if he did not, and he replied for he was not as good a Presbyterian then as he is now that they might shoot and be damned but they would not rob him while he was alive and looking on. I had my revolver cocked and in my hand, waiting to see if the shooting was to begin.
"Just at this moment the major rode up, the men contending with Lubbock disappeared, and the major asked if I had any arms. I drew my revolver from under the skirt of my coat and said to him, ' I have this.' He observed that I had better give it to him. I knew that they were too many for us and surrendered my pistol. I asked him then if he had not better stop the firing across the creek. He inquired whether it was not our men. I told him that it could not be; that I did not know of an armed Confederate within a hundred miles of us, except our little escort of half a dozen men, who were not then with us. We learned afterwards that they, or the most of them, had been captured at Irwinville. The major rode across the creek and put an end to the skirmish.
"When the firing began, President Davis afterwards told me, he supposed it to be the work of the men who were to rob Mrs. Davis's train. So he remarked to his wife: ' Those men have attacked us at last; I will go out and see if I cannot stop the firing; surely I have some authority with the Confederates.' Upon going to the tent door, however, he saw the blue-coats and turned to his wife with the words, 'The Federal cavalry are upon us.' He was made a prisoner of war.
"As one of the means of making the Confederate cause odious, the foolish and wicked charge was made that he was captured in woman's clothes; besides which his portrait, showing him in petticoats, was after wards placarded generally in show cases and public places in the North. He was also pictured as having bags of gold on him when captured. This charge is disproven by the circumstances attending his capture. The suddenness of the unexpected attack of the enemy allowed no time for a change of clothes. I saw him a few minutes after his surrender, wearing his accustomed suit of Confederate gray.''

Colonel William P. Johnston confirms the postmaster-general's state ment in regard to the President's apparel. Says he: "Mr. Davis was dressed as usual. He had on a knit woolen visor, which he always wore at night for neuralgia; and his cavalry boots. He complained of chilli ness, saying that some one had taken away his raglan or spring overcoit, sometimes called a waterproof. I had one exactly similar, except in color. I went to look for it and either I, or some one at my instance, found it and he wore it afterwards. His own was not restored." Gov ernor Lubbock testifies to the same effect. Mr. James H. Parker, of Elburnville, Pennsylvania, a Federal soldier who witnessed the arrest, makes this statement: "I am no adftiirer of Jeff Davis. I am a Yankee, full of Yankee prejudice; but I think it wicked to lie about him or even about the devil. He did not have on at the time he was taken any such garment as is worn by women. He did have over his shoulders a waterproof article of clothing, something like a Havelock. It was not

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1277

in the least concealed. He wore a hat and did not carry a pail of water on his head." Mr. T. H. Peabody, a lawyer of St. Louis, one of the captors of Mr. Davis, declared in a speech before Ransom Post, of the G. A. R., that the hoop-skirt story was purely a fabrication of newspaper reporters. So the whole affair resolves itself into something like the compliment which an old parson paid one of his deacons in the churcti:

"Said Parson Bland to Deacon Bluff, Seated before the fire:
'Deacon, I like you well enough, But you're an awful liar.' " *

How THE TEXAN FLAG ORIGINATED

It is a well authenticated fact that the famous "Lone Star" flag of Texas was born on the soil of Georgia. This beautiful emblem, which was destined to .win historic immortality at Goliad, was designed by a young lady of Crawford County, in this state: Miss Joanna E. Troutman. The following account has been condensed from a brief history of the flag, written by Macon's pioneer historian, Mr. John C. Butler, who was thoroughly conversant with the facts. His story is corroborated by an article recently found in an old copy of the Galveston News. Says Mr. Butler:
"On November 12, 1835, a public meeting was held in Macon. Rob ert Augustus Beall, John Rutherford, and Samuel M. Strong were among the speakers who endorsed the claims of Texas, Lieutenant Hugh M. McLeod, from West Point, addressed the meeting in a spirited appeal, pledging himself to resign his commission and to embark as a volunteer. He declared that what Texas needed was soldiers not resolutions.
" Captain Levi Eckley, commander of the Bibb Cavalry, presided, with Simri Rose as secretary. Colonel William A. Ward, of Macon, pro posed to form a company of infantry to enlist in the Army of Texas, whereupon thirty-two gentlemen came forward and enrolled as volun teers. On motion, the chair appointed General R. A. Beall, Colonel H. G. Lamar, Colonel T. G. Holt, James A. Nisbet, Esq., and Dr. Robert Collins, a committee to solicit subscriptions; and before the meeting adjourned $3,150 was handed in to the committee, Dr. Collins paying in cash the greater part of the amount.
"As the company passed through other towns en route to Texas other recruits were added. At Knoxville, in Crawford County, Miss Joanna E. Troutman afterwards Mrs. Vinson a daughter of Hiram B'. Troutman, made and sent a beautiful banner of white silk, with a blue lone star upon it, to Lieutenant McLeod to present to the company at Columbus. The following is a copy of the letter acknowledging the receipt of the flag:

" ' COLUMBUS, GA., November 23, 1835. " 'Miss JOANNA:
" 'Colonel Ward brought your handsome and appropriate flag as a present to the Georgia Volunteers in the cause of Texas and Liberty.

' Vol. I, '' Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

1278

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

I was fearful from the shortness of the time that you would not be able

to finish it as tastefully as you would wish, but I assure you, without an

emotion of flattery, it is beautiful, and with us the value is enhanced by

the recollection of the donor. I thank you for the honor of being the

medium of presentation to the company; and, if they are what every

true Georgian ought to be, your flag will yet wave over fields of victory

in defiance of despotism. I hope the proud day may soon arrive, and

while your star presides none can doubt of success.

" 'Very respectfully your friend,

Signed:

" 'Hirei-i

"This patriotic standard, made in Crawford County, by Miss Troutman, became renowned in the history of the gallant young republic as the first flag of the Lone Star State ever unfurled on Texas soil! As they were not permitted to organize within the limits of the United States, Colonel Ward proceeded with his followers to Texas, where they were organized according to regulations. He gathered about one hun dred and twenty men who were formed into three companies. These were then organized into a battalion, the officers of which were: Wil liam A. Ward, major; William J. Mitehell, surgeon; David I. Holt, .quartermaster; and Henderson Cozart, assistant quartermaster. The captains were: W. A. 0. Wadsworth, James C. Winn and Uriah J.
Bulloch. "After several engagements with the Mexicans, the battalion joined
the command of Colonel Pannin and formed a regiment by electing Fannin colonel and Ward lieutenant-colonel. The regiment numbered five hundred and was stationed at Fort Goliad. On March 13, 1836, the original battalion, under Ward, was sent thirty miles to the relief of Captain King who had thirty men protecting a number of families in the neighborhood of a church at the mission of Refugio. On the arrival of the battalion, they found Captain King surrounded by a large force i of Mexicans who disappeared on discovering that he was re-enforced. Afterwards, on leaving the mission, King, with his command, was cap
tured and killed. '' Re-enforced to the number of fourteen hundred men, the Mexicans
then intercepted Ward, who retired to the church. Breast-works were made by the battalion of pews, grave-stones, fences and other things, and the fire of the Mexicans was resisted for two days, with a loss to the enemy of one hundred and fifty men, and of only six to the Ameri cans. But the ammunition of the battalion was exhausted on the third day of the battle, when Colonel Ward was reluctantly forced to capitu late, signing the regular articles according to the rules of war.
"It was stipulated that the battalion would be returned to'the United States in eight days. Colonel Fannin, in the meantime, sent four differ ent couriers to ascertain the cause of Ward's delay, each of whom was captured and shot by the Mexicans. The latter were again heavily reenforced and advanced upon Fort Goliad. Ward's battalion was in cluded in this massacre, having been brought in as prisoners of war.

"From an old copy of the Galveston News the following account is taken: ' The flag of the Lone Star which was first unfurled in Texas

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1279

was borne by the Georgia battalion, commanded by the late LieutenantColonel AYard, who with almost his entire command was massacred at Goliad, in the spring of 1836, in what is known as "Fannin's Massacre," he being next in command to the lamented Colonel James W. Pannin. The flag was presented to Colonel Ward's command as they passed through Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga., by the beautiful Miss Joanna E. Troutman. It was made of plain white silk, bearing an azure star of five points. On one. side was the inscription in rich but chaste colors: "Liberty or Death"; and, on the other, the patriotic Latin motto : "Ubi Liber tas habitat, ibi nostra patria est." '

"The flag was .first unfurled at Velasco on January 8, 1836. It floated to the breeze from the same liberty pole with the first flag of Independence which had just been brought from Goliad by the valorous Captain William Brown. What became of the flag of Independence we do not know, but the beautiful star of azure was borne by Fannin's regi ment to Goliad,'and there gracefully floated from the staff. On March' 8, 1836, an express arrived at Goliad from Washington, oil the Brazos, officially announcing that the convention then in session had formally made solemn declaration that Texas was no longer a Mexican province but a free and independent republic.
"Amid the roar of artillery, the beautiful 'Banner of the Lone Star' was hoisted to the top off the flag staff, where it proudly streamed over the hoary ramparts and the time-shattered battlements of La Bahia. But just as the sunset gun was fired and the usual attempt was made to lower the colors, by some unlucky mishap, the beautiful silk banner be came entangled in the halyards and was torn to pieces. Only a small fragment remained adjusted to the flag staff; and when Colonel Fannin evacuated Goliad to join General Houston, in accordance with received' orders, the last remnant of the first 'Flag of the Lone Star' was still fluttering at the top of the staff from which first-floated the flag of Texari Independence.
"With the capture of Santa Anna, at the battle of San Jacinto, the silver service of the wily commander was also captured, and some of the trophies of victory, including his massive forks and spoons, were forwarded by General Rusk to Miss Troutman, in token of the regard which this Georgia lady had inspired in the stern, scarred patriots of the Revolution. On the meeting of the first Congress, the Flag of the Lone Star was adopted as the flag of the Republic and the seals of office ordered engraved with the star upon them. The public recognition of the ma ternity of the first Flag of the Lone Star as belonging to Georgia was made by General Memmican Hunt, the first minister from the Republic of Texas to the United States." *

How A FAMOUS BALLAD CAME TO BE WRITTEN

In the opinion of many competent literary critics, a war poem which deservedly ranks among the finest ballads in the English language is "Little Giffen of Tennessee." The author of this poem, Dr. Frank 0. Ticknor, was an eminent physician of Columbus, Georgia, and, in making
* Arol. I, '' Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

1280

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the rounds of his country practice, he often anmsed himself by dashing off spirited lines, not a few of which were-written on the backs of pre scription blanks. Doctor Ticknor's verses, while lacking, perhaps, in literary finish, are full of lyric fire. Most of them are merely song skele tons, but they possess a rhythm most captivating to the ear. "Little Giffen" was written during the last year of the war. The circumstances which led to its composition are narrated in the following graphic sketch from the pen of Col. Charles J. Swift, a resident of the City of Colum bus and a prominent member of the Georgia bar. It is the first authentic version of the story which has yet appeared in print. Says Colonel Swift:

"After the battle of Chickamauga, there was continual fighting be tween the two hostile armies from Dalton to the Chattahoochie River. The pressure of the advancing enemy was persistent, but at every stand he was opposed by the stubborn resistance of the retreating foe, under Gen. Johnston, who adopted the tactics of the famous Roman general Pabius Maximus, in order to draw Gen. Sherman from his base of sup plies. Gen. Johnston was removed in the summer of 1864, and the determination of what the final issue of his plans might have been has become purely a matter of speculation.
"Gen. Hood succeeded Gen. Johnston in command. Subsequent to the battles of Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, etc., the cities and towns which could be conveniently reached by train from Atlanta began to receive a great many sick and wounded Confederate soldiers. These increased as Johnston's army approached Atlanta, and the battles be tween Hood and Sherman caused every available building in these cities and towns,to be converted into Confederate hospitals. One of these in Columbus was the old Banks building on the east side of Broad street, nearly opposite the fire engine house. One of the inmates of this hospital was a mere youth, so badly wounded in one of his legs, that gangrene had supervened.
"Dr. Carlisle Terry, then and afterwards a leading physician of Columbus, was the general surgeon in charge of the hospitals. Mrs. Evelyn P. Carter, Mrs. W. D. Woolfolk and Mrs. Rosa N. Ticknor were sisters, who, with other ladies of Columbus, made frequent visits to the hospitals to minister to the sick a-nd wounded. These sisters were the daughters of Major Thos. M. Nelson, formerly of Virginia, -and related to the Byrds, Pages and Nelsons, who have been distinguished in the Old Dominion from the earliest Colonial days.
"In going through the old Banks building hospital, Mrs. Ticknor and her sisters came to the cot on which was lying the wounded youth. He was very young, and was wasted away to a mere skeleton, and so weak and emaciated that he seemed more dead than alive. Moved by an unusual sympathy and motherly tenderness that the sacrifice of war and the toll of battle should include one so young, they asked permission to remove him and to take him to one of their homes. Dr. Terry looked at the apparently dying soldier lad and consented to his removal but said somewhat sardonically to the visitors, that they would probably be put to the trouble of sending him back dead, in a day or two.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1281

"Following these preliminaries at the hospital, Newton Giffen was taken to the home of Dr. and Mrs. Ticknor, at Torch Hill, five miles south of Columbus. For days and nights the unequal struggle went on, between the faintest signs of life in the patient and the gangrenous poison which pervaded his system. But Torch Hill was on the heights where the breezes were refreshing and the air pure and balmy, and there 'Little Giffen' had a physician's attention and the gentlest nursing from the host, her sisters, and others in this Southern home. When he had somewhat advanced toward recovery he told them that he was New ton Giffen from East Tennessee, where his mother was still living; that he could neither read nor write; that since he had enlisted in the army he had been in eighteen battles and had been wounded seriously for the first time by the one which had brought him to his present affliction.
"Dr. Douglas C. Ticknor, son of the poet, is now a practicing phy sician in Columbus. To avoid seeming anachronisms in the recital, this Dr. Ticknor will be in several places spoken of as Douglas. He was about six years younger than Newton Giffen, but as the eldest of the Ticknor children, he well remembers the request his mother and aunts made to take Newton from the hospital, and he has never forgotten his impressions of Dr. Terry's manner and expression, betokening the utter uselessness of the change to save the life of the patient.
"At Torch Hill, Newton's improvement was slow and protracted. When he was able to sit up and to prop himself on his elbow, he took his first daily lessons in the art of reading and writing. This latter accom plishment enabled him to pen his first letter to his mother far away in the wilderness of her Tennessee mountain home. The second letter was to his captain. The one written to his mother probably never reached its destination, but the one to his captain did, and the answer was almost literally as the poem has it. When Newton was able to get out of doors, he and Douglas Ticknor were good chums and companions. The latter recalls that Newton was very industrious, gave a great deal of attention to the wrapping of the apple trees to keep the rabbits from eating the bark, and that both of them went forth on occasions to pick blackberry leaves to make green tea. Dr. Douglas Ticknor describes Newton as hav ing very light hair, fair complexion, of unusual tallness for his age, and very thin.

"Before he had entirely recovered, Newton received a letter from his captain urging him to return to his company at the earliest possible moment. On receipt of this letter, Newton made preparations for an immediate start. He -bade a tearful farewell to Dr. and Sirs. Ticknor and all the members of the family and promised, if spared, to write to them. His manly character and bearing, his sincerity and gratitude, left no room for doubt that he would write at the first opportunity; but no letter ever came. Hence the inference by those who were looking for a letter from their former charge, that he had been killed in the first engagement after his return to the front. This is the only statement in the poem which cannot be positively substantiated. All others are actual facts go much so, indeed, that when Dr. Ticknor wrote 'Little Giffen,'
he read the first draft of it to Mrs. Ticknor and was about to tear it up,

1282

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

remarking 'it was too true to be good poetry.' Mrs. Ticknor interposed

and saved the poem from destruction.

'' On the morning when Newton Giffen left Torch Hill on his way to

his company, passage was taken on an old gray army horse, Newton

riding in front and Douglas riding behind. Getting near to Bull Creek

bridge, about half way between Torch Hill and Columbus, they found

the waters of the creek at flood height and covering all the lower lands

on the side of their approach to the bridge. The old horse, getting a

little off the road where the water covered it, fell into a big washout and

in struggling to extricate themselves, both of the boys were unhorsed, and

came near being swept down the stream and drowned. Douglas Ticknor

and the horse got ashore on the side next to home. 'Little Giffen' was

carried by the current to a point where he gained a footing close to the

bridge. About the time the excitement and danger was over, a negro

drove up with a four-mule team on his way to Columbus. He kept in

the track of the submerged road and met with no mishap such as that

to the boys and the old gray horse. With no other possession than his

dripping and muddy clothes, 'Little Giffen' climbed into the four-horse

wagon and standing up waved a last farewell to his friend, Douglas, on

the other side of the raging waters.

/

"It is said by some that Newton, was wounded in the battle of Murfreesboro. However, it is more probable that he was wounded in the bat tle of Cbickamauga, Sept. 10, 1863. This would not be inconsistent with the order of time belonging to the events of which the poem treats. The letter that Newton received urging his return, was very likely co-eval with the general order by Johnston for his officers and captains to get every man back to his command -who might be able to return.
"Many of the surviving veterans of the army of Tennessee under Johnston remember the urgency of these recalls. It is very well estab lished that 'Little Giffen's' name was.Isaac Newton Giffen, and that his father was a blacksmith. He was brought to Columbus in September, 1863. and left Torch Hill in March, 1864. The big overflow at Bull creek bridge was presumably from the equinoctial storm,
"Johnston took command of the army of Tennessee in December, 1864. The winter having ended, the operations known as the DaltonAtlanta campaign commenced in the spring, after this; and it is more than likely that in making readiness for this campaign, 'Little Giffen' and other absentees received notices to return to the front. Dr. Ticknor was born in Jones county, Georgia, and in 1874 he died in Columbus, Ga., in his fifty-second year: He is buried in -Linwood cemetery, in Columbus. Mrs. Ticknor is in her eightieth year (1909), and is living in Albany, Ga,, with her son, Mr. Thos. M. Ticknor."*

Such in brief is the history of this famous ballad whose exquisite versification has charmed the ears of thousands on both sides of the water. The poem has been translated into numerous foreign tongues. Though written at random, in the nervous style of one whose time was largely consumed by the weighty cares of his profession and whose
' Vol. I, '' Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1283

incense to the muses was offered at odd intervals, this unpremeditated song is nevertheless one of the gems of the war period of American let ters. It is practically certain that Little Giffen fell in battle soon after leaving Torch Hill. The character of the lad, his promise to write if spared, the kindness which was lavished upon him by devoted friends, the sense of gratitude which he must have felt for favors received, and the long silence which followed his departure, these preclude the suppo sition that he could possibly have survived the clash into which he again plunged. Doubtless he was numbered among the unknown dead in one of the battles which occurred soon thereafter; but Doctor Ticknor has happily rescued the lad's name from oblivion and blazed it immortally upon the heights of song.

HISTORY OF "MARYLAND, MY MARYLAND"
It is not the least among the favors which Fortune has showered upon Augusta that it was long the home of the gifted poet who wrote the immortal war lyric, "Maryland, My Maryland." James Ryder Randall, its author, though a Marylander by birth, was a Georgian by adoption. For many years he was an editorial writer on the staff of the famous Chronicle, and today his ashes rest in Augusta's beautiful city of the dead. Mr. Randall was educated at Georgetown, D. C.; afterwards he taught for a while in Poydras College, in Louisiana, and then he drifted to New Orleans. On account of hemorrhages frorii the lungs he was mustered out of the service soon after enlistment in 1861; but there was not a soldier in the ranks who possessed more of the fire of battle. He resided for a "brief period in Anniston, Alabama, where he edited the Hot-Blast; but, to quote a terse commentator, '' for Randall to be at the head of a journal devoted to such hard facts as pig iron looks to us like putting Saladin to carving gate-pegs with a scimitar.''
Mr. Randall was at one time private secretary to Congressman Wil liam IT. Fleming, of Georgia, afterwards to Sen. Joseph B. Brown; and, during this period, he was brought into close personal contact with many national celebrities. His Washington letters were widely copied and arestill replete with interest to the student of politics. Says Prof. Matthew Page Andrews, his accredited biographer:*'
"Except for these visits to Washington, Randall established himself, for forty years or more, far from his native city and State. But in 1907, under the auspices of the appreciative Edwin Warfield, then Governor of Maryland, a plan was suggested for the official recognition and ma terial support of the poet who had so immortalized his State in song. He was the guest of the city of Baltimore in the home-coming festivities of 1907. He renewed his friendship with the Hon. William Pinkney White, then at the age of 84, an active member of the United States Senate, who made arrangements for the publication of his poems, the compilation of which his later and most devoted friend, Miss Lilian McGregor Shepherd alone was able to induce him seriously to begin. To her was penned his last words of longing for his native State of Mary-
* The '' Poems of James Eyder BandaH,'' edited by Matthew Page Andrews, New York, 1910. Introduction.

1284

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

land, written from Augusta and received by her on the day of his death. Sustained by an unfaltering religious faith, he had no fear of dying, but his days had been the days of a dreamer, buffeted by a sea of troubles. He gave the best he had to his friends; his life to his home and family; to his native State an immortal name; and to the English language per haps the greatest of all battle-hymns."

Professor Andrews thus narrates the circumstances under which the famous song was composed. Says he:
"The date was April 23, 1861. Mr. Kandall was then at Poydras College, in Louisiana. The poem was inspired during the sleepless night which followed the reading of an account of the clash between the citi zens of Baltimore and the Sixth Massachusetts marching through the city to Southern soil, in which the first citizen to fall was a friend and college mate of the poet. Kandall was then but twenty-two years of age. Poy dras College was a tolerably well-endowed Creole institution at PointCoupee. But subsequent fires have destroyed every object associated with the writing of 'Maryland, My Maryland,' from the desk of the poet-teacher to the buildings of the college itself. The morning after the composition was finished the poet read it to his English classes, who received it with enthusiasm. Upon being urged to publish it, the youth ful instructor at once sent the manuscript to the New Orleans Delta, where it first appeared on April 26, 1861; and from this paper the words were reprinted by newspapers throughout the Southern States.
"In Maryland the poem was first published several weeks later in a paper, the South, established in Baltimore by Thomas W. Hall, who was shortly thereafter confined in Fort Warren for spreading such seditious sentiments. It was published in various forms in the poet's native city of Baltimore, where it was evident that a majority of the leading people, through close association with Southerners in business and social relations, sympathized with the South and were bitterly op posed to the intended coercion of the seceding States. While the words and sentiments of the song thrillmgly appealed to Southern sympathizers, the music lovers of Baltimore saw in the swing and melody of the verse unexampled opportunity for some immediate musical adaptation in song. Henry C. Wagner, of the poet's native city, was the first to sing it to the tune of 'Ma Nonnandie,' then a familiar air. But though the French language was the means of starting the poem upon its melodious song-life, it was through the medium of the German that it reached the final form in which it now appears.

"Among the famous beauties of Baltimore in 1861 were the Gary sisters, to whose home as loyal Southerners 'My Maryland' soon came. The fiery appeal to Southern valor was declaimed again and again by one of these, Miss Jennie Gary, to her sister Hettie, with the expressed intention of finding an appropriate musical accompaniment for the verses; and this search was continued until the popular 'Lauriger Horatius' was tried and thereupon adopted. The risk of reducing it to pub lication was somewhat serious, but Miss Rebecca Lloyd Nicholson spoke out: ' I will have it published. . My father is a Union man, and if I am put in prison, he will take me out.' She then took 'Lauriger Hora-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1285

tins' in a Yale song-book to her father's house near-by; and after copy ing the music carried it to Miller and Beacham. They supplied her with the first copies from the press, besides sending her other songs until they were arrested and put in prison." There were some minor variations made in the text to fit the music. Says Miss Jennie Gary: '' The addi tional 'My Maryland' was a musical necessity and it came to me as a sort of inspiration." It has been stated that Mr. Rozier Dulaney, of Baltimore, originally proposed this addition; but to Miss Gary belongs the credit.
According to Professor Andrews it was furthermore an extraordinary coincidence that the young girl, Miss Rebecca Lloyd Nicholson,* who undertook to have the song published on her own responsibility, should have been the grand-daughter of Judge Joseph H. Nicholson, whose wife, Rebecca Lloyd, figured so largely in adapting '' The Star Spangled Ban ner" to the tune of "Anacreon in Heaven," and who had it published in musical form. Says he: "The grand-daughter carried the words and music of 'Maryland, My Maryland' to the publishers in 1861 as her 'grand-mother had done with the 'Star-Spangled Banner' nearly fifty years before.'' Subsequently Charles Ellerbrock, a young German music teacher and a southern sympathizer, changed the musical adaptation of '' My Maryland'' from the Yale song to the statelier measure of its origi nal, "Tannenbaum, 0 Tannenbaum"; and in this way it was finally per fected.! Subsequent to .the first battle of Manassas, the famous war-lyric was rendered for the first time at the headquarters of General Beauregard, near Fairfax Court House, Virginia, by the Gary sisters, on July 4, 18614

Oliver Wen dell Holmes pronounced "Maryland, My Maryland" the finest anthem produced 6y the Civil war. He is also said to have placed it among the very foremost of the world's martial lyrics. But while the author's fame will rest undoubtedly upon this gem, there are many com petent critics who consider his '' Resurgam'' in no wise inferior. To this number belongs ex-Congressman William H. Fleming, who places it, in point of merit, even, above Cardinal Newman 's '' Lead Kindly Light.'' Though importuned'to cast his lot in the North, where larger salaries were offered, Randall refused to leave his beloved Southland. He often felt the pinch of adverse fortune, but he was never charmed by the glitter of gold. It is of interest to note that Randall was the first to plead effectively the cause of an American memorial to Edgar Allan Poe, and to his loyal pen is due the hastening, in some degree at least,, of the final reward into which the .author of the "Raven" has at last come. If there
* Miss Nicholson, through her relationship to Francis Scott Key, inherited the original manuscript of '' The Star Spangled Banner,'' written on the back of an envelope. M. P. Andrews.' Introduction to Bandall's Poems, p. 15.
t '' Songs of the Civil War.'' The Century, August, 1886. t "It has been affirmed that Mr. Randall received $100 for 'Maryland, My Mary land,' and the statement has been widely quoted. The fact is that an appreciative reader and friend sent him, as author of the poem, some time after its publication, $100 in Confederate currency, with which he may possibly have been able to pur chase a pair of shoes, but he did not solicit or receive direct compensation for any of his poems, a statement which, in all probability, can be recorded of no other modern poet of genius or reputation."
Vol. Ill 2

1286

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

are notes of bitterness in the great war-lyric of Randall, they were wrung from his loving heart by the passionate hour in which they were penned. He was himself the apostle of tenderness; and one needs only to turn to the poems of Whittier to find that the gentle Quaker bard of New Eng land has indulged in no less caustic terms. There can be no doubt that the poem will live. The breath of immortality is in its lines, and the fame of Randall is secure even from death itself.*

BARNSLEY GARDENS : A LOST ARCADIA

Six miles from Kingston, Georgia, may still be seen the picturesque ruins of a palatial old southern home of the ante-bellum days. It is a sort of Alhambra, not unlike the wasted citadel of the Moors. The locality is today known by the name of Barnsley Gardens; and, standing amid the pathetic remnants of this old estate, once feudal in magnifi cence, it is not difficult for the imagination to picture here a castle, with ivy-covered walls, such as might have overlooked the Rhine or the Danube in the Middle Ages. To a resident of Kingston, Miss Belle Bayless, who has often visited this historic spot, we are indebted for the following brief account:
"Three-quarters of a century ago, Mr. Godfrey Barnsley, one of Savannah's captains of industry, decided to establish such an estate as he remembered to have seen in England, his native land. So he pur chased from the Cherokee Indians 10,000 acres of ground in what is now the county of Bartow. Gradually he cleared away the forest and tixrned the red hills into cotton fields and built a stately manor house where it overlooked a magnificent sweep of country, reaching far back until blue hills merged into bluer skies. He then planted around it the famous gardens which for two generations have been a. Mecca for pleasure seek ers and holiday excursionists in this part of Georgia,
"To embellish the gardens, rare trees and shrubs and plants were brought hither from the most remote corners of the earth. Some of these still flourish amid the decay into which everything else has fallen. Hem locks and spruces from Norway may still be seen brushing the old ter races with verdant branches of evergreen. Scotch rowans glow with scarlet berries in the autumn. Lindens and other foreign shade trees vie with those of the native woods in adding pieturesqueness to the naturally beautiful location; while great lichen-covered boulders, hauled by oxteams from the surrounding mountain-tops, form rookeries on either side of the main entrance to the grounds. The drive-way sweeps up the long hill and around the box-bordered area which encloses a central foun tain just in front of an embroidered terrace. Mr. Barnsley, like his forebears, built always with an eye to the future and did not hasten his work. So the Civil War came on before the interior of the house was finished and the gold which he had sent to England came back to reenforce the coffers of the Confederate government.
"Domestic industries were fostered on this baronial estate of Mr. Barnsley; for not only the manor house itself but the quarters for serv ants and the small office buildings on the estate were constructed of brick ^

* Vol. I, "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1287

made by slave labor from materials found on the plantation. The pala tial old home place was divided into three parts the central being two stories in height and surmounted by a tower. The main entrance to the house was approached by marble steps. On either side of the hallway were spacious drawing rooms, libraries, and the like, with sleeping apart ments above, sixteen in all. The right wing contained an immense dining room or banquet hall, on the first floor, besides billiard and smoking rooms, with kitchen, store rooms, and cellars below. The left wing was used for temporary residence purposes while the rest of the building was in process of erection. The owner was not to be deprived of any of the luxuries of life merely because he lived in the country; so, on the tower, a cistern was built to which pipes were laid and a reservoir constructed in one of the chimneys to furnish hot water for the lava tories. Plans were also made for lighting the house by means of a gas made from resinous pine.
'' In the rear of the manor house is another terrace; and here we find a ghost walk, for a castle without a promenade for spooks at the witching hour of midnight is romantically incomplete. Just over the brow of the hill is the grave of Colonel Earl, a Confederate officer, who was buried on the spot where he fell during the Civil War. Relatives .came to re move his body but they could get no one to dig into the earth, so strong was the superstitious feeling among the mountaineers; and even to this day the locality furnishes material for weird tales among the country folks.
"At the foot of the slope is one of the prettiest spots in which the imagination could possibly revel. It is the ivy-covered spring-house set against the out-cropping gray rock. Inside a bold spring bubbles up and finds its way out and across the fields, where it becomes a good-sized stream. And who could wish better dairy products than the milk and butter cooled in such pure water ? One can almost fancy here a sprightly Lady Betty presiding over the burnished vessels and scolding her maids for some trivial neglect; or more realistic still, Madame Barnsley nee Miss Scarlett, one of the South's great beauties standing in the shadow of the half-circle of live-oaks about the door, directing her servants as does her grand-daughter, the present chatelaine.

"But Mr. Barnsley, in gratifying his artistic tastes, did not stop with plants and flowers for his extensive grounds. He was also an industrious collector of rare "curios, objects of virtu, costly bric-a-brac, and expensive ornaments. His mahogany dining-table which was large enough to seat forty people and his elegant side-board, which was of equally generous proportions, were made for Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil. The gilt library clock once belonged to Marie Antoinette; and an exquisite mar quetry table, together with several delicate wood carvings, had bits of history connected with them. Over the dining room fire-place hung a rare painting. Its wealth of color undimmed by several centuries and its resemblance to Murillo's Madonnas told of the influence of the great Spanish master; while a built-in vault contained a quantity of family silver. In one of the bed-rooms was a mahogany bed-stead of huge pro portions, but the four eagles intended to surmount the posts stood demurely in a corner, for not even the high ceiling of this spacious

1288

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

boudoir would permit them to occupy the places intended for them as guardians of the curtains of yellow satin damask. Wardrobe and dresser matched the bed, all heavy, hand-carved and handsome.
"But these, together with a quantity of rare old wine, were taken to New York a decade ago and sold, the dealers paying only a song for what was worth almost a king's ransom.
"Today the Last Sigh of the Moor seems aptly to fit the old place. Time has wrought fearful havoc. The Barnsley household has scattered to every continent on the globe; a cyclone unroofed the main house years ago; members of a vandal picnic party daubed tar over the front walls, while others amused themselves by shattering- window panes; and the one time immaculate flower beds are now waist-high in weeds. It is well nigh impossible to maintain so large an establishment now-a-days, when labor for necessary work can scarcely be obtained for love or money; but rich minerals recently discovered on the property may yet provide the means not only for making needed repairs but for realizing the splendid dream of the founder of Barnsley Gardens." *

THE MARK HANNA HOME: WHERE THE McKiNLEY PRESIDENTIAL BOOM WAS LAUNCHED
Many years have elapsed since the political wheel of fortune rotated William McKinley into the White House in AVashington; but the world has not forgotten the meteoric campaign of 1896. It was an epoch-mak ing fight. The tall figure of the peerless Ncbraskan in this heated contest began to loom for the first time across the western plains. His conquest of the Chicago convention was the wonder of modern politics. Nothing to equal the dramatic effect of his marvelous "Cross of Gold" speech has even been known-in the history of conventions. To this very day there are democrats in every part of the Union who look upon Bryan as a mere dreamer, who deplore the great scenic battle which he waged for free silver, at the famous ratio of sixteen to one, who call him an apostle of discontent, and who belittle his splendid abilities. But the fact remains that he was the herald of a new era in national politics. Nor can it be gainsaid that the campaign of 1896 was the cradle of the present-day progressive movement. Mr. Bryan's eloquence lashed the masses into a frenzy of enthusiasm. The spell of his personality was felt in the crowded centers of population and-in the sparsely settled rural districts. The money power was panic-stricken with alarm. Wall Street stood aghast, The program of the republican organization seemed to be queered. And altogether it is doubtful if there has ever been a campaign in which the rattle of coin has played a more spectacular part; but despite the combined activities of the trusts to defeat him Bryan might still have been elected President of the United States had it not been for the shrewd generalship of a man to whom the country at large still needed an introduction when the campaign opened, but whose name was destined to become a household word in every hamlet Marcus A. Hanna.

On North Dawson Street, in the City of Thomasville, stands the historic winter home in which, according to every sign of the zodiac, were
* Vol. I, "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1289

laid the plans, the outcome of which was Mr. Bryan's undoing. It seems a trifle singular that the state which put Mr. Bryan in nomination at Chicago, under circumstances, which no one can ever forget, should fur nish an asylum to1 his most inveterate enemies, wherein they might intrigue to compass his defeat. But while this little by-play of politics was in Georgia, it was not of Georgia. It came from a source entirely outside and remote. Mr. Hanna was a practical business man of large wealth whose business operations ramified the whole State of Ohio and brought him rich returns from commercial traffic on the Great Lakes. lie was also something of a slate-maker in Buckeye politics. For years Mr. Hanna had been an intimate personal friend to Major McKinley, a creditor, so it is said, for certain large sums of money, which the latter had borrowed from him, without compromise of honor; and it was due almost solely to the adroit manipulation of this masterful strategist that the nomination of Major McKinley then governor of Ohio was accom plished at St. Louis. The next move on the political chessboard was the reciprocal act of the nominee in choosing his campaign manager; and finally to end the game, there was to be a seat for Mr. Hanna in the President's cabinet; or, what he most desired the coveted toga. Worthy the brain of a Richelieu was this brilliant strategy of the Ohio coal baron.
Without going into details, it is the commonly accepted belief that the whole plan of campaign which resulted in putting Governor McKin ley into the White House was concocted in the Town of Thomasville, among the fragrant pines of the Georgia lowlands. During Mr. Hanna's occupancy of the North Dawson Street mansion, in the winter of 1895-96, Mr. McKinley was an honored guest of the Hannas; and thither also flocked other members of the Grand Old Party whose love for the game of politics was not only well-known but notorious. As pre-arranged, the nomination of Mr. McKinley took place in June and his election to the presidency followed in November. For a time the issue hung in sus pense. The Nebraskan's fiery eloquence threatened to upset the plans of Mr. Hanna. It was furthermore discovered, after the nomination was made, that it took place on the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, a coincidence which viewed in connection with the nominee's marked facial resemblance to Napoleon, caused some forebodings in the repub lican ranks. But if there was any virtue in the omen, it only served to bring him Wellington's luck. Mr. Hanna was the best advertised man in the country, while the campaign lasted, due chiefly to the famous cartoons of Homer Davenport, in which some of his physical peculiarities were most amusingly caricatured and he was made to vaunt himself in clothes bespangled with the omnipresent dollar-mark. Meeting the artist one day when the fight was over, Mr. Hanna said to him:
'' Davenport, I admire your execution, but hang your conception.''

It was under the terms of a lease from the owners that Mr. Hanna occupied the North Dawson Street mansion during the winter which preceded Mr. McKinley's election. The house was leased in the follow ing year to Judge Lynde Harrison, one of the executors of H. B. Plant, the founder of the Plant system of railroads. Since then the historic place of abode has remained unoccupied. It is owned by the estate of the late John W. Masury, of New York, a formerly well-known manu-

1290

GEORGIA AND. GEORGIANS

facturer of paints. By reason of the fact that the building is supposed to have played a stellar part in the eventful campaign of 1896, it has become the most conspicuous land-mark in Thomasville : an object of very great interest of sight-seers and of no small local pride to the inhabitants of the town. Some of the statements herein made may be purely con jectural; but sifting the chaff from the wheat it still remains that Mr. I-Ianna leased the Thomasville home for the winter season preceding Mr. McKinley's nomination; that he here played the host not only to Mr. McKinley himself but to some of the big political king-bees of the repub lican party who came here to buzz; and that when the election was over he quietly stepped from a business office on the lake front, in the City of Cleveland, Ohio, to a seat of historic renown in the American House of Peers.*

How MR. BKYAN SECURED His NOMINATION IN 1896

As the result of a single speech delivered with marvelous oratorical effect, at an opportune moment, in the famous Chicago convention of 1896, William J. Bryan made himself the standard-bearer of the National Democracy in. three separate presidential campaigns, and shaped the history of the democratic party in the nation for more than a score of years. But it was due largely to the prompt initiative and to the bugletoned eloquence of a gifted Georgian that his.nomination for the high office of President, in 1896, became an accomplished fact. The distin guished member of the Georgia delegation who presented his name to the convention was the late Judge Henry T. Lewis, of Greensboro, afterwards elevated to a seat on the Supreme Court bench. Hon. Clark Howell, for years a member of the National Democratic Executive Committee, took a prominent part in the proceedings of this convention; and, in a racy article which he afterwards wrote for his great paper, he tells the story of Bryan's nomination. Says Mr. Howell:
"The Democratic convention of 1896 was fruitful of dramatic epi sodes. The second. Cleveland administration was drawing to a discredited close when the 1896 convention met. The opponents of Cleveland and the friends of free silver were in control. It was a crusading lot of Democrats who gathered in Chicago that year to nominate a President and to sail the Democratic ship into unknown seas.
"Several men were candidates for the nomination, among them 'Sil ver' Dick Bland and 'Horizontal Bill- Morrison. The man who secured the nomination had never been thought of in that connection, save by himself and one member of the Georgia delegation. The man who thought he would be nominated, and who was nominated, was, of course, William J. Bryan. The member of the Georgia delegation who had thought of Bryan in connection with the nomination was Hal Lewis, an ardent free silver man, as were all the members of the Georgia delegation, and he had been attracted by some speeches Bryan had made while in Congress.
"Bryan was not even a delegate when he reached Chicago. He came as a member of a contesting delegation. J. Sterling Mortem, who was in

5 Vol. I, "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1291

Cleveland's Cabinet, controlled the machinery in Nebraska,'and he had sent an anti-silver delegation to Chicago. Bryan came with a delegation to fight the admission of the Morton faction. I was a member of the sub committee of the national committee which passed on this contest and reported in favor of Bryan and his friends, and they were seated. That' report gave Bryaii an opportunity to get into the convention and to make his 'Cross-of-Gold' speech, which made him the nominee. It is curious to speculate as to what would have been the history of Bryan and the Democratic party if our report had been in favor of the J. Ster ling Morton faction.
"Bryan, once seated in the convention, watched for his opportunity, and when it came unloosed that crown-of-thorns and cross-of-gold speech, which not only gave him the nomination for the Presidency, but shaped the course of the Democracy through many campaigns.
" Bryan's speech was a great oratorical effort, and it spell-bound the convention. Hal Lewis, of Georgia, however, was the man who turned that speech into practical benefit for Bryan. When the Georgia delega tion got together, after Bryan's speech, Lewis at once began to urge the Nebraskan as available for the nomination, and soon had the delegation agreeing with him. Bryan was seen, and it was agreed that his name should be presented by Lew;is.
"When Georgia was called, Lewis was carried to the platform on the shoulders of the Georgia delegation. Lewis was a remarkable man. He was a fine speaker, with a magnificent voice, but he spoke only on the rarest occasions. When he did speak, however, he was "like a volcano in eruption, and he was certainly volcanic when he presented the name of Bryan to the convention. His speech was second only to the cross-of-gold effort of Bryan, and long before Lewis ceased to speak the nomination of Bryan was a foregone conclusion.
"The curious thing about the 1896 convention was that the result, so far as Bryan was concerned, was no surprise. Bryan came to the con vention believing he would be the nominee and had everything arranged to that end. Mr. Bryan himself is authority for this statement. I was very close to Mr. Bryan in those days, and remained close to him long afterwards. After the convention I had a conversation with Bryan in the old Clifton Hotel in Chicago, and I asked him if he were not surprised when the convention turned to him.
" 'Not a bit,' said Bryan. 'I came to Chicago expecting to capture the convention by a speech and be nominated. It has worked out just as I expected.'
'' I then asked Bryan if the cross-of-gold speech was extemporaneous, resulting from the inspiration of the moment. Bryan greeted the ques tion with a hearty laugh.
'' ' There was nothing extemporaneous about it,' he said. ' I prepared that speech weeks in advance; memorized it so I could repeat it backward or forward and declaimed it over and over again. Extemporaneous! No, indeed!' And Mr. Bryan continued to laugh. So you see the climax of the 1896 convention was as carefully rehearsed and staged as any pro duction ever presented by that master of stage-craft, David Belasco. By way of contrast, it is worth mentioning that Georgia, which did so much for Bryan in 1896 and 1900, had completely broken with him by 1908.

1292

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

In the latter year at the Denver convention, although Bryan controlled, he never received a vote from the Georgia delegation.'' *

WOODROW WILSON: AN INCIDENT IN His CAREER AS A LAWYER
Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth President of the United States, began his career as a lawyer in Georgia's state capital. He was formally admitted to the bar in 1882; and his license to practice law in the courts of this state bears the signature of Hon. George Hillyer, judge of the Atlanta Circuit. Entering into a legal partnership with a brilliant young barrister like himself, Edward J. Renick, the professional shingle of the new firm was displayed from a modest office on the second floor of the old Hulsey Building, on the corner of Broad and Marietta streets. But there was no immediate rush of clients, and becoming discouraged as weeks lengthened into months without materially swelling the bank account of either, they decided to dissolve the partnership agreement and to set out in quest of new pastures.
Mr. Renick became in after years assistant secretary of state under President Cleveland. Still later he was made special representative of the great banking house of Coudert Brothers. He died in the City of Paris while on a very important mission concerning the Gould interests, and his death was deplored on both sides of tke water. Mr. Wilson went to Baltimore, to pursue a special course of study at Johns Hopkins. He was then called to an adjunct professorship of history at Bryn Mawr; thence in 1888 he went to Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Connecti cut, where he taught political science; and two years later accepted the chair of jurisprudence and politics at Princeton, relinquishing this chair in 1902, to become president of the institution. The policy of his admin istration was to make this great seat of learning a democracy. On account of a disagreement with his board of trustees touching a matter which he considered too vital to admit of compromise or surrender, he resigned the helm of affairs, only to be tendered the democratic nomina tion for governor of New Jersey.
Since his entry into politics, the career of President AVilson has been an open book. The following incident of his sojourn in Atlanta is taken from the files of the Constitution, under date of November 6, 1912:
'' Two years after his arrival here the tariff commission appointed by President Hayes to visit the various sections of the country and report of the tariffs workings came to Atlanta and sent out invitations asking any one interested to meet with them and point out unjust discriminations as they saw them. John W. H. Underwood was the Georgia member of the commission. When the board assembled in the convention hall of the Kimball House they were greeted by a single man, come to talk over the tariff. For two hours or more he fired question after question at the tariff experts, turned the 'evidence meeting' into a debate between him self, and the board and showed those gentlemen just what the situation was in the South, says Henry Peeples, one of Atlanta's best-known attor neys, in recalling the scene:
" 'What is your name?' asked the commission of the young man. " ' I am Woodrow Wilson, a lawyer,' he answered.'' *

J Vol. II, '' Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends,'' by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1293

HABRIET GOLD : A ROMANCE or NEW EGHOTA
On a knoll, overlooking the site of New Echota, there is still to be seen a lonely wayside grave around which cluster the incidents of a pathetic tale of the wilderness. When Elias Boudinot was attending the Moravian School, at Cornwall, Connecticut, he there met and loved Har riet Gold, At the expiration of two years they were married, much to the displeasure of her father and brother, who little relished the thought of her marriage to an Indian, even though of mixed breed. But she took this step with her mother's full consent. It was an affair of the heart, which a mother could well understand, despite the separation from home and the life of isolation among an alien people, which such a marriage necessarily involved. So the happy pair came to Georgia; and here, in the course of time, the bride's mother made them a visit and found her daughter well provided with domestic comforts and little .disposed to complain.
AVith true missionary zeal, the young bride soon became intent .upon the task of bettering the conditions of life among the Indians. She founded, some time in the early thirties, the first Sunday school in Gordon County; and to her husband, who was editor of the Phoenix, she was both a companion and a helpmeet. She did much for the uplift of the tribe, and the life which she lived among them, though brief, was one of beautiful unselfishness. "When John Howard Payne was impris oned in the block-house, she frequently went to see him, making his bonds less burdensome by her sympathetic attentions. The story goes that he taught her to sing his famous air of "Home Sweet Home"; and how ever reconciled she may have been to her lot by reason of the one thing needful to make it rosy, there were doubtless minor chords of love in her heart which sounded a sad response when her memory reverted to her old home in far-away Connecticut.
But satisfied though she was with the man of her choice, the days of her joyful wedlock were numbered. Stealthily the fingers of disease began to clutch at the vital cords. Perhaps she foresaw the bolt which was destined to descend upon the Cherokees. It was not difficult to read the future at this troublous hour. There was scarcely a moment when her husband's life was not. in danger. The nation was divided into rival camps. The anxieties incident to this vexed period may have been too severe for an organism attuned to gentler surroundings. At any rate she faded day by day; and one afternoon in midsummer they bore her to the hillside, where a slab of marble, yellow with age, still marks the spot. It requires no great stretch of the imagination to picture the broken hearted man who survived her, bending over the low mound, on the eve of his departure for the West, and reading, through tear-filled eyes, the following inscription: *
"To the memory of Harriet Ruggles, the wife of Thomas Elias Boudinot. She was the daughter of .Colonel Benjamin and Eleanor Gold, of Cornwall, Conn., where she was born June 1, 1805, and died at New Echota, Cherokee Nation, August 12, 1836. We seek a rest beyond the skie.s.''

* Vol. I, '' Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

1294

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

'' THERE 's MILLIONS IN IT !"

Before the discovery of the rich gold fields of California, in 1849, Dahlonega, Georgia, was the chief center of gold mining activities in the United States; and hither flocked hundreds of argonauts in feverish quest of the yellow metal. According to the late Professor Yeates, who was at one time state geologist of -Georgia, an expression which Mark Twain has made classic in two hemispheres originated at Dahlonega. Says Professor Yeates:
"One of the most active and enthusiastic spirits of the flush times was Dr. M. F. Stevenson, an amateur geologist and mineralogist, who was full of the belief that Georgia was one of the richest mineral States in the Union. AVhen, in 1849, the miners around Dahlonega gathered to take action, on the project of deserting the mines in Georgia and going in a body to the new fields of California, this earnest believer in Geor gia's great mineral wealth mounted the court-house steps in Dahlonega, and, addressing a crowd of about 200 miners, plead with them not to be turned by the stories of the wondrous discoveries in California, but to stick to the Georgia fields, which were rich in possibilities. Pointing to Findley Ridge, which lay about half a mile to the south, he exclaimed: 'Why go to California? In that ridge lies more gold than man ever dreamt of. There's millions in it.' This last sentence was caught up by the miners and taken with them to California, where for years it was a by-word among them. It remained for Mark Twain, who heard it in common use, in one of the mining1 camps of California, to broadcast it over creation by placing it in the mouth of his world-renowned charac ter, Colonel Mulberry Sellers."*'

"HOME, SWEET HOME": JOHN HOWARD PAYNE'S GEORGIA SWEETHEART AND IMPRISONMENT

It is one of the ironies of Fate that the poet from whose pen has come the best-known lyric of the hearthstone was himself a homeless wanderer. With little knowledge of domestic happiness, he sang of home, not as a possession, but as a want; and, for more than thirty years, he was even fated to fill an exile's grave, on the far shores of the Mediterranean. The absence of any strong domestic ties first led him, when a mere lad, to seek his fortune abroad. On returning to America, after a lapse of two full decades, his wandering footsteps at length brought him to Geor gia, where two experiences of a widely different character awaited him a jail and a sweetheart. From the former of these binding spells he was soon released, through the prompt intervention of an influential friend. But, in gentle bondage to the latter, he remained a lifelong prisoner. His heart underwent no change. As for the fair object of his affections, she retained her maiden name to the end of her days and, dying at the ripe age of seventy-six, carried to her grave in Oconee Cemetery, at Athens, an undimmed image of her poet-lover: the immortal author of "Home, Sweet Home."

'Vol. I, "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1295

The world has not forgotten the pathetic story of John Howard Payiie. But the tendency to exaggerate has led a host of writers, eager for dramatic effect, into gross misstatements. Indeed, there are few, who, in sketching Payne's life, have not drawn more largely upon fancy for materials than upon fact.
Payiie was never at any time the shiftless, lie 'er-do-well, or the penni less vagabond which he has often been made to appear by these carica ture artists. Most of his life, it is true, was spent in bachelor quarters and among remote scenes. He also lacked business acumen; but those upon whom Nature bestows the divine afflatus are seldom merchants or bankers. AVith the conveniences of an assured income, he was unac quainted ; and the caprices of Fortune often entailed upon him financial embarrassment. On more than one occasion he knew what it was to be without a dollar in his pocket when creditors were clamorous. But he earned a fair livelihood. At times his wares brought him a substantial recompense and, while his money lasted, he was a prince of bohemians. During the last years of his life, he held an important consular position at Tunis, in Morocco.
Born in the City of New York, on June 9, 1792, the early boyhood days of John Howard Payne were spent at East Hampton, on Long Island, where the old family homestead, a quaint two-story structure, with an attic built of cedar shingles, is owned and preserved as a literary Mecca, by Mr. Buek, of Brooklin, a wealthy admirer of the poet. In summer the cottage is charmingly covered with wistaria vines, contrast ing with the silvery tones of color which nearness to the sea invariably , gives. Stretching away to the rear of the house is an old apple orchard, while in the distance can be seen the sand dunes of the North Atlantic. The interior paneling of the house is said to have been the work of a ship carpenter, trained in one of the navy yards of England. The build ing is heated by a huge central chimney, twelve feet in diameter, in which is built a fireplace after the ample pattern of the Dutch. The house is furnished exactly as it was in the days of Payne's childhood, with quaint dressing tables, high bedsteads, old Windsor chairs, and other furnishings reminiscent of the Colonial period. It was doubtless a recollection of this early home beside the sea which, in after years, inspired his deathless anthem.

But to go back. At the age of thirteen, when a clerk in a mercantile establishment in New York, Payne began secretly to edit a weekly news paper, devoted to the drama. Such precocity of genius induced the lad's father to plan for him a good education; but, while a student at Union College, his prospects were suddenly disturbed by the elder Payne's fail ure in business. John Howard then decided to go upon the stage. His debut as an actor was made at the Park Theater in New York, on Feb ruary 24, 1809, as Young Norval in the "Douglass;" and the suc cess of his initial performance, both from a pecuniary and from an artistic standpoint, was such that he afterwards toured the New England
and Middle states.
In 1813 he sailed for England; and from this time dates his pro-

1296

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

tracted sojourn abroad. As an actor he was well received by the public; but, anxious to increase his earnings, he essayed theatrical management,
with disastrous results. Due to his lack of business ability, he found himself frequently in financial straits. Fortune did not seem to favor
him. In 1815 he published a volume of verse entitled "Lispings of the
Muse," from which his returns were only meager. Better success
attended him as a playwright. He produced a number of musical dramas, for one of which, an opera, entitled "Clari, or the Maid of Milan," he
composed the world-renowned stanzas of "Home, Sweet Home." This opera was first produced at Covent Garden Theater, in May,
1823. The music was adapted by Henry R. Bishop, from an old melody which caught Payne's fancy while visiting one of the Italian cities. It is said that the song itself came to him when, oppressed by debt, he
wandered one day, in great heaviness of spirit, along the banks of the Thames River. During the first year it netted his publishers over two thousand guineas. Payne himself derived little pecuniary profit from
the song which was destined to make him immortal, but he lived to see it put a girdle of music around the globe, to charm alike the king and the peasant, and to become in literal truth the song of the millions.
The original draft of '' Home, Sweet Home'' ran as follows:

'Mid pleasures and palaces, though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home; A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Like the love of a mother Surpassing all other, Which, seek through the world, is ne 'er met with elsewhere. There's a spell in the shade Where our infancy played, Even stronger than time and more deep than despair.
An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain, 0, give me my lowly thatched cottage again! The birds and the lambkins that came at my call
Those who named me with pride Those who played at my side-^Give me them, with the innocence dearer than all. The joys .of the palaces through which I roam Only swell my heart's anguish there's no place like home.
Later Payne re-wrote the poem. But in order to secure brevity he sacrificed poetic charm. The lines with which the public are today familiar hardly measure up to the original; but they are doubtless better adapted to the air. Here is the poem as re-written:
'Mid pleasures and palaces, though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home! There's no place like home! There's no place like home!

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1297

An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain, 0, give me my lowly thatched cottage again! The birds singing gaily that came at my call Give me them and the peace of mind dearer than all.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! There's no place like home! There's no place like home!

In 1832 Payne returned to New York. The question agitating the public mind at this time was the removal of the Cherokee Indians to a traus-Mississippi region. To one of Payne's fine poetic temperament, the idea of using force to drive these primitive inhabitants of the soil these native Americans into an unwilling exile was most repugnant. He thought of himself as an outcast and a wanderer; and it was only natural for the man who wrote "Home, Sweet Home" to espouse the cause of those who were soon to be homeless, even though they were savage tribes of the forest.
To ascertain the real facts in regard to the Cherokees, Mr. Payne came to Georgia in 1836, on the eve of the famous deportation. It so happened that, at this time, Georgia was in a turmoil of excitement. Events were rapidly approaching a climax; and in order to deal, on the one hand, witli meddlesome interlopers whose purpose was to inflame the red men, and, on the other, with lawless characters escaping across the state line into Indian Territory, it was necessary for Georgia to extend her jurisdiction, with a rod of iron, over the domain of the Cherokees.
There was, at this time, among the Indians two distinct parties, one of which, under Major Ridge, strongly favored removal as the wisest course for the nation to adopt. The other, headed by John Ross, stren uously opposed removal; and these were regarded as the sworn enemies of the state. Between the two factions there was war to the knife, deadly and bitter. When John Howard Payne came to Georgia, he visited the Cherokee nation as the guest of John Ross, then, as afterwards, the prin cipal chief. His object in making this visit was unknown to the civil authorities; but his affiliation with John Ross put him at once under suspicion. He contemplated nothing sinister. His purpose was merely to gather information. But Tray was in bad company, at least, to Georgia's way of thinking, and, while visiting John Ross, he was put under arrest and imprisoned in the old Vann house, at Spring Place, in what is now Murray County, Georgia. Capt. A. B. Bishop, who com manded the Georgia Guards, at this place, made the arrest. He found the poet at Ross' hom^ near the head of the Coosa River.
It is said that while imprisoned at Spring Place he heard the soldiers singing his familiar anthem, "Home, Sweet Home,""and that, when he eventually satisfied his captors that he was the author of this renowned song, he received from them the most considerate treatment. Neverthe less, he was held a prisoner until his release was finally procured by Gen. Edward Harden, of Athens, to whom he had brought a letter of intro duction. The historic site of the poet's imprisonment at Spring Place is soon to be marked by the John Milledge Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

1298

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

As stated, Mr. Payne, on coming to Georgia, brought with him a letter of introduction to an old citizen of Athens, Gen. Edward Harden. The latter was formerly a resident of Savannah, and during the famous visit of LaFayette to this country, in 1825, he entertained the illustrious nobleman of France. General Harden was typically a gentleman of the old school, courtly in his manners, refined and cultured, in fact, a man of letters, though his chosen profession was the law. Payne expected to stop at the public inn; but to this General Harden demurred, insisting that he become his guest for an indefinite stay.
Thus it was that the author of '' Home, Sweet Home'' found himself an inmate of the famous old Harden home in Athens. The story that Payne caught the inspiration for his poem, at this time is, of course, sheerest fiction, for more than twelve years had elapsed since the first rendition of the song in public. Equally imaginative is the yarn that on entering the door of his prison at Spring Place, he raised both hands in anguish above his head, exclaiming with bitter sarcasm, "Home, Sweet Home," and then proceeded to write the poem, in a moment of silent
communion with the Muses. But while Payne did not write his poem in Georgia, he enjoyed the
hospitality which General Harden lavished without stint upon friend and stranger alike; and there came into his life at this time an influence which, for the rest of his days, was destined to cast upon him the spell of a most subtle enchantment. He became acquainted with the general's lovely daughter, Mary. So fascinated was the poet with this gentle lady of Athens that the main purpose of his visit to Georgia was almost for gotten. The poor Cherokees became a secondary consideration. Even his Yankee scruples against southern biscuit were overcome when he tasted one of the dainty products of Miss Mary's oven.

Still, he did visit the Cherokee nation; and it was while on this trip that his imprisonment at Spring Place occurred. On hearing of his predicament, General Harden hastened to his release. But the poet was so mortified over the treatment to which he had been subjected that he lost no time in returning to the North, avowing his purpose never again to visit Georgia, without a formal invitation. To this resolution he adhered. However, there were some memories connected with his visit which he did not care to forget and which, through the lonely days and nights succeeding his return to New York, continued softly to serenade him, to the music of his own '' Home, Sweet Home.''
Between Miss Harden and Payne there doubtless passed a number of letters. But one in particular deserves our attention. In a wild flutter of hope, he wrote to her, on July 18, 1836, telling her that he could offer her naught save his hand and heart and entreating her to smile upon his suit. What her answer to this proposal of marriage was, no one knows. She was always silent upon the subject; but the fact remains that they were never married, though each remained loyal till death. Perhaps the old general himself barred the way. He knew that Payne was a rolling stone; and while he admired the poet's genius he may
have doubted his ability to support a helpmeet.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1299

In after years, Payne was sent with a consular appointment to Mo rocco, by the United States Government. On the eve of his' departure Miss Harden requested of him an autographed copy of his renowned song, a boon which he promptly granted. In some mysterious manner this copy disappeared at the time of Miss Harden's death, giving rise to the not unnatural presumption that it was buried with her; but her niece, Miss Mary Jackson, to whom the old Harden home in Athens was willed and who assisted in preparing the body of her beloved aunt for burial, states that, for this supposition there is no ground whatever. It is not unlikely that Miss Harden herself, when warned of approaching death, destroyed with her own hands what was never meant for the eyes of the idly curious.

Payne, after leaving for Morocco, returned to America but once in life. On this occasion he received a wonderful tribute from the famous Jennie Lind, who, turning toward the box in which he sat, in a crowded theater, sang in the richest accents which have doubtless ever been heard on this continent, the familiar words of his inspired song. The great Daniel Webster was a witness to this impressive scene, the memory of which he carried to his grave at Marshfield.
Soon after returning to Morocco, Payne died, on April 9, 1852, at the age of threescore years. He was buried at Tunis, where his body rested for more than three full decades, in a foreign exile, on the shores of North Africa. But finally, in 1883, through the efforts of the great philanthropist, Mr. W. W. Corcoran, of Washington, D. C., the ashes of the poet were brought back to his native land and reinterred in Oak Hill Cemetery, on the outskirts of the nation's capital. Here, underneath the same ground slab which marked his grave in Tunis, sleeps the gentle poet of the hearthstone. But overlooking the sacred spot there stands a more recent structure of pure white marble, reared by thousands of voluntary contributions. It is surmounted by a life-size bust of the lamented bard and lettered underneath it is the following epitaph: *

JOHN HOWARD PAYNE

Author of "Home, Sweet Home."

Born, June 9, 1792.

Died, April 9, 1852.

Sure, when thy gentle spirit fled To realms above the dome,
With outstretched arms God's angels said: "Welcome to Heaven's home, sweet home."

ME. CRAWFORD AT THE COURT OF NAPOLEON

Shortly before the drooping banners of the Old Guard had com menced to trail vvpon the field of. Waterloo, there appeared at the Court of France an arrival of unusual dignity of bearing whose whole aspect

* Vol. IT, "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

1300

GEOKGIA AND GEORGIANS

seemed to suggest that a new emperor had come to Paris. It was evident from the most casual glance that the handsome stranger was no ordinary individual. He clearly bore the majestic stamp; but, coming unheralded and unescorted, he was probably of lesser rank, perhaps some earl or duke, with family connections on the throne. However, an examination of his official papers dispelled the imperial illusion by making it apparent .that he boasted neither rank nor title, for he hailed from the lower edge of the Cherokee belt and was none other,.than the American ambassador, William H. Crawford, of Georgia.
Gigantic in stature, Mr. Crawford stood considerably over six feet tall, but was well proportioned and delicately featured. His ruddy com plexion told that he had never known an hour's illness. His broad shoul ders, Atlas-like in strength, were surmounted by an immense leonine head such as Phidias might have carved for Jupiter; while, underneath an expansive brow of tinted marble, darted the quick glances of an eagle which seemed to be looking from some mountain eyrie. Before the eyes of one who saw him for the first time, there immediately shot up the figure of the pine, but his courtly bearing and his native ease of manner suggested, on more intimate acquaintance, the richer sheen of the mag nolia or the softer velvet of the cedar.

Accompanying Mr. Crawford to France, as secretary of legation, went Dr. Henry Jackson, an accomplished young educator, who had recently, been called to the faculty of Franklin College. Doctor Jackson was a, younger brother of the famous Gov. James Jackson, who fought the Yazoo Fraud, and was the father of Gen. Henry E. Jackson, who wrote "The Eed Old Hills of Georgia." As the result of a deep personal inter est, Mr. Crawford had invited Doctor Jackson to accompany him abroad, and the board of trustees granted the young professor a special leave of absence for the purpose of making this trip.
Mr. Crawford remained abroad some two years; and, if not in France at the time of the battle of Waterloo, he at least appears to have wit nessed the return of Napoleon from Elba. The period was most eventful; but, even amid the waning fortunes of the empire, the Court of France was surpassingly brilliant. It was on this occasion that Mr. Crawford received from the emperor an involuntary tribute the like of which he is said to have paid to no other mortal man. Doctor Jackson has happily preserved the incident. He says that when the superb figure of the American ambassador was arrayed for the first time in the gorgeous apparel of the French court, he riveted upon himself the astonished gaze of everyone present.
Struck by Mr. Crawford's distinguished appearance, the bewildered Napoleon instinctively bowed his imperial forehead twice; and in speak ing of the affair afterwards he frankly confessed that Mr. Crawford was the only man to whom he ever felt actually constrained to bow. This story is well attested. An examination of the old newspaper files will serve to unearth many a racy incident of like character, but none perhaps more striking than this episode of .the French court in which William II. Crawford, by wresting tribute honors from the conqueror of Europe, forestalled the triumph of the Duke of Wellington.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1301

.How MB. CBAWFOBD MISSED THE PBESIDENCY

On Mr. Crawford's return from France in 1815 he accepted from President Madison the portfolio of war in the cabinet of President Madison, but he was afterwards transferred to the Treasury Depart ment. He discharged the duties of this position so ably that he was retained under President Monroe; but pending the campaign which ushered the new chief executive into the "White House, it became evi dent that Mr. Crawford himself was no mean favorite for the nomina tion. On counting the votes cast in the convention, it was found that, out of a total of 119 votes, 54 were cast for Mr. Crawford.
Nor did his popularity wane. In 1824 he received the endorsement of his party over Mr. Calhoun, and entered the race under the most nat tering prospects of success; but just before the election, by the most untoward caprice of fate, Mr. Crawford was stricken with paralysis. Though defeated, the contest was so close that, like the famous BurrJefferson fight of 1801, it was thrown into the national House of Repre sentatives. The candidates were William H. Crawford, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay. Mr. Adams was finally elected, due, it is said, to the agency of Mr. Clay, who gave his support to the New Englander.
Governor Gilmer states that the attack of paralysis was superinduced by an improper use of lobelia, administered by an inexperienced phy sician, to relieve an attack of erysipelas. But the malady did not entirely check Mr. Crawford's usefulness. He became judge of the northern circuit of Georgia, a position which he held from 1827 to 1834. Even amid the wreck of his brilliant powers he seems to have retained, in a very marked degree, his wonderful memory. He never lost his love for the old Latin and Greek authors, but still read Homer and Virgil, Cicero and Xenophon, fluently in the originals, and could no doubt have dis tanced many of the college professors. Moreover, he was a perfect encyclopedia of general knowledge, an index rerum of his generation.
But it was always a pathetic spectacle to see the palsied figure of the old giant as he ambled toward the bench or stammered out the words which once leaped to his lips with such charm of music and such felicity of phrase. Feeble glints of the old fire still gleamed in his eyes, and dim traces of the old Apollo were still visible in his emaciated form, but it was difficult to realize that this infirm old jurist was the great William H. Crawford, of Georgia, for whom the presidential chair of the nation was not considered too high an honor, and to whom even the great Napoleon had twice bent the crown of France.*

ANECDOTE OP MB. CBAWFOBD'S SCHOOL-DAYS

Joseph Beckham Cobb narrates the following incident of Mr. Craw ford's school-days at Mount Carmel:
'' It was determined by himself and some of the elder school boys to enliven the annual public examinations by representing a play. They selected Addison's Cato; and, in forming the cast of characters, that of

*Vol. I, "Reminiscences of Famous Georgians,' by L. L. Knight.
Vol. Ill--3

1302

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the Roman senator was of course, assigned to the usher. Crawford was a man of extraordinary height and large limbs, and was always ungrace ful-and awkward, besides being constitutionally unfitted, in every way, to act any character but his own. However, he cheerfully consented to play Cato. It was a matter of great sport, even during rehearsal as his companions beheld the huge, unsightly usher, with giant strides and sten torian tones, go through with the representation of the stern, precise old Roman. But, on the night of the exhibition, an accident, eminently characteristic of the counterfeit Cato, occurred, which effectually broke up the denoument of the tragedy. Crawford had conducted the Senate scene with tolerable success, though rather boisterously for so solemn an occasion, and had even managed to struggle through with the apostrophe to the soul; but, when the dying scene behind the curtain came to be acted, Cato's groan of agony was bellowed out with such hearty good earnest as totally to scare away the tragic muse, and set prompter, play ers and audience in a general, unrestrained fit of laughter. This was, we believe, the future stateman's first and last theatrical attempt." *

OLD JUDGE DOOLY, OP LINCOLN

Over in what Judge Longstreet calls "the dark corner of Lincoln," there lived during the early part of the last century, an eccentric old judge of the western circuit by the name of Judge John M. Dooly. His wit was proverbial. Perhaps there never sat on the bench in Georgia a man whose faults were more pronounced; and, strange to say, he made no effort to conceal them. He could play a better game of poker and drink a stouter glass of ale than almost any one of the hardened offenders who quailed under his sentences; and he even made his accom plishments in this respect a matter of jest. But in spite of his failings he possessed many sturdy and robust characteristics; and, whatever else may be said of him, he was certainly not a hypocrite. He was unfail ingly generous and kind-hearted, and ofttimes the sympathetic tear is said to have lurked behind the judicial frown.
However, his saving grace was his unrivaled wit. This invested him with an outward glamour which made even his faults, in the eyes of the masses, seem virtuous and heroic; and usually the courtroom was crowded with spectators who were less eager to hear the eloquent pleas of counsel than to catch the luminous sparks which fell from the judge's anvil. Lawyers seldom twitted or provoked him, dreading the effect upon the jury-box; but the ordinary proceedings gave him frequent occasions for droll comment. Judge Dooly was notably opposed to shed ding blood; albeit he came of fighting stock. His father, Col. John Dooly, was killed by the Tories in an unexpected assault upon his home at the outbreak of the Revolution; and his uncle, Capt. Thomas Dooly, suffered death in like manner at the hands of the Indians several years previous. But the judge himself possessed little of the martial instinct. He detected no music in the roar of musketry; he snuffed no perfume in the smell of gunpowder. He was pronouncedly a man of peace; and, if tradition can be trusted, he even carried his preference for the olive-

* Joseph Beckham Cobb in '' Leisure Hours.''

GEOBGIA AND GEORGIANS

1303

branch so far that when someone ventured to call him a liar he accepted the epithet as gracefully as if the offender had tendered him the instru ment which Apollo gave to Orpheus.
Happily for Judge Dooly, his genial humor has served to keep him in green remembrance. Indeed, his name leaps glibly to our lips, when we find it difficult to recall many of his contemporaries who were dis tinguished for much greater achievements; and it all goes to show that for preserving purposes at least the salt of Attica is better than the spice of Sparta. In politics, Judge Dooly was a federalist. This accounts in some measure for the fact that he rose no higher than a circuit judgeship. Election day almost invariably found him short at the polls. But he scored heavily on his opponent while the campaign was in progress; and kept the countryside in a good humor. Pie was a musketeer and a swordsman both in the use of the King's English; and few and far be tween were the politicians who had the temerity in joint debate with this dreaded Ajax to hazard the fire of his deadly batteries or to challenge the flash of his Damascus blade. Concerning Judge Dooly's peculiar whimsicalities there are still enough legends afloat in Georgia to fill an ordinary octavo volume of anecdotes. Most of them are spurious, but enough are genuine and well authenticated to establish the primacy which he enjoyed among the great jurists of his day for pure and un adulterated wit. If Dickens could only have met this unique character, he might have improved upon the drolleries of Pickwick.*
JUDGE DOODY'S BEE-GUM
On a certain occasion, when the famous feud between Clark and Crawford was at its height, Judge Dooly became involved in a contro versy with his predecessor upon the bench: Judge Charles Tait. As a result Judge Tait challenged him to mortal combat. There are several versions to this story, but, according to one of them, Judge Dooly ac cepted the challenge and actually appeared upon the scene of encounter, though he was notoriously opposed to shedding blood, especially from his own veins.
General Clark was Judge Dooly's second, while Mr. Crawford, in a like capacity, served Judge Tait; and the affair was probably planned with the utmost seriousness by the friends of both parties. Now, it happened that one of Judge Tait's bodily infirmities was a wooden leg, and it was a knowledge of this fact which inspired Judge Dooly's singular feat of valor. At the appointed time, Judge Tait, with his second, Mr. Crawford, appeared upon the scene of action, where he discovered Judge Dooly sitting patiently alone upon a stump. In reply to an inquiry from Mr. Crawford, concerning the whereabouts of General Clark, with whom he wished to confer in advance of the duel, Judge Dooly replied:
'' General Clark is in the woods looking for a bee-gum.'' "May I inquire," asked Mr. Crawford, "what use he intends to make of a bee-gum?" ''I want to put my leg in it,'' replied Judge Dooly. "Do you suppose for a minute that I am going to risk a good leg of flesh and blood against

* Vol. I, '' Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

1304

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Tait's wooden stump ? If I hit his leg, he can get him another one before tomorrow morning; but if he hits mine I may lose my life, certainly my leg; and to put myself on equal footing with Tait, I must have a beegum for protection. I can then fight him on equal terms.''
"Then am I to understand that you do not intend to fight Judge Tait?" inquired Mr. Crawford.
"Well," responded Judge Dooly, "I thought every one knew that." "Perhaps so," replied Mr. Crawford, "but you will fill a newspaper column in consequence of this day's business." "So be it," replied the judge, with an arch smile, "I would rather fill a dozen newspapers than one coffin.'' There ,was nothing more to be said. Judge Tait was, of course, cha grined at this unexpected turn of affairs. He expected to humiliate Judge Dooly, even if he could not force him to fight; but Judge Dooly had cleverly managed the situation and, without putting his good legs in jeopardy, had come off the victor. Gallant Jack Falstaff himself could not have managed the affair with keener strategy or with cooler dis cretion.
ANECDOTES OF JUDGE DOOLEY
When canvassing for re-election to the judgeship of the northern circuit before the Legislature, during the stormy session of 1825, in consequence of the warlike message of Governor Troup, the latter's political adversaries, among whom the judge belonged, branded him with madness; to which Judge Dooly most happily replied, in the midst of a large number of Governor Troup's friends:
"If he is mad, I wish the same mad dog that bit him would bite me." This saying so pleased and conciliated his opponents that they voted for him almost to a man, and he was triumphantly re-elected.

The writer was riding out with the judge one day for the purpose of viewing, as he termed it, the beautiful little Village of Warrenton, which he always insisted was next to Wrightsboro, the loveliest in the circuit. It was in the afternoon of the day on which the citizens had met, during the recess of the court, to discuss the ruinous policy of the tariff of 1828; when seeing the village swarming with happy children just turned loose from school he inquired if all those children belonged there. On being answered in the affirmative, with the additional state ment that he did not see half of them, he replied:
"Well, this is a species of domestic industry which needs no duties to protect it. The South is rich in children, tariff or no tariff.''

On one occasion he was most happy in giving a hint to a landlord in one of the upper counties, who had honored him by presenting the judge every day for dinner, during the session, with a half-grown hog in the shape of a stuffed baked pig. He attended upon the table every day, without injury: no fork had pierced him, no knife had cut him. At the close of the term, on finishing the dinner of the last day, he turned to the sheriff and ordered him to discharge the pig upon his own recog nizance, to be and appear at the next term of the court, with the thanks of the'court for his prompt and faithful attendance thereupon.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1305

On another occasion, during the protracted trial of a criminal case in Hancock, a friend was discovered by the judge to be always drinking out of a certain little pitcher which sat before him and which, by-the-by, had plenty of apple toddy in it. The judge at length became thirsty, as well he might, and called for water. The sheriff sprang down to the pail, which sat in the corner, and brought a tumbler of water for the judge. On its being presented to him, he shook his head, and, with a significant manner, which all understood, begged him to let him have some out of the pitcher which Mr. H. was using. It was brought; and, having tasted it copiously, under the gaze of all present, the judge smacked his lips and returned it saying that it was the best water he had tasted since he came to the village, and enjoined it upon Mr. Bailiff always to draw from the same spring.

At a certain dining party, the ladies present were speaking very highly of one of the sex who had just come among them as a bride, saying that she was a lady of such fine, even temper, they knew the judge would be glad to meet her; whereupon he replied that, under different circum stances, he should be gratified to do so, but, as she was a lady of fine, uniform temper, he must beg to be excused, for he never knew but one lady of this charaeter-^old George C 's wife; he had known her intimately for forty years, during the whole of which time she had been of uniform temper; she had been mad uniformly mad, without the least variation ever since he first met her, and he prayed God that he might never meet another!

One cold morning, during the spring term of Hancock Court, he seemed to be quite husky in his voice and laboring under a cold, when a member of the bar inquired of him after his health. He replied that he had a severe attack of the quinsy for, as cold as the wind blew, there was a man who came and stood all the morning at the courthouse door with only his morning gown on, and no cravat; that the sight of the man had affected his throat so much it was quite sore; and that he should have to resort to his hoar-hound before night if it did not get better.
The ruling passion is strong, even in death. "When confined to his bed for the last time, a friend called to inquire of his condition. He replied that he had a bad cold without any cough to suit it. He was a man of the warmest charity. He observed on one occasion, when a poor beggar asked him for alms, that he was early taught, from refusing to give an unfortunate widow in Savannah, never to let the devil cheat him out of another opportunity of bestowing charity; that he had determined to err on the safe side ever after, and to give something in all cases of doubt.

His versatility of character was great. On one occasion he entered into a room where a faro-bank was in operation, while he was judge, and insisted on putting an end to the practice by winning all the stakes. He declared that in his opinion the law was a dead letter, compared to one severe beating, with a gambler; that he was a fit subject of punish ment only when his last dollar was won; that while the gambler had money, he was sorry to find that he always had friends. He said that

1306

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

it was laying the axe at the root of the tree, to break them up at a fair game.

At Hancock Court, the judge had to impose a fine on two men who were brought before him for a riot. He called for some paper from Philip Sims, the clerk, who was known to be a rigid economist, in fact, so much so that he rarely handed over more paper than was barely sufficient for what was required. When, after much ado, Sims handed over a piece of paper both small and dirty, the judge turned the scrap over and over; then of a sudden he threw it down contemptuously on the bald pate of the clerk, saying: "I would not fine a dog.on such a scrap as that. Go, gentlemen, and sin no more. Else the next time I will see to it that you are fined on gilt-edged paper."

;' At Taliaferro Court, one dark and gloomy night, the judge had retired to rest in a room which chanced to be just under the one in which most of the lawyers attendant upon the court were lodging. The gentlemen above were telling anecdotes and making quite an uproar of laughter, accompanied by the scraping of feet and the rattling of chairs, much to the judge's annoyance. Suddenly a dreadful encounter seemed to be going on in the judge's chamber; chairs and sticks and blows were distinctly heard. Immediately all the members of the bar rushed into his room below to see what it meant; and, to the mortification and surprise of every one, the judge was beating one chair with another, over the whole floor, apparently in a furious passion. "What is the matter?" asked one of the lawyers. "Nothing," he replied; "I was only keeping time with the noise upstairs.''

Once, at Hancock, he was much enraged at the disorderly conduct of two members of the bar. He remarked sternly that they must be seated, when one of them, after sitting down quickly, made an effort to rise for the purpose of apologizing. He was about half way up when the judge discovered him. "Mr. G.," said he, "rise if you dare, and you are fined one hundred dollars;'' whereupon Mr. G., being half bent, made an effort to speak, when he silenced him again; "Just speak a word, and you are fined one hundred dollars." So, being confounded and con fused, half rising and half speaking, Mr. G. made such a grotesque ap pearance as to excite the universal laughter of those present; when the judge, collecting himself and cooling down, mildly remarked: "Mr. G. has the floor and is now in order. You can both rise and speak till you are satisfied, provided you do so one at a time.''

To secure proper attention for a favorite horse, which he often drove, it was Judge Dooly's custom, on reaching a hotel, to ask if he could secure quarters for his horse, as well as for himself. On receiving a response in the affirmative, he would then apologize for his horse, by informing the landlord that he had not long since purchased him of a Frenchman; that he had not learned to speak English; and that he was desirous he should be put in charge of a faithful hostler, who would feed, water, and curry him three times a day and furnish him a nice pallet of straw at night.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1307

I am now reminded of one more anecdote which, is very characteristic of the man. A certain lawyer in Lincoln County was a candidate before the people for a seat in the Legislature. When asked by the judge as to his prospects in the coming election, he replied that he was appre hensive he would be defeated, as the people of the county had a strong prejudice against voting for a lawyer. "Oh," replied the judge, "if that is all, I will aid you, for you can get a certificate from me at any
time that you are no lawyer." Judge Dooly 's mind was as clear as light and as thick as thought. He
seems never to have been at a loss for a correct understanding of the case tried before him, no matter how complicated. He readily unraveled it, exposed the fallacy and sophistry which counsel might throw around it, and presented its true merits to the jury. His memory was very tenacious. He seems never to have forgotten any case he read or any decision he heard, while a practicing attorney at the bar. His recollec tion of the names of parties and witnesses was no less wonderful. He seemed to fall in love, almost intuitively, with system and order in speak ing of any subject. He used but few words, and those always to the
point.*

Before he went on the bench, Judge Dooly was very fond of cards, and was not always restrained afterwards. I heard him say that he never went to a faro-table determined to win a moderate sum and stop, that he did not succeed if left to his own judgment. He went to Augusta on one occasion, determined to win 50 guineas each night during his stay. He carried out his resolution for several nights, and was progress ing well the last night, till some intermeddling friend began to advise him, when bad luck commenced. Then he began to drink, continued to
lose, and proceeded until he lost all. He lived in the midst of a large plantation. A long lane led down
to his gate, which you opened and rode some hundred yards up to his house. One very hot day a neighbor came to the large gate and called and beckoned until he made the judge come through the hot sun to where he was; and, when within speaking distance the neighbor asked him if he had seen anything of Mark Bond, another neighbor. "No," said Dooly, as he turned about and walked back to his porch, whence he watched him in search of Mark Bond as long as he was within reach of a halloo by Dooly. He then called and beckoned until the neighbor rode back through the gate and up to the porch, when the judge said: '' I have not seen Mark Bond, and do not care if I never do,'' and turned
on his heel and walked into the house. I witnessed the scene of ordering the sheriff to discharge the stuffed
pig on his own recognizance, which, together with the breaking of the faro-bank at "Wilkes Court, you have no doubt heard.

When I first came to the bar, Wilkes Court sat from two or three weeks in July. One evening a lawyer of this place, during the July court, asked the judge and several other gentlemen, among whom was myself, to his office to eat watermelons. The judge had complained all

* Condensed from letters of Judge Grigsby E. Thomas to Maj. Stephen H. Miller.

1308

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the week of my being unusually slow in transacting my business. After we had eaten all the melons before us, I proposed to go with another friend a few steps off for some more. "No, no, Andrews, don't you go," said Dooly; "they will get too ripe before you return."
He was of feeble health, and more peevish when unwell than at other times, though always irritable. He also had great contempt for anything like foppery. Being sick at Milledgeville, he was confined to the second story of the hotel. His friends had advised him to have a young doctor to prescribe for him who was rather foppish, and wore heavy brass-heeled boots, just as they were coming into vogue. After he had visited the patient once or twice, Dooly became disgusted with his manners, and thought the doctor took unusual pains to let him know that he was shod after the latest fashion. He could hear the brass heels ring at every step upstairs and to his door. When the doctor arrived on his third visit, Dooly called out:
'' Ride in, doctor; ride in!" On one occasion, at Hancock, he was trying a prisoner for murder, and the case turned on the point whether he was justified in shooting the deceased. The jury returned a verdict that "the prisoner had the right to shoot." So soon as the verdict was read out, Dooly cried, in great alarm, "Take care, Mr. Sheriff; take care that he doesn't shoot this way!" Dooly's father was prosecuting attorney about the close of the Revolution, when some eight or ten men were hung in this county, under indictments about as long as your finger. [Perhaps they were tories; if so, additional light is thrown on the tragic manner of his death.] Judge Dooly was born in Lincoln County, near the Savannah River, and saw his father killed by the tories during the Revolutionary war, or soon after.*' The author has heard a few things outside of his correspondence, which he gives for what they are worth: Judge Dooly and the late Major Freeman Walker disagreed at a public dinner, when the latter observed that he had borne with the liberties taken by Judge Dooly long enough, and that, since the attack upon his feelings had been public, so should be the redress. He there upon seized a chair and advanced on Judge Dooly, who seized a large carving knife for his defense. Several gentlemen sprang forward to keep the judge from stabbing his assailant, and only one gentleman held back Major Walker. Looking calmly at the scene, Judge Dooly said: "Gentlemen, one of you will be sufficient to keep me from doing mis chief; the rest of you keep your hands on Major Walker." Of course, the affair ended in an explosion of merriment, and friendly relations were soon restored. At the close of a court, having settled his tavern bill and ordered his horse, the judge came from his room with a very small pillow under his arm, a miniature likeness of the more satisfactory article, on which after the toils of the day it is pleasant to repose the head. Some one inquired of him what he was going to do with the pillow. "I am going to plant it in some rich soil," said he, "so it will be large enough by the next term of the court."

* Judge Garnett Andrews, in a letter to Maj. Stephen F. Miller.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1309

Quite a good hit was made by the judge at McComb's Hotel, soon after the election of Mr. Adams to the presidency in 1825. It is said that a young man was complaining that the country was disgraced by the election of Mr. Adams; that such a man as Mr. Crawford, the wisest and soundest statesman of the age, should be passed over; that even Gen eral Jackson was to be preferred to the successful candidate. Judge Dooly was sitting before the fire, with his head dropped on the back of his chair, attentively listening. Then raising up and looking the grumbler in the face, he said, "Young man, does Mr. Adams know that you are opposed to him'?" "No, sir," he replied, "I wish he did know how little I thought of him.'' With a twinkle of the eye and a cutting tone of the voice usual in his sarcastic moods, the judge administered this consolation: "Suppose I write on to let Mr. Adams know that you are dissatisfied with his election. Perhaps he will resign." In a moment, the youthful politician glided into the street, not waiting to join in the roar of laughter which followed at his expense from the large
number of persons present. Governor Gilmer, in his published work ["Gilmer's Georgians"], thus
speaks of Judge Dooly: "His capacity was sufficient for any attain ment if it had been properly directed and actively employed. Unfortu nately for himself and for society, he was, when young, -under the influ ence of idle, drunken, gambling associates. Though his estate was large, his education was neglected. His scholastic knowledge was limited to what he learned from the common schoolmasters of his time. His features were of the finest cast. His large, protruding black eyes in dicated to any one who looked into them his extraordinary genius. He was a lawyer, and would have been the most successful at the Georgia bar, if his habits had corresponded with his talents. Mr. Forsyth was his only countryman who equaled him in polemic party discussion." *

PEN-PICTURE OP JUDGE DOOLY

Maj. Stephen P. Miller who, when a young man, made the acquaint ance of Judge Dooly, has left us the. following pen-picture of the noted jurist. Says he:
"When I first knew this extraordinary man, he was in the prime of life; and I shall never forget the impression which his person made upon me. He was about the medium size, and his head always seemed too large for his body, his mind too active and strong for his frame. His forehead was bold and elevated, his eye-brows heavy, his nose prominent, his mouth small and compressed, and his eyes, large and sparkling, with long eye-lashes, which, frequently opening and shutting, gave his coun tenance an expression as if under the influence of an electric battery, from which the beholder at first sight, was almost sure to recoil. His peculiarity of voice, which was sharp and discordant, was also well calculated to enforce attention. But there was a point, a spice, a felicity of expression, in what he said which showed him at once to advantage and which drew all other tongues into silence when he spoke. The learned and ignorant, the old and the young, all felt his power to

Stephen F. Miller, in '' Bench and Bar of Georgia,'' Vol. I.

1310

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

please, and did him honor. It was his wit and sarcasm which gave him this pre-eminence. I never knew his equal in either. Yet the very subject of his wit, from the happy manner in which it was played upon him by the judge, was generally the first to join in the loud and hearty laughter which it produced; and even the unfortunate object of his sar casm soon recovered from the overwhelming blast, from a consciousness that it resulted, not from any settled malice in the judge but from a mere wanton desire to punish with which the God of nature had endowed him. If his adversary would give him a time of parlance, the difficulty was adjusted by a single stroke of good humor, which often followed the most writhing and scathing thunderbolt.''

GOVERNOR MATHEWS: AN ECCENTRIC CHARACTER

Gov. George R. Gilmer has given us the following pen-picture of Governor Mathews, one of the most eccentric characters of his day:
He was a short, thick man, with stout legs, on which he stood very straight. He carried his head rather thrown back. His features were full and bluff; his hair, light red; his complexion, fair and florid. His looks spoke out that he would not fear to meet the devil, should he meet him face to face. He admitted no superior but General Washington. He spoke of his services to the country as unsurpassed, except by those of his great chief. He loved to talk of himself, as enthusiastic youths do of Alexander or Caesar. His dress was in unison with his looks and conversation. He wore a three-cornered cocked hat, top boots, a shirt full-ruffled at the bosom and wrists, and occasionally a long sword at his side. Qualities were united in him which are never found in one person, except an Irishman.
To listen to his talk about himself, his children and his affairs, one might have thought that he was but a puff of wind; trade with him, and he was found to be one of the shrewdest of men; fight with him, and he never failed to act the hero. He was unlearned. When he read, it was always aloud, and with the confidence which accompanies the conscious ness of doing a thing well. He always pronounced the 1 in "would" "should" and the ed at the termination of compound "words, with a long drawling accent. He spelled coffee "Kaughphy," and wrote "Con gress" with a k. When governor, he dictated his messages to his secre tary and then sent them to James Madison Simmons, the Irish school master, to put them into grammar.
His memory was unequaled. Whilst he was a member of Congress, an important document which had been read during the session was lost. He was able to repeat its contents verbatim. Previous to the Revolu tionary war he was sheriff of Augusta County, Virginia, and had to collect the taxes from the inhabitants. He recollected for a long time the name of every taxpayer. His memory, combined with his sharpness in trade, enabled him to make lucrative speculations in the most unusual way. He used to go from Philadelphia to Ohio with three or four horses for his capital in trade. He knew all the officers of the Revolutionary army entitled to land in Ohio. He found that men would take a horse for an uncertain claim, who would 'refuse to sell at all if money were offered, from the opinion that money, which was very scarce, would not

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1311

be given but for what was known -to be of value. He acquired a large estate in lands, principally by this kind of traffic.

During his term of office as governor, an act was passed by the Legis lature, usually called the Yazoo Fraud, for selling to several companies, for $500,000, upwards of forty millions of acres in territory which now makes the states of Alabama and Mississippi. All the members of the Legislature who voted for the act secured money or shares in the com panies, except one. The governor had been opposed to all the previous schemes for disposing of the public land. It was with great difficulty that his consent was obtained to put his signature to the act for its sale. The morning after it was rumored that his scruples had been overcome, his secretary, Urquhart, endeavored to arrest his intended signature, through his inherited Irish superstition. He dipped the pen which was used by the governor in oil. Though startled by his pen obstinately refusing to make a mark, he was not thus to be deterred from his pur pose. He directed his secretary to make another pen, with which he signed his approval. The bribery was noised abroad by rumor's hundred tongues. Those disappointed in getting a share of the public lands for little or nothing united with the honest and patriotic in raising such a clamor of indignation as had never before been heard. Stout as the gov ernor's spirit was, he had to yield to the storm. He quitted Georgia,
never afterwards to make it his home long at a time.

Mr. Adams, when President, nominated General Mathews to the Sen ate for governor of the Mississippi Territory, but afterwards withdrew the nomination upon finding the opposition to his appointment very great. On hearing of this turn of affairs, General Mathews immediately, set out for Philadelphia, where Congress then assembled, to chastise the President. Upon his arrival in Philadelphia, he rode directly to the house of Mr. Adams, hitched his horse, and went to the door, his Revo lutionary sword at his thigh, his three-cornered cocked hat on his head, and gave a thundering knock. Upon a servant opening it, he demanded to see the President. He was told that he was engaged. General Math
ews then said to the servant: "I presume your business is to carry messages. Now if you do not
immediately inform the president that a gentleman wishes to speak to him, your head will answer the consequences." '
The servant bowed, retired, and informed the President that a strange old fellow, who called himself General Mathews, wished to see him, and would take no denial. Mr. Adams directed that he should be admitted.
Upon entering the room where the President was, he said: "I presume you are Mr. Adams, President of these United States.
My name is Mathews, sometimes called Governor Mathews, well known at the battle of Jarmantown as Colonel Mathews of the Virginia line. Now, sur, I understand that you nominated me to the Senate of 'these United States to be Governor of Massassappa Tarratory, and that afterwards you took back the nomination. If you did not know me, you should not have nominated me to so important an office. Now, Sur, unless you can satisfy me, your station of President of these United States shall not
screen you from my vangance."

1312

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Mr. Adams accordingly set about' satisfying him, which he did with the utmost good will on account of the general being a stout federalist. Inquiring after his sons and receiving a most laudatory description of them, he promised to appoint John supervisor of the public revenues iri Georgia. Whereupon the general expressed himself content, saying: "My son John is a man about my inches, with the advantage of a labral education, and for his integrity, I pledge my head." *

TOOMBS, THE IMPASSIONED MIKABEAU

The mesmerism of genius has never held Georgia more completely enthralled than when fleshed in the personality and christened under the name of Robert Toonibs. In the separate aspects of his character, Mr. Toombs was not without successful rivals. In political statecraft, he was not the equal o-f Howell Cobb. In constructive statesmanship, Mr.Stephens surpassed him. In cohesive oratory, he was not the equal of Mr. Hill. In sagacious foresight and mental equipoise, he must readily yield the palm to.Joseph E. Brown. But in the assemblage of all his gifts he was an undisputed sovereign who in his prime strode the hust ings, swayed the councils, and ruled the politics of Georgia, with the jure divino of the royal Stuart.
However, unless exception be made of the State Constitution Conven tion, of 1877, Mr. Toonibs lent his great powers to the building up of no substantial fabric which today survives. Mr. McDuffie, of South Caro lina, was the first to liken him to the fiery tribune of Prance. Said he: "I have heard John Randolph, of Roanoke, and met Burgess, o-f Rhode Island, but this wild Georgian is another Mirabeau.'' The comparison is not far-fetched. Under the spell of his cyclonic oratory, the listener sat transfixed. He seemed to be witnessing some splendid storm at sea; or, better still, some Alpine cataract, hurling its organ thunder against the battlements of basic rock and shaking its diamond plumage in the sun.
Prodigal of his abundant resources, Mr. Toombs was utterly indiffer ent to his harvests, husbanding none of his resources, preserving none of his speeches; and while the records of men less gifted are preserved in tablets more enduring, the trophies of his colossal leadership are fading with the generations which applauded them, vanishing like splendid vapors and leaving no indelible impress upon the landmarks of history except the memorials of his destructive passage.
Mr. Toombs was the choice of many loyal and warm supporters for President of the Confederate states. But not a few of his admirers were inclined to think that his fiery and impetuous spirit was ill-adapted to the grave responsibilities of the supreme command. He really possessed calmer and cooler judgment than his dramatic temper indicated; but he was wholly unselfish in the matter. Acquiescing in the election of Mr. Davis, who defeated him by only one vote, the great propagandist of secession accepted the post of premier in the. cabinet. This position he filled for only a short while, when differences with Mr. Davis led him to believe that he could serve his country more acceptably in the field.

* George E. Gilmer, in l Sketches of Some of the First Settlers of Upper Georgia."

THE OLD HOME OF EGBERT TOOMBS, IN WASHINGTON

1314

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

As a senator, Mr. Toombs was superb, towering far above most of Ms colleagues in the American house of peers. He survived the war by more than twenty years; but stubbornly refusing to take the oath of allegiance he went to his grave "an unpardoned rebel" a distinction in. which he gloried. His name and his genius are thus forever asso ciated with the fiery maelstrom of secession. Taken in all the amplitude of his splendid .gifts, he was an intellectual Samson; but like another Samson, of holy writ and olden time, who bore upon his back the gates of Gaza, slaughtered Philistines like insects, and wrestled victoriously with lions, he threw his arms at last around the pillars of his prison house, only to find his death-bed and his sepulchre and the splendid ashes of the edifice.*

ANECDOTES OF GENERAL TOOMBS

'' Georgia shall pay her debts,'' said General Toombs on one occasion. "If she does not, I will pay them for her!" This piece of hyperbole was softened by the fact that on two occasions, when the state needed money to supply deficits, Toombs, with other Georgians did come for ward and lift the pressure. Sometimes he talked in a random way, but responsibility always sobered him. He was impatient of fraud and stu pidity, often full of exaggeration, but scrupulous when the truth was revelant. Always strict and punctilious in his engagements, he boasted that he never had a dirty shilling in his pocket.
The men who left the country for the country's good and came South' to fatten on the spoils of reconstruction, furnished unending targets for his satire. He declared that these so-called developers came for pelf, not for patriotism. "Why, these men," said he, "are like thieving ele phants. They will uproot an oak or pick up a pin. They will steal any thing from a button to an empire."
'' I hope the Lord will allow me to go to Heaven as a gentleman,'' he used to say. '' Some of these Georgia politicians I do not want to meet. I would like to associate with Socrates and Shakespeare."
During his arguments before the Supreme Court, General Toombs used to abuse the governor and the Bullock Legislature in round terms. The court adopted a rule that no lawyer should be allowed, while conduct ing a case, to abuse a coordinate branch of the government. General Toombs was informed that if he persisted in this practice he would be held for contempt. The next time Toombs went before the court, he alluded to the fugitive governor in very severe language.
'' May it please your Honors,'' said he, '' the Governor has now ab sconded. The little rule of the Court was doubtless intended to catch me. But, in seeking to protect the powers that be, I presume that you did not intend to defend the powers that were."
General Toombs was once asked in a crowd, at the Kimball House, in Atlanta, what he thought of the North. "My opinion of the Yan kees," said he, "is apostolic. Alexander, the coppersmith, did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works." A Federal officer was standing in the crowd. He said: "Well, General, we whipped you.

' Vol. I, '' Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1315

anyhow." "No," replied Toombs, "we just wore ourselves out whip ping you."
The spoiliators in the State Legislature he called "an assemblage of manikins whose object was no higher than their breeches pockets, seekers of jobs and judgeships, anything for pap or plunder, an amalgamation of white rogues and blind negroes, gouging the treasury and disgracing the commonwealth." *

Alluding, in the course of his famous Bush Arbor speech, in Atlanta, in 1868, to General Longstreet, who had been a member of the republican party, General Toombs said: "I would not have him tarnish his own laurels. I respect his courage, honor his devotion to his cause, and regret his errors." And he thereupon proceeded to denounce the ruling party" in Georgia as a mass of floating putrescence, which rots while it rises and rises while it rots." t

The spirit of Toombs dominated the convention (i. e., the Constitu tional Convention of 1877). Men moved up the aisle to sit at his feet while he poured out his strong appeal. One-half of the body was filled with admiration, the other half with alarm. "It is a sacred thing to shake the pillars upon which the property of the country rests," said Mr. Hammond, of Fulton. "Better shake the pillars of property than the pillars of liberty," thundered this Georgia Samson, with his thews girt for the fray. "The great question is: Shall Georgia govern the corporations, or the corporations govern Georgia? Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve!"
The house rang with applause. Members clustered about the old man as about the form of a prophet. The majority was with him. The articles which he advocated came from the committee without recom mendation, but they were substantially adopted, and are now parts of the supreme law of the land. The victory was won, and Robert Toombs, grim and triumphant, closed>his legislative career, and claimed this work as the crowning act of his public labors. (These principles are contained' in the Constitution of Georgia, Article IV.)
When the convention concluded its labors, General Toombs went before the people and threw himself with enthusiasm into the canvass. He took the stump, and everywhere his voice was heard in favor of the adoption of the new organic law. Many of the officers whose terms had been cut off and whose salaries had been reduced, appeared against the constitution. General Toombs declared that those public men who did not approve of the lower salaries might "pour them back in the jug." This homely phrase became a by-word in the canvass. It had its adoption in this way: In the Creek war, in which '' Captain Toombs'' commanded a company made up of volunteers from Wilkes, Elbert, and Lincoln counties, a negro named Kinch went along as whisky sutler. As he served out the liquor, some of the soldiers complained of the price he asked. His answer was, "Well, sir, if you don't like it, sir, pour it back in the jug.''

* Pleasant A. Stovall, in '' Life of Bobert Toombs.'' t Stovall's "Life of Toombs."

1316

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

In the state election of December, 1877, the new constitution was overwhelmingly adopted, and will remain for generations the organic law of the Empire State of the South.*

On the 30th of September, 1885, Robert Toombs was confined to his house by illness. It was a general breaking down of his whole system. It was evident that he was nearing the end. During his last illness his mind would wander, and then his faculties would return with singular clearness. He suffered little pain. As Henry Grady said of him, it seemed that his kingly power and great vitality, which had sub dued everything else, would finally conquer death. His ruling instinct was strong in dissolution. He still preserved to the last his faculty of grasping with ease public situations, and of framing terse epigrams, which he threw out like proverbs.
During one of his lucid intervals, he asked for the news. He was told that the Georgia Legislature was still in session.
"Lord, send for Cromwell," he answered, and turned on his pillow. He talked in his delirium of Mr. Stephens and Doctor Steiner. The latter recalled him and said: "General, I am here, by your side; Mr. Stephens, you know, has crossed over the river." Coming to himself, the feeble old man said: "Yes, I know I am fast passing away. Life's fitful fever will soon be over. I would not blot out a single act of my life." Doctor Steiner declared that he never before realized so fully the appropriateness of Mr._ Stephens' tribute to Toombs: "His was the greatest mind with which I ever came in contact. Its operations, even in its errors, remind me of a mighty waste of waters.'' t

THE TOOMBS OAK

A story of Robert Toombs has swung round the circle of the papers of late years, which represents him as expelled from college for gambling. He stands beneath the old oak in front of the chapel at commence ment and pours forth such burning words of eloquence that the chapel is deserted and the speakers left to declaim to empty benches., And from this circumstance the tree has ever since been known as the "Toombs Oak." It has been said that on the day Mr. Toombs died, the old oak was struck by lightning and destroyed. There is not the semblance of truth in the story. It was a fabrication of Henry "W". Grady, who, in an admiring sketch of the great Georgian, wrote charmingly of his won derful eloquence and pointed it with a story from his own vivid imagina tion.!
The following anecdote is told of the student Toombs: With a lot of boys, he was engaged one night in an escapade of mischief, when one of the members of the faculty appeared upon the scene, much to the dismay of the culprits. The other, however, escaped in the darkness.

*Stovall's "Life of Toombs." t Pleasant A. Stovall, in "Life of Robert Toombs." t A. L. Hull, in " A Historical Sketch of the University of Georgia,'' p. 45.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1317

Ml! r. Toombs alone was caught. He resolved to brazen it out; and, facing the professor with an unruffled front, he said:
'' The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion."

TOOMBS AT COLLEGE

Touching the college life of Mr. Toombs, some racy incidents have been preserved by his biographer, Mr. Stovall. Says he: There is no record to prove that Robert Toombs in college was a close scholar. Later in life he became a hard student and a laborious worker. But if these industrious habits were born in him in Athens, there is no trace of them. In his long career he gave ample evidence that he had been a reader of Shakespeare and history, but if the legends of his college town are to be trusted, he was more noted for outbreaks of mischief than for close application to text-books. Full of life and spirit, a healthy, impetuous boy, he was on good terms with his classmates and took life easily. It was a time when students were required to get up at sunrise and attend prayers.
One night, the story goes, the vigilant proctor actually found young Toombs playing cards with some of his friends. Fearing a reprimand, Toombs sought his guardian (Hon. Thomas W. Cobb), who happened . to be in Athens, on a visit from his home in Greensboro. It is not certain that young Toombs communicated the enormity of his offense, but he obtained leave to apply to Doctor Waddell for a letter of dismissal. The learned but severe scholar, not having received the proctor's report, acceded to the demand. Later in the day the president met him walk ing around the campus.
"Robert Toombs," said he, "you took advantage of me this morning. I did not then know that you had been caught at the card table last evening."
Thereupon the youth straightened up and informed the doctor that he was no longer addressing a student of his college, but a free-bora American citizen. The halls of Athens are fragrant with these stories of Toombs. No man ever left so distinctive a stamp upon the place or gave such spicy flavor to its traditions. Among the college mates of Robert Toombs at Athens were Stephen Olin, Robert Dougherty, and Daniel Chandler, the grandfather of the unfortunate Mrs. Maybrick, of England, and whose' chaste and convincing appeal for female education resulted in the establishment of Wesleyan Female College the first seminary in the world for the higher culture of women.
The closest of these companionships was that of George F. Pierce, a young man like Toombs, full of brain and energy, and even then a strik ing and sparkling figure. The paths of these two men commenced at the door of their alma mater, and though their ways were widely divergent, the friends never parted. Two of the greatest orators in Georgia, one left his impress as strongly upon the Church as did the other upon the State. One became a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the other a whig senator. One day these men met, both in the zenith of power, when Toombs said:

1318

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

"Well, George, you are fighting the devil, and I am fighting the Democrats.''
When Robert Toombs became prominent in Georgia, there is a story that the State University, in order to win back his friendship, conferred upon him an honorary degree. Toombs is represented as having spurned it with characteristic scorn. '' No,'' said he, '' when I was unknown and friendless, you refused me a diploma and sent me out disgraced. Now, when I can honor the degree, I do not want it." But the records do not show that the college ever conferred a degree upon Toombs at all. Later in life he was elected a trustee, and each year his familiar figure was seen on the stage during commencement, and his wise counsel heard in the meetings of the board.
There is a regular mythology about Toombs at the State University. The' things he said would fill a volume of Sydney Smith, while the pranks t he played would rival the record of Robin Hood. There is still standing on the college campus in Athens a noble tree, 1892, with the crown of a century upon it. Under its spreading branches the first college com mencement was held 100 years ago; under it, too, the student Toombs once stood and addressed his classmates; and of all the men who have gone in and out beneath its shade, but one name has been found sturdy enough to link with this monument of a forgotten forest. The boys to this day call it "The Toombs Oak." *
Mr. Hull, in the same work to which reference is above made, gives the facts in connection with the dismissal of Mr. Toombs from college, and quotes from the official records the following paragraph: " R. Toombs called J. H. a shameful name, which he acknowledged to the faculty, and the said H. attacked him and beat him on Friday night. Toombs went to H. 's room with bowie knife and pistol, threw the knife at G. H. and pointed the pistol at J. H., while another student wrested it from him. Afterwards Toombs attacked J. H. with a knife and hatchet, but students interfered, preventing injury. Saturday morning, Toombs waylaid the H. 's, attacking J. H. with club and pistol.'' t Mr. Hull was for many years secretary and treasurer of the board of trustees.

REFUSED TO ACCEPT His FREEDOM
Uncle Billy Toombs, the former slave of Gen. Robert Toombs, died at the ripe old age of eighty-seven years. When General Toombs was born, Billy was eleven years old; and the latter was at once assigned to duty as the boy in waiting to the infant. When young Toombs reached mature years and married, his father presented him with Billy, and ever after wards the closest friendship existed between the two men. Billy accom panied his master to Washington, to the watering places, and to Europe. In this way he became familiar with many distinguished people. Before the war he possessed an intense hatred of abolitionists. When the war was over and the Toombs family had gathered once at the old family mansion, Billy returned with the rest.
"You are free now, Billy," said General Toombs, addressing the old man.
* Pleasant A. Stovall, in '' The Life of Robert Toombs.'' t A. L. Hull, in " A Historical Sketch of the University of Georgia,'' p. 45.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1319

"I'll never be free fum my ole marster," replied the faithful negro, " an' I '11 follow you fer de rest ob my days.''
To this Gqnerar Toombs replied; '' Very well, Billy, then I '11 take care of you.'' Uncle Billy continued to be the most devoted of servants, looking after his master's interests as if they were his own. When General Toombs died, he left full provision for Uncle Billy's maintenance, and no mourner at the general's grave shed warmer tears than did the faith ful old African, who lingered there long after the crowd had melted away.*

How GENERAL TOOMBS ELUDED ARREST
a At the conclusion of the war, Secretary Stanton issued specific orders for the arrest of Jefferson Davis, Alexander H. Stephens, and Robert Toombs. Mr. Stephens was arrested quietly at his home in Crawfordville, on the 12th of May, 1865, two days after Mr. Davis had been over taken [near Irwinville, Georgia]. On the same day a squad of soldiers, most of them negroes, reached Washington, Georgia. They were com manded by General Wilde, with orders to take General Toombs in charge. One of the colored troops marched through town with a photograph of Toombs, which he had procured to identify him, impaled upon his bay onet. General Toombs was, at the time, in his private office at his residence. Hearing the noise in his yard, he walked out of his basement to the corner of his front steps. There he perceived the squad, whose purpose he divined. "By God, the blue-coats!" was all he said. Walking quickly through his back lot, he strode across his plantation and disappeared. By this time the guard was clamoring at the front door, and Mrs. Toombs went out to meet them. '' Where is General Toombs ?'' the commander asked. '' He is not here,'' the lady answered firmly. Thereupon a parley ensued, during which Mrs. Toombs managed to detain the men long enough to enable her husband to get out of sight. "Unless General Toombs is produced, I shall burn the house," retorted the officer. Mrs. Toombs blanched a little at this, but, biting her lip, she turned on her heel, and coolly replied .'' Very well, burn it." Among the listeners to this colloquy was a young man just returned from the Confederate army. He was moved with indignation. He still wore the gray jacket, and was anxious for the Toombs family. He had been a neighbor to them all his life, as his father had been before him, and he shared the pride which the village felt for its most distinguished resident. He was the son of Hon. I. T. Irwin, a prominent public man and a lifelong friend of General Toombs. Preparations were made for the threatened fire. General Toombs did not come out. Furniture was moved and papers destroyed, but the young Confederate was soon con-

* From the Methodist Protestant.

1320

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

vinced that the threat was a mere bluff. Believed on this point, his loyal spirit yearned toward the fugitive. Charles E. Irwin was the name of the young man, and he had seen service in the artillery under Longstreet. Not yet twenty-one years of age, he was fired with ardor and devotion, and had already resolved to aid General Toombs in escaping.
Riding over to a neighbor's house, Mr. J. T. Wingfield, he failed to find his friend, but left word for General Toombs to let him know where to meet him with his horses. That night about 2 o'clock Lieutenant Irwin received word from General Tobinbs to bring his horse to Nick Chenault's by 7 o'clock in the morning. This was a farm about eighteen miles from Washington, near the Broad River. Here General Toombs mounted his favorite horse and felt at home. It was the famous mare Gray Alice, which had carried him through all his campaigns. He had ridden her during the charges at Antietam, and she had borne him from the fire of the scouts the night he had received his wound. Once more he pressed her into service, and, for the first time in his life, Robert Toombs was a fugitive. This man, who had commanded men and had gained his own way by sheer brain and combativeness, was fleeing by stealth from a dreaded enemy. It was a new role for Toombs.
The plucky young guide was resolved to accompany him in his flight it might be to his death; but it mattered not to Lieutenant Irwin. Rid ing swiftly into Elbert County, the two men crossed over to Harrison Landing, a picturesque spot on the Savannah River. Here dwelt an old man, Alexander LeSeur, who led something of a hermit's life. Before the war he had been a know-nothing, and more than once had been exposed to the withering fire of General Toombs, who was a whig. LeSeur met the fugitive with a laugh and a friendly oath.
"You have been fighting me for forty years," he said, "and now that you are in trouble I am the first man you seek for protection.''
General Toombs had not traveled fast. The country was swarming with raiders. News of the capture of Davis and Stephens had fired these men with desire to overhaul the great champion of secession. A Federal major, commanding a force of men, put up at Tate's residence, just oppo site the hermit's island. While there, a negro from the LeSeur place informed the officer that some prominent man was at the house.
"If it ain't Jeff Davis," said he, "it is jest as big a man." The hint was taken. The island was surrounded and carefully watched, but when the party went over to capture General Toombs, the game was gone. [Six months were spent in the saddle. The detailed account of the flight is most fascinating, but the story is too long to be told in full. General Toombs was a Mason, and more than once the mysterious symbols stood him in good stead. The route which he took was most circuitous, winding in and out through the wilderness and ranging from the sources of the Chattahoochee to the mouth of the Mis sissippi. He wore no disguise, except for a pair of green goggles, and was often in peril of discovery, so well known to everyone was his majestic and splendid figure; but he successfully eluded the officers. At last, after visiting in the home of Howard Evans, in Mobile, where he met the gifted novelist, Augusta Evans, afterwards Mrs. Wilson, he came to New Orleans; and Lieutenant Irwin was his faithful companion to the end.] Arriving at New Orleans, General Toombs drove to the residence of

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1321

Col. Marshall J. .Smith. On the 4th of November, 1865, he boarded the steamship Alabama, the first of the Morgan Line put on after the war between New Orleans, Havana and Liverpool. A tremendous crowd had gathered at the dock to see the steamer off, and Lieutenant Irwin tried to persuade General Toombs to go below until the ship cleared. But the buoyant Georgian persisted in walking the deck and was actually recog nized by Gen. Humphrey Marshall of Texas, who had known him in the Senate before the war.
'' No,'' said Toombs to his companion's expostulation. '' I want fresh air; I will die right here. I am impatient to get into neutral waters, where I can talk."
By the time the good ship had cleared the harbor, everyone on board knew that Robert Toombs, "the fire-eater and rebel," was a passenger, and hundreds gathered around to listen to his matchless conversation.

General Toombs often declared that he would not be captured. Im prisonment, trial and exile he did not dread; but to be carried about a prize captive and a curiosity through northern cities was his constant fear. * * * During all these trying days, Toombs rode with the grace and gayety of a cavalier. He talked incessantly to his young companion, who eagerly drank in his words. He fought his battles over again and discussed the leaders of the Civil war in his racy style. He constantly predicted the collapse of the greenback system of_ currency, and specu lated facetiously each day upon the chances of capture. He calculated shrewdly enough his routes and plans, and when he found himself on terra firma, it was under the soft skies of the Antilles with a foreign flag above him.*'

DRAMATIC DEBUT OF MR. STEPHENS

During the high summer of 1836, the lower house of the General Assembly of Georgia was engaged in discussing a measure to provide for the building of the "Western & Atlantic Railroad. It was at a time when the iron horse was an innovation, and the possibilities of this new motive power of commerce were somewhat speculative. In the light of subsequent developments the measure was one of unparalleled importance to the state; but opposition to the bill was most pronounced. Debate on the proposed legislation had dragged heavily for days. Member after member had spoken. At last when the wearisome monotony had grown to be so painful that the lawmakers sat listlessly in the hall, scarcely hearing what was said for sheer drowsiness, some one arose underneath the gallery and, in shrill but musical accents, which flew to the presiding officer's desk, like silver-tipped arrows, suddenly addressed the chair:
"Mr. Speaker!" Instantly the whole house was alert. Glancing in the direction from which the sound preceded, it was found that this melodious alto which was now heard in the House for the first time came from a member whose entire aspect was so boyish as to redouble the interest which his accents had aroused. The attention became almost breathless. Every glance in

* Pleasant A. Stovall, in '' The Life of Eobert Toombs.'

1322

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the hall was riveted -upon the attenuated figure and cadaverous face of

this strange speaker who had hitherto heen regarded by sympathetic eyes

as an invalid who was too weak to swell the volume of discussion by any

speechmaking upon the floor. But this delicate lad was now actually

charming the assemblage with the very enchantments of Orpheus.

He spoke in favor of the bill. New arguments were advanced; new

principles were introduced; new advantages were pointed out; and new

phases of the measure were discussed. He consumed less than half an

hour, but he injected new life into the dull debate. What he said seemed

to be dashed with the morning's dew; and when he resumed his seat the

walls of the old state capitol at Milledgeville fairly shook with the

applause which came from every part of the chamber. Hon. Charles J.

Jenkins was one of the first to reach him in the rush of congratulations.

Said he:

.

"Sir, that speech will send you to Congress."

This impulsive tribute from one who was himself marked for future

honors was signally prophetic. The pale youth whom he thus addressed

was none other than the man who was destined to represent Georgia in

the halls of national legislation, not only through the stormiest period

of the slavery agitation, but during many successive terms thereafter;

who was also to be vice president of the Southern Confederacy; and

who was finally to close his long career of usefulness in the executive

chair of the state:

Alexander H. Stephens.

From the very start he was signally successful. The extraordinary contrast between his slight figure, fragile almost to the point of vanish ing, and his marvelous intellectual gifts, was so striking that he was regarded as the young phenomenon; and it was the wonder of all who heard him plead a cause before the jury, even in these youthful days, that so frail a body could support so massive a brain.
This incident is told of a case in which he was retained before he had been at the bar two weeks: "A wealthy gentleman of high position and great influence, upon the death of his son, had been appointed guardian of the person and trustee of the property of his grand-daughter, then an infant, the mother having again married. In the course of time the mother claimed possession of the child, which move was resisted by the grandfather, who claimed the child as legal guardian. The step-father, wishing to please the mother, his wife, came to the young lawyer and engaged him as counsel to set aside the guardianship, other lawyers having failed in the case, and Mr. Stephens, on being consulted, having given it as his opinion that the letters of guardianship as to the person of the child should be revoked, and the mother given charge of her daughter.
"The trial was held before five judges of the inferior court, sitting as a court of ordinary, without jurors; and the issue was joined upon the motion to set aside the letters of guardianship so far as related to the person of the child. Great interest was manifested in the attempt of the frail-looking lawyer to foil Mr. Jeffries, then the veteran of the Bar at that place, who, notwithstanding his retirement from the practice, had been prevailed upon to reappear in this case, the most exciting one which

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1323

had been tried in the county for a number of years. The result was that the guardianship was set aside and the child restored to the arms of the mother. The triumphant young advocate immediately assumed the place which his talents commanded for him, and from this time forward there was hardly an important case tried in the Northern Circuit in
which he was not retained.''
This was only the first of many similar triumphs which Mr. Stephens was destined to achieve at the bar and on the hustings. The star of Georgia's hope glittered upon these early laurels and as the frail young slip scored victory after victory over the broad shoulders and hoary locks of the veteran stalwarts there were those in the courtroom who quietly thought of the stripling David, who, having met and slain the burly Philistine at the brook, was now ready to mount the steps of the
throne of Israel.*

ANECDOTES OP ME. STEPHENS
Fatigued, after arriving in Charleston, on one occasion, Mr. Stephens availed himself of an easy chair in the hotel, and proceeded to rest until the time came for him to speak. His two traveling companions were Mr. Thomas Chafin and Dr. John M. Anthony, who had been frequent guests of the house, and consequently were well known. Just after Mr. Stephens had ensconced himself in the easy chair, the good lady of the house entered and found the two last gentlemen still standing and what she took to be some country boy occupying the best seat in the room. In a manner perfectly kind but somewhat patronizing, she turned to the
supposed youngster and said: '' My son, let the gentlemen have this seat.'' Immediately there followed an explosion of laughter. Of course,
the gentlemen were greatly amused, but the kind landlady was much annoyed when she learned that her son was the important personage of her establishment and the invited guest of the beautiful city between
the rivers.

In connection with the famous conference at Hampton Roads, an amusing incident is narrated of the Confederate vice president, who was one of the commissioners. He entered somewhat late, in consequence of which fact he perhaps attracted more than ordinary attention. It was in the spring of the year, and to fortify himself against the chilliness which still lingered in the atmosphere of this somewhat northern latitude, he came well wrapped. Amused at the spectacle of seeing him remove
first one article and then another, Mr. Lincoln finally said: "Well, Mr. Stephens, you are the smallest nubbin I have ever seen
to have so many shucks."

Colonel A. H. H. Dawson,' once a member of Congress from Georgia, became identified -with the American party just before the war; and in opposition to the appeal of Mr. Stephens that the South should support Mr. Buchanan for President, Colonel Dawson thus argued upon the stump:
"Vol. I, '' Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

1324

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

"My friends, we once had the great Whig party, and in this State, Mr. Stephens was its great leader. The AArhig party has gone to Hades. We now have the great Democratic party, and in this State Mr. Stephens is its great leader. If he will only lead the Democratic party where he led the Whig party, I shall be perfectly satisfied.''
Wholly fictitious is the anecdote which represents some burly Geor gian, first Mr. Toombs and then Judge Gone, as saying to Mr. Stephens that if his ears were pinned back and his head was greased he could swallow him whole, and which makes Mr. Stephens retort that if he could do it he would have more brains in his stomach than he ever had in his head. Neither General Toombs nor Judge Cone could have been so boorish. To find the authorship of the famous rejoinder one must turn to the novels of Sir Walter Scott.
Within the limits of authentic tradition, the nearest approach to this specimen of gastronomic humor dates back to the. presidential contest of 1860, when Mr. Stephens, who supported the Douglas ticket, engaged in a joint debate with Col. Ranse Wright, afterwards Gen. A. R. Wright, who supported the American candidates. Colonel Wright was one of the ablest campaigners in the state, and on this particular occasion he made one of his best efforts. But the effect of the speech was broken by the skillful manner in which Mr. Stephens parried one of his clever witticisms. It was amusingly told by Colonel Wright that Mr. Stephens was reported to have said that, metaphorically speaking, he could eat Ben Hill for breakfast, Ranse Wright for dinner and Bob Trippe for supper, and of course, this ridiculous yarn brought down the house. The laughter was long and continuous as the audience gazed upon the diminu tive storage room of the invalid statesman and thought of the little man with the big appetite.
But it came the turn of Mr. Stephens to speak; and, after denying that he had made such a statement, he added that if he had contemplated a feast of the character described, he would certainly have changed the order; he would have taken Ben Hill for breakfast, Bob Trippe for dinner, and, remembering the advice of his mother, always to eat light suppers, he would have tipped off with his friend, Colonel Wright. The building fairly shook with the mirth which followed this turn of the tables. Colonel Wright realized that he was worsted in the tilt, but he joined heartily in the laughter of which he was the victim.

During the earlier years of his life, Mr. Stephens was a whig; and, while making a speech on one occasion, he was annoyed by the repeated outbursts of an intoxicated man in the audience, who exclaimed, when ever the words of the speaker provoked applause:
" I 'm a dimi-crat! I 'm a dimi-crat!'' Mr. Stephens ignored the interruption at first, but finally he became impatient, and, turning to the man in the audience, he said: "My friend, you may be a dimi-crat, but you need only some hickory ribs around you to make you a dimi-John.''

Almost everyone knows that Mr. Stephens was an inveterate whistplayer; and he played the game like he steered the Ship of State as though it were heavily freighted with the destinies of mankind. It was

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1325

nothing unusual for him to be seen at Crawfordville, absorbed in the enjoyment of his favorite pastime, with eyebrows knit and forehead bent in the brownest of studies; and he also enjoyed the relaxation of the game when in Washington, and often played with Col. Richard Malcolm Johnston, who would run down for an evening's visit from Baltimore, where he was then living. But the two old cronies were seldom partners. They had tried the experiment once, and they had not spoken for weeks following; for Mr. Stephens had so wounded the feelings of Colonel Johnston by irritating comments on an occasional misplay that the latter finally threw down his hand and left the room. At last, when they made up, they agreed never again to play partners; for they were both highstrung and they desired to retain each other's friendship, now that they had buried the hatchet. And while for more than twenty years they continued to play whist, they were invariably on opposing sides. Colonel Johnston, says that he never knew anyone who could get so angrily excited at times in playing whist to enjoy the game like Mr. Stephens. And from what others have reported of similar experiences it is no doubt true that some of the pleasantest hours which the invalid statesman spent were in playing whist when his partner knew how.

During the famous gubernatorial campaign of 1882, when Mr. Stephens was opposed by Gen. L. J. Gartrell, he made his opening speech in Atlanta, and was introduced to the audience by Capt. Henry Jackson. The occasion will always be remembered because Mr. Stephens spoke from his roller-chair, and the appearance which he presented was most dramatic. While the speech of introduction was in progress, an ardent supporter of the opposition cried out:
"Hurrah for Gartrell!" It was well calculated to disconcert the speaker, especially since it caused an unwelcome wave of applause to roll across the assemblage; but Captain Jackson was well seasoned by the tilts of the forum. He saw at once that the man was a Caucasian, but he purposely ignored the dis covery ; and when the uproar subsided he raised his eyes to the rafters of the opera house and said: "If the colored brother in the gallery will please be quiet this intro duction will proceed.'' Nothing could have been more effective. The clever hit was loudly applauded, and the exuberant supporter of General Gartrell instantly subsided. As Captain Jackson sat down, Mr. Stephens wheeled himself to the front and began the opening speech of the campaign. There were frequent outcroppings of the old fire, but the veteran, statesman was very feeble and to revive his flagging spirits he repeatedly sipped from a little glass on the table, saying as he raised it to his lips: '' I drink to the health of the Jeffersonian Democracy !'' Mr. Stephens, in the course of the campaign, made frequent use of an old expression which he first coined before the war when the famous whig party was going to pieces. He was bitter against the know-noth ings and was not quite ready to join the democrats. Asked to what camp he belonged, he replied that he belonged to none. Said he: "I'm just totin' my own skillet."

1326

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

THE AKEEST OF MB. STEPHENS

While a prisoner at Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor, Mr. Stephens kept a diary, in which he carefully recorded from day to day the events of his prison life. He also interspersed it with observations on the phi losophy of government, with comments upon current topics, and with various other things. The references to Linton Stephens are both numer ous and tender. On almost every page there is some allusion to his half-brother, a reminiscence or a prayer, in which Linton was the central thought. Chapter after chapter from the Bible was also copied into the diary to beguile the tedium of imprisonment; and the manuscript of this journal, in after years, furnished the basis for the statesman's great literary masterpiece, "The War Between the States." On the death of Mr. Stephens the diary became the property of his nephew, the late John A. Stephens, whose children have recently given it to the public. The opening chapter of the diary contains an interesting first-hand account of the author's arrest. It runs as follows:

"Liberty Hall, Thursday, May 11, 1865. This was a most beautiful and charming day. After refreshing sleep, I arose early. Robert Hull, a youth, son of Henry Hull, of Athens, Ga., spent the night at my house. I wrote some letters for the mail, my custom being to attend to such business as soon as breakfast was over; and Robert and I were amusing ourselves at Casino, when Tim [a negro servant] came running into the parlor, saying: 'Master, more Yankees have come; a whole heap are in town, galloping about with guns!' Suspecting what it meant, I rose, told Robert I supposed they had come for me, and entered my bedroom to make arrangements for leaving, should my apprehension prove true. Soon, I saw an officer with soldiers under arms approaching the house. The doors were all open. I met him in the library. He asked if my name was Stephens. I replied that it was.
'' ' Alexander H. Stephens 1' said he. '' I told him yes. He then said that he had orders to arrest me. I inquired his name and asked to see his orders. He replied that he was Captain Saint, of the Fotirth Iowa Cavalry, or mounted infantry, attached to General Nelson's command; he was then under General Upton; he showed me the order by General Upton, at Atlanta, directing my arrest and the arrest of Robert Toombs; no charge was specified; he was instructed to come to Crawfordville, arrest me, proceed to Washing ton, arrest Mr. Toombs, and then carry both to General Upton's head quarters. '' I told him I had been looking for something of this kind; at least, for some weeks, had thought it not improbable, and hence had not left home; that General Upton need not have sent any force for me; that had he simply notified me that he wished me at headquarters, I should have gone. I asked how I was to travel. ' c He said . ' On the cars.' "I then learned that he had come down on the train, arriving just before Tim's announcement. I asked if I would be permitted to carry any clothing. He said ' Yes.' I asked how long I might have for pack ing. He said: ' A few minutes as long as necessary.' I set to packing.

LIBERTY HALL, THE FORMER HOME OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, AT CRAWFORDVILLE

1328

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

%

Harry [the chief man servant] came in, evincing great surprise and

regret, to pack for me. The captain then said:

" 'You may take a servant with you if you wish.'

"I. asked if he knew my destination. He said:

'' ' First, Atlanta; then, Washington City.'

" 'I called in Anthony, a black boy from Richmond, who had been

waiting on me for several years, and inquired if he wished to go. I told

him I would send him from Washington to his mother in Richmond. He

was willing, so I bade him be ready as soon as possible.

"In the meantime, Mr. Hiddell [secretary to Mr. Stephens] had come

in; he was living with me and had gone out after breakfast. None of

my brother's family residing at the old homestead happened to be with

me; however, Clarence, who was going to school at the Academy, hearing

of what had occurred, I suppose, came over with some friends from town.

It was about ten A. M. when Captain Saint arrived. In about fifteen

minutes not much over we started for the depot, Anthony and I, with

the captain and squad; friends, servants, and Clarence following, most

of them crying. My own heart was full too full for tears." *

TOOMBS AND STEPHENS

Toombs was muscular, full-statured, deep-chested and imperious. He was a tower of strength. His veins were swiftly pulsed by vigorous and warm blood of the richest quality of red. His sinews were wrought of steel. His muscles were spun of oak. His head was leonine. His dark brow, over which clustering waves of hair fell with cloud-like effects, seemed to be the abode of lightning and the home of thunder. Stephens was fragile, sickly, wan, and emaciated. He wore the typical look of an invalid. His eyes were bright, but they beamed like lanterns in the win dows of the charnel-house. His cheeks were sunken, and his features, contracted by suffering, were overlaid with an enamel of sepulchral whiteness. He appeared to be constantly hovering upon the borders of another world and .to be taking his last view of earth. Nevertheless his voice possessed an unusual compass and an extraordinary power of pene tration ; but whereabouts in his slender anatomy the physical force lay hidden which expelled these musical harmonies is one of the inscrutable mysteries of finite existence. * * *
It was the boast of Mr. Toombs that he had never tasted the wares of the apothecary's shop until he was thirty-four years of age. It was the misfortune of Mr. Stephens that he had to be literally dieted on drugs and that mustard plasters almost took the place of bread and but ter. Mr. Toombs gathered the commonwealth with bated breath and painful apprehension about his sick bedside only once. But Mr. Stephens was at least three separate times the center of such melancholy scenes; thrice the newspapers of the state were striped with black columns, teem ing with editorial post-mortems and eloquent obituaries; thrice the salty lachrymals were filled; thrice the flag above the capitol drooped and
sighed at half-mast.

* Vol. II, "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1329

But the outward and obvious differences between these two great Georgians were only the external flowerings of the contrasts, whose tap roots ramified the hidden subsoil beneath. Mr. Toombs was by nature impetuous and impulsive. His fiery temper subsided somewhat when the air was tranquil; but it slept like knighthood, stretched beside its lance and pillowed upon its shield. Mr. Stephens was calculating and deliberate. He made abundant drafts upon caution. He was not without spirit; but like the disciplined charger he had been trained to the bit. Mr. Toombs argued with volcanic eruptions; Mr. Stephens in higher mathematics. Both were eloquent; but the eloquence of Mr. Stephens was that of fine-spun silk, while the eloquence of Mr. Toombs was that of molten lava, hurled from the~ heated cauldrons of Vesuvius. Both men were tenacious of conviction. But Mr. Stephens was more tolerant than Mr. Toombs; and, while he was not disposed to temporize in any sense which implied surrender or compromise of principle, he was more dis posed to treat with his adversaries in the hope of finding some common basis of agreement. Mr. Stephens even when perfectly sure of his ground was prone to measure consequences; while Mr. Toombs was dis posed to let consequences trail behind in the rear coach, while he grimly pressed the lever.
Both men were industrious workers, but Mr. Toombs with tempera mental impatience worked spasmodically, while Mr. Stephens with steady strokes worked continuously; the one like the woodsman hewing down the forest, the other like the oarsman plying up the stream. Ruddy Toombs, with the vigor of mountain granite in his frame, produced no literature; while delicate Stephens, with insistent and steady toil, wrote volume after volume. Both were princely givers and royal entertainers; but Toombs, by wise investment, accumulated two fortunes and died rich, while Stephens lived narrowly within his means and died poor. On political issues Toombs was at one time a democrat and Stephens a whig. Equally loyal to the South, Stephens opposed while Toombs advo cated secession; and when the war was over Toombs resisted while Stephens tolerated reconstruction. The elements of contrast extended even to the names which they separately bore. Toombs was christened Robert A., but he dropped the middle initial soon after beginning the practice of law. Stephens at first had no other given name, being christ ened simply Alexander for his paternal grandfather, but he subsequently adopted the middle name of Hamilton, in honor of an old preceptor whom he greatly admired. Such differences as these appear to leave little room for friendship; but differences sometimes appear in the friendly guise of supplements rather than in the hostile frown of con tradictions. This explains the friendship between Toombs and Stephens. Besides they were both ardent patriots and true statesmen.

Though on opposite sides of the most burning issue which ever divided the people of Georgia, they were not estranged in affection. Mr. Toombs was present when Mr. Stephens delivered his great speech in opposition to secession, before the Georgia Legislature, in 1860, and when he con cluded, Mr. Toombs, though the most pronounced secessionist in the state, arose and said:
"Fellow Citizens, we have just listened to a speech from one of the

1330

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

brightest intellects and one of the purest patriots in America. I move that this meeting now adjourn with three cheers for Alexander H. Stephens.''
Some time afterwards, Mr. Toombs was complimented by one of his opponents on the handsome manner in which he had behaved on this occasion.
"Thank you/' said he, "I always .behave myself at funerals."

Another characteristic act on the part of General Toombs evinces the warmth of his lifelong friendship for Mr. Stephens. The incident has been preserved in the charming little autobiography of Richard Malcolm Johnston. Soon after the nomination of Horace Greeley for President in 1872, Mr. Stephens, who was bitterly opposed to his election, started a newspaper in Atlanta primarily for the purpose of defeating the ticket in Georgia. It shows how deeply the feelings of the great democrat were enlisted in the campaign; for ordinarily he was content with the ora torical leverage of the stump. The enterprise was an unfortunate one for Mr. Stephens, for he was not an experienced business man, and he failed to bestow the proper amount of vigilance upon the financial end of the venture. If any money was realized from the ill-fated undertaking, if failed to reach the bank account or to line the pockets of the great com moner ; and when the campaign was over he felt himself in honor bound to give his promissory notes for an amount which mortgaged his hard earnings for many long months to come, besides absorbing the cash receipts of his '' War Between the States.'' As soon as General Toombs was apprised of the status of affairs, his warm sympathy for Mr. Stephens spurred his movements toward Atlanta. He lost no time in calling upon the creditors; and, after he had purchased the outstanding obligations to the amount of several thousand dollars, he carried them to Mr. Stephens. Tossing them into his lap with an air of gay abandon, he said: '' Here, Aleck, are those notes you gave those Atlanta people; use them to lighf the fire."*

L. Q. C. LAMAR: His PICTURESQUE PERSONALITY

Though identified with the State of Mississippi during the greater part of his public life, L. Q. C. Lamar was a Georgian by birth, ancestry, and education, lived in Georgia until well beyond his legal majority, and served one term in the State Legislature. He was also twice married in Georgia. His first wife was Virginia Longstreet, a daughter of the noted Judge A. B. Longstreet, author of "Georgia Scenes." His second wife was Mrs. Holt, widow of the late Gen. William S. Holt, for many years president of the Southwestern Railroad. Finally, at the close of his long and arduous career of public service, he wended his way back to Georgia, led, no doubt, by the instinctive longing which the aged exile often feels for the haunts of his early youth; and while stopping at Vineville, near Macon, .the end came. He was buried in Rose Hill Cem etery, on the banks of the Ocmulgee River, where he rested until his body was exhumed and taken back to Mississippi for final interment.

* Vol. I, "Eeminiscences of .JTamovis Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1331

These facts explain the deep feeling of affection in which this great man is today held in Georgia. The old mother state never forgets her offspring once a Georgian, a Georgian always. But few of her sons have ever held such claims upon her remembrance as L. Q. C. Lamar congressman, senator, secretary of the department of interior, and asso ciate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Gen. Mirabeau B. Lamar, his uncle, was the second president of the Texas Republic, a soldier, a poet, and a scholar... Justice Joseph R. Lamar, a kinsman, is today a member of the nation's highest court of appeals.

Entering the halls of Congress, in the early '50s, Mr..: Lamar became at once conspicuous in the political and social life of Washington. Striking in- his outward personality, no less than in his rare genius, he was an object of universal interest, and attracted attention whenever and wherever he appeared. Usually he wore his hair long and, falling in rich clusters, it covered both sides of his face. Though his head was large, it rested solidly upon broad shoulders, and was not seemingly out of proportion with the rest of his body. He was always neat in his appearance but never ostentatiously dressed.
Ordinarily his manner was reserved and self-contained, and he im pressed one as being wrapped in deep meditation. When his features were in repose there was nothing about him suggestive of the strenuous life, but once his interest was aroused the dreamer was straightway lost in the man of action. Chivalrous by instinct, he embodied the typical graces of the old cavalier stock, and was characterized even in the heat of acrimonious debate by an exhibition of refined courtesy, which made his polite rejoinders all the more effective and powerful. It was never with the bludgeon that he confronted his antagonist; but always with the rapier. In calmer moments there was little to bespeak the fiery Huguenot temper which lay concealed beneath the velvet sheen of his habitual quietude; but it flashed forth whenever the lion was aroused. Nothing ever revealed the ruffian; because he was not there. During the war period, Mr. Lamar was missed in Washington. He served the confederate government both at Montgomery and at Richmond, and also represented the confederacy abroad. When the war was over, he re turned with increased prestige to the nation's capital.

Some interesting anecdotes of Mr. Lamar V life in AVashington have been preserved by the newspaper reporters, with whom he was always on friendly terms. Perhaps no man in Washington ever kept the corre spondents busier turning out pen-pictures and thumb-sketches than this picturesque and popular statesman from the cotton belt. Yet he cared nothing for cheap notoriety.
On being called into President Cleveland's Cabinet Mr. Lamar found it necessary to secure permanent quarters in Washington. Until then he had been stopping at the hotels during the sessions of Congress.
Supposing his salary of $8,000 to be ample for all purposes, he called upon Mrs. Dahlgreen, widow of the late Admiral Dahlgreen, who had just completed an elegant house which she was ready to let. This house just suited Mr. Lamar.
Ushered into the presence of the owner of the mansion, he told her

1332

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

he was anxious to lease the place at once, and hoped he had come early enough to forestall anyone else. The lady was exceedingly cordial, ex pressing her gratification at the opportunity of leasing the place to one so distinguished as Mr. Lamar, and naming the rental which she expected it to bring.
The secretary thought perhaps his ears were at fault when the figures were mentioned.
'' How much did you say the rental was ?" he inquired. "Seven thousand five hundred dollars a year," she repeated. The secretary was thunderstruck. He had not calculated on meet ing such an obstacle. He sat perfectly still for several moments with his eyes bent upon the carpet, apparently absorbed in profound thought. At such times the pallor of his countenance always deepened. "Are you ill, Mr. Lamar?" interrogated the lady, with evident anxiety. "No madam," returned the secretary, lifting his dreamy eyes from the floor. '' I was only wondering what I should do with the rest of my salary."

Mr. Lamar was once the victim of quite an amusing case of mistaken identity.
Boarding one of the street cars in Washington he took his seat beside an intemperate fellow who was about to be ejected because he had no money to pay his fare. Quick in his sympathies he was touched with what he considered the pathos of the situation, fend reaching down in his pocket he pulled out a nickel which he gave the conductor.
The drunken man gazed stupidly at his benefactor for something like five minutes and then as if suddenly recognizing an old acquaintance, he said:
"How d'ye d > General Butler? I thought I know'd yer. Wuzn't we both at New Orleans ?"
With these words he ,put forth his hand, which Mr. Lamar took. But the whole car was now laughing at the joke. Turning to some one who sat near him, Mr. Lamar said:
"You don't think he takes me for Ben Butler, do you?" But he was not left in the dark long. Again the fellow spoke out, after scanning his features somewhat more minutely: "Got yer eye fixed sense we was at New Orleans, hain't yer?" Mr. Lamar suddenly happened to remember that he had ridden as far as he wished, and clutching his papers he politely bade his old com rade adieu and left the car at the next corner.

Strange as it may seem, in one whose legal learning was so profound, Mr. Lamar was passionately fond of light literature; and he usually whiled away his leisure moments by indulging his tastes in this direction.
En route to the senate chamber or to the department of interior, he seldom saluted any one he met, but sat in the street car or carriage, as the case might be, deeply absorbed, in the book which he was reading.
Most of those to whom his figure in this attitude of absorption was perfectly familiar thought quite naturally that he was seeking light on some vexed governmental question.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1333

But one day when going to the White House to attend an important cabinet meeting an embarrassing incident occurred. He had just stepped down from his carriage in front of the gate of the White House, bear ing under his arm his large portfolio, an official-looking leather re ceptacle, when a group of correspondents who were standing at the entrance approached and saluted him.
Mr. Lamar cordially returned the greeting, but in doing so he dropped his portfolio to the ground and some half-dozen Seaside novels tumbled out. With utter surprise but prompt politeness the correspond ents hastened to assist the secretary, who, somewhat abashed, now stooped to gather up the scattered volumes.
Though he could have wished that the newspaper men had been in Halifax at this particular moment, he graciously thanked them for coming to his rescue, and stuffing the books back into his portfolio he walked with dignified step into the White House.

Perhaps there are very few people who know that this dreamy man of genius, whose appearance suggested the bookworm and the scholar, was in reality an expert swordsman. Yet such is the fact.
Soon after Mr. Lamar's death this incident was narrated by a gentle man whose name is not given, but whose identity is recognized. Said he:
"I am a swordsman of no mean ability myself, and when I was em ployed at the Capitol several years ago I had a pair of foils which I brought cross the ocean with me. They afforded no end of fun. Conkling and Ingalls both tried them.
"One day I was in the room of the committee on.public lands when Mr. Lamar came in. lie had just recovered from a spell of sickness and was rather weak. He eyed me for a moment and then, coming forward, said:
" 'I used to use the foil myself, but I have almost forgotten how by this time.'
'' Putting one of the blades into his hands I saw that he handled it as if he knew something about it, and I endeavored to engage him in a round.
" 'No,' he replied. 'I'm" too weak now. Wait until later.' "About a month later he came in again and by this time he had fully recovered his strength. He said that he was now ready to try, and I got the foils down and adjusted the buttons, chuckling over the prospect. But I soon changed my mind.
"He proved to be master of the situation. I resorted to all the tricks I knew, but every thrust was neatly parried. At last I found myself on the defensive. He hit me ten times a second and I might as well have had a straw to defend myself with. I was blue for a week afterwards."

Mr. Lamar made friends with men in all ranks and walks of life. He was intimately acquainted with some of the best actors on the stage. He also had friends among skeptics and scoffers; but he was himself deeply religious.
While in Washington on one occasion Robert G. Ingersoll, the noted infidel, called upon Mr. Lamar at the interior department, and in the
Vol. Ill--S

1334

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

course of the conversation made many bright remarks, which Mr. Lamar is said to have enjoyed very much.
But finally some flippant remark was made in ridicule of orthodox religion.
Impatiently Mr. Lamar jumped to his feet, and, throwing his long hair back from his forehead, said:
'' Ingersoll, I hope to see ihe day when you will come to Washington and preach the gospel. With your magnificent abilities and splendid oratory you could work a revival such as the world has seldom seen. I hope to see the day when this will come to pass; and you could not engage in any grander or nobler work." *
LAMAB'S FAMOUS REPLY TO HOAR
One of the most dramatic scenes enacted in either house of Congress since the war was the one which took place on the floor of the United States Senate, in the spring of 1879, when L. Q. C. Lamar, then a senator from Mississippi, but a native Georgian, locked argumentative horns with George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts, on an issue growing out of the political status of the former Confederate President, Hon. Jeffer son Davis. This was the occasion when Mr. Lamar used his celebrated figure of Prometheus bound to the rock. The discussion arose over a measure, which was then pending in Congress, to extend the act granting pensions to soldiers of the War of 1812, so as to make the act apply to veterans of the war with Mexico; and since Mr. Davis had been an officer of some note in the last named conflict, a proviso was offered to the bill, excluding Mr. Davis from the benefits of the proposed legisla tion.
Several speeches were made in the course of the debate, by senators on both sides of the chamber, but Mr. Lamar was not drawn into the dis cussion until Mr. Hoar began to assail the character of the former Con federate chieftain, in language not only far from temperate but full of sectional bitterness. Though Mr. Davis and Mr. Lamar were not at this time in perfect accord upon certain issues affecting Mississippi poli tics, he felt it encumbent upon him not only as a Mississippian, but as an ex-Confederate, to repel the unjust charges heaped upon Mr. Davis. The language to which he took special exception in Senator Hoar's speech was as follows:
"The Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Garland) has alluded to the cour age which this gentleman displayed in battle. I do not deny it. Two of the bravest officers of our Revolutionary War were Aaron Burr and Benedict Arnold."
This was more than Lamar could stand. His fiery Huguenot blood was now fully aroused. With nervous impatience he occupied his seat until the Massachusetts Senator had finished speaking. Then, rising from his place, he addressed the chair in measured accents sharply con trasting with his suppressed emotions. "It is with reluctance, Mr. Pres ident, '' said he,'' that I arise to speak upon this subject. I must express my surprise and regret that the senator from Massachusetts should have wantonly flung this insult" .

' Vol. I, "Beminlscences of Famous Georgians," by L, L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1335

Before he could proceed further Senator Edmonds, of Vermont, who was in the' chair, a most pronounced partisan, rapped him to order, say ing that it was against the rules of the,Senate for any member of the body to impute to a colleague wantonness of conduct.
"I stand corrected," said Mr. Lamar, with a touch of sarcasm. "I suppose it is perfectly in order for certain senators to insult other senators, but they cannot be characterized by those who receive the blow."
"The observations of the senator from Mississippi, in the opinion of the chair, "replied Senator Edmonds, "are. not in order."
Mr. Lamar retorted.
"The observations of the Senator from Mississippi, in his own opinion, are not only in order, but are perfectly and absolutely true."
Realizing that he was face to face with an extraordinary situation, the presiding officer thought it best to refer the point of order to the Senate, and therefore merely said:
"The Senator from Mississippi will take his seat until the question of order is decided."
Lamar sat down. But he was not to be silenced. When a vote was taken on the point of order Mr. Edmonds was overruled. Thereupon the Mississippian was again accorded the floor. Resuming, Mr. Lamar said:
'' Since my associates have found my language to be in order, I desire to say that if any part of it is offensive to any member of this Senate the language is withdrawn. I do not wish to offend the sensibilities of any of my associates upon the floor. What I meant by the remark is this: Jefferson Davis stands in precisely the' position in which I stand in which every Southern man, who believed in the right of secession, stands."
This called forth another interruption. Senator Hoar now spoke up. He wished to make an explanation. Lamar yielded. Then said the New Englander:
"Will the Senator from Mississippi permit me to assure him and other Senators on this floor, who stand like him, that in making the motion which I did a while since I did not conceive that any of them stood in the same position in which I supposed Mr. Davis to stand. Otherwise I should not have moved to except the gentleman from .Mis sissippi from the pension roll."
Mr. Lamar instantly replied:
'' The only difference between myself and Jefferson Davis is, that his exalted character, his pre-eminent talents, his well-established reputation as a statesman, as a patriot, and as a soldier, enabled him to take the lead in a cause to which I consecrated myself and to which every fiber of my heart responded. There is no distinction between insult to him who led and insult to those who followed.''
Here the speaker paused. At this juncture one could have heard a pin drop. The hush which rested upon the Senate during this momen tary interval was almost breathless. Lamar was preparing to spring his climax.

1336

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

This now came. Introducing it with the statement that Mr. Davis was asking 110 favors at the hands of the United States Government, but was living quietly, unostentatiously, peaceably, at his home in Missis sippi where though an outcast he was counselling the youth of Mis sissippi to obey the laws of the,land, Mr. Lamar then continued, in a voice which now fairly rivaled the music of the storm. Said he:
'' The Senator from Massachusetts has sought to affix upon this aged man, broken in fortune and suffering from bereavement, an epithet of odium, an imputation of moral turpitude. Sir, it required no courage to do that; it required no magnanimity; it required no courtesy. But it did require hatred, and it did require bitter, malignant, sectional feeling, coupled with a sense of personal impunity. The gentleman, I believe, takes rank among Christian statesmen. He might have learned a better lesson from the pages of antiquity. When Prometheus was bound to the rock, it was not the eagle that buried his beak in the tortured vitals of the victim, but the vulture!"
Having delivered himself of this thunderbolt, which fell with dramatic effect upon the ears of the Senate, Lamar quietly resumed his seat. Sev eral moments elapsed before the spell was lifted. Then one by one the senators ambled over to where Lamar sat and congratulated him upon what they declared to be the most signal rebuke ever administered in the upper branch of Congress. Opponents as well as colleagues shared in the ovation which he received; and while Senator Hoar is said to have disclaimed any feelings of bitterness or resentment on account of this episode, he was careful never to arouse again the sleeping lion. Even in Massachusetts the passage was discussed with complimentary allusions to the admired Southerner who had the courage to rebuke Hoar as well as the magnanimity to praise Sumner.*

LAMAK'S TILT WITH CONKLING

Another famous tilt in which Lamar figured ^during his senatorial career took place, on June 18, 1879, with Roscoe Conkling, of New York. Mr. Conkling was one of the most brilliant men in the republican party of the nation. Quick at repartee and ready in debate, he seldom met his match on the floor of the Senate, and he spoke with great force and effect on nearly every important public question. But, like most such men, he was somewhat vain of his accomplishments, and rather disposed to be domineering and dictatorial. The fact that he represented the great Empire State of New York gave him an immense advantage and also put him among the presidential possibilities. He lost no opportunity to exploit his claims in this respect, and the silken tassels of all his starched orations nodded coquettishly toward the White House in Washington.
But he failed to reach his goal; and Mr. Lamar had probably as much to do with puncturing his aspirations as anyone else. The issue came up in this way: When the time arrived for acting upon some im portant measure, Mr. Lamar asked that the special order be deferred for twenty minutes until action could be taken upon the Mississippi River bill, which was then pending. Conkling was disposed to object, but

Vol. I, "Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1337

finally for diplomatic reasons decided to withdraw his dissent, saying that he relied upon the courtesy of democrats not to prolong the session beyond the usual limits fixed for adjournment.
Several democratic senators nodded acquiescence. The Mississippi River bill was then taken up, after which the special order was called; but when the time came to adjourn it was found that a majority of the senators were in favor of taking final action upon the matter before con cluding the day's session. Mr. Lamar was in no wise to blame for this complication, but Mr. Conkling was determined to make him pay the penalty, and straightway proceeded to empty the vials of his wrath upon his devoted head. "Without mincing matters he charged him with hav
ing acted in bad faith.

Now, Lamar was not the man to sit quietly under such an imputation. He was getting on in years; but there was fire in the old volcano, though frost was on the crater. He was not in the habit of receiving blows without returning them, and he was too fixed and settled in his ways of life to adopt any other principle of action. He could match gentle ness With gentleness, but he could also repel scorn with scorn. Rising from his seat with a tiger-like spring, he faced his accuser. Said he:
'' With reference to the charge of bad faith which the Senator from New York has intimated toward those of us who have been engaged in opposing these motions to adjourn, I have only to say that if I am not superior to such attacks, from such sources, I have lived in vain. It is not my habit to indulge in personalities; but I desire to say here to the Senator that in intimating anything inconsistent as he has done with perfect good faith, I pronounce his statement as a falsehood, which I repel with all the unmitigated contempt which I feel for the author.''
Great excitement followed this peal of thunder. Finally Conkling
arose. Said he: "Mr. President, I understand the Senator from Mississippi to state
in unparliamentary language that the statement of mine to which he referred was a falsehood, if I caught his word aright. Since this is not the place to measure with any man the capacity to violate decency or to commit any of the improprieties of life, I have only to say that if the Senator the member from Mississippi imputed or intended to impute to me a falsehood, nothing except the fact that this is the Senate would prevent my denouncing him as a blackguard and a coward."

Applause from the republican side greeted this rejoinder. "With a victorious smile on his face, Conkling sat down. Then all eyes were turned upon Lamar. Quietly he arose to his feet, and in deliberate accents, suggestive of courage finely mixed with courtesy, and of won
derful self-possession, he said: "Mr. President, I have only to say that the Senator from New York
understood me correctly. I did mean to say precisely what he under stood me to say, and what I did say. I beg the pardon of the Senate for the unparliamentary language. It was very harsh; it was very severe; it was such as no good man would deserve and no brave man would
wear." For once in his life Conkling was speechless. Blaine witnessed the

1338

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

tilt, and being a somewhat envious rival of Conkling's for political honors he enjoyed the discomfiture of the New York Senator. Leaving the hall arm in arm with one of his confidential friends, Blaine said with a chuckle:
"Wasn't it rich?" The newspapers made great capital out of this encounter and the, whole country was treated to graphic accounts of the affair, served up in the best style of printer's ink. Some looked for an adjourned meet ing on the field of honor; but the challenge was never issued. Conkling doubtless reasoned that a mutilated senator stood just about as slim a chance of getting the electoral vote as a dead brigadier, and on the eve of such promising prospects he thought it prudent to take good care of his anatomy.*

How SOME OF THE LAMAR NAMES ORIGINATED

Curiosity has often sought an explanation for the unabridged given names which some of the members of the Lamar family of Georgia, especially in the branch to which the great jurist, L. Q. C. Lamar, be longed. As told by former Chancellor Mayes, of the University of Mis sissippi, a son-in-law of Mr. Lamar, the story is quite amusing. Accord ing to Doctor Mayes, in the family of John Lamar at Eatonton there lived an eccentric old bachelor uncle by the name of Zachariah Lamar, and that among the freaks of this old gentleman was an inordinate worship of great celebrities. He possessed an intimate acquaintance with all the notable characters of ancient history; but the bulk of his incense was by no means devoted to the illustrious shades of Greece and Rome. He also had his modern favorites, and divided his veneration almost equally between French and American men of eminence. He carried his rev erential zeal so far that even at family prayers he is said to have thanked the Almighty for the shining examples of virtue presented by the men of former times; and it was not at all unusual for the devout old gentle man to quote from the classic authors as freely as from the inspired oracles, when addressing the throne of grace.
Since the edicts of fate denied him the privilege of bestowing the names of his favorite heroes upon' the children of his own loins, he was measurably compensated for the lack of offspring by being accorded the privilege of naming the young Lamars who came to brighten his brother's domestic hearthstone; and fearing that the increase might not be sufficient to exhaust the supply of heroic names, he began at once to confer double honor upon each new accession to the family circle.
Four members of the household under the terms of this compact were christened: Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus, Mirabeau Bonaparte, Jefferson Jackson and Thomas Randolph. Years later, when the grandchildren began to arrive, Uncle Zachariah, having been graciously spared through another generation, appeared to be still jealous of his former prerogative; but in the meantime he had shifted the realm of his meditations from war and politics to physics and chemistry, with the result that the first grandchild was christened Lavoisier Legrande.

* Vol. I, '' Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1339

This is substantially the account given by Doctor Mayes; but, while the story is almost too good to be spoiled, it is not the Georgia version. From the information which the Georgia Lamars have on the subject the Uncle. Zachariah of the Mississippi legend was not an old bachelor uncle at all, but none other than Col. Zachariah Lamar, of Milledgeville, father of Mrs. Gen. Howell Cobb. Colonel Lamar was one of the most cultured men and one of the most influential citizens of Middle Georgia. He amassed a fortune partly by farming and partly by merchandizing, but he took an active part in the politics of his day, and was an ardent admirer of great men. It has been stated that John Lamar, of Batonton, married his own cousin, Rebecca. Rebecca was the sister of Zachariah Lamar, of Milledgeville; and whether or not Zachariah Lamar ever lived in his younger days with this couple at Eatonton, it is generally believed that he suggested the names which were adopted in the family counsels. Nevertheless, it is somewhat singular that he should have prescribed such lengthy appellations for his nephews and for his own chil dren have contented himself with names which had been honored in the Lamar family since the time of the French exodus. His daughter, who married Gen. Howell Cobb, was Mary Ann Lamar, and his son, who attained some distinction in literature, was John Basil Lamar.*

THE LAST HOURS OP JUSTICE LAMAR

Says a biographer of the great jurist (Dr. Edward Mayes) : "In December, 1893, Mr. Lamar, with his wife, left Washington, intending to visit again the Mississippi coast. On the day of his departure he was attacked, while en route, with an acute pain of the heart, and was obliged to lie over for two days in Atlanta, where he was entertained by Hoke Smith, Esq. He then left for Macon [Mrs. Lamar's old home], where there were great numbers of loving friends, and many reminiscenses of his early manhood. Here he remained until the end came.
'' For a while Mr'. Lamar seemed to be improving. There were num bers who expected to see him within a few weeks resume his place on the Bench; but the great jurist was already entering the dark penumbra. He and Mrs. Lamar t were not staying at the latter's home in Macon, but were visiting Capt. W. H. Virgin, a son-in-law of Mr. Lamar's, in Vineville, a suburb. He made occasional trips to the city on the electric cars. On Monday, the 23rd of January, 1893, he called at the office of Capt. R. E. Park, in company with Doctor Flewellen, a cousin of Mrs. Lamar's. They sat for perhaps a half hour with Captain Park, discuss ing various topics, and when they left he carried with him several maga zines to read at night. He conversed freely with Doctor Flewellen while returning home on the car, and said that his exercise made him feel like mating a good meal. He dined with the family shortly after six o'clock and partook of his accustomed dishes with his usual appetite.
'' Dinner over, he walked with the family into the sitting room, and
* Vol. I, '' Reminiscences of Famous Georgians, "by L. L. Knight. t Mr. Lamar's second wife was Henrietta J. Holt, widow of Gen. William S. Holt, of Macon. His first wife was Virginia Longstreet, daughter of the celebrated Judge A. B. Longstreet, author of '' Georgia Scenes,'' and at one time president of Emory College, at Oxford.

1340

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

during the conversation extended Doctor Flewellen a cordial invitation to visit him in Washington the approaching summer. About 7:30 Doctor Flewellen left the house, commenting upon the apparent improvement in Justice Lamar's general health. But it was hardly fifteen minutes later when the jurist complained of symptoms of his old attack, also saying that his arms felt benumbed. He soon retired without any very unusual trouble; and the family were disposed to attribute his condi tion to exhaustion from the trip to town. After going to bed he com plained of suffocation, and it then became impossible for him to breathe freely until he was placed comfortably in a chair near the fire. He grew worse, however, and it soon became evident that he was sinking.
'' Captain, Virgin boarded a street car and went at once for Dr. Parker, returning with the physician about 8:40. He was found to be speechless and unconscious., and to the physician evidently beyond the reach of help. His head hung almost limp in the hands of one of the attendants, who was relieved' by Captain Virgin. In this position his life passed out without a struggle, and so quietly and peacefully that those about him did not know the exact moment at which the soul took flight. In frequent conversations he alluded to his condition, but said that he was not afraid of death. His chief wish was to visit his father's grave and some of the scenes of his earlier years; but this was denied him. The thought of his Creator was his great consolation, and he died enjoying the full appreciation of the revealed truth. * * *
"Every tribute was paid to his memory by state and nation. He was buried with civic honors in Riverside Cemetery, in Ma.con, on the banks of the Ocmulgee River, and thousands gathered beside the open grave to pay the last sad tribute of respect to the illustrious dead. In the fall of 1894 the remains of Mr. Lamar were removed to Mississippi and laid beside the wife of his youth and the mother of his children, in St. Peter's Cemetery, at Oxford."*

RECOLLECTIONS OF GENERAL MIRABEAU LAMAR

There are few persons in Georgia who remember Gen. Mirabeau Lamar. It was nearly eighty years ago that he left Columbus, Georgia, to achieve renown in the war for Texan independence; and, barring only an occasional visit home, he remained an exile throughout life from the land of his birth. Judge Alexander W. Terrell, of Texas, an emi nent jurist and diplomat, enjoyed the personal acquaintance of this extraordinary man who, next to Sam Houston, was the most illustrious of Texans. Says he:
"The career of Mirabeau B. Lamar patriot, soldier, statesman, poet was one or the most remarkable in history. He was descended from a French Huguenot, who, after the destruction of La Rochelle, in 1628, found refuge in America. Lamar was born in Georgia, in 1798, and there he grew to manhood. He acquired only a common school education, for he preferred hunting, fencing, and horseback exercise to the confinement of the class-room. But he delighted in reading the ancient classics and the standard English authors, and thus .acquired

*Dr. Edward Mayes: "Life of L. Q. C. Lamar."

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

1341

so correct a knowledge of the structure of his own language that few excelled him as a forceful and eloquent speaker."
"I first saw General Lamar in 1853, when his long, jet black hair was tinged with gray. He was of dark complexion and about five feet ten inches tall, with broad shoulders, deep chest and symmetrical limbs. Prom under his high forehead blue eyes looked out in calm repose; while his cleancut, handsome features bespoke an iron resolution.
"When twenty-eight years old he married Miss Tabitha Jourda.n, to whom he was tenderly devoted, for he had loved and courted her for years, and her death, while yet in the bloom of youth and beauty, so overwhelmed him with grief that he left Georgia, a homeless wanderer. In 1835 Lamar was next heard from on the frontier of Texas where, like Sam Houston, he appealed to the settlers with impassioned eloquence to revolt against the tyranny of Mexico. There was a strange parallel in the lives of these two great men. Each of them, when crushed by domes tic affliction, fled from home and friends. Each emerged from self-im posed exile to advocate on a foreign soil the cause of civil freedom; each became commander of a revolutionary army, and then president of a new republic; each remained unmarried during all the fierce years of the Texan Revolution, and each found at last in married life his supreme happiness with wife and children.''

"On March 6, 1836, the Alamo at San Antonio was stormed by an invading army under Santa Anna, the president of Mexico, and all its defenders were massacred; while a few days afterward one hundred and seventy-five volunteers were butchered in cold blood at Goliad by his orders, and after having surrendered. Two weeks afterward Lamar appeared again on the coast of Texas, at the abandoned town of Velasco, and started on foot to join the Texan army. Colonel Fannin, who was butchered at Goliad, had been the bosom friend of Lamar, and the latter was eager ,to revenge his murdered friend. On April 20, 1836, Houston's army, after a forced march of two days and a night, with no other food than parched corn, confronted on the smooth prairie of San Jacinto the army of Santa Anna, which outnumbered them two to one. That afternoon Walter P. Lane, while skirmishing, was attacked by three Mexican lancers, who wounded him as his horse fell. Lamar rushed to his rescue, and killing one of the enemy, put the others to flight, though wounded himself. The Texan infantry saw the heroic act, and shouted in admiration. He had won his spurs, and Houston at once put him in command of the cavalry, with the approval of all its officers. The next afternoon, at 4 o'clock, the Texan infantry advanced toward the Mexican line to the tune of an old love-song; but when finally within forty paces of the Mexicans the band struck up "Yankee Doodle." AVith clubbed rifles and knives they rushed upon the foe, hewing them down in the fierce onset. Lamar, though wounded, led the Texan cavalry on the right wing like-an avenging fury. He remained in the pursuit until sunset, and with his cavalry captured Santa Anna. The battle was over in eighteen minutes, and the Mexicans slain or made prisoners out numbered the Texans two to one. The latter lost only three men killed and twenty-seven wounded.
'' Never before nor since in the annals of war was such a victory won

1342

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

by volunteers in an open field over such a superior force of disciplined troops, and never was a victory more far-reaching; for it secured inde-> pendence, resulting in the annexation of Texas to the Union, which pro voked the war of 1846 with Mexico. Under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo our flag was carried across the continent, while the area of the Union was doubled. Within ten days Lamar was made Secretary of War; in four weeks the Cabinet appointed him commander-in-chief of the army; in four months he was elected Vice-President of the Republic, and in three years President without opposition. No private soldier ever rose so rapidly from the ranks to supreme authority through so many important offices, military and civil. His style as a writer was not unlike his nephew's, L. Q. C. Lamar, the United States Senator.
"During Lamar's term as President the frontier was extended and protected, Mexican invasions were repelled, Texan independence was recognized, treaties were made with great European powers, immense tracts of land were surveyed and dedicated to higher education, and a free school system was established the second on the Continent. France sent her minister to the Republic of Texas, and his residence, built with the gold of Louis Philippe, may still be seen in Austin. Time and official station had not yet soothed Lamar's domestic grief, and it was not until after seventeen years of loneliness that he met and married, in 1851, Miss Henrietta Maffitt, the beautiful and accomplished daughter of John Newland Maffitt, the great Methodist revivalist and orator of the South. When afterwards, in 1857, he was United States Minister to the Argen tine Republic, a beautiful Indian girl inspired his heart to compose "The Daughter of Mendoza," his best-known poem. After the end of his term as President, he kept severely aloof from partisan strife, and found his chief pleasure in the endearments of home, where he died, at Richmond, Texas, December 19, 1859. No suspicion ever tarnished his reputation.''

General Lamar * is buried at Richmond, Texas, his old home. The grave is covered by a horizontal slab of rough granite, about six feet and a half long by four in width. It was quarried from the hillsides of his adopted state. At the end of this slab, there rises a splendid shaft of Italian marble, twelve feet high, which rests upon a pedestal four feet square. On the west side of the shaft, in bold relief, is chiseled a shield bearing the name "Lamar," encircled by a beautiful wreath. Just a little below the point of the shield, on either side, project the muzzles of two cannon from among the leaves and flowers. On the east side of the shaft is the simple inscription:

EX-PKESIDENT OF TEXAS DIED
Dec. 19, 1859. Aged 61 years, 4 mos. & 2 days.

* "Tombs and Monuments of Noted Texans," by Mrs. M. Looscan, in "Woolen's Comprehensive History of Texas/' Vol. I, p. 702, Dallas, 1898.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1343

BENJAMIN H. HILL : DRAMATIC INCIDENTS IN THE CAREER OF THE GREAT ORATOR

The most colossal figure in Georgia during the days of reconstruction was Benjamin H. Hill, Georgia's foremost orator. He was a, statesman of proven fidelity, of keen insight into governmental problems, and of unquestioned moral courage. The spectacle which he presented in Davis Hall, in 1867, when oblivious to the presence of an armed soldiery, he hurled his terrific denunciations and his burning anathemas into the teeth of the men who represented the carpetbag regime in Georgia, is wholly unique; and together with the dramatic figure of the rugged old governor who denounced fraud and tyranny in the earlier days of Georgia, it will be treasured in the enduring affections of the commpnwealth. The outlines of the picture will never need to be retouched.
Judge Hill, in the excellent biographical memoir which he has writ ten of his distinguished father, thus narrates the circumstances: * "In 1867 the Reconstruction measures were passed by Congress and sub mitted to the Southern States for ratification. It is not the purpose of the writer to enter into a discussion of these measures. It is enough to say that they were enacted by a fanatical body of law-makers in bitter hatred of the South and for the purpose of degrading her people. A few citizens of Atlanta met together for the purpose of taking such action as might be deemed necessary to meet the exigency of the hour. These men looked around for leaders. Brown was advocating the prompt accept ance by the South of the terms proposed. Stephens was in silent despair at Liberty Hall. Toombs was abroad. Howell Cobb declined to give advice. Herschel V. Johnson promised to write a letter reviewing the situation. Mr. Hill came to Atlanta to confer with his fellow citizens. After doing so, he secured copies of the military bills and promised to give advice in a few days, at the expiration of which time he notified the gentlemen that he was ready to make a speech in Atlanta at such time as they might wish. July 10, 1867, is an ever-memorable day in the history of the South. On the night of that day a voice was raised in behalf of Southern honor and manhood for the first time since the sur render. The speech of Mr. Hill put courage in the place of despair, and that night the glorious fight for political redemption was inaugu rated."
One who was present on this occasion describes the scene from the standpoint of an eye-witness. Says he: "The hall was insufficiently lighted and the pallor of men's faces in -the pit almost put to shame the lamps which here and there flickered. Mr. Hill appeared in a full dress suit of black. His superb figure showed to best advantage, his gray eyes flashed, and his face paled into dead white with earnestness. Just before he began, the Federal generals, in full uniform, with glittering staff officers, entered the hall and marched to the front, their showy uniforms and flushed faces making sharp contrast with the ill-dressed crowd of rebels through which they pushed their way, and sat in plain censorship over the orator and his utterances. With incomparable unconcern, Mr.

*"Senator Benjamin H. Hill: His Life, Speeches and Writings," by Benj. H. Hill, Jr., pp. 50-51, New York, 1891.

1344

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Hill arose. The threatening presence of the soldiers, the jails which yawned behind them, the dangers which the slightest nod from the officers might bring, had no effect upon him. Without hesitation he launched his denunciations upon them and upon the power which they represented. For two hours he spoke as mortal seldom spoke before, and when he had done Georgia was once more on her feet and Georgians were organized for the protests of 1868 and the victories of 1870."

At the famous Bush-Arbor rally, in Atlanta, during the summer of 1868, an account of which is elsewhere given, Mr. Hill made another speech, of equal length and power, in which he again unloosed the light nings of his magnificent intellect. Though Toombs and Cobb spoke frpm the same platform, it is conceded by every one present that the most terrific arraignment and the most soul-stirring eloquence which this heated hour in Georgia called forth came from the impassioned lips of Mr. Hill. It was during the turbulent period between his Davis Hall and his Bush-Arbor, speeches that the great orator wrote his celebrated "Notes on the Situation," perhaps the finest specimens of invective to be found within the whole range of American letters. Says Mr. Grady: "In my opinion they stand alone as the profoundest and most eloquent political essays ever penned by an American. They were accepted as the voice of the South, uttering her protest and her plea, and as such were discussed on the streets of London and on the Boulevards of Paris, no less than in the cities of the North. Even now they stir the blood and kindle the pulse of the most phlegmatic reader, yet this is but a hint of the sensation which they produced when printed. Had Mr. Hill never delivered one speech, his 'Notes on the Situation' would have stamped him as one of the greatest men Georgia ever produced.'' Contributing both his voice and his pen to the iron literature of the times, he prac tically reorganized the democratic party and inaugurated the movement which eventually redeemed the state from the infamies of reconstruction.

Though Mr. Hill opposed secession and, in the convention at Milledgeville, made one of the greatest efforts of his life against the mistaken and fateful policy of withdrawing from the. Union, he became one of the most ardent champions of the Confederate cause. He made a number of speeches in Georgia to counteract the local effect of the controversy between Governor Brown and President Davis. In the Confederate Con gress he was the recognized mouthpiece of the latter; and even when hope was abandoned he continued to cheer with his eloquence the despondent armies of the South. On one occasion his zeal for the admin istration brought him into violent collision with William L. Yancey, a senator from Alabama whose views upon certain pending issues were somewhat divergent. The controversy related to the establishment of a Supreme Court. The lie was passed, and an inkstand in the hands of Mr. Hill was hurled with vigorous propulsion at the head of Mr. Yancey, Reports of the affair have been greatly exaggerated. It has even been said that the death of the great apostle and advocate of secession was due to the injury which he received in this encounter. Judge Hill nar rates the facts in connection with the unfortunate occurrence as follows. Says he: " An exciting debate had been in progress for several days, in

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1345

which Mr. Yancey was making severe attacks on the administration and Mr. Hill was defending it. Mr. Yancey, in the course of one of his speeches, asserted that a statement made by Mr. Hill was false and known to be false when spoken. As soon as the words were uttered, Mr. Hill threw an inkstand at the speaker, striking him on the cheek bone. The wound produced was not at all serious and after a few minutes Mr. Yancey resumed his seat, making no further allusion to Mr. Hill. The matter was adjusted by friends of both Senators, and no reference was
ever made .to the occurrence by either of them.'' The following version of the affair is taken from Mr. Yancey's home
paper, the Bulletin, published at Montgomery, Ala.: '' The facts in a nut-shell are these, as we learned them subsequently to the removal of secrecy from the Senators who witnessed the affair. In the midst of a warm debate, in open session, Mr. Hill animadverted upon the record of Mr. Yancey. At the conclusion of Mr. Hill's speech, Mr. Yancey rose to reply, and, during his speech remarked that what the Senator from Georgia had said in regard to his record was false and that the Senator knew it was false when he made the statement. Whereupon Mr. Hill threw a glass ink-stand from aslant the position of Mr. Yancey, striking him on the point of the cheek-bone, which made a sharp cut, producing quite a flow of blood, but causing no serious injury. The Senate went into secret session, took the matter in hand and settled it. Long after ward Mr. Yancey died at his residence, near this city, from an affection of the kidneys from which he had suffered for years.'' Judge Hill states that Col. Benjamin C. Yancey, the senator's brother, and Capt. Goodloe H. Yancey, his son, continued uninterruptedly to be Mr. Hill's warm friends and loyal supporters until his death. The latter, at a meeting of the Ninth District Democratic Committee, in 1882, drafted and pre sented the beautiful set of resolutions, inspired by Mr. Hill's long illness.

There were many other dramatic episodes in the career of this illus trious Georgian. His reply to Blaine is one of the great classics of modern eloquence. This speech delivered in the national House of Rep resentatives, January 11, 1876, effectually rebuked the partisan spleen of the ambitious senator from Maine, who was making a bid for the presidential nomination. It also fastened the responsibility for the socalled prison horrors of Andersonville upon the dominant political party in the nation. From beginning to end, this masterful speech of Mr.
Hill sounded the clearest note of patriotism. Its effect was electrical. It went far towards healing the breach between the sections. It was instrumental in no small degree in securing the popular vote of the country for Mr. Tilden; and it promoted the matchless orator himself to the Senate of the United States. In this most exalted of public forums he gathered fresh laurels. His arraignment of Kellogg, in the
Louisiana election contest, and his denunciation of Mahone, for affiliating with republicans after being elected by democrats, were pronounced masterpieces of invective worthy of the Athenian who denounced King Philip. The eminence achieved by Mr. Hill in the councils of the nation, his prestige as an orator, his fame as a political essayist, and his genius as a broad-minded and patriotic statesman all these impart an element
of romance to the picture which the future senator presented when a

1346

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

raw youth of eighteen, in a home-made suit of gray jeans, his long coat almost sweeping the ground and his short trousers scarcely reaching to his boot-tops, he first appeared on the campus of the University of Georgia. The verdure of the fields was distinctly imprinted upon the slim figure of the awkward country lad. It required no second look to tell that he hailed from the farm. But he gripped his studies like he gripped his plow-handles. He thrust his harrow into the soil of learn ing with an impulse of rugged strength. There was moral earnestness in the zeal with which he planted for an intellectual harvest. It taxed the combined resources of an overburdened household to send him to college. But he redeemed his promise to his mother by winning the first honor; and with the same sturdy hand which drove the team afield he plucked
the toga of the American Senate.

