SKETCH
LIFE AND TIMES
SPEECHES
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
HERBERT FIELDER.

!

SPKINGFIELD, MASS.:

PKESS OF SPB1NGI-IELD PRINTING
1883.

*;; Copyright, 188:;.

CONTENTS.

_

-._ ,

PAGE

INTRODUCTION, . . . . , . . . .

1

CHAPTER I. My Contemporaries. ISoTj ....

25

" 2-H. Governor Joseph E. Brown's Early Life, .

.

91

" III. Government of Georgia under Joseph 1C. Brown. 108

"

JV. State Geologist and Chemist, .

.

.

.358

**

V.. Secession of Cotton-Growing1 States and Organi

zation of the Confederacy, .... 170

"

VI. First Year in the FieJd, ..... 202

' VII. Defence of Georgia, l>y State Forces,

.

, 243

{t VIII- G-overjimeiit of Georgia in Kelatlon to the War, 256-

"

IX- Gi-OYex'iior Brown and the Confederate Military, 275

"

X. Correspondence of Governor 33ro\vn and tTames

A. Seddoti, Secretary of War, 1864, ,

. 318

'

XI- Correspondence of President Davis and Gov

ernor JBrown upon "Conscription, ^ .

. 355

,; " XII. Correspondence of Governor Brown and A. "JFuI-

'

latton, British Consnl at Savannah, .

. 398

** XIIT/^&econstruotion of Georgia,

.... 410

: " 2CIV. Administration of Governor Bullock,

.

. 459

' ( XV .^^A Sunimary of Governor Brown's Character, . 487,

" XVI. Supplement Prepared for the Fubli'sliers, Bring

ing the Narrative of Events to September,

APPEKDIX:

1883,,

....... 495

Speeches of Senator Brown: The Mexican War Pensions, 593.-- The Edu

cational Fund, 605.--The Indian Question, 615, --The Pnnding Bill,

625,--Reply to Senator Malione of Virginia, 630.--A Free Ballot and a

Fair Count, 642.--The Silver Bill, 060.--The Mormon Question, 678.--

The Chinese Bill, 690.--The Tariff Commission Bill, 704.--Civil S&r-

vice Reform, 714.--- Kights of the Citizens of the late Confederate

States to Proceeds of Cotton Seized by U. S. GoTerument, 725.--The

Tariff and the Internal Revenue System, 742.---Un constitutionality of

the Test Oath, 7S6.-- Our Country, ?T2.

CENERAC UBRA&Y UNIVERSFTY OF GEORGIA

Errata and Explanations.
Chapter I, page 25, " My Contemporaries," was written by the atithor at various times during his professional life, and contains his opinions and estimates of the men at the time he wrote.
Page 4, llth line, after Nathaniel Green Foster, read " the Madison District."
Page 53, 10th line, " James I. Gresham" should be " John J. Gresham."
Page 52, 16th line, " Barney " should be " Burney." Page 53, 4th line from bottom, " H. S. M' Kay " should be " H. K. McCay." Page 115, llth line, "correction" should be "convic tion." Page 156, 20th line, the year "1875 " should be " 1785." Page 283, 7th line from bottom, after words " habeas corpus," insert " generally throughout the realm." Page 432, 3d line from bottom, " John Pope " should be " Meade." Page 456, llth line from bottom, " Garrett " should be " Garnett."

INTRODUCTION.
DESCRIPTION OP GEORGIA IN 1880.
This State, in extent of area, geological formation, and diversity of mineral resources ; in abundance and variety of timber ; in water and water-power ; diversity and fer tility of soil; capabilities of immense and varied vegetable productions; in climate, adapted to the comfort and health of a multitudinous population; in adaptation to manu factures, to rail, river, canal, and ocean carriage and transportation ; its facilities for the growth as well as maintenance of a numerous, powerful, great, and happy population,--in everything except the present possession of enough of people and money, and aside from all polit ical considerations, is an empire within itself.
If she were a separate body, standing on two pillars of land and water, the Atlantic coast and the " Land of Flowers " indicative of her varied capabilities, we could easily point out, to the enquiring beholder, the peculiar facilities of the belts that form the surface from base to summit.
At the broad bottom, we have her level low lands, where the accumulated columns of her rivers move slowly to the Gulf and Ocean, and where their tributaries are skirted with green hammocks and dark loam, the region dotted with open ponds, and those of deposit and thick growth, the main picture being the green carpet, with its floral decorations, perfumed by fragrantja*!^!*^-,* This

2

INTRODUCTION.

level belt lias its inexhaustible wealth of timber, abounds with self-sustaining cattle, sheep and hogs. The people are plain, frugally clad, honest, hospitable and brave, producing- support with but little labor and exertion. It would be difficult to draw a statistical account of the capabilities of this belt alone, if it were only settled by a population sufficiently dense, permeated by rail roads, and spotted over with diversified manufactories-- its cotton, wool and silk ; its cane and melons ; its grapes and cereals ; its peas, roots, timber, and oils ; its animals of burden and food ; its vegetable and medicinal produc tions, and the magnificence of its floral beauty.
Higher up, the broad belt occupied, before their eman cipation, in great part by slaves, and their owners and managers, and since by a population which in some dis tricts is composed of a majority of colored free people. This is the region that, from its early settlement, was in great part devoted to the growth of cotton ; and from which, annually, has been brought to market so much of that leading staple which has swelled the aggregate exportable value of American products. But, withal, a vast region not surpassed in the aggregate by any of equal extent in natural fertility and adaptation to the majority of agricultural and horticultural products that are needed for the necessary use, the comfort, and even luxury of mankind.
Higher still, we have the belt of middle Georgia, a gen eral term that describes a section in some parts level, in others broken and undulating, vast in extent, diversified in soil, and of capabilities that are immense. Here are numerous springs, rills, rivulets, branches, and creeks. The rivers flow rapidly over granite and pebbly beds, leaping from higher to lower surface, as if to supply

INTRODUCTION.

3

motive power to machinery prior to man's invention of the use of condensed steam. Here are the rocks and gravel, the loam and the clay. Here the cereals impart to the picture a more golden hue, as they mingle with the cotton, the roots, the fruits, and vines. This is a land highly favored by nature, and to it have adhered a pop ulation of former slaves, slaveholders, and non-slave holders, a people worthy of this heaven-favored country, in every respect except in numbers.
Still higher, we have the broad belt of upper Georgia stretching from the east over the freestone to the west over the limestone, resembling the middle belt in many places, in surface, water, and geological formations, with a still deeper golden hue, from preponderance of cereal crops. And not very unlike to it in the character, habits, and modes of life of the people, but with greatly diminished mixture of the colored race. This vast re gion is more variegated as to fertile and barren lands, but far exceeds all the rest in abundance and variety of the mines imbedded beneath its surface.
Thus stands the grand old State, arable, watered, tim bered, peopled in every district, -with immense capabilities in the production of nearly all that man needs of food, raiment, medicine, laden along her surface with vines and fruits, with her skirts and graceful drapery trimmed with every variety of flowers, from the gorgeous magno lia to the bridal-wreath spirea. She stands in magnifi cence peerless among the nations ; but in modesty, as if a maiden decked and attired for the altar, before their assembled court. Her wealth is of the mountain chain, all studded with stones and precious metals. By her peaks and slopes she makes her obeisance--so genial and inviting is she to all the civilized world. She bows to

4

INTBODUCTICWST.

the east to catcli the light as it comes on Aurora's beams; and,to the west to bid adieu to the King of Day and receive the kiss of his last retiring ray ; to the North Star, and her twinkling wintery comrades; and to the Queen of Night, amid her virgin throng of southern stars ; loftv in her height, magnificent in her propor tions, she catches the dews from the clouds; she bows lowly in commiseration and sympathy with laboring man, and sheds her tears to cool his parching fields ; these she mingles with the floods distilled from the clouds, and the fountains she sends forth from every undulation of her bosom, and propels them, in silvery columns, along their winding ways, over cascades and through deep valleys, with converging channels and concentrating waves, to unite -with the great waters of Gulf and Ocean.

The State extends from thirty-one and a half to thirtyfive degrees of north latitude, having an average length north and south of three hundred miles, and breadth east and west .of about two hundred miles. It contains 58,000 square miles, being about 37,120,000 acres of land.
POPULATION.
By the census of 1870 there were 638,926 white, and 595,192 colored, making the aggregate 1,184,109 people. By the census of 1880 the whites are 816,906 the colored 725,133, making the aggregate 1,542,180.
SUBDIVISIONS.
There are one hundred and thirty-eight counties, vary ing in size, shape, population, productions, and wealth. These are subdivided into militia districts, designed orig-

INTRODUCTION.