THE ABKEST OF ME. HILL

After the war was over, Mr. Hill retired to his home, in La Grange, and calmly awaited results. Several of the chiefs of the Confederacy with their families gathered under his hospitable roof. There came the courteous and courtly Clay, for whose head the Federal Government offered $100,000. His brilliant wife was his devoted companion; and, when the publication of the reward for her husband's head came to her knowledge, with high and courageous spirit, she accompanied him to Atlanta and claimed the privilege of surrendering him to the authorities. There came also Stephen R. Mallory, the all-accomplished statesman, who out of nothing had organized a Confederate navy and driven the commerce of the United States from the seas. The brilliant and fiery "Wigfall, who had fought President Davis in the Senate with great bitter ness and had frequently met in high discussion the Confederate chief tain's ready champion, forgot the hours of contest and came to the faithful Hill in the hour of common sorrow. The elegant Sparrow, of Louisiana, with his colleague, the great lawyer,, T. J. Semmes, both of whom were Mr. Hill's able lieutenants in support of the administration, were also welcome guests. These men all came with their families, and it was an interesting group that gathered each day for the purpose of discussing the probable fate of their unhappy country. But they could not remain together long; already the enemy was on their track. So, after a few days, all but Mallory left the country in disguise. It is a sad reflection that of all this brilliant coterie then gathered together, only one is left all but one have passed into the rest of the beautiful beyond.
Mr. Hill's slaves all remained with him * * * and during the time when the leaders of the Confederacy were gathered at his house and the Federal soldiers were in possession of the town, there was found no traitor among them all. Mr. Hill's immunity from molestation was also due to the fact that the officer in command of the Federal troops had given the most stringent orders to his soldiers to keep out of Mr. Hill's premises. Long afterwards he found that this consideration was shown because the officer, while a prisoner, suffering from a severe wound, had.been taken to the home of a niece of Mr. Hill's and kindly nursed
back into health. It was thought by Mr. Hill that he would probably be arrested at

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1347

once. His prominent and ardent support of Mr. Davis and his efforts in behalf of the continuance of hostilities made him a conspicuous figure for exemplary punishment; and when several weeks passed by, and no soldier appeared on the scene, the hope was entertained that our con querors were going to be generous and permit our southern men to remain at home and aid in the work of rehabilitation. But in this hope we were disappointed.
I shall never forget the night my father was arrested. We had all retired, and about midnight were aroused by a loud knocking at the front door. Without dressing, I at once rushed down to my father's bedroom. I found him already awake. A search was made for a match but there was none in the house, and I went outside to the servant's house for the purpose of getting a light. What was my consternation on opening the rear door to find the house surrounded by soldiers, standing on guard with muskets.
Securing the light, I returned at once, but in the meantime the officer at the front door had secured an entrance and with a dozen men was in the bedroom. The officer in command gave Mr. Hill just ten minutes in which to get ready. He did not leave him for a second, and there was no opportunity for any private leave-taking from wife and children. Neither my mother nor any of the household evinced the slightest fear, but said good-by with courage and cheerfulness; my father was placed in front of the soldiers, and the order given to march.
Anxious to find out where they intended to take him, I walked in front by his side. We moved rapidly down the long drive leading from the house to the street, and at the gate found another detail with Mr. Mallory in charge. The two rebels were placed in front, and the com pany moved rapidly through the silent streets of the little village to the depotj where a special train was waiting. The officers declined to give us any information as to the place of destination, and were a reticent and sullen set of fellows. I bade my father good-by and hurried back alone to my home, where I found the entire family and all the servants in a tumult of indignation. We afterwards learned that the reason for the time and hurry of the arrest was a fear of resistance and rescue by the citizens. Mr. Hill and Mr. Mallory were taken to Fort Lafayette, in New York Bay, and incarcerated in separate cells. They were not allowed any communication, and were treated with great indignity and. unkindness by the officials. My father had no money that would pass current in the North, and but for the kindness of two friends in Atlanta, who insisted on lending him $100 in gold, he would have suffered great privation. He was arrested in May and remained in prison until July following, * * * when he was paroled by the President.*

"Wno Is JOE BROWN?"

With the qualifying phrase omitted, this is the question which Gen eral Toombs is said to have asked when the news reached him out in the State of Texas that Joe Brown of Canton, Georgia, had received the

* Benjamin H. Hill, Jr., in "The Life, Speeches, and Writings of Senator Ben jamin H. Hill, of Georgia."

1348

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

democratic nomination for governor, in 1857. This question, if really asked, may have been only an outburst of surprise occasioned by the unexpected in politics. Before leaving Georgia for Texas, to look after certain property interests, General Toombs had carefully canvassed the situation; and, having forecast the result, as he thought, with some degree of precision, he had not anticipated this sudden turn of affairs. It was like a bolt from the blue. The fame of the future chief executive was at this time by no means co-extensive with the area of the state. It was not much wider than the Blue Ridge Circuit.
But the two men had met. They had faced each other, first, in Milledgeville, in 1850, when Governor Brown was a democratic state senator and General Toombs was a whig congressman. The latter was then a power in national affairs, while the former was just entering the polit ical arena. Some few years later they met again at Marietta, where General Toombs and Judge Cowart crossed swords in joint debate.
There was nothing about the personality of the young state senator at this time to challenge special attention. He was younger than General Toombs by at least ten years. He was rather awkward in appearance; his figure slight though compact; and his face pale. He was what in ordinary parlance is described as '' raw-boned.'' Except for the impress of character which was stamped upon his clear-cut features and which expressed itself with peculiar force in his rigid mouth, whose lines denoted unshaken firmness and grim determination, there was little else to suggest the inherent power which lay concealed behind that slender frame. General Toombs may have lightly dismissed the mountaineer from his thoughts; but the mountaineer vividly remembered General Toombs. Speaking, in after years, of the profound impression which the kingly Georgian made upon him at this time, Governor Brown declared that General Toombs was the handsomest man he ever saw. Moreover, he was completely captivated by his fiery eloquence and paid unstinted tribute to his divine genius.
Forgotten though he may have been for the time being, the moun taineer was accustomed to the silent solitudes, and to be unnoticed by the world occasioned him no concern. He had often scaled the rugged heights of the Blue Ridge Mountains; and now at the age of thirtyseven he stood upon an eminence which few men had ever succeeded in attaining. He had mounted by slow degrees and under serious difficul ties; and such was the quiet demeanor of the man, who calmly and patiently met all obstacles and permitted nothing to disturb his unruffled spirit, that he climbed almost unobserved. But nevertheless he climbed; and now as the chosen standard-bearer of the great democratic party for the high office of governor his name was heralded far and near. It even
reached Texas. General Toombs was no doubt disturbed by the information which
came from Milledgeville announcing the action of the state convention. On the issues of the day he had recently left the whig ranks and joined the democratic hosts; and he realized that his seat in the United States Senate depended upon the success of the party whose banner had been put into the hands of this comparatively unknown candidate. There is no spur like uneasiness. General Toombs managed to wind up his affairs in Texas with wonderful dispatch; and, inquiring when the next train

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1349

left for the East, he was soon bounding away over the iron rails to Georgia.
It was on a little farm near Gaddistown, in Union County, Georgia, where he plowed the flinty soil with a steer, that the future standardbearer of democracy in Georgia spent the years of his boyhood.
Yet this plain country-bred youth, whose constant companion until now had been a plowshare, and whose only home since childhood had been a log cabin, was the only boy in all the history of the state who was destined to be four times governor. He was also to be once a state sen ator, once a judge of the Superior Court, once a chief justice of the Supreme Court, and twice a representative in the Senate of the United States. Moreover, he was to accumulate what in his day was considered an immense fortune. He was to develop railroads and coal mines. And, remembering how he had struggled up the steeps, he was to assist other poor boys like himself to rise by giving to the State University the munificent sum of $50,000.
Not since the penniless Gascon set out for Paris to become the great marshal of France had more of the elements of romance waited upon an expedition than now gathered about the slim figure 'of the farmer boy of Gaddistown as he slowly wended his way through the dust of the mountain road. And this is the youth whose unprecedented career is to answer the question:
"Who is Joe Brown?"

If General Toombs was disturbed by the action of the state democratic convention in nominating a man who possessed little or no experience as a campaigner, and who was hardly known except to the rural population which moved in the shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he was actually dismayed .when the American or know-nothing party met in formal conclave and nominated Benjamin H. Hill.
Benjamin* H. Hill was the foremost orator of the state, and few men have ever possessed such power to sway the masses as characterized the eloquence of this distinguished Georgian.
General Toombs was not the only man in the democratic ranks who felt alarmed for the success of the ticket; nor was the first joint meeting between the candidates reassuring. The initial debate of the campaign was held at Athens, and when the passage at arms was concluded Gen. Howell Cobb wrote General Toombs that he thought the democratic candidate was badly worsted. This was only what General Toombs expected; but at this juncture he invited the democratic" candidate to visit him in Washington for the purpose of talking over the situation. Judge Brown accepted the invitation; and General Toombs surrendered some of his fears when he met the candidate face to face and noted his strong characteristics. Nevertheless it was agreed that General Toombs should chaperon him in making the rounds of the state.
But Judge Brown 'had ever been an apt pupil in the hard school of experience. He never made the same mistake twice. He always profited by what he saw and heard. The result was that he improved with each successive appearance before the people. He understood the masses as his brilliant rival did not and could not; and they recognized him as one of themselves: a man whose sympathies and interests were all with them,
Vol. Ill--6

1350

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

and whose superior intellect alone lifted him above them. The illustra tions which he used were drawn for the most part from country life; and his homely way of putting things went straight to the popular heart.
An incident of the campaign which proved to have an important bearing upon the result was the presentation to the democratic candidate of an old-fashioned quilt which some of his admiring lady friends in North Georgia had made for him to sleep under in the executive mansion. Th*e know-nothings made all manner of fun of this garment, which they held up to popular ridicule; but while it was excellent sport to indulge in such merriment at the expense of Judge Brown, it was poor politics, and it only served to make.votes for the democratic candidate by identi fying him more completely with the masses whose favor he was seeking.
Before the campaign was two weeks old Judge Brown had acquired the art of successful public speaking to such an extent that General Toombs no longer considered it necessary to continue his guardianship over the democratic candidate; and returned to his home in Washington much better pleased with the outlook, if not confident of the result.
"When the campaign was concluded and the result was announced, it was found that the mountaineer had run 10,000 votes ahead; and in view of the heated character of the campaign, the victory for the demo cratic ticket was most pronounced. There was no one left in the state who could now plead ignorance concerning the personality of this remarkable man who had been entrusted with the democratic banner. If any one had desired information General Toombs could have given him all he needed; but the developments of the campaign, and especially the emphatic declaration of the ballot-box, had saved him this trouble by answering the worn-out question which was now buried with military honors on the battlefield:
"Who is Joe Brown?"

ANECDOTES OP GEORGIA'S WAR GOVERNOR

Governor Brown, on his way to Canton, once remarked to some men who were with him: '' There is the field, gentlemen, where I was tying wheat on the day I was first nominated for Governor of Georgia,'' indi cating a field lying along Town Creek. '' I was then Judge of the Blue Ridge Circuit," he continued, "and, coming home one day, I went to the field after dinner to see how my hands were getting along with the work. Four men were cutting wheat with common cradles, and the binders were very much behind. So I pulled off my coat and pitched in, about half after 2 o'clock p.m., on the 15th of June, 1857. The weather was very warm, but' I ordered the binders to keep up with me, and though the perspiration streamed down my back, I kept the men going. About sundown I went home, and after shaving was in the act of washing my face for supper, when Col. Weil, now an attorney in Atlanta (1881), but then living in Canton, rode up rapidly to the house. He came in, and excitedly said to me: 'Judge, guess who is nominated for Governor at Milledgeville 1' I did not have the remotest idea that I was the man, but I thought from what I had heard that John E. Ward was the most prominent candidate, so I guessed him. 'No,' said Col. Weil, 'it is Joseph E. Brown, of Cherokee.' Col. Weil was in Marietta

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1351

when the telegram came announcing my nomination. I subsequently; ascertained that the nomination had been made about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and at the very time I was tying wheat in this field. It is said in Canton that two or three men lately have been trying to buy . it they want to sow it in wheat year after next." *

"I knew his parents before he was born. They were exceedingly poor. Joe cultivated a scrap of hillside land with a pair of bull-calves, and every Saturday hauled to town some potatoes or cabbages, or lightwood or other truck in trade, and took back something for the family. In 1839, I think it was, I was riding to Canton in a buggy, and I over took a young man walking in a very muddy lane. He carried a striped bag, hung over his shoulder, and looked very tired. I asked him if he would not take a seat, and he looked down at himself and said he was too muddy, and would dirty up the buggy. I insisted, and he broke off a splinter from a rail, scraped his shoes, and jumped in. I learned from the youth that his name was Joe Brown and that he was going to Canton to get something to do. I have kept an eye on him for forty years." t

Ever full armed was the American backwoodsman, who was proficient with the rifle and ax. The slender boy at an early age was master of both. More than once, when quite an old man, he spoke to me with obvious pride of his success at the shooting matches for "beef," which, even now are not unknown in the Georgia mountains. The contesting riflemen fire at a mark. The beef has been butchered. It may sur prise the uninitiated to know that it has been divided into five quar ters; and the fifth quarter is the first prize. The old statesman, in rem iniscent vein would say: '' Usually when my rifle cracked some bystander would exclaim, 'There goes the hide and tallow.' " It is no exaggera tion to add that in later years many of his political opponents, after similar matches with him, discovered that they also had been deprived of these important integuments.
While excelling beyond his strength in the many exercises of youth, the boy did not deem it beneath his dignity to lighten the labors of his mother. Many a day, when it rained, he stood at the spinning wheel and skillfully spun the thread from which the clothing of the family was woven. Years later, when senator from Georgia, he was conducting a number of northern manufacturers through the halls of the first Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta. An exhibit was reached where the primi tive spinning wheel was contrasted with the latest mechanism for the manufacture of thread. In reply to some disparaging remark about the rude contrivance, the senator said: "Very good thread can be made on the old spinning wheel," and, taking the place of the girl who was en gaged in its operation, to the delight of the bystanders, he demonstrated that his industrious hand had not forgotten the cunning which in days long gone had lessened the burdens of his mother.
For education, his early opportunities were very limited. I once met his first teacher, then a very aged man. He was a witness in a case of

* From the Atlanta Constitution. t Gen. Ira R. Poster, quoted by Bill Arp in one of his letters.

1352

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

illicit distillation. To my surprise, he informed me that Joe Brown and MeKay, his father, went to school to him at the same time. He said, "Joe was the peartest boy I ever saw, and could work a sum according to the rule quicker'n lightning could trim a hemlock." His estimate of McKay's mathematical powers was not so encomiastic. To solve every problem, McKay Brown had a rule of his own, and it seemed to me that the venerable instructor yet cherished a vivid resentment at the bewilder ing results. Such were the environments of the childhood of Joseph E. Brown. Save for the pure blood and the strong brain of the unpreten tious but historic stock from which he came, there was not, in his day, in the remotest cove of the mountains, or in the humblest cabin of the wiregrass, a boy whose chances for distinction in life were less auspicious.*.

To this day, in the Blue Ridge Circuit, very old men declare that Joe Brown made the very best judge they ever had. At times, it is true, he had to repress the familiarity of his political supporters. His valued friend on election day was Bob Ralston, a famous character of Gilmer County. Presuming upon his services, Bob bet a pint of apple brandy that he could, with impunity, go into court and give Joe Brown the Masonic sign. While not a Mason, Bob conceived that he had detected and acquired one of the most important signals of the ancient order. This was a snap' of the finger and at the same time a wink of the eye. Bob repaired to court, leaned against the bar, caught the attention of his honor, snapped his finger, and winked his eye. "Take that gentle man to jail until he cools off," was the unappreciative response from the bench. The next morning the resentful Bob made the streets of Ellijay vocal with the denunciations of the ingratitude of men in high places.
On another occasion, Judge Brown convened court in one of the new mountain countries. There had been no time to build a courthouse, but a rude log structure had been hastily erected. The court was convened with the accustomed solemnities, and pretty soon discovered that the county bully was drunk. His screams and curses attracted the atten tion of the judge, who quietly said, "Mr. Sheriff, arrest that man who is creating a disturbance and bring him before the court." The sheriff, with several stalwart deputies, dragged in the offender. The judge ordered the prisoner to jail.
"Why, your Honor," said the sheriff, "we have got no jail." "That's a fact," said the judge, "but have you no house where you
<can secure him?" '' There is not a house in town,'' was the reply, '' that he wont .kick out
of in five minutes." At this moment a little man in drab suit, which betrayed the Quaker,
arose among the audience and with deferential manner addressed the court. He said: "May it please your Honor, I am a miner. I have been prospecting for copper near ,the village and I have run a tunnel some three feet in diameter and thirty feet deep into the bank on the side of the road, down near the creek. The tunnel is dry. I think your Honor might direct the Sheriff to put the gentleman in there." "Why,

* Judge Emory Speer, in a lecture on the "Life and Times of Joseph E. Brown,'delivered at Mercer and Yale universities.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1353

that's a good idea," said Judge Brown. "Mr. Sheriff, put some straw in the tunnel so that the prisoner can sleep off his drunk without taking cold; haul a load of rails there and stop him up safely until tomorrow morning." It was accordingly done.*

Two NARROWLY AVERTED DUELS

During the pre-revolutionary and early commonwealth days of Georgia, the favorite court of appeals with public men in this state, for the final adjudication of grave issues, was the Field of Honor. But the practice of crossing swords and leveling pistols over the dead-line, with seconds on hand and with medical experts dancing attendance, has. long since declined in popularity, with the slow but radical change in public sentiment which has taken place with reference to affairs of this, character. Two narrowly averted duels, involving the lives of four dis tinguished Georgians, has probably helped to crystallize this sentiment which today sternly forbids such personal combats. The first grew out of a challenge which Alexander H. Stephens sent to Benjamin H. Hill, several years before the Civil war; the second rose out of a message which Joseph E. Brown received from Robert Toombs shortly after the days of reconstruction.
Alexander H. Stephens was not an athlete. ' His weight on entering Congress was ninety-six pounds. But in spite of his weak constitution, he was nevertheless unflinchingly courageous; and every ounce of flesh which gripped his spare bones evinced as true a pluck as Caesar ever displayed in Gaul. i On the steps of the old Thompson Hotel, in Atlanta, during the fall of 1848, there occurred an incident which well illustrates the courageof Mr. Stephens. It will also serve to show that he bore a charmed life.. At this time he encountered somewhat unexpectedly Judge Francis H.. Cone, of Greensboro, with whom he was then on strained terms. Judge Cone had severely-criticized Mr. Stephens for something which the latterhad either said or done in Congress, and among other choice epithets, which the judge is said to have used was the term '' traitor.''
Difficulties almost immediately ensued. Mr. Stephens probably in furiated Judge Cone by returning his vituperative adjectives, where upon Judge Cone, delving underneath his broadcloth, whipped out a knife with which he made a leap toward Mr. Stephens. The latter was; doubly at a disadvantage, not only because in avoirdupois he was a pigmy beside Judge Cone, but also because he was unarmed, except foran umbrella which shot out from his left elbow. With this somewhat unheroic weapon, Mr. Stephens sought to parry the blow of Judge Cone-;: but he was soon overpowered by his antagonist and fell bleeding upon
the floor. "Retract!" demanded the irate jurist, who now bent over his pros
trate foe. "Never!" replied Mr. Stephens, the blood gurgling from his-wounds,,
but the proud spirit of the man still unquenched. Again the knife de-

* Judge Emory Speer, in a lecture on the '' Life and Times of Joseph E". Brown,,"' delivered at Mereer and Yale universities.

1354

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

scended, severing an intercostal artery, but Mr. Stephens still refused to retract. He continued to grapple with his adversary, growing momen tarily weaker and weaker, until at last rescue came from some of the hotel guests who, hastening to the scene of encounter, separated the bel ligerents. Though Mr. Stephens received the best medical attention, he lay for weeks hovering between life and death. Finally he arose from his sick bed to renew his campaign for re-election. But he never fully regained the use of his right hand, which,.was frightfully lacerated in the struggle; and his penmanship as well as his person bore the marks of the encounter as long as he lived. In justice to Judge Cone, who was one of the ablest lawyers in the state and a man much beloved in his social and domestic relations, it may be said that he was completely upset by his violent anger and did not perhaps stop to think of the difference in physical strength between himself and Mr. Stephens. They had once been good friends, in spite of professional tilts and rivalries; and later on in life the cordial relations of earlier years were resumed.

But this is only an incidental story. The circumstances which called forth the challenge which Mr. Stephens sent, to Mr, Hill grew out of the joint debate which occurred between these two Georgians at Lexington during the presidential campaign of 1856. Mr. Stephens and Mr. Toombs had both left the old whig party in the disruptive smoke of the new political issues, and had now come into the democratic ranks; while Mr. Hill stood squarely upon the American-platform.
With merciless oratory Mr. Hill pilloried Mr. Stephens at Lexington with being disloyal to the whig party. Mr. Stephens in the course of his speech had spoken of the American candidate for president in rather uncomplimentary terms, characterizing him as Judas, and Hill retorted by saying in bitter stricture of Mr. Stephens for using this harsh lan guage concerning the American candidate, that while Judas did betray his Master for thirty pieces of silver he did not abuse his Master after he betrayed Him. Mr. Stephens felt the stinging effect of the retort, but he dismissed it at the time as only an eloquent rejoinder which he had called forth and which he need not further regard. At "Washington Mr. Hill scored Mr. Toombs in very much the same fashion. It was something unusual for the multitudes who had long witnessed the exciting polemics of the hustings to behold the spectacle of an unterrified young ster like Mr. Hill touching the breastplates of old veterans like Mr. Toombs and Mr. Stephens; and stories of Jack the Giant-Killer began. to move up and down the state, perhaps exaggerating the facts to em-
bellfsh the legends. What Mr. Toombs thought does not appear, but Mr. Stephens was by
no means pleased with the garbled accounts which reached him within the next few days, and putting some vitriol into his inkbottle he wrote to Mr. Hill for information. Said he in substance: "I have been in formed that in your speeches at Thomson and Augusta you declared that youxhad charged upon Mr. Toombs and myself that we had betrayed the Whig party and had acted toward it worse than Judas Iseariot, for though he betrayed his Master he did not abuse Him afterward; that you had thundered this in our ears and that we had cowered under your

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1355

charges. Please let me know if this be true, at least so far as I am con cerned."
Without itemizing Mr. Hill's reply literally he wrote in substance that he had repeated at Thomson and Augusta exactly what had taken place at Lexington and Washington, 110 more and no less; than he met argument with argument, sarcasm with sarcasm and ridicule with ridi cule; that he disclaimed any personal ill will and made shots only at those who built batteries.
Mr. Stephens was not satisfied with the terms in which this reply was couched, and several additional love-letters were exchanged in which Judas was the only one of the disciples whose name was men tioned; and finally Mr. Stephens, incensed and exasperated by what he considered an admission of the rumors with an effort to escape the consequences, issued the challenge to mortal combat.
Mr. Hill clearly foresaw what the result of the correspondence was to be; but reflecting upon the matter deliberately he saw no reason why he should be drawn into hostile encounter with Mr. Stephens on the field of honor. He was an ambitious man on the vestibule of public life, and he coveted the opportunity of serving his country. He did not wish Mr. Stephens to take his life, nor did he wish, to take Mr. Stephens'. He was conscious of no feeling of malice or ill will; and he opposed duelling. But how could he avoid the imputation of dishonor if he declined the challenge? It often requires more real courage to decline than to embrace an encounter of this sort; and Mr. Hill dis played the higher type of courage in the answer which he returned. The language was so fearless that no one could doubt the courage which inspired it, and it unequivocally declined the challenge. But the sum mary of reasons closed with this paragraph: "While I have never at any time had an insult offered to me nor an aggression attempted, I shall yet know how to meet and repel any that may be offered by any gentle man who may presume upon this refusal.''
Being unable to obtain satisfaction through this avenue of redress, Mr. Stephens published a card in which he set forth the result of the correspondence, and lambasted Mr. Hill with picturesque epithets; but Mr. Hill, who was also an adept in the noble art of writing epistles, came back with his own review of the controversy and wound up by saying that his last reason for declining the encounter was that he had a family and a conscience, while Mr. Stephens had neither.

The difficulty between General Toombs and Governor Brown dates back to the summer of 1872, when General Toombs intimated in language which amounted almost to open declaration that Governor Brown had been guilty of lobbying certain claims through the State Legislature. It should here be stated before proceeding further that Governor Brown and General Toombs had been staunch friends since 1857, and that Gen eral Toombs had sustained Governor Brown in the famous issue which the latter had made with the Confederate chief executive over the Con script Act; but the two men had parted company under the bayonet regime of reconstruction, Governor Brown advocating submission and General Toombs preaching resistance.

1356

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Notwithstanding the bitterness with which Governor Brown had been assailed on all sides for the stand which he had taken on the meas ures of reconstruction, he had quietly endured the ostracism until General Toombs stepped forward with this offensive implication; and then sud denly turning upon him with outraged scorn he declared that if General Toombs meant to accuse him of lobbying he was an unscrupulous liar.
This led to an interview in which Governor Brown was waited upon by a friend of General Toombs, who told him that blood was visible on the moon, and asked him if he was prepared for personal hostilities. Governor Brown replied by saying that he would reserve his answer until the challenge came.
But in the meantime, with all the grimness of his Scotch determina tion of purpose, he began to put his house in order and to arrange his* private affairs so as to be prepared for whatever might happen. He was not preparing for popgun tactics; and being an active member of the Baptist Church, whose fair name he did not wish to involve in any criticism which might be pronounced upon himself individually for duelling, he withdrew temporarily from the ranks of this communion, feeling as he did so no doubt that he still belonged to the church militant and hoped to belong in the end to the church triumphant.
However, the challenge which Governor Brown had been led to expect never materialized. Controversial warfare was carried on in the public prints; but no invitation to go blood-hunting was ever issued or received. Governor Brown eventually put his letter back into the Baptist Church, and his calm white beard which had never been in the least ruffled by the late unpleasantness was seen to move once more along the solemn aisles as he pressed tranquilly and slowly forward to bow his head in reverence at the shrine of his devotions.

Years ago Henry W. Grady drew an interesting contrast between General Toombs and Governor Brown, and this sketch can not be better rounded than by citing two or three paragraphs from this fascinating article:
"Joe Brown and Bob Toombs! Both illustrious and great both powerful and strong and yet at every point, and from every view, the perfect opposites of each other. Through two centuries have two strains of blood, two conflicting lines of thought, two separate theories of social, religious and political life, been working out the two types of men, which have in our day flowered into the perfection of contrast vivid, thor ough, pervasive. For seven generations the ancestors of Joe Brown have been aggressive rebels; for a longer time the Toombses have been dauntless and intolerant followers of the king and kingliness. At the seige of Londonderry the most remarkable fasting match beyond Tan ner Margaret and James Brown, grandparents of the James Brown who came to America and was grandparent of Joe Brown, were within the walls starving and fighting for William and Mary; and I have no doubt there were hard-riding Toombses outside the walls charging in name of the peevish and unhappy James. Certain it is that forty years before, the direct ancestors of General Toombs on the Toombs estate were hiding good King Charles in the oak at Boscobel, where, I have no doubt, the father and uncles of the Londonderry Brown, with cropped

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS*

1357

hair and severe mien, were proguing about the place with their pikes, searching every bush, in the name of Cromwell and the psalm-singers. From these initial points sprang the two strains of blood the one affluent, impetuous, prodigal; the other slow, resolute, forceful. From these ancestors came the two men the one superb, ruddy, fashioned with incomparable grace and fulness; the other pale, thoughtful, angular, stripped down to bone and sinew. From these opposing theories came the two types the one patrician, imperious, swift in action and brook ing no stay; the other democratic, sagacious, jealous of rights and sub mitting to no imposition. The one for the king; the other for the people. It does not matter that the elder Toombs was a rebel in Virginia against the fat George, for that revolt was kingly in itself, and the Virginian cavaliers went into it with lovelocks flying and care cast to the winds, feeling little of the patient spirit of James Brown, who, by his Carolina fireside, fashioned his remonstrance slowly, and at last put his life upon the issue.
" It is hard to say which has been the more successful of the two men. Neither has ever been beaten before the people. General Toombs has won his victories with the more ease. He has gone to power as a king goes to his throne, and no one has gainsaid him. Governor Brown has had to fight his way through. It has been a struggle all the time, and he has had to summon every resource to carry his point. Each has made unsurpassed records in his departments. As Senator, Toombs was not only invincible, he was glorious. As Governor, Brown was not only invincible, he was wise. General Toombs's campaigns have been un studied and careless, and were won by his presence, his eloquence, his -greatness. His canvass was always an ovation, his only caucusing was done on the hustings. "With Governor Brown it was different. He planned his campaigns and then went faithfully through them. His victories were none the less sure because his canvass was more laborious. His nomination as Governor, while unexpected, was not accidental. It was the inevitable outcome of his young life, disciplined so marvelously, so full of thought, sagacity and judgment. If he had not been nominated Governor then, his time would have come at last, just as sure as cause produces result.''
Discussing the threatened hostile meeting between General Toombs and Governor Brown in 1872, Mr. Grady indulges in some picturesque speculations. Says he:
"In the first place, General Toombs made no preparation for the duel. He went along in his careless and kingly way, trusting presumably
to luck on quick shot. Governor Brown, on the contrary, made the most careful and deliberate preparation. Had the duel come off General Toombs would have fired with his usual magnificence and his usual dis
regard of rule. I do not mean to imply that he would not have hit
Governor Brown; on the contrary, he might have perforated him in a dozen places at once. But one thing is sure Governor Brown would have clasped his long white fingers around the pistol butt, adjusted it to
his gray eye, and set his bullet within the eighth of an inch of the place he had selected. I should not be surprised if he drew a diagram of

1358

GEORGIA AND GEORGIAN^

General Toombs, and marked off with square and compass the exact spot he wanted to hit. "*

LAST DUEL FOUGHT IN THE SOUTH

On August 10, 1889, perhaps the last duel fought in the southern states, according to the strict ethics of the field of honor, occurred in Alabama, near the Georgia state line, between J. R. Williamson and Patrick Calhoun, both of whom were captains of industry and railway magnates interested in southern rehabilitation. The former, since de ceased, was then president of the Rome, Chattanooga & Columbus Rail road, with headquarters in Rome; while the latter, a direct lineal descendant of the Great Nullifier of South Carolina, was at this time attorney for the West Point Terminal Company, with offices in Atlanta. Mr. Calhoun has since become a national figure, due to his connection with the great street railway system of San Francisco.
From an eye-witness to the affair, Mr. Gordon Noel Hurtel, who was present in the capacity of a newspaper correspondent, the following account of the duel has been obtained. Says this writer:
"During a certain investigation before a legislative committee at the Georgia state capitol, Mr. Calhoun made a remark which reflected, on the integrity of Captain Williamson, and Captain Williamson denounced the statement as a falsehood. Mr. Calhoun sent a letter by Captain Harry Jackson to the offending party, in which he demanded an apology. Captain Williamson referred the bearer to Captain Jack King. There was no retraction.
'' Cedar Bluff, where it was planned to fight the duel, can be reached, from Atlanta over the Rome and Decatur Railroad, via Rome, or over the Southern Railroad, via Anniston. It was strictly against the Code for newspaper reporters to attend a duel, and in the palmy days of the Code it was not difficult for duellists to rid themselves of too much publicity; but when the Calhoun-Williamson duel was fought not even the Field of Honor was too sacred for the staff correspondent.
"Mr. Calhoun, with his second, Captain Jackson, went to Cedar Bluff by the Anniston route, and were accompanied by Edward C. Bruffey, of 'The Constitution.' Captain Williamson, with his second, Ca,ptain King, went to Rome over the Western and Atlantic route, and they were accompanied by Dr. Hunter P. Cooper, surgeon; Judge Henry B. Tompkim, Ed. W. Barrett, of 'The Constitution,' now editor of 'The Birmingham Age-Herald,' and myself. When our party reached Rome we were on Captain Williamson's private car, and it was decided to rush the car through Rome to avoid any legal interference. Ed Barrett and I knew there was going to be an effort made to prevent our attending the duel, and so we hid on the rear end of the private car by crouching down on the steps on either side.
"The car was pulled rapidly through Rome, and Mr. Barrett and I went with it, but when we had gone some three miles west of Rome we were discovered and the car stopped. We were kindly but firmly ordered to get off. It was a hot day in the middle of summer and a

Vol. I, "Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1359

thick dust had been stirred up by the fast-moving train. Through the heat and dust Mr. Barrett and I had to walk three miles back to Rome. When we reached there we met Captain Seay, who assisted us in char tering a locomotive. We-found an engineer who knew the schedule on the Rome and Decatur Railroad, but we could hire no fireman. Mr. Barrett and I fired the engine and we were soon ready ,to pull out after Captain. Williamson's special car.
"We found the special side-tracked just outside of Rome because Captain Williamson's engineer could not operate a train over the R. & D. Just as we came up Captain Williamson was shooting a pistol at a tree. In order to secure our engineer the duelling party were forced to allow Mr. Barrett, Captain Seay and myself to become passengers in the special car. I remember that Mr. Barrett, still feeling deeply ag grieved at the way we had been treated, ordered a bottle of wine from the porter just to show that he felt perfectly at home on the special.
"We reached Cedar Bluff in due time. The regular train from Anniston, on which were Mr. Calhoun, Captain Jackson and Mr. Bruffey, had already been held up by a typical sheriff with a picturesque widebrimmed white hat, who swore that no darn train was going to move until he got Pat Calhoun. We spent about a half hour at Cedar Bluff, and as no one would point out Mr. Calhoun to the sheriff there did not seem any good prospect of moving. It was then that Mr. Bruffey stepped up to the sheriff and said, 'Well, there is no use in causing any more . trouble. I'm Pat Calhoun.' The sheriff grabbed his prisoner and was about to move off with him to the jail when a Cedar Bluff storekeeper remarked, 'That ain't Pat Calhoun, that's Ed Bruffey.' Even in that remote country village, Ed Bruffey was known.
'' Captain Jackson, calling me to one side, told me to inform the sheriff that the United States mail train was held up, and a very serious offense was being committed. The sheriff decided to let the mail train go on through to Rome, and we passed the word around so that all of the party which had been on the special boarded the regular train. Our engineer was told to follow us as soon as possible. We rode on the regular passenger some two or three miles east of Cedar Bluff and dis embarked. In a few minutes the special came up. It was decided to fight the duel then and there, and in a small open field a distance of fifteen paces was marked off and preparations made for the fight.
" 'Look out,' some one in our party yelled, 'here comes the sheriff
and his posse.'
"Sure enough, down a hill there came clattering some dozen men on horseback, and armed with Winchesters.
'' ' Everybody on the car,' Mr. Barrett cried out, and we were quickly aboard and soon speeding down the railroad still going in the direction of Rome and nearer to the State line. We must have gone some ten miles when the special was stopped and the party again disembarked. I do not know to this day whether we were in Alabama or Georgia. Objection was made by Mr. Calhoun'to Judge Tompkins going on the field, and the judge remained in the car. The train had stopped in a cut, and we had to walk about fifteen yards to reach a level place, and this was found to the left of the railroad and about a hundred feet
therefrom.

1360

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

"Fifteen steps were paced off and Mr. Calhoun was placed facing the west, and Captain Williamson facing the east. The sun at that time was just descending below the horizon and the skies and woods were flooded with a golden light.
'' It was discovered that the box of cartridges had been left on the car, and I was sent back after them. I opened the box with my knife and handed it to Captain Jackson. The pistols which had been agreed upon were the new improved hammerless Smith & Wesson, and each party was to have five shots. Right here it might be mentioned that Captain "Williamson was under the impression that the five shots were to be continuous. Captain King loaded Captain Williamson's weapon and placed it in his hand. Captain Jackson, after having slipped one cartridge into Mr. Calhoun's pistol, could not make the cylinder revolve. Mr. Bruffey volunteered to assist and, taking the pistol from Captain Jackson's hand, began to load it. Everything was so deathly still that the rustling of a leaf sounded like the rumbling of a train, when sud denly there rang out a sharp report
"Bang! " 'There,' exclaimed Mr. Bruffey, 'I have shot my finger,off.' "Dr. Cooper offered to bind up the wound, but Mr. Bruffey, using his handkerchief to stop the hemorrhage, placed his hand against a sapling and said: " 'Don't worry about me, gentlemen, go on with the duel.' "When all was in readiness the command was given by Captain King. Both pistols were raised and several sharp reports rang out. Captain Williamson had fired all five of his shots and none had taken effect. Mr. Calhoun had fired only one shot and still had four in reserve. " 'Now, Captain Williamson,' said Mr. Calhoun, 'I have four balls left, and I demand that you retract the insult you offered me.' "Captain Williamson called to his second, Captain King, but Captain Jackson drew a pistol from his pocket, stating that he would be forced to shoot any person who moved upon the field. "To his antagonist, Captain Williamson then said: " ' I have no shots left and you have four. You will have to fire them.' "Mr. Calhoun, after hesitating a few moments, called.to his second, Captain Jackson. But at this point, Captain Seay stepped forward and said that under Captain Jackson's own ruling no one ought to move. Captain Jackson admitted this to be correct, whereupon Mr. Calhoun, facing Captain Williamson, said: '' ' Sir, I have your life in my hands, but I will say to you now that I meant no reflection on your character by my remark before the legis lative committee, and, saying this, I fire my shots into the air.' The four shots were so fired. Captain Williamson then said to Mr. Calhoun, 'Since you have made your statement, I gladly retract what I said to you.' All parties shook hands and boarded the train for Rome, where the special was coupled to a train for Atlanta, and so ended without bloodshed what promised to be a fatal encounter."

But the Code Duello has passed,... There is not a state in the Union nor a country on the globe in which the practice has not been con demned by public sentiment, crystallized into forms of law; and even

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1361

in France, where the custom originated, its expiring gasp has at last been heard. On this side of the water it has slept the sleep of the dead for a score of years; and, except in the literature of a former time, its baleful effect upon our civilization is no longer seen or felt. In some respects, it was not an unmixed evil. It made men observant of the proprieties of speech, knowing full well the responsibility which attached to words. It protected the weak against the strong; and it safeguarded the honor of woman. There was no place for cowardice under a code which put an iron emphasis upon manly virtue and which served to revive, in many of its finer phases, the heroic age of knighthood. But, when everytihng to the credit of duelling has been said and written, it still remains that for sheer destructiveness, its only rivals in the world's modern life have been pestilence and war. No arithmetic can count the graves it has dug, compute the hopes of happiness it has dashed to the ground, or number the hearthstones over which it has hung the pall of a premature desolation. But the Fates have kindly intervened. With remorseless irony it has come to -pass that, for this writer of epitaphs, an epitaph has at last been written; that, for this insatiate archer, there has come at length an arrow whose point has found the pulsing heartcenter of life; and that, goaded by the nightmare of its own hideous dreams, this murderous custom has at last fallen underneath its own fire on the field of honor.*

WHEN GKADY'S .TIDE TURNED

The decisive moments of life are seemingly ofttimes associated with the most trivial events. Whatever may have put it into the head of Mr. Grady, in the spring of 1876, to try his fortunes in the great City of New York, instead of accepting an offer of editorial work in Wilmington, North Carolina, it is certain that a change of mind which the young editor experienced almost at the last moment colored the current and .changed the channel of his whole subsequent career in journalism. Nor did the purchase of a railroad ticket, in the Atlanta depot, at this partic ular time, mean less to the whole American people than it did to this obscure knight of the pen, who was destined to become the foremost orator of the New South and to die "literally loving a nation into peace."
Success in life is ofttimes only the long delayed climax which comes after repeated disappointments and failures; and brilliant as the career of Mr. Grady was to be in newspaperdom, it was grounded upon finan cial disasters. One reverse followed another, until he found himself reduced from comparative wealth to relative want. But fortune must first test her favorites. It was somewhat in the adventurous spirit of the knight-errant that he set out for Gotham, but success was much nearer at hand than he anticipated. This is the account which Mr. Grady himself gives of this eventful trip to New York:
"After forcing down my unrelish,ed breakfast on the morning of my arrival in New York I went out on the sidewalk in front of the Astor House and gave a bootblack twenty-five cents, one-fifth of which was to pay for shining my shoes and the balance was a fee for the privi-

* Vol. II, '' Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

1362

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

lege of talking to him. I felt that I would die if I did not talk to somebody.
"Having stimulated myself at that doubtful fountain of sympathy, I went across to the Herald office, arid the managing editor was good enough to admit me to his sanctum. It happened that just at that time several of the Southern States were holding constitutional conventions.
"The Herald manager asked me if I knew anything about politics. I replied that I knew very little about anything else. 'Well, then,' said he, 'sit at this desk and write me an article on State Conventions in the South.' "With these words he tossed me a pad and left me alone in the room. When my taskmaster returned, I had finished the article and was leaning back in my chair with my feet on the desk. 'Why, Mr. Grady, what is the matter?' asked the managing editor. 'Nothing,' I replied, 'except that I am through.' 'Very well,' he said, 'leave your copy on the desk, and if it amounts to anything, I will let you hear from me. Where are you stopping 1?' I replied, 'At the Astor House.'
'' Early next morning, before getting out of bed I rang for a bellboy and ordered The Herald. I actually had not strength enough to get up and dress myself until I could see whether or not my article had been used. I opened The Herald with trembling hand, and when I saw that 'State Conventions in the South' was on the editorial page I fell back on the bed, buried my face in the pillow and cried like a child. When I went back to The Herald office that day, the managing editor received me cordially and said: 'You can go back to Georgia, Mr. Grady, and consider yourself in the employ of The Herald.' "

Exulting over his commission as southern correspondent of the New York Herald, Mr. Grady lost no time in returning to Atlanta to take up his work. On his arrival he found that another stroke of good luek awaited him. On the staff: of the Constitution an editorial vacancy had occurred while Mr. Grady was in New York; and Capt. Evan P. Howell, who was then managing editor, of the paper, being led to believe that Mr. Grady was just the man to fill this vacancy, offered him the place.
Since there was no clash between his duties as editor and his duties as correspondent, but rather perfect adjustment and mutual helpful ness, he accepted the proffered editorial desk and entered upon his bril liant career of usefulness in the service of this great southern news paper.*

How GRADY PLAYED CROMWELL

Henry W. Grady did the most audacious thing on record in the legis lative history of Georgia, when he marched upon the capitol, at the head of a regiment of rampant democrats, in the fall of 1884, and adjourned the Legislature of Georgia for the purpose of celebrating the election of Mr. Cleveland.
On account of the uncertainty of the vote in New York State, the result of the election, it will be remembered, was held in abeyance for several days. The momentous issue depended upon the outcome of the

* Knight's " Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," Vol. II.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1363

official count, and the barest majority was sufficient to swing the gigantic pendulum. The whole country was on tip-toe with excitement.
At last the good news was flashed over the wires that New York State was safely democratic, making Grover Cleveland the undisputed choice of the electoral college for President.
The opportunity of celebrating the first real and recognized victory of the democratic party since the war was not lost in any part of the South; and bonfires and torchlights were everywhere kindled in honor of the great political event. But Atlanta was perhaps the reddest spot on the whole map.
Mr. Grady was the first man to get the news. He was the managing editor of the Constitution, and was seated at his desk when the message came. Up he bounced from his chair, like one possessed, and began to stir about the office in hot haste. He lost no time in spreading the alarm.
First he ordered out the Constitution's little cannon, kept for pur poses of this kind, and gave the signal to fire. Next he called up the chief of .the fire department and caused the fire bells to be rung with furious clamor; and the fire bells soon started the steam whistles on numberless locomotives, and at last the factories for miles around the city caught the joyful contagion and helped to swell the chorus.

But another bright idea seized Mr. Grady. Rushing out upon the street, he soon mustered together a band of unterrified democrats, num bering perhaps two hundred; and, putting himself at the head of this fearless column, he marched, banner in hand, toward the state capitol, where the Legislature of Georgia was in session.
On reaching the door of the House of Representatives, he brushed with cyclonic violence past the sergeant-at-arms, who was too aston ished to offer any show of resistance, and, planting himself in the center of the main aisle, before. the speaker's desk, he exclaimed, in trumpet Jtones:
'' Mr. Speaker! A message from the American people!" Lucius M. Lamar, speaker pro tern., one of the most rigid parliamen tarians, but also one of the most enthusiastic democrats, was in the chair. He realized at once what the invasion meant, and losing sight of his official obligation in his excess of democratic joy, he replied: "Let the message be received."
Thereupon Mr. Grady marched boldly to the speaker's desk, and, taking the gavel from the hands of the astonished presiding officer, rapped sternly for silence in the hall. When order was restored, he said:
"In the name of Grover Cleveland, President-elect of the United States, I declare this body adjourned."
As the hammer fell, there followed such an earthquake of enthusiasm as had never before shaken the walls of the state capitol. In the wild delirium of the moment, members leaped upon their desks, and hats and voices rose in one mighty upheaval toward the ceiling. Legislative for malities were forgotten. Important resolutions- were left upon the clerk's desk, and the day's session ended amid clamorous confusion.

THE OLD Q-BADY HOME IN ATHENS

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1365

Such ecstatic'moments are rare in the history of commonwealths. It was not until the excitement was all over, that calmer pulse-beats caused the lawmakers of Georgia to reflect upon the boldness of Mr. Grady's conduct, and then it flashed upon them that the only precedent in history for the adjournment of a body of this character by an outsider, who possessed no authority of office, was to be found in the Puritan usurper, who, entering Westminster Hall with bayonets at his back, proceeded to disperse the Commons of England.
Four years later Mr. Grady was ready for another democratic cele bration. On the day of election, in 1888, the Constitution's little cannon was again dressed and loaded for action. -The ribbons fluttered gaily from the batteries. Everything s was tense with excitement.
But the news this time was of an altogether different tenor. Mr. Cleveland was defeated. There was no margin of uncertainty no ground for hope. It was in the nature of a ground swell for Mr. Harrison. So the expected ceremonies were called off.
With humorous good nature aglow on the keen edge of his disap pointment, Mr. Grady smiled. The shock was severe. He fully anticipated success. But he was not to be dismayed by failure; and, drawing a pencil from his pocket, he scribbled upon a sheet of paper, which he placed over the cannon's mouth, this brave sentiment of self-repression, caught from one of the hymns of Charles Wesley:
'' A charge to keep I have.'' *

GRADY'S WIT AND HUMOR

Grady was charmingly Hibernian in his peculiar type of intellect.

Though other strains of blood united in his veins and brought to his

character the mingled contributions of many climes, his racial kinship

to old Tom Moore was always strikingly in evidence. It was not only

perfectly patent to the most casual acquaintance that he had scaled the

castle tower in Ireland and kissed the celebrated wonder called the

Blarney Stone, but, through all his fluent and florid English, there

rippled the Lakes of Killarney and echoed the harpstrings of Tara. But

along with the minstrelsy of the Dublin bard, he also inherited Sheridan's

wit; arid, in fact, Attic salt was the most pungent characteristic of the

man who lacked, in the fullest measure, neither Burke's oratory nor

Emmet's patriotism. Asked on one occasion why he was so glib of

speech, he replied:

'

'

'' Because my father was an Irishman and my mother was a woman.''

This was a typical Gradyism. His retorts were like sheet lightning,

luminous and sudden, but invariably harmless. He was rarely known

to wound the sensibilities even of an inveterate enemy by concealing

under his repartee either the stiletto or the wasp. Except toward the

very last, he wrote few editorials and made few speeches in which he

failed to indulge his mirth-loving propensities. Though he possessed the

happy faculty of investing the most drowsy subject with an interest

which few could approximate, it almost required the lash of compulsion

to drive him into writing upon topics which either forbade or restricted

* Consult the author's work, "Beminiscences of Famous Georgians," Vol. I.
Vol. Ill--7

1366

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the indulgence of playful humor; and, in this respect, lie was not unlike the mountain stream which grows sullen when forced to loiter in deep pools, but which fairly lifts arcadian rainbows when allowed to ripple on the rocks.

As long as he lived the great orator was given to boyish pranks. Per haps the most amusing of all his practical jokes was the one which he perpetrated upon an old merchant, of Rome, Georgia, who refused to advertise in the Commercial, Mr. Grady's paper. This happened years ago, when the future peacemaker was serving his novitiate in the news paper ranks. Returning to the office after his fruitless interview, he wrote an advertisement which he handed to the foreman, calling for cats of all kinds to be delivered next morning at the merchant's place of business.
Now it happened that the old man was not partial to cats. He dis liked them. Of this antipathy most of his fellow townsmen, of course, knew nothing; but all who read the newspaper squib wondered why any sane man should be advertising for cats. Nevertheless the advertisement was answered. Cats of all kinds were brought to the old merchant's door. There were black cats and white cats, and gray cats and spotted cats, cats male and cats female, cats with families and cats without families cats, cats, cats. The old man was completely overcome with astonishment. But he was worse than bewildered. He was mad.
Just then Grady came up. The arch-conspirator wanted to see what was happening in the neighborhood. He stood before the irate merchant like an apostle with an aureole, the very picture of innocence. But the old man was not deceived by the evangelical looks of the offender.
"Sir," said he, glaring at him like the Bengal member of the cat tribe, "you did this!"
"Yes," returned the young editor, now pleading guilty to the soft impeachment. "You see it pays to advertise in the right paper."
Still the old man was not appeased. He eschewed'profanity, but he gave the culprit his choice of all the names in the cat family, from the caterpillar to the cataract. It was an exciting day in Wall Street. But, when calmer moments came, the old merchant began to realize the wisdom of judicious advertising. Moreover, he became Grady's fast friend, and he continued'down to the close of his life to be the most enthusiastic admirer of the brilliant Georgian. But he never forgot the experience of this eventful forenoon, and ever afterwards in order to make the old man laugh until the tears stood in his eyes, it was only necessary to broach the subject of cats.

Reverting to', the famous New England banquet speech which, in the brief space of twenty minutes, laid the foundations for an established national fame, Mr. Grady had hardly caught into his oratorical sails the first breeze from the Boston Harbor before the jester was at work. But nothing could have served to put him en 'rapport with his cultured audience more promptly or more completely than the apropos joke which he told of the old preacher who was the victim of mischievous urchins. For he wanted the Puritan banqueters to put faith in the message which he was .about to deliver, and he sought to encourage this bestowal of

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1367

confidence by narrating the most wonderful exhibition of faith on record
since the trial of Abraham on Mount Moriah.
'' There was an old preacher once,'' said he, '' who told some boys of
the Bible lesson he was going to read in the morning. The boys finding the place, glued together the connecting pages. The next morning he read on the bottom of the page: '"When Noah was one. hundred and twenty years old he took unto himself a wife who was' turning the page ' one hundred and forty cubits long, forty cubits wide, built of
gopher wood and covered with pitch inside and out.' He was naturally puzzled at this. He read it again, verified it, and then said: 'My friends, this is the first time I ever met this in the Bible, but I accept it as an evidence of the assertion that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.' "

HENRY W. GBADY MONUMENT, ATLANTA
General Sherman was probably the most surprised as well as the most amused man at the banquet when the orator in one of his rhetorical somersaults suddenly landed upon the famous soldier with the remark that people down in Georgia thought General Sherman an able man, but "kinder careless about fire." This droll comment was hardly articulated before the speaker had again changed his mood, and in the very next breath, which seemed to strike an J^olian harp-string, he hastened to observe that another brave and beautiful city had risen upon the ashes which he had left behind in 1864; that somehow Atlanta had managed to catch the sunshine into the brick and mortar of her homes and that within her walls not one ignoble prejudice or memory survived.
Grady's wit was always 'well pointed, and sometimes it was even more effective than tabulated statistics.in supporting the contentions of argument. Such was the case when, some few years before he died, he pointed out Georgia's industrial shortcomings. Another type of orator

1368

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

might have upbraided the state in terms of burning rebuke, and have wound up by saying, '' 0 Shame, where is thy blush 1 '' But Mr. Grady said:
"Once I attended an unusually sad funeral in Pickens county; the deceased, an unfortunate fellow of the one-gallus brigade, whose breeches struck him underneath the arm-pits. They cut through solid marble to make his grave; yet the little headstone they put above him came from Vermont. They buried him in the heart of a pine forest and yet the rude coffin was imported from Cincinnati. They buried him in touch with an iron mine, and yet the shovel they used was imported from Pittsburg. They buried him by the side of the best sheep-grazing coun try on earth, and yet the bands they used in lowering his body were brought from the North. The South furnished nothing for that funeral but the hole in the ground and the corpse. There they put him away and the clods rattled down upon him; and they buried him in a New York coat and a pair of shoes from Boston and a pair of breeches from Chicago and a shirt from Cincinnati, leaving nothing for him to carry into the next world with him to remind'Mm of the country for which he fought for four years but the chill of blood in his veins and the marrow in his bones."
The section of Georgia in "which the scene of this incident is laid is now one of the thriftiest portions of the state; and the marble quarries alone have produced an output of enormous wealth, furnishing the material for statehouse buildings and other palatial structures in various parts of the Union.

While in Boston on his last visit, Mr. Grady was the guest of the Bay State Club, and he spoke before this democratic body after deliv ering his great speech on the race problem before the Merchants Asso ciation. Capt. Evan P. Howell, his friend and partner, was with him at the time, and, in the course of his speech, he used Captain Howell as an illustration of what progress the South had made since the late unpleas antness.
"You may not believe it," said he, "but when my partner came out of the war he didn't have any breeches. That is an actual fact. "Well, his wife, one of the best women the Lord ever made, reared in the lap of luxury, took her old woollen dress which she had worn during the war and cut the treasured garment into pantaloons. She rigged him out again, and with five dollars in gold as his capital he went to work. He first scraped up boards enough from the ashes of his home- to put an humble roof over his head, and then he was ready for business. To show how he has prospered he has now three pairs of breeches with him and several pairs at home.''

Few writers have ever succeeded in describing the woebegone sensa tions of sea-sickness, but Mr. Grady is one of the small number to whom the palm must be awarded. He says that when he first saw the briny deep it was not his soul that leaped to his lips, but his breakfast, and that no one need ever tell him again that hell is a lake of fire and brimstone, it is a trip at sea without a self-acting stop-valve and a copper-bottom stomach. "I-do believe," he continues, "that if I had tied a eannonball

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1369

to a bread crumb and swallowed them both the bread crumb would have come lip bringing the cannonball with it in short order." At last he says it became a sort of dismal joke to send anything down. Most voy agers get over the malady after the first hard day's experience; but not so with this long sufferer. He says that he lay for three days like an old volcano, desolate and haggard, but with an exceedingly active crater. Recalling the wonderful descriptive powers which men of literary genius have possessed, he says that he knows of no one" whose yawping verse could lend itself readily to the celebration of sea-sickness unless it be Walt Whitman.*

ANECDOTES OF JUDGE WILLIAM H. UNDERWOOD

One of the most celebrated wits of the Georgia bench was Judge Wil liam H. Underwood, of Rome. The great jurist, when engaged .in the active practice of his profession, was once arguing with extreme earnest ness a point of law which was vital to his case, and he had just com'menced to read a citation from Blackstone when the judge interrupted him by saying that his mind was fully made up to decide the question adversely, and he did not wish to hear from him further on the subject.
'' May it please the Court,'' said Judge Underwood, '' you will surely allow me to finish. I am not citing authority to convince the Court,, but only to show what an ignoramus Blackstone must have been."

Once an opponent taxed the judge with being a federalist. It nettled him somewhat and he replied testily:
" If I am a Federalist,'' said he, '' then the two national parties are Federalists and Fools, and I have never heard you accused of being a Federalist."

Judge Underwood was provoked at one time with the people of Elbert on account of some political issue on which they were not in agreement. It was after he had settled in Rome for the practice of law. Said he:
"There is'an honest ignorance about the people of Elbert which is really amusing."
It chanced that one of his old neighbors from Elbert heard of the remark, and, meeting him on the street soon afterwards, told him. that he ought to take it back.
"Well," returned the judge, "I will take part of it back, and since the county voted for Buchanan, I will take back the word honest."

After stopping for the night with Charter Campbell, at Madison, the old judge drew out his pocketbook the next morning to pay the bill.
"Do you think I really owe you three dollars for boarding me and my horse Cherokee for just one night?" he inquired.
'' Yes, judge,'' replied the landlord; " it is the usual rate.'' "Well, Mr. Campbell," returned the judge, "if the poet who wrote, 'Man wants but little here below, nor wants that little long,' had stopped

*"Vol. II, " Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

1370

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

over night with you, he would have written, 'Man has but little here below, nor has that little long.' "
But Judge Underwood promptly paid the bill. His horse was one of the finest in the country and he was more particular about Cherokee when he stopped at the different places in going the rounds of his circuit than he was about himself.
Judge Andrews says that as long as he knew him he never forsook horseback and saddlebags for buggies or railroads.

Living near the Alabama line, Judge Underwood, during the latter part of his life, frequently practiced in the Alabama courts. One day an upstart young lawyer who had just been admitted to the bar taunted him with being ignorant of the law of Alabama. "What you call the law," observed the youth, "may do for Georgia, but such statutes are not of force in Alabama.''
Now Judge Underwood had long been opposed to the arbitrary method of dealing with the Indians in Georgia, and this experience gave him an arrow. '' You are mistaken,'' said he, '' Georgia takes the liberty of extending her laws over all the adjacent savage tribes, and what con cerns the young man personally still more, she either hangs or jails, with very little evidence or ceremony, all the young savages who show her the least disrespect."

On one occasion Judge Underwood was employed in a lawsuit at Rome and Colonel Jones, an able lawyer with a weakness for politics, was the counsel for the other side. Colonel Jones had recently changed his party affiliations, much to the surprise of his friends throughout the state; and this gave the point to the joke which followed.
In the course of the trial, Judge Underwood was questioning an old lady on the witness stand, when, irritated by the ordeal, the old lady became quite turbulent. She wildly gesticulated in every direction and the judge, who was standing near, seemed to be in danger of sustaining a blow on his intellectual frontier.
'' Take care of your wig, Judge,'' exclaimed Colonel Jones. At first the judge was disconcerted, thinking that perhaps his wig was really out of place, but instantly he regained his composure and turning his batteries upon Colonel Jones, he replied with telling effect: "Well, Colonel Jones, in this free country, a man has just as much right to change his hair as to change his politics."

Judge Underwood was an ardent whig of the Henry Clay type, but his son, John W. H. Underwood, believed in occasional variations. One day a friend asked him :
"Judge, what are John's politics?" "Really," said the judge, "I can't tell you. I haven't seen the boy since breakfast."

But while John was frequently changing his politics, it must be remembered that the period was one of great upheavals in party organi zations, and in the course of time John became politically even more dis tinguished than his father.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1371

Early in his career he applied to the old gentleman for a letter of

recommendation to Gov. George W. Crawford, with whom he knew the

former to be on terms of personal friendship. The letter was readily

given; and, putting it in his pocket, John set out for Milledgeville.

When eventually opened, the document read as follows:

"My dear friend: This will be handed to you by my son, John. He

has the greatest thirst for an_ office with the least capacity to fill one,

of any boy you ever saw. Yours truly,

WM. H. UNDERWOOD."

Seated on the front veranda of the old Atlanta Hotel, one of the famous ante-bellum establishments, Judge Underwood was quietly con versing when an elegantly dressed gentleman, whom he chanced to recog nize as one of the most cultured men in the state, passed by.
Some cynical wag in the crowd, observing the handsome garb worn by the gentleman, observed with borrowed wit that if he could buy him for what he was worth and sell him for what he thought he was worth, he would never be out of cash.
Judge Underwood instantly spoke up. "Well," said he, "that beats all. I have frequently seen a gentleman offering to sell a jackass, but this is the first time I ever heard of a
jackass offering to sell a gentleman."

During one of the great know-nothing campaigns, back in the '50s, a drummer recommended to Judge Underwood a certain tavern at which he sometimes stopped, telling that it was an up-to-date know-nothing
house. "Well," said Judge Underwood, "if the landlord knows less than
Jim Toney, who runs the other hotel, I'll be afraid to risk myself with
him."

The judge was once holding court during the fall of the year in what was known as the Cherokee District of North Georgia. Chestnuts and chinquapins were just beginning to ripen .in the woods, and lawyers, jurors, witnesses, constables, and spectators were all eating them in the courtroom, entirely forgetful of the proprieties.
Anxious to preserve something like decorum in the temple of justice and tired of the ceaseless cracking of the shells, the judge finally ob
served : "Gentlemen, I am glad to see that you have such good appetites.
You are certainly in no danger of starvation as long as chestnuts and chinquapins last. However, I have one request to make of those who compose the juries. I am unable, in the present condition of things, to distinguish one body from another. I must, therefore, beg the grand jurors to confine themselves" to chestnuts and the petty jurors to chin
quapins. ''

Several years before his death, while holding court at Marietta, Judge Underwood, in conversation with an old friend, facetiously remarked:
'' General, when my time arrives, I am coming to Marietta to die.'' "Good," replied the general, "I am glad you are so well pleased
with Marietta."

1372

GEOBGIA AND GEORGIANS

"It isn't that," came the quick rejoinder. "It isn't that. It's be cause I can leave it with less regret than I can any other town in Georgia."
This was only in jest. He really liked the little town at the base of the Kennesaw. But the wish of the old jurist was gratified. He died in Marietta. Arriving one day on the noon train, he. was taken violently ill soon after reaching town, and in less, than half an hour the life of the genial old judge, like an extinguished sunbeam, was no more, and the world which he left behind him was darker.*

ANECDOTES OP JOHN W. H. UNDERWOOD

But scarcely inferior to the elder was the younger Underwood. Judge Joel Branham, of Borne, Georgia, in a splendid paper published in vol ume 83, Georgia Eeports, has preserved a number of delightful anecdotes of this noted jurist. Says Judge Branham: In the latter part of his life, Judge Underwood was subject to periods of mental depression, but it was an easy task to those who knew him well to lift him out of these despondent spells. As a rule he was a cheerful man. His store of anec dotes was rich and varied. No man could tell them with better effect than he could; and a brief reference to the main points of a few of the stories he used to tell, I trust will not be amiss.
On the trial of one of his cases before Judge Dougherty, Hon. Cincinnatus Peeples, his opposing counsel, represented the defendant. A witness for the plaintiff had established the case. Consequently it was the object of Judge Peeples, in the cross-examination, to make him con tradict himself, so as to destroy the effect of his testimony. The exami nation was as follows:
'' Mr. Witness, were you not drinking on that day ?'' "Yes, I had taken a drink or two." "Now, were you not drunk at that time?" "No, squire; I had taken a drink or two; I was just about as I am now." "Well, how are you now?" '' Tolerably well, I thank you; how do you do yourself t'' After the laughter which followed this sally had subsided and Peeples had rallied again, the examination continued. "Well, Mr. Witness, might you not have forgotten a good deal that occurred at that time?" "Oh yes, squire." "I thought so," exclaimed Peeples, with evident delight. "Hold on, squire, I might have forgotten a good deal, but I haven't sworn to anything I forgot."

On the trial of a defendant in Habersham County for assault and battery, a tall and somewhat muscular, but handsome woman, was the state's witness. In describing the battery, she testified that the defend ant threw his left arm around the prosecutor's neck and dealt him several successive blows in the face with his right fist. Gen. Andrew
* Vol. I, "Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1373

Hansell, who represented the defendant, after a vain effort by crossexamination to confuse the witness and make her contradict herself, walked up to the stand and said:
'' Now, show me how he did it." She quickly threw her left arm around his neck and pounded him well in the face with her right fist, to his great surprise and to the merriment
of the bystanders.

On the prosecution of a defendant for selling liquor in the prohibi tion County of Polk, the defense was that the sale was made on the prescription of a physician for illness. When the paper was put in evi dence, it called for a quart, and was given by a gentleman who loved
the article himself. "Let me see the paper," said the judge. It was handed to him, an,d he read it aloud from the bench: '' Let
the bearer have one quart of whisky for sickness. John Johnson, M. D." "Yes," said the judge, "M. ,D. in the morning means mighty dry,
and in the evening it means mighty drunk."

The judicial anger of Judge A. R. Wright was aroused on one occa sion by the quashing of several successive bills of indictment, on the motion of Judge Underwood, for hog-stealing. Finally, the case appear ing to be strong on its merits against the defendant, the judge took the solicitor to his room and aided him in drawing a good bill. When the grand jury returned the bill in open court and the statement of the case was read, the solicitor, with a pause and a sad intonation of voice,
said: "It is no bill, may it please your Honor.'' "What," said Judge Wright, "no bill?" Judge Underwood arose and calmly suggested to the court that some
of the greatest lawyers in this country and in England had decided that a grand jury had the right to find '' no bill.''
"Take your seat," said Judge Wright. "Bless my soul, what a
country.'' Underwood replied: '' May it please your Honor, I think I see the
hand of Providence moving in this case for my client's delivery." "The finger of Providence!" exclaimed the judge. "I think I can
see the finger of John W. H. Underwood."

An ambitious individual of Rabun, who had never been beyond the limits of the county and who had no idea of geography, on one occasion asked Judge Underwood whether there was more than one road to Liver pool. The judge, being always ready for fun, told him there was not.
'' I thought so,'' he said; '' now if this country was to get into a war with Liverpool, our salt supply would be cut off and we would perish. I am therefore in favor of building another road to Liverpool.''
The judge concurred with him, and by the aid of Judge Dougherty and other members of the bar, induced him to announce for the Legis lature on this platform and to speak on the subject at the courthouse the next day; and then he posted Jordan Gaines, a very large, tall, awkward,

1374

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

long-limbed man, to oppose him and reply to his speech. Quite a crowd assembled to hear them; and it was on this occasion that the memorable and oft-quoted sentence was uttered by Gaines:
Squatting down almost to the floor, extending his long, bony arms and fingers, and whirling himself around, he said:
"Mr. Chairman, I always did despise to see a man side-wiping around and about, trying to get himself into the authography of a little office."

In an ejectment case, Judge Underwood pleaded the statute of limi tations and struggled for a long time to get a witness named Lance to fix accurately the date when the adverse holding occurred. Judge Wright grew impatient and took charge of the witness himself.
"Can't you remember some occasion, such as the election of a Presi dent or Governor, or some other important event," said the judge, "by which you can fix the date?"
After a brown study, Lance's face lit up and he said: "Yes, I can, judge. It was in January of the- same year that John Butt wintered March Addington 's bull.''

I have been greatly amused at his recital of the charge of Judge Dennis F. Hammond to the grand jury on carrying concealed weapons. He described him as a large man, with broad, stooping shoulders, large head and face, fair skin and blue eyes, with a clear and sonorous voice, and when excited, an exceedingly fluent speaker. "Gentlemen of the jury," he said, "when you see a man going about the country loaded down with dirks, bowie knives, sword canes, pistols, guns, blunderbusses and matters and things of like nature, kind, character, and description, gentlemen, you may set it down that he is white-livered and has a streak of cowardice running down his back-bone as wide as a fence-rail; and the court charges you, gentlemen of the jury, that such is the law of the land."

A colored school teacher and preacher named Ferguson was con victed in Chattooga County Superior Court for carrying concealed weapons. J. I. Wright, who was appointed to defend him, put his case on the ground that the pistol had no hammer, and that the school chil dren had notified the teacher than they had intended to bar the doors of the schoolhouse and turn him out the next day, and that he carried the pistol to defend himself. When the verdict was rendered, Hon. A. R. Wright, who was present, stepped up to the bench and with his hand to his mouth, in a low breath, said:
"Turn the water on him, Judge." "Stand up, Ferguson," said the judge. "When your case was called you were unable to employ a lawyer. You came here without a cent, except the African's, with your hair parted in the middle, a hymn book in your coat pocket and a six-shooter in the seat of your pants. You have been engaged, you say, in educating the colored youth of this coun try and in preaching the gospel. If you are ever saved, it will be by grace, and by amazing grace at that. It is the judgment of the court that you pay a fine of $100 and all costs, and be imprisoned in the chaingang twelve months; and may the Lord have mercy on your soul."

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1375

The next case called was one of larceny against a negro woman. In passing sentence the judge said:
"And here you are, hired as a cook, like the balance of your class, with intent to steal. You begin with a dish-rag and wind up with a sack of flour or a ham. I send you to the chaingang for twelve months, that you may keep company with Brother Ferguson and console him.''

Those who were present and heard his remarks when Hon. R. A. Denny, John R. Towers, Jr., Paul D. "Wight and James Glenn, when they were admitted to the bar at Rome, in July, 1875, can never forget them. Sitting upon the bench, with his hat on, as was his usual custom, with
his legs crossed, shaking his right foot, he said:
"Now, young gentlemen, I want to say a thing or two to you. You have passed a better examination than most young men who are admitted to the bar. You think you know a good deal. It is a great mistake; you don't know anything. If you are ever of any account, you will be sur prised at your present ignorance. Don't get too big for your breeches. Go around to the justice courts and try to learn something. Don't be afraid. You will speak a great deal of nonsense, but you will have one consolation, but few will know it. The great mass of mankind will take it for sound sense. Don't be alarmed at the wise-looking judge. He doesn't know a thing. He's a dead beat on knowledge. Stand to the rack, fodder or no fodder, and you will see daylight after awhile.
"The community generally suppose that you will be rascals. There is no absolute necessity that you should be. You may be smart without being tricky. Stick to your profession, study hard, work hard, be hon est, do your duty, and collect your fees. You are dismissed with the sincere- hope of the court that you will escape a calamity which befalls many lawyers, and not make asses of yourselves."

Judge Underwood used to say, with a touch of irony, that the Su preme Court differed from the courts of lower jurisdiction only in having the last sweep at the law. In reply to the remark of a client who was greatly troubled over a suit against him for his property in Rome and who observed that there ought not to be any lawyers, he said: "I can give you a certificate that there are not very many.'' Another clever wit ticism of the judge was that a cash fee always quickened his -appre hension.
When he was in the nineteenth year of his age, he was present when the treaty was made with the Cherokee Indians, whereby they agreed to cede the remainder of the Georgia lands; and, after 12 o'clock at night he copied for Mr. Schermerhorn a copy of the treaty to be sent to Gover nor Carroll, the other commissioner.
On the 18th day of July, 1888, he was at his office, in the City of Rome, in usual health, engaged in a conversation with several gentlemen, among them Maj. Charles H. Smith, his former law partner, and Judge T. J. Simmons, who was then on a visit to Rome. After the conversation, in which he joined, indulging in anecdote, he left for the bank to attend to some business matter there. On his way, he stopped and sat down in the store-room of Capt. R. G. Clark. In a moment, swift as an arrow, came the silent messenger, and painlessly, without a word of warning,

1376

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

bore his spirit away. And so a cloud came over the windows of the soul, and the veil which hides this from the unseen world fell between us.*

GEORGIA'S MODERN PROMETHEUS

Calling down the fire of heaven has often been the invocation of im passioned rhetoric. But not since the miraculous flames were kindled upon Mount Carmel has it been more completely the accomplishment of literal fact than when Gov. James Jackson, in front of the old capitol building at Louisville, drew down the solar heat to consume the iniqui tous records of the Yazoo fraud. The story of Prometheus is only Grecian fable, but the story of Governor Jackson is uncontroverted fact. To fight this monstrous iniquity, Governor Jackson resigned his seat in the United States Senate and entered the State Legislature as a member from Chatham.
Strange as it may seem, some of the most influential men of Georgia were involved in the Yazoo speculation, and, by taking such a course, Governor Jackson invited the deadliest feudal animosities. Exactly how the Yazoo lands were bounded is immaterial, but they occupied the upper belt of territory included between the Chattahoochee and the Mississippi rivers. Pour separate companies were organized for the purpose of engineering the deal: the Georgia, the Georgia-Mississippi, the Upper Mississippi, and the Tennessee. The veiled purpose behind this scheme is said to have been the formation of an empire along what was then the western frontier. Even so illustrious a patriot as Patrick Henry lent the weight of his great name to one of the companies organized in Virginia; but like a number of others he regarded the matter purely in the light of a real estate transaction. It involved 35,000,000 acres of Georgia's west ern lands, for which the sum to be paid was $500,000. But this was before the time of railroads, when population was scarce and when wild lands were cheap.
But it cannot be denied that in railroading the measure through the State Legislature gross corruption was employed. Governor Mathews;i who then filled the chair of state, was at first strongly opposed to the Yazoo purchase; but even the chief executive was eventually won by the persuasive arts of the speculators. Two of his sons are said to have acquired an interest in the proposed deal. At any rate, he signed the famous act, in 1795. It is said that until the very last moment, how ever, the old governor hesitated. Finally he ordered his private secre tary, a man named Urquhart, to prepare a quill. Anxious to thwart the speculators, if possible, Urquhart first dipped the pen in oil, hoping that when the ink refused to flow the old governor might construe it as an omen. But the clever ruse failed to work.
Governor Jackson found the defect of the speculators a task for Her cules. But when the iniquitous act was finally rescinded, it was decided that a fire should be kindled in the public square for the purpose of con suming the infamous records, so that not a vestige of the fraud would be left to dishonor the statute books of Georgia. Various accounts of

* Condensed from a paper by Judge Joel Branham, in the "Georgia Eeports," Vol. 83.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1377

the incident have been handed down. One asserts' that when everything was ready for the igniting sparks there suddenly appeared in the midst of the crowd an old man with snowy hair and beard who declared that, feeble as he was, he had come to see an act of public justice performed; and drawing from his bosom a sun-glass, he declared that fire from heaven should be employed to consume the papers. It is said that just as soon as the fire, was kindled the old man vanished as suddenly as he had first appeared.
But, eliminating the hypothetical elements, the fact remains that the iniquitous records were fired by means of solar heat, and that the prin cipal actor in the scene was James Jackson. Gov. Jared Irwin, who signed the rescinding act, was also present, with other members of the Legislature. Of course, there was no end to the litigation which fol lowed, and finally in 1802 Georgia ceded her western lands to the United States Government. Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, who served Math Governor Jackson in the Federal Senate, says that the wounds which the latter received in numberless duels caused by his relentless prosecution of the Yazoo speculators undoubtedly hastened the old governor's death. He died at the age of forty-nine. Thus allied, in double similitude, to the ancient Tishbite, he not only drew down the fire of heaven to consume the workings of iniquity, but he also rose to heaven in the flaming chariot which his zeal had furnished, to blaze on Georgia's burnished scroll like another splendid Mars.*
RECOLLECTIONS OF GOVERNOR TROUP
In person, Governor Troup was of the ordinary height, with light complexion, blue eyes, and sandy hair. His carriage was erect, and his step slow and measured. He might have passed for a military man any where ; and those who knew him best accorded to him military talents of a high order. The gravity of his mien, and the gutteral, almost solemn, tones of his voice, led strangers to suppose that his dignity partook of austerity; but this was not so. Reserved, even in boyhood, he was still open and affable with his associates; adding, early in life, a tinge perhaps of melancholy, to the native dignity which never forsook him. Perfect candor and the strictest truthfulness were eminent characteristics. AYhere principle was involved he was a stranger to the spirit of com promise.
His domestic life was embittered by the early and sudden death of his first wife; and afterwards by the prostration of health and death of the second, at a time when, amid the cares of office and the active engage ments of life, the weary heart looks for comfort and repose at home; and his declining years were saddened by the death of his older daughter, and the wreck of health of his only son. Nevertheless, he retained a degree of cheerfulness to the last, enjoying the social intercourse of friends at his secluded homestead; numbers of whom were attracted there, as well by the cordiality of his welcome and the simplicity of his manners, as by the amount of information he imparted, and the stores of political wis dom which he was ever ready to unlock.
To a vigorous intellect, he added the faculty of a sound judgment and

* Vol. I, "Eeminiseenees of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

1378

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the quality of an almost intuitive perception of the characters of men and the tendencies of measures. Whilst his firmness was conspicuous, his perfect purity of intention, and his disinterested zeal for the public good, were a standing rebuke to the timidity of the wavering politician, and the selfishness of the demagogue. "Well instructed in the principles of law, he was deeply read in history and was a thorough master of the English language. Whilst Governor Troup was not usually ranked with the great intellects of the day, there are those who believe that some of his writings will compare favorably with any of the political essays to which the theory of our federative system has given rise. As specimens of profound thought and of clear argumentation, they deserve to rank with the best treatises of any age. In what were considered his extreme views of the absolute sovereignty of the American states, Governor Troup was certainly in a minority; yet those who condemn his views have nowhere shown the fallacy of his reasoning, and every day's obser vation tends to confirm the truth of his apprehension of danger from the usurpations of the central government. Consequent upon his ardent temperament, Governor Troup's oratory, in the earlier portion of his life, was impassioned and vehement; but not open to the jeering crit icism of his enemies that he frothed at the mouth. In later life, his utterance, whether in public or in private, was slow, distinct and em phatic.

Few men were more careless of mere externals. In the matter of dress, he had little taste; and on this subject several amusing anecdotes are told. There is no doubt that, during the canvass for governor, before the Legislature of 1823, some of his supporters requested one of his most devoted friends to give him a hint, that the election would be lost, if he did not appear in better trim. The duty was delicately performed, and the wish of his friends was at once gratified. Something similar had occurred, in 1816, when he passed through Savannah to take his seat in the United States Senate. This did not proceed from parsimony, nor from the mere desire to appear eccentric. His clothes were usually of good quality, but often of the oddest colors and of the worst fit. liis peculiar and perhaps only fancy was for a blue coat with metal buttons, a buff vest, and a fur cap.
Whilst his habits were retiring, and most of his private life was spent on his plantations, yet it was usual for him to pass a portion of the warm season at Indian Springs, or some other w.atering-places in Georgia, Even at these places he exercised much on horseback. His principal diversions at home consisted in riding over his crops, in fishing and hunting, but more of his time was spent in reading. Possessed of an am ple fortune, he lived in abundance, if not in elegance, delighting in the society and conversation of friends. His memory of historical events is said to have been wonderful. No one can contemplate his executive career without awarding him administrative talents of the first grade. Add to all this an iron will and a resolution that quailed before no difficulty and no foe, and we have, if not the very model of a statesman, one at least who could not only inspire confidence in the. doubting but who could lead his countrymen through any crisis.
Concerning his religious views, little is known, beyond what is dis-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1379

closed in his messages and letters. -These show a deep reverence for the Supreme Being and a realizing sense of the pure and holy truths of the Christian religion. He made no public profession of faith; but it is evident that he was far removed from the taint of infidelity or skepti cism. By resolution of the General Assembly, adopted in 1857, a lifesize portrait of Governor Troup has been painted. It hangs opposite the portrait of Gen. John Clarke, by the president's chair, in the Senate of Georgia. It is said to be a lifelike delineation of the man, who was pronounced by a devoted and discriminating friend '' a Roman in feature and a Roman in soul.'' *

Governor Troup's father was an Englishman who, in his youth, was an officer in the Royal Navy. He married Catharine, the only daughter of Capt. John Melntosh, a brother of the eccentric Capt. Roderick Mclntosh, of Tory prominence in the Revolution, and a kinsman of Col. Lachlan Melntosh, one of the boldest of the patroits. Catharine Melntosh is said to have met her future husband on a visit to England. Mr. Troup, the elder, was at one time engaged extensively in mercantile operations, but afterwards became a planter. He was well-bred and fond of books. His death occurred at his home, on the Sapelo, in Melntosh County, where he lies buried. In addition to a daughter, there was born to Capt. John Melntosh a son, William, who became an Indian trader. The latter mar ried a chief's daughter and became the father of Gen. William Melntosh, the most prominent figure connected with the famous episode of the Creek Indian removal, and a martyr to his friendship for the whites. He was Governor Troup's first cousin.
Going back to Capt. John Melntosh, the governor's grandfather, he was attached at one time to the Army of West Florida, and in requital of his services was rewarded by the King of England with the grant of Melntosh Bluff, an extensive tract of land in what was afterwards the Territory of Alabama. Here, on the heights overlooking the Tombigbee River, Governor Troup was born, toward the close of the Revolution, in the year 1780. He was the second of six children. Governor Troup knew nothing whatever of his antecedents beyond the meager record kept by his father in the' family Bible, each entry in which was 'written in the most beautiful penmanship.
GOVERNOR TROUP's LAST DAYS
Shortly before the governor's death, a message from the overseer on his Mitchell plantation, in what is now Wheeler County, announced an unruly disposition on the part of a certain negro slave. With his faithful coachman, the aged governor was soon at the lower plantation, thirty-five miles away.
It is needless to say that proper chastisement broke the unruly spirit; however, cruel treatment of slaves was unknown on the Troup planta tions. On reaching the Mitchell place, fatigued by the hurried trip, the governor became ill, and five days brought the end. He was removed from his residence, nearby, long since decayed, and tenderly cared for at the home of Overseer Bridges, where he died April 26,1856. Smart Rob-

* Edward J. Harden, in the '' Life of George M. Troup.''

1380

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

erson, a colored slave, was mounted on a spirited young horse and dis patched to Glynn County to bear the sad tidings to Col. Thomas M. Forman, his son-in-law (husband of the eldest daughter, Florida, who died two years before). Before reaching his destination, the steed was overtaxed by his rider's haste and fell by the wayside. Faithful Smart, undaunted, pressed on on foot and delivered his message. Mad ison Moore, the coachman, with a vacant seat, returned post-haste to Valdosta for the younger daughter, Oralie,- and other members of the family.

With few members of the family present, preparations were made for the burial. A coffin was made from wide boards taken from the porch of a new home of Peter Morrison. The plank having been laid but unnailed, were easily removed by willing hands. This enclosure was con structed at the workshop of John Morrison, two miles from the Troup residence. His handiwork was aided by his son, Daniel, together with the assistance of Duncan Buchanan. The nails were wrought by Peter Morrison, the blacksmith. The colonel was a regular patron of this little shop. On the lid of the box brass tacks formed this humble tribute: "An Honest Heart." The venerable statesman was enshrouded in a winding sheet (the custom of the day) prepared by Mrs. Elizabeth Mor rison, whose skill, like that of Dorcas of old, should be told as a memorial. She was the wife of the old woodworker. Material for the shroud was taken from a bolt of white linen, a portion of which also lent comfort to the rude coffin.

The statesman was laid to rest at Rosemont, beside the body of his brother, Robert Lachlan Troup, to whose memory a shaft had been erected by the governor and his son, G. M., Jr. (the latter having died two years after his father). The marble shaft, about ten feet tall, was finished in Augusta, and stands in the center of the enclosure. On the front face will be seen the inscription:
Erected by G. M. Troup, the Brother, and G. M. Troup, Jun., the Nephew, as a tribute of affection to the memory of R. L. Troup, who died September 23, 1848, aged 64 years. An honest man with a good mind and a good heart.
After the governor's burial there was recessed into the front of the base a marble slab, 2x3 feet, and seen through the open door of the enclosure, bearing this inscription:
GEORGE MICHAEL TROUP. Born Septr. 8th 1780.
. Died April 26th 1856. No epitaph can tell his worth. The History of Georgia must perpetuate His virtues and commemorate
his Patriotism. There he teaches us
the argument being exhausted, to Stand by our Arms."

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1381

The enclosure, a most substantial affair, about 17x25 feet, is made of sandstone, quarried from Berryhill Bluff, on the Oconee River, near by, and fragments left by workmen may now be seen strewn in the rear of the tomb, the splendid iron door, ofttimes ajar, whose lock has long since been removed, was cast by D. & W. Rose, of Savannah. Governor Troup rests (according to the best information) on the right of the shaft, the single box coffin being vised to avoid excavation too near the pedestal. There, among the wildwood, may be seen a rosebush, still blooming, the tribute of a faithful slave woman, long since in her lowly grave, among those of her kind. Near the tomb, which is now surrounded by a friendly little clump of trees (reduced in size, contrary to wishes of its owner), stood the Rosemont homestead, owned at the time of his death by R. L, Troup; but in his will, dated only two days before death overtook him, Rosemont, with all personal property, was consigned to his brother, the governor, and nephew, G. M. Troup, Jr. As exceptions, a fifteen-year-old colored girl was given to a friend, and the sum of $3,000 in cash assigned to Robert T., son of Dr. James McGillivray Troup, the youngest of the six Troup brothers, then residing in Glynn County. One of our illustrations shows half a section of the Rosemont dwelling, a double-pen log affair, many years ago cut from its mate and removed to a distant part of the field, but still well preserved. A deserted and lonely old barn now stands vigil over the site of this once happy retreat. Broad fields of cotton and corn have displaced the luxuriant forests of bygone days, the sound of the hunter's horn and the bay of the hounds is hushed forever, for during his earlier manhood the field and stream were resorted to by Governor Troup and his brothers.
Of the Horseshoe place nothing remains of former days, and it, too, is forgotten by the tiller of the precious soil as he sows and reaps on historic ground. Allowing a reference to the Turkey Creek plantation, and to further show the indomitable will power of the beloved statesman, it may be said that, just prior to his last journey to the Mitchell place, he wrote his overseer on the Turkey Creek farm, concerning a dispute with a neighbor of that community: "If I have not right on my side, I will surrender, but not compromise." Doubtless his last message.
The Valdosta plantation, in Laurens County, was distinctly the bower of his retirement his retreat after the cares of State, and the home of his friends. From this abode came some of his strongest documents, dating to within a few days of his death. The Valdosta mansion, for such it was in ante-bellum days, was a large six-room log structure, triplepen style, divided with halls and nearly surrounded with broad verandas and fitted with chimneys of clay. To this was annexed in 1852 a large room, used as a reception chamber. This was substantially built of 6xlO-inch dressed timbers, laid edgewise and intricately dovetailed and spiked with hand-forged nails, something of the workmanship being shown by one of the accompanying cuts. The interior was plastered, making it a most durable structure. It was by far the most palatial of the Troup homes, but is now in ruins. The sandstone chimney, with its liberal fireplace, has to some extent stood the ravages of time. Carved in the upper portion of this chimney, outsMe, may be seen the governor's name and the date of construction. This home graced a beautiful emi-
Vol. Ill-- 8

1382

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

nence, from which, even now, may be seen the splendid little City of
Dublin, seven miles to the north. The' Vallombrosa and Turkey Greek plantations, in Laurens County,
formed a part of the Troup holdings, but our research being limited and the intent of this sketch not demanding it, reference to them cannot be accurately made. The other plantations, extending southward on the Oconee River, were the Horseshoe place, in Montgomery (now Wheeler) County; Rosemoiit, east of the river, in Montgomery County; the Mitchell place, west of the river (originally settled by Hartwell Mitchell, 1814), in Montgomery (now Wheeler) County, opposite Mount Vernon and south of Greenwood. Each homestead has its special interest, for, under his regular plan of visiting, an open and well-ordered home awaited its landlord's coming. Each estate was supervised by an over seer, and each slave had a task assigned for the day. Perfect system
regulated all labors.*

RECOLLECTIONS OF BENJAMIN TALIAFERRO

"The name Taliaferro is derived from the Latin, signifying one who bears a sword, and indicates the virtue for which the name was originally bestowed,'' says Governor Gilmer. '' Two brothers emigrated from Italy to Virginia in the early colonial days and settled in the neighborhood of Williamsburg. Only one of them left male descendants. They have increased and scattered until the name of Taliaferro is now known id most of the States south of the Potomac, their Italian blood not suiting the climate of the North, nor their taste the phlegm of the northern people. Individuals here and there still show their origin by the prac tice of improvisation. Mr. Jefferson describes the family in Virginia as wealthy and respectable. Chancellor Wythe, who signed the Declaration
of Independence, married one of them. "Zach Taliaferro removed from the neighborhood of Williamsburg
to Amherst County, where he settled and married. From the crossings of his immediate ancestors he had lost the beauty and effeminacy of the original stock. He was as rough in looks and temper as the face of the country in his new home. At the time when he located in Amherst County, disputes among the mountain men were usually settled by the
law of arms, in which fists were the weapons of war. The champion pugilists being ready to fight, a ring was formed, with the combatants inside, the crowd out. The contest frequently ended with the loss of an eye or an ear. Zach was a capital hand at such affairs, and never backed out, however much overmatched. He was one of the justices of Amherst County; though he had much higher qualifications for acting sheriff, to
which office he afterwards succeeded. "Benjamin Taliaferro was the oldest son of Zach. Coming to Georgia
in 1784, he became one of the leading men of the State, was President of the Senate and Member of Congress, and filled many other high posi tions. He was in the Legislature, when the Yazoo act was passed but resisted all the efforts of the speculators. When the people of Georgia

* H. B. Folsom, in Vol. II, "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1383

rescinded the act and discarded from office those concerned in its passage, Col. Taliaferro was made Judge of the Superior Court, though he was not a lawyer. It became very important to the fraudulent land jobbers', who were interested in cases before him, to drive Col. Taliaferro from the bench. By agreement among them, he was challenged by Col. Willis, upon some frivolous pretence, to fight a duel, upon the supposition that his army training would induce him to fight, and therefore to resign his judgeship.
"They were mistaken. He accepted the challenge without resigning. The speculators tried a novel expedient. Judge Taliaferro's attachment to his wife was well known. So preparations for the duel were made within sight and hearing of Mrs. Taliaferro in order to frighten her. They were again mistaken. Whilst they were practicing, Mrs. Taliaferro was aiding the Judge to put in order the horseman's pistols which he had used when he belonged to Lee's Legion. The Judge met his oppo nent ; and the pistol, which had been oiled by his wife, sent its ball so near the speculator's vitals that he declined receiving a second shot.'' *

GEORGE R. GILMER: SOME INCIDENTS OF His CAREER

To Dr. G. R. Glenn, of Dahlonega, president of the North Georgia Agricultural College, we are indebted for the following summary of incidents in the career of Governor Gilmer. Says he: "George Rockingham Gilmer was born in Wilkes County, Ga,, in the portion which is now Oglethorpe, on April 11, 1790. His ancestors were Scotch. Al though he grew up on the farm, his body was frail and his health delicate. When he was thirteen years old, his father sent him. to Dr. Wilson's school at Abbeville, S. C. Later he attended the famous Georgia Acad emy under Dr. Moses Waddell, who was perhaps the greatest teacher of his time. He awakened in young Gilmer aspirations which in after years were to give tone and direction to a tiseful career. The latter throughout his public career never failed to acknowledge the debt he owed his great teacher. On account of ill health he was unable to go to college; but while confined at home he read law and taught his younger brothers. In 1813 his physician, Dr. Bibb, who was also at the time United States Senator, believing that life in camp would be beneficial to his patient, secured for him an appointment as First Lieutenant in the United States Army; and in this capacity he rendered effective serv ice in expelling the Indians from the Chattahoochee district. Returning home greatly improved in health, he began the practice of law at Lexington. While he had been denied a college education, he was always a thoughtful student of men and things. Natural objects provoked his closest attention. He found 'sermons in stones and books in running brooks.' In 1818, he was elected to the State Legislature, where largely through his influence, a law against private banking, then a great evil, was enacted. He was also the first to arouse an interest in an appellate court, for the correction of errors. This movement led to the establish ment of the Supreme Court of Georgia.
"In 1820 he was elected to Congress, and again in 1824 and 1828.

* George R. Gilmer, in "Sketches of Some of the First Settlers of Upper Georgia."

1384

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

However, in 1828, he failed to give notice of his acceptance in due time as required by law, and Governor Forsyth declared his appointment vacant and ordered another election. Mr. Gilmer declined to be a can didate again. The same year he ran for Governor and was overwhelm ingly elected. It' was while he was a member of Congress, in the year 1822, that he married Miss Eliza Frances Grattan, whose father was of the same stock as the famous Irish orator, Henry Grattan. From this marriage no children were born, but his married life seemed to be an ideally happy one. In 1830, after serving his first term as Governor, he was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated by Wilson Lumpkin. However, he was again elected to Congress in 1833, and elected a second time Governor in 1837."

"It was during his first term as Governor that serious disturbances occurred with the Cherokee Indians. There was constant friction grow ing out of questions concerning the territory occupied by the Indians. An incident occurred which illustrates the independent and fearless char acter of Governor Gilmer. George Tassels, a Cherokee, killed another Indian, in that part of the Cherokee territory which was subject to the courts of Hall county, and was arrested by the Sheriff. Tassels was tried in the Superior Court and sentenced to be hanged. His lawyers ap pealed his case to the Supreme Court of the United States, before which body Governor Gilmer was summoned to appear to answer for the State of Georgia. The Governor sent to the Legislature, which was in session at the time, this message: 'Orders received from the Supreme Court of the United States for the purpose of interfering with the decisions of the courts of this State in the exercise of their constitutional jurisdic tion will be resisted with all the force the laws have placed at my com mand. ' The Legislature upheld the Governor and Tassels was hanged.
"At the close of his term of office as Governor he returned to his home in Lexington to spend the rest of his days in peace and quiet. Much of his time was devoted to a study of the minerals of his county, and he collected a cabinet of great value. For thirty years he was a trustee of the State University, to which he left several bequests. One was a fund, the interest of which was to be used for training teachers for the poor children of the State. This is the first fund ever given by any citizen of Georgia. The interest on the fund still known as the Gilmer fund is used by the trustees of the University in connection with the State Normal School at Athens.
"Regarded from any point of view, Governor Gilmer was one of the most useful and distinguished men the State has ever produced. His ideal of citizenship was the consecration of the best he had to the service of the State. His convictions of right and duty were clear and strong, and he was never known, either in public or in private conduct, to compromise with wrong. 'Let me always do what is right,' he said, 'and I care not what the consequences may be.'
"In 1855 he published 'Georgians,' a work full of useful informa tion concerning the early settlers of the State. He died at Lexington, Ga,, November 15, 1859, in the seventieth year of his age. It is not out of place in speaking of the life of this distinguished man to men tion the fact that he lived at a period when there was much political

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS -

1385

bitterness in the State of Georgia, and even good men were so preju diced that it was hard for them to do him justice. Governor Wilson Lumpkin was among the number who underrated him, due to the partisan rancor at the time prevalent. Growing out of the publication of his reminiscences, there was much feeling against Governor Gilmer. He was very out-spoken, and in these reminiscences he did not mince matters, in dealing with prominent men of the time, and it militated against a fair judgment of Governor Gilmer himself."
t ANECDOTE OF JESSE MERCER

Soon after the meeting of the Legislature [in Milledgeville], Jesse Mercer, the celebrated Baptist preacher, was requested by the Legislature to preach the funeral sermon of Governor Rabun, who had been his inti mate friend. The famous political factions caused by the enmity be tween Clarke and Crawford were then flourishing in great vigor. Jesse Mercer was a supporter of Crawford, as Governor Rabun had been. It was suspected by the new occupant of the executive chair, Governor Clarke, that this funeral ceremony was intended to do him harm. The sermon was preached in the Baptist Church, which was some distance from the state house. Governor Clarke, Jesse Mercer and the members of the Legislature walked in procession to it. In performing the last sad rites over his Baptist friend, Jesse Mercer did his best, and enforced the doctrine with great zeal that, when the Lord taketh, away a good and righteous ruler, he does it on account of the sins of the people, and will punish them by putting wicked rulers over them, and ended by saying that Georgia had reason to tremble. Colonel Tatnall and I had walked together in the procession, and were seated near the principal passway in the church, with Colonel Campbell, the governor's brother-in-law, immediately before us, and John Abercrombie, the particular friend of Governor Rabun, a little back; and, on the opposite side of the passway, Colonel Campbell, with a frown on his brow, looking first at the preacher and then at Governor Clarke. Abercrombie gazed around with the most approving smile on his face at the leading Clarke men, and then at the followers of Crawford, with equally significant tokens of approbation. Colonel TatnalPs proud nature scarcely brooked what he considered a gross insult offered to the dignity of the chief magistrate of the com monwealth. His pent-up wrath vented itself in the strongest expressions of disapproval, as we walked back to the state house. But a resolution was immediately passed, asking Jesse Mercer for a (Jopy of his sermon for publication. The resolution never returned from the governor's office. This scene in the Baptist Church shows the feelings and opinions of the
times.*

ANECDOTE OP JUDGE DOUGHERTY

On the trial of a, hotly contested case in Jackson County for slander, Judge Dougherty, with Messrs. Underwood, Peeples and Overby, repre sented the defendants and were successful in the suit. The action arose

* George E. Gilmer, in '' Sketches of Some of the First Settlers of Upper Georgia.''

1386

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

out of a controversy in which the whigs and democrats were aligned. The defendant was greatly delighted at the result, and, while walking from the courthouse to the hotel in company, with his counsel, said:
"Now, gentlemen, I am ready to pay you. How much do I owe you?"
Judge Dougherty answered: "Pay me $1,000 for all of us." As they sat down at the office table in the hotel, with a deep-drawn sigh, he reached for his well-worn pocketbook and counted out the money in $10 bills; and as Judge Dougherty took them and dealt them out around the table of his three associates, as if-he were dealing cards, the defendant said: "Well, gentlemen, I think I have a right to make a remark. When I came out of the courthouse I thought I had gained my case, but I perceive I have lost it.''

ANECDOTE OF JUDGE CARNES
Says Judge Garnett Andrews: * "I recollect a quotation which Dooly used to make from one of the speeches of Tom Peter Games. Both often practiced, when young men, in the upper districts of South Caro lina. Some of the high-toned gentlemen of the profession, like Huger and others, were inclined to ignore the two Hoosiers from Georgia. Games said that Dooly took such delight in ridiculing them that they finally abandoned the practice in those districts. But to return to the speech of Games: his adversary had spoken of a syllogism, the major and minor proposition, and the consequence. Games, in reply, to con vince the jury that the gentleman had lugged immaterial matter into the case because he had nothing material, complained of the indelicacy of mentioning in court the name of a very worthy family residing over in Lincoln County, Georgia, who had never had anything to do with courts; that old Major Syllogism would be exceedingly alarmed did he know that his name had been mentioned in a courthouse; that the minor Syl logism should never have been in court, being a minor; and, that the cruellest cut of all was to name the blushing Miss Consequence, who hardly knew there was such a thing as a courthouse. He spoke of the family of Syllogisms as being an influential family in Georgia.''

JUDGE LONGSTREET : THE AUTHOR OF "GEORGIA SCENES"
Georgians hold in peculiar reverence the memory of Judge Augustus B. Longstreet. He was not only a humorist who entertained his genera tion with whimsical stories and droll observations upon current events, but also a raconteur, who pictured the life of an eventful era of Georgia history, in colors which suggest a mirror held up to nature.
In the genial style no less than in the racy subject-matter of his writings, he anticipated the less humorous if more finished pen of Lord

* Judge Garnett Andrews, in "Anecdotes-of the Georgia Bench and Bar, or Eeminiseenees of an Old Lawyer."

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1387

Macaulay. It was the province of the latter to portray the .social as well as the political phases of English history, to deal- with manners and customs and occupations, and to infuse into the musty chronicles of England an atmosphere of romance. In "Georgia Scenes" the author has reproduced the Georgia of the old days when our grandfathers talked of Yorktown and King's Mountain, and our grandmothers played on the old-fashioned spinnet. He describes "the horse-swaps" and "the gander-pullings" and "the shooting-matches" and "the village fights"
which rippled the surface of life in Georgia seventy-five years ago; and he even preserves the rural dialect, including the quaint idioms and col
loquialisms which were then in vogue. Perhaps the best introduction to Judge Longstreet will be to present
an extract from the charming volume to which reference has just been made. The first sketch in the book will serve the purpose. It is briefly entitled '' Georgia Theatricals,'' but the story will keep the reader guess
ing until the last paragraph is reached:

'' If my memory fail me not,'' says Judge Longstreet, '' the tenth of June, 1809, found me at about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, ascending a long and gentle slope in what was called 'the Dark Corner' of Lincoln. I believe it took its name from, the moral darkness which reigned over that portion of the county at the time of which I am speaking. If, in this point of view, it was but a shade darker than the rest of the county, it was inconceivably dark. If any man can name a trick or sin which had not been committed at the time of which I am speaking, in the very focus of all the county's illumination, Lincolnton, he must himself be the most inventive of the tricky, and the very Judas of sinners. Since that time, however all humor aside Lincoln has become a living proof that 'light shineth in darkness.' Could I venture to mingle the solemn with the ludicrous, even for the purpose of honorable contrast, I could adduce from this county numerous instances of the most wonderful transitions from vice and folly to virtue and holiness which have ever, perhaps, been witnessed since the days of the apostolic ministry. So much, lest it be thought by some that what I am about to relate is characteristic of the
county in which it occurred. "Whatever may be said of the moral condition of the Dark Corner
at the time just mentioned, its natural condition was anything but dark. It smiled in all the charms of spring, and spring borrowed an additional charm from its undulating grounds, its luxuriant woodlands, its sportive streams, its vocal birds and its blushing flowers. .Rapt with'the enchant ment of the season and the scene around me, I was slowly rising the slope when I was startled by loud profane and boisterous voices, which seemed to proceed from a thick covert of undergrowth about two hun dred yards in advance of me, and about one hundred to the right of my
road.
" 'You kin, kin you?' " 'Yes, I kin. Don't hold me, Nick Stovall. The fight's made up and my soul if I don't jump down his throat and gallop every chitterling
out of him before he can say quit.' " 'Now, Nick, don't hold him! Jist let the wildcat come and I'll
tame him. Ned'11 see me a fair fight! Won't you, Ned?"

1388

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

'' ' Oh, yes, I '11 see you a fair fight, blast my old shoes if I don't.' " 'That's sufficient, now let him come.' "Thus they went on, with countless oaths interspersed which I dare not even hint at, and with much that I could not distinctly hear. In mercy's name, thought I, what band of ruffians has selected this holy season and this heavenly retreat for such pandemoniac riots? I quick ened my gait and came nearly opposite to the thick grove whence the noise proceeded, when my eyes caught indistinctly at intervals through the foliage of the dwarf oak and hickories which intervened glimpses of a man who seemed to be in a'violent struggle; and I could occasionally catch those deep-drawn emphatic oaths which men in conflict utter when they deal blows. I dismounted and hurried to the spot with all speed. I had overcome about half the space which separated it from me when I saw the combatants come to the ground, and after a short struggle, I saw the uppermost one for I could not see the other make a heavy plunge with both his thumbs and at the same instant I heard a cry in the accents of keenest torture: '' ' Enough! My eye's out!' "I was so completely horror-struck that I stood transfixed for a moment to the spot where the cry met me. The accomplices in the hellish deed which had been perpetrated had all fled. At least, I thought so, for they were not to be seen. " 'Now, blast your corn-shucking hide,' said the victor, as he rose from the ground, 'come cuttin' your shines 'bout me agin, next time I come to the court-house, will you. Get your old eye in agin if you can!' '' At this moment he saw me for the first time. He looked excessively embarrassed, and was moving off when I called him, in a tone emboldened by the sacredness of my office and the iniquity of Ms crime: '' ' Come back, you brute, and assist me in relieving your fellow mortal whom you have ruined forever!' "My rudeness subdued his embarrassment in an instant, and he tauntingly replied, with an upturned nose: " 'You needn't kick before you're spurred. There ain't nobody there, nor hain't been nuther. I was just seein' how I could 'a' fout.' '' So saying, he bounded to his plow which stood in the corner of the fence about fifty yards beyond the battle-ground. And would you believe it? his report was true. All that I had heard and seen was nothing more or less than a Lincoln rehearsal, in which the youth who had just left me had played the parts of all the characters in a court house fight. I went to the ground from which he had risen, and there were the prints of his two thumbs, plunged up to the balls in the mellow earth, about the distance of a man's eyes apart; and the ground around was broken up as if two stags had been engaged upon it.''

Among the unique characters that Judge Longstreet has given to literature, each of them clear-cut and distinct types, may be mentioned Ned Brace, Miss Aurelia Emma Theodosia Augusta Crump, Prof. Michael St. John,, the two champion fighters, Bob Durham and Bill Stallings, and last but not least, that arch-fomenter of village feuds, Ransy Sniffle. After achieving eminence at the bar and distinction on the bench Judge Longstreet at the mature age of forty-height entered the

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1389

itinerant ranks of the Methodist ministry and became an earnest evangel of the good news. Giving up all political ambitions, he turned his back upon an assured election to Congress and applied himself zealously to theological studies until he was ready to go before the conference. This was nearly fifteen years after he had written and published "Georgia Scenes." Doctor Scott says that when the time fixed for the examina tion came the candidate for licensure '' tripped on grammar.''
But Judge Longstreet was not destined to ride the circuit. In the year following his ordination he was called to preside over the affairs of Emory College which, then but recently organized, needed an astute hand at the helm. Judge Longstreet was the man to whom the friends of the institution instinctively turned and he brought to the oversight of the young educational plant an administrative ability which amply justified the choice. He subsequently became president of the University of Mississippi, then president of Centenary College, in Louisiana, after wards president of South Carolina College, and finally again president of the University of Mississippi. He died in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1870, at the advanced age of eighty years. His daughter Jenny became the first wife of L. Q. C. Lamar.
Judge Linton Stephens, who heard Judge Longstreet preach in Athens in 1842, after he had become an educator of some repute, says that he was as captivating as ever, but disposed at times to be rather too academic, and he quotes Judge Longstreet as saying in the long prayer: "Lord, we can hardly generalize much less specify our sins."
Yet whatever may have been the cultured attainments of Judge Longstreet, he was essentially a humorist; and this sparkling attribute bubbled up from the fountain springs of his rugged nature like the crystal waterfall from the great heart of the mountains. It was not a momentary phosphorescence of the twilight, but a luminous star upon the brow of the summer evening. With the most benignant ray, it looked down upon Georgia; it embellished her legends; it gemmed her joys; it soothed and silvered her sorrows. Nor could the most partial friend of the old jurist wish for him a sweeter or a happier immortality than his delightful humor has established for him upon the pages of "Georgia Scenes."

GENERAL LONGSTREET : His SCHOOL-DAYS AT WEST POINT

On the deck of a steamboat which was plowing up the Hudson River, in the fall of 1838, there stood a youth of eighteen, whose grandfather had forestalled Robert Fulton in applying steam to navigation. But the young man was less concerned with the mechanism of the boat, or, indeed, with the picturesque scenery of the unrivalled Catskill Mountains, than he was with his own mental reflections. He was thinking of West Point. Through the influence of a relative, he was fortunate enough .to hold an appointment to the nation's great military academy, and he was on his way thither to master the heroic science of battle. The most unpracticed eye could tell at once that he possessed in abundant measure the crude materials of soldiership. He lacked the Parisian polish, but his rugged face, like his well-knit and muscular frame, suggested the Gibraltar sub stance. It was easy to see that an iron will reinforced an iron constitu-

1390 ,

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

tion; and though in erectness of bearing he resembled one of the pinetree sentinels on the Blue Ridge declivities, it was not likely that such an abode of strength could be swayed by popular windstorms or shaken by elemental thunderbolts. He promised to make a fighter of the Garibaldi type dogged and determined. But was the forecast likely to be real ized? The splendid expectations of the breakfast table are not always matched by the backward surveys of the evening meal. Watch him as he climbs the winding roadway, from the steamboat landing to the plateau on the heights above, and see him as he inscribes, upon the office register, an unpretentious name which is destined, in two great wars, to be thun dered amid the reverberations of cannon and to be extolled in no faint accents by the military critics of two hemispheres:
James Longstreet.

If the appearance of the youth on board the steamer foreshadowed the future lieutenant-general, the record of the student at West Point was well calculated to challenge the prophetic forecast. He graduated sixtieth in a class of sixty-two men. * * * However, some men are quick to grasp but slow to apply. James Longstreet was just the oppo site. He was quick to apply but slow to grasp. This was specially true of the mastery of dull text-books. But he could make instant practical use of what he knew. Moreover, to quote his own language, he cared more for the real school of the soldier horsemanship and sword-practice than he did for the prescribed routine of the academic curriculum.
Despite the low grade of scholarship which he achieved at the insti tution, he was fully equipped for successful leadership at the head of the gray battalions; and, before the great civil conflict was over, the man who graduated at the foot of the class was the acknowledged leader of all his fellow students upon the battlefield, and admittedly one of the great est soldiers of modern times.
Graduating with James Longstreet in 1842 were D. H. Hill, A. P. Stewart, Lafayette McLaws, R. H. Anderson, William Rosecrans and John Pope. All of these achieved high rank as officers, the first four under Lee and the last two under Grant; but none quite equaled the record of James Longstreet, whose commission as lieutenant-general ante dated Stonewall Jackson's, and whose command of the famous First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia began with the life of the immortal corps itself.

How the nickname originated is perhaps unknown, but General Longstreet, throughout his undergraduate days at West Point, was known among his brother cadets as '' Old Pete.'' The appellation was not entirely discarded even as late as the time of the Civil war. This is shown by an amusing incident. Until word was first received by General Longstreet from Gen. E. P. Alexander, who was in charge of the artillery at Gettysburg, it was not known for certain by General Pickett that he was to make the famous charge upon Cemetery Hill, and the prearranged signal from General Longstreet was to be an inclination of the head. On the eve of the historic sally the gallant Virginian wrote home to his wife: "If Old Pete nods, it may be good-by forever.''

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1391

Early in the junior year at West Point young Longstreet became

possessed of the idea that the pulley was not of much importance to the

soldier. He failed to see how he could make the -subject of any prac

tical use in marshaling troops on the battlefield. Consequently, when

he reached the chapter in mechanics which discussed the pulley, he gave

it only sidelong glances; and, whistling an airy tune, he turned the pages

lightly until he came upon problems which promised to be of greater

helpfulness to the utilitarian cadet.

But, in the distribution of emphasis upon particular topics of study,

the opinions of the student and the views of the professor sometimes

clash; and, as luck would have it, at the midyear examination Longstreet

was sent to the blackboard to elucidate some problem in the pulley. The

future hero of the Wilderness was certainly now in the dense underbrush.

Nevertheless, he marched courageously forward. He remembered how

the figure looked in the text-book, and he trusted to the god of war, in

some miraculous way, to furnish him reinforcements. But Mars must

have been taking an afternoon siesta, for when Longstreet completed his

scholarly treatise upon the pulley he was told that he had failed to pass.

The demonstration itself was not without the rare merit of originality.

Indeed, it gave the examining committee new ideas upon an ancient

subject, but it was thought to be too much at variance with the accepted

axioms of Pythagoras.

; s\ ""'' ;-''.?-;

Longstreet was stumped. v; /

However, it was the gracious ;:custom of the governing authorities to

give the Hunkers another chance aftcpe; all the classes had been exam

ined. This allowed the delinquent :ti&#'-. ;d^ys in. which to review mechan

ics, and he specialized upon the pulley. ; For the next forty-eight hours

he fairly wrestled with the pulley.: Like Jacob at Peniel, he said to his

antagonist: "I will not let the>,> go except thou bless me." He ate

with the pulley. He slept with the pulley. He rode horseback

with the pulley. And, in. the fend, he mastered the subject, but all

the while he kept saying to...-himself: "Cui boiio?" He could see

no practical use in the pulley for James Longstreet, except to get him

through West Point. On the second trial the professors were too wily

to tax the student with the subject of the pulley. It was the sheer per

versity of fate that, after making himself an authority upon this branch

of human knowledge, he should not be called upon to display his scholas

tic acquirements, but should rather be catechized at random on the entire

year's course.

Nevertheless, he managed to pass. Again, at the final commence

ment he was subjected to another crucial test. The lapse of time had

made'the professors somewhat forgetful. He was sent to the blackboard

to elucidate that same old problem of the pulley. But he was ready this

time. Even old Euclid himself could not have surpassed that demon

stration. It was soundly orthodox according to the most rigid standards.

Longstreet fairly amazed the professors. Down to the last day of his life

he continued to live on intimate terms with his old friend, the pulley;

but he died firmly convinced of the fact that so far as he was concerned

the pulley was like the picturesque feather on the topknot of the eagle:

intended more to embellish the headpiece than to further the flight of the

imperial bird.

1392

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

GEORGE F. PIERCE : THE DEMOSTHENES OF SOUTHERN METHODISM

It was in 1844 that Bishop George F. Pierce leaped into national prominence as an orator. He was then in his thirty-third year; and, after winning honors at the famous general conference in Baltimore, which witnessed the partition of Methodism over the issue of slavery, he repaired to the annual meeting of the American Bible Society, in New York, where one of the grandest efforts of his life was delivered. Among the other men of note who spoke from the same platform, were Lord Ketchum and Senator Freelinghuysen. They spoke with great earnest ness but the speeches were tame and commonplace compared with the glowing periods of the brilliant young Methodist divine from Georgia. Doctor Smith, in his excellent biography of the bishop, has preserved the fragmentary notes of this wonderful address.

BISHOP GEOKGE F. PIERCE, THE DEMOSTHENES OP SOUTHERN METHODISM At the general conference in Baltimore, the youthful orator came
boldly to the defense of James 0. Andrew, around whom were crackling the fires of an inquisition as persistent and as bitter as was ever wit nessed in the Netherlands. The picture which the young champion presented at this time is thus described: "He was a born ruler of men, and bore the kingly look on his face. His form had developed until he weighed one hundred and eighty pounds, and, while young, he bore the aspect of a man of greater years. His whole heart was in this matter. He was intensely indignant and thoroughly aroused. Bishop Andrew was his dearest earthly friend. He had heard him censured, belittled, ridiculed. Moreover, the whole South was struck by the blow aimed at Bishop Andrew; and no Southern man, however gifted, however useful, however pure, could be chosen a Bishop after this if, by any complica tion whatever, he had become involved in the ownership of slave prop erty, such as members of the church had held from the days of Abraham.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1393

He rose to reply. The excitement was intense, the house was crowded. He was recognized on all sides as one of the most eloquent men in the body and expectation was high."
As the result of the great debate, Methodism in America was rent asunder. But to show the equanimity of temperament which charac terized the young Georgian, the following incident is recorded: Rev. Jesse T. Peck took the floor, at the conclusion of Mr. Pierce's speech. He hailed from the State of New York; and though not an old man, was very portly and very bald, which made him appear somewhat mature. His manner was extremely patronizing. Moreover, he said some very harsh things; but Mr. Pierce, taking the floor for the second time,' replied in the best of spirits. He even complimented the young man, after which he ended with this clever stroke: "And now, sir, though my former speech may have shocked your nerves, I trust my explanation will not ruffle a hair on the crown of your head.''

Going back to the outset of his career, an amusing anecdote is told of his first appearance as a candidate for licensure to preach. The presid ing elder of his circuit was John Collinsworth, a man of iron whom neither fear nor favor could deflect from the straight path. He was governed by the strictest rules of propriety, some of which were quite antiquated. According to his notions, a Methodist was a man set apart; and he must show by every mark, external as well as internal, that he was a stranger to worldliness. It happened that young Pierce's hair arose somewhat abruptly from his forehead, or, to quote John Collins worth, "stood up." He also gave offense to the good man by coming to church in a suit of blue broadcloth, with brass buttons, and by wearing a smile which indicated a lack of proper seriousness. As for the youth's apparel, it was the suit of clothes in which he graduated at Athens: the gift of his fond father. But-John Collinsworth was bent upon doing what he conceived to be his duty in the matter; and on the day he was to appear before the session of the church he said to him, kindly but firmly:
"George, these people want you to be recommended for license, but if you get the recommendation, this coat must come off.''
"But," insisted the youth, "I have no other Sunday coat." Still the old man was unmoved. "My son," said he, "this coat must come off."
'' Well,'' retorted the youth, '' if yon are going to license my coat and not me, I will change it; but I do not expect to change it until I am obliged to get another.''
The church meeting was held. For some time the officers deliberated; but the preacher was on the minority side. At the end of the argument, George's swallow-tail coat still held the field.
But the old man was not thoroughly reconciled and some time later he said to the young man:
"George, why do you wear your hair like you do? Bishop Asbury brushed his down. You brush yours up."
"I have a cowlick, Uncle Collinsworth," replied he. "Besides, God made my hair to grow up, and I cannot make it grow down."
Thereupon the old man dismissed the subject by telling George that

1394

.GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

he was too airy. It was an amusing episode, but the scruples of John Collinsworth well illustrate the simple habits of life which characterized the early pioneers of Methodism. In due time George was licensed to preach. Twenty-five years later he was elevated to the episcopal bench and for thirty years he held the highest office in the gift of the great religious communion to which he belonged. Prom the Atlantic to the Pacific his fame as an orator was eclipsed by none.*

LOVICK PIERCE: THE NESTOR OP SOUTHERN METHODISM
Dr. Lovick Pierce reached the ripe old age of ninety-four years. He was one of the most dramatic figures in southern Methodism; and, dur ing the ante-bellum period was one of the most eloquent men in the pulpit, either North or South. The style of preaching in which he excelled was expository, and some of his efforts were characterized by great power. He was not only a minister of the gospel but also a doctor of medicine. As an orator, when at his best, he was scarcely inferior to his gifted son, the distinguished bishop. The latter began at one time to write a life of liis father, but growing infirmities, together with the demands of the high office which he held, made it necessary for him to relinquish the task. However, the biographical fragment has been incor porated by Dr. George G. Smith in his excellent biography of Bishop George F. Pierce; and from it the following extracts are taken:
"My father kept no diary, no journal. There are no facts, or dates, or records, outside of fragmentary notices in the public prints and in the conference minutes. My memory is the sole depository on which I can draw. I persuaded him, twenty years ago, to write an autobiography. This he did at great length. It was not so much a narrative of himself as it was a commentary upon his times. But the document was unfor tunately left in Columbus when he came to live permanently with me; and, amid the confusion of the war, when removing his furniture from place to place, this, with other manuscripts, was mislaid. The loss is irretrievable. During my father's sojourn in my family, it was one of our nightly pastimes to induce him to talk of the past. He was never garrulous, he did not live in the years gone by, like other old men. He lived in the present and scanned the future almost with a prophet's eye. Current events and prospects ahead these were the staple of his thoughts and the topics of his conversation. He was well-nigh always serious and meditative, yet for his own relief and for the entertainment of his children, he would indulge in reminiscences. He enjoyed these interviews very much, and my children and children's children will never forget how old grandfather at once amused and instructed them in these fireside talks. He and I alternated in our morning and evening devo tions. As we rose from our knees and resumed our seats, with sparkling eyes, he would say: ' George, the psalm you read tonight carried me back to my beginning. In 1806 I heard George Dougherty preach one of his mighty sermons' on such a verse, indicating which it was, and then telling of the wonderful results. Starting thus, he would describe scenes and narrate incidents. In his judgment, George Dougherty was the greatest man in Southern Methodism.

* George G. Smith, in "Life and Times of George P. Pierce, D. D., LL. D.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1395

"There was nothing of which to be ashamed in my father's character. Even his weak points leaned to virtue's side and were attributes of which others were the beneficiaries, while he was the victim. I never knew a purer man. There were no chasms or spasms in his religious life. AVith him, conduct always responded' to the claims of duty, 'as the dial to the sun. He never magnified his attainments in grace under the guise of professing what the Lord had done for him. In his youth and prime he was a fine specimen of manly beauty; in height, five feet ten inches, in weight, one hundred and forty-five pounds; his complexion dark, his hair black, his eye, deep hazel and full of expression. His features were all harmoniously blended/ His voice as flexible as a flute, strong and rich. Speaking never made him hoarse. I have known him to preach three sermons in a day, each three hours long, and then sing the doxology with as clear a tone as when he rose in the morning. There was no flagging, no crack, no strain. It was smooth distinct and, at times, percussive as a peal of thunder. Its force was perhaps better adapted to the terrible than to the tender. His reasoning powers were well developed. His imagination was bold and fertile. His power of concentration exceeded any man's I ever knew. He could hold his mind to a chosen subject with military precision. His thoughts never broke ranks.
'' To the last he was a student. But he was largely a man of one book. His reading was never extensive or varied. Theology was his theme. Milton he read once. Shakespeare he never read at all. In all his instincts he was a born gentleman. He did not have one set of manners for the parlor and another for the bed-chamber, but was always polite and considerate of others; likewise, he was always neat in his person and dress. Whether traveling in stage or car, in wet or dry weather, while others were stained, he managed to keep himself unsoiled. I have known him to preach for two hours and a half, when the thermometer was up among the nineties, without a sign of moisture on his face or head. His body perspired freely but, like Gideon's fleece, his hair and face were dry, when all around was wet with dew." *

"It was said of Dr. Pierce that he was as proud of his son George as a peacock is of his feathers. At the famous meeting of the American Bible Society, in New York, in 1844, Bishop Pierce was one of the speakers. The old doctor, who was long an agent of the society, occu pied a seat in the audience. He listened with rapt attention to the wonderful address. The orator of the occasion was then only thirty-three. But the speech was one of his masterful efforts; and though Lord Ketchum and Senator Freelinghuysen both spoke, the young Methodist preacher bore off the honors. The enthusiasm was intense. Dr. Jeffer son Hamilton was sitting by Dr. Lovick Pierce, and, overcome with excitement, he said eagerly to the doctor:
" 'Did you ever hear the like?' " 'Yes,' replied the fond father, complacently, 'I hear George often.'"t

* Bishop George F. Pierce, in '' Sketch of Dr. Loviek Pierce,'' incorporated in Dr. Smith's life of the former.
t George G. Smith, in "Life and Times of George F. Pierce, D. D., LL. D."

1396

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

His educational advantages were exceedingly limited, in spite of which, however, he early reached the highest distinction as a preacher, though he never attained to episcopal honors. Not less than Edmund Burke, he was ill adapted to the leadership of deliberative assemblies. Bnt as a preacher of the everlasting gospel he had few equals and no superiors in the American pulpit. He had neither the thorough schol arship nor the analytical power of Stephen Olin. John Summerfield surpassed him greatly in the mere art of persuasion. Bishop Bascombe excelled him in the thunderous oratory which reminds us of an ocean swell. Yet as a preacher, in the Pauline acceptation of the term, he was not a whit behind the chiefest of his contemporaries. One grand ele ment of his success was his apostolic saintliness of character. Next was his mastery of the Holy Scriptures and his wonderful gift as an extem poraneous speaker. He possessed an imposing presence. His voice was an orotund, not acquired but natural. His articulation was uniformly distinct, and his manner of delivery sometimes vehement, but never offensively boisterous. Doctor Pierce did not lag superfluous on the stage. He wrote or preached almost to his dying day. At times he was oppressed with sorrow, but the reaction was always speedy. It was in one of his jubilant moods that he sent to the churches this message: '' Say to the brethren I am living just outside the gates of Heaven.'' *

THE LE CONTES : WHY THEY LEFT GEORGIA

Two of the most illustrious of American scientists were John and Joseph Le 'Conte, both of whom were for years identified with the Uni versity of California. They were sometimes styled "the Gemini of the scientific heavens." These brothers were native Georgians. They were educated at Franklin College, and soon after graduation were made professors in the institution. Except for an unfortunate policy which, measured by present day standards, was exceedingly narrow, the Le Contes might have remained in their native state and have given to their alma mater the distinguished talents which have placed them, in the front rank of American scientists. But Doctor Church, though in many respects an administrator of rare excellence, was ultra-conservative. In the exercise of discipline he took the position that the university system was too advanced to meet the needs of the immature students who attended Franklin College, and he sought to keep the boys in check by means of the primitive instrument of juvenile torture concerning which Solomon on one occasion spoke in very high terms.
But the Le Contes refused to cooperate with Doctor Church in apply ing kindergarten methods to the control of matriculants many of whom could have sprouted beards as long as Ingomar's had not the barbarian appendages been somewhat out of fashion at the time in gentle Athens. Against the policy of paternalism the brothers rebelled. They regarded such measures of discipline not only as below the standard of the ordinary high school but as little removed from the tactics of the nursery, and they declined to execute orders which they. thought were calculated to

* W. J. Scott, in '' Biographical Etchings of Ministers and Laymen of the Georgia

Conferences.''

i

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS '

1397

suppress rather than to encourage true manliness. Consequently, Doctor Church complained to the board of trustees that the Le Contes were guilty of insubordination; and, since some of the members were fossils who belonged to the Paleozoic period, the Le Contes were subjected to the frown of the august powers.
Another matter which served to accentuate the breach lay in the sphere of doctrine. The Le Contes accepted the geological theory of creation which Dr. Church abhorred as the rankest heresy and attrib uted to the Machiavellian craft of old Nick himself. But the doctrine was distasteful at the time to all the orthodox churchmen; and the Le Contes were regarded as the sowers of dangerous seed. This in spite of the fact that both were men of blameless lives and pure morals. Too proud to remain in the faculty, under such adverse conditions, the brothers resigned, and Franklin College awoke eventually to realize that, worse than the base Indian who threw away only one pearl of surpassing value, she had been blind enough to relinquish two. More in grief than in bitterness, the Le Contes quit Georgia, first to become joint instructors of the youth of South Carolina, on the opposite side of the Savannah River, but eventually, upon the Sierra slopes, to become twin giants in the titanic group of the great Sequoias.

But the story is not yet fully told. The Le Contes were not the only members of the faculty who withdrew from the classic groves of Athens in consequence of the famous rupture of 1856. Upon the issues already indicated, the faculty seems to have been divided into two hostile fac tions. "William LeRoy Broun and Charles S. Venable were also among the advanced thinkers who felt the chill blast of the northwest wind; and they, too, decided to carry their wares to other markets. Professor Broun eventually returned, but Professor Venable took the path of the raven. He went to the University at Charlottesville, became the noted adjutant on the staff of General Robert E. Lee during the Civil war, and afterwards compiled the popular text-books on mathematics.
At the time of the upheaval in the faculty, Mrs. John Le Conte was one of the reigning belles of Athens; but another rare beauty with whom she divided the social scepter was Mrs. Craig, formerly Miss Lizzie Church. She was old Doctor Church's daughter. This meant that the war which divided the Areopagus was carried into the town and renewed under the chandeliers of the Athenian parlors. It recalled the rumpus which once occurred in Jupiter's dining room. But unhappily there was no Paris to award the prize. Each lady possessed a host of enthu siastic followers who toasted her as the queen paramount. Not only the men but the women themselves took up the fight, and Mr. Gus Hull says that it was only the conservative influence of the elderly element which prevented another War of the Roses.

THE LE CONTE PEAR : ITS ORIGIN

It was in the neighborhood of Thomasville, Georgia, that the famous Le Conte pear was first cultivated on a scale which began to attract the attention of fruit-growers in other parts of the world. Col. L. L. Varna-
Vol. Ill--9

1398

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

doe, a native of Liberty County, purchased a plantation near Thomasville, at the close of the Civil War, and on removing .to this plantation he brought with him a cutting from one of the pear trees, called a Chinese Sand Pear, on which John Le Conte had been experimenting. Colonel Varnadoe's success was phenomenal, and from this one cutting has come a yield whose value and extent defies the mathematician. Judge John L. Harden, of Savannah, a kinsman of the Le Contes, is quoted by the late Doctor Stacy, of Newman, on the subject of the Le Conte pear, to the following effect:
"In 1850 my great uncle, John Le Conte, purchased from Thomas Hogg, a nurseryman of New York, a small pear tree. He was told by Mr. Hogg that the fruit was of inferior quality, and fit only for preserving; that it would not mature its fruit so far north as New York, but that it might do so in the South; that it was the Chinese Sand Pear. The tree was given to my mother, and when it grew large enough it produced fruit which, to our surprise, was of excellent quality. The original tree is forty-five years old, 1895, and is still productive and vigorous, although sadly neglected. It has borne twenty bushels in one year, after allowing for what may have been stolen.''
At the close of the late war, the people of Liberty County were in straightened circumstances, and quite a number of them emigrated to Southwestern Georgia. Among them was Col. Leander L. Varnadoe, a native of the county and a member of the old church. Upon the sug gestion of his uncle, Mr. William Jones, that the tree might be propa gated from the cutting, and that the fruit might be profitably raised in the section whither he had moved, Colonel Varnadoe secured quite a number of cuttings and took them with him and planted them at his home near Thomasville. Pie was soon delighted to see that the idea was a happy one, and to find himself the owner of an orchard of vigorous trees, yield ing abundantly of luscious fruit for the market. Cuttings were soon in great demand; and from this little beginning the whole southern country has been covered with Le Conte pear trees. Many have made not only livings, but even fortunes, by investing in them.
To give some idea of the impoverished condition of our people at the close of the war and to show what a happy hit was the idea of promoting the cultivation of this pear from cuttings, I narrate the following inci dent: On the return of Colonel Yarnadoe from the war, it is said that his first bill of fare was so meagre and uninviting that he jocosely. remarked to his wife:
'' Annie, if you can, you may do so, but I cannot say grace over such a dinner."
Some few years after his removal to Thomasville, he was offered . $10,000 cash for his pear farm, which he very wisely refused. The old
mother tree, from which the millions now in cultivation throughout the Southland have sprung, was seen by the writer some time ago. It is sixty inches in circumference, and twenty-four feet in height. Until recent years it has shown no symptoms of blight. Such a tree is not only worthy of mention but deserves a conspicuous place in a collection like this.*
* Dr. James Stacy's '' History of the Midway Congregational Church.''

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1399

CHIEF JUSTICE BLECKLEY AS A WIT

The traditions of the Georgia bench for wit have been notably main tained within the memory of the present generation, and in the highest judicial forum of the state by former Chief Justice Logan B. Bleckley. The wit of this celebrated jurist was second only to his keen discriminat ing faculty in observing subtle distinctions of law. Among the manifold deliverances which have come from the pen of Judge Bleckley there is scarcely one which is not bathed in the smile of his perennial good humor. He meted out equal and exact justice to all litigants without fear or favor; but he ever bent over the scales with an unclouded brow.
Asked on one occasion how he managed under the pressure of so much official business to word his decisions with such delicate regard for lights and shadows and with such careful precision, he replied: "I first revise and then I scrutinize. After I have done these, I revise the scru tiny ; and, finally, to be perfectly sure, I scrutinize the revision.''
In the case of a defendant who undertook to evade the law against retailing alcoholic stimulants, without a license, employing his cook to sell them in the kitchen, Judge Bleckley rendered this decision: '' There is little doubt that the defendant was the deity of this rude shrine and that Mary was only the ministering priestess. But, if she was the divin ity and he the attendant spirit to warn thirsty devotees where to drink and at whose feet to lay tribute, he is still amenable to the state as the! promoter of forbidden libations. Whether in these usurped rites he was serving Mary or Mary him, may make some difference with the gods but it makes none with men."
Dissenting from the opinion of his colleagues in the case of Dodd versus Middleton, he demurred in the following fashion. Said he: "If I could be re-enforced by the votes as I am by the opinions of the Su preme Court of Massachusetts and the Court of Appeals of New York, I could easily put my brethren in the minority; but, as it is, they are two against one and I have no option but to yield to the force of numbersin other words to the tyranny of majorities. Though twice beaten, I am still strong in the true faith and am ready to suffer for it moder ately on all proper occasions.''
Once more. In discussing the instinct of justice which often makes for the goal even when the avenue of approach is not distinctly apparent, he couched his views in these terms, which he then rounded with an apt poetic quotation. Said he: "It not infrequently happens that a judg ment is affaired upon a theory of the case which did not occur to the court that rendered it, or that did occur and was expressly repudiated. The human mind is so constituted that, in many instances, it finds the truth when wholly unable to find the way which leads thereto:

" 'The pupil of impulse, it forced him along, His conduct still right, with his argument wrong, Still aiming at honor, yet fearing to roam, The coachman was tipsy, the chariot drove home.' "

Judge Joseph R. Lamar, of the Supreme Court of the United States, thus portrays Judge Bleckley: "Jurist, philosopher, mathematician,

1400

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

poet; a colossal and unique figure; mature in youth; in old age youthful; a born judge, his first public utterance was a plea for the creation of the court of which he was to be an illustrious Chief Justice.'' In per sonal appearance, this many-sided genius was somewhat grotesque. He was something over six feet tall, wore his hair to his shoulders and his beard to his breast, dressed inexpensively, and chose his garments to suit himself without regard to fashion. To quote a beloved former chan cellor of the University of Georgia, we close- with this paragraph from Hon. Walter B. Hill: "If I were asked to state in a word the most prominent characteristic of his mind, I should answer, provided I was first permitted to define the word, Wit. I do not, of course, mean mere drollery, although such is continually springing up in his dryest de cisions, like a fountain leaping from a bed of saw-dust and
'' ' Shaking its loosened silver in the sun.' ' '*

JUDGE BLECKLEY'S "LETTER TO POSTERITY"

Several years ago the editor of The Green Bag, a magazine edited in Boston and devoted largely to the amenities of the legal profession, published over Judge Bleckley's signature an autobiography which, in many respects, is unique among literary productions. In forwarding this article to the publishers, Judge Bleckley prefaced what he had to say with the. remark that to supply photographs was merely to increase, the cost of living, but that to concoct autobiography involved psychological distress, .especially to a person whose stock of materials was no larger than his own. Nevertheless he acceded to the friendly overture; but, instead of following the lines of established precedent, he inaugurated an entertaining departure by addressing "A Letter to Posterity," in which he amusingly undertook to tell his descendants something about himself. The document in question is now one of the literary treasures of the Georgia bar. These few extracts are taken therefrom:
'' To Posterity Greeting: I regret that I shall be absent when you arrive, and that we shall never meet. I should be pleased to make your acquaintance, but it is impossible to await your coming, the present state of the law of nature being opposed to such dilatory proceedings. There is no hope of amending that law in time for my case. Though aware of your approach collectively as a body of respectable citizens, I shall never hear of a single individual among you. Nor is it likely you will ever hear of me by name, fame, or reputation, unless with the aid of a microphone of extraordinary power. Nevertheless, if the highways between the ages remain in good condition and repair, this communication, though vir tually anonymous, may possibly reach you. In that event I bespeak for it your attention for one moment per generation, which, on a fair division of your valuable time, will be my full share and something over. I claim no vested right to your notice. If I have any color of title it is con tingent upon the quality of my services to the public as a member of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Of these services there is documentary evidence of a perishable nature in certain volumes of the Georgia Reports to which I refer with unaffected diffidence.. I must not be understood

* Vol. I, '' Eeminiscenees of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1401

as requesting you to read all my opinions. I have a theory that such writings might be terse, crisp, graceful, animated and entertaining; but mine afford few specimens of that kind. Yet, to treat them with justice, I am sensible that they are not more dry than those of some other judges.
"I came to the bench as an associate justice of the Supreme Court in the summer of 1875, and resigned early in 1880, worn down and tired out. My last deliverance was 'In the Matter of Rest,' a brief judicial poem. I would conciliate the critical taste of future generations by craving pardon, not for the verses, but for the doubtful decorum of reciting them from a seat traditionally sacred to* the oracles of prose. The loss of my ability to labor without great fatigue made me long for rest, but did not weaken my conviction that labor is the twin brother of happiness, the moral of the poem. Others might have suggested it as well or better in prose, but I could not. Perhaps I ought to confess thatdivers other poems (happily none of them j.udicial) may be laid to my charge. During most of my life I have had a strong and to me unac countable propensity to metrical transgression. Over and over again have I suffered the pains and penalties of poetic guilt. Besides a score or two of convictions, I have had many trials and narrow escapes. But even now I am not a hardened offender, for a bashful hesitation, always tempers my gallantry with the Muses.
"My resignation was the result of overwork, and overwork was the result of my ignorance of the law, together with an apprehension that I might be ignorant when I supposed I was not. To administer law it is desirable, though not always necessary, to know it. The labor of learn ing rapidly 011 a large scale, and the constant strain to shun mistakes in deciding cases, shattered my nerves and impaired my health. In its effect on the deciding faculty, the apprehension of ignorance counts for as much as ignorance itself. My mind is slow to embrace a firm faith in its supposed knowledge. However ignorant a judge may be, -whenever he thoroughly believes he understands the law of his case, he is ready to decide it, no less ready than if he had the knowledge which he thinks he has. And he will often decide correctly, for the law may be as he supposes, whether he knows it or not. My trouble is, to become fully persuaded that I know. I remained in private life until January, 1887, when on the death of Chief Justice Jackson I became his successor.
"I will now recount briefly the principal events of my personal his tory prior to the beginning of my judicial career. I was born in the woods, amid the mountains of North-eastern Georgia, July 3, 1827. My native county, Rabun, had then been organized but seven or eight years, up to which period it was ttte wilderness home of Indians the Cherokees. At eleven years of age I commenced writing in the office of my father, who at that time was a farmer without any lands and tenements, and with very few goods and chattels. He lived in a rented homestead, one mile from Clayton, the county town, and was clerk of three courts the superior, inferior, and ordinary. He was a man of strong intellect, fair information, and some business experience. He had been sheriff of the county. A more sterling character was not in the world, certainly not in that large group called the middle class, to which he belonged. Loyal to truth, he scorned sham, pretense, and mendacity. He was a native

1402

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

of North Carolina, as was my mother also. His blood was English and
Irish; hers German. "I gradually acquired skill in office business, and more and more of
it fell to my share, till at length I could give all of it competent attention. In this way and by observing what was done and said in the courts, I contracted a relish for law, and became familiar with legal documents and forms of procedure. The statutes, strange to say, were pleasant reading, and at intervals I read them with assiduity. Of course, my comprehension of them was imperfect, and still more imperfect was my mastery of the Constitution of the United States. But I had a boy's acquaintance with all these, or with most of them, by the time I was
seventeen. "Having prepared myself crudely for admission, I was admitted to
the Bar in April, 1846, shortly before I was nineteen. Though, for the following two years, I had a monopoly of the minor practice and a frac tion of that which was of some importance, the litigation of one sparsely settled mountain county which fell to my share was too inconsiderable to break the continuity of my studies, or -rather my legal meditations. I was absorbed. I had visions. I saw sovereignty. I beheld the law in its majesty and beauty. I personified it as a queen or an empress. It was my sovereign mistress, my phantom lady

Oh, lady, lady, lady, Since I see you everywhere,
I know you are a phantom A woman of the air!
I know you are ideal But yet you seem to me
As manifestly real As anything can be.
Oh, soul-enchanting shadow, In the day and in the night,
As I gaze upon your beauty, I tremble with delight.

If men would hear me whisper How beautiful you seem,
They would slumber while they listen, And dream it in a dream;
For nothing so exquisite Can the waking senses reach
Too fair and soft and tender For the nicest arts of speech.

In a pensive, dreamy silence, I am very often found,
As if listening to a rainbow
Or looking at a sound. 'Tis then I see your beauty
Reflected through my tears, And I feel that I have loved you
A thousand thousand years.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1403

"My professional income for these two years, not counting insolvent fees, amounted to between thirty-five and fifty dollars per annum. Hav ing no means with which to establish myself elsewhere, I determined to suspend practice and engage in a more lucrative department of labor until I could accumulate a small capital. I sought and obtained employ ment as bookkeeper in the State Railroad office in Atlanta. In this situa tion I remained for three years, my compensation ranging from forty dollars to sixty-six dollars per month. In the fourth year I was trans ferred to Milledgeville, then the capital of the State, being appointed one of the Governor's secretaries, at a salary of twelve hundred dollars. A new incumbent of the executive chair was inaugurated in November, 1851, and both my health and my politics needing repairs, I returned to private life. I had saved enough from my earnings to supply me with the skeleton of a library and to support me for some months as a candi date for practice.
'' In March, 1852, being then nearly twenty-five years of age, I opened an office in Atlanta, and my thoughts and dreams were again of law and of nothing else. The phantom lady haunted me again as before and seemed as beautiful as ever. Indeed, though I had been cool, I had been constant in my devotions to her through the four years I was out of her service. Clients gradually ventured within my chambers, and I soon had a moderate prosperity, due chiefly to acquaintance made in railroad cir cles during my three years' service as a railway clerk. In 1853 I was elected to the office of solicitor-general for my judicial circuit, which embraced eight counties. My term of service was four years, in the last of which happened the crowning success of my whole life, I was married.
"Until 1861 I continued the practice in Atlanta. The first battle of Manassas, alias Bull Run, occurred while I was in a camp of instruction, endeavoring to acquire some skill in the noble art of homicide. By nature I am pacific. The military spirit has but a feeble development in my constitution. Nevertheless, I tried the fortunes of a private soldier for a short time in behalf of the Southern Confederacy. I was discharged on .account of ill health, after a few months' service in Western Vir ginia, without having shed any one's blood or lost any blood of my own. The state of my martial emotions was somewhat peculiar: I loved my friends, but did not hate my enemies. "Without getting 'fighting mad,' I went out to commit my share of slaughter, being actuated by a solemn sense of duty, unmixed with spite or ill will. When I consider how destructive I might have been had my health supported my prowess, I am disposed to congratulate 'gentlemen on the other side' upon my forced retirement from the ranks at an early period of the contest. To the best of my remembrance, I was very reluctant but very determined to fight. However, all my military acts were utterly null and void. After my discharge from the army, I served the Confederacy in much of its legal business at and around Atlanta. Occasionally I took part also in short terms of camp duty as a member of the militia. In 1864, about the time Gen. Sherman left Atlanta on his march to the sea, I was ap pointed to the office of Supreme Court Reporter. After reporting two volumes, the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Georgia, I resigned that office. From that time until I was appointed to the Supreme Bench in 1875 I practiced law continuously in Atlanta.

1404

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

"Such education as I received in my boyhood was,,acquired at the village academy of my native county, an institution of meager resources and limited range of instruction. Although in the course of a somewhat studious lifetime, I have added considerably to my early stock, the plain truth is that, while not illiterate, I am destitute of real learning, lay or legal. My highest aspiration, so far as this life is concerned, is to do good judicial work. Service is better than salary, duty more inspiring than reward. My devotion to law is the spiritual consecration of a loving disciple, a devout minister.''
Few men will agree with Judge Bleckley that he was destitute of real learning, lay or legal. lie was a profound student of the law, and for years to come the impress of his genius will be felt upon the juris prudence of this state. One of the great counties of Georgia bears his name, and he deservedly ranks among the crowned immortals. In keep ing with his modest estimate of himself as a jurist is the apologetic meek ness with which he refers to what he calls his "metrical transgressions;" but the fact remains that Judge Bleckley has produced some excellent verse. He has not only made Blackstone clutch the fiddle and dance the Virginia reel, but he has made the waters of song gush from the Horeb of law and chant the music of Miriam.

JUDGE BLJSCKLEY's ALPHABET

Chief Justice Logan E. Bleckley's analysis of the English alphabet is one of the curiosities of literature. It exhibits a knowledge of philol ogy which is remarkable in one whose life was largely devoted to the technicalities and principles of civil law. According to Judge Bleckley's process of simplification the number of alphabetic letters is reduced to five; and these, by the aid of consonant signs, are carried through twen ty-one variations. The first letter is 0. It has no variation. The second is I. It has one variation, which is Y. The third is U. It has two varia tions, Q. and W. The fourth is A. It has four variations, H, J, K, R. The fifth is E. It has fourteen variations, in eight of which the E sound is full and strong, and in six quite thin and weak. The eight are B, C, D, G, P, T, V and Z; the six are F, L, M, N, S, and X. Summing up, we have one 0, two I's, three TJ's, five A's, and fifteen E's. Of the whole number 0 is 1-26, I 1-13, U 1-9 plus, A a fraction less than 1-5, E 1-2 and two over. Properly arranged the twenty-six characters would stand thus: 0, I, Y, U, Q, W, A, H, J, K, R, E, B, C, D, G, P, T, V, Z, F, L, M, N, S, X. This places the solitary 0 first; and in regular suc cession the others follow in the order of progression, each letter being accompanied by the progeny of which it is said to be the parent. One of the amusing episodes in the life of Judge Bleckley was his college course at Athens. He was in the close neighborhood of seventy when puzzled by some abstruse problem in higher mathematics he decided to attend the State University; and accordingly he spent one day in the sophomore class, one day in the junior class, and one day in the senior class. He considered himself ever afterwards an alumnus of the institution; and his alma mater in turn is proud of the phenomenal record of the old jurist.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1405

REPARTEE OF COL. HIRAM P. BELL
It seldom falls to the lot of one man to serve in the legislative bodies of two distinct republics; but Col. Hiram P. Bell, of Georgia, represented this state in both Federal and Confederate congresses, besides which he commanded a regiment on the field of battle. When quite an old man he took his seat in the Legislature of Georgia, and, like Doctor Felton, distinguished himself in this foram, after wearing congressional honors. Colonel Bell was discussing some measure before,the general judiciary committee of the House, when a member interrupted him by flippantly remarking that he was making a mountain out of a molehill.
This nettled the old gentleman, but quick as a flash he turned toward the member in question and gave him an answer, the effect of which was most dramatic. "Aye," said he, "call it insignificant, if you like, but Carlyle has told us that it is only man's littleness that makes him blind to the greatness of trifles. Multiply atoms by atoms, and you get the frame-work of this ponderous universe. Two thousand years ago, the Nazarene touched the spots of a leper of Capernaum. It was an insig nificant thing. It was only an unclean leper who was "healed. But the finger-touch of that insignificant act has thrilled and electrified the Chris tian centuries."

REPARTEE ov DOCTOR MILLER
Dr. H. V. M. Miller, one of the most eloquent public men of his day in. Georgia, styled "the Demosthenes of the Mountains," was quick at repartee and possessed the readiness while on his feet to make happy use of, unexpected interruptions. He had just risen from his seat on the platform to deliver an address at the University of Georgia when the tumultuous outburst of enthusiasm caused some of the plastering to drop from the loose ceiling overhead. This diverted the attention of the audience for a moment, but Doctor Miller was not embarrassed. His mind acted with the rapidity of lightning and instantly gave forth this brilliant flash:
"Ladies and gentlemen," said he, "I expected to bring down the house before I finished, but not before I commenced.''
Doctor Miller was variously gifted. He was a distinguished medical practitioner as well as a powerful debater on the 'political hustings. Toward the close of reconstruction, he was elected to represent Georgia in the United States Senate, but on account of certain complications was not seated until the last hours of the session. He was, therefore, denied the opportunity of launching any of his thunderbolts in the upper house of Congress. On returning to Georgia, he devoted himself almost entirely to professional pursuits. Doctor Miller possessed one of the most retentive memories and one of the most richly stored intellects known to the public life of this state, and there was scarcely any theme in the discussion of which he was not at home.

DOCTOR FELTON's TILT WITH MR. SIMMONS
Conspicuously brilliant as were the services of Dr. William H. Felton in the halls of Congress, it is doubtful if he ever achieved such oratorical

1406

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

triumphs or received sucli splendid ovations as marked his career in the Legislature of Georgia. It was not until after withdrawing from the arena of national politics that Doctor Felton took his seat in the Legis lature as a member from Bartow. He was then a white-haired old man, who leaned heavily upon his stick; and such, indeed, was his nervous condition a sort of palsy that his whole body quivered like an aspen, even when moved by no unusual excitement. To the casual or ignorant observer, who knew nothing of Georgia polities, it might have seemed that he was there, like the pictures on the wall, for the purpose of casting upon his associates the austere but speechless spell of a former genera tion. But Doctor Felton was not in the Legislature to enhance the scenic effects. He was there for more eloquent reasons. When interest was aroused or thought alert there was a light in this old man's eyes which told that the volcano was not yet .extinct and that while it might lift the snows of Mount Blanc it concealed the flames of Vesuvius.
Those who witnessed the famous fire of Doctor Felton's batteries, in 1884, when Representative E. G. Simmons, of Sumter was the victim of his volley, will never forget the terrific bombardment. It is needless to recall the minute'particulars, but it seems that Mr. Simmons an experi enced legislator had mortally offended Doctor Felton by calling him the great political "She" of Georgia. This was the name given by Rider Haggard, the celebrated novelist, to one of the weird creations of his brain, but Doctor Felton misconstrued the purport of the speaker's lan guage or at least put upon it such an interpretation as involved a sinister reference to Mrs. Felton, his gifted helpmeet and companion. The debate was on Doctor Felton's reformatory bill, and in the course of a somewhat impassioned speech the old doctor had declared that if his constituents should return him to the Legislature for the next thousand years, he would continue year after year to advocate his bill, until victory at last perched upon his banners. Those who have read "She" will see at once in this statement a suggestion of Rider Haggard's novel, but Mr. Sim mons may have used this name with a double intention. At any rate, it angered Doctor Felton, and when he finally obtained the floor his face was overspread with a deep pallor, while his frame trembled with the intensity of his suppressed emotion.
All eyes were bent upon him. His nervous infirmity only tended to augment his powers of eloquence by electrifying every fiber in his body, and as he turned his batteries toward the corner where Mr. Simmons
sat, a spectacle for the painter, it was to administer to him such a rebuke as no Legislature in Georgia ever before witnessed. The long arms rose in the air as if to clutch the mallet of Hercules, while the fierce eyes darted fire like burning coals from the forge of Vulcan. The established custom of debate was forgotten and the gentleman from Sumter became in the red-hot rhetoric of Doctor Felton "the man from Sumter." For a moment there crept into the old doctor's face a smile of tenderness, as he spoke of his idolized partner as one of Georgia's most intellectual women, and praised her nobility of soul as well as her beauty of mind; but instantly this gentle mood was succeeded by an outburst of equinoc tial thunder, as turning to Mr. Simmons he said : "And, sir, if she could
have put an ounce of her great brain into your empty skull, this house

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1407

would have been spared a spectacle, the like of which, for Georgia's sake, I hope it will never witness again.''
Doctor Felton next likened him to the small canine who bore his tail in such an upright manner as to expose his hinder parts. Then seizing upon one of the statements of Mr. Simmons to the effect that he (Mr. Simmons) had received the colored vote as well as the white vote of Sumter County in the legislative election, Doctor Felton next proceeded to enlarge upon the affinity existing between the colored voter and the '' man from Sumter,'' and compared them to two drops of water hanging upon a telegraph wire in a rain storm, and gradually approaching each other until they came together and made one big drop. Then he went on to say that when he prayed to God hereafter, instead of beseeching him in an abstract manner to make his only boy what a father's heart longed for him to be, he would now ask God in more specific terms to make him just the opposite in every respect of "the man from Sumter." Finally he reached the climax of his scathing philippic by pointing his slim finger at Mr. Simmons and pronouncing upon him, in a slightly modified form, the famous anathema of Lord Macauley: '' Sir, the one small service which you can render Georgia is to hate her, and such as you are may all who hate her be."
It was evident from this speech that age had not impaired the powers of mind which had made Doctor Felton in former years such a dramatic figure upon the hustings in Georgia. He was several times reelected to the State Legislature, and was instrumental in shaping much of the legis lation of this period, embracing the last two decades of the nineteenth century. He was the father of the reform movement which a few years later, resulted in the abolition of the infamous convict lease system. It was also due to Doctor Felton that the Western & Atlantic Railroad was leased upon the present advantageous terms. Pie introduced and urged the measure which fixed the rental. The last appearance of Doctor Felton in public was in 1898 when, bowed under the weight of nearly eighty years, he appeared before the General Assembly of Georgia and made a plea of surpassing eloquence on behalf of the State University at Athens. Mrs. Felton, his widow, is admittedly one of the most gifted women of this state and is fully the peer intellectually and socially of the famous Madame Octavia Walton LeVert.

GOVERNOR MCDANIEL'S HAPPIEST SPEECH

Gov. Henry D. McDaniel was occupying the executive chair at the time of President Cleveland's first election, in the fall of 1884; and soon after the dramatic invasion of the State Legislature by Henry Grady, who performed the audacious feat of adjourning this law-making body, in the name of democracy's triumphant standard-bearer, it was decided to call upon Governor McDaniel with the good news. In the party with Mr. Grady were Capt. Evan P. Howell and Mr. Donald M. Bain, both of whom were high priests in the democratic Sanhedrim. To signalize the announcement, they bore an immense flag, and, rushing toward the stairway, mounted the flight six steps at a time. Governor McDaniel was deeply engrossed in official correspondence when Mr. Grady and Mr. Bain seized him, and before he could fully comprehend the nature

1408

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

of the interruption, He found himself ensconced in the folds of the StarSpangled Banner.
"What does this mean?" he inquired. "Is Cleveland really elected?"
Like the average southern democrat, he was disposed to be skeptical of the returns from the presidential election. Since the time of Buchanan there had been no democratic incumbent of the White House, and though Tilden had been fairly elected, he had not been allowed to take the oath of office. However, the nature of the present interruption, the jubilant expression upon the faces of the visitors and the national ensign, all bore testimony to the purport of the message; but the news was too good to be true. Without answering the governor's question in direct words, Mr. Grady, with suppressed excitement, merely said:
'' You must come down stairs.'' "But what do you wish me to do?" hesitated the governor. "We will show you what to do," replied the bold spokesman. Though, it looked very much as if the governor was being kidnaped by Robin Hood's men, he consented to the program of the captors. They bore him down the stairway, through an eager throng of exultant demo crats, including statehouse officials, legislators and citizens, and planted him finally on the steps of the postoffice building on the opposite side of the street. He was then told to address the crowd. Unexpected as the demand was upon the resources of the governor, he waxed eloquent. Cheer after cheer went up from the throats of the assembled multitude as the resonant sentences of the governor fell upon the receptive air; and, in the opinion of many warm admirers who were present, Governor McDaniel fairly surpassed himself in the electrical ten-minutes speech which he made on this occasion.*

GOVERNOR CANDLER'S FIGHT FOB A BLANKET

Back in the early '60s, when Governor Candler was a captain in the Confederate army, he was camping on one occasion with his command, near a company of Mississippians, on Pearl River. After an exposure of twenty-four hours on picket duty, during an incessant downpour of rain, the Georgia boys returned to camp on the morning of the second day, drenched and exhausted, and proceeded to spread their wet blankets on the honeysuckle bushes to dry. Nothing of interest occurred for sev eral hours to ruffle the monotonous routine of camp life, but late in the evening an ungainly Mississippian, who wore an aggrieved look, approached the commanding officer's tent.
'' Captain,'' said he, in tones of ill-suppressed anger, '' one of your men has stolen my blanket and refuses to give it up."
Just at this moment the alleged culprit, who proved to be an old grayhaired Presbyterian elder, appeared with the blanket in 'question..
"Captain," he protested, "this man is mistaken. Here is the blan ket. We captured it from the Yankees last fall. You will recognize it at once because you have slept under it yourself time and again."
Thereupon the Georgia officer carefully scrutinized the disputed arti-

* Vol. II, '' Beminisceiiees of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1409

cle of property and finding from the peculiar marks which it bore that it unmistakably belonged to the old elder, he turned to the Mississippi
youngster and said: "My friend, he is right. This is his blanket. You have made some
mistake." "Yes," retorted he, unable to contain himself longer, "that's just the
way with you Georgians. One of you will lie about something and another will swear it is true. If you will shed your stripes I will lick
you before you can say jack-rabbit." Thus challenged, the little captain, who was game to the core, pro
ceeded to shed his stripes and to square himself for action. On came the burly young Mississippian, and for several minutes the most des perate grapple ensued. Governor Candler afterwards said it was un doubtedly the hardest fight for the same length of time in which he was
ever engaged. Neither belligerent knew the other's name, but years afterward when
Governor Candler was representing the Ninth District in Congress he told the story to Edward Barrettr who was then the Washington corre spondent for the Atlanta Constitution, and the brilliant newspaper man of course slapped it into print. Reading the graphic account among others was Private John Alien, of Mississippi, whose curiosity was at once piqued. The noted humorist of Congress lost no time in seeking
the "Washington correspondent. "Who gave you the story?" inquired Private John. "Why, Congressman Candler, of Georgia," replied Mr. Barrett. "Was he the blamed little captain?" asked Private John. "Yes," returned the correspondent, wondering what was coming
next. '' Well,'' said Mr. Alien, giving vent to the most violent outburst of
laughter, "I was the other fellow." Before the day was over the belligerents were again brought together,
but, instead of renewing the fight, they laughed and talked over the old wartimes; but the incident which seemed to tickle them both most was the one of the two Confederate soldiers who, wholly unacquainted with each other, fought the pitched battle for the old army blanket on Pearl
River.*

GOVERNOR NORTHEN AT MOUNT ZION ACADEMY

Before entering the political arena, Gov. William J. Northen was for twenty years a sclioolteacher. Incidentally, it may be said that a better one was never evolved. Succeeding Dr. Carlisle P. Beman at the head of the famous Mount Zion Academy, near Sparta, he taught more than one youngster who was destined to come to the front in Georgia politics. But, like a certain wise king of Israel, Governor Northen believed in a wholesome, application of the rod. On one occasion so the story goes some nineteen students, becoming rebellious, were given the choice be
tween two extremes expulsion or castigation. The stern professor was determined to permit no infraction of the

'Vol. II, "Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

1410

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

rules of discipline. He clearly defined the issue, and having once delib erately spoken he was less amenable to change than was the law of the Medes and Persians. Ten chose to return to school duties by way of the birch, but nine still demurred and accordingly suffered the conse quences. It was not the purpose of Governor Northeii to punish the .boys who voluntarily accepted the terms of readmission, but this inten tion the professor kept to himself until the decision was finally rendered. Later on four or five of the others applied for readmission, doubtless hoping to be equally as fortunate in escaping the terrors of the lash. But they applied too late to be treated as volunteers; and, though they were taken back, they were first required to strip.
Another remedial dose of the same prescription was destined to bear unexpected results years afterwards. In the hot resentment born of bruised flesh and injured feelings, one of the boys threatened to pun ish the professor on reaching the adult stage. "Wait till I am grown," said he, "and I will get even for this day's work." Though the pro fessor attached no importance to the threat, it was too much out of the usual run of predictions to be lightly forgotten; and, when he was run ning for governor the first time, an incident occurred which served to revive it. He was stopping at some hotel, and, exhausted by the fatigue of the campaign, he wished to rest. But up came a card. Glancing at the piece of pasteboard, he recognized the name of the student whose solemn vow was still unexecuted. He hardly knew what to expect. It might be imperiling the gubernatorial honors, but he agreed to see the visitor. In rushed the man, breathless with excitement.
"Professor," said he, "I've ridden fifteen miles to tell you that I am doing all I can to see you elected governor, and that I am going to get you as many votes as you gave me licks at old Mount Zion."
Except for the exigency of ill health. Governor Northen might have been satisfied to spend the remainder of his days in listening to the buzz of Greek verbs. It was useful work in which he was engaged; and such work is only too often undervalued. But Georgia was calling him, through the agency of mysterious events, into higher spheres of useful ness. Behind the plow, in the ruddy and robust activities of country life, his health began to improve. He was sent first to the House and then to the Senate. Subsequently he became president of the State Agri cultural Society. This was the stepping-stone to the governorship. Twice he filled the gubernatorial chair, being elected each time by rous ing majorities. He was the steadfast friend of the educational interests of Georgia, and enjoyed the satisfaction while governor of seeing two institutions in which he was peculiarly interested successfully launched the Georgia Normal and Industrial College at Milledgeville and the
State Normal School at Athens.*

POLITICS IN GOVERNOR TERRELL'S HEAD

To say that Gov. Joseph M. Terrell was one of the most popular of all the chief executives of Georgia is to say much, but still not all, for, in the felicitous phrase of Dr. John E. White, his career in public life

*ol. II, "Reminiscences of.Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1411

has been styled "the Gulf-Stream of Georgia politics," Despite the horrified outburst of old Aurtt Liza, a privileged darky once owned by the Terrell family in Meriwether, political honors did not spoil Governor Terrell. Someone told her that Joe had gotten politics in his head, but that otherwise he was all right. "Well," said Aunt Liza, "ef he's got 'em he's got 'em sense he growed up. He didn't have any of dem things in his head when I kept it combed.'' While occupying the office of attorney-general, Governor Terrell appeared twelve separate times for Georgia in the United States Supreme Court, and won every case which he argued.
DR. CUBBY AND KING ALPIIONSO

Dr. J. L. M. Curry, a native Georgian, who represented the United States Government at the. court of Madrid, under President Cleveland, received many marks of signal favor from the Spanish dons, with whom he was the most popular of all the diplomats. It was the fortune of Doctor'Curry to be in Madrid at the time of the present sovereign's birth; and when the young sovereign was presented to the grandees of Spain as the new king who, by virtue of his father's death some months before, was born a sovereign, the United States minister was accorded the honor of meeting the royal infant within an hour of his advent. Unadorned by even the simplest vestments of the royal wardrobe, the little stranger, who possessed no badge or mark to distinguish him from the child of the humblest peasant in Spain, was borne upon a platter of gold into the hall of the palace to receive the homage of his kneeling subjects and
the felicitations of his friends and neighbors. The pleasant relations existing between the American ambassador
and the Spanish court were such that years later when the crown was formally placed upon the brow of the youthful sovereign, the United States Government was specially requested to commission Doctor Curry to attend the impressive ceremonies. Though he received many distin guished compliments both at home and abroad, he never felt quite so highly flattered by any incidental tribute as by this distinguished mark of regard from the royal family at Madrid. Doctor Curry was born in Lincoln County, Georgia, in 1825. He belonged to the famous Lamar family of this state, being a grandson of Basil Lamar and a cousin of L. Q. C. Lamar. He was a minister of the gospel, served in Confederate and Federal Congress, was commissioned a colonel in the southern army, and was the trustee of the Slater-Peabody fund. Alabama has placed Doctor Curry's statue in the nation's Hall of Fame in Washington, D. C.

"SENATORS NOT GENTLEMEN":. PRESIDENT AKIN's RULING
During the legislative session of 1907, President John W. Akin made a ruling which is likely to live among the humorous traditions of the capitol. It was based upon the immemorial canons of senatorial eti quette, but it stated a fact which, except for its amusing side, was well calculated to shock the Cavalier instincts of Georgia's state senators. The ruling of the chair was called forth by the following circumstances: Sen. L. G. Hardman occupied the floor. His bill to provide for the registration of trained nurses was under fire.

1412

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Sen. J. P. Knight and Senator Camp, who ran the opposition bat teries, proposed to amend the measure by providing that nothing in the act should be construed to prohibit the author of the bill, Doctor Hardman, from having two nurses, either trained or in process of train ing, to attend him whenever necessity required.
In the cross-firing which ensued Senator Knight grew eloquently warm. Question after question was put to Doctor Hardman, to all of which he returned unruffled answers. But Senator Knight, instead of addressing him in the time-honored fashion of the upper legislative branch as "the senator from the thirty-second," yielded to the force of unconscious habit and in the language of the lower house addressed him as "the gentleman," an appellation which ordinarily conveys no offense. However, it was more than the strict presiding officer could stand; and he brought down the gavel with an ominous rap upon the desk.
"It is an exceedingly disagreeable duty," said he, "to call any mem ber of this body to task, but when an open violation of the rules of the Senate is observed I have no option. For some time past I have noticed with some degree of surprise that senators appeared to forget them selves and to address senators in debate as gentlemen. The senator from the sixth is an old offender. Let me state once for all that there are no gentlemen in the Senate of Georgia; for when the commissioners of the people once enter this chamber they cease to be gentlemen and become senators.''
Though amusingly phrased, it was nevertheless an incontestable law of senatorial etiquette, being indeed the lex iion scripta, which is fully as old as the Roman eagles; and in the nature of things there was no appeal from the decision of the chair. Senator Knight, whose lineage connected him with the old order of chivalry, and whose name suggested crusades and tournaments, was rather nonplused to have his status defined in such naked terms, but he signified his acquiescence in the president's decision, and, gasping for ozone, he resumed his seat, hav ing no further questions to ask.

FRANK STANTON'S IMPROMPTU

Frank L. Stanton, the gifted Georgia poet, was introduced on one occasion by young Thomas R. R. Cobb to a Mr. Kemp, who was then living in Atlanta. Subsequently, when under the influence of the bev erage which is said to have inspired Tarn O'Shanter, he obtained from Mr. Kemp a small sum of money, in exchange for which, he gave the following poetic acknowledgment, which will compare favorably with any impromptu squib from the pen of Byron:

"My dear Mr. Kemp, If I ever wear hemp Instead of these starched linen collars, I hope it will be When I'm perfectly free From your excellent loan of ten dollars."

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1413

WASHINGTON DESSAU'S DRAMATIC ADIEU

Never, perhaps, in the history of the Georgia bar, has an advocate died more literally in harness than Washington Dessau. The death of this brilliant lawyer, while engaged in making an argument of singular power before the Supreme Court of Georgia, constitutes one of the most tragic and impressive episodes of the capitol. Mr. Dessau was an orator with few equals; but, unlike most men of rare gifts, he preferred the courtroom to the legislative hall, and was usually at his best when dis cussing some difficult point of law before the court of last resort.
On this particular occasion he waxed unusually eloquent; and neither tlie thunder-peal of his voice nor the lightning-flash of his eye suggested that the vital forces were well-nigh spent. He was apparently never in better health, nor did he begin to look the fifty-two years which regis tered the mature vigor of his physical and intellectual powers.
If anyone had been asked to pick out from the entire courtroom the victim for whom the invisible messenger was waiting at the door, he would not have selected the strong man who, with thews of iron corded in the grapple of weighty argument, resemblea Hercules slaying the Nemean Lion or Samson lifting the gates of Gaza. But the hour was about to strike. Suggesting certain legal difficulties, one of the mem bers of the court requested Mr. Dessau to argue the point which he indi cated from the bench.
"Your honor," said he, "permit me to thank you. The friction of two minds causes the spark of truth to scintillate."
This was the eloquent advocate's last sentence. With the accents of courtesy upon his lips he fell to the floor like an old knight of the tour nament. He was borne to an adjoining room where every effort was made to strengthen the weak pulse and to recall the departed color. But in vain. The solemn awe which fell upon the spectators of the tragic scene was most profound. Seldom have men.been more deeply affected. The brilliant aphorism which was destined-to linger to the latest times in the traditions of the coiirtroom seemed to reverberate through the silent chamber of death like the intonations of thunder and to cause the dullest imagination to realize how appropriate it was, since the time had come for him to soar from the sight of man, that his own lofty eloquence should supply the rocket wings. Mr. Dessau's death occurred in 1904. He was survived by his wife, who was a grandniece of old Governor Gilmer.

CHANCELLOR MELL: EXAMPLES OP His WIT

Chancellor Patrick H. Mell, of the State University, was perhaps the foremost parliamentarian of his day and generation in the South. He was moderator of the Georgia Baptist Association for over thirty years, president of the Georgia Baptist Convention for twenty-six years, and president of the Southern Baptist Convention for seventeen years. "MelPs Manual" is still an authoritative handbook for the guidance of deliberative bodies. But Doctor Mell was also a wit a gift, however, which he rarely, if ever, displayed in the pulpit.
Shortly after the \var, the Southern Baptist Convention met in Bal-
Vol. Ill--10

1414

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

timore. Chancellor Mell, as usual, wielded the gavel, and the following incident, which occurred during the session, shows that, without losing his parliamentary equipoise or his kindly good humor, there were certain words in Webster's Dictionary which he could not think of permitting on the floor, in connection with the late unpleasantness. As a fraternal delegate from the Northern Baptist Convention, the distinguished Doctor Welsh of New York was given the floor and was voicing the friendly sen timents of his brethren north of the Patapsco. To show that his purpose was not to indulge in censure, he said:
"Why, Brother President, if I had been in the South such are the impulses of my heart that I should no doubt have been one of the leaders of the rebellion."
At the utterance of the last word the gavel came down with an omi nous rap upon the desk, and the speaker found himself suddenly under arrest.
"That word is out of order on the floor of this convention," inter posed Doctor Mell, in his firmest but most courteous tones.
'' Well, Brother President,'' meekly interrogated Doctor "Welsh, some what abashed, "what word shall I use?"
"The chair does not presume to dictate, sir," replied the presiding officer, "but he insists upon his ruling that the word 'rebellion' in such a convention is out of order. He shall so hold unless you appeal from the decision of the chair. Do you appeal, sir?"
"No, Brother President," returned the speaker with apologetic brev ity and prompt acceptance.
What further descriptive nouns the venerable doctor employed is not disclosed by the newspaper clipping, but he does not appear to have been interrupted by the fall of the gavel any more during the proceedings. Doctor Mell had served as a colonel at the head of a regiment during the war, and he had used carnal as well as spiritual weapons in dealing with the adversary; and while he felt kindly toward the brother who had spoken with such generous promptings, he wanted him to know that he had fought for principle.

Another amusing incident in the experience of Doctor Mell while occupying the chair is told by his son, Prof. P. H. Mell, who has written an excellent biographical account ofrhis father. During a session of the Georgia Baptist Convention a member who represented some benevolent enterprise was trying to raise money from the brethren. In the course of his remarks he was very bitter in denouncing ministers who wasted money in sinful appetites, particularly in the matter of using tobacco. His speech was having the opposite effect from what he desired, and Doctor Mell, anxious to aid the cause under consideration, watched for an opportunity to put the convention in good humor. The speaker con tinued in an injured tone to summarize the amounts spent by preachers in "sinfully bad habits," and turning toward the presiding .officer, he
said: "A pipeful of tobacco costs five cents, doesn't it, Brother Moder
ator?" "Yes," replied the doctor, "but it's worth it." The convention was uproarious for a while, bi\t the laughter resulted

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1415

in the restoration of good feeling and put an end to the speaker's offensive line of remarks. It was really of great service to him, however, because the body subscribed liberally to the cause he was advocating. The pre siding officer said afterwards that he would have given more than the tobacco was worth if he could have been smoking while the member was speaking. The remark of Doctor Mell suggests the witticism of Dr. W. W. Landrum, who justified the enjoyment of an occasional cigar 011 the strictly orthodox ground that he was only burning an idol.

But leaving the convention halls, Professor Mell narrates an anecdote which humorously illustrates the logical bent of the great parliamen tarian's mind. The doctor was present once at a justice court; and, while waiting for the appearance of the justice, he withdrew to the shade of a tree, not far from which a group of men were drinking from a jug of whisky. They asked him to drink with them, but he politely declined.
Just at this moment another man stepped up, and being given the same invitation, he eagerly grasped the proffered jug, saying as he did so:
"Certainly I will, and I've got Scripture for it, too. Don't the Bible say 'be temperate in all things,' and whisky being something, how can I be temperate in all things without drinking some ?''
As he delivered himself of this weighty syllogism he glanced a chal lenge at Doctor Mell and gave a wink to the boys. Doctor Mell, goodnaturedly, accepted the gage of battle. '
"Gentlemen, I have two objections to that doctrine," said Doctor Mell. "In the first place there is no such passage in the Bible. And suppose the apostle had said, 'Be ye temperate in all things,' arc you going to construe it in the way just given! If you do you will have to bite a piece out of the jug as well as drink some of the whisky, for jugbiting is just as much something as whisky-drinking. And then see what a chapter of accidents you will have. You will be compelled, under the logic .you have just heard, to go through life biting a piece out of every hedge you come to, drinking out of every mud-puddle you see, nibbling at every tree you pass; and finally, my dear sir, you will have to bite a piece out of every dog's tail you meet on the road."

For many years, in connection with his educational work, Doctor Mell preached at Antioch, and in going and coming he used to travel with a preacher of the Methodist camp, who held forth in the same neighbor hood. Now, this traveling companion was a widower and Doctor Mell was an inveterate jester.. Driving through the country one Saturday afternoon Doctor Mell suggested that his Methodist brother preach from the text, "This widow troubleth me." On meeting again the next week in Athens, the Methodist divine was asked if he had 'preached from the text which Doctor Mell had furnished.
"Oh, no," said he, "I took the text, 'How long halt ye between two opinions.' "
"Ah," replied Doctor Mell, smiling, "I did not know there were two of them."
Sometimes Doctor Mell preached to the negroes. He was greatly beloved by the colored contingent, to whom his sympathetic and friendly offices were most pleasing. On one occasion, so the story goes, the great

1416

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

chancellor dropped into one of the colored churches near Athens merely to worship, and the old negro preacher who had caught sight of the slender figure of Doctor Mell as he entered the door soon afterwards lifted his stentorian voice in the most fervent prayer, which was largely dedicated to the spiritual comfort of the distinguished worshiper. Said he:
'"God bless Mars Pat. Give him de eyes uv de eagle so he kin see sin a-fur off. Give him de claws uv de eagle so he kin tare sin to pieces. Keep him, oh Lawd, in-de holler of dy fist. Strenken his weak arm uv flesh wid de widder's mite, and an'int him wid de ile uv Patmos."

BILL AEP'S RUSTIC HUMOR

During the days of reconstruction, when the spirit of heaviness was upon the South, it was Maj. Charles H. Smith who, under the pen name of "Bill Arp," began to provoke the first good-natured laughter that rippled the state after General Lee's surrender. The appearance of this genial prophet of optimism was like a burst of sunshine, through a rift in the clouds. The plow was standing idle in the field. Military satraps were patroling the streets. The whole state was paralyzed with inertia. But in the midst of this condition of affairs Bill Arp's droll letters began to appear in the newspapers. They were spiced with such playful humor and seasoned with such shrewd philosophy and good sense, that at count less firesides throughout the South they began to arouse the most intense interest; and from this time on, in fact until the very hour of his death, Bill Arp was one of the most widely beloved of southern humorists. The story of how Major Smith began to write under the pen name of Bill Arp is perhaps best told in his own words.
"Some time in the spring of 1861," says the mountain philosopher, "when our Southern boys were hunting for a fight and felt like they could whip all creation, Mr. Lincoln issued a proclamation ordering us all to disperse within thirty days, and to quit cavorting around.
"I remember writing an answer to it as though I was a good Union man and a law-abiding citizen and was willing to disperse if I could, but it was almost impossible, for the boys were mighty hot, and the way we made up our military companies was to send a man down the lines with a bucket of water and if a fellow sizzed like a hot iron in a slack trough we took him, and if he didn 't sizz we didn 't take him; but nevertheless, notwithstanding, and so forth, if we could possibly disperse within thirty days we would do so, but I thought he had better give us more time, for I had been out in an old field by myself and tried to disperse and
couldn 't. "I thought the letter was right smart and decently sarcastic, and so I
read it to some of my friends and they seemed to think it was right smart, too. About that time I looked around and saw the original Bill Arp standing with his mouth wide open, eagerly listening. As he came for
ward he said to me: '' ' Squire, are you going to print that ?' '"I reckon I will, Bill,' said I. " 'What name are you going to put to it?' said he. " 'I don't know yet,' said I; 'I haven't thought about a name.'

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1417

'' Then he brightened up and said: ' "Well, Squire, I wish you would use mine. Them's my sentiments'; and I promised him that I would.
"Sol did not rob Bill Arp of his good name, but took it on request.''

Major Smith, in one of his letters, has drawn an excellent little thumb-sketch of the original Bill Arp, showing that while an unlettered man, who could neither read nor write, he was nevertheless possessed of an unusual share of mother wit and was always most welcome whenever he came about. Some few paragraphic glimpses at this old likeness may be of interest. Says Major Smith:
'' He kept a ferry for a wealthy gentleman who lived a few miles above town on the Etowah river, and he cultivated a small portion of his land; but the ferry was not of much consequence, and when Bill could slip off to town and hear the lawyers talk he would turn over the boat and the poles to his wife or his children and go. I have known him to take a back seat in the court-house for a day at a time and with a face all greedy for entertainment, listen to the proceedings of the court and return home perfectly happy to tell his admiring family what had trans pired.
"He felt the greatest reverence for Colonel Johnston, his landlord, and always said that he would about as leave belong to him as to be free; 'for,' said he, 'Mrs. Johnston throws away enough clothes and second hand vittles to support my children, and they are always nigh enough to pick 'em up.'
"Bill Arp lived in Chulio district; we had eleven districts in the county, and they all had such names as Popskull and Blue-gizzard" and Wolf-skin and Shake-rag and Wild-cat and Possum-trot, but Bill Arp reigned in Chulio. Bill was the best man in the district. He could out run, out-jump, out-swim, out-wrestle, out-ride, out-shoot anybody; and was so far ahead that everybody else had to give up, and his neighbors were all his friends.
'' But there was another district whose best man was Ben McGinnis; and it began to be whispered around that Ben wasn't satisfied with his limited territory and wanted to tackle Bill Arp. Ben weighed about one hundred and sixty-five pounds, while Bill weighed only one hundred and thirty. Bill was satisfied with his honors, but Ben was not; and soon it was noised around that Ben and Bill had to meet.
"I've seen "Bill Arp in battle and he was a hero. I've seen him when shot and shell ranged around him and he was calm and cool; but I have never seen him so intensely excited as he was when Ben McGinnis approached and said: ' I golly, I dare anybody to hit me.'
"As Ben bristled up Bill let fly M'ith his hard bony fist right in his left eye and followed it up with another so quick that the two blows seemed, as one. I don't know how it was and'never will know; but in less than a second Bill had him down and was on him and his fists and his elbows and his knees seemed all at work. Ben hollered 'enough' in due time and Bill helped him up and brushed the dirt off his clothes and said:
'' ' Now, Ben, is it all over betwixt us ? Is you and me all right 1' " 'Yes,' said Ben, 'it's all right 'twixt you and me, Bill.'

1418

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

"Bill thereupon invited all hands up to the shelf and they took a drink and he and Ben were friends.
'' This is enough of the original Bill Arp. He made a good soldier in war. He was the wit and the wag of the camp, making many a home sick youth laugh away his melancholy. He was a good citizen in peace. When told that his son was killed he looked no surprise, but simply said:
" 'Major, did he die all right?' '' When assured that he did, Bill wiped away a tear and said: " ' I only wanted to tell his mother.' ' ' *

How THE GEORGIA COLONELS ORIGINATED

Quite an interesting contribution to state history is made by Major Smith in the story which he amusingly tells of how the Georgia colonels originated. "We used to have general musters all over the State," says he, "twice a year. The militia were ordered out to be reviewed by the commander-in-chief, who was the Governor. The Constitution required him to review 'em, but as he couldn't travel all around in person, he had to do it by proxy, and so he had his proxy in each county, and he was the Governor's aide-de-camp, with the rank of Colonel. This gave the Governor over a hundred aide-de-camps, and they all took it as a compliment and wore cockade hats with red plumes and epaulets, and long brass swords, and big brass spurs, and pistols in their holsters, and rode up and down the line in a gallop, reviewing the meelish. The mee-lish were in a double-crooked straight line, in a great big field, and were armed with shotguns and rifles, and muskets, and sticks, and corn stalks, and thrash-poles, and umbrellas, and they were standing up and setting down, or on the squat, or playing mumble-peg, and they hollered for water half their time, and whisky the other; and when the colonel and his -personal staff got through reviewing he halted about the middle of the line and said : ' Shoulder arms right face march,' and then the kettle-drums rattled and the fife squeaked, and some guns went off halfcocked, and the meelish shouted awhile and were disbanded by the cap tains of their several companies.
"These colonels held rank and title as long as the Governor held his office, and they were expected to holler hurrah for the Governor on all proper occasions, and they did it. If the Governor ran again and was defeated, the next Governor appointed a new set from among the faith ful, and the old set had to retire from the field, but they held on to the title. For a great many years the old Whigs and Democrats had it up and down, in and out. and so new colonels were made by the score until the State was chock full again.
"They had a general muster and a grand review once up at Lafay ette. Bob Barry lived up there and was the mischief-maker of the town. Bob never wore shoes or hat and hardly anything else in those days, and he had petted and tamed a great big long razor-backed hog, and could ride him with a rope bridle, and so as the colonel and his staff came galloping down the line with his cockades and plumes and glittering swords, Bob suddenly came out from behind a house mounted

* Vol. I, '' Reminiscences of Famous Georgians, ; ' by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1419

on his razor-back hog, and a paper cap with a turkey feather in it 011 his head, and a pair of old tongs swinging from his suspenders, and some spurs on his bare-footed heels, and he fell in just behind the cavalcade, and got the hog on a run, and scared their horses, and the whole concern ran away and the hog after 'em, and such a yell and such an uproar was never heard in those parts or anywhere else. The hog never stopped running until he got home, when Bob dismounted and took to the woods for fear of consequences. Bob is running a Sundayschool now, and I 'm glad of it, for it will take a good deal of missionary work in him to make up for some things the Lafayette people tell about.
'' But these militia musters got to be such farces that the Legislature abolished 'em about thirty-five years ago, though they couldn't abolish the colonels. When the war broke loose most of 'em 'went into the army and got reduced. Many a peace colonel got to be a war major or a cap tain, or even a high private, and in that way their ranks were thinned. Our governors, however, still make a few new ones as often as they are elected, and so the peace colonel is still destined to live and illustrate the good old State.''

Several years ago Major Smith attended the graduating exercises of the Atlanta Medical College to see his son receive his diploma. Con gressman N. J. Hammond, the president of the board of trustees, deliv- t ered the sheepskins to the young doctors in Latin; and this circumstance reminded Major Smith of an anecdote on old Judge Blandford, who had just resigned from the Supreme bench. Here is the story:
"On one occasion a doctor sued a man for his medical bill of fifteen dollars and the man employed Mark Blandford, who had just hung out his shingle, to fight the case; for he said the doctor was no account and he discharged him. The doctor swore to his account and Mark called for his license or his diploma, and made the*point that no doctor had a right to practice without one, and he read the law to the squire. And . so the old judge told the doctor to show his sheepskin. He said he had one at home, and asked for leave to get it. It was just six miles to town and he rode in a hurry and returned in a sweat of perspiration. With an air of triumph he handed it over to Mark and said: ' Now what have you got to say?' Mark unrolled it and saw that it was in Latin. The doctor's name was John William Head, but the Latin made it Johannes Gulielmus, films, Caput. That was enough for Mark. He made the point that it was not a diploma but an old land-grant that was issued in old colony times to a man by the name of Caput. The doctor raved furi ously, but Mark stuck to it and there was no mention in the document of John William Head that it was issued to Johannes Gulielmus, filius, Caput an altogether different person, and he asked the doctor please to read the thing to the court. Of course the doctor couldn't do it and he lost his case. The old squire said that lie didii 't know whether it was a land-grant or a.diploma or a patent for some machine; and if the doc tor couldn't read it he wasn't fitteii to practice medicine."
Major Smith died in Bartow County in this state in 1903 at the ripe old age of seventy-seven years. Elder in the Presbyterian Church, sol dier, lawyer, farmer, author, philosopher and humorist, he lived to cele brate the golden anniversary of his nuptials. The Death Angel over-

1420

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

took him in his harvest fields, still binding his mellow sheaves of grain. Sunshine died perceptibly from out the sky when the announcement went forth that genial Bill Arp was no more, and the great reading public for whom he had so often wrought the miracle of turning tears into smiles now paid him the sorrowful but affectionate tribute of turning smiles into tears.

SAM JONES : GEORGIA 's PRINCE OP EVANGELISTS

It is by no means an extravagant statement to say that when death, in the summer of 1906, suddenly checked the career of Samuel Porter Jones, it robbed the religious harvest-fields of the most unique evangelist of modern times. Mr. Jones may have lacked the eloquence of Whitfield. He was not an orator in the forensic sense of the term. But he pos sessed the humor of Mark Twain. He also understood what many other wise great preachers have failed to understand: human nature. Mr. Jones not only knew the text from which he preached but he knew the man to whom he preached. The creator of Little Nell knew no better how to touch the spring of human tenderness; and upon the keyboard of the heart he played like one of the great German masters.
Tom Watson, in comparing the Georgia evangelist with Doctor Talmage, says that on the first night at any given place, the one might draw equally as well as the other, but that before the end of the week Doctor Talmage would be preaching to empty benches, while Mr. Jones would be turning hundreds away unable to give them accommodations.
To continue the figurative analysis, Doctor Talmage was like a reser voir whose proportions are ample but which needs constantly to be refilled. On the other hand, Mr. Jones was like a stream of transparent crystal whose fountain source is hidden far up in the mountains, among the rocks and the ferns. He ran like Tennyson's Brook; and, if he sometimes meandered from the old beaten homiletical highway, it was in quest of greener fields and sweeter airs. It was in the great throbbing heart-centers of population, amid the roar and rush of city life, among the teeming millions of feverish toilers, that his life's work was chiefly done, but he seldom preached without catching into his sermons the clover breath of the Galilean fields. He kept in touch with the outer world. He loved to roam through the woods and to fish in the streams and to soar with the skylark, and, though he was not without some of the cre dentials of scholarship, he preferred Arcadia to Athens.
Mr. Jones used to say that the most sincere compliment which he ever received from any source came from an old negro; and, though the terms in which it was conveyed were somewhat dubious, still the circum stances under which it was tendered excluded any sinister interpreta tion. Approaching the evangelist one day, after he had finished one of his simple and direct sermons to the brother in black, the old negro said:
"Well, Brudder Jones, you sho' do preach like er nigger. You may have er white skin, but you got er black heart.''
Nature's outgushing tribute from an humble but honest source and freighted with an eloquence of warm sincerity which many of the hollow compliments expressed in terms far more classical sadly lack! Not black, indeed, but golden from core to circumference was the big manly heart

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1421

of Sam Jones. Viewed from the human standpoint it ceased to beat all too soon. But the Master of the vineyard knew when to call the laborer home; and, when Sam Jones passed under the shining arches into the radiant upper court of the temple, his arms were full of golden tro phies. The end came when he was hastening home to be present at the festive gathering which always took place in Cartersville on the anni versary of his marriage. But greater joy still was in store for the tired evangelist. He was going home to rest among anthems and friends and flowers yet not to Cartersville this time, but to Jerusalem the Golden, the city of the Great King.*

UNCLE REMUS : THE STORY OF His RISE TO FAME

Joel Chandler Harris persistently disclaimed any original creative merit for his famous folk-lore stories, which have grown into the nursery classics of the English-speaking world. But perfect reproduction requires almost if not quite as much genius as original creation; and while Mr. Harris may truthfully say that his work has been simply to retell the old plantation legends, preserving the flavor of humor in the molds of dialect, it is equally true that he has succeeded where many others have failed; and he could never have put southern literature under such lasting tribute to his pen unless he had caught the spirit of the old-time southern negro and possessed the power of kindling on the printed page the spark which vitalizes him and makes him live. This is what Mr. Harris has done for Uncle Remus; and when the merit of his work is stripped of all extraneous matter it still remains that he has carried the glow of the cabin fireside around the globe; that.he has touched and warmed and vivified all landscapes with the genial rays of the southern sun; and that even in the library of the. New England scholar he has made the southern cotton-patch as classic as the ancient arena.

The story of how Uncle Remus' menagerie began to tour the world of literature can be very briefly told. In 1876 Mr. Harris refugeed to Atlanta with his family from Savannah to escape an epidemic which had broken out in the Forest City. He had no definite plans in view, but he had been writing editorials for one of the Savannah papers and he thought perhaps he could get similar work to do in Atlanta. He was not disappointed in this expectation; but he little dreamed that his hasty flight to Atlanta was destined to play such an important part in his subsequent fortunes and that even now he stood unconsciously in the pink aurora of his kindling fame. He became an editorial writer on the staff of the Constitution.
Capt. Evan P. Howell was then managing editor of the paper; and going to Mr. Harris one day he said: "Harris, why can't you write some negro dialect stories like Sam Small's? You can write them between editorials. These stories are wonderfully popular here at home. Besides, they have been getting into the Northern papers. Try and turn in some thing to-night.''

* Vol. II, "Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

1422

GEORGIA AND' GEORGIANS

This was an unexpected demand upon the resources of the young editorial writer and he turned to the task with some trepidation. Mr. Small, who had shifted his brilliant services to another paper, had been writing negro dialect stories at odd intervals under the pen-name of Uncle Si; and Mr. Harris, after leisurely thinking over the matter, decided to launch his venture under the pseudonym of Uncle Remus. Tapping his forehead for some time with the reverse end of his quill, he at length dislodged the initial story which he proceeded at once to put into the mouth of this droll new character. With modest misgiv ings he turned in his copy at the close of the day and nervously awaited the result. Next morning the first installment of the Uncle Remus stories appeared on the editorial page, fresh and crisp.
Success was instant. Mr. Harris did not have to serve an appren ticeship. He caught the popular fancy from the very start. But he was now put to the task of raking his wits for all the plantation stories he had ever heard. He had created an appetite which he was obliged to appease. Luckily he had spent his boyhood days on one of the typi cal old southern plantations of Putnam County, and the very air he had breathed was pungent with the aroma of the old negro legends. These all came trooping back again under the inspiration of successful authorship. Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox began to entertain the public with the most amazing exploits and escapades. One by one other ani mals joined the adventurous aggregation, until the whole animal king dom was at last gathered under the spacious canvas; but each animal was made to furnish entertainment in his own characteristic way, with out sacrificing his native peculiarities or instincts. Old and young were delighted with the new order of chivalry which Uncle Remus had founded; and on billowy waves of laughter Mr. Harris began to ride the high seas of literature.
These stories which he dashed off at random in the midst of his seri ous editorial work became his hostages to fortune: the inspirational frag ments which he exchanged for the laurel leaves of fame. At the expi ration of the first year Mr. Harris had spun enough yarn from the mouth of Uncle Remus to put into the folds of an octavo volume entitled "Uncle Rernus: His Songs and His Sayings;'' and this volume became the first spice-bearer of his opulent and splendid caravan."

JOHN B. GORDON: THE HERO OF APPOMATOX

Soon after the news of Georgia's action in withdrawing from the Union, on January 19, 1861, had reached the remote angle of the moun tains where Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama meet, there appeared upon the streets,of Atlanta a company of raw recruits all of them boys from the backwoods who had just emerged from this picturesque region, full of the new-born ardor of enlistment. However, the animating spirit of this rough mountaineer band was not the characteristic which was most patent to the eye. The ludicrous fact which struck the observer at the first glance was that no two members of the company were dressed in the same kind of regimentals. Moreover, they arose to very irregular heights; and, while it may have been partly the fault of the music, they
* Vol. I, "Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1423

seemed to have no idea of keeping- step. They had never been in camp for even so much as one day; but this fact was sufficiently well adver tised to dispense with statement.
It is not trifling with the truth to say that if the areas of three con tinents, instead of the tips of three states, had been laid under tribute to produce an assortment of extremes the result could hardly have been more grotesque or nondescript. The variegated garment which an ancient Hebrew patriarch is said to have made for his favorite offspring, without the much-needed help no doubt of the lady of the household,was vividly suggested by the fantastic anarchy of colors which occupied the field of vision. But if the unseasoned troops which now appeared on the streets of Atlanta were like the mountains from which they had so recently emerged in being somewhat efflorescent and irregular, they deserve the full benefit of the metaphor; for, they were soon to show that, like the mountains, they were fashioned out of sturdy material and were built to breast the lightnings. The rough edges would dis appear eventually on the grindstone of the training camp, but the stay ing qualities would remain unaffected even by the sulphur of battle. Indeed, the mountaineers had already quietly resolved among them selves that if the mountains which they had just left ever saw them again in life they would at least bring back an autograph of Mars traced upon parchment which no critic dare question and which only death could erase.
To prevent the inference from being drawn too hastily that the com pany possessed nothing in common to suggest the idea of uniformity, it may be said that each mountaineer was the owner of an odd-looking cooiiskin cap, provided with an appendage which ran down from behind like an oriental pigtail. But this uniform feature only tended to heighten the flavor of oddity produced by the amusing variations. Altogether it was decidedly the most mixed aggregation which the little metropolis of the foothills had ever witnessed.
Unheralded by any announcement in the newspaper prints, it was only natural that curiosity should ask leading questions.
"What company,is this?" inquired one of the bystanders, addressing the modest captain, who seemed to be as proud of the awkward moun taineers as the famous Roman general who wrote the Commentaries must have been of the Tenth Legion. But, strange to say, the question had not been anticipated. So eager were the mountain boys to get to the front that they had not stopped to think of such an unimportant detail. But the resourceful officer was always ready and, after the briefest pause, he answered:
"The Mountain Rifles." Suggestive of stout timber and crack marksmanship as this name was, it was -not sufficiently descriptive to suit the taste of one burly member of the company at least; and he promptly demurred, with as little regard for military discipline as for chaste speech. "Mountain hell," said he. "We are no Mountain Rifles. We are the Raccoon Roughs." Overruled by the profane powers the young captain accepted the cor rection. Though dressed in the wardrobe of the lower world it was nevertheless inspirational; and all through the devious paths and varied

1424

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

experiences of the war it followed the rapidly thinning ranks of the mountain boys until the last bare remnant of the company stood in the surrender at Appomattox.
But who is this sturdy young captain who seems, barely to have turned the corner of thirty? Look at him carefully, for he invites the most scrutinizing gaze. Those firmly-set features make it unnecessary to consult the oracles. That eye is full of the fire of battle. That beard which is not much older than the corn-silk on the uplands can not conceal the lines of rigid purpose which lie locked beneath. If the pre cise future can not be read to the extent of foreshadowing the lieutenantgeneral who is ultimately to command one-half of Lee's immortal legions, there is at least but one man in all the Confederate ranks who can pre cisely match those features; and his name is John B. Gordon.*

ALFRED H. COLQTJITT : THE HERO OF OLUSTEE

The story of how Gen. Alfred II. Colquitt, afterwards governor of Georgia and United States senator, plucked victory from the very jaws of defeat, during the Florida campaign of 1864, constitutes one most thrillingly dramatic chapters in the history of the Civil war. Briefly told, this story runs as follows: The supplies of ammunition having almost completely given out, orders were issued to cease firing for the present; and, since the enemy was directly in front, surrender seemed to be inevitable. But, while powder and shot were about exhausted, the resources of the commanding general were not; and the idea of capitu lating had never entered the rear of his head. He hastily dispatched orders for ammunition to the nearest base of supplies, and while waiting for the wagons to arrive, he parceled out what still remained to those in front, giving them instructions to make as much noise as possible. This clever ruse succeeded. No immediate advance was made by the enemy and sufficient time elapsed during the lull in the engagement to allow the wagons to arrive with fresh supplies. Hostilities were resumed only to i*esult in disaster to the Federal troops; and the tide of invasion into Florida was successfully repulsed. This decisive engagement, fought in the pine thickets, is known as the battle of Ocean Pond or Olustee.
Among the officers of the northern army who participated in this engagement was Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, with whom General Colquitt afterwards served in the United States Senate. The two men became fast friends. Through General Colquitt's influence General Hawley, who was then governor of Connecticut, came to Georgia during the Cot ton Exposition of 1881, and addressed the people at the fair grounds; and General Colquitt being then governor of this state, entertained him at the executive mansion. It was singular how the lives of the two men had run in parallel lines; commanding officers of opposing armies during the Florida campaign, now governors of great commonwealths, and soon to occupy seats across the aisle from each other in the highest arena of the nation.
Quite naturally the conversation during this visit turned upon the Florida campaign, and General Hawley took' occasion to ask why the

* Vol. I, "Keminiscences of Famous Georgians,*' by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1425

Confederate forces had ceased firing during the battle, since this action had created the presumption that some change of front was contemplated. Smiling, Governor Colquitt then let the cat out of the bag and General Hawley was enabled to solve for the first time the riddle which had twisted his eyebrows so long. He almost felt like renewing hostilities, but he good-naturedly observed that if he had known as much in 1864 as . he knew then the god of battles might have rendered an altogether differ ent decision.*

JUDGE WARNER 's NARROW ESCAPE

Judge Warner was a man of uniqiie character. He was veritably a Roman cast in the molds of the great Cato. One of Georgia's purest sons, he was also one of her bravest a man to whom the instinct of moral fear was unknown. For the sake of principle he was ready to suffer the stake or the gibbet; but he was never inclined to turbulence. On the contrary, he was slow to anger, even-tempered and calm. The judicial poise of his great mind was seldom disturbed. The following incident of Wilson's raid, in 1865, is narrated by Governor Northen. It will serve to illustrate the character of the old jurist. Says Governor Northen :
"In 1865, just after Johnston's surrender but before it was gen erally known Wilson's Federal raiders were abroad in Middle Georgia, bent on plunder. Vandalism is too weak a word to describe the petty meanness which marked the paths made by bands of Federal soldiers through certain portions of the South; and General Wilson was such an offender in this respect that succeeding generations have used his name to describe rapine and slaughter. Some of Wilson's raiders, visiting Meriwether County, headed for Judge AVarner's home. As they approached all the whites on the place fled except Judge Warner and his daughter, Mrs. Hill. The latter, with an infant two weeks old, could not be moved. Her father remained with her. During the morning some cavalry detach ments passing by stole what they could carry off. About noon another party arrived and stopping, fed their horses, stole the silverware and robbed the smokehouse. Judge Warner stood by in silence. But sud denly the leader, putting a pistol to his head, ordered him to accompany them. Between the house and the negro quarters was a small woodland. To this grove his captors conducted Warner, and there the leader of the band, wearing the uniform of a Federal captain, took out his watch and said: " I '11 give you just three minutes to tell where your gold is hid den." Warner protested that he had no gold. They replied that they had been told that he did have it and that he must give it up. He again denied it. They searched him and found five thousand dollars in Con federate money and fifteen thousand dollars in Central Railroad bills, which they appropriated. At the end of three minutes the captain gave a signal. One of the men took from his horse a long leather strap with a noose at one end. The other extemporized a gallows by bending down the end of a stout sapling. With an oath the officer made him select a larger and stouter tree. Judge Warner remained silent. One end of the strap was adjusted around his neck and the other fastened securely .to

* Vol. I,""Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

1426

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the tree. The sapling was gradually released until the line became taut, when it was turned loose and the Judge's body dangled in the air. On reviving, he found himself upon the ground, but with the noose still around his neck. The soldiers still surrounded him. Once more he was ordered to give up his gold under penalty of death. He replied as before. Again he was strung up and the sapling released. This was about two o 'clock in the day. When he recovered consciousness the sun was nearly down. He lay at the foot of the sapling. The noose had been removed from his neck. The dry leaves of the preceding autumn had been fired, and these were burning within a foot or two of his head. He always thought that the heat of the flames brought him back to consciousness and to life. The soldiers had left, him for dead and had set fire to the woods. He was barely able to make his way back to the house, where he lay ill for many days." *
ZORA FAIR : A HEROINE OF THE CIVIL WAR
Still fragrant in the memory of the Town of Oxford is the daring exploit of a beautiful South Carolina girl, who refugeed to this remote Georgia village during the Civil war. Her name was Zora Fair. She was living with an uncle, Mr. Abram Crews, in the famous old City of Charleston, when the latter was detailed by the Confederate Govern ment to run the blockade to Europe. Before embarking upon this peril ous enterprise, he sought to find a safe retreat for his family, and, having friends in the little Village of Oxford, he brought them hither, and with the other members of his household came Zora Fair. She was a frail slip of a girl, but she came of courageous stock, with wonderful powers of endurance, as events were to prove, and with a spirit as brave as ever animated the maid of Orleans. The story is too long to be told in this connection, but those who wish to read an account of this brave girl's heroism can find it in "Grandmother Stories," a charming little book written by Mrs. Howard Meriwether Lovett, of Augusta. It is enough for present purposes to say here that, disguising herself as a mulatto negress, she crossed the Yellow River, on a partially destroyed mill dam, and made her way on foot to Atlanta, where, passing the enemy's lines, she gained access to General Sherman's headquarters, possessed herself of certain secrets pertaining to the Federal plan of campaign; and, nar rowly escaping death under fire of a sentinel's gun, she returned with blistered feet to Oxford, from which place she sought to communicate by letter with Gen. Joseph E.. Johnston, then at Lincolnton, N. C. But, unfortunately, the brave girl's message fell into the hands of the Fed erals. Troops were sent to Oxford to effect her capture, but she remained in hiding until danger was well past. If the letter had reached General Johnston there might have been a different story for the historians to tell'. This daring exploit originated in the fertile brain of the young girl herself. She undertook its bold and hazardous execution without help; and though it failed of success, it proclaimed her a brave and fear less girl, possessed of the spirit of the true heroine; and her name deserves to be embalmed for all time to come in the grateful affections of her beloved Southland.*

* Vol. II, "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1427

How THE "GENERAL" WAS CAPTURED

Perhaps the most accurate account which has yet appeared in print of the thrilling episode of the Civil war known as the Andrews' raid, has come from the pen of Mr. Wilber G. Kurtz, of Chicago. Before writing this article, Mr. Kurtz traversed every foot of ground upon which this stirring war drama was staged; he interviewed every survivor of the affair who could possibly be found; he inspected every valve, screw, joint and wheel belonging to the engines which participated in the famous episode; and when he finished his task there was nothing more to be said or written upon the subject. It adds a delicate flavor of romance to the story which the author has so charmingly told to state that Mr. Kurtz, who is a gentleman of northern birth, afterwards married a daughter of Capt. W. A. Fuller, one of the heroes of this episode. Mr. Kurtz occupies a high position in the social and business world of the Middle West. The story of the famous raid is as follows:

In April, 1862, a division of Buell's army, in command of Gen. 0. M. Mitchel, was encamped near Shelbyville, Tenn. While here a Union spy and contraband merchant, James Andrews, was given permission by Mitchel to conduct a party of volunteers to some point on the W. & A. Railroad (the state road) in Georgia, seize a locomotive and run north ward, burning bridges and destroying track behind them.
Some engineers were to be in this party to insure the handling of the locomotive, and, because of his frequent trips within Confederate lines, Andrews was familiar with all the details of the road. It was arranged that Mitchel's division should capture Huntsville, Ala., the same day (April 11) that Andrews destroyed the railroad; this being successful and Chattanooga thereby cut off from Atlanta and the South, Mitchel would then invest the mountain city and hold it for reinforcements.
The capture of Chattanooga meant the possession of East Tennessee, with its loyal mountaineers a scheme that anticipated what actually took place a year later, when Rosecrans battled at Chickamauga for the possession of that which now only a handful of men sought to gain. Mitchel's signal to advance along the Memphis & Charleston Railroad to Chattanooga, from Huntsville, was to be the arrival of the victorious Andrews party with the report that the only road-going southward from Chattanooga was in ruins. Such was the scheme; the story of the raid sets forth its singular and tragic failure.
Marietta, Georgia, twenty miles north of. Atlanta, was the point selected from which the return trip should be made. Here the raiders were to spend the night of April 10, and on the next day the morning train north was to be boarded, and when the breakfast station at Big Shanty was reached, the locomotive was to be seized. But the raiders were so hampered by the heavy rains while traveling overland from Shelbyville to Chattanooga that Andrews decided to postpone the raid one day, reasoning that if his small party was so delayed Mitehel 's divi sion surely would be. So it was on the night of the llth when the party, twenty-two in number, found themselves in Marietta.
The next morning twenty of them, including Andrews, boarded Con ductor William A. Fuller's train, bound for Chattanooga. Two of the

1428

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

party failed to make this train. Just as was planned, the raiders seized the engine and three box cars which happened to be next the tender, while crew and passengers were at breakfast at the Lacey Hotel, Big Shanty, seven miles north of Marietta. This point of seizure had been selected because it afforded the best opportunity there being no tele graph office from which to send any intelligence of the affair.
With four men in the cab and the rest of the score in the rear box car the locomotive "General" started northward. To all inquirers, who showed a most exasperating interest in the strange outfit Fuller's regu lar engine and schedule, but an unknown crew Andrews declared he was running a powder train through to General Beauregard, then at Corinth
a plausible story, since this was but a few days after Shiloh. The "General" and the "powder train" were delayed quite a while
at Kingston on account of some freight trains coming southward. Whether or not these were "extras" flying southward from Mitchel's investure of Huntsville the preceding day is a mooted question. Be that as it may, Mitchel did capture Huntsville April 11, just as planned.
Of course, the unexpected seizure of the locomotive at Big Shanty threw all in a commotion. Conductor Fuller, being responsible for his train in more ways than one, was the first to set about its recovery. He ran after the steaming locomotive afoot! With him were Mr. Anthony Murphy, then the foreman of machine and motive power of the road, and Jeff Cain, the engineer. The runners found a platform handcar at Moon's Station, and on this they poled and pushed their way down grade to the Etowah River, being assisted by two section hands from Moon's and two citizens of Acworth. At first, pursuers surmised the,seizure of the engine was by some deserters, who took this means to get to the woods, but reports of persons along the road, together with evidences of hostility and destruction, such as cut wires, cross-ties on the rails and even miss ing rails, convinced them that a formidable enemy was ahead.
At the Etowah bridge they found an old locomotive, the "Yonah," used on a spur road leading to some iron works up the river. This they pressed into service and ran the distance to Kingston at a record-breaking speed, for, strange to relate, the raiders had removed no rails between the river and Kingston. Here they were halted by the same freights that had delayed Andrews, with no possibility of passing anyway soon, seeing which, Mr. Fuller and .Mr. Murphy at once pressed into service the little locomotive "William R. Smith," of the Rome Railroad, Oliver Wiley Harbin, engineer. The raiders had left the place but a few minutes
earlier. Four or five miles north of Kingston the "Smith" was forced to give
over the chase on account of a missing portion of the track. Mr. Fuller and Mr. Murphy ran on, leaving the Rome road engine and its crowd, and a few miles ahead they met the '' Texas,'' with a train of freight cars, and for its engineer Peter Bracken, late of Macon, Georgia. Bracken stopped his train, and at the behest of the two pursuers, backed to Adairsville, where the cars were placed on a siding. Then, running backward, the chase was resumed. This was the last locomotive used by the pursuers. Aboard it were Captain William A. Fuller, Anthony Murphy, Peter Bracken, Henry Haney (fireman), Alonzo Martin and Fleming Cox. At Calhoun another member was added to this party a lad of seventeen

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1429

years. This was Edward Henderson, of Dalton, telegraph operator. The industrious use of wire cutters by Andrews had started the lad south ward on the morning passenger to investigate. He got no further than Calhoun, and when the "Texas" came along, was recognized by Fuller, who assisted the lad aboard the moving engine. The conductor then wrote out a message to General Ledbetter at Chattanooga, apprising him of events and the coming of the captured locomotive. This he gave Hen derson, with the instruction to send as soon as Dalton was reached.
Just a few miles north of Calhoun, the pursuers came in sight for the first time, of the pursued. The latter's efforts to raise, another rail here were fruitless; their frantic attempts to impede and wreck by the use of cross-ties dropped frojn their rear and even the cutting loose of two box ears failed to daunt the intrepid crew of the "Texas." The cross-ties were removed, the box cars were shoved on to the next siding and from this on it was a test of endurance; the locomotives made rec ords that day little dreamed of by builder and owner. Screaming whis tles alarmed the towns and soldiery of the mad chase; pursuers joined in the wake of the reversed and careening "Texas," whose passage of the tunnel was but one of its many thrilling and fatalistic moments.
Hard pushed, the raiders played their last card: they set fire to their remaining car, in the hopes of burning a covered Chickamauga bridge just south of Ringgold. But the game was lost the fire refused to work its destruction, largely owing to the drizzling rain and dampness that had marred any previous attempts during the course of their run.
The failure of wood and water brought them to a dead stop at the* summit of the grade,'a mile and a half north of Ringgold, while leader and men took to the dense wood bordering the road. Their scheme had been foiled; had there not been this catastrophe at Ringgold they would have been stopped below Chattanooga, for Fuller's message had gone from Dalton ere Andrews could sever the wire. The .neighborhood was alarmed, and within two weeks the whole of the twenty-two men were in prison at Chattanooga most of them being taken that day and the next. Mitchel made some show of advancing on Chattanooga without his ex pected knowledge of the raid's outcome, but he was forced to retire and the town was not captured until September, 1863.
Andrews, tried as a spy at Chattanooga, and seven of his men, tried on similar charges at Knoxville, were sentenced to hang the leader per ishing in Atlanta, June 7,. 1862, at a place now on the corner of Peachtree Street and Ponce de Leon Avenue. The seven men were taken from the old county jail that stood at Fair and Fraser streets, and hanged near Oakland Cemetery, on ground now owned by the street railroad company, corner of Fair and Park Avenue. Military events delayed further trials, and on October 16 the rest of the party broke jail in broad daylight, and eight succeeded in reaching the Union lines. The other six were ex changed from Richmond in March, 1863.*

"THE GATE CITY": WHEN THIS SOBRIQUET WAS FIRST USED

At a meeting of the early pioneers, held at the Kimball House, on the evening of April 24, 1871, soon after the original structure .was

* Vol. II, "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight.
Vol. Ill--11

1430

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

completed, quite a number of spicy reminiscences of the ante-bellum days were revived. To the fund of anecdotes, the following contribution was made by Judge William Ezzard, an ex-mayor. Said he:
'' The name of the Gate City was first given to Atlanta in Charleston in 1856, and it came about in this way. When the road was completed between Charleston and Memphis, the people of Charleston put a hogs head of water on the car, together with a fire-engine, and accompanied them to Memphis for the purpose of mingling the waters of the Atlantic with the waters of the Mississippi. In the year 1857 the Mayor of Memphis, with quite a number of ladies in the party, came to Atlanta, en route to Charleston, carrying water from the Mississippi, and they also carried a fire-engine for the purpose of mingling the waters of the Mis sissippi with the waters of the Atlantic. They arrived about 12 o'clock. I was then Mayor of Atlanta, and we gave them a reception and prepared a handsome collation for them. The next morning they left for Charles ton. I went with them. There were also several others in the party from Atlanta. We arrived in Charleston, and had a grand time there. We paraded the streets, marched down to the bay, and then went through the ceremony of pumping this water from the Mississippi into the ocean. There were a great many people present on this occasion; they came from all parts of Georgia and from all parts of South Carolina; and a grand banquet was given by the people of Charleston. Everything was well arranged. There was a toast drafted for Savannah, one for Macon, one for Augusta, and one for Atlanta, and so on. The toast prepared and given for Atlanta was: ' The Gate City the only tribute which she requires of those who pass through her boundaries is that they stop long enough to partake of the hospitality of her citizens.' This was the sub stance of the toast. I may not recall the exact language. After that Atlanta was always called the Gate City, and it was never known as that before. I responded to this toast for Atlanta. It was given, I suppose, from the fact that this railroad had just been constructed through the mountains, for the purpose of connecting the West with the Atlantic seaboard, and there was no way to get to either place except to pass
through Atlanta.'' *

"PEACHTREE": ITS DERIVATION

There is little room for doubt concerning the source from which the name of Atlanta's thoroughfare was derived. In the early days of the last century, an Indian village, called the Standing Peachtree, stood just to the north of the city's present site. The stream which meandered near the village was called Peachtree Creek, while the path which led to it through the forest was called Peachtree Trail. With the influx of popu lation, the path was eventually widened into Peachtree Road, a thorough fare which is today lined with some of the most palatial and elegant
homes to be found south of Baltimore. To cite authorities: Dr. Abiel Sherwood, in his quaint little work
entitled "Sherwood's Gazeteer," published in 1830, states, on page 103,

* '' History of Atlanta and Its Pioneers,'' published by the Pioneer Citizens' Society,

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1431

that the Town of Decatur was then '' 95 miles northwest of Milledgeville, 25 miles southwest of Lawrenceville, 9 miles southwest of Rock Mountain, and 12 miles east of the Standing Peachtree on the Chattahooehee." The author prints the words "Standing Peachtree" in capitals, just as in the case of the towns mentioned. Moreover, since the various roads ^ entering Atlanta, viz., the Roswell, the Marietta, the Decatur, the McDonough, were each named for the towns to which they led, the same,
especially in the light of other evidence, must be inferentially true of Peachtree.
But there is still another witness. At the outbreak of the War of 1812, Gov. George" R. Gilmer, who was then barely of age, received a lieutenant's commission; and as soon as enough recruits were collected an order was issued for them to be put in charge of an officer, and sent into the Indian country, where active hostilities were going on against the Creeks. Says Governor Gilmer: *
"I asked for the command and received it. I marched with twentytwo recruits, having no arms, except refuse drill muskets, a small quantity of loose powder, and some unmolded lead. My appointed station was on the banks of the Chattahooehee, about thirty or forty miles beyond the frontier, near an Indian town, not far from where the Georgia Rail road [meaning Western and Atlantic], now crosses the .Chattahooehee River. It was an awkward business for one who had only seen a militia muster and who had never fired a musket. I was ordered to build a fort. I had never seen a fort, and had no means of knowing how to obey the order but what I could get from Duane's Tactics. I went to work and succeeded very well, so far as I know, as the strength and. fitness of my fortification was never tested. Some few days after my arrival at the standing peachtree, a rough Indian fellow came into the camp with some fine catfish for sale. I had supplied myself with a hook and line for catching cat in the Chattahooehee before I left home, and had baited and hung them from limbs into the water. I had noticed this fellow the day before gliding stealthily along near the bank of the river, in a small canoe, where the lines with baited hooks were hung. I intimated to him that the fish he was offering to sell were taken from my hooks. With demoniac looks of hatred and revenge, he drew his knife from his belt, and holding it for a moment in the position for striking, turned the edge to his own throat, and drew it across; expressing thus more forcibly than he could have done by words his desire to cut my throat. I never saw him afterwards."

THE STORY OF THE DODGE MILLIONS

When William E. Dodge, the great New York merchant and lumber baron, who founded the Town of St. Simons, on the coast of Georgia, died in the City of New York, he left an estate, the value of which was expressed in eight figures. To share this splendid property there were twelve children, two of whom were Anson Phelps and Norman B. Dodge. To the first of these was born a son, Anson Phelps, Jr., and to the lat ter a daughter, who, wedding her first cousin, Anson Phelps, Jr., was

* Gilmer ;s "Georgians.".

1432

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the possessor at the time of her marriage, in her own right, of a for tune estimated at not less than three millions. Before many years had elapsed Anson P. Dodge, Jr., who was educated for the Episcopal priest hood, began to feel the lure of the foreign field. The spirit of the mis sionary became so powerful within him that he finally embarked upon the high seas for India, taking with him his young wife, who was by no means loath to share his lot in distant lands and among alien peo ples. On the eve of her departure, however, she made her will, the contents of which she kept a secret, even from her husband, acquainting him only with the fact that he was to be her sole executor. The sultry climate of India proved to be too drastic for the frlail American girl, whose delicate organism had been attuned to gentler conditions of life in her far-away home. She fell an early victim to the Indian fever; and, having her body embalmed, the disconsolate husband brought the remains back to the United States and interred underneath the chapel of Christ Church, on St. Simon's Island, near the old Town of Frederica. On breaking the seal of his wife's will Mr. Dodge found that she had made him merely the trustee of the estate, barring a nominal support for himself. The bulk of the property was to be devoted to religious and benevolent ends. He cheerfully assumed the responsibilities which were thus put upon him; and besides helping hundreds of churches and institutions, he established at Frederica the Dodge Orphanage, for the proper care and maintainance of indigent children. He also revived and enlarged the work of Christ Church parish, an organization whose beginning dated back to the days of Oglethorpe; and by his faithful ministrations .as an undersheperd he sought the spiritual betterment and uplift in his island home. The waves of influence which went forth from the old Town of Frederica touched the remotest confines of Christendom. In the meantime he married Miss Annie Gould, who entered sympa thetically and helpfully into his plans and who, since the death of her husband, several years ago, has continued his great work, infused and infilled by no little of his spirit. On the walls of Christ Church there are marble tablets commemorating the unselfish lives of the saintly pair, who, under divine guidance, sought to make the wisest and best use of the Dodge millions.*
THE KILLING OF ASHBUBN: AN EPISODE op RECONSTRUCTION
There occurred at Columbus, Georgia, during the period of recon struction, an episode which plunged the whole nation into a fever of excitement, and which evinced a fixed purpose on the part of the South to maintain the integrity of an Anglo-Saxon civilization. It was the killing by unknown parties of G. W. Ashburn, an offensive partisan, who represented the most extreme type of radicalism. He was a mem ber of the constitutional convention of 1865, in which body he made himself peculiarly odious to the white people of Georgia. The feelingof revulsion naturally reached a climax in Columbus, where he lived with the negro element of the population, an object of great loathsome ness to the Caucasian race. The following account of the trial is con densed from various sources :

* Pi, E. J, Massey.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1433

The killing of Ashburn occurred on the night of March 31, 1868. He is said to have been a native of North Carolina, from which state he came to Georgia some thirty years prior to his death. There is very little known concerning him prior to the era of military usurpation, which, in addition to unloosing upon gflorgia a swarm of vultures from other sections, developed the baser iilftincts of men who were already residents of the state and who identified themselves for vicious purposes with these ignoble birds of prey, .There were undoubtedly some good and true men who, from conviction, advocated a policy of non-resistance; but they were few in number. Ashburn's mysterious taking off, there fore, at a time when passion was inflamed, when civil courts were sup pressed, when Georgia's sovereign statehood was outraged in the most flagrant manner, and when there was no redress for the white except through the instrumentality of the Ku-Klux, was a matter little calcu lated to produce surprise, though it created a tremendous sensation. The military authorities took the matter in hand and caused arrest on suspicion of the following parties: William R. Bedell, Columbus C. Bedell, James W. Barber, Alva C. Roper, William D. Chipley, Robert A. Ennis, William L. Cash, Elisha J. Kirkscey, Thomas N. Grimes, Wade H. Stephens, R. Hudson, W. A. Duke, J. S. Wiggins, and R. A. Wood. Besides these, there were several negroes implicated. It seems that even the blacks entertained toward Ashburn a feeling of mingled fear and disgust.
For the purpose of trying these alleged offenders, a military court was organized at McPherson Barracks, in Atlanta. The counsel for the prisoners included' Alexander H. Stephens, Martin J. Crawford, James M. Smith, Lucius G. Garrell, Henry L. Benning, James N. Ramsey and Raphael J. Moses. On the side of the prosecution, General Dunn, the judge advocate, was assisted by ex-Gov. Joseph E. Brown and Maj. William M. Smythe. While in prison the defendants were subjected to great indignities. They were eventually admitted to bail, however, in the sum of $32,500 each, and not less than four hundred citizens of Columbus, representing both races, signed the required bonds.
It was on June 29, 1868, that the court was duly constituted, but, at the request of Mr. Stephens, a postponement was granted until the day following. .The trial then began with the filing by Mr. Stephens of an answer in plea to the specific charges, in which, on behalf of the several prisoners, he entered a plea of not guilty to the crimes set forth. At the same time, the rightful jurisdiction of the court was traversed. With slow progress the case proceeded until the twentieth day, when orders were received from General Meade suspending the investigation until further notice from headquarters. On July 25, 1868, the prisoners were taken to Columbus, under guard. It was at this stage of tfee proceedings that they were finally admitted to bail; and, for reasons best known per haps to the military authorities, the trial of the alleged murderers was never resumed.

Governor Brown's part in the prosecution of the Columbus prisoners charged with the murder of Ashburn only served to increase the obloquy in which he was held at this time by Georgians, due to his course in sup porting the election of General Grant and in upholding the policy of

1434:

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Reconstruction. The following explanation of his course in the Colum bus affair has been given by Col. Isaac W. Avery, his accredited biogra pher. Says he :
"Weighing the evidence in the matter fairly and dispassionately, it may be shown that Governor Brown, in taking part in this prosecution, was governed by proper motives and rendered a service, both to the state and to the prisoners. He alleges that General Meade employed him, on the condition which he insisted upon making, that he Governor Brown should control the case, and that, upon the restoration of civil law, the case should be surrendered by the military authorities. His employment prevented the retention of very extreme men. The corroboration of Gov ernor Brown, in this statement, has been very striking. It has been argued against its credibility that during General Meade's life, when the latter could either have verified or denied it, no explanation was made by Governor Brown of his conduct in the matter. Major A. Leyden, of Atlanta, who talked with General Meade several times about the affair, says that he was assured by General Meade that his fears for the pris-. .oners would not be realized. Mr. John C. Whitner, of Atlanta, states that Detective Whiteley, who worked up the evidence for the prosecution, told him that the understanding when Brown was employed was that the military trial was to be remanded to the State authorities, on the reor ganization of the civil government. General William Phillips, of Mari etta, testifies that Governor Brown consulted with him at the time on the subject and explained to him his attitude of mind. Major Campbell Wallace, in an interview at the time with General Meade, confirms Gov ernor Brown's statement. Many years ago Governor Brown gave his version of the affair to Hon. Alexander H. Stephens and Dr. J. S. Lawton.''

LOST AT SEA: THE SHIPWRECK OF THE "HOME"

United States Sen. Oliver H. Prince, who perished at sea, on board the ill-fated steamship Home, "in 1837, was a resident of Macon. The particulars of the tragic disaster are thus narrated by Governor Gilmer:
"About the first of July, 1837, my wife and I left home, in company with Mr. and Mrs. Prince, they for Boston and New York, and we for Western Virginia. The four of us had passed the time of the session of the Legislature of 1824 in the same public house, where we had our own private, table and drawing-room. Mr. Prince and I had served in Con gress together in 1834-35. We had acted together as trustees of Frank lin College, and belonged for many years to the same bar in the practice of law. Mrs. Prince was an exceedingly pretty woman. Mr. Prince was a man of wit. * We went by the way of Charleston to Norfolk. The ladies were ill most of the time. I had looked upon the ocean before, but had never been out of sight of land. Its vast expanse of ever-moving waters kept me so excited that I scarcely left the deck of the vessel until we reached port.
"Mr. Prince went to the North to have printed a new edition of his Digest of the Public Laws of Georgia. When the work was completed, he and Mrs. Prince left New York for Georgia in the steam vessel, the Home. The dreadful catastrophe which befell the ship, Mr. and Mrs.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1435

Prince, and almost all the passengers, made such, an impression upon the

whole country that the event is still freshly remembered by every one,

whenever the bursting of boilers, the burning of steamers and the wreck

of vessels are mentioned. Soon after the steamer left New York there

arose a violent storm, which drove the vessel to the North Carolina coast

in a sinking condition. All were stimulated to do whatever could be done

to save the vessel and themselves.

"Mr. Prince took command.of .the hands at the pump, where his self-

possession and strong strokes showed that he worked for a nobler pur

pose than fear for his own life. When exhausted by his efforts, he joined

his wife, to devote himself to her safety. The self-sacrificing nature of

Mrs. Prince would not yield to the temptation of clinging to her husband,

when his exertions might be necessary to the safety of others on board.

She urged him to return to his efforts at the pump. Immediately after

wards she attempted to obey the advice of the Captain, to remove from

one part of the vessel to another less exposed to danger.

"As she stepped out of the cabin into an open space, a wave passed

over and through the vessel, and carried her into the ocean. When the

storm subsided, her body was found deposited on the shore. Mr. Prince,

resuming his labors at the pump, was spared the pangs of knowing the

fate of his wife. To a young man who lived to report the story, Mr.

Prince said: ' Remember me to my child, Virginia.' If there was aught

else the uproar of the ocean prevented its being heard. No account was

ever given of the last struggle for life by those who worked at the pump.

In a great heave of the ocean, the vessel parted asunder and went to the

bottom."*

,

THE ADVENTURES OF ROBERT SALDETTE

There lived in St. John's Parish, during the Revolution, a man greatly distinguished for his opposition to the Tories, by the name of Robert Sallette. It is not known with certainty to what particular command he was attached, for he appears to have been a sort of roving character of the district, and a law unto himself, doing things in his own way. The Tories stood very much in awe of Sallette; and well they might, for they possessed no deadlier foe among the patriots of Georgia; and they sought by every means possible to shorten his days.
On one occasion, a Tory who possessed large means, offered a reward of one hundred guineas to any person who would bring him Sallette's head. Among the very first to learn of the offer was Sallette himself, and he resolved to claim the reward. So, casting about for a bag, in which he placed a pumpkin, he proceeded at once to the house of the Tory to deliver the prize. At the doorway, he informed his enemy that; having learned of the offer of one hundred guineas for Sallette's head, he was there to claim the amount in question, and pointed triumphantly to the bag, in which the pumpkin was concealed. The Tory clutched for the precious treasure, which bulked like a sack of pirate's gold. He was completely deceived by the clever ruse. His eyes fairly sparkled. But Sallette held him off, until the guineas were counted; and then, as the

* Gilmer 's '' Georgians."

..

1436

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

last glittering coin rang in his fingers, he put his hand to his head, and raising his hat, exclaimed: '' Here is Sallette 's head!"
The answer so terrified the Tory that he immediately took to his heels, but a well-directed shot from Sallette brought him to the ground.
At another time, with Andrew Walthour, for whom Walthourville in Georgia is named, Sallette was in the advance guard of the American army, and coming upon the advance guard of the British army, a smart skirmish took place, in which the British were driven back. Among the enemy killed was a very large man. Noticing a pair of boots on the feet of the dead soldier, Bob resolved to possess them. He was pulling the boots off, when his comrades, alarmed at his peril, called to him to leave; but he answered with rare good humor:
'' I must have the boots. I want them for little John Way.'' Sallette was frequently known to leave the American army, in the midst'of the battle, get in the enemy's rear, and kill many of them before he was discovered. On one occasion, he dressed himself in British uniform, dined with a party of the enemy, and whilst the toasting and drinking were going on, suddenly drew his sword, killed his right and left hand man, sprung upon his horse, without having time to throw the bridle over his neck, and rode off amidst the fire of his pursuers. Sallette's motto was never to forgive a Tory; and, if one was liberated, he was apt to follow close behind, with deadly intent. But the time came when he spared the lives of two Tories, for a time at least. With Andrew Walthour and another companion, he was riding along a narrow trail late one afternoon, when they met three other horse men, near Fraser's old mill, whom they suspected to be Tories bent on mischief. Hastily devising a plan of capture, it was agreed that Wal thour, who was riding in front, should pass the first and second horse men, and that Sallette should pass the first; then as Walthour came to the third man and Sallette to the second, leaving their companion to the first, it was decided to seize the guns of the three men simultaneously; and in this way the Tories were disarmed. . , "Dismount, gentlemen!" said Sallette. Then addressing the leader he inquired: '' What is your name ?'' The man replied by giving some fictitious answer. "Where is your camp ?" asked Sallette. "We are from over the river," replied the man, pointing toward the Altamaha. "Where did you cross?" was the next searching question. "At Beard's Ferry," returned the leader, indicating a point on the river where Whigs were most numerous. "That's a lie!" came the answer from Sallette. He then catechized the second man in the same manner, with like results, and finally turned to the third. "If you do not tell me the truth," said Sallette, addressing himself to the last man, "off comes your head." The man repeated his answer, whereupon Sallette took deliberate aim and fired. Realizing the uselessness of further parley, his companions confessed the truth, begged for mercy, and offered to conduct Sallette

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1437

to the enemy's camp. On this condition, he agreed to spare them; and, aided by his prisoners, he succeeded in capturing quite a number of Tories.*

Curious as we may be to know something of the personal history of Robert Sallette, it is not to be found chronicled in the books. The French twist to his name makes it probable that he was a. descendant of those unfortunate Acadians who years before had been stripped of lands and possessions in Nova Scotia by the British, and they themselves trans ported. They were scattered at various points along the American coast* Some were landed at Philadelphia, and some were carried to Louisiana. Four hundred were sent to Georgia. The British had to answer for many acts of cruelty in those days, but none more infamous than this treatment of the gentle and helpless Acadians. It stands in history today a stain
upon the British name. Another fact that leads to the belief that Robert Sallette was a
descendant of the unfortunate Acadians was the ferocity with which he pursued the British and the Tories. The little that is told about him makes it certain that he never gave quarter to the enemies of his coun
try, t

THE ARREST OF GOVERNOR WRIGHT

Not long after the adjournment of the famous convention which placed Georgia in the patriotic confederacy, in 1775, there occurred in Savannah an event of the most sensational and dramatic 'character. It was the capture of Govern.or Wright, the royal chief-magistrate. He was not only arrested, but was actually imprisoned within the walls of his own residence; and the whole affair was planned and executed by one
man, Joseph Habersham. In consequence of the arrival at Tybee of two men-of-war, with a
detachment of King's men, it was decided by the Council of Safety that the arrest of certain influential loyalists, among them John Mullryne, Anthony Stokes, and Josia Tattnall, the elder, was demanded by the exigencies of the situation. To secure the person of the governor was made the initial object of the patriots, and Major Habersham volun teered to perform the difficult task. His plans were already well laid, and on the same evening he proceeded without delay to the house of the governor, where the King's Council had assembled to consider ways and means of checking the insurgent uprise. He passed the sentinel at the door, entered the hall, and, marching to the head of the counciltable, laid his hand upon the shoulders of the governor, saying as he
did so.
"Sir James, you are under arrest." The audacity of the officer produced the desired effect. Supposing from the bold manner of his entrance that he was heavily supported by military re-enforcements in the background, Governor Wright felt him self to be powerless. Surprised by the unexpected turn, he was prob-

* '' White 'a Collections." t "Stories of Georgia," by Joel Chandler Harris.

1438

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

#
ably, for the first time in his life bereft of the King's English. But he soon found himself, at the same moment, quite as helplessly abandoned by the King's Council. Putting gravity aside, the sage advisers of the administration betook themselves to flight, some finding an exit through the rear door, others leaping through the windows, in the most undigni fied confusion.
There was an irony of fate in the sad predicament of the governor. Despite the most diligent efforts on his part to capture the raiders engaged in the magazine affair, here he was himself captured by one of the very patriots whose punishment he sought. The fortunes of war had converted the executive mansion, for the time being, into the Colo nial Bastile. Giving his solemn parole to hold no communication with the ships at Tybee and to remain upon the premises, he was allowed to stay in the royal residence, under guard. Says Bishop Stevens: '' This is one of the most signal instances of deliberate and successful daring in the history of the war. For a youth of twenty-four, unarmed and unsupported, to enter the mansion of the chief-magistrate, and, at his own table, amidst a circle of counsellors, place him under arrest, is an act of heroism ranking with the most brilliant exploits in American his tory." It is possible that the bold officer was not without re-enforce ments behind the scenes. The authorities are not agreed upon this point; but in either event his intrepidity remains unchallenged.
When the governor saw an opportunity to escape, his solemn parole was forgotten. Through the estate of John Mullryne, at Thunderbolt, he made his way to the British vessels lying in the harbor and succeeded in getting back to England. On the fall of Savannah into the hands of the British some three years later, he returned to Georgia, .and convened the Assembly which passed the famous disqualifying act of 1780. Gov ernor Wright was in many respects an excellent chief-magistrate, devoted to the public weal. But he was an officer of the Crown; and Georgia need not blush for the English noblemen who, in every phase of fortune, whether good or ill, remained uncompromisingly steadfast in his alle giance to George the Third.

How SAVANNAH WAS CAPTURED

Through a swamp, which lay in the rear of the town, ran a path, the existence of which was known to few. One of the number was Col. George Walton. He called the attention of General Howe to this pas sage-way, at the same time urging him to guard it with a force sufficient to make it safe; but General Howe ignored the suggestion. Unimportant as the path seemed to be, it furnished the avenue through which the Brit ish entered triumphantly into Savannah, to hold the town uninterrupt edly against the allied armies for more than two years. It was at Girardean's Landing,*about two miles below the city, that the foe disembarked. Crossing the causeway to the top of Brewton Hill, on the site of what was afterwards the plantation of T. F. Screven, the strength of the American position was at once perceived by Colonel Campbell, the com mander of the troops. The marsh presented a problem which was diffi cult of solution.
However, in his reconnoissances, the commander encountered an old

'.
':'% || : ;;

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1439

negro named Quanimo Dolly, generally called Quash, who informed him of the private path through the swamp, by which the rear of the Ameri can line could be gained. Overjoyed at this discovery, Campbell returned to his command and ordered Sir James Baird, with the light infantry and the New York volunteers to follow the negro through the swamp and attack the first body of troops found. To deceive the Ameri cans, he maneuvered his troops in front as if about to attack. Incorrectly informed from the very start concerning the force of the enemy, General Howe was now still further misled, and ordered the artillery to play upon the enemy's stronghold. The British did not return the fire, but maneuvered, waiting to hear from Baird. He followed the negro through the swamp, coming out at what is now Waringsville, and striking the White Bluff road, down which he advanced, falling suddenly upon a small force under Colonel Walton. This was swept away, after a short but brave resistance, in which Colonel Walton was severely wounded. The firing served to notify Campbell of the success of the stratagem.
There was no need of waiting for Colonel Prevost to arrive from Florida. With the aid of the fleet in the river, under .command of the :British admiral, Sir Hyde Parker, the city was soon taken. The rem nant of Howe's army escaped into South Carolina, leaving the city to the mercy of the enemy who at once seized the most distinguished civ ilians, placing them on board the prison-ships in the river.

MdNTOSH AT FORT MOERIS : '' COME AND TAKE IT ! "
The gallant defense of Fort Morris, on the Georgia coast, near Sunbury, constitutes one of the most brilliant episodes of the Revolution. Col. John Mclntosh was in command. The fort was ill-prepared for an attack, and there is every reason to believe that the. rude earthwork would not have withstood the enemy's fire for more than an hour. Only 127 continental troops, with some few militiamen and citizens from Sunbury were in the garrison, but they were brave patriots. Moreover, they were commanded by a Scotchman of proverbially shrewd wit, who was an absolute stranger to fear.
Colonel Fuser, in command of a fleet of vessels, bearing some 500 men, beside heavy iron mortars, was moving toward the fort from St. Augustine. It was planned that Colonel Prevost,. at the head of 100 British regulars, and supported by the notorious McGirth, with 300 Indians and Tories, should meet him at Sunbury, making the journey over land, and dire havoc to Georgia was anticipated from this union of forces.
Delayed by head winds, it was late in November, 1778, when Colonel Fuser anchored near the mouth of the Midway River, opposite Colonel's Island. Colonel Prevost was beyond the reach of communication, having entered upon his retreat; but the commandant of the fleet was resolved upon bringing the fort to terms. Some of the men were landed at the shipyard, from which point they marched along the main road to Sunbury, equipped with several field-pieces. Sailing up the Midway River in concert, the armed vessels took position in front of the fort and in the waters opposite the town, while the land forces invested it from an opposite direction.

1440

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

The plans of the enemy were well laid. There seemed to be no hope for the feeble garrison under Colonel Mclntosh, and the town was other wise wholly unprotected. As soon as the preparations for the assault were completed, the British officer dispatched the following letter to Colonel Mclntosh, demanding the immediate surrender of the fort:
"Sir: You cannot be ignorant that four armies are in motion to reduce this Province. One is already under the guns of your fort, and may be joined when I think proper by Col. Prevost, who is now at the Midway Meeting-House. The resistance you can or intend to make will only bring destruction upon this country. On the contrary, if you will deliver to me the fort which you command, lay down your arms, and remain neuter until the fate of America, is determined, you shall, together with all the inhabitants of this parish, remain in peaceable pos session of your property. Your answer, which I expect in .an hour's time, will determine the fate of this country, whether it be laid in ashes, or remain as above proposed."
To the foregoing tart message, he subjoined the following postscript: "Since this letter was closed some of your people have been scatter ing shot about the line. I am to inform you that if a stop is not put to such irregular proceedings, I shall burn a house for every shot so fired.'' These were high-sounding phrases. They were well calculated to intimidate a man of less spirit than Colonel Mclntosh. He possessed no means of ascertaining the full strength of the British forces. He knew the weakness of his own little garrison. But courage often wins against seemingly hopeless odds. He resolved to assume a hold front, and accord ingly dispatched the following brave answer to the British officer's demand: '' Sir: We acknowledge we are not ignorant that your army is in motion to endeavor to reduce this State. We believe it entirely chimerical that Col. Prevost is at the Meeting-House; but should it be so, we are in no degree apprehensive of danger from a juncture of his army with yours. We have no property which we value a rush, compared with the object for which we contend; and would rather perish in a vigorous defense than accept of your proposals. We, sir, are fighting the battles of America, and therefore disdain to remain neutral till its fate is deter mined. As to surrendering the fort, receive this laconic reply: COME AND TAKE IT. Major Lane, whom I send with this letter, is directed to satisfy you with respect to the irregular, loose firing mentioned on the back of your letter." With the foregoing letter, Major Lane sought the headquarters of Colonel Fuser, who read it with unaffected surprise. In explanation of the irregular firing, he informed the British officer that it was main tained to prevent the English troops from entering and plundering Sunbury; an answer which did not tend to soften the feelings of Colonel Fuser. As for the threat that a house should be burned for every shot fired, Major Lane stated that if Colonel Fuser sanctioned a course so inhuman' and so totally at variance with the rules of civilized warfare he would assure him that Colonel Mclntosh, so far from being intimi dated by the menace, would apply the torch at his end of the town whenever Colonel Fuser should fire it on his side and let the flames meet in mutual conflagration.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1441

The expected assault was not made oil Fort Morris. Waiting to hear from the scouts whom he had sent into the country to ascertain the whereabouts of Prevost, he learned that he was hastening back to St. Augustine, having been worsted in a contest of arms near Midway Meeting-House, and unwilling to hazard an engagement with the conti nental forces supposed to be advancing from the Great Ogeechee River. Deeply chagrined over this sudden turn of affairs, Colonel Fuser raised the siege, forgetting the harsh terms of his manifesto. The troops were re-embarked for St. Augustine. In the St. John's River, he met the returning forces of Colonel Prevost. At last the two wings of the expe dition were united; but it was under drooping banners.
Mutual recriminations are said to have.ensued between these officers, each taxing the other with responsibility for the failure of the expedi tion. Thus one of the most promising campaigns of the whole war was brought to naught by an unterrified American officer, whose fortifica tions were too weak to be maintained in open conflict. His defiant answer was a masterpiece of bold strategy; and it abundantly compensated for the lack of other munitions. The Legislature of Georgia handsomely acknowledged the conspicuous gallantry of Colonel Mclntosh on this occasion and voted him a sword on which were engraven the talismanic words: COME AND TAKE IT.

THE STORY OP AUSTIN DABNEY

One of the finest examples of loyalty displayed during the period of the American Revolution was furnished by Austin Dabney, a negro patriot. He came with the well-known Harris family to Pike County, Georgia, soon after the new county was opened to settlement; and here he lies buried near the friends to whom in life he was devotedly attached. The story of how he came to enlist in the patriot army runs as follows:
When a certain pioneer settler by the name of Aycock migrated from North Carolina to Georgia, he brought with him a mulatto boy whom he called Austin. The boy passed for a slave and was treated as such; but when the struggle for independence began, Aycock, who was not east in heroic molds, found in this negro youth a substitute, who was eager to enlist, despite the humble sphere of service in which he moved. The records show that for a few weeks perhaps the master himself bore arms in a camp of instruction, but he proved to be such an indifferent soldier that the captain readily agreed to exchange him for the mulatto boy, then'a youth of eighteen, upon.Aycock's acknowledgment that the boy was of white parentage, on the mother's side, and therefore free. This happened in the County of Wilkes. When the time came for enroll ment, the captain gave Austin the surname of Dabney, and for the remainder of his life Austin Dabney was the name by which he was everywhere known. He proved to be a good soldier. In numerous con flicts with the Tories in upper Georgia, he was conspicuous for valor; and at the battle of Kettle Creek, while serving under the famous Elijah Clarke, a rifle ball passed through his thigh, by reason of which he ever afterwards limped. Found in a desperate condition by a man named Harris, he was taken to the latter's house, where kind treatment was bestowed upon him, and here he remained until the wound healed. Aus-

1442

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

tin's gratitude to" his benefactor was so great that for the rest of his life he considered himself in the latter's debt, and in many ways he befriended Harris, when reverses overtook him. He appears to have been a man of sound sense and,.to have acquired property, at the close of the Revolu tion. He removed from "Wilkes to Madison, taking the family of his benefactor with him. Dabney was fond of horse-racing, and whenever there was a trial of speed anywhere near he was usually found upon the grounds, and he was himself the owner of thoroughbreds. He drew a pension from the United States Government, on account of his broken thigh, and the Legislature of Georgia, in the distribution of public lands by lottery, awarded him a tract in the County of Walton. The noted Stephen Upson, then a representative from Oglethorpe, introduced the measure, and, in terms of the highest praise, he eulogized Dabney's patri otism. There was some dissension among the white people of Madison over this handsome treatment accorded to one of an inferior race. It doubtless arose, through envy, among the poorer classes. But Austin took no offense, and when an opportune moment came, he quietly shifted his residence to the land given to him by the State of Georgia. He was still accompanied by the Harris family, for whom he continued to labor. It is said that he denied himself many of the comforts of life, in order to bestow the bulk of his earnings upon his white friends. He sent the eldest son of Mr. Harris to Franklin College, and contributed, to his maintenance while he studied law under Judge Upson at Lexington. It is said that when young Harris stood his legal examination in open court Austin Dabney outside of the bar with the keenest look of anxiety on his face and that when the youth was finally admitted to practice the old negro fairly burst into tears of joy. He left his entire property to the Harris family, at the time of his death. The. celebrated Judge Dooly held him in the highest esteem, and when the latter was attending court in Madison it was one of Dabney's customs to take the judge's horse into his special custody. He is said to have been one of the best authorities in Georgia on the events of the Revolutionary war periods. Once a year Austin Dabney made a trip to Savannah, at which place he drew his pension. On one occasion so the story goes he traveled in company with his neighbor, Col. Wiley Pope. They journeyed to gether on the best of terms until they reached the outskirts of the town. Then, turning toward his dark companion, the colonel suggested that he drop behind, since it was not exactly the conventional thing for them to be seen riding side by side through the streets of Savannah. Without demurrer Austin complied with this request, stating that he fully under stood the situation. But they had not proceeded far before reaching the home of General Jackson, then governor of the state. What was Colonel Pope's surprise, on looking behind him, to see the old governor rush from the house, seize Austin's hand in the most cordial manner, like he was greeting some long-lost brother, draw him down from the horse, and lead him into the house, where he remained throughout his entire stay in Savannah, treated not perhaps as an equal but with the utmost con sideration. In after years, Colonel Pope used to tell this anecdote, so it is said, with much relish, adding that he felt somewhat abashed, on

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1443

reaching Savannah, to find Austin an honored guest of the governor of Georgia, while he himself occupied a room at the public tavern,*

COLONEL JOHN WHITE : HERO OF THE GREAT OGEECHEE

In December, 1778, the British captured Savannah. In September, 1779, Count d'Estaing with a force of about 1,700 men acting under instructions from the French Government, effected a landing at Beaulieu, and shortly thereafter was joined by General Lincoln. The purpose was to recapture Savannah by siege. General Preyost, the British com mander, immediately summoned from all outposts every portion of his scattered command. Some reached the British lines in safety. But Cap tain French was not among this number. With 111 regular troops, accompanied by five vessels and their crews'1 of forty men, he sought to join General Prevost, but interrupted in his attempt to enter Savannah by news of the investment of the town, took refuge in the Great Ogeechee River, about twenty-five miles below Savannah, disembarked and formed a fortified camp on the left bank of that stream.
Col. John White, of the Fourth Georgia Battalion of General 'Lin coln's force, conceived a brilliant plan for the capture of French's com mand. Accompanied only by Capts. George Melvin and A. C. G. Elholm', a sergeant and three privates, a total force of seven men (some accounts state five), on the night of October 1, 1779, this daring band located the British camp on the Ogeechee and built many watch-fires at various points around it, placing the fires at such positions as to lead the British to believe that they were surrounded by a large force of Americans. This was kept up throughout the night by White and his force marching from point to point with the heavy tread of many when, accompanied by the challenge of sentinels at each point surrounding the British camp, each mounted a horse at intervals, riding off in haste in various directions, imitating the orders of staff officers and giving fancied orders in a low tone. Anticipating the presence of the enemy, Captain French believed that he was entrapped by a large force. At this juncture Colonel White, unaccompanied, dashed up to the British camp and demanded a confer ence with Captain French.
"I am the commander, sir," he said, "of the American soldiers in your vicinity. If you will surrender at once to my force, I will see to it that no injury is done to you or your command. If you decline to do this I must candidly inform you that the feelings of my troops are highly incensed against you and I can by no means be responsible for any con sequences that may ensue."
The bluff worked. Captain French at once fell into the trap and agreed to surrender, as he thought it was useless to battle with the large surrounding force. At this moment, Captain Elholm dashed up on horseback and demanded to know where to place the artillery. "Keep them back," replied White, "the British have surrendered. Move your men off and send me three guides to conduct the British to the American post at Sunbury." Thereupon the five vessels were burned, the three guides arrived, and the British Tirged to keep clear of the supposed

* Gilmer 's '' Georgians.'' ,

1444

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

infuriated American army hovering about, marched off, while Colonel White hastened away, collected a force of neighboring militia, overtook the British led by his guides and conducted them as prisoners to Sunbury.
Nine days after this remarkable exploit, Colonel White was severely wounded at the assault upon Savannah made at the Spring Hill redoubt. He succeeded in making his escape from the British, but the wounds received so much impaired his health that he was obliged to retire from the army and died soon afterwards in Virginia.*

JOHN WESLET QUITS SAVANNAH: His LOVE AFFAIR

Says Dr. James W. Lee, the well-known Methodist historian and divine, in narrating the circumstances under which the great founder of Methodism left Savannah, in 1736:
"During his stay at Ebene/er, Wesley opened his heart to Spanenberg on a matter which was weighing heavily upon his mind; and he has placed on record his approval of the good pastor's advice. On his return to Savannah the affair was to assume a very serious aspect, and to bring to an abrupt termination his career in the settlement. The chief man at Savannah was a certain Thomas Causton, who began his career as the company's storekeeper, and was successful in securing the good will of Oglethorpe. This led to rapid advancement, which, however, was unde served; for, some years later, he was detected in a course of fraudulent dealing and was summarily cashiered.
'' There was living in his household at this time an attractive young lady, named Sophia Christina Hopkey, or Hopkins, his niece, who showed herself a devoted attendant at church services, and most receptive to the ministrations of the handsome young pastor. Desirous of learning French, she found in him an excellent teacher. Wesley's London friend, Delamotte, however, who regarded Miss Sophia as sly and designing, and doubted the sincerity of her professions, warned John Wesley against her. Wesley seems also to have discussed the matter of her sincerity or rather of her fitness to be a clergyman's wife with the excellent Moravians. The advice which they gave him coincided with Delamotte's, and the result was a distinct coolness in his manner toward the young lady. She resented the .change, and, understanding its significance, accepted the advances of a less scrupulous suitor named Wilkinson, a . man by no means conspicuous for piety. As her spiritual adviser, Wes ley still continued to visit Mrs. Wilkinson.
"At length, believing that he perceived in the lady's conduct dis tinct marks of spiritual degeneracy, he deemed it his duty to repel her from holy communion. This summary and injudicious step was natu rally interpreted in an unpleasant way. The husband and uncle of the lady sued him in the civil court for defamation of character; and, in the squabble which followed, the people took part against Wesley. Hold ing peculiar views respecting the limited jurisdiction possessed by civil courts over clergymen, Wesley refused to enter into the necessary recog nizances, and a warrant for his arrest was accordingly issued. To avoid further trouble, he determined to fly, like Paul from Damascus. He

* '' E. H. Abrahams,'' an article in the Savannah Morning News.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1445

left the place secretly by night, in the company of a bankrupt constable, a ne'er-do-well wife-beater named Gough, and a defaulting barber. They rowed up the river in a boat to the Swiss settlement at Purysburg, and proceeded thence on foot to Beaufort; but, misdirected by an old man, they lost the way, wandered about in a swamp, and, for a whole day, had no food but a piece of gingerbread. Finally they arrived at Beaufort, where Delamotte joined them, and thence they took boat to Charleston. Here Wesley preached again 'to this careless people,' and four days later took leave of America, embarking on board the ' Samuel,' Captain Percy.
"On the voyage, which was a stormy and unpleasant one, he devoted himself to ministering to the spiritual wants of those on board. In the solitude of his cabin he gave himself up to deep heart-searching. He felt that the want of success which attended his work in America was due to some lack of real devotion in himself. As he expressed it very tersely in a note to one of the entries in his journal: 'I had even then the faith of a servant, though not of a son.'
'' Meanwhile, George Whitfield, to whom he had sent a pressing invi tation to join him in Georgia, had embarked on his journey; and, the two vessels, as it happened, the one outward bound, bearing Whitfield, all aglow with missionary enthusiasm, the other about to enter port, carrying the disappointed Wesley, met at the mouth of the Thames. The question whether Whitfield should proceed or return weighed heav ily on the mind of the older man, who seems to have thought that the decision rested with him. At length, having cast lots a Biblical prac tice shared by him with the Moravians he sent word to Whitfield that he had better return. But Whitfield did not highly esteem this method of coming to a practical decision, resolved to continue on his voyage; and, in due time, he landed at Savannah."*

How BISHOP HEBER'S GREAT HYMN WAS SET TO Music

Some ten years before the Civil war, Dr. Francis R. Goulding, the noted author, on account of the precarious health of his wife, came to Kingston from his former home at Darien, on the Georgia coast. But the pure mountain air failed to produce the desired effect. Mrs. Gould ing grew no better, and in 1853 died, leaving six children. She is buried in the cemetery at Kingston, The maiden name of this excellent lady was Mary Howard. She was a sister of the Rev. Charles Wallace How ard, an eminent clergyman and scholar, who resided at Spring Bank, near Kingston. There is an incident in the life of Mrs. Goulding which possesses an international interest. While living in Savannah, she made the acquaintance of a young man named Lowell Mason, then a clerk in one of the banks. At her request, the latter, who had quite a talent for musical composition, set to music Bishop Heber's renowned hymn, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains"; t and Capt. B. L. Goulding, her
*"Illustrated History of Methodism." t The title-page of the piece of musici in Captain Goulding 'a possession reads: "Prom Greenland's ley.Mountains, a Missionary Hymn, by the late Bishop Heber, of 'Calcutta, composed and dedicated to Miss- Mary W. Howard, of Savannah, Ga., by Lowell Mason." Published by Geo. Willig, Jr., Baltimore, Md.
Vol. Ill--12

1446

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

son, owns the original copy of the song, just as it came from the hands of the afterwards noted Doctor Mason. Possessing a fine soprano voice, Mrs. Goulding sang the hymn in the choir of the old Independent Pres byterian Church, in Savannah, soon after the music was composed, and this is said to have been the first presentation to the world of an air which is now familiar to both hemispheres and is sung by millions throughout the whole of Christendom. While Doctor Goulding was engaged in teaching school at Kingston he devoted his leisure time to preparing a work on the "Instincts of Birds and Beasts," in connec tion with which he frequently corresponded with Professor Agassiz, of Harvard. It is thought that he wrote "The Young Marooners" before coming to Kingston. Doctor Goulding invented the first sewing machine ever used in Georgia.

THE JACKSON OAK : A PROPERTY OWNER

In the historic old City of Athens, at the foot of Bearing Street, in what is known as Cobbham, there stands a majestic shade-tree of white oak, whose claim to distinction is unrivalled by the forest giants. For more than three-quarters of a century this tree has been a free-holder, owning in fee simple the soil on which it stands. The following story was recently found in an old file of newspapers, verifying this tradition:
"There is a tree at Athens, Ga., which is an owner of land. In the early part of the century the soil on which it stands was owned by Colonel William H. Jackson, who took great delight in watching it grow. In his old age the tree had reached magnificent proportions, and the thought of its being destroyed by those who should come after him was so repugnant that he recorded a deed, of which the following is a part:
" 'I, W. H. Jackson, of the County of Clarke, State of Georgia, of the one part, and this oak tree giving the location of the County of Clarke, of the other part, witness, that the said W. H. Jackson, for and in consideration of the great affection which he bears said tree and his desire to see it protected, has conveyed and, by these presents, does con vey unto the said tree entire possession of itself and of the land within eight feet of it on all sides.' "
To the foregoing account, Mr. Hull adds: "However defective this title may be in law, the public nevertheless recognized it, and this splendid tree is one of the boasts of Athens and will be cared for by the city for many years to come. Some generous friend to Athens, in order to show his interest in this unique freeholder, has, at his own expense, placed around the tree granite posts connected by chains, replaced the earth which the storms of a century have washed from the roots, and neatly sodded the enclosed area with grass." The friend to whom Mr. Hull refers is Mr. George Foster Peabody, of New York.

JOHN GILLELAND'S DOUBLE-BARBEL CANNON

Directly in front of the city hall, on College Avenue, in the City of Athens, stands a curious relic of the war period, the like of which can be found nowhere else in the world. It is the famous Gilleland gun; and the story connected with this nondescript instrument of homicide is

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1447

as follows: "Mr. John Gilleland, a member of the noted company of Home Guards, known as the Mitchell Thunderbolts, conceived the idea of making a double-barreled cannon. His plan was to load the cannon with two balls, connected by a chain, which, when projected, would sweep across the battlefield and mow down the enemy somewhat as a scythe cuts wheat. The cannon was cast at the Athens Foundry, duly bored out and mounted, and, on the appointed day, was taken out for trial to a point on the Newton Bridge road, beyond Dr. Linton 's. Here a wide track was cut through the pines and a target of poles set up side by side. From a safe distance in the rear, a company of inter ested spectators, among whom was the writer, watched the proceed ings. The gun was loaded and the balls rammed home, with the chain connecting them. The signal was given and the lanyard pulled. One ball went out ahead of the other, snapped the chain, which flew around and diverted the course of the missile into the standing pines. The other shot went wide of the mark, and the poles which represented the hostile army stood uninjured. The experiment was a failure. The can non was taken from the field and was only used in after years to cele brate Democratic victories."
"Wno STRUCK BILLY PATTERSON?"
It is claimed, on the basis of a well-established local tradition, that the famous query: "Who Struck Billy Patterson?" originated in Hart County, Georgia. The incident is said to have occurred several years before the war, at a public drill, given by the state militia. The muster ground was in a section of the county which then formed a part of Franklin, one of the oldest counties in Upper Georgia. There was a large crowd present to witness the maneuvers, among which number was the celebrated William Patterson. In a moment of excitement when there was something of a tumult on the ground, an unknown party dealt Mr. Patterson a blow and in the confusion of the moment escaped recog nition. The injured man on recovering sensibility exclaimed, "Who struck Billy Patterson?" But no one could tell him. Throughout the day he continued to repeat this question, without receiving an answer. Finally it crystallized into a phrase which everyone on the ground was using; and, when the crowd dispersed it was carried into the rural dis tricts.
Mr. Patterson was a stranger in the neighborhood. He was, more over, a man of powerful physique; and both of these circumstances invested the assault upon him with a certain dramatic interest while at the same time it inspired no doubt a wholesome dread of his wrath. According to tradition he was the famous William Patterson, of Balti more, Maryland, whose daughter, Betty, married Jerome Bonaparte; and owning property in Georgia, his visit to the state at this time is not without an adequate explanation. Says a newspaper article on the subject: *
"Fully determined to avenge the indignity offered him, Patterson persisted in his search, and subsequently offered a reward to anyone

* Article in the Atlanta Constitution of February 12, 1913, on '' Mysteries of America.''

1448

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

who would name the man. But even this tempting bait elicited no response, and in the course of time Patterson died with his dearest wish unfulfilled. But he provided for a posthumous triumph by leaving in his will a codicil to the effect that a legacy of $1,000 was to be paid to the person who, in any future time, should reveal the secret to his execu tors or heirs. A copy of this will is said to be on file in the ordinary's office at Carnesville, Franklin County, Ga.'' *

NANCY HART : AN EARLY SKETCH
During the year 1825, there appeared in the columns of a Milledgeville paper what is probably the oldest extant biography of the Georgia war queen. The name of the author is unknown, but the account reads as follows:
"Nancy Hart, with her husband, settled before the Revolutionary struggle a few miles above the ford on Broad River, known by the name of Fishdam Ford in Elbert County, at the bend of the river, near a very extensive canebrake. An apple orchard still remais to point out the spot. In altitude, Mrs. Hart was almost Patagonian, remarkably well limbed and muscular, and ...when, quick as thought, the dauntless Mrs. Hart' seized one" of tKe-gtins, cocked it, and with a blazing oath, declared that she would blow out the brains of the first man who offered to rise or to taste a mouthful. They knew her character too well to imagine that she would say one thing and do another, especially if it lay on the side of valor. 'Go,' said she to one of her sons, 'and tell the Whigs that I have taken six d d Tories.' They sat still, each expecting to be offered up, each bearing the marks of disappointed revenge, shame and unappeased hunger; but they were soon relieved, and dealt with according to the rules of the times. This heroine lived to see her country free. However, she found game and bees decreasing; and to use her own expression the country grew old so fast that she sold out her possessions in spite of her husband and was among the first of the pioneers who paved the way to the wilds of the west."
THE FAMOUS BUNKLEY TRIAL, .
Some twenty years prior to the Civil war, there occurred at Clinton, Georgia, one of the most famous courthouse trials in the forensic annals
*A new. light was thrown on the mystery in 1885 when Mrs. Jenny Q-. Conely, of Athol, N. Y., came forward and announced that her father, George W. Tillerton, struck the "blow, but was so terrified by the reports of Patterson's anger that he retired precipitately from the town, and the family having heard of the sum offered, Mrs. Conely implicated her father in order that she might obtain the reward. But she failed even although she related very graphic details of the occurrence as told her by her father. There was another claimant for the honor, Alban Smith Payne, M. D., who later became professor of theory and practice of medicine at the South ern Medical College, Atlanta, Ga. The encounter, according to Dr. Payne's state ment, occurred in Richmond, Va., in May, 1852. He, says: "I struck Patterson because I saw' old Usher Parsons, the surgeon to Commodore Perry on Lake Erie, lying on his back in the road, unable to rise, his white hair streaming in the air, ruthlessly knocked there by a brutal bully, and I said, 'By the eternal, I will hit you, my man, and I will hit you hard.' And I did.'' Doctor Payne was a close friend of Oliver Wendell Holmes, John G. Saxe and Edgar Allan Poe, and a lineal descendant of Colonel Payne, who, it is said, once knocked down George "Washington.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1449

of Georgia. Jesse Bunkley, a well-educated youth, of profligate habits, and a scion of one of the county's wealthiest families, disappeared from home in a most mysterious manner; and, though every effort was made to trace the young man, he could never be found. On the death of his father, the Widow Bunkley married a man named Lother, but $20,000 was left to Jesse, provided he should return home, give evidence of im proved habits, and establish his identity beyond question.
Time brought no solution to the riddle. The belief at last became fixed in the popular mind that he was no longer in life, and accord ingly his property was divided among his relatives. .Subsequent to this division perhaps five years thereafter a man who bore some slight resemblance to Jesse Bunkley appeared upon the scene in Clinton and made a demand for the property, to which he claimed to be entitled.
But the parties in possession demanded, in turn, proof most posi tive of the claimant's real identity before relinquishing such substantial holdings.. On this point, he failed to satisfy them, and not long there after the alleged Bunkley was arrested on the charge of cheating and swindling. It was averred in the bill of indictment that the defend ant's real name was Barber. On the trial of the case, not less than 130 witnesses were examined, ninety-eight of whom were for the prosecu tion. Four of the former college mates at Athens of the .true Jesse Bunkley were put upon the witness stand. These were Robert Dougherty, Hugh A. Haralson, Henry G. Lamar and Charles J. McDonald all of them men of distinction. But they could not recognize in Barber the features of an early schoolmate. Even his mother failed to find in his face any familiar lineaments. Barber knew just enough concerning the local environment to suggest that possibly he might have learned the story from the rightful heir. He was utterly at sea in regard to a number of matters concerning which the real, Jesse Bunkley could not have been ignorant. He was, therefore, sentenced to prison. But there are people who believe to this day that he was the real Jesse Bunkley, whose only offense was that he demanded the restitution of property which was rightfully his own under the laws of Georgia. Judge John G. Polhill presided at the trial; and, in the prosecution of the defendant,. Walter T. Colquitt, Robert V. Hardeman and William S. C. Reid three of the strongest advocates in the state were associated.

LIEUTENANT BRUMBY RAISES THE AMERICAN FLAG AT MANILA

During the war with Spain, in 1898, it was reserved for an Ameri can sailor, whose boyhood was spent in Marietta, to achieve signal dis tinction. This was Lieut. Thomas M. Brumby, whose father, Col. A. V. Brumby, was the first superintendent of the Georgia Military Institute,, at Marietta, a soldier who followed the Stars and Bars, and a gentle man who was universally esteemed. "Tom" Brumby was a lieutenant, on board the famous Olympia, the flagship of Admiral Dewey. He iscredited by one of the war correspondents, Mr. E. W. Harden, of the Chicago Tribune, with having suggested the plan of the battle; and, since the Spanish fleet was completely annihilated-by this exploit, whilenot an American boat was injured nor an American sailor killed, it is; no slight honor to have planned such an engagement. However, there-

1450

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

are other things to the credit of this gallant officer which cannot be ques tioned. It devolved upon him to hoist the American flag over the sur rendered citadel, an act which not only announced the formal occupa tion of the Philippine Islands by the United States Government, but also proclaimed a radical change of national policy, which, reversing the precedents of one hundred years, elected to keep the American flag afloat upon the land-breezes of the Orient.
Eeturning home, some few weeks later, Lieutenant Brumby was the hero of the hour in Georgia. The most enthusiastic demonstration was planned in honor of the brave officer; and on the capitol grounds, in Atlanta, before an audience which numbered thousands of people he was awarded an elegant sword. Hon. Clark Howell, president of the State Senate, introduced Gov. Alien D. Candler, who, in turn, made the speech of presentation. Sea-fighter though he was, Tom Brumby faced the great concourse of people like an embarrassed school girl. He felt more at home when riding over the perilous torpedoes, but he managed to stammer his simple thanks and to tell the audience that he merely did his duty as a sailor. Unobserved by many in the vast throng, whose eyes were riveted upon the hero, there quietly sat in the background an old lady, who was bent with the weight of fourscore years. It was Tom Brumby's mother. Thus was the master touch added to a scene which lacked none of the elements of impressiveness. But the irony of fate was there, too; for ere many weeks had softened the echoes of applause, the brave lieutenant was dead. The spectacle presented on the grounds of Georgia's State Capitol was only the first part of the hero's welcome home.

WHERE Two GOVERNORS HAVE LIVED : AN HISTORIC HOME

The Town of Marietta has given the state two governors who occu pied the same home site: Charles J. McDonald and Joseph M. Brown. The latter, when an employee of the "Western & Atlantic Railroad, in the capacity of traffic manager, with little thought of what the future held in store for him, purchased the old McDonald place at Marietta, and, after his marriage, on February 12, 1889, to Miss Cora McCord, made this his home for the future. He purchased the property from Gen. Henry R. Jackson, of Savannah, from whose name it borrows an added wealth of associations, and here, surrounded by stately forest oaks, he has since spent the greater part of his time, in the enjoyment of an ideal home life, semi-rural in character. The site was happily chosen by Governor McDonald during the early ante-bellum period. It included originally quite a large portion of the present town, and some thing like 110 acres were embraced in the tract conveyed to Governor Brown. The old residence, which was built and occupied by Governor McDonald, was burned to the ground by General Sherman. But the comparatively new residence of the present governor was built only a stone's throw from the old chimney piles which survived the general
wreck. The present governor's father was a warm admirer of Governor
McDonald. It is said that the former, after drafting his first inaugural address, submitted the manuscript to Governor McDonald for approval

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1451

and was more than gratified by the fact that the old governor could suggest nothing in the way of improvement or correction. As a fur ther proof of the friendship which existed between them, one of the sons of Georgia's war governor was named for Governor McDonald.
They were both men of positive convictions, and were both trained in the Jeffersonian school of politics.

MARIETTA'S LITTLE BRASS CANNON

,. .,

j

There stands in the Confederate Cemetery, at Marietta, a little brass

cannon, concerning which there is a story of dramatic interest. During

the year 1852, the Georgia Military Institute, at Marietta, was presented

by the state with four six-pounder guns, made of brass, to be used in

the artillery drills. When .Gov. Herschel V. Johnson was inaugurated

at Milledgeville, in 1856, the cadets were present. They took with them

two of the guns to be used in the inaugural ceremonies; but while a

cadet was loading one of them it fired prematurely, mutilating an arm

of the gunner. The disastrous affair occurred on the capitol grounds.

Two years later the cadets witnessed the induction into office of

Gov. Joseph E. Brown, on which occasion they again took two of the

guns with them; but fortunately this time there was no mishap.

When the institute was closed, in 1864, by reason of the imminence

of hostilities, due to the approach of General Sherman, a battalion of

cadets was formed. As the boys, however, were armed with Belgian

rifles and were enlisted as infantrymen, they did not need the heavy

guns. So the six-pounders were left on the parade grounds at the insti

tute. At the close of the war they were not to be found in Marietta.

Judge Robert L. Rodgers is of the opinion that they were brought

to Atlanta, in the wake of Johnston's army, and that in the battles

around the beleaguered citadel of the Confederacy, the guns fell into the

hands of the Federals. At any rate, they were captured by the enemy,

whether at one place or at another.

Years elapsed without bringing any word in regard to the missing

guns. Finally, in 1909, Gov. Joseph M. Brown, who was then in office,

was notified by the war department at Washington that in the arsenal

at Watervliet, New York, there was a little brass cannon having on it

the inscription: "Georgia Military Institute, 1851." At the same time

it was stated that the trophy of war could he purchased for the sum

of $150. In proportion to the sentimental value of the old relic, the

amount was nominal. But Governor Brown was not authorized to pay

the money out of the treasury of the state. Moreover, the ex-cadets were

scattered throughout the Union the few who still survived the flight of

fifty years. So the governor referred the matter to the Ladies' Memo

rial Association, at Marietta. These patriotic women immediately went

to work. They enlisted the co-operation of Senators Bacon and Clay

and of Congressman Gordon Lee, the latter of whom represented the

district. Together, they induced the Government to donate the cannon

to the Ladies' Memorial Association, of Marietta. It was a generous act

on the part of the Federal authorities, especially in view of the parti

san role which such an engine of war is supposed to have played, but

the cannon was never fired by the cadets against the United States flag.

1452

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Soon after the matter -was thus happily settled the cannon arrived. In due time it was installed upon a pedestal of granite and placed in the Confederate Cemetery, at Marietta, within sight of Kennesaw Moun tain, to guard the heroic dust which here sleeps. On April 26, 1910; it was formally unveiled with impressive ceremonies. Judge Robert L. Rodgers, of Atlanta, welcomed the little cannon back home in an elo quent speech, while the veil was drawn by Miss Annie Coryell, the charming little granddaughter of Col. James "W. Robertson, the first commandant of the institute. There were a number of the old cadets present, besides a host of distinguished visitors, including his excellency, Gov. Joseph M. Brown. The site of the famous old school is in the immediate neighborhood of the spot where the little cannon keeps vigil.

Gov. CHARLES J. MCDONALD : AN EPISODE OF His CAKEER

Judge Spencer R. Atkinson, a grandson of Gov. Charles J. McDon ald and a former associate justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, has preserved the following dramatic incident in the life of his illus trious kinsman:
"Governor McDonald came into office under trying circumstances. The State treasury was empty. The evil effects of the great panic of 1837 were still pressing upon the people, like a nightmare. The great work of building the Western and Atlantic Railroad was languishing. The public debt had been decreased to one million dollars an enormous sum.in those days. Worst of all, the State credit was at a low ebb, because of the protest of an obligation of three hundred thousand dol lars, which had been contracted by the Central Bank under authority of the General Assembly of Georgia. Commerce and business generally were paralyzed. In 1837 the Legislature had passed an act allowing the counties of the State to retain the general tax, the same to be applied by the inferior courts to county purposes. As might have been expected, the counties frittered away the money. The bank was nearly destroyed by putting upon it a burden which did not belong to it, and the State was left without resource or credit.
'' Governor McDonald had inherited from his Scotch ancestors a hard head and a sound judgment. Never did he need his inherent qualities more than he did in the situation which then confronted him. He first recommended that the State resume the entire amount of the State tax which had been given to the counties, with but little benefit to them and greatly to,the injury of the State. This recommendation prevailed, and a law was enacted ordering the State tax to be turned into the treasury. Almost immediately following this necessary action, the Legislature, in 1841, passed an Act reducing the taxes of the State twenty per cent. This Act Governor McDonald promptly vetoed, with an argument, brief and pointed, and a statement 'which made his veto message unanswer able. He had been re-elected in 1841 and, on November 8, 1842, in his annual message urging upon the Legislature the only effective remedy for relieving the State from its difficulties, he used these words: 'The difficulty should be met at once. Had there been no Central Bank the expense of the government must have been met by taxation. These expenses have been paid by the Central Bank and have become a legiti-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1453

mate charge upon taxation. This must be the resort, or the government is inevitably dishonored. The public faith must be maintained, and to pause to discuss the question of preferences between taxation and dis honor would be to cast a reflection upon the character of the people, whose servants we are.'
'' The issue was joined. The Legislature had rejected a measure call ing for additional taxation to meet these just claims. The session was near its close. It was evident that unless some drastic action was taken the Legislature would adjourn, leaving an obligation of one hundred thousand dollars unmet. Governor McDonald acted with firmness and promptness. He shut the doors of the treasury in the face of the mem bers of the General Assembly of Georgia, Great excitement followed. The members of the Legislature denounced him as a tyrant worse than Andrew Jackson, who had gone beyond the limits of reason. Even his political friends, alarmed at the storm which had been raised, urged him to recede from his position and to rescind his order to the Treas urer. He resolutely refused. As a result, the necessary bill was finally passed, and at the next session he was able to report an improved con dition of the finances and a revival of confidence in the Central Bank. It was without doubt a most fortunate thing for Georgia at this critical period in the history of the State that a man of Governor McDonald's firmness, prudence, and business sagacity was at the head of affairs."

DANIEL MARSHALL'S ARREST WHILE PLANTING THE BAPTIST STANDARD IN GEORGIA

On the first day of January, 1771, Daniel Marshall, an ordained Bap tist minister, sixty-five years of age, came from Horse Creek, South Carolina, and settled with his family, on Kiokee Creek, about twenty miles northwest of Augusta. While living in South Carolina, he had organized two churches and had incidentally made frequent evan^ gelistic tours into Georgia, preaching with wonderful fervor in houses and groves. We will gaze upon him as he conducts religious services. The scene is in a sylvan grove, and Daniel Marshall is on his knees in prayer. As he beseeches the Throne of Grace, a hand is laid upon his shoulder, and he hears a voice say:
' ' You are my prisoner!'
'' Rising to his feet, the earnest-minded man of God finds himself confronted by an officer of the law. He is astonished at being arrested under such circumstances, for preaching the gospel in the Parish of St. Paul; but he has violated the legislative enactment of 1758, which established religious worship in the colony according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England. He is made to give security for his appearance in Augusta on the following Monday, and is then allowed to continue the services. But to the surprise of every one present, the indignation which swells the bosom of Mr. Marshall finds vent through the lips of his wife, who has witnessed the whole scene. With the solemnity of the prophets of old, she denounces the law under which her husband has been apprehended, and to sustain her position she quotes many passages from the Holy Scriptures, with a force which car
ries conviction.

1454

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

"One of the most interested listeners to her exposition was the con stable, Mr. Samuel Cartledge, who was so deeply convinced by the inspired words of exhortation which fell from her lips that his conver sion was the result; and, in 1777, he was baptized by the very man whom he then held under arrest. After the interruption caused by the inci dent above described, Mr. Marshall preached a sermon of great power, and before the meeting was over he baptized, in the neighboring creek, two converts, who proved to be relatives of the very man who stood security for his appearance at court. On the day appointed Mr. Mar shall went to Augusta, and after standing a trial was ordered to desist; but he boldly replied in the language of the Apostles, spoken under simi lar circumstances:
" 'Whether it be right to obey God or man, judge ye.' "It is interesting to note that the magistrate who tried him, Colonel Barnard, was also afterwards converted. Though never immersed, he was strongly tinctured with Baptist doctrines, and often exhorted sin ners to flee from the wrath to come. He lived and died in the Church of England. Following this dramatic episode, Mr. Marshall .does not seem to have met with further trouble; but the outbreak of the Revo lution soon suspended religious activities."

. HEESCHEL, V. JOHNSON : SOME INCIDENTS OF His CAREER

Both intellectually and physically, Herschel V. Johnson was one of the giants of his day in Georgia. He defeated the illustrious Charles J. Jenkins for the high office of governor, a position which he filled with great ability for a period of four years. His devotion to the Union caused him to be nominated, in 1860, for the second place on the national ticket, with Stephen A. Douglas. Though he recognized secession as a right he opposed it as remedy for existing evils. In the secession con vention at Milledgeville he was one of the most colossal figures, and allying himself with the anti-secessionists he made the greatest speech of his life in an effort to keep Georgia within the Union, but without suc cess. The forces of disruption were too strong to be overcome. There is a story told to the effect that after beginning his impassioned plea for conservatism on the floor of the secession convention, he paused at the dinner hour, yielding to a motion for temporary adjournment. Dur ing the noon recess, he either took of his own accord or was persuaded by others to take a stimulant, in order to restore his strength after the exhaustion of his great effort of the morning session. But the result proved most unfortunate. It is said that the conclusion of his great argument was lacking power due to the effects of the stimulant, and that Georgia was lost to the Union largely because the great speech of Gov ernor Johnson lacked at the close of it the splendid amplitude of power with which it began. This great Georgian was far-sighted. The disas ters which were fated to follow the impulsive action of the secession convention were distinctly foreshadowed upon his great brain, and he exerted himself to the utmost to avert the impending crisis. But the doom of Georgia was sealed. He afterwards represented the state in the Confederate Senate, at Richmond, and for years after the war he wore the ermine of the Superior Court bench.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1455

Judge Richard H. Clark,* an intimate personal acquaintance, gives .us the following pen-picture of Governor Johnson as he appeared in the earlier days. Says he:
"The first political campaign which brought forth the powers of Governor Johnson was in 1840. It was the most exciting one this nation has ever experienced. There is no space to describe it. Suffice it to say that party rancor was at its highest pitch, and the people, including women and children, were wild with excitement. Governor Johnson was then but twenty-eight years old. His form was large and bulky, his face was smooth and beardless, and his entire make-up gave you the appearance of an overgrown boy. Expecting little when he arose, you were soon to enjoy the surprise of listening to one of the most power ful orators in the State or the Union. His bulky form gave yet more force to his sledge-hammer blows. His oratory, though powerful, was without seeming design or knowledge of it on the part of the speaker. His words escaped without the labor of utterance. His style was ani mated, but the speaker himself hardly seemed to be conscious of it, so intense was his earnestness. He simply discharged his duty to the best of his ability, and left the effect to take care of itself. This campaign gave him a State reputation."
Governor Johnson embraced, to a limited extent, in later life, the religious philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg, of whose writings he became an industrious student. He married Mrs. Anna Polk Walker, a lady of rare personal and intellectual charms. She was a daughter of Judge 'William Polk, of the Supreme Court of Maryland, a niece of President James K.. Polk, of Tennessee, and a cousin of Lieut.-Gen. Leonidas Polk, the famous Confederate officer who was both soldier and bishop.

Gov. CHAKLES J. JENKINS: IN EXILE PRESERVES THE SEAL OP GEORGIA
While occupying the office of governor, during the days of recon struction, Charles J. Jenkins performed an act of civic patriotism, the bare mention of which, after a lapse of fifty years, still awakens a thrill of admiration.
To prevent the executive seal of the state from being profaned by the military satraps, Governor Jenkins, on being deposed from office by the Federal officer in command of the district, General Meade, took the instrument of authority with him into exile among the mountains of Nova Scotia, and there kept it until the reins of government in Geor gia were restored to the Caucasian element.! Under an act of Con gress, passed early in the year 1867, Georgia was grouped with Alabama and Florida, in what was known as the Third Military District of the seceding states; and the saturnalia of reconstruction was begun. The
*" Memoirs."
t Most of the accounts state that it was the great seal of Georgia which was carried into exile by Governor Jenkins. But this is a mistake. According to Hon. Phillip Cook, the present secretary of state, the great seal of Georgia has never been disturbed. It was the executive seal, which figured in this dramatic episode of reconstruction. The great seal of the state is used in attesting papers which bear upon interstate or foreign relations and is stamped upon a piece of wax, which is then attached to the document. The executive seal is used in the ordinary trans actions of the executive department, without the formalities above indicated.

1456

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

negroes now voted for the first time and the registration lists, which were supervised by the Federal authorities, contained as many Hacks as whites. At an election held for delegates to a convention, the avowed purpose of which was to remold the organic law of the state, thirtythree blacks were chosen; and the mongrel body which met soon there after amended the constitution, committed Georgia to republican pledges, and ordered another election for governor and statehouse officers. Thus haying disposed of the business on hand, the convention was ready to adjourn.
But the hotel bills of the delegates still remained to be paid. As commander of the military district, General Meade directed Governor Jenkins to draw a warrant upon the treasury of the state, for the pur pose of defraying the conventional expenses. But Governor Jenkins did not think that the disfranchised taxpayers of Georgia should be made to foot the bill for this sort of a banquet, and he firmly refused to issue the desired order. On receiving this note, General Meade forthwith removed Governor Jenkins from office, detailing Gen. Thomas H. Ruger to act as governor; and, to avoid any unpleasant hitch in the proceed ings, Capt. C. F. Rockwell was detailed to act as treasurer. The sov ereignty for Georgia was ruthlessly outraged by the usurpers.
It was now the victorious high-tide of the military regime in Geor gia. The rule of the bayonet was supreme. But Governor Jenkins was determined to uphold the honor of the commonwealth at any cost; and ' he quietly departed into exile, taking not only $400,000 in cash and leaving an empty strong box for the carpet bag administration, but also taking the executive seal of the state, which he avowed should never be affixed to any document which did not express the sovereign will of the people of Georgia. Depositing the money to the credit of the state in one of the New York City banks, he then crossed the Canadian border line into Nova Scotia, where he kept the insignia of statehood until Georgia was at last emancipated from the bonds of the military despotism which enthralled her. On the election of Gov. James M. Smith, he emerged from his retirement and formally restored the execu tive seal to the proper authorities, expressing as he did so the satisfac tion that never once had it been desecrated by the hand of the military tyrant. The Legislature of Georgia suitably acknowledged the fidelity of Governor Jenkins by adopting appreciative resolutions in which the governor then in office was authorized to have struck without delay and presented to Governor Jenkins a facsimile of the executive seal of Georgia, wrought of gold and stamped with the following inscriptions: "Presented to Charles J. Jenkins by the State of Georgia. In arduis
fidelis."

MAJ. ARCHIBALD BUTT.- A HERO OF THE TITANIC

On board the ill-fated Titanic, which struck an iceberg in midocean, on the evening of April 15, 1912, was a gallant son of Augusta, Georgia Maj. Archibald Butt. At the time of his death, Major Butt was one of the best known men in American public life, having served as chief of the President's military staff, under two national adminis trations, and for eight years no one ever attended the brilliant social

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1457

functions at the White House without being impressed by the ereet and graceful figure of the handsome officer.
The disaster in which he lost his life was the greatest marine trag edy of modern times an ocean holocaust, in which over 1,500 souls per ished. The Titanic was the greatest vessel afloat. She was making her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York; and some of the most emi nent men of the world were on board. The unwritten law of the sea "women and children first" was rigidly enforced; but the inate chivalry of Archibald Butt made it a needless one, so far as it con cerned himself. He was not among the number saved. Only the meagerest details of the . colossal tragedy reached Washington after days of anxious waiting, and when hope for the brave officer's rescue was finally abandoned, Mr. Taft's comment, made with moisture in his eyes, was this: "He died like a soldier and a gentleman." The President afterwards .came to Augusta for the express purpose of paying a heart felt memorial tribute to his beloved chief of staff.
Archibald Willingham Butt came of an old Augusta family, and on the banks of the Savannah River at this place he was born on Septem ber 26, 1866. Here he grew up, attending the local schools; but, losing his father when quite a lad, it was mainly by his mother's hand that the youth was reared. The latter was a Miss Boggs. It was the ardent wish of the boy's mother to see her son in the pulpit, and with the hope of making a minister of Archibald she sent him to Sewanee. But the lad's ambition was to enter the army the life which fascinated him most was the soldier's. As a sort of compromise, on leaving college, he drifted into journalism, but without relinquishing his dream. In the course of time, he became the Washington correspondent of the Atlanta Journal, and by a most singular coincidence one of his associates on the paper at this time was the brilliant Jacques Futrelle, who was destined to share his watery grave in the mid-Atlantic.
Major Butt's nearest surviving relatives are his two brothers, Edward H. Butt, of Liverpool, and Lewis Ford Butt, of Augusta. John D. Butt, a third brother, met death in a railway accident a num ber of years ago. About the same time he also lost an only sister. When on a visit to Atlanta, some few months before the tragic disaster, Major Butt incidentally remarked: "My ambition is to die in such a manner as to reflect credit upon the name I bear." He may not have recalled this wish amid the waters of the wild Atlantic, on the night when his brave soul went out; but his ambition was fully realized. The citizens of Augusta have built a memorial bridge in his honor to span the Augusta Canal and to keep his name in green remembrance amid the scenes of his youth. At Sewanee, Tennessee, a memorial tablet has already been unveiled in the halls of his alma mater, and a handsome monument has also been erected by his comrades of the army in Arling ton National Cemetery, Washington, D. C.
On April 15, 1914, the handsome memorial bridge erected by the citi zens of Augusta in honor of Maj. Archibald Butt was dedicated in the presence of a vast throng of people, numbering perhaps 5,000. It spans the Augusta Canal at the intersection of Fifteenth and Greene streets, near the site of Major Butt's old home. Ex-President of the United States Hon. William H. Taft delivered the principal address of the occa-

1458

GEORGIA AND GBOEGIANS

sion, in addition to which the Masonic rites constituted a most impressive feature of the exercises.*

ANECDOTE OF SENATOR WEST "

When William S. West, a recent senator from Georgia, was teaching school down in the Southland he had occasion several times to reprimand one of his girl pupils. She was a pretty little rascal and so full of life that she was constantly getting into pranks that upset the calm, studious decorum West wished to maintain. One day West told her that if she did any more whispering he would feel obliged to give her a whipping. She merely giggled merrily at the threat, and within five minutes was whispering once more to a girl across the aisle.
West bade her step up in front. He had told her he would whip her, and he felt obliged to make good. It is not altogether chivalrous for a strong man to inflict corporal punishment on a young girl, espe cially when she happens to be both plump and pretty, but discipline is .discipline, and West had started out to be a martinet. Still he hesi tated when it came right to the point of taking a switch, and inflicting pain in the same ruthless way that he did on unruly boys. As a com promise measure he picked up a ruler and smacked the mischievous young creature several only moderately severe blows on the palms of the hands.
She was a game little scamp and did not cry as most girls would have done. Instead, she stamped a pretty little foot and scornfully
declared: "I'll get even with you for that."

After she had resumed her seat, West wondered if he had really hurt her when he smacked her little hands. It did seem like a shame to cause suffering to one so thoroughly attractive. He had never noticed before how really pretty she was. The next day, and the next, while appar ently glaring at the school to preserve order, West was in reality staring at just one pupil and wondering how he had ever overlooked the fact that she was about the prettiest young person he knew.
Time went on and West quit teaching school, but he kept up an acquaintance with a few of his pupils, particularly with the young girl whom he had smacked on the hands with a ruler. Gradually he made a wonderful discovery with regard to her, viz., that the oftener 'he called on her the more he would see her. So he called frequently.
Several times during this period she laughingly recalled the schoolday incident and repeated her threat that she would get even with him
some day. After the lapse of some years they were married. Just after the
officiating clergyman had finished his part of the entertainment, Mrs. West looked up at her new husband with a funny twinkle and said:
'' I told you I 'd get even with you.'' t

* Vol. II, "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight, t From the Washington Post.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1459

THE LAST DAYS OP MB. STEPHENS

Never will the campaign of 1882 be forgotten in Georgia. Too feeble to meet the strenuous demands of the stump, Mr. Stephens'nevertheless appeared before the people at such well selected times and places as made it evident that he was still a master of strategy. What his voice lacked of its old power to create an electric thrill, his emaciated figure, as he wheeled himself before the footlights, in part at least supplied, and again, at the age of threescore years and ten, the old statesman was fairly electrifying the state, from Rabun Gap to Tybee Light! None of the dramatic elements were lacking in the scenes of which his rollerchair was the center. There was something about the inanimate wood which seemed to stir the profoundest emotion. Perchance it suggested the patriarchal blessing. Or it may have told of the sleepless hours which the patient sufferer had so repeatedly experienced when, racked with pain, he had sentineled the midnight watches, keeping an eye upon the lattice of his window until across the brightening fields he could see the dawn approach. Or it may have whispered of the viewless ministries which kept him in correspondence with another clime whose border surges he could almost hear. But whatever may have been the explana tion of the almost superhuman magnetism which spoke from the embrace of that roller-chair, it filled the air with electric needles which pierced the enrapt listener to the very marrow of his bones. And such thun derous volleys of applause as greeted the veteran statesman were never surpassed in the lustiest days of the old whig party when, with an elo quence which the great Kentuckian himself could hardly have equaled, he had first unfurled the civic banner and preached the political faith
of the illustrious Henry Clay.

But even while the admirers of Mr. Stephens stood at the polls and voted him into the executive chair of the state, there came from the ballot-box an almost audible voice which seemed to say that the old man's tenure of office would be short, and that the commonwealth would soon be called to mourn the veteran statesman whom at the last moment she had made her governor merely, as it seemed, that he might climb the mountain, like the ancient prophet, to fall asleep in the chastened
solitudes of the uplifted silences. Scarcely had three months registered the deepening snowfalls upon
the already white locks of the aged governor before the spectral courier arrived at the door of the executive mansion. Toward the close of Feb ruary Mr. Stephens, importuned by the people of Savannah, had gone to the Forest City to speak at the Sesqui-Centennial. Numerous rea sons impelled him to make this visit, which proved to be his last. In the first place, the occasion itself was historic and appealed strongly to his state pride. Again, some of his warmest friends and supporters were among the cultured residents of Savannah, not the least of whom was the gallant Henry R. Jackson, whose eloquent voice had resounded over the entire state in the late campaign. Moreover, Mr. Stephens, who lived in the upper edge of the midland belt, wished the people of the lower areas to feel that he was the impartial governor of all Georgia, upon whose map of official favors the wire-grass tracts and the

1460

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

sandy levels were fully as conspicuous as the processional peaks of the Blue Ridge. He therefore went to Savannah. And, though feeling none too well on leaving home, he nevertheless entered heartily into the spirit of the great festival. On the brilliant platform, gaily festooned with banners, he caught the inspiration of his parting syllables; but, even as he waxed unwontedly eloquent, in rehearsing the story of Geor gia's infant struggles, it was evident that the glow which suffused his face was not the auroral light of the commonwealth dawn. It was rather the lingering flush on the western horizon whose roseate signal unlooses the sunset guns.
Immediately upon returning home Mr. Stephens was taken violently ill. He was destined never to rise from the bed which he was now obliged to seek. However, it was not the visit to Savannah which caused or even hastened Mr. Stephens's death. The time fixed for his departure was at hand. The candle had slowly melted down to the socket and the hour hand had reached the fatal number on the dial-plate. But the spirit of the great statesman had so often hovered along the mysterious hedge-rows of life that in spite of the years which were now heavily mul tiplied upon his feeble shoulders it was not seriously thought that the time of the Great Commoner had come. Neither the people of Georgia who were so accustomed to reading bedside bulletins from Mr. Stephens in the morning newspaper prints, nor the old statesman himself, who was so accustomed to waging sick-room battles with the minions of dis ease, seemed to realize that death was imminent. But nevertheless the Grim Destroyer was encamped upon the executive lawn.
Back into the cosy apartment at the extreme end of the hall on the left, which Mr. Stephens had selected as his bedroom on taking posses sion of his new official home in Atlanta, the pale invalid sufferer was again borne; nor was he destined to leave the embrasure of that room until his eyelids had closed in the deepening dusk of that mysterious sleep which had puzzled the weary Hamlet. One of the first official acts of Mr. Stephens three months before had been to order down the huge bedstead which had conjured up at once in his simple democratic mind the powdered wig and pampered flesh of that spoiled child of royalty Louis the XIV. In place of the sprawling claws of this "flowery bed of ease" Mr. Stephens had substituted an unpretentious little single couch which looked as if it might have filled an humble corner in the cotter's highland home. It had always been the pet notion of the Great Commoner, more sentimental perhaps than scientific, that he could sleep better if he paralleled the course of the Mississippi River and slept with his head directed toward the arctic zone while his limbs meandered toward the equatorial belt. Amusing as it may seem, this whim con trolled the legislation by which his domestic economy was governed; and he had caused his little cot to be pointed north and south in keeping with the precise bearings of the compass. In another corner of the room he had arranged for the reclining comforts of his colored bodyguard, whose tidy bedstead revealed no adverse discrimination, and whose familiar name, like his distinguished master's, was Aleck. It might be time well spent to pause upon the beautiful relations which existed between the faithful bodyguard, whose ear was as keenly attuned as an Indian's to the softest accents of the night, and the invalid master,

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1461

whose life had never known the sweet companionship which heaven had graciously vouchsafed to man, when age-long years ago the first lone hermit awoke from the most ravishing of dreams minus a rib but plus a helpmeet to find himself no more an Eden bachelor.

But this apartment, under' the new administration, had been devoted to affairs much more substantial than the airy fabrics of sleep. It was the workshop of Mr. Stephens. On account of the delicate health of the feeble old governor the office of the state capitol had been exchanged, Sxcept on occasions of urgent necessity, for the office at the executive mansion. Such was the arrangement which he had made at the start; and, besides purchasing a clock to arouse the inmates of the room betimes, he had also procured, apparently from Noah's ark, a row of files which he had placed against the walls for important documents and letters. And, indeed, it almost looked as if Robinson Crusoe, in addition to hous ing his man Friday, had also made arrangements for accommodating his pigeons.

During the two weeks in which Mr. Stephens lingered after taking his bed for the last time there were frequent intervals in the midst of severe bodily suffering which he gave to official business. It was charac teristic of the great man that the pains which racked his body unless accompanied by the severest pangs of the guillotine or the worst tor tures of the Inquisition were never allowed to disturb 'his official obliga tions ; and as long as he could rationally sign the name which he meant for Alexander H. Stephens, but which no one without the key could ever decipher, unless he had first mastered the ancient symbols of the Egyptian monuments, he continued to pen it to official documents. It was equally characteristic of the Great Commoner that the last service in which his feeble fingers were ever employed was an act of executive clemency. The altruism which ennobled the whole life of Mr. Stephens asserted itself in the most trivial things. Someone had sent him a box of oranges from Florida; and though he had passed the point where he any longer had relish for the fruit, he ordered the oranges to be parcelled out between the inmates of the house so that each could receive two.
The cause of Mr. Stephens's death was an old malady superinduced by riding up from the depot in a cab from which a pane of glass had been displaced, exposing him to the cold draft of an inclement February morning. The physical distress which followed bore so plainly the fea tures of former attacks that Mr. Stephens was not at first alarmed; but when the customary remedies failed to give the usual relief he began to feel some uneasiness. However, it was not the trepidation which is felt by one who dreads the future which he finds himself obliged to face. Mr. Stephens had long ago put his house in order. He labored under none of the fears which are bom of the darkness. Doctor Steiner was hastily summoned from Washington; but being detained at the death bed of Gen. Dudley M. DuBose, he could not respond at once. However, he hurried to Atlanta as soon as he could get release.
Mr. Stephens rallied somewhat after Doctor Steiner arrived. An invincible hope kept him busy down, to the last moment, planning what he expected to do when he was well. It was the cheerful optimism char-
Vol. Ill 13

1462

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

acteristic of the invalid who has fought and won so many grim battles; but it was pathetic to the point of tears to watch the brave spirit as it still continued to struggle even after the pale flag had commenced to flutter above the wasted citadel. Often had the newspapers of the state told of the death of Mr. Stephens only to recall the premature announce ment, but the sables of mourning were now to be donned upon authorita tive tidings. Often had the grave yawned to receive the victim who was ever at the gates, but the tomb had been robbed for the last time, and the jealous portals were now to claim the coveted tenant.
Among those who gathered about the sick-bedside to witness the last scene in the life which was now slowly ebbing were the two ladies of the household, Mrs. Stephens and Mrs. Grier, both near relatives; Doctor Steiner, the old family physician, who had so often attended the patient; Col. C. "W. Seidell, his private secretary; Col. John A. Stephens, his nephew; Hon. John T. Henderson, Dr. H. V. M. Miller, Doctor Raines, Judge Hall, A. L. Kontz, E. C. Kontz, T. B. Bradley and R. K. Paul. Besides there were two servants. It was not until Saturday, March 3d, that the condition of Mr. Stephens had become alarming. But he had now commenced to sink rapidly, and shortly before midnight Doctor Steiner had spoken the message:
'' The Governor is dying.'' Though it had to come it was none the less bitter to those who had so long waited upon the helpless sufferer; and not the least forlorn of the silent group was the faithful black bodyguard, poor Aleck, whose best friend was now telling him good-by. Doctor Miller, who had been de voted to Mr. Stephens for years, kept his hands almost constantly upon the feeble wrist in which so faint were the pulsations that the existence of life could hardly be detected; and neither Doctor Miller nor Doctor Steiner could tell the precise moment when the spark was extinguished. But the invalid had ceased to suffer. The great democrat had died as simply as he had lived. One of the.warmest admirers of Mr. Stephens in the sorrowful coterie about the sick bedside was Antoii Kontz, then the local superintendent of the Pullman Company. It was Mr. Kontz who furnished the hand some Pullman coach which brought Mr. Stephens from Crawfordville to Atlanta. Several invited guests had gone to escort the governor-elect to the capitol; and in the speech-making which preceded the departure from Crawfordville one of the orators told him that he was to travel like a prince; but Mr. Stephens, without waiting for him to stop, interrupted the speaker with the remark ."There are no princes in Georgia. At least I am not one of them. I am only the servant of the people.'' It is said by those who stood at the bedside that the last articulate utterance which ever fell from the lips of the Great Commoner was: '' Get ready, we are nearly home.'' Perhaps in the delirium of his dying moments the old governor, weary of the cares of state in the busy capital, was hurrying back over the iron rails to. Crawfordville, and, looming above the tree-tops on the distant hillside, he had caught the familiar turrets'of old Liberty Hall. Perhaps it. was the black face of his old bodyguard which framed itself in his dying thoughts as he spoke those simple words, '' Get ready, we are nearly home.'' But, even if this was

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1463

all, those commonplace words addressed to an old negro whom he loved were not unworthy of the golden approaches to the palace of the King.
With such an executive command still warm on the lips of the old governor, it could not be said that death had really darkened the abode of power which had so lately opened amid the flare of tapers and the sparkle of gems to welcome the incoming occupant. An almost breathless hush pervaded the halls, of the executive mansion.' The tapers were out and the jewels flashed against sorrowful faces; but, in spite of the doleful symbols of an altered scene, it was far more appropriate to say that the old governor had been once more inaugurated!
All was at last over. The doctor was now dismissed. The crutch was laid aside for good. The roller-chair was no longer needed. At last after seventy years there had fluttered down through the Sabbath hush of the sick-bedroom an old, old prescription which had made the invalid well. His wish had come true at last. Those lips had been dashed at the fountain which the Spaniard sought in vain. Those limbs had waxed strong and youthful. Those heart-beats had commenced anew to keep perpetual step to music that never ceases. It is unseemly in the mute mourner who bends over the attenuated figure to keep back the tears; for the absent loved ones are always missed. But over the beautiful clay let the laurel instead of the cypress rest; for in the goblet of death, fresh from the vintages of yonder hills, Alexander H. Stephens has found the elixir of life.*

FROM THE FIERY FURNACE TO THE SENATORIAL TOGA

At the close of the Civil war there was no man in Georgia more deservedly popular than Joseph E. Brown. He had not only occupied the executive chair of the state for an unprecedented period of eight years, but he had been, during all this time, in no mere technical or official sense, the commanding figure of the commonwealth. He had been admittedly Georgia's favorite son; for, even more nearly than Toombs or Stephens or Hill or Gordon, he had been identified, throughout the tur bulent era of conflict, with Georgia's immediate fortunes.
Nor was he less idolized when the historic walls of the old capitol building at Milledgeville were exchanged for the dungeon walls of the old capitol prison in Washington City. But Joseph E. Brown was fated to experience within the next few months the most-pronounced reversal of public favor and to suffer unremittingly for the next fifteen years the most trying ordeal of political ostracism which has probably ever been known in Georgia.
This sudden revolution of the wheel of fortune was caused by the readiness with which he accepted and the zeal with which he urged Georgia to accept the congressional measures of reconstruction. The logic which underlay this course, to quote the language of Judge Speer, was grounded upon "the international law which fixes the power of the conqueror and restricts the rights of the conquered"; but Gov ernor Brown put it subjunctively in this form: "If we could not successfully resist the North when we had half a million bayonets in

*Vol. I, "Eeminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

1464

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the field, how can we resist now when he have none?" Powerful as was the force of this argument, it was strongly combatted by the racial fact that the southern people were the inheritors of proud blood which had never bowed submissively to yokes and chains. Governor Brown realized this fact and moreover deplored what he recognized to be the injustice of the reconstruction wrongs; but this inventory of the obstacles only emphasized the unpalatable truth that the vanquished South was completely at the mercy of the victorious North; and he argued that resistance instead of mitigating would most likely only increase the hard ships of defeat. AVon also by the magnanimity of Grant to Lee he felt that something- was due the victor of Appomattox and he reasoned that the favor of such an influential chief secured by prompt acquiescence would in all probability do more than all else toward accomplishing the desired ends. But he knew that the South was in no mood to listen to such counsels then, however sure she might be to adopt them ultimately; and he knew also that the course which he felt compelled to take would most likely result in bitter alienations and misunderstandings. It is per haps the highest test of patriotism to be willing to relinquish popularity for principle. Governor Brown had none of the hypocrisy which affects indifference to applause. He appreciated the favor of the public as only one can appreciate it who has won such favor not by the sudden con quests of the moment but by the gradual accretions of the years; but he preferred to steer by the. tranquil light of the polar star in the far-off distance rather than by the illusive clouds which drifted above the ship. It required courage of the martyr-school to make the choice which duty dictated under these painful circumstances, but he calmly fashioned his resolve; and, instead of taking the open road which wound through the heathery fields to Canaan, he took the rugged and upward path which sloped through the olive glooms.

Vindication had come at last. The senatorial toga by the sovereign voice of the great State of Georgia had now been conferi'ed upon the man of snow-white beard and hair who had so lately emerged from the fiery furnace. Six years later he was again elected with only one vote against him. Never was public sentiment more overwhelmingly reversed or triumph more complete.
Voluntarily retiring from public life in 1892, after having represented Georgia for more than twelve years in the United States Senate, he retained until his death the unwavering support and confidence of his fellow citizens who had learned to honor him anew. Nor was he ever more tenderly reverenced in the old days than now. He had been tried in the fire and found to be pure gold. Besides accumulating an immense fortune in attestation of his business sagacity and judgment he had also reared monuments to his generosity and public spirit by his judicious benefactions, having given over $50,000 to the Baptist Theological Semi nary at Louisville, Kentucky, and another $50,000 to the University of Georgia, for the encouragement of poor boys who were the special wards of his affection. Thus from an humble beginning, by dint of persever ance and industry, the friendless lad who had first appeared on the slopes of the Blue Ridge years before, with the slenderest prospects of suc cess in life, had not only reached the dizzy summits, but having twice

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1465

met and conquered adverse fortune, lie had made himself, in some respects at least, the most striking figure of his times.
Joseph E. Brown was again upon the heights. Once more the old commonwealth lay at the feet of the farmer boy of Gaddistown. He had climbed above the cloud-belt and stood beneath the starry stretches. The vapors had slowly given place to the ramparts of the granite rocks and the reward of patient years had flowered at last in the splendors of the firmament. He had retired of his own free will from the highest arena of the nation, withdrawing like the aged gladiator who droops beneath his locks but bends more heavily beneath his laurels. He could now rest. Wan and worn, the tired old man lay down. The withered hands sought each other in the clasp> of coming sleep. The pallid lips grew tight. The eyelids closed. The wrinkles faded one by one. At last he slept; and all was now serene and beautiful. The sun. had set in the west wearing the purple robes of the King. The farmer boy of Gaddistown had gath ered the last crop of golden wheat from the once scant but now rich acre of ground. The mountaineer had fallen asleep on the mountains.*

"ALMOST HOME": SENATOR HILL'S DEATH

Sufferings, like sunset clouds, often beautify the couch of Death. * * * It was probably at least four years before the end came that Mr. Hill, while in Washington, noticed an abrasion on the left side of his tongue, scarcely larger than a pin's head. Since the irritation was only slight, he gave it little .thought, supposing, that a tooth had caused it by producing a bruise which the nicotine from smoking had slightly inflamed. He was not a man to worry over trifles; and, though the obstreperous little pimple refused to quiet, he patiently allowed it to nibble upon his nerves for months.
But finding eventually that the little disturber had become an ob stinate sore, he began to apply mild correctives. It was useless, however. Astringents proved unavailing. He was about to consult Doctor Gross, of Philadelphia, the noted surgeon and specialist, when he was diverted from his purpose by an insistent friend who urged him to consult an eminent physician of New York, Doctor Bayard. Doctor Bayard pro nounced the trouble benign ulcer, and immediately began appropriate treatment. But this was most unfortunate. The diagnosis being incor rect, the remedy applied failed to reach the seat of the disease; and the disorder, which in the beginning could have been easily eradicated, was given an opportunity to root itself more firmly in the system.
An exciting political campaign had now opened in Georgia in which Mr. Hill was expected to bear some part, but he was obliged to excuse himself on the ground that an ulcerous eruption upon his .tongue made it necessary for him to abandon his expected speech-making. This was the first intimation which the public had received of the malady which was destined to end the life of this glorious Georgian; and the fact that his eloquent tongue, which had so often roused the echoes of the state, was the seat of the trouble not only furnished capital for thoughtless criticism but material for mystified and puzzled comment. The" tongue of all

*Vol. I, "Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

1466

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

other tongues in Georgia, which spoke the senatorial language of the silent Webster and even revived the coronal accents of the old Demos thenes, might well have excited the bewilderment of Georgians when it told of the only infirmity it ever bore. Idly as the public may have en-, tertained it at the time, little believing that any serious harm could ever reach the throne of sceptered eloquence from such an unregarded source, it nevertheless remains that the fatal canker underlay the blossoms of his brightest victories in the Senate and put an expiring note in the music of his lustiest syllables.
It was not until July 19, 1881, that Mr. Hill became truthfully aware of the real malignant character of his disease. He had patiently endured the treatment which, as it now clearly appeared, had been grounded upon an incorrect hypothesis; and seeking Doctor Gross, whom he found at Cape May, he was told that the trouble was cancer and that the use of the knife, if effective at all, must be employed at once. Without alarm ing his family by telling them what his intentions were, he prepared for the operation, feeling that his strong constitution, which was never more vigorously the abode of robust health, would safely tide him over the dangerous ordeal. The operation was performed at the Jefferson . Hospital in Philadelphia, and resulted in some immediate benefits. Being joined by members of his family, who hastened to him on receiving the news of the operation, he soon commenced to regain strength. But the roots of the malady had spread to the base of the tongue; and subse quent operations only proved the futility of baffling with an evil which could not be successfully resisted. If the aid of surgery had been invoked months before it might have been different, but it was now too late.
Though Mr. Hill gradually wasted away under the devastating rav ages of the malady, his buoyant spirits refused to droop and his forti tude cheerfully endured operation after operation until exhausted nature could go no further. Full of plans and purposes for serving Georgia in the great arena into which she had called him, he was anxious to live. So long had his muscles of oak withstood fatigue and weariness and so vigorous and virile had been his bodily and mental health, even after disease had comniertced to make fatal inroads, that he could not yield himself readily to death. It cost an internal struggle; but heroism won. He calmly bowed his head and waited his summons. Often had he pro tested against oppression and wrong; but no murmur crossed his lips now. Stricken and speechless though he was, Mr. Hill was never more sublimely eloquent in all his splendid arguments; for, bent beneath the cross of anguish the prince of orators was silently pronouncing '' the ora tion on the crown."

Several weeks before the end came Mr. Hill was taken to Eureka Springs in the hope that the magical waters of this famous resort might prolong his tenure of life and accomplish what neither the skill of the surgeon's knife nor the tonic of the salt-sea air could possibly do; but he was not able on account of the inflamed condition of his throat to drink sufficiently of the invigorating crystal to derive the least benefit, and he languidly turned in his thoughts towards his old home in Georgia,
"Take me back," said he, "back to Georgia. God's will be done.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1467

My work is finished; my time is close at hand. But I want to die on Georgia soil. Take me back home.''
And so the loved ones bore the sufferer home to Georgia. Never will those who witnessed the home-coming of the great orator forget the scene presented at the depot when the wan face of the pallid sufferer smiled wearily upon the vast assemblage of anxious fellow townsmen who were there to bid him welcome back. He knew it was perhaps the last look which he would ever have into the upturned faces of the mul titude whose plaudits had so often cheered his accents; and most of those who with tearful eyes greeted him in silence heard something whisper through the solemn hushes that they would never look again upon his breathing form.
During the days of suspense which followed he saw as many of his old friends and followers as his feeble strength would allow. He usu ally broke into tears when they approached him; but it seemed to do him good to see them and he usually gave them some tender thought upon paper, which it need not be said was sacredly prized and kept. He never lost his interest in things around him. It was evident that Geor gia was ever present in his thoughts: Georgia, his old mother state, whose name was lettered upon his heart and whose memories now mingled with his dreams of heaven.
Whatever may be the explanation which psychology gives of the fact, it is curious to observe how prone the mind is, with approaching dissolution, to wander backward to the old frontiers of life. The looks which day puts on at dawn come back again at dusk. The earliest recol lections tread airily upon the latest moments of existence and the April colors of the morning return to kindle the November foliage of the sun set. Nor was this unwritten law of nature inoperative in the last hours of Mr. Hill. Back of the stormy years in which his eventful midday life had been pitched he lived again in the sunny area of air-castles where he had first nurtured and nursed his budding ambitions.
But the happy mood which tranquilized the emotions of the patient sufferer was not dependent upon the gleanings of this remote period. The mysterious alchemy of sunset brought gold out of clouds and strained sweetest honey from bitterest combs. Nor was this true alone of his physical sufferings. It was equally true of his turbulent midday strifes and discords. Beyond the satisfaction which comes from the serene consciousness of duty faithfully performed he had also the added balm of enmities at rest. One of the sweetest of all the pathetic scenes which beautified the last moments of Mr. Hill's life was one which no artist's brush can paint. Two men who had faced each other in the fiercest storms of politics now faced each other in the waveless calm of silence. They had met before in kindness. They had shaken hands over the buried issues of the past. But there was something in this present meeting which told of clearer understandings. There they sat. The one pale and wan, but with shrunken lineaments of beauty which told of fibres in which life had once been lusty; the other active and alert but with silvery locks of age which told of wintry days whose icy clasp was coming. Both were thinking of the past. But if the memory of the angry years crept back it was only in the echoes which time had mel lowed into music. Tears only were spoken, but never spoke the crys-

1468

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

tals of speech more eloquently than now spoke the crystals of science. Those tears welled up from the deepest fountains. They uttered no articulated sounds, but they silently breathed an unworded language which Joseph E. Brown and Benjamin H. Hill both understood.

In like manner came also Alexander H. Stephens. . But the crown ing glory of the death-bed scene of the great Georgian was born of the martyr-heroism with which his Christian spirit bore the ordeal of an almost unparalleled affliction. No rebellious murmur of protest told of the crucifixion agonies which the very nature of his malady revealed: and he calmly endured his sufferings, feeling that an all-wise Providence knew best what discipline of love to give him and that the shining shores were not far distant on which the waves of anguish were to break. This was evident from the last expression which he ever framed: '' Almost home."
Slowly he withered day by day until at last the August morning dawned to take him. The weary eyelids drooped arid closed. The wrists grew pulseless. The heart which had been the temple of so much glorious life could ripple the wasted arteries and feed the smoldering fires no more. The lips parted and met again. The soul had slipped through the gates of purple and now rejoiced within the gates of pearl. "Almost home" had become "Home at last."
Such were the final moments of Georgia's peerless orator. Nor was it unmeet that when the end should come the finger of dis ease should be laid upon the instrument which had so often borne him to the ether blues of eloquence, just as the archer's arrow strikes the pinion on which the eagle soars aloft; that the voice which had so often charmed the multitudes with all the ravishing notes of music should now at last be silent when there were no more harmonies to sound; that the tongue which had branded such blistering philippics upon the fore heads of his country's foes should be at last consumed by the coal of fire which it caught from the glowing embers of the golden altar.*

JOHN FORSYTE .- DIPLOMAT

Little is heard nowadays of John Forsyth. But in the archives of the nation's capitol this distinguished Georgian is ranked among the ablest of American diplomats. It was through the skillful negotiations of Mr. Forsyth that the whole of the peninsula of Florida was acquired by the United States Government from Spain, in 1819. The consideration involved was $5,000,000, ,a small sum when we consider the strategic importance and marvelous fertility of this semi-tropical stretch of land at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico.
Mr. Forsyth, at the time of this important transaction, was United States minister at the court of Madrid, an appointment which he held under President Monroe. The demand for the purchase of Florida had originated in Georgia. Since the time of Oglethorpe, the Spaniards in Florida had been troublesome enemies of the state; and it was not unusual for predatory bands of marauders to cross the border-line into Georgia

* Vol. I, '' Reminiscences of Famous Georgians," by L. L. Knight.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1469

on expeditions of plunder. Later, the perils of the southern frontier had been increased by lawless bands of white adventurers, Seminole Indians and fugitive slaves, who had settled in upper Florida beyond the Federal jurisdiction.
To put an end to the depredations which were retarding the develop ment of South Georgia, the purchase of Florida seemed to be imperative; and Mr. Forsyth, from his seat in Washington, brought every conceivable argument to bear upon the administrative councils. He riot only pictured the horrors of nightmare from which the people of South Georgia were suffering at the hands of savages and outlaws, but he also emphasized the paramount importance to the United States Government of the whole Florida peninsula, which, holding the key to the Gulf of Mexico, would always be an incubator of trouble until it floated the American flag.
Unanswerable as was the logic of this appeal, it was not until General Jackson, in 1818, invaded Florida, defeated the Seminole Indians and captured Pensacola that the idea of purchasing Florida from the Spanish Government was seriously entertained. Then arose the crisis in which Mr. Forsyth as ambassador to Madrid was given authority to negotiate with Ferdinand VII. Nor was it long before the sagacious Georgia statesman was instrumental in concluding an agreement by virtue of which, barring the purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon in 1803, Uncle Sam acquired the largest strip of property which he had ever bought in open market.

It hardly needs to be said that Mr. Forsyth was an extraordinary man. Apart from the achievement already mentioned, the most cursory glance at his career in public life will establish this fact; for he was congressman, g'overnor, senator and cabinet officer, besides minister to Spain. The descriptive accounts of the distinguished Georgian represent him as being an exceedingly affable and courtly man. Rather under the medium height, he lacked the towering proportions of Mr. Crawford, but he was strikingly handsome in appearance and gravely dignified in demeanor.
As an orator he was scarcely the inferior of Judge Berrien, who was styled the American Cicero. On one occasion he crossed swords with Judge Berrien in an argument which lasted for three days. It was on the question of the tariff, which -was the vital topic of the Jackson administration. The discussion took place at the great anti-tariff con vention which was held in the fall of 1832 at Milledgeville, Judge Ber rien opposing and Mr. Forsyth supporting the famous measure. Mr. Forsyth was at this time the leader of the Jackson party in the United States Senate, and though the resolution which he advocated in the con vention was finally lost, it was found that the majority vote cast against the resolution came from the minority poll of counties. This resxilted in the withdrawal from the convention of all the administration supporters under the lead of Mr. Forsyth.
Some one writing in the Boston Post, years ago, under the fascinating spell of the Georgian's eloquence, declared that the rhythmic accents of Mr. Forsyth's voice suggested the musical notes of the yEolian harp. Still another has compared him to Judge Story, stating that while he spoke rapidly, his words mingled in the most exquisite of harmonies:

1470

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

And Mr. Benton, of Missouri, who was for many years his colleague, says that for resourcefulness of argument and for readiness in debate upon almost every topic he had no superior on the floor of the American Senate.
Controvertialist though Mr. Forsyth was, he seldom betrayed violent passion, and was never known to irritate an antagonist in debate by rude thrusts or harsh repartees. This was not because he was not highspirited. He was like the average Georgian in having temper to spare. But he was diplomatic. He was Lord Chesterfield, minus his powdered wig and his knee-buckles. He observed at all times the urbanities of the courtier, and if he now and then inflicted wounds upon an adversary, it was not with the meat-axe, but with the rapier. Refinement is often only smooth veneer, but with Mr. Forsyth it was innate gentility; and, even when at rare intervals he indulged in satire, his accents were like echoes from the Horacean harp. Men who are cast in this delicate mold
are often inclined to be patrician, but not so with Mr. Forsyth. He was all duke and all democrat.

JUDGE BEREIEN : THE AMERICAN CICERO

The United States Senate, in the year 1829, included some of the ablest leaders of the ante-bellum period of American politics. It was the beginning of what may be termed the golden age of the Senate. The high-water mark of oratory in America was reached in the year following when the greatest of modern debates occurred between Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, and Robert Y. Hayiie, of South Carolina. In the chair sat the shaggy-haired old nullifler, John C. Calhoun. Before him, on either side of the chamber, were ranged men whose equals have not ap peared since then upon the public stage. Wrapped in deep thought, there sat the eagle-eyed and lion-headed Webster, the great champion of the Federal Union. Henry Clay was still in the Lower House; but the great compromiser's son-in-law was there, Thomas H. Benton, who, because of his fight against paper currency was called "Old Bullion." Never theless, within this circle of orators, when the genius of eloquence was at its meridian height, John MacPherson Berrien, of Georgia, stood so con spicuous for polished oratory in debate that he was dubbed by his col leagues and known until his death as the American Cicero. Judge Ber rien was trained to argument. In the phrase of Beaconsfield applied to Lord Stanley, he was "the Rupert of debate." But the intrepid charge was ever made with the polished blade. It was impossible for Mr. Ber rien to speak upon any subject without giving it an interest borrowed from his own classic molds of expression. Ornateness of style was rarely the end at which he aimed. But his commonest respirations were breathed in an atmosphere of culture, and his simplest every-day thoughts naturally clothed themselves in the garniture of elegance. He spoke the court language of the Augustan age; and, to show that strength was united to grace in the diction which he lent to practical ends, it was actually upon the mill-grinding topic of the tariff that Berrien, in voic ing the protest of the State of Georgia, made himself immortal among American orators.
Mr. Berrien was called from the United States Senate in 1829, soon

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1471

after making the speech to which allusion has just been made, to enter the Cabinet of President Jackson .as attorney-general. It was probably the masterful eloquence of the Georgia senator in denouncing the op pressive inequalities of the tariff and in supporting the protest so ably with the proofs of logic that caused him to be selected as the legal adviser of the presidential board. General Jackson was not in favor of the high protective policy which was destined in the near future to call forth Calhoun 's doctrine of nullification; but eventually it seemed to become an administration measure which received the support of the Jackson party in Congress. Complications arose which prevented the administration from accomplishing the repeal, and this entailed the condition of affairs which brought the great nullifier to the front and started between Presi dent and Vice-President the feudal animosity which subsequent develop ments were soon to augment.

How PEGGY O'NEILL DISSOLVED A PRESIDENT'S CABINET

It was just at this crisis in the history of the Government that one of the most sensational episodes in the social life of Washington took place, the result of which was not only the dissolution of President Jackson's Cabinet, but also the sign-board notice of the great divide between whigs and democrats. For, whatever may have been the ultimate cause of divergence, an event which occurred at this time signalized the parting of the ways; and Mr. Berrien was one of the erstwhile supporters of General Jackson,who took the whig route. Strange to 'say, the dynamite which produced this tremendous upheaval was dressed in petticoats, and the modest label which stamped the dainty package of nitro-glycerine was Peggy O'Neill.
This bewitching disturber of the peace of Washington was the daugh ter of an innkeeper at whose popular tavern many of the national legis lators sojourned. "Old Hickory" himself, when in Washington, patron ized the well-kept establishment, and held in very high respect the plain people who ran the hotel. Just before the Jackson administration opened Peggy O 'Neill, who had married a purser in the United States navy, was 'bereaved by the death of her husband, who had committed suicide in the Mediterranean, and, though she now returned to Washington as the Widow Timberlake, she was still Peggy 0 'Neill to all the town gossip of the National Capital. Gay and vivacious, the multitude of her maiden charms made quite natural the return to her maiden address. She had been christened Margaret. But of course such an old-fashioned name possessed too much avoirdupois to match such an ethereal bit of woman hood. She was, therefore, called Peggy, and not since Peg Woffmgtori held the London stage in the days of Garrick was the name ever linked with associations more dramatic.
If Peggy O'Neill brought her weeds to Washington she kept them under lock and key; and in front of the stately mirror which hung in her boudoir she cultivated the art of looking young until she fairly rivaled the month of May. Nor were the horns of the moon many times refilled before the grave old senator from Tennessee, Maj. John H. Eaton, was kneeling at the feet of the dashing widow. General Jackson had been elected, but,had not yet taken his seat as President when Major Eaton

1472

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

called upon the future occupant of the White House, and, in the con fidence which Tennesseeans were permitted to exchange, he whispered something in the old soldier's ear.
"Why, of course, Major," said the old hero of New Orleans, with an arch smile playing upon his rugged cheek-bones, '' if she is willing to put up with you, take her by all means."
General Jackson knew that there had been some talk about Peggy 0 'Neill. But he put no faith in gossip. Years before he had taken the part of an injured woman who had subsequently become his wife and who had continued, under the happiest of circumstances, to share his lot until just before the presidential election, when she had fallen asleep in the old man's tender arms. Mrs. Jackson had always believed in Peggy O'Neill. Why should he listen to Washington gossip? Still, he was glad that Major Eaton had taken the step which was calculated to keep tongues from wagging; and he encouraged the nuptials. Moreover, it must be remembered that General Jackson was not an aristocrat of the Bourbon type. He wag an unpretentious man of the people. As for Major Eaton, he may have contemplated an altogether different sort of alliance. But Cupid is given to strange antics. The gallant knight of the toga was smitten. Orders were sent to the nurserymen for hot-house plants to be left at the 0'Neill tavern; and in due time sweet Peggy 0 'Neill became Mrs. John H. Eaton.

Such marriages are not unusual in the brilliant centers accustomed to sensational denouements; and, flavored with the spice of romance though the affair was, it would very soon have been forgotten or remembered only as an incident in the social life of Washington had not an appointment been made, in the summer months, which lifted it out of the drawingroom circles and made it the burning issue of American politics; Peggy 0'Neill's new husband was called into President Jackson's Cabinet as secretary of war!
The ironies of fate are frequently most keen; but nothing could pos sibly surpass the well-nigh tragic humor which underlay this appointment to office. Innocent himself of any belligerent feelings, Major Eaton be came the storm-center of the new administration : he was the husband of the beautiful Bellona whom the dames of Washington tabooed. He must have been pathetically conscious of the double sense in which he repre sented the bureau of hostilities.
However, it will he impossible to realize the actual plight in which the war secretary found himself without knowing what followed. No sooner was it announced that Major Eaton was scheduled to enter the Cabinet of President Jackson than the leaders of Washington society began to prepare for an aggressive campaign; and President Jackson was soon to find that he had urgent need of all the good stout fibres of the forest monarch after which he had been nicknamed, '' Old Hickory.'' Nay more; for Achilles himself would soon have exhausted the fighting strength of the Myrmidons in this fierce battle with the Amazons of social Washington. It required far less nerve to defy the United States Bank, or indeed the British troops under General Packingham than it did to face the batteries of this martial band of female warriors. But General Jackson was not the man to yield at first sight of the enemy,

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1473

however terrifying the approach might be; .and Henry IV planted the standard of Navarre less defiantly at Ivry :.than General Jackson did the standard of O'Neill in Washington. The tavern-sign of the old guest house became the war banner of the new rebellion. In due time the war secretary took his place at the President's council board; but the sequel shows that this investiture did not by any means involve the recognition of Mrs. Eaton as one of the Cabinet ladies. It only sounded the bugle-
call to battle. Every effort was made to induce President Jackson to rescind the
executive canon which made it necessary for social Washington to extend even the most formal courtesies to Mrs. Eaton. The pastor of the church which he had been in the habit of attending sought first by indirect and then by direct methods of approach to warn him against the woman about whom there was so much scandal; but, after hearing the ministerial pro test, he remained still unconvinced and continued to give the benefit of the doubt to Mrs. Eaton. Later on he invited Doctor Campbell, the minister in question, and also Doctor Ely, to come before the Cabinet, which invitation they accepted. But the old general insisted upon con ducting the examination himself; and, when the interview was over, he merely turned to the members of the Cabinet and said:
"You see, gentlemen, it is just as I told you. AVhere's the* proof?" If the war secretary was present the situation must have been very embarrassing. Still he could not have been otherwise than gratified at the blunt Scotch verdict of the old general, who was the sworn friend of the 0 'Neill Tavern. But the investigation failed to accomplish the pacific object sought, even in the President's own household, for Mrs. Donelson, his niece, who was keeping house for him, refused to call upon Mrs. Eaton. Thereupon the President suggested that she had better return to the Tennessee mountains. This she did, remaining away until the presidential anger had subsided; and Mrs. Andrew Jackson, Jr., m the domestic economy, took the place of the absentee.

At the Eaton nuptials Mr. Berrien had been present as one of the invited guests; but, strange to say, he had heard none of the gossip con cerning Peggy O'Neill. However, he was not to remain long in igno rance of what was the live issue in Washington. All the members of the Cabinet who had wives were duly apprised of the social crusade against Mrs. Eaton. And naturally the condition of affairs was most awkward; for there were three gentlemen in the Cabinet whose friendly feelings toward the war secretary were of the kindliest sort, but whose feminine partners squarely refused to call upon Mrs. Eaton. It not only divided the Cabinet into the married and the non-married factions, but it also intensified the already sharp antagonism between General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun, for the vice-president, being among the benedicts, could not uphold the President's championship of Mrs. Eaton. The situation was painfully embarrassing to the war secretary, but it was hardly less embarrassing to the Cabinet members who were bound by the most chivalrous sense of honor to observe the social regulations which were much older than the Jacksonian edicts.
Daily the complications grew more and more serious, and it began to look as if an open rupture might occur at any moment. General Jackson,

1474

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

without employing the polite phrases of the French court, had already intimated the duty of Cabinet ladies. He was determined that Mrs. Eaton should he recognized. But the Cabinet members, who fell under the ban of the President's displeasure, were equally determined that neither General Jackson nor any one else should legislate for them in matters of established etiquette. So far as the member from Georgia is concerned, it is safe to say that Mr. Berrien was the last man in the world who could be deliberately discourteous to Major Eaton or rudely unehivalrous to Mrs. Eaton. He was an old Southern aristocrat. Not even General Jackson himself could precede him in extending knightly protection to an unfortunate member of the weaker sex; but he reasoned with sound logic that his first allegiance was to Mrs. Berrien.
Now it happened- that the secretary of -state, Martin Van Buren, was not only an old widower, but also an accomplished diplomat accus tomed to the use of finesse. Being, unincumbered with domestic cares and anxious perhaps for political reasons to cultivate the old general, he promptly espoused the cause of Mrs. Eaton and undertook by subtle methods to accomplish the difficult end in view. Neither the English nor the Russian ambassador happened to be married. They both agreed to further the plans of the wily little magician; and both in time gave elegant receptions to which Peggy was invited and at which she was shown signal honors by the hosts.
Still it was said to he impossible to hold together any cotillion in which Mrs, Eaton took part. It was evident that the crusade .against the beautiful Bellona was not only most pronounced but also most universal. At one of the social functions Mr. Van Buren persuaded the wife of the minister from Holland to sit by the side of Mrs. Eaton at dinner. This she agreed to do with some reluctance and .allowed herself to be escorted to the table; but, on discovering that Mrs. Eaton occupied the seat of honor, she deliberately turned around and walked from the room. It is said that General Jackson was so incensed when he learned of the slight to his fair protege that it was all he could do to keep from giving the lady's husband his passport back to Amsterdam.
Following the diplomatic receptions, an elaborate dinner was at last held in the east room of the White House. Upwards of eighty guests were invited, including the chief government officials and ladies; .and the British minister himself escorted Mrs. Eaton to her place at the feast, which was next to the President. But only the court favorites and sycophants of the administration deigned to smile upon the fair beauty, against whom "Washington society was steeled, in spite of the most per sistent effort of the nation's chief executive to put down what he con sidered an outrageous libel upon an unfortunate woman. It is difficult to withhold from old General Jackson unstinted respect for the uncom promising fidelity with which he stood by Mrs. Eaton, against whom he believed that the only charge which could possibly he proven was that she was an innkeeper's daughter. Rugged old democrat, the course which he took was thoroughly noble; but he failed to appreciate the full force of the social insurrection. In the end the -old hero of New Orleans -was obliged to haul down the 0 'Neill standard and to run up the white flag of York.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1475

Nevertheless, months elapsed before General Jackson was brought to capitulation. He still sought in various ways to overcome the opposition to Mrs. Eaton. Finally he threatened to dissolve the Cabinet unless the wives of Cabinet members should observe his wishes at least so far as to leave card's. 'But he was informed that he had no right to exert official power to regulate social intercourse. Anger now obtained the mastery over judgment, and President Jackson straightway charged the married members of the Cabinet with conspiring against Eaton to oust him from the portfolio of war. But nothing could have been further from the facts. General Jackson realized that he had spoken hastily; offered blunt apologies; and, what promised to be an upheaval of Vesuvian violence,
was for the time being averted. But week followed week without seeming to develop any occasion for
calling together President Jackson's Cabinet, and executive business began to suffer. At last it was announced that John MacPherson Berrien, attorney-general; Samuel D. Inghram, secretary of the treasury, and John Branch, secretary of the navy, had resigned from the Cabinet of President Jackson. To disguise the underlying cause of the rupture. Mr. Van Buren was at the same time appointed minister to England; Postmaster-General Barry was made minister to Spain and Major Eaton became territorial governor of Florida. Thus the President's of ficial household was completely dissolved by the burning issue which was fleshed in the beautiful personality of Mrs. Eaton. Altogether it was one of the most unique and, at the same time, one of the most colossal sensations ever known in the social life of the nation's capital.
The result was far-reaching. John C. Calhoun missed and Martin Van Buren clinched* the presidential office, largely because of the .altered fortunes which the Eaton episode brought about; for Jackson employed every agency of the administration to further the aspirations of Van Buren and to thwart the ambitions of Calhoun. It is the most conserva tive of statements to say that when all the returns are tabulated it can be' shown that Peggy 0 'Neill produced more real havoc in high society than any other woman on record since Helen of Sparta started the Trojan war.
Mrs. Eaton survived "the sensational episode until the late '70s. She is said to have been quite popular at the Court of Madrid when Major Eaton became United States minister to Spain. Some time after the death of her husband, which occurred in 1856, she married an Italian dancing-master by the name of Antonio Bachignani, who was more than thirty years her junior. The divorce court brought her release from this last affinity; and, having reached the advanced age of eighty-four years, Peggy O'Neill-Timberlake-Eaton-Bachignani bade adieu to the world upon whose dramatic stage she had eclipsed the ovations to the London lass and even anticipated the laurels of the divine Sarah.

SPEAKER CHARLES F. CRISP : WHY HE WAS NOT AN ACTOR

If Charles F. Crisp failed to become an actor of the Shakesperean School, it was not because he lacked the strong bias of heredity or the local influence of environment. He was born at Sheffield, England, on January 29, 1845, of actor parents who were touring the British Isles;

1476

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

and from the earliest days of cradledom he was .accustomed to the sonorous accents of the Bard of Avon. However, the Crisps were not enrolled among the subjects of Queen Victoria. They came from this side of the Atlantic, and represented the best ancestral strains of the American Revolution, as well as the best traditions of the American stage.
Perhaps there are Georgians still living who recall the engagements which the Crisps played in making the theatrical rounds of the state during the old ante-bellum days. The substantial box receipts, the enthusiatic ovations, and the high professional standard which the Crisp name symbolized to the theater-going public, were all well calculated to arouse the latent ambition of the youth whose veins were by no means strangers to the dramatic fire. Besides, Booth and Forrest needed suc cessors in the stellar roles which they were soon to relinquish. But. the tragic mantle possessed few attractions for the future parliamentarian and statesman who was scheduled to succeed to the honors of Howell Cobb in presiding over the American House of Representatives.
Once elected to the National House, the genius,of the Georgia jurist for statesmanship of the highest order became apparent and he was sub sequently six times reelected without substantial opposition. Judge Crisp was not an orator in the popular sense. Pie possessed none of the sophomoric attributes of the boisterous declaimer. Though fluent he was not florid of speech. He preferred argument to ornamentation, and spoke to convince rather than to please. He possessed animation, but what he said was characterized by the pellucid crystal of the mountain stream rather than by the impetuous vaulting of the cataract. He was not given to verbal preparation but he was prone by reason of the judicial instinct to weight the specific gravity of words. He spoke like one who was read ing the scales. The effect was to convey the impression of unusual reserve power. Moreover, he possessed an intuitive grasp of the true govern mental principles; and, amid the most turbulent scenes of debate in the popular branch of Congress, he seldom lost his calm poise of manner or his deferential attitude toward an antagonist. He was an undisputed master of the art of disputation.
Consequently, when Mr. Carlisle, whose election was in jeopardy, re fused, on the assembling of the Fiftieth Congress, to appoint the com mittee on elections which was to decide the contest and referred the matter to the House, it is .not surprising that Mr. Crisp, of Georgia, should have been called to the chairmanship. The position was one which levied the most exacting demands upon the resources of the incumbent. But Mr. Crisp proved that he was the man for the place, and he con siderably enhanced both his prestige upon the floor and his reputation throtighout the country, by the manner in which he acquitted himself.
But the republicans triumphed at the polls in the succeeding con gressional election. Speaker Reed assumed the gavel which Mr. Carlisle relinquished, and Mr. Carlisle became the leader of the democratic minority upon the floor. However, the stalwart Kentuckian was soon called by the Blue Grass State to wear the senatorial toga, and, upon the retirement of Mr. Carlisle, the minority leadership devolved upon Mr. Crisp, who fell heir to this position more by reason of his sheer fitness than by virtue of his rank in. the committee assignments. Some idea of

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1477

the qualities which he brought to the task of directing the democratic maneuvers upon the floor may be derived from the soubriquet applied to Mr. Crisp by Amos J. Gumming, of New York, who styled him "the John Bright of the American. Commons.''

It was during the Fifty-first Congress that the country was regaled by

the unhappy discussion of the celebrated Force Bill which sought to put

the ballot-box at the South under bayonet supervision and to reenact the

infamous saturnalia of reconstruction. To prevent the contemplated in

justice it was necessary not only to hurl the red-hot javelins of debate

but to make skillful use, at the proper moment, of such precautionary

and protective measures as were afforded by the rules of procedure. In

the sparring which ensued over the proposed legislation, Mr. Crisp

evinced the most intimate knowledge of the science by which deliberative

bodies are governed, and Speaker Reed, whose arbitrary tactics were

already beginning to sprout and whose sympathetic leanings were toward

the measure in question, was constrained to keep within the limits estab

lished by the manual. Happily for the deepening sense of national

brotherhood, the contemplated ballot-reform bill was defeated. The

entire Georgia delegation stood in opposition to the proposed scheme

like the Macedonian phalanx, but to Mr. Crisp in large measure belongs

the credit of the victorious finale.

"

Democracy having swept the country in the elections which ensued,

the Fifty-second Congress bent the knee of allegiance to the Jeffersonian

principles and called Charles F. Crisp to the speakership of the House.

In the caucus which preceded the formal ballot he was opposed by some

of the best men in the party, among the number being Roger Q. Mills,

of Texas, and he received the nomination only by the narrowest margin;

but, in the chair of office, so conspicuously marked was his knowledge of

parliamentary law, his fairness in making decisions even when party

interests were involved, his calm and courteous bearing under the most

provocative assaults of partisan antagonism .and his prestige for states

manship, that he was virtually unopposed for reelection. Thus not only

over the Fifty-second by also over the Fifty-third Congress he held the

gavel, and in the opinion of both sides of the chamber his efficiency as a

presiding officer was unsurpassed.

On each of the occasions which witnessed the election of Mr. Crisp

to the speakership, the republican candidate was Thomas B. Reed, of

Maine. Again, when the Fifty-fourth Congress assembled the same con

testants were upon the field. Mr. Crisp received.the solid democratic

support, but the republicans were once more in control of the Govern

ment, and Mr. Reed was elected. On assuming the gavel Mr. Reed imme

diately promulgated the rules by virtue of which he became known as

the Czar. They were not only innovations upon the established prece

dents of the House but they were departures from the time-honored

prescriptions of parliamentary law. He insisted upon counting as

present all members of the opposition who were observed to be in the

hall, but who were constructively absent by virtue of refusing to respond

when the roll was called. Despotic and dictatorial as the rule was, in

ignoring the minority rights Speaker Reed was sustained by the dominant

faction to which he belonged. Since then the democrats have never re-

Vol. Ill--14

1478

GEORGIA AND GBOEGIANS

gained the ascendancy in Congress and the rule has been continuously enforced. Some lively passages-at-arms occurred between Speaker Reed 'and Mr. Crisp, during the stormy days of the Fifty-fourth Congress; and on more than one occasion the presiding officer beheld, in the person of the Georgia congressman, another Daniel come to judgment.

But the critical moment in the life of Judge Crisp came in 1894 when Governor Northen tendered him the seat made vacant by the death of Sen. Alfred H. Colquitt, in the upper branch of Congress. This un solicited compliment came as a surprise to Judge Crisp. But the appointment was made in recognition of his distinguished services to the state and in deference to the evident wishes of the people of Georgia. Mr. Crisp was then occupying the speaker's chair. He was not indif ferent to this great honor; but, fettered by official obligations which he could not disregard, he suppressed the dictates of ambition and declined the proffered appointment.
Thrice Caesar is said to have put away the crown which was offered him by Mark Antony upon the Lupercal. But the virtuous example of the great Roman general, in repelling, three separate times, the imperial emblem, was an act which involved no greater sacrifice and bespoke no truer patriotism than did the self-abnegating course of this conscientious Georgian in refusing only once the senatorial toga.
To represent Georgia in the United States Senate had been the dream of Mr. Crisp since first entering the arena of politics. He had made no effort to disguise an ambition which was both legitimate and honorable. Temperamentally he was better fitted^for the sober councils of the upper branch of Congress than for the violent wrangles of the popular chamber. Moreover, when the appointment was tendered, he received assurances from more than one senatorial aspirant in the state to the effect that he would have no opposition before the Georgia legislature; and, among.the recognized candidates who gave him this magnanimous pledge was Hon. Augustus 0. Bacon. The coveted prize seemed to be fairly glittering within the grasp of the great Georgian. But rather than abandon what he considered to be his post of duty at the national capital he preferred to lay his cherished ambition upon the altar: an act of unselfish devotion which suggested the sacrifice' of Iphigenia. He allowed the proffered honor of representing Georgia in the United States Senate to pass unap propriated. Thereupon the appointment was tendered to Hon. Patrick Walsh, and the Legislature, which met in the winter following, confirmed the. appointment of Mr. "Walsh for the unexpired term and for the long term gave the vacant seat to Mr. Bacon.
However, the people of Georgia were bent upon rewarding the faith ful servant, and on the resignation of Senator Gordon in 1896 he was overtured to enter the race. Being no longer bound by the obligations of the speakership, he took the field; but he insisted upon going directly before the people, in order that no mistake might be made in ascertaining the popular preference. It was the time when free silver and sound money were the differentiating terms which divided the democratic hosts, and feeling throughout the state ran high. Several joint debates between Speaker Crisp and Hon. Hoke Smith enlivened the campaign. Mr. Smith, who was then secretary of the. interior in President Cleveland's

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1479

Cabinet, took the sound-money .side, while Speaker Crisp took the freesilver side, and the discussions which followed were worthy of the best days of the hustings in Georgia. Mr. Smith was not an avowed candidate for the senatorial toga and merely sought to bring Georgia to the sup port of the administration upon the financial question. But Georgia was partial to the plume of William J. Bryan. She preferred free silver, and when the sentiment of the state upon the monetary problem was registered Mr. Smith withdrew from the Cabinet to give his vote to the democratic nominee. In the ballots which were cast for Mr. Crisp the lines between the opposing factions were very loosely drawn, and he received the support of many who differed with him upon the financial policy of the Government, but who admired his character and desired to recompense his patriotic unselfishness. County after county endorsed him for the senatorial seat until the whole state became an enthusiastic herald in acclaiming him the choice of the people of Georgia for the office to which he aspired. But the days of Mr. Crisp were numbered. Throughout the campaign the pallor of disease had been slowly deepen ing and, exactly one week before the Legislature assembled to ratify the action of the people expressed at the polls, death intervened, substituting the celestial for the senatorial bays and adding the eternal to the temporal reward.

The cause of Mr. Crisp's death was heart trouble, from which he suf fered at times the most acute paroxysms of pain. He died on October 23, 1896, at Doctor Holmes' Sanitarium in Atlanta, whither he was com pelled to betake himself amid the excitements of the campaign. He was succeeded in the House by his gifted son, Hon. Charles R. Crisp, the present judge of the city court of Americus, while Hon. Alexander Stephens Clay fell heir to the senatorial toga.
Though it was little suspected at the time by the enthusiastic multi tudes who witnessed the famous joint debates, Mr. Crisp was an intense sufferer throughout the entire canvass, and it was sheer will power alone which kept him upon his feet. The writer well remembers the attack which he sustained at Albany immediately after the discussion, which took place under the old chautauqua tent, was concluded. The speech was one of Mr. Crisp's best. Despite an air of weariness which he wore upon the platform, he spoke with great vigor and with marvelous effect, calling forth round after round of applause from the delighted audience; but on returning to the home at which he was stopping he was seized with an attack of his old malady, which made it necessary to send for the doctor post haste. Yet he recovered only to renew immediately the active work of the canvass; and few surmised .the real nature of the trouble which was destined eventually to end his brave life. Indeed, when later on he was compelled to abandon public speaking, thousands were surprised and some few partisan critics ventured to suggest that he was actuated by the apprehension of defeat.' But the gallant foeman who had received and returned his fire upon the hustings was prompt to rebuke the mistaken surmise. He may not have been aware of the deadly inroads which the malady was making but he recognized the Spartan virtues of his antagonist.
Mr. Crisp's last speech was made at Rome. Congressman John W.

1480

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Maddox, who was to introduce him to the audience, called at the hotel an hour in advance of the appointed time to consult the speaker's wishes, and much to his surprise he found him writhing in pain. As soon as the paroxysm had partially passed, he urged him in justice to himself to cancel the engagement, since he was in no physical condition to speak. But Mr. Crisp protested.
"No," said he, "I shall soon be better. The speaking has been an nounced and the people expect to hear me. I am ready to accompany you
to the platform." Knowing how weak he was, Judge Maddox says that he expected to
see him fall at any moment. '' But,'' added the ex-congressman,'' he held the audience spellbound for more than an hour and he made an argument which for vigor of thought could hardly have^ been surpassed." Still , Judge Maddox entreated him to make no more speeches during the can vass, and to this earnest exhortation he finally yielded. Time went on. At last the feverish mid-summer heat died out of the air and the cool days began to come; but, when the song of the reapers was lifted in the harvest fields, there flashed in the mellow sunlight another scythe, and the pale invalid saw the bright tints creep for the last time over the autumnal forest. On the eve of the assembling of the Legislature he realized with pathetic satisfaction that he was the choice of the people of Georgia for the coveted seat in the American Senate; but, like the old Hebrew prophet on the heights of Nebo, he only surveyed the land which he was destined never to enter. It may have been something better upon which his eyes were to feast. At any rate, the journey was over, and, in the sweet phrase of the English laureate, "God's finger touched him and he slept."