5

inally for the convenience of military organization, which have also been adopted as jurisdictions for courts of justices of the peace.
The judicial division of the State is into circuits, form ing jurisdictions for the Superior Courts, the highest tri bunal of original civil and criminal jurisdiction in the State, of which there are twenty-one, each having a judge and solicitor elective by the Legislature.
There are ten political districts, the people of each of which elect a representative in Congress. And fortyfour senatorial districts, each electing a senator in the State Legislature, the representatives being elected by counties.

BOUNDARY.

Commencing on the south-east at Tiger island, at the mouth of St Mary's river, the state has an ocean front on the Atlantic north to Tybee island at the mouth of the Savannah river, along the eastern border of the coun ties of Camden, Glynn, Mclntosh, Liberty, liryan and Chatham. Thence that river and her eastern tributary, flowing south-east, divide this state from South Carolina, to the south line of North Carolina along the eastern border of the counties of Chatham, Effingham, Burke, Rich mond, Columbia, Lincoln, Elbert, Hart, Franklin, Habersham, and Eabun, to the north-cast corner. Thence a dry line west, along the northern border of the counties of Rabun, Towns, and part of Fannin, adjoining North Carolina, and thence along the balance of Fannin and the counties of Murray, Whitfield, Catoosa, Walker and Dade adjoining Tennessee, to the north-west corner near the Tennessee river; thence A dry line south along the western border of the counties of Dade, Walker, Chat-

6

INTRODUCTION.

tooga, Floyd, Polk, Haralson, Carroll, Heard and Troup, to the west bank of the Chattahoochee river ; thence south along that bank and the west border of the counties of Harris, Muscogee, Chattnhoochee, Stewart, Qiri.tm.an, Clay, Early, and a part of Decatur, all adjoining Alabama ; and thence the balance of said county adjoining Florida to the south-west corner at the confluence o the Flint with the Chattahoochee river. Thence east a dry line along the southern border of the counties of Decatur, Thomas, Brooks, Loundes, Eehols and Clynch to the St. Mary's river ; thence along the irregular course of that stream on the counties of Charlton and Camden, to the Atlantic ocean,--all adjoining Florida.

RIVERS.
The Savannah is "navigable for steamers from the At lantic to Augusta; and far above that city for flat boats. The Chattahoochee, from its termination in the Appalacliicola in Florida to the rapids at the city of Columbus. The Altamaha, from the Atlantic to its beginning at the confluence of Ocmulgee and Oconee: the former, to Hawkinsville, and the latter, to the bridge of the Central Railroad in Washington. The St. Mary's, Satilla, and Ogeechee, for less distances and smaller vessels, as are the Ohoopee and Ocholochnee.
The streams flowing northward across the Tennessee line, the Iliwassee, Notley, Tocoa and Chickamauga riv ers, are not navigable in this State. The Oostenaula is navigable for small boats about one hundred miles above the city of Rome, the point of its confluence with the Eowab., forming the Coosa, which, in its flow to Alabama, is navigable about forty miles in this State.
Beside those mentioned, the State is permeated in all

INTRODUCTION.

7

parts by smaller rivers, large and small creeks and their tributary branches and brooks, affording pure water in abundance for all the uses of man and the lower animals. Among the rivers not already named, there are in the upper part of the State among the mountains, Tallulah, Chestatee, Kllijay, Coosawattee and Connasauga: south of the mountains in "upper Georgia, Broad and Little riv ers tributary to the Savannah and Talapoosa flowing into Alabama. In middle Georgia, Ulcofauhatchee, called Alcova, South and Yellow rivers tributary to Ocmulgee, Appalachee and Little rivers tributary to Oconee, and, in the southern part of the State, Little Allapaha, Suwanee, and Canouchee rivers.

WATER POWER.
These streams, passing from higher to lower lands, abound with falls, many of them beautiful, and a few that are of striking grandeur and awe. The water powers furnished are multitudinous, and diversified by the heights and by the differences in volume of water--varying from one horse to twenty thousand horse power.

ALTITUDE AND SURFACE.
The average elevation of the State above the level of the sea is about 650 feet. The eastern portion of north Georgia is about 1,500 feet, having mountain chains 3,000 feet, with peaks nearly 5,000 feet high. The western part of the same belt is about 750 feet, with mountain chains 2,000 feet high, some of which are fertile, and are generally interspersed with extensive and fertile, as well as beautiful valleys, while the eastern is more generally hiHy, with fewer valleys.
The belt of middle Georgia above the points of river

8

INTRODUCTION.

navigation is generally from 500 to 1,000 feet, the aver age altitude being about 750 feet. This belt has no mountains, except perhaps the majestic Stone Mountain towering up in the midst of a comparatively level section. It has no extended plains or valleys, but is generally un dulating, and in some places quite broken and hilly. The lower belt, being by far the largest, has an altitude of from 200 to 300 feet. It is generally level, though in some places exceedingly uneven and broken by steep, low hills and narrow valleys and ravines. The streams flow more slowly, have scarcely any high lands and hills skirting them, as in the up country, and more extensive swamps and low marshes. And the face of the country, instead of being varied as in the northern part by moun tains, is interspersed often with small ponds, some of them open and clear, others surrounded by dense undergrowth : arid by beautiful lakes, many of them transparent.
The State has three general slopes subdivided by many small ones. The first and major one is the Atlantic, south-east of the Appalachian chain of mountains, and the Chattahoochee ridges dividing it north-east to south-west, above the middle. The next in size, the Gulf slope, south of that chain and west of the Ridges. The other, the Tennessee slope, north of those mountains. All are indi cated by the rise and flow of the water courses, and are marked by a diversity of climate, soil, timber, and mineral deposits.
CLIMATE.
The southern half of the State is marked by equanimity : mildness in winter, and regular warm days and nights in summer. The northern, by greater diversity and change of temperature; the winters are colder and have more sudden and extreme changes from mild to severe cold.

INTRODUCTION.

9

The summer is delightful for the cool arid bracing atmos phere at night, and, in the higher portions, freedom from oppressive heat by day. The temperature varies much also between the mountains and valleys. The whole northern belt abounds in springs so cold that water needs no ice to adapt it to use for drinking.

SOU., PRODUCTIONS AND HEALTH.
The tide-water lands on the south-east are devoted to rice, and furnish most of the product of that grain which the State sends to market. It is. however, grown mostly for home consumption, to a considerable extent on the low lands of the interior.
The vast area of lower Georgia, generally sparse of population, produces corn, oats, barley, rye, rice (wet or dry culture), peas, ground peas, turnips, potatoes, sugarcane, cotton, tobacco, vegetables, fruits, berries, and mel ons. The soil is light, soft and of easy cultivation. Most of the habitations are of sparse dimensions, made of rough timber from adjacent forests, and built at but triflingexpense. The people away from the streams, swamps, marshes, and hammocks are as free from disease as those of any part of the continent; but in such localities they are more or less exposed to malarial diseases. The native grasses afford permanent pasturage to sustain well in sum mer, but poorly in winter, cattle and sheep. Hence beef and wool enter largely into home consumption and furnish profitable commerce to many of the people.
The middle belt of rolling arid sometimes hilly surface is of red, gray, and in some places mulatto soil, all with, clay foundation ; and, except sugar-cane, is productive of all the crops mentioned in the low country, and is well adapted .also to wheat. In fact, nearly all of the market

10

INTRODUCTION.

crops of the continent will grow here, though all are not cultivated.
The population is more dense than in lower Georgia, though sparse here compared with many other States of the Union. The dwellings, not universally, but generally, are more commodious and comfortable. The white peo ple are healthful, active, industrious, and generally intelli gent. There is a larger .population of colored people than in the sparsely settled portions of lower Georgia.
The same description of peoples applies to the wealthier and more densely populated neighborhoods of the low country ; and to the northern belt, where similar crops are grown with !ess proportion of cotton and colored peo ple, as to the major part of it, with the addition of grasses, including clover for hay; and where the soil is better adapted for the growth of tobacco, not extensively grown in any part of the state.

The extensive southern belt abounds with pine, which is of the finest quality and inexhaustible quantity. The lakes, many of the ponds, and the water courses are often skirted with live oak, and other varieties of oak, and with evergreen trees in great variety These tracts, not ex tensive in width, are called hammocks; and where the land is so low as to retain the water amid the trees and undergrowth they are called swamps, some of which are dense and extensive.
The timber of middle and many parts of upper Georgia was extensively destroyed for farming purposes ; but still in many places the supply is abundant. The native for ests were set with pine in many places mixed with oak in every variety, dogwood, hickory, poplar, chestnut, and

INTRODUCTION.