PART II
GEORGIA IN THE FORUM OF ELOQUENCE

GEORGIA IN THE FORUM OP ELOQUENCE
THOMAS R. R. COBB : IN ADVOCACY OP SECESSION
[This is the full text of what was probably the most powerful speech made in favor of Georgia's withdrawal from the Union. It was deliv ered before the General Assembly, at Milledgeville, Georgia, on the eve ning of Monday, November 12, 1860. Though General Toombs is deserv edly styled the "Mirabeau of Secession," he delivered no single speech the effect of which was more pronounced than Mr. Cobb's. The latter was afterwards a member of the Secession Convention, in which body, according to Mr. Stephens, he turned the scales in favor of secession by contending, in a most persuasive argument, that better terms could be made outside the Union than within. At the outbreak of the war, he organized Cobb 's famous Legion, and fell at the battle of Fredericksburg, while wearing the stars of a brigadier-general. Thomas R. R. Cobb was a distinguished lawyer of Athens, who, in addressing the Legislature 011 this occasion, appeared for the first time in the role of a .political speaker. His impassioned speech, urging immediate and uncon ditional secession, produced a dramatic impression upon the General Assembly and sent a thrill of intense excitement throughout the whole state. It caused some to liken him to Patrick Henry, others to Peter the Hermit. Hitherto preserved only in pamphlet form, it will here be seen by thousands for the first time in print.]
Gentlemen : I must return to you my thanks for the courtesy you have extended
to me in opening this chamber for my use and in honoring my remarks by your presence. As I do not pretend to be the sagacious politician or the experienced statesman having never, in seventeen years, made a political speech I can attribute this courtesy only to an honest desire on your part to hear what an humble citizen may say at this important crisis in our national affairs. My crude opinions may excite the ridi cule of some and the pity of others, but remember I claim no infalli bility for my head, but simply sincerity for my heart. Those of you who know me, can bear witness that I have never in the slightest degree interfered in past political contests, and hence I have no disappointed
1483

1484

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

ambition to satisfy no personal wrongs to avenge no party animosity to appease. While you and others have been engaged in urging the claims of the respective candidates for the Presidency, who received your suffrages, I have been publishing in northern newspapers, article after article, arguing, reasoning, urging, persuading, yea, begging our northern fellow-citizens not to force upon the South this terrible issue of disunion or dishonor. And, candidly, can I say tonight that I would have illuminated my house with enthusiasm and shouting, had either one of the candidates urged in Georgia been elevated to the Presidential chair.
Surely, then, my friends, you can yield me my claim to sincerity of heart. And now I admit allegiance to no party. I propose to serve no party ends. The truth is, there are no parties in Georgia. Heretofore, we have been divided on questions of national, not state, policy, and each of us has claimed before the people, national organizations and a national platform. The election of last week gave to the winds the claims of us all, and democrats and Americans Bell, Douglas, and Breckenridge men have all to confess this night 'that as national organizations we are all powerless, and our national platforms have been with equal scorn rejected. Why cling, then, longer to empty names, the names so pro ductive of discord and hatred. Tonight, let us bury the hatchet of con troversy. The parties are all dead; let them be buried; and with them let us bury all the political and personal animosities which they have engendered, and as brothers, as friends, as Georgia's sons, let us come and take counsel together, how we shall avenge her wrongs, promote her prosperity, and preserve her honor.
In times like these, passion should not rule the hour; calm and dis passionate deliberation should be brought to the consideration of every question. Even the quick beating pulsations of hearts burning with a sense of injuries should be commanded to be still, while we survey the past, fully appreciate the present, and peer thoughtfully into the future; avoiding the impetuosity of rashness and the timidity of fears as well,
let us invoke all our human wisdom, and light also from on High, to guide us in our decision. But, once decided, let us act, and act like men, men who are determined to do or die.
It is not necessary for me, in addressing this audience, to rehearse the history of those acts which have so often stirred up our hearts to mutiny, and mantled our faces with shame. You know them as well as I you have felt them as deeply, too. Nor shall I presume that you are less patriotic, or need my counselling voice to induce you to remem ber your homes or your state. The practical issue before us is the tri
umph of the sectional black republican party of the North, and the duty of Georgia in the present emergency. To this I address myself.
Is the election of Lincoln a sufficient ground for the dissolution of the Union?
This may be viewed both as a legal and as a political question. As a legal question, it resolves itself into this: Has he been elected accord ing to the form and spirit of the Constitution 1? Formally, he has been so elected, when he is so declared by the Congress of the United States. And, literally, he has been so elected, if the states casting their votes for him are entitled to be counted in the electoral college. Nine of these

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1485

states, however, casting a combined vote of eighty-five electors, have by their local legislation nullified a constitutional act of Congress, and refused to comply with the obligations of the compact when the same are distasteful to the prejudices of their people. As a lawyer, I am pre pared to say that parties to such a contract, who have thus violated its provisions when onerous to them, are not entitled to its privileges when demanded by them; and that, so long as the "Personal Liberty Bills" dis grace the statute books of these states, their electoral votes should not be counted in the electoral college. But who shall decide upon this question? The Constitution is silent, no provision having been made for such a contest. The mode of counting the votes is specified, but no power of decision given to either the Senate or the House, or the Gen eral Congress convened. It is an omission in the fundamental law. Who shall decide? The Supreme Court? They have already virtually de clared these acts violative of the Constitution, but our opponents and oppressors "spit upon" such decisions. Shall it be decided by force of arms in Washington City ? Then civil war must begin there, to end only by the subjugation of one section of the Union. No, my friends, in the absence of any tribunal, the right to decide is one of the reserved rights of the states, and Georgia lias the privilege of declaring today that for herself she decides these votes illegal and this election unconstitutional.
But, in another view of this question, this man is not chosen as our President. According to the spirit of the Constitution, these states have violated its provisions in this election.
First, this Constitution 'Vfas made for white men citizens of the United States; this Union was formed by white men, and for the pro tection and happiness of their race. It is true that the framers gave to each state the power to declare who should be electors at the ballotbox in, each state. But the fair implication was that this right of suf frage should be given to none but citizens of the United States. Can it be supposed that our fathers intended to allow our national elections to be controlled by men who were not citizens under the national Con stitution? Never, never! Yet to elect Abraham Lincoln, the right of suffrage was extended to free negroes in Vermont, Massachusetts, Ohio, New York, and other northern states, although the Supreme Court has declared them not to be citizens of this nation. Yes! Our slaves are first stolen from our midst on underground railroads and then voted at northern ballot-boxes to select rulers for you and me. The memory of our fathers is slandered when this is declared to be according to the Constitution.
But, secondly, the spirit of the Constitution has been .violated in another particular in this election. Ours is a republican government, based upon the democratic principle that the majority have a right to rule. That is an anomolous government in history or philosophy, which provides for or allows the permanent administration of its powers in the hands of a popular minority. Surely such is not ours. Yet it is true that, counting the unanimous votes of the Southern States, and the large majorities in the North against the black republicans, a majority amounting to perhaps a million or more votes, has declared against Abraham Lincoln for the next Presidency. Is not this according to the forms of our Constitution ? I may be asked. . I answer, it is. But will

1486

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

my objecting friend answer, is it according to the spirit? I may be told that other chief magistrates have been elected by popular minorities. This I admit, but never against such an overwhelming majority, and never by a sectional party, based upon the prospect and avowal of a continuation of the same result in every future election. The truth is that we have lived to see a state of things never contemplated by the framers of the Constitution. At that time we were all slave-holding states a homogeneous people, having a common origin, common memories, a common cause, common hopes, a common future, a common destiny. The wisdom even of our fathers did not suggest a future when we should be a distinct people, having different social organizations, different pur suits, different memories, different hopes, different destinies. And hence, while the Constitution is full of checks to protect the minority from the sudden and excited power of a majority, no provision was suggested for the protection of the majority from the despotic rule of an infuri ated, fanatical, and sectional minority. The experience of eight years in the presidential chair, and the almost more than human wisdom of Washington gave him a glimpse of the fatal omission thus made in the Constitution, and hence we find in that wonderful document his fare-, well address a note of solemn warning against such a perversion of the Government, by the formation of sectional parties. What was thus dimly foreshadowed in his prophetic ken, is the fact of today and will be the history of tomorrow. Is it not according to the forms of the Con stitution 1 I am asked. I answer it is. But tell me, is it in accordance with the spirit and framework?
Third. The preamble to the Constitution of the United States recites the six leading objects for which it was adopted, namely, "to form a more perfect union, establish peace, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity." Had I the time, it would be profitable to take each one of these objects and show how fanaticism had perverted this Government from each and every one of the objects of its organization how "the Union of hearts and hands" which existed prior to the adoption of the Constitution had given way to sectional jealousies and mutual hatred how justice had been denied under the quibbles of executive traitors, outraged both on the bench and in the jury-box how the common defense had been construed into local advantage, and the general welfare been found in the fleecing of our pro ducers for the fattening of their manufacturers.
But these results are not specially attributable to the event we now consider the election of Lincoln. Hence I shall call your attention only to two of these objects the insuring of domestic tranquility and the securing of the blessings of liberty. Recur with me to the parting moment when you left your firesides to attend upon your duties at the capitol. Remember the trembling hand of a beloved wife, as she whis pered her fears from the incendiary and the assassin. Recall the look of indefinable dread with which the little daughter inquired when your returning footsteps should be heard. And if there be manhood in you, tell me if this is the domestic tranquility which this glorious Union has achieved? Notice the anxious look when'the traveling peddler lingers too long in conversation at the door with the servant who turns the bolt

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1487

the watchful gaze when the slave tarries long with the wandering artist who professes merely to furnish him with a picture the suspicion aroused by a northern man conversing in private with the most faithful of your negroes, and tell me if peace and tranquility are the heritage which this Union has brought to your firesides. Take up your daily papers, and see the reports of insurrections in every direction. Hear the telegrams read which announce another John Brown raid. Travel on your railroads and hear, as I did this day, that within seven miles of this capitol, a gang of slaves have revolted from their labor, declaring them selves free by virtue of Lincoln's election, and say if such fruits as these grow on the good tree of domestic tranquility. , Mark me, my friends, I have no fea^of any servile insurrection which shall threaten our political existence. Our slaves are the most happy and contented, best fed and best clothed and best paid laboring population in the world, and I would add also, the most faithful and least feared. But a discontented few, here and there, will become the incendiary or the poisoner, when insti gated by the emissaries of northern abolitionists, and you and I cannot say but that your home or your family may be the first to greet your returning footsteps in ashes or in death. What has given impulse to these fears, and aid and comfort to these outbreaks now, but the success of the black republicans the election of Abraham Lincoln!
I need hardly consume your time in adverting to the clause as to securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. "What liberty have we secured by the Constitution of the United States? Our personal liberty is protected by the broad aegis of Georgia's sovereignty. To her, we never appealed in vain. What liberty does the Union give us? The glorious liberty of being robbed of our property, threatened in our lives, abused and villified in our reputation, on every forum, from the grog-shop to the halls of Congress; libeled in every vile newspaper and in every town meeting; deprived of all voice in the election of our chief magistracy; bound to the car of a fiendish fanaticism, which is daily curtailing every vestige of our privileges, and by art and cunning, under the forms of the Constitution, binding us in a vassalage more base and hopeless than that of the Siberian serf. This is glorious liberty, secured by a glorious Union! And the election of Lincoln by a purely sectional vote, and upon a platform of avowed hostility to our rights and our liberty, is the cap-stone nay, the last Magna Charta securing to us these wonderful privileges. Is not all this according to the forms of the Constitution? I am asked. I answer, it is. But tell me, Union-loving friends, is this its spirit?
Fourth. Equality among the states is the fundamental idea of the
American Union. Protection to the life, liberty and property of the
citizens is the cornerstone and only end of government in the American
mind. Look to the party whose triumph is to be consummated in the
inauguration of Lincoln. The exclusive enjoyment of all the common
territory of the Union is their watchword and party cry. The exclusion
of half the states of the Union has been decreed, and we are called upon
to record the fiat. Will you do it, men of Georgia? Are you so craven,
so soon? But protection whence comes it to us? Dare you to follow your
fugitive into a northern state to arrest him? The assassin strikes you

1488

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

down, and no law avenges your blood; your property is stolen every day, and the very attempt to recover it subjects you to the insults of, the North, and the smile of derision at your folly, at home. A province of Great Britain now covers with the protection of her flag millions of dollars of your property and mine. Let a fishing-smack from New Bed ford be taken into a Canadian port, and the cry of British insolence resounds throughout the land. A demand for redress is made, and the threat goes with it to let loose the dogs of war! And yet no administra tion of the Government has ever yet been bold enough even to ask for the restitution of our property. Nay, more, so cowed have we become that no representative from the South has ever even complained of the wrong. But there is something more valuable than property, more dear than life. It is the good name a father bequeathed us, and the inherit ance we hold dearest, to descend to our children. How is it protected? On the floor of Congress we are taunted with our weakness and our cowardice, and all the crimes of the calendar murder, arson, rape, rob bery all compare not in enormity, we are told by our rulers and law makers, with that greatest of all sins, that most horrible of all crimes, the holding of slaves!
Where, then, is our protection, and for what owe we allegiance to this Government 1 Georgia extends her sovereign arm over us, and our lives, our liberty, our property and our reputation are safe under her protection. Loyalty and fidelity have reason for their growth and food for their sustenance when we turn to this good old commonwealth. But when we look to this Union oh, tell me why owe we allegiance to it? Long have I loved it. Blindly have I worshiped it. I bade selfishness avaunt, when my heart turned toward the Government of my fathers. I remembered only that it came from the minds and hearts of Washing ton, and Henry, and Adams, and Madison, and Pinckney, and Rutledge. I saw the glories of Bunker Hill and Monmouth and Saratoga and Yorktown, clustering around it. I recalled the story of her struggles as an aged ancestor who bled in her cause recounted it to infant ears around the winter's fire. I remembered a father's instructions, and had wit nessed a father's devotion, and I fell down and worshiped at a shrine where he worshiped before me, and dared not to inquire into the cause of my devotion. But when the cruel hand of northern aggression aroused me from my worship, when it tore away the thin veil which covered the idol before me, I could but weep as the heart-strings were snatched from their attachment, though I woke to discover that I had been bowing before a veiled prophet of Mokannah, whose deformity and ugliness disgusted while they pained me !
Ten years ago, some of you, wiser than I was, warned me of my delu sion, but I clung to my hope, when to you there was none, and tonight I give you the meed of praise for a clearer foresight, and a less blind devotion. But this very fact makes me charitable to them who may still bow at the shrine of the Union. It is almost cruel to dispel their illu sion, but I cannot help feeling that the time must come, and come quickly, when the veiled prophet must say to them as he has said to me:
"Ye would be fools, and fools ye are." Time warns me that I cannot pursue this inquiry farther. As a legal question, I am compelled to decide that the election of Lincoln is

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1489

in violation of the spirit of the Constitution of the United States. And am I told that this spirit is too indefinite and shadowy a substance to be made the basis of resistance? And .can there be a Georgian who will never resist so long as the form and letter of the Constitution is not broken? Let us inquire. The interstate slave trade is within the letter of the Constitution. Should Congress abolish it will my objector submit? The amendment of the Constitution itself is within the letter of that instrument. If it is so amended in accordance with its letter as to carry out Lincoln's announcement that the states must be all free,' will my objector submit? Why not? Because these are violative of its spirit. Truly, my friends, in the words of inspiration, "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.'' To the spirit then we must look, and a violation of that spirit renders this election unconstitutional.
I come now to consider this question in its political light, and it rises in importance far above the mere legal question.
I must confess that the mere election of a candidate to the Presi dency, in a manner legally unconstitutional, does not in my judgment justify necessarily a dissolution of the Union. The wise man and the statesman, to say nothing of the patriot, will always weigh well whether "it is better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of." And, hence, arises the political question, does this election justify and require a disruption of the ties which bind us to the Union? As much as I would dislike the triumph of a purely sectional candidate upon a purely sectional platform, I am free to say that I would hesi tate even then to risk the consequences of a dissolution, provided that sectional platform was upon issues not vital in themselves, or were tem porary in their nature. Such would I conceive to be protective tariffs and homestead bills the acquisition of territory peace or war with for eign powers. And if the election of Lincoln, unconstitutional though it may be, were upon a temporary issue, or a question not vital in impor tance, I should hesitate to declare it ground for disunion.
But, my countrymen, I cannot so view the triumph of black repub licanism. It is a question vital in itself, and by no means of a tempo rary character. To see it in its breadth and enormity, to see its danger ous proportions and its threatening aspects, it becomes necessary for us to go back a little in history and to trace the slavery agitation as con nected with our Government. Shortly after its organization, we find a petition from the Quakers of Philadelphia asking the abolition of slavery. We see that petition treated by a unanimous Congress as the, mere ebulli tion of religious fanaticism, and as the paper is laid on the table we smile at the folly of the broad-brim followers of Fox. In a few years we find petitions accumulating from other sects and societies, until finally, by an overwhelming majority, we find the House of Representa tives refusing longer to listen to their fanatical ravings, and as the twenty-first rule is adopted, we fondly dreamed that the cockatrice's egg would never be hatched. In a few years we find the floors of Con gress desecrated by the ravings of Giddings and other abolitionists, and, at the same time, in a Presidential contest, an abolition candidate is pre sented to the people of the North. But the abolitionists in Congress are hissed at their ravings, and the miserable handful at the ballot-box only

1490

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

manifested their weakness, and we rested secure in our confidence in the protection of the Constitution.
But a few years more found the miserable demagogues and political leaders of the North, in their party excitement, bidding for the abolition vote. Without real sympathy for the movement, we find them vying with each other in pretended zeal, and shortly we find the twenty-first rule falling as a sacrifice before the demands of the fanatics. "We find the parties in power more and more undecided in denouncing the trea son until finally the great whig party fell, demoralized, and, at the North, very much abolitionized. We find church organizations and great benefi cent institutions, one, after another, sundered and divided by the demon, which,, when once aroused, there was no power to allay. We find reason and argument unheeded, the obligations of oaths- and compacts disre garded, the very religion of God desecrated, his Bible denounced, his churches and pulpits polluted, and his children excluded from the com munion table of their Master. And then for the first time we awake to the great fact that our lives and liberty are in jeopardy unless great exertions for our safety are made. In the meantime, our slaves are stolen, the old remedies are proved useless, new provisions are demanded. The postoffices become the vehicles for spreading insurrections, and new restrictions are required. Greater demands are made in Congress and states rejected from the Union because slavery is recognized in their constitutions. Finally the slave trade in the District of Columbia is attacked, and the interstate trade. The Wilmot Proviso is placed on all territory, and the South, aroused to her danger, demands security and peace. We all remember the great compromise measures of 1850. They were declared a finality, and the siren song of peace was sung in our ears. Some of us believed it, ,and we once more laid down in ease. Soon, however, a new question is raised, the monster shows himself again in the halls of Congress, and once more we hear that the Union is saved and peace restored by the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The other events are known to you. This black republican party is formed; Fremont is its candidate; let us crush it now, and the slavery issue is dead forever. Such was the song. Great exertions are made. Fremont is defeated, and we hope 011 for peace. There seems to be a lull in the storm. One of Georgia's distinguished sons voluntarily terminates his long public career, and as he bids farewell to his constituents he informs us, in a public address, honestly, I have no doubt, that the battle is over, the victory won, that he lays off his armor because there is no other foe to meet, and he shows to our willing ears what great things had been done for us, "whereof we were glad." But hardly had he reached his quiet home, ere the territory of Virginia is invaded by a lawless band under John Brown, and today you find him with his armor again buc kled on, to re-save the Union once more to re-deliver us from the fanat ical devil. And now, after four years of argument and persuasion and entreaty and remonstrance and warning, tonight, my friends, we find this demon master of our stronghold, this party, so long to be destroyed, more rampant and triumphant than ever with almost fabulous majori ties in every northern state placing in the executive chair one of the most fanatical of its leaders. Are we blind that this retrospect will teach us no lesson 1 Read upon the banners of this army, and see what are its objects and aims: "No More Slave States," "The Repeal of the Fugitive

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1491

Slave Law," "Relief from the Slave Power," "The Irresponsible Con flict," "No League with Hell." Look at its leaders and see the heroes who deify John Brown; the mad preachers, like Cheever and Beecher; the Fourier-ites, led by Greeley; the Sewards and Sumners and Hales, and Fred Douglass. Look at its cohorts and see their mottled ranks free negroes and bootblacks, coachmen and domestics, infidels and freelovers, spirit-rappers, and every other shade of mania and folly. Search in vain among them all for one gentleman like Everett, one sound con servative like Fillmore, one bold statesman like Cusing or 0'Connor, one noble patriot like Buchanan, one daring leader like Douglas. Scan closely all its long lists of speakers or voters as far as we can see them, and where is the man you would invite to your table, or with whose arm you would walk through your streets? And yet these are our rulers. To them we are called to submit. Let me rather have a king, for I can respect him; or an emperor, for I can cajole him; or an aristocracy, for they will not envy, and dare not hate me. Nay, let me die before I shall bow to such fanatics as these.
The question, then, is vital. Is it temporary? The history of its insignificant rise and rapid progress the little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, which has now overspread the whole heavens the thunders which we hear too indistinctly to be misunderstood the insolence which even the prospect of power has given to craven cowards that already they taunt us with timidity and threaten us with chastisement aye, a hundred indications too plain to be mistaken, say to everything but stolid ignorance or blind fatuity that this is the beginning of the end. My friends, history and philosophy would have informed us years ago of the same truth, had we listened to their teachings. Fanaticism is madness, is insanity. It has a zeal laudable in its earnestness, admirable in its honesty. Its error is in the false. foundation on which it builds. Its danger lies in the depth of its convictions, which will not allow it to attend to reason, but makes it as the deaf adder "which will not listen to the charmers, charming never so wisely." Its fountain lies deep in the human heart. Its bonds are interwoven with many of the noblest principles of our nature. Hence it ignores consequences, it overrides obstacles, it ruthlessly sunders the dearest ties of the heart, it takes affection from the lover, yea, it steels the mother against her own off spring, the creature against his God. We call it blind because it cannot see; we call it deaf because it cannot hear; we call it foolish, because it cannot reason; we call it cruel because it cannot feel. By what channel, then, can you reach its citadels? Firmly planted therein, with every avenue closed to ingress, and yet every door of evil influence open to the bitter issues which flow without, the deluded victim glories in his own shame, and scatters ruin and destruction in the mad dream that he is doing God's service. Such-is the teaching of philosophy; and hjstory, her handmaid, confirms the truth. The bloody minds of those who, with sinful hands, murdered the Lord of Glory, were never sated until the Roman legions sacked the city of David, and the eagle of Rome floated over the ruins of the temple. The fires of Smithfield never ceased to burn until the maiden queen, with her strong arm and stronger will, sealed in the blood of Mary the covenant of peace to the church. The wheels of the Juggernaut never failed to crush the bones of infatuated

1492

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

victims until the shaggy mane of the British lion was drenched in the blood of oriental imbecility. The bloody crescent of the false prophet never ceased to behold the gory victims which Islam claimed until, on many a battlefield, the redemption in blood came to rescue the children of Faith. The Ganges bore in its turbid waters the innocent victims of the delusion of mothers until Britain assumed the position which God held to Abraham on the Mount, and, staying the murderous arms, bade the well-spring of a mother's love once more to gush from a mother's heart. Why should I continue the review? All history speaks but one voice. Tell me when and where the craving appetite of fanaticism was ever gorged with victims; when and where its bloody hands were ever stayed by the consciousness of satiety; when and where its deaf ears ever listened to reason; or argument, or persuasion; when or where it ever died from fatigue or yielded except in blood? And when you have done this, you may then convince me that this is a temporary triumph, and bid me hope on. Till you do this, I must listen to the teachings of rea son, philosophy and history, and believe that Lincoln and Seward spoke the truth when they said this contest is never ended until all the states are either free or slave.
Mark me, my friends, the only tie which binds together this party at the North is the slavery issue. Bank and anti-bank, protection and free trade, old whig and old democrat have all come together. The old issues are ignored, forgotten. Abolitionism and agrarianism are the only spe cialties in their platform. This Aaron's rod has swallowed up all the others, and upon it alone has the battle been fought and the victory won. And no man and no party can make terms or obtain quarter from these fanatics, except by bowing down and worshiping this Moloch. Even in this election, have not southern parties offered candidates on every shade of opinion to this northern horde, and have they not all .been rejected with scorn? Did not Bell and Douglas and Breckenridge, one or the other, agree with them on every question, except slavery? Why were they rejected? Herculean efforts have been made. Arguments and elo quence have been offered lavishly, and money almost as lavishly, to bid off and buy up this motley crew. Scorn, contempt, insolence, and con tumely have been the only answer we have received. Can any man shut his eyes and still cry the siren song: "Hope on! Hope on!"
We have seen, then, that this election is legally unconstitutional and that politically the issue on which it is unconstitutional is both vital in its importance and permanent in its effects. What, then, is our remedy? Shall it be the boy's redress of recrimination, the bully's redress of brag gadocio or boasting, or the manly freeman's redress of independence. This is a most solemn question, and no man should rashly advise his countrymen at such a time. For myself, for months, nay, years, I have foreseen this coming cloud. I have given it all of the study of which my mind is possessed. I have called my heart into the council and lis tened to its teachings. Nay, more, my friends. I fear not to say that I have gone to the God I worship and begged him to advise me. On the night of the sixth of November I called my wife and little ones together around my family altar, and together we prayed to God to stay the wrath of our oppressors, and preserve the Union of our fathers. The rising sun of the seventh of November found me on my knees, begging

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1493

the same kind Father to make that wrath to praise Him, and the remain der of wrath to restrain. I believe that the hearts of men are in His hands, and when the telegraph anncranced to me that the voice of the North proclaimed at the ballot-box that I should be a slave, I heard in the same sound the voice of my God speaking through his Providence, and saying to his child, "Be free! Be free!"
Marvel not then that I say my voice is for immediate, unconditional secession.
The suggestion for delay comes from various quarters: Good men and true men hesitate as to the time. Their counsel deserves attention. Their very doubts are entitled to consideration. Let me then trespass a little longer on your time to answer the question, Shall we delay ?
"What are their hopes, and on what are they based ? I have shown that we cannot expect this fanatical spirit to die or to be appeased. What, then, shall we look for? From one I hear the suggestion that Lincoln may betray his party and, like Fillmore, prove to be a conserva tive. Oh, shame, shame, shame! Is it come to this, that the only hope of Georgia is in the treason of an abolitionist? False to his friends, can you trust him 1 False to his friends, can you reward him ? Can even the consolations of conscience be held out as an inducement to a perjured traitor ? But suppose he did prove traitor, what then 1 "Would not these bloodhounds seek in Seward, or Sumner, or Hale, a less scrupulous and more faithful servant? And would not the very mortification of dis appointment only whet more keenly their appetite for blood? From another I hear the suggestion that the Senate can refuse to ratify his appointments, and thus he will be without a cabinet and without an administration. What is this, my friends, but revolution and anarchy? We destroy one Government without providing another. And more, and worse, we reqiiire our senators to disregard their oaths to the Constitu tion, and while within the temple to pull down its pillars. True, like Samson, they may destroy the Philistines, but, like Samson, too, we shall share their fate. Better far, peaceably to withdraw, and let their God smile on them with prosperity, if he wills it, while our God shall bless us who, doing no man harm, seek only to worship in our own holy hill.
From another I hear that we have both houses of Congress, and hence Lincoln is powerless. How blindly mistaken! The executive branch of the Government alone can protect us. The President alone can call out the army and navy. The President only can appoint commissioners and marshals and judges to execute the fugitive slave law. The President only can protect us from armed invasions and secret incendiaries. I admit that it is so feeble that we can hope but little from it, even with a friend as President with a foe, what can we hope? But, I am told, suppose Lincoln, in his inaugural, pledges himself to carry out these laws. I would not believe him on his oath. Let them who can trust a black republican abolitionist hug to their bosom the fatal delusion that we can hope for sweet waters from such a poisoned fountain. Moreover, why wait for two years when at their close we hope for nothing? Will our hearts become braver by submitting to this rule? Will our arms become stronger from the paralysis of shame? Will our people be more unanimous when party spirit has enchained them by its bonds? The restive bullock chafes when the tender skin first feels the heavy yoke,
Vol. Ill--15

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
but a few days hardens the neck, and the sober, patient ox receives uncomplainingly the lash and the goad as well as the yoke. Two years of shame may crush out mountains of patriotism. No man dares say now I love this Union for its blessings. Today, if the question were sub mitted to Georgia independent shall we go into this Union ? ten voters could not be found who would choose such a league with death. Why should ten be found who would choose to continue this league? Ah! the cry of "Union" has been a tower of strength, and I fear that some, yes, many, fearing the effect on the people, will still stand by the watch word after the citadel is in ashes. But, gentlemen, such leaders do injus tice to our people. They were loyal to their Government while it was their Government. When it became the mere tool of their enemies, they will spurn it with a unanimity which will overwhelm their slanderers.
None of these arguments or suggestions carry conviction to my mind. While hope of better things lived, I could be patient and hope on; but when hope died, darkness came, and the only gleam of light on the dark horizon which meets my eye is from Georgia's star independent and if necessary alone. But we shall not be alone. Our sister on the east holds out imploring hands to welcome us in our march. Our daughters on the west Alabama and Mississippi wait only for their mother to speak. Our neighbor on the south, to whom just now we are generously yielding a portion of our territory, begs for our counsel and our lead. Georgia, empire state as she is and deserves to be, must be no laggard in the race. The head of the column is her birthright and her due. To the column's head let us march!
My friends, there is danger in delay. The North, flushed with vic tory, construes and will construe every indication of hesitancy into a dastardly fear every voice for delay into the quakings of cowardice. The stern, unyielding look of the brave man makes the snarling cur sneak back to his kennel, but let the cheek blanch before the foe, and the lips quiver, and the knees shake, and do you wonder when you do stand your ground that the miserable cur is biting at your heels? Delay, therefore, invites aggression and destroys all confidence in our courage. Let Georgia speak now and a northern regiment will never cross the border line. Let Georgia delay and they will make scourges to whip the cowards to obedience. Delay is dangerous, because now we have at the North a respectable body of men who sympathize with us in our oppression and will not aid the oppressor. They are melting away like frost-work before the burning zeal of this fanatical sun, and ere long their own thinned ranks and their inevitable contempt for our timidity will render them powerless as a barrier to northern aggression. Delay is dangerous because now the army and navy are in the hands of an administration that recog nizes our right to withdraw. On the fourth day of March next the pow erful arm of the executive will be wielded by a foe as unrelenting as he is cruel. Delay is dangerous, because it demoralizes our position takes away from our cause its justice in the eyes of the world, enervates the arms that are now ready to rise in our defense, and chills the hearts that are now burning with patriotic zeal. ' Delay is dangerous, because it keeps open our territory to the emissaries of the North, teaches us to

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1495

weigh our honor in the scales of self-interest, and drives back to die the warm outgushing feelings of wounded hearts.
Shall I be told that the country is prosperous, that the crops are good, that money is plenty, and the 'people feel not the iron heel of the oppressor? I will not answer by predicting a financial crisis, and ruin and distress and the crush of hard times upon us. I will not allude to the difficulties already felt in financial circles, and the distrust which, like the barometer, ever indicates the coming storm. No, I have more confidence than you, my objector, in the people's wisdom. Behold on yonder ocean the leaking vessel. See the indications of her fate in the gradual, slow but sure rising of the water on her bows. On the upper, aye, the upper deck, behold the gay party basking in the warm sun shine and rejoicing in the gentle breeze. Do you tell me, when I warn them of their danger, and point them to the approaching billows, they will answer that they cannot move because the sunlight of heaven is bright around them and the zephyr fans sweetly their wearied limbs? No, never! They will weigh my evidence, they will examine into the hold, they will act as wise men before they are engulfed in the sea. Fear not the people! The coward may quake a few luxuriating in their ease may shut their eyes to their danger many may be deceived, but the great heart of this great people will respond to the voice of reason, to the call of patriotism.
Shall I be told to wait for an overt act? "What act do you expect? What act will be overt ? Are not the nullifying personal liberty bills of nine states overt? Are not the daily thefts of our negroes by under ground railroads overt? Are not the national thefts of our national territory overt? Was not the John Brown raid, invading the territory of the South, overt? Is not the election of these sectional candidates over a broken Constitution overt? What is the overt act you wish? Does any man expect these wily, crafty lyers-in-wait to declare the Con stitution a nullity, or to march with bold tread over its fragments? They can bind us hand and foot, and sell us into slavery, and never commit such an overt act, and every statesman in the country can ex plain to you the process. Shall I be told that the present is an abstrac tion and not a practical issue ? The man who urges that would be hard to convince that the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia is; not an abstraction, because there are very few slaves there. Would henot ask you, Will you destroy this "glorious Union" for that small patch of ground ? Is not the repeal of the fugitive slave law an. abstraction,, because we all know that even now it is almost a dead letter. And would! not the objector again sing pasans to this Union? The Wilmot Proviso* is an abstraction, because climate and the laws of God have forbidden the negro to leave the warm sun of the South. Oh! where is the overt act for which you are asked to delay ? I can imagine nothing else thani the assassin's knife at your throat and the incendiary's torch under your' dwelling. My friends, delay is dangerous, for ere long you will beimprisoned by walls of free states all around you. Your increasingslaves drive out the only race that can move the whites and the mas ters who still cling to their fathers' graves will, like a scorpion in a ringof fire, but sting themselves to die. This is your destiny in the Union. Out of it, you have a glorious soil, immense natural resources; cotton,,

1496

GEOBGIA AND GEOEGIANS

the great peacemaker of the world; the best social and political organi zation on earth a people firm, free and independent the smile of the God.we worship illuminating our path, and the voice of that God say ing, "Occupy till I come."
Biu\the last and most potent argument to my mind in favor of imme diate action, is, that by it alone ca-n we preserve peace. I think I have shown that we have no danger to fear from servile insurrection, nor from northern bayonets. "Whence, then, is the danger? At home, among ourselves, with Georgia as the theater, and our brethren as the victims. Suppose 'we are equally divided. A small majority will decide the question. As good citizens we ought to submit. I should surely so counsel all my fellow citizens. But you know, and I know, that there are zealous, warm spirits, who would rather grace a traitor's gallows than wear the badge of a slave. Collisions between them and the General Government are almost inevitable. What then ? Will this arm be raised to strike them down. ? Never, no never! Will you stand by and see them gibbeted on Federal bayonets, or sentenced by Federal courts? I have spoken for myself; answer now for yourselves. When the dogs of war first lap the blood of freemen, what will be the consequences? 1 think -I see in the future a gory head rise above our horizon. Its name is Civil war. Already I can see the prints of his bloody fingers upon our lintels and doorposts. The vision sickens me already, and I turn your view away. Oh! Georgians, avert from your state this bloody scourge. Surely your love of the Union is not so great but that you can offer it on the altar of fraternal peace. Come then, legislators, selected as you are to represent the wisdom and intelligence of Georgia; wait not till the grog-shops and cross-roads shall send up a discordant voice from a divided people, but act as leaders, in guiding and forming public opinion. Speak no uncertain words, but let your united voice go forth to be resounded from every mountain top and echoed from every gaping valley; let it be written in the rainbow which spans our falls, and read in the crest of -every wave upon our ocean shores, until it shall put a tongue in every bleeding wound of Georgia's mangled honor which shall 'cry to Heaven for "Liberty or Death!"

ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS: IN OPPOSITION TO SECESSION

[This great speech was delivered before the Legislature of Georgia, then in session at Milledgeville, on the evening of November 14, 1860. In the light of subsequent events, it was a marvel of prophetic wisdom, verified in almost every essential particular. Mr. Stephens, without denying the right of secession, or the propriety of its exercise as a rem edy of last resort, sought to calm the angry passions which were fast rising in Georgia, by urging upon the Legislature the prudent counsels of con servatism; he sought to avoid anything like precipitate or hasty action; and consequently advocated the calling of a state convention to which all matters touching upon Federal relations should be referred. Not withstanding his pronounced views on the subject of secession and his ardent Union sentiments, Mr. Stephens was subsequently chosen vice president of the Confederate States. This was 110 less a tribute to his wise and safe leadership than a well-considered strategic move, the object

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1497

of which was to conciliate the conservative element. Mr. Toombs, who sat in the audience, was a most intent listener to this speech, having himself addressed the Legislature on the evening previous. As will be seen from what follows, he frequently interrupted the speaker. Mr. Ste phens said:]

Fellow Citizens: I appear before you tonight at the request of mem bers of the Legislature, and others, to speak of matters of the deepest interest that can possibly concern us all, of an earthly character. There is nothing, no question or subject connected with this life, that concerns a free people so intimately as that of the Government under which they live. We are now, indeed, surrounded by evils. Never since I entered upon the public stage has the country been so environed with difficulties and dangers that threatened the public peace and the very existence of society as now. I do not appear before you at my own instance. It is not to gratify any desire of my own that I am here. Had I consulted my own ease and pleasure, I should not be before you; but, believing it to be the duty of every good citizens, when called upon, to give his counsels and views, whenever the country is in danger, as to the best policy to be pursued, I am here. For these reasons, and these only, do I bespeak a cairn, patient, and attentive hearing.
My object is not to stir up strife, but to allay it; not to appeal to your passions, but to your reason. Good governments can never be built up or sustained by the impulse of passion. I wish to address myself to your good sense, to your good judgment, and if, after hearing, you disagree, let us agree to disagree, and part as we met, friends. We all have the same object, the same interest. That people should disagree in republican governments upon questions of public policy is natural. That men should disagree upon all matters connected with human in vestigation, whether relating to science or human conduct, is natural. Hence, in free governments, parties will arise. But a free people should express their different opinions with liberality and charity, with no acri mony toward those of their fellows, when honestly and sincerely given. These are my feelings tonight. Let.us therefore reason together. It is not my purpose to say aught to wound the feelings of any individual who may be present; and if, in the ardency with which I shall express my opinions, I shall say anything which may be deemed too strong, let it be set down to the zeal with which I advocate my own convictions. There is with me no intention to irritate or offend.
Fellow citizens, we are all launched in the -same bark; we are all in the same craft, on the wide political ocean; and the same destiny awaits us all, for weal or for woe. We have been launched in the good old ship that has been upon the waves for three-quarters of a century, which has been in many'tempests and storms, which has often been in peril; and patriots have often feared that they should have to give it up, yea, have at times almost given it up; but still the gallant ship is afloat. Though new storms now howl around us, and the tempest beats heavily against us, don't give up the ship don't abandon her yet. If she can possibly be preserved, and our rights, interests, and security be maintained, the object is worth the effort. Let us not, on account of disappointment and chagrin at the reverse of an election, give up all as lost; but let us

1498

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

see what can be done to'prevent a wreck. [Some one said, "The ship has holes in her."] Aye, there may be leaks in her, but let us stop them if we can; many a stout old ship has been saved with richest cargo, after many leaks; and it may be so now.
I do not, on this occasion, intend to enter into the history of the reasons or causes of the embarrassments which press so heavily upon us all at one time. In justice to myself, however, I must barely state upon this point that I do think much of it depended upon ourselves. The consternation that has come upon the people is the result of a sectional election of a President of the United States, one whose opinions and avowed principles are in antagonism to our interests and rights, and, we believe, if carried out would subvert the Constitution under which we now live. But are we entirely blameless in this matter, my country men ? I give it to you as my opinion, that but for the policy the southern people pursued, this fearful result would not have occurred. Mr. Lincoln has been elected, I doubt not, by a minority of the people of the United States. What will be the extent of that minority we do not yet know, but the disclosures, when made, will show, I think, that a majority of the constitutional, conservative voters of the country were against him; and had the South stood firmly in the convention at Charleston, on her old platform of principles of non-intervention, there is in my mind but little doubt that whoever might have been the candidate of the national democratic party would have been elected by as large a majority as that which elected Mr. Buchanan or Mr. Pierce. Therefore, let us not be hasty or rash in our action, especially if the result is to be attributed at all to ourselves. Before looking to extreme measures, let us first see, as Georgians, that everything which can be done to preserve our rights, our interests, and our honor, as well as the peace of the country in the Union, be first done.
The first question to present itself is, shall the people of the South secede from the Union in consequence of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency of the United States? My friends, I tell you frankly, candidly, and earnestly that I do not think they ought. In my judgment, the election of no man, constitutionally chosen to that high office, is suf ficient cause for any state to separate from the Union. It ought to stand by and aid still in maintaining the Constitution of the country. To make a point of resistance to the Government, to withdraw from it because a man has been constitutionally elected, puts us in the wrong. "We are pledged to maintain the Constitution. Many of us have sworn to supportit. Can we, therefore, for the mere election of a man to the presidency, and that, too, in accordance with the prescribed forms of the Constitu tion, make a point of resistance to the Government, without becoming the breakers of that sacred instrument ourselves, by withdrawing our selves from it? Would we not be in the wrong? Whatever fate is to befall this country, let it never be laid to the charge of the people of the South, and especially to the people of Georgia, that we were untrue to our national engagements. Let the fault and the wrong rest upon others. If all our hopes are to be blasted, if the Republic is to go down, let us be found to the last moment standing on the deck, with the Con stitution of the United States waving above our heads. Let the fanatics of the North break the Constitution, if such is their fell purpose. Let

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1499

the responsibility be upon them. I shall speak presently more of their acts; but let not the South, let us not be the ones to commit the aggres sion. We went into the election with this people. The result was dif ferent from what we wished; but the election has been constitutionally held. Were we to make a point of resistance to the Government and go out of the Union on that account, the record would be made up hereafter
against us. But Mr. Lincoln's policy and principles it is said are against the
Constitution, and that, if he carries them out, it will be destructive of our rights. Let us not anticipate a threatened evil. If lie violates the Constitution, then it will come our time to act. Do not let us break it because, forsooth, he may. If he does, that is the time for us to strike. I think it would be injudicious and unwise to do this sooner. I do not anticipate that Mr. Lincoln will do anything to jeopardize our safety or security, whatever may be his spirit to do it; for he is bound by the constitutional checks which are thrown around him, which at this time render him powerless to do any great mischief. This shows the wisdom of our system. The President of the United States is no emperor, no dictator; he is clothed with no absolute power. He can do nothing unless he is backed by power in Congress. The House of Representatives is largely in a majority against him. In the very face and teeth of the heavy majority which he has obtained in the Northern States, there have been large gains in the House of Representatives to the conservative constitutional party of the country, which I will here call the national democratic party, because that is the cognomen it has at the North. There are twelve of this party elected from New York to the next Con gress, I believe. In the present House there are but four, I think. In Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, and Indiana there have been gains. In the present Congress there are 113 republicans, when it takes 117 to make a majority. The gains in the democratic party in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Indiana, and other states, notwithstand ing its distractions, have been enough to make a majority of nearly thirty in the next House against Mr. Lincoln. Even in 'Boston, Mr. Burlingame, one of the noted leaders of the fanatics of that section, has been defeated, and a conservative man returned iii his stead. Is thisthe time, then, to apprehend that Mr. Lincoln, with this large majority in the House of Representatives against him, can.carry out any of his unconstitutional principles in that body?
In the Senate he will also be powerless. There will be a majority of
four against him. This, after the loss of Bigler, Fitch, and others, by
the unfortunate dissensions of the national democratic party in their
states. Mr. Lincoln cannot appoint an officer without the consent of
the Senate he cannot form a cabinet without the same consent. He will
be in the condition of George III, the embodiment of toryism, who
had to ask the whigs to appoint his ministers, and was compelled to
receive a cabinet utterly opposed to his views; and so Mr. Lincoln will be
compelled to ask of the Senate to choose for him a cabinet, if the democ
racy of that party chose to put him on such terms. He will be compelled
to do this, or let the Government stop, if the national democratic men
for that is their name at the North the conservative men of the Senate,
shall so determine. Then how can Mr. Lincoln obtain a cabinet which

1500

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

would aid him or allow him to violate the Constitution? Why then, I say, should we disrupt the ties of this Union when his hands are tied when he can do nothing against us? I have heard it mooted that no man in the State of Georgia, who is true to her interests, could hold office under Mr. Lincoln. But, I ask, who appoints to office? Not the President alone; the Senate has to concur. No man can be appointed without the consent of the Senate. Should any man, then, refuse to hold an office that was given him by a .democratic Senate ?
[Mr. Toombs interrupted the speaker by saying that if the Senate was democratic, it was for Breckinridge.]
Well, then [continued Mr. Stephens], I apprehend no man could be justly considered untrue to the interests of Georgia, or incur any dis grace, if the interests of Georgia required it, to hold an office which a Breckinridge Senate had given him, even though Lincoln should be President. [Prolonged applause, mingled with interruptions.] I trust, my countrymen, you will be still and silent. I am addressing your good sense. I am giving you my views in a calm, dispassionate manner, and if any of you differ Math me, you can, on some other occasion, give your ' views, as I am doing now, and let reason and true patriotism decide between us. In my judgment, I say, under such circumstances, there could be no possible disgrace for a southern man to hold office. The Senate will suffer no man to be appointed, I am sure, who is not true to the Constitution, if southern senators are true to their trust, as I cannot permit myself to doubt that they will be.
My honorable friend who addressed you last night [Mr. Toombs], and to whom I listened with the profoundest attention, asks if we would submit to black republican rule. I say to you and to him, as a Georgian, I never would submit to any black republican aggression upon our con stitutional rights. I will never consent myself, as much as I admire this Union, for the glories of the past or the blessings of the present; as much as it has done for civilization; as much as the hopes of the world hang upon it; I would never submit to aggression upon my rights to maintain it longer; and if my rights cannot be maintained in the Union, standing on the Georgia platform, where I have stood from the time of its adoption, I would be in favor of disrupting every tie which binds the states together. I will have equality for Georgia, and for the citizens of Georgia, in this Union, or I will look for new safeguards elsewhere. This is my position. The only question now is, can this be secured in the Union ? That is what I am counselling with you tonight about. Can it be secured ? In my judgment, it may be, but it may not be; but let us do all we can, so that in the future, if the worst comes, it may never be said that we were negligent in doing our duty to the last.
My countrymen, I am not one of those who believe this Union has been a curse up to this time. True men, men of integrity, entertain different views from me on this subject. I do not question their right to do so; I would not impugn their motives in so doing. Nor will I undertake to say that this Government of our fathers is perfect. There is nothing in this world perfect, of human origin; nothing connected with human nature, from man himself to any of his works. You may select the wisest and best men for your judges, and yet how many defects are there in the administration of justice ? You may select the wisest and

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1501

best men for your legislators, and yet how many defects are apparent in your laws? But that this Government of our fathers, with all its defects, comes nearer the objects of all good government than any other on the face of the earth, is my settled conviction. Contrast it now with any on the face of the earth.
("England," suggested Mr. Toombs.] England, my friend says. Well, that is the next best, I grant; but I think we have improved upon England. Statesmen tried their appren tice hand on the government of England, and then ours was made. Ours springs from that, avoiding many of its defects, taking most of the good, and leaving out many of its errors, and from the whole our fathers con structed and built up this model republic the best which the history of the world gives any account of. Compare, my friends, this Govern ment with that of France, Spain, Mexico, the South American republics, Germany, Ireland are there any sons of that downtrodden nation here tonight? Prussia, and if you travel further east, to Turkey or China. Where will you go, following the sun in its circuit round our globe, to find a government that better protects the liberties of its people, and secures to them the blessings we enjoy! I think that one of the evils that beset us is a surfeit of liberty, an exuberance of the priceless bless ings for which we are ungrateful. We listened to our honorable friend who addressed you last night [Mr. Toombs] as he recounted the evils of this Government. The first was the fishing bounties paid mostly to the sailors of New England. Our friend stated that forty-eight years of our Government was under the administration of southern presidents. Well, these fishing bounties began under the rule of a southern president, I believe. No one of them during the whole forty-eight years ever set his administration against the principle or the policy of them. It is not for me to say whether it was a wise policy in the beginning; it probably was not, and I have nothing to say in its defense. But the reason given for it was to encourage our young men to go to sea, and learn to manage ships. We had at the time but a small navy. It was thought best to encourage a class of our people to become acquainted with sea-faring life, to become sailors, to man our naval ships. It requires practice to walk the deck of a ship, to pull the ropes, to furl the sails, to go aloft, to climb the mast; and it was thought by offering this bounty that a nursery might be formed in which young men would be perfected in these arts, and it applie'd to one section of the country as well as to any other. The result of this- was that in the War of 1812 our sailors, many of whom came from this nursery, were equal to any that England brought against us. At any rate, no small part of the glories of that war were gained by the veteran tars of America, and the object of these bounties was to foster that branch of the national defense. My opinion is that, whatever may have been the reason at first, this bounty ought to be dis continued the reason for it at first no longer exists. A bill for this purpose did pass the Senate, during the last Congress I was in, to which my honorable friend contributed greatly, but it was not reached in the Plouse of Representatives. I trust that we will yet see that he may with honor continue his connection with the Government, and that his elo quence, unrivalled in the Senate, may hereafter, as heretofore, be dis-

1502

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

played in having this bounty, so obnoxious to him, repealed and wiped off from the statute book.
The next evil that my friend complained of was the tariff. Well, let us look at that for a moment. About the time I commenced noticing public matters, this question was agitating the country almost as fear fully as the slave question now is. In 1832, when I was in college, South Carolina was ready to nullify or secede from the Union on this account. And what have we seen? The tariff no longer distracts the public coun cils. Reason has triumphed. The present tariff was voted for by Massachusetts and South Carolina. The lion and the lamb lay down together every man in the Senate and House from Massachusetts and South Carolina, I think, voted for it, as did my honorable friend him self. And, if it be true, to use the figure of speech of my honorable friend, that every man in the North, who works in iron and brass and wood, has his muscles strengthened by the protection of the Government, that stimulant was given by his vote, and, I believe, by the vote of every other southern man. So we ought not to complain of that.
[Mr. Toombs: "That tariff lessened duties."] Yes, and Massachusetts, with unanimity, voted with the South to lessen them, and they were made just as low as southern men asked them to be, and those are the rates they are now at. If reason and argu ment, with experience, produced such changes in the sentiments of Massachusetts from 1832 to 1857, on the subject of the tariff, may not like changes be effected there by the same means, reason and argument, and appeals to patriotism, on the present vexed question 1 And who can say that by 1875 or 1890 Massachusetts may not vote with South Carolina and Georgia upon all those questions which now distract the country and threaten its peace and existence? I believe in the power and efficiency of truth, in the omnipotence of truth, and its ultimate triumph when properly wielded. Another matter of grievance alluded to by my honorable friend was the navigation laws. This policy was also commenced under the admin istration of one of these southern presidents, who ruled so well, and has been continued through all of them since. The gentleman's views with respect to the policy of these laws and my own do not disagree. We occupied the same ground in relation to them in Congress. It is not my purpose to defend them now. But it is proper to state some matters connected with their origin. One of the objects was to build up a com mercial American marine by giving American bottoms the exclusive carrying trade between our own ports. This is a great arm of national power. This object was accomplished. We have now an amount of shipping not only coast-wise but to foreign ports which puts us in the front rank of the nations of the world. England can no longer be styled the mistress of the seas. What American is not proud of the result? Whether those laws should be continued is another question. But one thing is certain, no President, northern or southern, has ever yet recom mended their repeal; and my friend's effort to get them repealed has met with but little favor, North or South. These, then, were the three grievances or grounds of complaint against the general system of our Government, and its workings; I mean the administration of the Federal Government. As to the acts of several of

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

1503

the states, I shall speak presently, but these three were the main ones urged against the common head. Now, suppose it be admitted that all of these are evils in the system do they overbalance and outweigh the advantages and great good which this same Government affords in a thousand ways that cannot be estimated ? Have we not at the South, as well as the North, grown great, prosperous and happy under its opera tion ? Has any part of the world ever shown such rapid progress in the development of wealth and all the material resources of national power and greatness, as the Southern States have, under the general Govern ment, notwithstanding its defects.
[Mr. Toombs: '' In spite of it."] My honorable friend says we have, in spite of the general Govern ment ; that without it I suppose he thinks we might have done as well or perhaps better than we have done. This grand result is in spite of the Government. That may be, and it may not be, but the great fact that we have grown great and powerful under the Government as it exists is admitted. There is no conjecture or speculation about that; it stands out, bold, high, and prominent, like your own Stone Mountain, to which the gentleman alluded in illustrating home facts in his record this great fact of our unrivalled prosperity in the Union as it is admitted whether all this is in spite of the Government whether we of the South would have been better off without the Government is, to say the least, problematical. On the one side we can only put the fact against specu lation and conjecture on the other. But even as a question of speculation I differ from my distinguished friend. What we would have lost in border wars without the Union, or what we have gained simply by the peace it has secured, is not within our power to estimate. Our foreign trade, which is the foundation of all our prosperity, has the protection of the navy, which drove the pirates from the waters near our coast where they had been biiccaneering for centuries before, and might have been still had it not been for the American navy, under the command of such a spirit as Commodore Porter. Now that the coast is clear, that our commerce flows freely, outwardly and inwardly, we cannot well estimate how it would have been under other circumstances. The influence of the Government on us is like that of the atmosphere around us. Its benefits are so silent and unseen that they are seldom thought of or appre ciated. "We seldom think of the single element of oxygen in the air we breathe, and yet let this simple unseen and unfelt agent be withdrawn, this life-giving element be taken away from this all-pervading fluid around us, 'and what instant and appalling changes would take placfe in all organic creation! It may be that we are what we are '' in spite of the General Govern ment," but it may be that without it we should have been far different from what we are now. It is true that there is no equal part of the earth with natural resources superior, perhaps, to ours. That portion of this country known as the Southern States, stretching from the Chesa peake to the Rio Grande, is fully equal to the picture drawn by the honorable and eloquent senator last night, in all natural capacities. But how many ages, centuries, passed before these capacities were devel oped, to reach this advanced stage of civilization 1 These same hills, rich in ore, these same rivers, these same valleys and plains, are as they have

1504

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

been since they came from the hand of the Creator. Uneducated and uncivilized man roamed over them, for how long no history informs us. It was only under our institutions that they could be developed. The organization of society has much to do with the development of the natural resources of any country or any land. The institutions of a people, political and moral, form the matrix in which the germ of their organic structure quickens into life, takes root, and develops in form, nature and character. Our institutions constitute the basis, the matrix, from which springs all our characteristics of development and greatness. Look at Greece! There is the same fertile soil, the same blue sky, the same inlets and harbors, the same Aegean, the same Olympus there is the same land where Homer sang, where Pericles spoke it is in nature the same old Greece; but it is living Greece no more !
Descendants of the same people inhabit the country; yet what is the reason for this mighty difference? In the midst of present degradation we see the glorious fragments of ancient works of art temples, with ornaments and inscriptions that excite wonder and admiration, the remains of a once high order of civilization, which has outlived the lan guage they spoke. Upon them all, Ichabod is written their glory has departed. Why is this so? I answer, their institutions have been de stroyed. These were but the fruits of their form of government, the matrix from which their grand development sprung; and when once the institutions of our people shall have been destroyed, there is no earthly power that can bring back the Promethean spark to kindle them here again, any more than in that ancient land of eloquence, poetry, and song.
The same may be said of Italy. "Where is Rome, once the mistress of the world ? There are the same seven hills now, the same soil, the same natural resources; nature is the same; but what a ruin of human great ness meets the eye of the traveler throughout the length and breadth of that most downtrodden land ? Why have not the people of that heavenfavored clime the spirit that animated their fathers? AVhy this sad difference? It is the destruction of her institutions that has caused it. And, my coiintrymen, if we shall, in an evil hour, rashly pull down and destroy those institutions, which the patriotic hand of our fathers labored so long and so hard to build up, and which have done so much for us and for the world, who can venture the prediction that similar results will not ensue? Let us avoid them if we can. I trust the spirit is. amongst us that will enable us to do it. Let us not rashly try the experi ment of change, of pulling down and destroying, for, as in Greece and Italy, and the South American republics, and in every other place, when our liberty is once lost, it may never be restored to us again. '
There are defects in our Government, errors in our administration, and shortcomings of many kinds, but in spite of these defects and errors. Georgia has grown to be a great state. Let us pause here a moment. In 1850 there was a great crisis, but not so fearful as this, for, of all I have ever passed through, this is the most perilous, and requires to be met with the greatest calmness and deliberation. There were many amongst us in 1850 zealous to go at once out of the Union to disrupt every tie that binds us together. Now do you believe that, had that policy been carried out at that time, we would have been the same great people that we are today ? It may be that we would, but have you any assurance

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1505

of that fact 1 Would we have made the same advancement, improvement, and progress, in all that constitutes material wealth and prosperity that
we have ? I notice in the comptroller general's report that the taxable property
of Georgia is $670,000,000 and upwards, an amount not far from double what it was in 1850. I think I may venture to say that for the last ten years the material wealth of the people of Georgia has been nearly if not quite doubled. The same may be said of our advance in education, and everything that marks our civilization. Have we any assurance that had we regarded the earnest but misguided patriotic advice, as I think, of some of that day, and disrupted the ties which bind us to the Union, we would have advanced as we have ? I think not. Well, then, let us be careful now before we attempt any rash experiment of this sort. I know that there are friends whose patriotism I do not intend to question, who think this Union a curse, and that we would be better off without it. I do not so think; if we can bring about a correction of these evils which threaten, and I am not without hope that such may yet be done. This appeal to go out, with all the promises for good which accompany it, I look upon as a great, and I fear, a fatal temptation.
When I look around and see our prosperity in everything agricul ture, commerce, art, science, and every department of progress, physical, mental and moral certainly, in the face of such an exhibition, if we can, without the loss of power, or any essential right or interest, remain in the Union, it is a duty to ourselves and to posterity to do so. Let us not unwisely yield to this temptation. Our first parents, the great progenitors of the human race, were not without a like temptation when in the Garden of Eden. They were led to believe that their condition would be bettered, that their eyes would be opened, and that they would become as gods. They in an evil hour yielded, and instead of becoming gods they only saw their nakedness. I look upon this country with our institutions as the Eden of the world, the Paradise of the universe. It may be that out of it we may become greater and-more prosperous, but I am candid and sincere in telling you that I fear if we yield to passion and, without sufficient cause, shall take this step, that, instead of becom ing greater or more peaceful, prosperous and happy, instead of becoming gods we will become demons, and, at no distant day, commence cutting one another's throats. This is my apprehension. Let us, therefore, whatever we do, meet these difficulties, great as they are, like wise and sensible men, and consider them in the light of all the consequences which may attend our action. Let us first see clearly where the path of duty leads, and then we may not fear to tread therein. .
I come now to the main question put to me, and on which my counsel has been asked. That is, what the present Legislature should do, in view of the dangers which threaten us, and the wrongs done us by several of our Confederate States in the Union, by the acts of their legislatures nul lifying the Fugitive Slave Law, and in direct disregard o:f their con stitutional obligations. What I shall say will not be in the spirit of dictation. It will be simply my own judgment for what it is worth. It proceeds from a strong conviction that according to it our rights, our interests, our honor, our present safety and future security, can be maintained, without yet looking to the last resort, the ultima ratio regum.

1506

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

That should not be looked to until all else fails. That may come. On this point I am hopeful but not sanguine. But let us use every patriotic effort to prevent it while there is ground for hope.
If any view that I may present, in your judgment, be inconsistent with the best interests of Georgia, I ask you as patriots not to regard it. After hearing me and others whom you have advised with, act in accord ance with your own convictions of duty as patriots. I speak now par ticularly to the members of the Legislature present. There are, as I have said, great dangers ahead. Great dangers may come from the election I have spoken of. If the policy of Mr. Lincoln and his repub lican associates shall be carried out, or attempted to be carried out, no man in Georgia will be more willing or ready than myself to defend our rights, interests, and honor, at every hazard and to the last extremity. What is this policy ? It is, in the first place, to exclude us, by an act of Congress, from the territories with our slave property. He is for using the power of the general Government against the extension of our insti tutions. Our position on this point is, and ought to be, at all hazards, for perfect equality between all the states and the citizens of all the states, in the territories, under the Constitution of the United States. If Congress should exercise its power against this, then I am for standing where Georgia planted herself in 1850. These were plain propositions which were then laid down in her celebrated platform, as sufficient for the disruption of the Union, if the occasion should ever come; on these Georgia has declared that she will go out of the Union; and for these she would be justified by the nations of the earth in so doing. I say the same; I said it then, I say it now, if Mr. Lincoln's policy should be carried out. I have told you that I do not think his bare election sufficient cause; but if his policy should be carried out, in violation of any of the principles set forth in the Georgia platform, that would be such an act of aggression as ought to be met in the manner therein provided for. If his policy should be carried out in repealing or modifying the Fugitive Slave Law so as to weaken its efficacy, Georgia has declared that she will, in the last resort, disrupt the ties of the Union; and I say so too. I stand upon the Georgia platform, and upon every plank of it; and if these aggres sions therein provided for take place, I say to you and to the people of Georgia, be ready for the assault when it comes; keep your powder dry ; and let your assailants then have lead, if need be. I would wait for an act of aggression. This is my position.
Now, upon another point, and that the most difficult, and deserving your most serious consideration, I will speak. That is the course which this state should pursue toward these Northern States which, by their legislative acts, have attempted to nullify the Fugitive Slave Law. I know that in some of these states their acts are said to be based upon the principles set forth in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Prigg against Pennsylvania; that decision did pro claim the doctrine that the state officers are not bound to carry out the provisions of a law of Congress; that the Federal Government cannot impose duties upon.state officials; that they must execute their own laws by their own officers. And this may ,be true. But still it is the duty of the states to deliver fugitive slaves, as well as the duty of the general Government to see that it is done.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1507

Northern states, on entering into the Federal compact, pledged them selves to surrender such fugitives; and it is in disregard of their con stitutional obligations that they have passed laws which even tend to hinder or inhibit the fulfilment of that obligation. They have violated their plighted faith. What ought we to do in view of this? That is the question. What is to be done ? By the law of nations you would have a right to demand the carrying out of this article of agreement, and I do not see that it should be otherwise with respect to the states of this Union; and, in case it be not done, we would by these principles have the right to commit acts of reprisal on these faithless governments, and seize upon their property, or that of their citizens, wherever found. The states of the Union stand upon the same footing with foreign nations in this respect. But by the law of nations we are equally bound, before proceeding to violent measures, to set forth our grievances before the offending government, to give them an opportunity to redress the wrong. Has our state done this 1 I think not.
Suppose it were Great Britain that had violated some compact of agreement with the general Government what would be first done 1 In that case our minister would be directed, in the first instance, to bring the matter to the attention of that government, or a commissioner be sent to that country, to open negotiations with her, ask for redress, and it would be only after'argument and reason had been exhausted in vain that we would take the last resort of nations. That would be the course toward a foreign government, and toward a member of this confederacy I would recommend the same course. Let us not, therefore, act hastily or ill-temperedly in this matter. Let your Committee on the State of the Republic make out a bill of grievances; let it be sent by the governor to those faithless states; and if reason and argument shall be tried in vain, if all shall fail to induce them to return to their constitutional obligations, I would be for retaliatory measures, such as the governor has suggested to you. This mode of resistance within the Union is in our power. It might be effectual, and if, in the last resort, we would be justified in the eyes of nations, not only in separating from them but in using force.
[Here the speaker was interrupted by a voice from the audience stat ing that the argument was already exhausted.]
Some friend says that the argument is already exhausted. No, my friend, it is not. You have never called the attention of the legislatures of those states to this subject that I am aware of. Nothing on this line has ever been done before this year. The attention of our own people has been called to the subject lately. Now then, my recommendation to you would be this: In view of all these questions of difficulty, let a conven tion of all the people of Georgia be called, to which they may all be referred. Let the sovereignty of the people speak. Some think the election of Mr. Lincoln cause sufficient to dissolve the Union, Some think these other grievances are sufficient to dissolve the same, and that the Legislature has the power thus to act, and ought thus to act. I have no hesitancy in saying that the Legislature is not the proper body to sever our Federal relations, if that necessity should arise. An honorable and distinguished gentleman the other night (Mr. T. R. R. Cobb) advised

1508

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

you to take this course not to wait to hear from the cross-roads arid groceries.
I say to you that you have no power so to act. You must refer this question to the people, and you must wait to hear from the men at the cross-roads and even the groceries; for the people of this country, whether at the cross-roads or the groceries, whether in cottages or palaces, are all equal, and they are the sovereigns in this country. Sovereignty is not in the Legislature. We, the people, are sovereigns. I am one of them, and have a right to be heard; and so has every other citizen of the state. You legislators I speak it respectfully are but our servants; you are the servants of the people, not their masters. Power resides with the people in this country. The difference between our country and all others, such as France, England, and Ireland, is, that here there is popu lar sovereignty, while their sovereignty is exercised by kings and favored classes. This principle of popular sovereignty, however much derided lately, is the foundation of our institutions. Constitutions are but the channels through which the popular will may be expressed. Our Con stitution came from the people. They made it, and they alone can right fully unmake it.
[Mr. Toombs here interrupted by saying that he was afraid of con ventions, whereupon Mr. Stephens continued:]
I am not afraid of any convention legally chosen by the people. I know no way to decide great questions affecting fundamental laws except by representatives of the people. The Constitution of the United States was made by representatives of the people in convention. The Constitu tion of the State of Georgia was made by representatives of the people in convention, chosen at the ballot-box. Let us therefore now have a convention, chosen by the people. But do not let the question which comes before the people be put to them in the language of my honorable friend who addressed you last night: " Will you submit to abolition rule, or resist?"
[Mr. Toombs: "I do not wish the people to be cheated."] Now, my friends, how are we going to cheat the people by calling on them to elect delegates to a convention to decide all these questions, without dictation or direction? Who proposes to cheat the people by let ting them speak their own untrammelled views in the choice of their ablest and best men, to determine upon all these matters involving their peace? I think the proposition of my honorable friend had a consider able smack of unfairness, not to say cheat. He wishes to have no con vention, but for the Legislature to submit this question to the people: "Submission to abolition rule, or resistance?" Now, who in Georgia would vote, "Submission to abolition rule?" Is putting such a question to the people to vote on a fair way of getting an expression of the popular will on all these questions ? I think not. Now who in Georgia is going to submit to abolition rule? '[Mr. Toombs: "The Convention will."] No, my friend, Georgia will not do it. The convention will not recede from the Georgia platform. Under that, there can be no abolition rule in the general Government. I am now afraid to trust the people in con vention upon this and all other questions. Besides, the Legislature was not elected for such a purpose. They came here to do their duty as

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1509

legislators. They have sworn to support the Constitution of the United

States. They did not come here to disrupt the Government. I am, there

fore, for submitting all these questions to a convention of the people. To

submit these questions to the people, whether they would submit to

abolition rule or resist, and then for the Legislature to act on that vote,

would be an insult to the people.

But how Mill it be, under this arrangement, if they should vote to

resist, and the Legislature should reassemble with this vote as their

instruction. Can any man tell what sort of resistance will be meant?

One man would say secede; another pass retaliatory measures these are

measures of resistance against wrong, legitimate and right; and there

would be as many different ideas as there are members on this floor.

Resistance does not mean secession that is no proper sense of the term

resistance. Believing that the times require action, I am for presenting

the question fairly to the people, for calling together an untrammelled

convention, and presenting all the questions to them, whether they will .

go out of the Union, or what course of resistance in the Union they may

think best, and then let the Legislature act, when the people in their

majesty are heard, and I tell you now, whatever that convention does,

I hope and trust our people will abide by. I advise the calling of a con

vention, with the earnest desire to preserve the peace and harmony of the

state. I would dislike, above all things, to see violent measures adopted,

or a disposition to take the sword in hand, by individuals, without the

authority of law. My honorable friend said last night, "I ask you to

give me the sword, for if you do not give it to me, as God lives, I will

take it myself."

[Mr. Toombs: "I will."]

I have no doubt my honorable friend feels as he says. It is only his

excessive ardor that makes him use such an expression; but this will pass

off with the excitement of the hour. When the people in their majesty

shall speak, I have no doubt he -will bow to their will, whatever it may

be, upon sober second thought. Should Georgia determine to go out of

the Union, I speak for one, though my views may not agree with them,

whatever the result may be, I shall bow to the will of her people. Their

cause is my cause, and their destiny is my destiny; and I trust this will

be the ultimate course of all. The greatest curse that can befall a free

people is civil war.

**

But, as I have said, let us call a convention of the people. Let all

these matters be submitted to it, and when the will of a majority of the

people has thus been expressed, the whole state will present one unani

mous voice jn favor of whatever may be demanded; for I believe in the

power of the people to govern themselves, when wisdom prevails, and

passion does not control their action. Look at what has already been

done by them, in their advancement in all that ennobles man! There is

nothing like it in the history of the world. Look abroad from one extent

of the country to the other; contemplate our greatness. We are now

among the first nations of the earth. Shall it be said, then, that our

institutions, founded on the principles of self-government, are a failure?

Thus far, it is a noble example, worthy of imitation. The gentleman

(Mr. Cobb) said the other night it has proven a failure. A failure in

what ? In growth ? Look at our expense in national power. Look at our

Vol. Ill--16

^^X^X^^WWWTW-^^

1510

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

population and increase in all that makes a people great. A failure? Why, we are the admiration of the civilized world, and present the brightest hopes of mankind.
Some of our public men have failed in their aspirations; that is true, and from that comes a great part of our troubles. No, there is no failure of this Government yet. We have made great advancement under the Constitution, and I cannot but hope that we will advance higher still. Let us be rue to our trust. Now, when this convention assembles, if it shall be called, as I hope it may, I would say, in my judgment, without dictation, for I am conferring with you freely and frankly, and it is thus that I give my views, it should take into consideration all those questions which distract the public mind; should view all the grounds of secession as far as the election of Mr. Lincoln is concerned; and I cannot but hope, if reason is unbiased by passion, that they would say that the constitutional election of no man is sufficient cause to break up the Union, but that the state should wait until he, at least, does some unconstitutional act.
[Mr. Toombs : "Commit some overt act?"] No, I did not say that. The word overt is a sort of technical term connected with treason, which has come to us from the mother country, and it means an open act of rebellion. I do not see how Mr. Lincoln can do this, unless he should levy war upon us. I do not, therefore, use the word overt. I do not intend to wait for that. But I use the word unconstitutional act, which our people understand much better, and which expresses just what I mean. But as long as he conforms to the Constitution, he should be left to exercise the duties of his office. In giving this advice I am but sustaining the Constitution of my country, and I do not thereby become a '' Lincoln aid man'' either, but a Consti tution aid man. But this matter the convention can determine. As to the other matter, I think we have a right to pass retaliatory measures, provided they be in accordance with the Constitution of the United States; and I think they can be made so. But whether it would be wise for this Legislature to do this now is the question. To the con vention, in my judgment, this matter ought to be referred. Before mak ing reprisals we should exhaust every means of bringing about a peaceful settlement of the controversy. Thus did General Jackson in the case of the French. He did not recommend reprisals until he had treated with France and gotten her to promise to make indemnification, and it was only on her refusal to pay the money which she had promised that he recommended reprisals. It was after negotiation had failed. I do think, therefore, it would be best before going to extreme measures with our Confederate States, to make the presentation of our demands, to appeal to their reason and judgment, to give us our rights. Then, if reason should not triumph, it will be time enough to commit reprisals, and we should be justified in the eyes of .the civilized world. At least let these offending and derelict states know what your grievances are, and if they refuse, as I said, to give us our rights under the Constitution, I should be willing, as a last resort, to sever the ties of our Union with them. My own opinion is, that if this course be pursued, and they are informed of the consequences of refusal, these states will recede, will repeal their nullifying acts; but if they should not, then let the conse-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1511

quertees be with them, and the responsibility for the consequences rest upon them. Another thing I would have that convention do. Reaffirm the Georgia platform with an additional plank in it. Let that plank be the fulfilment of these constitutional obligations on the part of those states their repeal of these obnoxious laws as the condition of our remaining in the Union. Give them time to consider it, and I would ask all the states south to do the same thing.
I am for exhausting all that patriotism demands before taking the last step. I would, therefore, invite South Carolina to a conference. I would ask the same of all the other Southern States, so that if the evil should get beyond our control, which God in his mercy forbid, we may not be divided among ourselves; but if possible secure the co-operation of all the South ern States, and then, in the face of the civilized world, we may justify our action, and with the wrong all on the other side, we can appeal to the God of battles, if it comes to that, to aid us in our cause. But do nothing in which any part of our people can charge you with rash or hasty action. It is certainly a matter of great importance to tear this Government asunder. You are not sent here for that purpose. I would wish the whole South to be united, if this is to be done; and I believe, if we pursue the policy which I have indicated, this can be effected. In this way our sister Southern States can be induced to act with us; and I have but little doubt that the states of New York, and Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and the other Western States, will compel their legislatures to recede from their hostile attitude, if the others do not. Then with these we would go on without New England, if she chose to stay out.
[Someone in the Assembly: "We will kick them out."] No, I would not kick them out. But if they chose to stay out, they might. I think, moreover, that these Northern States, being principally engaged in manufactures, would find that they had as much interest in the Union under the Constitution as we, and that they would return to their constitutional duty this would be my hope. If they should not, and if the Middle States and the Western States do not join us, we should at least have an undivided South. I am, as you clearly perceive, for maintaining the Union as it is, if possible. I will exhaust every means thus to maintain it with an equality in it. My position then, in conclusion, is for the maintenance of the honor, the rights, the equality, the security, and the glory of my native state in the Union, if possible; but if these cannot be maintained in the Union, then I am for their maintenance, at all hazards, out of it. Next to the honor and glory of Georgia, the land of my birth, I hold the honor and glory of our common country. In Savannah, I was made to say by the reporters, who often make me say things which I never did, that I was first for the glory of the whole country, and next for that of Georgia. I said the exact reverse of this. I am proud of her history, of her present standing. I am proud even of her motto, which I would have duly respected at the present time by all her sons "Wisdom, Justice and Moderation.'' I would have her rights, and those of the Southern States, maintained upon these principles. Her position now is just what it was in 1850, with respect to the Southern States. Her platform then estab lished was subsequently adopted by most, if not all, of the Southern States. Now, I would add but one additional plank to that platform,

1512

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

which I have stated, and one which time has shown to be necessary, and if that shall likewise be adopted in substance by all the Southern States, then all may yet be well. But if all this fails, we shall at least have ,the satisfaction of knowing that we have done our duty and all that patriot ism could require.

ROBERT TOOMBS ' FAREWELL ADDRESS IN THEI UNITED STATES SENATE

[Mr. Toombs delivered his farewell speech in the United States Senate on January 7, 1861, twelve days in advance of Georgia's action in adopt ing the ordinance of secession. According to James G. Blaine, it was the only speech made by a southern man in Congress specifying the grievances of the South, and naming the conditions on which the seced ing states would remain in the Union. Like all the speeches of Mr. Toombs, it is epigrammatic, lucid and eloquent.]

Mr. President and Senators : * * * The success of the abolition ists and their allies, under the name of the republican party, has pro duced its logical results. They have for years been sowing the dragons' teeth and have finally reaped a crop of armed men. The Union, sir, is dissolved. That is an accomplished fact in the path of this discussion that men may as well heed. * * * And while this Congress, this Senate and this House of Representatives are debating the constitution ality and the expediency of seceding from the Union, and while the perfidious authors of this mischief are showering down denunciations upon a large portion of the patriotic men of this country, those brave men are coolly and calmly voting what you call revolution aye, sir, doing "better than that: arming to defend it. They appealed to the Con stitution, they appealed to justice, they appealed to fraternity, until the .Constitution, justice and fraternity were no longer listened to in the legislative halls of their country, and then, sir, they prepared for the arbitrament of the sword; and now you see the glittering bayonet, and you hear the tramp of armed men from your capitol to the Rio Grande. It is a sight that gladdens the eyes and cheers the hearts of other millions who are ready to second them. Inasmuch, sir, as I have labored earnestly, honestly, sincerely, with these men to avert this necessity, so long as I deemed it possible, and inasmuch as I heartily approve their present conduct of resistance, I deem it my duty to state their case to the Senate, to the country, and to the civilized world.
Senators, my countrymen have demanded no new Government; they have demanded no new Constitution. Look to their records at home and here from the beginning of this national strife until its consummation in the disruption of the empire, and they have not demanded a single thing except that you shall abide by the Constitution of the United States; that constitutional rights shall be restored, and that justice shall be done. Sirs, they have stood by your Constitution; they have stood by all its requirements; they have performed all of its duties unselfishly, uncalculatingly, disinterestedly, until a party sprang up in this country which endangered their social system a party which they arraign and which they charge before the American people and all mankind with having made proclamation of outlawry against four thousand millions

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1513

of their property in the territories of the United States; with having put them under the ban of the empire in all the states in which their institutions exist, outside of the protection of the Federal laws; with having aided and abetted insurrection from within and invasion from without, with the view of subverting those institutions, and desolating their homes and their firesides. For these causes they have taken up arms. I shall proceed to vindicate the justice of their demands, the patriotism of their conduct. I will show the injustice which they suffer and the rightfulness of their resistance.
I have stated that the discontented states of this Union have demanded nothing but clear, distinct, unequivocal, well-acknowledged, constitu tional rights, rights affirmed by the highest judicial tribunals of their country; rights older than the Constnrution; rights which are planted upon the immutable principles of natural justice; rights which have been affirmed by the good and the wise of all countries, and of all cen turies. We demand no power to injure any man. We demand no right to injure our Confederate States. "We demand no right to interfere with their institutions, either by word or deed. We have no right to disturb their peace, their tranquillity, their security. "We have demanded of them simply, solely nothing else to give us equality, security, tran quillity. Give us these, and peace restores itself. Refuse them, and take what you can get.
I will now read my own demands, acting under my own convictions, and the universal judgment of my countrymen. They are considered the demands of an extremist. To hold to a constitutional view now makes one considered an extremist. I believe that is the appellation these traitors and villains, North and South, employ. I accept their reproach rather than their principles. Accepting their designations of treason and rebellion, there stands before them as good a traitor and as good a rebel as ever descended from Revolutionary loins.
What do these rebels demand ? First, '' that the people of the United States shall have an equal right to emigrate and settle in the present or in any future-acquired territories, with whatever property they may possess including slaves and be securely protected in its peaceable enjoyment until such territory shall be admitted as a State into the Union, with or without slavery, as she may determine, on an equality with all existing States." That is our territorial demand. We have fought for this territory when blood was its price. We have paid for it when gold was its price. We have not proposed to exclude you, though you have contributed very little of either blood or money. I refer especially to New England. We demand only to go into those territories upon terms of equality with you, as equals in this great Confederacy, to enjoy the common property of the whole Union, and receive the protection of the common Government, until the territory is capable of coming into the Union as a sovereign state, when it may fix its own institutions to suit itself.
The second proposition is, "that property in slaves shall be entitled to the same protection from the Government of the United States, in all of its departments, everywhere, which the Constitution confers the power upon it to extend to any other property, provided nothing herein con tained shall be construed to limit or restrain the right now belonging to

1514

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

every State to prohibit, abolish, or establish and protect slavery within its limits." We demand of the common Government to use its granted powers to protect our property as well as yours. For this protection we pay as much as you do. This very property is subject to taxation. It has been taxed by you, and sold by you for taxes. The title to thousands and tens-of thousands of slaves is derived from the United States. We claim that the Government, while the Constitution recognizes our prop erty for purposes of taxation, shall give it the same protection that it gives yours. Ought it not to do so? You say, no. Every one of you upon the committee said, no. Your senators say, no. Your House of Representatives says, no. Throughout the length and breadth of your conspiracy against the Constitution there is but one shout of No! This recognition of this right is the price of my allegiance. Withhold it, and you do not get my obedience. This is the philosophy of the armed men who have sprung up in this country. Do you ask me to support a Gov ernment that will tax my property, that will plunder me, that will demand my blood, and will not protect me? I would rather see the population of my own native state laid six feet beneath her sod than that they should support for one hour such a Government. Protection is the price of obedience everywhere, in all countries. It is the only thing that makes government respectable. Deny it, and you cannot have free sub jects or citizens; you may have slaves.
We demand in the next place, "that persons committing crimes against slave property in one State and fleeing to another shall be deliv ered up in the same manner as persons committing crimes against other property, and that the laws of the State from which such persons flee shall be the test of criminality. That is another one of the demands of an extremist and a rebel. The Constitution of the United States, Article Four, Section Two, reads:
"A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice and be found ID another State, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime.''
But the non-slaveholding states, treacherous to their oaths and com pacts-, have steadily refused, if the criminal only stole a negro, and that negro a slave, to deliver him up. It was refused twice on the requisition of my own state, as long as twenty-two years ago. It was refused by Kent and by Fairfield, governors of Maine, and representing, I believe, each of the then Federal parties. We appealed then to fraternity; but we submitted; and this constitutional right has been practically a dead letter from that day to this. The next case came up between us and the State of New York, when the present senior senator (Mr. Seward) was governor of that state; and he refused it. Why 1 He said it was not against the laws of the. State of New York to steal a negro, and therefore he would not comply with the demand. He made a.similar refusal to Virginia.
Yet these are our confederates; these are our sister states! There is the bargain; there is the compact. You have sworn to it. Both of these governors swore to it. The senator from New York swore to it. The governor of Ohio swore to it when he was inaugurated. You cannot bind them by oaths. Yet they talk to us of treason; and I suppose they expect

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1515

to whip freemen into loving such brethren! Tliey will have a good time in doing it. It is natural we should want this provision of the Constitu tion carried out. The Constitution says slaves are property; the Supreme Court says so. The theft of slaves is a crime. By the text and letter of the Constitution you have agreed to give them up. You have sworn to do it, and you have broken your oaths. Of course, those who have done so look out for pretexts. Nobody expected them to do otherwise. I do not think I ever saw a perjurer, however bald and naked, who could not invent some pretexts to palliate his crime, or who could not, for 15 shillings, hire an Old Bailey lawyer to invent some for him. Yet this requirement of the Constitution is another one of the extreme de mands of an extremist and a rebel.
The next stipulation is that fugitive slaves shall be surrendered under the provision of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, without being entitled either to a writ of habeas corpus or trial by jury, or other similar obstructions of legislation, in the state to which he may flee. Here is.
the Constitution: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regu lation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service, or labor may
be due." This language is plain, and everybody understood it in the same way
for the first forty years of your Government. It 1 was adopted unani mously in the Senate of the United States, and nearly so in the House of Representatives. Nobody then had invented pretexts to show that the Constitution did not mean a negro slave. It was clear; it was plain. Not only the Federal courts, but all the local courts in all the states decide that this was a constitutional obligation. How is it now? The North sought to evade it. Following the instincts of their national char acter, they commenced with the fraudulent fiction that fugitives were entitled to habeas corpus, entitled to trial by jury in the state to which they fled. They pretended to believe that fugitive slaves were entitled to more rights than their white citizens; perhaps they were right; they know one another better than I do. You may charge a white man with treason, or felony, or other crime, and you do not require any trial by jury before'he is given up; there is nothing to determine but that he is legally charged with a crime and that he fled, and then he is to be delivered up on demand. White people are delivered up every day in this way, but not slaves. Slaves, black people, you say, are entitled to trial by jury; and in this way schemes have been invented to defeat your plain constitutional obligations. In January, last year, I argued this question, and presented at the close of my speech a compilation made by a friend of mine of the laws of the non-slaveholding states on this point. The honorable 'gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Collamer] com mented upon the reference to his state; and the greater portion of his speech was taken up with a discussion of the particular act which was quoted in my appendix. I have no doubt the senator did not know of the Act of 1858. I will read him one or two of the sections of that act. I referred to and commented on it then in my speech; but in the appendix

1516

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

containing the compilation there was an accidental misreference. That

act provides

"That every person who may have been held as a slave, who shall

come, or be brought, or be in this State, with or without the consent of

his or her alleged master "

Mr. Collamer: What date is that ?

Mr. Toombs: Eighteen hundred and fifty-eight. It is entitled:" An

act to secure freedom to all persons in this State."

Mr. Collamer: That is not the one mentioned in the senator's speech.

Mr. Toombs: I have explained why it was not in the appendix; but

I had read it and I supposed the senator had. The senator made his

speech on this reference, because, I suppose, it was more easily answered.

Mr. Collamer: I made the speech on the one to which reference was

made.

Mr. Toombs: That was very adroitly done, or very ignorantly done,

I do not know which, but I want to see that.portion of our record right.

This was the act to which I referred, and upon which I commented in

the body of my speech, though not in the appendix, which was prepared

by another person:

"Every person who may have been held as a slave, who shall come,

or be brought, or be in this State, with or without the consent of his or

her alleged master or mistress, or who shall come, or be brought, or be

in this State, shall be free."

The Constitution of the United States says they shall not be free;

Vermont says they shall; and yet all her legislators are sworn to obey

the Constitution. Vermont says if slaves come, voluntarily or involun-

tarily, with or without consent, if they flee from service, or if they come

into Vermont, in any way, they shall be free. The Constitution says

they shall not be discharged from service if they flee; Vermont says they

shall be. That is another one of our sisters for whom we ought to have

a deep attachment.

Again:

'

"Every person who shall hold, or attempt to hold, in this State, in

slavery, or as a slave, any free person, in any form or for any time,

however short, under the pretense that such a person is or has been a

slave, shall, on conviction thereof, be imprisoned in the State prison for

a term not less than five years nor more than twenty years, and be fined

not less than $1,000 nor more than $10,000."

This is decidedly fraternal! If a man passes voluntarily through the

State of Vermont with his slave, that state, in her fraternal affections,

will keep him fifteen years in the state prison and fine him $2,000. Fra-

ternal, affectionate Vermont! I have made these references for the

benefit of the senator. Will he say that this was done only to carry out

the decision in Prigg versus Pennsylvania? * * *

The next demand made on behalf of the South is "that Congress

shall pass efficient laws for the punishment of all persons, in any of the

States, who shall, in any manner, aid or abet invasion or insurrection

in any other State, or commit any other act against the laws of nations,

tending to disturb the tranquillity of the people or government of any

other State." That is a very plain principle. The Constitution of the

United States now requires, and gives Congress the express power, to

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1517

define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas and offenses against the laws of nations. When the honorable and dis tinguished senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas) last year introduced a bill for the purpose of punishing people thus offending, under that clause of the Constitution, Mr. Lincoln, in his speech in New York, which I have before me, declared that it was a '' sedition bill,'' his press and his party hooted at it. So far from recognizing the bill as intended to carry out the Constitution of the United States, it received their jeers and jibes. The black republicans of Massachusetts elected the admirer and eulogist of John Brown's courage as their governor, and we may suppose he will throw no impediments in the way of John Brown's successors. The epithet applied to the bill of the senator from Illinois is quoted from a deliberate speech delivered by Lincoln in New York, for which, it was stated in the journals, according to some resolutions passed by an asso ciation of his own party, he was paid a couple of hundred dollars. The speech should therefore have been deliberate. Lincoln denounced that bill. He placed the stamp of his condemnation upon a measure intended to promote the peace and security of Confederate States. He is, there fore, an enemy of the human race, and deserves the execration of all. mankind.
We demand these five propositions. Are they not right? Are they not just? Take them in detail and show that they are not warranted by the Constitution, by the safety of our people, by the principles of eternal justice. We will pause and consider them; but, mark me, we will not let you decide the question for us.
But we are told by well7meaning but simple-minded people that, ad mitting our wrongs, our remedies are not justifiable. Senators, I have lit tle care to dispute remedies with you, unless you propose to redress my wrongs. If you propose that in good faith, I willl listen, with respectful deference; but when the objectors to my remedies propose no adequate ones of their own, I know what they mean by the objection. I tell them, if I have good sight, perhaps the musket will improve my defective remedy. But still I will as yet argue it with them.
These thirteen colonies originally had no bond of union whatever; no more than Jamaica or Australia have today. They were wholly sep arate communities, independent of each other, and dependent on the Crown of Great Britain. All the union between them that was ever made is in writing. They made two written compacts. One was known as the Articles of Confederation, which declared that the Union thereby formed should be perpetual an argument very much relied upon by the "friends of the Union" now. These Articles of Confederation in terms declared that they should be perpetual. I believe that expression is used in our last treaty with Billy Bowlegs, chief of the Seminoles. I know it is a phrase used in treaties with all nations, civilized and savage. Those that are not declared eternal are the exceptions; but usually trea ties profess to be for "perpetual peace and amity," according to their terms. So was that treaty between the states. After awhile, however, the politicians said it did not work well. It carries us through the Revo lution. The difficulty was that, after the war, there were troubles about the regulation of commerce, about navigation, and above all, about finan cial matters. The Government had no means of getting at the pockets of

1518

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the people; and but for that one difficulty, this present Government would never have been made. The country is deluded with the nonsense that this bond of union was cemented by the blood of brave men in the Revolution. Sir, it is false. It never cost a drop of blood. A large portion of the best men of the Revolution voted against it. It was carried in the convention of Virginia by but ten majority, and among its opponents were Monroe and Henry, and other men who had fought in the war, who recorded their judgment that it was not a good bond; and I am satisfied today that they were the wiser men. This talk about the blood of patriots is intended to humbug the country, to scare the old women. Why, sir, it never cost a drop of blood. It was carried in some of the states by treachery, by men betraying their constituents. That is the history of the times. Five votes would have tied it in Virginia. It passed New York by but three majority. Out of nearly four hundred in the conven tion of Massachusetts, it passed by nineteen. That is the history of the action of the three greatest states of the Union at that time. Some, of the bravest and boldest and the best men of the Revolution, who fought from its beginning to its end, were opposed to the plan of union; and among them was the illustrious author of the Declaration of Independence him self. Are we to be deterred by the cry that we are laying our unhal lowed hands upon this holy altar? Sir, I have no hesitation in saying that a large portion of the people of Georgia, whom I represent, prefer to remain in this Union, with their constitutional rights I would say 90 per cent of them believing it to be a good Government. They have lived and prospered in it. Shallow-pated fools have told them this Gov ernment was the cause of their prosperity, and they have never troubled to inquire whether or not this were true. I think it had but little to do with their prosperity beyond securing their peace with other nations, and that boon has been paid for at a price that no freeman ought to submit to. These are my own opinions; they have been announced to my constituents, and I announce them here. Had I lived in that day, I should have voted with the majority in Virginia, with Monroe, Henry, and the illustrious patriots who composed the seventy-nine votes against the adoption of the present plan of government. In my opinion, if they had prevailed, today the men of the South would have the greatest and most powerful nation of the earth. Let this judgment stand for future ages.
Senators, the Constitution is a compact. It contains all our obliga tions and duties to the Federal Government. I am content, and have ever been content, to sustain it. While I -doubt its perfection; while I do not believe it was a good compact; and while I never saw the day that I would have voted for it as a proposition de novo, yet I am bound to it by oath and by that common prudence which would induce me to abide by established forms rather than to rush into unknown dangers. I have given to it, and intend to give to it, unfaltering support and< allegiance; but I choose to put that allegiance on the true ground, not on the false idea that anybody's Blood was shed for it. I say that the Constitution is the whole compact. All the obligations, all the chains that fetter the limbs of my people, are nominated in the bond, and they wisely excluded any conclusions against them, by declaring that any powers not granted by the Constitution to the United States, or forbidden by it to the states,

GEOBGIA AND GEORGIANS

1519

belonged to the states respectively or to the people. .Now I will try it by that standard; I will subject it to that test. The law of nature, the law of justice, would say and it is so expounded by the publicists that equal rights in the common property shall be enjoyed. Even in a mon archy the king cannot prevent the subjects from enjoying equality in the disposition of the public property. Even in a despotic government, this principle is recognized. It was the blood and money of the whole people says the learned Grotius and say all the publicists which ac quired the public property, and therefore it is not the property of the sovereign. This right of equality being, then, according to justice and natural equity, a right belonging to all the states, when did we give it up? You say Congress lias a right to pass rules and regulations con cerning the territory and other property of the United States. Very well. Does that exclude those whose blood and money paid for it? Does "dis pose of" mean to rob the rightful owners? You must show a better title than that, or a better sword than we have.
But you say, try the right. I agree to it. But how ? By our judg ment? No, not until the last resort. What then; by yours? No, not until the same time. How then try it? The South has always said, by the Supreme Court. But that is in our favor, and Lincoln has said he will not stand that judgment. Then each must judge for himself of the mode and manner of redress. But you deny us that privileges and finally reduce us to accepting your judgment. We decline it. You say you will enforce it by executing laws; that means your judgment of what the laws ought to be. Perhaps you will have a good time executing your judgment. The senator from Kentucky (Mr. Crittcnden) comes to your aid, and says he can find 110 constitutional right of secession. Perhaps not; but the Constitution is not the place in which to look for state rights. If.that right belongs to independent states, and they did not cede it to the Federal Government, it is reserved to the states, or to the people. Ask your new commentator where he gets the right to
judge for us. Is it in the bond? The northern doctrine was, many years ago, that the Supreme Court
was the judge. That was their doctrine in 1800. They denounced Madi son for the report of 1799, on the Virginia resolutions; they denounced Jefferson for framing the Kentucky resolutions, because they were pre sumed to impugn the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States; and they declared that the court was made by the Constitution, the ultimate and supreme arbiter. That was the universal judgment the declaration of every free state in this Union, in answer to the Vir ginia resolutions of 1798, and of all who did answer, even including the State of Delaware, then under Federal control. * * *
The Supreme Court has decided that, by the Constitution, we have a right to go into the territories, and be protected there, with our prop erty. You say we cannot decide the compact for ourselves. Well, can the Supreme Court decide it for us? Mr. Lincoln says he does not care what the Supreme Court decides, he will turn us out anyhow. He says this in his debate with the honorable senator from Illinois (Mr. Doug las). I have it before me. He said he would vote against the decisions of the Supreme Court. Then you do not accept the arbiter. You will not take my construction; you will not take the Supreme Court as an

1520

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

arbiter; you will not take the practice of the Government; you will not take the treaties under Jefferson and Madison upon the very question of prohibition, in 1820. What, then, will you take? You will take nothing but your own judgment; that is, you will not only judge for yourselves, not only discard the court, discard our construction, discard
the practice of the Government, but you will drive us out, simply because you will it. Your party says you will not take the decision
of the Supreme Court. You said so at Chicago; you said so in com mittee; every man of you in both Houses now says so. What are you going to do? You say we shall submit to your construction. We will do it, if you can make us; but not otherwise, or in any other manner.
That is settled.
You have no warrant in the Constitution for this declaration of out
lawry. The court says you have no right to make it. The treaty says you shall not do it. The treaty of 1803 declares that the property of the people shall be protected by the Government until they are admit ted into the Union as a state. That treaty covers Kansas and Nebraska.
The law passed in 1804, or 1805, under Mr. Jefferson, protects property in slaves in that very territory. In 1820, when the question of prohibi
tion came up, Mr. Madison declared it was not warranted by the Con stitution, and Jefferson denounced its abettors as enemies of the human race. Here is the court; here are our fathers; here is contemporaneous exposition for fifty years, all asserting our right. The republican, party
says: "We care riot for your precedents or practices; we have pro gressive politics, as well as a progressive religion."
But no matter what may be our grievance, the honorable senator
from Kentucky (Mr. Crittenden) says we cannot secede. Well, what can we do? .We cannot revolutionize; he will say that is treason. What can we do ? Submit 1 They say they are the strongest and will hang us. Very well, I suppose we are to be thankful for that boon. We will take the risk. We will stand by the right. We will take the Constitution and we will defend it by the sword, with the halter around our necks. Will that satisfy the honorable senator from Kentucky? You cannot
intimidate my constituents by talking to them of treason. * * * I insist upon this perfect equality in the territories; yet when it was pro posed, as I understand the senator from Kentucky now proposes, that the lines of 36 degrees 30 minutes shall be extended, acknowledging and protecting our property on the south side of that line, for the sake of peace permanent peace I said to the committee of thirteen, and I say here, that, with other satisfactory provisions, I would accept it. Yet, not only did your committee refuse that, but my distinguished friend from Mississippi (Mr. Davis) another moderate gentleman like myself
proposed simply to get a recognition that we had a right to our own; that man could have property in man; and it met with the unanimous refusal of the most moderate, Union-saving, compromising portion of the
republican party. They do not intend to acknowledge it. Very well; you not only want to break down our constitutional
rights; you not only want to upturn our social system; your people not only want to steal our slaves and make them freemen to vote against us; but you seek to bring an inferior race into a condition of equality, socially and politically, with our own people. Well, sir, the question of slavery moves not the people of Georgia one-half as much as the fact

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1521

that you insult their rights as a community. You abolitionists are right when you say that there are thousands and tens of thousands of men in Georgia, and all over the South, who do not own property in slaves. A very large portion of the people of Georgia own none of them. In the mountains there are comparatively few slaves; but no part of our people are more loyal to their race and country than our bold and brave mountain population; and every flash of the electric wires brings me cheering news from our mountain tops and our valleys that these sons of Georgia are excelled by none of their countrymen in loyalty to the rights, the honor, and the glory of the Commonwealth. They say, and well say, this is our question; we want no negro equality, no negro citi zenship ; we want no mongrel race to degrade our own; and as one man they would meet you upon the border, with the sword in one hand and the torch in the other. We will tell you when we. choose to abolish this thing; it must be done under our direction and according to our will; our own, our native land, shall determine this question, and not the abolitionists of the North. That is the spirit of our freeman. .
I have already adverted to the proposition in regard to giving up criminals who are charged with stealing negroes, and I have referred to the cases of Maine, New York, and Ohio. I now come to the last speci fication the requirement that laws should be passed punishing all who aid and abet insurrection. These are offenses recognized by the laws of nations as inimical to all society; and I shall read the opinions of an eminent publicist, when I get to that point. I said that you had aided and abetted insurrection. John Brown certainly invaded Virginia. John Brown's sympathizers, I presume, are not democrats. Two of the accomplices of John Brown fled, one to Ohio, one to Iowa. The gov ernors of both states refused to give up the fugitives from justice. The party maintained them. I am aware that in both cases there were pre texts to cover the shame of the transaction. I am going to show you that these pretexts were hollow, unsubstantial, not only against consti tutional law, but against the law of nations. I will show you that it was their duty to seize them, under the law of nations, and bring them to their Confederate States, or even to a friendly state. The first author ity I will read is Vattell on '' The Law of Nations.'' If there had been any well-founded ground, if the papers had been defective, if the case had been defectively stated, what was the general obligation of a friendly state without any constitutional obligations? This general principle is that. one state is bound to restrain its citizens from doing anything which tends to create disturbance in another state; to ferment disorders; to corrupt its citizens; or to alienate its allies. (Here Mr. Toombs quoted at some length from Vattell, p. 162.)
That is the law of nations, as declared by one of the ablest expound ers ; but, besides, we have this principle embedded in our Constitution. We have there the obligation to deliver up fugitives from justice; and though it is in the Constitution though it is sanctioned, as I have said, by all ages and all centuries, by the wise and the good everywhere, our Confederate States are seeking false pretexts for evading a plain, social duty, in which are involved the peace and security of all society. If we had no Constitution, this obligation would devolve upon friendly states. If there were no constitutions, we ought to demand it. But, instead

1522

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

of giving us this protection, we are met with reproaches, reviling tricks, and treachery, to conceal and protect incendiaries and murderers.
This man Brown and his accomplices had sympathizers. "Who were they? One of them, as I have said before, who was, according to his public speeches, a defender and laudator of John Brown, is governor of Massachusetts. Other officials of the state applauded Brown's hero ism, magnified his courage, and, no doubt, lamented his ill-success. Throughout the whole North, public meetings, immense gatherings, tri umphal processions, the honors of the hero and the conqueror, were awarded to this incendiary and assassin. They did not condemn the traitor; think you, they abhored the treason 1
Yet, I repeat, when a distinguished senator from a non-slaveholding state (Mr. Douglas) proposed to punish such attempts at invasion and insurrection, Lincoln and his party come before the world and say, "Here is a Sedition Law." To carry out the Constitution, to protect states from invasion, to suppress insurrection, and to comply with the laws of the United States, is a "Sedition Law," and the chief of his party treats it with contempt; yet, under the very same clause of the Consti tution which warranted this important bill, you derive your power to punish offenses against the law of nations. Under this warrant you have tried and punished our citizens for meditating the invasion of for eign states; you have stopped illegal expeditions; you have denounced our citizens as pirates, and commended them to the bloody vengeance of a merciless enemy. Under this principle alone you protect our weaker neighbors of Cuba, Honduras, and Nicarauga. By this alone we are empowered and bound to prevent our people from conspiring together, giving aid, giving money or arms to fit our expeditions against any foreign nation. Foreign nations get the benefit of this protection; but we are worse off in the Union than if we were out of it. Out of it, we would have the protection of the neutrality laws. Now you can come among us; raids may be made; you may put the incendiary's torch to our dwellings, as you did last summer, for hundreds of miles on the frontiers of Texas; you may do what John Brown did, and when the miscreants escape to your states you will not punish them; you will not deliver them up. Therefore we stand defenseless. We must cut loose from the accursed "body of this death," even to get the benefit of the law of nations. * * *
You will not regard confederate obligations; you will not regard constitutional obligations; you will not regard your oaths. What, then, am I to do? Am I a freeman? Is my state a free state? To lie down and submit, because political fossils raise the cry of the glorious Union? Too long already have we listened to this delusive song. We are free men, We have rights; I have stated them. We have wrongs; I have recounted them. I have demonstrated that the party coming into power has declared us outlaws, and is determined to exclude four thousand mil lions of our property from the common territories; that it has declared us under the ban of the empire, and out of the protection of the laws of the United States everywhere. They have refused to protect us from invasion and insurrection by the Federal power, and the Constitution denies to us in the Union the right either to raise fleets or armies for our own defense. All these charges I have proven by the record; and T

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1523

put them, before the civilized world, and demand the judgment of today, of tomorrow, of distant ages, and of heaven itself upon the justice of these causes. I am content, whatever it be, to peril all in so noble, so holy a cause. We have appealed, time and time again, for these con stitutional rights. You have refused them. We appeal again. Restore us these rights as we had them, as your court adjudges them to be, just as all 'our people have said they are; redress these flagrant wrongs, seen of all men, and it will restore fraternity, and peace, and unity, to all of us. Refuse them, and what then? We shall then ask you, "Let us depart in peace." Refuse that, and you present us war. We accept it; and inscribing upon our banners the glorious words, liberty and equality, we will trust to the blood of the brave and the God of battles
for security and tranquility.

GENERAL COBB'S BUSH ARBOR SPEECH-

[On July 4, 1868, there was held in Atlanta a state democratic con vention for the purpose of nominating presidential electors. To accom modate the great assemblage, an immense bush arbor was erected near the present site of the old union depot on Wall street. It is doubtful if oratory in Georgia ever reached a sublimer height than it registered on this occasion, when four of the state's most eloquent sons addressed the vast audience in language which has never been excelled for withering invective. The speakers were: Robert Toombs, Howell Cobb, Benjamin H. Hill, and Raphael J. Moses. It was at a time when the state was just emerging from the hideous nightmare of reconstruction. Each of these orators was famed throughout the nation. General Toombs had just returned from Europe, after an exile of two years. As the great "Mirabeau of Secession," his appearance upon the platform elicited the wildest outburst of enthusiasm and to satisfy the demands of an impa tient crowd, he was the first speaker introduced. But his speech, while a most terrific arraignment of the military regime in Georgia, failed to thrill his hearers as did the speeches of those who followed him. Mr. Hill's speech was unsurpassed. 'In the opinion of many, it was the greatest speech of his life, sxirpassing even his Davis Hall phillipic. But General Cobb was scarcely less eloquent, and his speech on this occasion constituted his valedictory message to the people of Georgia. He died suddenly just three months later in the City of .New York. Except in pamphlet form, this farewell message from the lips of General Cobb has never before appeared in print. The speech of Major Moses
has perished. Said General Cobb:]

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I congratulate you, my friends, that the time has come in Georgia
when the people can meet together, as you have assembled today. When I say "the people," I mean just these I see before me these women and children, these good men and true, who are the representatives of the men and women throughout our state. I congratulate you that you meet and again hear the voices of your favorite sons that you can respond in your hearts to the patriotic sentiments which fall from the lips of those sons. AA^hile the past casts its shadows over the land, and my own

1524

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

heart is in sympathy with the picture which was drawn by my friend (General Toombs), yet I do feel rising up in my soul the promise of a brighter day, not far distant in the future.
Today, in common with you, I have heard the familiar voice of one who, in times past, has aroused his countrymen from the mountains to the seaboard. He speaks freely and there is none to make him afraid. (Applause.) God speed the day when the echoes of that voice shall be heard throughout all the land, speaking from his old standpoint in the National Legislature. My friends, the argument on that branch of the subject which has been discussed by my friend has been presented to you so comprehensively that I shall not trespass upon your time, nor weaken its power and influence by a recapitulation of it. It was an exposition of truths that will live when you and I have passed away and are gone. The people of Georgia today are passing through a try ing ordeal, which I trust and believe will be of short duration, and from which they will emerge refined and purified like gold from the furnace. They are living under a government whose days are numbered, but while it exists it is well that we make the best we can of it. I shall offer some suggestions here in your hearing for the benefit of those who are called upon to administer that government in order that, to the extent it is in your power, your rights and interests may receive some protection. I shall offer some advice to Governor Bullock. Although he has not sent for me or summoned me to his councils, I shall waive eti quette and give him some advice which will do him good and be of great benefit to the state if he follows it.
If he does not follow it, it has cost him so little, he will have no right to complain of me for having offered it. I would just say to him: Mr. Bullock, the people of Georgia have done you no wrong. It is your duty to inflict as little evil upon them as possible. Remember the cir cumstances under which you have been called upon to execute the duties of your gubernatorial office, and my advice.to you is to behave your self just as well as your nature and education will admit. (Laughter and applause.) I would say to him, in all kindness, that in the matter of character and reputation you. have everything to make and nothing to lose. (Laughter and applause.) A better opportunity never was offered to any man. He is like an adventurous youth who goes into a gambling house without money to play at faro. He has everything to win and nothing to lose. He may break the bank, but the bank cannot hurt him. I would say to him, Mr. Bullock, this Constitution which has been imposed upon the people of Georgia against their will and without their approval, invests you with a great deal of power. Exercise it in a way to do good to the state if you can. You have got a judiciary to appoint. I would advise you to send for the official copy of the address of the chairman of the Grant and Colfax Executive State Committee, written by one Joseph E. Brown, in which he assumes to announce for you that the judiciary of Georgia will be corruptly appointed to sub serve base and partisan purposes, and -when you get it make a bonfire of the paper, and blot from your memory the recollection of its contents. Be not deceived with the, idea that because your predecessor, the author of this paper, was partially successful in adding to his strength and popularity by a corrupt use of his official patronage, that a like success

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1525

will attend a like corrupt course on your part. If the argument based on considerations of patriotism and duty cannot reach you, let me warn you, as a matter of policy, not to resort to a course of conduct so unworthy, so base, and which, in the end, will be of no benefit to you, but must produce calamitous results for the state. The appeal I make for the appointment of an honest judiciary is one which should com mend itself to the favor of any man holding the high position you occupy, even though he reached that position by a not over creditable accident, the details of which I will not stop to discuss. I beg you to remember that since the organization of the Supreme Court of Georgia no one has been appointed to that bench who did not command the respect and confidence of the people. No one has ever filled that high station on whose integrity and honesty the shadow of a doubt ever rested. It remains with you to determine whether the high character of that bench shall be maintained, or whether it shall become a refuge for desti tute and discarded politicians whose infamy and treachery have made them outcasts from the companionship of honest men. (Applause.) In the name of the people of Georgia I call upon you this day to drive from your presence these bad men who ask you to forfeit the only claim you can ever have to public respect and confidence, by the appointment of such men to offices of trust and honor. Rid yourself of the miserable vermin who are fastening themselves upon you, who are calling on you to appoint them to the Supreme Court, the Superior Court and the Dis trict (Jourt, and who, in the better days of the Republic would never have presumed to solicit the appointment of a doorkeeper or a messen ger men whom you know to bo unworthy, and whose only claim to the positions they seek at your hands is the record of their own infamy. (Loud applause.) How strange and startling it will sound to the ears of those who live beyond the limits of our state to hear an appeal made by the people of Georgia to him who exercises the highest executive power to grant the state an honest judiciary! And yet, strange as it may appear, startling as it is, the rumors which fill the atmosphere of this capital justify the apprehension upon which the appeal is based.Therefore I say to you, Mr. Bullock, be warned in time. Commit not these outrages upon a people who, God knows, have suffered enough at the hands of their oppressors. If you heed not this warning voice today, the time will come when you will repent in sackcloth and ashes the degra dation which you will have brought upon yourself by the infliction of such an outrage upon a brave, a generous, and an honest people, in whose conduct towards you, you can find no justification for the injury you will have 'done. All I ask of you is to appoint honest men to these high positions, men who will administer the laws of the state in obedi ence to the conscientious obligations of their oaths. Fill all the offices with honest men. Protect the treasury from the robber band who are assembled here to break in and steal. Do these things, and at the end of your service you will have the consolation of knowing that if you have done the state no good, you will have refrained from doing it any serious harm. (Applause.) And for you this would be a result which your warmest admirers could not have reasonably anticipated. (Laugh
ter and applause.)
And now I turn from an appeal to those in power to you, my coun-
Vol. Ill 17

1526

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

trymen, and I invoke your aid and co-operation in the great work before us, of lifting our state from its present fallen condition and restoring it to.its former prosperity and equality among her sister commonwealths of the Union. It is a noble work, worthy of the best efforts of our peo ple, in which all good men can and ought to unite with an earnest and cordial good will. The day of arms has passed. We look for the dawn of a day of peace such peace as carries healing on its wings and dif fuses blessings over the land not such peace as is offered to you at the point of the bayonet, or is contained in the findings of a military com mission, but the peace which is founded on justice, is supported by the law, is accompanied by liberty, and brings rejoicing and contentment to every heart. Such is the peace which will follow the election of Seymour and Blair, and the restoration of the Constitution a peace which will be for today, tomorrow, iand for all time to come, because it will be a peace that would calm all the troubled waters, quiet all apprehensions, restore confidence and security in all the departments of life, and cause everyone, everywhere, to feel that the good old days of the republic had returned. Such a peace is worthy of the best efforts of patriots, the prayers of Christians, and will command the blessings of heaven. (Loud applause.)
I am here today to invoke your aid and co-operation in carrying for ward this great and good work.
My countrymen, I care not who you are, I care not what has been your past history, I look to your status today. I want to know what you intend to do for your country in the future 1 She has suffered much, she has been wounded deeply, her body is covered over with the evi dences of these wounds and this suffering. This old state that has been so kind to you, so generous to me, beyond all that I deserve, beyond, perhaps, what you deserve this noble, gallant, bleeding old state calls upon her sons to come forward and aid in the good work of redeeming her from the hand of the wrongdoer and oppressor. Is there in all Geor gia one single heart, native or foreign, who will not respond in this the hour of her greatest trial, the hour in which she is struggling for lib erty and for constitutional rights of all her children ? The issue is fairly before me, my friends. None can fail to read it right. No man can plead ignorance. Not one who heard the exposition to which you and I have listened this morning, not one who has heard the eloquent voices of her sons throughout this land for months, can plead ignorance here after. The issue is made; on the one hand is a continuance and aggra vation of the wrongs from which she has so long suffered and is still suffering, and on the other a speedy deliverance from the bonds which have bound her and the opening of a bright and promising future. The path is open; you are invited to tread it. On the one hand there is dark ness, and shadow, and gloom, and continued misfortune and oppression; and on the other there is freedom, prosperity and peace. Choose you this day between these two offerings made for your free-will acceptance. My friends, that great party of this country which now brings within its fold every true man of the land, North, South, East and "West, with out reference to past political differences, comes and tenders you the guarantees of that Constitution which was framed by the wisdom and

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1527

consecrated by the blood of your fathers. Come and stand by us. Give your support to the men who are pledged to carry out these principles.
We have put a candidate before you for the highest office in the country a man known as a statesman throughout the land a man whose record in the past has been true to those great principles of con stitutional rights. We have placed before you a candidate for vice presi dent, one who, it is true, like General Grant; fought you during the war, but, unlike General Grant, ceased to fight you when the war was over. (Appla.use.) I honor a brave man, I can do reverence to his virtues, though he has drawn the sword against me. I honor such a man, and today give evidence of it in the cordiality with which I will cast my vote for Frank P. Blair for vice president of the United States. But the man who, after the battle is over, travels over the field, and, with a valor that I cannot commend, draws his sword to thrust it into each corpse as he passes along, such a man can never command my respect, and if my advice is heeded will never get a vote in Georgia.
Let the people of the North understand that we give to Seymour and Blair our warm and hearty support, with a perfect knowledge on our part that the one in the cabinet and the other on the field were fully identified with those who prosecuted the war against >us, and to whose overwhelming numbers we finally surrendered. We do not pretend to say that we support them because they warred against us, but in spite of it, believing as we do, that in a restored Union they will extend to us those sacred constitutional rights of which they are now the chosen and honored representatives. And this is all that the people of the South ask or expect at the hands of the people of the North.
These are the men, these are the pledges which are offered to you by those whom I commend to your confidence and support today. On the other hand you are offered for the Presidency General Grant. I have said as much 'of him as he ever said of himself, and therefore he has no right to complain that I have not treated him with proper respect. Of Mr. Colfax, the candidate for -the vice presidency, I am not suffi ciently informed of his history in order to give you any very satisfac tory account of him. My opinion is, however, if, when in the days of his infancy, his mother had been told that he would be a candidate for vice president, it would have run the old lady crazy. (Laughter and cheers.) It is sufficient to say of them that they stand before you as the representatives of the Chicago platform. That is condemnation enough. But these men, fellow citizens, are of today and will pass away. The principles which they represent belong to the future and will live long after those who upheld them are forgotten.
You have before you the great political truths presented by the democracy of the country. Let us go for a moment to Chicago and see what was presented there for the people of this country. What is offered to you by the convention of wild and bad men who placed General Grant and Mr. Colfax before the country ? I will not stop to discuss the dou ble-faced resolutions on finance. I come to the main starting proposi tion which you are called upon to give your sanction to, and which most nearly affects your interests.
Fellow citizens, that platform announces to you that a white man's
government shall be guaranteed to the people of the North, but that

1528

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

negroes are good enough for Georgia and the people of the South. I do not pretend to quote the language or the precise words, but such are the principles and doctrines enunciated. The radicals have not denied it in their press they have not denied it by their public men they can not, dare not, deny it. That platform says that the negroes of the South shall be guaranteed and protected in the exercise of political power, the right of suffrage, the right of sitting in the jury-box, the right of hold ing seats in the Legislature and upon the bench, and that it is all right and proper for you and for the people of the South that this should be the case; but when asked to put it to the people of the North, to the freemen of the West, and the freemen of the East and the Middle States, they said, "No! they are entitled to a white man's government; they are entitled to the protection which had been given them by the fathers of the land, from the earliest organization of the government; they are the sons of the revolutionary fathers who fought and with their blood won the liberty of this country by their wisdom adopted the Constitu tion. They shall have a white man's government; they are worthy of it; they deserve it, but for those rebels down South, those men in Georgia, those women and children in Georgia, they deserve no such protection; they shall have guaranteed to them no such Government.'' My friends, what think you of these men of the North f What think you of the Grants and the Coifaxes ? of the Thad Stevenses ? the Sumners and the Wilsons of the North, who went to Chicago and then wrote it down in cold blood there was no passion there was no excitement there were no war tones sounding throughout the land but coolly, calmly, passion less, they wrote it down upon their platform: '' The people of the South, you must submit to negro suffrage, you must submit to negro suprem acy; but for our own people we reserve the old landmarks of the Con stitution 1'' Today they defend the policy which puts these negroes in the Legislature. Today that platform says my friend (pointing to Mr. Toombs) and myself are properly and justly excluded from the rights of suffrage, from the right of holding office; but these negroes are the proper people to make laws to govern and control this great and good State of Georgia.
What think you of northern men who are prepared to perpetuate this great wrong and outrage upon our people? Can you say to them,
"Brother"? Can you say to them, "Friend"? Can you welcome them to your house, when they come to your midst, either with the insignia of office or in the habiliment of private citizens 1 Why should they won der and stand amazed because we bid them not to the feast when our friends are invited to assemble and make merry among themselves?
Shall these men, ought these men, to expect it? Pardon me if I dwell upon it. I want to express it, and I urge it upon you, until there shall 'exist in the .heart and soul of every son and daughter that walks and
breathes her pure air, and lives upon her happy soil, this conviction, that these men of the North, these Chicago men, these men who call upon you to vote for Grant and Colfax, and that Grant and Colfax, who have indorsed these things, are neither worthy of your vote, your respect, or of your confidence, much less of your kindness and hospital
ity. My friends, they are our enemies. I state it in cool and calm debate. If they were our friends they could not doubly wrong us, and

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1529

if there beat in their bosom one single kindly emotion for the people of the South, they would never have made this public declaration to the world of your unworthiness and the contempt which they feel for you. Enemies they were in war, enemies they continue to be in peace. In war we drew the sword and bade them defiance; in peace we gather up the manhood of the South, and raising the banner of constitutional equality, and gathering around it the good men of the North as well as the South, we hurl into their teeth today the same defiance, and bid them come on to the struggle. We are ready for it if they are. But, my countrymen, if those are the feelings which rise 'in our bosom, in reference to these men of the North these men who have no bond of union with you these men who never trod upon your soil unless it was to plunder and to rob these men who know not these women and these children these men who have never worshiped at your altars, who never communed with the good men and women of your state around that altar erected to the living God if these are your feelings towards strangers in blood, and sympathy and association, what can be your feel ings towards those men of Georgia who traveled these hundreds of miles to meet these men at Chicago, who sat upon the bench with them, who went into the council chamber with them, and who have joined their voices and united their hearts in pronouncing that the men whom they have left behind them the men of Georgia who had honored them over much, who had lifted them from the lowest dregs of society and elevated them to the highest offices of honor, profit, and trust. What say you of such men who went to Chicago, and there, crouch at the feet of our ene mies, declared that these good people of Georgia deserved the fate that had come upon them, of being put under the ban of negro supremacy ? My countrymen, don't think I speak harsh words because I say hard truths. I speak of those delegates to the Chicago convention; I speak of them in unmeasured terms.'
A friend told me, as I was coining here the other day, that he heard another say that by a speech that I had made at Davis Hall I had made half a dozen votes for Joe Brown. Well, I corne to make half a dozen more today. He and his associates were at Chicago. He and his associates joined and united in pronouncing this infamous doctrine the negro is good enough for Georgia, but. not good enough for Ohio and New York. Are not the people of Georgia right in assigning him the status which he has taken for himself"? If negroes are good enough for Georgia, it is that kind of Georgia that he is, and I shall not dis pute the doctrine. Let him associate with them, but white men of this country Cut loose from him. Amen and amen. Let it reverberate over your mountains, down your valleys, from your old men and your young men, your women and your children, until one grand chorus shall ring through every throbbing heart! '' Overboard with him!" " He has turned traitor to the country!" I tell you very frankly, my friends, I am not an intolerant man, but when I see a white man talking to Joe Brown and that class of men, a feeling of revulsion comes over me. I can't help it. But when I see them talking to a negro, I feel sorry for the negro. That is six more votes for Joe Brown. I will give him about three more, and quit him. I say to you, my friends, you owe it to your selves, you owe it to the noble dead who sleep in their graves, to observe

1530

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

these things. You go here, and I honor you for it, and scatter flowers over those graves. God bless you for it! They are the graves of good, true, and honest, and noble, and brave, and generous men. But as you return from that solemn duty turn your back to the right and left upon those who dishonor the memory of the dead. You owe it to the living, you owe it to your own children and to their children. Write down in their memories this day and all days and for all time to come the feeling and spirit of abhorrence with which you regard these men. 0 heaven! for some blistering words that I may write infamy upon the forehead of these men, that they may travel through earth despised of all men and rejected of heaven, scorned by the devil himself. They may seek their final congenial resting-place under the mudsills of that ancient institution prepared for them from the beginning of the world.
Fellow citizens, being in a counseling and advising mood today, I am disposed to ask a favor of another class of our fellow citizens; a class of whom I have not asked favors heretofore. They have been amongst us for the last three, years, men of the North, some of them in high mili tary position, some of them wearing the simple vestments of private life. Now the time has come when many of these are to leave us and return back to their homes, and in the part which they have played to return no more forever. Now, of these gentlemen personally, I know nothing, but I have a word to say to them and to ask them to bear a message from the people of the South to the people of the North. You have been here for three years. When you return to your homes tell your people .that you came here and found our land one general plain of desolation; the ashes stand, or stood then, where this beautiful city now stands. You found our people overwhelmed by numbers, a conquered people, if you please, but a brave and generous people still. You have been in our midst and have seen the wrongs that have been done this people. You have seen their old men and their young men torn from the bosom of their families, and from their labor and occupation without warrant or authority of constitutional law. You have seen them car ried to the dungeon, and from the dungeon to the courts which had no jurisdiction under the Constitution. Tell your people of the North these things when you go. Tell them, too, you have seen the polls opened, you have seen Georgia's noblest sons, born upon the soil and reared under her institutions, sons whom she has delighted to honor, sons whom you have received with welcoming arms in all the Northern States you have seen these sons, upon whose character not one single blot rests, you have seen them driven from the polls. Tell them that! Tell them that you have seen the poor, ignorant, debased, unhappy, unfortunate, and deluded negro taken, not by the voice of persuasion and of argument, but by a power which he could not and dare not resist, and you have seen him go and fill xip that ballot-box that formerly received the votes of the good and true men of Georgia. Tell them that you have stood here in her legislative halls. Gray-headed fathers have told you that these seats were once filled by the noblest and truest men of the land
her Crawford, her Troup, her Forsyth, her Berrien, her Lumpkin, her Wayne her great and, good men in the days that are past. Around me here I see the gray-headed fathers of this land who once filled these seats. Tell me whom you saw there 011 yesterday. True, some of her

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1531

sons, good and true men, are there to try to save and rescue their state from wrong, but tell them that the seats of Troup and Clark were filled by two negroes who could not write their names. Tell them that my own old County of Clark these men will recognize the name I speak of Clayton, Dougherty, Hull, and Hope, and Thomas, and, in later days, the brave and gallant Deloney, and other good citizens tell them when you go to the North the seats formerly occupied by these men were filled by illiterate negroes. Tell them when you go there that in times past you were told that the good men of Georgia assembled at her capitol to inaugurate her government, these men whose names I have mentioned to you; but never in all the history of this state was any man, be he good or bad, placed in that chair, with those insignia of office, but in the response to the voice of the people of Georgia.
I care not, gentlemen of the North, military and civilians, with what prejudices you come here; I care not how passion has been inflamed. These are solemn truths, and it is your duty as honest men to tell the message I this day give you. Tell them that on the 4th day of July a day memorable in the history of your country a day honored and celebrated by the good men of the land Georgia was summoned by the party who now rules her destiny, to assemble in mass convention at her capital. You were here and .saw that scene. Go, I ask it as a favor; I will humble myself so far as to beg that the truth may be carried from Georgia and spread broadcast among your people. You witnessed that assembly. It was a mass meeting of the radicals of Georgia. Twenty white men. were here, and probably all who deserved the name of white men, outside of spectators, did not reach quite a half a dozen. They were a motley crowd of negroes. They spoke of Georgia; they thanked this beneficent legislation that had brought the great blessing upon the land. Men stood upon that platform who had been honored by Georgia, and, addressing that assembly of dark faces and kinky heads, with not one white man scattered, here or there, called them "my countrymen!" Well, if they are his countrymen, let him and his countrymen seek some more congenial climate. Africa is open to him, and not knowing Joe as well as I do, the people of that continent might bid him come.
Go, gentlemen of the North, and tell your people that there was assembled in Georgia this great and noble old state that crowd! and a more respectable one works on my plantation every day, because they work for their daily bread and meat, and are respectable compared to the set of worthless creatures whom the radicals of both North and South pretend to call the people of Georgia.
Tell them that that was the people in whose hands and under whose control you left this noble old state, when you turned your back upon me, to seek your own homes, and then tell them that on the 23d of July there was another assemblage calling themselves the people of Georgia. Come, now, and stand here by my side. I want you to cast your eyes over this vast assembly. Come and look upon those daughters of Geor gia, and, gentlemen of the North, tell me you have hearts you have souls you have in your own states mothers, wives, and sisters; I ask you to come here today and stand upon this platform and look upon our mothers, and sisters and wives and little ones, and tell me in your heart is it right and just and proper? Does your own heart dictate it,

1532

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

that those women and children ought to be under the dominion of those negroes that assembled on the Fourth of July 1 If there is one pulsation left in your heart, if there is one single throb left to beat for the people of the South, come and look upon this picture. Around them you see old men, denounced they have been as rebels, but from their youth up' they have lived in Georgia. Their neighbors know them, respect them, esteem them, love them. Ought these men to be placed under that negro dominion? Ought these men to be required to bow their necks to the yoke which oppression and despotism have prepared for them ?
Oh, men of the North, as ye travel homeward, spread these truths broadcast; and when you receive a cordial welcome into your own home stead, and that wife and mother and daughter impress upon your lips the kiss of affection and love, remember, I beg you, remember the moth ers, and wives, and daughters of Georgia. If you cannot feel for them in that hour, then the spirit of love and affection has departed from you, never again to be reclaimed. Tell them that in the midst of all this desolation, in the midst of all these wrongs that there was not in all Georgia a single daughter that bowed her head to the yoke. Tell them that our brave men stood submissive at the point of the bayonet. Tell them that kindness and generosity would have won back the allegiance of their hearts, but all the bayonets that ever, were made in the American Union cannot drive manhood from their breasts. Tell them that these men were brave and generous to the last, hating their enemies, loving their friends, and, even if it had been necessary, from the scaffold they would have hurled defiance into the teeth of their oppressors. They would have welcomed every noble and generous heart to the South with a cordiality they extend alone to those they love. Tell them, moreover, Georgia has a home for every true man of the North. She has a wel come for every true man that will come to live among us and with us and be of us. But she has neither a true welcome nor a false hospitality to offer to those who come to wrong and oppress them, and when you have told them all this, tell them that in Georgia there was but one voice, one heart, one soul, one spirit. When you turn your back upon the state, looking through all her length and breadth, upon her mountains, in her valleys, in her cities, in her towns, along the public highways, in the public and private workshops, you don't leave behind you one single white radical advocate of the Chicago platform who was worthy of the
respect and confidence of a gentleman. And when you are asked by your people what are the views and
sentiments and purposes of the people of the South, do us the justice to pronounce the charge that we are hostile to the Union and the Con stitution, and that we desire to renew the bitter conflict through which we have just passed, as false and unfounded. Tell them.that when you heard the people of Georgia asserting their claims to perfect equality in the Union under the Constitution, you could not find it in your heart to deny the justice of their claims, and that the effort of the radical party as manifested in their congressional legislation and affirmed in the most offensive shape in their Chicago platform, should not find among the honest and true men of the North either an advocate or an apologist. Tell them that you believe it to be wrong, and that if they had. been

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1533

among us and witnessed what you have witnessed they would unite with you in condemning the injustice which these things have done to us.
Tell them that the people of the South are ready and anxious for the restoration of perfect harmony and conciliation, whenever the terms upon which the restoration is offered, are such as brave and honorable men can accept that they long for peace, but it must not be linked with dishonor and the people of the North should bear in mind when they offer to us terms of humiliation, they not only wrong us but themselves also. Tell them that as you communed with our people you found that. the aspirations of. our young men, the prayers of our old men, and the ardent desire of all, were to restore a violated Constitution, cement a weakened Union, and unite all the people of this great country in a com mon and cordial brotherhood. Tell them these things, and if you present the picture faithfully you will have made a stronger argument, and a more powerful appeal for Seymour and Blair, than I can put in your mouths today. This, this is the picture that I want you to present.
Fellow citizens, I come today in the spirit of tolerance. I want to bury in Georgia bitter recollections of the past. You and I have differed for days and for years since the hour in which my voice was first raised in the public meetings of my country. I come today to present you a platform, present candidates, and invite every good and true man in Georgia to join with me in the good work. Come if you have gone far astray come back. The doors are wide open, wide enough, broad enough to receive every white man in Georgia, unless you should discover him coming to you creeping and crawling under the Chicago platform. Upon them there should be no mercy. They have dishonored themselves and sought to dishonor you. Anathematize them. Drive them from the pale of social and political society. Leave them to wallow in their own mire and filth. Nobody will envy them, and if they are never taken out of the gully until I reach forth my hand to take them up they will die in their natural element. But all others come that have differed about recon struction. I could not go with you. I thought you were wrong. We differed in reference to the constitutional amendment. I thought you were still further from the path. But, my friends, come now, come, retrace your steps. You stand upon the bank; you have taken the last step you can take and recover lost ground. Come out from among this people. I appeal to you in the name of the past, in the memories of the past, in the hopes of the future. Sons of Georgia, come out from among this people. I appeal to you in their name. Oh ! can you stand here and look upon these faces full of mourning for the past, full of grief over that which cannot be redeemed ? But yet there plays a pleasant smile; a beam of hope comes gushing from each eye. Let it gush upon the altars of your heart, rekindle the flames that have almost gone out, and here today let all Georgia's sons come and unite in this great and glorious work. Her banner hangs drooping. Her proud institutions live only in memory. When she was a white man's government she was proud, hon ored, happy, prosperous. Come, and at this altar unite with, me, and, by the grace of heaven, let us once more make Georgia a white man's gov ernment. It is for you to say, by your votes and by your actions, whether the sun of her greatness shall again reach to meridian splendor. Old men, come. Mothers, to your altars, and carry your daughters with

1534

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

you. Ask the prayers of heaven upon your friends, upon your fathers, your husbands, and sons. Young men, in whose veins the red blood of youth runs so quickly, let the ardor of your temperaments, the pulsations of your hearts, all beat for Georgia! Your old state, the state of your fathers, that holds in reserve honors innumerable for you and them, come! Come one and all, and let us snatch the old banner from the dust, give it again to the breeze, and, if needs be, to the God of Battles, and strike one more honest blow for constitutional liberty.
[This great speech was delivered in the national House of Representatives, on January 10, 1876, within a month after Mr. Hill took his seat in Congress. It was on the General Amnesty Bill, from the provisions of which Mr. Blaine, a representative from the State of Maine, moved to except Jefferson Davis, upon whom he sought to fix responsibility for the alleged prison horrors at Andersonville, Georgia. Mr. Blaine's inanifest purpose in making this speech was to further his political interests. He was an avowed candidate for the republican nomination for President and he sought to make friends for himself at the North by appealing to sectional animosities. He also endeavored to cast odium upon the national democracy by identifying it with the Confederate cause in the '60s, Mr. Hill, as a former Confederate States senator arid a close personal friend to Mr. Davis, familiar with the real facts in the case, was the man to reply to Mr. Blaine's vicious attack. His defense of Andersonville became a classic. He put the responsibility for prison conditions in the South where it properly belonged, viz., upon the war policy of the Federal Government, in making medicine contraband of war and in refusing to exchange prisoners. Mr. Blaine was utterly routed. He failed to capture the coveted nomination. Moreover, the popular vote, in 1876, was given to Samuel J. Tilden, the democratic nominee for President; and when the Georgia Legislature met in the following winter, Mr. Hill was elected to the Senate of the United States.]

Mr. Speaker: The House will bear witness with me that we have not sought this discussion. Nothing could have been further from the desires and purposes of those who with me represent immediately the section of country which on yesterday was put upon trial than to reopen this discussion of the events of our unhappy past. We had well hoped that the country had suffered long enough from feuds, from strife, and from inflamed passions, and we came'here, sir, with a patriotic purpose to remember nothing but the country and the whole country, and turn ing our backs upon all the horrors of the past to look with all earnestness to find glories for the future. The gentleman [Mr. Blaine] who is the acknowledged leader of the republican party on this floor, who is the aspiring leader of the republican party of this country, representing most manifestly the wishes of many of his associates not all has willed otherwise. They seem determined that the wounds which were healing shall be reopened; that the passions which were hushing shall be reinflamed.
Sir, I wish this House to understand that we do not reciprocate either the purpose or the manifest desire of the gentlemen on the other side, and while we feel it our imperative duty to vindicate the truth of history as regards the section which we represent, feeling that it is a portion of

111
illilil lllll ;J1|| iillll ; j j111 Hill! Hllll ;!11| 11 1;
!; : i:j;i :{: ,;;;j; .' ;! .& ' :! >i :|| lil . : :1 ' 1| 1! .I! ;;! ;1| ill ;|| ;:;|| ' ; ;;||

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1535

this common country, we do not intend to say anything calculated to aid the gentlemen in their work of crimination and recrimination, and of keeping up the war by politicians after brave men have said the war shall end. The gentleman from Maine on yesterday presented to the country two questions which lie manifestly intends to be the fundamental principles of the republican party, or at least of those who follow him in that party. The first is what he is pleased to term the magnanimity and grace of the republican party; the second is the brutality of those whom he is pleased to call *'' the rebels.'' Upon the first question I do not propose to weary the House today. If, with the history of the past fif teen years fresh in the memory of this people, the country is prepared to talk about the grace and magnanimity of the republican party, argument would be wasted. If, with master enslaved, intelligence disfranchised, society disorganized, industry paralyzed, states subverted, legislatures dispersed by the bayonet, the people can accord to that party the verdict of grace and magnanimity then may God save the future of our country
from grace and magnanimity. I advance directly to that portion of the gentleman's argument, which
relates to the question before the House. The gentleman from Pennsyl vania [Mr. Randall] has presented to this House, and asks it to adopt, a bill on the subject of amnesty, which is precisely the same as the bill passed in this House by the gentleman's own party, as I understand it, at the last session of Congress. The gentleman from Maine has moved a reconsideration of the vote by which it was rejected, avowing his pur pose to be to offer an amendment. The main purpose of that amendment is to except from the operation of the bill one of the citizens of this country, Mr. Jefferson Davis. He alleges two distinct reasons why he asks the House to make that exception. I will state those reasons in the gentleman's own language. First, he states that Mr. Davis was "the author knowingly, deliberately, guiltily and willfully of the gigantic crime and murder of Andersonville." That is a grave indictment. He then characterizes, in his second position, what he calls the horrors of
Andersonville, and he says of them: "And I here before God, measuring my words, knowing their full
extent and import, declare that neither the deeds of the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, nor .the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, nor the thumb screws and engines of torture of the Spanish Inquisition, begin to com pare in atrocity with the hideous crimes of Andersonville."
Sir, he stands before the country with his very fame imperiled if he, having made such charges, shall not sustain them.. Now, I take up the propositions of the gentleman in their order. I hope no one imagines that I am here to pass any eulogy upon Mr. Davis. The record upon which his fame must rest has been made up, and he and his friends have transmitted that record to the only judge who will give him an impartial judgment an honest, uiiimpassioned posterity. In the meantime, no eulogy from me can help him, no censure from the gentleman can damage him, and no act or resolution of this House can affect him. But the charge is that he is a murderer, and a deliberate, willful, guilty, and scheming murderer of "thousands of our fellow citizens." Why, sir, knowing the character of the honorable gentleman from Maine, his high reputation, when I heard the charge fall from his lips I thought surely

1536

, GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the gentleman Had made a recent discovery, and I listened for the evi dence to justify that charge. He produced it; and what is it? To my utter amazement, as the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Kelley] has well stated, it-is nothing on earth but a report of a committee of this Congress, made when passions were at their height, and it was known to the gentleman and to the whole country eight years ago.
Now, I say first, in relation to that testimony, that it is exclusively ex parte. It was taken when the gentleman who is now put upon trial by it before the country was imprisoned and in chains, without a hearing and without an opportunity to be heard. It was taken by enemies. It was taken in the midst of fury and rage. If there is anything in AngloSaxon law which ought to be considered sacred, it is the high privilege of an Englishman not to be condemned until he shall be confronted with the witnesses against him. But that is not all. The testimony produced by the gentleman is not only ex parte, not only exclusively the production of enemies, or at least taken by them and in the heat of passion, but the testimony is mutilated; ingeniously mutilated, palpably mutilated, most adroitly mutilated. Why, sir, one of the main witnesses is Dr. Joseph Jones, a very excellent gentleman, who was called upon to give his testi mony in what is called the Wirz trial, and which is produced before this House and attention called to it by the gentleman. The object of the gentleman was to prove that Mr. Davis knew of these atrocities at Andersonville, and he calls the attention of the House to the report of this committee, and thanks God it has been taken in time to be put where it can neither be contradicted nor gainsaid, as a perpetual guide to posterity to find out the authors of these crimes.
One of the most striking and remarkable pieces of evidence in this whole report is found in the report made by Doctor Jones, a surgeon of fine character, and sent to Andersonville by the Confederate authorities to investigate the condition of the prison. That gentleman made his report, and it is brought into this House. What is it? The first point is as to the knowledge of this report going to any of the authorities at Richmond. Here is what Doctor Jones says :
"I have just completed the report, which I placed in the hands of the judge-advocate, under orders from the government, when the Con federacy went to pieces. That report never was delivered to the surgeongeneral, and I was unaware that any one knew of its existence until I received orders from the United States Government to bring it and deliver it to this court in testimony.''
Now, he was ordered by the United States Government, the first time this report ever saw the light, to bring it and deliver it on the trial of Wirz. In accordance with that order, he did bring it and deliver it to the judge advocate-general. And when the report itself, or that which purported to be the report, was presented to him while he was a witness, he discovered that it was mutilated, and he asked permission to state that fact. Hear what he says on that subject:
"I beg leave to make a statement to the court. That portion of my report which has been read is only a small part of the report. The real report contains the excuses which were given by the officers present at Andersonville, which I thought it right to embody in my report. It also contains documents forwarded to Richmond by Dr. White and Dr

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1537

Stevenson, and others in charge of the hospitals. Those documents con tained important facts as to the labors of the medical department and their efforts to better the condition of things.''
All that part of the report is suppressed, and with that suppression this magnificent receptacle of truth is filed away in the document room for the information of posterity. * * * Now I want to call attention to another extract from that original report a part not included in this book. There are a great many such omissions; I have not been able to get all of them. Doctor Jones, in his report, is giving an account of the causes of the sickness and mortality at Andersonville; and he says, among other things:
"Surrounded by these depressing agents, the postponement of the general exchange of prisoners and the constantly receding hopes of deliv erance through the action of their own Government, depressed their already desponding spirits and destroyed those mental and moral ener gies so necessary for a successful struggle against disease and its agents. Home-sickness and disappointment, mental depression and distress, at tending the daily longing for an apparently hopeless release, are felt to be as potent agencies in the destruction of these prisoners as. the physical causes of actual disease."
Ah, why that homesickness, that longing, and the distress consequent upon it, and its effect in carrying those poor, brave, unfortunate heroes to death ? I will tell this House before I am done.
Now, sir, there is another fact. Wirz was put upon trial, but really Mr. Davis was the man intended to be tried through him. Over 160 witnesses were introduced before the military commission. The trial lasted three months. The whole country was under military despotism; citizens labored under duress; and quite a large number of Confederates were seeking to make favor with the powers of the Government. Yet, sir, during those three months, with all the witnesses they could bring to Washington, not one single man ever mentioned the name of Mr. Davis in connection with a single atrocity at Andersonville, or elsewhere. The gentleman from Maine with all his research into all the histories of the Duke of Alva and the Massacre of St. Bartholomew and the Spanish Inquisition, has not been able to frighten up a witness yet.
Now, sir, there is a witness on this subject. Wirz was condemned, found guilty, sentenced to be executed;, and I have now before me the written statement of his counsel, a northern man and a Union man. He gave this statement to .the country, and it has never been contradicted. Hear what this gentleman says: .
'' On the night before the execution of the prisoner Wirz, a telegram was sent to the Northern press from this city stating that Wirz had made important disclosures to General L. C. Baker, the well-known detective, implicating Jefferson Davis, and that the confession would probably be given to the public. On the same evening some parties came to the con fessor of Wirz, Rev. Father Boyle, and also to me as his counsel, one of them informing me that a high cabinet officer wished to assure Wirz that if he would implicate Jefferson Davis with atrocities committed at Andersonville his sentence would be commuted. The messenger requested me to inform Wirz of this. In the presence of Father Boyle I told Wirz next morning what had happened.''

1538

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Hear the reply: "Captain Wirz simply and quietly replied: 'Mr. Schade, you know that I have always told you that I do not know anything about Jefferson Davis. He had no connection with me as to what was done at Andersonville. I would not become a traitor against him or anybody else even to save my life.'' Sir, what AVirz, within two hours of his execution, would not say for his life, the gentleman from Maine says to the contrary to keep himself" and his party in power. Christianity is a falsehood, humanity is a lie, civilization is a cheat, or the man who would not make a false charge for his life was never guilty of a willful murder. He who makes a charge must produce his witnesses. They must be informed witnesses. They must be credible witnesses. The gentleman from Maine makes his charge but produces no witnesses. He says that men sent by Jefferson Davis to Andersonville were his officers, executing his orders, commissioned by him, and he therefore charges Mr. Davis with these atrocities by infer ence. It was only when the gentleman reached that portion of his argu ment that I thought I began to discover the real purpose of his movement. I will not charge him with it, but a suggestion came immediately to my
mind. What is the proposition which the gentleman proposes to establish?
It is that those high in authority are to be -charged with the sins and treacheries of their agents, commissioned by them and acting under their orders. Is the gentleman artfully I beg pardon under cover of the prejudice and passion against Jefferson Da.vis, seeking to assault Presi dent Grant? If Jefferson Davis sent General Winder to Andersonville, why President Grant sent McDonald and Joyce to St. Louis. Nay, more, sir; is not the very secretary of the White House, the private confiden tial secretary, indicted today for complicity in these frauds. Does the gentleman want to establish a rule of construction by which he can authorize the country to arraign General Grant for complicity in the whisky frauds ?
Sir, is General Grant responsible for the Credit Mobilier? Was he a stockholder in the Sanborn contracts 1 Was he co-partner in the frauds upon this district ? With all his witnesses, the gentleman never can find a single man who was confidential secretary to Mr. Davis and charged with complicity in crime, that Mr. Davis ever endorsed any man as fit for office who was even gravely charged with any complicity in fraud. Yet the gentleman's President, as I understand it, absolutely sent to the Senate of the United States for confirmation to a high office the very man who stood charged before the country with the grossest peculations and frauds in this district, and that, too, after these charges were made and while the investigation was pending.
Sir, I am neither the author nor the disciple of such political logic. And I will not, nor would I for any consideration, assume the proposition before this House to punish an enemy that would implicate the President of the United States in the grossest of frauds. Yet if the gentleman's proposition be true, General Grant, instead of being entitled to a third term as President, is entitled to twenty terms in twenty penitentiaries. But, sir, he is not guilty. The argument is false. It is a libel upon the American rule of law7 and English precedent. You cannot find its prece-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1539

dent anywhere in any civilized country. I acquit General Grant of complicity in the whisky frauds and revenue frauds, and the facts acquit Mr. Davis of complicity in any atrocity anywhere.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I pass from the construction of that question to the real facts about Andersonville. First, I want to call the attention of the House to the law of the Confederate Government on the subject of the treatment of prisoners. I read from the act of the Confederate Con &gress upon that subject. It was very simple and directed that "the rations furnished prisoners of war shall be the same in quantity and quality as those furnished to enlisted men in the army of the Confed eracy." That was the law; that was the law Mr. Davis approved; and that was the law which he, so far as his agency was concerned, executed.
The gentleman in his speech has gone so far as to say that Mr. Davis purposely sent General Winder to Andersonville to organize a den of horrors and kill Federal soldiers. I do not quote exactly his language, but I know it is " to organize a den of horrors;'' but I am sure I can use no language more bitter than the gentleman used himself. Therefore, the next thing I shall read is the order given for the purpose of locating this prison at Andersonville, or wherever it should be properly located. The official drder for the location of the stockade enjoins that it should be in a "healthy locality, with plenty of pure water, with a running stream, and, if possible, with shade trees, and the immediate neighborhood of grist and saw mills.'' That does not Ipok like the organization of a den of horrors to commit murder. That was the official order. That was not all. These prisoners at Andersonville were not only allowed the rations measured out to Confederate soldiers both in quantity and quality in every respect, but they were allowed also to buy as much outside as they desired; a privilege, I am reliably informed, which was not extended to many of the Confederate prisoners. I do not know how this is. I do not wish to charge it if the facts were otherwise. But in the book which the gentleman from Maine himself produces we find this testimony given by a Union soldier. He says:
"We never had any difficulty in getting vegetables; we used to buy almost anything we wanted of the sergeant who called the roll mornings and nights. His name was Smith, I think. He was Captain Wirz's chief sergeant. We were divided into messes, eight in each mess; my mess used to buy from two to four bushels of sweet potatoes a week, at the rate of $15 Confederate money per bushel."
They got $20 of Confederate money for $1 of greenbacks in those days.
'' Turnips were bought at $20 a bushel. We had to buy our own soap for washing our own persons and clothing; we bought meat and eggs and biscuit. There seemed to be an abundance of those things; they were in the market constantly. That sergeant used to come down with a wagon load of potatoes at a time, bringing twenty or twenty-five bushels at a load sometimes.''
Now, sir, Mr. Davis himself alluded to that privilege which was allowed to the Federal soldiers. The Confederate authorities not only allowed them to purchase supplies as they pleased outside, in addition to the rations allowed them by law the same rations allowed to Confed erate soldiers but he says:

1540

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

"By an indulgence perhaps unprecedented, we have even allowed the prisoners in our hands to be supplied by their friends at home with comforts not enjoyed by the men who captured them in battle.''
The Confederate Government gave Federal prisoners the same rations the Confederate soldiers in the field received. Federal prisoners had permission to buy whatever else they pleased, and the Confederates gave their friends at home permission to furnish them the means to do so. And yet, Mr. Speaker, it is true that, in spite of all these advantages enjoyed by these prisoners, there were horrors and great horrors at Andersonville. What were the causes of those horrors? The first was want of medicine. That is given as a cause by Doctor Jones in his testi mony ; that is given by this very Father Hamilton, from whom the gen tleman from Maine read. In the very same testimony which the gentle man read, Father Hamilton says:
"I conversed with Dr. White'with regard to the condition of the men, and he told me it was not in his power to do anything for them; that he had no medicine and could not get any, and that he was doing everything in his power to help them."
Now, how was it that medicine and other essential supplies could not be obtained? Unfortunately they were not in the Confederacy. The Federal Government made medicine contraband of war; and I am not aware that any other nation on earth ever did such a thing before not even the Duke of Alva, sir. The Confederate Government, unable to introduce medicine according to its right under the laws of nations, undertook to run the blockade, and whenever possible the Federal navy captured its ships and took the medicine. Then, when no other resource was left, when it was suspected that the women of the North earth's angels, God bless them would carry quinine and other medicines of that sort, so much needed by the Federal prisoners in the South, Federal officers were charged to capture the women and examine their petticoats, to keep them from carrying medicines to Confederate soldiers and to Federal prisoners, and they were imprisoned. Surely, sir, the Confed erate Government and the southern people are not to be blamed for a poverty in medicines, food and raiment, enforced by the stringent war measures of the Federal Government a poverty which had its intended effect of immeasurable distress to the Confederate armies, although inci dentally it inflicted unavoidable distress upon the Federal soldiers in the South.
The Federal Government made clothing contraband of war. It sent down its armies, and they burned up the factories of the South wherever they could find them, for the express purpose of preventing the Con federates from furnishing clothing to their soldiers; and the Federal prisoners, of course, shared this deprivation of comfortable clothing. It was the war policy of the Federal Government to make supplies scarce. Doctor Jones in his testimony, and Father Hamilton in his testimony, which I will not stop to read to the House, explained why clothing was so scarce to Federal prisoners.
Now, then, sir, whatever horrors existed at Andersonville, not one of them could be attributed to a single act of legislation of the Confed
erate Government or to a single order of the Confederate Government, but -every horror of Andersonville grew out of the necessities of the

GEOKGIA AND GEOKGIANS

1541

occasion, which necessities were cast upon the Confederacy, by the war policy of the other side. The gentleman from Maine says that no Con federate prisoner was ever maltreated in the North. And when my friend answered from his seat, "A thousand witnesses to the contrary in Georgia alone," the gentleman from Maine joined issue, but as usual produced no testimony in support of his issue. I think the gentleman from Maine is to be excused. For ten years unfortunately he and his have been reviling the people who were not allowed to come here to meet the reviling. Now, sir, we are face to face, and when you make a charge you must bring your proof.' The time has passed when the country can accept the impudence of assertion for the force of argument, or reckless ness of statement for the truth of history.
Now, sir, I do not wish to unfold the chapter on the other side. I am an American. I honor my country, and my whole country, and it could be no pleasure to me to bring forward proof that any portion of my coun trymen had been guilty of willful murder or of cruel treatment to poor manacled prisoners. . Nor will I make any such charge. These horrors are inseparable, many of them and most of them, from a state of war. I hold in my hand a letter written by one who was a surgeon at the prison at Elmira, and he says:
"The winter of 1864-1865 was an unusually severe and rigid one, and the prisoners arriving from the Southern States during this season were mostly old men and lads, clothed in attire suitable only to the genial climate of the South. I need not state to you that this alone was ample cause for an unusual mortality among them. The surroundings were of the following nature, viz., narrow, confined limits, but a few acres in extent "
Andersonville, sir, embraced twenty-seven acres. "narrow, confined limits, but a few acres in extent, through which flowed a turbid stream of water, carrying along with it all the excremental filth and debris of the camp; this stream of water, horrible to relate, was the only source of supply for an extended period that the prisoners could use for the purposes of ablution and to quench their thirst from day to day; the tents and other shelter allotted to the camp at Elmira were insufficient and crowded to the utmost extent; hence small pox and other skin diseases raged throughout the camp.
"Here I may note that, owing to a general order from the govern ment to vaccinate the prisoners, my opportunities were ample to observe the effect of spurious and diseased matter, and there is no doubt in my mind but that syphilis was ingrafted in many instances; ugly and horri ble ulcers and eruptions of a characteristic nature were, alas, too frequent and obvious to be mistaken; small-pox cases were crowded in such a manner that it was a matter of impossibility for the surgeon to treat his patients individually; and they actually laid so adjacent that the simple movement of one would cause his neighbor to cry out in an agony of pain. The confluent and malignant type prevailed to such an extent and was of such a nature that the body would frequently be found one con tinuous scab.
"The diet and other allowances by the government for the use of the prisoners were ample, yet the poor unfortunates were allowed to starve."
Now, sir, the Confederate regulations authorized ample provisions for
Vol. Ill--18

1542

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the Federal prisoners, the same that was made for Confederate soldiers, and you charge that Mr. Davis was responsible for not having those allowances honestly supplied. The United States made provisions for Confederate prisoners, so far as rations were concerned, for feeding those in Federal hands,- and yet what says the surgeon ? '' They were allowed to starve!"
'' But why ? is a query which I will allow your readers to infer and to draw conclusions therefrom. Out of the numher of prisoners, as before mentioned, over three thousand of them now lay buried in the cemetery located near the camp for that purpose a mortality equal if not greater than that of any prison in the South. At Andersonville, as I am well informed by brother officers who endured confinement there, as well as by the records at Washington, the mortality was twelve thou sand out of, say, forty thousand prisoners. Hence it is readily to be seen that the range of mortality was no less at Elmira than at Ander sonville."
Mr. Platt Will the gentleman allow me to interrupt him a moment to ask him where he gets that statement?
Mr. Hill It is the statement of a Federal surgeon, published in the New York World.
Mr. Platt I desire to say that I live within thirty-six miles of Elmira, and that those statements are unqualifiedly false.
Mr. Hill Yes, and I suppose if one rose from the dead, the gentle man would not believe him.
Mr. Platt Does the gentleman say those statements are true? Mr. Hill Certainly I do not say that they are true, but I do say that I believe the statement of the surgeon in charge before that of a politician thirty-six miles away. Now, will the gentleman believe testi mony from the dead 1 The Bible says, '' The tree is known by its fruits.'' And, after all, what is the test of suffering of these prisoners, North and South? The test is the result. Now, I call the attention of gentle men to this fact, that the report of Mr. Stanton, the secretary of war you will believe him, will you not? on the 19th of July, 1866 send to the .library and get it exhibits the fact that of the Federal prison ers in Confederate hands during the war only 22,576 died, while of Confederate prisoners in Federal hands 26,436 died. And SurgeonGeneral Barnes reports, in an official report I suppose you will believe him that in round numbers the Confederate prisoners in Federal hands amounted to 220,000, while the Federal prisoners in Confederate hands amounted to 270,000. Out of the 270,000 in Confederate hands 22,000 died, while out of the 220,000 Confederates in Federal hands over 26,000 died. The ratio is this: More than twelve per cent of the Confederates in Federal hands died, and less than nine per cent of the Federals in Confederate hands died. What is the logic of these facts according to the gentleman from Maine? I scorn to charge murder upon the -offi cials of northern prisons, as the gentleman has done upon Confederate prison officials. I labor to demonstrate that such miseries are inevitable in prison life, no matter how humane the regulations. I would scorn, too, to use a newspaper article, unless it were .signed by one who gave his own name and whose statement, if .not true, can be disproved, and I would believe such a one in preference to any politician over there who was thirty-six miles away from Elmira. That gentleman, so prompt

GEOEGIA AND GEORGIANS

1543

to contradict a surgeon, might perhaps have smelled the small-pox, but he could not see.it, and I venture to say that if he knew the small-pox was there he would have taken very good care to keep thirty-six miles away. He is a wonderful witness. He is not even equal to the muti lated evidence brought in yesterday. But, sir, it appears from the offi cial record that the Confederates came from Elmira, from Fort Dela ware and from Rock Island, and other places, with their fingers frozen off, with their toes frozen off, and with teeth dropped out.
But the great question is behind. Every American, North and South, must lament that our country has ever impeached its civilization by such an exhibition of horrors on any side, and I speak of these things with no degree of pleasure. God knows, if I could hide them from the view of the world, I would gladly do it. But the great question is, at last, who was responsible for this state of things 1 And that is the only material question with which statesmen now should deal. Sir, it is well known that, when the war opened, at first the authorities of the United States determined that they would not exchange prisoners. The first prisoners captured by the Federal forces were the crew of the Savan nah, and they were put in chains and sentenced to be executed. Jeffer son Davis, hearing of this, communicated through the lines, and the Confederates having meanwhile also captured prisoners, he threatened retaliation in case those men suffered, and the sentence against the crew of the Savannah was not executed. Subsequently our friends from this way I believe my friend before, me from Ne.w York (Mr. Cox) was one insisted that there should be a cartel for the exchange of prison ers. In 1862 that cartel was agreed upon. In substance and briefly it was that there should be an exchange of man for man and officer for officer, and whichever held an excess at the time of exchange should parole the excess. This worked very well until 1863. I am going over the facts very briefly.
In 1863, this cartel was interrupted; the Federal authorities refused to continue the exchange. Now commenced a history which the world ought to know, and which I hope the House will grant me the privilege of stating, and I shall do it from official records. This, I say frankly to the gentleman on the other side, was in truth one of the severest blows stricken at the Confederacy, this refusal to exchange prisoners in 1863 and continued through 1864. The Confederates made every effort to renew* the cartel. Among other things, on the 2d of July,. 1863, the vice president of the Confederacy, to whom the gentleman from Maine alluded the other day in such complimentary terms, Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, was absolutely commissioned by Mr. Davis to cross the lines and come to Washington to consult with the Federal authorities, with a broad commission to agree upon any cartel satisfactory to the other side for an exchange of prisoners. Mr. Davis said to him: "Your mis sion is one of humanity and has no political aspect." Mr. Stephens undertook that work. What was the result? I wish to be careful, and I will state this exactly, correctly. Here is his letter:

1544

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

'' Confederate States Steamer, Torpedo, in "the James River, July 4, 1863: "Sir:
"As military commissioner, I am the bearer of a communication in writing from Jefferson Davis, Commander-in-Chief of the land and naval forces of the Confederate States, to Abraham Lincoln, Commanderin-Chief of the land and naval forces of United States. Hon. Robert Ould, Confederate States agent of exchange, accompanies me as secre tary, for the purpose of delivering the communication in person and conferring upon the subject to which it relates. I desire to proceed to Washington in the steamer, Torpedo, commanded by Lieutenant Hun ter Davidson, of the Confederate States navy, no person being on board but Hon. Mr. Ould, myself, and the boat's officers and crew.
"Yours most respectfully,
"ALEX. H. STEPHENS. "To S. H. Lee, Admiral."
Here is the answer:
"Acting Rear Admiral S. H. Lee, Hampton Roads: The Request of Alexander II. Stephens is inadmissible.
"GIDEON WELLS, "Secretary of the Navy."
You will acknowledge that Mr. Stephens' humane mission failed. The Confederate authorities -gave to that mission as much dignity and char acter as possible. They supposed that, of all men in the South, Mr. Ste phens most nearly had your confidence. They selected him to be the bearer of messages for the sake of humanity in behalf of the brave Fed^ eral soldiers who were unfortunate prisoners of war. The Federal Gov ernment would not even receive him; the Federal authorities would not hear him. What was the next effort? After Mr. Stephens' mission failed, the commissioner for the exchange of prisoners, Colonel Ould, having exhausted all his efforts to get the cartel renewed, on the 24th of January, 1864, wrote the following letter to Major-General E. A. Hitchcock, agent of exchange on the Federal side:
"Confederate States of America, War Department "Richmond, Va,, January 24, 1864. "Sir:
"In view of the difficulties attending the exchange and release of prisoners, I propose that all such on either side shall be attended by a proper number of their own surgeons who, under rules to be established, shall be permitted to take charge of their health and comfort. I also propose that these surgeons shall act as commissaries, with power to receive and distribute such contributions of money, food, clothing, and medicines as may be forwarded for the relief of the prisoners. I fur ther propose that these surgeons shall be selected by their own govern ment, and that they shall have full liberty, at any and all times, through the agents of exchange, to make reports not only of their own acts, but of any matters relating to the welfare of the prisoners.
"Respectfully, your obedient servant,
"ROBERT OULD, "Agent of Exchange."

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1545

"Major-General E. A. Hitchcock." The Speaker The hour of the gentleman has expired. Mr. Randall I move the gentleman from Georgia be allowed to pro
ceed. Mr. Blame I do not object; but before the gentleman from Georgia
passes from the subject upon which he is now speaking, I would be glad to know
The Speaker If there be no objection, the gentleman from Georgia will be allowed to proceed.
There was no objection. Mr. Blame I believe the gentleman from Georgia was a member of the Confederate Senate. I find in a historical book of some authenticity of character that, in the Confederate Congress, Senator Hill, of Geor gia, introduced the following resolution, relating to prisoners. Mr. Hill You are putting me on trial now, are you? Go ahead. Mr. Blaine This is the resolution: "That every person pretending to be a soldier or officer of the United States, who shall be captured on the soil of the Confederate States, after the first day of January, 1863, shall be presumed to have entered the territory of the Confederate States with the intent.to incite insurrection and abet murder; and unless satisfactory proof be adduced to the contrary before the militai'y court before which the trial shall be held, shall suffer death. This section shall continue in force until the proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln, dated at Washington on the 22nd day of September, 1862, shall be rescinded, and the policy therein announced shall be abandoned, and no longer." * Mr. Hill I will say to the gentleman from Maine, very frankly, that I have not the slghtest recollection of ever hearing that resolution before. Mr. Blaine The gentleman does not deny, however, that he is the author of it? Mr. Hill I do not know. My own impression is that I was not the author; but I do not pretend to recollect the circumstances. If the gen tleman can give me the circumstances under which. the resolution,- was introduced, they might recall the matter to my mind. Mr. Blaine Allow me to read further: "October 1, 1862 The Judiciary Committee of the Confederate Con gress made a report and offered a set of resolutions upon the subject of President Lincoln's proclamation, from which the following are extracts: 2. Every white person who shall act as a commissioned or non-com missioned officer commanding negroes or mulattoes against the Confed erate States, or who shall arm, organize, train or prepare negroes or mulattoes for military service, or aid them in any military enterprise against the Confederate States, shall, if captured, suffer death. 3. Every commissioned or non-commissioned officer of the enemy who shall incite slaves to rebellion, or pretend to give them freedom, under the aforementioned act of Congress and proclamation, by abducting or causing them to be abducted or inducing them to abscond, shall, if cap tured, suffer death. Thereupon, Senator Hill, of Georgia, is recorded as having offered the resolution I have read. Mr. Hill I was chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate. Mr. Blaine: And this resolution came directly from that committee.

1546

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

. Mr. Hill It is very probable that, like the chairman of the Commit tee on Rules at the last session, I may have consented to that report.
Mr. Blaine The gentleman then admits that he did make that report. Mr. Hill I really do not remember. I think it very likely. A Member (to Mr. Blaine) What is the book? Mr. Blaine The book from which I have read is entitled: "Repub licanism in America," by R. Guy McClellan. It appears to be a book of good credit and authenticity. I merely want it settled whether the gen tleman from Georgia was or was not the author of that resolution. Mr. Hill I say to the gentleman 'frankly that I really do not remem ber. Mr. Blaine The gentleman does not say he was not the author. Mr. Hill I do not. I will say this: I think I was not the author. Possibly I reported the resolution. It refers in terms 'to '' pretended,'' not real soldiers. Mr. Blaine I thought that inasmuch as the gentleman's line of argu ment was to show the character of the Confederate policy, this might aid him a little in calling up the facts pertinent thereto. Mr. Hill With all due deference to the gentleman, I reply that he did not think any such thing. He .thought he would divert me from the purpose of my argument and break its force Mr. Blaine Oh, no. Mr. Hill He thought he would get up a discussion about certain measures presented in the Confederate Congress having no relation to the subject now under discussion, but which grew out of the peculiar relations of the Confederate Government to a population then in servi tude a population which the Confederate Government feared might be incited to insurrection and measures might have been proposed which the Confederate Government may have thought it proper to take to pro tect helpless women and children in the South from insurrection. But I will not allow myself to be diverted by the gentleman to go either into the history of slavery or of domestic insurrection, or, as a friend near me suggests, "John Brown's Raid." I know this, that if I or any gen tleman on the committee was the author of that resolution, which I think more than probable, our purpose was not to do injustice to any man, woman, or child, .North or South, but to adopt what we deemed stringent measures within the laws of war to protect our wives and children from servile insurrection and slaughter while our brave sons were at the front. That is all, sir. But, sir, I have read a letter from the Confederate commissioners of exchange, written in 1864, proposing that each side send surgeons with the prisoners; that they nurse and treat the prisoners; that the Federal authorities should send as many as they pleased; that those surgeons be commissioned also as commissaries to furnish supplies of clothing and food and everything else needed for the comfort of prisoners. Now, sir, how did the Federal Government treat that offer 1 It broke the cartel for an exchange of prisoners; it refused to entertain a propo sition, even when Mr. Stephens headed the commission, to renew it; and, then, sir, when the Confederates proposed that their own surgeons should accompany the prisoners of the respective armies, the Federal authori ties did not answer the letter. No reply was ever received. Then, again,

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

.

1547

in August, 1864, the Confederates made two more propositions. I will state that the cartel of exchange was broken by the Federal authorities for certain alleged reasons. Well, in August, 1864, prisoners on both sides accumulating to such an extent, and the Federal Government hav ing refused every proposition from, the Confederate authorities to pro vide for the comfort and treatment of these prisoners, the Confederates next proposed, in a letter from Colonel Quid, dated the 10th of August, 1864, waiving every objection the Federal Government had made, to agree to any and all terms to renew the exchange of prisoners, man for man, and officer for officer, as the Federal Government should prescribe. Yet, sir, the latter rejected that proposition.
Then, again, in that same month of August, 1864, the Confederate authorities did this: Finding that the Federal Government would not exchange prisoners at all; that it would not let surgeons go into the Confederacy; finding that it would not let medicines be sent into the Confederacy; meanwhile the ravages of war continuing to deplete the scant supplies of the South, already unable adequately to feed its own defenders, and much less able properly to feed and clothe the thousands of prisoners in Confederate prisons, what did the Confederates propose? They proposed to send the Federal sick and wounded prisoners with out equivalent. Now, sir, I want the House and the country to under stand this: that in August, 1864, the Confederate Government officially proposed to the Federal authorities that if they would send steamships of transportation in any form to Savannah, they should have their sick and wounded prisoners without equivalent. That proposition, communi cated to the Federal authorities in August, 1864, was not answered until December, 1864; and in December, 1864, the Federal authorities sent ships to Savannah. Now, the records will show that the chief suffering at Andersonville was between August and December. The Confederate authorities sought to avert it by asking the Federal Government to come and take its prisoners, without equivalent, without return, and it refused to do that until four or five months had elapsed.
That is not the only appeal which was made to the Federal Govern ment. I now call the attention of the House to another appeal. It was from the Federal prisoners themselves. They knew as well as the southern people did the mission of Mr. Stephens. They knew the offer of Janu ary 24, for surgeons, for medicines and clothing, for comfort and food, and for provisions of every sort. They knew that the Confederate authorities had offered to let these be sent to them by their own govern ment. They knew it had been rejected. They knew of the offer of August 10, 1864. They knew of the other offer, to return sick and wounded without equivalent. They knew that all these offers had been rejected. Therefore, they held a meeting and passed the following reso lutions; and I call the attention of gentlemen on the other side to these resolutions. I ask, if they will not believe the surgeons of their hospi tals; if they will not believe Mr. Stanton's report; if they will not believe Surgeon-General Barnes' report, I beg from them to know if. they will not believe the earnest, heart-rending appeal of those starving, suffer ing heroes? Here are the resolutions passed by the Federal prisoners, the 28th of September, 1864:
"Resolved, That while allowing the Confederate authorities all due

1548

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

praise for the attentions paid to our prisoners, numbers of our men are daily consigned to early graves, in the prime of manhood, far from home and kindred, and this is not caused intentionally by the Confederate Government, but by the force of circumstances."
Brave men are always honest, and true soldiers never slander. They say the horrors they suffered were not intentional; that the Confeder ate Government had done all it could to avert them. Sir, I believe this testimony of gallant men as being of the highest character, coming from the sufferers themselves. They further resolved:
"The prisoner is obliged to go without shelter, and, in a great por tion of cases, without medicine.
"Resolved, That whereas in the fortune of war it was our lot to become prisoners, we have suffered patiently, and are still willing to suffer, if by so doing we can benefit the country; but we would most respectfully beg to say that we are not willing to suffer to further the ends of any party or clique to the detriment of our own honor, our fami lies, and our country. And we would beg this affair be explained to us, that we may continue to hold the government in the respect which is necessary to make a good citizen and soldier."
Was this touching appeal heeded ? Let any gentlemen, who belonged to the "clique or party" which the resolutions condemn, answer for his party. Now, sir, it was in reference to that state of things exactly that Doctor Jones reported, as I have already read to the House, in his report which was mutilated before the committee of Congress and in the trial of Wire it was in consequence of that very state of things that Doctor Jones said that depression of mind and despondency and homesickness of these poor prisoners carried more to their graves than did physical causes of distress. That was not wonderful at all.
But, Mr. Speaker, why were all these appeals resisted 1 Why did the Federal authorities refuse to allow their own surgeons to go with their own soldiers, and carry them medicine and clothing and comfort and treatment ? Why ? Why did they refuse to exchange man for man and officer for officer? Why did they refuse to stand up to their own solemn engagements, made in 1862, for the exchange of prisoners? Who is at fault ? There must be a reason for this. That is the next point to which I wish to call the attention of the House. Sir, listen to the reading. The New York Tribune, referring to the matter in 1864, said I sup pose you will believe the Tribune in 1864 if you do not believe it now:
"In August, the rebels offered to renew the exchange of man for man. General Grant then telegraphed the following important order: 'It is hard on our men held in Southern prisons not to exchange them, but it is humanity to those left in the ranks to fight our battles. Every man released 011 parole or otherwise becomes an active soldier against us at once, either directly or indirectly. If we commence a system of exchange which liberates all prisoners taken, we will have to fight on until the whole South is exterminated. If we hold those caught, they amount to. no more than dead men. At this particular time, to release all rebel prisoners North would insure Sherman's defeat and would compromise our safety here."
Mr. Garfield What date is that? Mr. Hill Eighteen hundred and sixty-four.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1549

Mr. Garfield What date in that year?
Mr. Hill I do not know the day or month. I have read the tele gram which was taken from the New York Tribune, after August, 1864. Here is General Grant's testimony before Committee on the Exchange of Prisoners, February 11, 1865. You believe him, do you not?
Question It has been said that we refused to exchange prisoners because we found ours starved, diseased, and unserviceable when we received them, and did not like to exchange sound men for such men.
That was the question propounded to him. His answer was: Answer There never lias been such reason as that. That has been a reason for making exchanges. I will confess that if our men who are prisoners in the South were really well taken care of, suffering nothing except a little privation of liberty, then, in a military point of view, it would not be good policy for us to exchange, because every man they 8got back is forced right into the army at once, while that is not the case with our prisoners when we receive them; in fact, the half of our returned prisoners will never go into the army again, and none of them will until after they have had a furlough of thirty or sixty days. Still, the fact of their suffering as they do is a reason for making this exchange as rapidly as possible.
Question And never has been a reason for not making the exchange ? Answer It never has. Exchanges have been suspended by reason of disagreement on the part of agents of exchange on both sides before I came in command of the armies of the United States, and it then being near the opening of the spring campaign, I did not deem it advisa ble or just to the men. who had to fight our battles to re-enforce the enemy with thirty or forty thousand disciplined troops at that time. An immediate resumption of exchange would have had the effect without giving us corresponding benefits. The suffering said to exist among our prisoners South was a powerful argument against the course pursued, and so I felt it. There is no disputing the fact that, with the knowledge that his prisoners were suffering in the South, he insisted that the exchange should not be renewed, because it would increase the military power of the enemy. Now, that may have been a good military reason. I do not quote it for the purpose of reflecting upon General Grant in the slightest. I am giving the facts of history. I insist that the Confed eracy shall not be held responsible for the war policy of the Federal Government, especially when the record proves that the Confederate authorities made every possible effort to avert these results. Nor do I allege inhumanity on the part of General Grant or the Federal Gov ernment. I have given you the facts and I have given you General Grant's interpretation of these facts. Let the world judge. Now, sir, we have authority upon that subject. Here is a letter by Junius Henri Browne. I do not know the gentleman. He signs his name to the letter. He writes like a scholar. He is a northern gentle man, and I am not aware that his statement has ever been contradicted. Now, what does he say?
"New York, August 8, 1865. "Moreover, General Butler in his speech at Lowell, Mass., stated posi tively that he had been ordered by Mr. Stanton to -put forward the negro

1550

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

question to complicate and prevent the exchange. * * * Every one is aware that when the exchange did take place, not the slightest altera tion had occurred in the question, and that our prisoners might have been released twelve or eighteen months before as at the resumption of the cartel, which would have saved to the republic at least twelve or fifteen thousand heroic lives. That they were not saved is due alone to Edwin M. Stanton's peculiar policy and dogged obstinacy; and, as I have remarked before, he is unquestionably the digger of the unnamed graves that crowd the vicinity of every Southern prison, with historic and never to be forgotten horrors."
That is the testimony of a northern man against Mr. Stanton. And he goes on:
"I regret the revival of this painful subject, but the gratuitous effort of Mr. Dana to relieve the Secretary of War from a responsibility he seems willing to bear, and which, merely as a question of policy, inde pendent of all considerations of humanity, must be regarded as of great weight, has compelled me to vindicate myself from the charge of mak ing grave statements without due consideration.
"Once for all let me declare that I have never found fault with any one because I was detained in prison, for I am well aware that was a matter in which no one but myself and a few personal friends would feel any interest; that my sole motive for impeaching the Secretary of "War was that the people of the loyal North might know to whom they were indebted for the cold-blooded and needless sacrifice of their fathers and brothers, their husbands, and their sons."
I understand tliat Mr. Browne is a contributor to Harper's Monthly, and was then. The man, so he tells you, who was responsible for these atrocities at Andersonville was the late secretary of war, Mr. Stanton.
Now, Mr. Speaker what have I proven ? I have proven that the Fed eral authorities broke the cartel for the exchange of prisoners deliber ately; I have proven that they refused to reopen that cartel when it was proposed by Mr. Stephens, as a commissioner, solely on the ground of humanity; I have proved that they made medicine contraband of war, and thereby left the South to the dreadful necessity of treating their own prisoners with such 'medicines as could be improvised in the Confederacy; I have proven that they refused to allow surgeons of their own appointment, of their own army, to accompany their prisoners in the South, with full license and liberty to carry food, medicine, and rai ment, and every comfort that the prisoners might need; I have proven that when the Federal Government made the pretext for interrupting the cartel for the exchange of prisoners, the Confederates yielded every point and proposed to exchange prisoners on the terms of the Federal Government, and that the latter refused it; I have proven that the Con federates then proposed to return the Federal sick and wounded with out equivalent, in August, 1864, and never got a reply until December, 1864; I have proven that high Federal officers gave as a reason why they should not exchange prisoners that it would be humanity to the prison ers, but cruelty to the soldiers in the field, and therefore it was a part of the Federal military policy to let Federal prisoners suffer rather than that the Confederacy should have an increase of its military force; and the Federal Government refused it, when by such exchange it would

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1551

have received more prisoners than it returned to the Confederates. Now what is the answer to all this? Against whom does the charge lie, if there are to be accusations of any, for the horrors' of Andersonville ?
Mr. Bright What was the percentage of death in the prison 1 Mr. Hill I have already given it. I have proved also that with all the horrors at Andersonville which the gentleman from Maine has so ostentatiously paraded, and for an obvious partisan purpose of exciting upon this floor a bitter sectional discussion, from which his party, and perhaps himself, may be the beneficiary, greater sufferings occurred in the prisons where Confederate soldiers were confined, and that the percentage of death was 3 per cent greater among Confederate troops in Federal hands than among Federal soldiers held by Confederates. And I need not state the contrast between the needy Confederacy and the abundance of Federal supplies and resources. Now, sir, when the gentleman rises again to give breath to that effusion of unmitigated genius, without fact to sustain it, in which he says "And I here, before God, measuring my words, knowing their full extent and import, declare that neither the deeds of the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, nor the massacre of St. Bartholomew, nor the thumbscrews and engines of the Spanish Inquisition, begin to compare in atrocity with the hideous crimes of Andersonville let him add that the mortality at Andersonville and other Confederate prisons falls short by more than three per cent the mortality in Federal prisons. Sir, if any man will reflect a moment he will see that there was a reason why the Confederate Government should desire an exchange of prisoners. It was scarce of food, pinched for clothing, closed up with a blockade of its ports; it needed troops; its ranks were thinning.'' Now, Mr; Speaker, it is proper that I should read one or two sen tences from the man who has been arraigned as 'the vilest murderer in history. After the battles around Richmond, in which McClelland was defeated, some 10,000 prisoners fell into the hands of the Confederacy. Victory had perched upon its standard, and the rejoic ing which naturally follows victory was heard in the ranks of the Con federate army. Mr. Davis went out to make a gratulatory speech. Now, gentlemen of the House, gentlemen of the other side, if you are willing to do justice, let me simply call your attention to the words of this man as they fell from his lips in this hour of victory. Speaking to the soldiers, he said: "You are fighting for all that is dearest to man; and, though opposed to a foe who disregards many of the usages of civilized war, your human ity to the wounded and prisoners was a fit and crowning glory to your valor.''
Above the victory, above every other consideration, even that victory which they believed insured protection to their homes and families, he tells them that at last their crowning glory was their humanity to the wounded and prisoners who had fallen into their hands. The gentle- man from Maine yesterday introduced the Richmond Examiner as a witness in his behalf. Now, it is a rule of law that a man cannot impeach his own witness. It is true the Examiner hated Mr. Davis with a cordial hatred. The gentleman could not perhaps have introduced the testimoney of a bitterer foe to Mr. Davis. Why did it hate him ? Here are

1552

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

its reasons: '' The chivalry and humanity of Mr. Davis will inevitably ruin the Confederacy."_ That is your witness, and the witness is worthy of your cause. You introduced the wjtness to prove Mr. Davis guilty of inhumanity, and he tells you that the humanity of Mr. Davis will ruin the Confederacy. That is not all. In the same paper it says: '' The enemy have gone from one unmanly cruelty to another." Recollect, this is your witness. '' The enemy have gone from one unmanly cruelty to another, encouraged by their impu'gnity, till they are now and have for some time been inflicting on the people of this country the worst horrors of barbarous and uncivilized war.'' Yet in spite of all this the Examiner alleged, "Mr. Davis in his dealings with the enemy was as gentle as a sucking dove."
Mr. Garfield What volume is that? Mr. Hill The same volume, page 531, and is taken from the Rich mond Examiner the paper the gentleman quoted from yesterday. And that is the truth. Those of us who were there at the time know it to be the fact. One of the persistent charges brought by that paper and some others against Mr. Davis was his humanity. Over and over again Mr. Davis has been heard to say, and I use his very language, when urged to retaliate for the horrors inflicted upon our prisoners, 1 "The inhumanity of the enemy to our prisoners can be no justification for a disregard by us of the rules of civilized war and of Christianity." Therefore he persisted in it, and this paper cried out against him that it would ruin the Confederacy.
I am sure I owe this House an apology for having detained it so long; I shall detain it but a few moments longer. After all, what should men do who really desire the restoration of peace, and to prevent the recur rence of the horrors of war ? How ought they to look at this question ? Sir, war is always horrible; war always brings hardships; it brings death, it brings sorrow, it brings ruin, it brings devastation. And he is unworthy to be called a statesman, looking toward the pacification of his country, who will parade the horrors inseparable from war for the purpose of keeping up the strife which produce the war.
I do not doubt that I am the bearer of an unwelcome message to the gentleman from Maine and his party. He says that there are Confed erates in this body, and that they are going to combine with a few from the North for the purpose of controlling this Government. If one were to listen to the gentleman on the other side he would be in doubt whether they rejoiced more when the South left the Union, or regretted most when the South came back to the Union, which their fathers helped to form, and to which they will forever hereafter contribute as much of patriotic ardor, of noble devotion, and of willing sacrifice, as the con stituents of the gentleman from Maine. Oh, Mr. Speaker, why cannot gentlemen on the other side rise to the height of this great argument of patriotism? Is the bosom of the country always to be torn with this miserable sectional debate whenever a presidential election is pending? To that great debate of half a century before secession there were left no adjourned questions. The victory of the North was absolute, and God knows the submission of the South was complete. But, sir, we have recovered from the humiliation of defeat, and we come here among you and we ask you to give us the greetings accorded to brothers by broth-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1553

ers. We propose to join you in every patriotic endeavor and to unite with you in every patriotic aspiration that looks to the benefit, the advancement, and the honor of every part of our common country. Let us, gentlemen of all parties, in this centennial year, indeed have a jubi lee of freedom. We divide with you the glories of the Revolution, and of the succeeding years of our national life before that unhappy divi sion that four years' night of gloom and despair and so we shall divide with you the glories of all the future.
Sir, my message is this: There are no Confederates in this House; there are now no Confederates anywhere; there are no Confederate schemes, ambitions, hopes, desires, or purposes here. But the South is here, and here she intends to remain. Go and pass your qualifying acts, trample upon the Constitution you have sworn to support; abnegate the pledges of your fathers; incite raids upon our people, and multiply your infidelities until they shall be like the stars of heaven or the sands of the seashore, without number; but know this, for all your iniquities the South will never again seek a remedy" in the madness of another secession. We are here; we are in the house of our fathers, our broth ers are our companions, and we are here to stay, thank God!
We come to gratify no revenges, to retaliate no wrongs, to resent no past insults, to reopen no strife. We come with a patriotic purpose to do whatever in our political power shall lie to restore an honest, eco nomical, and constitutional administration of the Government. We come charging upon the Union no wrongs to us. The Union never wronged us. The Union has been an unmixed blessing to every section, to every state, to every man of every color in America. We charge all our wrongs upon that "higher law" fanaticism that never kept a pledge nor obeyed a law. The South did not seek to leave the association of those who, she believed, would not keep fidelity to their covenants.; the South sought to go to herself; but so far from having lost our fidelity to the Constitution which our fathers made, when we sought to go, we hugged that Constitution to our bosoms, and carried it with us.
Brave Union men of the North, followers of Webster and Fillmore, of Clay and Cass and Douglass you who fought for the Union for the sake of the Union you who ceased to fight when the battle ended and the sword was sheathed we have no quarrel with you, whether repub licans or democrats. We felt your heavy arm in the carnage of battle; but above the roar of the cannon we heard your voice of kindness, call ing, '' Brothers, come back!'' And we bear witness to you this day that that voice of kindness did more to thin the Confederate ranks and to Aveaken the Confederate cause than did all the artillery exploded in the struggle. We are here to co-operate with you; to do whatever we can in spite of all our sorrows to rebuild the Union; to restore peace; to be a blessing to the country; and to make the American Union what our fathers intended it to be the glory of America and a blessing to humanity.
But to you, gentlemen, who seek still to continue strife, and who, not satisfied with the sufferings already endured, the blood already shed, the waste already committed, insist that we shall be treated as criminals and oppressed as victims, only because we defended our con-. victions to you we make no concessions. To you who followed up the

1554

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

war after the brave soldiers that fought it had made peace and gone to their homes to you we have no concessions to offer. Martyrs owe no apologies to tyrants. And while we are ready to make every sacrifice for the Union, even secession, however defeated and humbled, will con fess no sins to fanaticism, however bigoted and exacting. Yet, while we make you no concessions, we come even to you in no spirit of revenge. We would multiply blessings in common for you and for us. We have but one ambition, and that is to add our political power to the patriotic Union men of the North in order to compel fanaticism to obey the law and live in the Union, according to the Constitution. We do not pro pose to compel you by oaths, for you who breed strife only to get office and power will not keep oaths.
Sir, we did the Union one great wrong. The Union never wronged the South; but we of the South did to the Union one great wrong; and we come, as far as we can, to repair it. We wronged the Union griev ously when we left it to be seized and rent and torn by the men who had denounced it as "a covenant with hell and a league with the devil." We ask you, gentlemen of the republican party, to rise above all your animosities. Forget your own sins. Let us unite to repair the evils that distract and oppress the country. Let us turn our backs upon the past, and let it be said in the future that he shall be the greatest patriot, the truest patriot, the noblest patriot, who shall do most to repair the wrongs of the past and promote the glories of the future.