11

every variety of guru, cedar, spruce pine, walnut, ash, elm, black-jack, and sycamore ; and in many localities the pine and other growths mentioned are wanting. The timber of Georgia seems to be an inexhaustible source of wealth.
METALS AXD MINERALS.
Granite and limestone are so extensive as to be inex haustible in different parts of the State, while they are not found in others. The variety is extensive of rocks and stones, in color, hardness, durability and uses to which they may be applied, to be found in different localities, including marble of several grades and kinds. In some localities are inexhaustible marl beds, and in others quar ries of slate of the finest quality. Gold is extensively dis tributed across the upper part of the State, north-east and south-west; and valuable mines of copper have been dis covered in many places in the same region. There are numerous other mineral deposits of great value and im portance, as well as mineral and medicinal waters in limit less variety and abundant quantity.
But the two deposits of value, and apparently the most profuse from the Creator, are iron and coal. It may be said that, so far as relates to soil, climate, water, adapta-' tion to the growth of all crops, timber, and mineral de posits, no part of the globe is better fitted than the State of G eorgia, if shut out from all the world, to main tain a great population for an indefinite period, provided there were in operation manufactories sufficient to con vert all her raw material into commodities for use.
l^pon these natural advantages a reasonable degree of improvement has already been made, placing this State far in advance of some, but still leaving her much to ac complish hereafter in order to be abreast with many other

12

INXRODTJCTION".

countries and States of the Union. Among those improve ments we refer to our

SYSTEM OF RAILROADS.
The following railroads are in operation : From Savannah to Isle of Hope, 9 miles ; thence to Mont
gomery, 4 miles. From Savannah to Bainbridge 237 miles; on this line,
branch to Live Oak, Florida, by Atlantic and Gulf Boad, in this state, 30 miles; branch from Thomasville by South Georgia and Florida Railroad to Albany, 60 miles. From Savannah to Atlanta, the Central Eailroad, via Macon, 295 miles ; on this line, branch from Millen to Augusta, 53 miles ; from Tennille to Sandersville, 3 miles; from Gordon to Eatonton, 39 miles: Barnesville to Thomaston, 16 miles ; Griffin to Carrollton, 60 miles. From Macon to Eufaula, on west bank of Chattahoochee, in Alabama, the Southwestern Railroad, 140 miles; on this line, from Fort Valley to Perry, 11 miles; Fort Valley to Columbus, 71 miles; Smithville via Albany to Arlington, 60 miles; Cuthbert to Fort Gaines, 22 miles. From Brunswick to Macon, Macon and Brunswick Kailroad, 186 miles; on this line, branch from Eastman to Ocmulgee River, Cochran to Hawkinsville 10 miles. From Brunswick to Albany, Brunswick and Albany Rail road, 172 miles. From Augusta to Atlanta, Georgia Railroad, 171 miles; on this line, branches Barnett to Washington, 18 miles ; Union Point to Athens, 39 miles ; Carnac to Macon, Macon and Augusta Railroad, 74 miles.

INTRODUCTION.

13

From Columbus to Kingston, North, and South Railroad, 20 miles.
From Atlanta to West Point, Atlanta and West Point Railroad, 87 miles.
From Atlanta to Charlotte, N. C., Atlanta and Richmond Air Line Railroad, in this State, 100 miles ; on this line from I/ula to Athens, North-Eastern Railroad, 40 miles; branch from Tocoa City to Elberton, 51 miles.
From Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tennessee, Western and Atlantic Railroad, 138 miles.
From Marietta to Canton, narrow gauge, 24 miles. From Cartersville to Cedar Town, narrow gauge, 35 miles. From Kingston to Rome, 20 miles. From Dalton to Bristol, East Tennessee Railroad, in this
State, 18 miles. From Dalton to Selma, Alabama, via Rome in this State,
57 miles; by Chattanooga and Alabama Railroad, Chattanooga to Selma, in this State, 25 miles. The aggregate of these roads is 2,440 miles. The main lines mentioned connect with other lines beyond the State extending to all parts of the country, affording to the people markets within practicable distances from their homes and places of business and industry.

TELEGRAPH LINES
Are in operation along the lines of most of the rail roads above described.

CITIES AND TOWNS.
Since the commencement and completion of the rail roads of the State, the number, prosperity and. growth of towns and cities have greatly increased. These are

14

INTRODUCTION.

marts of commerce, sites of churches of different orders ; common and high schools for both races and sexes, and some of them have flourishing colleges*. They are gen erally healthful, and the people happy and prosperous. Many of them are centers of intelligence, refinement, moral and social worth, as well as Christianity.
The principal cities are Savannah, situate on the Savannah river, about twenty miles from its mouth, with a population of 33,248.
Augusta, at the head of steamboat navigation on the same stream, with a population of 22,301.
Macon, on the Ocmulgee river, in the central part of the State, with a population of 14,000 within the city, and 11,000 in suburban villages and settlements, making 25,000.
Columbus, at head of steamboat navigation on Chattahoochee river. Population within city 10,137, and suburban villages 8,000: total 18,137. Atlanta, made site of State Capital in 1868, 37,825 : Athens on Oconee river, north-east part of State, site of University of Georgia, 8,052. Rome at confluence of Etowah and Oostenaula rivers.
Brunswick on the Atlantic coast, 2,900, Darien, 1,544. On Western and Atlanticrailroad, Marietta, 2,229; Cartersville, 2,037 ; Palton, 2,516. On Air Line railroad, Gainesville, 2,450. On Georgia railroad, Washington, 2,203 ; Greensboro', 1,600; Madison, 2,500; Covington, 1,470; Conyers, 1,400; Social Circle, 800 ; Stone Mountain, 1,800. On Macon and Augusta railroad, Milledgeville, 3,998 ; Sparta, 900. On Central railroad, Sandersville, 1,322; Eatonton, 1,371; Waynesboro, 1,015; Forsyth, 2,000; Barnesville, 1,983; Griffin, 4,500; Thomaston, 900. On Macon and Brunswick railroad, Hawkinsville,

INTRODUCTION.

15

2,100 ; Eastman, on Albany and Gulf railroad, 500; Jessup, GOO ; Blackahear, 778; Valdosta 1,510 ; Quitman, 1,525 ; Thomasville, 2,556 ; Bainbridge at terminus on Flint river, 1,444 ; on Southwestern and branches, Fort valley, 1,278 ; Perry, 709; Oglethorpe, 442; Americus, 4,800 ; Albany, 3,000; Dawson, 1,684; Cuthbert, 2/115; Fort i,aines, 1,100. On Atlanta and West Point railroad, Fairburn, 563 ; Newnan, 3,000 ; La Grange, 2,375 ; West Point, 1,972; Camilla on South Georgia and Florida railroad,700 ; Carrollton at terminus of North Alabama railroad, 956 ; Cedar Town at terminus of Cherokee Narrow Gauge, 1,635 ; Cavespring on Borne and Selma railroad, 850 ; Talbotton, 1,008 ; Oxford, site of Emory college, 1,000.
There are numerous other railroad towns, county sites and villages, generally smaller than those mentioned.

MANUFACTORIES.
The manufacture of cotton, the principal market prod uct, converting the raw material into fabrics, was begun in the vicinity of Athens, utilizing the water power of the Oconee river, upwards of fifty years ago. The success ful experiments in Clark county were followed by similar enterprises in Green, Richmond, Morgan, Newton, Bald win, Cobb, Hancock, Putnam, Troup, Chattanooga, Upson, Warren, Chatham, Bibb, Decatur, Early, Harris, Muscogee; the most extensive are at Augusta, Columbus, and Roswell in Cobb county. They increased in number and extent, and now there are in the State thirty-seven cot ton and fourteen wool factories.
The progress of iron manufacture has been more rapid, having begun at a much later period. There are twenty-eight manufactories and foxindries in North-west ern Georgia, some of them very extensive, and in some

16

INTRODUCTION.

instances supplied by coke of the best quality, produced from the native coal. There are seven paper factories, flour and corn mills in endless variety in every part of the State, and a large nntnber of mills for pounding rocks that contain the precious metal. Numerous dis tilleries of liquors and of turpentine, and several extensive manufactories of commercial manures ; others for locomo tives and cars; numerous establishments for making wag ons, carriages, agricultural implements, boots, shoes, and building material ; doors, windows, sash, blinds, brick and roofing ; with mills in great abundance for cutting lumber from the forest. At Columbus the Chattahoochee river is used to move the immense machinery. At Augusta, the water of the Savannah river is utilized by a canal nine miles long, which is about one hundred and fifty feet wide, with a depth of eleven feet of water ; and through this, the flat boats for which the river is navigable one hundred miles above Augusta avoid the shoals above, and find easy access to the city.