BENJAMIN H. HILL : DEFIANCE TO FEDERAL BAYONETS

[Extract from an address delivered in Davis Hall, Atlanta, Georgia, on July 16, 1867, against the military measures of reconstruction. Mr. Hill, on this occasion, spoke in the presence of armed Federal troops, whose bristling bayonets and flashing sabers failed to intimidate him in the least. His denunciation of the military regime in Georgia was most withering, and as a masterpiece of fearless invective this wonderful philippic has doubtless never been surpassed in the history of free speech. Clad in full regalia, the Federal troops entered the hall, just as Mr. Hill arose to deliver his address, and occupied seats directly in front of the speaker.]

What excuse can we offer to our posterity and to the world if we, in this day, with the lessons of history before us, allow free institutions to perish on this continent? We have not yet lived a century. It is but seventy-eight years since the Constitution was framed, and but ninetyone years since independence .was declared by our fathers, while the Commonwealth of Rome lived 400 years before the measures which produced her decay were proposed. What a spectacle! The best people, the richest soil, the most valuable productions, established as if by the providence of God as a new era in the history of the world, and bidding fair to be the shortest-lived of any free government in the history of nations.
There is no difficulty whatever and I assert it without fear of con tradiction in discovering when and how a nation is dying. The great symptom is a disregard of the fundamental law. I charge before heaven

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

1555

and the American people this day that every evil by which we have been afflicted is due directly to a violation of the Constitution. Tinkers may work, quacks may prescribe, and demagogues may deceive, but I declare to you there is no remedy for us arid no hope of escape from the threat ened evils but in adhering to the Constitution. I have come to talk freely to you about the dangers of the country. I have no personal attacks to make on an enemy,"even if I have one. God knows, if I could, with my own hands, I would gladly place a crown of imperishable honor upon the brow of my bitterest foe, if I could thereby rescue my country from the perils that environ it! But, if I have an enemy and have a vindictive spirit and desire him to become forever infamous, 1 could ask no more of him than that he should support the hellish schemes of those who are seeking to subvert the Constitution and destroy our liberty. He is digging a grave for himself which posterity will never water with a tear. * * *
It is my business to support the Constitution and my duty and pleas ure to persuade others to do so. Some of you who favor the acceptance of these military bills take an oath to this effect and still intend to vote for a convention which you admit to be unconstitutional. How is this? If you have a conscience I have said enough. Oh, I pity the race of colored people who have never been taught what an oath is or what the Constitution means. They.are drawn up by a selfish conclave of traitors to inflict a death-blow upon the life of the Republic by swearing them into a falsehood. They are to begin their political life by perjury to accomplish treason. I would not visit the penalty upon them. They are ^either legally nor morally responsible; but you it is educated, design ing white men who thus devote yourselves to the unholy work who are the guilty parties. You prate about your loyalty! I look you in the eye and denounce you. You are morally and legally perjured traitors. You perjxvre yourselves and perjure the poor negro to help your treason. You cannot escape' it. You may boast of it 'now, when passion is rife, but the time will come when the very thought of it will wither your soul and make you hide from the face of mankind. * * *
Though an effort is being made to destroy us as Rome was destroyed, I believe the effort Mail fail. I have great faith in the Anglo-Saxon blood. I derive great encouragement from Anglo-Saxon history. Our liberty was not born in a day. It is not the work of one generation. It is the fruit of a hundred struggles. Often traitors have sought to substitute arbitrary will for established law; and often have the people for a time been misled. But thus far they have always waked up and called the traitors and factionists to account.
Charles I trampled upon the Constitution. He had judges who de cided that his will was law and all who .resisted that will and defended' the Constitution were punished as disloyal. No doubt if you weak-kneed radicals of the South had lived in that day you would have said: '' The Constitution is dead, and we must consent to what we cannot resist." But John Hampden would not consent. He resisted. He was tried as a criminal for resisting and was condemned. But what was the sequel? The people finally arose in power. Charles and his ministers perished. The very judges that condemned Hampden were themselves tried and condemned as criminals; and the very officers, the sheriffs who executed

1556

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the orders of Charles and his courts, were sued by the citizens for dam ages and made to pay nearly a million of dollars for executing the proc esses of an unconstitutional law. So Cromwell and his Parliament violated the Constitution and, though they also flourished for a season, they, too, were overthrown. So James II trampled on the Constitution, and had to fly his kingdom, a fugitive for life.
In all these struggles good men for a time suffered and bad men for a time ruled, but the English race has never failed to rescue its chartered liberties from the power both of traitors and fanatics. I tell you the American people will not always be deceived. They will rise in defense of the Constitution and traitors will tremble. They who rallied 3,000,000 strong to defeat what they considered an armed assault upon the Constitution and Union will not sleep until a few hundred traitors from behind the masked battery of congressional oaths and deceptive preten sions of loyalty shall utterly batter down the Constitution and Union forever. I warn you, by the history of your own fathers, by every instinct of manhood, by every right of liberty, by every impulse of justice, that the day is coming when you will feel the power of an out raged and betrayed people. Go on confiscating! Arrest without war rant or probable cause; destroy habeas corpus; deny trial by jury; abro gate state governments; defile your own race and flippantly say the Constitution is dead! On with your work of ruin, ye hell-born rioters in sacred things, but remember that for all these things the people will bring you into judgment!

JOSEPH E. BROWN: EULOGY ON ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS

[Extract from an address delivered at the memorial exercises in At lanta, on March 8, 1883. Senator Brown was one of Georgia's most distinguished sons. Pour times elected governor, he occupied the execu tive chair during the stormy days of the Civil war. He afterwards became chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia and closed his illustrious career in the Senate of the United States.]

No name has been longer or better known in public life or more uni versally honored than the name of the Great Commoner whose sad demise we meet to mourn. Whether as attorney at law, or as a member of the Legislature of his native state, or as a member of Congress, where his services have given him so much renown for so long a time; or as vice president of the Confederate States; or as governor of our own beloved state, he has been the same eloquent and able champion of constitutional liberty, local self-government and human rights.
Even in his retirement, which was self-imposed for a time, his literary and historical labors on the same line, for the protection of human lib erty, have enrolled his name indelibly on a bright page in the Temple of Fame. His feeble, delicate form, worn down with disease, after a long struggle succumbed to death; but his gigantic intellect was brilliant and powerful during his whole career. The name of Alexander H. Stephens can never die as long as liberty dwells on earth, and intellect and virtue are honored by the good and the great. He was emphatically a good man as well as a great man. His sympathy was co-extensive

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1557

with the miseries of his race. He was always ready to minister consola tion in every case of .distress, and relief to the extent of his ability in every case of need. His life was devoted to the pleasure and welfare of others. He was the ardent friend of education, and did more than any other man who has lived in Georgia for the education of young men in need of assistance. But such was his modesty, that even his most intimate friends seldom heard him speak of what he was doing or suffering for others. He has left behind him a spotless character. He has blessed the generation in which he lived with a noble example. He has been, in the highest sense of the term, a public benefactor. His great intel lectuality, his distinguished patriotism, his acknowledged statesmanship, his profound philosophy, his accurate knowledge of human nature, his keen penetration into the future, his wisdom in council, his fidelity to principle and to friendship, his philanthropy, his sympathy for the poor, his relief of the needy, and his universal Christian charity, are qualities more to be desired, decorations of human character of greater value, than all the wealth of Croesus, or the glitter of the royal diadem, emblem, of absolutism, which sparkles upon the brow of the Czar of all the Russias.
But our friend, true and cherished the friend of his race, so patient in his suffering and so true to every trust has been called from his labors that his works may follow him, and that he may enter upon his everlasting reward. Individually, I feel that my loss is irreparable. For more than a quarter of a century, he had not only borne to me the relation of a friend, but he was my bosom friend. I loved him; I hon ored him; I conferred freely with him. He was wise, and good, and great. But my loved and honored friend sleeps the long sleep of death, and I am left to mourn his loss. If the proprieties of the occasion per mitted, I could not trust myself to enlarge. I feel more like weeping than speaking. Friend, counsellor, companion he is gone, and I can see him no more in this world!

"He was a man take him for all in all I shall not look upon his like again.''

Peace to his ashes; and, while his immortal spirit dwells with God who gave it, may perpetual blessings cluster around his honored name!

GEORGE F. PIERCE: THE BIBLE

[Extract from an address delivered before the literary societies of Emory College, Oxford, Georgia, July 19, 1842, during the annual commencement. It was subsequently repeated in substance before the American Bible Society, at a great meeting in New York, in 1844. Bishop Pierce was one of the foremost pulpit orators of his day and was known as "the Demosthenes of Southern Methodism."]

Let us, then, teach the doctrine, apply the motives, and enforce the morals of this inspired volume, and the annual revolutions of Time's wheel shall evolve from these literary retreats virtuous citizens if not pious saints. As the Tree of Knowledge was the original instrument
vol. in 19

1558

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

of temptation, let us remember in all our aspirations after learning that, as the society of the world approximates nearer and nearer to that state when men are governed by opinion rather than by law, it becomes more and more necessary that the process of education should become a living organism, instinct with the spirit and power of our holy religion. He who is best educated for the world to come is best educated for the world that now is. I would not displace any book necessary to be known; I would not substitute the Bible for everything else; but I would have it the groundwork and companion of the whole course. We talk of the expansive power of other studies, of their discipline, their scope, and their elevation; and true it is that the mind grows dwarfish or gigantic, according to the subjects with which it is familiar. If, then, you would set your seal to give the world assurance of a man, let him span the disclosures of Revelation, scale the altitudes of eternal truth, explore the depths of infinite wisdom,, and soar amid the glories of immortality, unveiled and spiritual; and then he will descend, like Moses from the mount, radiant with the light of high communion.
In this treasured volume lies not only the mystery of mysteries, but in it is the oldest history history, past, present, and to come poetry, alive, breathing, bounding; philosophy, condensed but comprehensive, deep but clear, profound but intelligible. We wander with the geologist, book in hand, all delight; look upon the surface, dig through some few strata of the earth; enter some dark and curious caverns; scan the pre cipitous banks of some rushing torrent as it hastens to its ocean home; but this book plants us amid the angel groups as -they gaze upon the laying of the cornerstone of this material temple, and poises us over the heaving abyss where creative power is energizing, and wraps us in wonder and praise as the choral song of the morning stars breaks upon the cradle slumbers of the new-born world. We talk of the illustrious discoveries of science, and disport among stars and suns and systems; stand upon the outposts of telescopic vision, awe-struck with the amplitude of range; but this book stretches infinitudes beyond the orbits of astronomy, and leaving all calculation and measurement behind, dooms imagination itself to fold its wings in weariness; opens faith's interior eye; unrolls the scenery of judgment; sweeps off: our terrestrial habitation and the planetary glories that now bestud our sky; reorganizes the dust of the sepulchre; bids a new creation rise, redeemed man rejoice, heaven his home and eternity his lifetime.
0, tell me if a book like that can be read and studied, without a
quickening impulse, without expansive views, without an upward, on
ward motion. As well might the flowers sleep when spring winds her
merry horn to call them from their wintry bed. As well might the sun
beams lie folded in the curtain of night when "the king of day comes
rejoicing in the East." As well might the exhalations of the ocean
linger upon its bosom when the sun beckons them to the thunder's home.
Away, away forever with the heresy that the Bible fetters intellect! It
is the oracle of all intelligence, the charter of our rights, '' the day-spring
from on high." What was the Reformation but the resurrection of the
Bible? Cloistered in monastic seclusion, it lay for a thousand years,
hidden, silent, and degraded. The dense vapors which went up from the
fens of papal corruption shrouded in deep eclipse the lore of the world,

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

1559

and men groped in the gloom of a long and awful night. Intellect, smit ten from its pride of place, fell cowering in abject servility at the foot stool of power. Superstition shackled the multitude, and the spirit of liberty slept beneath its wizard spell. Opinion, panic-stricken by the thunders of the Vatican, hushed its trumpet tones and left the empire of mind to darkness and to Rome. .But, lo, in the cycle of years a change. The genius of Luther evoked the Bible from its retreat to disenchant the nations. It came, and breathing upon the valley of vision, its dishonored relics lived. It looked upon the sleeping sea, and the ice-bound waters melted beneath its glance. When from her dungeon gloom imprisoned Europe cried, "Watchman, what of the night?" the watchman said, "The Morning cometh.'' The ghosts of a mystic theology fled from the spread ing day. The gloomy prejudices which had stagnated all the elements of enterprise let go their barbarian hold, and the powers which had rusted for ages in iron sleep, emancipated, rushed -to the conflict, on the issue of which the destinies of the world were periled. Intellect, roused by the battle-shout, with new-found strength, burst from its thralldom, forged its fetters into swords, and fought its way to freedom and to fame.
Yes, it was the Bible which presided over the revival of letters and unrolled the manuscripts of ancient wisdom for the perusal of the na tions ; it was the Bible that unlocked the prison doors of knowledge and bade her go forth to teach the people their dignity and their rights; it was the Bible that wrenched from the reeking jaws of a ravenous usurpa tion the bleeding form of mangled liberty, and restored her to the earth, healed and sound, a blessing and a guardian. When, in after years, denied a home by the despotic monarchies of the Old World, these ancient companions braved the wide Atlantic's roar, and together sought a refuge in these western wilds. Let the Bible keep alive the spirit of liberty among the people and the spirit of reverence for God, and the Republic is safe. Let lawless violence, or reasons of state, or an in triguing infidelity sequester the Holy Volume, forbid it to walk upon the unquiet sea of human passions, and the last hope of patriots and the world is gone. This young Republic, smitten in the greenness of her years, shall be stretched to the gaze of nations, a livid corpse, the scorn of kings, and none so poor as to do her reverence.
Hear me, my country! Hear me for your honor and your perpe tuity ! Have done with your idolatry of patriotism, of talent, of govern ment your dependence on men and wealth and power! Away with your jealousy of the Bible, its influences and its institutions! Chris tianity is the vital spirit of the Republic, the richest treasure of a gen erous people, the salt of our learning, the bond of our union. Send religion and education in indissoluble wedlock to traverse the land in its length and breadth. Let the mother teach the Bible to her daugh ters, the father to his sons, the schoolmaster to his pupils, the professor to his class, the preacher to his congregation. Let the people read it by the morning's dawn and at evening's holy hour. Let the light of it gleam from the sanctuary, the college, the academy, and the private dwelling; and then will glory dwell in our midst and the light of salva tion overlay the land, as the sunbeams of morning spread upon the
mountain.

1560

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

JOHN MACPHEESON BERBIEN : '' STAND BACK, IT Is NOT LAWFUL TO ENTER HERE."

[Judge Berrien was termed "the American Cicero." This sobriquet was bestowed upon him at a time when Calhoun, Clay, and Webster were Ms colleagues in the United States Senate and when eloquence registered' its high water mark on this side of the Atlantic. Except for a few scat tered fragments, the great speeches of Judge Berrien are lost. The speech from which these extracts are taken was delivered in the United States Senate when Judge Berrien was quite an old man. It does not represent his eloquence in its splendid noontide of power, but it furnishes the best specimen of his style extant. It was delivered on February 25, 1845, in opposition to the annexation of Texas.]

Mr. President: If there is no one who is disposed to engage in the debate at this moment, I will proceed as far as my strength will permit to discharge my own duty on this momentous occasion. And if I should be so fortunate as to gain the ear of the Senate, they must do me the favor to yield it to gentler tones than those by which it has been recently greeted. I have neither the inclination nor the physical ability to imi tate, in this respect, the honorable senator who has preceded me. No, sir. I would speak to you the words of truth and soberness, not languidly or coldly or without emotion, ..but in the spirit and with the feeling which may become an American senator appealing to the intelligence and to the patriotism of his associates.
The honorable senator forbears to discuss the question of constitu tional power. He assumes that. Sir, it is always convenient to assume what it is difficult to prove and the senator from Ohio has profited by the observance of the maxim. He addresses himself, therefore, to the question of expediency; and the expediency of incorporating a foreign state into this Union is maintained on the ground that this incorporation is necessary to enable us successfully to compete with England for the commerce of the world. Broken as it is into fragments, in the progress of the senator's remarks, this is the head and front, the sum and substance, of the argument which he has addressed to the Senate. Without intending to scan the statistical facts which he has presented to us or to examine in detail the conclusions to which they have conducted him, I desire simply to inform the honorable senator and to remind the Senate that there is no single fact which he has stated, in relation.to the com mercial rivalry of Great Britain, which did not exist or might not with as little license have been imagined to exist, when the treaty for the annexation of Texas was under discussion as at the present moment. All the considerations which he has urged today in support of this joint reso lution existed then, yet that treaty was rejected by an unprecedented majority of the American Senate, not for want of power, but because it was unexpedient to ratify it; and the senator from Ohio concurred in that rejection. I prefer the first sober thought of the honorable senator to that which has grown, up after an exciting canvass, even enforced as the latter is by the thunder of his eloquence.
But, sir, it is not expedient for me to do what, in my judgment, the Constitution forbids.' I may not therefore exercise my imagination in

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1561

picturing to myself or in representing to the Senate the brilliant advan tages or the alarming evils which may result from the consummation of this measure. Say that these advantages may realize the loftiest and most sanguine hopes of the advocates; say that the evils which are antici pated are but the phantoms of the imagination; concede that Texas is indeed a terrestrial paradise in which the South may repose in the undis turbed enjoyment of her peculiar institution, reveling amid the luxuries which a genial climate and a prolific soil combine to produce, still, sir, the boon, tempting as it would be, is denied me. I may not enter the portals of this paradise. The Constitution forbids it. I hear the warning voice of Washington admonishing me to beware, lest in the indulgence of sectional feeling I may contribute to break asunder the bonds of our common union. I hear and obey the stern, prohibitory mandate of the guardian genius of my country, '' Stand back! It is not lawful to enter
here."

WALTER T. COLQUITT-. "PAINT ANOTHER STAR ON THE FLAG FOR TEXAS."

[Judge Colquitt was a great orator. But his achievements at the. bar, on the hustings, in the pulpit, and on the floor of Congress survive today only as traditions. He left behind him no speeches, the effect of which in cold type sustains his reputation or adequately reflects his genius as a prince of ante-bellum orators. This speech, delivered in the United States Senate, February 20, 1845, on the annexation of Texas, shows his political sagacity but conveys only a faint idea of his eloquence in debate. However, it is one of the few fragments which time has spared.]

The senator from Louisiana has undertaken to prove that the acqui sition of Texas will be ruinous to Louisiana; but the logic which he employs is neither convincing nor commendable. The lands of Texas will be cultivated in sugar and cotton, whatever may be the fate of the measure which is now pending, nor will the protective tariff be able to avert the menace which he imagines. Moreover, the argument is entirely too provincial. If properly carried out the honorable senator would have no difficulty ere long in proving that he should be the only sugar planter in Louisiana.
I would ask the honorable senator to elevate himself as a statesman to a point from which he can view the wide circle of our growing coun try, consider its origin and mark its rapid progression in population, prosperity and power. Cities, villages and towns are now seen thriving and prosperous where a few years since the wolf and the wildcat found safe and solitary retreats. The forest has retired before the onward march of civilization. The hills are crowned with orchards, the valleys wave with harvests, while railroads, canals and navigable streams' are laden with the products of labor and industry. From a mere handful of persecuted emigrants we have a country nourishing 20,000,000 people. The mighty tide of immigration, constantly swollen by increasing numbers, is now beating restlessly the base of the Rocky Mountains. "Will the statesman close his eyes to the condition of the country for a century to come and adopt the time-serving policy of' an hour, by refus ing a valuable heritage to posterity, for fear it may diminish the price

1562

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

of a pound of sugar and clog the sale of a quart of molasses? Such an

argument can not have a feather's weight in the minds of the intelligent

and patriotic people of Louisiana, who will look to the welfare of pos-

terity, to the interests of their children and to the glory and power of

their country. Cheap and fertile lands where the poor may find com-

fortable homes and cultivate the arts of peace can not be made an argu-

ment against the acquisition of Texas.

The senator from Louisiana has fully satisfied us of his disregard to

the opinions and wishes of his state. He seems to fancy that an obstinate

adherence to his own will, in defiance of public sentiment, is an evidence

of independence and firmness which will entitle him to admiration. For

my own part, I shall neither laud nor sympathize with any man who

becomes a willing sacrifice upon the altar of his own conceit. We are

but the agents through whom the people govern themselves; and it can

never be an enviable office for the representative to brand the people

who have honored him and imagine that he gives evidence of his superior-

ity by treating the intelligence of his constituents with contempt.

But, sir, the most remarkable part of the speech which the senator

has made was his ill-timed and unnecessary assault upon General Jack-

son. The honorable senator from New Hampshire had alluded to the

interest which the old soldier and statesman had taken in this great

question, and urged the adoption of the measure at an early day that this

additional consolation might be afforded him before-he passed to that

"bourne from which no traveler returns." This allusion has not only

been deemed a sufficient reason to charge the senator from New Hamp-

shire with a want of self-respect and a contempt for the Senate, but as a

justification for representing General Jackson as a poisonous tree, whose

roots defiled the earth and whose branches spread disease and contamina-

tion through the body politic.

-

I had not supposed that there lived through the length and breadth

of this land one man who indulged such malevolence toward the tottering,

declining, dying patriot. After having devoted a long life in the camp

and in the cabinet to public service, when he stands on life's last plank

on the grave's crumbling verge breathing the inspirations of eternity,

the warmest affections' of his heart still clustering about the altars of his

country, he dares speak to her counsellors in accents of remonstrance

and love; and for this the senator from Louisiana denounces his admoni-

tions as pestilential and poisonous. Is there another living man, no

matter how bitter his enmity may have been in younger life, whose feel-

ings have not been mellowed into kindness, who is not willing to forgive

and forget the strifes and rivalries of ambition and strew flowers around

the opening tomb of the dying hero and statesman? With him the whis-

perings of earthly glory are hushed and even an enemy might forget his

errors and remember only his virtues. Above all, the senator who repre-

sents that proud city whose foundation stones drank the old soldier's

willing blood, shed in her defense, should not, in the American Senate,

and in the face of the American people, have so far forgotten himself

and the people who have honored him, as to have spit his gall upon the

character and feelings of their preserver and defender. General Jack-

son, however, will not find it necessary to extract an epitaph or covet

i .i

H

sli

I

::|;|

|s|

is

........:i!

:'|.|i|

: i!

-|.|'|:|

.|j|

i:i|i

.'ill

: |||

!l

si

|:|i|

-: ::;;!

is

,|i|i|

is

ii

iiiii

is

ij

s|

iii

|||i|

,:;J

iiiii

siii

.: 1

s:s

l.lllf'

iili||

: ;||||

ill!!!

illll

.

ill!!

-I!!!!!

11111

ill!!

ill!!!

"Illll

'i Illll

Jill!

Illll

Illll

i iiiii!!!!

"lllli

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1563

praise from his revilers; for his memory will live forever in the hearts of his countrymen.
It will not only be a cause of joy to General Jackson to witness the annexation of Texas to the Union, but to thousands of others whose hearts like his rejoice in the wealth, power and glory of the nation. Let us at once, by decisive action, secure the half-alienated affections of this infant republic. How important is this acquisition to the West! How deeply interesting to the Valley of the Mississippi! How important to people our continent with kindred spirits who worship at the same altars of freedom and religion to press farther and farther the territory upon which a hostile foot can tread to secure forever national ramparts that will guarantee the nation's safety and peace!
Sir, the people of Texas are our countrymen; they have been reared in our midst; many of them have been the companions of our childhood and the trusty friends of riper years. They have fed around the same board; played in infancy around the same knees, caught the lessons of patriotism from the same lips, and their hearts have been fired by the same love of freedom and independence. Texas is not a foreign country, but a dissevered member of our own confederacy. Her people are not strangers; they have helped to defend our own soil; they bear the scars of battle fought in sustaining the old banner. Bid them welcome as brethren to share with us a common heritage; and, by passing the reso lution upon your table, paint another star on our flag, under the wings of that proud bird which is the symbol of the nation's glory.

L. Q. C. LAMAB: EULOGY ON CHARLES SUMNEB

[Mr. Lamar was a native Georgian. It was not until reaching mature manhood that he removed to Mississippi. This address, delivered in the American House of Representatives, April 28, 1874, thrilled and elec trified a continent. It was the first real note of brotherhood sounded in either House of Congress, following the strife of civil war and the era of reconstruction. It was a difficult role which Mr. Lamar assumed on this occasion. He was a most intense southerner, standing for the timehonored traditions of his section. Mr. Sumner was an equally ardent New Englander. It was less than a decade after Appomattox. But such was the powerful effect of Mr. Lamar's speech tender, eloquent, mag nanimous, brave, and patriotic that he became the toast of the hour, and was universally acclaimed, North, South, East, and West, as the nation's peacemaker. He was subsequently sent to the United States Senate. Still later he became a member of President Cleveland's cabinet as secretary of the interior and finally closed his career on the Supreme Bench.]

'Mr. Speaker : In rising to second the resolutions just offered, I desire to add a few remarks which have occurred to me as appropriate to the occasion. I believe that they express a sentiment which pervades the hearts of all the people whose representatives are here assembled. Strange as, in looking back upon the past, the assertion may seem, im possible as it would have been ten years ago to make it, it is not the less true that today Mississippi regrets the death of Charles Sumner, and

1564

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

sincerely unites in paying honors to his memory. Not because of the splendor of his intellect, though in him was extinguished one of the brightest of the lights which have illustrated the councils of the Gov ernment for nearly a quarter of a century; not because of the high cul ture, the elegant scholarship, and the varied learning which revealed themselves so clearly in all his public efforts as to justify the application to him of Johnson's felicitous expression, "He touched nothing which he did not adorn;'' not this, though these are qualities by no means, it is . to be feared, so common in public places as to make their disappearance, in even a single instance, a matter of indifference; but because of those peculiar and strongly marked moral traits of his character which gave the coloring to the whole tenor of his singularly dramatic public career; traits which made him for a long period to a large portion of his coun trymen the object of as deep and passionate an hostility as to another he was one of enthusiastic admiration, and which are not the less the cause that .now unites all these parties, ever so widely differing, in a common sorrow today over his lifeless remains.
It is of these high moral qualities which I wish to speak; for these have been the traits which in after years, as I have considered the suc cessive acts and utterances of this remarkable man, fastened most strongly my attention, and impressed themselves most forcibly upon my imagina tion, my sensibilities, my heart. I leave to others to speak of his intel lectual superiority, of those rare gifts with which nature had so lavishly endowed him, and of the power to use them which he had acquired by education. I say nothing of his vast and varied stores of historical knowledge, or of the wide extent of his reading in the elegant literature of ancient and modern times, or if his wonderful power of retaining what he had read, or of his readiness in drawing upon these fertile resources to illustrate his own arguments. I say nothing of his eloquence as an orator, of his skill as a logician, or of his powers of fascination in the unrestrained freedom of the social circle, which last it was my misfor tune not to have experienced. These, indeed, were the qualities which gave him eminence not only in our country, but throughout the world; and which have made the name of Charles Sumner an integral part of our nation's glory. They were the qualities which gave to those moral traits of which I have spoken the power to impress themselves upon the history of the age and of civilization itself; and without which those traits, however intensely developed, would have exerted no influence beyond the personal circle immediately surrounding their possessor. More elo quent tongues than mine will do them justice. Let me speak of the char acteristics which brought the illustrious senator who has just passed away into direct and bitter antagonism for years with my own state and her sister states of the South.
Charles Sumner was born with an instinctive love of freedom, and was educated from his earliest infancy to the belief that freedom is the natural and indefeasible right of every intelligent being having the out ward form of man. In him, in fact, this creed seems to have been some thing more than a doctrine imbibed from.teachers, or a result of educa tion. To him it was a grand intuitive truth, inscribed in blazing letters upon the tablet of his inner consciousness, to deny which would have been for him to deny that he himself existed. And along with this all-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1565

controlling love of freedom he possessed a moral sensibility keenly intense and vivid, a conscientiousness which would never permit him to swerve by the breadth of a hair from what he pictured to himself as the path of duty. Thus were combined in him the characteristics which have in all ages given to religion her martyrs, and to patriotism her self-sacri ficing heroes.
To a man thoroughly permeated and imbued with such a creed, and animated and constantly actuated by such a spirit of devotion, to behold a human being or a race of human beings restrained of their natural right to liberty, for no crime by him or them committed, was to feel all the belligerent instincts of his nature roused to combat. The fact was to him a wrong which no logic could justify. It mattered not how humble in the scale of rational existence the subject of this restraint might be, how dark his skin, or how dense his ignorance. Behind all that lay for him the great principle that liberty is the birthright of all humanity, and that every individual of every race who has a soul to save is entitled to the freedom which may enable him to work out his salvation. It mattered not that the slave might be contented with his lot; that his actual condi tion might be immeasurably more desirable than that from which it had transplanted him; that it gave him physical comfort, mental and moral elevation, and religious culture not possessed by his race in any other condition; that his bonds had not been placed upon his hands by the living generation; that the mixed social system of which he formed an element had been regarded by the fathers of the republic, and by the ablest statesman who had risen up after them, as too complicated to be broken up without danger to society itself, or even to civilization; or, finally, that the actual state of things had been recognized and explicitly sanctioned by the very organic law of the republic. Weighty as these considerations might be, formidable as were the difficulties in the way of the practical enforcement of his great principle, he held none the less that it must sooner or later be enforced, though institutions and constitutions sbmild have to give way alike before it. But here let me do this great man the justice which amid the excitement of the struggle between the sections now past I may have been disposed to deny him. In this fiery zeal, and this earnest warfare against the wrong, as he viewed it, there entered no enduring personal animosity toward the men whose lot it was to be born to the system which he denounced.
It has been the kindness of the sympathy which in these later years he has displayed toward the impoverished and suffering people of the Southern States that has unveiled to me the generous and tender heart which beat beneath the bosom of the zealot, and has forced me to yield him the tribute of my respect I might even say of my admiration. Nor in the manifestation of this has there been anything which a proud and sensitive people, smarting under a sense of recent discomfiture and pres ent suffering, might not frankly accept, or which would give them just cause to suspect its sincerity. For though he raised his voice, as soon as he believed the momentous issues of this great military conflict were decided, in behalf of amnesty to the vanquished; and though he stood forward, ready to welcome back as brothers, and to re-establish in their rights as citizens, those whose valor had nearly riven asunder the Union which he loved; yet he always insisted that the most ample protection

1566

GEOKGIA.AND GEORGIANS

and the largest safeguards should be thrown around the liberties of the newly enfranchised African race. Though he knew very well that of his conquered fellow-citizens of the South by far the larger portion, even those who most heartily acquiesced in and desired the abolition of slavery, seriously questioned the expediency of investing, in a single day, and without any preliminary tutelage, so vast a body of inexperienced and uninstructed men with the full rights of freemen and voters, he would tolerate no halfway measures upon a point to him so vital.
Indeed, immediately after the war, while other minds were occupy ing themselves with different theories of reconstruction, he did not hesi tate to impress most emphatically upon the administration, not only in public, but in the confidence of private intercourse, his uncompromising resolution o oppose to the last any and every scheme which should fail to provide the surest guarantees for the personal freedom, and political rights of the race which he had undertaken to protect. Whether his measures to secure this result showed him to be a practical statesman or a theoretical enthusiast, is a question on which any decision we may pronounce today must await the inevitable revision of posterity. The spirit of magnanimity, therefore, which breathes in his utterances and manifests itself in all his acts affecting the South during the last two years of his life, was as evidently honest as it was grateful to the feelings of those toward whom it was displayed.
It was certainly a gracious act toward the South though unhappily it jarred upon the sensibilities of the people at the other extreme of the Union, and estranged from him the great body of his political friends to propose to erase from the banners of the national army the mementoes of the bloody internecine struggle, which might be regarded as assailing the pride or wounding the sensibilities of the southern people. That proposal will never be forgotten by that people so long as the name of Charles Sumner lives in the memory of man. But, while it touched the heart of the South, and elicited her profound gratitude, her people would not have asked of the North such an act of self-renunciation.
Conscious that they themselves were animated by devotion to con stitutional liberty, and that the brightest pages of history are replete with evidences of the depth and sincerity of that devotion, they cannot but cherish the recollections of sacrifices endured, the battles fought, and the victories won in defense of their hapless cause. And respecting, as all true and brave men must respect, the martial spirit with which the men of the North vindicated the integrity of the Union, and their devotion to the principles of human freedom, they do not ask, they do not wish the North to strike the mementoes of her heroism and victory from either records or monuments or battle flags. They would rather that both sections should gather up the glories won by each section; not envious,' but proud of each other, and regard them a common heritage
of American valor. Let us hope that future generations, when they remember the deeds
of heroism and devotion done on both sides, will speak not of northern prowess and southern courage, but of the heroism, fortitude, and courage of Americans in a war of ideas; a war in which each section signalized its consecration to the principles, as each understood them, of American liberty and of the Constitution received from their fathers.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1567

It was my. misfortune, perhaps my fault, personally never to have known this eminent philanthropist and statesman. The impulse was often strong upon me to go to him and offer him my hand, and my heart with it, and to express to him my thanks for his kind and considerate course toward the people with whom I am identified. If I did not yield to that impulse, it was because the thought occurred that other days were coming in which such a demonstration might be more opportune, and less liable to misconstruction. Suddenly, and without premonition, a day has come at last to which, for such a purpose, there is no tomor row. My regret is therefore intensified by the thought that I failed to speak to him out of the fullness of my heart while there was yet time.
How often is it that death thus brings unavailingly back to our remembrance opportunities unimproved, in which generous overtures, prompted by the heart, remain unoffered, frank avowals which rose to the lips remain unspoken, and the injustice and wrong of bitter. resent ments remain unrepaired! Charles Sumner, in life, believed that all occasion for strife and distrust between the North and South had passed away, and that there no longer remained any cause for continued estrangement between these two sections of our common country. Are there not many of us who believe the same thing? Is not that the com mon sentiment or if it is not, ought it not to be of the great mass of our people, North and South 1 Bound to each other by a common Con stitution, destined to live together under a common Government, form ing unitedly but a single member of the great family of nations, shall we not now at last endeavor to grow toward each other once more in heart, as we are already indissolubly linked to each other in fortunes? Shall we not, over the honored remains of this great champion of human lib erty, this feeling sympathizer with human sorrow, this earnest pleader for the exercise of human tenderness and charity, lay aside the con cealments which serve only to perpetuate misunderstandings and dis trust, and frankly confess that on both sides we most earnestly desire to be one; one not merely in community of language and literature and traditions and country; but more, and better than all that, one also in feeling and in heart? Am I mistaken in this?
Do the concealments of which I speak still cover animosities which neither time nor reflection nor the march of events have yet sufficed to subdue? I cannot believe it. Since I have been here I have watched with anxious scrutiny your sentiments as expressed not merely in public debate, but in the abandon of personal confidence. I know well the senti ments of these, my southern brothers, whose hearts are so infolded that the feeling of each is the feeling of all; and I see on both sides only the seeming of a constraint, which each apparently hesitates to dismiss. The South prostrate, exhausted, drained of her life-blood, as well as of her material resources, yet still honorable and true accepts the bitter award of the bloody arbitrament without reservation, resolutely determined to abide the result with chivalrous fidelity; yet, as if struck dumb by the magnitude of her reverses, she suffers on in silence. The North, exultant in her triumph, and elated by success, still cherishes, as we are assured, a heart full of magnanimous emotions toward her disarmed and discom fited antagonist; and yet, as if mastered y some mysterious spell, silenc-

1568

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

ing her better impulses, her words and acts are the words and acts of suspicion and distrust.
Would that the spirit of the illustrious dead whom we lament today could speak from the grave to both parties' to this deplorable discord in tones which should reach each and every heart throughout this broad territory: '' My countrymen! know one another, and you will love one
another."

0. A. LOCHRANE: "STAND BY YOUR STATE, YOUNG GEORGIANS."

[Extract from an address, delivered before the literary societies of the University of Georgia, during the commencement of 1879, by former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Hon. Osborne A. Lochrane.]

Young gentlemen, I do not plead with you to live for wealth or sta tion. The most unhappy men on this continent are those who have sacrificed most to fill conspicuous positions. The heart-burnings and envies of public life are too often the results of ambition. What a sorrowful lesson of the instability of human grandeur and ambition may be found at the feet of the weeping empress at Chiselhurst. Just as the star of the prince imperial was rising to the zenith, like a flash from heaven, it falls to the ground. Just as he was gathering about him . the hopes of empire, the assegai of the savage hurls him to the dust. Born on the steps of a throne, amid the blazing of bonfires and the con gratulations of kings, he fell in the jungles of an African wilderness, without a friend to close his eyes. Born to rule over thirty millions of people, he was deserted by all, and went into the chill of death without the pressure of a friendly hand. Although royalty carried flowers to deck his bier and princes were his pallbearers and marshals knelt at his coffin and cabinet ministers bowed their heads and his, empress mother clung over him in an agony of grief, yet, alas, the glory of his life had vanished, and out of the mass of sorrowing friends his spirit floated away, leaving to earth but a crimson memory. Life's teachings admonish us that the pathway of ambition has many thorns and the purest happi ness oftenest springs from the efforts of those who sow for the harvest ings of peace and joy at home.
And this lies at your feet in your own state. Although she has suf fered by desolation although millions of her property have been swept into ruins and thousands of her bravest have been hurried to their graves although Georgia has been weakened and bled at every pore although she has been impoverished and dismantled although she has been ridden through and trampled over by armies although she has seen in folded sleep her most gallant sons, and spirit arms reach to her from the mounds of battlefields she still has the softest skies and the most genial climate and the richest lands and the most inviting hopes to give to her children. And this is not the hour to forget her. The Koman who 'bought the land Hannibal's tent was spread upon when his legions were encamped before the very gates of Rome exhibited a spirit of con fidence and pride of country which distinguishes a great patriot. Al though disaster stared him in the face and from the Pincian Hill the enemy, like clouds, could be seen piled around, charged with the thunder

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

* 1569

of death and desolation, and the earth was reeling with the roll and tramp of armies, his heart was untouched by fear of her future. He knew that Rome would survive the tempests of the hour and that her future would be radiant with the splendid triumphs of an august pros perity, and confident of that future whose dawn he felt would redden in the East, he never dreamed of abandoning her fortunes or deserting her destiny. This was more than patriotism. It was the heroism of glory. It was the sowing of a rich heritage of example on the banks of the Tiber for the emulation of the world.
One of the mistakes men make is in leaning without labor upon expec tations too sanguine, waiting for honors to pursue them, scarcely reach ing out their hands to gather the fortunes that cluster at their feet Well did one of the old poets of Salamanca express the thought:

"If men come not to gather The roses where they stand,
They fade amid the foliage; They cannot seek his hand.''

The rose of fortune which Georgia holds out to you is rich with hope and sentiment; and in its folded leaves are more honors for her sons than there are in the rose of England, the lily of Prance, or the nettleleaf of Holstein.
Then, come together, in close and solemn resolve, to stand by her destiny, and soon the tide will run rich and riotous through the. jew eled arches of hope, flushed with her prosperity; soon will come into her borders newer and stronger elements of wealth; manufactories will spring up from her bosom and the hum of industry resound throughout her borders; the glorious names of her present statesmen will take the places of those who have gone up higher into glory, and will still hold her ban ner waving to the sky.
Come, spirit of our Empire State come from your rivers that seek the sea from the waves that wash your shore and run up to kiss your sands; come from the air that floats over your mountain-tops; come from
"Lakes where the pearls lie hid
And caves where the gems are sleeping.''

Come, spirit of a glorious ancestry, from beyond the cedars and the stars; come from the history that wraps you in its robes of light, and let me invoke the memories that hang around you like the mantle of Elijah and will be the ascension robes of your new destiny; touch the chords in these young hearts these proud representatives of your future fame that they may rise in the majesty of their love and clasp you with a stronger and holier faith, and raise monuments to your glory, higher than the towers of Baalbek. Let them warm to the fires of an intenser love and brighten with the light of a more resplendent glory; and let them swear around the altar to be still fonder and still prouder that
they are Georgians. As an adopted son, who has felt the sunshine of your skies, who has
been honored with your citizenship and with positions far beyond his

1570 *

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

merits, I vow to the majesty of your glory, here in the temple of your fame, and to your spirit I would breathe out the fondest affection and pour prayers upon your pathway; I would clothe with light and bathe 'you in a rain of summer meteors; I would crown your head with laurels, and place the palm of victory in your hands; I would lift every shadow from your heart and make rejoicing go through your valleys like a song.
Land of my adoption, where the loved sleep folded in the embrace of your flowers, would that today it were my destiny to increase the flood-tide of your glory as it will be mine to share your fortunes; for when my few more years tremble to their close I would sleep beneath your soil where the drip of April tears might fall upon my grave and the sunshine of your skies would warm southern flowers to blossom upon my breast.

CHARLES C. JONES, JR. : ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ROBERT TOOMBS

[Full text of an address delivered before the Confederate Survivors Association, of Augusta, Georgia, at its eighth annual meeting, on Memorial Day, April 26, 1886, by Col. Charles C. Jones, Jr., LL. D., president of the association. Colonel Jones was Georgia's foremost his torian, antiquarian and scholar.]

Comrades and Friends: Mirzah saw in a vision a bridge, with a hun dred arches, rising out of a thick mist at the one end and losing itself in a thick mist at the other, spanning a portion of time, and with the great tide of eternity flowing beneath. Of the vast multitude essaying to pass over this pont de vie, not a single individual, at some stage or other of the transit, escaped falling through the uncertain flooring. Many there were who, indulging in mirth and jollity, unexpectedly lapsed into the dark waters. Others, looking up toward heaven with the signs of calm speculation and Christian resignation upon their coun tenances, stumbled and disappeared. Others still, pursuing baubles which glittered in their eyes and danced before them, lost their footing and were swallowed up by the flood. Others still, their foreheads wreathed with bays, rich, powerful, influential, and saluted with honor, were, in a moment, lost to sight. And some went down with swords in their hands; some with crowns upon their heads; and a few there were who, having hobbled on almost to the farthest arch, tripped and fell, one ofter another, in feebleness and silence, as though tired and spent after a long journey. As he looked upon the farther end of the cloudenveloped valley toward which the tide was bearing the generation of mortals, and ere the good genius had revealed unto him the vast ocean of futurity stretching beyond, divided by a rock of adamant, the one .part covered with darkness, and the other dotted with innumerable islands, peopled with beings in glorious habits with garlands upon their brows, vocal with the harmony of celestial music, beautified with fruits, flowers, and fountains, and -interwoven with a thousand shining seas, Mirzah his heart moved with deep melancholy exclaimed surely man is but a shadow and life a dream.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1571

But, my comrades, it needs no journey to Grand Cairo, or inspection of oriental manuscripts, to persuade us, on this Memorial Day, that_

"All flesh is grass, and all its glory fades Like the fair flow'r dishevel'd in the wind; Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream; The man we celebrate must find a tomb, And we that worship him.''

The last twelve-month has been unusually lethiferous, and lessons of mortality ha.ve been rapidly multiplied in every station, in every land. Besides the unnumbered and the unrecorded dead falling like the leaves of autumn noiselessly and unheeded upon the bosom of Mother Earth, not a few there were, so famous in rank, fortune, literary attainment, and special service, that in descending into their graves they challenged public attention and evoked general sorrow.
But yesterday, amid the tears of the French people, Pere Lachaise opened its solemn gates to receive into the close companionship of war riors and statesmen, prelates and artists, astronomers and dramatists, physicians, poets, lawyers, novelists, and philosophers whose fame envious time has not yet impaired, all that was mortal of the venerable and idolized Victor Hugo.
Shadows are resting upon the German Empire, for the Baron von Manteufel, Frederick Charles the dashing Red Prince of many cam paigns the charming song-writer Franz Abt are not. x England laments the tragic fate of the gallant Burnaby, the unique Gordon, and their brave companions regrets that Sir Moses Montefiore, the noble Jewish philanthropist, has been gathered to his fathers, and scatters white roses over the new-made graves of Sir Francis Hincks and Lord Houghton.
The gonfalons of Spain are drooping in honor of King Alphonso and the sagacious Serrano. The soul of music is even now breathing a requiem to Doctor Damrosch, and the Mussulman sits with bowed head, for the careers of El-Maohi and Oliver Pain are ended.

Within the limits of this country, since our last annual convocation, the death harvest of prominent personages has been perhaps unprece dented. Ulysses S.' Grant, commander in chief of the Federal armies during the Civil war, twice President of the United States, and compli mented abroad with tokens of respect and distinguished consideration never before accorded to a living American; Thomas A. Hendricks, vice president of this puissant republic, of exalted statesmanship and manly qualities, a citizen of national fame and a Christian gentleman; Cardinal McCloskey, supreme prelate, in this land, of the Roman Catholic Church, venerated for his professional attainments, his charitable ministrations, and his saintly virtues; William H. Vanderbilt, the richest man in America, fostering commercial schemes of gigantic proportions, and the controlling spirit of immense corporations; Horace B. Claflin, the great est shop-keeper on this continent; Richardson, the wealthiest and most successful planter in the South; George B. McClelland, erstwhile the organizer of the Grand Army of the Potomac, a captain of lofty im-

1572

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

pulses, and a civilian of high repute; John McCullough, possessing a fine conception of, and manifesting a conscientious devotion to, "the
purpose of playing whose end both at the first, and now, was and is to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature,'to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure"; Richard Grant White, a capable scholar, a conscientious student, and an intelligent interpreter of the immortal lines of the Bard of Avon; Horatio Seymour, a lover of constitutional liberty, a genuine patriot, and well-qualified to fill the chair rendered illustrious by Jeffer son and Madison; Winfield Scott Hancock, a noble type of the warrior and statesman, who was '' wont to speak plain and to the purpose like an honest man and a soldier," whose escutcheon was never smirched even by the breath of suspicion; who, a't an epoch of misrule, uncertainty, and oppression, subordinated military despotism to civil rule and ac corded fair play to the vanquished; superb in person, head and heart, Father Ryan, the poet-priest of the South,' who sang so eloquently of the '' Sword of Lee,'' the '' Conquered Banner,'' and of

'' the Land with a grave in each spot, And names in the graves that shall not be. forgot,"

all these, and others scarcely less-distinguished,-have, since our last annual meeting, passed into the realm of shadows, bequeathing memories of peace and war, statecraft and finance, literature and art, politics and religion, of no ordinary significance. Verily the harvest has been most abundant, and the insatiate Reaper may well pause at sight of the swath his remorseless scythe has made.

Busy too has he been within the circle of our special companionship. During, the month of May three of our associates died Maj. Frederick L. Smith, of Kershaw's Division, Army of Northern Virginia; Sergt.Maj. Fee Wilson, of Byrne's Battery, First Kentucky Brigade; and Lieut.-Col. Joseph T. Armand, of the Thirty-seventh Regiment, Georgia Infantry. Private John Gallagher, of Company C, Forty-eighth Regi ment, Georgia Infantry, responded to the final summons.on the llth of July; and, on the 15th of the following August, our venerable comrade, Brig.-Gen. Goode Bryan, fell asleep. A graduate of the Military Acad emy at West Point, he was an active participant in' two wars. For gal lantry in the battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec he was promoted to a majority in the Army of Occupation. The Mexican campaign ended, he led the gentle life of a planter until summoned from that repose by the call of his native state. Entering the service of the Confederacy as the lieutenant colonel of the Sixteenth Regiment, Georgia Infantry, then commanded by that distinguished Georgian, Howell Cobb, he gave to the southern cause his loyal and unswerving allegiance. Shortly after the memorable battle of Sharpsburg in which, as colonel of his regiment, he bore a brave part, he was advanced to the grade of brigadier general, and assigned to the command of the Tenth, Fiftieth, Fifty-third and Fifty-fifth regiments of Georgia Infantry, McLaws' Division, Longstreet's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. With this brigade he con tinued to share the perils, the privations, and the glories of that hitherto

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1573

invincible army until, on the 10th of April, 1865, it was, in the language of its illustrious commander, after four years of arduous service, marked by an unsurpassed courage and fortitude, compelled to yield to over whelming numbers and resources. All struggles, dangers, and uncer tainties ended, he rests with those he loved, and the flowers of affection, respect, and veneration are blooming above his peaceful grave.
On the 12th of January last, another of our companions Capt. De Rosset Lamar was taken from us. He was an aide-de-camp at first to Brig.-Gen. Robert Toombs, then to Maj.-Gen. William H. T. Walker, and lastly to Brig.-Gen. Alfred Gumming. When General Gumming was wounded, Captain Lamar was assigned to duty with Colonel Roman, as an assistant inspector general. * * * Then, on the 15th of February, after a long illness, Private Eugene Connor, of the Washington Artil lery, found friendly sepulture in our Confederate section. * * * And, on the 18th of last month, Private William Teppe, of Company D, Fifth Regiment, South Carolina Cavalry, Butler's Division, Hampton's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, responded to the trump which sum moned him to the bivouac of the dead. * * * Alas! the circle of our fraternity is narrowing. It will grow rapidly smaller as the years roll on; and soon, aye, very soon, there will be only silent graves to greet the sun as he ushers in the return of this Memorial Day.
There is another name, high on the roll of the distinguished dead who have departed within the last twelve-month: a name promi nent in the annals of this state and nation; a name intimately associated with the memories of this region, and suggestive of much that was great and attractive; a name which should not be forgotten in the presence and on this occasion; a name borne by a gifted Georgian who, a lawyer by profession, a statesman by education, an orator by inspiration, and a citizen of marked individuality and acknowledged ability, for nearly half a century attracted the public notice, fascinated the popular ear, and, to a large extent, moulded the general thought. Aside from the prominent positions which he filled in the councils of this commonwealth and Republic, he was the first secretary of state upon the organization of the Confederate Government and, -for some time, held the rank of brigadier general in the southern army. To most, if not all of us, he was personally known. Meet it is that we render some tribute to his
memory, In Wilkes County, Georgia, on the 2d of July, 1810, Robert Toombs
was born. He came of good parentage and sprung from the loins of Revolutionary sires. In the schools of the neighborhood did he acquire his elementary education. His collegiate course begun at Franklin College in Athens, Georgia was completed at Union College in Schenectady, New York, where, in 1828, he received his degree of A. B. from the hands of that famous instructor, President Eliphalet Nott. Selecting the law as a profession, he repaired to the University of Virginia and there spent a year as a member of its law class. At school, at college, and at the university he was, by teacher and student, regarded as a youth of unusual promise and of remarkable intellect. His natural gifts were almost marvelous, and his powers of acquisition and utterance quite phenomenal. United with this mental superiority were a superb physical organization, a striking originality of thought and speech, and
Vol. Ill--20

1574

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

social characteristics most attractive. Before he attained his majority he was, by a special act of the General Assembly, admitted to the bar. Opening an office in the Town of Washington, in his native county, he rose rapidly in his profession. Impressed by the ability evinced during his early efforts in the legal arena, that great Georgian, William H. Crawford, then the presiding judge of the Northern Circuit, prophesied for Mr. Toombs a career of marked distinction. To the pursuit of his calling, and to the establishment of a reputation enviable both within and beyond the confines of the courtroom, did he devote himself with great assiduity.
In 1836, as the captain of a company of volunteers, he served under General Scott in an expedition for the pacification of the Creek Indians. The following year he was elected a member of the lower house of the General Assembly of Georgia. This position he held until 1840, and again during the session of 1842-1843. His views were bold, enlarged, emphatic; and his utterances eloquent, aggressive, and weighty. In 1844 he was, by an admiring constituency, advanced to a seat in the repre sentative chamber of the National Assembly. Here he made his debut on the Oregon question. In the judgment of Mr. Stephens, his first speech placed him in the front rank of the debaters, orators, and states
men of that body. Educated in, and a firm disciple of, the Jeffersonian school of poli
tics, Mr. Toombs then sympathized with the southern whigs. In March, 1853, he quitted the Hall of Representatives for a chair in the Senate Chamber of the United States. This he continued to occupy until the passage by Georgia of her Ordinance of Secession, when he withdrew from the National Assembly and cast his lot with the southern people in their struggle for a separate political existence.
The public utterances of Mr. Toombs as a representative and senator from Georgia have passed into history. Among them will be specially remembered his speeches defining his position on the organization of the House in 1849 on the power of the House to adopt rules prior to its organization; on the admission of California, in which he arraigned the North for repeated breaches of good faith, and demanded equality for the South in the territories; and his speech in justification of the right of secession. His lecture delivered in Boston on the 24th of January, 1856, was carefully considered, and created a profound impression. On all these, and on kindred occasions, he exhibited wonderful physical and intellectual prowess. He was now in the zenith of his fame, in the full possession of his magnetic influence and kingly gifts fearless, honest, and marvelously eloquent. In the language of another, those who did not see him then can form no conception of the '' splendor with which he moved amid those dramatic scenes. A man of marked physical beauty, the idol of a princely people golden-tongued and lion-hearted the blood of the Cavaliers flashing in his veins and the heart of the South throbbing in his breast he recalled the gifted Miribeau who, amid scenes scarcely less fiery or fateful, 'walked the forum like an emperor and confronted the commune with the majesty o'f a god.' " He gloried in the whirlwind and caught his inspiration from the storm. As though born to kindle a conflagration, he inflamed by his wonderful power of speech and swayed by his electric fire. Like unto a Scythian archer scouring the plain, he traversed the field of argument and invective and,

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1575

at full speed, discharged his deadliest arrows. In forensic battle the wheels of his war-chariot, sympathizing- with the ardent and resistless valor of him who guided them, grew incandescent.
Demosthenes, mingling the thunders of his eloquence with the roar of the ^Egean; Cicero, his eyes fixed on the Capitol, wielding at will the fierce democracy and inspiring all hearts with a love of freedom and an admiration for the triumphs of the Roman race; Otis, kindling a patriotic flame wherein "Writs of Assistance" were wholly consumed; "Warren, inscribing upon the banners of the Sons of Liberty '' Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God"; Henry, the "incarnation of Revolutionary Zeal," ringing the alarum bell and giving the signal to a continent; the impas sioned Barre, defending even within the shadow of the throne the claims of the oppressed were not more forcible in utterance, magnetic in action, or majestic in mien than Robert Toombs when contending for the privilege of free speech, or proclaiming the rights of the South as he comprehended them. The latter were paramount in his esteem. To their assertion was his supreme devotion pledged, best effort directed. Bold even to temerity in his assertions; in tone and manner emphatic to the verge of menace; by sudden bursts, savoring almost of inspira tion, essaying at critical moments to decide the fate of great questions; iconoclastic sometimes in his suggestions; he was nevertheless always true to the principles of exalted statesmanship, and loyal in the last degree to the best interests of the South as he forecast them. Mighty was his influence in precipitating the Confederate revolution. Most potent were his persuasions in inducing Georgia to secede from the Union. It was his boast that he would live and die an uncompromising opponent of the unconstitutional acts and assumed authority of the general Gov ernment.
Upon his return from Washington, Mr. Toombs took his seat in the secession convention of Georgia, where he freely participated in its delib eration, and acted a conspicuous part. As a delegate to the Confederate Congress which assembled at Montgomery, Alabama, on the 4th of Feb ruary, 1861, and as chairman of the committee from Georgia, he was largely instrumental in framing the constitution of the Confederate States. Upon the inauguration of the Hon. Jefferson Davis as president of the Southern Confederacy, the portfolio of state was tendered to and, after some hesitation on his part, was accepted by Mr. Toombs. He was content to discharge the duties of this office only during the formative period of the government. His restless spirit and active intellect could not long brook the tedium of bureau affairs, or rest satisfied with the small engagements then incident to that position. In the following July he relinquished the portfolio of a department, the records of which he facetiously remarked "he carried in his hat," and accepted service in the' field with the rank of brigadier general. His brigade was composed of the Second, Fifteenth and Twentieth regiments of Georgia Infantry, and the First Regiment of Georgia Regulars. It formed a part of Longstreet's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia.
To his imperious spirit, unused to subjection and unaccustomed to brook the suggestions and commands of others, the discipline and exac tions of military life were most irksome, and sometimes the orders ema nating from those superior in rank very distasteful. In open defiance

1576

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

of well-known army regulations he did not hesitate, on more than one occasion, to criticise, publicly and severely, military movements and instructions which did not commend themselves to his approbation. To such an extent did this show of insubordination obtain that he was suspended from the command of his brigade to await the determination of charges preferred. He resumed his command, however, at the mem orable battle of Second Manassas; and, at Sharpsburg, held the bridge with the courage and pertinacity of a modern Horatius. In the latter engagement he was wounded. In both battles he behaved with conspicu ous gallantry and received the commendation of General Lee.
On the 4th of March, 1863, he resigned his commission in the army and returned to Georgia. General Toombs was not in accord with Presi dent Davis' administration of public affairs, nor did he acquiesce in the / propriety of some of the most important enactments of the Confederate Congress. Although his affections, his hopes, and his aspirations were wholly enlisted in the southern cause although he stood prepared to render every assistance in his power he reserved and exercised the right of passing upon men and measures, and of gainsaying the qualifications of the one and the expediency of the other where they-did not challenge his personal sanction. This attitude did not conduce to general harmony. Without hesitation he claimed and enforced the dangerous privilege of denouncing publicly what he disapproved, .and of freely deriding that which his judgment did not countenance. Such conduct in one of his acknowledged ability and widespread influence would have been more tolerable in a period of peace; but when a new-born nation, confronting difficulties the most overwhelming and struggling against odds without parallel in the history of modern wars, was engaged in a death-grapple for life; when all, repressing personal preferences and refraining from harsh criticism, should have been intent upon making the best of the situation and rendering full service in the common cause, his attitude, to say the least, appeared obstructive of unity. It was characteristic of General Toombs to measure men and laws by his own standard of char acter, excellence, and propriety. Beyond question that standard was bold, advanced, colossal; but in its application it was sometimes danger ous, above the common apprehension, and suggestive of rule or ruin. If the order or enactment, no matter how august the source from which it originated, or how potent the authority by which it was promulgated, did not coincide with his views of right or necessity, he did not scruple openly to criticise, to condemn, or to disobey. He was largely a law unto himself, and in some instances did violence to the expectation which, under circumstances then existent, might well have been formed with regard to the judgment and conservative action of one possessing his grand powers and overshadowing gifts.
At the outset of the Confederate Revolution he apparently under estimated the determination, the martial spirit, and the resources of the North. So intent was he upon the unification of the Southern States, so eager was he for the immediate success of Confederate arms, that he did not refrain from denouncing the leaders upon whom, by any possi bility, the blame of hesitation, mistake, or defeat could be cast. He was an avowed enemy of "West Point, and ridiculed the idea, so generally entertained, of the superiority of officers of the regular army. As to

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1577

President Davis' ability to fill the exalted station to which he had been elected, General Toombs did not cherish a favorable opinion. The Con script Act; the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus; regulations restricting the planting of cotton; laws governing the impressment of animals and the collection of supplies for the army; and some orders of the executive and enactments of Congress he pronounced ill-advised if not unconstitutional, and lent no helping hand for their enforcement. The consequence of all this was that this distinguished Georgian, who^ occupied so prominent a place in public esteem, who was so richly en dowed, and who had been so instrumental in precipitating hostilities between the sections, did not, bello flagrante, in the advice given, in the support extended, and in the services rendered to the Confederate Gov ernment, fulfill the general expectation.
Upon retiring from the Army of Northern Virginia he took service with the state forces of Georgia, and retained his connection with them until the close of the war.
Eluding the pursuit of a body of Federal soldiery detached to com pass his arrest when Confederate affairs were in extremis, he fled from his home and succeeded - in making his escape to Cuba and thence to Europe. Upon the restoration of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus within the states lately in arms against the general Government, he returned to Georgia and resumed, with undiminished power and marked success, the practice of his profession. The angry billows of civil war were rocking themselves to rest. After the great storm there came a calm. Hate was giving place to reason, and no attempt was sub sequently made to execute the order for his arrest.
The last political service rendered by General Toombs was performed by him as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1877, which was presided over by our venerable fellow citizen, ex-Gov. Charles J. Jenkins. In framing the present Constitution of Georgia, General Toombs exerted an almost overshadowing influence. The suggestion and the adoption of its leading and, in the opinion of some, its questionable features, are to be referred to his thought and persuasive eloquence.
His last public utterance, we believe, was heard when with tearful eye, trembling voice, and feeble gesture, he pronounced, in the Hall of Representatives -at Atlanta, a funeral oration over the dead body of his lifelong friend, Gov. Alexander H. Stephens. For some time prior to> his demise General Toombs had been but the shadow of his former great self. The death of a noble wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, proved an affliction too grievous for his declining years. The light went out of his home and gladness no longer dwelt in the chambers of his, heart. Impaired vision deprived him of the ability either to read or to. write except at intervals and with difficulty. His idols broken, his com panions departed, his ambition blighted, his physical and intellectual forces abated, he lingered almost alone in a later generation which knew him not in his prime. His splendid person, months agone, suffered impairment at the advance of age and the multiplication of sorrows, and the commanding presence gave place to the bent form and the unsteady gait of the feeble old man. His intellect, too, formerly so authoritative-,, massive, and captivating, became uncertain in its action. To the lastf however, he continued to denounce the reconstruction measures of Con-

1578

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

gress, and proclaim himself an " unpardoned, unreconstructed, and unrepentant Rebel."
In the morning, at high noon, and even beyond the meridian of his manhood, he was intellectually the peer of the most gifted, and towered Atlas-like above the common range. His genius was conspicuous. His powers of oratory were overmastering. His mental operations were quick as lightning-, and, like the lightning, they were dazzling in their bril liancy and resistless in their play. Remarkable were his conversational gifts, and most searching his analyses of character and event. In hos pitality he was generous, and in his domestic relations tender and true. The highest nights of fancy, the profoundest depths of pathos, the broadest range of biting sarcasm and withering invective, generalizations of the boldest character, and arguments the most logical, were equally at his command. As a lawyer he was powerful, as an advocate well-nigh resistless. He was a close student, and deeply versed in the laws, state craft, and political history of this commonwealth and nation. In all his gladiatorial combats, whether at the bar, upon the hustings or in legislative halls, we recall no instance in which he met his overmatch. Even during his years of decadence there were occasions when the almost extinct volcano glowed again with its wonted fires; when the ivymantled keep of the crumbling castle resumed its pristine defiance with deep-toned culverin and ponderous mace; when, amid the colossal frag ments of the tottering temple, men recognized the unsubdued spirit of Samson Agonistes.
In the demise of this distinguished Georgian we chronicle the depart ure . of- another noted Confederate, and this commonwealth mourns the loss of a son whose fame, for half a hundred years, was intimately asso ciated with her aspirations and her glory. He was the survivor of that famous companionship which included such eminent personages as Crawford, Cobb, Johnson, Jenkins, Hill, and Stephens. While during his long and prominent career General Toombs was courted, admired, and honored; while in the stations he filled he was renowned for the bril liancy of his intellectual efforts, the intrepidity of his actions, the honesty of his purposes, and for loyalty to his section; while his remarkable say ings, epigrammatical utterances, caustic satires, and eloquent speeches, will be repeated, it would seem that he has bequeathed few lasting monu ments. Among his legacies will, we fear, be found few substantial con tributions to knowledge. Scant are the tokens of labor which will perpetuate his name and minister to the edification of future generations. Trusting largely to the spoken word, which too often dies with the listener, he will live mainly as a tradition.
Natural gifts so superior as those which he possessed, and opportuni
ties so famous as those which he enjoyed, should have borne fruit more
abundant and yielded a harvest less insubstantial. By permanent record
of grand thoughts and great ideas he should have commended his mem
ory more surely to the comprehension of the coming age, so that there
might be no lack of '' historic proof to verify the reputation of his power.''
Enjoying a present fame as a legislator, a statesman, a counsellor,
an advocate, an orator, a Confederate chieftain, a defender of the South,
and a lover of this commonwealth, towering among the highest and the
brightest of the land, this illustrious Georgian is also remembered as a

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1579

leader not always wise and conservative in his views as a mighty tribune of the people sometimes dethroning images where he erected none better in their places.

, Thus we are reminded that the children of men, be they of high or low estate, be they rich or poor, be they intellectually great or of the common measure,

..

"Are such stuff

As dreams are made of, and our little life

. Is rounded with a sleep."

Although this is true, let us remember, my comrades, it is not all of death to die; that the actions of the just are not wholly swallowed up in the oblivion of the tomb; that there are virtuous memories which, at least for a season, are not coffined with our bones; and, thus persuaded, may we, one and all, heed the injunction of the great American poet:

"So live that, when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan that moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thott go not, like the quarry-slave at night Scourged to his dungeon,- but, sustain'd and sooth'd By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one that draws the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams."

HENRY W. GKADY: "THE NEW SOOTH"

[This celebrated banquet speech of the South's great orator-journal ist was delivered before the New England Society, of New York, at an annual banquet given by the society, 011 the evening of December 21, 1886, and was delivered in response to a toast: "The New South." Mr. Grady caught the ear of the nation in this wonderful speech and acquired a country-wide reputation both as an orator and as a peacemaker. Much of the speech was wholly impromptu, having been inspired by some remarks of Doctor Talmage, who preceded Mr. Grady on the evening's program. Until the delivery of this speech, Mr. Grady's reputation as a public speaker was purely local, and he was known to the world at large, chiefly through the columns of the Atlanta Constitution, of which he was then managing editor.]

"There was a South of slavery and secession that South is dead. There is a South of Union and freedom that South, thank God, is liv ing, breathing, growing every hour." These words, delivered from the immortal lips of Benjamin H. Hill, at Tammany Hall, in 1866, true then and truer now, I shall make my text tonight.
Mr. President and Gentlemen: Let me express to you my appre ciation of the kindness by which I have been permitted to address you. I make this abrupt acknowledgment advisedly, for I feel that if, when

1580

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

I raise my provincial voice in this ancient and august presence, I could

find courage for no more than the opening sentence, it would be well if

in that sentence I had met, in a rough sense, my obligation as a guest

and had perished, so to speak, with courtesy on my lips and grace in

my heart. Permitted through your kindness to catch my second wind,

let me say that I appreciate the significance of being the first southerner

to speak at this board, which bears the substance, if it surpasses the sem

blance, of original New England hospitality, and honors the sentiment

that in turn honors you, but in which my personality is lost and the

compliment to my people made plain.

I bespeak the utmost stretch of your courtesy tonight. I am not

troubled about those from whom I come. You remember the man whose

wife sent him to a neighbor with a pitcher of milk, and who, tripping on

the top step, fell with such casual interruptions as the landings afforded

into the basement, and, while picking himself up, had the pleasure of

hearing his wife call out:

"John, did you break the pitcher?"

"No, I didn't/' said John, "but I'll be dinged if I don't."

So, while those who call me from behind may inspire me with energy,

if not with courage, I ask an indulgent hearing from you. I beg that

you will bring your full faith in American fairness and frankness to

judgment upon what I shall say. There was an old preacher once who

told some boys of the Bible lesson he was going to read in the morning.

The boys, finding the place, glued together the connecting pages. The

next morning he read on the bottom of one page: "When Noah was one

hundred and twenty years old he took unto himself a wife, who was"

then turning the page "140 cubits long, 40 cubits wide, built of gopher

wood, and covered with pitch inside and out.'' He was naturally puzzled

at this. He read it again, verified it, and then said: '' My friends, this

is the first time I ever met this in the Bible, but I accept this as an evi

dence of the assertion that we are fearfully and wonderfully made."

If I could get you to hold such faith tonight I could proceed cheerfully

to the task I otherwise approach with a sense of consecration.

Pardon me one word, Mr. President, spoken for the sole purpose of

getting into the volumes that go out annually freighted with the rich

eloquence of your speakers, the fact that the Cavalier as well as the

Puritan was on the continent in its early days, and that he was "up and

able to be about.'' I have read your books carefully and I find no men

tion of that fact, which seems to me an important one for the purpose

of preserving a sort of historical equilibrium, if for nothing else.

Let me remind you that the Virginia Cavalier first challenged France

on this continent; that Cavalier John Smith gave New England its very

name, and was so pleased with the job that he has been handing his own

name around ever since; and that, while Miles Standish was cutting off

men's ears for courting a gir-1 without her parents' consent and forbade

men to kiss their wives on Sunday, the Cavalier was courting everything

in sight, and that the Almighty had vouchsafed great increase to the

Cavalier colonies, the huts in the wilderness being as thick as nests in

the trees.

*

But having incorporated the Cavalier as a fact in your charming

little boobs, I shall let him work out his own salvation, as he has always

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1581

done, with engaging gallantry, and we shall hold no controversy as to his merits. Why should we? Neither Puritan nor Cavalier long survived as such. The virtues and good traditions of both happily still live for the inspiration of their sons and the saving of the old fashion. But both Puritan and Cavalier were lost in the storm of the first Revolution, and the American citizen, supplanting both and stronger than either, took possession of the Republic, bought by their common blood and fashioned to wisdom, and charged himself with teaching men government and estab lishing the voice of the people as the voice of God.
My friends, Doctor Talmage has told you that the typical American is yet to come. Let me tell you that he has already come. Great types, like valuable plants, are slow to flower and fruit. But from the union of these colonists, Puritans and Cavaliers, from the straightening of their purposes and the crossing of their blood, slow perfecting through a cen tury, came he who stands as the first typical American, the first who comprehended within himself all the strength and gentleness, all the majesty and grace of this Republic Abraham Lincoln. He -was the sum of Puritan and Cavalier,' for in his ardent nature were fused the virtues of both, and in the depths of his great soul the faults of both were lost. He was greater than Puritan, greater than Cavalier, in that he was American, and that in his honest form were first gathered the vast and thrilling forces of his ideal government charging it with such tre mendous meaning and so elevating it above human suffering that mar tyrdom, though infamously aimed, came as a fitting crown to a life consecrated from the cradle to human liberty. Let us each, cherishing the traditions, and honoring his fathers, build with reverent hand to the type of this simple but sublime life, in which all types are honored, and in our common glory as Americans there will be plenty and to spare for your forefathers and for mine.
Doctor Talmage has drawn for you, with a master's hand, the picture of your returning armies. He has told you how, in the pomp and cir cumstance of war, they came back to you, marching with proud and victorious tread, reading their glory in a nation's eyes. Will you bear with me while I tell you of another army that sought its home at the close of the late war, an army that marched home in defeat and not in victory, in pathos and not in splendor, but in glory that equaled yours and to hearts as. loving as ever welcomed heroes home! Let me picture to you the footsore Confederate soldier, as buttoning up in his faded gray jacket the parole which was to bear testimony to his children of his fidelity and faith, he turned his face southward from Appomattox, in April, 1865. Think of him as ragged, half-starved, heavy-hearted, en feebled by want and wounds, having fought to exhaustion, he surrenders his gun, wrings the hands of his comrades in silence, and lifting his tearstained and pallid face for the last time to the graves that dot old Vir ginia's hills, pulls his gray cap over his brow and begins the painful journey. What does he find let me ask you who went to your homes eager to find, in the welcome you had justly earned, full payment for a four-years' sacrifice what does he find when, having followed the bat tle-stained cross against overwhelming odds, dreading death not half as much as surrender, he reaches the home he left so prosperous and beautiful? He finds his house in ruins, his farm devastated, his slaves

1582

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

free, his stock killed, his barns empty, his trade destroyed, his money worthless, his social system, feudal in its magnificence, swept away; his people without law or legal status; his comrades slain, and the burdens of others heavy on his shoulders. Crushed by defeat, his very traditions are gone. Without money, credit, employment, material, or training; and, besides all this, confronted with the gravest problem that ever met human intelligence the establishment of a status for the vast body of his liberated slaves.
What does he do this hero in gray with a heart of gold ? Does he sit down in sullennesa and despair? Not for a day. Surely God, who had stripped him of his prosperity, inspired him in his adversity. As ruin was never before so overwhelming, never was restoration swifter. The soldier stepped from, the trenches into the furrow; horses that had .charged Federal guns inarched before the plow, and fields that ran red with human blood in April were green with the harvest in June; women reared in luxury cut up their dresses and made breeches for their hus bands, and, with a patience and heroism that fit women always as a garment, gave their hands to work. There was little bitterness in all this. Cheerfulness and frankness prevailed. "Bill Arp" struck the key-note when he said: "Well, I killed as many of them as they did of me, and now I am going to work.'' So did the soldier returning home after defeat and roasting some corn by the roadside, who made the remark to his comrades: '' You may leave the South if you want to, but I am going to Sandersville, kiss my wife and raise a crop, and if the Yankees fool with me any.more, I'll whip 'em again." I want to say to General Sherman, who is considered an able man in our parts, though some people think he is a kind of careless man about fire, that from the ashes he left us in 1864 we have raised a brave and a beautiful city; that somehow or other we have caught the sunshine in the brick and mortar of our homes and have builded therein not one ignoble prejudice or memory.
But what is the sum of our work? We have found out that in sum ming up the free negro counts more than he did as a slave. We have planted the schoolhouse on the hilltop and made it free to white and black. We have sowed towns- and cities in the place of theories, and put business above politics. We have challenged your spinners in Massachu setts and your iron-makers in Pennsylvania. We have learned that the $400,000,000 annually received from our cotton crop will make us rich when the supplies that make it are home raised. We have reduced the commercial rate of interest from 24 to 6 per cent, and are floating 4 per cent bonds. We have learned that one northern immigrant is worth fifty foreigners, and have smoothed the path southward, wiped out the path where Mason and Dixon's line used to be, and hung out the latchstring to you and yours. We have reached the point that marks perfect harmony in every household, when the husband confesses that the pies which his wife cooks are as good as those his mother used to bake; and we admit that the sun shines as brightly and the moon as softly as it did before the war. We have established thrift in city and country. We have fallen in love with work. We have restored comfort to homes from which culture and elegance never departed. We have let economy take root and spread among us as rank as the crab-grass which sprang from

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1583

Sherman's cavalry camps, until we are ready to lay odds on the Georgia Yankee as he manufactures relics of the battlefield in a one-story shanty and squeezes pure olive oil out of his cotton-seed, against any downeaster that ever swapped wooden nutmegs for flannel sausage in the val leys of Vermont. Above all, we know that we have achieved in these "piping times of peace" a fuller independence for the South than that which our fathers sought to win in the forum by their eloquence or compel in the field by their swords.
It is a rare privilege, sir, to have had a part, however humble, in this work. Never was nobler duty confided to human hands than the uplift ing- and upbuilding of the prostrate and bleeding South misguided, per haps, but beautiful in her suffering, and honest, brave, and generous always. In the record of her social, industrial, and political illustration, we await with confidence the verdict of the world.
But what of the negro ? Have we solved the problem he presents or progressed in honor and equity toward solution? Let the record speak to the point. No section shows a more prosperous laboring population than the negroes of the South, none in fuller sympathy with the employ ing and land-owning class. He shares our school fund, has the fullest protection of our laws and the friendship of our people. Self-interest, as well as honor, demands that he should have this. Our future, our very existence, depends upon our working out of this problem in full and exact justice. We understand that when Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation, your victory was assured, for he then committed you to the cause of human liberty, against which the arms of man cannot pre vail ; while those of our statesmen who sought to make slavery the corner stone of the Confederacy doomed us to defeat as far as they could, com mitting us to a cause that reason could not defend, or the sword maintain in sight of advancing civilization.
Had Mr. Toombs said, which he did not say, '' that he would call the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill,'' he would have been foolish, for he might have known that whenever slavery became entangled in war it must perish,'and that the chattel in human flesh ended forever .in New England when your fathers not to be blamed for parting with what didn't pay sold their slaves to our fathers not to be praised for
knowing a paying thing when they saw it. The relations of the southern people with the negro are close and cordial. We remember with what fidelity for four years he guarded our defenseless women and children, whose husbands and fathers were fighting against his freedom. To his eternal credit be it said that whenever he struck a blow for his .own liberty he fought in open battle, and when at last he raised his black and humble hands that the shackles might be struck off, those hands were innocent of wrong against his helpless charges, and worthy to be taken in loving grasp by every man who honors loyalty and devotion. Ruf fians have maltreated him, rascals have misled him, philanthropists
established a bank for him, but the South, with the North, protests against injustice to this simple but sincere people. To liberty and en franchisement is as far as the law can carry the negro. The rest must be left to conscience and common sense. It must be left to those among whom his lot is cast, with whom he is indissolubly connected, and whose prosperity depends upon their possessing his intelligent sympathy and

1584

GEOBGIA AND GEOEGIANS

confidence. Faith has been kept with him, in spite of calumnious asser tion to the contrary by those who assume to speak for us, or by frank opponents. Faith will be kept with him in the future, if the South holds her reason and integrity.
But have we kept faith with you? In the fullest sense, yes. When Lee surrendered I don't say when Johnson surrendered, because I un derstand he still alludes to the time when he met General Sherman last as the time when he intended to abandon any further prosecution of the struggle when Lee surrendered, I say, and Johnson quit, the South became, and has since been, loyal to this Union. We fought hard enough to know that we were whipped, and in perfect frankness accept as final the arbitrament of the sword to which we had appealed. The South found her jewel in the toad's head of defeat. The shackles that had held her in narrow limitations fell forever when the shackles of the negro slave were broken. Under the old regime the negroes were slaves to the South; the South was a slave to the system. The old plantation, with its simple police regulations and feudal habit, was the only type possible under slavery. Thus was gathered in the hands of a splendid and chivalric oligarchy the substance that should have been diffused among the people, as the rich blood, under certain artificial conditions, is gath ered at the heart, filling that with affluent rapture, but leaving the body chill and colorless.
The old South rested everything on slavery and agriculture, uncon scious that these could neither give nor maintain healthy growth. The new South presents a perfect democracy, the oligarchs leading in the popular movement a social system compact and closely knitted, less splendid on the surface, but stronger at the core a hundred farms for every plantation, fifty homes for every palace and a diversified indus try that meets the complex demands of this complex age.
The new South is enamored of her new work. Her soul is stirred with the breath of a new life. The light of a 'grander day is falling fair on her face. She is thrilling with the consciousness of growing power and prosperity. As she stands upright, full-statured and equal among the people of the earth, breathing the keen air and looking out upon the expanded horizon, she understands that her emancipation came because, through the inscrutable wisdom of God, her honest purposes were crossed and her brave armies were beaten.
This is said in no spirit of time-serving or apology. The South has nothing for which to apologize. She believes that the late struggle between the states was war and not rebellion; revolution and not con spiracy; and that her convictions were as honest as yours. I should be unjust to the dauntless spirit of the South and to my own convictions if I did not make this plain in this presence. The South has nothing to take back. In my native Town of Athens is a monument that crowns its central hill a plain, white shaft. Deep cut into its shining side is a name dear to me above the names of men that of a brave and simple man, who died in brave and simple faith. Not for all the glories of New England, from Plymouth Rock all the way, would I exchange the her itage he left me in his soldier's death. To the foot of that shaft I shall send my children's children to reverence him who ennobled their name with his heroic blood. But sir, speaking from the shadow of that memory

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS'

1585

which I honor as I do nothing else on earth, I say that the cause in which he suffered and for which he gave his life was adjudged by higher and fuller wisdom than his or mine, and I am glad that the omniscient God held the balance of battle in his almighty hand and that human slavery was swept forever from American soil the American Union saved from the wreck of war.
This message, Mr. President, comes to you from consecrated ground. Every foot of soil about the city in which I live is as sacred as a battle ground of the Republic. Every hill that invests it is hallowed to you by the blood of your brothers who died for your victory, and doubly hal lowed to us by the blow of those who died hopeless, but undaunted, in defeat sacred soil to all of us rich with memories that make us purer and stronger and better; silent but staunch witness in its red desola tion to the matchless valor of American hearts'and the deathless glory of American arms, speaking an eloquent witness in its white peace and prosperity to the indissoluble Union of American states and the inde structible brotherhood of the American people!
Now, what answer has New England to this message ? Will she per mit the prejudice of war to remain in the hearts of the conquerors, when it has died in the hearts of the conquered ? Will she transmit this preju dice to the next generation, that in their hearts who never felt the gen erous ardor of conflict it may perpetuate itself ? Will she withhold, save in strained courtesy, the hand which straight from his soldier's heart Grant offered to Lee at Appomattox? Will she make the vision of a restored and happy people, which gathered about the couch of your dying captain, filling his heart with grace, touching his lips with praise, and glorifying his path to the grave will she make this vision on which the last sigh of his expiring soul breathed a benediction, a cheat and a delusion? If she does, the South, never abject in asking for comrade ship, must accept with dignity its refusal; but if she does not decline to accept in frankness and sincerity this message of good-will and friend ship, then will the prophecy of Webster delivered in this very society forty years ago, amid tremendous applause, become true, be verified in its fullest sense, when he said: '' Standing hand to hand and clasping hands, we should remain united as we have been for sixty years, citizens of the same country, members of the same government, united all, united now, and united forever.'' There have been difficulties, contentions, and controversies, but I tell you that in my judgment

"Those opened eyes

*.

Which like the meteors of a troubled heaven,

All of one nature, of one substance bred,

Did lately meet in th' intestine shock,

Shall now, in mutual, well-beseeming ranks,

March all one way."

J. C. C. BLACK: ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL,
[Seldom, if ever, in the history of this country, has a monument been unveiled amid circumstances more replete with dramatic interest. ExPresident Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy's first, last, and only presi dent, for years a recluse, declining every invitation to appear in public,

1586

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

nevertheless journeyed from, his home in Mississippi to be Georgia's honored guest on this occasion and to pay a tribute of respect to his beloved compatriot and friend. Just as the exercises commenced, Gen eral Longstreet, clad in his Confederate uniform, appeared upon the scene, to be greeted by his old chieftain with outstretched arms. For the moment political animosities were forgotten, and there rose from the tumultuous throng a wild shout of enthusiasm. ' Major Black's oration was a masterpiece of eloquence, unsurpassed by any similar effort of this character. It was delivered in Atlanta, Georgia, May 1, 1886. Subse quently the monument was removed from its original site, at the inter section of the two Peachtrees, to the corridors of the state capitol, where it today stands.]

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: History has furnished but one perfect character, humanity has but one example, in all things worthy of imitation. And yet all ages and countries have recognized that those who, devoting themselves to the public service, have led the people through great perils, and, by distinguished careers, added to the just renown of their country, were entitled to their highest respect, honor, and veneration. The children of Israel wept for their great leader and deliverer on the Plains of Moab. The men of Athens gathered at the graves of those who fell at Marathon, and pronounced panegyrics upon them. This sentiment is an honor to the living as well as to the dead. It is just, for no merely human pursuit is higher than that public service which honestly and intelligently devotes itself to the common weal. There is no study more worthy' of the highest faculties of the mind than that which seeks after the nature of civil government, applies it to its legiti mate uses and ends, and properly limits its powers. No object is more worthy of the noblest philanthropy of the heart than society and the state. It is not only honorable and just but, like all high sentiment, it is useful for honors to the dead are incentives to the living.
Monuments to our great and good should be multiplied. May I take the liberty on this occasion of suggesting to the bar and people of the state to provide a fitting memorial to the distinguished chief justice who so long presided over our Supreme Court; whose decisions are such splendid specimens of judicial research and learning, and whose career recalls Wharton's picture of Nottingham "seated upon his throne with a ray of glory about his head, his ermine without spot or blemish, his balance in his right hand, mercy on his left, splendor and brightness at his feet, and his tongue dispensing truth, goodness, virtue and justice to mankind." And by its side, and worthy of such association, another to commemorate the sturdy chief justice who has recently passed from among us. The public disposition to honor the dead too often finds its only expression in the resolutions of public assemblies, and the exhibi tion in public places of emblems of mourning, soon to be removed.
"And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.'' Too often the great and good lie in unknown sepulchres; or, if known, they are marked by no lasting monument. When the feeling does crys tallize in enduring marble or granite, in most cases, it is after painful effort and long delay. Eighteen years elapsed after the laying of the

-.GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1587

cornerstone of the Bunker Hill monument, erected by the patriotism of New England, before its completion was celebrated. The statue of Chief Justice Marshall, appointed during the second administration, was un veiled during a very recent period. Immediately after his death, in 1799, Congress voted a marble monument to Washington. Half a century elapsed before the foundation was laid. After this, for seven and thirty years, it remained unfinished. Although intended to commemorate the life and character of him who was "first in the hearts of his country men, '' and had just claims upon the treasury of the Government, it stood as if insulting him whom it should have honored, symbol of nothing but the ingratitude of the country, prophecy of nothing but a broken Constitution, a divided people, and a disrupted Union. Its completion was not celebrated until the 21st day of February, 1885 more than three-quarters of a century after the resolution of Congress voting it. The history of these similar organizations marks with peculiar emphasis that of the association whose completed work we are here to celebrate with becoming ceremony.
Amid profound and universal expressions of grief at the public calamity to the country inflicted by his death on the 16th day of August, 1882, his body was buried to await the dawn of that resurrection day of which he so beautifully wrote after he could no longer speak. Within a few days after his burial, a public meeting was called to assem ble in the state capitol, on the 29th of August thereafter. That meeting resolved itself into an organization that undertook the patriotic duty of commemorating his public life by some fit and enduring memorial. The success, brilliant as his own resplendent career, which calls us together within less than half a decade after its inauguration to crown the com pletion of its work, is highly honorable to those who have achieved it, but most honorable to him who inspired it. It has few, if any, parallels. It is in itself a more fitting and eloquent oration than human language can pronounce, for that may speak in exaggerated phrase of the worth of the dead and the sorrow of the living; this is Love's own tribute; this is Grief's truthful expression.
As we come to dedicate this statue in his name and memory, all the surroundings are most auspicious. No place could have preferred a claim above this. It was his own home; it is the capital of the state, and his fame is a common heritage. The progressive spirit that has already made this populous and growing city the pride of every citizen, the wonder of every stranger, shall furnish opportunity to speak, as it shall speak, to the largest number of beholders. It is the time, too, when all over this southern land,-in the observance of a custom that should be perpetuated, fair women and brave men pay tribute to our dead. May we not think of the spirits of our honored dead who preceded him in our history, as well as those of his worthy contemporaries, coming from that world where no uncharity misjudges, no prejudice binds, no jealousy suspicions, to hover over us, and rejoice in the tributes of this day. And, surely, if the honor which this occasion pays the dead could be enhanced, or the joy which it imparts to the living could be heightened by human presence, we have that augmented honor, and that elevated joy in the presence of one worthily ranked among the most renowned of the living, whose strength of devotion to our lamented dead has overcome the infirmi-

1588

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

ties of age and the weariness of travel, and who comes to mingle his praises with ours. [Ex-President Davis.] Illustrious son of the South, thy silent presence is loftier tribute than spoken oration, or marble statue, or assembled thousands. Alas! Alas! We this day mourn the silence of the only tongue that could fittingly and adequately voice the honor we would confer upon thee. Beside the grave of him who never swerved in his devotion to thee and the cause of which thou wert and art the worthy representative, we this day acknowledge thy just claim upon the confidence, love, esteem, and veneration of ourselves and our pos terity. May these auspicious surroundings help us to commemorate the life and character of him in whose honor we are assembled, and move us with the higher purposes of devotion to our state and country that life and character inspire.
As a son of Georgia he eminently merits this enduring memorial and all the honors conferred by this vast concourse of his grateful and admir ing countrymen. Born upon her soil, reared among her people, educated at her schools, permeated by the influences of her society and civilization, he plead with an eloquence unsurpassed by any of her sons for whatever would promote her weal, and warned against every danger his sagacious eye detected threatening her prosperity. Called into public service at an early age, he at once gave assurance of the high distinction he afterwards attained. For years his public career was a struggle against prevailing principles and policies he believed to be dangerous, and he stood con spicuous against as powerful a combination of ability and craft as ever ruled in the politics of any state. Upon every field where her proudest gladiators met, he stood the peer of the knightliest. He did not always achieve popular success, but that has been true of the greatest and best. His apparent failures to achieve victory only called for a renewal of the struggle with unbroken spirit and purpose. Failure he did not suffer, for his very defeats were victories. To say, as may be justly said, that he was conspicuous among those who made our history for thirty years, is high encomium. During that period the most memorable events of our past have transpired. It recalls, besides his owri, the names and careers of Stephens, Toonibs, the Cobbs, Johnson and Jenkins. In what sky has brighter galaxy ever shone ? The statesmanship, the oratory, the public and private virtue it exhibits, should swell every breast with patriotic pride. In some of the highest qualifications of leadership, none of his day surpassed him. He did not seek success by the schemes of hidden caucus or crafty manipulation. He won his triumphs on the arena of fair, open debate before the people. As an earnest student of public questions, he boldly proclaimed his conclusions. The power of opposing majorities did not deter him. As a leader of minorities he was unequaled. As an orator at the forum, before a popular assembly or con vention, in the House of Eepresentatives or in the Senate Chamber in Congress, he was the acknowledged equal of the.greatest men who have illustrated our state and national history for a quarter of a century. He was thoroughly equipped with a masterly logic, a captivating elo quence, a burning invective, a power of denunciation, with every weapon in the' armory of spoken or written language, and used all with a force and skill that entitled him as a debater to the highest distinction.
While the most unfriendly criticism cannot deny him the rarest gifts

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1589

of oratory, some have withheld from him the praise due to that calm judgment that looks at results; that political foresight that belongs to a wise statesmanship. Judged by this just standard, who among the dis tinguished sons of Georgia in that period when her people most needed that judgment and sagacity is entitled to a higher honor? "Who more clearly foresaw in the clouds that necked our political sky the storm that was coming 1 What watchman stationed to signal the approach of danger had more far-reaching vision? "What pilot charged with the guidance of the Ship of State struggled more earnestly to guide it into, clearer skies and calmer seas? With that devotion to the Union that always characterized him, and believing that the wrongs of which we justly com plained could be better redressed in than out of the Union, or had better be borne than the greater evils that would follow dissolution, he opposed the secession of the state. We may not now undertake to trace the opera tion of the causes that brought about that event. We can justly appre ciate how it could not appear to others as it did to us. As to us, it was not prompted by hatred of the Union resting in the consent of the people and governed by the Constitution of our fathers. It was not intended to subvert the vital principles of the Government they founded, but to perpetuate them. The government of the new did not differ in its form or any of its essential principles from the old Confederacy. The constitutions were the same, except for such changes as the wisdom of experience suggested. The Southern Confederacy contemplated no in vasion or conquest. Its chief cornerstone was not African slavery. Its foundations were laid in the doctrines of the fathers of the Republic, and the chief cornerstone was the essential fundamental principle of free government, that all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Its purpose was not to perpetuate the slavery of the black race, but to preserve the liberty of the white race of the South. It was another Declaration of American Independence. In the purity of their motives, in the loftiness of their patriotism, in their love of liberty, they who declared and maintained the first were not worthier than they who declared, and failed in, the last. Animated by such pur poses, aspiring to such a destiny, feeling justified then and without shame now we entered upon that movement. It was opposed by war on the South and her people.
What was the South and who were her people ? There are those who seem to think that she nurtured an Upas whose very shade blighted wherever it fell, and made her civilization inferior. What was that civ ilization? Let its products as seen in the people it produced, and the character and history of that people, answer. Where do you look for the civilization of "a people 1 In their history, in their achievements, in their institutions, in their character, in their men and women, in their love of liberty and country, in their fear of God, in their contributions to the progress of society and the race. Measured by this high standard, where was there a grander and nobler civilization than hers? Where has there been greater love of learning than that which established her col leges and universities? Where better preparatory schools, sustained by private patronage, and not the exactions of the tax-gatherer now un happily dwarfed and well-nigh blighted by our modern system ? Whose people had higher sense of personal honor? Whose business and com-
Vol. Ill--21

1590

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

merce was controlled by higher integrity? Whose public men had cleaner hands and purer records ? Whose soldiers were braver or knightlier? Whose orators more eloquent and persuasive? Whose statesmen more wise and conservative 1 Whose young men.more chivalric? Whose young women more chaste? Whose fathers and mothers worthier exam ples? Whose homes more abounded in hospitality as genial and free to every friendly comer as the sun that covered them with its splendor? Where was there more respect for woman, for the church, for the Sab bath, for God, for the law which, next to God, is entitled to the highest respect and veneration of man, for it is the fittest representative of his awful majesty and power and goodness? Where was there more love of home, of country, and of liberty ?
Deriving their theories of government from the Constitution, her public officers never abandoned those principles upon which alone the Government could stand. Esteeming their public virtue as highly as their private honor, they watched and exposed every form of extrava gance, and every approach of corruption. Her religious teachers, deriv ing their theology from the Bible, guarded the church from being- spoiled "through philosophy and vain deceit .after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.'' Her women adorned the highest social circles of Europe and America with their modesty, beauty, and culture. Her men, in every society, won a higher title than the "grand old name of gentleman" that of "Southern gentleman." Thus in herself, what contributions did she make to the material growth of the country? Look at the map of that country and see the five states formed out of the territory north of the Ohio azid east of the Mississippi generously and patriotically surrendered by Virginia. Look at that vast extent of country acquired under the administration of one of her presi dents, which today constitutes the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mis souri, Iowa/ Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota west of the Mississippi, Colo rado north of the Arkansas, besides the Indian Territory and the terri tories of Dakota, Wyoming and Montana?
Is it asked, what has she added to the glories of the Republic ? Who wrote the Declaration of Independence ? Jefferson. Who led the armies of the Republic in maintaining and establishing that independence ? Who gave mankind new ideas of greatness ? Who has furnished the sublimest illustration of self-government? AVho has taught us that human virtue can set proper limits to human ambition ? Who has taught the ruled of the world that man may be entrusted with power? Who has taught the rulers of the world when and how to surrender power? Of whom did Bancroft write: '' But for him the country would not have achieved its independence, but for him it could not have formed its Union, and now but for him it could not have set the Federal Government in suc cessful motion"? Of whom did Erskiiie say: "You are the only being for whom I have an awful reverence." Of whom did Charles James Fox say, in the House of Commons: '' Illustrious man, before whom all borrowed greatness sinks into insignificance"?, AYashington.
What state made the call for the convention that framed the Con stitution? Virginia, Who was the father of the Constitution? Madison. Who made our system of jurisprudence unsurpassed by the civil law of Rome or the common law of England ? Marshall. Who was Marshall's

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1591

worthy successor? Taney. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Taney these were her sons. Their illustrious examples, their eminent services, the glory they shed upon the American name and character were her contributions to the common renown. Is it asked where her history was written 1 It was written upon the brightest page of American annals. It was written upon the records of the convention that framed the Con stitution. It was written in the debates of congresses that met, not to wrangle over questions of mere party supremacy, but, like statesmen and philosophers, to solve the great problems of human government. It was written in the decisions of the country's most illustrious judges, in the treaties of her most skillful diplomats, in the blood of the Revolution, and the battles of every subsequent war, led by her generals, from Chippewa to the proud halls of the Montezumas.

"Breathes there a man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land!''

Forced to defend our homes and liberties after every effort for peace ful separation we went to war. Our leaders were worthy of their high commission. I say our leaders, for I believe that he who led our armies was not more loyal, and made no better use of the resources at his com mand, than he to whom was entrusted our civil administration. Our people sealed their sincerity with the richest treasure ever offered and the noblest holocaust ever consumed on the altar of country. To many of you who enjoy the honor of having participated in it the history is known. You ought to prove yourselves worthy of that honor by teaching that history to those who come after you. Though in no wise responsible for it, though he had warned and struggled to avert it, Georgia's fortune was his fortune, Georgia's destiny was his destiny, though it led to war. Others who had been instrumental in bringing about dissolution and the first to take up arms, engendered disaffection by petty cavils, discouraged when they should have cheered, weakened when they should have strengthened, but the spirit of his devotion never faltered, and through all the stormy life of the young republic, what Stonewall Jackson was to Lee, he was to Davis. If the soldier who leads his country through ' the perils of war is entitled to his country's praise and honor, no less the statesman who furnishes and sustains the resources of war.
Our flag went down at Appomattox. Weakened by stabs from behind, inflicted by hands that should have upheld, her front covered with the wounds of the mightiest war of modern times, dripping with as pure blood as ever hallowed Freedom's cause, our Confederacy fell, and Liberty stood weeping at the grave of her youngest and fairest daughter. Our peerless military chieftain went to the noble pursuit of supervising the education of the young, proclaiming that human virtue should be equal to human calamity. Our great civil chieftain went to prison and chains, and there as well as afterward, in the dignified retirement of private life, for twenty years, has shown how human virtue can be equal to human calamity. The one has gone, leaving us the priceless legacy of his most illustrious character; the other still lingers, bearing majestically the sufferings of his people, and calmly awaiting the sum-

1592

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

mons that shall call him to the rewards and glories of those who have suffered for the right.
Our Southern soldiers returned to their desolated homes like true Cavaliers, willing to acknowledge their defeat, abide in good faith the terms of the surrender, accept all the legitimate results of the issue, respect the prowess of those who had conquered, and resume their rela tions to the Government, with all the duties those relations imposed. The victorious generals and leaders of the North awaited the highest honors a grateful people could bestow. Their armies having operated over an area of 800,000 square miles in extent, bearing upon their rolls on the day of disbandment 1,000,516 men, were peaceably dissolved, Then followed the most remarkable period in American history in any history. After spending billions of treasure and offering thousands of lives to establish that the states could not withdraw from the Union, it was not only declared that they were out of the Union, but the door of admission was closed against them. "While it cannot be denied that the gravest problems confronted those who were charged with the admin istration of the Government, a just and impartial judgment must declare that the most ingenious statecraft could not have inspired a spirit which, if it permanently ruled, would most certainly have destroyed all the' states. Its success would have been worse for the North than the success of the Southern Confederacy, for if final separation had been established, each new government would have retained the essentials of the old, while the dominance of this spirit would have destroyed every vital principle of our institutions. The success of the Confederacy would have divided the old into two republics. If this spirit had ruled, it would have left no republic. It was therefore a monumental folly as well as a crime. It was not born of the brave men who fought to preserve the Union; it was the offspring of that fanaticism which had, in our early history, while the walls of the capital were blackened by the fires kindled by the invading army of England, threatened disunioji, and from that day forward turned the ministers of religion into political Jacobins, degraded the church of God into a political junto, in the name of liberty denounced the Constitution and laws of the country, and by ceaseless agitation from press and rostrum and pulpit lashed the people into the fury of war. In this presence, at the bar of the enlightened public opinion of America and the world, I arraign that fell spirit of fanaticism and charge it with all the treasure expended and blood shed on both sides of the war, all the sufferings and sacrifices it cost, and all the fearful ruin it wrought. And in the name of the living and the dead I warn you, my countrymen, against the admission of that spirit, under any guise or pretext, into your social or political systems.
There are trials severer than war and calamities worse than the defeat of arms. The South was to pass through such trials and be "threatened with such calamities by the events of that period. Now and then it seems that all the latent and pent up forces of the natural world are turned loose for terrible destruction. The foundations of the earth, laid in the depths of the ages, are shaken by mighty upheavals; the heavens, whose blackness is unrelieved by a single star, roll their portentous thunderings, and "Nature, writhing in pain, through all iter works, gives signs of woe.'-The fruits of years of industry are

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1593

swept away in an hour; the landmarks of ages are obliterated without a vestige; the sturdiest oak that has struck deep its roots in the bosom of the earth is the plaything of the maddened winds; the rocks that mark the formation of whole geological periods are rent, and deep gorges in the mountain side, like ugly scars in the face of the earth, tell of the force and fury of the storm. Such was that period to our social, domestic and political institutions. Law no longer held its benign sway, but gave place to the mandates of petty dictators enforced by the bayonet. What little of property remained was held by no tenure but the capricious will of the plunderer; liberty and life were at the mercy of the conqueror; the sanctity of home was invaded; vice triumphed over virtue; ignorance ruled in lordly and haughty dominion over intel ligence ; the weak were oppressed; the unoffending insulted; the fallen warred on; truth was silenced; falsehood, unblushing and brazen, stalked abroad unchallenged; anxiety filled every breast; apprehension clouded every prospect; despair shadowed every hearthstone; society -was dis organized ; legislatures were dispersed; judges torn from their seats by. the strong arm of military power; states subverted; arrests made, trials held, and sentences pronounced without evidence; madness, lust, hate, and crime of every hue, defiant, wicked, and diabolical, ruled the hour, until the very air was rent with the cry, and heaven's deep concave echoed the wail:
'' Alas! Our country sinks beneath the yoke. It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash is added to her wounds.''
All this Georgia and her sister states of the South suffered at the hands of her enemies, but more cruel than wrongs done by hostile hands were the wounds inflicted by some of their own children. They basely bartered themselves for the spoils of office. They aligned them selves with the enemies of the people and their liberties until the battle was fought and then, with satanic effrontery, insulted the presence of the virtuous and the brave by coming among them, and forever fixed upon their own ignoble brows the stigma of .a double treachery by pro claiming that they had joined our enemies to betray them. They were enemies to the mother who had nurtured them. "They bowed the knee, and spit upon her. They cried, 'hail!' and smote her onjihe cheek; they put a scepter into her hand, but it was a fragile reed; they crowned her, but it was with thorns.; they covered with purple the wounds which their own hands had inflicted upon her, and inscribed magnificent titles over the cross on which they had fixed her to perish in ignominy and pain." They had quarreled with and weakened the Confederacy out of pretended love for the habeas corpus, and now they sustained a government that trampled upon every form of law and every principle of liberty. They had been foremost in leading the people into war, and now they turned upon them to punish them for treason. Even some who were still loyal at heart, appalled by the danger that surrounded, overwhelmed by the powers that threatened us, were timid in spirit and stood silent witnesses of their country's ruin. Others there were, many others, as loyal, brave, noble, heroic spirits as ever enlisted in freedom's cause. They could suffer defeat in honorable war, but would not, without resistance, though fallen, submit to insult and oppression. Their fortunes were destroyed, their fields desolated, their

1594

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

homes laid in ashes, their hopes blighted, but they would not degrade their manhood. To their invincible spirit and heroic resistance we are indebted for the peace, prosperity and good government we enjoy today. Long live their names and deeds. Let our poets sing them in undying song; let our historians register them in imperishable records: let our teachers teach them in our schools; let our mothers recount them in our homes; let the painter transfer their very forms and features to the canvas to adorn our public halls; let the deft hand of the sculptor chisel them out of granite and marble to beautify our thoroughfares; let every true heart and memory, born and to be born, embalm them forever.
Among all the true sons of Georgia, and the South in that day, one form stands conspicuous. No fear blanched his cheek, no danger daunted his courageous soul. His very presence imparted coxirage, his very eye flashed enthusiasm. Unawed by power, unbribed by honor, he stood in the midst of the perils that environed him, brave as Paul before the Sanhedrin ready for bonds or death, true as the men at Runnymede. and as eloquent as Henry, kindling the fires of the Revolution. As we look back upon that struggle, one figure above all others fixes our admiring gaze. His crested helmet waves high where the battle is fiercest. The pure rays of the sun reflected from his glittering shield are not purer that the fires that burn in the breast it covers. His clarion voice rang out louder than the din of battle, like the bugle blast of a Highland chief, resounding over hill, and mountain, and glen, summoning his clans to the defence of home and liberty, and thrilled every heart and nerved every arm.
It was the form and voice of Hill. Not only is he entitled to the honor we confer upon him by the events of this day, and higher honor, if higher there could be, as a Georgian, but as a son of the South. The great West boasts that it gave Lincoln to the country and the world. New England exults with peculiar pride in the name and history of Webster, and one of her most distinguished sons, upon the recent occasion of the completion of the Washington monu^ ment, in an oration worthy of his subject, did not hesitate to say: "I am myself a New Engiander by birth. A son of Massachusetts, bound by the strongest ties of affection and of blood to honor and venerate the earlier and later worthies of the old Puritan Commonwealth, jealous of their fair fame, and ever ready to assert and vindicate their just renown.'' Why should not we cherish the same honorable sentiment, and point with pride to the names with which we have adorned our country's history ? What is there in our past of which we need be ashamed ? What is there in which we ought not to glory? They tell us to let the dead past be buried. Well be it so. We are willing to forget; we this day proclaim and bind it by the highest sanction the sacred obligation of Southern honor that we have forgotten all of the past that should not be cherished. We stand in the way of no true progress. We freely pledge our hearts and hands to everything that is not dead that can not die. It moves upon us, it speaks to us. Every instinct of noble manhood, every impulse of gratitude, every obligation of honor demands that we cherish it. We .are bound to it by ties stronger than the cable that binds the continents, and laid as deep in human nature. We cannot cease to honor it until we lose the sentiment that has moved all ages

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1595

and countries. We find the expression of that sentiment in every memorial we erect to commemorate those we love in the unpretentious slab of the country church-yard,:,in the painted windows of the cathedral, in the unpolished head-stone and the costliest mausoleum of our cities of the dead. It dedicated the Roman Pantheon. It has filled Trafalgar Square and Westminster Abbey with memorials of those who for cen turies have made the poetry, the literature, the science, the statesman ship, the oratory, the military and naval glory, the civilization of Eng land. It has adorned the squares of our own Washington City and filled every rotunda, corridor and niche of the capitol with statues and monuments and busts until we have assembled a congress of the dead to instruct, inspire, and guide the congress of the living, while, higher than all surrounding objects, towering above the lofty dome of the capitol stands the obelisk to Washington.
Long may it stand fit but inadequate symbol of that colossal character. Of all the works of man it lifts its head nearest to the bright luminary of nature, so that every rising sun joins all human voices, and with the first kiss of the morning.proclaims him favorite of all the family of men. May it and the character it commemorates and the lessons that character teaches abide with us until the light of that sun is extinguished by the final darkness that shall mark the end of the days.
Taught by these high examples, moved by this lofty sentiment of mankind, we this day renew the allegiance of ourselves, and pledge that of our posterity to the memory of our southern dead. No son of the South had higher claims upon our gratitude than he whom we this day honor. Against his convictions he followed the South into secession and war. True to her in the days of that war which she waged for separate nationality; true to her in the darker days that followed that war, when she was denied admission into the Union; after her restoration he stood in the House and Senate Chamber the bravest and most eloquent of her defenders, resisting every invasion of her rights, and defiantly and tri umphantly hurling back every assault upon her honor. Not only as a son of Georgia and the South does he merit the tribute of her highest praise, but as a citizen of the Republic. He was a profound student of our system of government, and his knowledge of that system was not only displayed in his public utterances, but is written in the lives and characters of the young men of Georgia who learned from him at the State University, and who, in all the departments of the public service, are entering into careers of the highest usefulness and distinction.
"Melius est petere fontes quam sectari rivulos." Madison and Webster were his teachers; never teachers had better student. Webster was not more intense in his love for the Union as originally established by the founders of the Republic. With the under lying principles of the Union he was familiar. To him the American Union was not the territory over which the flag floated and the laws were administered. It was a system of government, embracing a general government for general purposes, and local governments for local pur poses, each, like the spheres of the heavens, to be confined to its own orbit, and neither could invade the domain of the other without chaos and ruin. In the solution of all problems, in the discussion of all questions, in the shaping of all policies, he looked to the Constitution.

1596

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

He regarded the American system of government as the wisest ever devised by the wisdom of men, guided by a beneficent Providence which seemed to have chosen them for the highest achievements of the race. He esteemed it not only for his own, bnt for all people, the greatest produc tion of man, the richest gift of Heaven, except the Bible and Chris tianity. As the firceness of the storm only intensifies the gaze of the mariner upon the star, so the greater the peril the more earnestly he contended for the principles of the Constitution. But to him the states were as much a part of that system as the general Government. His indis soluble Union was composed of indestructible states. He opposed section alism in any guise and from any quarter. As long as it spoke the truth, he honored and loved the flag of his country. For so long, wherever it floated, from the dome of the national capitol at home, or under for-, eign skies, leading the armies of the Republic to deeds of highest valor in war, or signalling the peaceful pursuits of commerce; at all times and everywhere, at home and abroad, on the land and on the sea, in peace or in war, its stripes uttered one voice of good will to its friends and proud defiance to its enemies- while the stars that glittered upon its ample folds told,of free and equal states. Thus looking at it, he could exclaim with patriotic fervor: '' Flag of the Union! Wave on, wave ever. Wave over the great and prosperous North, wave over the thrifty and historic East, wave over the young and expanding West, wave over our own South until the Union shall be so firmly planted in the hearts of all the people that no internecine war shall break our peace, no sectionalism shall disturb our harmony! Flag of the free ! Wave on until the nations looking upon thee shall catch the contagion of freedom! Wave on until the light of knowledge illuminates every mind, the fires of liberty bum in every breast, the fetters fall from every limb, the bonds are loosed from every conscience, and every son of earth and angel of heaven rejoices in the universal emancipation.'' There never was a time in his dis tinguished career when he would not have arrested and stricken down any arm lifted against that flag speaking the truth. But he would have it wave '' over states, not provinces; over freemen, not slaves,'' and there never was a time when flaunting a lie, by whomsoever borne, he would not have despised and trampled upon it. This was true American
patriotism. Though loyal to Georgia and the South during the period of separa
tion, he rejoiced at their restoration to the Union. No mariner tossed through long nights on unehosen and tempestuous seas ever held the day of return to tranquil port more gladly than he hailed the day of restora tion to the states. No son driven by fortunes lie could not control from the paternal roof, ever left that roof with sadder parting than he left the Union, or returned from the storms without to the shelter of home with wilder transports of joy than he felt when the South was again
admitted to "our Fathers' house." Permanent peace .and unity in republic or monarchy cannot be secured
by the power of the sword or the authority of legislation. England, with all her power and statesmanship, has tried that for centuries and failed, and will continue to fail until her people .and her rulers learn what her foremost statesman has recognized,' that the unity of all governments of whatever form must rest in the respect and confidence of the people.

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

1597

If this principle had been observed after the war between the states, that dark chapter in our history that must remain to- dim -the glory of American, statesmanship would have been unwritten. Wisely appreciat ing this principle after the admission of the true representatives of the people in Congress, with voice and pen, he devoted all the powers of his great mind, and .all the impulses of his patriotic heart, to the re-establish ment of that cordial respect and good feeling between the sections upon which alone our American system, more than all others, must depend for permanent union and peace.
The great and good do not die: Fourteen centuries ago, the head of the great apostle fell before the sword of the bloody executioner, but through long ages of oppression his example animated the persecuted church, and today stimulates its missionary spirit to press on through the rigors of every clime and the darkness of every heathen superstition, to the universal and final triumphs of that cross for which he died. Four centuries agone the body of John Wickliffe was exhumed and burnt to ashes, and these cast into the water, but "the Avon to the Severn runs, the Severn to the sea," and the doctrines for which he died cover and bless the world. Half a century ago the living voice of O'Connell was hushed, but that voice today stirs the high-born passions of every true Irish heart throughout the world. The echoes of Prentiss' elocjuent voice still linger in the valley of the Mississippi. Breckenridge's body lies under the soil of Kentucky, but he lives today an inspiration and a glory to her sons.
And today there comes to us and to those after us, the voice of our dead, solemn with the emphasis of another world, more eloquent than that with which he was wont to charm us. It says to us: "Children of Georgia, love thy mother. Cherish all that is good and just in her past. Study her highest interests. Discover, project, and foster all that will promote her future. . Respect and obey her laws. Guard well her sacred honor. Give your richest treasures and best efforts to her material, social, intellectual, and moral advancement, until she shines the brightest jewel in the diadem of the Republic. Men of the South, sons of the proud Cavalier, bound together by common traditions, memories, and senti ment, sharers of a common glory and common sufferings, never lower your standard of private or public honor. Keep the church pure and the state uncorrupted. Be true to yourselves, your country, and your God, and fulfill the highest destiny that lies before you. Citizens of the Republic, love your system of government, study and venerate the Con stitution, cherish the Union, oppose all sectionalism, promote the weal and maintain the honor of the Republic. 'Who saves his country, saves himself, saves all things, and all things saved do bless him; who lets his country die, lets all things die, dies himself ignobly, and all things dying curse him.' "
Illustrious citizen of the state, of the South, of the Republic, thou hast taught us to be brave in danger, to be true without the hope of success, to be patriotic in all things. We honor thee for thy matchless eloquence, for thy dauntless courage, for thy lofty patriotism. For the useful lessons which thou hast taught us, for the honorable example thou hast left us, for the faithful service thou hast done us, we dedicate this statue to thy name and memory. Telling of thee it shall animate

1598

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the young with the highest aspirations for distinction, cheer the aged with hopes for the future, and strengthen all in the perils that may await us. May it stand, enduring as the foundations of yonder capitol, no more firmly laid in the earth than thy just fame in the memories and hearts of this people. But whether it stand, pointing to the glories of the past, inspiring us with hope for the future, or fall before some unfriendly storm, thou shalt live, for we this day crown thee with higher honor than forum or senate can confer. '' In this spacious temple of the firmauent," lit up by the splendor of this unclouded southern sun, on this august occasion, dignified by the highest officers of munici pality and state, and still more by the presence of the most distinguished living as well as the spirits of the most illustrious dead, we come in grand procession childhood and age, young men and maidens, old men and matrons, from country and village and city, from hovel and cottage and mansion, from shop and mart and office, from every pursuit and rank and station, and with united hearts and voices, crown thee with the undying admiration, gratitude, and love of thy countrymen!

WALTER G. CHA.ELTON : OGUETHORPF

[This splendid commemorative address was delivered at the unveil ing of the Oglethorpe monument, in Savannah, on November 23, 1910 267 years .after the landing of the first emigrants on Yamacrow Bluff. The Oglethorpe Monument Association was chartered by the Superior Court of Chatham County, May 18, 1901, and its membership consisted of six representatives each, from the Georgia Society of Colonial Dames of America, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Society of Colonial Wars. In 1906, the Legislature of Georgia, toward this fund, appropriated the sum of $15,000 and a commission to take charge of the work, on behalf of the state, was appointed as follows: Hon. J. Randolph Anderson, chairman ; Hons. P. A. Stovall, A. A. Lawrence, Walter G. Charlton, Peter W. Meldrim, J. II. Estill, and A. R. Lawton, of Savannah; Hons. R. E. Park, state treasurer; Alien D. Chandler, and W. G. Cooper, of Atlanta; Hon. Joseph R. Lamar, of Augusta, and Hon. H. F. Dunwoody, of Brunswick. Hon. J. H. Estill died during the administration of Gov. Hoke Smith, who appointed in his place Hon. R. J. Davant, of Savannah. Hons. R. E. Park and Alien D. Chandler died during the administration of Gov. Joseph M. Brown, who appointed to succeed them Hons. Wymberley J. DeRenne and J. Florance Minis, of Savannah. In 1909, the City of Savannah appropriated $15,000, while the remainder ($8,000) was appro priated by the patriotic societies making a total cost of $38,000. The sculptor who designed the monument was Daniel Chester French, of
New York. Said Judge Charlton:] .

Governor of Georgia, Ladies and Gentlemen, My Fellow-Georgians: Near two centuries ago, a man of strong and noble nature sought here and there in London a missing friend, whose character 'and kindly qualities kept him in affectionate remembrance. His search brought him at length to the debtors' prison of the Fleet, where in vilest sur roundings, deliberately imprisoned in a narrow cell, with victims of

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1599

small-pox, he found the friend of his youth dying of that loathsome disease. When he departed from that horrible scene, his life was conse crated to a noble purpose. With the passing of the years there came a bright day in the long ago, when, as the soft voices of spring were calling back to life and glory the sleeping beauties of nature, there landed upon what was destined to become a sovereign state a small band, selected to start upon its career the most remarkable experiment in the history of colonization. The purpose had reached its fulfilment, for the sorrowing friend was Oglethorpe; the adventurers, the passengers of the Anne; the land, the commonwealth which today holds our allegiance, our hopes, our happiness.
As they stood at that historic moment beneath the marvelous blue of the February sky free as the winds which sighed through the majestic pines which surrounded them their memories aglow with the hospi tality which had received and sheltered them as their voyage drew to its conclusion on the neighboring shores of Carolina, no happier people ever faced the serious responsibilities of life. About them was grace and song and beauty; before them, the prospect of rest and content; within them, the peace of God. The tempestuous Atlantic, with its wintry wastes, had become a memory; and, in the dim vistas of the past, the cruel bitterness of man's brutality was fading away, as the phantoms of the night before the warmth and splendor of the rising sun. They were not makers of history, these six score men and women from the debtors' prisons of England. They were the opportunity through which history is made. With all the limitations which the condition suggests, they had been the victims of the most merciless system of laws which ever disgraced a civilized country but were now free; free to take up- the broken journey of life, which, burdened as it had been with measure less suffering, had yet been untouched by the vice and dishonesty which surrounded it hour by hour. They were good men who had failed in the practical affairs of life, and from whom had departed the buoyancy of youth. They had marked time as ambition hurried by and was lost. And yet, when the last man stepped ashore on that historic day the echo of his footfall was to sound down the centuries; the historian was to take up a new story in the annals of nations for the great tide in human affairs had turned definitely to its upward flow.
There had been nothing like it in the history of mankind. They were of the weak .and oppressed of earth. Few in number, untrained in military venture, unskilled in civic construction their mission was to build for all time an empire in a wilderness and to hold it against the warlike savage and the armies and navies of one of the greatest powers of Europe. Even as they set foot upon the shore, facing them were the hordes of Indians w:hom they were to resist, whilst to the south were gathering like unto the storm-clouds of the coming tempest the hosts of Spain. Yet from the tragic elements of failure came victory, for in the divine purposes of the Almighty it had been ordained at that moment there should stand upon the soil of Georgia the one man in all the world through whom victory might come.
A great artist, under the inspiration of a great subject, has brought to triumphant conclusion a work of art which, for all time, will hold the attention and interest of those whose vision rises above the sordid and

1600

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

groveling concerns of life and takes within its scope the things which

charm and ennohle thought and action. To him who loves art for art's

sake, the faithfulness of detail; the grace of outline; the strength of

pose; the historic perfection of the portrayal will hold in fascination.

"What the Georgian will see and what he will carry in his memory from

this historic spot will be the recollection of a strong, dominant warrior,

with the fighting look upon his face resolute and unconquerable in the

.wisdom of Providence destined to stand on Georgia soil and in one

momentous day end forever a conflict which had convulsed the civiliza

tion, of Europe for centuries; and to see as he sheathed his victorious

sword what would be in time the greatest monument it was ever given

to man to rear a free and sovereign state.

Human force and genius are so often contrasted with the grave crises

which threaten to destroy the organized affairs of men, that when

emergencies occur we instinctively search the perspective for the inev-

itable relief. The tension of the situation reacts upon the tendencies

of given minds and won or lost no great cause ever swayed the hopes

and emotions of mankind but from the stress and conflict sprang some

heroic spirit to leave its shining record on the pages of history. Of the

greatness of Oglethorpe is the fact that no crisis was at hand when he

started upon the illustrious career, in recognition of which a grateful

people this day do homage to his memory. In the times in which he

began life the direction in which his steps led was along the beaten path

of thousands. A military apprenticeship under generals of renown;

a parliamentary career of more or less usefulness; a respectable and quiet

old age amid the congenial surroundings of a privileged class it was the

common fate of those from whom he came.

The imagination falters as it attempts to reconstruct that conditions

upon which the contemporaries of Oglethorpe looked with the com-

placency which hourly contact induces. In military prowess; in terrific

hardships upon land and sea; in shrewd .and cunning diplomacy and

politics, the age was supreme. For the simpler and nobler qualities

from which are derived the patriot and the brother, there was neither

place nor recognition. The greatest soldier of the age did not hesitate

to sell his country for gold; the poet on bended knee served the fruitions

of his soul to the taste of the dissolute in power; the statesman pandered

to the vices of those who could repay in coin and place the eloquence

which belonged to the race and not to the individual. Jeffries had not

long since ridden upon his circuit, with a sneer on his lips, sending to

the gallows, amid the brutal clamor of the accompanying mob, women

and children, for offences which now receive the least of punishments.

The poor were despised; the sick abandoned; the stricken in mind mal-

treated and exhibited for money. Deep down in all this misery, friendless

and hopeless, forgotten of friend and kindred, removed even from, the

exhausted malice of foes, was the insolvent debtor whose only crime

was his inability at the moment of demand to deliver the money which

he had promised to pay.

.

:

Appalling as was the condition which prevailed as the century drew

to its close, the most frightful manifestation was the unprotested

acceptance of it as endurably natural. Removed by the circumstances

of birth from .its .more debasing aspects and influences, was born, on

:i

;
; :;

:

.'; :H
:! ::

iiii

:

':;.;

-

ii

ii:

-

ii:

lii

ii:|

ii

ii

:i.\i|

iiiii

iiil

iiiiii

'ii!

:M

ii!

iiiii

ill

ii

iil

iii'i :

ii : !

liilii

ii|i

rM

iiiiii

iiiii;

; iiiiiii

iiiiii:

i::|:

iiiii!!::*

.l : ;|;i|IJ

iillli|

:::::?iliK::i

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1601

December 22, 1696, James Edward Oglethorpe. Influence and oppor tunity brought him a commission, in his fifteenth year, under Marlborough, and, after the peace of 1712, he served under Prince Eugene in 'the campaigns on the Danube. There could have been no better martial schooling. But in this English boy was something beyond military enthusiasm. Working in his active brain was the constructive force which molds statesmen, and so directs and molds the destinies of nations. He might, in the parliamentary career upon which he entered in 1722 have attained distinction, or, restive in the subservient crowd that dogs the footsteps of the great, he might have gone prematurely to that life of quiet which in the distance awaited his coming. It was otherwise ordained. The pen of a great novelist a century later aroused to indignant protest the English mind against the iniquities of imprison ment for debt, and the echo of that far off revolution in public sentiment sounded at length in the constitution of Georgia.
But on the day when Oglethorpe moved by the misfortune of a friend passed through the portals of the Fleet to find Robert Castell suffering amid the unspeakable brutalities of the debtors' prison the tortures of small-pox, there was no public conscience to be aroused to horror. When Hampden stormed with vivid bursts of eloquence in the British parlia ment, appealing to the eternal principles of liberty, though they brought down upon him the wrath of royalty, his words found lodgment in the souls and memories of thousands, to grow and develop until in time all England responded to the truths he had proclaimed. The sentiment and the crisis were at hand. But upon this man was to fall not only the responsibility of meeting and overcoming a great evil by the force of his individuality, but of creating the opportunity without which his enthusiaasm and devotion must fade and perish for want of that upon which it must take root to live.
The England of 1729 took no heed of what fate might befall the insolvent debtor. Misfortune and misery excited its mirth; and compas sion like some feeble growth slight-rooted in arid soil, sent its weak and nerveless tendrils here and there in fitful and uncertain ways toward what might prove support. The man and the evil stood face to face, and singly and alone, as in the tales where moved the knights-errant of the age of poesy, he gave fight until the sheer gallantry of the spectacle began to make a responsive thrill, and gather to him, one by one, the kindred spirits which, few in number, but worthy of the cause in which they fought, stood with him until the glorious end became a conclusion never to be undone 111 the history of man. His chivalrous heart, full of indignant pity for the sorrows upon which he looked, Oglethorpe introduced into parliament a resolution of inquiry into the conditions of the debtors' prison. The investigation which followed revealed, in the language of an historian of that epoch, "infamous jobbery and more infamous cruelty on the part of prison officials.'' With the report came the opportunity without which the greatness of individuals means nothing.
They fail to grasp the greatness of this man's nature who see in his efforts only the workings of emotional benevolence the distempered energy which forces its conceptions of altruism upon the poor with no thought for the poor man's dignity of thought and independence of

1602

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

spirit. What moved him to action was a divine wrath against injustice the scorn of an exalted mind for the besotted barbarities of a practice which found no warrant in the laws of God or the promptings of common humanity. It was characteristic of the situation that, when the charter of Georgia came to be signed, the names written into it were few few and known and honored. Written at a time when the great civic and private virtues which illustrate every condition of our day were in a state of dormancy, its language places it among the priceless documents of the ages. Without profit or reward or hope of material benefit to any incorporator, it was recited that his majesty, having taken into con sideration the miserable circumstances of many of his own poor subjects, ready to perish for want, as likewise the distress of many poor foreigners who would take refuge here from persecution, hath, out of his fatherly compassion toward his subjects, been graciously pleased to grant a charter for incorporating a number of gentlemen by the name of '' The Trustees for Establishing a Colony of Georgia in America,"
We are accustomed to the spectacle of public altruism, where the plethoric dispenser of charity pursues his complacent way with a staff of newspaper correspondents at his heels, and followed by the gaping multitude from whom he has drawn his wealth; and with check-book in one hand and chisel in the other erects an edifice with the one and with the other carves his ignoble name that we may not forget the inci dent. But here was a soul crying aloud, like John "in the wilderness, with no thought of self, that the helpless might be lifted from the depths of despair and the stricken in spirit take hope for the renewed conflicts of a life which had come to be with them a vague and insubstantial memory. Whatever his eloquence or want of eloquence, from the material of the impossible this man evolved the possible and the fact; and when the slow processes of legislative inquiry began to quiver into movement, and piece by piece to form in the minds of the few the result which took form in the charter of Georgia, the refuge for the friendless and the oppressed, the first practical step in the direction of moral reform in social conditions had been taken; and although the labor and eloquence of 100 years were to be expended before the revolution in public senti ment became assured and the Samaritan began once more to travel along the highways of life, the fact remains that, among human agencies, to the founder of Georgia is to be ascribed the first practical step in the direction of that comprehensive altruism which in our day works to its blessed ends with no hope of reward and no thought of personal importance.
It was not to be conceived that any man, be his persuasiveness what it might, could impress on king or parliament or subject the practicability or disirability of establishing in a distant wilderness beyond the seas a colony for the friendless and the oppressed, without more. The shrewd ness of Oglethorpe's mind foresaw that without some practical importance to be given the movement he had in contemplation, something which would appeal to a general sentiment already existing, rather than to one which should exist, but did not, the work he had in view would never progress beyond his hopes. Whatever might be the social degrada tion to which England had descended, with the consequent indifference to the inevitable results which followed upon such a deplorable condition, in one direction the public sentiment was sound. An appeal which was

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1603

founded upon the necessity or advisability of extending the military power had prompt an'd effective response from noble and peasant. Marlborough might traffic with the Court of Prance, but Marlborough was none the less the great general who had carried the flag of England in triumph through the ranks of continental powers; whilst wherever the ocean beat, over its stormy waves floated in defiant freedom the historic banner which our ancestors loved.
Colonies for the exercise of benevolence were unknown to the states manship of that or any other age; but colonies for military purposes were as old as civilization itself. The presentation was attractive; the utility demonstrable. Across the stretches of a vast ocean was .a colony favored of the crown and established in the sentiments of the people. To the south and west were tribes of savages of unknown numbers, ready and eager to descend upon its resources, whilst in the offing were gathered the navies of the hereditary foe of England, with which at intervals it had waged desperate warfare extending over centuries of time. So to the project of the benevolent colony was added the alluring prospect of a colony which was to interpose its effective presence between Carolina on the one hand and the Spaniard and Indian on the other. Men might scoff at the opportunity to be furnished the insolvent debtor to redeem his fortunes, but it would not occur to the practical minded Briton to view with indifference a determined body of aggressive Englishmen to be drawn from the fighting stock of the old country and landed upon a distant shore charged with the duty of fighting, and in what to all was not only a good cause, but a cause which had in it the element of temper as well, as right; and so, what was apparently the secondary purpose of the settlement of Georgia became by force of circumstances inherent in the original project the real purpose and the charter in ringing terms made this the only military colony in America.
In considering the character and success of Oglethorpe both purposes are to be borne in mind. That his object was really to lift from the deplorable condition in which he was, the insolvent debtor, there can be no doubt; that he accepted in good faith but with the enthusiasm of one in whom the spirit of chivalry was developed to its highest excellence, the additional charge to carry to success the English arms, is equally certain. No one of his unusual perspicacity could fail to know that a col ony of insolvent debtors, just from the loathsome prisons of England, however honest they might be, would be worse than useless as a military establishment. It meant in all probability just so many more people to protect. A man who was simply wise without being humane and great would, upon the granting of the charter with its two objects, have ignored the one and iixed his hopes upon the other.
If he had followed the paths of his predecessors in colonial experimen tation that would have been his determination. If he had in view personal aggrandizement, personal greed, personal privilege, the military feature assured, the friendless prisoners would have been relegated to despair. It is to be remembered of this man, so long as history shall carry the deeds and greatness of mortals to a discriminating posterity, that in all the years of his administration of the colony of Georgia, from the moment when the project took shape in his mind and heart, to the moment when, his work accomplished, he saw the lines of her coast recede from his

1604

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

vision; through the resulting years of honor and dignity, unto the moment when he passed into the peace of eternity, the founder of Georgia never owned a foot of Georgia soil; enjoyed no privilege in her vast domain save such as was necessary to the effective discharge of his public trust; and so far from taking to his profit one cent devoted to her development or to the purposes of her settlement, left the service of Georgia and of the crown of England, with fortune impaired and never restored by the government which had profited by his work.
You will search in vain through the stories of American colonization, my fellow Georgians, for the instance which suggests remotely the dis interestedness of him in whose honor we are here today. Integrity and disinterestedness in public life as they illustrated Oglethorpe, so made they our people great in the days which followed. Guard with constant watchfulness this priceless heritage, for on that day when we become indifferent to the influence of these virtues; that moment when we view with complacency the give and take of modern politics, so sure as the rising of the sun will be the passing of the republic which southern thought and sacrifice made possible and southern tradition and devotion keep secure in the deadly storms which are now shaking it to its foundations.
The occasion is concerned with the individual rather than the inci dents which one by one formed his life work into a great historical event, not without its epic setting. Consider for .a moment a broad and chivalric nature, trained in the school of military service under the great captains of Europe, at the head of a colony of 120 men and women, broken in fortune and in spirit, bound for a wild country across the tempestuous seas, extending, by the written words of the charter, from the waters of the Savannah to the South seas a land inhabited by savages of warlike disposition and habit, and menaced by the naval and military power of the ancient and truculent foe of England. Yet when on November 30, 1732, the good ship Anne set sail from Gravesend and turned her prow to the setting sun, at that moment began a distinct epoch not only in the military history of England, but in the moral development of mankind.
Upon that momentous voyage and its conclusion at the hospitable shores of Carolina it is not permissible to dwell at length. Leaving the colonists in the generous care of the noble people of that great colony, Oglethorpe pursued his way to Georgia and in a brief interview with Tomochichi settled for all time the relations between the colony and the Indians. There is no such colonial record anywhere in America. With out this victory of peace the colony could not have progressed, if it could have started upon its way, and it would reflect upon a generous people to forego a passing tribute to that great Georgian of the long ago whose broadness of mind and faithfulness of character made possible the solu tion of this problem which confronted the colonists at the threshold of their undertaking. It is said that not a day passes over the earth but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words, and suffer noble sorrows. Of these obscure heroes, philosophers and martyrs, the greater part will never be known till that hour when many that are great shall be small and the small great; but of others the world's knowledge may be said to sleep; their lives and characters lie hidden from nations in the annals that record them.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

. 1605

Of these last was Tomo-ehi-chi, who, when upwards of ninety years of age, was fighting the enemies of Georgia. In a neighboring square, a few hundred feet from this spot, where he was laid to rest by the people of Georgia, a noble band of Georgia women, carrying out the forgotten behest of Oglethorpe, made in the long ago, have placed as a. memorial where he was buried, a boulder of Georgia granite. On it is inscribed that he was the Mico of the Yamacraws, the companion of Oglethorpe, and the friend and ally of the Colony of Georgia. As they were associated in life, so let them live together in our grateful memories, and let this spot on which stands the monument to the one discard a designation which is meaningless and take up the name of the old warrior whose friendship made possible the peaceful settlement of the colony of Georgia.
From the petty details and annoyances of colonial inauguration, in finitely more trying to one of Oglethorpe's character than the stern hardships and dangers of campaigning, the project, in what began to be its more critical phase, engrossed the thought and anxiety of the leader. The Indian had been converted into a friend, but the war-clouds were still gathering to the south. To attempt to stay that storm by the exhibition of 120 insolvent debtors would have recalled, amid the derisive laughter of the gods, Xerxes stilling the sounding waves with the uplift ing of his hands. But the call to battle which rung in the words of the Georgia charter had not been unheeded. The first adventurers who sailed in the Anne came from the debtors' prison, but the colonists who followed during the next three years were of as free and sturdy a stock as ever ventured forth to extend the prestige and power of England. These freemen from England and Scotland, with the brave-hearted Salzbnrgers, were the substantial colonists of Georgia, and from their arrival here the movement took on new life.
It was a colony as notable for what it did not do as for that which was undertaken and accomplished. It was of the fortune of mankind that at the critical moments the guiding power was in the man who had made the experiment possible. An apparently impossible undertaking which must have appealed to the age in which it was essayed as a comic mani festation, took on a practical business aspect within .a few hours of the landing. The Indians became friends; toleration prevailed; civic and military progression went on side by side; even the dreaded witch in free Georgia had more rights than the minister of God who in higher latitudes wandered from colony to colony seeking in vain the rest which his voca tion suggested and his character demanded and after centuries of perse cution here at last the learned and patient Jew found peace. To the practical mind of Oglethorpe no detail was negligible. As there were no mercenary .aims in the venture itself or its development, the grinding processes which were applied elsewhere found no toleration here. It was not only a practical mind which governed, but the mind of a constructive statesman, trained in the hard school of military necessity.
Oglethorpe not only dealt successfully with the petty details of colonial life, but with singular clearness his vision took within its scope the things which were to come. He forbade slavery and prohibited rum, industries which found lodgment only after Ms departure. The very plan upon which Savannah progresses was formulated by him. The instructed Georgian cannot look in any direction here without being
Vol. Ill--22

1606

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

reminded of the great man who was responsible for the existence of . Georgia. The fate of the colony was in the keeping of this one man. Had he faltered; had his resources of mind and soul even so much as checked their out-pour at any given time, the experiment had failed. He had already accomplished a great work. The Colony of Georgia had been fixed on safe lines, and altruism had been rewritten upon the souls of men. A great man and a great work had come together, and the vitality of a great nature had been breathed into the work..
But the colonization of Georgia even upon such lofty ideals was the accomplishment of only a part of that which Oglethorpe had in mind. As you face his statue, with the naked sword in hand and its defiant and fighting look toward the south, another Oglethorpe confronts you. The statesman has stripped away his robes, and the lieutenant of Maryborough, and Eugene, with the problem of centuries before him, awaits the moment when, along the narrow edge of the gleaming blade in his hand, shall flash the signal of battle, and the old quarrel between England and Spain find its solution.
From the settlement, on February 12, 1733, the colony had progressed without special incident for a year. In the summer of that year Ogle thorpe had returned to England, accompanied by Tomo-chi-chi; and, on March 10, 1734, the Purisburg, with, the Salzburgers arrived. The High landers sailed on the Prince of Wales, October 20, 1735. The London Merchant and the Symond left England with the Frederica colonists on December 21, 1735. Having returned to the colony toward the close of 1736, Oglethorpe again sailed for England to urge the departure of the military contingent. A portion of the troops sailed on May 7, 1738, and the remainder, with Oglethorpe as general, arrived off Jekyl bar, on September 18, 1738.
During the intervals, Oglethorpe, with the assistance of Tomo-chi-chi, made frequent demonstrations along the Spanish frontier. Hostilities began on November 15, 1739, with the slaying of two Highlanders by the Spaniards, on Amelia Island. Oglethorpe at once gave pursuit, push ing on to the St. John's River, and burning three outposts. Marching in the direction of St. Augustine, he attacked and defeated a detachment of the enemy, .and attempted to take, unsuccessfully, forts St. Francis and Picolata. Returning, on January 1, 1740, he burned the laiter and reduced the former. It never occurred to Oglethorpe to stay whipped. Driven off today he was back on the morrow a practice which the Spanish governor took much to heart as unreasonable, with a touch of discourtesy to a successful antagonist.
In May, 1740, with an army 2,000 strong, consisting of regulars, militia, and Indians with a co-operative fleet, under Admiral Vernon, he moved on to St. Augustine; captured Fort Moosa, and signaling the fleet to action, prepared to deliver the assault on the fortifications of the Florida stronghold. The fleet failed to respond and departed, and the unsupported attack from the land becoming thus impracticable, a siege of three weeks followed, which Oglethorpe was finally compelled to aban don. To his repeated and urgent requests for reinforcements the home government made no response and he had been practically abandoned to his fate, when, in the summer of 17.41, the long gathering storm burst in all its fury. A Spanish fleet of fifty-one sails had appeared in June

::
;;;;:;: ;.;;;;:;| ; ;;: | :::s'

:

:

:. : \
i j:
;

'

...';!,

-

.ij

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1607

of that year. Its vessels, in one way and another, were so badly used by Oglethorpe in detail that it finally disappeared, to be replaced on June 28th by the St. Augustine fleet of thirty-eight sails. Oglethorpe retarded its movements until July 5th, when, after a hot engagement; lasting four hours, it passed the batteries and got out of range toward Prederica, upon which place Oglethorpe fell back -the enemy landing on the south end of St. Simon's. On July 7, 1742, the Spaniards moved on Frederica and Oglethorpe advanced to meet them, and the decisive battle of Bloody Marsh was on. When the smoke cleared away Georgia was free. The battle had not been to the strong. The comment of'Oglethorpe was as characteristic as it was modest. '' The Spanish invasion which had a long time threatened the colony, Carolina and all North America, has at last fallen upon us, and God hath been our deliverance." And George "Whitfield said of it, '' the deliverance of Georgia from the Spaniards is such as cannot be paralleled but by some instances out of the Old Testament.''
His work accomplished; his mission fulfilled, on July 23, 1743, he sailed for England, never to see again the land to which he had devoted the best years of his life. He was .too great to escape the calumnies of the small and the ingratitude of the narrow. Having passed to payment the expenditures made by him out of his personal fortune, the English government revoked its action and appropriated his money. Having availed themselves of his military talents, the advisers of royalty courtmartialed him on grounds which were dismissed as slanderous. Finally, he withdrew from the service of an ungrateful monarch and entered upon the last stage of the journey of life which was to end on July 1, 1785. King and courtier might see in him only a successful rival for the fame which it was not given them to attain, but with the great spirit of his time he became a welcome guest. Authors laid their tributes at his feet and poets bound about his brows the laurel wreaths of victory. Georgia and her fate never passed from his thought. Tradition has it that in the days of the Revolution he was tendered the command of the English forces, and refused to take up arms against the colony he had founded. "Whether it be true or no, never in thought or word that history records was he ever disloyal to the colony to which he had devoted the best years of his life.
He had striven with success for the betterment of the weak and help less in an age of abject selfishness. He had made an empire with a handful of the oppressed of earth, and the work had survived. He had overcome the Indian by persuasion and kindness, and won the abiding friendship of the savages he had been sent to slay. He had encountered the most powerful foe of England and driven him in disastrous defeat before his scant battle-line. Reversing all the traditions of colonial administration, he had been tolerant and just. He was a builder and not an iconoclast; a statesman and not a schemer; a soldier and not a plunderer.
Brave and wise and merciful, the ends he accomplished placed him in historic perspective a century ahead of the day in which he worked. Honest in an era of guile, without fear and without reproach, he comes to us with his unstained record, to live so long as Georgians shall stand upon the ancient ways, and see and approve the better things of life. In all his brilliant career in the hour of stress, in the moment of victory

1608

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

no clamorous sound of vain and self-applauding words came from his lips. There was no need. That which he did sends its paeans down the centuries; and over his illustrious career Georgia stands guard forever.

JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES : EULOGY OP HENRY "W. GBADY

[This speech, a gem of oratory, was delivered at the memorial exer cises held in DeGive's Opera House, Atlanta, Georgia, December 28,1889, in honor of the South's great editor. It was received with the wildest outburst of enthusiasm by an audience which packed the opera house from pit to gallery, and at its close the speaker received an ovation which lasted for several minutes. Colonel Graves was at this time edtior of the Rome Tribune. He is today editor of the New York American, and one of the foremost public men of America.]

I am one among the thousands who loved him and I stand with the millions who lament his death. I loved him in the promise of his glowing youth, when, across my boyish vision, he walked with winning grace from easy effort to success. I loved him in the flush of splendid manhood when a nation hung upon his words; and now, with the dross of human friendship smitten in my soul, I love him best of all as he lies yonder under the December skies, with face as tranquil and with smile as sweet as patriot ever wore.
In this sweet and solemn hour all the rare and kindly adjectives that blossomed in the shining pathway of his pen seem to have come from every quarter of the continent to lay themselves in loving tribute at their master's feet; but, rich as the music which they bring, all the cadences
of our elogy

'' Sigh for the touch of a vanished hand And the sound of a voice that is still.''

And here today, within this hall, glorified by the echoes of his elo quence, standing to answer the impulse of my heart to the roll-call of his friends, and stricken with an emptiness of words, I know that when the finger of God touched his eyelids into sleep there gathered a silence upon the only lips that could weave the sun-bright story of his days or mete sufficient eulogy to the incomparable richness of his life.
I agree with Patrick Collins that he was the most brilliant son of this republic. If the annals of these times are told with truth, they will give him place as the phenomenon of his period, the Admiral Crichton of the age in which he lived. No eloquence has equaled his since Sergeant Prentiss faded from the earth. No pen has plowed such noble furrow in his country's fallow fields since the wrist of Horace Greeley rested. No age of the republic has witnessed such marvelous conjunction of a magic pen with the velvet splendor of a mellow tongue; and although the war like rival of these wondrous forces never rose within his life, it is writ of all his living that the noble fires of his genius were kindled in his boyhood from the gleam that died upon his father's sword.
I have loved to follow, and I love to follow now, the pathway of that diamond pen as it flashed like an inspiration over every phase of life

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1609

in Georgia. It touched the sick body of a desolate and despairing agri culture with the impulse of a better method, and the farmer, catching the glow of promise in his words, left off sighing and went to singing in Iris fields, until at last the better day has come, and as the sunshine melts into his harvests with the tender rain, the heart of humanity is glad in his hope, and the glow of his fields seems the smile of the Lord. Its brave point went with cheerful prophecy and engaging manliness into the ranks of toil, until the workman at his anvil felt the dignity of labor pulse the somber joutine of the hours, and the curse of Adam, soft ening in the faith of silvery sentences, became the blessing and the com fort of his days. Into an era of practical politics it dashed with the grace of an earlier chivalry, and in an age of pushing and unseemly scramble it awoke the spirit of a loftier sentiment, while around the glow of splendid narrative and the charm of entrancing plea there grew a goodlier company of youth, linked to the republic's nobler legends and holding fast that generous loyalty that builds the highest bulwark of the state.
First of all the instruments which fitted his genius to expression was his radiant pen. Long after it had blazed his way to eminence and use fulness, he waked the power of that surpassing oratory which has bettered all the sentiment of his country and enriched the ripe vocabulary of the world. Nothing in the history of human speech will equal the stately stoppings of his eloquence into glory. In a single night he caught the heart of the country in his warm embrace and leaped from a banquet revelry into national fame. It is, at last, the crowning evidence of his genius that he held to the end unbroken the high fame so easily won and, sweeping from triumph unto triumph, with not one leaf of his laurels withered by time or staled by circumstance, died on yesterday, the fore most orator of all the world.
It is marvelous past all telling how he caught the heart of the country in the fervid glow of his own! All the forces of our statesmanship have not prevailed for union like the ringing speeches of this bright, magnetic man. His eloquence' was the electric current over which the positive and negative poles of American sentiment were rushing to a warm embrace. It was the transparent medium through which the bleared eyes of section were learning to see each other clearer and to love each other better. He was melting bitterness in the warmth of his patriot sympathies; sections were being linked in the logic of his liquid sentences, and when he died he was literally loving a nation into peace.
Fit and dramatic climax to a glorious mission that he should have lived to carry the South's last and greatest message to the center of New England's culture, and then, with the gracious answer to his transcendant service locked in his loyal heart, come home to die among the people he had served! . Fitter still that, as he walked in final triumph through the streets of his beloved city, he should have caught upon his kingly brow that wreath of southern roses richer jewels than Victoria wears plucked by the hands of Georgia women, borne by the hands of Georgia, men, and flung about him with a tenderness that crowned him for his burial, that, in the unspeakable fragrance of Georgia's full and sweet approval, he might '' draw the drapery of his couch about him and lie down to pleasant dreams."

1610

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

If I should seek to touch' the core of all his greatness, I would lay my hand upon his heart. I should speak of his humanity, his almost inspired sympathies, his sweet philanthropy, and the noble heartfulness than ran like a silver current through his life. His heart was the furnace where he fashioned all his glowing speech. Love was the current that sent his golden sentences pulsing through the world, and in the honest throb of human sympathies he found the anchor that held him steadfast to all things great and true. He was the incarnate triumph of a heartful man.
I thank God, as I stand above my buried friend, that there is not one ignoble memory in all the shining pathway of his fame! In all the glorious gifts that God Almighty gave him, not one was ever bent to willing service in unrighteous cause. He lived to make the world about him better. With all his splendid might, he helped to build a heartier, happier and more wholesome sentiment among his kind. And in fond ness, mixed with reverence, I believe that the Christ of Calvary, who died for men, has found a welcome sweet for one who fleshed within his person the golden spirit of the new commandment and spent his powers in glorious living for his race.
0, brilliant and incomparable Grady! "We lay for a season thy pre cious dust beneath the soil that bore and cherished thee, but we fling back against all our brightening skies the thoughtless speech that calls thee dead I God reigns and his purpose lives; and although these brave lips are silent here, the seeds sown in this incarnate eloquence will sprinkle patriots through the years to come and perpetuate thy living in a race of nobler men!
But all our words are empty and they mock the air. If we would speak the eulogy that fills this day, let us build within this city that he loved, a monument, tall as his services and noble as the place he filled. Let every Georgian lend a hand, and as it rises to confront in majesty his darkened home, let the widow who weeps there be told that every stone that makes it has been sawn from the solid prosperity that he builded, and that the light which plays upon its summit is, in afterglow, the sunshine which he brought into the world.
And for the rest silence. The sweetest thing about his funeral was that no sound broke the stillness, save the reading of the Scripture and the melody of music. No fire that can be kindled upon the altar of speech can relume the radiant spark that perished yesterday. No blaze born in all our eulogy can burn beside the sunlight of his useful life. After all, there is nothing grander than such living.
I have seen the light that gleamed at midnight from the headlight of some giant engine, rushing onward through the darkness, heedless of opposition, fearless of danger, and I thought it was grand. I have seen the light come over the eastern hills in glory, driving the lazy darkness like mist before a sea-born gale, till leaf, and tree, and blade of grass, glittered in the myriad diamonds of the morning ray; and I thought it was grand. I have seen the light that leaped at midnight athwart the storm-swept sky, shivering over chaotic clouds, mid howling winds, till cloud and darkness and the shadow-haunted earth flashed into mid-day splendor, and I knew it was grand. But the grandest thing, next to the radiance that flows from the almighty throne, is the light of a noble

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1611

and beautiful life, wrapping itself in benediction round the destinies of men and finding its home in the blessed bosom of the Everlasting God 1

JOHN B. GORDON : THE LAST DAYS OF THE CONFEDERACY
[Though not a "West Point officer, General Gordon achieved the high est military distinction during the Civil war and commanded half of Lee's army in the last charge at Appomattox. Subsequent to the war he became governor of Georgia and United States senator. He was also commander-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans for fourteen years, dating from the organization of this body in 1890 until his death. in 1904. General Gordon was not only a superb soldier, but a peerless orator, and his lecture on "The Last Days of the Confederacy" was a most effective and powerful instrumentality in welding the sections more closely together.]

Ladies, and my fellow-countrymen: In deciding to deliver a series of lectures you will credit me, I trust, with having been influenced, in part, at least, by other and higher aims than mere personal considera tions. If, from the standpoint of a southern soldier, I could suggest certain beneficent results of our sectional war, or if, as the comrade and friend of Lee, I could add any new facts illustrative of the character of Grant; or lastly, if I could aid in lifting to a higher plane the popular estimate placed by victor and vanquished upon their countrymen of the opposing section, and thus strengthen the sentiment of national fraternity as an essential element of national unity, I should, in either event, secure an abundant reward.
Let me say before beginning my lecture that, although you are to listen tonight to a southern man, a southern soldier, yet I beg you to believe that he is as true as any man to this Republic's flag and to all that it truly represents. In selecting as my theme, '' The Last Days of the Confederacy," it is not my purpose to analyze the causes of its decline, nor attempt descriptions of the great battles which preceded its over throw. I propose to speak of those less grave but scarcely less important phases or incidents of the war which illustrate the spirit and character of the American soldier and people.
Gettysburg and Appomattox fix the boundaries of the Confederacy's decline and death. At Gettysburg its sun reached its zenith and passed its meridian; at Appomattox it went down forever. Gettysburg, there fore, is the turning point, the dividing line between the aspiring and the expiring Confederate States of America. Among the interesting questions suggested by the battle of Gettysburg is the inquiry into the reasons or motives for southern invasion of northern soil. In this day of peace and plenty it is difficult to realize the force of some of the reasons I am about to mention.
We were hungry; and as we stood on the heights of our Southern Pisgah, on the Potomac's bank

"And viewed the landscape o'er"
we beheld the valleys of Pennsylvania, fair, fertile, and grain-clad, stretching out in a most inviting panorama before us. Only the Potomac,

1612

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

like Jordan of old, rolled between us and that land of promise. To cross over and possess it, therefore, seemed the dictate both of military strategy and of empty stomachs.
But there was another reason for crossing. Social reciprocity demanded it. We owed our northern cousins a large number of visits, and chivalric southrons could not ignore such obligations. "We had endeavored to cancel a part of the social debt by a visit to Maryland the summer before; but the reception given us by McClellan and his men at Antietam, or Sharpsburg, as we call it, while very hearty, did not encourage us to stay long. We concluded to postpone our visit further north till a more convenient season. That season seemed to arrive in '63, and we decided this time to test Pennsylvania's hospitality. There fore, for the reasons given, and for the additional reason that we desired closer communication with our northern kinspeople in order more effectually to persuade them to take General Scott's or Horace Greeley's advice and "let the wayward southern sisters depart in peace"; and, with appetites whetted to keenest relish by Pennsylvania's ripened wheat and fattened cattle, we rapidly and cheerfully crossed the Potomac, and then a few days later more rapidly and less cheerfully recrossed it. I think it due to historical accuracy and to a proper respect for social regulations, to explain that no discourtesy whatever was intended by our .unceremonious departure. Our visit was cut short by circumstances over which we did not have entire control, and for which we cannot be held exclusively responsible.
Twenty months passed before our next visit. The war was over. We had changed our minds and had concluded not to set up a separate government. When we returned to you again, therefore, we came to stay. No more with hostile banner waving in defiance above gray-clad battle lines, but rallying now with all our countrymen around this common flag, whose crimson stripes are made redder and richer by southern as well as by northern blood, and whose stars are brighter because they emblem the glory of both northern and southern achieve ments. We returned, not with rifles in our hands, demanding separa tion as the price of peace, but with hands outstretched to grasp those of the North, extended in sincere and endless brotherhood. We returned, too, without lingering bitterness or puerile repining, but with a patriot ism, always broad and sincere, now intensified and refined in the fires of adversity, to renew our vows of fidelity to that unrivaled constitutional Government, bequeathed by our fathers and theirs; and by God's help to make with them the joint guarantee that this Republic and its people, and the states which compose it, shall remain united, co-equal, and for ever free.
It was the fortune of my command to be separated from General Lee's army, after crossing into Pennsylvania, and to penetrate further into the heart of that state than any other Confederate troops, and to pass through that portion of Pennsylvania inhabited by what they call the Pennsylvania Dutch, an unwarlike, magnificent people, priding them selves on their well-cultivated fields, their colossal red barns, and horses nearly as big as barns. Some of those horses disappeared about that time from those barns, and by some strange coincidence they were found the next day securely tied in the Confederate camp. How they got there,

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

1613

whether through sympathy for the southern cause or were drafted into service, I never knew, and, to be honest about it, I never inquired; but they were there, and evidently without their owners' consent.
This fact was soon made apparent by one of those owners announcing to me in his broken English, as well as I could understand him, that I had his mare. I endeavored to explain to this Pennsylvania Dutchman that we were obliged to take some of Pennsylvania's horses to pay for those the boys in blue had been taking from us. This explanation, which was entirely satisfactory to me, was not at all so to the Dutchman. He insisted that I pay him for his mare, and I at once offered to pay him full price in Confederate money. This he indignantly refused. Where upon I offered to give him, and in fact did give him, a written order for the full price of his mare, on President Abraham Lincoln, of the United States. This he liked much better. In fact, he was absolutely satisfied with this mode of settlement until there crept into his brain some doubt about my authority for drawing on the President of the United States. He had a good deal of difficulty in understanding by what right a Con federate general could draw on the President for money to pay for horses to serve in the Confederate army; and the more he thought of it the less light he had on the subject; and at last, when he saw the truth, he discharged at me a perfect volley of Dutch expletives, and ended by saying, '' I have been married three times, and I vood not geeve dot mare for all dose vomans."
I relented and gave him back his mare. Now, the great injustice done by him to the womanhood of his state was made manifest a few days later by the heroic conduct of one of Pennsylvania's noblest daugh ters. The retreating Federals had fired the bridge which spanned the Susquehanna River at the Town of "Wrightsville, where lived this superb woman, whom I shall designate as "the heroine of the Susquehanna." Wrightsville would have been inevitably consumed but for the fact that my command was formed around the burning district, and at a late hour of night checked the flames. The house which would have been next consumed was that of this splendid woman of whom I am about to speak. Early the next morning she invited me to breakfast at her house, with my staff. Seated at her table was this modest, refined northern woman, surrounded by none except Confederate soldiers; but she was so digni fied, calm and kind that I at once imagined that I had found a southern sympathizer in the heart of Pennsylvania, and I ventured some remarks which indicated to her the thought that was on my mind. In an instant her eyes were flashing with patriotic fire, and she turned to me and said: '' General Gordon, I cannot afford, sir, to have you misunderstand me, nor to misinterpret this coxirtesy. You and your soldiers last night saved my home from burning, and I desire to give you this evidence of my appreciation; but my honor and loyalty to my soldier husband demand that I tell you plainly that I am a Union woman, that my husband and son are both in the Union army, with my approval, and that my daily prayer to Heaven is that the Union cause may triumph and our country be saved."
My fellow-countrymen, I think that every gallant man, North, South, East and West, will echo the sentiment I am abotit to utter. It is this to my thought, a woman with such courage of conviction and with such

1614

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

a sense of duty to her country, expressed in the presence of a hostile enemy, deserves a lofty niche in patriotism's temple. And now I am sure this generous audience will pardon me if I ask what words of mine could measure the gratitude due from me and my comrades who wore the gray to glorious southern women for their part in that great struggle ? Of course, I was perfectly familiai*:with the Spartan courage and selfsacrifice of southern women in every stage and trial of that war. I had seen those patriotic women of our Southland sending their husbands and their fathers, their brothers and their sons, to the front, cheering them in the hour of disaster and tempering their joys in the hour of triumph. I had witnessed the southern mother's anguish, as with breaking heart and streaming eyes she gave to a beloved boy her parting blessing: '' Go, my son," she said, "to the front. I perhaps will never see you again; but I freely commit you to God and to the defense of your people.'' I had seen those southern women with the sick, the wounded, and the dying; and in the late stages of that war I had been made to marvel at their saintly spirit of martyrdom, standing, as it were, almost neck deep in the desolation around them, yet bravely facing their fate while the light of Heaven itself played around their divinely beautiful faces. And now I had found their counterpart in this heroine of the Susquehanna this representative of noble northern womanhood this representative of tens of thous'ands of American women, of whose costly sacrifices for country the world will never know. To my comrades, therefore, I submit this proposition, which I know their brave hearts to a man will echo. That proposition is, that these sufferings and sacrifices this devotion of the American women during that titanic conflict must remain through all the ages as cherished a memorial as the rich libations of blood poured out by their brave brothers in battle.
But now to Gettysburg. That great battle could not be described in the space of a lecture. I shall select from its myriad of thrilling inci dents which rush over my memory, but two. The first I relate because it seems due to one of the bravest and knightliest soldiers of the Union army. As my command came back from the Susquehanna River to Gettysburg, it was thrown squarely on the right flank of the Union army; and the fact that that portion of the Union army melted was no dispar agement either to its courage or to its lofty American manhood, for any troops ever marshaled, the Old Guard itself, would have been as surely and swiftly shattered. It was that movement that gave to the Confed erate army the first day's victory at Gettysburg; and as I rode forward over that field of green clover, made red with the blood of both armies, I found a major-general among the dead and dying. But a few moments before I had seen the proud form of that magnificent Union officer reel in the saddle and then fall in the white smoke of1 the battle, and as I rode by, intently looking into his pale face, which was turned to the broiling rays of that scorching July sun, I discovered that he was not
dead. Dismounting from my horse, I lifted his head with one hand, gave
him water from my canteen, inquired his name and if he was badly hurt. He was Gen. Francis C. Barlow, of New York.. He had been shot from his horse while grandly leading a charge. The ball had struck him in front, passed through the body and out near the spinal cord, completely

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

,

1615

paralyzing him in every limb; neither he nor I supposed that he could live for an hour. I desired to remove him before death from that terrific sun. I had him lifted on a litter and borne to the shade in the rear. As he bade me good-bye in response to my inquiry what I could do for him he asked me to take from his side pocket a bunch of letters. Those letters were from his wife, and as I opened one at his request, and as his eye caught, supposably for the last time, that wife's signature, the great tears came like a fountain and rolled down his pale face; and he said to me, '' General Gordon, you are a Confederate; I am a Union soldier; but we are both Americans; if you should live through this dreadful war and ever see my wife, will you do me the kindness to tell my wife that you saw me on this field ? Tell her for me that my last thought on earth was of her; tell her for me that you saw her husband fall in this battle, and that he fell, not in the rear, but at the head of his column; tell her for me, General, that I freely gave my life to my country, but that my unutterable grief .is that I must now go without the privilege of seeing her once more, and bidding her a long and loving farewell.''
I at once said, "Where is Mrs. Barlow, General? Where could I find her?" for I was determined that wife should receive that gallant husband's message. He replied: '' She is very close to me; she is just back of the Union line of battle, with the commander-in-chief, at his headquarters." That announcement of Mrs. Barlow's presence with the Union army struck in this heart of mine another chord of deepest and tenderest sympathy; for my wife had followed me, sharing with her husband the privations of the camp, the fatigues of the march; again and again was she under fire, and always on the very verge of the battle was that devoted wife of mine, like an angel of protection and an inspira tion to duty. I replied: " Of course, General Barlow, if I am alive, sir, when this day's battle, now in progress, is ended if I am not shot dead before the night comes you may die satisfied that I will see to it that Mrs. Barlow has your message before tomorrow's dawn."
And I did. The moment the guns had ceased their roar on the hills I sent a flag of truce with a note to Mrs. Barlow. I did not tell her I did not have the heart to tell her that her husband was dead, as I believed him to be; but I did tell her that he was desperately wounded, a prisoner in my hands, and that she :>should have safe escort through my lines to her husband's side. Late that night, as I lay in the open field upon my saddle, a picket from my front announced a lady on the line. She was Mrs. Barlow. She had received my note and was struggling, under the guidance of officers of the Union army, to penetrate my lines and reach her husband's side. She was guided to the place by my staff during the night. Early next morning the battle was renewed, and the following day, and then came the retreat of Lee's immortal army. I thought no more of that gallant son of the North, General Barlow, except to count him among the thousands of Americans who had gone down on both sides in the dreadful battle. Strangely enough, as the war pro gressed, Barlow concluded not to die; Providence decreed that he should live. He recovered and rejoined his command; and, just one year after that, Barlow saw that I was killed in another battle. The explanation is perfectly simple. A cousin of mine, with the same initials, Gen. J. B. Gordon, of North Carolina, was killed in a battle near Richmond. Bar-

1616

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

low, who, as I say, had recovered and joined his command although I knew he was dead, or thought I did picked up a newspaper and read this item in it: "Gen. J. B. Gordon, of the Confederate army, was killed today in battle." Calling his staff around him, Barlow read that item and said to them: "I am very sorry to see this; you will remember that Gen. J. B. Gordon was the officer who picked me up on the battlefield of Gettysburg and sent my wife through his lines to me at night. 1 am very sorry."
Fifteen years passed. Now, I wish this audience to remember that, during all these fifteen years which intervened, Barlow was dead to me, and for fourteen of them I was dead to Barlow. In the meantime, the partiality of the people of Georgia had placed me in the United States Senate. Clarkson Potter was a member of Congress from New York. He invited me to dine with him, to meet his friend, General Barlow. Now came my time to think. "Barlow?" I said; "Barlow? That is the same name, but it can't be my' Barlow, for I left him dead at Gettysburg;" And I endeavored to understand what it meant, and thought I had made the discovery. I was told, as I made the inquiry, that there were two Barlows in the United States army. That satisfied me at once. I concluded, as a matter of course, that it was the other fellow I was going to meet; that Clarkson Potter had invited me to dine > with the living Barlow and not with the dead one. Barlow had a similar reflection about the Gordon he was to dine with. He supposed that I was the other Gordon. We met at Clarkson Potter's table. I sat just opposite to Barlow, and, in the lull of the conversation, I asked him: "General, are you related to the Barlow who was killed at Gettysburg?" He replied: "I am the man, sir." "Are you related," he asked, "to the Gordon who killed me?" "Well," I said, :"I am the man, sir." The scene which followed beggars all description. No language could describe that scene at Clarkson Potter's table in Washington, fifteen years after the war was over. Truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction. Think of it! What could be stranger? There we met, both dead, each of us presenting to the other the most absolute proof of the resurrection of the dead.
But stranger still, perhaps, is the friendship, true and lasting, begun under such auspices. What could be further removed from the realip of probabilities than a confiding friendship between combatants, a friendship born on the field of blood, amidst the thunders of battle, and while the hostile legions rush upon each other with deadly fury and pour into each other's breasts their volleys of fire and of leaden hail. Such
were the circumstances under which was born the friendship between
Barlow and myself, and which, I believe, is more sincere because of its
remarkable birth, and which has strengthened and deepened with the
passing years. For the sake of our reunited and glorious Republic, may
we not hope that similar ties will bind together all the soldiers of the
two armies indeed, all Americans in perpetual unity until the last bugle
call shall have summoned us to the eternal camping ground beyond
the stars. Another incident of an entirely different character may be worth
relating, as it illustrates the peculiarities and eccentricities of a promi-
nent Confederate officer. Lieutenant-General Ewell had lost a leg in a

;.:
:;
:
: |; Hi :
1 :
i
;; ;! ; iiii :; . .1 i ::ii ' !;' ::: "1. .li.i Hi: ; :';; 1; : li .;;| H ;;' :;: -^lli; ill! ill :if!H : ill illl iif ::1
: ;|; If H II .iil i! lil ::|
! /I; ' >!

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1617

previous engagement, and supplied its place with a wooden one. During the progress of the battle of Gettysburg, we chanced to be riding together. The thud of a mine ball caught my ear, shattering, as I supposed, Gen eral Ewell's other leg. I quickly inquired: "Are you hurt?" He as quickly replied: "No, sir; but suppose that had been your leg; we would have had the trouble of carrying you off the field, sir. You see how much better prepared for a fight I am than you are 1 It doesn't hurt to be shot in a wooden leg, sir.''
This same eccentric officer, General Ewell, at another time, was riding out in front of my line, on what he called an independent scout of his own, and he rode most too far. A squadron of Union cavalry got after him and chased him back. He was riding one of the most magnificent animals that ever stood on four feet; and as he came flying in, closely pursued by the Union cavalry, my line opened fire ,on him and his pur suers, but he came in safely and, reining up to my lines, he opened fire on them of a different kind. He asked, in his peculiarly emphatic style: "What in the world are you shooting at me for? "Why don't you shoot at the other fellows?" They answered: "General, we are shooting at the other fellows, and you, too; but we did not know who you were.'' He replied: "Boys, that is a good excuse at this time, but you must be more careful; you might have killed the very finest mare in Lee's army.'' This crusty old bachelor married late in life; married a widow, a Mrs. Brown. Of course, after Mrs. Brown's marriage to General Ewell she became Mrs. Ewell to all the world except to him; but he always persisted in introducing her as "my wife, Mrs. Brown."
The failure of the Confederate army at Gettysburg did not lower by one hair's breadth the confidence of Lee's men in the infallibility of that great commander. But I am bound to admit that the simultaneous fall of Vicksburg and the disaster of Gettysburg did set the southern boys to thinking, and right seriously, about the future; but they soon recovered and were ready to meet General Grant as he came from the southwestern campaigns with the green laurel of victory on his brow, and called us one fine morning in May, 1864, from our long winter's sleep on the banks of the Rapidan. We did not know as much about General Grant then as we found out after a while, but we had heard of him. Among other things we had heard of that U. S. in his name, which some Union prophet, without asking our advice about it, had changed from a simple "U. S." into those ominous words, "Uncondi tional Surrender." We could not see Grant for the underbrush in the wilderness, but we knew he was there. His morning salute to us at times was warm and prompt and unmistakable. Lee's response was equally royal in tone and hearty in character; but before saying anything more about these two old comrades, Lee and Grant, who you will remember had been separated from each other a number of years, had not seen each other in a great while, and they were just now coming up to meet each other in the wilderness, and, of course, were cheering and saluting each other with their big guns as they came along. Before saying any thing more about them, I want to pause in this story to give one or two incidents illustrative of the life of a private in that war. My country men, I must be pardoned for saying that when I recall the uncomplaining suffering, the unbought and poorly paid patriotism of those grand men,

1618

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the American volunteers, who had no hope of personal honors, no stripes on their coats, no stars on their collars, who wore the knapsacks, trudged in the mud, leaving the imprint of their feet in their own blood on Vir ginia's snows when I recall these men who stood in the forefront of the battle, fired the muskets, won the victories, and made the generals, I would gladly write their names in characters of blazing stars that could never grow dim.
I want to illustrate the life of a private. It will be remembered that the little stream of which I have spoken, the Rapidan, which, by the way, comrades, was called a river through courtesy it was a sort of brevet title, a promotion from a creek to a river on account of its long service probably in both armies it will be remembered that this little stream was for a long time the dividing line between the two great armies. It was so near that the pickets, on the two opposing sides, refused to fire at each other by common consent. When they did shoot, they shot jokes instead of rifles across the river at each other, and where the water was shallow they waded in and met each other in the middle and swapped southern tobacco for Yankee coffee; and where the water was too deep to wade in they sent those articles across in little boats, loaded on this side with southern tobacco, and sailed across. Then those little ships were loaded on the opposite bank and reloaded and sailed back with Yankee coffee for the Johnnies. Thus those two fighting armies kept up for a long time their friendly and international commerce; and so great, in fact, was that commerce that the commanders of both armies ordered it to stop.
As a matter of course, the privates ignored the orders, and went on trading. General Lee sent for me and said: " I want you to take charge of my picket line, sir, and break up that trading." I rode along the picket lines and as I came suddenly around the point of a hill, on one of my picket posts, before they dreamed I was in the neighborhood, I found an amount of confusion such as I had never witnessed. I asked: "What is the matter here, boys? What does all this mean ?" "Nothing at all, sir," was the reply; "it is all right here; we assure you it is all right." I thought there was a good deal of assuring about it, and said so, when a bright fellow who saw there was some doubt on my brain, stepped to the front to get his comrades out of the scrape, and he began he was a stammering fellow he began: '' Oh, yes, G-g-g-general; it's all r-r-right; we were just getting r-r-ready, so we could present arms to you, if you should come along after a while.'' Of course, I knew there was not a word of truth in it, but I began to ride away. Looking back suddenly, I saw the high weeds on the bank of this little river shaking. I asked this fellow: "What is the matter with the weeds, sir? They seem to be in confusion, too." Badly frightened now, he exclaimed: '' Oh, G-g-general, there's nothing the matter with the weeds; the weeds are all right." I ordered: "Break down those weeds"; and there, flat on the ground, among those weeds,'was at least six feet of soldier, with scarcely any clothing on his person. I asked: '' Where do you belong ?'' '' Over yonder,'' he said, pointing to the Union army, '' on the other side.'' "What are you doing here, sir?" "Well," he.said, "General, I didn't think there was any harm in my coming over here and talking to the boys a little while." "What boys?" I asked. "These Johnnies," he

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

1619

said. '' Don't you know we are in the midst of a great war, sir 1" " Yes, General, 1 know we are having a war, but we are not fighting now." The idea of this Union boy, because we were not at this minute shooting each other to death, it was a proper occasion to lay aside arms and make social visits, one army to the other, struck me as the most laughable kind of war I ever heard of, and I could scarcely keep my face straight enough to give an order. But I summoned all the sternness of my nature and said: "I"will show you, sir, that this is war; I am going to march you throiigh the country and put you in prison." At this announcement my boys rushed to the fellow's defense. They gathered around me and said: "General, wait^a minute; let us talk about it. You say you are going to send this Union boy to prison. Hold on, General, that won't do; that won't do at all; we invited this fellow over here, and we promised to protect him. Now, General, don't you see, if you send him off to prison you will ruin our southern honor?" What could a commnder do with such boys? I made the Union man stand up and said to him: "Now, sir, if I permit you to go back at the solicitation of these Confederates, will you solemnly promise me on the honor of a soldier " He did not wait for me to finish my sentence. With a loud "Yes, sir," he leaped into the river and swam back.
Now, my countrymen, I allude to that little incident for a far higher purpose than to excite your mirth. I want to submit a question in con nection with it. Tell me, my countrymen, where else on all this earth could you find a scene like that in the midst of a long and bloody war between two hostile armies? Where else could you find it? Among what people would it be possible except among this glorious American people, uplifted by our free institutions, and by that Christian civilization which was born in Heaven?
The Eapidan suggests another scene to which allusion has often been made since the war, but which, as illustrative of the spirit of both armies, I may be permitted to recall in this connection. It was in the mellow twi light of an April day that the two armies were holding their dress parades on the opposite hills bordering the river. At the close of the parade a magnificent brass band of the Union army played with great spirit the patriotic airs, "Hail Columbia" and "Yankee Doodle." Whereupon the Federal troops responded with a patriotic shout. The same band then played the soul-stirring strains of Dixie, to which a mighty response came from ten thousand southern troops. A few moments later, when the stars had come out as witnesses and when all nature was in harmony, there came from the same band the old melody, '' Home, Sweet Home.'' As its familiar and pathetic notes rolled over the water and thrilled through the spirits of the soldiers, the hills reverberated with a thundering response from the united voices of both armies. What was there in this old, old music, so to touch the chords of sympathy, so to thrill the spirits and cause the frames of brave men to tremble with emotion ? It was the thought of home. To thousands, doubtless, it was the thought of that eternal home, to which the next battle might be the gateway. To thousands of others it was the thought of their dear earthly homes, where loved ones at that, twilight hour, were bowing around the family altar, and asking God's care over the absent soldier boy.
I ask the audience to return with me now to that wild and weird

1620

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

wilderness of scrub oaks, chinkapins, and pines, where we left Grant and Lee, and in another part of which Hooker and Burnside fought, and Stonewall Jackson fell; and in which Grant was now greeting Lee for the first time in battle on that famous 5th of May, 1864. Lee and Grant in that wilderness "volleyed and thundered" their greetings and coun ter-greetings in the most lordly manner for two or three days. On the second day, while riding over the field covered with the dead, General Lee indicated by the peculiar'>'orders he gave me, his high estimate of General Grant's genius for war. He ordered me to move that night to Spottsylvania Court-House. I asked if scouts had not reported that General Grant had suffered heavy losses and was preparing to retreat. Lee's laconic answer revealed his appreciation, I repeat, of. the char acter and ability of his great antagonist. "Yes," he replied, "my scouts have brought me such reports; but General Gra,nt will not retreat, sir; he will move to Spottsylvania Court-House." I asked if he had infor mation to that effect. "No," he replied, "but General Grant ought to move to Spottsylvania. That is his best maneuver and he will do what is best.'' General Lee then added, '' I am so sure of it that I have had a short road cut to that point, and you will move by that route." This was Lee's prophecy. Its "notable fulfillment was the arrival of Grant's troops at Spottsylvania almost simultaneously with the head of the Confederate column and the beginning of the great battle of Spottsylvania.
On this field occurred some of the most desperate fighting of the war. Winfield Scott Hancock, the superb, made his famous charge and brilliant capture of the bloody salient in the mist and darkness of that fatal morn ing the 12th of May. Here he sent to General Grant his characteristic field dispatch: " I have used' up Johnson and am going into Early.'' Here Lee, with his army cut in twain rode into the breech and, like Napoleon at Lodi, placed himself at the head of his reserves, resolved to recapture the salient or fall in the effort. Here, as he sat upon his horse in front of my lines, his head uncovered, his hat in hand, his face rigid and fixed upon the advancing foe, the Confederate soldiers exhibited that deathless devo tion to his person which knew no diminution even to the end. As I seized his bridle and called in the hearing of the men, "General Lee, this is no place for you you must go to the rear," my soldiers caught the words, and with electric spontaneity there came from my lines, in thunder-tones, "General Lee to the rear, General Lee to the rear," and they surrounded him and literally bore horse and rider to a place of safety. LI ere, under the inspiration of his majestic and magnetic pres ence, occurred that furious counter-charge, which swept forward with the resistless power of a cyclone, bearing all things down before it, driving Hancock back, and retaking a large portion of the salient. Here occurred that incessant roll of musketry for more than twenty hours, unparalleled in the annals of war, the storm of minie balls cutting away standing timber, piling hecatombs of dead Federals in front of the para pets and filling the inner ditches with dead and dying Confederates, upon whose prostrate bodies their living comrades stood to beat back with clubbed muskets the charging columns .of Grant as they rushed with frantic fury up the slippery sides of the blood-drenched breast
works.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1621

My brother Americans, all the ages have claimed chivalry and cour age ; but I stand here tonight, with the fear of God. upon me, measuring my every .word, and throw down the challenge to all history. I chal lenge the proud phalanxes of Cyrus and Alexander, the Tenth Legion of Caesar, the Old Guard of Napoleon, or the heroic Highlanders of Scotland to furnish a parallel to that heroism, devotion, and self-sacri fice which was exhibited by those American boys, blue and gray, from sixty-one to sixty-five.
All things began now to point to the Confederacy's certain and speedy death. Whether as these boys in blue claimed, they were begin ning then to whip us into submission or, as our boys claimed, we were . simply wearing ourselves out whipping them, it is a matter of no con sequence now. I want to pause a moment, in connection with that piece of innocent peasantry, to drop one thought; and, would to God for the sake of my country, I could send this thought ringing down the ages until it had found a lodgment in every American youth's brain for a hundred generations. That thought is this: That for the future glory of this republic, it is absolutely immaterial whether on this battlefield* or that, the blue or the gray won a great victory, for, thanks be to God, every victory won in that war, on either side, was a monument to Ameri can valor.
It was no longer possible to fill our depleted ranks, except by con verting slaves into soldiers, and the proposition to free all the Southern negroes at once and arm them for Southern' defense became the great problem of the hour. It was no longer possible to feed Lee's army, and starvation literal starvation was doing its deadly work. So depleted and poisoned was the blood of our men from insufficient and unsound food, that the slightest wound in the finger, a mere scratch, would oftimes end in gangrene, blood-poisoning, and death. Young gentlemen, it was no uncommon sight to see your Southern brothers in Lee's army with sticks in their hands, picking grains of corn from under the feet of the half-starved horses, and washing that corn for soldier's food. We had to ration on corn quite often; and one night, after an unusually big ration of corn, I heard a great groaning down in my camp. I walked down and asked: "What is the matter with you, Jake? What in the world are you making all this noise about, sir ?" " Sick, Genergil,'' said he, "I am sick; I ate too much corn." But Jake was out next morn ing, and as I came out he hailed me: '' Hallo, General, I 'm all right this morning, I feel first rate; I ate a lot of corn last night, and now, if you will give me a good-sized bale of hay, I will be ready for the next fight.'' The crowning fact which gilds this gloom with a lasting radiance is that, amidst all this suffering, the spirit of the army was never broken. The grim humor of the camp waged incessant war against the spirit of despondency. One soldier would meet another and accost him thus: "Hallo, Bill, I advise.you to invest your month's pay in a bottle of the most powerful astringent, and contract your stomach to the size of your ration.''
It was impossible to secure hats enough to shelter the heads .of those brave boys from the winter's blast; but those rascally Confederates had a way of getting hats for themselves. I was on a train of cars going into Petersburg. A large number of old men were in the cars, coming up to
Vol. Ill--23

1622

GEOEGIA AND GEORGIANS

see the boys. Every one of those old men on the inside of the cars had a hat. Those boys on the outside in the army, who had no hats, wanted hats, were obliged to have hats, had stationed themselves along the rail road track in a long line, and in the hands of the man at the head they had put a tree-top. There he stood with his tree-top close to the rail road side; and as the train came sweeping by, they called: '' Look out!'' and the old men stuck out their heads, and hats, and the brush swept the hats.
It was the fortune of my command to cover Lee's retreat, after the final break of our lines around Petersburg and Eichmond, and as we crossed the river at midnight and burned the bridges behind us, I carried on my spirit a load of woe which no language can describe. In addition , to the melancholy fate which had befallen Lee's army, I had left behind me in that desolated city that sweet and devoted wife who had followed me during the entire war; I had left that wife extremely ill in bed. But as I came back from the surrender, I found her still alive, and I found a fact for which I would gladly build with these hands a monument to the author of that fact I do not know whether that author was Gen eral Grant or some man like Grant; but this I do know that some knightly soldier with a blue uniform on his back had learned of her illness, and with a spirit worthy of an American freeman, had placed around the home &, guard of boys in blue, who protected her from a single intruder.
I repeat, it was the fortune of my command to cover Lee's retreat, fighting all day, marching all night, with little food and no rest, with starvation claiming its victims at every mile of that march I would be an unfaithful chronicler, however, if I did not tell you that, even under those extreme conditions, that same spirit of fun-making was for ever present. Even the religious side of a soldier's life had its ridiculous phase now and then. There is not a man or woman in this' audience, who ever laughed at anything, who could have resisted it. There was a deep religious feeling in Lee's army. Prayer meetings were held wher ever possible. One was held at my headquarters. >A long, lank fellow, about so high, without education, but a brave soldier, knelt at my side and prayed. "Oh, Lord," he said, "we are having a mighty big fight down here and a sight of trouble, and we do hope, Lord, that you will take a proper view of this subject, and give us the victory." Another prayer meeting was held, at which there was present an old fellow a one legged soldier; his leg had been taken off close to the hip joint; he had been sent home, of course, but had come back on a visit, and was in the prayer meeting. His leg was taken off so short that he could not kneel down in prayer, as the boys were in the habit of doing; he had to sit up; so he sat up while Brother Jones prayed. Brother Jones was praying for more manhood, more strength, more courage. This old onelegged Confederate could not stand that sort of a prayer for more cour age at that stage of the game, any longer; so right in the middle of the prayer he called out: "Hold on there, Brother Jones, hold on there, sir; don't you know you are just praying all wrong? Why don't you pray for more provisions 1 We have got more courage now than we have any use for." This broke up the prayer meeting.. Another one was held, this time in a little log cabin on the roadside, by officers in high com mand ; and one general officer stepped to the door of the little log cabin,

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1623

in which we were assembled, and beckoned to another general officer passing by, to come in and participate in the prayer meeting. The other general officer did not understand exactly what was wanted with him; so he replied, "No, I thank you, General, no more at present; I have just had some.''
My command was now thrown to the front; and, on the evening of the 8th of April, the day before the final surrender, we struck that cor don of bayonets which General Grant had thrown across the line of our retreat at Appomattox. Then came the last sad Confederate council of war. It was called by Lee to meet at night. It met in the woods by his lonely bivouac fire. There was no tent, no table, no chairs, no campstools ; on blankets spread upon the ground, we sat around the great com mander. A painter's brush might transfer to canvas the physical fea tures of that scene, but no tongue or pen could describe the unutterable anguish of those broken-hearted commanders as they sat around their beloved leader and looked into his now beclouded face and sought to draw from it some ray of hope. I shall not attempt to describe that scene; but I would be untrue to myself and to Lee's memory if I did not say of him that, in no hour of that great war, did his masterful char acteristics appear to me so conspicuous as they did then and there, as he stood in that lonely woodland, by that low-burning fire, surrounded by his broken followers; and yet stood so grandly, so clamly, facing and discussing the long-dreaded inevitable.
It was resolved at that last council that my wing of the army, now in front, should attempt at daylight the next morning to cut its way through Grant's line. We moved at daylight; and this audience will pardon the pride which impels me to say that, in battle of that great war, was there a prouder record of American valor ever written than was then and there made by that little band of poorly clad and starving American heroes who followed my standard in that last charge of the war ?
As I fought to the front, Longstreet was compelled to fight to the rear, so that every foot of advance by either of us simply widened the breech between the two wings of Lee's army such was Grant's mag nificent strategy; and it was at this hour, while I was desperately fight ing in every direction around me, that I received the last note from General Lee. It was to inform me that there was a flag of truce between General Grant and himself, stopping hostilities, and that I should notify the Union commanders in my front of that fact. The audience will understand that no unnecessary delay occurred in sending out that information. I called for my chief of staff and said: "Take a flag of truce and bear this message to the Union commanders quick.'' He soon informed me that we had no flag of truce. '' Oh, well,'' I said,'' take your handkerchief and tie it on a stick, and go." He said, "General, I have no handkerchief.'' I ordered, '' Tear your shirt and put that on a stick, and go.'' He looked at his shirt and then at mine, and said, '' I have on a flannel shirt; I see you have; there is not a white shirt in the whole army." I said, "Get something, sir get something, and go; and he got a rag and rode to the front, and soon he returned, and with him one of the most superb horsemen that ever sat upon a saddle; and as I looked into his flashing eyes, with his long curls falling to his shoulders, I found myself in the presence of that afterwards great Indian fighter, that man

1624

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

who ought forever to hold a place in every American heart, the gallant Ouster. With a wave of his sword, which embodied all the graces of the school, he said to me: "General Gordon, I bring you the compliments of General Sheridan." Very fine, wasn't it? He added, however, "I also bring, sir, General Sheridan's demand for your immediate and uncon ditional surrender" which was not quite so fine. I replied, "You will please return, General, my compliments to General Sheridan, and say to him that I shall not surrender." The audience will understand that it required no vast amount of courage to send that sort of a message in view of the flag of truce which forbade any more fighting. Soon a white flag was seen in my front, and beneath its silken folds rode Philip Sheri dan and his escort. I rode out to meet him, and between Sheridan and myself occurred a similar controversy'; he had received no message from General Grant about a flag of truce; the message had miscarried, and I am quite satisfied that Sheridan happened to be about that time, as he always was, in a place too hot for the messenger to want to find him; but upon my presenting to him the autograph letter from General Lee, it was agreed that we order the firing to cease, and withdraw our lines to certain points. This was done, and Sheridan and I dismounted and sat together on the ground.
It would require the pen of a master to describe the succeeding events. In the little brick house where they meet, Lee and Grant presented a contrast as strangely inconsistent with the real situation as it was un precedented and inconceivable. Had any one of this audience, unac quainted with the facts, suddenly appeared in that room, you would have selected Lee for the victor, and Grant as the -vanquished hero; and, when you had analyzed the reasons for this marvclous contrast, your con ception of the great characteristics of the two men, and your admiration for each, would have risen to a still higher plane. There stood Lee, dressed as a mark of respect to Grant, in his best1 uniform, unbent by misfortune, sustaining by his example the spirits of his defeated com rades, and illustrating in his calm and lofty bearing the noble adage which he afterwards announced that the "virtue of humanity ought .always to be equal to its trials.''
I had seen him before in defeat, as well as in the hour of triumph, with the exultant shouts of his victorious legions ringing in his ears. I was familiar with the spirit of self-abnegation with which he had severed his allegiance to the general Government, and, like old John Adams, had resolved that "sink or swim, survive or perish," he would cast his fortunes with those of his people. I had learned from long and intimate association with him that, unlike Caesar and Alexander and Bonaparte, and the great soldiers of history, the goal of his ambition was not glory but duty, that it was true of him as of few men who have ever lived that distance, in his case, did not lend enchantment, hut that the nearer you approached him the greater and grander he grew. And now, self-poised and modest, bearing on his great heart a mountain-load of woe, with the light t>f an unclouded conscience upon his majestic brow, with an innate dignity and nobility of spirit rarely equalled and never excelled, this central figure of the Confederate cause rose, in this hour of supremest trial, at least in the estimation of his followers, to the lofti est heights of the morally sublime.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1625

There, 'too,,was Grant peace to his ashes and forever cherished be his memory his slouch hat in hand, his plain blue overcoat upon his shoulders, making Math Lee a contrast picturesque and unique. Grave, unassuming and considerate, there was upon his person no mark of rank; there was about him no air of triumph nor trace of exultation. Serious and silent, except in kindly answers to questions, he seemed absorbed in thought, and evidently sought to withdraw, if-in his power, the bitter sting' of defeat from the quivering sensibilities of his great antagonist. Some of his responses to questions have already gone into history. His replies were marked" by a directness, simplicity, force, and generosity, in keeping with the character of the magnanimous conqueror who uttered them. They were pregnant with a pathos and a meaning- to the defeated Confederates, which can only be understood by a full comprehension of the circumstances, and of the nobility of*spirit and of the lofty sen timent which inspired them. But General Grant rose, if possible, to a still higher plane, by his subsequent threat of self-immolation on the altar of a soldier's honor, and by his heroic declaration of the inviolabil ity and protecting power of Lee's parole; and by invoking almost with his dying lips, the spirit of peace, equality, fraternity, and unity among all of his countrymen.
These evidences of Grant's and Lee's, great characteristics ought to live in history as an inspiration to future generations. They ought to live on pages at .Least as bright as those which record their military and civic achievements. They ought to be inscribed on their tombs in char acters as fadeless as their fame and as enduring as the life of the Republic.
Outside of that room the scenes were no less thrilling or memorable. When the Confederate battle-flags had been furled forever, and as a Confederate corps inarched to the point where its arms were to be stacked, it moved in front of the division commanded by that knightly soldier, Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain, of Maine. That brilliant officer called his command into line and saluted the Confederates at present arms, as they tiled by, a final and fitting tribute of northern chivalry to southern courage. The briny tears that ran down the haggard and tanned faces of the starving Confederates; the veneration and devotion which they displayed for the tattered flags which had so long waved above them in the white smoke of the! battle; the efforts secretly to tear those bulletrent banners from their supports and conceal them in their bosoms; the mutually courteous and kindly greetings and comradeship between the soldiers of the hitherto hostile armies; their anxiety to mingle with each other in friendly intercourse; the touching and beautiful generosity dis played by the Union soldiers in opening their well-filled haversacks and dividing their rations with the starving Confederates these and a thou sand other incidents can neither be described in words nor pictured on the most sensitive scrolls of the imagination. No scene like it in any age was ever witnessed at the close of a long and bloody war. No such termi nation of intestine and internecine strife would be possible, save among these glorious American people. It was the inspiration of that enlight ened and Christian civilization developed by the free institutions of this unrivalled and heaven-protected republic.
While political passion has now and then, and for brief .periods, dis turbed this auspicious harmony, yet what a marvel of concord, of power,

1626

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

and of progress, is presented for the contemplation of mankind by this reunited country. The bloodiest war of the ages, with its embittered alienations, all in the past; its lessons and immortal memories a guide and an inspiration for all the future. Emerging from this era of pas sion, of strife, and of carnage, with a national life more robust, a national peace more secure, and a national union more complete and enduring, we call the fettered millions of earth to follow our lead and strike for republican liberty. As the vanguard, the color-bearers in the inarch of nations, we lift aloft this proud banner of freedom and bid universal Humanity to catch its inspiration.
By the memory of the fathers who bequeathed us this priceless heri tage; by the names and deeds of northern heroes, living and dead; by the sacrifices and measureless woes endured by southern womanhood; by the heroic devotion and dauntless courage of the South's sons which devotion and courage, exhibited in defense of the dead Confederacy, have been transmuted by the hallowing touch of time into consecrated services to this living and glorious Republic by all these we unite in solemn compact that this American people shall know intestine war no more; but shall forever remain an unbroken brotherhood from sea to sea by all these, and by the resistless fiat of an inexorable American sentiment, we proclaim that the American flag shall protect every American citizen on all oceans and in all lands. And in God's own time, it may be his will that this flag shall become omnipotent over every acre . of soil on the North American continent. But whatever be the geographical limits over which destiny decrees it to float as the symbol of our national sovereignty, there shall at least be no boundaries to its moral sway; but as long as political truth triumphs or liberty survives this flag of our fathers shall remain the proudest and most potential emblem of human liberty in all the world.

PETER FRANCISCO SMITH: THE OLD-TIME SLAVE

[Mr. Smith was one of the ablest advocates of his day at the Georgia bar and one of the ripest scholars a man of rare culture and of wide in formation. He published a number of legal text-books, in addition to a work on the correct use of words. His eulogy of Senator Hill, delivered while a member of the Georgia House of Representatives, in 1882, was unsurpassed by any effort of eloquence which the senator's death evoked; and his tribute to the old-time slave is a literary classic which well de serves a place in this work in order that its charm of tender sentiment may be transmitted to future generations. Mr. Smith died in 1.912.]

By the precious and holy memories of the past, we pay this willing and loving tribute to the character of the old-time slave. From the wilderness of bloom that decks the fields where he lived and moved, we bring one simple flower to lay on his inanimate dust. Many of them have passed the river, and roam, the green fields beyond the swelling flood. A few of that best and noblest type of the race still liugeringly await their summons to join the majority on the other side. Strangers and pilgrims in the earth, buffeted by the fickle caprice of fortune, their weary feet are brushing the dews on Jordan's bank and their ears catch

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1627

the faint murmurs of the breakers on the shores. May they find a shal low ford.
The little log cabin is crumbling. Its battered doors swing on rusty hinges, and the rude key and ruder lock have parted forever. The vine that sheltered the humble portal is withered, and the watchdog's honest bark is heard no more. Half hidden by thorn and thistle it stands a sad reminder of "departed joys, departed never to return." Dearer to memory than lofty dome or gilded palace, the very ground on which it stands is holy. The shadows of the fitful flame no longer play on' its desolate hearth, and tenantless and dreary the rude winds murmur through the chinks. The cricket has hushed its plaintive song. The owl and the bat seek shelter amid its ruins. Rank weeds have hidden the old familiar path, winding its way around the hill, and there is nothing to remind us of auld lang syne.
And how lonely, how sadly the gray-haired old sires wander up and down in the earth and hum the song of the weary pilgrim:
"No foot of land do I possess No': cottage in the wilderness.''
What sweet and glorioi\s memories linger about the old homestead and the "little log cabin by the lane!" Even to one not given to the :, melting mood, each hallowed spot demands the tribute of a tear. The playground beneath the venerable and umbrageous oak, the verdant fields and the new-mown hay; the bubbing fountain and the rustic seats; the velvet lawn and the winding brook; the honeysuckle and the rose, and ten thousand other charms crowd on the memory; and how gladly we would feel again their inspiration and once more quench our thirst in
"The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, The moss-covered bucket that hangs in the well."
But what would all these glorious memories be to us without the old uncles and aunties of Our childhood? The dear old souls who have long since put off this mortal and been clothed in robes immortal. "With what romantic interest their lives were invested and how it deepens with the lapse of years!
The shovel and the hoe lie rusting in the hedge, and the old scythe has lost its cunning fingers. No more the yellow grain bends to its glit tering edge, for the songs of the harvest are hushed and the hands of the reaper are still. The fiddle and the bow are gone, and gone the young hearts their wild strains did ravish. Once their irresistible witchery charmed the wee sma' hours and inspired the song and dance the live long night. But the hands which wooed its wild notes will touch its vibrant chords no more. Stringless and tuneless and mute, the sweetest relic of the long ago, it sleeps with the echoes its music waked.
And the springs have run dry, and the well-known stream has van ished with its source. We seek in vain the spots where the patient fisher man watched the tremulous line, by the light of the torch, and won the fickle finny tribe with the conjured bait. But Old Black Joe and his mysterious tackle are gone, and faded his tracks on the mossy banks. Age and toil had whitened his head and bent his form, and he passed from the shadow of his cabin to the light beyond the stars. The shadows

1628

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

lengthened and lengthened to the east until his last sun sank to rest in the sea. The patriarch watched its fading splendors. His humble lifework was finished. His ear caught the echoes of angelic choirs and he went to meet them with a song in his heart:
"I'm coming, I'm coming,
For my head is bending low; I hear their gentle voices calling
Old Black Joe."
The old-time darky was a philosopher. His thoughts never ranged beyond the smoke of his cabin. Content with food and raiment, his little patch of ground, and at peace with all the world, he cheerfully and proudly drove his team afield. He was a Christian. He "saw God in the clouds and heard him in the wind." If he sinned much, he prayed often, and his repentance was instantaneous and evangelical. He praised God in song all the days of his pilgrimage, and the sweet melody of his unpremeditated hymns echoed around the earth. To his unquestioning faith the groves, the hills, the fields and his cabin were the temples of the living God. He was a poet; the eldest child of nature, rocked in her cradle and nurtured at her breast. He knew the language of birds and flowers. He conversed with all the dwellers of the forest and knew their speech by heart. He listened in wild rapture to the rustle of waving harvest, sniffed their fragrance and breathed the very breath of song. Pie was a true and faithful friend; true to his old master; true to his children and his children's children unto the third and fourth genera tion. If there was an occasional predatory excursion his wayward feet never invaded a neighbor's field. He consumed what his toil had made and the good Lord forgave him. God bless the forlorn and ragged rem nants of a race now passing away. God bless the old black hand that rocked our infant cradles, smoothed the pillow of our infant sleep and fanned the fever from our cheeks. God bless the old tongue that.im mortalized the nursery rhyme; the old eyes that guided our truant feet: and the old heart that laughed at our childish freaks. God bless the dusky old brow, whose wrinkles told of toil and sweat and sorrow. May the green turf rest lightly on their ashes and the wild flowers deck every lonely grave where "He giveth His beloved sleep." May their golden dreams of golden slippers, of golden streets, of golden harps and of golden crowns have become golden realities.

THOMAS E. WATSON: THE OLD SOUTHERN HOME

[Extract from an address delivered at a great rally of the Farmers' National Union, held in Atlanta, Georgia, January 22, 1907. Mr. Wat son was a representative from Georgia in the Fifty-second Congress. He was the candidate of the people's party for vice president in 1896, and for president in 1904. As a writer, Mr. Watson has achieved high dis tinction. His "Story of France" is a recognized classic; while his "Napoleon" and his "Thomas Jefferson" have likewise secured for him a well-deserved eminence in the world of letters. Only a portion of his speech before the Farmer's National Union is here reproduced. Said he, in part:]

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1629

Time was when the South was the home of a happy, prosperous, con tented people. True, we had slaves, but they were the best slaves that the world ever knew. When they were too weak to work, they were not made to work they were left to play about the grove and the yard. AVhen the slaves were sick they were not driven to their tasks nor for gotten and neglected; they were not left to die the doctor was sent, medicine was sent, food suited to the condition of the sick was sent; and when too old to work, the old slave, male or female, was secure in his or her cabin home for the remainder of life. New England made war upon that system, and drenched the continent with blood to stamp it out. In the place of that, she has established another slavery not of the black people, but of the white people, and in that slavery, the child is made to work, the sick are neglected and left to die, and, when dead, are carted off to the potter's field, and the old are turned out as they used to turn the horses out to graze about until they starved. DeTocqueville said, in his work on America, that aristocracy would come upon us through this protective system, and it would be the harshest aristocracy that history ever knew. It is harsh; it has no heart and soul in it; it is built upon a theory that takes from agriculture and gives to manufacture, and we are going to fight it until we compel the manufacturer to be content with a share that will not hog the whole business.
Ah, that old southern home! You can call it up in your minds tonight so can I. Just as when the soldiers in camp sang the song which re minded them of home, '' each one recalled a different name, but all sang Annie Laurie." So tonight, when I speak of home, of the old home of the South, each one will recall a different scene, but all of it will be the old home of the South, before the war. The noble trees stood before the house. . It may not have been a mansion it was more frequently a cot tage, but not the less commodious and comfortable for that. The noble trees, the oak, the hickory, the maple, the ruby-crested holly that had stood there for generation after generation. .How' delightful it was in the spring to notice when the sap would begin to rise and swell the buds stirred them with life until some morning when we stepped out, the tender flags of green floated all over the grove. You remember how the trees moaned when the wind moaned; how they roared when the storm raged; how they sighed when the hushed night fell down. Do you remem ber how the mocking bird chased his mate in and out among the boughs, she pretending not to want to be caught, with that pretty coquetr'y which belongs to all the more refined specimens of feminine gender throughout the world? Not discouraging him by getting too far from him, not making him lose heart in the chase, just staying far enough apart to keep up the lover's ardor but at length they came to terms in the old, old way, and the nest was built for the little family that was to come. As the summer went on, and as the trees took on the full leaf, how beautiful it was to see the mottled shadows which softened the blazing sunlight of our southern sun; and at night every leaf upon the oak seemed to be a looking glass, and the moonbeams, like pretty girls, were looking at them selves in it. And then, you remember the evenings after supper, when the old people gathered on the front veranda to talk of old times, how we children used to stretch out on the floor, listen to the katydids in the trees, and with that lullaby in our ears, got to sleep> in that innocent sleep of

1630

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

childhood. On one side of the houseyard stood the orchard; you remem ber it? The trees were not those grafted one from the nurseries. They were seedlings; their lineage ran back, perhaps, to the Indian days. How brilliantly beautiful was her royal highness, the peach tree, stand ing there arrayed in her robe of pink, daintily dressed in her vestments of pink, breathing subtile incense upon the amorous air, trembling when the lover-wind threw his arms around her, blissful at the touch and the kiss of the sunbeams the fairest, daintiest daughter that nature ever let forth to greet an April day! And you remember the apple orchard the May apple, that was mellow, sweet and tender; the June apple which re minded you of "Araby the Blest," and the common, but most satisfac tory, old horse apple. The nurserymen have done wonders since then, but they have not beat these three old favorites. There was the old apple tree in which the bluebirds made their nests, and you loved to go there and see the nest, and later, the fledged birds. As you gazed in rapt admira tion at the wonderful wreath of blossoms that crowned the apple tree, you wondered to yourself whether the queen of Sheba when she went to visit the Jewish king, ever wore a tiara so magnificent as that; and whether Solomon in all his glory ever had a mantle so beautiful as the drifted apple blossoms beneath the tree the drifted blossoms that sug gested a snowstorm in some far-off paradise, where even the suownakes had learned to blush, and to breathe the fragrance of sweet old recol lections? And you must not forget the flower garden. Ah, that beauty spot in the home of the old South! Many a time now you walk down its path, side by side with your mother, gathering flowers. You remember where the lilac bush stood; you remember where the hyacinth and the snowdrop first came up; you. remember where the rosebush grew; you remember the pansy and violet beds; and, although today the roses are as red as ever and pinks as sweet, there are no flowers that are quite the same to you, as the roses, the pinks and the violets, the old-fashioned flowers that used to grow in the old home garden in that home of the old South. Where is it? Oh, the home of the old South, where is it? It is gone. It is a piece of property yet, but it is not the home any more. The family moved out and went to town forced to do it by circumstances and conditions. Who is living in the house? Negro tenants. Where are the windows ? All smashed out. Where is the chimney ? Leaning on a rail fence. Where is the flower garden, the orchard? All in the cotton patch. Three or four mangy, flea-bitten dogs are lying at the front door. On the outside you may find a great big negro fellow dying with pneu monia, because he wore shoes that were out at the bottom, and he is prob ably lying on a twenty-two dollar bed I have seen that myself. Per haps a twenty-dollar calendar clock sits on the mantel and tells that negro when it is time to get up and go to work and then he does not do it. Sooky Jane has got a $75 organ in the parlor. Her father mortgaged everything he had to get it. And) the $150 mule has $75 of his value knocked out of him because the negro would not buy a $2 collar for the $150 mule to keep the hames from off his shoulder bone.
Can we not redeem the homes of the old South? [A voice: "Yes."] Shall we not do it ? When the country b.oy comes to town and gets rich, what is his dream ? That he will make for himself an ideal country home. Why can we not have an ideal country home like that our fathers had?

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1631

We must have it. Let the cry of the farmer be: " Back to the country home!" Let's quit this breaking up and going to town. Let's go back and plant our banners on the old red hills and swear by the God that made us that we will redeem the old home of the South. * * *
Some years ago, thirty years ago, the great Ben Hill stood here in Atlanta receiving a flag from Ohio, and with that eloquence of his which
no one could imitate, said in conclusion:'' Flag of our Union! Wave on! wave ever! but wave over free men and not over subjects. Wave over States and not over provinces! Wave on, flag of our fathers! wave for
ever! but wave over a nation of equals, and not over depotism of lords and vassals; over a land of law, liberty and peace, not of anarchy, oppres sion and strife.''
Thirty years have gone by and the prayer remains unanswered. The
South is still a province, exploited by the North. We have yet to pray for a union of equals, for there is no equality in our relations. There is still the oppression of unjust laws. Oh, my friends! Here tonight in
the presence of the gathered men of the entire South, I pledge my word and honor that to the extent of my power, everything that I can do with pen or tongue to help these brave men build up the cause of the southern people shall be done, without money and without price, without reward or the hope thereof. From the North Carolina shore, where the Atlantic
washes the crags of the Old North State, on out to the Pacific and where the South Sea washes the sands, I intend to go with him this year and unfold your flag wherever the opportunities and the people are ready for it. I want no office, no. I want to help you make good men out of your boys. I want to do all I can to help you build back into prosperity your desolated homes, so that the chain of special privilege being broken, the laws which oppress you being removed, a square deal being given you some other speaker, ten years from now, can stand right here and can
then say: "Wave on, flag of our Union! Wave ever! For thou dost wave over free men and not over subjects! Thou dost wave over States and not over provinces. Wave on, flag of our fathers. Wave forever! For thou dost wave over a union of equals and not over a despotism of lords and vassals! Thou dost wave over a land of law, liberty and peace, not of anarchy, oppression and strife."

HENRY T. LEWIS : NOMINATING WILLIAM J. BRTAN FOR PRESIDENT

[Mr. Bryan's famous Cross of Gold speech made him the central figure of the great Chicago Convention, of 1896. It was a masterpiece of elo quence. On the morning after its delivery, the peerless Nebraskan re ceived the democratic nomination for President. The speech presenting Mr. Bryan's name to the convention on this occasion was made by a Georgian, Judge Henry T. Lewis, afterwards an occupant of the Supreme Bench of this state. Though brief,- this speech,was itself an oratorical gem, but its special significance lies in the fact that it formally placed in nomination for the high office of President a man whose superb leader ship was destined to mold the fortunes of the national democracy for more than a generation and to dominate one of the most dramatic eras in the history of American politics: The speech was as follows:]

1632

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: I do not intend to make a speech, but simply on behalf of the delegation on this floor from the State of Georgia, to place in nomination, as the democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States, a distinguished citizen, whose very name is an earnest of success, whose political record will insure democratic victory, and whose life and character are loved and honored by the American people.
Should public office be bestowed as a reward for public service ? Then no man more than he merits this reward. Is public office a public trust ? Then in no other hands can be more safely lodged this greatest trust in the gift of a great people. Was public office created for the welfare of the public and for the prosperity of the country ? Then, under his lead ership in the approaching campaign, may we confidently hope to achieve these great ends in human government. In the political storms which have hitherto swept over this country he has stood on the field of battle, among the leaders of the democratic hosts, like Saul among the Israelites, head and shoulders above the rest. As Mr. Preiitiss said of the immortal Clay so we can truthfully say of him that '' his civic laurels will not yield in splendor to the brightest chaplet that ever bloomed upon a warrior's brow.''
Sir, lie needs no speech to introduce him to this convention. He needs no encomium to commend him to the people of the United States. Honor him, fellow democrats, and you will honor yourselves. Nominate him and you will reflect credit upon the party you represent. Place in his hands the democratic standard and you will have a leader worthy of your cause and will win for yourselves the plaudits of your constitu ents and the blessings of posterity. I refer, fellow citizens, to the Hon. William J. Bryan, of the State of Nebraska.

EMOBY SPEEB : THE NEW AMERICA

[Alumni oration delivered by Judge Emory Speer, of the United States Court for the Southern District of Georgia, at the Centennial Cele bration of the University of Georgia, June 18, 1901.]

Mr. President, Members of the Alumni Society, Ladies and Gentlemen: On one of the supreme days of my college life, some thirty-two years
ago, was celebrated the sixty-eighth anniversary of the Demostheiieaii Society. The students, encouraged by a noble corps of professors, assem bled in this time-honored chapel, hallowed by myriad associations. Nor were we without that inspiration which flows from the sweet presence of gentle beings, some of whom today enliven this occasion with charms possibly more mature but not less engaging than their springtime loveli ness reproduced now in their daughters and granddaughters in all the enchantment of youthful beauty and bloom. Our dear Chancellor, Dr. Lipscomb, in graceful phrase and benignant manner introduced the orator of the day. His theme was, "A New America," the new America in wealth, in thought, in might, in majesty, in world influence and power, which the college orator deemed would follow the storm-wave of revolu tion from which the country had scarcely emerged. The oration has perished. The aimiversarian you honor with,your attention now. The

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

'

1633

theme, momentous, vital, and ever augmenting, survives to bewilder the student of historical precedent, to stagger the powers of prophecy, at times to awaken the alarm, but ever in the end to intensify, to elevate and to expand the exultation of the patriot.
The America of 1869, with its metamorphosis from an established past, would not have been more amazing to Patrick Henry's three mil lions armed for liberty, than would the America of today to that gather ing in this chapel, not yet a generation gone. The astonishing growth of our country since that time is appreciated by even the average under standing, but its astounding and resplendent power is scarcely conceiv able by an imagination even Miltonic. That ours is one, if not the great est, of the world powers is now acknowledged of all men. Said Mulhall, the famous English statistician: "If we take a survey of mankind in ancient or modern times, as regards the physical, mechanical and intel lectual force of nations, we find nothing to compare with the United States.'' Sir Henry M. Stanley, whose almost superhuman conquest of the ferocious savages and undetermined expanses of the African wilder ness imparts peculiar weight to his words, declared, when speaking of our countrymen, that "Treble their number of ordinary Europeans could not have surpassed them in what they have done. The story of their achievements reads like an epic of the heroic age." Such are the conclusions of competent and disinterested contemporary observers, and such testimony may be unceasingly cumulated. The facts are astound ing. In ten years the census records that we have increased over thirteen millions, an increase equal to the population of six states as large as our own imperial Georgia, For a thousand years the meteor flag of England has braved the battle and the breeze; for little more than a hundred the Stars and Stripes' have floated the flag of the freeman's home and hope, and yet while the Seventh Edward may summon to his standards the soldiers of the king from 39,000,000 of his subjects in the British Isles, when the representatives of the people declare that America shall cast away the olive and seize the sword, from 76,000,000, our executive may summon to the flag the fighting men. of that indomitable strain which at New Orleans crushed the onset of the veterans.of "Wellington, at Buena Vista rolled back the serried columns of Santa Anna, which planted the colors on the battlements of Vera Cruz, climbed the Cordilleras and stacked their arms in the halls of the Montezumas; and in later days, in deadlier, fratricidal strife, on many a stricken field by many a historic flood, grappled in the agony of battle with all the swerveless courage of the race which has taken no step backward from the time when our Teu tonic sires expelled the legions of Varus from the German woods, to that good day when the bayonets of our brethren turned out the Spaniard from the trenches of San Juan.
Though ever indispensable to national character, it is not alone in the military power of its people that our country excels. In the foot tons of the scientist the industrial forces of a nation are now measured, and the same English authority I have cited has recently calculated that 129,306,000,000 in foot tons is the measure of industrial energy exerted every working day by the people of the United States. Nor does this estimate include the magnificence of our hydraulic power, or that myste-

1634

'

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

rious agency, electricity,, which has been harnessed and reduced to servi tude by the genius of our inventors.
Would you consider the result in national wealth of this gigantic national potency ? Contemplate thirty years of the nation's life, from 1860 to 1890. For more than four years of that period all the foot tons of American power were directed by all the Furies. A million producers perished, the value of 3,000,000 slaves vanished, the maritime comm'erce of the nation was swept from the 'seas. Reconstruction, a saturnalia of venality, repudiation and despair followed. Yet in the period named, debiting ourselves with all the fearful cost of war, the cost of living and of government, our countrymen made and saved $49,000,000,000, $1,000,000,000 more than all the treasures of the British people put together.
When we examine the items of this accumulation of national wealth, we ascertain facts of vast significance to our future. The value of our food products not only surpasses those of any other nation, but astonishing as it may seem, they form nearly one-third of those varied fruits of the earth which the benignity of the Creator has provided for the sustenance of man. To speak with substantial precision: although the United States has but one-fifth of the world's population, we produce 32 per cent of all the food consumed by man. It is probable indeed that these are short. of the true facts, for in a late number of that charming periodical The Youth's Companion, it is stated by lion. William R. Merriam, director of the census, that while it is yet too early for positive figures the bureau has already received returns from almost 6,000,000 farms, probably onethird more than were returned by the last census. And with what pride can we point to our contributions towards clothing our fellow men! The cultivation of the cotton plant, and its adaptation to the uses of man, date from the earliest times. It is said that the millions of Xerxes which confronted the heroic Athenians on the plains of Marathon were clad in cotton cloth, products of Persia and of the Indies. Known for centuries in both hemispheres and widely diffused, it is a singular fact that for more than two centuries after the discovery of America, cotton was unknown in what is now the' cotton belt of the United States. In the Georgia Historical Collections, we find that Francis Moore, who visited Savannah in 1735 recounts, "At the bottom of the hill, well sheltered from the north wind * * * there was a collection of West India plants and trees and some coffee, some coeoanuts, cotton, etc." At a later period we learn that, while stationed on St. Simons Island, the soldiers of General Oglethorpe's regiment, many of whom were married, were granted small lots of land, and Samuel Seabrook writes, "The soldiers raise cotton and their wives spin it and knit it into stockings." It is perhaps not to be questioned that descendants of those martial sires and thrifty dames honor me with their attention on this occasion. Richard Leak of Savannah probably first attempted cotton culture as a planter. In 1788, writing to Col. Thomas Proctor, of Philadelphia, he says, "I have been this year an adventurer, and the first that has attempted it on a large scale, in introducing * * * the article of cotton, sam ples of which I beg leave now to send you. I shall raise about five thousand pounds in the seed, from eight acres of land. . The principal difficulty * * * is cleansing it from the seed, which I am told they

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1635

do with great dexterity and ease in Philadelphia with gins or machines made for the purpose. I am told that they make those that will clean thirty or forty pounds of clean cotton in a day." . The gin "to which this adventurous Georgian referred with such admiration, according to Doctor Dabney of the University of Tennessee, was very much the same . in form as that found on the shores of the Tigris by the soldiers of Alexander the Great.
In the year 1790 the entire cotton crop of the United States amounted to 5,000 bales, of 400 pounds net. In 1900 the neighboring county of Jackson alone produced 12,000 bales. The cotton crop for the year 1900, as furnished by the World Almanac, was 9,439,559 bales, of 487 pounds net. This was 2,000,000 of bales less than the cotton crop of 1898-99, which was the largest ever made, but the excess of value of the crop of 1900 over that of 1899 was $29,000,000. Nor do these figures showing the development of our royal southern staple include the cotton seed, which in 1899 amounted to 4,450,000 tons. The evolution of the cotton seed industry is a marvel of the century. In the early days of cotton ginning the seed was indeed regarded as a nuisance. It was carelessly thrown out on the ground, and the hogs ate it and died. The seed was then enclosed in rail pens, but the little pigs made their way in between the rails and fed on the seed, and the pigs died. As a' last resort, it was dumped into a salt water creek, and when the tide was low it gen erated a disagreeable odor so offensive to the olfactories of our ancestors as to create a strong and general prejudice against the culture of cotton. Now, the production of oil from the olive and similar fruits, from the earliest times, has been prized and promoted by man, and its abundance was regarded as a synonym of plenty. Often does this appear in the exquisite metaphors of the sacred scriptures. Little did we dream that our modest cotton seed was pregnant with an oil unsurpassed by the product of that sacred olive which, at the bidding of the goddess Athene, sprouted from the rock of the Acropolis and became the parent of the classic grove in the gardens of the Academy where Plato dreamed, and where
"The Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the Summer long.''

This valuable by-product of our great southern staple, while used for illumination, for the manufacture of various medicinal compounds, for tempering steel, for the manufacture of lard, candles, butterine, oleomargarine and soap, also furnished 90 per cent of the olive oil sold in the United States; and so excellent is our olive oil for the preparation of salads, and in the culinary art generally, that the Italian government, to protect the product of the renowned olive groves of Italy, has enacted prohibitory laws against its importation. In a valuable report issued by the National Department of Agriculture it is conceded that cotton seed oil has to contend with gastronomic prejudices, but it is pointed out that closer acquaintance will dispel these, and in proof it is recounted that the laborers employed in the mills no longer bring meat for their dinners, but put their bread under the presses where the sweet, warm, fresh oil is trickling out, and eat it with relish, finding it healthful and nutritious. Nor is this all. The cotton seed meal is one o the cheapest

1636

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

sources of nitrogen, the most costly and valuable ingredient of fertilizers. It is even more nutritious to animal life than to plant life. Experi ments made by Connecticut, New York.and Indiana find that the value of cotton seed meal exceeds that of corn meal by 62 per cent, and that of wheat by 67 per cent. The fattening of beef cattle on cotton seed meal and cotton seed hulls is now a business of great importance. As early as the season of 1893-94, in the same valuable report to which I refer, it is said that 13,000 carloads of beeves fattened exclusively on this food passed through Texarkaiia alone on the way to market. Of this new and surprising industry, the South has the monopoly, and it is stated in a recent supplement to the Manufacturer's Record that it now employs over $40,000,000 of capital, and yields an annual product of upwards of $50,000,000. But the great National Department of Agriculture declares that the potential value of 4,000,000 tons of seed (an amount exceeded by the last two crops), in oil, in the inferior lint saved in handling the seed, in the hulls, in the meal, in the production of flesh and fat of cattle, will actually amount to $113,000,000 per annum, or nearly one-half of the value of lint cotton itself.
Nor in other great industries are the positive achievements of the Southern States less stupendous or their promise for an incomparable future less resplendent. In 1880 the Southern States produced 397,000 tons of pig iron. In 1899 the product was 2,500,000 tons. In 1880 we mined 6,000,000 tons of coal. In 1899, from vast and practically undis turbed mines, the energy of our miners brought forth 40,000,000 tons of that marvelous fuel stored by the hand of Omnipotence eons ago for the uses of those sentient beings with which he was to people the globe on which we live.
I may not enlarge upon the vast increase in the mining and shipment of bone phosphate, so essential to the manufacture of fertilizers. It will suffice to say that while in 1894-95 little more than 400,000 tons were shipped from South Carolina and little more than 500,000 tons from Florida, in 1900 there were shipped from the former state 2,201,197 tons, and from the latter 3,118,664 tons..
And what shall we say of the recent phenomenal discoveries of petro leum oil in the State of Texas? Five months ago the telegraph flashed to the world that the first "gusher" from the exhaustless supplies of nature was projecting 150 feet towards the heavens a geyser of coal oil estimated at 25,000 barrels a day. Not the gold discoveries of '49 in California, nor the fabled deposits amid the ice and snow of the Klon dike, nor the startling possibilities when oil was struck in Pennsylvania, so excited the imagination or inflamed the acquisitive passion in man. While Pliny tells us that this mineral oil lighted the lamps of the ancients, and while we may believe that it supplied the mysterious fires at pagan altars, when oil was first discovered in Pennsylvania its value was unknown. It was bottled under the name of Seneca Oil, and sold at 25 cents a gill as a panacea for rheumatism or other "misery" which seemed to demand a counter-irritant or soothing oleaginous application. But now the value of this mysterious product is known throughout the world. Unlike the gold of California or of the Klondike, the utilization of this last great boon to man does not necessitate a tedious and hazard ous voyage half way around the world, or exposure to incredible hard-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1637

ships amid the ice and snow of a hyperborean climate. It is on the open prairies, on a great railway line near the principal cities of the Lone Star State. So far, nine "gushers" have been struck. The flow of the smallest is estimated at 25,000 and the largest 50,000 barrels a day, and if only the minimum estimate is correct the product is 225,000 barrels a day, or more than the total output of the 70,000 or 80,000 wells already in daily operation iii the United States an industry which has filled tremendous areas in many states with the thunder of machinery, with capacious oil tanks, vast refineries, subterranean pipe lines traversing great distances, and has covered the ocean with fleets of tank steamers, distributing the now indispensable product throughout the world. Nothing in the incalculable increment of wealth accumulated by the Standard Oil Company, nothing in the vast Russian reservoirs on the distant shores of the Caspian, may equal the value or importance of this new bounty from the hand of the Divine. It may afford the fuel for the future. Already it has been substituted for coal in 200 locomotives on the Texas Pacific, and in many steamers. Lands in the neighborhood which were worth $5 to $10 an acre are now eagerly purchased at $75,000 an acre, and plain farmers can count their millions when a month ago there were none so poor to do them reverence.
Thus we may see that the supremacy of our country's native resources is established, but of late the world has been awakened to the conscious ness that in manufactures, as in agriculture and mineral resources, we are also supreme. "Europeans," writes Dr. Josiah Strong "have been accustomed to think of the United States as the world's great farm. They have been suddenly aroused to the fact that it has become also the. world's great workshop.'' It was for the first time discovered in 1898 that in manufactures our exports exceeded our imports. In that year a German trade paper says: "One of the most characteristic and at the same time most alarming features of the past year has been the invasion by American competition not only- of Canada, Mexico, South and Central America, India, Australia and Japan, but also all of the countries of Europe, invading even our oldest manufacturing centers." The apprehensions of this lugubrious German are, happily for us, well founded. Of American locomotives more than 100 are daily at work in Japan, the land of the rising sun. Nearly 1,000 of these power ful creations of the genius and skill of our artificers fly daily across the steppes of Russia, following paths marked deep in the past by the hoof-prints of the horsemen of Attila, of Tamerlane and Genghis Khan. American locomotives, on American steel rails, climb the moun tains of Mexico and Columbia. They thread the defiles of the Andes in Peru, Chile and Ecuador. They penetrate the mighty forests of the Amazon, traverse the vast expanses of Brazil and the pampas of the Argentine Republic. They glide over sands once disturbed by the tramp of the Macedonian phalanx, the marching step of Caesar's legions, and the Arab steeds of Mahomet. The sound of their whistles reverberates from the Pyramids which have re-echoed the battle cry of the Crusaders and the thunder of Napoleon's artillery, is borne across the waters of the sea which, engulfed the horsemen and chariots of Pharaoh, and pene trates the solitude of those desert shores which once resounded with the songs of Miriam and the daughters of Israel.
Vol. Ill--24

1638

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

What is true of our locomotives is also true of all structures which come from the skillful hand of the American artisan. Australia, with all of its devotion to the mother country, against English bidding gives Pittsburgh orders for 35,000 tons of steel rail. The government of the czar has contracted with the Carnegies to deliver in two years and two months 180,000 tons of the same product. Of the great Atbara bridge across the Nile on the Cape to Cairo railroad, General Lord Kitchener reports: "It should fairly claim a record. Every effort was made to place the order for it in England, but it was found impossible to have it completed in the necessary time. But where the- English failed, I am delighted to find that our cousins across the Atlantic stepped in. The opening of this bridge today is due to their energy, ability and the power they possess in so marked a degree for turning out work of this magni tude in less time than can be done anywhere else."
And while we pay $500,000 daily for the carriage of our products in foreign vessels, who shall say that the hand of the American ship wright has lost its cunning! Contemplate the long succession of our victories in contests for the America cup, a contest which our British cousins regard so important that his majesty King Edward but a few days ago endangered his royal person that he might observe the per formance of Shamrock II. And what American is there whose heart does not leap with pride when he recalls the achievements of the Oregon? The great battleship is lying far to the northward in a harbor on our Pacific Coast. A telegram from the secretary of the navy flashes to her commander the story of the destruction of the Maine, and the duty of the Oregon. In an instant her gigantic propellers begin to' revolve. Her guide the Southern Cross, her engines are driving the ship on her pathway to glory. Spurning alike the tornadoes that hurl across tropic seas, the blistering heat that stifles along the line, the gales that howl around Cape Horn, and the tides that rage with pent-up fury in Magel lan Straits, the glorious ship storms on her way
' Past lands of quiet splendor where pleasant waters lave, Past lands whose mountain ramparts fling back the crashing wave,''
and turning her dauntless prow to the northward, she scarcely checks her arrowy way until with not a broken bolt and not a rivet started she sweeps grandly into line, ready, aye, ready, with the thunder of her guns, to smite the Spaniard to his doom in Santiago Bay.
Well might that gallant English admiral, Lord Charles Beresford, exclaim, "No navy on earth has a better ship, and no ship in existence has such a record." And let it not be forgotten that the officers and men of our navy are worthy of the ships they man. Says an English writer on the naval history of the Spanish-American war: '' The Amer ican naval officer has a world-wide reputation for professional knowledge and capacity. The American seaman is intelligent, brave and resource ful. The engineering staff on board the warships is of remarkable effi ciency." I may add that the ages do not afford anything comparable to the spectacle of two American fleets within little more than a month fighting two great battles on opposite sides of the earth, in each destroy ing every ship of the enemy, changing the map of the world with but the loss of one American sailor.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1639

The vast consequences of our mechanical supremacy were brought out most clearly by the recent official utterance of another noble Eng lishman. Sir Alfred Hickman, a prominent iron manufacturer and a member of Parliament, made a motion in that body to investigate the action of British East India officials in giving contracts to Americans rather than to British manufacturers. This evoked a reply from Lord George Hamilton, secretary of state for India. Referring to the great viaduct in the Shan Hills, the highest railway bridge in the world, the secretary of state for India declared that the Burmah Railway Company had no option but to place the order for its construction with the Penn sylvania Steel Company. The tender of the American company was for a much less price, and it guaranteed the completion of the work in much quicker time than any British company could tender. "The Americans," he said, "yearly improve their products in quality and price. Chemical research, concentration of capital, thorough technical education and improved industrial organization," explains the success of the American manufacturer in dominating the markets of the world. Similar admissions might be quoted from aiTthoritative official sources from every capital in Europe.
In view of the conclusive demonstration of American industrial supremacy, in view of the enormous balance of trade in our favor with foreign lands, is it not wise for the American people, after all that has been said in the platforms of political parties, to consider calmly and well weigh whether the general welfare is the more retarded or pro moted by the concentration of capital and the consolidated organization of great industries which are coincident with these enormous national accomplishments? The comprehensive perspicacious minds which have planned multitudes of industrial combinations of the greatest magni tude have apparently little leisure to speak or write on these topics, but some of them undoubtedly possess astonishing capacity for clear and convincing statement. One of these is James J. Hill, who began life as a poor Canadian lad, is now president of the Northern Pacific, and in railway and steamship transportation one of the most influential and controlling minds on earth. In an article in the May number of the North American Review he has made a brief and apparently fair resume, which will doubtless have profound effect on the impartial thought of the country. He points out the distinction between a trust, where the stocks of various competing organizations were trasteed in a few men merely to control the property as they saw fit, and a consolidation, which is a genuine investment of all like ventures in one concern. The trust he pronounces cumbersome and illegal. Under the consolidation, to quote his language, "a different usage prevails, operating expenses are reduced by combining a number of institutions under one management. The systems of purchasing and distributing are simplified. Economies are effected by the direct purchase of material in large quantities, or, better still, by adding to the combination a department for the acquisi tion and control of the source from which raw material is drawn.'' This, he points out, was the method of the Carnegies, who furnished the highest type of this system. They took iron from their own mines, made their coke in their own ovens, worked up the material in their own furnaces, and shipped the finished product over their own railroad or in their

1640

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

own vessels. It is conceded that there are those who are injured by these consolidations, but the aim in business, as in politics, is to do the greatest good to the greatest number. The building of a railroad will put the owner of a stage coach out of business. The trolley lines have done great injury to the livery stable keeper, and have reduced local hackmen to despair; but the community which is brought close to the great markets by the new railroad, and the public who gain the advan tage of cheap and quick transportation by means of the trolley car are benefited much more than the livery men and the hackmen are injured, and so the balance is in favor of the general welfare. '' We are as yet,'' Mr. Hill concludes, '' only on the threshold of the new era in the business world, and no one can say positively that the present order of things is and will be for the best. That is still to be proven, and it can be proven only by time. All we can say is that so far as we have gone the results are certainly favorable. Against the alleged injury that is intangible can easily be put the benefit than can be shown by figures. * * * ^Yages are higher, prices are lower, investments are safer, more productive, and more certain of return."
Perhaps the Standard Oil Company is the most successful of all the great consolidations and that which has received the most general pop ular denunciation. In the same number of the North American a severe assault is made upon its methods by that successful capitalist and specu lator, Mr. Russell Sage. He concedes, however, that it has had enor mous success, and that it has benefited the community. He concedes that it has lowered the price of oil, bringing it down gradually from 45 cents to 7 or 8 cents a gallon. He concedes that through its excellent management it has evolved methods for the use of the by products of crude oil, and, first and last, has added many hundred millions to the wealth of the country. It has made its owners very rich, it is true, but it has acted well by its employes and consumers. In view of such concessions of public benefit and I cite this company merely as a type is it not well, I repeat, for the American people to inquire more carefully and reflect more profoundly with regard to the effect of these mighty consolidations? Are we not too easily driven .to conclu sions by partisan articles at times hastily written, or by the speeches of politicians made for a purpose? Indeed, are we not prejudiced, often irrevocably, by a humorous squib which a bright paragraphist has placed before a million minds at the same moment of ime. Even now how merciless is the war of squib paragraph and cartoon directed against that financier of world reputation, Mr. Pierpont Morgan. We, at least, should not forget the incalculable benefits accomplished for the South by the far-sighted, just, yet daring, conceptions of that remarkable man. The prosperity of an agricultural community may be generally deter mined by the excellence of its roads, and the prosperity of a modern state by the excellence of its railroads. Who that recalls the chaos and ruin brought to thousands by the voting trust of the Richmond Terminal, who that will now contemplate the marvelous advance of every southern state to the eastward of the Mississippi, impossible but for the magnifi cent rehabilitation of thp Southern Railway and the Central of Georgia, will fail to accord the meed of public benefactor to this great American financier, and to those sagacious men who have acted with him? In

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1641

economies of operation, in constant if gradual reduction of rates, in increased facilities and more expensive accommodations, in firm but respectful defensive measures against harmful legislation, in obedience to state law, in more uniform serviee for longer distances ..without change of cars, in abolition of short, disjointed lines under different manage ments, in augmented shipping facilities, in physical perfection of the properties and consequent safety to the public and in the steady increase in vaiue of all the securities of these great highways of southern com merce, the wisdom and prescience of such men have been indisputably shown. And with what result? AVhere formerly asthmatic engines attached to unsafe and noisome trains through the solitudes of an impov erished country, like a wounded snake dragged their slow length along, now we behold oil massive rails of gleaming steel on roadbeds of granitic ballast, successive sections of long freight trains sturdily steaming through a prosperous land smiling with luxuriant crops, beautiful with neat and happy homes, the chimneys of great factories, giving employ ments to thousands, almost marking the miles; or the admiration kindles and the pulse leaps as the limited express, laden with its human freight, glances by on its missions of progress and civilization. May I be par doned for adding that in,the determination to resuscitate the railway interests of the South, in nothing did the men behind the movement exhibit sounder judgment than in the selection of the man to consum mate their purpose and to make rich its fruition to the people of the whole country, a southerner "native and to the manner born," a Geor gian true and tried, whom today alma mater bids welcome and God speed in his great mission for the sunny land he loves.*
From this limited survey of our native resources and industrial devel opment, it follows, to use the terse language of a strong thinker of our state,t "the question of production is settled and the next question is one of markets." It is not only the next question with us, but it is the next question with all the great powers. It cannot be postponed. It is a question exceedingly grave. Contests for markets have precipitated nearly all of the great wars which for the last century and a half have seared the face of the globe. The navigation laws of Great Britain by which she sought to exclude the American colonies from the West India trade provoked that spirit of resistance which, seizing upon matters more trivial, brought on the revolution and the loss of a continent. The Milan and Berlin decrees of Napoleon, by which he sought to exclude British trade from the continent, resulted in the horrors of the Russian campaign, the carnage of Waterloo and the lonely grave under the willows at St. Helena. A contest for the commerce of the people of Asia is now absorbing the best statesmanship, the most anxious thought, the most unremitting energy of all the great nations.
It was declared by General Grant, when he made his journey round the world, that in less than half a century Europe would be complaining of the too rapid advance of China. The prediction would doubtless have startled the multitudinous disciples of Confucius. That renowned philosopher, some 700 years before the birth of our Savior, took

* Mr. Samuel Spencer, t Mr. J. F. Hanson.

1642

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

pride in the fact that nothing had been invented by him, complained that the times were decadent, and advocated reform by returning to the customs of the ancients. His disciples are not exclusively Chinamen. The remarkable people of China constitute fully one-fourth of the human race. Whatever may be said of the Chinese government, the Chinese people are immensely vital. They flourish amid conditions the most unsanitary, in a temperature below zero or in more than 100 in the shade. The teachings of Malthus are as unpopular with the Chinese as they are with our vice president. In his delightful essay upon Civ ilization and Decay,* Mr. Roosevelt declares, "No quality in a race atones for the failure to produce-an abundance of healthy children." In this respect the Chinese contribute to national greatness with a prodi gality which should fire the enthusiasm of that renowned American. Who can calculate the effect upon the human family of the awakening of this giant nation? What tremendous impetus must it give to the commerce of mankind, and particularly of our country! At the annual dinner of the American Asiatic Association the Chinese ambassador, His Excellency Wu Ting-fang, said: "We all know that China is one of the greatest markets of the world, with a population of four hundred mil lion that must be fed and clothed and must receive the necessaries of life. She wants your wheat, your cotton, your iron and steel and your manu factured articles of the New England States. She wants steel rails, elec trical machines, and one hundred other things that she cannot get at home and must get abroad. It is a fine field for American industry to fill these wants. It is particularly easy for you to reach China on account of the fine highway you have on the Pacific, and especially desirable that you do so since you have become our next door neighbor in the Philip pines. If you do not come up to your own expectations and meet this opportunity it is your own fault." The same accomplished diplomat, in a recent speech at Charlotte, pointed out that the importation of: cotton goods from the United States into China had increased from a little more than a million in 1890 to nearly ten million in 1899. This trade, however, had only penetrated Manchuria and Chill, which are the most northern and by 110 means the most thickly populated parts of the empire. It is as if a nation had traded with Maine, New Hamp shire and Vermont and ignored the rest of the United States. From recent consular reports, obligingly furnished me by the state depart ment, it appears that our cotton goods constitute not only more than one-half of the entire exports of the United States to China, but that China bought more than half of our entire export sales of cotton cloths. The magnitude of this interest to the South may be gathered from the phenomenal growth of our cotton manufacturing industry. From the same report it is demonstrated that Jietween 1889 and 1899, inclusive, while cotton spindles increased 4% per cent in Great Britain, 11.4 in the northern states, in the South they increased 190% P er cent. In an article in the Textile Manufacturers Journal of December 20, 1900, Prof. Henry M. Wilson declares: '' Nowhere in the world is the interest being taken in cotton manufacturing as here in the South, where most of the staple is produced. From the returns made to the New Orleans

-"American Ideals and Other Essays."

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1643

Cotton Exchange the number of spindles added this year in old mills, new mills and mills under construction is 1,456,897, and new looms
added 27,613. Bright as are the hopes of our people in that enormous industry, with what dismay and apprehension were they affected when the disturbances in the northern provinces and the manifest greed of certain European powers threatened ruin to hundreds of southern mills!
Many of these were at once shut down, their operatives were thrown out of employment, the price of cotton, at first buoyant as the hopes of
our farmers, rapidly fell. A powerful body of southern manufacturers memorialized the secretary of state, calling attention to the fact that a large part of the production of cotton drills and sheetings manufactured in southern mills is exported to North China, and declaring that a pro
hibition or interference there by any European government would tend to seriously injure not only the cotton manufacturing industry, but other important products of the United States which are being shipped ,
to China. Nor was our Government indifferent to the appeal. The administration did all that firmness, statesmanship, diplomacy, benignity and humanity could accomplish to relieve the distresses of China. Every
movement of those responsible to the people has been dictated by the most courageous and independent sense of justice. Humanity and public interest are indeed generally coincident. Of Edmund Burke, Lord Macaulay declared that, "oppression in Bengal was to him the same thing as oppression in the streets of London,'' and of William McKinley
we may say that cruelty on the banks of the Peiho is to him the same thing as cruelty on the banks of the Potomac. Though shocked with the
atrocities of the Boxers, no spirit of vengeance has animated our Execu tive, our Government, <3r our people. No punitive expeditions, carrying ,fire and sword to ignorant villagers, have borne the Stars and Stripes,
and in their bearing to the helpless Chinese our gallant regulars have proven anew that the bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring. Nor are the Chinese an ungrateful people. This attribute cannot exist in a nation whose religion is the worship of their ancestors, whose morality is largely exhibited in tender devotion to their aged parents. Our Gov ernment, indeed, has been as resolute in its resistance to those powers
that would partition the Chinese Empire and exclude our commerce therefrom as it has been moderate and kind to that distracted people. For this it should have our unstinted appreciation. Moreover, I do not hesitate to declare that unless we mean to jeopardize every dollar invested
in cotton mills in the South, unless we mean to have cotton again a drug on the market at from 3 to 5 cents a pound, we should see to it that our representatives shall support to the uttermost the efforts of our Government to keep open the door of China for American commerce.
Events have not altogether verified the famous remark of Napoleon, that in fifty years Europe would be republican or Cossack, but repub lican and Cossack have at length met for a trial of strength. The guerdon of the struggle is twofold: Shall the commerce of Asia be open to the world, or shall it be dominated by the Slav 1 Shall the Pacific Ocean be a Russian or an Anglo-Saxon sea ? As the control of this great ocean, which has been justly termed the theater of events in the world's
great hereafter, shall be settled, so likewise will be the power and prestige of our country. We have seen that the trade of the Orient is essential

1644

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

to the distribution of our surplus products. This distribution failing, reactionary movements on all lines and national decadence will inev itably result. Profound was the observation of Sir Walter Raleigh: "Whosoever commands the sea commands trade, and whosoever com mands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself." There has been a remarkable parallel in the development of power between the English speaking and thq, Slavonic races. In Russia eastward, and in America and the British possessions westward, the Star of Empire takes its way. Utterly con flicting in theories of government, the Anglo-Saxon is the chief bulwark of civil and religious liberty on earth, the Slav the representative of despotism in state and church. The Anglo-Saxon bases his civilization on the development of the individual, and Russia in all of its history has relied upon his suppression. A French writer has predicted that a hundred years hence, leaving China out of the question, there will be two colossal powers in the world, beside which Germany, England, France and Italy will be as pigmies, the United States and Russia. " If this pre diction be true, and China cannot be left out of the question; if Great Britain, in her isolation, is to meet her downfall; if our republic, great as it is, is to remain the sole obstacle to the ever-progressing, steadygrinding, glacier-like movement of Slavonic power, it will result from trivial jealousies, from baseless prejudices, and an ignoble rancor for past differences between the two great members of the Anglo-Saxon race, with a common blood, a common history, a common freedom of religion, a common liberty of conscience, a common literature, a common, lan guage; and the spectacle will present the inexpiable crime of the ages. Nor are these contingencies of the future merely conjectural. The empire of the Great AVhite Czar now includes all that territory of the world's surface where were hatched those devouring Swarms from the Northern Hive which in ages past have often -changed the fate of nations and the maps of Asia and of Europe. The cabinet of Russia, from the time when that gigantic power stood forth as a portent to the surround ing nations, has been governed by a consistent, unvarying principle. "It rests," said the historian Allison, "on a combination of physical strength with diplomatic address, of perseverance in object with versa tility of means, which was never, before exhibited on the theater of the world.'' Said the Russian historian, Karamsin, with a frankness almost brutal: "The object and the character of our military policy has inva riably been to seek to be at peace with everybody and to make conquests without war; always keeping on the defensive, placing no faith in the friendship of those whose interests do not accord with our own, and losing no opportunity of injuring them without ostensibly breaking our treaties with them." While the cool, imperturbable policy of the Gov ernment never makes it anticipate the period of action, and never relaxes the sinews of preparation, the inextinguishable passion for conquest among the masses of the Russian people respond with enthusiasm to every aggressive disposition of the' Czar. '' The meanest peasant in Rus sia," says Allison, "is impressed with the belief that his country is destined to subdue the world. The rudest nomad of steppes pants for the period when a. second Timur is to open the gates of Derbend and let loose upon Southern Asia the long pent up forces of the northern wilds.''

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1645

The physical power of Russia is commensurate with the vast schemes of aggrandizement of its government, and if equaled at all is equaled alone by the combined development of all the English speaking peoples. Writing in 1842, Allison predicted that in 1900 Russia would have a population of 120,000,000. In 1900 its population was 136,000,000. It has been little more than two hundred years since Peter the Great mounted the throne of Russia. This is but a brief span in history. There are many present whose grandfathers and some whose fathers might have talked with General Oglethorpe, the noble founder of Georgia, and General Oglethorpe might have talked with Peter the Great. When that ferocious Muscovite. resolved to arouse the latent forces of his empire, Russia had 110 seaport save the frozen Archangel on the Arctic Sea, and the Russian power was given as little consideration by the cabinets of Europe as we now give to the Imaun of Muscat or the Ahkound of Swat. With his own hands Peter aided in the construction of the small and rude vessel, yet religiously preserved by the Russians, which was the foundation of their magnificent navy, now on all the oceans the third in power. Now, three mighty seas, the Caspian, the Euxine and the Baltic, are practically Russian lakes. Rapidly is she extending her influence over Persia and forging her way to harbors on the flank of England's communications with her Indian possessions. When she is ready Turkey and all the powers of Europe combined cannot prevent her from seizing Constantinople/ and the Dardanelles. Her trans-Siberian railway, the longest in the world, is practically com pleted to that impregnable fortress on the Pacific, Vladivostok, whose very name imports "the dominator of the East," and its Manchurian branch is rapidly approaching unsurpassed Port Arthur, which bears a relation to North China scarcely less important than that of New York to the Middle and Eastern States of our Union. "Russia," said a modern writer who lived much among its people, '' does not covet India, but she does intend to appropriate, and imagines that Providence has appointed her to possess, Persia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Thibet and China." In the light of recent events who can gainsay the truth of this observation ? Well may we accept the eloquent statement of Allison: "Never since the god Terminus first receded Math the Roman eagles in the provinces beyond the Euphrates, has so steady and uninterrupted advance been made by any empire towards universal dominion; and it is hard to say whether it has prevailed most by the ability of diplomatic address or the vigor of warlike achievement." Than Napoleon Bona parte no member of the human race has ever been better fitted both by genius and experience to estimate the power of Russia. In the seclu sion of his imprisonment at St. Helena, with all the experience of his marvelous history, his profound genius no longer disturbed by the phantoms of ambition, he exclaimed to his devoted Las Casas, "Russia is like the Antseus of the fable which cannot be overcome but by seizing it by the middle and stifling it in the arms." "But where," said he, "is the Hercules to be found who will attempt such an enterprise?" But the imagination even of Napoleon could not conceive the evolution of national power in Russia since these words were uttered, and yet he did not overestimate the heroic, imperturbable courage of, the Russian character. He recalled the blood and carnage of Eylau, the incarnadined

1646

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

redoubts of Smolensko and Borodino, the flames of Moscow, the piteous destruction of his grand army, and the terrible passage of the bridge of the Beresina, In spite of his military genius, in spite of the heroism of his grenadiers who had borne the French eagles from the steeples of Notre l)ame to the towers of every capital in Europe, he knew that the Cossacks of the Don had lighted their bivouac fires on the Champs Eiysees and tethered their ponies amid the palms and roses in the gardens of the Tuileries. Nor are their soldiers more heroic than their sailors. Said Lord Nelson, the greatest sea captain of the English race . '' Lay yourselves alongside a Frenchman, but. outmaneuver a Russian.''
With all the wealth and might of the great American republic, our statesmen cannot afford indifference to the determined aggressions of this gigantic Asiatic power. Yes, Asiatic! '' Africa, "said Victor Hugo, "begins at the Pyrenees," and we may add that Asia extends to the banks of the Niemen and to the mouths of the Danube. Said Napoleon, Grattez le Russe, et trouverez le Tartare, "Scratch a Russian and you find a Tartar." Men speak of the traditional friendship of Russia with the United States. It is, and has ever been, meretricious. The cords that bind us have been ropes of sand. Friendship is impossible between individual liberty and absolutism, between autocracy and representative government. Even now the most serious blows to our commerce have of late been aimed by the Russian ministry,* and had the territories of the United States been accessible to them, our fair land of freedom would have been harried and ravaged by the soldiers of the czar, in whose hands the machine gun and the breechloader have been but sub stituted for the lance of the Cossack and the sword and bow of the Scythian, unless, izideed, the dauntless soul and strong arm of the sons of America had hurled them back, shattered and bleeding, to their regions of ices and of snows. Nor should the statesmen of America fail to perceive that if Russia shall succeed in the domination of China, and in the organization and control of its four hundred millions of people, not only must American commerce decay, but American liberty may be 210 longer secure. With the great steam troopships and gigantic transports of modern marine architecture, and transferring thousands of troops in each vessel, crossing the ocean with the incredible speed of steam and electricity, the Pacific can be as readily crossed by Chinese and Russian armadas as were the waters of the North Sea by the war ships of the Vikings or the rude vessels bearing the white horse standards of Henghist and liorsa.
If these be the possibilities of a remote future, the danger to our commerce is here. Who can doubt that in the interest of her own manu facturers and merchants that Russia will exclude from the seventeen millions of Manchuria the manufactured products of America, especially those products of southern cotton mills which, from that territory alone in 1899, brought $10,000,000 for distribution among the southern people. The danger to our liberty will not come in our own times, it may not come for generations, but that patriotism is short-sighted which does not outlive the brief limits of our own lives, and which does not repose

* The day these words "were spolien Russia imposed new and prohibitive duties on American naval stores and bicycles.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1647

with deep sensibility upon the future of our descendants. Such was not the patriotism of the framers of our immortal constitution. Theirs was the purpose "to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity.'' But may we not devoutly believe that there is a divine intelligence loftier than all human conceptions which, despite the wran glings and j anglings of parties, is guiding in higher and safer altitudes the destinies of our beloved land. May we not believe that it was the interposition of this Almighty power which directed the councils of our Government in its humane and victorious effort to set free the prostrate Cubans, and which all unconsciously delivered into our hands those islands of the Pacific which, with the Australasian possessions of our English brethren, will enable our combined navies to dominate the Pacific as the silver streak of the channel is swept by the steel-clad squadrons of the British fleet.
In the inevitable conflicts of the future the importance of these insular possessions in the Pacific cannot be overstated. Said Captain Mahan, perhaps the highest authority in the world on naval warfare and strategy: '' Shut out from the Sandwich Islands as a coaling base, an enemy is thrown back for supplies and fuel a distance of thirty-five hun dred or four thousand miles, or between seven thousand and eight thousand going and coming, an impediment to sustained maritime opera tions well nigh prohibitive. It is rarely that so important a factor in the attack or defense of a coast line of a sea frontier is concentrated in a, single, position." Said Senator Thurston: "In the whole Pacific ocean, from the equator on the south to Alaska on the north, from the coast of China and Japan on the west to the American continent on the east, there is but one spot where a ton of coal, a pound of bread or a gallon of water can be obtained by a passing vessel, and that spot is Hawaii." And what of the Philippines? I remember reading when a boy, in the Voyages of Captain Cook, where he declared, in substance, that the power which controlled Manila, Guam, the Sandwich Islands and San Francisco would dominate the Pacific. Over all of these now float the Stars and Stripes. The marvelous Philippiiie archipelago, extending as far as from the north of Scotland to the south of Italy, is the property of the United States of America by a title as clear as that which we have to Florida, to New Orleans, and to every foot of land to the westward of the Mississippi. Its principal city, Manila, is only 628 miles from Hongkong, about the distance from Savannah to New York. It is 812 miles nearer China than Singapore, the nearest British port. It is 400 miles nearer to China than Yokohama. It is directly on the ocean pathway between Hongkong and Australasia. "The chief distributing centers of China, Japan, Corea, Siam, Annam and the East Indies are as near to Manila as Havana is to New York, and the dis tributing centers of Persia, India and Australasia are nearer to Manila than to any other great emporium." It is said that Manila lies in the center of a crescent peopled by 700,000,000 of human souls. Thus it is plain that American statesmen and American arms in the past three years have gained for the United States of America opportunities for the development of world power and commercial prestige without .precedent in the annals of time.
'' How happens it,'' exclaims Doctor Strong, '' that all these lands are

1648

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

found under Anglo-Saxon flags in the very generation when the Pacific becomes decisive of the world's destinies? Such facts are God's great alphabet with which he spells for man his providential purposes. For a hundred years now, blind men have been quarreling with our national destiny or with Divine Providence. They declared that Jefferson vio lated the Constitution in the purchase of Louisiana. They opposed the purchase of Florida. They were vehement in their opposition to the. acquisition of Texas and California. They called Alaska 'Seward's folly.' They rejected Hawaii when offered as a gift, and would have had Dewey sail away from the Philippines and leave them an apple of discord to the European powers or doom them to anarchy." And more, even now belated Americans are bawling anathemas at the Supreme Court of the United States, some of them denouncing it as the plague spot in our system, because that august tribunal, without incorporating into our body politic millions of savages to whom our institutions are incomprehensible, have seen in the Constitution the power to govern by Congress these enormous and most valuable acquisitions of territory achieved by the wisdom of our statesmanship and the valor of our arms. And this is true notwithstanding the fact that the Continental Congress with its last waning breath framed an ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory, and since that time, under the Constitution, Congress has always governed the territory and provided for the gov ernment of the territories of the United States, and has never accorded all the rights of citizens of the United States to the citizens of the terri tories. Even now citizens of the organized territories, unlike the citizens of the states, may not sue in the courts of the United States, nor may citizens of the District of Columbia. And the people at the seat of government by Act of Congress are denied the right to vote and are themselves governed by a commission appointed by the President.
It would seem that if Congress is good enough to make laws for the people of the United States and for our territories not yet organized, it is good enough to make laws for the savage Igorotes, Mores and Sulus, or even for those leisurely lovers of the dolce far niente who dream away their easy lives amid the soft breezes and sensuous shades of Porto Rico. Truly some of these gentlemen have discovered a solicitude, what Dickens terms a "telescopic philanthropy," for the savage Tag-als and head hunters of the Philippine Islands, which is equaled only by the Brick Lane Branch of the Ebenezer Association, who, according to the elder Weller, were engaged in making '' flannel weskits for the infant niggers,'' or which prompted Mrs. Jellyby to neglect her own family in ord.er to 'consecrate all of her energies to establish a factory for turning piano legs at Borricoboola-Gha on the left bank of the Niger. And, wonderful to relate, some of these telescopic statesmen are from practical, hardheaded Georgia, a state which, in spite of all the treaties made with the Indians, and all the efforts of the Supreme Court and the President of the United States, within the memory of very old men now living, drove out the Creek Indians, expelled the Cherokees and took over their possessions. So recent was this remarkable "expansion" in the boun daries of our own state that today a large portion of its territory, a land like ancient Canaan, "flowing with milk and honey," is commonly known as '' Cherokee Georgia,'' in memory of those American Filipinos, whom,

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1649

denuded of their assets, the fathers of our telescopic friends sent whirl ing toward the setting sun. These gentlemen should commend to their souls the doctrine of Daniel Webster, who declared that our politics should stop ati low water-mark. It is idle for them to protest against expansion. It is an accomplished fact. From the purest motives of mercy and humanitarianism, all unconscious of its consequences, the United States took part in a great movement which within a few years past has swept over the world. I mean the advance of Russia in Asia, the division of Africa into spheres of influence, the acquisitions of France in Madagascar and Tonquin, of Germany in Africa, Samoa, and elsewhere, and of Great Britain in Burmah. "We meant to take no part in it, but "there is a destiny which shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may."
The first gun from the Olympia that belched its thunders across Manila Bay proclaimed to the ages that the great republic, panoplied in the armor of liberty and law, had stepped forward into the arena to take her full part in the conflict of world policies which will inexorably determine the destinies of generations yet unborn, and which will even now determine by high arbitrament, if need be by the sword, whether our country will hold its commanding position in the commerce of the world, or whether, excluded from world markets, her forges shall be extinguished, the whir of machinery shall be hushed, great lines of rail way shall be worthless, and hundreds of millions of acres of land, whose products now feed the world, shall know no more the hand of the plow man or the blade of the reaper, and whether there shall lapse into barren and profitless disuse the broad and fertile expanses of our own South land, which each recurring autumn whiten with the snowy luxuriance of our royal staple, giving promise of clothing for three-quarters of the human race.
Nor was this movement too soon. Jealousy and fear of American greatness and prosperity prevail^ throughout the continent. Alarmed at our achievements they seek to erect a continental system- like that applied by the remorseless energy of Napoleon to crush the trade of Great Britain. "But," says the London Times on May 30th, "if by any conceivable infatuation any or all of the continental powers were to combine for such an end, the British Empire would leave them to their fate and continue to trade with their American kinsfolk. Our interests, traditions and inclinations all dictate that course to us." Nor is the American heart irresponsive to such cordial sentiments. This feeling has been long growing, and in the hour of our recent need, when the proposition was made to Great Britain to enter into a combination to constrain us in our effort for the redemption of Cuba, the reply of the mother country was not only a positive refusal to enter into such com bination, but the assurance of her active resistance to it if it should be attempted. But one danger threatens our international amity, and that is what seems the unwise resistance of the British ministry to American completion and control of the Isthmian Canal, and this, we have every reason to trust will be avoided. Not the navigation laws of pre-revolutionary times, not the stamp act, not the Boston port bill, did so much embitter the masses of the American people as would any meas ure of Great Britain which would defeat the completion of the canal.

1650

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Besides, it is certainly true that in the great conflicts for the control of

the Pacific which seem inevitable, the canal under our control would be

as serviceable to Great Britain as to America. That it will for a time

give an advantage to American over English and all commerce is indis

putable. It is, however, a national necessity. The completion of the

canal will save ten thousand miles in distance, and fifty days' time by

steamer between New York and San Francisco. It will subtract the

entire width of the Pacific from a voyage over tha distance now to be

traversed by ship from one of our Atlantic ports. It will, as well said,

"project the Pacific into the heart of the continent." It will bring-

the western seacoast of South America in a straight line with our Atlantic

ports. Of course, the advantage to the Southern States will be particu-

larly great. New Orleans in its exports having recently surpassed

Boston and Philadelphia, is now second only to New York, and will

be 713 miles nearer to the canal than is the great metropolis. The coal

and iron of Alabama and Tennessee, the cotton product and manufac-

tures of all the Southland will thus find cheap and swift access to the

commerce of the Pacific.

It is far better for Great Britain to lose part of the commerce of

that ocean than to lose it all, and with this she is threatened, unless the

Anglo-Saxon peoples make common cause. I am one of those who believe

that the constitutions of England, of the United States, and of every

American state in the vital principles of government which they per-

petuate, make it inevitable that Great Britain and America must finally

stand and prevail together, or perish together in the effort to preserve

civil and religious liberty on earth. These constitutions are vitalized

by the ancient laws of "that land of old and great renown, where free-

dom broadens slowly down from precedent to precedent." The immor-

tal principles of the Bill of Rights, of the Petition of Rights and of

Magna Charta, all glow with undying warmth and unfading lustre in

the American constitutions. They arc but the expression of principles

which make political and individual freedom consist with orderly prog-

ress. They took their origin as early as the fifth century after Christ,

in the homes of the Angles, the sires of our common race, amid the sands

and heather of those hyperborean shores chafed by the1 icy waters which '

encompassed the ultima thule of the Romans. What do not Americans

owe to the laws, to the literature, to the love of liberty of the mother

country' I know not what others may think, but when, time and again,

I have beheld threatened combinations of the continental powers against

her, when I have seen her people, seemingly all isolated and unfriended,

with all the courage of their heroic past quietly buckling on their armor,

if need be, to fight the world, it has thrilled me with a fervor and a

.

passion that made me know they were irideed my brethren. Once, when

British mariners, borne down by shot and shell from Chinese batteries,

were sinking in the turbid flood, it was a Georgian, the son of a trustee

of this university, the noble Josiah Tattnall, who, though commanding

a neutral fleet, sped swiftly to the rescue. "Blood is thicker than

water," the old hero exclaimed, and though for long years the giant

trees of Banaventure have waved their funereal mosses above his grave,

this sentiment survives to animate millions of our common race.

And what part shall the trained mentality and genuine patriotism

:
,; : . ::: ] :::; \ :|i j :;::: | \iiiii .!
::
:| ::: :;; ; |; l : : i: :|:| :::;! : ;|! s::i '<M |;|:; :|i ~M :| ! ;;;: ^ :.:! ;!;.;: ;: : ''% ill ::|i ^f ;i:i :|| ': |;| !! ill |||

GEOBGIA AND GEOKGIANS

1651

of these Southern States play in the great drama of [New America? The inquiry is more important to ourselves than to the country at large. To my mind,, of all others the most disastrous result of our Civil war upon the southern people is the indifference to national matters of the most vital concern, to which the masses of- our white men have become habituated. We hear but one side of every public question, and I fear not always the right side. The Folkmote of the Anglo-Saxon, the great gathering of the masses to hear joint debates between leaders of political thought, once so common in the South, have practically disappeared from our system. When great men in Virginia, like Patrick Henry and John Eandolph; in South Carolina, like McDuffie, Calhoun and Petigru; in Georgia, like McPherson Berrien, John Forsyth, Walter T. Colquitt, Alexander H. Stephens, Herschel V. Johnson, Robert Toombs and Ben jamin H. Hill met thousands of the people who assembled to hear the discussion of public topics, the whole plane of popular mentality was elevated, the whole current of popular thought quickened and clarified. Conscious of the interest of their constituents in the topics under dis cussion these renowned Americans, by profound thought upon the science of government, the history of nations and our own political history, came to the hustings carefully prepared and accurately instructed. In the presence of vast multitudes of the people they made their supremest efforts. Their information, thought and arguments became the prop erty of the people. Thus informed and guided, the franchise of the elector was exercised with intelligent patriotism. With each recurring debate the powers of the orators themselves were enhanced. The recep tive and plastic soul of youth, thrilled with the inspiration that fell from eloquent tongues, found ambition kindled to like endeavor. Mothers, wives and maidens caught the inspiration of "thoughts that breathe and words that burn" and added the persuasive and irresistible charm of feminine influence, to quicken the ambition of sons, husbands and lovers. Thus nurtured, strengthened and inspired, great was the renown of southern statesmen. Taught to feel every pulsation of the popular heart, close to the masses, the heart-strings of the leaders entertwined with the heart-strings of the people, and they were responsive to that consensus of public opinion which after all will form the just and righteous view of patriotic duty. Was it strange, then, that in the halls of national legislation the constructive influence of southern states men was as effective in results as they themselves were conspicuous for the possession of every quality which "doth master, sway and move the eminence cf man's affections?" Is this true now? In our abnormal and unhealthy political methods have not the chicane and cunning of the slatemaker and wire-puller intended to control the small politicians who dawdle about courthouse towns supplanted appeals to the masses which made every heart glow with pride in the consciousness of that high responsibility devolved by political freedom? Have not the arts of machine politicians been substituted for eloquence like that which "shook the arsenal and fulmined over Greece from Macedone to Artaxerxes' throne?" Do we, Americans of these Southern States, devoted as we actually are to the principles of sound and rational government, exert in the policies of our country that effective force which should properly belong to our numbers, wealth and thought. The theory of

1652

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

our constitution is that every American citizen is sovereign. How long shall these sovereigns quiver tinder the party lash? Shall we forever support a measure because it is said to be to the party's interest, or shall we inquire, in the words of Henry Clay, "Is the measure right, will it conduce to the general happiness, to the elevation of national character ?'' Shall we forever vote without regard to the character or capacity of a candidate because he has secured a party nomination, or shall we again recur to the test of Thomas Jefferson, "Is he honest, is he capable, is he faithful to the Constitution ?'' "We are sovereigns, it is true, but are we not sovereigns in exile? Oh, when shall the king enjoy his own again! Here the old English strain saturated with the principles of individual freedom and popular sovereignty is preserved in all of its pristine purity. If this be, and it must be, an average southern audience, more than 99 per cent of my hearers are lineally descended from sages or patriots of the Revolution, whose heroism and constancy made the nation possible. If the roll of this mighty gathering should be called, almost every name might be found in the register of births and deaths in the parish churches of the British Isles. Southern men of the homogeneous American stock were the chief architects who builded the nation. The eloquence of a southern man in the House of Burgesses in Virginia stirred the spirit of resistance to the tyranny of the British ministry. A southern man drafted the Declaration of Independence. A southern man led the armies of the Revolution, presided over the convention that framed the Constitution, and was the first President of the United States, and after the organization of the Government, save for one term, for more than thirty-six years southern men occupied the chair of the Executive. A southern man was the chief justice who found the Constitution a skeleton, and whose majestic decisions clothed and vitalized it with life and beauty. A southern man was that far-sighted political philosopher who added the territory to the westward of the Mississippi, comprising the states of Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, North and South Dakota, Montana, Wash ington, Wyoming, Idaho, the Indian Territory and Oklahoma, to the beauteous sisterhood which now forms the fairest and most hopeful government on which the sun ever shone. A southern man, contributed by our own beloved Georgia, that incomparable diplomat, John Forsyth, added to the Union the peninsula of Florida, an empire in itself. A southern man announced to the Holy Alliance, then in all the insolent flush of its power, that we should consider any attempt on its part to extend its system to any part of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. This was the Monroe Doctrine. It was thus a south ern President who, in the language of a modern historian, '' put fire into those few momentous though moderate sentences and made them glow like the writing at Belshazzar's Feast." It was a southern President who annexed to our Union the great empire of Texas, and who crowned the standards of our victorious armies by the treaty of Guadalupe Hi dalgo, completing and expanding the symmetry of our system by the terri tories of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and that magnificent domain now comprehended in the great State of California. Thus it is seen that, save in the purchase of Alaska and the recent acquisitions, every step of American...expansion has been accomplished under the administration

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1653

of southern presidents. Such were the principles of southern- men, such their effective, constructive statesmanship, such their conceptions of national power when southern men thought for themselves, and by their forceful and fearless character and commanding statesmanship impressed their opinions upon the national councils for the welfare of the people and the safety of the republic.
There is a New South, it is true, but the Old South is here. It is here in its homogeneous American population. It is here in the veritable blood and brain of those men who made it the synonym of all that was courageous and lofty in statesmanship. It is here in the stern fighting qualities of those armies of the gray who, for so long and against such fearful odds, upheld with their bayonets the failing fortunes of the Confederacy, men whom the greatest military critics of modern times have declared the most incomparable soldiers the world has ever seen, men of whom our vice president has declared: '' The world has never seen better soldiers than those who followed Lee, and their leader will undoubtedly rank as without exception the very greatest of all the great captains that the English-speaking people have brought forth, and this although the last and chief of his antagonists may himself claim to stand as the full equal of Marlborough and Wellington.'' * They were men of whom the greatest (if all their foes, General Grant, declared, in that volume which he penned in his dying hours, that they were as sincere as were his own gallant troops in their convictions of the right of the cause for which they fought. Their martial spirit is here. It lives in the sons of the blood, aye, in the survivors themselves. It is estimated by the scientific military men of all nations as one of the chiefest sources of national strength. It went to the front with Wheeler, that noble Georgian, when with all the experience of more than a hundred battles, all careless of the sheeted hail of death which poured from the machine guns and mausers of the Spaniard, he led the regulars over the trenches at San Juan. It was heard in the fierce charging yell of Texan Rough Riders of Roosevelt at Guasimas. It flamed with desperate, unshrinking valor in the heart of Richmond Pearson Hobson when he steered the Merimac into the jaws of death in Santiago Bay. It steadied the con stant soul of Brumby as he stood by Dewey on the bridge of the Olympia at Manila. It nerved the heart of Emory Winship when, with five Pilipino balls in his body, all unaided, he fought his gun at Malabon until his comrades were saved. It winged its way heavenward with the fleet ing soul of Worth Bagley as on the deck of the Winslow he died the patriot's death. It thrilled many a nameless hero who, in the chapparal of Cuba or the jungles of Luzon, wearing the blue as his father wore the gray, betrayed the same heroic spirit which in the days long past glorified American manhood on the green slopes of Manassas, in the holocaust of Malvern Hill, in the rush of Jackson's Corps at Chancellorsville, in the Bloody Angle, at the explosion of the Crater, in the long, wasting agony at Petersburg, in the blood and carnage at Chickamauga, Atlanta, and on a thousand fields to live in song and story to the latest times. Oh, my countrymen, shall the sons of this same heroic strain who knew not fear, deceived by phantoms, baseless as the fabric of dreams,

* '' Life of Thos. H. Benton'' Roosevelt Statesmen Series.
Vol. Ill--25

1654

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

forever yield the sovereignty of the citizen ? Shall they give up to party what was meant for mankind ? Shall they surrender the influence which their opinions, their convictions and their votes should legitimately exert upon the councils of the nation? "Shall we forever having eyes see not and having ears hear not the things that so nearly concern our tem poral salvation?" If so, then we deserve the stigma of the Roman, "we'are slaves. The bright sun rises to its course and lights a race of slaves. It sets and its last beam falls on' a slave.'' But when by party the surrender of the birthright of freemen is demanded, if we shall exclaim with old John Adams, "it has been niyj living sentiment and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment, Independence now and Independence forever, then truly that star in our flag which glistens to the name of Georgia will be scintillant with added and resplendent glories, and will receive into its augmented lustre the radi ance of all the other stars which typify the beauteous and unbroken sisterhood of the Union. Thus rejoicing in the political freedom of the individual, in constitutional liberty for the masses, and bestowing these blessings upon distant islands of the sea, our people, under the provi dence of God, s'hall, to our appointed time, pursue the paths of righteous ness and peace

9

'

"One flag, one land, one heart, one hand,

One nation, evermore!"

EMORY SPEER: ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OP JOSEPH E. BROWN

[Extract from an address delivered by Judge Speer before the stu dents of Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, June 7, 1905, during the annual commencement, and subsequently repeated before the students of the Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut, in May, 1906.]

It was the year 1840. The wooded summits of the Blue Ridge had put on their autumnal colors. These romantic mountains, coming down from the lofty altitudes of the Appalachian range, and penetrating the southeastern section of Georgia, have an occasional depression. These a poet might term the mountain passes, but the mountaineers call them the. "gaps." One, threaded by a ragged trail, connecting the County of Union on the north with Lumpkin on the south, is known as the Woody Gap. At an early hour of the day of which I speak, a slender and sinewy lad came steadily through the gap and down the Indian trail. In front of him, yoked together, he drove a pair of steers. Presently there fol lowed another and a younger boy. He was mounted on a small horse, whose well defined muscles and obvious ribs did not suggest a life of in glorious ease.
In the mountain solitudes there is little change. Now, as then, look ing southward from the Woody Gap, the traveler may behold successive and lower ranges of billowy mountains, which together approach the sublime; and, far beyond, in shimmering loveliness, stretching apparently to the infinite, the '' ocean view," as it is termed, that Piedmont country of Georgia, some day to afford sustenance to many millions of happy freemen. To the northward, a more precipitous slope seems to terminate

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1655

in a lovely mountain vale. Glancing through, its luxuriant crops and by its simple homes, the silvery waters of the Toccoa make their way toward the far distant Mississippi. The valley, like the mountain, is .also little changed. Its homes have the same unpretentious character, its people the primitive virtues of the old American stock. The shriek of the locomotive and the roar of the railway train, to this day, have not penetrated the sylvan settlement.
No village is there. The valley, like many another locality in our mountains, after the fashion of the Cherokees, is called a town. There is Brasstown and Fighting Town and, across the Tennessee line, Ducktown. This is Caddistown; and thence from a rude log cabin had de parted that day the boy who was driving the steers, to become the only man who, in all the history of our state, was for four successive terms its governor, a state senator, a judge of the Superior Court, a chief justice of its Supreme Court, and twice its representative in the Senate of the United States. That boy was Joseph Emerson Brown.
****** * * * * *
To contemplate the successive pictures which present his marvelous career has been a grateful task, but those scenes upon which I love to brood with miser care, do not relate so much to the days of its greatness as of its beginning. On the day of his funeral, among the thousands who loved him massed in Georgia's Representative Hall, I stood beside the venerable form, majestic in the peacefulness of death, and beheld for the last time the noble face now made ethereal as if by the last caresses of angel hands which had borne the loosened spirit to the home eternal in the heavens to hear the words of the Master : '' Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joys of thy Lord."
Even then irresistible thoughts and words were of his boyhood in the remote sequestered vale; of his humble home, such homes as sent forth Andrew, Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. And now, beyond the azure mountains, and through the vista of all the years, I see the boy as with untiring hand he turns the spinning-wheel, as he swings the axe, as he guides the plow, as in sportive moments he breasts the bright billows of the mountain stream, or, when worn with toil, he bathes his weary feet in its shining shallows. And my heart goes out to him, as followed by the longing and loving eyes of mother and father, he waves them a brave farewell and, with his little oxen, up and over the mountain, dis appears from their sight, to enter on that great life I have attempted to describe, in that mission of humanity for which the God of nature had designed him. Oh, my young countrymen, contemplate his character and dwell upon his career, for

"Lives of great men all remind us "We can make our lives sublime.''

NATHANIEL E. HARRIS: PICKBTT'S CHARGE AT GETTYSBURG

[This brief extract is taken from the masterful address delivered by Governor Harris before the United Confederate Veterans, at the great annual reunion held in Louisville, Kentucky, June 15, 1905.]

1656

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

The fortunes of the Confederacy had mounted higher and higher. First Manassas, the seven fateful fields around Richmond, Second Manassas, Fredericksburg and Chaiicellorsville had all been fought and gained, and southern valor seemed to be invincible. Now, at length, Lee's grand army stood on the soil of the old Keystone State, at bay, before the frowning heights of Cemetery Ridge, Gulp's Hill, and Round Top, or Devil's Den. For two days the Union, forces had been driven and over whelmed by the fierce attacks of the southern soldiery; but now, re-en forced and sternly defiant, the enemy held an almost impregnable posi tion on the barbed ridges around Gettysburg. The battle had ebbed and flowed with alternate success, till, like Napoleon at Waterloo, Lee at last determined to stake his all on a single charge.
Pickett 's division of Virginians was fresh and resolute; it numbered 5,000 men, in three splendid brigades, under Armistead, Garuett and Kemper; and Lee ordered it with a supporting column of nearly 10,000 men, to take the salient on the left center of the Federal line, bending toward Cemetery Ridge.
It was an awful undertaking. For nearly one solid mile these brave soldiers must charge in the face of the entire Union army of 75,000 men, entrenched on the cannon-crowned heights and ecoiipped with the finest enginery of destruction in the world. "We wonder now why such a charge was even attempted; but then all the South imagined that Lee's army was invincible. There was no failing of heart in the rank and file when the order was given to prepare for the charge, though Long-street tells us that so vivid was the impending vision of death to him that he could not syllable the command, but could only point upward in silence to the heights.
Yet the leader and his men went forth without the quiver of a muscle. In the very midst of the awful cannonading that preceded the advance the soldiers of the division, sheltering themselves in the thick woods at the bottom of the slope, spent the time indulging in harmless jokes and pleasant converse, as if they had been ordered only to a dress parade or a picnic on the grounds near by.
But now the order comes, "Up men and away!" and up they go, the rebel yell breaking the echoes of the hills and shaking the leaves of the trees round about.
At first the enemy withheld his fire, as if the whole Union army were overwhelmed with admiration at the daring of such an undertaking. Then suddenly the crest gra,w red with flame, the guns spake, and from every side the shrapnel dropped, the grapeshot hurtled and the musketry hissed. One hundred and fifty pieces of artillery poured their iron missiles of death into the oncoming ranks.
The head of the charging column sank into the ground, as if the earth had opened before it the supports melted away in confusion and defeat, but still that devoted line rushed forward up the slant in the very face of the hurtling hailstorm :over the outworks, into the citadel itself those brave boys dashed, their banners torn, their guns shattered, their leaders prostrate, until at last in the blood-red salient the gallant Armistead raises his hat on his sword in place of a flag for his Virginia boys to rally upon, and then falls pierced with many wounds on the dark and gory ground, as the shouts of victory reach his dying ear.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1657

Look! Comrades, it is high tide at Gettysburg! All the powers of heaven, earth and hell gaze down with wonder on that charge. The fortunes of eight millions of people hang on it. Will it succeed? Has Lee "grown so great that he embarrassed God?" Was there no place left in the domain of providence for the Southern Confederac}'? No, it did not succeed. It pierced the Federal center, and if the supports had only followed, as the great commander ordered, perhaps two independ ent nations might have lived today, hard by each other, on this American soil. But God willed it otherwise.
Yet never was charge like this. McDonald pierced the Austrian cen ter at Wagram, and his master put a ducal coronet on his brow, and a marshal's star on his breast. Napoleon's old guard broke its fronting flood of valor on the English rocks at Waterloo; the Six Hundred rode down an army at Balaklava, but Pickett's 5,000 men pierced the Union center at Gettysburg, on the most impregnable ridge on earth, and in the face of the fiercest fire that ever destroyed an army in the annals of time. Five thousand men went up, but only one-third came back. Oh, what pathos in that scene; when its battletorn leader, with tears in his manly eyes, stood in the presence of the great commander, and said, "General, my noble division has been swept away."
The bravery of those gallant Virginia soldiers, in whose veins the blood of the Puritan and Cavalier had mingled together, sanctified their defeat, and made a name for Anglo-Saxon courage that has filled the world with admiration for nearly half of a century.

"Oh, that charge of Pickett's heroes, In its chivalry sublime,
Shall go sounding down the ages, Sung by poets, penned by sages,
Who record it for all time.''

WILLIAM H. FLEMING: SLAVERY AND THE RACE PROBLEM IN THE SOUTH
[This powerful address, delivered before the Alumni Society of the State University, June 19, 1906, created a profound impression upon the public mind, not only in Georgia but throughout the nation. It was a fearless presentation of the facts of history and a masterful plea for justice to an inferior race; and was subsequently published in book form by Dana Estes and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. Ex-Congressman Fleming has been for years a deep student of the negro problem, and this address constitutes a luminous contribution to existing literature upon this vital topic.]

Brothers of the Alumni Society, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is my purpose to discuss slavery and the race problem in the South, with special reference to our own State of Georgia. No public issue is more deserving of thoughtful consideration by our people, and no occasion could be more fit for its discussion. This audience is qualified in head and heart to appreciate at its true value every argument that may be advanced, and this platform at our chief seat of learning is so lifted up, that words spoken here may be heard in all parts of the state, echoing among the "Hills of Habersham" and over the "Sea Marshes of Glynn."

1658

GEOBGIA AND GEORGIANS

If there be any one present perturbed by a secret doubt as to the propriety of my bringing this subject and this occasion together in the midst of the pending political campaign in Georgia, let me hasten to allay his fears with the assurance that I shall carefully refrain from all offensive personal allusions. Speaking to this very point some weeks before his fatal illness, Chancellor Hill cordially approved of my selec tion of the race problem for discussion at this time before the alumni of the university, and he added with characteristic broadmindedness: "I wish my platform at Athens to be a place for the freest expression of honest thought.''
At the outset, we should realize that if we are to make any genuine progress toward a right solution of our problem, we must approach it in a spirit of the utmost candor, and with an eye single to the ascertainment of the truth. The pessimist "sailing the Vesuvian Bay" listens for the dreaded rumblings of the distant mountain blind to the wondrous beau ties of earth and sky about him. The optimist floating down the placid upper stream pictures to himself an endless panorama of peaceful land scapes deaf to the thundering cataract of Niagara just below him. But better than, pessimism and better than optimism is that philosophy which faces facts as they are, and courageously interprets their meaning.
In the earlier civilizations slavery was the rule, not the exception. But with the advent of the Christ and his teachings, a silent, gentle, yet all-compelling force began its work on the universal heart of humanity. Christianity adjusted itself to existing governmental institutions, includ ing slavery. But it inculcated such lofty doctrines of love and duty, and created such vivid conceptions of a. personal God and Father of us all, that it was only a question of time when Christian peoples could not hold in slavery those of their own faith and blood.
In England in 1696 the doctrine had obtained wide acceptance that Christian baptism of itself worked a legal manumission of the slave. Argument to that effect was urged by able lawyers in the court of King's Bench in the suit of Chamberlain v. Herney, but the case went off on another ground, and that .point was not decided. About the same time, however, the colonies of Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina passed laws that Christian baptism should not free the negro slave, '' any opin ion or matter to the contrary notwithstanding.'' Thus we see a recogni tion of the necessity at that period of our history of controlling by stat utory enactments this expanding sentiment of Christian brotherhood among the masses of the people, so as to prevent it from embracing the alien negro race. The march of Christian civilization had put an end to white slavery, but negro slavery still flourished, chiefly because the negro was of a different race-blood from his masters. Oneness in faith and blood had grown to mean freedom for the white man. But oneness in faith, without oneness in blood, still meant slavery for the negro.
Indeed, negro slavery as a historical institution in western civiliza tion occupies a unique position of its own. It began in the fifteenth cen tury when white slavery had practically ceased. Most other slaveries were incidental results of wars. Negro slavery originated in commerce, in trade and barter, and so continued until it was suppressed.
When in later years the institution was summoned before the bar of the world's public opinion, its most logical and .profound defenders ad-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1659

mitted the wrongfulness of white slavery, but justified negro slavery on the plea in the natural inferiority of the negro race.
Alexander Stephens, then vice president of the Southern Confed eracy, in his famous corner-stone speech at Savannah in March, 1861, said: "Many governments have been founded upon the principle of sub ordination and serfdom of certain classes of the same race. Such were, and are, in violation of the laws of nature. Our system contains no such violation of nature's laws. "With us, all the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro; subordination is his place." * * . * Referring to the Confederacy, he declared: '' Its foundations are laid, its corner stone rests, upon the great truth that negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery subordi nation to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.''
The- fact of race inequality here stated cannot well be denied. But there is still a fatal flaw in the logic. That flaw lies in the assumption that a superior race has the right to hold an inferior race in slavery. A race cannot be justly deprived of liberty merely because it is relatively inferior to another. If so, all other branches of the human family could justly be reduced to slavery by the highest, most masterful branch and that mastery could only be determined by force of arms. The obli gation of the superior to lead and direct does not carry with it the right to enslave.
Mr. Stephens further declared in his speech: "It is upon this, as I have stated, our social fabric is firmly planted, and I can not permit myself to doubt the ultimate success of the full recognition of this prin ciple throughout the civilized and enlightened world.''
Here we have one of the ablest intellects of his day not only asserting that negro slavery was legally arid morally right, but predicting that its recognition would become universal throughout the civilized world a prediction made within five years of its abolition in the United States, and within twenty-seven years of its abolition in Brazil, which marked the final disappearance of human slavery as a legalized institution among civilized peoples.
Let me say in passing, that this corner-stone speech is not to be found in the authorized volume containing the biography and speeches of Mr. Stephens. One can scarcely suppress the question: Did the great commoner prefer for posterity to judge him by other speeches 1 Certain it is, that the views he expressed on negro slavery did not spring from hardness of heart, or want of sympathy with any suffering creature on earth. At his death, his negro body servant in tearful accents pro nounced upon him this noble eulogy: "Mars Alec was kinder to dogs than most men is to folks."
But Mr. Stephens was defending the then existing institution of slavery handed down to his people by their fathers, recognized by his torical analogies from the Bible, and sanctioned by the Federal Consti tution. His moral nature was uncompromising. There was no way to adjust that moral nature to existing conditions except by making the assumption, which he did make, of the right of a superior race to enslave an inferior race.
If race environment could so warp the judgment of a great intellect

1660

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

like that of Alexander Stephens, other men may well be cautious lest
they miss the truth. We need not stop to discuss whether the North or South was the more
responsible for negro slavery in America. It takes two to make a bar gain. Northern traders sold and southern planters bought. If Charles ton, South Carolina, was one of the chief ports of destination for slave trading vessels, Salem, Massachusetts, was one of the chief ports from
whence those vessels sailed. In the earlier days of the southern colonies there were many strong
protests against negro slavery. But once established it continued to grow and nourish until we reached those unhappy days foreshadowed by Mr. Madison, when he said in the constitutional convention of 1787 that the real antagonism would not arise between the large states on the one hand and the small states on the other, as many seemed to fear, but that'' The institution of slavery and its consequences formed the line of dis
crimination. " No historian can ever truthfully assert that the men who bore the
banner of the Confederacy in victory and in defeat with such matchless courage and heroic sacrifice were moved only by the selfish purpose of holding their black fellowmen in bondage. They were inspired by the noblest sentiments of patriotism. So far from being traitors to the Con stitution of their fathers, which Mr. Gladstone declared was the "most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man," they reverenced that great instrument next to the Bible. So far from trampling it under foot, they held it up as their shield. They appealed to the North and West to recognize the binding obligation of that Constitution, as interpreted by the highest court, only to hear it denounced at last as " a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.''
And yet, we must in candor admit that the truthful historian will write it down that slavery was the particular irritating cause that forced on the conflict of arms between the sections, though deeper causes lay at the foundation of our sectional differences on centralization and state
rights. When Robert Toombs made his memorable farewell speech in the
United States Senate on January 7, 1861, he laid down five propositions, setting forth the contentions of the South, which, if granted, would have averted disunion. Every one of those five propositions was a clear cut, logical deduction from the original meaning and intent of the Constitu tion, and all five of them centered around the institution of slavery.
Again, when the conflict was over and the Constitution was amended at three separate times, two of these amendments, the thirteenth and fifteenth, referred exclusively to slavery, and the other, the fourteenth, referred chiefly to slavery. No other historical facts, though there are many, need to be cited to prove that slavery was the immediate precipi
tating cause of the Civil war. The thirteenth amendment, ratified in 1865, abolishing1 slavery, was
a legitimate and necessary result of the arbitrament of the sword. Mr. Lincoln at first declared that the purpose of the war, on the part of the Government, was to preserve the Union and not to free the slaves. But the progress of events had rendered him powerless to confine the strug-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1661

gling forces of social upheaval within that limitation even if his per sonal views had undergone no change.
Great was the relief to many thoughtful minds in the South when this fruitful cause of sectional contention had been removed. In a.n address delivered from this platform in 1871, Benjamin H. Hill gave thanks in fervid metaphor that the '' dusky Helen'' had left the crumbling walls of Troy, and that southern genius, once '' bound like Prometheus'' to the rock of slavery, had been loosed from its bonds.
The fourteenth amendment, ratified in 1868, was a combination of judicial wisdom in the first section, of fruitless compromise in the second section, and of political proscription in the third section.
The first section of this amendment must now be regarded as one of the very best parts of the entire instrument. It gave for the first time an authoritative definition of United States citizenship, and forbade any state to abridge the privileges of such citizens or to deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, or to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. We had lived nearly three-quarters of a century under a government that had no constitutional or statutory definition of its own citizenship, and with no sufficient jurisdiction in its courts to give adequate protection to the equal rights now attaching to the citizenship.
What constituted one a citizen of the United States had long been a subject of discussion in the public journals, in the executive departments and in the courts. The Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott case in 1857, decided that a person of African descent, whether slave or free, was not, and could not be a citizen of a state or of the United States. That de cision was, of course, superseded by the fourteenth amendment.
This first section was profound in its wisdom and far-reaching in its effect upon the rights of life, liberty and property, not only of blacks, but of whites. That eminent southern jurist, the Hon. Hannis Taylor, referring specially to this section, has well said: '' From a purely scien tific point of view the Constitution of the United States never reached its logical completion until after the adoption of the fourteenth amendment.''
The omission from the original Constitution of a definition of United States citizenship and of a district provision against state encroachment on equal rights attaching thereto, carried with it a deep significance.
Few facts in our history point more unerringly to the conclusion that in the minds of the framers of that instrument, the paramount allegiance of the citizen was to his state, and not to the United States. It was this sense of duty which properly constrained Lee and other lovers of the Union to surrender their high commissions in the Federal army and cast their fortunes with their own seceding, states. Happily, the future holds for us no possibility of the recurrence of that divided allegiance.
Historically, under the Constitution, the South was right, both as to slavery and secession, but the simple truth is that public opinion on those two subjects had outgrown the Constitution.
No man contributed more to the development of public opinion against disunion than did Mr. Webster. When he made his great speech in 1830 in reply to Mr. Hayne, closing with that matchless tribute to the Union flag: "The broad ensign of the Republic, now known and honored

1662

GEOHGIA AND GEORGIANS

throughout the world, still full high advanced" he created and vitalized and electrified Union sentiment throughout the length and breadth of the land. That speech, more than the work or deed of any other one man, prepared the way .for the coming of Lincoln, and made possible the vast armies of Grant. After all, should not Webster be given first place in the Hall of Fame dedicated to saviors of the Union?
The fifteenth amendment, ratified in 1872, prohibited the United States or any state, in prescribing suffrage qualifications, from discrimi nating against citizens of the United States on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. It did not confer the ballot upon any one it only prohibited discrimination on account of a specified differ ence. The right to vote is not a privilege or attribute of national citi zenship under either the fourteenth or fifteenth amendment; but the right to be exempt from discrimination in voting on account of race is an attribute of national citizenship under the fifteenth amendment.
This amendment was at the time of its adoption a doubtful and danerous experiment but once made, it is beyond recall.
It embodied a distinct addition to the principle set out in the second section to the fourteenth amendment, which latter impliedly permitted a state to deny the ballot to the negro if it were willing to suffer the pen alty of a proportionate reduction of representaion in the lower house of Congress.
So far as the negro is concerned, the second section of the fourteenth amendment was a political compromise against him, while the fifteenth amendment was a complete declaration of his equal suffrage rights.
A resolution for a fourteenth amendment, in almost the identical words finally used in this second section in 1868, had been up for dis cussion in the Senate as early as 1866. Charles Sumner then denounced it as "a compromise of human rights, the most immoral, indecent and utterly shameful of any in our history.''
Mr. Blaine, in his book, "Twenty Years in Congress," took the posi tion that the enactment of the fifteenth amendment operated as a prac tical repeal of the second section of the fourteenth amendment. He says: "Before the adoption of the fifteenth amendment, if a State should ex clude the negro from suffrage the next step would be for Congress to exclude the negro from the basis of apportionment. After the adoption of the fifteenth amendment, if a State should exclude the negro from suffrage, the next step would be for the Supreme Court to declare the act was unconsitutional and therefore null and void.''
Some latter-day statesmen, who have introduced bills in Congress to reduce southern representation, do not seem to agree with Mr. Blaine.
Verily, if the party of Sumner should ever abandon the vindication of the fifteenth amendment by substituting for it the compromise of the fourteenth amendment, the shade of that eminent statesman would surely be moved to indignation and contempt if it still concerns itself with mundane political affairs. Such a substitute-compromise now could bring no good to either whites or blacks of the South. It would work evil and evil only.
The fifteenth amendment was naturally received with much bitterness by the white people of the South, because many of them interpreted it to mean that our political enemies of the North, who held control of the

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1663

Government, intended thereby to doom the South to perpetual negro dominion.
No doubt many of such advocates were moved by prejudice and hate, but we of the South, in this day, must not blind ourselves to the fact that this amendment was advocated by some men then in public life who were not controlled by such base motives, but were patriotically striving to settle a great fundamental question of government on an enduring basis.
Let us not forget that when Congress passed the joint resolution sub mitting the fifteenth amendment to the states for adoption, the negroes had already been made citizens of the United States by the fourteenth amendment, and it was impossible to conjoin that status of citizenship with a total exclusion of the negro race from the ballot without under mining some of the foundation principles of our representative republic.
Bear in mind, also, that at the time when Congress acted on that reso lution in 1869, the negro had already exercised the right of suffrage under the reconstruction acts of Congress, beginning in 1867. It was not under the fifteenth amendment, but under the prior reconstruction acts, that the negroes cast their first ballots.
So that the issue then was, not whether to give the negroes some thing they had never possessed, but whether to deny them in the future a privilege they had already actually enjoyed.
The Southern States were expecting soon to be restored to political autonomy. What stand would the white people of these states take as to the rights of their former slaves? To what extremes of pillage and slaughter might not the millions of negroes go under fear of partial or total re-enslavement? These and other questions were hard to answer. To whatever point of the political horizon the thoughtful patriot turned his gaze, the clouds were dark and portentous. A crisis was at hand. It had to be met.
Giving the ballot to 5,000,000 of newly-freed slaves, of an inferior or backward race, ignorant, unaccustomed to do or think for themselves, could not have been the deliberate act of wise statesmanship, but only the choice of what seemed to be the lesser of two evils. In truth, the whole plan seems to have been an effort not only to obliterate at once, as with a stroke of the pen, all distinctions imposed by law, but to ignore all distinctions imposed by nature.
Many thoughtful men at the North are now of the opinion that it would have been far better had the military control in the South been. continued and the ballot withheld for a time, at least, from the freedman, and finally bestowed upon, them by degrees. But that is a dead issue now.
As a special measure of procedure, the fifteenth amendment was in many respects harsh and cruel toward the white people of the South, but theoretically it was necessary to found out the Constitution of a repre sentative republic, based on that equality of citizenship before the law which had already been foreshadowed by the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments.
"We may well thank God that the South has recovered from the imme diate shock of these rough post-bellum operations in political surgery.. In comparison to the past with its Civil war and its reconstruction the

1664

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

future can hold no terrors for us, Only let us act with wisdom and not lose what we have gained through our suffering.
The fifteenth amendment may, by negative acquiescence of the Amer ican people, become for a time a dead letter, but that three-fourths of the forty-five or more states will ever affirmatively repeal it for the purpose of allowing five or six southern states to withhold from our negro citizens,, as a race, the right to ballot, is, to my mind, an hallucination too extreme for serious consideration^
If these post-bellum amendments of the Constitution bearing upon slavery shall ever be altered by future amendments, the alteration will be in the direction of placing under Federal control the entire subject of suffrage qualifications in all national* and state elections. The unmis takable trend of our political and social development from the beginning of the Government has been toward the center, not away from it. The centripetal force has been stronger than the centrifugal force. Under a law of social gravitation all the parts have been drawn more intimately into one national unity.
To suppose that this national authority would of its own accord emasculate itself and surrender its own present consolidated power back to the former diverse elements from which it was wrested, would be to reverse every record of political history, and to ignore every lesson of political philosophy.
Indeed, when the resolution for the fifteenth amendment was under discussion in the Senate in 1869, an amendment to that resolution was offered to confer upon Congress the full power to prescribe the qualifica tions for voters and office-holders, both in the states and in the United States.
It was not adopted then because the time was not ripe. But we may accept it to be as certain as any future movement of this kind can be, that if the Constitution shall be amended on the subject of the suffrage that amendment will not restore lost power to the states, but will confer more power on the National Government. The less we agitate it the better.
AVe have now reached the stage in our discussion where we may best consider what is, to my mind, the most important factor in our problem, namely, the numerical relation of the whites and the blacks of the South ern States. Having the advantage in land-holdings and all other forms of wealth, in intellect, in racial pride and strength, our white supremacy can never be overthrown except by force of numbers. For many years after the war we could not rid ourselves of the apprehension that at some day in the future we might be borne down by numerical majorities. These fears were not wholly unfounded at that time.
In slavery, under the fostering care, as.well as the commercial inter est of the master, the negroes multiplied in a greater ratio than the whites. What effect would the new social.order of freedom have on that ratio of increase ? .Was the Caucasian race of the South face to face with a pitiless force that might gradually but inevitably overwhelm it by sheer weight of numbers? If so, would that race yield, or would it adopt extreme measures for self-preservation?- These were momentous and perturbing questions.
The census of 1870, coming first after the war, could give very little

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1665

basis for deduction of any sort. But when the census figures of 1880 were made known and were compared with those of 1870, that compar ison revealed a most ominous situation. Three states, South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana, each had at that time an actual black ma jority, and the per cent of gain for the negroes in the southern group of states, as shown by the statistical experts, was far in excess of that of the whites, being 34.3, as against 27.5 per cent from all. sources.
Judge Albion W. Tourgee, in his book, "An Appeal to Caesar," pub lished in 1884, declared that in the year 1900 every state between Mary land and Texas would have a black majority.
Time has exposed the falsity of that prediction. Not one of those states between Maryland and Texas that had a white majority in 1880 had lost it in 1900. On the contrary, every such state increased its white majority, while South Carolina, from 1890 to 1900, reduced her negro majority by 2,412 and Louisiana in the same period changed a negro majority of 798 into a white majority of 78,818.
The white majority in the ten distinctively southern states was in creased by 1,002,662 from 1890 to 1900. In the same period our white majority in Georgia rose from 119,542 to 146,481. In every southern state, except Mississippi, where peculiar conditions prevailed, the margin of safety for white supremacy, even on the basis of numbers, has increased.
These predictions of negro majorities were not confined to writers of fiction, like Judge Tourgee. Professor Gilliam, a statistician of high repute, announced that among the whites of the old slave states the rate of natural increase from 1870 to 1880 was 20 per cent, while that of the blacks in the same states was 35 per cent.
With these figures as a basis he reached the conclusion that the 6,000,000 of southern blacks in 1880 would increase to 12,000,000 in 1900. But when the census takers of 1900 had counted every colored man, woman and child in the whole United States, the total footed up only 8,383,994, which is 3,616,006 less than the professor had predicted would be found in the Southern States alone.
Judge Tourgee, using these percentages, given by Professor Gilliam, argued that all the conditions pointed to a greater discrepancy in the future.
But the census of 1900 shows that the rate of increase of the blacks in the South Atlantic states, where the conditions were most favorable, was only 14.3 per cent from 1890 to 1900, instead of 35 per cent as re ported for a previous decade, while that of the whites stood substantially at its previous record of 20 per cent.
It is now an accepted fact that the census of 1870 did not give a complete enumeration of the negroes in the South, and this deficiency, by comparison with the more accurate census of 1880, necessarily showed a greater proportionate increase among the negroes than among the whites. It was this error in figures that lead to all these unfounded predictions, which for a time hung like a pall over the South.
But the census figures of 1890 and 1900 supplied the necessary data for a correct comparison. The resulting demonstration was that instead of the whites of the South being overwhelmed with a deluge of negroes,

1666

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the certainty of continued white supremacy has steadily increased with every decade.
One cause of this comparative decline of the negroes in numbers is to be found in the fact that they have no source of supply from immigra tion, while the whites are receiving constant accessions from other states and from foreign countries. This influx of whites comparatively small at present, will undoubtedly continue and become larger with our grow ing industrial prosperity, which was never on so firm a, foundation as now. The completion of the Panama Canal will accelerate the develop ment of our resources and give new impetus to white immigration, and thus help vastly in the solution of our problem.
A second cause of this comparative decline is that the death rate among the negroes is abnormally high. In typical southern cities, where the death rate among the whites stands at the moderate figures of 10 to 12 per 1,000, it reaches among the negroes from 20 to 25 per 1,000.
It has recently been asserted by some supposedly competent authori ties that the death rate of the negroes is now probably in excess of their birth rate, so that an actual numerical decrease has set in, owing largely to the ravages of consumption and certain other diseases. Nature exacts obedience to her laws she knows neither pity nor revenge.
Professor Wilcox, of Cornell University, and Professor Smith, of Tulane University, and others have undertaken a more far-reaching in vestigation into the census figures and facts of ethnological history, and have deduced therefrom the conclusion that "the negroes will continue to be a steadily smaller proportion of our population," and that in the course of time they will die out in America from inherent and natural causes.
Whether these extreme speculations for they are speculations are well founded or not, yet the established facts as to the relative increase of the races have a most important bearing on the solution of our prob lem. They show that this problem is not near so difficult as it was sup posed to be twenty years ago, when false prophets were predicting white submergence.
And more important still, these facts show that the white people of the South, and especially of the State of Georgia, can now proceed to work out their racial problem on lines of justice to the negro, without imperilling white supremacy. Those fears which once appalled us, we may now dismiss, and let reason resume its sway.
If future years should develop enough race pride in the negroes to make them concentrate in one locality,-they might gain ascendency there and give the world a practical demonstration of their capacity or inca pacity as a race-force in civilization. But we see no clear signs of such a movement now, and -Georgia, at least, is in no danger of being chosen as the Canaan for that sort of an experiment.
In seeking a solution of any difficult problem, the first step should be to eliminate the impossible schemes proposed, and then concentrate on some line of operation that is at least possible. We often hear the epi grammatic dictum that there are but three possible solutions of our race problem: Deportation, assimilation or annihilation. When we bring our sober senses to bear, all three of these so-called possibilities appear to be practical impossibilities. Not one of the three presents a working hypoth-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1667

esis. Physical facts, alone, prevent deportation. Physical facts, stressed by an ineradicable race pride, bar the way against assimilation. Physi cal facts, backed by our religion, our civilization, our very selves, forbid annihilation. We can not imitate Herod.
This much seems clear, beyond doubt, that the whites are going to stay in this Southland for all time, and so are the negroes going to stay here in greater or less proportions for generations to come. If, then, both races are to remain together, the plainly sensible thing for states men of this day to do is to devise the best modus vivendi, or working plan, by which the greatest good can be accomplished for ourselves and our posterity. We of this day are not expected to overload ourselves with the burden of settling all the problems of all future ages. If we take good care of the next few centuries, we may well be content to leave some matters to be attended to by our remote posterity aided, of course, by Providence.
Over against that trinity of impossibilities deportation, assimilation or annihilation let us offer the simple plan of justice.
The first and absolutely essential factor in any working hypothesis at the South, so far as human ken can now foresee, is white supremacy supremacy arising from present natural superiority, but. based always on justice to the negro.
Those whose stock in trade is "hating the nigger" may easily gain some temporary advantage for themselves in our white primaries, where it requires no courage, either physical or moral, to strike those who have no power to strike back not even with a paper ballot. But these men will achieve nothing permanent for the good of the state or of the nation by stirring up race passion and prejudice. Injustice and persecution will not solve any of the problems of the ages. God did not so ordain his universe.
Justly proud of our race, we refuse to amalgamate with the negro. Nevertheless, the negro is a human being, under the fatherhood of God, and consequently within the brotherhood of man for these two relations are inseparably joined together. All soul-possessing creatures must be sons of God, and joint heirs of immortality.
Moreover, the negro is an American citizen, and is protected as such, by guarantees of the Constitution that are as irrepealable almost as the Bill of Rights itself. Nor, if such a thing as repealing these guarantees were possible, would it be wise for the South. Suppose we admit the oft reiterated proposition that no two races so distinct as the Caucasian and the negro can live together on terms of perfect equality; yet, it is equally true that without some access to the ballot, present or prospective, some participation in the Government, no inferior race in an elective republic could long protect itself against reduction to. slavery in many of its substantial forms and God knows the South wants no more of that curse.
We have long passed the crisis .of the disease brought on by the exist ence of slavery in the blood of the republic. Let us now build up the body politic in health and strength, and guard it against ever again being inoculated, with a poison even remotely resembling that deadly virus. Sporadic cases of peonage have already developed in several states and

1668

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

have been suppressed. Let us provide against every appearance of contagion.
One of the most serious difficulties about the solution of our problem is to be found in getting the dominant whites of the South to draw a proper discrimination between a laudable pride in our race, and an un worthy prejudice against the negro race. Prejudice of any sort is hostile to that sound judgment which the Creator gave us for our guide. Race prejudice presents this disturbing element in one of its most unreasoning forms. In violence it ranks next to religious fanaticism. The one is based on a supposed duty to God; the other 011 a supposed duty to one's race-blood. The deeper this sense of duty, the more hardened the mind against every appeal to reason. In persecuting the early Christians, Paul thought he was doing his duty to God. The men who hanged the witches in New England thought they were doing their duty.
So, perhaps, may think that ex-preacher, who in our own day has turned playwright, and calling to his aid all the accessories of the stage and all the realisms of the living drama, seeks to fan into flame the fiercest passions of the whites and blacks. His chief purpose, so far as one can logically deduce it, seems to be to force into immediate conflagra tion combustible materials, which his heated imagination tells him must burn sometime in the future. Apparently he chafes under the delay of Providence in bringing on the ghastly spectacle, and yearns to witness with his own eyes in the flesh that reign of hell on earth before his own redeemed soul is ushered into the calm, serene and gentle presence of him whose gospel of love and light he once preached to erring men.
If the true purpose of this reverend gentleman be to preserve the blood of our race in its purity by creating a sentiment against inter marriage of the whites and blacks, let him confine his play to Chicago' and Boston and New York and Philadelphia and other like places, where some few of such marriages are said to occur. As for us in the South, we need no artificial stimulant to arouse our people against that sort of racial intermarriage. Our law forbids it, and that is one law no man or woman ever violates.
In this connection let us of the South realize the hard fact that the greatest obstacle to the preservation of the purity of the blood of our race, about which we hear so much in this day, was removed when slavery was abolished. That institution, as indisputable facts too plainly show, wrought much contamination of Caucasian blood.
In Virginia in 1630 a white man-servant was publicly flogged for consorting with a negro slave, and was required to make public confes sion of his guilt on the following Sabbath but clearly the custom of flogging for that offense must soon have fallen into '' innocuous desuetude.''
In calmly considering now the situation that confronted our states men of the ante-bellum period, that which most astounds us is their ap parent failure to foresee what would have been the inevitable consequence of an indefinite continuance of slavery in its effect on race purity and on relative race numbers. The ratio of increase of the negroes was far in excess of the whites. The great laboring middle class, which forms the backbone...of. .every nation's pluck and power, was fast migrating west ward, and the remaining population was rapidly crystallizing into an

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1669

upper class of white slave holders and a lower class of negro slaves the latter out-multiplying their masters in numbers. Another one hun dred years of slavery would in all probability have doomed the South to absolute negro domination by mere weight of numbers whenever emanci pation should come and come it was sure to do at some time in the evo lution of the elemental forces that were at work.
If there be a Providence who watches over the affairs of nations and "Slumbers not nor sleeps," we may say in all reverence that he would have made an almost inexcusable blunder if he had delayed much longer the abolition of slavery.
Social recognition of the true dignity of labor, which is so necessary to the growth of a vigorous and self-respecting middle class, could not be maintained in the presence of slavery where manual toil is so generally regarded as a badge of servitude.
When a subject people in the hard school of experience gradually assert themselves and evolve from, within the physical, mental and spir itual forces that achieve their freedom, as did the Anglo-Saxons from under the yoke of their Norman conquerors, they come forth by natural growth prepared for the duties and responsibilities of self-government.
But the negro as a race had undergone no such process of evolution. His transportation from Africa to America and his transition from slavery to freedom were both the results of external impositions and not of internal development. The power came from without, not from within. He did not win his freedom. It was bestowed upon him.
Granting that he is only a backward member of the great human family, which as most evolutionists and Christians believe, is moving steadily on toward the distant goal of millennial perfection, yet we can not fail to see that the negro race was suddenly projected forward into a stage of civilization many generations in advance of its own natural development.
Is it any wonder, then, that the negro as a race should not be alto gether fitted to the laws and customs and political institutions of those among whom his lot was cast?
Again, is it any wonder that this advanced civilization should find it necessary at times to apply sterner penalties for the curbing of his savage instincts when he was freed from the accustomed control of his master 1
Unfortunately, soon after emancipation, some of the worst specimens of the blacks began to commit an unpardonable crime. Instantly the white man placed over the door of his home, whether it were proud mansion or humble cabin, a warning more terrible in its meaning than that which Dante dreamed he saw 'over the gateway to hell: '' Let the brute who enters here leave all hope behind." In the presence of that crime, men do not think, they only feel.
But how shall we fix bounds for those who rush madly outside the limits of the law ? Lynching began with this and similar savage crimes. But, alas, where will they all end? Let us hope that these excesses of both races are merely incidental factors in our problem, and that they will soon diminish and eventually disappear.
Abhorrent as are the crimes of some degenerate members of the negro race, we southern people can never forget the simple faith and tragic
Vol. Ill-- 20

1670

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

loyalty of those thousands of slaves who guarded and protected the women and children at home, while the men were at the front fighting to drive back an invading foe whose victory meant freedom to those
slaves themselves. Nor is there a total dearth of touching incidents in these latter days.
Only about a year or so ago a negro military company from Savannah came marching in full array up Broadway in Augusta. In front of them, rising toward the sky in beautiful, artistic proportions, stood a marble monument erected by loving women to the dead Confederacy. At its base were statues of Lee and Jackson and Cobb and Walker, and lifted high up above them all on the top of the towering shaft stood the statue of a private Confederate soldier. No white military company, no camp of maimed Confederate veterans ever pass that monument with out giving it the honor of a formal salute.
As the negro military comes nearer, one of the two gentlemen stand ing in the doorway of a building nearby says: '' Let us watch now and see if those fellows will salute the Confederate monument." The other gentleman explains that no salute will be given because it will not occur to the commanding officer, but that the omission will not be intended as an affront. Scarcely are the words spoken when the negro captain, in clear, ringing tones that prove the sincerity of his tribute, gives the command to salute, and every black arm instantly obeys that command.
There was cheering among the white bystanders. When the great Wade Hampton lay upon his death-bed he made his prayer: "God bless all my people white and black God bless
them all." While the issue of .political control under the fifteenth amendment
still confronted the Southern States, Mississippi, having the greatest negro majority, led off with her constitution of 1891 providing an edu cational qualification for voting. There being more illiterate blacks than illiterate whites in Mississippi, the necessary effect of this law was to promote white supremacy. But the law on its face did not discrimi nate against the negro on account of his race. It covered whites and
blacks alike. The Supreme Court of the United States promptly decided that this
Mississippi law did not violate the Federal Constitution. What the effect of its practical administration has been need not now be discussed.
Other states followed with similar laws, based primarily on educa tional qualifications, but soon a proviso was evolved to preserve the ballot to illiterate whites. An honest administration of a suffrage law based on educational qualification would necessarily disfranchise a great many whites. Hence a proviso was devised to the effect that the educational qualification should not apply to any person, nor to the descendant of any person, who could have voted at some past date, say, for example, January 1, 1867, when negroes as a class were not allowed to vote. This proviso was popularly known as the "Grandfather clause," because under it a man otherwise disqualified might, so to speak, inherit the right of suffrage from his grandfather.
The manifest purpose of this clause was to nullify the educational requirement of the state law as to the whites, while leaving it in full force as to the .negroes, and in this way to get around the fifteenth amend-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1671

merit of the Federal Constitution, which forbids discrimination on account of race.
The Supreme Court of the United States has gone as far as any one could have expected it to go in upholding the reserved rights of the states on the subject of suffrage. But that court has never directly nor indirectly sanctioned the validity of any suffrage law containing the Grandfather clause, Or any other clause based on the same principle.
Whenever the Supreme Court shall take judicial notice, as it will do, of the historical fact that on the date selected for the Grandfather clause to begin to operate, say January 1, 1867, the negroes as a class had no right to vote, or when that undeniable or easily proven fact is made to appear by evidence, this device of the Grandfather clause must fall of its own crookedness. A preference to one race is necessarily the legal equivalent of a discrimination against the other race.
It will mark a new departure in American constitutional law when the right to vote is made inheritable from the non-transmissible attributes of an ancestor instead of being based on the personal attributes of the voter.
It will mark a still further departure in judicial construction when the Supreme Court finds in this new doctrine a legal justification for sanctioning the race discrimination forbidden by the fifteenth amendment.
The Mississippi law, the only one ever squarely considered and directly construed by the Supreme Court, 170 U. S. 213, does not contain the Grandfather clause. That was a device of later invention.,
The case of Giles v. Harris, 189 U. S. 475, involving the Alabama law, was dismissed in the Supreme Court for want of jurisdiction in the lower court but Justices Brewer, Brown and Harlan dissented in vigorous terms.
The latest case, of Jones v. Montague, 194 U. S. 147, involving the Virginia law, was dismissed because the act sought to be enjoined the issuing of certificates of elections, etc., to members of Congress had already' been done, and the congressmen had taken their seats before the case was reached in the Supreme Court.
Indeed, it is no secret that those lawyers who undertake to defend these disfranchisement enactments place their chief reliance in the technical difficulties of getting the merits of the question before the Supreme Court. It goes without saying, however, that lawyers can be found to surmount those technical difficulties, and at the bar of the Supreme Court confront the "Grandfather" clause of the'State con stitutions with the "anti-race discrimination" clause of the Federal Constitution.
The result scarcely admits of a doubt. What, then, shall we, as Georgians and Americans, true to our own great state, and true to the greater nation of which it is a part, say of the movement which is now being so freely discussed, and which has seemingly gained some headway, to so amend our state constitution as to disfranchise the negroes as a race?
We have read in the public press repeated statements that prominent leaders are openly announcing their intention to "disfranchise the negro,'' and promising to '' eliminate him from politics.'' Not only so,

1672

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

but they further promise to accomplish that end through a so-called edu cational qualification or understanding clause, and at the same time not to deprive a single white man of his ballot, no matter how illiterate or
ignorant he may be. I might hesitate here and now, even at the last moment, to proceed
further with the discussion of this branch of my subject if the facts as to intentions and methods, as I have just stated them, were at all in dispute. But as I understand it, there is no disposition to deny them rather, an increasing boldness in asserting them. Therefore, we may quite properly, it seems to me, proceed to draw some necessary deductions from those admitted facts as they bear' on the law and
morals of the situation. How, then, are these two purposes, to put out all the negroes and
put in all the whites, to be accomplished in the face of the prohibition of the fifteenth amendment ? Clearly, it cannot be done by open avowal in the body of the law, because in that event the law would convict itself in any court in the land. How, then, is this avowed purpose to be accomplished 1 Pardon me, my friends, but let us face the truth; the scheme must be to disfranchise the negro by a fraudulent administra tion of the law. In no other way is it possible to produce the promised results. Legislative ingenuity must be backed up by administrative fraud else the avowed purpose cannot be accomplished.
It must be admitted that the machinery of the proposed law could be easily perverted to fraudulent purposes. Before a citizen can reg ister to vote he is to be required to read and explain, or to be able to un derstand, any paragraph of the state constitution. Now we lawyers all know that there are some parts of our constitution that the Supreme Court judges themselves have never been able fully to explain even granting that they understand them all. But who are to judge of this explanation or understanding? The registrars, of course. Suppose the most learned explanation could be given, who will vouch that the regis trars themselves will understand it, or will accept it as satisfactory?
Of course, the officers of registration are to be white. An easy para graph for a white applicant; a difficult paragraph for a negro appli cant; the acceptance of any sort of an explanation from a white appli cant ; the rejection of any sort of an explanation from a negro applicant there you have the hidden cards with which the game of cheat is to be played. And it is on this miserable, barefaced scheme of fraud that our proud and noble people are asked to rest their safety and their
civilization. How long do the advocates of this method of disfranchisement think
they can expose their purpose to the political eye and keep it concealed from the judicial eye ? How long can they proclaim it on the hustings
and hush it in the courthouse? Referring to one of these laws, a learned commentator on our Supreme
Court decisions has said: " If in the light of their history and condi tions and the avowed purpose of the authors of the laws, their objects are clothed in statutes so worded that the real designs are not expressed in terms, the situation would seem to be one to require the court to
reason from cause to effect." The court, in construing the fourteenth amendment (118 IT. S. 356)

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1673

has said: '' Though the law itself be fair on its face and impartial in appearance, yet if it be applied and administered by public authority with an evil eye and an unequal hand so as practically to make unjust and unequal discriminations between persons in similar circumstances, material to their rights, the denial of equal justice is still within the prohibition of the Constitution."
Nor can escape be found in that line of decisions by the Supreme Court to the effect that the prohibition of the fifteenth amendment applies to state action and not to acts of private citizens. The registrars who are to enforce this disfranchisement law'are officers and agents of the state. The Supreme Court (100 U. S. 339) have further said: "Whoever by virtue of his public position under a State government, deprives another of life, liberty or property without due process of law, or denies or takes away the equal protection of the law, violates the inhibition of the fourteenth amendment, and as he acts in the name of, and for, the State and is clothed with her power, his act is her act."
The same principle of responsibility will be applied to the registrars under ...this disfranchisement law. Their acts will be the acts of the state, and will consequently come within the prohibition of the fifteenth amendment, and will also be within the jurisdiction of the Federal courts, where alleged violations of the law will be tried.
But aside from these legal aspects of the matter, let us ask ourselves if there is not a more serious practical difficulty to be overcome. These registrars, as officers, must take the usual oath to perform their duties impartially under the law. Let us put the plain, blunt question: How many counties in Georgia can be relied on to furnish three citizens for registrars who will agree in advance to violate their solemn oaths ? Will not honest men point at them the finger of scorn?
The great John C. Calhoun sought to nullify a Federal statute law on the tariff by state action because he believed it to be in violation of the Federal Constitution, which he loved and honored.
But these latter day nullifiers are seeking to nullify the Federal Constitution by a state law no, not by a state law itself, but by the fraudulent administration of a state law. No power on earth could have made Mr. Calhoun stoop to such chicanery he was fashioned in a nobler mold. What a contrast between the great nullifier and these little nullifiers!
The abuses to which the broad discretionary powers of the registrars under these disfranchisement laws might be carried in times of fierce partisan politics are absolutely unlimited. We need not flatter ourselves that white men will never be the victims of such abuses. When moral character is oiice defiled and fraud seeks its own selfish ends, it will not stop at the color line.
There can be no legal objection, whenever the public necessity requires it, to establishing a reasonable educational qualification for voters, provided that qualification is fairly and honestly applied. But if this educational qualification for voters, provided that qualification is to be used as a fraudulent subterfuge to disfranchise the negro, then there is another very serious consequence which will necessarily follow.
If by appeals to race prejudice and fear these negro disfranchisers establish the educational test in fulfillment of thei.r promise to "elimi-

1674

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

nate the negro from politics," then of necessity these same leaders and their followers must recognize that from their point of view it is not the ignorant but the educated negroes who will be the most dangerous political enemies of the whites.
The question will at once arise, why should the white people create dangerous political enemies by allowing the negroes to be educated ? Why not '' eliminate them from politics'' by keeping them in ignorance 1 There is no escape from the logic of this argument if the premise be correct. Thus we would find ourselves committed to the degrading policy of enforcing ignorance on- a weaker race, with its attendant results of peonage and semi-slavery, from which all good men would pray for deliverance.
Even now there are signs of a movement in Georgia to give the negro schools only that pittance of money arising from the negro's taxes. A law to that effect has already been declared invalid by the State Court in North Carolina (94 N. C. 709) ; also by the State Court in Kentucky (83 Ky. 49) ; and also by the Federal Court in three decisions from Ken tucky (16 Fed. R. 297, 23 Fed. R. 634, and 72 Fed. R. 689).
In our own state a bill to the same effect was passed in 1888 for a local school system, and Gov. John B. Gordon, while Hon. Clifford Anderson was attorney general, vetoed it on the ground that it was against sound policy and a violation of the constitution of the state and the United States.
There is nothing in the decision of our State Supreme Court in the Eatonton case (80 Ga. 755) nor in the Richmond County High School case (103 Ga. 641) to sustain the proposition that the common school funds of the state, or of any subdivision of the state, can be divided between the races in proportion to the property or taxes of each. On the contrary, in the latter case, our State Court said: "So far as the record discloses, both races have the same facilities of attending them" (the free common schools). And the United States Supreme Court, in reviewing this Georgia .case (175 U. S. 528), say it is an admitted prin ciple of law that the "benefits and burdens of public taxation must be shared by citizens without discrimination against any class on account of their race."
Along this same line spoke Gov. Charles J. Jenkins, known to Geor gians as the "Noblest Roman of Them All," when he took the chair as president of the Constitutional Convention of 1877. He said:
'' I utter no caution against class legislation or discrimination against our citizens of African descent. I feel a perfect assurance that there is no member of this body who would propose such action, and if there were, he would soon find himself without a following.''
These are the words of a high-minded statesman not of a time serving politician. There are many differences between these two types of public men. One difference is that a politician seeks to find out what public opinion is and hastens to follow it, while a statesman seeks to find out what public opinion ought to be and helps to mold it.
Our late Chancellor Hill, whose untimely death is so deeply deplored by us all, belonged to that higher class of molders of public opinion. By example, as well as by precept, he led the way to the nobler ends of life.
Surely nothing but the direst necessity of self-preservation could

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1675

induce any people to resort to such suffrage expedients as are now being proposed to the people of Georgia. Nothing less than an impending overthrow of white civilization by negro domination could excuse such extreme measures. But if our discussion has shown anything, it has shown that Georgia is not now in danger of negro domination.
One argument that is being pressed upon our people is that Georgia should follow the example of other southern states that have passed similar disfranchisement laws. But let us ask, why should Georgia follow them? Is there anything in their examples on this subject worthy . of our imitation ? If their necessities compelled such questionable action, let us sympathize with them in their extremity. But let us not imitate them when no such necessity besets us. Did not Georgia first redeem herself after reconstruction? Has she not kept abreast of her sister states in material, intellectual and moral progress? Is she not still the Empire State of the South? What state can show a cleaner official record for thirty years? Rather let Georgia continue to lead in. wise and conservative statesmanship. On all fundamental questions our white people are sufficiently united in thought and purpose to come together in a solid phalanx if the negroes should ever return to the ballot box in sufficient numbers on one side of an issue to jeopardize the public safety.
As a legal means of maintaining white supremacy, no plan yet devised approaches in effectiveness our party primary system, in com-' bination with the cumulative poll tax provision of the constitution.
Whatever may be the final political status of the negro, we are now undeniably in a transition stage of evolution. It is scarcely conceivable that the conditions created by the disfranchisement laws of some South ern States can be permanent. If the battle for supremacy between those laws and the Federal Constitution proves victorious, as it is very apt to do, then the entire electoral system of these states may have to be changed.
On the other hand, Georgia, through her superior statesmanship, has put herself in a position of safety, ready to take advantage of whatever hopeful developments the future may unfold. She has violated no Federal law. She has maintained white supremacy with the least pos sible friction, and can continue to so maintain it.
Not only is this campaign against the negro unnecessary and unjust, but it is most inopportune at this juncture. When every county in the state is calling loudly for more labor to serve the household and till the fields and develop our resources, why should we seek to enact more oppressive laws .against the labor we now have ?
We do not know what shifting phases this vexing race problem may assume, but we may rest in the conviction that its ultimate solution must be reached by proceeding along the lines of honesty and justice. Let us not in cowardice or in want of faith needlessly sacrifice our higher ideals of private and public life. Race differences cannot repeal the moral law.
What is this thing we call the moral law 1 Is it a mere weak senti ment, suitable only for children and preachers and Sunday school teach ers? Or is it the fiat of Nature and Nature's God, commanding,obedi ence from all men under the sanction of inevitable penalties? We will

1676

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

waive all questions as to weight of authority, and reason out the matter for ourselves.
Whence come our morals or ethical conceptions ? Briefly let us sum marize :
First: The theological school rests the foundation of morals on divine commandment or revelation, which quickens the conscience.
God spake through Moses, the prophets and the Christ. Second: The psychological school traces the source of morals to an instinct or sense that is innate in the mind itself the conscience. The philosopher and metaphysician, Immanuel Kant, reasoned back to his celebrated postulate of a "categorical imperative" call to duty. Third: The utilitarian school evolves morals from human experi ence, sanctioning as "good" or "right" that conduct which has proven beneficial, and condemning as "bad" or "wrong" that conduct which has proven injurious, thus creating and developing the conscience by successive stages of experimental knowledge. Herbert Speneer thus evolved his system of utilitarian ethics till it almost flowered out in the beauty of the '' Golden Rule.'' Professor Huxley, discussing the scientific doctrine of causation, says: "The safety of morality lies in a real and living belief in that fixed order of nature which sends social disorganization upon the track of immorality as surely as it sends physical disease after physical tres passers." It is not necessary for us to determine how much of truth there is in each of these schools of thought. Enough for us to know that all three reach substantially the same conclusion as to right rules of conduct for men. By different routes they arrive at the same goal. In reason ing they are three; in acting they are one. Here is a subject on which religion and science are in full accord, namely, that the moral law is the wisest rule of human conduct.
So much for the individual man.
Now, does the same moral law apply to states and nations as well as to individuals and another for aggregations of individuals? Can we practice fraud as a collective body of citizens and still preserve our personal integrity as individual citizens?
We might quote Mr. Jefferson as an authority for the doctrine that "Moral duties are as obligatory on nations as on individuals." But again let us waive authority and reason out our own conclusions. We
will test the question by the standards of the three schools of thought
first named. If we assume that the theological school is correct, it is manifest that
there cannot be a code of public morals different in principle from the code of private morals. God must deal with individuals and nations
alike, because the former are the responsible units of the latter. If we assume that the psychological school is correct it is equally
manifest that the conscience, being an innate mental quality, cannot reverse its action by changing from private to public capacity, from individual to collective functions.
If we assume that the utilitarian school is correct, it ought to be
equally as clear that the rule of conduct which experience has proven

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1677

to be beneficial as between individuals is also beneficial as between states under like conditions.
It is true that aggregation of individuals, by reason of divided respon sibility, do not usually act up to the code of morals recognized by single individuals. That historical fact shows the imperfection of our past civilization, and calls upon us for better work in the future. No one accepts the condition as permanent or satisfactory. The great task of civilization, the dearest hope of philosophers and noble-minded states men, is to constantly improve that condition and bring nations more under the sway of the moral law. Though perfection be unattainable, every step is progress.
In proportion as international intercourse becomes more free will a code of international ethics, based on a code of personal ethics, be devel oped, to the immeasurable advantage of all concerned. Such is the doctrine underlying The Hague Tribunal, which has already done so much for the peace of the world.
One of the noblest tributes ever paid to Gladstone was that he had applied the moral law to British politics.
It was Aristides, surnamed the Just a brave soldier, a successful general, a man of sound practical judgment, not a mere dreamer who, when named by the Athenians to consider a secret plan, suggested by Themistocles, to gain naval supremacy for Athens by burning the ships of her allies, reported against the unscrupulous scheme and said: '' What Themistocles proposes might be to your present advantage, but 0 Athen ians, it is not just."
Speaking of the ideal, universal, moral code, one of the least senti mental of modern scientific writers says: '' Although its realization may lie in the unseen future, civilization must hold fast to it, if it would be any more than a blind natural process; and it is certainly the noblest function of social science to point out the wearisome way along which mankind, dripping with blood, yet pants for the distant goal."
Another deep thinker, summing up the facts of history and the rea sonings of philosophers, says: '' That the moral law is the unchanging law of social progress in human society is the lesson which appears to be written over all things."
The foundation of the moral law' is justice. Let us solve the negro problem by giving the negro justice and applying to him the recognized principles of the moral law.
This does not require social equality. It does not require that we should surrender into his inexperienced and incompetent hands the reins of political government. But it does require that we recognize his funda mental rights as a man, and that we judge each individual according to his own qualifications, and not according to the lower average character istics of his race. Political rights cannot justly be withheld from those American citizens of an inferior or backward race who raise themselves up to the standard of citizenship which the superior race applies to its own members.
It is true that the right of suffrage is not one of those inalienable rights of man, like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as enumer ated in the Declaration of Independence, but the right of exemption from

1678

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

discrimination in the exercise of suffrage on account of race, is one of the guaranteed, constitutional rights of all American citizens.
We of the South are an integral part of this great country. We should stand ready, to make every sacrifice demanded by honor and permitted by wisdom to remove the last vestige of an excuse for the per petuation of that spirit of sectionalism which excludes us from the full participation in governmental honors to which our brain and character entitles us.
Let us respect the national laws to the limit of endurance, and if that limit should be passed, let us resort to some means of redress more typical of southern manhood than fraudulent subterfuge. The future material prosperity of the South is already assured. Let us resolve that there shall remain ingrained in the moral fiber of our New South the high character of our Old South which can best be described in the memorable words of Edmund Burke as "that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honor which felt a stain like a wound."
We cannot afford to sacrifice our ideas of justice, of law and of religion for the purpose of preventing the negro from elevating him self. If we wish to preserve the wide gap between our race and his in the onward progress of civilization, let us do it by lifting ourselves rip, not by holding him down.
If, as some predict, the negro in the distant future must fail and fall by the wayside in the strenuous march of the nations, let him fall by his own inferiority, and not by pur tyranny. Give him a fair chance to work out what is in him.
Carl McKinley, that brilliant and noble-hearted author of "An Appeal to Pharaoh," who advocated so earnstly and so eloquently the impracticable policy of deportation, declared himself on this subject as follows:
"We should have learned by this time, moreover, that we cannot treat the negro with injustice, however disguised, without sharing the consequences with him. * * * It would be a foul wrong to beat him back in his upward struggle, and consign him to a lower plane and establish him on it."
If the negro as a race is.to be disfranchised regardless of the personal qualifications of meritorious individual members of that race, consider for a moment some of the changes we must make in many of the funda mental doctrines lying at the base of our Government. The revised version of our political bible would have to read somthing like this: ''No taxation without representation except as to negroes"; "all men are created equal except as to negroes."
Some modern critics seriously suggest that we should amend that paragraph of the Declaration of Independence which asserts the equal rights of men, so as to adjust it more accurately to historical and scien tific facts. But that epoch-making document needs'no alteration upon the subject of human rights when interpreted as it was intended to be interpreted by the man who drafted it. Mark you, Mr. Jefferson did not write "All men are born free," as the quotation is sometimes given. That looser language is found in the constitution of Massachusetts, not in the Declaration of Independence. Such an assertion would have been disproved by the historical fact of slavery then existing. What Mr.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1679

Jefferson wrote was: "All men are created equal." That is to say, not equal in exterior circumstances, nor in physical or mental attributes, but equal in the sight of God and just human law, in their inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Americans want no recantation of that declaration. It is the political corollary of the Christian doctrine of the justice and the Fatherhood of God. Let it stand as it was penned by Jefferson, and the ennobling, even though unat tainable, ideal demanded by the spiritual nature of man one of these ideals that have done more to lift up humanity and to build up civiliza tion than all the gold from all the mines of all the world.

LUCIAN LAMAK KNIGHT: "LEE'S OLD WAR HORSE"

[This address was delivered before the Alumni Society of the State University at Athens, on June 16, 1908, and was a defense of Lieut.-Gen. James Longstreet before the bar of public opinion. After a residence of two years, in Southern California, Mr. Knight returned to Georgia for the purpose of making this address and to attend a reunion of his class on the -twentieth anniversary of his graduation. Notwithstanding the popular odium which still attached to General Longstreet, the address was received by the large audience with enthusiastic applause. It is herewith reproduced by request of its editors. Said Mr. Knight:]

Mr. President, Members of the Alumni Society, Ladies and Gentlemen: The rumbling of the cataract was music to MacGregor's ear. But
he knew from the perfume of the heather-bells that he was on his high land hills. I thank you for this welcome home. It is said of Gold smith's Traveler that he "dragged with each remove a lengthening chain;" and if I have wandered somewhat widely over land and sea since last I stood within these walls, it has only been to resist the charm of distant illusions and to realize that, in all the world, there is no state like Georgia, no people like Georgians, and, especially when waked by the Athenian harp, no music like '' Home, Sweet Home.'' What changes have occurred since, twenty years ago, I donned the toga virilis and started out "to catch Dame'Fortune's golden smile"! What miracles of brick and mortar have been wrought amid these classic shades! The wand of enchantment is at once suggested; and did I not realize too well that I had been laboring beyond the Rockies, I might almost fancy I had been dreaming in the Catskills.
But one face remains unaltered. Like the queen who loved a Roman, "age cannot wither" the Maid of Athens! It was the feat of Joshua, in the Valley of Ajalon, to make the sun stand still for four and twenty hours. But she has made the sun stand still for four and twenty years. The gold still ripples through her hair with the perennial flow of Tenny son's "Brook"; and, if she even hints of time, it is only in the vernal suggestions of the May. So potent is the spell of beauty's wand that the moonlight falls again upon the water, while across the barren waste of all the years I can hear an ardent sophomore exclaim: " 0, Byron, lend me your lover's harp that I may pour into her listening ear your liquid Greek
" Zoa mou sas agapo!"

1680

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Brethren of the alumni, when I received your invitation I was 011 the distant slopes of the Pacific. Three thousand mile-posts, stretching between Avalon and Athens, admonished me to stay. The Golden West held me in a magic charm. The ocean breezes whispered '' Stay!'' The fleet of Admiral Evans thundered "Stay!" But, above them all and sweeter than all, I could hear my alma mater's voice calling in the memories of "auld lang syne." With the speed of Lochinvar I have come out of the West to show how paltry are three thousand miles of continent to one whose journey is bounded by the hills to the Oconee. If only to meet the boys of '88, it is like exchanging the sirocco breath of the desert for the Beulah-air of the delectable mountains! Besides, not only at commencement, but on any day in the year, it is worth a trip from the farthest outpost of Uncle Sam to be, if only for an hour, the unworthy but not the unwelcome guest of Uncle Dave. (Chancellor Barrow.)

It was the eve of Appomattox. In the flickering light of Lee's campfire beside the Rappahannock reclined the familiar figures of two match less Georgians. The younger, upon his cheek-bone, displayed the leaden autograph of Sharpsburg. The elder, upon his neck and shoulder, bore the scars of the Wilderness, and on his thigh the wounds of Chapultapec. Both trusted lieutenants of the great Lee, they had fought upon a hun dred fields of battle and, like Henry of Navarre, had mingled" in the thickest of the fight. Together they had ridden upon the field of Manassas. Together they had stormed the heights of Frederieksburg. Together they had faced the fires of Chickamauga; and now, upon the morrow, they were both to clutch the drooping colors and to lead the war-worn legions to the last charge.
But, in more than one sense, they had come to a parting of the ways. Equally courageous, equally honest, equally beloved of Lee, it was, never theless, the strange decree of Pate that henceforth these two figures were to move in lines widely divergent; but to each of them, with prophetic symbolism, the crackling fagots supplied a torch. ' For the one, it was to light a flame upon the beacon hills. For the other, it was to kindle the Chaldean furnace in which a prophet of the exile was to suffer. But if the white light of distinction revealed no blot upon the bright escutcheon of the one, so likewise of the other may it be affirmed that the burning ordeal left no smell of fire upon his garments. Forty years elapse; then both are called. Together they quit the world, in hours so closely linked that the same January moon which bent its bow of promise for the one filled its golden horns of plenty for the other. But emblematic of the varied fortunes which had followed them, even to the graveside, one closed his eyes beneath the fronded palms of Florida, while the other breathed his last, amid snow and ice, beneath the mountain cedars of his own state. In the years which have since come and gone, Georgia, upon her capitol grounds, has lifted an equestrian statue to the younger of the twain; and she honors herself in honoring the Chevalier Bayard of the Confederacy, for he bore the talismanic name of John B. Gordon. The hero of Appomattox deserves the bronze memorial. Let it catch the sunbeams till the day-spring is extinguished. But lame-footed jus tice will limp in Georgia until another figure on horseback is seen upon

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1681

her capitol grounds to commemorate the prowess of Lee's old war-horse, the gallant commander of the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, James Longstreet.
Brethren of the alumni, it is the duty of scholars to weigh the facts of history. Unless we have been suckled in vain at the Juno-breast of our alma mater, we will give ourselves with impartial minds to the quest of truth; and, let the result be what it may, we will face it in the spirit of the old adage: liuat coelum justicia fiat! Before the bar of public opinion, I am here today to plead the cause of an old soldier who sleeps mantled in the Confederate gray; who, with honest convictions, took an unpopular course during the days of reconstruction; who, refusing to recant, died unwept and unforgiven; but who, in the long reach of the reconciling years, will yet find the reversal of judgment which will con vert obloquy into honor. It is in no spirit of impertinent intermeddling that I have stepped into this forum of appeal. I am not an alien. I do not come to you today speaking the unfamiliar patois of some foreign tongue. Like the disciple's Galilean accent; my speech betrayeth me. I was born upon the soil of Georgia. For more than a hundred years my people have known no other home. They sleep upon every hill and by every stream. I am, therefore, a Georgian, to the manner born; and, touching the law, a democrat. On the far side of the continent, I have spent the weary years of an exile. There I have looked upon scenes which made me dream of Paradise; but, lulled only by the memories of home and deaf to the siren voices of the sunset sea, I have given heart and pen and brain to Georgia. May I not, then, without offense, speak at Georgia's university to Georgia's conscience, of one who, .on the Blue Ridge slopes, now fills a Georgian's grave and who, amid the belching fires, bore a Georgian's sword to battle?
Success in life is not invariably foreshadowed by commencement honors. Longstreet won no laurels at West Point. Out of a class of sixty-two, he graduated sixtieth. But the record made by General Grant was little better, for we find his name more than half way down the list. Henry Grady used to say that he and Judge Hammond led the class of '68; that Judge Hammond led it on the advance and that he led it on the retreat. Such cases are by no means rare. Men of action, even though college graduates, are often deficient in the technicalities of scholarship. Dull text-books made no appeal to Longstreet. His real alma mater was the field of battle. He delighted in horsemanship, in,sword-tilts, in military maneuvers, in feats of physical prowess, in whatever suggested the actualities of combat. For the reason that he was a backward scholar, it was only with the rank of a second lieutenant that he entered the Mexican war. But watch him amid the battle's smoke. Ere many rounds of shot have been fired, he is well at the front and, high above the horizon, in full view of the whole American army, blazes the serene light of Longstreet's rising star.
But the greatest trophy of this campaign has escaped the historian. It often happens that within the unifoi|| of the soldier beats the heart of the lover; and .one of the romantic iHidents of the Mexican war tells how the young West Pointer captured the first Mrs. Longstreet. Per haps there was more than one youthful officer in the trenches who boasted a sweetheart among the Virginia mountains. Indeed, it is safe to say

1682

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

that there were hundreds who knuckled to Highland Mary while still bidding defiance to Santa Ana. One of these was Longstreet. Through out the Mexican campaign Longstreet served immediately under Gen eral Garland, an intrepid old fighter, from the State of Virginia; and among the belongings of General Garland was an attractive daughter, to whom this Georgia youth had for some time been paying his respects. If he indited no sonnets to Laura he at least wooed her with all the ardor of Petrarch; and finally everything was settled everything except the paternal consent. Between the Longstreets and the Garlands there existed no feudal enmity of the Verona type; but our belted Romeo was too shrewd a tactician to broach the subject of matrimony too soon to his prospective father-in-law. He did not wish to jeopardize a treasure far dearer to him than was the dowered daughter of the Capulets. He preferred to wait for an opportune moment. This came at the storming of Chapultapec. Longstreet was among the wounded; but it mitigated his sufferings to foreshadow the results. He now resolved to ask the old general for his daughter's hand. However, when the invalid was ready to leave the hospital, General Garland was in Virginia. This meant a delay, but, somewhat relieved to escape an interview which he secretly dreaded, he resolved to approach General Garland at once by letter. It was like Napoleon asking for the Royal Princess of the House of Hapsburg.
"Can I have Marie Louise!" he asked. "Yes," came the answer in due time, like an echo of his own voice, '' you can.''
Six months later, under the Virginia honeysuckles, the nuptial knot was tied. It was an ideal love-match. For more than forty years the first Mrs. Longstreet continued to be a faithful helpmeet to the brave officer, to whom she had plighted her maiden troth. Though other hearts were fated to change in the years to come, hers ever wore the unaltered faith of happier days, and he was strong to suffer and patient to endure because, on her withered lips, to the very last, still lingered the bridal accents of the old "I love you!" Nor was she who today survives him less devoted; and of the second Mrs, Longstreet it may be said that if this gentle Georgia woman was denied the privilege of sharing his vic torious noontide, it was still the office of her devoted wifehood to kindle the tranquil starlig-ht of his evening skies and to close in death the eye lids of the old war horse that, on Georgia's hills, he might sleep in peace till the morning comes again.

At the sound of the tocsin in 1861, Longstreet left the United States army and gave his sword to the Confederate cause. He was made at once a brigadier-general and, riding upon the field at Blackburn's Ford, he organized the troops for the first battle of Manassas. Following the fight at Fredericksburg, which was won by his quick strategy in seizing the hills, he was again promoted; and upon the organization of the Army of Northern Virginia he was put in command of the invincible First Corps of Lee's immortal legions. The cadet whose record at West Point barely earned, him a diploma, was at last the undisputed leader of the class, of 1842 upon the field of battle, and in the opinion of all the military critics one of the greatest soldiers in the greatest war of modern times. At the head of his famous corps, he was in all the historic bat-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1683

ties, from Manassas to Appomattox. If there was hard fighting to be done, it fell to the lot of Longstreet's corps. If there was some perilous expedition to be undertaken, some stronghold to be guarded or some height to be stormed, it fell to the lot of Longstreet's corps. Without the least exaggeration, Longstreet's corps became the synonym of death and terror to the enemy; and, whether upon the banks of the Rappahannock or in the tangles of the Wilderness or on the red ramparts of Gettysburg, the fame of the old war horse was the nightmare of the northern bivouac and the Federal soldier trembled when. Longstreet's name was told.
But there is still another trait to which the old soldier could right fully lay claim. He is said to have been slow; but he possessed the peculiar knack of arriving on time. Take, for example, the second battle of Manassas. It will be remembered that before this famous engagement took place, Pope and Lee were facing each other on the banks of the Rappahannock. Detached from the main army, Stonewall Jackson sought to gain the Union rear by cutting across the mountains. It was one of his favorite maneuvers, and he proceeded to accomplish it in Stonewall Jackson's way. He forced Pope to turn squarely around, and Pope, thinking he had only Jackson to face at Manassas, expected to make quick work of the Confederate columns by changing front. But he failed to reckon upon the approach of Longstreet.
In order to join Stonewall Jackson at the critical moment, it was necessary to thread the dangerous defile of Thoroughfare Gap. The utmost vigilance was required, but Longstreet was the man to accom plish the perilous enterprise. To show the alertness which was needed to detect the wiles of the Federals, it may be well to cite an incident: While the long columns were moving on through the mountains, the brigades in front were suddenly observed to halt. Perplexed at the unexpected interruption, Longstreet rode hurriedly to the front to be told that a courier from General Lee had brought orders to proceed no further. The shrewd intuitions of the commanding officer detected at once some "ruse of the enemy, and he asked for the bearer of the message. The individual sought could still be seen dimly through the intervening thickets. Horsemen were sent in hot pursuit and he was soon arrested and brought before Longstreet. Found on examination to be a spy, he was given ten minutes in which to prepare for an exchange of worlds. Whereupon it was learned that he had been intent for months upon the discovery of important secrets in the Confederate camps. But he had .played his last game, and when the long columns resumed the tiresome march toward Manassas, the figure of a man, swinging from the limb of a tree, told of the swift justice which had been meted to the late informant. It was time to sight the polar bear on the equatorial belt when Longstreet was caught napping in the saddle.
But Jackson's corps in the meantime was waiting in painful sus pense for Longstreet's arrival. Initial success had been achieved, but at nightfall Pope had commenced to wheel his gigantic columns. Eight een thousand Confederates against 70,000 Federals meant drooping folds for the flag of Dixie unless re-enforcements in good time should come upon the scene. But Jackson felt that he could implicitly rely upon Longstreet. All night long the exhausted fighters lay sleepless in the

1684

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Virginia starlight catching at every faint breath of air that rippled the forest solitudes. None of the subalterns expected, anything but death. They knew that Lee was far away across the mountains. They believed that Jackson was invincible against ordinary odds, but unless some miracle was wrought, they hardly dared to hope that he could stem the tide of blood. Col. Nat Harris, who participated in the fight, has described the fearful anxiety which filled the hearts of the Confederate troops when the morning dawned upon the eventful day of the battle. He says that the brave boys in gray, realizing that an awful death grapple was at hand, stood almost speechless in the cold chill of the early dawn, but suddenly the boom of a cannon was heard in the hazy distance, com ing from the direction: of Thoroughfare Gap, some fifteen miles off. Then a mighty shout arose along the whole line, rising higher and higher like a southern tornado, and these words shaped themselves out from the echoes in the hills: "Hurrah, boys, hurrah! That's Longstreet's bull dogs barkingv We're all right now."

James Longstreet, at the close of the Civil war, was the most widely known, if not indeed the most truly beloved, of all the surviving palladins of Lee. Both in the numerical order of his corps and in the date of his commission as lieutenant-general, he outranked the great high priest of battle, Stonewall Jackson. Not even Lee's right arm, made nerveless in the forest glooms of Chancellorsville, could surpass Lee's old war horse. It was universally conceded that of all the Confederate marshals who rode at the head of the gray battalions and plunged into the sulphurous smoke of the bloody arbitrament, not one of them eclipsed Longstreet in the heroic illustration which he gave to the chivalrous traditions of the Southland. He possessed the bugle-horn of Roderick Dhu and the battle-fire of Marmion. More than once the tide of battle was victoriously turned by Longstreet's timely arrival upon the scene of action, when it seemed as if Achilles at the head of the Myrmidons had come to the rescue of the Greeks. See him at Second Manassas, hastening to the relief of Stonewall Jackson in the gray twilight of the early dawn and converting the anticipated victory of General Pope into a nightmare of disastrous defeat. See him again at Chickamauga, wheeling around the bend in the bloody lane to the re-enforcement of Bragg, pouring the red hail of the inferno into the receding ranks of the dismayed adversary and driving the Federal columns under Cook and Crittenden to the very base of Lookout Mountain beyond the plain of Chattanooga. In whatever corps of the army it was the lot of the Confederate soldier to serve, he reveled in the story of Longstreet's prowess; he thrilled at the mention of Longstreet's name. The trusted lieutenant of his great commander-in-chief, it was Longstreet who shared the most intimate councils and executed the most difficult orders of Lee, never once to be censured by the stainless chieftain whom he served. If there was an officer of troop in all the army who was idolized by the southern soldier and dreaded by the northern foeman, from the palms of Mexico to the snows of Canada, it was the intrepid commander of the gallant First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Such was the man who, at the last pathetic council of war on the banks of the Rappahannoek, could look back upon his long career of

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1685

service on the field of battle without finding upon his laurels one solitary stain or stigma; and in all the broken-hearted group of grizzly grays not one face told of deeper anguish for the failure of the southern cause than the bronzed face of James Longstreet.
But swifter than the magic presto are the sudden changes which sometimes mark the revolutions of the wheel of fortune. Two years after the surrender at Appomattox, the advent of the summer months found James Longstreet in the City of New Orleans. He was commenc ing anew the struggle of life. It was not an easy task for an old soldier who had been trained in the school of arms to grapple with younger and fresher spirits in the marts of trade, but he was beginning to succeed. From the cotton brokerage business he earned an income of several thou sand dollars, and besides he served an insurance company in the capacity of president. He enjoyed the esteem of every one, from the highest to the lowest. Neither was his personal integrity aspersed nor his war record assailed. He towered above criticism. But General Longstreet was called upon at this juncture to give his opinion in regard to the political crisis. It was just at the commencement of the bitter days of reconstruction. Passion was paramount. Feeling was intense. The air was filled with denunciations of the Federal Government. And it was largely the inevitable outcome of the most flagrant of iniquities; for the Saturnalia of reconstruction in the South has never been equaled since the reign of Nero, the worst of the Cajsars. To have drifted with the current would have been most easy. But Longstreet's ancestors were at the siege of Leyden, and he felt constrained by the stubborn spirit of the Netherlands to stem the popular tide. The answer which he returned was not delayed either through uncertainty of mind or from.fear of consequences. It was clear-cut and unequivocal. He was neither a time-server nor a diplomat accustomed to the cunning jugglery of words. He knew nothing of finesse, and he spoke with blunt frankness. He was fully alive to the outrages which were put upon the South. But if the .South, armed with muskets, was powerless to prevail against the North, how could the South, enfeebled by defeat, expect to bring the North to terms? In view of the utter helplessness of his section, he felt that the only way to accomplish the removal of the incubus lay in patient acceptance of the situation. Moreover, 'he felt obligated by the terms of his Appomattox parole to support the laws of Congress. He rea soned like an old soldier. He had not been trained in the dialectics of the forum. He knew nothing of make-shifts or evasions. Consequently, he advised the South to submit. He lined himself squarely with the reconstructionists and, facing the hostile elements, he seemed to say in the words of Seneca's pilot: "0, Neptune, you can sink me or you can save me, but whatever may be my fate, I shall hold the rudder true!''

What followed it is vain to describe without the pen of Dante. The vials of wrath were instantly unloosed upon the devoted head of James Longstreet. In the newspapers, about the home firesides, upon the side walk pavements, he was denounced with the most violent invectives and characterized by the most opprobrious epithets. No choice bit of lan guage applied either to Benedict Arnold or to Aaron Burr was consid ered too savory with the associations of treason to be applied to James
Vol. HI--27

1686

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Longstreet. It is needless to say that the temperate zone was wholly unrepresented in the treatment accorded to the fallen idol. If it failed to bespeak the equator, it suggested the aurora borealis. Friends of the day before became utter strangers who craved no introduction; old war comrades passed him upon the streets unrecognized; fellow church mem bers forgot the sweet charities of the Christian religion and assumed an air of frigidity which suggested the climatic rigors of the Arctic region. Nansen, in trying to find the North Pole, could not have been greeted less cordially or more stiffly by the floating icebergs which he encoun tered among the frozen wigwams of the Esquimaux. But yesterday the name of Longstreet might have stood against the world. Today he was like the prostrate Cajsar, bleeding at the base of Pompey 's statue. Come I then, like the plain, blunt Roman, not to stir your gentle hearts to mutiny, but to tell you that you will yet come to crave a keepsake of his tattered mantle and to dip your napkins in his imperial blood.
It was an unpopular course which the old war horse had taken. I know where I would have stood and what I would have done, for my sympathies have ever been with those who hurled the indignant protests of the Anglo-Saxon. But the course was one which honest convictions compelled him to take; one which subsequent developments in large measure served to justify; one which Governor Brown took with like results; one which Mr. Stephens advocated without leaving the democratic party; and one which General Lee himself is said to have counseled and approved. Never can I forget the speech of vindication which Governor Brown delivered in Atlanta on the eve of his election to the United States Senate. I was only a lad, and Governor Brown was not an orator to stir the youthful imagination. But the echoes' of the old governor's speech could not have been more lingering if they had come frdm the bugle horns of Elfland. He argued that the logic of events had established the wisdom of his course during the days of reconstruction; . and then, to cap the climax, he drew from his pocket an old letter to show, what another Confederate soldier thought of his Appomattox parole. It was written from Lexington, Virginia. In no uncertain words it commended the policy of acquiescence as the one which was most in keeping with the terms of the surrender and the one most likely to mitigate the evils of reconstruction. "That letter," said the old gov ernor, as he held it up before the breathless audience, "was penned by the hand and dictated by the heart of that immortal hero, Robert E. Lee."
Georgia's war governor was sent to the United States Senate. But there was no melting r. of the ice for Longstreet. It seemed like the cruelest irony of fate that the old war horse should have been denied an immortal death-bed upon the heights of fame only to be fed upon the bitter husks of humiliation. But it put his heroism to the test. Others quailed under the terrific bombardment, but not Longstreet, He belonged to the old heroic order of the Stoics. He accepted the obloquy which his course involved. Only the God of the human heart, knows how tenderly he loved the South, for whose sake he had bared his bosom to the storm of battle, and how keenly he felt the averted gaze of his own people. But, like the Nazarene in the judgment hall of Pilate, he returned no answer, and, planting himself rigidly upon the ground which

::::I ; ; ; ;; ^\m :i;:|;| ';;fsf :'!!il;| : |! ''.^M . :|i; :;!:;| .'iiiii| :: : :i::|

' ,:
:

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

'1687

he believed to be right, he stood unshaken, like the old pyramid of Ghizeh, which, spurning the effluvia and the driftwood of the Nile, rises serenely height upon height toward the fixed stars of the Egyptian firmament.

Perhaps if General Longstreet, like Governor Brown, had ceased to affiliate with the party in power after the days of reconstruction, he might have incurred no lasting measure of ill-will, but he put himself beyond the pale of forgiveness by remaining within the republican fold. I share the traditional prejudice in which this feeling is rooted; but, brethren, in a free republic, which is grounded upon the right of indi vidual opinion, is it a crime for honest men to differ conscientiously upon controverted principles of government? Such is not the philos ophy which democrats have imbibed from the Sage of Monticello. When James Longstreet voted the republican ticket, the war had' been fought, the flag had been furled; and let us beware how in time of peace we hasten to pin the badge of infamy upon one who in time of war has put his allegiance to the test of steel. Let us at least stand upon the rock of Runnymede and give him a trial before a jury of his peers. Upon the altar of his convictions, he sacrificed income, position, applause; things which most men are loath to relinquish; and in view of what it cost him, there is no reason to believe that he was actuated by mer cenary motives, even though some two years later, when reduced in fortune, he accepted a humble republican appointment which carne to him all unsought from General Grant, his old comrade of West Point. But, if anything was needed to embitter the popular odium, it was found at last. Forgetful of the fact that he had never voted in any election prior to the war, he was charged with desertion from the democratic fold. Ignoring the heroic service which he had rendered upon the bat tle fields of the war, he was even charged with treason to the South; and this proscription against the old hero was written upon the lintels of nearly every home in Dixie.
One of the finest masterpieces of Italian sculpture pictures the sleep ing Ariadne deserted by the forgetful Theseus. It was even so that the critics of the old soldier pictured the recumbent Southland deserted by the forgetful Longstreet. But the analogy cannot be too closely pressed, for the ancient legend adds that the reason why Theseus abandoned Ariadne was that this course was urged upon him by Minerva, the god dess of wisdom. It will be hard to prove that the South befriended Longstreet more than Longstreet befriended the South. It will be equally complish what he believed was for the best interest of his people, he aphard to prove that he ever deserted the South. But if, in order to aepeared to do so, shall he be denied the common law privilege of pleading that the necessity for this course was urged upon him by that sagest of all counsellors and -that most imperious of all potentates: the oracle within the breast? No, brethren, the true picture of Longstreet is not the picture of the forgetful Theseus. If you wish the true picture of Longstreet, you must turn the pages of the Bard of Avon until you come to the story of the old Lear whoK after bequeathing an empire to his children, was sent adrift into the tempest by his own flesh and blood to find no shelter on the barren moor. Successively Georgia has played Goneril and Ragan, in turning the old outcast from the door; but, when

1688

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

her true role is found, it will be to throw around him at last the coral necklace of Cordelia's arms.
Pile together in one heap all the official honors and emoluments which James Longstreet received from the republican party and they are not a bagatelle compared with what he might have received from the democracy of Georgia. He was never at any time iii close touch or fellowship with the republican party in the state. He was only a humble partaker of the victorious spoils. He had only to recant and Georgia's best would have been laid at his feet. The refusal to accord him the full measure of his convictions is both ungenerous and unjust; and, however pro nounced may be the verdict of condemnation, due to the surviving pas sions of the hour, there is at least one humble private citizen among the democrats of Dixie who has the faith to believe that the gold was never coined in the mint and the office never created by the Government that could bribe the old war horse of Lee, who, under the smoke of the shriek ing shell, illustrated the dauntless spirit of the South and belted the fame of Confederate valor around the world.