KELIGION AND CHURCHES.
The Protestant Christians are by far the most numer ous professors of religion, but are . divided into sects or denominations, the principal and most numerous of which are the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian, and each of these have subdivisions.
The Baptists have a, membership of about 112,000 whites and 98,000 colored, with 2,600 church organiza tions and edifices. They have an organization co-exten sive with the State called a convention, and one hundred and twenty smaller ecclesiastical divisions of advisory bodies called associations.
'] he Methodists have a membership of about 100,000

INTKODUCTIOIT.

17

whites and 70,000 colored. The principal division of which, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, has two jurisdictions called Annual Conferences, which are di vided into districts, circuits, missions and stations. Other Methodist organizations have similar subordinate juris dictions.
The Presbyterians have a membership of about 9,000 whites and 1,000 blacks. They have a State jurisdiction called a synod, which is subdivided into presbyteries.
The colored memberships are generally in separate organizations from the whites of the same sects, a dis tinction which is still more strictly preserved in all the schools in the State, and is preferred by both races.
There are a few churches of Congregationalists, Lu therans, Unitarians, and Universalists.
The Christian Church has about fifty church organ izations and edifices, with upwards of 5,000 member ship.
The Protestant Episcopal Church has a membership of about 4,500, with about thirty churches. THe aggregate Christian membership of the State is about 400,000 souls.
The Israelites have numerous local organizations that are without edifices or stated worship, but have six syna gogues and a membership of about 5,000.
The styles of the church edifices vary much, and conform to the situations and circumstances of the people where they are located. There are comparatively few elegant buildings in the country, away from the towns and cities. Many of them are neat and comfortable, but in many places they are small, of cheap and rude structure, and wanting.in comfort as well as ornament; and such is the case with many in the cities, towns and villages. But a large proportion of those in the cities and towns are

18

INTRODUCTION.

highly creditable, and many of them handsome. There are a few that for this country are splendid edifices.
Pulpit eloquence and church music are largely culti vated, and in many places both have attained a high standard of excellence.

CEMETERIES.
In nothing has the civilization of the State shown more evidence of advancement than the improvements that have been made in latter years of the resting-places of the dead. The primitive custom of burying in the church-yards in town and country, is in many places adhered to, but generally with increased care of the graves. But, in most of the towns and in all the cities, separate places are set apart for public cemeteries. Many of these, by the natural growth and transplanted ever green trees, shrubbery, and flowers, with the variegated structures over and around the dead, are made lovely and beautiful. At the wealthy and populous cities of Augusta, Savannah, Macon, Atlanta, Columbus, Rome, Athens, they are strikingly beautiful, while the cemeteries in many of the larger towns are attractive ornaments. The Confederate and State soldiers "who died under cir cumstances that enabled their friends to inter them, or in the numerous hospitals located in the State, are distribu ted in the cemeteries and church-yards and private grave yards all over the State. Those buried on and near battle-fields have generally been collected in Confederate cemeteries at Eesaca, Marietta and Atlanta.
The Federal soldiers who died in our prisons and hospi tals, and on the battle fields in the State, who "were not carried to other States, have generally been collected in national cemeteries at Andersonville and Marietta.

INTRODUCTION.

19

PUBLIC CHARITY".
In many of the counties of the interior o the State, provision is made by the erection of poor-houses, estab lishment of poor-farms, or by disbursing the funds col lected by taxation through the county officers to support the few really indigent people. The number found in actual want and unable to subsist without public aid is small in every part of the State.
The old cities, particularly Savannah, have charitable institutions, many of which are under the auspices of voluntary associations. In many places the Protestant as well as the Catholic churches have voluntary and relief societies. Suffering1 from destitution and want, and aside from disease, is of rare occurrence in town or county.
There are three classes of unfortunates for which the State has made liberal appropriations, and established near Milledgeville an asj'lum, for the treatment and care of lunatics, at Macon an academy for the education of the blind, and at Cave Spring an institution for the edu cation of deaf mutes, all under successful operation for many years, and dispensing, in large measure, the bless ings designed by the State.
Destitute orphans have not shared the State's liberal ity, but those of the Catholic people have long been pro vided for by an asylum located at Savannah. The two Georgia conferences of Methodists have each established an orphans' home without reference to the religious faith of their parents. The north Georgia, near Decatur, and the south Georgia conference, near Macon. Both are doing well, but as yet are of limited capacity and accommoda tions.

20

INTRODUCTION".

SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES.
There are upward of 160,000 pupils, large and small, taught weekly in Sunday-schools, which are almost entirely under the care and control of the different churches. They come from all grades and classes of peo ple, and represent every variety of wealth and poverty, intelligence and ignorance among the growing generation, upon all of whom the beneficial effects, in mind and morals, and often in religion, are perceived. Sabbathschool system is on the increase. The methods of popu lar education, aside from that of Sunday-schools, have undergone important changes within the last thirty years. There is a much larger proportion of people taught let ters. The proportion of collegiate over academic instruc tion in males and females has greatly increased. The poor-school systcni, which by taxation and otherwise dis pensed limited benefits to children classified as poor, and which classification rendered the system to an extent unpopular, has for the last twelve years been superseded by a system of common schools open to all children of given ages, and of both races, without regard to pecuniary circumstances. Under the former system the main part of the education of children and youths was paid for by parents and guardians. And such is, to a great extent, still true.
The State constitution, which requires separate schools for the white and colored races, limits the system to the elementary branches of an English education. The State's appropriation of $300,000 annually, alone is sufficient to keep the children taught, from 180,000 to 190,000, in the schools but a short period of the year, and necessarily in many instances under very inferior and often unfaith-

INTRODUCTION.

21

ful instructors. Still there is some degree of elementary progress toward the training of mind flowing from the system. And its benefits are enlarged in every locality where local appropriations by counties or cities are made, and in proportion to the extent of such supplement of the State school fund.
Still the system generally over the State does not meet the demands of popular education, and schools of all grades are maintained by the people as formerly. All the towns and villages maintain good schools for the whites, and many of them also for the blacks, the expenses of which are paid by the patrons arid employers. But there are fewer country schools than formerly; and a large proportion of those seeking even academic education who reside on farms, distant from the towns, are required to incur the expense of boarding in addition to tuition.
In addition to the numerous academies, male and female and mixed, and of the respective races separate from each other, there are numerous chartered colleges, most of them in successful operation. Georgia was the first State in the world to charter and put in operation a college for the graduation of females. The Southern female college was chartered at Macon in 1836, and after wards changed to Wesleyan female college. This exam ple has been followed by all the States, and by numerous like charters and institutions established under them in this State. But this, the oldest, is the most extensive in appointments for varied instruction, and has much, the largest patronage of any similar school in the state. But many of the others have ample faculty, buildings, and arrangements for high grade of education, and have large patronage.
The Georgia female college, and Madison female col-

22

IKTRODUCTIOK.

lege are located at Madison ; the Southern female college and La Grange female college, at La Grange ; the Soxithern Masonic female college, at Covington ; Furlow Masonic female college, at Americus; Andrew female college, at Cuthbert; Young female college, at Thomasville ; Monroe female college, at Forsyth ; Houston female college at Perry; Lucy Cobb female college at Athens; College Temple (female college), at Newnan ; Columbus female college, at Columbus ; Le Vert female college, at Talbotton ; West Point female college, at West Point; Couyers female college, at Conyers ; Gamesville female college, at Gainesville ; Cherokee Baptist female college, and Home female college, at Rome ; Dalton female college, at Dalton ; Griffin female college, at Griffin ; Georgia Baptist seminary, at Gainesville. Gordon institute is a flour ishing college for males and females located at Barnesville.
The University of Georgia, formerly Franklin college, the oldest male college in the state, located at Athens ; Mercer university, located first at Penfield, Green county, and afterwards at Macon ; Oxford, located at Oxford, Newton county ; Bowden college, located at Bowden, Carroll county; and Pio-Nino, located near Macon, are the five male colleges for the white race. The Atlanta imiversity, located at Atlanta, is a nourishing college for the males and females of the colored race. The Georgia medical college at Augusta, the Atlanta medical college at Atlanta, and the Savannah medical college at Savannah are popular institutions for the graduation of physicians. The Lumpkin law school, connected with the university of Georgia for the graduation of attorneys-at-law.
There are in addition to these, several commercial and business colleges, and branch colleges of the University

INTEODUCTIOK.

23

of Georgia at Dahlonega, Milledgeville, Thomasville and Cuthbert.

PRINTING AND PUBLICATION'S.
There are fourteen daily newspapers. Two in each of the cities of Savannah, Augusta, Macon, Columbus, Griffin and Atlanta; one in Rome, and one in Albany ; and one hundred and twenty weekly papers, varying largely in size as well as patronage, distributed over the state, in eighty-five of the larger towns, cities, and villages. They are in matter and aims diversified and miscellane ous, most of. them more or less political; some devoted mainly to religion, some to agriculture, others, literary. But all devoted to progress and improvement, and as a system constitute one of the most efficient, extensive, and cheap methods of popular education. Most of them have job offices connected with them, which make print ing, aside from publication, a lucrative business in many places. There are publishing houses in Savannah, Macon, and Atlanta, and in each a medical journal.

SOCIETIES.
The agriculturists have a State agricultural society composed of representatives of the numerous county societies, holding semi-annual conventions in different sections of the State. There is also a State horticultural society, and a central organization composed of represen tatives of local societies of the Patrons of Husbandry, called the State Grange. The ritual of this order is secret. There are numerous local literary societies in addition to the Georgia Historical Society located at Savannah.
The social and benevolent orders are numerous, having local societies and state organizations, whose existence

24

INTRODUCTION.

and aims are public, but having secret rituals and exclu sive meetings. Principal among them are Masons, Odd Fellows, Good Templars, Sons of Malta, Knights of Honor, and Knights of Pythias, having numerous local lodges or societies, representatives of which constitute the Grand or State Lodges. There are also State associations of the press, of teachers, and of physicians, having annual meet ings. The North Georgia Fair and Stock Association is located at Atlanta, and a State fair is held annually, under the auspices of the State agricultural society, alternately at Macon and Atlanta. Besides there are many fair grounds well improved and extensively patronized under societies and associations in every part of the State, loca ted at the central towns. There is also a State horticul tural society.

CHAPTER I.
MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.
Georgia, the state of my nativity and ancestry, is great in physical resources of wealth, and in capabilities of de velopment and improvement in mind and morals; and therefore, in the means of rearing and maintaining a popu lation, great in number and power ; and deserves more prominence and distinction than she has, for the high grade o true merit she has already reached in her public officers, and men of leading minds in science, literature, the church, and learned professions of law and physic. The deplorable want of tangible and convenient historic description and record is a crying evil at this period when I, one of her humble citizens, reach the period of observa" tion and meditation upon men and things around me. Hence, I begin, in this crude method, to lay up in store my own conclusions of the men among whom, and of the times in which, I live.
The literature of this, as of every past age, must in great part be the product of private fortune, prompted and carried on at the behest of individual ambition and by individual enterprise. Literary persons, who have no exchequer except 'what the world returns for their valua ble contributions, live and die poor as to all that money can purchase. The abundance of luxury and ease which gold can, and usually does, provide for its owners is not favorable to the toil and labor that a pure and exalted literature requires. The hope of their comforts may stimu late the pursuit, but their possession supplants the desire

26

MY COITJEMPOKARIES.-- 1857.

for purely intellectiial pleasures. I have, therefore, rea son to rejoice in the possession of at least one of the pre requisites to literary success--a want of surplus money-- but prize as much a sufficient worldly estate to maintain my personal independence, which is essential to truth and fairness.
The grade and power of mind, as well as the passions, emotions, tastes and sensibilities of authors,, in a great degree, prompt, mould and modify the literature of the times in which they write, causing it to brighten and sparkle under the magic touch of genius, or to descend into barrenness under dull and venal thinkers and writers. It softens by the recurring emotions of charity and philan thropy, and becomes caustic and pungent when prompted or guided by malice, envy, misanthropy, or ambition dis appointed from any cause.
I have lived thirty years--long enough to have high hopes, but fortunately not enough to poison my pen by the asperities consequent on the envy of iny few disap pointments--yet, nevertheless, have witnessed far more of selfishness among men of education and cultivation, not prompted by poverty or want, than I formerly sup posed could possibly exist among the men who are leaders in the churches, in the professions, in social and political circles and among those holding public offices.
Some of the contemporaries of whom I write have already died; some are old, have performed life's public task and folded the drapery of its honors and rewards around them and retired to private life to await the sum mons for exit from time; some are in the midst of full harvest labor of what they have sown in youth and early manhood ; others are laboring in the early field--the vir gin soil of life--with minds and hearts full-strung to the

MY CONTEMPORAIUES.--1857.

27

work before them. It is of my seniors in age and merit that I write, and will doubtless omit many of equal merit with those "who are mentioned by name. ' Georgia is great in area as "well as men, and I do not profess to know all who are distinguished or deserve to be.
There is probably no standard more difficult to be well understood, much less to be fully and satisfactorily de scribed, than that of man's greatness. It has been writ ten and spoken of, represented in marble and on canvas. It has deluged the reading world with words, figures and tropes, with triumphs and tragedies, until we are left in uncertainty and doubt, not to say ignorance, of what it is or has been in any age of the world. We have liberty to erect ideal statures of strength, power and beauty, and to compare men, alive and dead, with those idealities. We may describe actions we regard as grand and momentous, and pronounce judgment of greatness upon the actors and authors; but others, viewing the transactions with different understanding, and with different shades of the light of truth, may regard the actions unimportant, and the achievements of men, made notorious by them, the results of chance and of accidental circumstances.
No matter what endowments any given man may have had by nature, or what education and training he may undergo, no meed of greatness will ever be awarded to him by mankind until he is placed in such position, and at such period, and under such emergencies as cause great events to transpire, or great results to flow from his ac tions, either in reality or in the opinion of those who are interested in or affected by those events or results. It often transpires that greatness is attributed to a leader or a projector on one side when, in truth, success is the result of weakness and want of capacity on the part of the op-

28

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

posing parties or forces. The reputation for greatness often arises to individuals for the success of plans and movements which result from and are necessary sequences of appliances and surroundings; and not unfrequently the thinking powers, knowledge, and skill of subalterns are attributed to him who fortunately is the head and leader at the time.
On the other hand, men in place and power are often censured for failures which result from circumstances be yond the control of any one man or mind. They are con demned for not doing what is not in the power of man to do with the aid and support at command. Events and circumstances have often summoned men who held power and responsible positions to the discharge of duties for which they were not qualified ; and men of great capaci ties have lived and died without distinction for want of position and power and great emergencies to call forth their efforts.
But one man ever achieved what Alexander did ; and but one man ever held at the outset of his career such power in the face of only such opposition as Philip left to his son. There was never but one Napoleon Bonaparte, but also never but one Republican Franco struggling against the domination of the monarchies of Europe. There was never but one Lord Nelson, and never but one opportunity to make another that could have immortal ized genius as the commander of the British navies was immortalized. England may subsist a. thousand years and rear a thousand men every way his equal in military skill and power before she will have the opportunity to glorify another as Wellington was glorified. Virginia may propa gate her crop of men of the blood of Randolph and Lee, and of Jefferson, and Washington, for centuries to come.

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1357.

29

and never present another Father of his Country, or Author o The Declaration of Independence.
The three great statesmen coining from the East, the West and the South--all of whom have now gone to their long homes--Webster, Clay, and Calhoun, unrivalled in the estimate placed on them by the American people, may have now living many equals in all the essential elements of true greatness who have no field in which to operate, and no emergency of circumstances to call them out and to develop their powers of thought and of speech ; who, when they die, will pass quietly into unmarked graves and leave no biographers to portray their merits.
Greece had but one Demosthenes ; but, in all her length ened and unrivalled career of glory in the arts of peace and war, she perhaps had no period or situation that could have so distinguished another. Rome had but one Cicero, and but one Golden Age to gild his fame to the cycles of hoary Time.
The splendors of Eaphael and Angelo dazzle the world in their own and following ages ; but it is probable that at no stage of civilization would the taste and passion of Italy, or any other country, for the art that so immortal ized them, have crowned even their equals, if they had been found, with wreaths of glory so bright and so en during.
The lessons taught in profane and sacred history, in the display of notably vicious men, are full of instruction on human meanness and depravity. Historic development of forbidding circumstances, and with worldly power and prominence to render crime illustrious, find their coun terparts in a thousand forms in every country and age, without their attending importance to make notorious and perpetuate them.