But the criticism which has rested with the heaviest weight upon General Longstreet is the one which charges him with the loss of the battle of Gettysburg, in consequence of his disobedience of Lee's orders. It is well known that General Longstreet opposed the plan upon which the battle of Gettysburg1 was fought. He does not appear to have gone quite so far as Mr. Davis in opposing the invasion of Pennsylvania; but, while he recognized it to be offensive in strategy, he expected it to be defensive in tactics. He advocated the interposing of the Confederate army between Gettysburg and Washington, in order to compel the enemy through anxiety for the endangered capitol to choose another base of operations. The suggestion was undoubtedly sound from the standpoint of defensive maneuvers. But there were difficulties in the way of with drawing from Gettysburg. Moreover, General Lee, encouraged by the splendid morale of his army, which had never known defeat, was bent upon aggressive tactics by which, with one effective blow, he hoped to end the struggle.
To state briefly the contentions of General Longstreet's critics it is claimed that, being opposed to fighting an offensive battle at Gettysburg, he was balky and stubborn; that he actually disobeyed the commanding officer's orders to attack at sunrise on the morning of July 2d; and that again ordered to attack with half the army on the morning of July 3d he complied at leisure by sending only Pickett's division, supported by some of Hill's troops, and that in consequence of the behavior of General Longstreet, the battle was lost.
Two significant facts in regard to the charges cannot fail to elicit sur prise : they were not made until General Lee had been laid to rest in |he chapel vault at Lexington; and they were not made until General Longstreet had commenced to suffer political proscription. Ten full years had elapsed since the battle of Gettysburg. The faine of General Lee was in no sense dependent upon the conviction of General Longstreet. He ranked already among the world's great captains, whether judged by friend or by foe. He possessed the encomiums of the world's great mili tary critics. Splendid in his isolation, serene in his equipoise, sublime in

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1689

his moral grandeur, he brooked no rival in all the mountain range but tow ered above the cloudbelt like the Chimborazo of the Andes. He was se cure from all belittlement at the hands of mortal man, for God
"Crowned him years ago On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds,
With a diadem of snow."
General Lee himself assumed .full responsibility for the loss of Gettys burg. This may have been due in part to his generous nature and in part to his sense of obligation as commander-in-chief. It is well known that General Lee often took upon himself the mistakes of subalterns; but he was too good a soldier and too wise a disciplinarian to withhold just cen sure when orders were disregarded. He was not slow at the proper time to relieve General Ewell or to criticize General Hill; but, among all the official papers of General Lee, from first to last, it will be impossible to .find an expression which intimates in the slightest degree that he considered General Longstreet guilty of violating commands; and in view of the fact that Gettysburg was the decisive battle of the war, does it not stand to reason that such an entry would most likely have been penned had such an infraction of discipline really occurred?
Taking up first the alleged order for an attack at sunrise on the morn ing of July 2d, it will be useless to search through the official documents for such an order. Equally remarkable is it that none of the members of General Lee's personal staff were aware of the issuance of such an order. Taylor, Marshall, Venable, Long, all of whom were aides to General Lee at Gettysburg, are frank to admit that they knew of no order for an attack at sunrise. The positive declaration of General Longstreet upon the subject is that never at any time was he given orders by General Lee to open an attack at any specified moment; for General Lee knew that when he had his troops in position no time was ever lost. He says that the only order which he received from General Lee reached him some time in the forenoon, being an order to attack up the Emmettsburg Road; that he obeyed the order with the utmost dispatch; and that, after an almost .unparalleled fight, the enemy was dislodged. General Lee himself corroborates this statement. Another important fact to be considered is that, after the infraction of discipline is alleged to have taken place, on the morning of July 2d, General Lee again, on the morn ing of July 3d, even takes men from another corps and puts Longstreet in command of half the Army of Northern Virginia. Does this look like the disobedient soldier of West Point ? If the critics are right, observe the ridiculous attitude in which it puts General Lee. Longstreet is charged with having committed the most unsoldierly act of disobedience, on the morning of July 2d. In the iron theology of West Point, it was the unpardonable sin; but General Lee, instead of pronouncing censure upon the old war horse, singles him out on the morning of'July 3d to direct the last momentous operations in what was fully realized to be the most decisive battle of the Civil war.
It is claimed that if the attack had been made at sunrise the enemy would have been less prepared to resist and the seizure of Round Top would have followed. This General Sickles denies. He confronted General Longstreet in the second day's fight and left one of his limbs

1690

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

upon the field of battle. But, whatever the outcome might have been, the question is purely speculative. It fully appears from the evidence that General Lee himself was undecided at what point to strike until 11 o'clock in the forenoon. For General Longstreet to have made the attack-at sunrise would have been impossible; for twenty miles of forest intervened at daybreak between certain portions of his corps. It was near the middle of the day before the. orders from General Lee came. Theye were not to seize Bound Top but to occupy some elevated ground up the Eminettsburg Koad, from which. Cemetery Hill could be subse quently assailed; and no sooner had the shadows commenced to slant eastward than Longstreet's columns were seen to move. In the grapple which ensued some of the bloodiest fighting of the whole war was done; but when the sun dropped behind the forest oaks the disputed ground was held by the gray battalions.
With respect to the charge that, in the third day's battle, Longstreet sent Pickett's division unsupported on the bloody incline toward Ceme tery Heights, at an hour too late to insure success, it may be said that the contention is equally absurd. The other portions of Longstreet's command were engaged, under Lee's orders, in protecting the Confed erate flank which at the time was exposed to the fire of 20,000 Federals massed behind Bound Top. This was done, it is true, at the instance of Longstreet, but Lee saw the danger and acquiesced. It was Longstreet's hope that the assault upon the ridge might be abandoned. He dreaded the consequences and even demurred. But General Lee was firm. It was the only alternative; and perhaps it might bring success. The deadly climb was to have been made earlier in the day but it was 9 o'clock before Pickett himself arrived upon the scene and since Pickett had been desig nated by General Lee to make the charge no one else could be substi tuted. Little time was lost in arranging the troops; and, under cover of the batteries of General Alexander, the bloody march commenced. When the moment came to give the signal, Longstreet says that he could only point his finger in silence to the heights. But lightly the brave Virginian leaped into the saddle and spurred his house. On pressed the gallant band into the fires of death; and the sad sequel has been tersely told in Pickett's own words: "Sir, my noble division has been swept away!" It was one of the,grandest charges in the annals of time. On the luminous pages of history, it has made Pickett's name forever glori ous; but the battle of Gettysburg was lost.

Behold I show you a mystery! As time elapsed, article after article was penned book after book was written on the historic battle. But it was not until 1873 that any serious effort was made to fasten the loss of Gettysburg upon Longstreet. Strangest of strange things, if Lee's old war horse was the horse of evil omen that overthrew our Confederate Troy! Down to the close of the war, he had been the faithful executor of Lee's orders. Never once had Lee distrusted him, either by word or by sign; and, in the years which followed Appomattox, it was ever the warmest letters which Longstreet received from Lexington. In one of these occurred a sentence, which constitutes a vindication in itself: "If you make as good a merchant as you did a soldier there can be none better.'' But if Longstreet had violated orders and wrecked the south-

GBOBGIA AND GEORGIANS

1691

ern cause, the truthful pen of General Lee could never have penned such a sentence; and these gray-haired veterans before me know that what General Lee said he meant.
But, in 1873, General Pendleton took the lecture platform in Virginia. For the first time, we now hear of a sunrise attack, which General Longstreet was ordered to make. It was late in the day to be making such a charge, and there was certainly no hint of sunrise in the belated attack upon Longstreet. General Pendleton, after the war, became a clergyman of some note. I do not mean to impugn his integrity as a brave officer or as a man of truth. But upon what was the charge based? Upon an incidental remark made by General Lee at Gettysburg. Now for General Pendleton, the people of the South have always entertained an unbounded respect. But oral statements are always open to misconstruction. He may easily have misunderstood General Lee in the heated air of Gettys burg. General Lee may have contemplated an attack at sunrise; he may have wished such an attack; but there is no evidence to show that such an attack was ordered. Perhaps no one knew General Lee better than did General Pendleton. I do not question .this statement. He was certainly an intimate friend, a fellow-townsman, and, I believe, a pastor. He was often in General Lee's home; and, beneath the trees at Lexington, they must often have discussed Gettysburg, if they discussed war at all. Yet, is it not strange that, during the seven golden years in which General Lee continued to walk the earth, nothing was ever said upon which General Pendleton could base his charge, to which he could positively point? Of course, in the heated' condition of the public mind, no proof was de manded. General Lee was dead. ' General Longstreet was unpopular. Other critics arose. Perhaps the most surprised man between the two oceans, when this charge was sprung, was General Longstreet himself. At first, he refused to reply; but in sheer justice to his gallant war record he was finally forced to repel this unjust assault. If it brought him into unfortunate collision with the friends of Lee, it must be remembered that he was an old soldier, jealous of his good name, proud of his untarnished sword. But he was wholly without malice. He loved the great Lee; and, in proof of his devotion, one of his own sons was given the name of his peerless chief
Nor was it essential to Lee's place in history that the loss of Gettys burg should be fixed upon Longstreet. He stood already upon the sum mit of achievement. Without a peer, he ranked among the greatest of modern captains. Ask any fair-minded critic what he thinks of Lee ? Ask Plorace Greeley, the old editor of the Tribune. Ask Charles Francis
Adams, who speaks for the old Puritan family of Massachusetts. Ask Alexander K. McClure. Ask George R. Wendling. Ask Theodore Roose velt. Ask any of these; and not one of them will hesitate to tell you that he outranks Grant and Sherman. For myself, I have always thought him greater in defensive than in offensive tactics; but, under all the circum stances, there is little if any fault to. be found with the plan on which he
fought the battle of Gettysburg. True the Federals occupied the heights. True the numbers were unequal. True, it was no longer home soil on which our men were fighting. But he had come into Pennsylvania flushed with victory. In quick succession, one after another, he had van quished McClellan and Pope and Burnside and Hooker; and he had

1692

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

almost come to believe in the invincibility of his gray battalions. Besides, it was his wish to end the struggle with one supreme blow at the North; and he seemed to be justified in the confidence which he placed in his magnificent army, whose flag had never once trailed in the dust.
But the hour had come; and, without sacrificing Longstreet, the loss of Gettysburg can be explained upon grounds consistent with the fullest recognition of the genius of Lee. Above the contending armies was the God of battles. Slavery in America was doomed. Secession was a prece dent too dangerous to be established. I can find no other explanation of the South's defeat. According to the Federal pension rolls in Wash ington, so true was the rifle shot of the Confederate soldier outnum bered though he was by three to one half-starved and half-clad, yet exhausted only by his victories so deadly was his aim, I say, that no power in this universe could have halted the march of this war-shod child of Mars but the sovereign edicts of Jehovah's throne. Listen! Lee was planning an assault upon Harrisburg. Meade was expecting to concentrate at Pipe Creek. It was simply the unseen hands of destiny which were bringing the embattled hosts together at Gettysburg. If Jeb Stuart, who was the very incarnation of vigilance, had not been strangely kept with his cavalry on the opposite side of the Susquehanna if Stonewall Jackson could have been recalled from the sweet shade of the trees if Longstreet could have been endowed with superhuman power- then the Federals might have been dislodged. But, eliminating the hypothetical factors,-it must be admitted in the light of subsequent events that Lee failed to win the decisive battle of the war, not because some one had blundered, but because, in the interest of human liberty, it was decreed by Providence, that the sovereign powers which were battling under hostile banners should be welded, through the fires of conflict, into one indissoluble Union of indestructible states.

Forty years upon the rack! This was what Longstreet paid. For what ? For making an honest avowal or, if yo<u prefer to have it so for making an honest blunder. Yet we taunt Spain with the Inquisition! lie was not ,a renegade. He loved the South. He cherished his comradesin-arms. If he took an unpopular course, it was a course which he believed to be right; and the manner in which he bore the crown of obloquy was transcendently heroic. His fortitude in peace: no less than his courage in battle entitles him to the respect of all true men; and with Crawford and Clark and Troup and Forsyth, with Gordon and Hill and Toombs and Stephens, he deserves to rank among the great Georgians, even as Arcturus ranks with Aldebaran and Sirius and Procyron, on the belt of the celestial heavens! Every beat of his rugged old heart was for his people; nor did they cease to love him in return. One of the most beautiful pictures upon which I ever gazed was one in which Longstreet and Davis were the central figures. It was in the spring of 1886, at the unveiling of the Ben Hill monument. On that never to be forgotten day a vast concourse of people was assembled in Georgia's capital. General Longstreet was not expected. For some reason the old soldier had declined an invitation. But, -suddenly, bedecked in a handsome uniform of Confederate gray his sword dangling at his side and his stars blazing around his neck he appeared upon the platform,

GEOEGIA AND GEORGIANS

1693

all aglow with the splendid look of the old days, to be locked in'the out stretched arms of Jefferson Davis. Shouts rose to the lips and tears to the eyes of the coldest spectator of that magnificent scene. It unrolled the panorama of the years. It lifted the sentence of outlawry, for a time at least. The bitter memories of Reconstruction faded; and once more the name of Longstreet, firing the sluggish blood of the old veterans, became the battle-music of the...victorious field. If I have read the signs of the time aright, it was then that the tide began to turn. But the sweet accents of forgiveness remained unspoken. He died without further proof of his people's .affection. Nor could anything have been sadder than the wan spectacle which the old hero presented when, bowed with age and wasted by disease, he lay propped upon his pillow, in his hillside home, and looked for the last time upon the drapery of the mountains. Underneath the Blue Ridge pines, he was still waiting waiting for a message which he longed to hear. But he waited like the old Spaniard, who sat beneath the roses of his seaside villa and watched in vain for the returning sails of the lost Armada.
Sad would it be if the story of Longstreet's life ended here; but I cannot bring myself to believe that, when the old soldier knelt in the olive glooms, his prayer was unheeded by the gentle Master who was once himself an outcast among his kindred "despised and rejected of men." In the kindling dawn of the New Yea.r, as it crept over Gainesville, the pale courier summoned him again to the bivouac of Lee; and it requires no Miltonic sweep of the imagination to picture the old war horse vindicated at the hands of his glorious chieftain. Once more, along the expectant lines, is heard the shout: '' Longstreet is coming!'' In the phantom host around the great captain, I can see Jackson and Stuart and Hampton and Gordon; and at last the old charge is riven into shreds by the peerless Lee.
But the sentence of outlawry, pronounced upon the old war horse, still remains unlifted, and I ask you, is it right? You lawyers, who weigh the sands of .evidence you ministers who preach the Golden Rule you teachers who follow the lode star of truth you Georgians of every pursuit and calling, to whom blood has ever been thicker than water I ask you, is it right? When we read of the suffering exiles in the benighted country of the Czar, we shudder and grow sick at heart. But hear me! It matters, not in what favored zone of the earth a man may live, if he unjustly encounters the cold gaze of his fellow-men, he does not need to be banished to the Arctic snows to experience the frozen hell of Siberian Russia. Well do I know the southern people these descendants of men who followed kings and who wore the crests of the court. Sprung from an imperial ancestry, they inherit all the noble failings of empurpled sires beyond the seas. They were sorely tried by the enormities of Reconstruction. But they are too magnanimous in spirit, too royal in blood, too full of the knightly soul of Sir Philip Sidney, to harbor an ungenerous prejudice or to resent, except in momentary pique, an honest difference of opinion. The days of Recon struction are now half a century behind us. Renegades and traitors there were in our camp, compared with whom Calaban was an angel of light. But among those who, in the darkness, told us to be patient, can we not discover that some hearts were true ? We were not all fiery

1694

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Hotspurs. In some of us the warm blood of the South was curbed by the stubborn fibers of the highland sycamores and cooled by the rude chafings of the old North Sea which beats upon the dykes of Holland. Even among children, who bend at the same parent knee, there are differences of temperament; and among men of ecjual virtue, some are destined to tread the Via Appia and some the Via Dolorosa. Only the Storm King can tell why it is that, in the same range of mountains, there are certain peaks around which the forked lightnings gather, while the sunbeams play upon the rest; but in the heart of the old Alps, through which I have traveled, it is the oft-observed phenomenon of summer that, after the storm is over, the air becomes like flawless crystal, and the peak around whose brow the troubled clouds have thundered, begins at last to catch the refulgent beams of sunset and to wear the regalia of the evening stars. May it not be even so with this rugged old rock of the Confederate range 1
Perhaps I am wrong. But somehow I feel that out of all this opprobrium there will yet come an enlarged fruition of honor and that like unto the experience of Stephen, the very stones which have sent him bleeding to his martyrdom will yet combine to lift the marble friezes of his monument. Bolingbroke was banished from England to be recalled as Henry the Fourth. Aristides was exiled from Athens, but when the Persians were at the gate he was summoned back to share the glories of Salamis. Time heals the bitterest wounds. Twenty-eight years ago Georgia took Joseph E. Brown once more to her heart and with Benjamin H. Hill as his colleague, she made him an American senator. But not yet has she recalled her Longstreet to ride side by side with her Gordon upon the grounds of her capitol. In a sense, it is now too late to undo the past, for it lies not in the voice of honor to provoke the silent dust nor in the tongue of flattery to soothe the dull, cold ear of death. Georgia cannot stand at the barred entrance to the tomb and say to its tenant: '' Longstreet, come forth!'' She must wait for the sunrise upon the eternal mountains, before she can look again into the face of the old commander; and, though she be not ready to acquit him, she can at least lift the sentence of ostracism from his memory and she can write above his dust at Gainesville: '' Forgiven.'' Aye, and I believe she will. For, the more I scan the ways of Providence, the more I believe with Alfred Tennyson, that "good will be the final goal of ill." In the tempestuous storm that beat upon the Trojan ships, it was wondered why Aeneas should be tossed upon the waves when other sons of Troy felt the softer breath of the Mediterranean. Why did he not die with Hector on the Dardan plains? The future revealed a reason in the walls of Rome. Longstreet's voyage of life has ended. But the bark which bears his immortal record still rocks upon the troubled deep. What shall be its fate ? May it not find some happy port; .and, though hymned by no Virgil among the minstrels of earth and helped by no Venus among the powers of Heaven, may not the waves which have tossed and battered Longstreet's bark yet bear it to some imperial shelter, hard by the eternal hills, in some sun-bathed, star-crowned, sweet Italia?

Brethren, I am weary. I have overtaxed my strength. But I cannot resign the arches of this hall to silence until I have spoken one word

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1695

more. Saul is not among the prophets. But, ere many suns have risen and set upon Georgia, another silent figure on horseback will be seen upon her capitol grounds. Gordon's statue faces the north; and it tells how Gordon faced it, whether in wrestling for victory or in pleading for peace. Longstreet's statue must face the south, not only in confident appeal but with expectant look, seeking a judgment which time at last must render. Until it comes, the legend upon Georgia's coat-of-arms will be Meaningless mockery. Until it comes, her proud flag of statehood will droop in shame from its uplifted staff. Until it comes, her scales of justice will flash into her face the mystic symbols upon the walls of Babylon; and, though prosperity may belt her like the bands of Saturn, it will only wrap her in the guilty splendors of Belshazzar's feast. But come it will! Then start the procession to the quarry bring forth the granite -summon the sculptor and prepare the chisel for the old Com monwealth, from Chickamauga's dust to Tybee's light, is waking from her sleep. She intends to revoke an unjust sentence which has rested all too long on Lee's old war horse; and, in the zeal of her anxiety to set him right before the world, it will be her joy to proclaim the amended verdict in colors so bright and in letters so large that, standing upon the battlements of Yonah Mountain, she will snatch the pencil of the dawn and write it on the bosom of the stars!

JAMBS M. GRIGGS : DIXIE NEEDS NO WELCOME HOME

[On February 4, 1899, Judge Griggs, of Georgia, took the floor in Congress for the purpose of thanking his friends of the North for the many eulogies pronounced by them upon the South, for her gallant part in the Spanish-American war, but at the same time he was careful to assure these friends that such tributes were needless. "Ever since Appomattox," said he, "the South has been ready to defend the flag. We settled our differences in 1865 and we are weary of eternal welcomes back into the home of our fathers." This speech delivered by Judge Griggs caught the ear of both sections. Its kindly humor, its patriotic sentiment, its captivating eloquence, and its wholesome advice made it a speech of rare power, one which well deserves to be treasured among Georgia's literary gems. Said Judge Griggs in part:]

Thirty-five years have rolled by since Sherman 's '' march to the sea.'' Another generation has come and gone since the great soldier-president wrote, "Let us have peace." From that day to this good hour, reconcili ation has followed reconciliation until it would seem that "one doth tread upon another's heels, so fast they follow." Knowing all this, Mr. Speaker, I thought I was justified in believing that the sections had been harmonized long before I came upon the stage of action here, but almost daily I am told that I was grievously mistaken; that another war has been necessary to harmonize the North and the South; that another march through Georgia from Atlanta to the sea has been neces sary to completely blot out sectional bitterness and hate.
Sir, the great heart of the South did not pulsate in unison with the recent demand for war. Indeed, our people opposed the war with Spain. They could see but disaster to themselves and little good to other sections

1696

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANi S

of the Union. But the war came, and now it is declared all over the

country that there were no truer, braver, better or more patriotic soldiers

in all our army than the boys who volunteered from the states of the

old Confederacy.

Some affect great surprise at the loyal devotion to the 'flag displayed

by our people of the Southern States. Many would overwhelm us with

thanks for our part in that struggle. There is no need for surprise

or thanks, sir.

......

Every member of this House who could get the opportunity to do

so declared on this floor- a year ago that in the event of war the sons of

the men who had built up the civilization of the old South, the sons of

the men who had fought under the Stars and Bars from '61 to ;65,

would be found standing shoulder to shoulder with the sons of the

men who during that soul-trying time had defended the Stars and Stripes,

all fighting for the honor and glory of that sunburst flag of liberty and

light. Every act of the people of the South from Appomattox to

Santiago has been a declaration of devotion and a loyal sacrifice to the

Union, and nothing but the blindness of unbelief has prevented its

acknowledgment long ago. Surprise and thanks have gone hand in hand

here, Mr. Speaker, and the people of the South neither deserve the one

nor expect the other. Georgia but did her duty, as did Massachusetts,

as both will always perform it regardless of consequences, once they have

determined where duty leads.

1 have never been at war with my fellow citizens, and it causes a

feeling akin to pain to hear iterated and reiterated that my fellow

countrymen are now reconciled to me. I have always been an American,

and the bonds which certain well-intentioned gentlemen are continually

weaving with which to rebind me to the Union are galling to the flesh.

More than half of us have never been unreconciled, and we a,r,e weary of

eternal welcomes to the place we have always known as home. We

have never left our father's, house, and while the principles for which

they fought and the memory of what they suffered is dear to us still,

it is impossible for us to enjoy the hilarious feast and the fatted calf

of the prodigal's return. I have no authority to speak for others,

Mr. Speaker, but it would seem to me equally, if not more, difficult for

the man who laid down his arms in '65 and, with the oath of allegiance

fresh from his lips and heart, turned his energies to the rehabilitation of

his home and the re-establishment of the Union, to enjoy a prodigal's

feast every day in the week and every week in the year, at so many of

which he is made to play the part of host and to supply the fatted calf

as well as the prodigal.

The ambition of the President is a noble one. To live in history as

the restorer of peace to long contending sections is a proud eminence,

fit to stir "fierce ambition in a Caesar's mind." Far be it from me to

question his words or his motives. That he earnestly desires the peace

for which he so eloquently spoke in Georgia's capitol I shall not question

here. I but declare the simple truth. There was already peace between

the North and the South. If my neighbor is my friend we do not daily

rush into each other's arms with protestations of eternal friendship and

undying love. Honest friendship needs not such. If we have been

enemies in the past and now are friends, we do not discuss our differences

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1697

or our dead. The first we buried with the honest handshake that closed the chasm. The last are sacred.
The President's march through Georgia was a splendid pageant. Georgians, always loyal and true, vied with each other in showing hos pitality to the nation's chief executive. "They threw their caps as they would hang them on the horns of the moon, shouting their approba tion"; but, Mr. Speaker, the sons who threw their caps in '98 are not more loyal than the fathers were from the day they grounded their arms in '65 and renewed their broken allegiance to the Union. "The holy faith that warmed the sires" inspired the sons in '98. Then let us have done with these constantly recurring reconciliations of the
sections.
Speaking for myself, the son of a Confederate soldier, while I thank the President for the honor he would now do our martyred dead, and while I shall not be found blindly opposing the consummation of his purpose, I dare declare the truth: the people of the South do not ask it. The unknown dead who sleep amid the high mountains of Virginia and in the green valleys of Tennessee and Kentucky, whose graves are washed by the turbulent waters of the Mississippi, and whose last requiem is whispered by the meandering Chickamauga, the rippling Rappahannock and the historic James, are a heritage of eternal glory to the people of the South.

"On Fame's eternal camping ground Their silent tents are spread."

They

are

ours;

they

sleep

well

as

they

are,

and

God

forbid

that

\ their

bones should ever be made the football of party politics. We accept the

words of the President in good faith, Mr. Speaker; but we insist that

this shall be the last reconciliation of the sections. Let this be the final

ratification of the treaty of peace. , Too many reconciliations bespeak

too many differences. Let this last march through Georgia end forever

the differences of half a century. Let it obliterate all traces of that

other march whose blackened trail marked the close of actual war." Let

the hegira of 1861 be forever swallowed up in the -pilgrimage of 1898.

Let us turn our faces to the morning; you of the North cherishing your

memories as we of the South shall ever cherish ours, all pressing forward

in union to a realization of the patriot's hope and the poet's dream

"Columbia, gem of the ocean, The home of the brave and the free,
The shrine of each patriot's devotion, A world offers homage to thee."

CLARK HOWELL : OUR REUNITED COUNTRY

[This speech was delivered at the Peace Jubilee Banquet, held in Chi cago, October 19,1898, to celebrate the successful conclusion of the Span
ish-American war, and was made in response to the toast:'' Our Reunited Country, North and South." As a member of the National Democratic Executive Committee and as editor of the Atlanta Constitution, Mr.

1698

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Howell already enjoyed a wide reputation, which his eloquent speech on this occasion greatly enhanced. President McKinle.y was the special guest of honor at this banquet.]

Mr. Toast-master, and my Fellow-countrymen: In the mountains of my state, remote from the quickening touch of commerce, and railroads and telegraphs so far removed that the sincerity of its rugged people flows unpolluted from the springs of nature two vine-covered mounds, nestling in the solemn silence of a country church-yard, suggest the text of my response to the sentiment to which I am to speak tonight. A serious text, Mr. Toast-master, for an occasion like this, and yet out of it there is life and peace and hope and prosperity, for in the solemn sacrifice of the voiceless grave can the chiefest lessons of the republic be learned, and the destiny of its real mission be unfolded. So bear with me while I lead you to the rust-stained slab which, for a third of a century since Chickamauga has been kissed by the sun as it peeped over the Blue Ridge, melting the tears with which the mourning night had bedewed the
inscription: "Here lies a Confederate soldier. He died for his country."

The September day which brought the body of this mountain hero

to that home among the hills which had smiled upon his infancy, been

gladdened by his youth, and strengthened by his manhood, was an ever-

memorable one with the sorrowing concourse of friends and neighbors

who followed his shot-riddled body to the grave; and of that number

no man gainsaid the honor of his death, questioned his full loyalty to

the flag for which he fought, or doubted the justice of the cause for

which he gave his life.

Thirty-five years have passed another war has called its roll of

martyrs again the old bell tolls from the crude latticed tower of the

settlement church another great outpouring of sympathetic humanity,

and this time the body of a son, wrapped in the Stars and Stripes, is low-

ered'to its everlasting rest beside that of the father who sleeps in the

Stars and Bars.

There were those there who stood by the grave of the Confederate

hero years before, and the children of those were there, and of those

present no one gainsaid the honor of the death of this hero of El Caney,

and none were there but such as loved, as only patriots can love, the

glorious flag that enshrines the people of a common country, as it en-

shrouds the the form that will sleep forever in its-blessed folds. And on

this tomb will be written:

"\

'

"Here lies the son of a Confederate soldier.

He died for his country."

.

And so it is that between the making of these two graves human hands and human hearts have reached a solution of the vexed problem that has baffled human will and human thought for three decades. Sturdy sons of the South have said to their brothers of the North that the people of the South have long since accepted the arbitrament of the sword to which

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1699

they had appealed. And likewise the oft-repeated message has come back from the North that peace and good-will reigned and that the wounds of civil dissensions were but as sacred memories. Good fellowship was wafted on the wings of commerce and development from those who had worn the blue to those who had worn the gray. Nor were these messages delivered in vain, for they served to pave the way for the complete and absolute elimination of the line of sectional differences by the only process through which such a result was possible. The sentiment of a great majority of the people of the South was rightly spoken in the message of the immortal Hill and in the burning eloquence of Henry Grady both Georgians the record of whose blessed work for the restoration of peace between the sections becomes a national heritage, and whose names are stamped in enduring impress upon the affections of the people of the republic.
And yet there were those among us who believed that your course was polite but insincere, and those among you who assumed that our professed attitude was sentimental and unreal. Bitterness had departed and sectional hate was no more, but there were those who feared, even if they did not believe, that between the great sections of our greater Gov ernment there was not the perfect faith and trust and love that both professed; that there was a want of the faith that made the American Revolution a successful possibility; that there was want of the trust that crystallized our states into the original Union; that there was lack of the love that bound in unassailable strength the united sisterhood of states, that withstood the shock of civil war. It is true this doubt existed to a greater degree abroad than at home. But today the mist of uncertainty has been swept away by the sunlight of events, and there, where doubt obscured before, stands in bold relief, commanding the admiration of the whole world, the most glorious type of united strength and sentiment and loyalty known to the history of nations.
Out of the chaos of that Civil war had arisen a new nation, mighty in the vast extent of its limitless resources, the realities within its reach supassing the dreams of fiction and eclipsing the fancy of fable a new nation, yet rosy in the flesh, with the bloom of youth upon its cheeks and the gleam of morning in its eyes. No one questioned that commer cial and geographical union had been effected. So had Rome reunited its faltering provinces, maintaining the limit of its imperial jurisdiction by
the power of commercial bonds and the majesty of the sword, until in its very vastness it collapsed. The heart of its people did not beat in unison.
Nations may be made by the joining of hands, but the measure of their real strength and vitality, like that of the human body, is in the heart.
Show me the country whose people are not at heart in sympathy with its institutions, and the fervor of whose patriotism is not bespoken in its flag, and I will show you a ship of state which is sailing in the shallow waters, toward eddies of uncertainty, if not to the open rocks of dismemberment.
Whence was the proof to come to ourselves, as well as to the world, that we were being moved once again by a common impulse, and by the same heart that inspired and gave strength to the hand that smote the British in the days of the Revolution, and again at New Orleans; that made our ships the masters of the seas; that placed our flag on Chapultepec, and widened our domain from ocean to ocean 1 How was the world

1700

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

to know that the burning fires of patriotism, so essential to national glory and achievement, had not been quenched by the blood spilled by the heroes of both sides in the most desperate struggle known in the his tory of civil wars ? How was the doubt that stood, all unwilling, between outstretched hands and sympathetic hearts, to be, in fact, dispelled?
If, from the cauldron of conflict there arose this doubt, then only from the crucible of war could come the answer. Thank God, that answer has been made in the record of that war, the peaceful termination of which :we celebrate tonight. Read it in every page of its history; read it in the obliteration of party and sectional lines in the congres sional action which called the nation to arms in the defense of prostrate liberty, and for the extension of the sphere of human freedom; read it in the conduct of the distinguished Federal soldier, who, as the chief executive of this great republic (President McKinley), honors this occa sion by his presence tonight, and whose first commissions have made manifest the sincerity of his often repeated utterances of complete sec tional reconciliation and the elimination of sectional lines in the affairs of government. Differing with him as I do on party issues, utterly at variance with the views of his party on economic problems, I sanction with all my heart the obligation that rests upon every patriotic citizen to make party second to country, and in the measure that he has been actuated by this broad and patriotic policy he will receive the plaudits of the whole people: '' Well done, good and faithful servant.''
Portentous, indeed, have been the developments of the past six months. , The national domain has been extended far into the Caribbean Sea on the south, and to the west it is so near the mainland of Asia that we can hear the process which is grinding the ancient celestial empire into pulp for the machinery of civilization and of progress. In a very short while the last page of this war will have been written, except for the effect it will have on the future. Our flag now floats over Porto Rico, a part of Cuba, and Manila. It must soon bespeak our sovereignty over the Island of Luzon, or possibly over the whole Philippine group. It will, ere long, from the staff of Havana's Morro, fling its shadow upon the sunken and twisted frame of the Maine a grim reminder of the vengeance that awaits any nation that lays unholy hands upon an American citizen or violates any sacred American right. It has drawn from an admiring world unstinted applause for the invincible army that, under tropic suns, despite privations and disease, untrained and undis mayed, has swept out of their own trenches and routed from their own battlements, like chaff before the wind, the trained forces of a formi dable power. It has bodily stripped the past of luster and defiantly challenged the possibilities of the future, in the accomplishment of a matchless navy, whose deeds have struck the universe with consterna tion and with wonder.
But, speaking as a southerner and an American, I say that all this has been as naught compared to the greatest good this war has accom plished. Drawing alike from all sections of the Union for her heroes and her martyrs, depending alike upon North, South, East and West, for her glorious victories, and weeping in sympathy with the widows and the stricken mothers, wherever they may be, America, incarnated spirit of liberty, stands today the holy emblem of a household in which

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1701

the children abide in unity, equality, love and peace. The iron sledge of war that rent asunder the links of loyalty and love has welded them together again. Ears that were deaf to loving appeals for the burial of sectional strife have listened and believed when the muster guns have spoken. Hearts that were cold to calls for trust and sympathy have awakened to loving confidence in the baptism of their blood.
Drawing inspiration from the flag of our country, the South has shared not only the dangers but the glories of the war. In the death of brave young Bagley at Gardenia, North Carolina furnished the first blood of the tragedy. It was Victor Blue, of South Carolina, who, like the Swamp Fox of the Revolution, crossed the fiery path of the enemy at his pleasure and brought the first official tidings of the situation as it existed in Cuba. It was Brumby, a Georgia boy, who first raised the Stars and Stripes over Manila. It was Alabama that furnished Hobson glorious Hobson who accomplished two things which the Spanish navy never yet has done sunk an American ship and made a Spanish man-o '-war securely float.
The South answered the call to arms with its heart, and its heart goes out with that of the North in rejoicing over the result. The demon stration needed to give the touch of life to the picture has been made. The open sesame that was needed to give insight into the true and loyal hearts, North and South, has been spoken. Divided by war, we are united as never before by the same agency, and the Union is of hearts as well as hands. The doubter may scoff and the pessimist may croak, but even they must take hope at the picture presented in the simple and touching incident of eight Grand Army veterans, with their silvery heads bowed in sympathy, escorting the lifeless body of the Daughter of the Confederacy from Narragansett to its last, long rest at Richmond.
When that great and generous commander, U. S. Grant, gave back to Lee, crushed but ever glorious, the sword he had surrendered at Appomattox, that magnanimous deed said to the people of the South: '' You are our brothers." But when the present ruler of our grand republic, on awakening to the condition of war which confronted him, with his first commission placed the leader's sword in the hands of those gallant Confederate commanders, Joe Wheeler and Fitzhugh Lee, he wrote between the lines in living letters of everlasting light the words: '' There is but one people of this Union, one flag alone for all." The South, Mr. Toastmaster, will feel that her sons have been well given, that her blood has been well spilled, if that sentiment is to be indeed the true inspiration of our country's future. God grant it may be, and I believe it will.
J. H. LUMPKIN: "WATCPIMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?"
[This eloquent address by Judge Lumpkin, of the Supreme Court of Georgia, was delivered before the Alumni Society of the University of Georgia, on Tuesday, June 18, 1912.]

Mr. President and Members of the Board of Trustees; Chancellor and Members of the Faculty; Members of the Graduating Class; Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is with peculiar pleasure that I address you from this stage. Born in Athens, my earliest recollections cluster here. Passing my student life
Vol. Ill--28

1702

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

at this grand old university, its campus is redolent of memories of the past. The shimmering light that niters down through the leaves of its great oaks brings back the light of other years and the clangor of the chapel bell seems once more to summon me to the halls of my alma mater. It is thus with emotions that touch at once the past and present that I who thirty-seven years ago stood here to receive my diploma come to talk to these younger brothers sons of our common much-loved mother.
In earlier times watchmen kept their nightly vigils in the streets of towns and villages, while the inhabitants slept; and as each hour passed, they called out the time, and whether the people could rest in safety or not. In the day the watchmen looked forth from towers, when aught was expected. And, though clouds might lower at midnight, and thunder mutter in the distance, and sometimes marauding bands threaten, a sense of security .and of safety came when the watchman, faithful and true, called aloud: "Twelve o'clock, and all's well!" It behooves us sometimes, when perplexities or troubles gather, or when danger seems to stalk abroad, to call out to him who watches: "Watchman, what of the night?" And you, gentlemen who will watch and guard the future of our state and country, will have to answer the question, whether all is well.
From the genesis of things to the present, there has been gradual growth, not always steady, sometimes by leaps and bounds, sometimes with lapses and dark ages, but slowly onward in the cycle of the cen turies. Out of nebulous chaos came a world. Out of primordial life emerged man. From the cave-dweller and the wild savage he rose to hi's present state of intellect and civilization. Through it all ran a principle
of growth.

"A fire-mist and a planet; A crystal and a cell;
A jelly-fish and a saurian; And caves, where the cave-men dwell.
A sense of law and beauty; A face turned from the clod;
Some call it evolution, And others call it God."

Although it may offend our human vanity so to state, there is still room for improvement, in the years to come. As time goes by, changes grow more rapid. It may be confidently stated that material civilization has advanced more in the last two hundred years than in the two thousand years preceding them, and more in the last fifty years than during the balance of the two hundred. Today man talks by lightning, embalms his voice in lasting cylinders of sound, rides in a horseless carriage, bur rows beneath the earth, flies through the air, dashes with the speed of the wind across the land, and plows at will the waters of the deep. No country has escaped his exploration. The north and south poles, so long considered inaccessible, have yielded to his indefatigable search. Steam engines dash through the wilds of Africa, and passengers look from the windows upon zebras, and gnus, and rhinoceroses, roaming unconfined. But iast year the fiercest lions and the most vicious elephants were fright-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1703

ened from their jungles by the apparition of a pair of flashing American ex-presidential eyeglasses and the gleam of a visible set of teeth. The wildest stories of the Arabian Nights are scarcely more incredible than the commonplace occurrences of the present. The impossible of yester day is the ordinary event of today. The fabled wealth of Midas and of Solomon is cast into the shadow by the gigantic fortunes now existing. Oh wondrous age! ages of gold and silver and bronze and brass and iron all rolled and combined into one!
And yet, let us pause for a moment and consider, whither are we going? "What is the aim and end of it all ? Is man created simply to make money and spend it? Is he but the slave of material civilization? I do not decry physical achievement. I do not minimize the legitimate uses of money. But I say to you most earnestly that the important question is not so much what is the nature and value of the automobile, as what is the nature and value of the man in the automobile. Not so much the gun, as the man behind the gun. Not how much money have you, but how much brains and character have you? The real wealth of Georgia is not in cash drawers and bank vaults, or in its mines or manufactories, or even in its king-crowned staple. These hold but the products of the real wealth of our state. The wealth of Georgia is the brains of Georgia. It is vastly important to cultivate our fertile fields, waving with grain and white-robed in the royal fleece of cotton. But it is vastly more important to cultivate the brains and characters of the young men and young women within our borders. Fertilize your fields; but do not forget to also fertilize the brain.
iJevelop the brain and brawn and they will develop the physical resources around them. Train the young men, and they will train your fields and forests and machinery. Let man be the master of the physical world, not its slave. Money is a good servant; it is a tyranical and de grading master. Let us melt the golden calf, and coin it into good American dollars for use in trade, to serve the arts and sciences, and to help humanity. But never let us bow down and worship it, or we may be smitten with punishment, as were the children of Israel, and the tables of our proud destiny may be shattered before our faces..
The great Italian historian, Ferrero, declares that "the fundamental force in history is psychological and not economic.'' At last the future of a state or a nation will depend upon what is in the minds and hearts of its people, rather than upon what is in its treasuries and storehouses. If the hearts of a people become evil or corrupt, then luxury and glory and splendor will not save them; but in the very midst of the feast will come the handwriting on the wall.
Let us hope that the danger foreshadowed by the pungent words of the historian mentioned may not come to pass in our day and land. He said: "In the pessimism with which the ancients regarded progress as corruption, there was a basis of truth, just as there is a principle of error in the too serene optimism with which we consider corruption as progress. This force that pushes the new generations on to" the future, at once creates and destroys; its destructive energy is specially felt in ages like Caesar's in ancient Rome and ours in the modern world, in which facility in the accumulation of wealth over-excites desires and ambitions in all classes."

1704

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

In former times the special need of our country was force, to repel invasion from without. At the present day, its special needs are intellect and character, to cope with evils arising from within. The greatest force in American life today is public opinion. How important is the duty of helping to mold and guide aright that enormous power for good or evil!
Young gentlemen, outside the campus gates lies the world. They are open, and you are about to step forth. Permit one, who has passed through those portals a little while before you to briefly counsel with you.
Go forth determined to do something worth while. Have an object. Have faith in some ideal. For great success you must not only work, but must also have that uplifting of the soul, that profound, steadfast deter mination, which comes from looking to an ideal. Have faith in your selves, faith in the ultimate uplifting of humanity, in which you must take a part, faith in the eternal truth. Do not sneer at faith, and treat it as essentially and always opposed to knowledge. We know nothing, in the absolute sense, in this life. All knowledge is relative. Even what we call science is to .a considerable extent made up of working hypotheses and more or less well-grounded beliefs. Faith is the working hypothesis of the soul. It is "as much the key to happiness here as it is the key to happiness hereafter."
In this practical day, it is sometimes popular to speak lightly of the man of ideals. But no man rises higher than his ideal. Napoleon's ideal was self. He rose to its full achievement; and when he fell, he sorrowed alone in Saint Helena. George Peabody believed in mankind; and when he fell into his last sleep, humanity bowed its head; and today his bene factions on both sides of the Atlantic keep his memory green. Ah! truly, '' to live in hearts we leave behind, is not to die.''
The great church of St. Peter's, of which yonder picture adorns this chapel, is massive and splendid as a structure, with its more than 600 feet of length, its $50,000,000 of cost, and its 176 years of build ing. But the real grandeur of that vast pile is in the profound faith which caused its erection, and which keeps it as a perpetual memorial of a sacred ideal.
Go to that other great church, in London, St. Paul's. Ask who built it. You will not be told of the contractors, or the men who furnished the materials, or who superintended the actual work of construction. But at once will be mentioned the name of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect in whose brain the splendid structure was dreamed, before a stroke of work was done to make it a fact. And this is true of many other noble works.
Nor is the man of ideals necessarily impractical, as some have claimed. A distinguished American orator has well illustrated this fact by the following story: Joseph was an idealist. His practical brethren said he was a dreamer, and of no account. And they seized him, and threw him into a pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites on their way to Egypt. And the years passed; and the famine came; and the brethren of Joseph, in dire distress, went down into Egypt to buy corn. And in Egypt they found Joseph, the dreamer. And Joseph had the corn.
We may not always understand with perfect knowledge the why and wherefore of things, but do not therefore discard all faith in things.

f

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1705

'' We may not know the meaning vast, Nor clearly see with human sight,
But only catch some glimpse at last, As we gaze starward through the night.

"What has done all and can do all, And leads us, through the dark or light,
We may not .know, or grasp, or call; But we may trust the Infinite."

From the time when the active work of teaching began and Mr. Meigs became president in 1801, from the first commencement, which was held under a brush arbor in 1804, this institution has sought to plant in the breasts of the students high ideals and noble resolves. The speaker well remembers the time when it was considered that the day must be begun with early prayer, and when, in order that no time might be lost from the usual hours of study and recitation, prayers were had before break fast. Oftentimes aroused from slumber by the chapel bell, and dressing with lightning speed sometimes in dressing gowns and slippers the gathering was a motley looking, sleepy-eyed crew. But when that grand old man, Chancellor Lipscomb, lifted up his eloquent voice in earnest petition to the source of all learning and all power, he would send a thrill even to the consciences of the drowsy .audience, and plant in their breasts seeds which have taken root and grown and spread, like a bene diction, through the arid years of later life. And likewise in the future you will remember that golden-hearted gentleman and splendid Chan cellor, David Crenshaw Barrow. Great of heart and great of brain, he is not only the chancellor, but the friend and counsellor of the young men. lie may rightfully be called the loving and loved chancellor. Long may he continue to hold the office which he fills and adorns with such signal ability, and live in the hearts of "the boys," young and old!
Among the most enduring of recollections are the memories of collegelife. You may forget the Greek roots for which you dug in the sweat of your brows, or the binominal theorem, or the pons asinorum, that'' bridge of sighs" by which the student passes into the mysterious realms of" geometry. But you will not forget the gentle kindness, the patient con sideration and the priceless assistance of the chancellor and professors; in helping you over the rough places in the pathway that led to knowl edge, or in cheering and encouraging you when the way seemed long or beset with temptations. Such memories will grow stronger and moretender as the years go by. Nor is this all. In many a quiet hour you: will hear, with the ear of memory, the insistent clangor of the bell that from its brazen throat rang out its clamorous announcement of some victory of the Georgia baseball or football team. Through the growingdimness of the years you will still see the blazing bonfires and the exultant procession of the victors. And amid the shadows of life's evening youi will see twinkling the star-bright eyes of the college sweethearts. Dearmemories of our college days, that shall stir our hearts in years to come,, or fill our eyes with mists of loving tears!
But, in addition to faith in an ideal, you must work. Sir ChristopherWren's dream of a great church would have remained merely a dream.,,.

1706

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

if it had not been crystallized into a splendid reality by labor. For true success you must not only form a high ideal, but also turn it into a lasting fact. To do this demands work, courage, determination. Nothing worth while comes by chance. Genius is a high-sounding word. But it requires determined work to siicceed. On one occasion when Rufus Choate was told that a certain fine achievement was the result of accident, he an swered : '' Nonsense ! You might as well drop the Greek alphabet and expect to pick up the Iliad."
"The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight;
But" they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.''
Do not rely too much on adventitious aids of birth or family influence. Make your own way. Some years ago a college speaker, in entering the auditorium, noticed on the swinging door a sign which read, "Push." This struck his attention, and in his address he said to the young men: "The true secret of success is written yonder on your door." All eyes were turned in that direction, when to his horror he saw that on that side of the door the sign was, "Pull." But on the portals which enter the temple of success there is but one sign "Push."
The determined spirit which accomplishes great results is well set forth in the poem of Joaquin Miller, describing Columbus sailing in search of the new world.

"Behind him lay the gray Azores, Behind the gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghost of shores; Before him only shoreless seas.
The good mate said: 'Now must we pray For lo! the very stars are gone,
Brave Adm'r'l speak; what shall I say?' 'Why, say: "Sail on! sail on! and on!" '

" 'My men grow mutinous day by day;

.,

My men grow ghastly, wan and weak.'

The stout mate thought of home; a spray

Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.

'What shall I say, brave Adm'r'l, say,

If we sight naught but seas at dawn 1'

'Why, you shall say at break of day:

,*

'' Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!" '

'' They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: 'This mad sea shows his teeth tonight.
He curls his lip, he lies in wait, He lifts his teeth, as if to bite!
Brave Adm 'r '1, say but one good word: What shall we do when hope is gone ?'
The words leapt like a leaping sword: ' Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1707

'' Then pale and worn, he paced his deck, And peered through darkness. Ah, that night
Of all dark nights! And then a speck A light! A light! At last a light!
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! It grew to be Time's burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world Its grandest lesson: ' on, sail on!' "

It is a common saying that the world owes every man a living. That is not true. The world owes no man of sound body and mind a living. What it owes to every man is the opportunity to make'a living. And the man owes it to the world to accept the opportunity and make the living. No man should live for himself alone. He is one of the human family, and he owes a duty to humanity. Each of you is a son of the university, In a broader sense, you are the sons of your native state and country. Go forth to do your duty, not for self alone, but for mankind.
Love your state and your country. In this tense age, the future bristles with profound questions touching their welfare, their glory, and their honor. The most casual observer can see that there is a great unrest throughout the world. In England a million, men have but recently been out of work and a nation was almost at a standstill. -On the continent of Europe great industrial and political struggles are in progress. Even China, the giant, which slept for ages, has awakened. The oldest of monarchies has become the youngest of republics. In this country tre mendous questions economic, political, sociological and moral inhere in the strenuous and complex life of today, and are pressing for solution. It will require brave hearts, clear heads and strong hands to solve these problems aright. I trust that you may so direct your own lives and so guard the state and national welfare and honor, and guide them toward a bright future, that when the old men, tottering adown life's pathway to the valley of the shadow, call out to one of you young watchmen on the heights above, "Watchman tell us of the night, what the signs of promise are?" you can point upward to the future and answer back in tones as ringing as a bugle note, '' Traveler o 'er yon mountain height see that glorious, beaming star."
I feel a peculiar interest in the young men of Georgia. The old men are passing away. , The snows that whiten their locks will soon become winding sheets. Their faces are to the west. Their glories are the rays of the sunset. But the young men are coming on to take.their places, to guard and protect and advance the interests of our much loved state, to place new laurels on her brow, and confer on her a grander scepter of power. It is my earnest wish for you that you may prove worthy sons of the great mother, and that in the coming years, like the Roman mother of old, she may point to you with pride and say: '' These, these are my jewels.''

WALTER B. HILL : EULOGY ON SIDNEY LANIER

[On October 17, 1890, a ha-ndsome bronze bust of Mr. Lanier was unveiled in Macon, Ga., the poet's former home, on which occasion a

1708

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

superb address, characterized by an intimate appreciation of Mr. Lanier's genius, was delivered by his brilliant fellow-townsman, Mr. Hill, after wards chancellor of the University of Georgia.].

Sidney Lanier sings the psalm of his own life in the "Song of the Chattahoochee." Pure was that life as the mountain stream that, in his native Georgia, flows

'' Out of the hills of Habersham

Down through the valleys of Hall."

-

\

Manifold hindrances uprose at every step to deflect or bar his course

set toward poetry as the mountain brook was set toward the sea. He was

held in thrall to the narrow channel of his earlier life by languor of

wasting disease; and by the pressure on his "home fond heart" of fam

ily care. Bread for wife and children could be earned in the uncongenial

toil of a lawyer's office, at the sacrifice of the xlestiny which throbbed

within him; only a strong faith could prophesy that the manna would

fall from those larger heavens whose atmosphere his spirit craved as

its vital air.

Listen how in the allegory of the song these alluring appeals are

heard, and the barriers make themselves felt

"All down the hills of Habersham, All through the valleys of Hall, The rushes cried, Abide, Abide, The wilful water-weeds held me thrall, The laving laurel turned my tide, And the ferns and the fondling grass said, Stay, The dewberry dipped for 'to work delay, And the little reeds sighed, Abide, Abide, Here in the hills of Habersham, Here in the valleys of Hall."

But no! The arid wastes of time parched with the eagerness of its own greed the droop ing'flowers of beauty and love and holiness the sea of song stretching its sympathies around the hard, prosaic crust of human life all need and sorely need the pure and quickening message which strives within him to find vent. Duty whispers low, '' thou must.'' Hear, then, in the allegory of the poem, how the stream asserts its out going mission :
'' 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."

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1709

Lanier is the type "in a nineteenth century way" of the union of musical and poetic functions in the old-time bard or minstrel. The real significance of the connection of his musical genius with his poetic art lies not so much in the skill of his metrical forms as in the enrichment of his poetic inspirations.
Most strikingly this rare conjunction of poetic gifts enabled him to surpass other poets in the description of sounds; not perhaps in the description of the sounds of voluble bells, and lowing herds, and surging seas, but, the sounds which, as George Eliot says, '' lie on the other side of silence." "He could hear the squirrel's heart beat." If to other poets it has been given to behold "the light that never was on' land or sea," to him it was given to hear voices in the depths of woods and the brooding of the 'marshes which no ear but his had ever caught. To his quickened hearing the indistinguishable vibrations of the wings of bees made "loud fanfare." The rustling and whispering of little green leaves awoke his "Sunrise" from sleep. How exquisite this description from "Corn":

"The copse-depths into, little noises start That sound anon like beatings of a heart, Anon like talk 'twixt lips not far apart.''
Lanier is the poet of passionate purity. He is the laureate of the White Cross movement of a later time the knightly order of Sir Galahads whose '' strength is as the strength of ten,'' because their hearts are pure. Woman's protest against the burning injustice of public opinion which man has established was never more finely uttered than in the lines
"Must woman scorch for a single sin Which her betrayers may revel in 1"
In an age of materialism, he has sung of the finer things of the spirit. To a generation rushing madly after wealth, hardly pausing for a moment around an open grave, making "business a battle," wedging the poor
"Against an inward opening door That pressure tightens evermore,"
and sound the cry,
"Alas, for the poor to have some part, In yon sweet living land of art.''
His song and his life are a splendid lesson for, this needy time. The lesson that to be and to know are greater than to get and to have.
He has enriched poetry with the revelation of aspects of nature hitherto unsung. He was the first that ever burst into that silent sea, '' the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn.'' He is the first who has sung in lasting melody the waving of the corn. His heart was open to 'all of Nature's revelation as the morning glory to the sun. A mere glance at the titles of the poems will show; how many objects touched the springs of affection within him. Wherever he went Tampa, Brunswick, Chester he "carried starry stuff about his wings,"

1710

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

and has enriched his temporary homes with the pollen of his songs. The "peddler bee," the "gospelling glooms of live oaks," the "marsh plants, thirsty-cupped for rain," the "prayer of leaves, with myriad palms upturned in air;" the mockingbird, "trim Shakespeare of the tree" who "summed the woods in song" these are but a few of the rare felicities of phrase which glow through the little green-gilt volume of poems like the "globe of gold" that on a Florida Sunday studded bright the green heavens of the orange-groves.
The story of his life is a heritage for all time. The undaunted faith that in the face of every practical discouragement bade him take flute and pen for sword and staff, and give his allegiance to the twin arts lie had so long worshiped the manly and uncomplaining struggle against poverty and unrecognition the almost airy heroism with which he looked Death in the eye, calling it the "rich stirrup cup of time" that should send him glad on his journey to the undiscovered country all this is a record that the world will not willingly let die. "The idea of his life shall sweetly creep into men's study of imagination."
Summing up all these qualities, and thinking of others that can not now be named, it is not too much to say in the words of Chief Justice Bleckley, himself a poet, that '' his fair fame which is now a mere germ may one day grow to be a tall cedar in the poetic Lebanon.''

ELOQUENT PARAGRAPHS
ADIEU TO WESLEYAN
Time will soon be done. The day scarcely says at morning's rosy dawn, '' I come,'' ere the sound, '' I am gone,'' sinks and dies in even ing's quiet hush. The present will soon be the past. The bounding blood, struck by the chill of death, will creep in funeral motion to the heart, whose feeble pulsations can send it forth no more. Life's gay attire must be surrendered for the grave's pale shroud, and the freedom of earth for confinement in the coffin and the tomb. Take heed to your ways, your hearts, and your hopes. So live that when this earthly taber nacle lies in darkened ruin and the soul shall send its power forth, it shall receive a welcome from its God and a mansion in its Father's House. My task is well nigh over. It remains but to pronounce the parting words; and each one to our separate ways; strangers and pilgrims on the earth, girt for its toil and its grief; doomed perhaps to meet no more until we meet as kindred dwellers in the house appointed for all the living. I have no complaint to make, no wrong to forgive. If in the exercise of authority a word to wound has been spoken by me, let the motive bereave it of its harshness and the feeling it awakens be numbered with the things forgotten or at rest. Kindness has marked our inter course, let friendship hallow our farewell.
"A word that must be and hath been, A word that makes us linger, Yet farewell." Bishop George F. Pierce.
[Extract from an address to the graduating class, delivered on retiring from the presidency of Wesleyan Female College in 1838.]

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1711

GEOBGIA
I would I had the power of presenting with the brevity which becomes an occasion like this a worthy ideal of Georgia, the land of my love. But not as she lies upon the map, stretching from the mountains to the ocean, dear as she must be to her sons, in all her variegated features; in her mountains and her valleys, in her rivers and her cataracts, in her bare red hills and her broad fields of rustling corn and of cotton snowy white; in her vast primeval forests that roll back in softer cadence the majestic music of the melancholy sea; and, last but not least, in our own beautiful but modest Savannah, smiling sweetly through her veil of perennial and yet of diversified green. It is not the Georgia of the map I would invoke before you tonight. I would conjure up if I could the Georgia of the soul majestic ideal of a sovereign state, at once the mother and the queen of a gallant people Georgia, as she first pressed her feet upon these western shores and beckoned hitherward from the elder world the poor but the virtuous, the oppressed but the upright, the unfortunate but the honorable; adopting for herself a sentiment far nobler than all the armorial bearings of starred and spangled courts, where low-born base ness wafts perfume to pride; having for her escutcheon the sentiment: "Poverty and Virtue! Toil and be honest!" * * *
"When the winter of our discontent was resting heavily, gloomily upon us; at the holiest hour of the mysterious midnight, a vision of sur passing loveliness rose before me. Georgia, my native state, with man acled limbs and disheveled locks and tears streaming from weary eyes, bent over a mangled form which she clasped, though with convulsed and fettered arms, to her bosom. And, as I gazed, the features of the blood stained warrior rapidly changed. First, I saw Bartow and then I saw Gallie and then I saw Cobb, and there was Walker and Willis and Lamar! More rapid than light itself successively flashed out the wan but intrepid features of her countless scores of dying heroes, and she pressed them close to her bosom, and closer still, and yet more close, until, behold, she had pressed them all right into her heart! And quickly, as it were, in the twinkling of an eye, the fetters had fallen from her beautiful limbs and the tears were dried upon her lovely cheeks and the wonted fires had returned to her flashing eyes and she was all of Georgia again: an equal among equals in a Union of Confederate sover eignties. Yes, the Georgia of Oglethorpe, the Georgia of 1776, the Georgia of 1860, is the Georgia of today; is Georgia now, with her own peculiar memories and her own peculiar hopes, her own historic and heroic names, and her own loyal sons and devoted daughters; rich in resources, intrepid in soul, defiant of wrong as ever she was. God save her. God save our liege sovereign! God save our beloved queen, God save our only queen! General Henry R. Jackson.
[Extract from a banquet speech delivered in Savannah, during _the days of re construction, in response to the toast: "Georgia."]
LEE AND DAVIS
No people, ancient or modern, can look with greater pride to the" judg ments of history than can we of the South to the verdict which history will be compelled to render upon the merits and characters of our two chief leaders: the one in the military and the other in the civil service.

1712

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Most other leaders are great because of fortunate results and most other heroes because of success; but Davis and Lee, because of qualities in themselves, are great in the face of fortune and heroes in spite of defeat.
"When the future historian shall come to survey the character of Lee he will find it rising like some mountain-peak above the undulating plain
of humanity and he must lift his eyes toward heaven to catch its summit. He possessed every virtue of other great commanders without their vices. He was a foe without hate, a friend without treachery, a soldier without cruelty, a victor without oppression, ,and a victim without murmuring.
He was a public officer without vices'; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy and a man without guile. He was Caesar without his ambition; Frederick without his tyranny; Napoleon without his selfishness, and Washington without his reward. He was gentle as a woman in life; modest and pure as a virgin in thought; watchful as a Roman vestal in duty; submissive to
law as Socrates, and grand in battle as Achilles.



!

^

^

%?

^

'3fc

^

&

4

-3fc

^:

-&

Jefferson Davis was as great in the cabinet as was Lee in the field.
He was more resentful in temper and more aggressive by nature than Lee. His position, too, exposed him more frequently to assaults from
our own people. He had to make all appointments and though often upon the recommendation of others all the blame of mistakes was charged to him. He also made recommendations for enactments, and though these measures, especially the military portion, invariably had the concurrence of Lee and often originated with that chieftain, the opposition of mal
contents was directed at Davis. * * * I could detain you all night correcting false impressions which have been industriously made against this great and good man. I knew Jefferson Davis as I knew few men. I have been near him in his public duties; I have seen him by his private fireside; I have witnessed his humble Christian devotions; and I challenge the judgment of history when I say, no people were ever led through the fiery struggle of liberty by a nobler, truer patriot; while the carnage of war and the trials of public life never revealed a purer or a more beauti

ful Christian character. *##*#*****#*#

I would be ashamed of my own unworthiness if I did not venerate
Lee. I would scorn my own nature if I did not love Davis. I would question my own integrity and patriotism if I did not honor and admire both. There are some who affect to> praise Lee and condemn Davis. But
of all such Lee himself would be ashamed. No two leaders ever leaned each on the other in such beautiful trust and absolute confidence. Hand in hand and heart to heart, they moved in front of the dire struggle of their people for independence: a noble pair of brothers. And if fidelity to right, endurance of trials and self-sacrifice for others can win title to a place with the good in the great hereafter, then Davis and Lee will meet where wars are not waged and slanderers are not heard; and as, heart to heart and wing to wing, they fly through the courts of heaven, admiring angels will say: "What a noble pair of brothers!" Benjamin

H. Hill.

[Extract from an address before the Southern Historical Society in Atlanta, February 18, 1874.]

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1713

JOHNSTON 's ARMY OF THE WEST

Many have been the eulogies upon the Army of Northern Virginia. Poets have sung and historians have written and orators have spoken of its deeds of heroism and of valor. But the story of the other army can also furnish a theme for the poet, and the historian, and the orator. No grander epic in martial story can ever be anthemed than the march of the Army of Tennessee from Missionary Ridge to Atlanta. It is the story of many hard fought battles Ringgold, Dalton, Resaca, Rome, New Hope Church, Marietta, Kenesaw .at which last there were three weeks of battling, Johnston in the lead, Hood and Hardee, and Polk, as his able lieutenants, and with them gallant Pat Cleburne, the Stonewall of the western army, and at his side a score of others equally as brave. Some of you whom I see before me were with that gallant band. You well know how, in May, 1864, this deadlock of armies began, with over 100,000 men on the Union side against 60,000 on your side. How foot by foot Johnston fell back along the hotly-.eontested fields to which I have referred; and how, when Peachtree Creek was reached, his opponent's army had been reduced by half, and he had himself lost less than 10,000 men. He had drawn the "Hero of Columbia" into our own country, with mountains and rivers behind him, his army half gone, his line of supply in constant danger, and he fronting a splendidly equipped, well preserved and confident army of over 50,000 men. Surely the step was an error that led to the change of this condition. When this step was taken the Federal commander uttered these ominous words: "Heretofore the fighting has been as Johnston pleased; now it will be as I please." Then came Atlanta and Jonesboro and the beginning of the end. Johnston's policy was to preserve his army at any price. He planned to draw his enemy from his base of supply and to give him battle only when most disastrous.
History tells of the Roman Pabius, who opposed Hannibal and his Carthaginian army in its invasion of Italy. He was entrusted by the unanimous will of the people with the preservation of the republic. The system which he adopted to check the advance of Hannibal is well known. By a succession of movements, marches and countermarches, always choosing good defensive positions, he harassed his antagonist who could never draw him into ground favorable for his attack, while Fabius watched every opportunity for availing himself of any error or neglect on the part of the Carthaginian. This mode of warfare which was new to the Roman, acquired for Fabius the name of '' the Delayer,'' and he was censured by the young, the rash and the ignorant. Fabius returned to Rome and the command of the army was entrusted to Varro, who rushed imprudently to battle and the defeat of the Roman army at Cannae changed the history of Rome. Who knows but that the history of the Confederate States of America might have been written differently had not the criticism of the rash and the thoughtless and the ignorant been allowed to lead to a substitution of the Confederate Fabius with a brave but impetuous Varro?
I will not enlarge upon what have been the results of the great Civil war; but one, and perhaps the greatest of all, the results accomplished was to settle for all time that we were a free and united people, and that

1714

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the efforts of a tyrannical majority to overrule a weak but determined minority will, whenever attempted, plunge the country into civil war. This lesson alone is to posterity worth the sacrifice. Again, the principle for which the fight was made by the South has been determined as correct by the results of the war. The Supreme Court of our reunited country, within a decade after the close of the Civil war, has held to be sound the doctrine upon which all the Southern States withdrew from the Union. So it may be said that the independent sovereignty of the individual states of our Union have forever been guaranteed by this great but crimson seal of civil war, and thus has been preserved what Mr. Calhoun has been pleased to term the "very breath of the nostrils of the government."
But if the great struggle had done naught else, is it not enough that it has given to posterity, to the young men and women of our country as an exemplar, and to older ones as a memory, such a character as Robert Edward Lee? He was great in victory. As his brave soldiers marched before him into victorious battles, their countenances seemed to speak the glorious words: '' Ah, beloved general, we who are about to die, salute you.'' He was still greater in defeat. Then it was there came that which inspired the immortal words: '' Duty is the sublimest word in our language," and "Human virtue should be equal to human calamity." The lesson of his life is before us. "A leader of armies he closes his career in complete disaster, but military scientists study his campaigns and find in them designs as bold and brilliant, and actions as intense and energetic as ever illustrated the art of war; the gallant captain beholds in his bearing courage as rare as ever faced a desperate field, or restored a lost one; the private soldier looks up at an image as benignant and commanding as ever thrilled the heart with highest impulse of devotion. He lived and died the type of the Confederate nation, and the brave and the true of every land pay him tribute." The first soldiers of foreign climes salute him with eulogy; the scholar decorates his page with dedica tion to his name; the artist enshrines his form and features in noblest work of brush and chisel, and the poet voices the heroic pathos of his life in tender and lofty strains, and thus

"When a great man dies For years beyond our ken The light he leaves behind him lies Upon the paths of men." Henry R. Goetchius.
[Extract from an address delivered in Columbus, Georgia, on the anniversary of the birth of Eobert E. Lee, January 19, 1900.]

THE LAND OP MEMOBIES

If the worst is to befall us; if our most serious apprehensions and gloomiest forebodings are to be realized; if centralism is ultimately to prevail; if our entire system of free institutions, as established by our common ancestors, is to be subverted and an empire established in place of them; if such is to be the last scene now being enacted; then be assured that we of the South will be acquitted, not only in our own consciences, but in the judgment of mankind, of all responsibility for so terrible a

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1715

catastrophe and from .all the guilt of so great a crime against humanity. Amidst our own ruins, bereft of fortunes and estates, as well as liberty, with nothing remaining to us but a good name and a public character unsullied and untarnished, we will in our common misfortunes still cling in our affections to "the land of memories" and find expression for our sentiments when surveying the past .as well as of our distant hopes when looking to the future, in the grand words of Father Ryan, one of our most eminent divines and one of America's best poets: "A land with out ruins is a land without memories; a land without memories is a land without liberty! A land that wears a laurel crown may be fair to see, but twine .a few sad cypress leaves around the brow of any land and, be that land beautiless and bleak, it becomes lovely in its consecrated coronet of sorrow, and it wins the sympathy of the heart and history. Crowns of roses fade; crowns of thorns endure! Calvaries and crucifixes take deepest hold upon humanity! The triumphs of might are transient; they pass away and are forgotten; the sufferings of right are graven deepest on the chronicles of nations!"

"Yes, give me a land where the ruins are spread And the living tread light on the hearts of the dead; Yes, give me a land that is blest by the dust, And bright with the deeds of the down-trodden, just. Yes, give me a land that hath legend and lays Enshrining the memories of long-vanished days; Yes, give me a land that hath story and song To tell of the strife of the right with the wrong; Yes, give me the land with a grave in each spot And names in the graves that shall not be forgot. Yes, give me the land of the wreck and the tomb. There's a grandeur in graves, there's a glory in g-loom! For out of the gloom future brightness is born, As .after the night looms the sunrise of morn ; And the graves of the dead with the grass overgrown May yet form the footstool of Liberty's throne, And each single wreck in the war-path of might Shall yet be a rock in the temple of right!''
Alexander H. Stephens.
[Extract from a speech delivered in the national House of ^Representatives shortly after the close of the Civil war.]

THE STARS AND STRIPES

It is with no ordinary pride that I, who have opposed all these sec tional parties, can stand here in the City of Atlanta, in the very center of .all our sorrows, and raise my voice, fearing no successful contradiction when I affirm that the Union never made war upon the South. It was not the Union, my countrymen, that slew your children; it was not the Union that burned your cities; it was not the Union that laid waste your country, invaded your homes and mocked at your calamities;, it was not the Union that reconstructed your states; it was not the Union that dis franchised intelligent citizens and denied them participation in their own

1716

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

governments. No! No! Charge not these things upon the Union of your fathers. Every one of these wrongs was inflicted by a diabolical sectionalism in the very teeth of every principle of the American Union. So equally I say the South never made war upon the Union. There has never been an hour when nine out of ten of us would not have given our lives for this Union. We did not leave that Union because we were dis satisfied with it;, we did not leave.the. Union ,to make war upon it. We left the Union because a sectional party had seized it and we hoped thereby to avoid a conflict. But, if war, must come, we intended to fight a sectional party and not the Union. Therefore the late war, with all its disastrous consequences, was the result of sectionalism in the North and of sectionalism in the South, and none, I repeat, of these disasters are chargeable upon the Union,
When unimpassioned reason shall review our past, there is no subject in all our history on which our American statesmanship, North and South, will be adjudged to have been so unwise, so imbecile, and so utterly deficient as upon that one subject, which stimulated these sectional parties into existence. Above all the din of these sectional quarrelings I would raise my voice and proclaim to all our people that there is no right or liberty for any race of .any color in America save in the preservation of that -great American Union according to the principles symbolized by that flag. Destroy the general Government and the states will rush into anarchy. Destroy the states and we will all rush into despotism and slavery. Preserve the general Government; preserve the states; and pre serve both by keeping each untrammeled in their appropriate spheres; and we shall preserve the rights and liberties of all sections and of all races for all time.
My countrymen, have you studied the wonderful system of free con stitutional government? Have you compared it with former systems and noted how our fathers sought to improve their defects ? Let me commend this study to every American citizen today. To him who loves liberty it is more enchanting than romance, more bewitching than love and more elevating than any other science. Our fathers accepted this plan with improvements in the details which can not be found in any other system. With what a noble impulse of patriotism they came together from dis tant states and joined their counsel to perfect their system, thencefor ward to be known as the American system of free constitutional govern ment. The- snows that nightly fall on Mount Washington are not purer than the motives which begot it. The fresh dew-laden zephyrs from the orange-groves of the South are not sweeter than the hopes which its advent inspired. The flight of our symbolic eagle, though he blow his breath on the sun, can not be higher than its expected destiny. Have the motives which inspired our fathers become .all corrupt in their chil dren? Are the hopes that sustained them all poisoned to us? Is that high expected destiny all eclipsed and before its noon ? No, no, forever no! Patriots North, patriots South, patriots everywhere! Let us hallow this year of jubilee by burying all our sectional animosities. Let us close our ears to the men and the parties that teach us to hate each other.
Raise high that flag of our fathers. Let southern breezes kiss it. Let southern skies reflect it. Southern patriots will love it; southern sons will defend it,.andsouthern heroes will die for it! And. as its folds unfurl

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1717

beneath the heavens let our voices unite and swell the loud invocation: Flag of the Union! Wave on! Wave ever! But wave over freemen, not over subjects. Wave over states, not over provinces! And now let the voices of patriots from the North and from the East and from the West join our voices from the South and send to heaven one universal according chorus: Wave on, flag of our fathers! Wave forever! But wave over a Union of equals, not over a despotism of lords and vassals; over a land of law, of liberty, of peace, and not of anarchy, oppression and strife. Benjamin H. Hill.
[Extract from an address delivered in Atlanta, in 1876, on the reception of a flag presented to the city by visitors from the State of Ohio.]

ME. GBADY'S INTRODUCTION OF JEFFERSON DAVIS

Had the great man whose memory is perpetuated in this marble chosen of all men one witness to his constancy and his courage, he would have chosen the illustrious statesman whose presence honors this platform today. Had the people of Georgia chosen of all men one man today to aid in this sacred duty, and, by the memories that invest him about, to give deeper sanctity to their work, they would have chosen Jefferson Davis first and last president of the Confed erate States. It is good, sir, for you to be here. Other leaders have had their triumphs. Conquerors have won crowns; and honors have been piled on the victors of earth's great battles, but never yet, sir, came man to more loving people. Never conqueror wore prouder diadem than the deathless love that crowns your gray hairs today. Never king inhabited more splendid palace than the millions of brave hearts in which your dear name and fame are forever enshrined. Speak ing to you, sir, as a son of a Confederate soldier, who sealed his devotion with his life holding kinship through the priceless heritage of his blood to you and yours standing midway between the thinning ranks of his old comrades, whose faltering footsteps are turned toward the grave, and the new generation, thronging eagerly to take the work that falls unfinished from their hands here, in the auspicious Present, across which .the historic Past salutes a glorious Future, let me pledge you that tho love we bear you shall be transmitted to our children, and that generations yet unborn shall in this fair land hold your memory sacred and point with pride to your lofty and stainless life. My country men, let us teach the lesson in this old man's life that defeat, no less than victory, hath its glories. Let us declare that this outcast from the privi leges of this great government is the uncrowned king of our people, and that no southern man, high or humble, asks greater glory than to bear with him, heart to heart, the blame and the burden of the cause for which he stands unpardoned. In dignity and honor he met the responsibilities of our common cause. With dauntless courage he faced its charges. In obscurity and poverty he has for twenty years borne the reproach of our enemies and the obloquy of defeat. This moment in this blessed Easter week that, witnessing the resurrection of these memories which, for twenty years have been buried in our hearts, has given us the best Easter we have seen since Christ was risen from the dead. This moment finds its richest reward in the fact that we can light with sunshine the shorten-
Vol. Ill--29

1718

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

ing end of a path tliat has long been dark and dreary. Georgians, coun trymen, soldiers, and sons of soldiers, and brave women, the light and soul and crown of our civilization, rise, and give your hearts voice, as we tell Jefferson Davis that he is at home among his people.
[Speech delivered at the unveiling of the Ben Hill Monument, in Atlanta, Ga,, May 1, 1886.]

THE SOUTH AND THE RACE PROBLEM

The love we feel for that race, you can neither measure nor compre hend. As I .attest it here, the spirit of my old black mammy from her home up there looks down to bless me and, through the tumult of this night, steals the sweet music of her croonings, as thirty years ago she held me in her black arms and lead me smiling into sleep. This scene vanished as I speak, and I catch the vision of an old southern home, with its lofty pillars and its white pigeons fluttering down through the golden air. I see women with strained and anxious faces and children alert yet helpless. I see night come down with its dangers and its apprehensions and in a big hom.ely room I feel on my tired brow the touch of loving hands, now worn and wrinkled, but fairer to me yet than the hands of mortal woman and stronger yet to lead me than the hands of mortal man; and as they lay a mother's blessing, there, while at her knees the truest altar I have^ ever known I thank God that she is safe in her sanctuary because her slaves, sentinel in the silent cabin or guard at the chamber, door, put a black man's loyalty between her and danger.
But" I. catch another vision. The crisis.of battle; a soldier struck, staggering, falls. I see a slave scuffling through the smoke, winding his black arms about the fallen form, reckless of the hurtling death, bending his trusty face to catch the words that tremble on the stricken lips, so wrestling meantime with agony that he would lay down his life in his master's stead. I see him by the weary bedside, ministering with uncom plaining patience, praying with all his humble heart that God would lift his master up until death comes in mercy and in honor to still the soldier's agony and seal the soldier's life. I see him by the open grave, mute, motionless, uncovered, suffering for the death of him who in life fought against his freedom. I see him when the mound is heaped and the great drama of his life is closed, turn .away and with downcast eyes and uncer tain step start out into new and strange fields, faltering, struggling, but moving on, until his shambling figure is lost in the light of this better and brighter day. And from the grave comes a voice saying: '' Follow him! Put your arms about him in his need, even as he put his about me. Be his friend as he was mine." And out into this new world strange to me as to him, dazzling, bewildering both I follow! And may God forget my people when they forget these!
Whatever the future may hold for them whether they plod along in the servitude from which they have never been lifted since the Cyrenian was laid hold upon by the Roman soldiers and made to bear the cross of the fainting Christ whether they find homes again in Africa, and thus hasten the prophecy of the psalmist who said: "And suddenly Ethiopia shall hold out her hands unto God" whether, forever dislocated and separated, .they remain a weak people beset by stronger, and exist as the

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1719

Turk, who lives in the jealousy rather than in the conscience of Europe or whether in this miraculous republic they break through the caste of twenty centuries and, belying universal history, reach the full stature of citizenship, and in peace maintain it we shall give them uttermost justice and abiding friendship. And whatever we do, into whatever seeming estrangement we may be driven, nothing shall disturb the love we bear this republic.
I stand here, Mr. President, to prof ess no new loyalty. When General Lee, whose heart was the temple of our hopes and whose arm was clothed with our strength, renewed his allegiance to the Government at Appomattox, he spoke from a heart too great to be false, and he spoke for every honest man from Maryland to Texas. From that day to this Hamilcar has nowhere in the South sworn young Hannibal to hatred or to ven geance, but everywhere to loyalty and to love. Henry W. Grady.
[Extract from the speech on the race problem delivered at the banquet of the Merchants Association in Boston in December, 1889.]

WHAT THE SOUTH ASKS

Such, Mr. President, is the problem as we see it; such is the temper in which we approach it; such the progress made. What do we ask of you? First, patience. Out of this alone can come perfect work. Second, con fidence, in this alone can you judge fairly. Third, in this you can help us best. Fourth, give us your sons as hostages. When you plant your capital in millions, send your sons that they may help know how true are our hearts and may help to swell the Anglo-Saxon current until it can carry without danger this black infusion. Fifth, loyalty to the republic for there is sectionalism in loyalty as in estrangement. This hour little needs the loyalty that is loyal to one section and yet holds the other in enduring suspicion and estrangement. Give us the broad and perfect loyalty that loves and trusts Georgia alike with Massachusetts that knows no South, 110 North, no East, no West; but endears with equal and patriotic love every foot of our soil, every state in our Union.
A mig'hty duty, sir, and a mighty inspiration impels every one of us tonight to lose in patriotic consecration whatever estranges, whatever divides. We, sir, are Americans and we fight for human liberty. The uplifting force of the American idea is under every throne 011 earth. France, Brazil these are our victories. To redeem the earth from king craft and oppression this is our mission. And we shall not fail. God has sown in our soil the seed of his millennial harvest, and he will not lay the sickle to the ripening crop until his full and perfect day has come. Our history, sir, has been a constant and expanding miracle from Plymouth Rock and Jamestown all the way aye, even from the hour when, from the voiceless and trackless ocean, a new world rose to the sight of the inspired sailor. As we approach the fourth centennial of that stupendous day when the old world will come to marvel and to learn, amid bur gathered treasures let us resolve to crown the miracles of our past with the spectacle of a republic compact, united, indissoluble in the bonds of love loving from the Lakes to the Gulf the wounds of war healed in every heart as on every hill serene and resplendent at the summit of human achievement and earthly glory blazing out the

1720

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

path, and making clear the way up which all the nations of the earth must come in God's appointed time! Henry W. Grady.
[Extract from the speech on the Race Problem, delivered at the banquet of the Merchants Association in Boston in 1889.]

EULOGY OF BISHOP ELLIOTT

But, at last, the man, the scholar, the orator, the philosopher, the patriot, the philanthropist, and the Christian, combining together, cul minated in the bishop at his holy ministrations. If a thing of beauty be a joy forever, here is a memory which can never die. The majestic figure that so well became the flowing robe; the benignant features kin dling up with intellectual fire and pure emotion; the ringing voice, with its own peculiar tone of soulful melody; the lucid thought, the graceful diction '' touching nothing which they did not beautify" ; a strong, vigorous mind, enriched by the lore of the theological schools, but yet more characterized by its quick, clear perception of the practical and the human, resulting from his knowledge of men and the ways of the world, giving at times a striking originality to his scriptural interpretations for to the Bible at last must we look for the profoundly human and the profoundly practical and trusting, in this age and among this people, rather to the love of the Son and the glories of Paradise to attract, than to the frowns of the Father and the terrors of Hell to appal; and, erowning all, a soul exhaustless of its sympathies as the sky of its stars, or the ocean of its pearls, and a charity broad as the shadow of an archangel's wing.
And here was the true benediction of this man; large in stature, large in intellect, in soul he was grand! And it is the soul only which grows forever; and grows more rapidly when it is fed by sorrow. Suffering and sorrow were the daily food of a God! And as they came to him, in those later and darker years, cup after cup of gall and wormwood, how grandly did he grow as he drank!

Like some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm; Though rolling clouds around its breast are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head.
Gen. Henry R. Jackson.
[From Eulogy on Bishop Elliott, delivered February 12, 1867.]
GRADY, THE SOUTH's PEERLESS ORATOR

My fellow-Georgians, how shall I speak to you of him ? It is meet that sympathy should veil her weeping eyes, when she mourns the darling child who bore her gentle image ever mirrored in his life. As well may the tongue speak when the soul has departed, as southern oratory declaim when southern eloquence lies buried in the grave of Grady. Even American patriotism is voiceless, as she stands beside the coffined chief tain of her fast assembling host. Was he good? Let his neighbors an swer. Tonight Atlanta is shrouded in as deep a pall as that which wrapped Egypt in gloom when the angel of the Lord smote the first-born

GEOBGIA AND GEOEGIANS

1721

in every house. In the busiest city of the state the rattle of commerce

today was suspended, the hum of industry was hushed, and in that gay

capital bright pleasure hath stayed her shining feet to drop a tear upon

the grave of him the people loved so well. Was he great? From the

pinnacle of no official station has he fallen; the pomp and circumstance of

war did not place him upon a pedestal of prominence; no book has he

given to the literature of the nation; no wealth has he amassed with

which to crystallize his generosity into fame; and yet tonight a continent

stands weeping by his new-made grave, and as the waves come laden with

the message of the Infinite to the base of the now twice historic Plymouth

Rock, the sympathetic sobbing of the sea can only whisper to the stricken

land, '' Peace, be still; my everlasting arms are round you.''

Grady's greatness can not be measured by his speeches, though they

were so masterful that they form a portion of his country's history. It

will rather be gauged by that patient, brilliant daily work, which made

it possible for him to command the nation's ear; that power of which

these public utterances were but the exponents: his daily toil in his pri

vate sanctum in the .stately building of that magnificent manufactory of

public thought, which he wielded as a weaver does his shuttle. A small

and scantily furnished room, with nothing in it save Grady, his genius

and his God and yet thus illumined, it warmed with the light of fra

ternal love both sections of a republic, compared to which that of historic

Greece was but as a perfumed lamp to the noontide splendor of the sun.

As a journalist Mr. Grady had no superior in America. As a writer he

exercised the princely prerogative of genius which is to create and not

obey the laws of rhetoric. As well attempt to teach the nightingale to

sing by note, or track the summer lightning as we do the sun, as measure

Grady's style by any rhetorician's rule. I have thought that Mr. Grady

was more of an orator than a writer, and brilliant as his success in jour

nalism was, it was. but the moonlight which reflected the sun that

dawned only to be obscured by death. Certainly no man in any country

or in any age, ever won fame as an orator faster than he. With a

wide reputation as a writer, but scarcely any as a speaker, even in

his own state, he appeared one night at a banquet in New York, made

a speech of twenty minutes, and the next day was known throughout

the United States as the foremost of southern orators. No swifter

stride has been made to fame since the days of David, for like that

heroic stripling, with the sling of courage and the stone of truth, he

slew Sectionalism, the Goliath which had so long threatened and

oppressed his people.

*****

My countrymen, if it shall be written in the history of America that by virtue of her Toombs and Cobb and Brown, on the breast of our native state was cradled a revolution which rocked a continent, upon another page of that history it shall be recorded that Georgia's Grady was the Moses who led the southern people through a wilderness of weakness and of want at least to the Pisgah whence, with prophetic eye, he could discern a new South: true to the traditions of the past as was the steel which glittered on the victorious arm at Manassas, but whose hopeful hearts and helpful hands were soon to transform deso lation into wealth and convert the defeat of one section of our com-

1722

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

mon country into the haughty herald of that country's future rank in the civilization of the world.
****
Sleep on, my friend, my brother, brilliant and beloved; let no distempered dream of unaccomplished greatness haunt thy long last sleep. The country that you loved, that you redeemed and disenthralled, will be your splendid and ever growing monument, and the blessings of a grateful people will be. the grand inscription, which will grow longer as that monument rises higher among the nations of the earth. Wherever the peach shall blush beneath the kisses of the southern sun, wherever the affluent grape shall don the royal purple of southern sov ereignty, a votive offering from the one and a rich libation from the other, the grateful husbandman will tender unto you. The music of no machinery shall be heard within this Southland which does not chant a paean in your praise. Wherever Eloquence, the deity whom this people hath ever worshiped, shall retain a temple, no pilgrim shall enter there, save he bear thy dear name as a sacred shibboleth on his lips. So long as patriotism shall remain the shining angel who guards the destines of our republic, her starry finger will point to Grady on Plymouth Rock, for fame will choose to chisel his statue there, standing as the sentinel whom God had placed to keep eternal watch over the liberties of a reunited people! R. W. Patterson.
[Extract from an address delivered at the Grady memorial exercises in Macon on December 28, 1889.]

GEORGIA'S MONUMENT AT CHICKAMAUGA

We this day celebrate a greater victory than was ever achieved over a foreign foe the victory of a great people over the passions and resentments engendered by domestic war. Other nations have con quered the world and fallen the pitiable victims of their own ungoverned passions. We have conquered ourselves. Whatever the future may have in store for us, we shall henceforth and forever dwell in peace among ourselves. Heaven grant us peace with all the world, and all the world peace. It ought to be so. The earth has drunk enough of the blood of her sons. Wars should cease. The wisdom of the world should devise some other method of settling international disputes, and the humanity of the world demands its adoption. But if this can not be, we may rest in the assurance that the union of these states will never again be disrupted by sectional war. We rejoice today in a country reunited, and forever.
The patriot voice which first cried from the balcony of the old statehouse in Boston, when the declaration was originally proclaimed: "Stability and perpetuity to American independence," did not fail to add, (: God save our American states." I would prolong that ancestral prayer. Now and always, here and everywhere, from our hearts and all hearts, from every altar in family and church, from every patriotic and pious soul, let this prayer go up: "God-save our American states."
What more shall I say? Why should I have spoken at all? Stand ing in this presence and amid these environments, I feel that my voice should have been hushed by the voices of all around us. This arid all

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1723

the memorials here erected, these trees, this river, prophetically named Cliickamauga River of Death this overshadowing mountain, the sky above and the earth beneath all these are vocal with an eloquence to which my poor speech can add nothing of worth or beauty. The feeble words I utter here shall perish with the passing hour. These voices shall be like the voice of day and night in the inspired and poetic con ception of the Psalmist; they utter no audible speech, no articulate language, but their sacred silence itself is speech. "Their lines shall go through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." They shall tell of courage sustained by conviction, of duty faithfully done, of suffering heroically endured, of death bravely met in a great battle and the survivors on both sides dwelling together as citizens of a common country, with mutual respect and in peace as lasting as the sleep of their fallen comrades, of state pride and national glory. Here Ohio and Illinois, and Michigan and Wisconsin, and Minnesota and Indiana, and Kansas and Missouri, and Massachusetts have brought their tributes to the sons who fought in the Federal army. Here, too, Ten nessee has reared her memorial to Forrest and the men who followed him and commemorated the heroism of her sons. And Kentucky has come with her memorial, dedicated to her sons in both Federal and Confederate armies Kentucky, the home of Clay and Crittenden,. of Morgan and Hanson, the birthplace of Davis and Lincoln.
And now to this historic and consecrated place, enriched by so much to perpetuate the hallowed memories of the past, to impart inspira tion for the present and hope for the future, Georgia brings her offer ing. Bowed by a mother's grief for the dead, yet sustained by a mother's joy in the living, and exulting with a mother's pride in the dead and living, who were marshaled here, confidently committing their claims to the highest distinction to the judgment of a just and an enlightened public opinion, invoking upon them and their posterity the richest blessings of heaven, to their lasting memory and undying glory, she dedicates this monument.
May it stand immovable as the foundations of yonder mountain, a worthy expression of the love and' gratitude which inspired it, and ceaselessly as the flow of the river at its base proclaim the duty here performed the valor here displayed, the fame here achieved. And in the years to come, every son of the great state whose glory is aug mented by the lives and death of those whose services and sacrifices it commemorates, looking upon it and recalling their names and deeds, his eye lustrous with patriotic pride, his heart aglow with patriotic fervor, may with rapture exclaim: '' Thank God, I, too, am a Georgian!'' J. C. C. Black.
[Extract from an address delivered at the unveiling of the Georgia Monument, at Chiekamauga National Park, May 4, 1899.]

THE DAUGHTER OF DIXIE THE PRESERVER OP THE FAITH

The daughter of Dixie is the preserver of the faith. She has builded a well in the wilderness of commerce. She has made an oasis in the desert of trade; and here, in this sacred ceremony, she has preserved one last and lingering altar of sentiment, in the cold but splendid temple

1724

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

dedicated to mammon and material gain. Men may die and systems change, but the woman of the South holds an unshaken faith through passing years. She gave her heart and her hope in 1861 to the cause that "rose without shame and fell without dishonor." And for fortytwo years she has fed the fires of this altar, pure as a vestal virgin and loyal as the priestess who, in the failure of a sacrifice offered herself upon the altar of her love. Serving without seeking, loving without leaving, remembering without hating, baptized in tradition, consecrated through suffering, perfect in faith and glorious in good works, she is today as she was in the beginning, unchanged and unchanging, loving and loyal, unfeigned and unfearing, unawed and unrepentant and please God "unreconstructed" forever!
"With a reverence that can find no voice in words, we salute the constancy with which southern women keep watch above the graves of these Confederate dead. And with all our hearts, with all our tradi tions, with all our'tender memories, with, all our overflowing love, we join them in this bivouac which their deathless devotion makes on this consecrated ground. The faith is worthy of the royal dead and the priestess is not less noble than her shrine.
The South today from Richmond to the Rio Grande is studded with these graves of soldiers. They fell on fields of battle fighting for the principles and convictions of the soil from which they came. We love them. We honor them. We call them heroes, because they are dead because they died for us. And we love, honor and praise them justly. They did gallant deeds. They reflected the luster of southern heroism through all ages and into every land. They illustrated the courage and chivalry of the South in blood drops that have empurpled every field from Austin to Appomattox. They fought like lions, they endured like martyrs, and they bore the tattered flag of the sovereign states through gloom and "joy, through sunshine and through storm with an heroic faith, a matchless patience and a splendid patriotism that will live as long as the fame of Jackson and the name of Lee.
I have not one heart-throb that does not do them honor. There is no act of homage that I would not esteem it a privilege to offer to the soldiers and the leaders of this illustrious company.
If I held the keys of the new world's Westminster I would build a stately mausoleum where, free from criticism and secure from blame, might repose the ashes of that stainless gentleman who lived and died, the first and last president of the Confederate States.
If I could rob Nature of the richest floral crown she wears I would lay the fragrant emblem upon the glorious dead who fell on old Manassas' plain.
If I could weave a diadem of stars, I would crown the martyred warriors of Gettysburg.
If, reaching to those shadowy clouds, I could catch a whispering wind and soothe its murmur to music sweet, I would mingle with the sad echoes of Chancellorsville a miserere that would wing its way to Jack son's soul in heaven.
If I could sweep the harp-strings of my jarring spirit with master hand, and tune its discord to divinest melody, I would chant seraphic

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1725

requiem above the innumerable undistinguishable host of southern dead; and

"Ah, if in song or speech, In major or minor key,
I could to the end of ages reach, I would whisper the name of Lee-'' John Temple Graves.
[Extract from an address delivered at Greensboro, Georgia, on Confederate Me morial Day, April 26, 1907.]

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT LODGED WITH THE AMERICAN NATION

I am no pessimist as to this republic. I always bet on sunshine in America. I know that my country has reached the point of perilous greatness, and that strange forces not to be measured or comprehended are hurrying her to heights that dazzle and blind all mortal eyes but I know that beyond the uttermost glory is enthroned the Lord God Almighty, and that when the .hour of her trial has come He will lift up His everlasting gates and bend down above her in mercy and in love. For with her He has surely lodged the ark of His covenant with the sons of men. Emerson wisely said, "Our whole history looks like the last effort of Divine Providence in behalf of the human race." And the republic will endure. Centralization will be checked, and liberty saved plutocracy overthrown and equality restored. The struggle for human rights never goes backward among the English-speaking peoples. Our brothers across the sea have fought from despotism to liberty, and in the wisdom of local self-government have planted colonies around the world. This very day Mr. Gladstone, the wisest man that has lived since your Jefferson died with the light of another world beating in his face until he seems to have caught the wisdom of the Infinite and towers half human and half divine from his eminence this man, turn ing away from the traditions of his life, begs his countrymen to strip the crown of its last usurped authority, and lodge it with the people, where it belongs. The trend of the times is with us. The world moves steadily from gloom to brightness. And- bending down humbly as Elisha did, and praying that my eyes shall be made to see, I catch the vision of this republic its mighty forces in balance, and its unspeak able glory falling on all its children chief among the federation of English-speaking people plenty streaming from its borders, and light from its mountain tops working out its mission under God's approv ing eye, until the dark continents are opened and the highways of earth established, and the shadows lifted and the jargon of the nations stilled and the perplexities of Babel straightened and under one lan guage, one liberty, and one God, all the nations of the world hearken ing to the American drum-beat and girding up their loins, shall march amid the breaking of the millennial dawn into the paths of righteousness and of peace! Henry W. Grady.
[Extract from an address on Centralization, delivered before the literary societies of the University of "Virginia on June 25, 1887.]

1726

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

PAUL OR NEKO?

The contest between the forces of good and evil is as old as the history of man. Twenty centuries ago, Nero reigned in the palace of the Caesars. He was master of the destinies of men and nations. He stood upon a pinnacle "sun-flashed." His power to bless or save was world-wide. But the brief span of his public life is the crown of infamy in human history. Fidelity to truth was to him an unmeaning term, conviction of duty the dream of fools. He was a coward, and, like all cowards; a brute. The tears of women and children shone as jewels to his distorted vision. The groans of men in agony, the sound of breaking hearts was music to his ears. "The torches which lit his garden," says the historian, "were human candelabra, and as they, writhing in 'torture, burned to their sockets, he feasted and sang until the charred feet of his expiring torches dropped into darkness. He died as he had lived, a mountebank, a coward and a fool."
In the shadow of Nero's palace lived an humble tent-maker, yet a man with royal brain and the Mngliest heart that ever beat in human breast. His mind was the storehouse of great thoughts, his heart the sanctuary of holy feelings. His courage rose supreme over all human torture. He lived for others. He looked out upon the tortured, troubled ocean of humanity and moved by divinest pity, stepped into the waters. He perished, but when the light of "immortal beauty had covered his face" he passed from the pain of sacrifice to the glory of martyrdom.
Nero was the embodiment of human selfishness; Paul the incarnation of sacrifice. They were the captains of their time in the rival armies which since the dawn of history have contended for the mastery of men and nations. "We are in the midst of the conflict today, there can be no neutrals. We are enlisted under the black flag of Nero or the white banner of Paul. On which side will the men of this republic stand ? Seaborn Wright.
[Extract from an address delivered in Atlanta during the famous Prohibition Campaign of 1907.]

IMMORTALITY

I stood upon the deck of a great steamer. , There was no land in sight. We were in the center of a great circle. Everywhere the vast concave dome of blue met a horizon of water. No matter where we were, day after day, that great circle met the eye. It seemed a type of the endless circle of eternity. I saw the sun sweep with his chariot of fire across the vast blue dome and touch the sea. From his golden shield, crimson lightning pierced the clouds, and he cradled himself upon a thousand fiery wave-wings, and he quivered and hung, burning and glowing, upon the sea; and the sea, burning, drank all his glow; then threw the veil of an infinite splendor over the pale, glowing god. Above the vermilion horizon the cloud-islands of sun-down stood empur pled and transfigured; gradually the purple and red grew paler and, suddenly, aye, in the twinkling of an eye, the orb of light and life sank into the sea, and chilly darkness wrapped the world in night. This seemed the awful type of death. But I saw him rise again ! The glorious

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1727

god of life and light again flung his red flame upon the swelling sea; and, as if to strengthen the faith of the witness and lookers-on of this grand resurrection, he again performed the old, old miracle of turn ing water into wine. Rising still higher, he bathed the sea and sky in his own radiant and immortal light.
The sun sets and rises. The stars set beneath the horizon, but they rise again. A thousand, thousand suns and spheres, in the majestic harmony of the universe, rolling on burning wheels, continue in their celestial dance. Wheeling into infinite space the majestic procession of God's created life disappear in their endless cycles; but they reap pear again. New love and life thrill from the spheres, as the dewdrops trickle from the clouds, and embrace nature, as the cool night does the
earth. Three years ago I was in Switzerland, and, standing in the vale
of Chamouni before sunrise, I gazed for the first time upon that majestic monarch of the Alpine range Mount Blanc. So lofty did it lift its awful dome of ice and. snow, that the morning star seemed to hang like a. jewel upon its snowy plume. I saw the rising sun bathe his brow in purple and in gold, and his rays, falling upon the million facets of his giant, jagged glacier, seemed a veritable explosion of jewels. I gazed until my dilating soul, enrapt, transfused into the mighty vision, seemed lifted to heaven; and the unbidden question trembled upon my quivering lips, "Oh! thy kingly spirit," throned among the hills, "who sunk thy sunless pillars deep in earth?" "Who filled thy face with rosy light?" Then came the answer, like an Alpine echo "God." "Who made yon ice-fields, that tremble on thy shaggy sides and form the frightful avalanche that shoots down in its fearful, maddening plunge to the valley at thy feet?" The answer thunders "God."
God is everywhere. His face is written all over nature: unerring design is stamped over all his wondrous works. Let us hope and believe that our departed brothers have taken their place in that vast heavenly circle of light and life; a circle which will burn and blaze with unextinguishable flame; and when their names are called in the grand lodge above, they will answer, "here," at rest. At rest, where their lights will ever burn in a glorious immortality and where they will ever sing praises and hosannahs around the eternal throne of the "Grand, Ex alted Ruler of the Universe.'' Judge H. D. D. Twiggs.
[Extract from an address delivered before the Savannah Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks on December 3, 1905.]

STRONG DRINK

It is a warrior whom no victory can satisfy, no ruin satiate. It pauses at no Rubicon to consider, pitches no tents at night, goes into no quarters for winter. It conquers amid the burning plains of the South where the phalanx of Alexander halted in mutiny. It conquers amid the snowdrifts of the North where the Grand Army of Napoleon found its winding sheet. Its monuments are in every burial ground. Its badges of triumph are the weeds which mourners wear. Its song of victory is the wail that was heard in Ramah "Rachel crying for her children and weeping because they are not."

1728

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

The sword is mighty, and its bloody traces reach across time, from Nineveh, to Gravelotte, from Marathon to Gettysburg. Yet mightier is its brother, the wine-cup. I say "brother," and history says "brother." Castor and Pollux never fought together in more fraternal harmony. David and Jonathan never joined in more generous rivalry. Hand in hand, they have come down the centuries, and upon every scene of carnage, like vulture and shadow, they have met and feasted.
Yea; a pair of giants, but the greater is the wine-cup. The sword has a scabbard, and is sheathed; has a conscience, and becomes glutted with havoc; has pity, and gives quarter to the vanquished. The winecup has no scabbard and no conscience; its appetite is a cancer which grows as you feed it; to pity, it is deaf; to suffering, it is blind.
The sword is the lieutenant of Death, .but the wine-cup his captain; and if ever they come home to him from the wars bringing their trophies, boasting of their achievements, I can imagine that Death, their master, will meet them with garlands and song,' as the maidens of Judea met Saul and David. But as he numbers the victories of each, his paean will be '' The sword is my Saul, who has slain his thousands5; but the wine-cup is my David, who has slain his tens of thousands.'' Thos. E. Watson.

THE IMMORTALITY OF LOVE

Sergeant Telford of the English bar has endeavored to depict the yearning of the Greek heart for immortality in his great tragedy entitled, "Ion." Ion has devoted himself to death in performance of a vow. Clementhe, who loved him much, has exhausted her feminine arts in an effort to dissuade him from destruction, and failed. Resign ing herself to the inevitable, she asks him out of her aching throat: "And shall we never meet each other?" He replies:

"I have asked That awful question of the hills that seem Eternal; of the flowing streams That lucid flow forever; of the stars Amid whose fields of azure my raised spirit Hath trod in glory. All were dumb! But now while thus I gaze into thy living face I feel the love that kindles through its beauty Can never wholly perish. We shall meet again.''

Creeds are clashing in these restless and inquisitorial times. Columns are falling heavily to the ground, once deemed to be imperish able. Many feet are slipping in the shifting sands of the strenuous surge. But an instinctive feeling arises with all the semblance of divine implanting that whatever part of us is doomed to destruction, love is immortal. May we not, in spite of the darkness in which we grope, indulge the hope which so, gladdened the heart of the ancient Greek: "We shall meet again."
[Judge Howard Van Epps on the death of Chief Justice T. J. Simmons.]

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1729

GKADY'S COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT ATHENS

It was an exquisite fiction of ideal life. He painted in words an

island of beauty; in the sweetness of his sentences a fragrance of flowers

sweeter than nature's own seemed to be wafted to rapt listeners; the

loveliness of his creation stood out so vividly to the eye of intellect that

no one view of any grace in statuary or beauty in picture of any artist

would be remembered better. It was an island worthy to lay in the

same sea with Tennyson's Island of Avalon, where Knight and King

Arthur was to rest his soul, and I would wish the soul of my classmate

the sweet and eternal rest of his own happy island, embowered in the

: i;

beauties of his own sweet fancies forever, did I not believe that he has

touched the pearl-strewn shore of a better and lovelier land than even

this, or even that of which he dreamed; that he "rests in the balm-

breathing gardens of God!"

I shall always recall him as dying like that lad from Lombardy, pic

tured by Browning. I shall think that the South, decked like a queen

in all her jewels of glory and of love, came to his dying couch and said:

'' ' Thou art a Lombard, my brother! Happy art thou,' '' she cried, And smiled like Italy on him. He dre?med in her face and died!" Albert H. Cox.

TRIALS AND SORROWS NECESSARY TO HUMAN LIFE
Trials, failures, and suffering are a part of every human life and are necessary to its complete fulfilment. The divinest life this world has ever known came to its perfect work through trials and sorrow and death. Never till after the bloody sweat of Gethsemane, the agony of the cross and the burial in a borrowed grave, did the angels come to roll the stone back from the tomb and worship as their Master rose again. And so mayhaps sometimes 'tis not till we have borne the cross and all of life seems buried, the messengers of light shall come to roll away the stone from off our heart-graves, and waken to a nobler life the diviner part, which is. not dead, but sleepeth which does not, can not die. J. H. Lumpkin.

THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR
"We are standing in the day-break of the second century of this republic. The fixed stars are fading from the sky, and we grope in uncertain night. Strange shapes have come with the night. Established ways are lost, new roads perplex, and widening fields stretch beyond the sight. The unrest of dawn impels us to and fro but Doubt stalks amid the confusion, and even on the beaten paths the shifting crowds are halted, and from the shadows the sentries cry: "Who comes there?" In the obscurity of the morning tremendous forces are at work. Noth ing is steadfast or approved. The miracles of the present belie the simple truths of the past. The church is besieged from without and betrayed from within. Behind the courts smoulders the rioter's torch and looms the gibbet of the anarchists. Government is the contention of partisans and the prey of spoilsmen. Trade is restless in the grasp

1730

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

of monopoly, and commerce shackled with limitation. The cities are swollen and the fields are stripped. Splendor streams from the castle, and squalor crouches in the home. The universal brotherhood is dis solving, and the people are huddling into classes. The hiss of the Nihilist disturbs the covert, and the roar of the mob murmurs along the highway. Amid it all beats the great American heart undismayed, and standing fast by the challenge of his conscience, the citizen of the republic, tranquil and resolute, notes the drifting of the spectral cur rents, and calmly awaits the full disclosures of the day.
Who shall be the heralds of this coming day? Who shall thread the way of honor and safety through these besetting problems? Who shall rally the people to the defense of their liberties and stir them until they shall cry aloud to be led against the enemies of the republic? You, my countrymen, you! The university is the training-camp of the future. The scholar the champion of the coming years. Napoleon overran Europe with drum-tap and bivouac the next Napoleon shall form his battalions at the tap of the schoolhouse bell and his captains shall come with cap and gown. Waterloo was won at Oxford Sedan at Berlin. So Germany plants her colleges in the shadow of the French forts, and the professor smiles amid his students as he notes the sentinel stalking against the sky. The farmer has learned that brains mix better with his soil than the waste of seabirds, and the professor walks by his side as he spreads the showers in the verdure of his field, and locks the sunshine in the glory of his harvest. A button is pressed by a child's finger and the work of a million men is done. The hand is nothing the brain everything. Physical prowess has had its day and the age of reason has come. The lion-hearted Richard challenging Saladin to single combat is absurd, for even Gog and Magog shall wage the Arma geddon from their closets and look not upon the blood that runs to the bridle-bit. Science is everything! She butchers a hog in Chicago, draws Boston within three hours of New York, renews the famished soil, routs her viewless bondsmen from the electric center of the earth, and then turns to watch the new Icarus as mounting in his flight to the sun he darkens the burnished ceiling of the sky with the shadow of his wing. .
Learning is supreme and you are its prophets. Here the Olympic games of the Republic and you its chosen athletes. It is yours, then, to grapple with these problems, to confront and master these dangers. Yours to decide whether the tremendous forces of this Republic shall be kept in balance, or whether unbalanced they shall bring chaos; whether 60,000,000 men are capable of self-government, or whether liberty shall be lost to them who would give their lives to maintain it. Your responsibility is appalling. You stand in the pass behind which the world's liberties are guarded. This Government carries the hopes of the human race. Blot out the beacon that lights the portals of this Republic and the world is adrift again. But save the Republic; establish the light of its beacon over the troubled waters, and one by one the nations of the earth shall drop anchor and be at rest in the harbor of universal liberty. Henry W. Grady.
[Extract from an. address on Centralization, delivered 'before the literary societies of the University of Virginia, June 25, 1889.]

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1731

THE HIDDEN FACE

The Grecian painter, Timanthes, depicting the sacrifice of Iphigenia, could express on the face of every one else present the grief which was felt at the approach of the awful doom of the devoted maiden; but. unable to throw into her father's face the agony inseparable from the hour, the artist drew a mantle over the features of Agamemnon, and thus made the hidden face, the most touching of all. So, at the funeral of Alexander EL Stephens, where orators of celebrity were delivering memorial eulogies, Robert Toombs, the greatest orator of them all, was more eloquent than all, thotigh he said nothing. Thomas E. Watson.

THOU ART A SCHOLAR, SPEAK TO IT, HORATIO

Superstitious follies are not all gone. Many, even educated people, yet believe in lucky and unlucky stars and days and numbers; tremble if an owl hoots by night; cross themselves if they turn back on a journey; apply mad-stones for hydrophobia; consult fortune tellers; believe yet in so-called ''divine healing"; and even contend that pain and suffer ing are unreal creations of wicked imaginations.
When Shakespeare's ghost of the murdered King of Denmark at midnight stalked before the guard, trembling Marcellus said to his fellow-soldier: "Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio." You are scholars and therefore it is your right and duty .to speak to and of all such follies and deceptions and drive them from the stage of action. You need not fear, the denunciations of men or dread that Jove will split your skulls with lightning. The God of our salvation had as one of his specially chosen disciples Luke, the beloved physician.
. Your, opportunity is grand and glorious. They who risked their lives fighting in our late war have a nation's thanks and admiration. Havana has been taken from the Spaniards, but who will earn thanks and admiration by rescuing it from yellow fever? In our Pacific acquisitions of territory, we approach the confines of Asia, whence came and still comes that fell destroyer cholera. What Hercules will slay that monster? Such eases need the purse of the nation as well as medical knowledge. But every-day opportunities will be to you per sonally abundant. Disease comes from the open houses of the poor as well as from the close rooms of the wealthy; from biting hunger and from overcrowded stomachs; '' Death lurks in every passing breeze, and rides upon the storm." What will you do to stay its march? Shall consumption continue to fill one-twelfth of all the graves in our country, and your profession still admit it to be incurable ? You have discovered the microbes of typhus and typhoid fevers; can you not kill the lurking devils? Shall diseases of the brain disorder the powers which make man "but little lower than the angels," and will you stand by and for ever answer, like the cowardly Scotch doctor of medicine in Macbeth: '' This disease is beyond my practice -. . . . I think, but: dare not speak"? Consider the thousands who die in childhood; can you do nothing to stop this "slaughter of the innocents"? Let these questions be summed up in the wail of old Jeremiah: " Is there no balm in Gilead 1 Is there no physician there ? Why, then, is not the health of the daughter

1732

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

of my people recovered?" Let the answer of yourselves and all your profession be, with loud acclaim, there is balm everywhere and phy sicians are everywhere searching and applying remedies to all diseases, and the health of the people shall be recovered for the good of humanity
and the glory of God. But a word further. It is no part of my work to preach to you a
sermon. But I have been talking of the human body solely from a material and scientific medical standpoint, and some may think that it has been treated too lightly. No such thing was intended. I respect the king's palace not only for its beauty and splendor, but because it holds the king, the people's sovereign. The palace may be destroyed, but "the king never dies." Nathaniel J. Hammond.
[Extract from an address delivered at the annual commencement of the Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons, April 3, 1899. This noble address, which was marked by wonderful historical research, was Colonel Hammond's last public speech.]

AGAINST THE TARIFF OF 1833

The senator from Kentucky (Mr. Clay) says that the tariff is in danger. Aye, sir, it is in its last gasp. It has received the immedica ble wound; no hellebore can cure it. The confession of the gentleman is of immense importance. Yes, sir, the feeling of the whole country is opposed to the high protective system. The wily serpent that crept into our Eden has been, touched by the spear of Ithuriel. The senator is anxious to prevent the ruin which a sudden abolition of the system will produce. No one desires to inflict ruin upon the manufacturers; but suppose the southern people, having the power to control the sub ject, should totally and suddenly abolish the system; what right would those have to complain who had combined to oppress the South 1 "What has the tariff led us to already? From one end of the country to the other, it has produced evils which are worse than a thousand tariffs. The necessity of appealing now to fraternal feeling shows that such a feeling is not merely sleeping but is nearly extinguished. John Forsyth.
[Extract from a speech delivered in the United States Senate, February 12, 1833,
and reported by Thomas H. Benton.]

GEORGIA WELCOMES LAFAYETTE

Welcome, Lafayette! 'Tis little more than ninety years since the founder of this state first set foot upon the bank on which you stand. Today 400,000 people open their arms and their hearts to receive you. Thanks to the kind Providence which presides over human affairs, you were called to the standard of independence in the helplessness of the American Revolution and you have graciously been spared that in your last days the glory of an empire might be reflected upon your countenance, amid the acclamations of millions. For you the scenes which are to come will be comparatively tranquil; the waters no longer turbulent but placid. No more dread of dungeons; no more fear of tyrants for you. Oh, sir, what consolation it must be to one who has passed through seas of trouble to know that between you and them are the countless bayonets which guard the blessings of freedom! Wel-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1733

come, General! Friend of Liberty, welcome! Thrice welcome to Georgia! George Mclntosh Troup.
[Extract from an address delivered on the bluffs of the Savannah Kiver on the occasion of the visit of General Lafayette to Georgia in 1825.]

READY TO ILLUSTRATE GEORGIA ON THE BATTLEFIELD

My countrymen, I must be candid. You may be more patient than I. You may see more hope on the horizon. But I can discern no prospect of deliverance short of the most radical of measures. It may end in an appeal to the bloody arbitrament of arms. But let it so end. I am tired of this endless controversy between the sections of our country; I am wearied with seeing this threatening cloud forever above our heads. If the storm is to come and it seems to me as though it must be its fury ever so great and its havoc ever so dire I court it now in the day of my vigor and strength. If any man is to peril life and fortune and honor in defense of our rights I sue to be that man. And let it come now. I am ready to march under Georgia's flag. Put it not off until tomorrow or next day; we shall not be stronger for waiting. I do not wish to destroy the Government. I am a Union man in every fiber of my heart. I honor the Union. I love the Union. I have gloried in its mission of humanity, in its heroic birth, in its youthful struggles, in the grandeur of its maturity. God never launched a nation on a more magnificent career. It has been the home of the oppressed and the asylum of the desolate from every land. In it today are wrapped the hopes of universal man. But I will peril all, all, before I will abandon our rights under the Constitution or submit to be governed, within the Union, by an unprincipled majority! Francis S. Bartow.
[General Bartow was one of the earliest victims of the war, and was killed at the First Battle of Manassas.]

TRIBUTE TO JULIAN HARTRIDGE

We are prepared for the demise of the aged and the infirm. "We watch the flickering of life's-feeble lamp with emotions similar to those with which we look upon the mellow glow of the summer sunset. The grave loses something of its terror when we contemplate it as the last restingplace of a weary pilgrimage. Ignoring the sad truth that humanity is subject to the universal law of suffering and death, we assign to life's duration the limit which age alone prescribes. We seem to forget that

"Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the North wind's breath
And stars to set but all, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, 0 Death."

Death palsies the arm of the warrior, and he drops from his nerveless grasp the shattered spear. It stills the tongue of the orator and the senate and the forum are silent. It seyers the chord in the tide of song and the harp of the minstrel hangs upon the willow. It drinks from the blushes of beauty the mingled hues of the rose and the lily and the rep-
Vol. Ill--30

1734

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

tiles of the grave banquet upon the lips our own have touched. Every age and every clime is monumental with its symbols and still we are startled when its victim is selected from the strong, suddenly stricken down in the full-orbed splendor of manhood's high meridian. The esti mation in which the lamented Hartridge was held by the people of his native state is shown by the honors conferred upon him living and the grief with which they mourn him dead. Born in the City of Savannah, he spent the gambols of his boyhood and won the triumphs of his man hood in that beautiful metropolis which keeps vigil like a weeping vestal over the last repose of his silent ashes.
His countrymen have twined for his memory the wreath of laurel and cypress, the insignia of their pride and the symbol of their sorrow; and his friends have dropped upon his new-made grave friendship's last offering: the tribute of tears.

"But strew his ashes to the wind Whose sword or voice has served mankind And is he dead whose glorious mind Lifts thine on high ? To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to die."

All that is left to us of Julian Hartridge is the heritage of his wis dom, the light of his example and the memory of his virtues. Time will mitigate our grief; and, in the rush and whirl of busy life, other thoughts will engage our attention; but there is a sad home in the sunny South within whose broken circle there are bleeding hearts for the healing of which earth has no balm.

"For time makes all but true love old; The burning thoughts that then were told Run molten still in memory's mold And will not cool Until the heart itself be cold In Lethe's pool."

The influence of wealth, the resources of learning, and the authority of power, all stand dumb and helpless in the presence of death. It is the solution of all the rivalries, struggles and achievements of time. Sur rounded with blighted hopes and funeral trains, the broken heart of humanity still presses the question of the suffering patriarch of Uz: " If a man die shall he live again?" The quivering spirit whose insatiable thirst for immortality attests the divinity of its origin and the duration of its destiny, kindles with joy as it catches the response from the re jected Nazarene at Bethany: " I am the resurrection and the life.''

"Poor wanderers of a stormy day From place to place were driven
And fancy's flash and reason's ray Serve but to light the troubled way
There's nothing true but heaven.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1735

"And false the light on glory's plume As fading hues of even
And love and joy and beauty's bloom Are blossoms gathered for the tomb
There's nothing lives but heaven." Hiram P. Bell.
[Extract from an address delivered in national House of Representatives on February 13, 1879.]

GREAT THOUGHTS IMMORTAL

Looking back at the ages that have rolled by in the revolutions of time, what have we remaining of the past but the thoughts of men? Where is magnificent Babylon with her palaces, her artificial lakes and hanging gardens that were the pride and luxury of her vicious inhab itants ; where is majestic Nineveh, that proud mistress of the East with her monuments of commercial enterprises and prosperity 1 Alas! they are no more. Tyre, that great city, into whose lap the treasures of the world were poured, she, too, is no more. The waves of the sea now roll where once stood the immense and sumptuous palaces of Tyrian wealth. Temples, arches and columns may crumble to pieces and be swept into the sea of oblivion; nature may decay and races of men come and go like the mists of the morning before the rising sun, but the proud monu ments of Henry Grady's mind will survive the wrecks of matter and the shocks of time.
On the Piedmont heights peacefully sleeps the young evangel of the New South, cut down in the grandeur of his fame and in the meridian of his powers, in the glory of his life and in the richest prime of his royal manhood. ' His brow is wreathed with laurel. Costly marble will mark the place of his head, and beautiful flowers bloom at his feet. There the birds will carol their vespers, and gentle breezes breathe fragrance o'er his grave. The sun in his dying splendor, ere sinking to rest amid the clouds that veil the "golden gate," will linger to kiss the majestic monu ment reared by loving hearts, and with a flood of beauty bathe it in heavenly glory. And then the blush fades, even as it fades from the face of a beautiful woman. Shadows begin to climb the hillside, and nature sleeps, lulled by the soft music of the singing wind. The stars, the bright forget-me-nots of the angels, come out to keep their vigils o'er the sleeping dust of him whose soul hath gone

"To that fair land upon whose strand No wind of winter moans."
John T. Boifeuillet.
[Extract from an address delivered at the Grady memorial exercises in Macon on December 27, 1889.]

GEORGIA'S NEW CAPITOL BUILDING ACCEPTED

In the presence of the General Assembly and in behalf of the state, I accept from your hands Georgia's new and superb capitol. In the fashion of its architecture, in the symmetry of its proportions, in the

1736

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

solidity of its structure, in the beauty of its elaboration and completeness of arrangement, it is worthy of the dignity and character of this great commonwealth. In all respects this new house of the state is my war rant for congratulations to the Legislature that authorized it; to the architects who designed it; to the contractors who built it; to the com missioners who supervised it; and to the people who own it. I congratu late you also, senators and representatives of the present General Assem bly, because it is your high privilege to celebrate its opening and dedi cate it to wise and patriotic legislation. I congratulate the state because in her assembled sons she has representatives worthy of this distin guished honor and capable of drawing from these auspicious surround ings renewed inspirations for the momentous duties before them. I congratulate the commissioners, because through patient investigation, untiring energy, wise prevision and conservative expenditure, they have achieved the almost unprecedented success of completing a great public work within the original appropriation. Above all else, I congratulate the people because the whole enterprise is clean, creditable and above suspicion. From the first bill passed by the Legislature to the expendi ture of the last dollar by the commissioners, there has been neither jobbery nor thought of corruption. From granite base to iron dome, every chis eled block and molded brick, every metallic plate and marble slab is as free from official pollution as when they lay untouched by mortal hand, in original purity in the bosom of Mother Earth. Every stroke of hammer, of trowel or brush is a record of labor honestly expended and justly rewarded. Built upon the crowning hill of her capital city, whose transformation from desolation an.d ashes to life, thrift and. beauty, so aptly symbolizes the state's resurrection, this proud structure will stand through the coming centuries a fit memorial of the indomitable will and recuperative energies of this people, and of the unswerving fidelity and incorruptible integrity of their chosen representatives^
While we dedicate to the state's service this new political temple, we erect within it no new altars to strange political gods; we preach from its pulpits no strange political gospel; we prescribe for its service no new liturgy or strange political faith. We consecrate it to the oldtime doctrines promulgated by the fathers and early prophets of the republic; recorded in the written word of- the declaration and the con stitution, and sanctioned by the political experience of a century*. We engrave upon this temple's cornerstone our ancestral canons a per petual union of coequal states; the Federal Constitution the supreme law of the land; "the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor"; "the support of the state governments in all their rights as the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tenden cies"; the equality of all men before the law; burdens and benefits impartially imposed and fairly distributed; equal encouragement and exact justice under the laws, state and Federal, for every class of citizens and every branch of industry.
We hang upon the outer walls of this new fortress the old banners inscribed with the additional and ever-living tenets of a political faith which, strengthening with its experience, has ripened into assurance hostility to all sectional and class legislation; hostility to all laws and systems of law which impose unnecessary burdens upon the whole people

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1737

in order to bring to the few undue advantages and unjust enrichment opposition not only to trusts and monopolies and their constant evils, but undying hostility to the discriminating, high protective system and the unjust and unequal taxation which encourage, increase and. per petuate these evils. We war not only against the evils themselves, but against the governmental partiality which makes these evils so less hurtful and galling in this free government than under the aristocratic favoritism of monarchical Europe.
Let no governmental policies repugnant to the great principles of natural equity upon which the republic was founded ever find abettors within these consecrated walls. Let no unworthy or unjust action, legis lative, judicial or executive, ever mar the bright record made in the construction of this capitol. Let the pure winds of heaven play around its dome and along its corridors, and the untarnished sunlight linger in its chambers without the possibility of defilement. And may its shin ing spires, pointing heavenward, be a perpetual invocation, calling from the skies no fiery avenging bolt, but the divine guidance for the coun sellors of the state and heaven's boundless benedictions upon its people. Gov. John B. Gordon.
[Extract from an address delivered "before the General Assembly on the formal acceptance of the eapitol building from the hands of the commission, July 4, 1889.]

THE GEORGIAN OF TODAY

Heredity and environment have each contributed, in a marked degree, to the making of the Georgian of today. He is almost purely of AngloSaxon ancestry. In his veins flows the blood of the Vikings. His fore fathers fought under Canute the Great. They were with Harold the Saxon, and William the Norman, at the battle of Hastings, in 1066, when Halley's comet flamed like a baleful omen athwart the English sky. They were with Richard of the Lion Pleart at Acre and at Jaffa, where the paynim spear went down in defeat before the Anglo-Saxon battle-ax. They were with Godfrey at the capture of Jerusalem. They were with the Barons at Runnymede, where was wrung from an unwill ing king the Great Charter of English freedom. They were with the Black Prince at Cressy; and with Henry the Fifth, on a score of battle fields, they added new glories to English arms. They fought

"On Flodden's fatal field Where shivered .was fair Scotland's spear
And broken was her shield."
\
They were with Drake at the destruction of the Spanish armada. They suffered with Washington at Valley Forge, and at the crossing of the frozen Delaware. They were with Fannin at Goliad, and with Travis at the siege of the Alamo. They come of the same race with those who followed Jefferson Davis in the gallant charge at Buena Vista. They were at Manassas and at Gettysburg. They fought with Lee in the Wilderness and with Dewey at Manila Bay.
His environment has likewise left its strong impress upon him. I like to think of man as a product of the soil. We naturally expect to

1738

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

find our symbolic eagle among the mountain crags; the gloomy owl amid the dark recesses of the swamps. The mighty redwood trees seem natural amid the gold-encrusted hills of California. The Bo-tree and the Upas seem natural in the land of the Magi. In the same way the vindictive Arab is natural to the oriental plains. In his dark eye we seem to see the mirage of a spirit land; his nostrils forever feel the breath of the simoon; in his blood is fused the passion of the tropical sun, the poetry and romance of the eastern sky. The Swiss have learned their lesson of freedom from the Alpine heights. Mount Blanc is nature's monument to liberty. The character of the Georgian has felt the impress of similar influences. His state is an empire state both in geographical extent and in natural wealth. Within her boundaries may be found nearly every variety of soil and scenery and climate that the heart could wish. From the red clay hills of his state, a Georgian derives fortitude, endurance, and perseverance. In the restless and unceasing rnoan of the sea that beats upon her shores, he hears a voice that bids eternal defiance to oppression and restraint. Grim and rugged Mount Yonah, lifting her hoary.head 5,000 feet among the clouds, beckons him on to lofty patriot ism and high endeavor. Her murmuring streams sing to him of liberty. Her evergreen forests symbolize the unfading glory of great achieve ments. Robert M. Hitch.
[Extract from a speech, delivered at a banquet tendered by the Macou bar to Judge Emory Speer, of the U. S. District Court, February 25, 1910.]
i
IN FLORIDA BY THE SEA

I am standing alone by the sea the sea that stretches away and away, till the eye can see no farther, and the canopy of heaven with its curtains of blue joins the waters and makes to our vision the end of the world. The ocean is so old and yet so new like the old, sweet story that was whispered in the garden by our first parents, and has been told in hovel, in cottage and in palace for centuries upon centuries since, and yet is ever, ever new.
The starlight is falling upon the waters, and mirrored down in the far depths it looks as if the vasty deep were giving up its jewels, glitter ing and brilliant. The waves, rippling onward to the shore, catch the glint of the starlight, and seem to be bearing the precious gems to us, till we almost reach out our hands to grasp them but they are gone.
Ah me! so it is that our day-dreams often crumble and vanish, when we would seek to touch them.
Yonder in the distance looms against the sky a passing ship, its white sails spreading in the gentle breeze like great white wings, as if some giant sea-bird were poising for its flight.
I know that hope and ambition and expectation are as much a part of its burden as its listed cargo, and I know that in the little cottage under the hill the prayers of loving ones are going up for those who sail upon the trackless deep, and for their safe return even as we send forth our fondest hopes and best endeavors, with prayers that he who rules the ocean and the storm may bring them back at last, freighted with success and happiness and peace. Oh, sea, if thou wouldst only

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1739

whisper from thy great, sad, throbbing heart, what shall be the fate of our ship!
I turn and walk across the sandy beach, and through the soughing pines, to where the river drags slowly onward, and underneath the over shadowing boughs, to where a great oak stretches out its gnarled and twisted branches, and droops its pendant moss, like tears of sympathy, for human woes. And now the wind is whispering in the trees, as though it, too, had secrets, if it would only tell, or if the human ear were only finely tuned enough to catch what Nature says. Did I only imagine it, or standing there alone beneath the swaying limbs and beside the calmly flowing waters, did the dear old dame unbend a moment and deign to bear a message to her humble child? Was it only a thought, or did the wind stoop as it passed through the rustling leaves stoop till it pressed, like Nature's lips, against my ear, .and murmur a name? They said the tree was sometimes called "the haunted oak." It may be so, or it may be haunted only by memories and imaginings; but it seemed for a moment that I could catch a glimpse of a face I knew whose 1 Ah! if you love Nature as a mother, and you will walk upon the shore, or stand beside the river and listen to the music of the wind, perhaps some name will sound in your ear, too, and some face come before your eyes. And whether the name and face were borne to you upon the winds and waves, or simply welled up from the pulsing of your heart, let Nature tell when in the great hereafter she shall tell the other secrets of the winds and waves. Judge J. H. Lumpkin.

AGAINST IMPERIALISM

The thirst for empire is like the desire for human blood, which is stirred to an unquenchable appetite in the veins of every man who tastes it. The cry will be "More! More!" It was a long step to the middle of the sea to take Hawaii. It was a much longer step across the widest of all the oceans to take the Philippines. It is now a much shorter step from the Philippines to the continent of Asia. Everywhere the bounties which Providence has bestowed upon foreign nations invite the greed for spoil and the lust for dominion. Thus from step to step the march of empire will go on, and as a necessary consequence a standing army of half a million men and an annual expenditure drawn from the pockets of the people, the magnitude of which one can hardly venture to estimate.
Mr. President, it is not a pleasant thing to suggest that there may be a limit beyond -which the United States may not safely go. It is a much easier task to tickle the ear of the American people with highflown panegyrics and to excite the popular enthusiasm with the glittering recital of the dazzling dreams of empire. But those officially charged with the responsibility, the peace, the safety and the future of a great nation, and with the duty of preserving its principles and its institutions will find the discharge of the highest duty not always in the field most inviting to personal gratification or pleasing to the love of personal
applause. But, sir, it is not simply in the contemplation of the possibility of
a war entailing great sacrifices and possible reverses that I am opposed to a policy which will brings wars. War at best, even victorious war,

1740

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

in a righteous cause, is a great curse. It always works a change in. the civil institutions of a free country, and endangers the liberties of the people. It accustoms the people to the excesses of arbitrary power, and weakens loyalty to the authority of law. It familiarizes them with the contemplation of blood and carnage; brutalizes the instincts, and destroys the gentler and nobler humanities. It even invades the pulpit; and, strange to say, some of those called to minister in holy things endeavor to paint the good God as a God delighting in war and bloodshed, for getting that the new dispensation was ushered in with the divine mes sage, "Peace on earth, good will to men," and scarcely remembering that even under the old dispensation David was not allowed to build the
temple because he was a man of blood. The people of the United States today: know less of war than those
of thirty-five years ago, and the people of the North, as closely as the great war of that time came to their homes and their firesides, know less of it than the people of the South. Because they know what it is they are opposed to unnecessary war. And yet, sir, the people of my section, as much as they deprecate war, recognize that wars are some times necessary and that there are some things worse than war. They recognize that the loss of national liberty is worse than war; they recog nize that no war is too great "a sacrifice to secure and protect liberty; and, what is more, whenever the country is engaged in war they give it their active support, regardless of whether it is or is not a war which they approve. If the published reports are correct, the state which in proportion to population furnished the greatest number of soldiers to the late war was the State of Georgia. And although her people in general deprecate and deplore the present war in the Philippines and believe it could have been and should have been avoided, it is never theless true that two-thirds of the men of one of the volunteer regiments raised during the past year for that service and now serving in the Phil
ippines were enlisted in Georgia. Again, sir, among the imperialists, those who soar on a loftier wing
are fond of appealing to the patriotic emotions and pride of the Amer ican people by the oft-repeated statement that the results of the Spanish war have made the United States a world power. "What a wonderful discovery, Mr. President, that we have become a world power. Why, sir, when in the result of the Revolutionary war we made good the great Declaration of the Fourth of July, 1776, we became the greatest of world powers; the greatest of world powers, sir, because in spite of the fewness of our numbers and the smallness of our resources, we had not only announced, but maintained and secured, a great principle, thereafter to stand as the menace of every tyrant, the'hope and inspiration of every people, however humble, who longed for liberty. Just become, sir, a world power? A nation whose flag has never gone down in defeat just become a world power, when for seventy-five years it has stood as the guardian of the whole western hemisphere and said to the whole world, "Not one step further on this hemisphere," and for seventy-five years
the whole world has obeyed the command? And this discovery that we have just become a world power is due
to a mere skirmish in which we overcame the weak and decayed power of Spain, when in truth we had so recently with our own blood written

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1741

the history of the greatest and fiercest and bloodiest battles of modern times. "Why, sir, within your memory there occurred within eighty miles of this capitol a' battle in which more men were killed and wounded in half an hour than were killed and wounded in both American and Spanish armies during the entire Spanish war. And the highest dem onstration that we were a world power was when the division ended and when there stood again united for all time the people who, when divided, had between themselves fought battles under the shock of which the earth quaked and the very mountains rocked. A. 0. Bacon.
[Extract from an address delivered in the United States Senate on January 30, 1900, against the retention of the Philippines.]

THE CLAIMS OF THE UNIVERSITY

The making of the citizen is the highest duty of the state.. Every child within the boundaries of the commonwealth should be afforded the advantages of higher education. Education comes down from the heights; it never rises from the depths. Our sons should not be required to become exiles to fit themselves for active life. The period of youth is the time of first impressions. Then it is that habits are formed; con victions upon moral, religious and political questions fixed,- taste becomes correct or vitiated; and ideas of life elevated or depraved.
If the result of foreign education were only the lack of adaptation by the individual to the demands of active life at home, then no one, per haps, would have a right to complain, but when the Georgian educated abroad brings back to his home false dogmas in religion, morals and government, or, if not false, at least not in harmony with the principles held dearest by us, then the pernicious effects become general, and the evil widespread.
There has never been a period in the world's history when greater emphasis has been put upon trained intelligence in agriculture, com merce, manufacture, finance, science and government. Crude labor pays neither the employer nor the employed. This day is a day of brain, not brawn; of fact, not fancy; of force of thought, not of mere elegance of expression. "We move in straight lines, not in curved ones. In morals, as in geometry, the straight line measures the shortest distance. We can best reach an object by going directly to it. There must be no lost motion in the machinery of life. We travel now from Joppa to Jerusalem by steam. Fulton's Clermont has become the Oceanic; the rude bridge of wood or stone is replaced by one like that over the Frith of Forth; the spinning-wheel has developed into the modern factory, with its thousands of spindles, its army of operatives, its stupendous powers of corporate wealth; the agricultural chemist has restored the worn-out soil; the hydraulic engineer has made fertile the arid lands; the mechan ical engineer, by a thousand forms of labor-saving machinery, has enabled the "man" to throw away the "hoe" and to stand erect, the image of his Maker; the village water wheel has become Niagara chained, and the tallow dip is lost in electric glory; the stylus has been succeeded by the typewriter; the printer by the Mergenthaler; the hand press by Hoe's octuple; the mad rushing train is stopped in an instant by com-

1742

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

pressed air, and we no longer fret the marble with the sculptor's chisel, but summon the same wizard to do our bidding.
The possibilities of this power, compressed or liquid, reach far beyond reason's ken, or imagination's vagrant fancy. Anesthesia, the Roentgen ray, antiseptic surgery, together with the knowledge of the laws of hygiene and sanitation, have minimized pain and suffering and have increased the duration of human life. To such a degree of perfection has science attained that we can get from the laboratory an egg or a beefsteak, a ruby or a diamond. From the waste product of the gas retort the most delicate colors, the perfume of flowers, the flavor of
fruits. Wonderful indeed are the changes that have been wrought by the
alumni in active life in every land. It is a far cry from the bows and arrows of our ancestors to the high explosives, the smokeless powder, the Krags and Mausers of today; from the war galleys of Diodorus Siculus to the modern battleships of Schley and Dewey. It is a far cry, indeed,
from Morse to Marconi! Our own alumni have been active in life. Many of the stars that
are set in glory in our southern sky take their names from your honored roll. Strike these stars from the firmament and you make darkness visible. The -rays of the setting sun of the last century fell upon Georgia's college. The light of a new era is now waking into life a great distinctive southern university, whose teachings, while they shall remain true to the legends and laws, the principles and politics, the courage and courtesy of the past, will yet breathe a broader philosophy
and inspire higher ideals of scholarship. In these days of moral cowardice, of sharp practice, of mountebank
religion arid politics, when "brazen impudence challenges public confi dence," the alumni of the university should stand for all that is best and highest and truest in the life of the state. Let us stand by the university, and for the university, whether it be on athletic field or
senate floor! Sir, our fond mother has grown older since you and I abided with
her, but she is very fair to us. Her servants may serve her well, riches may come to her, and the state generously provide for her, but at last her real strength, her greatness and her glory must be found in the active life and in the love and devotion of her own sons. Peter "W.
Meldrim.
[Extract from an address delivered at the university banquet, held in Atlanta
in 1902.]

THE CONFEDERATE WOMAN

This favored city, Mr. Mayor, will never know an hour in all her history to be compared with this hour when she unveils to the world the first monument to the mothers of men. May it stand forever, the highest expression of the love of the Sons of Veterans and of the old heroes of the gray. May it stand forever. It could never stand firmer in storm-driven hours than the Daughters of the Confederacy stood during the war's wild years of the '60s. May it stand forever. But no night will ever bend above it where clustered stars will glorify the

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1743

gloom more beautifully, more divinely, than have the virtues of the daughters of the South glorified all the nights of our grief and softened all the years of our sorrow. Judge Moses Wright.
[Extract from an address delivered at the unveiling, in. Rome, Ga., of a monument to the Women of the Confederacy.]

GOOD NIGHT, GBEAT CHIEF
Twelve moons ago, when the golden-rods were blooming and ; the mocking-birds were singing, and our hearts were light and gay, we met around our great council fire. How rosy was the future! Not a cloud floated in the sky. Not a wave rippled on the waters. From among all the braves and warriors assembled there we selected the wisest, the bravest and the best, and in his strong pure hand we placed the golden tomahawk of authority, knowing full well that he would wield it grandly and nobly. How his great heart leaped with exultation and pride at the distinction conferred upon him! How hopefully and confidently he viejved the future! How great and wise were the plans he made. He was the honored, the revered leader and the great chief of over 350,000 loyal, faithful red men! How grandly, how nobly did he measure up to the expectation of the brotherhood! At the magic touch of his match less hand the machinery of our fraternal government pulsated with new life, with renewed zeal, with transcendent force and irresistible power.
Prom council fire to council fire the glad acclaim went forth,'' Hail to the chief!" and joy unconfined held full sway around every council fire in the land. The warriors and the braves, with light hearts and swift feet, went merrily on the chase. The sachems and sagamores held their council sleeps and wisely planned for the future. Never in the history of our beloved order was its organization more perfect or superb. When, lo, from yonder highest peak a flaming arrow shot across the sky. An omen of evil! The stoutest heart quails; and the stern faces of the warriors and braves pale before that dread signal. Soon from hilltop to hilltop, from council fire to council fire, the message is flashed: "The great incohonee is dead," and the brotherhood all over the land stand with bowed heads and sad hearts in the shadow of a great sorrow.
On the 29th day of March, 1905, in his beautiful home in Mont gomery, Alabama, Thomas Henry Watts fell asleep. I reverently and sorrowfully stood by his bier and looked for the last time upon that strong, manly, but kind and sympathetic face we all knew so well and loved so( much. I looked affectionately at that dumb month that had so often charmed us with its eloquence and guided us with its wisdom.
I saw his mortal remains borne through the streets where the broad magnolia leaves unfold beside the asters, flowers of gold, to the beautiful city of the dead, and there in the silence of the departing day, sur rounded by the speechless monuments of the dead, and a vast multitude of'friends, "I heard the solemn words, "earth to earth, dust to dust," and all that was mortal of Thomas Henry Watts, great incohonee of the Improved Order of Red Men, was placed "under the sod and the dew to await the judgment day."
Proud old England grows her myrtle, but it is not too kingly to deck the brow of Thomas Henry Watts. Sunny Italy has her quarries

1744

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

of fairest marble, but none too white to mark his last resting-place. America has her Mount Washington, sky-kissed and snow-capped, but it is not too high to pedestal the statue of our departed brother. And on this glorious autumnal day, the kissing sunbeams that play and dance on these mountain summits, lighting them with a gorgeous splendor, are not purer than the noble purposes that actuated his pure and noble life.
I have stood on the deck of a magnificent ship as it majestically sailed the s,ea, and witnessed the moon in all its splendor rise out of the mys tery of the deep and shed its shimmering rays over the waters like millions of diamonds sparkling and dancing on the waves, and I thought the scene was surpassingly beautiful.
I have stood on a .great mountain peak at dawn and witnessed the sun come forth in all its majesty and power and fill the world with light and glory, and I thought it was beautiful and grand.
I have seen in the darkness of midnight the forked lightning leap from hill to hill, from crest to crest, and cut and shiver the,inky clouds into rivers of fire, while the thunder rolled and reverberated in the dis tance, and the universe trembled in the titanic power of the sto*rm king, and I exclaimed how beautiful, how grand, how sublime, is the omnipotent power of God. But, brother, the most beautiful, the grand est, the sublimest creation or manifestation of God's omnipotence is a man, created in his own image, who loves his fellow man. One who ministers to the wants and necessities of his fellow man as softly and gently as the moonbeams, fall upon the midnight sea, one who visits the sick and fills the room with a radiance as bright and glorious as the light of the new day; one who dispels the clouds of adversity as the lightning cleaves the clouds in a somber sky; such a man was Thomas Henry "Watts.
In the great Valhalla beyond the grave, where the spirits of immor tals dwell, our friend now rests with the noblest and the best. Good night, great chief, good night, until some golden day by the still waters we shall meet again, when the joyous greeting shall be an everlasting good morning. Judge R. T. Daniel.

PART III
GEORGIA IN THE REPUBLIC OF LETTERS

CHAPTER V
PART III. GEORGIA IN THE REPUBLIC OF LETTERS
GEORGIA'S CONTRIBUTION TO AMERICAN LETTERS--ELIZA F. ANDREWS-- LOGAN E. BLECKLEY--MARY E. BRYAN--ALLEN I. CANDLER--WAR REN A. CANDLER--THOMAS HOLLEY CHIVERS--JOSEPH T. DERRY-- CLEMENT A. EVANS--HENRY LYNDEN FLASH--REBECCA A. FELTON --JOHN B. GORDON--OSSIAN D. GQRMAN--F. R. GOULDING--HENRY W. GRADY--JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES--CORRA WHITE HARRIS--JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS--ATTICUS G. HAYGOOD-^PAUL H. HAYNE--CARO LINE LEE HENTZ--BENJAMIN H. HILL--WILLIAM HURD HILLYER-- CLARK HOWELL--CHARLES W. HUBNER--HENRY R. JACKSON--RICH ARD MALCOLM JOHNSTON--CHARLES C. JONES--JOHN MC!NTOSH KELL--LUCIAN LAMAR KNIGHT--SIDNEY LANIER--AUGUSTUS B.
LONGSTREET----JAMES LONGSTREET----HUGH McCALL----BETSY HAMIL TON--WILLIAM J. NORTHEN--FRANK H. ORME--WILLIAM H. PECK
--GEORGE F. PIERCE--JAMES RYDEE RANDALL--LOULA KENDALL ROGERS--MILDRED RUTHERFORD--WILLIAM J. SCOTT--CARRIE BELL SINCLAIR--CHARLES H. SMITH (BILL ARP)--GEORGE G. SMITH-- FRANK L. STANTON -- ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS -- WILLIAM STEPHENS--WILLIAM B. STEVENS--MAURICE THOMPSON--WILLIAM T. THOMPSON--ROBERT TOOMBS--HENRY HOLCOMB TUCKER--THOMAS E. WATSON--RICHARD HENRY WILDE--AUGUSTA EVANS WILSON-- WILLIAM L. YANCEY.
(This chapter prepared by Prof. Joseph T. Derry.)
The space allotted to this chapter precludes the thought of extended sketches or of quotations from Georgians who have wooed the muses of history, romance or song. Georgia has long been famous as the land of orators. This is easily accounted for. The noble contour of her moun tains, the lovely valleys that nestle beneath their shadows, her fields of golden grain and snowy cotton, her orchards that dot hill and plain, rich with luscious fruit .and nuts of tempting flavor, her varied climate, which causes to spring up from he^* soil the products of every section of the Union, suggest themes that inspire oratory of the loftiest kind.
The story of colonial days, of the thrilling period of revolution, of Georgia's fidelity at all times to her conception of the right, her valor in the darkest seasons displayed in behalf of good government, and her noble, and to this day successful, struggle for Caucasian civilization, accompanied by the splendid efforts of her orators and statesmen for the restoration of brotherly love and unity throughout the bounds of our great Republic, afford stirring subjects for the historian's pen.
1747

1748

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

The wild flowers that bedeck her bosom from the mountains to the

sea and the cultivated beauties that adorn her gardens and border her

grassy lawns, from the queenly rose, the pinks and little violets, all of

delightful odor, to the stately camelia japonica and the magnolia

grandiflora, rich with the perfume of the South, her grand forests

abounding in hardwoods of many kinds and stately pines with health-

bestowing breath, enlivened by hosts of feathered songsters, some

gorgeously arrayed and some in modest attire, of which latter group

the mocking bird, prince of singers, pours forth his little throat melo

dies as varied and thrilling as if a whole chorus were swelling the

breeze; all these and many more inspiring sights and sounds under a

sky that rivals that of Sunny Italy are calculated to fill the poet's1 tongue

and pen with heavenly melody and rapturous song.

As might be expected, Georgia, with so many gifts to inspire her

sons and daughters, has been noted as a land of orators and journal

ists ready with pen or tongue, has not lacked for historians to record

her noble story and has been the home of poets who have pleased the

ear and touched the heart with sentimental, humorous or heroic verse.

We give a partial list of those who have by their writings endeav-

ored to contribute to the honor of the proud state, which gave them.

birth or lured them from other lands to dwell within her borders.

ALEXANDER, EDWARD PORTER, soldier, civil engineer, railway mag-

nate and author; born at Washington, Georgia, May 28, 1835. He was

educated at West Point (United States Military Academy). He re-

signed from the United States army and, entering the service of the

Confederate States, became chief of artillery of Longstreet's Corps

Army of Northern Virginia. He was, after the war, a great railway

developer. He published in two volumes an interesting and authentic

history under the title, "The Memoirs of a Confederate," which came

from the press of Charles Scribner's Sons in 1907.

ANDREWS, ELIZA FRANCES, botanist, teacher and author; born at

Washington, Georgia, August 10, 1840. She was graduated from La

Grange College in 1857. She has paid much attention to botany, was

for several years a teacher at Wesleyan Female College, Macon, Georgia,

is interesting as a lecturer, and has written on a variety of subjects,

some humorous; has also written short stories, poems, criticisms and

novels, mafty of them published in magazines and. periodicals. Among

her writings are: "A Family Secret," "A Mere Adventure," "Prince

Hall: How He Was Tempted," "The Story of an Ugly Girl," "The

Mistake of His Life," "Botany All the Year 'Round," "The War-

Time Journal of a Georgia Girl."

'

BIGHAM, ROBERT W., a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church,

South, author of "Vinnie Leal's Trip to the Golden Shore," "Joe, a

Boy in the War Times," "California Gold Field Scenes," "Wine and

Blood" (a temperance story).

BIGHAM, EUGENIA, daughter of the above, author of short stories.

BIGHAM, MADGE ALFORD, also daughter of Rev. R. W. Bigham, sue-

cessful author of kindergarten stories such as "Within the Silver

Moon," "Mother Goose Village," and "Merry Animal Tales."

BLECKLEY, LOGAN E., jurist and author; born July 3, 1827, in

Rabun County, Georgia; died ................ in ................

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1749

By diligent application and study at the village academy he was ready at eleven years of age to begin writing in the office of his father, a farmer, who lived one mile from Clayton, the county site, and was clerk of three courts, the Superior, Inferior, and Ordinary. He was admitted to the bar in 1846 when not .quite nineteen years of age. He opened an office in Atlanta in March, 1852, and in the summer of 1875 was ap pointed associate justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, from which he resigned in 1880 on account of failing health. Although Judge Bleckley had not in his youth the best educational advantages, he be came a man of such learning and culture that Chancellor Walter B. Hill, of the State University, declared that Judge Bleckley* was '' one of the few men in Georgia who could hold his own in a discussion of German metaphysics." Judge Bleckley wrote a unique autobiography entitled "A Letter to Posterity," and also occasional verses which de servedly rank him among Georgia poets.
BROWN, JOSEPH MACKEY, statesman and author; born in Canton, Cherokee County, Georgia, December 28, 1851. Immediately after the close of the war between the states the family moved to Atlanta. He was educated in the schools of Atlanta and was graduated in 1872 from Oglethorpe University, at that time located in Atlanta, with first honor in his class. He was admitted to the bar in Canton in 1873, but trouble with his eyes caused him to abandon his life plans and go into general business. In his long connection with railroads, he became an expert in that business and served for a time on the Railroad Commission of Georgia, of which state he has been twice governor. Ex-Governor Brown is a man of broad culture and is author of "Mountain Campaigns in Georgia," a work which received the endorsement of the two opposing commanders. His "Astyanax," an epic romance of Ilion, Atlantis and Amaraca, is a work of great interest and worthy of careful study.
BEYAN, MRS. MAHY E., journalist and author. She edited for many years the Sunny South, and amid all her journalistic labors found time to write and publish through the Appletons two dramatic novels, "Manche" and "Wild Work," the last a romance of the days of "re construction, '' founded on fact and depicting some striking phases of that turbulent period.
CANDLER, ALLEN D., governor and author; born in Auraria, Lumpkin County, Georgia, November 4, 1834; died in Atlanta, Georgia. He was graduated from Mercer University in 1859 and began to teach at Jonesboro, being founder of the Clayton High School. .He entered the Confederate service in 1861 as a private, was elected lieutenant and rose to colonel. After the war he settled in Gainesville, of which city he was elected mayor in 1872. He served as representative in the Legis lature and then as state senator, then in the United States House of Representatives. He was secretary of state in 1894, and was governor from 1898 to 1902. He was, after the expiration of his term as gov ernor, commissioned by the state to compile the Colonial, Revolutionary and Confederate records of Georgia. In this work he was engaged at the time of his death. He had already published several volumes of the records. He was also co-editor with Gen. Clement A. Evans of the "Encyclopedia of Georgia."

vol. ni--si

1750

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

CANDDER, WARREN A., bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; born in Carroll County, Georgia, August 23, 1857, and was gradu ated in 1875 from Emory College, Oxford, Georgia. Has served several churches as pastor; was president of Emory College from 1886 until 1898, when he was elected bishop. Among his writings are: "History of Sun day Schools," "Georgia's Educational Work," "Christus Auctor," "High Living and High Lives," "Great Revivals and the Great Re public."
CHIVEES, THOMAS HOLLEY, descended on both sides from English ancestry, was born at Digby Manor, near Washington, Georgia, in 1807. He was graduated in 1830 from the medical school of Transylvania Uni versity, Lexington, Kentucky, and for some months practiced in his native state. Going north in 1832, he married Miss Harriet Hunt, a Massachusetts lady. With money furnished by his father, he and his wife were enabled to spend their time in Boston, New Haven, and New York, and many of his earlier poems were written at the various hotels in these cities. Of their seven children, two daughters are living. For twenty-five years he lived mostly in New York, writing poetry and giving medical aid to the poor and needy. Doctor drivers returned to Georgia in 1856 and died at his home in Decatur, December 19, 1858. Among his published works are: '' Conrad and Eudora; or, The Death of Alonzo," "Songs of the Heart," found in his poem "Nacoochee," many other short poems, and on the death of his first child wrote "The Lost Pleiad." His most famous volume was the "Eonche of Ruby." But his masterpiece was "Virginalia." drivers also painted several creditable portraits of his family and some splendid pen. and ink sketches. He also had an inventive mind, as is shown in his machine for unwinding the fiber from silk cocoons. There does not appear to be the least substantial ground for any claim that Poe got his "Raven" from Chivers.
DBRRY, JOSEPH TYRONE, educator and author; born in Milledgeville, Georgia, December 13, 1841. He was educated in Augusta and at Emory College, Oxford, Georgia, graduating in 1860, served four years in the Confederate army, taught for thirty-five years, and from 1874 has been also engaged in literary pursuits. His published works are: "A Catechetical History of the United States," "Georgia's Towns, Scenery and Resources," "History of the United States for Schools and Academies," "Story of the Confederate States," the Georgia Volume of "Confederate Military History," of a twelve-volume work, edited by Gen. Clement A. Evans; "The Strife of Brothers," an historic epic in seven books or cantos, highly commended by .James R. Randall, Joaquin Miller and Frank L. Stanton.
Professor Derry was both compiler and editor of "Georgia: Histori cal and Industrial," published under the auspices of the Georgia Depart ment of Agriculture in 1901, and of several other historical and statis tical works subsequently issued by that department. He has also con tributed to leading historical works and encyclopedias, besides writing occasional short poems. He is at this time assistant commissioner of the Georgia Department of Commerce and Labor.
EVANS, CLEMENT ANSELM, soldier and author; born in Stewart County,.- Georgia, 1834, died at Atlanta, Georgia, 1911. He was

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1751

educated in the schools of Lumpkin, Georgia, and the Augusta Law School, was admitted to the bar at the age of nineteen and at twenty-five was state senator. He served through the war, rising to brigadier-general, and was in the last charge of the Army of Northern Virginia as commander of Gordon's old division. He served for twentyfive years as an itinerant minister and at the time of his death was a member of the Georgia State Prison Commission. He published a twelve:volume work styled "Confederate Military History," the story of each state being written by an author selected by him, and he edit ing the whole work and writing some of its best chapters. He also gathered a mass of information for the "Encyclopedia of Georgia," of which he and Governor Alien D. Candler were joint editors.
EVANS, LAWTON B., son of the former, a well-known educator and author, superintendent of schools of Augusta and Richmond County; author of a school history of Georgia and of two school histories of the United States, one for beginners and the other for advanced pupils. He is also an able and interesting lecturer.
FLASH, HARRY LYNDEN, journalist and poet. He was for some time editor of the Macon Telegraph and wrote poems of rare power. He published in 1860 a volume of war poems and has written rnany fugi tive pieces of great sweetness. Subsequent to the war he made his home in Los Angeles, California.
FELTON, MRS. REBECCA ANN LATIMEK, was born in De Kalb County, Georgia, in 1835. Her father was Charles Latimer and her mother Eleanor Ann Swift. On the paternal side she is descended from the Marshalls of Maryland. No woman in Georgia has exerted a greater influence upon her times than this cultured and gifted lady. For more than forty years she has been a contributor to newspapers and maga zines. Both in her writings and in public addresses she has favored every moral and social reform, and has often represented her sex in various responsible positions and on occasions of state and national importance. She was married to Dr. William H. Felton on October 11, 1853. She was a tower of strength to this eminent physician, clergy man, congressman and orator, adding vigor to his own wonderful force and ability. Her life of Doctor Felton and story of his life work is a marvel of political knowledge and displays remarkable literary merit.
GORDON, JOHN BKOWN, soldier, statesman and author; born in Upson County, Georgia, February 6, 1832; died near Miami, Florida, January 9, 1904. Graduating first in his class at the University 'of Georgia,, he began the practice of law, but at the breaking out of the war entered the Confederate service as captain, became one of the most brilliant of the many able soldiers who served in the Army of Northern Virginia under the grand chieftain, Robert E. Lee, rising to the com mand of a corps and leading the whole left wing of that army at Appomattox.
After the return of peace he was twice governor of Georgia and three times United States senator, and from the origin of the United Confed erate Veterans' Association until his death he was its commander.
He was exceedingly popular as a lecturer in every part of the Union and as an author added to his fame by his "Reminiscences."
GORMAN, OSSIAN DANIEL, educator and author, was born in Talbot-

1752

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

ton, Georgia, October 3, 1841. He enjoyed excellent educational advan tages in the local schools and at Columbia University and Emory and Henry College. He was at one time superintendent of public schools at Talbotton, and is now a resident of Atlanta, A member of a literary family, he is himself a writer of note. His publications include '' Essays and Poems," "The Battle of Hampton Roads," "Chancellorsville," "Renascence," and "Historical Collections."
His brother, John Berry Gorman, Jr., a planter and journalist, who was born in Talbotton, July 22, 1839, traveled much and published "Around the World in '84," a most interesting narrative issued by the Southern Methodist Publishing House, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1886.
His grandfather, Dr. John Berry Gorman, physician and planter, was born in Edgefield District, South Carolina, February 22, 1793, and died in Talbot County, Georgia, November 12, 1864. He studied medi cine at the University of Pennsylvania, was a successful practitioner and accumulated a fortune. He wrote '' The Philosophy of Animated Exist ence, or Sketches of Living Physics" (Philadelphia, Soring & Ball,. 1845). Doctor Gorman was also a devotee of art and left a picture
called "The Nightmare." GOULDING, REV. F. R., minister and author. He wrote "Life Scenes
from Gospel History,'' also a series of books for young people that gave him worldwide fame. His "Young Marooners," the best known of these stories, was published in 1852, and was sold by tens of thousands in America and Europe. The scene is laid along the Georgia and Flor ida coasts and the story has a rare charm for boys and girls, as well as for grown-up people. As a sequel to this book, the author published "The Marooners' Island," which also had an enormous sale. Some of his other writings are: '' Sapelo; or, Child-Life in the Tidewater,'' '' Talequah; or, Life Among the Cherokees," " Nacoochee; or, Boy Life from Home," and the "Woodruff Stories." At Eatonton, Georgia, he constructed a sewing machine, in advance of Elias Howe. To Mrs. Colliding, then Miss Mary Howard, a young lady in Savannah, Dr. Lowell Mason dedicated the music which he had composed to Heber's great hymn, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," and she, as the lead ing soprano with the choir of the First Presbyterian Church, sang for the first time that wonderful hymn with its inspiring music in that venerable church. Doctor G (raiding was born in Liberty County, Geor gia, in 1810, and died at Roswell, Georgia, in 1881. His grave is near
the home of exJ?resident Roosevelt's mother. GRADY, HENRY WOODFIN, journalist and orator; born at Athens,
Georgia, .May 17, 1851; died in Atlanta, Georgia, December 23, 1889. He was graduated at the University of Georgia in 1868, studied at the University of Virginia and soon after began to write for the Atlanta Constitution. Pie in turn edited the Rome Courier, the Daily Commer cial and the Atlanta Herald; was next correspondent of the New York -Herald and reporter on the Atlanta Constitution. Buying an interest in the last-named journal, he became its editor and continued such until his death. He organized the Piedmont Chautauqua, aided in establish ing the Confederate Veterans' Home, and in organizing various Atlanta expositions. He refused public office, but employed his talent as a writer and his wonderful oratorical ability in developing a fraternal feeling

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1753

between North and South. Henry Clay, "the great pacificator," did no more in his day to keep the peace between North and South than did Henry Grady in teaching them to understand each other and be friends. It is doubtful if any statesman ever did more to revive the real spirit of Union than did Grady in Ms speech before the New Eng land Society.
GRAVES, JOHN TEMPLE, journalist and orator; born in Willington District, Abbeville, South Carolina, November 9, 1857. Moving with his father to Georgia he was graduated from the State University in August, 1875. He was .editor of the Daily Florida Union and Daily Florida Herald from 1882 to 1887, in which year he retxvrned to Georgia and became editor-in-chief of the Atlanta Journal. He became editor of the Tribune, of Rome, Georgia, in 1888. He had long before been dis tinguished as an orator, but his oration in 1889 over his friend, Henry W. Grady, has become one of the classics of oratorical literature. Mr. Graves was editor of the Atlanta News from 1902 to 1906. In the spring of 1906 he became editor-of the Atlanta Georgian and in October of the next year he was made editor-in-chief of the New York Daily American. His career as an orator is more fully treated elsewhere.
HARMAN, HENRY E., publisher and poet, was born in Lexingtoii, South Carolina, in 1866. He married in 1887 Miss Ella S. Walser, of Lexington, North Carolina. He has for many years been a resident of Atlanta, Georgia. He has published several volumes of exquisite verse with the highest ideals of sentiment. Among these are "In Peaceful Valley," "At the Gate of Dreams," "In Love's Domain.'!
HARRIS, MRS. CORRA WHITE, was born in Elbert County, Georgia, March 17, 1867. She was married February 8, 1887, to Dr. Lundy Howard Harris, late professor at Emory College, Oxford, Georgia. In the midst of household duties she found time to take an active part in religious and public affairs. She has made influential contributions to The Independent, and essays to other periodicals, among them "The Jessica Letters," written in collaboration with Paul Elmer More, of the New York Evening Post. Since her husband's death she has published "The Circuit Rider's Wife," letters from the seat of war in Europe, and since her return to Georgia, "Co-Citizen." Her style is chaste and vigorous.
HARRIS, JOEL CHANDLER, Georgia's most widely known author, was born at Eatonton, Georgia, December 8, 1848, and died in Atlanta, Georgia, July 3, 1908. At the age of fourteen he began to learn the printer's trade in the office of the Countryman, a journal edited by J. A. Turner on his plantation in Putnam County. In the Countryman appeared his first sketches and poems. He was connected at different times with the Macon Telegraph, the Crescent Monthly at New Orleans, Louisiana, the Forsythe Advertiser, the Savannah Daily News, and in 1876 went to the Atlanta Constitution, with which he continued active editorial work for twenty-five years. He began iinder the nom-de-plume of "Uncle Remus" his wonderful negro dialect stories, which have given him world-wide fame. His "Uncle Remus," the old-time slave darkey, who tells his stories to "Miss Sally's little boy," has been pronounced one of the greatest creations in American fiction. Other works deal with Southern life and character. Whatever he touches is done with

1754

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the hand of a master. In addition to a long list of humorous stories, he published '' Georgia from the Invasion of De Soto to Eeeent Times'' (the school edition being called "Stories of Georgia") (1896). He began to publish the Uncle Bemus Magazine, of which he was until his death editor and chief publisher.
HATGOOD, ATTICUS GREEN, clergyman and educator; born at Watkinsville, Georgia, November 19, 1839; died at Oxford, Georgia, Janu ary 19, 1896. He was graduated from Emory College, Oxford, Georgia, in 1859, and was admitted to the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, that same year. He had been for some time, while a student, a licensed preacher of that denomination, whose influ ence for good among his fellow students was wonderful. He was Sun day school secretary of the M. E. Church, South, 1870-1875, and edited Sunday school periodicals; president of Emory College, 1876-1884; agent of the John F. Slater Fund for the education of negro children in the South, 1883; elected bishop in 1882, but declined; elected again and accepted in 1886; editor of "Wesleyan Christian Advocate, 18781882. He received the degree of doctor of divinity from Emory Col lege in 1870 and of doctor of laws from the Southwestern University of Texas in 1884. Bishop Haygood was the author of "Go or Send, an Essay on Missions," "Our Children," "Our Brother in Black," "Close the Saloons," "Speeches and Sermons," "Jack-Knife and Brambles," and edited '' Sermons by Bishop George Foster Pierce.''
HAYNE, PAUL HAMILTON, poet; born in Charleston, South Carolina, January 1, 1830; died at Grovetown, Georgia, July 6, 1886. His father, P. H. Hayne, of the United States navy, died during the boy's infancy, and he was left to the care of his uncle, Robert Y. Hayne, governor and senator. He was graduated at Charleston College in 1850. He was married in 1852 to Miss Mary Michel and had one son, Wm. H. Hayne. After the war between the states, with home, wealth and libr.ary gone, he moved to a small cottage at Grovetown near Augusta, Georgia. Here he continued to reside until his death, devoting himself to literary pur suits. He was befpre the war associate editor of the Southern Literary Gazette and co-founder of Russell's Magazine. A volume of his poems was published at Boston (1855), another at Charleston (1857) and another at Boston (1860). A fourth volume, "Legends and Lyrics," was published at Philadelphia (1872), and in 1882 a volume of his complete poetical works with an introduction by Margaret J. Preston was pub lished at Boston. His poems are sweet and beautiful, especially so his sonnets.
HENTZ, MBS. CAROLINE LEE (WHITING), author; born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1800; died at Marianna, Florida, 1856. She began writ ing at an early age, producing a fairy drama and a tragedy before she was twelve. She was married in 1824 to Nicholas M. Hentz, a French man, who taught in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Alabama and Columbus, Georgia. At Columbus, Mr. Hentz lost his health and his wife, who, in addition to teaching with him, had been for some time well known as a writer of fiction, gave up teaching and de voted herself entirely to literature. Her novels were widely read and enabled her to care for her own children and some others whom she took charge of. The great majority of them were written during the

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1755

eight years of her residence at Columbus, Georgia. The young people of those years and their elders also delighted in reading "The Planter's Northern Bride," "Linda," "Robert Graham," "Marcus Wax-land," and others that in rapid succession came forth from her facile pen. But the work was too trying and in 1856 she died in Florida, .whither she had gone for her health.
HILL, BENJAMIN PI., statesman, was perhaps the foremost orator of Georgia during the stormy period of division. His celebrated Davis Hall and Bush Arbor speeches were masterpieces of burning invective not even surpassed by the Philippics of Demosthenes; while a series of letters written by Mr. Hill for publication entitled "Notes on the Situation" were powerful instruments in shaping public opinion during the days of reconstruction. Mr. Hill was the recognized spokesman of President Davis in the Confederate Senate. His famous reply to Blaine in 1876 was the masterful defense of Andersonville prison.
HILLYER, WM. HUKD, banker, journalist and author. His contribu tions have appeared in leading periodicals of the day, such as Lippincott's, Harper's, Munsey's, The Youth's Companion, The Smart Set, Puck, St. Nicholas and others. He published in 1907 a volume of poems entitled "Songs of the Steel Age." He displays literary talent of high rank in both his prose and poetical 'writings. His wife was 'before mar riage Miss Mary Dunwody Jones.
HOWELL, CLARK, journalist and politician; born in Barnwell County, South Carolina, September 21, 1863. He was graduated from the Uni versity of Georgia in 1883 and entered upon newspaper work. He succeeded Henry W. Grady as managing editor of the Atlanta Consti tution in 1889 and succeeded his father, Evau P. Howell as editor-inchief in 1897. Purchasing W. A. Hemp hill's stock in the Constitution in 1901 he became president of the company. Mr. Howell has been hon ored by his state as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives and as a member of the State Senate, of which he was president for two successive terms.
HTJBNER, CHARLES WILLIAM, poet, critic and journalist; born at Bal timore, Maryland, January 16, 1835. He lived some years in Germany, served as a Confederate soldier, since 1896 has been assistant librarian of the Carnegie Library of Atlanta, is literary editor of the Atlanta Jour nal and does much other literary work. Among his writings are: "His torical Souvenirs of Luther" (1872) ; "Wild Flowers," a poem (1876) ; "Cinderella," a drama (1879); "Modern Communism" (1880); "Poems and Essays" (1881); "The Wonder Stone," a drama (1883).; "War Poets of the South" (1896) ; "Representative Southern Poets" (1906); "Poems" (1906).
HUMPHRIES, JOSEPH WILLIAM, son of, Amos Daniel and Annis Eliza beth Humphries, was born at Napeville, Georgia, August 27, 1871. After completing his school and college course.he began the practice of law in Atlanta. In the midst of the labors pertaining to his profession he has found time for. the exercise of his poetic talent and has frequently con tributed short poems to the periodicals. Among his best poems are: "When She Comes," "Just For You," and "Deedee's Hands."
JACKSON, HENEY ROOTES, soldier, diplomat and poet; born at Athens, Georgia, June 24, 1820; died Savannah, Georgia, May 23, 1898. He was

1756

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

graduated from Yale in 1839, was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1840, served as United States district attorney for Georgia. He was colonel of a Georgia regiment in the Mexican war. He was at one time United States minister to Austria. He served as brigadier general in the Con federate Army. In 1885 lie was United States minister to Mexico. He was author of '' Tallulah and Other Poems,'' was a graceful speaker, was president of the Georgia Historical Society, trustee of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Savannah and in 1875 was made a trustee of the
Peabody Educational Fund. JOIINSTON, RICHARD MALCOLM, lawyer, educator, and author; born in
Hancock County, Georgia, March 8, 1822; died at Baltimore, Mary land, September 23, 1898. He was educated in the "old field schools," some of which he has described in his writings and was graduated from Mercer University in 1841. He taught school in Hancock County, then practiced law, then was principal of Mount Zion Academy, then was law partner, first of Judge James Thomas and later of Linton Stephens, brother of Alex. H. Stephens. Next he was for four years professor of belles-lettres at the Georgia University. Going back to his first love he opened a school for boys at his plantation in Hancock County, Georgia. This school became famous and lost none of its prestige when removed to Baltimore, Maryland. His published works consist of descriptions of scenes and characters of Middle Georgia in the early days. Among them are: "Georgia Scenes and Sketches" (1854); "Dukesborough. Tales" (1871); "Old Mark Langston" (1883); "McAbsalom Billingsbee and other Georgia Folk" (1888); "Mr. Billy Downs and His Likes" (1892); "Little Ike Tenephin and Other Stories" (1894) ; "The Princes and Their Neighbors" (1891) ; "Old Times in Middle Georgia" (1897); "Pearce Amerson's Will" (1898) ; "Two Gay Tourists" (1885). In a different vein are "The English Classics" (1860) ; "English Literature" (1872) ; "Life of Alexander H. Stephens" (written in conjunction with Win. Hand Brown) (1878); "Studies, Literary and Social"
(1891). JONES, CHARLES COLCOCK, born at Savannah, Georgia, October 28,
1831; died in Augusta, Georgia, in 1893. He was graduated in 1852 from Princeton College, New Jersey, and then at the Harvard Law School. He practiced law in Savannah until 1861, when he resigned the mayoralty to which he had been elected in 1860, in order to enter the Confederate Army. In this he rose to the rank of colonel of artillery. For ten years after the war he practiced law in New York City. Re turning to Georgia in 1876 he made Augusta his home until his death. He wrote much on the history and antiquities of Georgia and the South, also many articles and biographical sketches. Among his most noted works were "A Sketch of the Chatham Artillery," "Life of Captain Josiah Tatnall," and "History of Georgia" in two volumes.
KELL, JOHN MC!NTOSH, naval officer and author; born in Mclntosh County, Georgia, in 1828; died at Sunny Side, near Griffin, Georgia, in 1900. He served under Capt. Raphael Semmer as first lieutenamt of the Alabama, After the war he became adjutant general of the State of Georgia. He wrote a sketch of the Alabama for the Century Company's great work, "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," and later wrote

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1757

"Recollections of a Naval Life," which was published by the Neale Publishing Company of New York and Washington.
KNIGHT, LUCIAN LAMAR, journalist and historian; born in Atlanta, Georgia, February 9, 1868. He received his early education in the schools of Atlanta, was graduated from the Georgia University with the degree of A. B. and at Princeton, New Jersey, received his A. M. degree. He adopted journalism as his profession and from 1892 to 1902 was on the staff of the Atlanta Constitution. He was editor of the Atlanta Georgian from 1908 to 1910. Since 1911 he has been second vice president and literary editor of the Martin & Hoyt Company, one of the leading publishing houses of the South and since 1914 has been vice president of the John B. Daniel Company, manufacturers. In 1913 he was tendered by Governor Joseph M. Brown and accepted the position of compiler of public records, with office at the state capitol, succeeding in this department two former governors, and he still fills this position with honor to himself and his state. Mr. Knight spent two years in California, where he wrote "Reminiscences of Famous Georgians" in two volumes. He is also author'of "Memorials and Landmarks of Geor gia" and is editor of "Biographical Dictionary of Southern Authors," volume 15 of the '' Library of Southern Literature,'' and of '' Historical Sidelights," volume 16 of the same great work.
LANIER, SIDNEY, poet and teacher; born at Macon, Georgia, Feb ruary 3, 1842; died at Lynn, North Carolina, September 7, 1881. He was graduated from Oglethorpe University then near, Milledgeville, Georgia. There he became a tutor, served in the Confederate Army as a private, was placed in charge of a vessel running the blockade, was captured and confined at Point Lookout/ He returned home in 1865 with health greatly impaired. His first book was "Tiger Lilies" (1867). He was married in 1867 to Miss Mary Day of Macon, in which city he practiced law with his father. Going to Baltimore in 1873 he made his living partly as a musician, partly as a writer, finding his associates among musical and literary people, among whom' was Bayard Taylor. His writing of wonderfully musical poems and delivery of scholarly lectures led to his appointment to a post at Johns Hopkins University in 1879. His lectures, poems and prose writings have placed him in the foremost rank of American men of letters and poets.
LONGSTREET, AUGUSTUS BALDWIN, lawyer, author, educator and minister of the gospel; born in Augusta, Georgia, September 22, 1790; died at Oxford, Mississippi, September 9, 1870. He was graduated from Yale in 1813, admitted to the bar in 1815, a member of the Georgia Legis lature in 1821 and judge of the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit, 1822-29. He established in 1838 the Augusta Sentinel, which was later consolidated with the Chronicle. He became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1838 and upon the division in 1844 he naturally gave his services to the southern division of that great Christian body. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1839 he, as pastor in Augusta was untiring in his consecrated devotion to the sick. He was president of Emory Col lege, Oxford, Georgia, 1839-1848, later president of Centenary College, Louisiana, next of the University of Mississippi; from 1857 to 1861 presi dent of South Carolina College, then was again president of the Uni versity of Mississippi at Oxford, Mississippi, until his death.