30

J\rY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

There was only one Job, subjected to the extreme trials that exhaust human patience without yielding, whose life is reported in the Divine Oracles; but millions have died unheralded who exemplified his virtues. There was only one Judas who ever had the opportunity to betray the most priceless of all trusts--the Saviour of the world. But the earth has since been cursed by millions ready to be tray, for no higher reward than Judas got, every truth and virtue that Christ came to inculcate and establish.
It is by comparison that we may approximate the true standard and grade of individuals. We compare stars with stars in order to classify them and determine their magni tude. This is to the astronomer a. practical undertaking, be cause the stars change not; nor do the circumstances under which they are seen expand or diminish them. But men in different situations at the same time, and in the same country, and in en of different countries and ages have to be seen in the changing light of their peculiar situations, and of circumstances that surround them, in order to form any just opinion of their capacities for great actions and achievements. Every country, and every age, has a his tory written or a tradition received in lieu of historic rec ord. Providence has so graded gifts to man, and so ap portioned them among the countries and the succeeding ages, that no period or clime is bereft of men so endowed or surrounded as to have attracted the attention of their contemporaries ; some for distinguishing virtues, and oth ers for notable vices, but of acknowledged genius or mental power.
America, from the time of her earliest settlements, through the stages of rapid progress and development, has shared very largely in the munificence of the Creator, both in mind and heart. The circumstances have been

MY CONTEMPOBAKIES.--1857.

31

favorable to the production., growth, development and display of men of talents and of genius, though not often on a large scale. She has heen fruitful of men of virtue and of vice. She has been also, in a marked degree, self-reli ant; cultivated the spirit of national, political and social independence ; been proud and exultant, as well as con scious of envy, on account of all she has achieved ; and by no means illiberal in. adulation and praise of her men. of merit.
Georgia, one of the old thirteen colonies that became States, shared the spirit of liberty and of revolution ; with her sparse population and limited resource^, contrib uted to the extent of her capacities in all the labors and trials and dangers of the war that ended in American po litical and civil independence. She was in sympathy and accord with all the republican ideas that gave shape and form and limitation to the united government of revolted and independent sovereign States. She felt the common danger, had a common treasure in the national freedom achieved, in the principles of political equality and of selfgovernment, in all that is established and secured in the Federal Constitution, to the Government, to the respect ive States, and to the people at large. Hence her public men were intensely interested and active in the move ments of the General Government, as the action of Con gress and the executive affected or tended to affect this State ; and in all the issues which grew out of national legislation and administration, and developed the antago nistic parties in the Union.
The public men of the period following that of the Revo lution and the early administrations have passed oil: the stage of action; and with them have been buried the is sues upon measures of policy and of administration of that

32

MY CONTEMPOEAB.IES.--1857.

period ; and place has been given to other issues and other men to divide and contend about them. Success and defeat have chased each other in the ebbs and flows of the tides of passion and prejudice ; of intelligence and ignorance; the popularity and odium of leaders and par ties have changed often in leadership, and sometimes in names.
The feelings, opinions and principles of men are modi fied much in and by changes of place and position ; and by the use of power on the one hand, and being the sub jects of it on the other. Men in power and with legal au thority over men love its use ; and incline to construe the grants of power in organic and statute law or from custom liberally toward its use and enlargement. Men out of power and its subjects, to be ruled by others, are jealous of it, and of the men who wield it over them; and, as a sequence, they favor a strict construction of the grants of power, and are generally found to be active and often clamorous for the vindication of all legal and constitu tional maxims that look to the securing of popular
rights. The public men of Georgia, whose lives I have had the
opportunity to study and comprehend, have partaken of the common passions and frailties of men of other States and sections, have been patriotic and unselfish enough to vindicate the true principles of Republican Government; and selfish enough to use all the advantages resulting from such patriotic public service to gain and hold positions of power, honor and profit. Vice, selfishness and perfidy, nor patriotism, philanthropy and virtue, constitute the crown of either of the political parties of this or any past pe riod of the State, but are largely distributed to both ; and it is this general truth that renders individual history of

MY CONTEMPORARIES----1SS7.

33

men, as connected with transpiring events, the most at tractive and valuable dress for the records of a country.
The results of personal ambition and individual antago nisms in the development and career of parties in the Union have been reproduced on a smaller scale by the quest for places of honor and profit, and consequent quar rels of the early political leaders of this State. The is sues passed away with them; but the seeds sown still yield fruit in the divisions and strife of men of ability, in tegrity, and patriotism. The dead men are not here to an swer for their motives, nor will the living be to reply to what may here be said of them ; still, the truth of history is of more valxie to mankind than the fame of any indi vidual leader of the people, especially if based on fiction or misunderstood pretensions to greatness.
We are at a period, already, when unbiased intelligence can discern the purity of purpose and devotion to the public good of the leaders of our local parties, and of the good people who espoused their respective causes. But time will be slow in the process, if indeed there shall ever be satisfactory development of faultless reasons for the extremes to which they allowed themselves to go.
While the ambition of priests and clergymen, in extreme zeal for the cause of religion as understood by them and for the prerogatives of official power, has deluged the world with religious sects, that of political leaders lias brought upon the country heartless divisions among good people, aiming at the same general objects--good govern ment and the protection of life, liberty, and property.
It is, therefore, no violation of the facts and truths of our State history to say that the parties who have had their day upon the stage in great part were the har vest of seed sown by party leaders, and were watered and

34

WY CONTEMPORARIES.--1867.

matured by their personal aspirations, conflicts, and quar rels. Our descendants will never be able to discern why a quarrel and duel between two public men should for years divide and support a feud between the people of a State.
There never lias been a time in this State when her people generally, and with rare exceptions, were not thor oughly devoted to the cause of liberty and independence; never a time since the leaders of the United States gov ernment sprang divisions on strict and latitudinous con struction and upon the question, on one side, of a strong central government ; on the other, strong checks on Federal power and assumptions of power, and a strict guard over the reserved rights of the State and the peo ple--in a word, since there was a Republican party making popular rights the leading idea, and a Federal party making a strong central government the para mount aim--that the people of this state were not thor oughly republican, independent of all local divisions and parties. The Nullification, the State rights, the Troup, the Whig parties, have ever been sound union parties on a proper and secure basis and well defined security to constitutional rights. The Republican^ the Union, the Clark, and Democratic have always been devoted to State rights, as both parties understood their elementary prin ciples. Their divisions on men have generally been the results of passion; and those upon issues of policy often resulted from the bent of parties already organized to follow chosen men. as leaders.
While this is true, wa cannot be indifferent to the masterly powers, the moral courage, and personal great ness of the men our fathers followed and honored. The hearts swells with admiration as their characters are

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1867.

35

brought to us in authenticated tradition and in sparsely written history. It is cause of regret that neither is full nor infallible. The contests between the adherents of Gov. John Clark and Gov. George M. Troup, growing out of temporary differences between people of the same aim and common destiny, are still in the memory of the old men of the State ; and the complexion of their politics and the status of their political alignments have often been produced by the prejudices engendered in those heated contests. They have been repeated and repro duced "with changes of leaders and issues, and the efflux of time to the present. It has never been accepted as a mark of a bad man that his party suffered defeat under his lead. Eacers have always been fruitful of excuses for the failure of a favorite steed, in the condition of the track, the mistakes of the rider, the health and keeping of the horse, and have been ready and anxious to risk the purse upon him in a second trial. So it has ever been with the people and the candidates of the Whig and Democratic parties of this State. I well remember the exultations of the Democrats, and mortification of the "Whigs, when Charles J. McDonald was elected over their idol and model leader, Charles Dougherty. for governor, and later over William C. Dawson. And when the rejoic ing was at the highest tide in the Whig camp, when George W. Crawford defeated the noble old Roman, Mark A. Cooper, in 1843, and the sterling and solid Mathew Hall McAlister in 1845. And again, 1847, the tide of victory was turned to the Democrats in the triumph of their graceful and gifted leader, George W. Towns, over Gen. Duncan IJ. Clinch ; and ill 1849 over the gifted, able, and accomplished Edward Young Hill. But these, like the contests of Cilmer and Joel Crawford, Lumpkin,

CENERA.C LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY of GEORGIA
AIHENS, CJ&QRGiA

36

MY CONTEMPOBABIES.-- 1857.

and Schley, resulted from the ebbs and flows of the tide of fortune of parties closely matched in leadership and in numerical strength. The beaten leaders were wounded and not slain; defeated and not conquered; not dis graced or disqualified from entering the recurring con flicts between the contending hosts.
Many of the leaders and ambitious aspirants have changed party alignments and associations. Such changes have been attributed by the parties they left to -resent ments and disappointments, and to hopes of better suc cess in the ranks of the party to which they had been opposed of becoming leaders and obtaining office, Rut such changes have usually taken place upon the change of issues, or the action of parties upon public measures, -affording plausible and reasonable grounds for what were commonly denominated political somersaults. And they have been generally attended with warm reception by the party to which they acceded. Parties were never otherwise than so in need of as to desire and give encour agemcnt to new recruits, and to be able to see the most patriotic motives on their part; while the party losing the leader professed to find out then that he had always been selfish and actuated by motives of personal ambition.
One of the most potent agencies that have tended to make Georgia a great State was, that, on all the issues of the past, the parties seeking to gain or hold power have been so equally divided as to keep the leaders, aiid the party press, perpetually vigilant and active. The policy of putting forward the ablest and best men for public honors was dictated by the exigencies, and the require ment for men of ability and spotless reputation as stand ard bearers and leaders. The espionage or guard over the public officers by political opponents has always been

MY COHTEMPOBABIES.--1857.