1758

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

He was the author of "Letters to Clergymen of the Northern Methodist Church," "Letters from Georgia to Massachusetts," "Georgia Scenes, etc., in the First Half Century of the Re public by a Native Georgian" (first published in 1840 and republished in 1867). He had nothing to do with the publication of the edition of 1867 and had tried to destroy the first edition, on the ground that it was too frivolous. He published in 1864 "Master William Mitten."
LONGSTBEET, JAMES, a nephew of the distinguished Georgian above mentioned, was the illustrious Confederate officer, known as "Lee's'Old War Horse." He commanded the immortal first corps of the Army of Northern Virginia and wrote a masterful review of his part in the 'great struggle in a work entitled "From Manassas to Appomattox." His .widow Helen Dortch Longstreet published a volume defending General Longstreet's war record especially in connection with the Battle of Gettysburg. This work is entitled "Lee and Longstreet at High Tide."
McCALL, HUGH, born in North Carolina, February 17, 1767; died June 10, 1824. His father James McCall and his uncle, Hugh McCall rendered valuable service to the patriot cause in the Revolution. Al though too young to serve in the Revolution, he did in early life ente"r the United States Army and was promoted from ensign in 1794 to first lieutenant in 1796 and was breveted major, July 10, 1812. He enjoys, the fame of being Georgia's first historian, publishing his first volume in 1811 and his second in 1816. He was at the time living in Savannah.
MASSEY, ROBERT JEHU, physician and writer, was born in Morgan County, Georgia, October 16, 1828, and died in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1915. He received his diploma from the Medical College of Georgia in the City of Augusta. While Sherman was on his march through Georgia Doctor Massey was instrumental in. saving from destruction the state library at Milledgeville at that time capital of Georgia. He had charge of a state hospital at that city and General Sherman, as he moved on, left some of his own sick and wounded in the doctor's care.
Doctor Massey published no book, but wrote many interesting remi niscences of ante-bellum days which were printed in newspapers and popular magazines. More than 100 sketches, written by him, are found in "Men of Mark in Georgia."
Doctor Massey was married, June 16, 1850, to Sarah Elizabeth Copeland and found much happiness in that union. They were highly esteemed by all who knew them. In 1910 they celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of their marriage. Mrs. Massey is still living.
MOOEE, MRS. IDORA PLOWMAN, daughter of .Gen. Wm. B. McClellan, a Scotchman of the line of the famous AVilliam Wallace, was born near Talladega, Alabama, in 1843. At an early age she was married to Albert W. Plowman, a lawyer of her native town. She was early left a widow and began writing stories in "Cracker" dialect for the local papers under the nom-de-plume of Betsy Hamilton. She attained great success not only by her writings but also by impersonating the characters whom she described. She later married Capt. M. V. Moore and moved to Auburn, Alabama. She continued her writing and is at this time a regu lar contributor to the Sunday Constitution of Atlanta, Georgia.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1759

NORTHEN, WILLIAM JOHN, born in Jones County, Georgia, July 9, 1835; died in Atlanta, Georgia, 1913. He was graduated from Mercer "University in 1853 and, except for four years' service in the Confederate Army, taught until 1874, from which year until 1890 he was engaged in farming. He was three times a member of the State Legislature and from 1890 was for four years governor of Georgia. From the expira tion of his term, until his death he devoted much time to the develop ment of Georgia. He was editor of "Men of Mark in Georgia" pub lished by A. B. Caldwell (1907).
O'HAEA, THEODORE, an ex-Confederate soldier, from whose immortal ode "The Bivouac of the Dead" the Government of the United States has made selections for its national cemeteries, died in Georgia, though for the greater part of his life Kentucky was his home and keeps vigil now over his honored remains.
OHME, DR. FRANCIS HODGSON, physician and author, was born in Dauphin, Pennsylvania, in 1834, and died in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1913 when within a few months of being eighty years of age. He settled in Savannah, Georgia, in early manhood and there studied the homeopathic system of medicine under Dr. J. B. Gilbert who was himself a student under Dr. John F. Gray of New York, one of the first to learn the homeopathic practice from Doctor Gram the pioneer of this school of medicine in America. Doctor Orme was graduated from the University Medical College of New York in the spring of 1854 and at once formed a partnership with Dr. Wm. H. Banks, successor of Doctor Gilbert. The young physician had a severe initiation into practice for in the fall of that same year Savannah was scourged by a fearful epidemic of yellow fever, during which ten practicing physicians of that city died at the post of duty. Doctor Orme was stricken with fever but recovered and resumed practice before the close of the epidemic. He was again sick with yellow fever in 1858 but again recovered.
In 1861 he settled in Atlanta, where he became one of that city's most successful and highly esteemed physicians.' He became a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1859 and was elected presi dent of the institute in 1886 and presided over its session at Saratoga, New York, June 27 to July 1, 1887. Doctor Orme contributed largely to homeopathic literature and greatly extended by his writings and suc cessful practice the influence of that system. He was the author of sev eral poems and wrote for the Daughters of the American Revolution , a song, which was adopted first by the Atlanta Chapter, then by the state and national organizations. He also published a book of poems a few years before his death.
PECK, WM. HENRY; educator and author, has probably made more money than any of our Georgia authors. He has received as high as $5,000 for a single story. For nearly half a century he won money and fame by his pen. Up to 1869 he had written thirty-four serials, many of them stories of war times 1861-65, and from 1870 to 1881 he had written about forty novels. While living in New York, 1868 to 1875, he wrote for Bonner's New York Ledger, the New York Weekly and the Philadelphia Saturday Night. In 1875 he located in Atlanta. Among his war stories were "The Confederate Flag of the Ocean," "The Maids and Matrons of Virginia," etc. Some of his later novels were

1760

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

"The Stone Cutter of Lisbon," "The King's Messenger," "The Queen's Secret," "Flower Girl of London," "The Miller of Marseilles," etc.
PIEECE, GEORGE FOSTER, Methodist Episcopal bishop, educator and author; born in Greene County, Georgia, February 3, 1811; died at Sparta, Georgia, September 3, 1884. He was graduated from the Uni versity of Georgia receiving the degree of A. B. in 1829 and that of A. M. in 1832, entered the Methodist ministry in 1831, became presi dent of the Georgia Female College (now Wesleyan Female College) in 1839 and its financial agent in 1841, was a member of the general con ference in 1844 and one of the organizers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1845, was president of Emory College, Oxford, Geor gia, 1848 to 1854. In the latter year was elected bishop. After mak ing a journey by stage coach to San Francisco in '1859 he wrote "Inci. dents of Western Travel." Pie was chiefly famous as a pulpit orator and in this was unsurpassed. He never aimed at eloquence. Nor did he need to do so. It seemed to be his native breath.
RANDALL, JAMES RYDER, journalist and poet; born in Baltimore, Maryland, January 1, 1834; died at Augusta, Georgia, January 15, 1908. He attended Georgetown College in the District of Columbia but did not graduate, but in after years received the degree of LL. D. from Notre Dame College in Indiana. He traveled in South America, taught in Louisiana and in 1861 wrote his famous Avar lyric "Maryland, My Maryland." Ill health kept him from military service but by his writ ings he did much to inspire the Southern soldiers. After the war he married Katharine Hammond of Stunner Hill, South Carolina, and set tled at Augusta, Georgia, where he became editor of The Constitution alist, and later was on the staff of the Chronicle. He never saw a volume of his poems, but a memorial volume of them was published by his friends in 1908.
ROGEKS, MRS. LOTJLA KENDALL, is a lady of rare gifts, who is a gradu ate of Wesleyan Female College, and who for years was a noted teacher at the Gordon Institute at Barnesville, Georgia. She has charmed many by her contributions to high class literature, especially by such poems
as "Torcoa, the Beautiful," and other sweet verses descriptive of her own varied experiences. She is the author of "Twenty Years An
Alien,'' and of a volume of verse recently published.
RUTHERFORD, MILDRED LEWIS, educator, author and lecturer. Her best works are "The South in History and Literature," "American
Authors," "English Authors," and "French Authors." She is histo-' rian general of the "United Daughters of the Confederacy" and also prominent in the work of the '' Daughters of the American Revolution.'' She is an able lecturer and as such is much sought after. She is also
one of Georgia's most talented educators. She was for many years president of Lucy Cobb Institute at Athens, Georgia, which under her wise management prospered greatly. When she retired from the presi dency in favor of her sister, Mrs. Lipscomb, she continued to be a mem ber of the faculty and by her counsel aided greatly to promote the suc
cess of the institution in which she feels a just pride and for which she
cherishes an undying affection.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1761

RYAN, ABRAHAM, the "poet priest," author of the "Conquered Ban ner," "The Sword of Robert Lee," and many other poems of great beauty, some of them religious, lived many years in Georgia.
SCOTT, WILLIAM J., editor and clergyman, was born in Glarke County, Georgia, in 1826, and died in Atlanta in 1899. His education was largely directed by his father, a gentleman, of marked classical attainments and a teacher of excellent repute. Doctor Scott began the study of the law, which he relinquished for the itinerant Methodist ministry. Just after the war between the states he edited Scott's Magazine, a periodical of great merit, which .failed through the then impoverished condition of the section in which it was published. Among his published works are: "Lectures and Essays," "Historic Eras," and "Sketches of Ministers and Laymen of the North Georgia Conference."
SINCLAIR, CAERIE BELL, author; born in Milledgeville, Georgia, May 22, 1839. She was the daughter of Elijah Sinclair, a nephew of the celebrated Robert Fulton and a Methodist minister, who at the time of his death was conducting a seminary for girls at Georgetown, South Carolina. The family removed to Augusta, Georgia, where Miss Sin clair contributed poetry to the Georgia Gazette.
Before the war of 1861-65 she published a volume of poems. During that fierce struggle while contributing in many ways to the relief of the southern soldiers she wrote patriotic lyrics, some of which were set to music. One specially noted and widely sung was "The Homespun Dress," set to the tune of "The Bonnie Blue Flag."
After the war she went to Philadelphia and wrote for periodicals. Her poetical productions, including war songs were published under the name of "Heart Whispers; or Echoes of Song" (1872).
SMITH, CHARLES HENRY. ("Bill Arp"), author,- born Lawrenceville, Georgia, June 15, 1826; died 1903. He was graduated at Franklin Col lege (State University), Athens, Georgia, and studied law. He married Octavia Hutchins of Rome, Georgia, 1848. There he practiced law twen ty-seven years. He served in the Confederate Army as major on the staff of Brig.-Gcn. G. T. Andersen. After the war he lived as a planter near Cartersville, Georgia. He was state senator in 1861 and mayor of Rome, Georgia, 1868-69. He began in 1861 a series of newspaper let ters over the signature "Bill Arp" noted for their humor and shrewd philosophy, appropriate for the days of war and reconstruction. He was also successful as a lecturer. Among his publications are: "Bill Arp So-Called, a Side Show of the Southern Side of the. War" (1866) ; "Bill Arp's Letters" (1868) ; "Bill Arp's Scrap-Book" (1886) ; "The Farm and the Fireside!./ (1890); "Georgia as a Colony and State 17331893" (1890) ; also many sketches full of humor and quaint philosophy.
SMITH, GEORGE G., minister of the gospel and author. For many years he was an itinerant Methodist preacher, well beloved by the chil dren to whom he gave much attention. His work "Georgia and the Georgia People" contains much valuable information and is found in many homes and libraries. He was regarded as reliable authority upon the genealogies of Georgia families. Among his valuable works is '' His tory of Georgia Methodism" and "Life of Bishop George F. Pierce." He also wrote several stories for young people.

1762

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

STANTON, FRANK L., poet and journalist; born in Charleston, South. Carolina, in 1857, and at this time on the editorial staff of the Atlanta Constitution. He lived for many years in. South Georgia and has made journalism and poetry his life work. He is well known as a writer of humorous verse and of attractive sentimental lyrics. He has a daily column in the Constitution, writes for various periodicals and at times gives public readings of his productions. He has published several volumes of verse, for the first of which Joel Chandler Harris wrote a flattering introduction. These volumes are "Songs of the Soil" (1894); "Comes One with a Song" (1898) ; "Songs from Dixie Land;" "Up from Georgia" (1902); "Little Folks Down South" (1904). The writ ing of verse is with him a delight and his optimistic philosophy charms all readers.
STEPHENS, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, born at Crawfordville, Georgia, February 11, 1812; died at Atlanta, Georgia, March 4, 1883. Pie is well known as a staunch Union man, opposing Nullification and Secession and at the same time believing in the absolute sovereignty of the states and therefore going with his state and becoming vice president of the Con federate States. After the war he became governor of Georgia and died in office. He added to his renown as a statesman, fame as an author by the publication of his great constitutional view of '' The War Between the States 1867-70." He also wrote and published a "Compendium of the History of the United States for Schools and Colleges" (1871), and a "Comprehensive History of the United States" (1881-82).
STEPHENS, WILLIAM, born on the Isle of Wight, January 28, 1671. Upon the recommendation of General Oglethorpe he was appointed sec retary to the trustees in Georgia. In 1741 he was made president of the County of Savannah and in 1743 president of the whole -colony. He died in August, 1753, at the age of eighty-two. His journal gives an instructive account of events from October, 1737, to October 28, 1741, and was printed in three octavo volumes. The work is very rare, espe cially the third volume. A complete set is among the Ebeling books in Harvard College Library. The library of the Georgia Historical Society contains a book called '' The Castle Builders; or the History of William Stephens," written by his son.
STEVENS, WM. BACON, for many years lived in Savannah as a min ister of the Episcopal Church before going to Pennsylvania as bishop. He contributed to the records of his for-a-while adopted state two well written volumes of her thrilling story, read with interest not only in Georgia but in neighboring and distant states.
TIMEOD, HENEY, one of South Carolina's noblest sons and sweetest poets, received his collegiate education at the University of Georgia in the classic City of Athens.
THOMPSON, JAMES MATJKICE, at one time a lawyer of Calhoun, Geor gia, wrote many fine stories and was a popular poetic contributor to. several of the literary journals of our country. He afterwards removed to Indiana.
THOMPSON, WILLIAM TAPPAN, journalist and author; born at Ra venna, Ohio, August 31, 1812; died at Savannah, Georgia, March 24, 1882. He was descended from a Virginia family that moved West. He

GEOEGIA AND GEORGIANS

1763

went to school in Philadelphia and later worked on the Philadelphia Chronicle. Being appointed about the time of his majority secretary to James D. Wescott, territorial governor of Florida, he became thoroughly imbued with southern ideals. Kemoving to Georgia in 1835 he became associated with Judge A. B. Longstreet on the States Eights Sentinel, published at Augusta. He wrote for several literary journals, v but his greatest success was as editor of The Miscellany published at Madison, Georgia. For this paper he wrote humorous dialect sketches, which in 1840 were published under the title "Major Jones's Court ship." Later he published "Major Jones's Chronicles of Pineville" (1843), and "Major Jones's Sketches of Travel" (1843). lie also wrote "The Live Indian" and dramatized the "Vicar of Wakefield." For five years he wrote for The Western Continent published at Baltimore. He established The Morning News at Savannah in 1850. During the war between the states he was aide to Governor Joseph B. Brown until 1864 when he entered active service in the field. He was a member of the convention which framed the Georgia Constitution of 1877.
"John's Alive; or The Bride of a Ghost" was a posthumous publi cation, appearing in 1883.
TICKNOK, FRANCIS OWERY, physician and poet; born in Baldwin County, Georgia, 1822; died near Columbus, Georgia, 1874; was edu cated in schools of Columbus, Georgia, and in medical colleges of Phila delphia and New York. Some of his war ballads are very popular over the South. His most noted ones were "Little Giffen" and "Virginians of the Valley." Many of his other poems are, like these, worthy of high praise. A volume of his poems was collected and edited by Kate Mason Eowland and published in 1879 with a memoir by Paul Hamilton Hayne.
TOOMBS, EGBERT, statesman, was the storm center of the great debates on slavery during the decade which immediately preceded the Civil war. His farewell address to the Senate in 1861 contained what is generally regarded as the clearest presentation if not the ablest apologetic on record, setting forth the principles for which the South contended in withdrawing from the Federal Union.
TUCKER, HENRY HOLCOMBE, educator, lawyer, minister and author; born in Warren County, Georgia, May 10, 1819; died Atlanta, Georgia, September 9, 1889. He was graduated from Columbian College, Wash ington, District of Columbia, in 1838, from which he received the degree of A. M. in 1841. He was admitted to the bar in 1846, entered the Bap tist Ministry in 1851, was president of Mercer University 1856-1871, chancellor of the University of Georgia 1874-78, then editor of the Bap tist Christian Index, received the degree of D. D. from Columbian Col lege in 1866 and of LL. D. from Mercer University in 1876. He is the author of "Letters to Alexander H. Stephens," "Eeligious Liberty," '' The Gospel in Enoch," " The Position of Baptism in the Christian System," and "The Old Theology Bestated in Sermons."
AVATSON, THOMAS E., lawyer, politician and author; born near Thom son, Georgia, September 5, 1856. He was educated in the schools of Thomson and at Mercer University and is one of the ablest writers that Georgia has produced. He has taught school, practiced law, served in the State Legislature and in the National House of Eepresentatives,

1764

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

where lie secured the first appropriation for the delivery of mails out side of incorporated towns and villages, the beginning of rural free de livery. His fame as an author is nation wide. Among his best known writings are: "The Story of France," "The Life of Napoleon," "The Life and Times of Thomas Jefferson," "Bethany, a Story of the Old South," "Waterloo," "Sketches from Roman History," "A Political and Economical Hand Book," "The Life and Times of Andrew Jack son."
WILDE, RICHARD HENRY, poet and la,wyer; born in Dublin, Ireland, September 24, 1789; died at New Orleans, September 10, 1847. His father was an Irish patriot, who rcfugeed to Baltimore in 1797 and died soon after. Young Wilde went to Augusta, Georgia, and with his mother built up a general mercantile business. He was admitted to the bar in 1809 and in 1815 was sent to Congress, where he again represented Georgia from 1827 to 1835. He was at one time attorney general of Georgia. Traveling in Southern Europe he wrote a life of Dante (un published), and in 1842 published two volumes on Tasso. He made many translations from French, Spanish and Italian poets and wrote many original poems. Removing to New Orleans he practiced law, was called to the chair of constitutional law7 in the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University). He died of yellow fever in 1847 and was buried in Augusta, Georgia. His best known lyric, '' The Lament of the Captive,'' popularly known by its first line '' My life is like the summer rose" appeared in his unfinished epic on the Seminole war in Florida and was published without his consent in 1815. One long poem, "Hesperia," was edited and published by his son, Wm. C. Wilde in 1867.
WILSON, AUGUSTA JANE (nee Evans), novelist. Georgia has some claim to the fame of this gifted lady; for it was in Columbus, Geor gia, that she first saw the light, May 8, 1835. Her father moved from Georgia to San Antonio, Texas, where the family resided two years and then returned East and in 1849 made their home in Mobile, Alabama. She died at New Orleans, Louisiana, May 9, 1909. During the war between the states she was devoted in her ministrations to Con federate soldiers and an encampment near Mobile was named '' Camp Beulah" after the novel which first established her fame. Her first novel was "Inez, Tale of the Alamo." Her other works are "Beulah," '"Mac-aria," "St. Elmo," "Vashti," "Infelice," "At the Mercy of Ti berius," "A Speckled Bird," and "Devota."
WILSON, JOHN S., published a "Necrology of the Synod of Georgia" in 1871; Rev. James P. Simmons, "The War in Heaven;" Dr. P. H. Mell, former chancellor of the Georgia University wrote "Baptism," "Predestination," "Corrective Church Discipline," and a "Manual of Parliamentary Practice.''
YANCEY, WM. L., statesman, a native Georgian, was recognized as the
most radical propagandist of the doctrine of secession. As early as 1850 he "advocated a separate and distinct orbit for the independent star
of Dixie," - He led the democrat bolt in the Charleston Convention of
1861, and afterwards became a member of the -Confederate Senate. Mr.
Yancey was one of the most powerful orators of his day and was to the
pro-slavery cause at the South what Wendell Phillips was to the aboli-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1765

tion movement at the North. He died in 1863 while still at the zenith of his fame.
Many other notable authors of Georgia should be mentioned. Col. Isaac W. Avery, author of a valuable "History of Georgia" from 1850 to 1881. Judge Garnett Andrews wrote "Reminiscences of an Old Geor gia Lawyer." Hon. A. : H. Chappell published in 1874 "Miscellanies of Georgia," Col. E. T.. Clarke wrote an excellent sketch of Atlanta. Hon. Thomas R. R. Cobb, later brigadier-general in the-Army of the Confederate States, who on December 13, 1862, sealed his devotion to the South with his life, published in 1858, an "Historical Sketch of Sla very." George R. Gilmer wrote an instructive and interesting work on the Georgians. Judge E. J. Harden wrote and published a "Life of Governor George M. Troup." Stephen F. Miller published in 1858 the "Bench and Bar of Georgia." Hon. "Wm. A. Stiles wrote before the Civil war a scholarly work entitled '' History of Austria.'' William H. Sparks published "Reminiscences of Fifty Years," a thrilling book of biographical history. Rev. George White, of Savannah, did the state an invaluable service in his "Statistics of Georgia," and "Historical Collections of Georgia," the latter published in 1854.
Col. Herbert Fielder's "Life and Times of Joseph E. Brown," is an able narrative of the period of Georgia history discussed in its pages.
A very interesting biography of Alexander H. Stephens was written by Henry Cleveland and another by Richard M. Johnston and Wm. H. Browne, while another excellent work is the "Life of Linton Stephens" by J. D. Waddell.
Two of Georgia's greatest scientists were Prof. Joseph Le Conte and his brother Dr. John Le Conte, the former of whom published a "Text Book of Geology," and in conjunction with his brother a "Text Book of Chemistry.". These two ranked high among Georgia's men of marked eminence in scientific and literary culture.
Miss Marie La Coste, of Savannah, Georgia, wrote the pathetic and famous war poem entitled "Somebody's Darling."
Dr. A. A. Lipscomb, a minister of the Protestant Methodist Church of Georgia, an acknowledged authority on Shakespearean literature, a cultured and charming lecturer, was author of many exquisite produc tions in prose and verse.
Charming verses have been written by Robert Loveman, Samuel W. Small (a versatile writer and interesting lecturer), Charles J. Bayne, Montgomery M. Folsom, Lucj.us Perry Hills, Judge Robert Falligant,
Judge R. M. Charlton, Wm. Henry Waddell, Dr. A. A. Means (one of the most eloquent preachers of his day), Wm. T. Dumas, P. L. Wade, Joseph W. Humphries and Wm. Hurd Hillyer.
Fine literary work has been done by Mrs. J. K. Ohl, Mrs. Mell R. Colquitt and Miss Minnie Quinn. One of Georgia's successful writers of
verse is Miss Maria Louise Eve. Miss Orelia Key Bell, a relative of Francis Scott Key, who wrote
the '' Star Spangled Banner,'' herself wrote beautiful sonnets. Another gifted Georgia lady' who wrote beautiful poems is Julia Riordan. Mrs. M. C. Bigby, Mrs. E. B. Castlen and Mrs.' Annie Blount Pardue, were among Georgia's poets.
-, Lollie Bell Wylie is one of the charming writers of today.
Vol. Ill--32

1766

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Some of Georgia's writers of fiction not yet mentioned in this sketch who have done good work are: Col. Henry W. Hilliard, congressman from Georgia from 1845 to 1851, a colonel in the Confederate Army, United States minister to Brazil after peace, who wrote "De Vane, a Story of Plebians and Patricians;" Mr. Clifford A. Lanier, a brother of Sidney Lanier, who gave the state two novels, '' Thorn Fruit,'' and "Two Hundred Bales;" Rev. Warren of Macbn, who wrote "Nellie Norton;" Mrs. Maria J. "Westmoreland, author of "Heart Hungry," and "Clifford Troup;" Mrs. Mary E. Tucker, who wrote "Confessions of a Flirt," and Mrs. Jennie Porter, author of "Valkyria," a work on the war with many poetic flashes. Mrs. Emma L. Moffett wrote "Crown Jewels;" W. D. Trammell, "Ca Ira,;" Miss L. A. Field, "Helen Free man on the Right Path;" Mrs. M. J. R. Hamilton, "Cachet;" Mrs. Fannie Hood, "Maude, a Life Drama;" Mrs, Hammond, "The Georgians.''

PART IV GEORGIA SONGS

CHAPTER VI
PART IV. GEORGIA SONGS
GEORGIA LAND
Love, light and joy forever-more, Georgia Land, dear Georgia Land!
The world finds welcome at thy door, Georgia Land, dear Georgia Land!
Thy star-crowned hills and valleys sweet Their litanies of love repeat, And night and morning singing meet,:
Georgia Land, dear Georgia Land !
"Where'er thy loving children roam, Georgia Land, dear Georgia Land !
With thee their hearts are still at home, Georgia Land, dear Georgia Land!
Where'er the wand'rer's pathway lies, In dreams he sees thy blessed skies, And hope doth like a star arise,
Georgia Land, dear Georgia Land!
Blest be thy holy hills and plains, Georgia Land, dear Georgia Land!
The sun-light twinkling thro' thy rains, Georgia Land, dear Georgia Laud!
God have thee ever in his keep, From mountain wall to stormy deep, Until upon thy breast we sleep,
Georgia Land, dear Georgia Land! --FRANK L. STANTOT*
GEORGIA MINE
Th' almighty sun that floods the isles And continents with glory
Upon no fairer region smiles Than Georgia famed in story.
Where'er her sons in alien lands Indulge the lust for roaming,
In fertile fields or desert sands, Their hearts are still a-homing 1769

1770

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

CHORUS

Oh, Georgia mine, dear native state, From whom I would not sever,
Among her sisters strong and great, God prosper her forever.

Hers is the oak, and hers the pine, Clay heights and sandy reaches,
A border ruffled with the brine That foams upon her beaches;
Hers are the shimmering ponds and lakes Wherein the trout are sleeping,
And hers the thickets and the brakes Where sylvan life is creeping.

Her streamlets from their mountain home Descend with glad hosannas
To where her stately rivers roam Across the broad savannahs.
Oh, dear to me Ocmulgee's stream, Oconee's sweet wood thrushes;
And dearly do I love to dream Where Chattahoochee rushes.

Her fields are fat with corn and wine, They billow with the cotton;
And foreign plants neglect to pine, Their native climes forgotten.
Green things throughout the genial year In her rich soil are growing;
The subtle ear can almost hear The horn of plenty blowing.

Born in response to human needs She struck from off the debtor,
And from the victim of the creeds, Oppression's galling fetter;
She rescued derelicts forlorn, And waifs misfortune, hounded;
In charity divinely born, Her commonwealth was founded.

Whate'er her wealth of laboring mills, Of fields or mines or waters,
Best product of her plains and hills, Is her own sons and daughters.
Their deeds which signalize the years In history's page are glowing, '
And still the blood of pioneers, Through later veins is flowing.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1771

Why should we other regions seek, And with their glories dally,
Ere we have climbed old Yonah's peak Or trod Nacoochee's valley;
Or half in pleasure, half in pain, Beheld in awe and wonder
Tallulah shake his hoary mane, And revel in his thunder 1

If you should ask what country's best, Altho' opinion varies,
I'd say the land from Mona's crest Down to the sweet St. Marys ;
And that is Georgia--Georgia mine; And like the stars that hover,
And like the suns that over her shine, I am her constant lover. --WILLIAM T. DUMAS.

THE RED OLD HILLS OF GEORGIA
The red old hills of Georgia! So bald, and bare, and bleak--
Their memory fills my spirit With thoughts I cannot speak,
They have no robe of verdure, Stript naked to the blast;
And yet, of all the varied earth, I love them best at last.

I love them for the pleasure With which my life was blest,
When erst I left in boyhood My footsteps on their breast.
When in the rains had perished Those steps from plain and knoll,
Then vanished, with the storm of grief, Joy's footprints from my soul!

The red old hills of Georgia! My heart is on them now;
Where, fed from golden streamlets, Oconee's waters flow!
I love them with devotion, Though washed so bleak and bare--
Oh! can my spirit e 'er forget The warm hearts dwelling there ?

1772

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

I love them for the living-- The generous, kind, and gay;
And for the dead who slumber Within their breasts of clay.
I love them for the bounty Which cheers the social hearth;
I love them for their rosy-girls^-- The fairest on the earth!

The red old hills of Georgia! Oh! where upon the face
Of earth is freedom's spirit More bright in any race ?
In Switzerland and Scotland Each patriot breast it fills,
But oh! it blazes brighter yet Among our Georgia hills!

And where, upon their surface, Is heart to feeling dead ?
Oh! when has needy stranger Gone from those hills unfed ?
Their bravery and kindness For aye go hand in hand,
Upon your washed and naked hills, My own, my native land!

The red old hills of Georgia I never can forget;
Amid life's JQys and sorrows, My heart is on them yet;
And when my course is ended-- No more to toil and rove,
May I be held in their dear clasp Close, close to them I love! --GEN.' HENRY R. JACKSON.

GEORGIA SCHOOL SONG
Blest is thy land, fair Georgia, From the mountains to the sea,
The purpose of whose founders was The opprest from wrongs to free.
Then hail to thee our Georgia . For of the "Old Thirteen"
No brighter star shone ever Or ever shall be seen,

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1773

'Not for themselves for others" Was the way their motto ran
And in the path of mercy Did they early lead the van.

Our fathers sought the "new world"

With a motive grand and high

And faith in God hath ever

Led our hopes unto the sky.

* And so on strong foundations

We see motive grand aad high

As symbols of those virtues

That our Georgia people prize.

\

A soldier guards the portals

While a sunburst from above

*

Illumines arch and pillars

With God's all protecting love.

God grant our solons Wisdom Let strict Justice hold the scale
And Moderation guide the hand That must make the law prevail. --JOSEPH T. DERBY.

SONG OF THE GEORGIAN
Nor Cavalier nor Puritan Singly within his rich veins ran;
But the Moravian's innocence, The high Salzburgher 's fortitude (Strong to endure his fortunes rude)
Sweet Herbert's fine benevolence, The spirit which from Wesley sprung
(Religion's ancient miracle Which like to Love, is ever young),
The stamp of Whitfield's oracles, The highlander's undaunted heart
Alight with proudly glowing fires-- These were the Georgian's mighty sires! These still to him their force impart.
Tempted of poverty, their hands Wrenched from no hapless chief his lands--
That session of the soil obtained, By honorable treaty won, Left no distressful tribe undone,
No blood its wholesome annals stained.

...... p:;

1774

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

And when the red'ning mist of death On Tomochichi's weary eyes
Fell thickly, he, with quiet breath, Besought the grave his soul would prize--
"Bury me," said the dying king, '' Among my white friends where the waves Savannah's feet forever laves, The last kind boon your love can bring.''

What nobler monument shall tell

How Georgia's oaths inviolate dwell?

"What great tfeal of well-earned praise

Shall lie on Oglethorpe, whose dreams

Begot reality which gleams

A star on which a god might gaze!

Oh, hero and philanthropist,



Unspotted in a spotted world,

What selfless thoughts thy hopes unfurled'!

Thy life with thine ideals kept tryst.

And we whose cheeks must flush with pride

Whene 'er past days our minds divide

From present cares, do we guard well

Our glorious inheritance?

Do our own ideals advance,

Do faith and purity compel

The death of all iniquity ?

Oh, Justice, Moderation, make Your trinity with Wisdom--break
The grasp of greed unfalteringly. Keep our young manhood brave and pure;
Gay-hearted, on its lips .a song-- But ready to redeem each wrong
By virtue conquering evermore.

So shall the title "Georgian" be
Of life's best worth true guarantee;
And they, the peerless Dead, may turn Untroubled on us their deep eyes, And see our noble cities rise
Cleansed of all foulness. May we burn With generous ardor to exceed
The golden acts of history, Since our fair state is blessed indeed
By beauty's sweet supremacy. May this ambition through us flame--
That of our men the world shall say "Trust ye the stranger here today, . Because he bears a Georgian name."
--CLINTON DANGBEFIBLD.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1775

GKORGIA

("Written on Santa Catalina Island, twenty-seven miles off the coast of California, where the author spent two years, from 1906 to 1908.)

Far, far'to. the..South, lies the fairest of lands, An Eden of love and of light;
On its cedar-crowned hills, on its surf-beaten sands, My spirit is dreaming tonight.
To me, over moorland and mountain and mead, Each breeze, like a siren, sings
With a cadence born of a music keyed To a harp of a thousand strings.

Pair England may boast of her roses entwined And France of her fleur de lis j
But lovelier gems no land e'er enshrined Than Georgia enshrineth for me.
Old Norway is grand, where the ice-king enthralls The land of the midnight sun;
But give me the land where the Love-Light calls To my heart when the day is done.

The German may boast of the rhythmical Rhine. That ripples beyond the sea;
But give me the land where the sunbeams shine, 'Tis the queen of all lands to me.
Arabia's shrine to Mahomet divine May gladden the Moslem's eye;
But the Mecca for me is the grass-covered lea "Where Georgia's soft winds sigh.

The proud old Italian may prate of the stream That rolls o'er the rocks of Rome;
But give me the land where the broad oaks dream O'er the golden hearts of home.
Where the violets wander in wanton perfume To the velvet edge of the sky
And the willows bend and the roses bloom O'er the beds where the loved ones lie.

The bard of old Scotland may sing of the lakes That mirror the Northern Star
And the fond Irish minstrel the shamrock that wakes The bloom of his Erin go Bragh;
But let the red hills of old Georgia be mine And lay my cold ashes to rest
'Neath the folds of an evergreen banner of pine In the land I love the best. --LUCIAN LAMAB KNIGHT.

PART V
GEOBGIA THE EMPIRE STATE OF TODAY

CHAPTER I
GEORGIA'S COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURE
TRADE RELATIONS WITH THE INDIANS STARTED BY OGLETHORPE--SILK AND INDIGO INDUSTRIES--EARLY COMMERCE BETWEEN SAVANNAH AND AUGUSTA--TRADE WITH ENGLAND FORBIDDEN BY CONTINENTAL CON GRESS--AN INCIDENT OF THE REVOLUTION--THE INVENTION OF THE COTTON GIN--ITS EFFECT UPON COMMERCE--EARLY CANALS AND WATER-WAYS--WILLIAM LONGSTREET'S EXPERIMENTS WITH THE STEAMBOAT--THE ADVENT OF THE IRON HORSE--AN ERA OF RAILROAD BUILDING--PIONEER COTTON MILLS AND IRON-WORKS--PRESENT DAY STATISTICS--GEORGIA FIRST IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FERTILIZERS-- RIVERS AND HARBORS--GEORGIA'S STATE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE-- WATER-POWERS--THE COTTON-SEED OIL INDUSTRY IN GEORGIA-- AUTOMOBILES--GOOD ROADS--MAIL ROUTES.
[This chapter has been prepared with great care from the annual reports of Hon. Harris M. Stanley, Commissioner of Commerce and Labor, made to the Governor of Georgia for the years 1913 and 1914, with supplementary additions.]
When General Oglethorpe, in 1733, began at Yamacraw Bluff to lay the foundation of Savannah and the colony of Georgia, he sought by treaties with the Indians to secure their esteem and friendship and to plant the germ of a future rich commerce for English traders. Georgia was to be a place of refuge for the oppressed, but was also to serve as a defense to South Carolina against the Spaniards, who had twice invaded that colony. Nothing was better calculated to establish and strengthen Georgia, the "Sentinel Colony," than to win the Indians to the side of the English by supplying them with such articles as they prized most highly. Therefore trading posts were established, of which Augusta stood at the northern part of the settlement and Savannah at the southern. It was to give impetus to the commerce of Georgia that a prize was offered to the first vessel that should land a cargo at the wharf of Savannah. This prize, a gold cup, was won by Captain Yoakley, who in 1734, discharged at the dock supplies of tools, clothing and provisions.
It was intended that some of the settlers of Georgia should cultivate the indigo plant, while others should cultivate mulberry groves for the supplying of food for the silk worms. Great hope was entertained of the success of silk production in Georgia, when a silk dress made in the new colony was presented to the Queen of England. But after experi ments of this kind conducted by Swiss experts had failed to produce satisfactory results, this scheme was abandoned. The experiments in indigo cultivation met with a like fate. The Georgians then turned to rice, Indian corn, cotton and other things common to their neighbor colonies.
1779

1780

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Augusta was laid out in 1735. There a garrison was established in the following year and several warehouses built and furnished for trade with the Indians. The best of facilities were already at hand in the Savannah River and down this stream boats impelled by long poles made four or five voyages annually to the coast whence their cargoes were transferred to vessels for Charleston. Gradually Savannah grew in importance until it became Georgia's seaport and the voyages to Charleston were no longer necessary.
Vessels of different sizes unloaded their cargoes at the wharves of Savannah and were loaded with the products of the colony and the wares furnished by the Indian trade and brought down the river from Augusta in the long pole boats. Savannah was already giving promise of her future importance as a seaport, when Georgia joined the other American colonies in the struggle for independence.
An indirect proof of the progress of Georgia's commerce in those early days of the commonwealth is given by the following incident :
In March, 1776, some loyalist planters had loaded eleven merchant vessels in the Savannah River, which vessels .were preparing for a sea voyage. This trade with England had been forbidden by the Continental Congress, which the united colonies, in their struggle for the defense of their chartered rights, had made their agent for the conduct of all that pertained to the common interest. Although independence had not yet been declared, Georgia had, after the battle of Lexington, allied herself with the other twelve colonies. The Georgia authorities con sidered it their duty to break up this commercial scheme for violating the orders of that body, which all the colonies had jointly constituted the supreme power over them all, in the crisis so dangerous to their rights and liberties, therefore a band of Georgians led by Col. Lachlan Mclntosh, aided by South 'Carolinians under Colonel Bull, in defiance of several British war vessels that were threatening Savannah, made a sudden raid upon the merchant vessels, burned three of them and ren dered six others unfit for service. Two only out of the eleven escaped. The infant state was thus ready to sacrifice its commerce for the common good.

The invention of the cotton gin by Eli "Whitney, in 1793, gave to the agricultural South the means of handling to the best advantage large crops of cotton, and thus furnished that section with the sure founda tion for great manufactories and a rich commerce. The export of cotton from the entire United States in 1793 was 975 bales or 478,500 pounds, and in Liverpool doubts were expressed about the possibility of raising that much cotton in the United States. But in 1911, the largest crop of record, there were raised in the United States more than 16,000,000 bales, aggregating 8,125,140,000 pounds. Of this amount more than 2,000,000 bales or about 1,000,000,000 pounds were exported from Savannah, Georgia's chief seaport. The value of Savannah's exports has reached $16,000,000 in a single month.
The cotton of Georgia has been for a hundred years the chief staple of export. Naval stores come second. To the lint cotton have been added during the last twenty-five years the products obtained from the cotton seed. The fertilizer factories have taken rank among the fore-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1781

most of the state's manufactories and help to swell the foreign exports of Savannah and Brunswick and the trade of the many nourishing and enterprising cities and towns of Georgia.

Before the coining of the railroads, rivers were the great highways of commerce, and a town without water communications to the sea had little chance to grow commercially. In those days Savannah was the chief city of Georgia and Augusta next. Brunswick, Darien and St. Marys being on the coast were regarded as coming great cities. Columbus, Macon and Rome were thought to possess superior advantages to any inland town.
But when in the '30s of the last century the construction of Georgia's splendid system of railroads was begun, it soon became evident that seaport and river towns must accept as rivals those that were springing up all along the railroad lines and forging to the front as centers of manufactures and commerce.
All the flourishing and rapidly growing interior towns of Georgia, and even those upon the rivers and coast that have maintained to a large extent their pre-eminence among their sisters, owe their high stand as centers of manufactures and commerce to the wisdom of the men who in the very dawn of railroad construction in the United States determined that Georgia should keep pace with the foremost. Those plans they per fected and our enterprising citizens continued the work so well begun, when on December 24, 1825, our General Assembly chartered the Savannah, Ogeechee and Altamaha Canal and at the same time provided for the building of a railroad.
When at last in 1833 they were ready to begin the work of con struction, not merely one single road, but a system of roads was begun destined to center at what was then a forest and where now stands Atlanta, the child of railroads.
Georgia, since the early '30s of the last century has been styled the "Empire State of the South." But she did not receive this title on account of area or population. Virginia at that time excelled Georgia in both these particulars, for Virginia and West Virginia then formed one state. Although Georgia was recognized as an agricultural state, her enterprising citizens were already diversifying her industries, and commerce and manufactures were receiving much attention.
William Longstreet, a resident of Augusta, and a citizen of Georgia, had as early as 1787 begun experiments on a boat to be propelled by steam. Without the backing and financial aid of influential men such as aided Robert Fulton, he patiently toiled, and in 1806, with a few friends who were willing to risk their lives upon the new and untried craft, he took his steamboat several miles down the Savannah River and back again to Augusta, and landed amid the cheers of those who had formerly ridiculed his folly. Delaying another year, perfecting his invention, just as his friends were starting to Washington to secure his patent, the news came of Pulton's successful voyage in his steamboat, the Clermont, up' the Hudson to Albany and back to New York City. Had Longstreet acted with more promptness, he might have won the
Vol. Ill--33

1782

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

honor that fell to Fulton, who, however, was preceded by John Fitch, by several years. Fitch did not have the means to push his invention.
But Georgia finds compensation in the fact that "William Scarborough, of Savannah, an enterprising merchant and a planter of large means first proved that steamships could safely sail the stormy Atlantic. It was Scarborough who sent from Savannah, in 1819, the Steamship Savannah, which touched at Liverpool, Copenhagen and St. Petersburg, exciting wonder and admiration in every port.

On the 24th of December, 1825, an act of the Georgia Legislature was approved by the governor, which granted a charter for the con struction of a central canal or railway, starting at the Savannah River. The great Brie Canal in New York had been recently completed and George Stephenson, in England, had on September 27th, 1825, proved to his incredulous countrymen that a locomotive could safely draw a train on rails at the rate of fifteen miles an hour.
Therefore Georgia, in that same year, December 24th, having resolved to keep pace with the rest of the world, determined to have either a canal or a railway, whichever should prove most feasible. A year before that, Ebenezcr Jencks, had been empowered to construct a canal from Savannah to the Ogeechee River. The act of 1825 chartered the Savannah, Ogeechee and Altamaha Canal and also provided for the building of a railroad. The Brunswick Canal Company was chartered on December 26, 1826, for the purpose of connecting the Altamaha and Turtle rivers.
George Stephenson's improved engine, the Rocket, first ran in 1829 upon the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad in England. By that time several short railroads had been built in the United States, but the cars for cither passengers or freight were drawn by horses. The first steam locomotive was brought from England in 1829, but it proved a failure. Peter Cooper, in 1831, built the first American locomotive, the "Tom Thumb," for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The "Best Friend," built for the South Carolina Railroad, was the first steam locomotive successfully operated in America. This was in 1831 and this same South Carolina railroad from Charleston to Hamburg on the Savannah River, opposite Augusta, a distance of 134 miles, when completed in 1834, was the first long railroad in the world.
The first charter for the Georgia Railroad from Augusta to the west ward was granted December 27, 1831, altered and approved December 31, 1833. The Central Railroad Company was chartered December 27, 1833, for the building of a railroad from Savannah to Macon, and on December 23d of the same year the Monroe Railroad Company was chartered for the building of a railroad from Macon to Forsyth. The work on these roads was at once begun and Georgia, quickly springing to the front in railroad construction and the building up of cotton mills and other manufactures, was hailed as the "Empire State of the South."

In 1837, the southeastern terminus of the Western and Atlantic (or State) Railroad, chartered December 21, 1836, was located near where

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1783

the Union Passenger Depot of Atlanta now stands. This was selected as the meeting point of the roads from Augusta and from Savannah (via Macon) through branch roads to Madison and Forsyth, and of other roads to Athens, Milledgeville and Columbus. This meeting point, until 1843, had no other name than Terminus. At that time the little settle ment received the name of Marthasville, as a compliment to the daugh ter of Ex-Governor Lumpkin, who had been one of the most zealous promoters of railroad enterprise in Georgia. When the town had reached a population of about 500 and was giving every evidence of rapid growth, the Legislature incorporated it as the "City of Atlanta," (December 29,, 1847), this name having been suggested by Mr. J. Edgar Thomson, chief engineer of the Georgia Railroad, in a letter written sometime in 1846 to Mr. Richard Peters, also an engineer of- the same road. By 1850 Atlanta had a population of 2,572 inhabitants, and by 1860 contained in its corporate limits in round numbers 10,000 people.
In 1850, with 643 miles of railroad, Georgia stood in the front rank, and with 7,300 miles of track at the present time she still excels all Southern States except Texas, and excels even that great empire, if mileage in proportion to area is considered. She also compares favorably with the great states of the North and West.
Georgia's 400 miles of electric railway, and her system of good roads for automobiles, greatly improved and more widely extended each year, add to her reputation for activity in every line of enterprise. The com mercial interests of Georgia have been built up by agriculture, manu factures, and railroads, as evidenced by the growth of her cities and towns and their great volume of exports and imports through the ports of Savannah and Brunswick. The volume of business of Savannah for the past five years averages $249,820,000 yearly. The bank clearings of Atlanta increased from $60,753,911.13 in 1893 to $691,941,254.20 in 1914. The bank clearings of Macon, Augusta, Columbus, and the other cities and towns of the state show a like increase and indicate the volume of business annually transacted in Georgia. /
So soon as Morse, in 1844, first demonstrated, the practicability of the electric telegraph, Georgia began establishing telegraph lines. With the same promptness Georgia accepted the telephone and has extended its lines in every direction. Everything that indicates enterprise and push is familiar to Georgians.

The oldest cotton mill of which we have any record in Georgia was located in AVilkes County, near the site of the present Town of AA^ashington. It was chartered by an act approved December 13, 1810, and the original charter of this pioneer establishment may be found in Clayton's Compendium. The incorporators named in the charter were:: Matthew Talbot, Boiling Anthony, Benjamin Sherrod, John Bolton, Frederick Ball, Gilbert Hay, and Joel Abbot. Matthew Talbot after wards became a governor of the state, and Joel Abbot at a later period served in Congress.
It was in 1827 that Augustin S. Clayton, Thomas Moore, Asbury Hall, James Johnson and W. A. Carr began the erection of a cotton mill

1784

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

which was incorporated in 1828 as the Georgia Factory, located at White hall, near Athens. John White became superintendent and his descend ants to this day own this mill, known as the Georgia Manufacturing Company.
One of the early cotton mills was the Princeton Manufacturing Com pany, also near Athens, finished and at work in 1837. Another was the factory at High Shoals in a part of Clarke, now Ocoiiee County, finished in 1845. At Long Shoals on the Oconee River, in Greene County was the property of the Cutright Manufacturing Company, consisting of a cotton factory reporting 4,000 spindles and looms; also flouring and saw mills and an elegant stone bridge. The property of this company, which covered a large tract of land, was returned as $140,000.
About the same time there were factories in operation at Milledgeville, in Augusta, and within three miles of Eatonton.
The Milledgeville Manufacturing Company's building was of brick, four stories high, with a capital of $83,000, and equipped with 3,136 spindles and 53 looms. The Putnam factory, three miles from Batonton, had a capital of $70,000, and was equipped with 1,836 spindles and 36 looms. It turned out daily 100 bundles of yarn and 1,000 yards of osnaburgs. About 100 yards of bagging were daily made from waste and inferior cotton. A quantity of rope was also made. The number of hands employed was 97. The wages were from $12.00 to $20.00 a month. The annual expense of the hands was $7,000. The factory village had a Union Church, where a flourishing Sunday School was kept up the year round, and in which there was preaching nearly every Sunday. Since many of the hands were young men and young women, who had never had a chance for an education, the studies of an ordinary day school were combined with the study of the Holy Scriptures. A well attended night school gave additional opportunities for an elementary education. The young children of the factory operatives were also afforded the chance for an education in a day school.

Within a quarter of a mile of the Putnam Factory were a grist mill and a saw mill. The Augusta Cotton Factory, which began to be oper ated in 1847, had two mills; mill No. 1 with 8,160 spindles and 312 looms, for cotton goods; mill No. 2 with 6,280 spindles and 200 looms, for cotton and woolen goods. The product of the two mills, when in full operation, was more than 125,000 yards a week. There were, in Richmond County, two other cotton factories, the Richmond factory on Spirit Creek, 10 miles south of Augusta, with 1,500 spindles and 40 looms, and Bellville factory, eight miles from Augusta, the equipment of which is unknown. This last mill was the property of Mr. George Schley. There were also in and near Augusta, Cunningham's Flour Mills, with a build ing five stories high, and Warren and German's Mill, three stories high. These buildings were of stone and granite.
There were also in Augusta, Goodrich's Manufactory, where doors, blinds, sashes and almost all kinds of carpentry wrere manufactured; Osmand and Gray's American Iron Foundry, manufacturing iron and brass castings, railroad car and engine wheels, mill and gin gearing,

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1785

plows, water pipes, etc.; also a machine factory on Butler's Creek, seven miles from Augusta.
At Columbus, the Eagle Mills, (now the Eagle and Phoenix), were erected in 1851, with a building four stories high and a basement. The capital was started at $140,000; hands employed, 240; consumption of cotton, 1,500 bales per annum; consumption of wool, 100,000 pounds per annum; spermaceti oil used, 1,000 gallons per annum; lard, 500 pounds per annum; 200 cords of wood per annum; 350 barrels of flour per annum. Average pay of males $20.00 per month; of females, $10.00 a month.
Other cotton factories were Coweta Falls factory, with a capital of $80,000, and at a distance of three miles from the city was the Columbus factory, with a capital of $50,000. There were also the Howard Manu facturing- Company, with $85,000 capital, Winter's Merchant Mill, eight stories high and costing $30,000, and the Rock Island Paper Mill, two and a half miles above Columbus, partly in Georgia and partly in Alabama, with $50,000 capital, capable of manufacturing 2,500 pounds of paper a day and consuming 3,000 pounds of rags daily.

In Macon there was, by 1850, the Macon Cotton Faetoiy, with a

capital of $125,000, the equipment at that time not now being known.

There were also two extensive foundries; first Findley's, with a capital

of $30,000, employing seventy hands and turning out steam engines with

the necessary outfit of boilers, pipes, etc., also making machinery for saw

and grist mills of every description, whether operated by stearn or water

power; second, Nesbet & Levy's, manufacturing steam engines and

boilers, rice thrashers, bark and sugar mills, gin and mill gearing, water

wheels, castings and machinery in general. Hands employed. 60;

capacity 25 to 30 stationary engines per annum.

In and near Savannah.were rice mills and foundries.

In the young and growing City of Atlanta there were by 1853: three

carriage and wheelwright shops, two large tanneries, one iron foundry

and machine shop, turning out products valued at $20,000, one large

shoe making establishment, two more large tanneries and shoe establish

ments in course of construction.

^-*

There were cotton factories in Butts, Campbell, Chatooga, Gwinnett,

Hancock, Morgan, Newton and Cobb counties. The woolen mill at

Roswell, established in 1839, was already winning a reputation for good

products.

In Cass, now Bartow County, three miles from Cartersville, on the

Etowah River, were the Cooper Iron Works, established and owned by

Mark A. Cooper, who was born in Hancock County, April 29, 1830.

This important manufactory, celebrated throughout the South in the

*50s, embraced a rolling mill and a nail factory. It had houses for 500

laborers and under the same management was a stone mill, with a

capacity of 300 barrels of flour per day. The war between the states

wrought havoc with this fine property and large trees now grow inside

the ruins of the once extensive buildings.

1786

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

In the whole State of Georgia there were, in 1850, manufacturing establishments to the number of 1,522, including a large list of enter prises that minister to the needs of every civilized community. Among these were thirty-five cotton mills, several of which produced woolen fabrics, for the exclusive manufacture of which there were only three mills. The total value of all manufactures in the state at that time was $7,082,075. Of this total, the cotton goods manufactured were valued at $2,135,044.
There had been a steady increase of textile manufactures in Georgia from the first cotton mill in 1810 to the close of the nineteenth century. Each decade, even the one including the war between the states, showed an increase in capital invested, the cost of materials and value of products. There have been changes in the character and number of the mills. There was a decrease in the total number of textile mills from 1870 to 1880, but a large increase in the cost of materials and value of products.
Again, the total number of mills was one less in 1890 than in 1880, but the cost of materials and value of products showed a very great increase. There was an uninterrupted increase in the number of spindles and looms during each decade. The majority of the mills were out of the path of Sherman's desolating march and during almost the whole period of the war many of them were in operation.
Since 1900 there has been a gratifying growth in the textile manu factures of Georgia. The most rapid increase for any decade was from 1850 to 1860. Although there were fewer manufacturing establishments reported in 1910 than in 1900, there was not really any falling off. Many of the establishments, operated on a very small scale, were omitted. It sometimes happens that a textile factory changes its machinery, thereby increasing its producing power, and yet showing a less number of spindles and looms than at a previous report.

So far back as 1850 Savannah with barely 16,000 inhabitants was, on account of her exports of cotton, classed as one of the important cities of the United States. That city's importance as a seaport has steadily increased, and for the past fifty years she has ranked, sometimes as third and sometimes as the second cotton exporting city of the Onion. The volume of her trade for the season of 1913 and 1914 was $293,700,000, of which approximately $117,000,000 is foreign commerce.
The bank clearings of Atlanta in 1893 were $60,753,911.30. By 1913 they had grown to $691,941,254.20, and by December 31, 1914, to $702,410,026.00.
Giving the figures in round numbers, of Georgia's 2,700,000 inhabi tants there are 1,200,000 engaged in gainful employments. Agriculture claims 735,000 of these, manufactures and niechanical industries, 145,000; transportation, 46,000, and commerce and trade 62,000.
Of Atlanta's 76,000 workers, manufactures and mechanical industries claim 22,000; transportation, about, 8,000, and trade and commerce, 13,000. Of Augusta's 22,000 workers, about 8,000 are engaged in manu factures and mechanical trades; 1,800 in transportation, and 3,200 in commerce and trade. Of Macon's 19,500 employed, 6,000 in round num.-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1787

bers work in factories or mechanical trades. Transportation gives employment to 2,600 and commerce and trade, 3,000. Of Savannah's 34,000 employed, 8,500 are working in manufactories or in mechanical trades, 6,000 in transportation and 5,000 in commerce and trade. Still counting in round numbers, of Georgia's 62,000 engaged in commercial pursuits the four largest cities furnish 24,000.

In the manufacture of fertilizers Georgia is first, leading all of the other states, In the value of products from the cotton seed Georgia \leads every state but Texas, and in turpentine and rosin is second only to Florida, In the manufacture of cotton goods Georgia stands fifth in the Union, being excelled by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, North Carolina and South Carolina, but being far in the lead of Pennsylvania and New York. In the value of food preparations Georgia yields to but five other states, viz.: New York, Michigan, Ohio. Illinois, and Iowa, but surpasses states like California, Pennsylvania' and Massachusetts. In the manu facture of brick and tile Georgia ranks fifteenth, as she does also in the output of her wagon and carriage shops.
Previous to the war between the states Georgia led every southern state in textile manufactures, having made her start in that line in 1828, when the Georgia Factory, the first successful Georgia cotton mill, was incorporated at Whitehall, near Athens.
Previous to this, or in 1811, the first cotton factory in Georgia was built 011 Upton Creek, nine miles southeast of Washington. It had two stories, basement and attic, and was built of stone quarried in the neighborhood. The hinges, hooks and nails were made in a neighboring blacksmith shop. This factory did not pay and was closed. Later, the machinery was purchased by Thomas Talbot, who started a small factory on his plantation to furnish clothing for his slaves and those of his neighbors.
In addition to her many railroads, Georgia has several fine harbors from which sail to every port in the world large merchant vessels and passenger steamers to various ports, and a number of rivers navigable for steamboats. The Savannah is navigable from Augusta to the sea, the Chattahoochee from Columbus to its confluence with the Flint and then on to Appalachicola and the gulf, the Flint from Albany and Bainbridge to its confluence with the Chattahoochee and then on to the gulf, the Coosawatee from Carters in Murray County to its confluence with the Oostanaula and then on to Rome, the Coosa from where it receives the waters of the Oostanaula and the Etowah at Rome to its confluence with the Alabama and then on to the gulf, the Oconee from Dublin, a greater portion of the year from the Central Railroad bridge and frequently from Milledgeville to its confluence with the Ocmulgee and then on to the sea, the Ocmulgee from Hawkinsville and a greater por tion of the year from Macon to its confluence with the Oconee and then on 'to the sea, the Altamaha from where it receives the waters of the Oconee and the Ocmulgee to the sea, the St. Marys and the Satilla for a considerable portion of their length and then there are other navig-

1788

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

able rivers around Savannah, Darien, Brunswick, and St. Marys, mostly salt, furnishing an inland route from Savannah to points in Florida.
The freight steamships that carry the produce of Georgia to every quarter of the globe from our ports of Savannah, Brunswick, Darien and St. Marys and the coast line steamers that sail with freight and passengers to northern ports, all coming back with imports worth millions of dollars, have given a mighty impetus in Georgia to every kind of industry including a greater variety of manufactories than ever before.
The Georgians who are now in the middle period of their lives will yet see Georgia at the head in a variety of manufactures, passing even the rank she has held for many years as an agricultural state, sometimes standing fifth and sometimes fourth in the value of her crops.
Georgia stands at the door that opens into a great future; with enterpris^e and alertness she will enter in and possess her inheritance.

For the purpose of further advancing the interest of Georgia and making her title forever unassailable, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce was organized during the year.
While many progressive citizens of Georgia aided in the formation of this State Chamber of Commerce, the greater credit is due to Hon. Chas. J. Haden, of Atlanta, and Hon. Chas. D. McKinney, of Deeatur. These two citizens labored earnestly and zealously not only to perfect this organization, but to put it upon a firm and lasting footing after the organization had been an accomplished fact.
The following are the officers of the organization:
President--C. J. Haden, Atlanta.
First Vice President--E. W. Stetson, Macon.
Second Vice President--I. A. Bush, Camilla.
Third Vice President--R. F. Maddox, Atlanta.
Fourth Vice President--W. A. "Winburn, Savannah. Executive Committee--L. R. Akin, Brunswick; P. M. Atkinson, Madison; E. Y. Clarke, Quitman; R. D. Cole, Newnan; J. A. Davis, Albany; B. H. Groover, Reidsville; H. G. Hastings, Atlanta; L. P. Hillyer, Macon; C. J. Hood, Commerce; St. Elmo Massengale, Atlanta; Wilmer L. Moore, Atlanta; Geo. M. Napier, Decatur; W. H. Shippen, Ellijay; R. P. Spencer, Columbus; Crawford Wheatley, Americus; Albert M. Smith, Atlanta, secretary-manager.
It is the opinion of the commissioner that no movement of recent years means more for Georgia than the formation of the Georgia Cham ber of Commerce, and far-reaching results can be expected. Particular attention will be paid to the development of the agricultural and indus trial interests of the state.
Many things have contributed to Georgia's success, but nothing more so than her famous" newspapers, daily and weekly. The daily newspapers of Georgia are among the most influential of the whole country and the weekly newspapers are easily, as a class, better, more influential, more progressive, more public spirited than the same class of publications to

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1789

be found anywhere. There has been a great improvement in recent years in all newspaper lines in Georgia and our papers easily take front rank.
Georgia has always kept abreast of the age with every useful dis covery. Worthy of mention is the following extract from an address delivered in Atlanta some years ago, on the occasion of his visit to one of the expositions held in that city, by Governor Hastings, of Pennsyl vania:
"Georgia's versatility of ;climate and soil induced her lawmakers to establish the first State Department of Agriculture in the land.
"Georgia's code of laws of 1790 was so wise and symmetrical that, it was afterwards approved and to some extent grafted upon the vener able body of English jurisprudence.
'' The first female college in the world, Wesleyan Female College, was established at Macon.
'' The cotton gin was invented in 1793 by Eli Whitney on the planta tion of General Greene, of Revolutionary War fame, near Savannah.
"The first sewing ma chine was invented by a Georgia preacher, P. R. Goulding.
"Georgia is the second State in the production of cotton and the first in-the South in all general lines of manufacture."

The water powers., afforded by the many rivers and smaller streams, that traverse every section of Georgia, give to our state advantages equalled by few and surpassed by no other commonwealth of our Union.
The most extensive water powers in Georgia occur at or above what is known as the southern fall line, running from Augusta through Macon, to Columbus and on the western fall line, running through Polk, Bartow, Gordon and Murray counties.
The minimum horse powers of Georgia aggregate 500,000 in round numbers or 800,000 during six high water months. It has been estimated that more than 1,000,000 horse powers are possible for Georgia.
Even before 1840 manufacturers in almost every part of Georgia had been using water power for running flour and grist mills, saw mills and cotton mills. Augusta and Columbus soon came to the front in enterprises of this kind, and in textile manufactures stood easily above any other places in the whole South.
In Augusta a committee of nine persons, elected by the city council as a board of commissioners, began in 1845 and completed in 1847 a canal from a point ii the Savannah River about seven miles above the city to its upper .part, the purpose being to secure better manufactur ing facilities and also to provide an abundant supply of water for other uses of the city. : : :
After a few yea^s it became evident that the canal was too small to supply the demand for water power and the increasing demand for fire, domestic and other purposes. Temporary expedients were tried from time to time, but failed to meet the. demand. At length, it was decided to greatly enlarge the canal. The work of enlargement was begun in 1872 and was completed in 1875. Augusta had now 14,000 horse powers besides an abundant supply of water for all other needed purposes.

1790

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Such a wonderful impetus did this great work give to textile manu factures that Augusta received .the title "Lowell of the South." For the past eighteen years the Geological Survey of Georgia in co-operation with the United States Geological Survey, has been engaged in collecting useful information in regard to our streams. "Within the past ten years somewhere near $20,000,000 has been expended in developing the im mense water power of Georgia. Great storage dams arid other necessary plants have been installed on the Ocmulgee near Jackson, in Butts County, at Tallulah Falls in Rabun County, at Columbus and Augusta. The new 40,000 horse power hydro-electric plant at Augusta was con structed by the J. G. White Co., claiming to be one of the two largest con structing firms in the whole world, and is controlled by the Georgia-Caro lina Power Co. Augusta, which had fallen behind some of the .great power plants, again ranks with the first and will have a fresh, revival of great manufacturing plants.
Columbus stands in the same class with her new hydro-electric plant adding vastly to her already splendid water powers and to her possibili ties as a rival to Augusta in manufacturing enterprises. The Central of Georgia Power Company of Jackson, and the Georgia Railway and Power Company of Tallulah Falls are transmitting electric power to run the machinery of factories, the street cars of Atlanta and Macon, and to give light to the streets of many Georgia cities.
When hydro-electric power shall have supplanted steam in our fac tories, money that now goes out of the state for coal can be used to better purposes and the smoke evil can be eliminated from the problems of pleasant existence in our large cities.
As early as 1840 Georgia was in the front rank of the states in rail road construction, just as now she is among the foremost in construction of good roads. Already tourists can ride rapidly from city to city upon roads, over the greater part of which it is delightful to travel.

Preliminary estimates made by the State Department of Commerce and Labor from figures now in hand for 1915 show that manufacture is now on the increase in Georgia, not only in the total value of material used and finished output, but in the increased number of separate and distinct articles manufactured. Many hundreds of different kinds of finished articles and products are being turned out today by Georgia mills, shops and factories.
The textile mills come first in importance. According to Commis sioner H. M. Stanley, they will show about 2,200,000 active spindles, 42,000 looms, 4,436 cards for mills manufacturing cotton, woolen and silk goods; for knitting mills approximately 4,200 knitting machines, 650 sewing machines, 380 loopers, and 600 ribbers. There are upwards of 165 cotton mills in Georgia.
There are ten mills that bleach their goods and thirty-two that dye and finish.
Approximately 90,000 horse power is used today by the textile mills of this state. The total amount of raw material used in Georgia's textile

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1791

mills is between 250,000,000 and 350,000,000 pounds of cotton, and about 1,700,000 pounds of wool. The value of this raw material is about $40,000,000,
The manufactured products amount to about 500,000,000 yards of cloth, 4,000,000 dozens of hose, and 500,000 dozens of knitted under wear. The total value of the products is between $60,000,000 and $70,000,000.
The salaries of officers and clerks in the textile mills approximate $1,300,000, and the amount paid to wage earners is close to $9,500,000. Sundry other expenses amount to about $3,800,000.
The lumber industry in Georgia amounts annually to $25,000,000. There are over 1,800 sawmills in active operation with 15,000 to 20,000 men in constant service. The annual cut amounts to something like 1,000,000,000 feet.
Of Georgia's 34,000,000 acres, about 24,000,000 are in forests, and these embrace in varying quantities practically all kinds of timber in digenous to the eastern states. The chief hard woods are oak, hickory, ash, dogwood, black gum, and persimmon; the chief soft woods are long and short leaf pine, poplar and cypress.
Pine is the most important as commercial timber. The long leaf pine region is estimated to cover 17,000 square miles and to contain over 20,000,000,000 feet of merchantable lumber.
The extensive pine forests have made Georgia one of the leading states in the Union in the production of naval stores, turpentine and rosin. Savannah annually exports 834,800 barrels of rosin and 35,576 casks of spirits of turpentine, and is the most important naval stores < port in the world. Brunswick is also an important exporter of naval stores. The total value of Georgia's naval stores amounts annually to about $7,000,000.

Fertilizer factories in Georgia for the year ending December 31, 1914, had a capital invested of over $40,000,000, and spent near $12,500,000 for raw material. The manufactured products were 1,282,098 tons of fertilizer, valued at $33,000,000.
The cotton seed oil mills, with an investment of about $14,000,000, used some 535,000 tons of cotton seed, and about 90,000 tons of fer tilizer material, costing $12,500,000, and turned out 148,281 tons of cotton seed meal products besides 17,000,000 gallons of oil with a total value of $31,000,000.
Brick, tile, stone, terra cotta and similar industries, with a capital stock of about $4,000,000, and total expenses of $1,250,000, turn out annually products amounting to $2,400,000.
Foundry, machine and general repair shops in Georgia have a total capital of nearly $10,000,000. They spend for repairs, new. machinery and raw material about $3,000,000, and pay out to officers, clerks and wage earners about $2,500,000. They turn out annually products val ued at between $7,000,000 and $8,000,000.

The marble and granite quarries and marble yards, with a capital of nearly $3,500,000, and money paid for new machinery, repairs, raw

1792

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

material and incidentals amount to some $900,000, and salaries paid to officers and clerks $180,000, and to wage earners $1,200,000--turn out products valued annually at $3,500,000.
The bottlers and brewers have a total capital of about $3,000,000. Their total expenses will approximate. $3,000,000, including the pay of officers, clerks and wage earners. The value of their manufactured products is in excess of $3,500,000.
The electric light plants have a capital of some $10,000,000, expenses of $3,500,000. There is no definite statement available as to their earnings.
The gas plants have an investment of over $7,000,000, with expenses of over $1,000,000, and sales amounting to $2,000,000.

Flour and grist mills, with a capital of over $2,500,000, and expenses approximating $7,000,000, manufacture products worth about $8,250,000.
Buggy, carriage and wagon shops, with a capital of over $2,000,000, and expenses amounting to over $1,500,000, show manufactured products valued at some $2,500,000.
In the manufacture of leather goods there is an investment of $2,800,000, with expenses of nearly $2,000,000, and manufactured prod ucts worth somewhat over $2,700,000.
These figures are all based on sales, and it must be remembered that the value of manufactured products will sometimes largely exceed the amount of sales.
A compilation of figures and estimates shows that the total annual value of manufactured products in Georgia is between $225,000,000 and $250,000,000.
Among the other specific manufacturing industries which are car ried on profitably in Georgia are: Agricultural implements, brick and tile, paper boxes, bakery products, confectionery, cars and shop con struction, men and women's clothing, including shirts and underwear, cooperage and wooden goods, furniture and refrigerators, leather goods, mattresses and spring beds, drugs and patent medicines, pottery and terra cotta, printing and publishing, slaughtering and meat packing, tobacco and cigars, woolen goods and wool hats, copper, tin and sheet iron products, artificial stone, brooms, coffins, mineral and soda waters, commercial engraving.
The manufacturing opportunities offered in Georgia, both for large capital and for the investor of limited means, are unsurpassed by any spot on the face of the earth.
In addition to opportunities along general manufacturing lines, there are especially attractive openings for the manufacture of furni ture, shoes, prepared foods, jams, marmalades, carriages, wagons, auto mobiles, paper mills, novelty works, ship building, toy factories, elec trical machinery, electric cars, iron casting foundries, steel casting foun dries, brass easting foundries, cotton oil mills, cotton spinning mills. Specific information will be furnished free on request by the Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1793

Department of Agriculture, at the state capitol. Prompt attention will be given all letters.
Georgia occupies a strategic position as regards the world's mar kets, commanding the West Indies and Central and South America, toward which American trade is growing with special rapidity.
Georgia, though comparatively young as a manufacturing state, already has passed every state in the southeastern group in value of manufactures. Georgia today ranks seventeenth among all the states in manufacturing.

Natural advantages have offered encouragement beyond the power of most localities to give. Cheap and unlimited supplies of raw material are available, coupled with the best railroad and shipping facilities, and the tremendous hydro-electric development in various sections of the state makes power ab'undant and cheap. .
Illustrating the growth of Georgia manufactures, the following fig ures will be of interest:
The capital invested in Georgia manufacturing in 1880 was $20,672,000. In 1900 it was $89,790,000, and today it is in excess of $225,000,000.
The value of products manufactured in Georgia in 1880 was $36,441,000. In 1900 it was $106,665,000, and today, as previously stated, it is between $225,000,000 and $250,000,000.
In 1880 the number of separate manufacturing industries in Geor gia was 3,600 and today it is between 5,000 and 6,000. The numbe.r of persons employed in manufactures in 1880 was 24,875, and today it is between 125,000 and 150,000.

In 1880 the total available horse power in Georgia, including both hydro-electric and steam, was 51,169. Today the developed hydro-elec tric horse power alone amounts to about 175,000, and these figures do not include the horse power developed and used at the water's edge by a great many mills of all sizes.
The undeveloped horse power in the state owned by hydro-electric companies totals 315,000. This figure does not include the available undeveloped horse power in Georgia streams held by various other owners. The grand total is believed to reach practically 1,000,000.
A number of large separate hydro-electric companies are now oper ating in Georgia, and very large developments have been made around Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Augusta and other points. The largest single power plant is at Tallulah, where 96,000 horse power is gener ated, and distributed on towers to manufacturing plants all over the northern section of the state.
Steam and gasoline power are also used extensively in manufacture and on the farms.
None of the above figures take into account the many municipal electric plants, and individual factory and hotel plants, or those op erated by the state or Federal Government, which consume their own
current.

1794

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

As early as 1770 some Moravians, at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, ex hibited specimens of oil from cotton seed. But their discovery made no serious impression at that time. The invention of the cotton gin in 1794 turned the attention of the world to the production and manufac ture of the lint.
The use of cotton seed as a fertilizer was known many years before the war between the states, and some farmers, after selecting seed for replanting, used the remainder for fertilizing the soil. The average farmer, however, in the early days of cotton culture, discarded the seed as valueless. Hon. James Callaway, of Macon, one of the best informed historians and writers in the state, is authority for the statement that Henry C. Fuqua, of Laurens County, Georgia, was the first person of record to discover the value of cotton seed as a fertilizer. The discovery was by accident.
There are complete and exact records of an oil mill erected in 1802, at Columbia, South Carolina, by Benjamin Warring and operated for a while. According to a statement in the Hammond Hand Book of South Carolina, an official publication, issued in 1882, Mr. Warring obtained one gallon of oil from one bushel of cotton seed.
But the first cotton seed oil mill in the United States to be operated as a real commercial proposition, was begun about 1834, at Natchez, Mississippi, and began to turn out its products in 1836. Its originator and proprietor was James Hamilton Couper, of a noted Georgia family, and his father sleeps in the cemetery at Frederica, St. Simon's Island, on the Georgia coast. Mr. Couper also had a mill at Mobile, Alabama.
None of these enterprises were remunerative enough to place them upon a firm basis and insure their continuance. They had, however, given a hint of what might some day be accomplished.
Mr. Edward Atkinson, of Brookline, Massachusettes, who was born in 1827 and died in 1905, and Avho was the author of many pamphlets and some extensive works upon economic subjects, declared in 1861 that cotton seed would alone, upon proper trial, prove to-be worth millions of dollars.
.Southern people were too busy, however, between -1861 and 1865, to give much attention to anything new. Then during the Reconstruc tion period and several following years, they had neither the means nor the inclination to take up any untried enterprises. They had to get firmly upon their feet, before they could again go forward in the race of prog ress. There was in 1880 one oil mill in Georgia, but none in South Caro lina. Before the working season of 1882 began, five new oil mills bad been established in Georgia and three in South Carolina. From this time on~ the progress of the cotton oil industry was rapid and its profits secure.
Georgia could show, by 1890, a list of seventeen cotton oil mills, whose combined capital was $992,101. These mills paid for material at that time $1,298,421, and yielded products valued at $1,670,196. Six years later there were twenty of these mills, paying for seed $1,400,000, and giving a product of $1,800,000 value. The number of active cotton seed oil mills in Georgia in 1900 was fifty-two, with a capital of $2,500,000, paying $5,000,000 for cotton seed and turning out products worth $14,-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1795

000,000. According to the census of 1910 Georgia had 142 cotton seed oil mil-Is, with a capital amounting to $12,720,146, paying about $11,000,000 for seed and turning out products valued at $23,640,779. By 1912 the number of cotton seed oil mills in Georgia had reached 170, with a capital of $13,614,000, paying near $12,000,000 for seed and having manufactured products worth $26,368,934.
The total expense of the 142 cotton seed oil mills in 1910, including all cotton seed and other materials, the salaries of officials and clerks, the pay of wage earners, cost of fuel and rent of power, rent of factory, taxes, including internal revenue, contract work and other items, amounted to $21,979,655. The like expense of the 170 oil mills in 1912 approximated $23,000,000.

From another source of information is derived the following account of how the cotton seed oil industry in the Southern states originated: On a Morgan County plantation originated an economic process which today underlies one of the greatest industrial activities of the world--' the manufacture of cotton seed oil. As the result of this marvelous invention an industry of vast proportions has been created and what was formerly considered a waste product has been the means of putting millions of dollars into the pockets of the Southern farmer. The first successful effort ever made to extract oil from cotton seed was made by Launcelot Johnstone, Esq., within a quarter of a mile from the court house in Madison. Mr. Johnstone was an extensive antebellum planter, whose scientific experiments in practical agriculture placed him at least half a century in advance of his times. The records of the patent office in "Washington, District of Columbia, will show that between 1830 and 1832 Mr. Johnstone was granted an exclusive patent for a cotton-seed huller, the first device of its kind ever constructed; and, in operating Ms patent he made large quantities of cotton seed oil, some of which he used with white lead for house painting. Shingles which he saturated in cotton seed oil remained on his house for more than sixty years. Mr. Johnstone is buried just in the rear of the old homestead, where, in a modest way, he began to lay the foundations of what has since developed into one of the most colossal industries of our age. His crude experi ments marked an epoch in the history of manufacture by wresting from nature a secret worth untold millions; and though he has long slept the deep sleep from which no pean of earthly praise can ever wake him, it is not too late to accord him the distinction to which he is rightfully, entitled as the real father of the cotton seed oil industry of the United States.*
Hon. James D. Price, commissioner of agriculture, is our authority for the following data on the subject of good roads, introduced by a few figures relative to automobiles.
It is estimated that there are today more than 25,000 automobiles
*"Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials, and Legends," Vol. II, p. 885, by Lucian Lamar Knight.

1796

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

in Georgia, of which approximately 7,250 are owned in Atlanta, Savan nah, Macon and Augusta, the four large cities of the state, while the remaining 17,750 are owned in the smaller cities, towns, rural communi ties and on the farms.
The number of autos owned in Georgia is being increased at the rate of approximately 2,500 to 3,000 per year, and a large proportion of these cars are being placed in the smaller towns and directly on the farm.
Many Georgia farmers are learning the value of the auto not merely as a convenience for the family and a pleasure vehicle, but as an aid in actual work as well, and as an economical and rapid means of trans porting lighter farm produce to nearby markets.

Georgia has today approximately 85,000 miles of public roads. She has over 10,000 miles of roads paved with sand-clay, and several thou sand miles of road paved with macadam, chert, stone or gravel. High way improvement is going forward at the rate of 1,500 to 2,000 miles per year.
Tremendous impetus has been given the improvement of roads in Georgia since 1908 by the employment of practically all Georgia's con victs on road building. Under the present law all the felony convicts are apportioned among the various counties of the state, to be worked on good roads in connection with their own misdemeanor convicts. Un der this system there are today 2,760 felony convicts and 2,550 misde meanor convicts, or over 5,300 convicts in all; working on highways in 126 counties of the state. For the benefit of the counties the state prison commission now has an expert road building engineer whose sole duty it is to travel around among them and aid the local commissioners in solving their road-building problems. In addition, the State Geolog ical Department, of which S. "W. McCallie is head, issues extensive bul letins on roads and road building materials.
The working of convicts on the roads has been a success. The ex pense of maintaining the present force of over 5,300 is about $2,000,000 a year, and their labor on the roads is estimated to be worth more than double this amount.
This system is giving Georgia a magnificent network of improved highways in all parts of the state, and while most of the counties are using principally the sand and clay mixtures alone, the roads show a .vast improvement over the old dirt roads, and generally speaking are superior to those of other states in the South. The United States Good Roads Bureau of the Department of Agriculture has called attention to the fact that Georgia has recently made more progress in road improve ment than any other state in the Union.

Georgia's postal facilities, both city and rural, are keeping adequate pace with the state's development, and are the equal of any in the United States.
On January 1, 1915, there were in operation in Georgia 1,706 rural

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

1797

routes, the total length of which amounted to 40,759 miles, representing an annual travel of 12,385,915 miles.
This service is operated at an annual cost to the Government for regular carriers of $1,824,596, or at the rate of 14.77 cents for each mile of travel.
The many railroad trunk lines touching every section of the state give rapid mail service in all directions in and out of Georgia. Hand some new postoffice buildings have been recently constructed by the Federal Government in Atlanta and other cities.

Vol. VI-- 31

CHAPTER II
GEORGIA'S BANKING, FINANCE, TAXATION AND BUSINESS
GEORGIA'S CREDIT UNEXCELLED--HELP GIVEN TO FARMERS BY BANKERS --STANDING OP STATE BANKS--GEORGIA'S NATIONAL BANKS--THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK--GEORGIA'S TAX RATE LIMITED--RATE RE DUCED BELOW THE LlMIT----GEORGIA'S NATIONAL GUARD----BUSINESS CONDITIONS--COMMERCIAL HEADQUARTERS--PORTS--CHIEF CITIES-- SEA COAST ISLANDS--GAME.
[For this chapter, we are indebted chiefly to Hon. James D. Price, Commis sioner of Agriculture, whose booklet, "The Empire State of the South," is a mine of condensed, practical, up-to-date information relative to Georgia. Acknowledg ments are also made to State Treasurer Wm. J. Speer and to Comptroller-General Wm. A. Wright.]
There is no state in the Union whose credit ranks higher than does that of Georgia. With total property values as returned for taxation of approximately $1,000,000,000, the state's outstanding bonded debt is only $6,540,000, back of which as an asset is, also, the "Western and At lantic Railroad, 138 miles long, from Atlanta to Chattanooga, owned wholly by the state and estimated to be worth not less than $12,000,000, without a dollar of encumbrance. This railroad now brings the state an annual rental of $420,012, which will be considerably increased under a new lease soon to be made.
The credit of Georgia's counties, cities and towns is maintained in an equally sound basis, the state constitution prohibiting the issuance of bonds above 7 per cent of the taxable value, while strict laws regard ing bond validations afford still further protection to the investor.
Georgia's banks, conservative in management and successful in oper ation, have always been characterized by a liberal policy toward agricul ture and general business, and the man who maintains a good credit has no trouble in financing his efforts. As an illustration of this it may be recalled that when the European war temporarily tied up cotton ship ments, it was the Georgia bank that carried the Georgia farmer and the Georgia merchant through the crisis.
A quarter of a century ago state banks were few and far between; today there are 692 state banks and 114 national banks, a total of 806 banks in 152 counties, or an average of more than five to each county.
Here is how Georgia's 692 state banks stood at the close of Decem ber, 1914, compared with the year previous as shown in the report of State Treasurer and State Bank Examiner W. J. Speer:
1798

GEORGIA j.IND GEORG:CANS

1799

Resources --

Dec., 1913.

Loans and discounts.. $ 98,348,400.11

1,145,916.16

6,360,692.37

Banks' furniture, fix-

7,033,662.74

(*)

23,595,223.16 Cash and cash items.. 12,418,139.19

712,863.41

Dec., 1914. $106,078,901.06
1,777, S87. 76 6,006,454.68
5,618,451.94 1,897,733.04 13,837,504.63 6,442,397.46
737,894.57

Total .......... $149,614,897.14

Liabilities---

28,895,513.67

Surplus and net profits 16,514,360.65

7,491,153.68

Unpaid dividends

47,386.72

91,441,535.27

4,881,771.37

413,175.78

$142,396,725.14
29,077,067.65 16,691,555.74
3,881,615.47 27,008.05
71,066,043.54 20,964,098.80
689,335.90

Total .......... $149.614.897.14 $142.396.725.14

Increase.

Decrease.

631,471.60 ........... ........... $ 354,237.69

482,522.24 ............ ...........
25,031.16

........... 9,757,718.53 5,975,741.73 ...........

........... f$ 7,218,172.00

181,553.97 177,195.09 ........... ...........
........... 16,152,327.43
276,160.12

........... ........... $ 3,609,538.21
20,378.67
20,375,491.73 ........... ...........

........... t$ 7,218,172.00

*Included in above. tNet.

Under strict state supervision and subject to state examination twice yearly, Georgia's banks keep well within the limit of the law and a bank failure is a rarity.

For soundness and conservative liberality in dealing, Georgia's 114 national banks are the equal of those found anywhere in the country. Under strict Government supervision, they are a series of financial in stitutions as safe as are to be found in the world. For movements of the crops their assistance is ready and available to the full limit of good credit.
The combined capital of Georgia's national banks is $14,756,000, with aggregate surplus and profits of $12,770,155.45; deposits, $48,599,026.35; national bank notes outstanding, $17,315,727.50; loans and discounts, $59,954,576.39; while the total of their resources and their liabilities each aggregates $107,745,824.37.

One of the twelve federal reserve or "regional" banks established

under the new currency law is located in Atlanta. It was opened No

vember 1, 1914, to serve the territory of the Sixth Reserve District,

including Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and parts of Louisiana, Missis

sippi and Tennessee.

-,:

It has already proven of inestimable value to this section, in giving

a more elastic currency, helping the local banks at the seasons when

a great deal of money is needed for the cotton crops, and making it

generally easier to obtain money for legitimate purposes.

The Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank is headed by Hon. Joseph A. Me-'

Cord, as governor. In its weekly statement at the close of business on

March 26, 1915, the bank showed total resources of $12,010,000.

Georgia's tax rate is limited by the constitution of the state to a maximum rate of 4'1/2 mills; that'is, $4.50 on each $1,000 of property returned. The average rate of taxation in the counties of the state is 8 mills, or $8 on each $1,000. These rates will compare favorably with

1800

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

those of any state in the Union, and are less than prevail in many of them.
Property generally is taxed on a basis of approximately 60 per cent of its market value. Georgia's municipal tax rates are, comparatively speaking, below the average of those in most other states.

As the result of a new tax equalization law which went into effect in Georgia last year, taxable values were increased approximately $86,000,000, enabling the State Tax Commission to reduce the state rate from $5 to $4.50 on. each $1,000. The total taxable values as returned to the state now aggregate $953,531,254. One effect of this law was to reduce the valuation on much Georgia property and raise it on others, thus bringing about equalization in the tax burden.
State Tax Commissioner Jno. C. Hart expresses the opinion that under the operation of the equalization act the state rate should be still further materially reduced and says that in fact, if all property was returned and at a fair valuation, a rate of approximately $2 on each $1,000 would give the state all the revenue necessary to support the public institutions.
As a striking instance of development and growth, the Georgia tax ' reports for 1914 show an increase of more than $40,000,000 in the value of improved farm lands as compared with 1913, bringing the total valu ation up to $235,628,438.
Investors have learned that there is no better security for loans in the world than Georgia farm lands. Hence loans, where needed, are easily obtainable, and the farms themselves are soon made to pay them off. Of ten large insurance, trust and bonding companies which have loans in Georgia aggregating $16,000,000, they have placed more than 60 per cent of the amount on farm lands. With a record of Georgia loans since 1889, more than a quarter of a century, nine of these companies write that they have never had a farm loan overdue, which means they have never lost a dollar, while one of the ten suffered a small loss ad mittedly through its own ignorance of conditions, in the entire twentyfive-year period. There is never a time when any honest farmer is unable to get the money he needs for the making of crops or for extend ing and increasing his farm facilities.

Georgia has a very efficient and well-officered National Guard which has proven a valuable supplement to the police system of the state. It comprises 259 commissioned officers and 2,845 men, a total of 3,104, organized into one brigade of infantry with three regiments of twelve companies each, the headquarters of these regiments being located re spectively at Savannah, Macon and Atlanta; one detached battalion of infantry with headquarters at Elberton; one battalion of field artillery with two batteries in Savannah and one in Atlanta; one battalion of coast artillery, four companies in Savannah; one squadron, four troops of cavalry and one detached troop* besides sanitary troops, field hospital and other essential military adjuncts.
These troops are supported both by the state and Federal govern ments and besides being subject to call under certain conditions by the Government, they are always ready for the immediate performance of

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1801

any state duty that the governor may direct. The presence and imme diate availability of this well-trained force of troops has been a strong factor in making Georgia a law-abiding state and has had the undoubted effect of reducing insurance and loan rates in the state.

With $580,000,000 farm capitalization, Georgia's annual agricultural production is $269,220,000, while Ohio, with nearly $2,000,000,000 of farm capital, produces only $388,485,000.

Business is good in Georgia. Georgia stands recognized and pre eminent among Southern states as the geographical and financial center of wholesale and retail merchandizing, and as southern headquarters for ' practically all of the big Northern and Eastern insurance and manu facturers' agency concerns.
Money is easy to obtain for legitimate purposes in Georgia, and mer chants, big and little, are, generally speaking, prosperous. The per centage of failures is low.
While industries and productiveness have doubled in Georgia dur ing the past ten years, the active capital, available through banks, to handle increased business, has more than trebled in the same time.
In the argument before the Federal Commission which established the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta, the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce produced actual figures to show that more than half the merchants in the southeastern states buy goods in the Georgia market.
More than 90,000 merchants in the seven southeastern states are registered as regular customers of Atlanta alone. Atlanta wholesalers and manufacturers' agents alone sell to southeastern territory more than $350,000,000 worth of goods per year--and Atlanta is only one city. Georgia's seaports are among the busiest on the Atlantic Coast.

The whole current of trade in southeastern territory flows into and out of Georgia. Railroad headquarters are centered in Georgia for all the territory between the Ohio, Potornac and Mississippi rivers.
The productiveness of Georgia, combined with the available capital and the advantageousness of shipping rates and conditions, make it an ideal location for the merchant, large or small.
Georgia has more national banks, with more capital and surplus than any other southeastern state, and has nearly twice as many state banks, with more than double the capital surplus of any of the seven states in the southeastern group.
Georgia is the center of the phenomenal business growth of the south eastern region--a development which has been more rapid than that of any other section of the United States, unless it be Texas and Oklahoma or a portion of the Pacific Coast.

Georgia has four seaports handling extensive domestic and foreign commerce--Savannah, Brunswick, Darien and St. Mary's.
Savannah is entered by four great railway trunk lines which pour the products of field and factory onto her wharves that line the Savan nah River on either side for a distance of six miles. In 1889 Savannah had a total foreign commerce of $18,239,435. Constant deepening of

1802

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

the harbor, making provision for larger and deeper draught vessels, and the natural growth of the country tributary to this port--the largest 011 the South Atlantic, south of Baltimore--has steadily increased this until in 1904 it amounted to $54,694,443, while in 1914, ten years later, it had more than doubled, being $116,864,657. Chief exports from Sa vannah are more than 1,000,000 bales of cotton annually,. naval stores and lumber. Savannah's foreign imports approximate $6,000,000 annu ally. Direct freight steamship lines ply between Savannah and the ports of the United Kingdom, Continent of Europe, Latin-America and the Orient; while coastwise steamers connect regularly with New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Jacksonville.

Brunswick has one of the deepest and most accessible harbors on the South Atlantic Coast. From this port there was handled in 1913 a total tonnage, foreign and coastwise, of 984,446 tons, valued at $54,892,433.55. In this were 353,090 tons of railroad crossties, valued at $1,977,304.80. Brunswick's total foreign exports for 1913 were 230,002 tons, valued at $19,348,161. Foreign imports for the same year were 16,268 tons, valued at $157,175.75. Brunswick's chief exports are crossties, lumber, naval stores, cotton and linters; while principal imports
are kainit and other fertilizer materials. Similar exports in smaller quantity are handled principally by sail
ing vessels from the ports of Darien and St. Mary's, both of which have
good harbor facilities. Georgia has eleven thriving cities of more than 8,000 inhabitants,
and hundreds of prosperous, growing, smaller towns. Atlanta, the capital of the state, with over 200,000 inhabitants, is
the largest city in the South in bank clearings and postal receipts, and, next to New Orleans, the largest in population. The growth of Atlanta is steady, rapid, substantial. The 1914 census gave her population as 179,292. Conservative estimates in 1915 show that she has nearer 200,000. Atlanta is not only a railroad and manufacturing center, but is general Southern headquarters for a majority of the big insurance com panies, and other big eastern and national corporations. Her twelve large skyscraper office buildings are always filled. A new courthouse costing $1,500,000 has recently been finished, and a magnificent $1,000,000 postoffice and federal building erected three years ago is already being outgrown. . Atlanta has over 500 manufacturing plants with an
annual output of over $50,000,000. Atlanta has six national banks, with a paid-in capital stock of $4,-
700,000, and a surplus of $3,900,000. In addition she has a dozen or more strong state and local banks, and is a Federal Reserve city. The Regional Reserve Bank for the Southeast is located in Atlanta. An active Chamber of Commerce, Convention Bureau, and other wide awake organizations have given the phrase "Atlanta Spirit," a national
circulation. SAVANNAH

Georgia's next largest city is Savannah, with, a population given in the 1914 census as 67,917, and since materially increased. The largest port on the Atlantic Coast south of Baltimore, Savannah is of world-

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

1803

wide importance for its industries and shipping. Savannah is the largest sea island cotton market in the world. Manufacturing has become an extensive industry, offering many opportunities. There are $18,000,000 invested, with annual products of $37,000,000.
Savannah was the site of the original Georgia colony founded by General Oglethorpe. It is laid out in beautiful squares, with its resi dence sections magnificently shaded, and is one of the loveliest cities in the world from a scenic standpoint. The hundreds of miles of mod ern roads in and around Savannah are famous and have been used for some of the greatest national and international auto races in the history of the sport.

AUGUSTA

Augusta, with a population of 55,000, is one of the largest cotton manufacturing cities in the South, and is the second largest inland cot ton market in the world. Its modern office buildings are rapidly increas ing, and its residential suburbs are noted for beautiful homes, parks and drives. Augusta is situated in the heart of a rich cotton and corn pro ducing section, and is a metropolis for the whole Savannah Valley. Augusta's postal receipts have doubled within the past ten years. Au gusta is the location of the Southern Ordnance Department of the United States Government. Situated at the head of navigation on the Savan nah River, boats are operated to Savannah and freight rates are low.

MACON

The City of Macon, with a growing population of about 45,000 is located almost in the geographical center of Georgia, and is consequently an important business point for a very large section of the state. In the midst of the cotton belt, and directly in the center of Georgia's magnificent fruit producing territory, Macon is an important manu facturing, packing and shipping point. Her manufacturing industries are growing steadily. Her banks are prosperous and her postal receipts are increasing yearly. Macon is an important educational center, and is the site of the Wesleyan Female College and Mercer University.
Other important cities in Georgia are Columbus, a big manufactur ing center, with a population in 1914 of 21,805; Waycross, with 18,134; Athens, site of the State University, with 16,900; Rome, with 14,146; Brunswick, with 10,649; Valdosta, with 10,000; Albany, with 9,717; and Americus, with 8,227. Georgia has 128 cities with a population of 1,000 or more.
The 128 cities of Georgia of 1,000 inhabitants or more, each enjoys the service of some form of public utility. According to .figures col lected by the state railroad commission, 118 of these have electric lighting and power plants, of which seventy-eight are municipally owned, while forty belong to private corporations; three cities own their own gas companies, while there are ten other gas companies privately owned. There are in the state 245 telephone exchanges, operating more than 100,000 telephones. Of the exchanges 111 are owned or controlled by the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Co., while 134 are inde-

1804

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

pendent exchanges. In and tributary to Atlanta are nearly one-fourth of the entire number of telephones in use in the state.

TRANSPORTATION AND MARKETS
Georgia's transportation, facilities are rivaled by those of few other states in the South, and surpassed by none.
A perfect network of railroads traverses every section, connecting every city, town and almost every village; bringing rural communities into close communication with each other and with the principal ship ping centers and markets.
Georgia has 152 counties, of which 146 have railroads. The total railroad mileage of the state is 7,290 miles, or more in proportion to area than any other state south of Virginia. She has 1,500 stations which are shipping points, and 725 which have express offices. Several boat lines touch at Georgia's four ports, Savannah, Bruns wick, Darien and St. Mary's. Of the 100,000 telephone stations in Georgia, over 25,000 are in rural districts, and are being used more generally each year as an aid to marketing crops. Not only is railroad transportation rapid and comprehensive be tween points in Georgia, but ten important trunk lines connect every section of the state with all the big city markets of the North, South, East and West. The trunk lines which enter and traverse Georgia are the Atlantic Coast Line; Southern Railway; Seaboard Air Line; At lanta, Birminghan & Atlantic; Louisville & Nashville; Nashville, Chat tanooga & St. Louis; Atlanta & West Point; Georgia Southern & Florida, Central of Georgia, and Georgia Railroad.
Freight and express rates over all this great network of railroads in Georgia are fixed by a state railroad commission, and Georgia ship pers today enjoy the lowest freight rates in the South.
The Railroad Commission of Georgia is vested with wider powers than its name indicates. . In reality it is a public utilities commission. It has not only the power to establish just and reasonable rates, but to enforce adequate and efficient service as well. The help it renders to shippers of agricultural and industrial products is extensive. It es tablishes special commodity rates on vegetables and fruits, both canned and fresh, to encourage shipping, and prescribes special fast trains for perishable commodities.
The railroads and express companies are themselves co-operating along similar lines, and by the establishment of market departments are rendering voluntarily a splendid aid to the Georgia producer not merely in the transportation of his products but in the finding of the best markets therefor. Among the railroads which are now operating market departments for this purpose are the Southern Railway, the Central of Georgia, the A. B. & A., and the Atlantic Coast Line. The

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1805

Southern Express Company is operating a similar department, with benefit to producer and consumer alike.
The State Department of Agriculture, as already shown, State Col lege of Agriculture, Georgia Chamber of Commerce and other agencies are rendering valuable assistance in the marketing of farm products.

The many islands along the Georgia seacoast are attractive both as summer and winter resorts, and upon them are several valuable es tates and clubs whose members use them as winter resorts and game preserves.
Cumberland Island lias long been famous as the home of the Car negie estate, and also as an attractive summer resort and fishing ground. Jekyl Island is known as the home of the famous Millionaires' Club. Other islands used as resorts or as private fishing and game preserves are St. Simons, Sapelo, Wolf, St. Catherines, Ossabaw and Tybee. There are many smaller islands on the coast, and practically all of them are productive and furnish advantageous home sites.

Georgia furnishes ideal sport for both hunter and fisherman in the proper season. Quail or partridges, as well as wild turkey, wood cock, doves, grouse arid pheasants may be found in practically all parts of the state, while duck, deer, squirrels and o'possums are numerous in certain sections.
Mountain trout, black bass and bream, as well as the channel cat, inhabit many of the fresh water streams, while the salt water fishing is as fine as can be had on the southeastern coast.
Game and fish are protected by adequate game laws, revised under an act of the Legislature in 1911, and a state department of game and fish, headed by Commissioner Chas. L. Davis, and strongly backed by public sentiment, is enforcing the law against pot hunters and "game hogs" and at the same time doing splendid constructive work in game preservation.
License to hunt in the county of residence costs $1. Statewide license for a resident of Georgia costs $3. Non-residents hunting in Georgia, except on their own land, are required to pay a license of $15.
The open season for quail, partridges, wild turkeys, doves and plovers is November 20th to March 1st; wood cock and summer ducks, Decem ber 1st to January 1st; migratory duck, September 1st to April 20th; cat squirrels, August 1st to January 1st; grown male deer, October 1st to December 1st; o'possums, October 1st to March 1st. The killing of doe, fawn, fox squirrels, turkey hens, and all imported game birds, is a crime at all times. The law prohibits baiting fields. It prohibits the use of seines or nets for fish between February 1st and July 1st. The use of dynamite or- explosives in streams is altogether forbidden.

CHAPTER III
GEORGIA'S FIELDS AND FORESTS, FLOCKS AND HERDS, ORCHARDS AND VINEYARDS
GEORGIA FOURTH AMONG THE AGRICULTURAL STATES---FIRST ON THE ROLL FOR PEACHES AND SWEET POTATOES--SECOND AS A PRODUCER OP COT TON, SUGAR-CANE AND PEANUTS---THIRD IN ITS WATERMELON CROP --POPULATION WELL DISTRIBUTED--CLIMATE AND RAINFALL--GEOR GIA'S COTTON CROP--GROWTH OP THE SEED INDUSTRY--CORN AND CORN CLUBS--OATS, WHEAT, RYE AND RICE--GEORGIA CANE SYRUP-- FORTUNES IN TOMATOES--THE FAMOUS GEORGIA PEACH--PECAN GROVES AS MONEY-MAKERS--LIVE STOCK IN GEORGIA--STAMPING OUT DISEASES--FERTILIZER AND OIL INSPECTION--PURE FOOD AND PURE DRUG LAW--THE MARKET BUREAU--WORK OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST--AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION--UNITED STATES FARM DEMON STRATION WORK---THE EXPERIMENT STATION--HEALTH SAFEGUARDED --GEORGIA'S TIMBER LANDS.
[This chapter has been carefully prepared from an authoritative work entitled: "The Empire State of the South," published by Hon. James D. Price, Commissioner of Agriculture, for the year 1915; and also in part from the Third Annual Report of Hon. Harris M, Stanley, Commissioner of Commerce and Labor.]
Fourth in rank among the agricultural states, as shown in census figures of 1.910, Georgia occupies first place in the production of peaches and sweet potatoes; she ranks second among all the states in cotton, sugar-cane and peanuts; she holds third place in the yield of water melons and canteloupes, for which markets are never lacking; she is ninth in corn production and tenth in raising swine--figures which to day are undergoing rapid revision in the direction of still further attain ment.
Illinois, Iowa and Texas, only, lead her in total value of annual farm products; her 291,027 farms produce every year more than $250,000,000 in staple products. Her 1914 cotton crop alone, including seed, is worth $147,000.000; one year of Georgia corn, richer in protein content than the famed western grain, will sell for $52,000,000; she makes $8,000,000 worth of wheat, oats and rye, and $2,000,000 worth of hay; her peaches, pears and apples, unexcelled by those of any state, bring $5,000,000 more; sweet potatoes bring another $5,000,000, and white potatoes, the entire output consumed at home, means $1,000,000 more; meats bring $6,000,000; poultry and eggs, $7,000,000; and milk, butter and cream, $10,000,000; cane and sorghum crops yield close to $2,000,000, while peanuts, chufas, tobacco, sheep, pecans, watermelons, canteloupes, vege tables and a few minor crops bring in another $5,000,000 every year.
1806

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1807

In 1914 Georgia produced more than 9,000,000 bushels of oats with out half trying, and then bought more than 4,000,000 bushels from outside states. And yet oats may be made and harvested in time to put another profitable crop upon the same piece of land, the same year. What an opportunity here for the energetic and resourceful planter!
The same story may be told of corn and wheat and hay; there is money awaiting every man with the ability and energy to make Georgia ground do what it can do. There is a market for every Georgia product; her fruit, vegetables and melons have attained national and even inter national fame.

With an equable climate, with temperatures which make agricul ture possible almost the year round, with a rainfall favoring abun dant production, ranging from forty-five to sixty inches a year, the rec ord of production is far ahead of that of the colder northern and western states. In many parts of Georgia two crops a year are easily made; while on some of the better South Georgia lands, throe crops annually are not uncommon.
In addition to this brief preliminary mention of agricultural possi bilities, Georgia now has more than 5,000 manufacturing establishments, turning out hundreds of different kinds of products with an annual value of nearly $250,000,000. She has millions in mineral resources, developed and undeveloped. There are coal and iron in her mountains to serve generations; and, in fact, it has been truly said that if a wall were built around Georgia, and the state closed to outside communica tion, she would still be self-supporting, with almost ten times her present population.

The largest state east of the Mississippi River, Georgia has 59,475 square miles, and less than one-third of her 34,000,000 acres of tillable land are now under actual cultivation. It is 320 miles from her north ern to her southern line, and 254 miles across the state from west to east.
Georgia's population at the close of 1914, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau, was 2,776,513, an increase of 167,392 over the census figures of 1910, and a growth of 560,182 since the census of 1900. Georgia's rural population, including that living in cities and towns of less than 8,000 inhabitants, is 2,338,283; while living in cities of more than 8,000 are 438,230. Georgia's white population is increasing more rapidly than that of the negroes, the proportion being about 22 per cent for whites to 14 per cent for colored.
Georgia has 152 counties, each constituting a separate and distinct political unit. Four of these were created in 1914. County populations vary from 8,000 to nearly 250,000 for Fulton, in which is located At lanta, the capital city of the state.

In 1913 there were 5,318,000 acres, or nearly one-half of Georgia's cultivated lands, planted to cotton. An extensive reduction of acreage is in prospect for 1915, due to the more extensive planting of food crops. The foregoing is exclusive of linters (the fine lint from cotton seed) of which the state produces annually from 50,000 to 110,000 bales.

1808

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

The price varies according to total production. In 1910 cotton sold at an average of 14.69 cents per pound; in 1911 the average was 9.69 cents; 1912, 12.05 cents; 1913, 13.07 cents; while the crop of 1914, due to European war conditions, brought 7 to 10 cents. There are approx imately 5,000 cotton gins in the state.
Georgia's production of upland cotton, in 500-pound bales, for the last five years, has been as follows: 1910, 1,812,178 bales; 1911, 2,768,627; 1912, 1,776,546; 1913, 2,316,601; 1914 (estimated), 2,713,470.

A quarter of a century ago cotton seed were thrown away or used as fertilizer; today the cotton seed industry is one of the largest in the South. Georgia alone has 170 cotton seed oil mills, with an annual production of nearly $20,000,000. In 1912 Georgia oil mills crushed 630,836 tons of cotton seed, and the cost of the seed was $18,900,000. The oil is used in the vast variety of products, including lard compounds and a substitute for olive oil. The meal and hulls aje used as a food for cattle and stock, and as a fertilizer.
Sea island cotton, the rich, long staple variety, is grown in a total of only thirty-four counties in the world. In only sixteen of these is it a commercial success, and one-half of this area is in Georgia--the coast counties. It is used in making fine laces, thin fabrics and imitation silks, and brings around 25 cents a pound. In 1910 it sold at 27.36 cents a pound, and in 1913 it brought 19.61 cents. In 1912 Georgia made 43,736 bales of sea island cotton against a total crop of 73,777 bales; and in 1911, the record year, Georgia made 72,904 bales against a total crop of 119,293 bales.
But a few years ago half a bale of cotton to the acre was consid ered a pretty good yield; today the farmer who does not produce a bale to the acre, is doing commonplace or poor farming. In many sec tions two bales to the acre are easily made, while the yield lias in instances been pushed to three bales and more.
Georgia is the fourth state in the manufacture of cotton. She has grown from 68 cotton mills with 817,345 spindles in 1900, to 165 mills with 2,160,571 spindles in 1914, and an annual consumption of 632,332 bales. In cotton manufacture Massachusetts, North and South Carolina only, are ahead of her.

Corn production in Georgia has increased from 46,536,619 Jmshels on 3,906,703 acres in 1909, to approximately 65,000,000 bushels in 1914 on about 4,100,000 acres. And still production falls short of home consumption requirements. It is to be noted that the yield of corn has increased in greater proportion than the acreage, and much of the credit for this result must be given to the Boys' Corn Club movement, fostered by United States and state agencies. In a single year as many as eightyfive of these boys, under eighteen years of age, have grown 100 bushels or more to the acre, with a top record of 217 bushels.
The boys' corn clubs are under the direction and supervision of 3. Phil Campbell, a representative of the United States Department of Agriculture, who is stationed at the State College of Agriculture, Athens. Mr. Campbell and his assistants have been remarkably successful in this work with the result that in the last seven or eight years, some $25,000,-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1809

000 to $30,000,000 of value has been added to the Georgia corn crop, attributable almost directly to the stimulus which their work has given it. For the last four years there has been held annually in the state capitol, under the auspices of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Georgia Corn Show, in which the boys exhibit their product with a record of their yield, and there is the keenest competition for the valu able prizes that are offered.
On account of much planting 011 poor corn land, the average yield for the state appears small; but the best farmers now make regularly from forty to eighty bushels to the acre.

Among grains, oat production comes next in importance to corn; and, again, there is still room for large increase before home consump tion is taken care of. Georgia made 6,199,243 bushels of oats on 411,664 acres in 1909, while in 1914 the crop had grown to more than 9,000,000 bushels on 450,000 acres. Again there is shown an increased .yield per acre due to improved farming methods which are fostered by so many active agencies.
Thousands of acres of winter wheat and other grains were planted in the fall of 1914, pursuant to the plan of getting away from the onecrop idea of cotton, so that Georgia's 1915 production of wheat, oats and rye will be far in excess of any previous record. In 1909 Georgia grew 752,858 bushels of wheat on 93,065 acres; with 140,000 acres the 1914 crop was 1,694,000 bushels, more than double the yield on a third in crease in the acreage. Georgia makes a high grade wheat, equal to that grown in the West.
Rye is one of the minor Georgia grain crops, though a marvelously increased yield has been shown in the last few years. Georgia made 121,000 bushels of rye in 1914 as against 59,937 bushels in 1909.

Georgia is the sixth state in rice production. The state's annual pro duction of rice is around 100,000 bushels, but much larger crops have been made. For many years rice growing was confined to the belt of counties along the seacoast, but in recent years rice has been grown successfully in the northern and hilly sections of the state. In Jackson County, Northeast Georgia, there have been grown as much as fifty bushels to the acre on the hillsides, while in the creek bottoms seventy bushels per acre have been made. Several other North Georgia counties are now growing rice profitably. A high grade of the cereal is produced. There is opportunity for extensive increase in rice prodtiction in Georgia before home consumption is supplied.

Georgia's altitude above sea level ranges from zero at the coast to 4,000 feet or more on the highest mountains of the Blue Ridge. The average annual temperature for the southern section of the state is 67 degrees Fahrenheit, and for the northern section 60 degrees. The lowest mean annual temperature is 57 degrees at Clayton, in Rabun County, the extreme northeastern mountain section, while the highest is at Waycross, 67 degrees. The lowest normal monthly temperature recorded in the state is 40 degrees, in extreme winter.
Such a thing as zero weather is almost unknown, even in the higher

1810

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

altitudes, and extreme or excessive heat and cold, such as occur in the North and West, are unknown. The average annual rainfall varies from 45 inches in one or two central and southern sections, to 60 inches in the extreme northeast, the average for the state being approximately 50 inches. Climate and rainfall are most conducive to agriculture and general health, more so, the United States Weather Bureau points out, than, perhaps, in any other state of the South. There are seven recog nized climate belts in which grow well everything from the hardiest plants to subtropical fruits.

Georgia is not a state of swamps and lowlands. Only 540 of her 59,475 square miles of territory are under water, and provision is being rapidly made for the drainage of this small area. More than half the state is in the coastal plain region with an altitude averaging 500 feet. Altitudes in the Piedmont Plateau, extending across the central section toward the northeast and into the Carolinas, vary from. 350 to 1,200 feet above sea level, while in the northern section altitudes range from 750 to more than 4,000 feet.
In a direct line Georgia has 100 miles of coast on the Atlantic Ocean, while following the shore line the distance is approximately 170 miles, exclusive of islands; arid upon this coast are located the three first-class harbors of Savannah, Brunswick and St. Mary's, with an annual shipping that runs into many millions.

Cotton has always been Georgia's foremost money crop. It will, no doubt, continue to be so. for many years to come; and yet there is now a tendency, strengthened by the crisis due to the European war, to get away from the one-crop idea and put food crops to the forefront.
Since cotton first began to be planted in Georgia in 1734, less than two years after the settlement of the colony, Georgia has been second only to the extensive State of Texas in cotton production. Invention of the cotton gin in 1793 by Eli Whitney, gave the industry great impetus. Since then the Georgia cotton crop has gradually grown until today lint and seed bring the state from $125,000,000 to $200,000,000 annually.
Cotton is planted from March 15th to May 1st, and does best in a soil of sandy loam, although it is cultivated in nearly every county in the state, the yield being forced through the use of fertilizers. Picking begins in August and extends 'almost to Christmas, with October and November as the heaviest months.

Grown as a hog and cattle food, as well as a food for man in the natural state, in peanut butter, oils and extracts and an ingredient of candies, Georgia peanuts represent an annual yield of $2,500,000 on ap proximately 175,000 acres. Census figures of 1909 show a yield of 2,569,787 bushels on 160,317 acres; the production has trebled within twenty years.

Although Georgia made last year 338,000 tons of hay, she still had to import more than 100,000 tons to meet home requirements. And yet hay can be and is made in Georgia at a profit considerably greater than that from cotton. With comparatively little difference in the acreage,

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1811

which has remained around 250,000, Georgia made 338,000 tons of hay in 1914, as against 261,333 tons in 1909. The average value of the product was little under $12 per ton, on the farm.
The principal hay crops cultivated in Georgia are clover, cultivated grasses, cow-peas, alfalfa, velvet beans, soy beans, and the like, and the yield 011 well-regulated farms varies all the way from two tons to 6% tons per acre. Cow-peas are extensively planted, both for their valuable stock food content and for the purpose of replenishing nitrogen in the soil.
Successful cultivation of alfalfa in recent years promises abundant increase in the state's total forage yield. The State College of Agri culture, at Athens, has already demonstrated the possibility of making, with live cuttings, more than 6i/2 tons annually on a stiff clay soil, where the seed are inoculated with nitrogen bacteria. Instances of six cuttings with a ton per acre per cutting, are not infrequent in the southern sec tion of the state, with a value yield of around $100 per acre.

Georgia offers great opportunities to the expert tobacco grower. The largest shade tobacco plantation in the world is located at Amsterdam, Decatur County, the section in which is grown the only Sumatra tobacco made in the United States.
Only about 2,000 acres are in tobacco cultivation in Georgia, while there are at least 100,000 acres available for successful tobacco growth. And yet Georgia made in 1914 approximately 1,900,000 pounds as com pared with 1,485,994 pounds on about the same acreage in 1909. Cured, the leaf brings anywhere from 25 to 35 cents a pound, and the state yield per acre in 1913 was 1,000 pounds, as compared with 830 pounds in 1912.
In 1913 the United States Department of Agriculture called atten tion to the fact that the tobacco yield in Georgia had increased, while in other tobacco-growing sections it had fallen off. The value of the 1913 crop was $558,000 as compared with $449,000 in 1912. The net return ranges on the average from $125 to $150 per acre.

Ranking second only to Louisiana in sugar cane production, Georgia makes about $2,500,000 of sugar cane products annually. The cane is grown principally in the southern and central portions of the state, being planted in March and harvested at the first frost. AVith a cost of $50 to $75 an acre for cultivation, the profits are large, the gross yield running up to $300 to $400 an acre.
Genuine Georgia cane syrup has an international reputation. For purity and wholesomeness as a food, it is unrivaled. It is made chiefly from the red cane which is run through stone presses to extract the juice, and this is boiled night and day during the season which may run anywhere from a week to a month or more, depending on the size of the crop. On 37,046 acres, according to the 1909 census report, Georgia made 317,460 tons of sugar and 5,553,520 gallons of syrup, not including sorghum, which is also grown extensively and from which 740,450 gallons of syrup were made the same year.

1812

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

Millions of dollars come into the state every year through the garden truck industry. Millions more can be made from it right here at home as well as by shipments to other states. Notwithstanding the possibilities in truck growing in Georgia, in which many Georgians have made money and some have grown, wealthy, Georgians themselves are now spending approximately $11,000,000 a year away from: home,for this class of .food.
Despite the fact that the state raises some 780,000 bushels of Irish potatoes annually which bring around $1 a bushel, nearly 2,000,000 bushels a year are purchased away from home. An acre of Georgia ground will produce anywhere from 100 to 200 bushels.
Georgia produces more sweet potatoes than any other state in the Union. The annual crop has run as high as :7:,SO(},000 bushels,. with a yield of anywhere from 100 to 250 bushels an: acre and a ready market for the product at 75 cents to $1 a bushel. The profit may be readily figured.

Georgia is waiting for somebody to raise about::400,000 bushels more of onions than are now grown in the state, and the producer can easily average $1 a bushel for them. It is not unusual to make 200 bushels and more to the acre.
Early corn or green corn is an article of steady diet in Georgia through the summer. It will bring $100 a year:;and more an acre and will leave the ground available for turnips in the fall which will pay the producer as much more.

As high as $500 an acre has been made from;/Georgia-grown toma toes, and careful growers in many sections of the state are regularly col lecting from $200 to $300 an acre for their product. Canning tomatoes is inexpensive and this industry has proven remarkably successful in many sections of Georgia.
Cucumbers will make the Georgia grower from $100 to $250 gross per acre, and yet Georgia is buying something like $40,000 worth of this product every year.
Beans will yield 100 crates per acre, selling at something like $2.00 a crate. An acre of cabbage will produce from $200 to $250 and yet the quantity shipped into Georgia annually is'something enormous.
Spinach, kale, beets, carrots, cauliflower, squash, lettuce, egg plant, collards and some twenty other varieties of garden vegetables are in good demand over the state the season round, and the only place where they will not grow in Georgia is where the seed are not: put into the ground.
The opportunities are here and they are opeh to the world. The trouble has been that too many Georgia farmers. spend from eight to nine months in the year preparing ground, plantig, : cultivating and gathering cotton for which they get $25 to $50 per^acre, whereas the same time, energy and investment in garden truck, would return them from four to eight times the profit.

Asparagus growing in many parts of Georgia, particularly around Marshallville, just south of Macon, is rapidly becoming an important industry. It was begun there by L. A. Humph, twenty years ago, and now there are some twenty growers there cultivating over 1,000 acres

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1813

annually. Marshallville now ships annually 15,000 cases of one dozen cans each, and this will soon grow to 25,000 cases, or fifty carloads. The product easily competes with the California and Charleston asparagus, and the industry, now a profitable one, promises even to rival the peach in the volume of business done.

Peaches, an internationally famous fruit, as grown in Georgia, bring into the state annually:from $3,500,000 to $4,000,000. This is conserva tive ; the returns have been even larger.
Peach culture has succeeded in practically every section of the state. The greatest volume of:the crop is grown in the middle southwestern cfnuities along the liiife of the Central of Georgia Railway from Macon to Americus, and Macon to Columbus. There is extensive culture on the Central between Macon and Athens, and next in importance is the territory adjacent to the Southern Railway between Atlanta and the South Carolina line. Other good peach sections are on the Southern Railway from Williamson to .Fort Valley; on the Georgia Railroad between Atlanta and Augusta; on the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis, between Atlanta and Daltoii, and on the Central between Rome
and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Fifty years ago there were only a few small orchards near Augusta.
Improved methods, of culture, improved transportation facilities, and successful packing: methods, have revolutionized the industry. The first refrigerated car of .peaches went to New York in 1887, twenty-eight years ago. In 1898, a good peach year, total shipments from Georgia to all points were approximately 3,000 refrigerated cars.

The Georgia pea;;h, with good weather conditions, yields splendid results. In 1912, a record year, 7,157 refrigerated cars were shipped from the state to 100 or more different distributing points. The 1913 crop suffered from weather conditions and was only 1,219 cars, but prices were correspondingly higher and the returns were good. In 1914 the total shipments were 4,020 cars, with an average price nearly double that of 1912. Georgia peach growers figure if they can make one good crop in three years, the industry proves profitable. They have done this.
It is estimated that there are approximately 12,000,000 peach trees in Georgia. The principal varieties shipped to outside markets are the Carman, Hiley BeM, Georgia Bell, Early Rose, Uneeda, Greensboro, .Johnson and the Jjlberta. The Georgia Elberta is the most famous peach in the world. There are individual orchards in Georgia with as many as 250,000 trees IE: bearing.
The Georgia Fruit Exchange, with headquarters in Atlanta, is an organization of the growers of the state, whose purpose is to get the best results in marketing the crop. The exchange places the fruit in the best available markets as it is ready, and in this way has saved thousands of dollars to the growers besides having collected .hundreds of claims from the railroads for loss or damage which individuals had always found great difficulty in handling. The exchange has recently made
Vol. Ill--35

1814

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

plans for handling watermelons, canteloupes and other fruits, as well as peaches.
The peach, apple and other fruit industries have attracted thousands of dollars of capital to Georgia from the North and East. Massachusetts peach growers own large and successful orchards around Marshallville and Fort Valley; New York peach and apple growers have settled in Habersham and other North Georgia counties. The yield in profits has been abundant and satisfactory where orchards were handled on a busi ness basis. Apples are successfully grown almost over the entire northern half of the state; but the northeastern mountain counties are best adapted to their culture. Apples do better on elevations or hillsides, arid abundant rainfall is necessary. There is no section in the world 'that has yet been found better adapted to apple culture than the north eastern mountain counties of Georgia.

Georgia apples have taken prizes at fairs and fruit exhibitions throughout the United States, in competition with those from Oregon, Washington, New York, Missouri, and other famed apple sections. At the National Apple Growers' Show at Spokane, Washington, several years ago, in competition with 1,500 entries, Georgia apples took second prize for the best exhibit from the Southern states and second prize for the best new variety open to the world. Georgia apples won four first and two second premiums at the annual fruit exhibit of the New York State College of Agriculture in 1913, where 130 varieties of apples were entered.
There are now approximately 2,000,000 apple trees in the state with an annual production of about 3,800,000 bushels. The varieties which have been found to produce the best results in successful commercial orchards are the Red June, Yellow Transparent, Early Ripe, Red Astrachan, Duchess of Oldenburg, Rome Beauty, Winesap, Grimes' Golden, Kinnard, Wealthy, and Black Twig.

While peaches and apples are the principal tree fruit crops, pears, plums, prunes, cherries, and quinces are successfully grown on smaller scale. Some of the 1909 yields were pears, 150,000 bushels; plums, 61,000 bushels; cherries, 5,000 bushels, and quinces, 2,000 bushels.
Strawberries are a growing money crop in Georgia. As much as $2,000 per acre has been received for highly cultivated berries. The expense of cultivation is, naturally, greater than for most other crops; yet with the right conditions the net yield is far in advance of most other products. In 1910 there were approximately 1,000 acres devoted to strawberries and raspberries with a yield around 1,300,000 quarts.

Watermelons and canteloupes are grown successfully all over Georgia, although the best commercial results are attained in the southern and southwestern sections of the state where the largest and finest melons are grown for the northern and eastern markets.
Watermelons and canteloupes yield, under careful cultivation and favorable weather conditions, a carload to the acre, with returns of $100 to $500 per acre, depending upon quality arid market conditions. Georgia ships annually more than 10,000 carloads of watermelons,

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1815

averaging 1,000 to the ear, to northern and eastern markets. The most produced varieties are the Georgia Rattlesnake, Florida Favorite, or McGuire, Kolb Gem and Tom Watson. Georgia also ships annually several thousand cars of canteloupes to various parts of the country, and the favorites are'the Rocky Ford and Pink Meat.

Within the last ten years many Georgians have brought small pecan

groves to that state of development and production, that they now

derive splendid incomes from them--incomes sufficient for family sup

port and maintenance.

Fifteen or twenty years ago the pecan was not considered a money-

||

maker j today there is approximately $10,000,000 to $15,000,000 invested

in hundreds of groves with an annual yield of 400,000 pounds of nuts

that sell all the way from 10 cents a pound for seedlings, to $1.00 for

the larger paper shell varieties, and even more for the highest grade of

seed nuts. The majority of the groves have not yet come into bearing.

Five to ten acres in pecans, properly cared for, will comfortably

support a large family. Many Georgia groves are now netting more

than $100 per acre, and some of them several times that amount. J. B.

Wight, of Cairo, has one tree, a Frotscher, in his yard that brings him

$100 a year; this is an exception, but there are other trees doing as well,

and it can be repeated.

"Young man, set a pecan grove and when JOM are old it will support

you," is a slogan once received with misgiving and doubt, but now

demonstrated in hundreds of cases. The only requirements are good,

strong trees, the best land, which may be had at $25 to $30 an acre, and

proper care and attention, and the result is certain, for the pecan grower

has the whole world for a market.

While the trees take five to ten years to come into bearing, there is

the advantage of being able to plant the land in other crops while

waiting.

The greatest degree of success with the pecan has been reached in

the Flint River section of Southwestern Georgia. While the bare land

may be had at anywhere from $20 to $30 an acre, young groves bring

anywhere from $100 to $500 an acre, and the best bearing groves have

been sold as high as $1,000 to $1,500 an acre. Many commercial com-

,

panics, which sell small groves on the installment plan, care for them

until the trees come into bearing. The pecan is subject to comparatively

few diseases and is easily cultivated and cared for.

Like other states, Georgia has her lean and fat years, but Georgia has never known a complete failure of any staple crop. Weather and other conditions may, at times, affect yield, but no crop has ever suffered complete elimination.

The live-stock industry in Georgia is growing rapidly, and farmers in every section are gradually awakening to the possibilities of cattle and hog raising both for home and foreign markets.
While Georgia still imports from 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 pounds of meat per month, the amount of imported meat is steadily decreasing,

1816

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

and the : time is already in sight when Georgia will be making every pound of meat she uses within her own borders.
The soil and climate are ideal for the production of feeds, while there are thousands and thousands of acres of open range suitable for cattle raising, both in North Georgia and South Georgia. In the southern part of the state cattle can graze on open range practically twelve months out of the year, while even in the northern section of the state it is necessary to feed cattle only about two months in the year.
Approximate figures, carefully prepared by State Veterinarian Peter P. Bahnscn, of the Department of Agriculture, show that the live-stock industry in Georgia for 1914 was worth about $91,146,600, and that it has increased in value more than $13,000,000 during the past five years.
This increase represents quality even more than number of head, and recent importations of high class registered cattle, including Short horns, Herefords, Aberdeen Angus, Holsteins and Red Polled, have already raised the total value to more than $100,000,000.

Eradication of the cattle tick in many counties has materially encouraged cattle raising. A few years ago it was the one outstanding disadvantage to cattle raising. Today this situation is under control, and cattle owners generally have learned the economic importance of tick eradication.
The dairy industry deserves more attention than it has received. Local demands for milk and milk food products are in excess of the supply. Only proper methods and organisation are needed to give this industry unprecedented impetus.
According to the 1910 census the number of cows on farms report ing dairy products that year was 323,468. There were 74,908,776 gallons of milk, and 27,246,247 pounds of butter produced in 1910, and the total value of dairy products, excluding home use of milk and cream, was $6,621,585.
The past eight months has shown an unprecedented development in interest in pork production on a more extensive scale.

Finishing cattle for the market offers great opportunities in Georgia. In South Georgia the velvet bean crop offers the material for a large and inexpensive gain either in cattle or hogs, and in all parts of the state silage of corn, or corn and sorghum, can be produced at a cost not exceeding $2 per ton. This and cotton seed meal both offer a suitable ration for finishing cattle for market.
The Department of Agriculture is rendering service of inestimable value in safeguarding the health of live stock and diligently suppressing contagious and infectious diseases. In addition, practical advice is furnished in every branch of the live-stock industry. Five veterinarians are constantly engaged in traveling about the state, meeting the people, presenting and demonstrating proper methods of live-stock work. Great work has been done in controlling cattle tick and tick fever. The work is systematic and involves quarantine of counties where necessary. In this work the state department has had the co-operation of the county authorities and of the Federal. Bureau of Animal Industry.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

-1817

Meat and dairy cattle in Georgia are particularly free from tubercu lar germs. Rules have been established to prevent the shipment of tubercular cattle into Georgia, and in 1914 the percentage of reactors was reduced to about 4 per cent. Slaughter-house inspection shows that less than one-half of 1 per cent of native Georgia cattle are infected.
The spread of hog cholera in Georgia has been extensive during the past few years, but this is true also of every other state in the Union engaged in pork production. Hog cholera serum is furnished by the Department of Agriculture at actual cost, and the department also tenders the services of a veterinarian to give practical demonstrations
in its use. To return t-o Georgia's natural advantages for live-stock raising.
Bermuda grass is to Georgia what blue grass is to Kentucky. Bermuda and burr clover will grow in practically every part of the state, and this combination gives not less than ten months grazing. Georgia is only now beginning to realize the value of these grasses.

Big packing plants established in Georgia within the past few years are doing much to encourage live-stock raising. Five modern killing plants are now in operation in Georgia, two in Atlanta, one at Augusta, one in Savannah, and one in Moultrie. Of these five two are packing plants, viz., the White Provision Company, of Atlanta, and the Moultrie Packing Company. During the five years that the White Provision Company has been established it has increased Atlanta cattle receipts five times over. Last year this company killed 10,000 cattle and 25,000 hogs. It has double this capacity. The Moultrie Packing Company has wrought a similar transformation; in a community where formerly cotton was the only crop and the only agricultural topic, the brood sow and her litter are today an absorbing subject.
An additional packing plant is assured, and not less than five muni cipal, abattoirs are planned. It is predicted that within the next few years Georgia will not only be feeding herself, but will have a liberal supply of meats left to furnish other markets.
Brooks County, Turner County and a number of others are taking the lead in live stock and meat, and their products have already become famous.
Many counties have sheep, and though little is heard of the industry, Georgia ranks today as the eighth wool-producing state in the Union.

Poultry is rapidly increasing in Georgia, both in numbers and in value. The 1910 census gave the increase in number of fowls on Georgia farms during the preceding ten years as 402,132, or more than 8 per cent, and percentage of increased value as over 43 per cent. Since 1910 the increase has been proportionately even greater, and general' interest is increasing in fine poultry breeding. Poultry is reported on more than 85 per cent of the farms in Georgia.
The number of farms reporting bees decreased between 1900 and 1910 from 33,246 to 23,167, or slightly over 28 per cent. The total value of bee colonies in Georgia decreased during the same period from $242,769 to $187,242, or slightly more than 22 per cent.

1818

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

The day of the large land owner in Georgia is rapidly giving way to that of the small farm. Improved methods of farming and increased yield have been most largely responsible for this, and more money is being made on less land than formerly. Between 1880 and 1910 the number of farms in Georgia more than doubled, increasing from 138,626, to 291,027, although the increase in improved lands in the same period was less than 50 per cent, or from 8,304,720 acres to 12,298,017, and not all of this was under actual cultivation.
This increase in small farms has gone on from year to year through subdivision of the larger plantations, until it is estimated there are now 325,000 individual farms in the state ranging from 2 or 3 acres up to 1,000 acres and more. Greatest increase is sho^wn in farms of 20 to 4-9 acres, the number of which grew between 1900 and 1910 from 73,408 to 117,432. In the same period farms of 50 to 99 acres increased from 52,251 to 68,510, while all farms of larger size showed marked decrease in number.
In 1916 farms of less than 100 acres, constituted about 75 per cent of the total number, while today the percentage is even greater. The average size improved farm in Georgia is considerably under 100 acres and perhaps close to seventy-five. The average value per farm in 1910 was $1,995. The same year the total value of farm lands, buildings, implements, machinery and live stock was $580,546,381, while the present approximate investment in agriculture is about $650,000,000. Annual agricultural production in Georgia is now about $350,000,000.
Good agricultural lands may be had in Georgia all the way from $10 to $100 per acre, according to quality, improvements and location.

Organized and highly specialized agencies for the assistance of the farmer and the encouragement of intensive farming and increased yield, are operated by and in connection with the Georgia State Department of Agriculture. These various agencies are under the direction of Com missioner of Agriculture J. D. Price, and there is no product grown in the state in connection with which helpful assistance cannot be given the producer.
In addition to these there are also a number of independent agencies, such as the State College of Agriculture, at Athens, the eleven district agricultural schools, working along similar lines; while the United States Department of Agriculture puts both money and men into the state in the cause of better farming.

The very oldest and the original duty of the State Department of Agriculture, was the inspection of fertilizers for the protection of the consumer, from which fees now not only pay the entire cost of inspec tion, but furnish annually enough funds to support the eleven district agricultural schools. Firms or corporations selling fertilizers are required annually to register each brand sold. Samples of each brand are collected by the inspectors, carefully analyzed by the state chemist, Dr. R. E. Stallings, and regularly reported upon. All fertilizers are required to come up to certain standards, or otherwise under the law they are non-salable in the state.
In similar manner the department inspects all illuminating oils and

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1819

gasoline sold in the state, and these are required by law to meet certain tests before they can be sold. . Each grade must be sold as such, and misrepresentation is a misdemeanor. Thus the consumer buys and pays for just what he gets.
The chemical laboratories, in charge of the state chemist, with eight assistant chemists, and one bacteriologist, all well trained and qualified, are well equipped for service. Fertilizers, foods, feeding-stuffs, and drugs that are taken throughout the state and sent in by the inspectors, are all analyzed to see if they meet the requirements o the different laws, and then reported upon to the Commissioner of Agriculture. Bacteriological analyses are made of milks and other food products to see if they are suitable for food. In this laboratory is prepared the bacteria for leguminous crops which the department furnishes the farmer
at cost.

Another important branch of the department looks after the enforce ment of the pure food and 'drug law. Here there are two different divisions, the pure food department under Inspector P. A. Methvin and the pure drug department under Dr. T. A. Cheatham. These two agencies have practically eliminated the sale in Georgia of all impure food products and drugs as well as injurious and adulterated feedstuffs for cattle and live stock. Every food and feed product, every drug, must be sold for just what it is, shown clearly on the package, and misstatements and false branding are rigorously and severely dealt with. Dairies, abattoirs and slaughter houses are regularly inspected and required to be maintained in thoroughly sanitary condition. Through the pure food division, the department has been able to render great assistance to the dairymen of Georgia; as well as to the farmers, whether as a consumer or a seller of food products and feedstuffs.
The veterinary branch of the department, under Dr. Peter F. Balmsen, although but a few years old, is now profitably using thousands of dollars in helping the farmer to control all animal diseases and build up the live-stock industry, as already told of under the head of live stock.
Another recent interesting activity of the Department of Agriculture is the production of nitrogen-forming bacteria for the better growing of leguminous crops. This bacteria is sold to the farmers at the rate of 25 cents per acre. Splendid results have already been obtained from its use by growers of these crops.

One of the most important of all recent developments along pro gressive agricultural lines, has been the establishment by Commissioner of Agriculture J. D. Price of a market bureau in connection with the State Department of Agriculture. He has appointed J. A. Montgom ery, of Savannah, as the department's market agent. The object of this bureau is to bring producer and consumer into closer touch and to provide an outlet for the farm products of the state to the best possible advantage. This department will co-operate with both producers and consumers in order to accomplish real and permanent results, and with out expense to either party. This advanced step was taken because of the manifest tendency to get away from the single crop idea and to engage more extensively in the production of food crops; and the

1820

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

services of the department's market agent are at all times at the disposal of the producer and the consumer free of cost.

The Georgia Board of Entomology is virtually a branch of the State Department of Agriculture. Under the direction of State Entomologist E. Lee Worsham, this division has done work that has saved perhaps some millions of dollars to agriculture and horticulture throughout the state. Insect pests and plant diseases of every type occurring in this territory are dealt with, and remedies and methods of control indicated. Without the use of proper sprays, Georgia's fruit industry would amount to little, as it would be impossible to produce perfect fruit. Growers are both told and shown just what to do and how to do it, in order to make the quality of fruit that brings the highest market price. One of the most important works of the entomological department has been in the amelioration of serious cotton diseases and pests, and the preparation of Georgia farmers to meet boll weevil conditions, when that insect reaches the state. So thorough has been the work of pre paring for the coming of the boll weevil, that Dr. "W. D. Hunter, plant insect specialist of the U. S. Bureau of Entomology, says that Georgia is better equipped today to withstand the onslaught of the weevil, than has been any other of the cotton-growing states. The department is also producing highly specialized varieties of cotton with improvement of lint and greater yield per acre, one especially, known as "Dixafifi," being an upland long staple cotton which brings from 3 to 5 cents a pound more than ordinary cotton. Services of attaches of the depart ment are at the command of producers whenever needed.

A wonderful work for Georgia is being done by the State College of Agriculture, with Dr. Andrew M. Soule as president. Located in Athens as a part of the State University, which began as Franklin College and has been Georgia's seat of learning for 130 years, the State College of Agriculture is comparatively a new institution, but in the brief space of its existence it has brought remarkable development to agriculture in the state and instances are not infrequent where it has turned the proverbial single blade of grass into two or more.
At this institution every phase of agriculture of interest to the state is dealt with. Upon its 1,100 acres, part of which is in the city limits of Athens, actual experimentation in all the various lines of agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry are in progress, not only for the benefit of the students, but with a view to showing the farmers of the state how to increase the yield. It has always been such an easy matter comparatively, to make crops in Georgia, that until recent years little or no attention was given to intensive farming. The State College of Agriculture is showing the farmers how to make an acre produce two or three times more than the farmer formerly got out of it, with small increase in cost of cultivation. It has its expert professors and instruc tors in every branch of agricultural effort, and its bulletins and its advice and information are free to the farmers of the state for the asking.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1821

Connected, and intimately associated with the State College of Agri culture is the farmers' co-operative demonstration work, instituted and maintained by the United States Department of. Agriculture for the benefit of the farmers of the state, under the direction of J. Phil Camp bell, as state agent. This intimate association of the two agencies was brought about by the recently enacted Smith-Lever bill, passed by Congress and co-ordinating the extension work of U. S. Department of Agriculture with the State College of Agriculture. These two are carry ing on the extension work in almost all lines of farming.
There are now stationed at the college three live stock experts who spent their time in organizing live stock associations, giving advice to the farmers on making pastures, growing crops and breeding live stock. They also aid the farmer in buying pure bred stock. There are two dairymen doing a similar work for the dairy farmers of the state, as well as giving instruction in the building of silos, the making of silage, making of butter and the improvement of the dairy herd. There is a hog cholera expert who spends his entire time in instructing and edu cating the farmer in the eradication of this disease. There are corn club agents, canning club agents, farm demonstration agents, a poultry club agent, and a pig club agent, all maintained jointly by the college and the U. S. Department of Agriculture, in co-operation with county school officials and business organizations of the state. Many of the railroads are assisting in the maintenance of county agents. Besides the foregoing there are an horticulturist and seed-breeding specialists.

There are 75 county agents for men's and boys' work, and 35 county agents for women's and girls' work located in as many counties of the state. These agents conduct specific demonstrations in various crops and soil building with about 7,500 Georgia farmers. They organize annually 10,000 corn club boys, 3,000 canning club girls, 1,000 pig club boys and 1,000 poultry club members. Each of the experts from the extension department of the college spends the greater part of his time with the county agents, giving them information along their special lines and helping them to develop these particular industries.
The Boys' Corn Clubs of Georgia have already been mentioned under the subject of corn. These clubs are destined to make Georgia one of the greatest corn growing states of the Union. Likewise extraordinary encouragement has been given to the canning industry through the work of the Girls' Canning Clubs, a co-ordinate industrial movement. The girls' annual exhibit of canned vegetables and fruits is made at the state capitol along with that of the corn club boys. The canning clubs are organized in about 35 counties and in many instances individual members' have made as much as $100 by canning and selling the toma toes from a quarter of an acre.

Conducted solely in the interests of better agriculture, the Georgia Experiment Station, comprising 220 acres at Experiment, Georgia, near Griffin, is supported entirely by the Federal Government, which makes it an annual appropriation of $30,000 for agricultural research work.
The station is supervised by a regular board of fifteen members, and is managed by Director R. J. H. DeLoach, who has a staff of seven

1822

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

experts and a corps of day laborers. Among its possessions and equip ment are a herd of sixteen Duroc Jersey hogs with which to study cotton seed toxicity; twelve Red Poll beef steers with which it is conducting animal nutrition work; eight pure bred Jersey cattle with which it is conducting dairy investigations; about $5,000 worth of fine scientific apparatus; two concrete barns; an office and two laboratory buildings,; two small greenhouses; a gin house; dwelling houses and other acces sories.
The work of the station is to solve problems that arise in agricul tural practice. Station officers find these problems, work them out and give the results to the public. Suggestive of what its work means to the state, it may be pointed out that 60 per cent of the cane syrup sold in the open market by farmers, will not keep for ninety days. The station is now working on this problem, which, when solved, will mean a, saving of half a million dollars a year to the state.
Soil experts say that approximately 40 per cent of the fertilizers now put in the ground is wholly lost; that only about 60 per cent is taken up by the growing plant, This means a loss of about $10,000,000 a year on fertilizers in Georgia alone. The biggest work of the experi ment station, now in progress, is to solve the problem of making avail able for plant food and growth, practically all of the fertilizers used.
Other problems now being worked out by the station are the proper feeding' of cattle in order to get the maximum result; the remedy for plum wilt, so as to make commercial plum growing possible; the prob lem of successful apple culture; how to remove the toxic properties of cotton seed meal in order to make it a valuable food, both for man and beast, and yet others along many important lines of agriculture, horti culture and animal husbandry.
Diversification and rotation of crops, resulting in conservation of the soil and increased yield, are now considered the most important agricultural problem in Georgia. All of the various agencies organized for the assistance of the farmer, are engaged in stressing the importance of diversification and crop rotation, and are ready at all times to show the farmer just what to do and what crops to plant to get the best results. "When this system is brought into general use on the farms of Georgia, as it already has on many of them, it will result in practically doubling the annual crop values of the state.

Georgia maintains a well-organized State Board of Health, which devotes its attention to sanitary and health conditions .in every section of the state. This board has rapidly cleaned the counties of the state from the insidious hook worm disease, and among its special activities are the treatment of cases of rabies or hydrophobia in connection with which it has had splendid results, and supplying to the people of the state serums for the treatment of diphtheria and other diseases. County boards of health are being rapidly established under its supervision, and through its work the annual death rate in Georgia has been materi ally reduced.

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1823

To complete this chapter, we quote the following brief discussion of Georgia timber lands from the third annual report of Hon. Harris M. Stanley, commissioner of commerce and labor. Says he:
"In forest timbers Georgia is also rich. Among those of northwest Georgia are six varieties of oak (red, white mountain or chestnut, black, water and post oak) ; two varieties of pine (short leaf and long leaf, the latter differing from the long leaf pine of southern Georgia) ; poplar, ash, beach, elm, chestnut, hickory, maple (including the sugar maple), walnut, iron wood, sugar berry, sycamore, sweet gum, black gum, dog wood, persimmon, sassafras, wild cherry, red bud, wahoo, and cedar. Many of these are manufactured into furniture, hardwood finish for dwellings, farming utensils, wagons, etc. Great quantities of oak and pine are annually shipped.
"In the red lands of northeast and middle Georgia are Spanish, white and post oaks, hickory, chestnut, dogwood, persimmon, sassafras, short leaf pine, poplar, walnut, cherry and buckeye.
"Throughout the gray lands and pine hill belt of middle and south Georgia are both short and long leaf pines, black jack, sweet gum, dog wood, poplar, cypress, walnut, hickory, cedar, water oak, red oak, live oak and other varieties of hard wood.
"Throughout the coast regions are grand live oaks, red and water oaks, red cedar, hickory, chincapin, sassafras, blue and palmetto cabbage.
"Immense live and water oaks, with festoons of gray moss, impart an air of solemn grandeur to the forest and frequently in long avenues remind one of the stately columns of some vast cathedral.

"Georgia with a total area, land and water, of 59,000 square miles, is the largest state east of the Mississippi Elver. Its four and a half degrees of latitude with elevations, in some of the most northern localities reaching 5,000 feet above the sea level, and diminishing, as one goes southward, to 100 feet along the Atlantic coast, give to Georgia a great variety of climate and products.
"In the northeast, where Sitting Bull, the middle summit of Nantahala reaches 5,046 feet above the sea level, while Mona, the eastern summit of the same ridge, rises to 5,039 feet, closely approximated by Enota, Rabun, Bald, Blood, Tray, Cohutta, and Dome, each above 4,000 feet, with Grassy, Tallulah and Yona, each more than 3,000 feet high, we find a climate like that of upper New England, with products corre sponding. A small area this is, but a somewhat larger one along the slopes of these highest mountains shows climate and products like New York and the mountain region of Virginia. The upper of these two areas has a mean annual temperature of less than 40 degrees, while the next one has a mean annual temperature of between 40 and 45 degrees.
"Then comes a climate zone of between 45 and 50 degrees, corre sponding with portions of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
"A narrow strip running from Georgia through North Carolina and Virginia up to New Jersey, has a temperature of between 50 and 55 degrees.
"The area of the zone between 55 and 60 degrees, which is between two and three times as large as the four preceding zones combined, passes from Georgia northward through both the Carolinas and Virginia.

1824

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

"The sixth zone, between 60 and 65 degrees of mean annual tem perature, embracing the greater part of middle Georgia, lies between the same isothermal lines as upper Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, West Tennessee, and Arkansas and extends into Virginia.
"The seventh zone, between 65 and 70 degrees of mean annual tem perature, corresponds with that of lower Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and upper Florida.
"The eighth zone, between 70 and 75 degrees, lies right along the Florida line.
'' Thus, in traversing Georgia from the highest elevation of the north, to the lowlands of the extreme south, we have passed through eight of the nine climate belts of the United States, and have found the products of each of those belts.
"We have looked upon the mountains in their azure hue, with interlying valleys carpeted in green; we have seen crops of wheat, oats, rye, corn, all varieties of grass for hay, including alfalfa, bermuda, clover, red top, etc., also fields of the cowpea that restores to fertility whatever starving and exhausted soil has received them into its bosom.
"In all but a few of the most northern counties we have met with growing crops of cotton, up to this time Georgia's greatest money crop.
'' Throughout middle and southern Georgia, sugar cane grows luxuri antly and the syrup made from it finds a ready market every where.
"At no time is a trip through Georgia more charming, than when one can view the orchards along the southern slopes of mountain and hill, or, stretching out over the lands of middle and south Georgia, with thousands of trees laden with peaches, apples, plums, cherries, pears and other equally luscious fruits in their proper seasons.
"In every part of the State grows what ha's made Georgia famous from one end of the country to the other--the luscious watermelon. Canteloupes also grow most luxuriantly and in south Georgia can be found great fields of this melon, grown for the markets of the world.
"The products of Georgia fields, gardens and orchards have a value of about $260,000,000. All other farm products added to the above would run these figures up far beyond $300,000,000..
"If strangers, visiting the State Capitol, will take the elevator and go up to the third floor, they will see a fine display of Georgia's minerals, building stones and forest trees and some of her agricultural and horti cultural products, which are under the supervision of her State Geol ogist. ''

CHAPTER IV
GEORGIA'S MINERAL RESOURCES
ASBESTOS--BARYTES--BAUXITE--CEMENTS--CLAYS -- COAL -- COPPER -- CORUNDUM--FULLER 's EARTH--GOLD--GRANITES--GRAPHITE--IRON ORES--LIMESTONES--MANGANESE--MARBLES--MARLS--MICA-- OCHRE --PRECIOUS STONES--PYRITE--ROAD MATERIALS--SAND AND GRAVEL-- SERPENTINE -- SLATE -- TALC AND SANDSTONE--TRIPOLI--MINERAL WATERS--ARTESIAN WELLS--AVATER POWERS.
[This chapter in its entirety was prepared by Prof. S. W. McCallie, State Geologist. Both in the variety and in the extent of her mineral resources, Georgia is one of the wealthiest states of the Union. Our chief mineral products are marbles, granites, clays, iron ores, and coal.]
The mineral resources of Georgia are both extensive and varied. The state is producing at present twenty-three different kinds of minerals in commercial quantities. This great diversity of mineral resources is accounted for in a large measure by the great diversity in the geological formations.
ASBESTOS
Asbestos is a fibrous mineral often resembling petrified wood. The asbestos deposits of Georgia are confined chiefly to the Piedmont Plateau, where they are found associated with dark colored, igneous rocks. There are two varieties of asbestos, the chrysotile and the amphibole. The latter variety is extensively mined near Nacoochee, White County, this state. The White County mines here referred to, have been the chief producers of asbestos in this country for several years. The finer varieties of asbestos are spun and woven into fire-proof cloth. It is a non-conductor of heat and electricity, and therefore is used for electrical insulation, steam pipe, boiler coverings, etc. It is also used in the manu facture of fire-proof paint, various building materials, such as lumber, shingles and plaster.
BARYTES
This mineral, often called heavy spar, from its high specific gravity, is a common gangue mineral of'lead, zinc, copper, etc. It likewise occurs as distinct veins and as irregular ore bodies in limestones, sandstones, and in residual clays. The Georgia barytes deposits, which have so far been worked in a commercial way. are located near Emerson, Bartow County, and at Eton, Murray County. The mineral is largely used as
1825

1826

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

a substitute for white lead. It is used also in the manufacture of paper, rubber, oilcloths, paper collars, aud barium salts, as well as for refining sugar, glazing pottery, and for enameling iron.

BAUXITE

The first bauxite found in America was discovered near Hermitage, Floyd County, in 1887. Later, deposits were found in Polk, Bartow, Gordon, Chattooga and Walker counties, and in 1907 valuable deposits were found in the vicinity of Mclntyre, Wilkinson County. The baux ites of Northwest Georgia are associated with Cambrian rocks, while those of Central Georgia occur associated with the white Cretaceous kaolins. Since 1888 a high percentage of the bauxite mined in this country has been obtained from Georgia.
Bauxite is a hydroxide of alumina resembling clay. The ore occurs both in the form of large pockets and as beds, and is mined in the same manner as iron ores. The Georgia bauxites are used largely in the manufacture of alum and the metal aluminum. Bauxite is also employed in making firebrick and alundum, an artificial abrasive.

CEMENTS

Both natural and Portland cements are made in Georgia. Natural cement plants are located at Cement, Bartow County, and at Rossville, Walker County, while extensive Portland cement plants are operated at Rockmart and Davittes, Polk County. The raw materials for the manu facture of these cements, consisting of limestones and shales, are abund ant and pretty generally distributed throughout Northwest Georgia. Portland and natural cements are largely used for structural purposes, and as these uses are so rapidly increasing it might be said that we are now entering the cement age of structural material.

CLAYS

The clays of Georgia, which may be classed as one of our inexhausti ble mineral resources, present a great variety. In the southern part of the state occur the Cretaceous and Tertiary sedimentary clays. The great thickness of these beds and the purity of the clays themselves are probably nowhere else to be found in this country. These clays, which are now being extensively mined, are used largely for the manufacture of high-grade china, for paper filler, and for fire-brick, terra cotta, etc. Scarcely less important are the alluvial and residual clays of the Pied mont Plateau and Northwest Georgia, which have extensive use in the manufacture of common building brick. The value of the clay products of Georgia now exceeds that of any other mineral product of the state.

COAL

The coal measures of Georgia are confined to Sand, -Lookout and Pigeon mountains, in Dade, Walker and Chattooga counties. They form a part of the northern extension of-the Coosa and the Warrior coal fields of

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1827

Alabama. The Durham Coal and Coke Company's mines and the mines of the Lookout Coal and Coke Company, located on Lookout Mountain, are the only mines now in operation in Walker County, while the Georgia, Steel Company operates a mine in Dade County. The coal from these mines is semi-bituminous, has a high heating value, and is largely used for steam and coking purposes. The total coal area of the state is approximately 170 square miles, which area is estimated to have had originally 933,000,000 short tons of coal. About 12,000,000 tons of coal have been mined up to the present, leaving still in the ground a total of 921,000,000 tons, enough to last, at our present rate of mining, for more than 1,500 years.

COPPER
The most extensive copper deposits, so far located in the state, are to be found in Fannin, Cherokee and Haralson counties. Those in Fannin County are located in the extreme northern part of the county only a short distance from the famous Ducktown copper mining district of Tennessee. The Cherokee copper deposits have been worked at only one place, namely, the Canton copper mine, one and one-fourth miles south of Canton. The Waldrop copper mine in Haralson County is located about four miles northwest of Draketown, near the Haralson-Polk County line. In addition to the deposits here named, copper is also known to occur in Lincoln, Lumpkin and Fulton counties. The copper deposits of Fannin, Cherokee and Haralson counties are associated with Cambrian rocks, while those in Lumpkin, Fulton and Lincoln counties occur in older rocks, probably Archaean.

CORUNDUM
Corundum is an aluminum oxide. It is next to the diamond in hard ness. There are three varieties of this mineral: sapphire, corundum and emery. The purer kinds of fine colors, transparent and translucent and useful for gems, are known as sapphires and rubies; the dull colors, not transparent, are called corundum; while the black or grayish black variety, intimately mixed with oxide of iron, either magnetite or hema tite, is known as emery. All varieties of corundum have been found in Georgia, with the exception of emery. The principal variety is the nontransparent variety. A few gems of the variety sapphire have been found near Hiawassee, Towns County. These were small, prismatic crystals of ruby color, but somewhat cloudy. A few gems of sapphire are said to have been found at the Laurel Creek mine in Rabun County. Corundum is known to occur in many counties in North Georgia. The chief corundum output has come from the Laurel Creek mine, located in the extreme northeastern part of Rabun County.
From 1880 until 1892, Georgia was one of the chief corundum pro ducing states in the Union. In recent years, the mines have been idle, due, chiefly, to the low price of corundum. In addition to gem material, corundum has an extensive use as an abrasive.

1828

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

FULLER'S EARTH

The best known deposits of fuller's earth occur in the vicinity of Attapulgus, Decatur County, where they have been worked for some years. Extensive deposits also occur in Bibb, Twiggs, Columbia and other counties near the Fall Line. The deposits of Twiggs County are now being worked by the General Reduction Company. Georgia stands third in the production of fuller's earth, being exceeded only by Arkansas and Florida.
Fuller's earth is a clay-like material of various colors. It differs from common clay usually in being porous, carrying a high percentage of combined water as compared with the alumina and in having but little or no plasticity. Fuller's earth, so called on account of it being first used in fulling cloth, is now largely employed in decolorizing and clarify ing oils and fats. Besides the use here given, it has also a limited appli cation in the preparation of certain medicines and in the manufacture of soap, as well as an absorbent.

GOLD

Gold has been mined in Georgia for more than three-quarters of a century. Previous to the discovery of gold in California, the mines of Georgia furnished the greater part of the gold produced in the United States. As early as 1838, the output of the mines of the state had become so important that, the United States Government found it necessary to establish a mint at Dahlonega. The gold deposits of Georgia belong to the Appalachian gold fields, an auriferous belt extending from Nova Scotia to Alabama. In Georgia, the gold occurs in a number of narrow, parallel belts, having a northeast-southwest trend. The most important of these are the Dahlonega and Hall County belts. Another belt includ ing some very important mines traverses Lincoln, Columbia, McDuffie and "Warren counties, in the eastern part of the state. The individual auriferous belts are usually made up of a great number of veins or ore bodies running parallel to each other. The veins vary in thickness from a fraction of an inch to several feet or rods, and often continue without interruption for long distances.

GRANITES

The granites of Georgia, together with the gneisses, constitute the most extensive and one of the most important building and monumental stones in the state. They occur in inexhaustible qxiantities and are widely distributed throughout the Piedmont Plateau. One of the most interesting and the largest isolated bearen granite masses in the country is that of Stone Mountain, located only a few miles northeast of Atlanta. This mountain has long been the seat of a very important granite indus try. The stone obtained from these quarries is a light colored muscovite granite possessing remarkable strength, and is quite free from all chemi cal and physical defects. The stone has extensive use as a building material and is also largely employed in street improvement. There is probably no granite in the South more widely known and more generally

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1829

used than that furnished by the Stone Mountain quarries. Another granite, or rather a granite-gneiss, of almost as much economic import ance as the Stone Mountain granite, is the lithonia granite. This stone covers a considerable area in the eastern part of De Kalb and the con tiguous parts of Kockdale and Gwinnett counties. The lithonia quarries are very extensive and furnish large quantities of stone for street improvements as well as for concrete and general building purposes.
In addition to the granites here named, there are other granites o superior quality used for monumental stone. Some of the granites of this character are those obtained from the Elberton, the Oglesby, the Lexington and the Meriwether quarries. These monumental granites have but few equals, if any superiors, in the United States as a monu mental stone. At present, Georgia stands seventh in the rank of the production of granite in this country, being exceeded only by Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, Colorado, Wisconsin and Maryland.

GRAPHITE

Both amorphous and crystalline varieties of this mineral occur in Georgia. The amorphous variety is quite abundant in the neighborhood of Emerson, Bartow County, where it is now mined on a more or less extensive scale. Promising prospects of crystalline graphite occur in Pickcns, Elbert, Hall, Madison, Douglas, Troup and Cobb counties. All of the graphite material at present mined in Georgia is used as a filler for commercial fertilizers.

IRON ORES

Iron ores occur in Georgia in large quantities. The most common ores are the brown ores, or limonites, and the fossil ores, or hematites. Magnetite also occurs. The brown iron ores are most abundant in Polk, Bartow and Floyd counties, but workable deposits are also to be found in nearly every county in the northwestern part of the state. These ores are confined chiefly to two geological horizons, viz., the Weisner quartzite and Knox dolomite. The ores associated with the Weisner quartzite sometimes occur in ill-defined veins, but more generally they are found in the form of pockets or irregular deposits in the residual clays. The brown iron ores of the Knox dolomite series occur chiefly in the form of pockets or irregular deposits in the residual clays. The deposits are quite variable in size. Some of the individual deposits in the vicinity of Cedartown have been worked on an extensive scale for more than ten years without exhausting the supply.
The red, or fossil, iron ores of Georgia are confined to Dade, Walker, Chattooga and Catoosa counties. These ores occur in the Eed Mountain iron ore bearing series, which is so well developed' near Birmingham. The ores occur in continuous beds varrying from a few inches to several feet in thickness. Some idea may be had as to the abundance of the red fossil iron ores of Georgia when it is stated that the aggregate length of the outcroppings of the beds, which average more than two feet in thickness, is approximately 175 miles, and that in many places the ore can be economically mined to the depth of several hundred feet.
Vol. Ill-- 36

1830

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

LIMESTONES

Cambrian, Silurian and Carboniferous limestone, suitable for lime,

fluxing and building materials, exist in great abundance in Northwest

,! |

Georgia. The most extensive of these calcareous formations is the Knox

i!

dolomite, a magnesian limestone of great thickness. This formation

|.

furnishes much of the lime used in the state, as well as a large amount

of stone for concrete and for general building purposes. Other calcar

eous formations of scarcely less commercial importance are the Bangor

and the Chickarnauga limestones. In addition to these occurrences,

extensive beds suitable for lime and for agricultural purposes occur in

the Cretaceous and Tertiary formations of South Georgia.

MANGANESE

The manganese ores, like the brown iron ores, are confined chiefly to

/

Bartow, Floyd and Polk counties. The largest and most productive

deposits are found in the vicinity of Cartersville, where the ores occur

as irregular deposits in the residual clays derived from the Knox dolo

mite and the Weisner quart/ite. The manganese deposits of Georgia

have been worked almost continuously for many years. During their

early workings the ores were shipped to England, but in the last few

years they have found a ready market in this country, where they have

been used in the manufacture of steel and for bleaching powder. In

1898, Georgia produced nearly 7,000 tons of manganese ore, which was

approximately one-half of the manganese produced in the United States

for that year.

MABBLES

Previous to 1884, the marbles of Georgia were practically unknown as building and ornamental stones, but at present the output of the quarries exceeds that of any state in the Union with the exception of Vermont. The most valuable marbles of Georgia are those of Pickens, Cherokee, Gilmer and Fannin counties. These marbles occur in a narrow belt which runs parallel to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, from near Ball Ground, Cherokee County, to the Georgia-North Carolina state line, a distance of more than sixty miles. The main marble industry of the state is located in the vicinity of Tate, Pickens County, where the deposit attains its greatest thickness. The Pickens County marble usually has a coarse texture, but admits of a very fine polish and is admirably suited both for building and monumental purposes. In color, the stone varies from white to almost black. A flesh-colored variety is also found. The physical and chemical properties, as shown by the numerous tests made by the State Geological Survey, demonstrate that its durability equals or exceeds that of any other marble now being put upon the market.
At present a number of different marble quarries, having an aggregate annual output of several hundred thousand cubic' feet of stone, are being operated in Pickens County. The product of the quarries is shipped to nearly every state in the Union, where it is used in the con-

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1831

struction and decoration of some of the most costly buildings. The state eapitols of Minnesota and Rhode Island; the United States Government Building, Boston; St. Luke's Hospital, New York; and the Coreoran Art Gallery, Washington, with numerous other handsome buildings throughout the United States, are constructed wholly or in part of the Georgia marble. There is probably no building stone in this country, in recent years, which has gained such a widespread use and given such universal satisfaction as the Georgia marble. The growth of the use of the stone has also been equally as phenomenal in monumental work.

MARLS

Marls of good quality are found in the Cretaceous and Tertiary formations of South Georgia. There is probably no county in the southern part of the state which does not possess marl deposits of more or less agricultural value. In addition to the common calcareous OE,< shell marl, green, sand marls also occur. Analyses of these green sands show that they carry a;. considerable amount of phosphoric acid and potash, two of the most important plant foods. The use of the Georgia marls as a natural fertilizer has so far been quite limited, but in all eases where they have been given a fair test the result has been entirely satisfactory.
MICA

Mica is widely distributed throughout the Piedmont Plateau. It has been worked to a limited extent in Cherokee, Lumpkin, Union, Hall and Rabun counties. Some of the most promising prospects in Cherokee County are in the vicinity of Holly Springs and Toonigh, and in the Hickory Flats district about ten miles southeast of Canton. The Lumpkin and Union County deposits, as so far developed, occur near the Luinpkin-Union County line. Mica has been mined in Rabun County at the Hell Mica Mine, ten miles east of Clayton, and in Hall County, near Gainesville. In addition to these localities, good mica prospects are found in a large number of other counties in the Piedmont Plateau.
Mica has a great variety of uses, but at present the greater part of the production is consumed in the electrical industry. Ground mica is largely used in wall paper and roofing as well as a lubricant.

OCHER

The ocher mines of Georgia produce more ocher than all the states in the Union. These mines are located near Cartersville, Bartow County. The deposits are confined to a narrow belt about eight miles in length and less than two miles in width. The most extensive workings are those of the Georgia-Peruvian Ocher Company, to be seen on the left bank of the Etowah River. 21/4 miles east of Cartersville. Ocher mining in the Cartersville district had its beginning in 1877. In 1890 the Geor gia-Peruvian Ocher Company began operations on an extensive scale, and, later, three other large ocher plants were put in operation. The total maximum output of these four plants is estimated at about 800 tons per annum.

1832

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

The principal use made of the yellow ocher mined in Bartow County, up to the present time, is in the manufacture of linoleums and oilcloths. The important markets are England and Scotland. It is also used to a limited extent in the manufacture of paints.

.. PRECIOUS STONES

A large variety of mineral suitable for gems and other ornamental objects and cabinet specimens has been found in the state. No systematic mining for gems, however, has been carried on, arid the finds have been accidental, or incidental to gold, corundum and other mining. Nearly all of these minerals are found in the Piedmont Plateau and the moun tainous section of the northeastern part of the state. The most important gem stones heretofore noted as occurring in the state are as follows : Diamond, ruby, amethyst, rose quartz, rutilated quartz, smoky quartz, agate, jasper, opal, beryl, garnet, rutile, moonstone.

PYRITE

Pyrite is an iron sulphide chiefly employed in the manufacture of sulphuric acid. This mineral is met with in commercial quantities in a number of counties. The most important deposits occur in Carroll, Haralson, Paulding, Cobb, Cherokee and Lumpkin counties. The Carroll County deposits have been worked rather extensively near Villa Rica and at Reid's Mountain. Both of these mines are now operated. The Haralson County prospect is situated near the Haralson-Paulding county line, four miles north of Draketown. Another prospect in this county is the Waldrop mine, originally worked as a copper mine. The Cobb County deposits are near Acworth. Considerable pyrite was mined some years ago in Paulding County, two miles west of Hiram. What appears to be the most extensive and important deposit in Cherokee County is known as the Blake Pyrites Mine, near Creighton. In the immediate vicinity of the Blake mine is the Franklin Pyrites and Power Company's prospect. The main deposit in Lumpkin County occurs six miles northeast of Dahlonega.

ROAD MATERIALS

The road-building materials of Georgia are quite abundant and pretty evenly distributed throughout the state. Nearly all the varieties of stone used in highway construction occur in large quantities in many sections. It is questionable whether any state in the Union possesses a greater va riety of road-building materials than the State of Georgia.

SAND AND GRAVEL

Sand and gravel are both widely distributed throughout the state. They are especially abundant,in the northern part of the Coastal Plain. Enormous deposits of sand are to be seen near Howard, on the Central of Georgia Railway, in Taylor County; at Junction City, in Talbot County; on Bull Creek, three miles east of Columbus; on the west side

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1833

of the Flint River, at Bainbridge; on the Flint River, just opposite Al bany; on the east bank of Little Ogeechee River, l 1/^ miles northeast of Lumber Qity; and on the east bank of the Oconee River at Dublin. In addition to these various localities there are numerous other localities throughout the Coastal Plain where more or less extensive deposits of sand and gravel are to be found. In the Piedmont Plateau and the Appalachian Valley region, the sands and gravels are mostly found along the streams.
SERPENTINE

Serpentine is a hydrous silicate of magnesia, carrying, usually, more or less impurities. The only deposit of serpentine, so far worked in Georgia, occurs at the Verde Antique Marble Quarry in Cherokee County, about two miles southwest of Holly Springs. The stone is used almost exclusively .for interior finish and decorations. It is especially adapted for stairways, corridors, mantels and pedestals for statuary.

SLATE

%.

Slate is found -in Georgia in Bartow and Polk counties. The largest area of slate, in Polk County, extends from about three miles south of Cartersville to about five miles south of Rockmart. Another belt of slate of the same age occurs south of Cedartown. The Polk County slate is of a dark blue to black color. It has a fine texture and smooth cleavage and but few defects. Another very promising slate is found in the north ern part of Bartow County, near Fairmount. This slate, which has only recently been put on the market, has a greenish color and possesses all of the physical and chemical qualities of a first-class roofing slate.

TALC AND SANDSTONE

Talc is a white, gray or greenish soft mineral with a greasy feel. It is a silicate of magnesia. Soapstone is usually' considered an impure form of talc.
Talc has been found at a large number of localities in the northern part of the state, but commercial deposits have been developed at only a few places. Soapstone is more widely distributed. Two companies are at present producing talc in Georgia. The mills of these companies are located at Chatsworth, Murray County, and the mines are on Fort and Cohutta mountains, about three miles distant. A considerable amount of prospecting and mining has been done on the Dickey property, oneh#lf mile south of Mineral Bluff, Fannin County. Talc has also been mined to a limited extent near Ball Ground and Holly Springs, Cherokee County. Favorable prospects are known to occur in other counties in North 'Georgia. Talc is principally used for pencils, gas tips, paper filler, lubricants, fireproof paints and toilet powders.

TRIPOLI

A light, porous, siliceous stone, locally known as tripoli, occurs in Murray, "Whitfield, Chattooga and other counties in Northwest Georgia.

1834

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS

One of the best known deposits in Murray County is on the Tilton prop erty, near Spring Place. There are several localities in Whitfield County where it is known to occur. It has been rather extensively worked near Dalton and Lyerly. Tripoli mined in Georgia is said to be used largely in the manufacture of scouring soaps and polishing powders.
MINERAL WATERS
Mineral springs o greater or less importance are widely distributed throughout the state. They are abundant in the Piedmont Plateau and Appalachian Valley, where one or more having a local reputation are met with in nearly every county. These springs are especially abundant in the mountainous regions of the Piedmont area, where many of them have become sites of prominent summer resorts.
ARTESIAN WELLS
The artesian wells of Georgia are practically all confined to tho Coastal Plain, which is the only part of the state where the geological conditions are favorable for artesian water supply in large quantities. A considerable number of deep, non-flowing wells are also found in the Crystalline and Paleozoic areas, but as a general rule these wells furnish only a limited amount of water and they can not always be relied upon for a continuous supply, as they are often affected by long drouths.

MINERAL PRODUCTION OF GEORGIA IN 1913

Asbestos ...............................$ 11,000

Barytes ................................ 22,000 (?)

Bauxite ................................ 68,578

Cement ................................ 430,000 (?)

Clay ................................... 324,671

Clay products .......................... 2,806,541

Coal .................................. 361,319

Coke .................................. 186,304

Fuller's earth .......................... 75,000

Gold ................................... 15,108

Granite ................................ 906,470

Graphitic shale ......................... 5,000 (?)

Iron ore ............................... 237,876

Lime .................................. 13,483

Limestone .............................. 83,899

'Manganese ............................. 75,000 (?)

Marble ................................ 1,101,997

Mineral paints .......................... 123,616

Mineral waters ......................... 69,442

Pyrite ................................. 55,094

Sand and gravel ........................ 166,798

Sand-lime brick ........................ 11,000 (?)

Silver ..................................

45

Talc and soapstone ..................... 26,000 (?)

Total ................................$7,176,241

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

1835

WATER POWERS

It is estimated that the streams of Georgia at low water will furnish an aggregate of 500,000 horse-power, only a small part of which is now developed. The money value of this power, reckoning a hrse-power at $20 per annum, is $10,000,000, which is nearly twice the state's annual income from taxes and all other sources. By the use of storage dams, or by the use of auxiliary steam power for short periods during the dry season, fully 1,000,000 horse-power, at a low estimate, could be utilized,

DEVELOPED WATER POWER

The following tabulated data collected by the State Geological Survey gives the developed and ultimate development in horse-power of all of the main water-power plants at present in the state.

DEVELOPED WATER POWERS OP GEORGIA

Present

Development

Stations

(Horse-power)

Georgia Railway & Power Co.:

Tallulah Falls, Tallulah River.......... 85,000

Mathis Storage Dam, Tallulah River..... ......

Bull Sluice, Chattahooehee River........ 17,500'

Dunlap Shoals, Chattahoochee River.. ... 3,400

Ultimate Development (Horse-power)
102,000 10,000 17,500 3,400

105,900 Augusta Canal:
Savannah River, total power............ 11,458 Georgia-Carolina Power Co.:
Stevens Creek Development, Savannah River 16,525 Athens Railway & Electric Co.:
Station No. 1, Mitchell's Bridge ........ 1,025 Station No. 2,. .Tallassee Shoals ......... 1,300 Station No. 3, Barnett Shoals .......... 5,600

132,900
11,458
32,150
1,025 1,300 5,600

Gainesville Railway & Power Co.: Chestatee River, near Dahlonega.........
Central Georgia Power Co.: Ocmulgee River, near Jackson...........
Columbus Power Co.: No. 1, North Highlands ................ No. 2, North Highlands ................ No. 3, City Mills ...................... No. 4, Goat Rock .....................

7,925 *
1,500
22,000
8,770 * 1,990 1,076 16,800

~ 7,925
1,500
33,500
8,770 1,990 1,076 40,000

~28,636 Eagle & Phoenix Mills:
Chattahoochee River at Columbus........ 5,900 Albany Power & Mfg. Co.:
Muckafoonee Creek, near Albany........ 2,500

~~51,836 * 5,900 2,500

Grand total ......................... 202,344

279,669

1836

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS

The estimated horse-power above given, it should be noted, is in
water-wheel capacity, the present development being in water-wheel ca
pacity as now installed and the ultimate development being the full
water-wheel capacity of the plant when equipped according to the orig
inal designs. By comparing the total present water-wheel capacity with
the total ultimate water-wheel capacity it will be observed that the latter
is more than l ]/y times that of the former. In other words, Georgia's
water-power plants are at present producing less than three-fourths the
power for which they were constructed; or, to state it differently, these
water-po\ver plants, as now developed, can be increased by the installa
tion of additional units in the present plants more than 1% times. This
additional installation, which in many cases will be comparatively inex
pensive, will, no doubt, be made from time to time as the demand for, power increases, so that within the next decade, or possibly in a much
shorter interval, all of the plants will be fully installed and be producing
all the power for which they were originally designed.
The smaller developed water powers of the state have not been in
cluded in the above estimates on account of the great difficulty of secur
ing reliable data. Had these powers been included the above total
present developed water powers would be increased by possibly as much as 10,000 horse-power.
This would give the present water-wheel capacity of all the plants
now operated 212,344 horse-power. Comparing these figures with un
published data recently compiled by Mr. B. M. Hall, formerly a mem
ber of the hydrographic division of the United States Geological Survey,
who estimates the total wheel installation water powers of the state at
1,323,600 horse-power, we find that our present developed powers are
only about 14 per cent of our total water power.
BULLETINS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF GEORGIA.
1. Marbles of Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, 1894, 87 pp., 16 pi., and 2 maps. Out of print.
1. Marbles of Georgia, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged, by S, "W. McCallie, 1907, 126 pp., 52 pi., and 2 maps. Postage, 13 cents.
2. Corundum Deposits of Georgia, by Francis P. King, 1894, 133 pp., 6 pi., 1 map. Postage, 9 cents.
3. A Part of the Water-Powers of Georgia, by C. C. Anderson and B. M. Hall, 1896, 150 pp., 10 pi., and 2 maps. Postage, 9 cents.
4. A Part of the Gold Deposits of Georgia, by W. S. Yeates, S. W. McCallie and Francis P. King, 1896. 542 pp., 21 pi., and 1 map. Out of print.
5. A Part of the l^nosphates and Marls of Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, 1896, 98 pp., 3 pi. Postage, 7 cents.
6. A Part of the Clays of Georgia, by Geo. B. Ladd, 1898, 204 pp., 17 pi. Postage, 11 cents.
7. Artesian-Well System of Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, 1898, 214 pp., 7 pi., and 2 maps. Postage, 13 cents.
8. Roads and Road-Building Materials of Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, 1901, 264 pp., 27 pi., and 1 map. Postage, 14 cents.
9. A Part of the Granites and Gneisses of Georgia, by Thomas L. Watson, 1902, 367 pp., 32 pi., and 4 maps. Posta.ge, 21 cents.
10. Iron Ores of Polk, Bartow and Floyd Counties, Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, 1900, 190 pp., 8 pi., 1 map. Postage, 11 cents.
11. Bauxite Deposits of Georgia, by Thos. L. Watson, 1904, 169 pp., 12 pi., and 1 map. Postage, 10 cents.
12. Coal Deposits of Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, 1904, 121 pp., 14 pi., and 1 map. Postage, 9 cents.
13. Ocher Deposits of Georgia, by Thos. L. Watson, 1906, 81 pp., 11 pi., and 3 maps. Postage, 6 cents.
14. Manganese Deposits of Georgia, by Thomas L. Watson, 1908, 195 pp., 8 pi., and 2 maps. Postage, 12 cents.
15. Underground Waters of Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, 1908, 376 pp., 29 pi., and 2 maps. Postage, 20 cents.

AND GEOEGIANS

1837

1C, Water-Powers of Georgia, by B. M. and M. R. Hall, 1908, 424 pp., 14 pi., and 1 map. Postage, 21 cents.
17, Fossil Iron Ore Deposits of Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, 1908, 199 pp., 24 pi., and 3 maps. Postage, 14 cents.
IS Clay Deposits of Georgia, by Otto Veatch, 1909, 453 pp., 32 pi., and 3 maps. Postage, 25 cents.
19. Gold Deposits of Georgia, by S. P. Jones, 1909, 283 pp., S pi., and 2 maps. Postage, 16 cents.
20. Mineral Waters of Georgia, by S. W. McCallie. In preparation. 21 Marls and Limestones of Georgia, by Otto Veatch. In preparation. 22 Brown Iron Ores of Georgia, by S. W. McCalHe. In preparation. 23. Mineral Resources of Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, 1910, 208 pp., 20 pi., and 2
maps. Postage, 14 cents. Public Roads of Georgia, Second Report, by S. W. McCallie, 1910, 36 pages.
Postage, I! cents. Drainage Reclamation in Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, J. V. Phillips, F. G. Eason,
,T. R. Haswell, and L,. L. I-Iidinger, 1911, 123 pp., 7 pi., and 5 maps. t'ostage,
8 cents. 26. Geology of the Coastal Plain of Georgia, by Otto Veatch and L. W. Stephenson,
1911, 463 pp., 30 pi., and 2 maps. Postage, 26 cents. 27. Cement and Lime Resources of North Georgia: Bull. Ga. Geol. Survey No. 27.
In preparation. Public Roads of Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, 1912, 12 pp. Postage, 2 cents.
Asbestos, Talc and Soapstonc Deposits of Georgia, by Oliver B. Hopldns, 1914, 319 pp., 21 pi., and 1 map. Postage, 17 cents.
Feldspar and Mica Deposits of Georgia, by S. D. Gal pin, 1915, 192 pp.. 9 pi., and
] ma,p. Postage, 1 6 cents.

Vol. I11.-37