37

a security against their wilful or negligent dereliction in official duties. The parties were usually led by men of ability, fair fame, and ambition on either side, feeling that they were the custodians of the honor and reputa tion of their respective organizations. The leaders were followed and supported by people of a common blood and heritage, who felt the sacred duty and trust of ever seconding and sustaining their leaders. The natural re sult, among people who have a rich country, ease and exemption from toil, with leisure to devote to the matters of government, has been to make them intelligent in poli tics, and jealous of the fame of their leaders, and to erect a high standard of patriotism, and of official and per sonal integrity.
One of the striking evidences of popular virtue is that, from my earliest recollection, the .most effective weapon with which to strike the enemy in a party contest has been to assail the candidate with whatsoever imparts personal dishonor, dereliction of official duty, or infidelity to any trust, provided the charges were true. But if false, they were the most powerful agencies of solidifying the party, and making its members active, and recoiled terribly upon the accusing party.
The active and controlling men are large parts of the sum total of the period, that must in some form, and to some extent, truly or erroneously, go into its history. But confidence falters in contemplation of the attempt to daguerreotype them, and to draw a picture to be seen after the objects have perished with the author and the heat and passion that are now realized shall have passed out of the sight and memory of men.
The State has a brilliant array of men in office. James M. Wayne, associate justice of the supreme court of the

38

MY COKTEMPOBAEIES.--1857.

United States, one of the men of large brain and good balance of mind of the old class of men still on duty ; John C. Nicholl, justice of the United States district of Georgia, holding- the circuit and district courts of the southern district of Georgia at Savannah ; and the court of the northern district of Georgia, in which the juris diction of the circuit and district courts are blended, at Marietta. Both are men of learning and probity, and have the full confidence of the lawyers and people.
Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Charles J. McDonald, and Henry L. Benning, judges of the supreme court of the State. There are several superior court judges, wlio arc perhaps inferior to them only in position, William B. Fleming, of Savannah, William W. Holt, of Augusta ; the bold, impetuous, and eloquent advocate without supe rior, the fearless, political speaker, and able jurist, Thomas W. Thomas, of Elberton ; Orville A. Bull, of LaGrange, who is a staid and steady, and sterling man, as well as cautious and well-balanced jurist; James H. Stark, of Griffin, who came afoot to Georgia as a school teacher, and worked his way up to the level of the ablest and clearest-headed judges of the State. He is a ma,n of terseness and brevity, and without eloquence, with a large heart and unbounded charity, of perennial humor and wit, whom it is easy to love as a friend ; Robert V. Hardernan, of Clinton, a ruddy, bland, well-rounded, and somewhat ponderous man, whose body moves slowly, and mind in like manner, but with great certainty and relia bility, and a man whose integrity is so long settled as to never be mentioned ; Turner H. Trippe, of Cassville, who has been recalled to the bench in his advanced life, hav ing served in that capacity many years ago ; James Jackson, of Athens, somewhat young, but honored and

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

39

true representative of a historic family ; Joseph E. Brown, of Canton, Dennis IFletcher rlammond, of Newnan, Ales. A. Alien, of Bainbridge, Peter E. Love, of Thomasville, A. E. Cochran, of Brunswick, David Kiddoo, of Cuthbert, Abner P. Powers, of Macon, and Edmond H. Worrell, of Talbotton.
David J. Bailey, of Griffin, a man of vigorous and bold mind, as lawyer and politician, and of tall and manly form, who has served with distinction in Congress, is the president of the State senate, and William H. Stiles who also represented the State in Congress with distinction, and the government of the United States as minister to Austria under President Polk, a man of elegance and polish, and a gifted orator, has accepted the honorable service of representative of Chatham county, in the Leg islature, and is speaker of the House. tlerchel V. John son is governor, and in the full splendor of mental and physical manhood.
It is noteworthy truth, that either but few men of fee ble constitution, or short-lived tendencies, are called to high stations of honor in this State, or that such places tend to the promotion of longevity. All the governors who have been in office since John Clark retired in 1823, are still in life except George W. Towns who was some what frail, with all his grace of person, and John Forsyth, whose physical frame, and form and development, made him a marked man in any presence, and without superiors.
George M. Tronp, whose life is a part of the history of this State for many years, is seventy-six years old, a large slaveholder on his plantations, with all the ease that wealth can purchase for the old, and all the freedom and independence of thought and speech that result from the remaining vigor of his strong and fearless mind.

40

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

Wilson Lumpkin, aged seventy-four., William Schley, aged seventy-one, and George R. CJ-ilmer, sixty-six, all men of above average native capacity, and of large expe rience in public service, and of unquestioned probity and patriotism, are in the ease and comfort of home in private life, enjoying the reward of conscious public vir tue and fidelity, and of duty well and faithfully per formed. George W. Crawford, one of the most successful and popular of the modern governors, and one of the best of the old Whigs, lives in the case of his private fortune, and declines the public honors in the gift of his party. He is fifty nine years old, and well preserved. Charles J. McDonald, after retiring from the executive office, pur sued his law practice with success, and now discharges the arduous labors of justice of the supreme court; and no judge of that court since its organization, twelve years ago, has died.
Ho well Cobb, one of the marked men of the State and of the Union, is still a comparatively young man. He was speaker in Congress before he was governor, and on his defeat for "United States senator retired to private life until the next election for Congress in his district, when he accepted service in that body. He is supposed to be on the high road to the presidency of the United States by those who best comprehend his rare combination of mental powers and popular manners, his deep and un swerving patriotism, integrity and fidelity, with a large measure of ambition for that extraordinary distinction.
In Congress the array is exceptionally brilliant--Robert Toombs, one of the old Whig leaders, is a Democratic senator, with Alfred Iverson, an old Democrat.
In addition to Howell Cobb, who has returned to the House, we have one of the brightest intellects of the

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41

Union, who has been constantly a member since 1842, Alexander Hamilton Stephens. Hiram Warner, who had served in early life in the Legislature, three terms as judge of the superior court and one as justice of the supreme court, after several years' retirement, represents his district as an old line Democrat. John Henry Lumpkin, the nephew o Wilson and Joseph Henry, who is an old Demo cratic leader of Cherokee, Georgia, has been solicitor, judge, and had large experience in Congress, with fair abilities and great personal fidelity and popularity. Na thaniel Green Foster, a man of splendid form and person, an able lawyer and Baptist preacher, and James L. Seward, an able lawyer, represent the Savannah district. Hobert P. Trippe, one of the favorite Whig leaders of middle Georgia, represents the Macon district. The Columbus district, where there are so many men of ability and dis tinction, is represented by the elegant, polished, and gifted young Martin J. Crawford, whose name and kindred are largely blended in the State's history.
Since the earliest of my recollection there has been an array of men of both parties in this State among whom it was an honor to be prominent and distinguished, some of whom have died, but very many still live.
I was an enthusiastic listener, not long since, to that man who among the living is as generally beloved as any, Joseph Henry Lumpkin, describing to me the men promi nent in his part of the State in former years. He had exalted opinions of many of them, but among them- all William H. Crawford was the Ajax in mind, and a man of true nobility of character with all his powers.
His language was, " He stood a full head and shoulders above all the men of his day in this State." He has now been dead twenty-three years, and if his great spirit ob-

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MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

serves the affairs of the country he so loved in life, no doubt lie has joy in the height and grandeur to which his surviving admirer has risen. Lurapkin is in the full de velopment of his physical and almost godlike manhood and intellectual vigor. He is not a politician from taste, though a decided Whig. He is a Christian and philan thropist and a scholar of large attainments, and an orator of great and almost magic power that distinguished him from his early youth. Standing aloof from political pur suits, extensive practice matured him as a lawyer and made him famous as advocate. Close application and labor on the supreme court bench, have ripened him into an able and profound judge. His uniform purity and virtue in public and private have securely established him in the confidence of lawyers and people of all parties; and the tribute of no one man coiild be of more value than that he freely and sincerely pays to the personal friend and political idol of his youth and young manhood.
But his senior brother, Wilson Lumpkin, who has main tained in public office in both Houses of the State Legis lature and of Congress, as governor for two terms, and in all places of public trust the unbroken confidence of his party and the respect and esteem of all good people in public and in private, is a severe and sterling Democrat. He admired John M. Dooly, had stronger faith in his political wisdom and integrity. John M. Dooly was, from tradition and description by those who have seen him, a widely different man from Wilson Ijumpkin whom I have seen and talked with often. Lumpkin is a plain-spoken, candid, old ruddy man with white luxuriant hair, a man of labor and toil, of truth without fiction or poetry, who won his way to public confidence and position and held them by common sense, common honesty, industry, and

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

43

integrity. Dooly was a man of electricity in body and mind, whose large, piercing black eye spoke itself in vol umes of convincing power in harmony with his severe reason and logic.
Many of the old men regard Thomas W. Cobb, some Duncan G. Campbell, some Eli S. Shorter and some John Porsyth, as the greatest man of that period. The last named seems to deserve special mention in connection with William H. Crawford, on account of their respective long and brilliant career and opposing political opinions. They lived in a section of the Union not favorable to the highest national honor on account of political weakness; but it is doubtful if tliese men had many, if any, superiors in the Union in intellectual power or personal presence and magnetic influence over men. Both were of the highest type of physical development in the New World ; both ambitious, daring, and brave. Porsyth was a little younger than Crawford and survived him from 1834 to 1841. They both came when young from Virginia, where heroes and statesmen were born, and transmitted the blood royal of republican liberty to their descend ants. Crawford was in the Senate, and Porsyth in the House of Congress from this State in the early years of the century. Both have been distinguished in the Senate and House at different periods and as cabinet officers and as foreign ministers, Crawford in Prance, and Forsyth in /Spain.
Crawford the defeated candidate for president of the United States, in shattered health, the idol of his country men, spent the last years of his life as judge of his circuit. Porsyth had been a United States senator as early as 1818, governor as early as 1827, and afterward returned to the Senate. Both died with the full confidence of their

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MY CONTEMPORARIES.--185T.

countrymen, and the halo of public honors that has gathered around their long, historic, and brilliant exer cise of the masterly powers with wliich nature had en dowed them is a part of the treasure the living have in the lives of the dead.
A few years later, and coming near to the present, other leaders became prominent and powerful, "were loved and honored by the people, and have passed away. Charles Dougherty, John McPherson Berrien, Andrew J. Miller, and James A. Meriwether of the Whigs; Walter T. Colquitt, Hugh A. Haralson, Joseph Jackson and George W. Towns of the Democrats. With the men of the middle sec tion of the State, Dooly, Harris, Cobb, and Crawford lived and have been succeeded by Lumpkin, Junius Hillyer, Howell Cobb, Hope Hull, William C. Dawson, and Francis II. Cone. Charles Dougherty was an idol with the bar and people. No standard is regarded as too high by which to measure the power of his mind or the magnitude of his heart, and none too gentle or too pure by which to test his priceless social virtues. He gave his counsel and ad vice like the sun gives his light and heat; all could feel their warmth and see their wisdom. Nature made him great, but the whig party failed to invest him with politi cal power. But his defeat only kept, as similar fortune has kept many of our best men who are fit as he was for any station, in the shades of private life.
His heart was in full accord with his mind ; and his moral courage was equal to any emergency He differed from Berrien, Dawson, Jenkins, Toombs, Stephens and other lea,ders of his party, in 1850, as to the true course for the South, on account of anti-slavery aggressions on the part of the North ; and like a few others of the old Whigs younger in years, such as Lucius J. Gartrell, Wat-

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

45

son G. Harris, James L. Seward, and James N. Hamsey, took open position with the Southern Eights Democrats of the State.
John McPherson Berrien began the public service when young ; died old after he had been in it nearly half a cen tury, and without a spot or stain upon his escutcheon.
He was long engaged as solicitor, and afterwards judge of the eastern circuit; member of the Legislature ; attor ney general of the United States ; and for many years, at different periods in the United States Senate ; and dur ing all his life as an eminent practitioner of the law. In all he was distinguished for his stability, dignity, urbanity, method and caution ; and for the highest grade of foren sic and parliamentary ability ; and for devotion to his set tled convictions of right. He was ten years the senior of his neighbor and personal and political friend, Judge Wil liam Law: who has been less in political life; but has much of the suavity and polish, dignity and probity, so justly and universally awarded the lamented senator, and is scarcely, if at all, his inferior as a lawyer and jurist.
The most remarkable democratic leader of the genera tion thus passed, and passing away in this State, was the contemporary, and, for a period, the rival of Judge Berrien for political championship in the Senate : Walter T. Colquitt. As a member of the House and Senate, judge of the superior court, minister of the Gospel, practitioner and advocate as a lawyer and political stump orator, his name is a household word, from the time of my earliest memory. His contemporaries at the bar ascribe to him as an advocate powers that were marvellous, not to say, irre sistible. His style of oratory on the stump, where I fre quently heard him, had no model, or successful imitator in the men of the period. Many men have strong passion

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MY CONTEMPOKARIES.--1857.

and power of delivery ; and can create intense excitement in large crowds of assembled masses in open air. But none were his equal in all the elements of a magic-work ing orator : intensity of his own excitement and physical action, the music and harmony of a powerful voice imder the command of a powerful mind and hody. And none approximated him when the magic of his almost resistless eloquence gave place, often suddenly, to his humor, un bounded in current; and his wit, that flared as quickly and brightly as the lightning ; and was as terrible on his foes as the thunderbolt itself.
Bat his ardent love of truth made him too ardent a de fender of right for the political times of his latter days. It made him a " Southern Eights Man," a " Fire Eater " as they were called, who made the cause of the South, in the attempt to stay the tide of Northern anti-slavery ag gressions, paramount to parties. His strong enunciation in public and private, upon the magnitude of the impend ing struggle which seemed to him imminent, now so hap pily postponed, made him, in the opinion of many, nil ex tremist, and sectionalist, looking to the dreaded calamity of disunion and revolution. And such views in reference to him, by the people, for the vindication of whose rights he was, in their judgment, too ardent, disarmed him in his latter days of much of the power he coiild have other wise possessed over the popular will.
Hugh A. Haralson was not so brilliant or eloquent as Colqvdtt, Cobb and Johnson ; but was a man of fine pres ence and bearing. His personal integrity and fidelity to the people who honored him, close attention to official duty, gave him a strong hold on the affections of the peo ple of western Georgia ; and made him a powerful Dem ocratic leader. He -was one of the few men whose terms

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

47

of public office did not fluctuate with the ebbing and flow ing of the closely matched parties of his district.
One of the best men of the period was a man whose services were confined to his own State : the lamented Andrew J. Miller., of Augusta. Not ambitious, but devoted to the public good ; modest, yet bold and fearless ; an hon est man loving1 the right, he was ever firm in maintaining it. He was not eloquent, but able; not haughty., but proud in the dignity of a true and noble man,, conscious of the rectitude of his purposes and fearless of criticism or censure. Mr. Miller had but few superiors, but the friends of both, as well as political opponents, did not hesitate to rank above him, his neighbor and lifelong personal and political friend,--Charles J. Jenkins.
Mr. Jenkins is one of the truly great, as well as noble men of the age. Not the equal of Stephens, Toombs, and his successful rival, Johnson, in impassioned eloquence, in the capacity to move, stir and enthuse great multitudes of mixed people, his style, manner and bearing are more suited to leadership of intellectual assemblies. lie is not the inferior of these in correctness, depth and vigor of thought. His style is as faultless, and his sentences as perfect. lie speaks after deliberation, and never has to take back, modify or explain, in order to keep pace with other men or to drift with the popular current.
James A. Meriwether, another AYhig leader, has also lately gone, of whose mental powers a higher estimate is due than many of his associates and friends were willing to award him. He had been a Whig member of Congress and served with distinction ; had graced the bar and bench, and was at the time of his death an honored Representa tive of Putnam county, and speaker of the House ofKepresentatives of the State Legislature,

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MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

The Warren Brothers.--These distinguished lawyers and prominent members of the old Whig party in south ern Georgia are natives of Burke county. Lott was born in October, 1798, and Eli in February, 1801. The father, Joseph Warren, removed to Lawrence county, where he and the mother died while Lott and Eli were two of a large family of children, and were raised in Wilkinson countj^, by their brother-in-law, Reverend Charles Culpepper, who educated them in the country schools, neither ever having been at school in a town or village. Lott caine to the bar at Dublin about 1820, was after wards solicitor general and State senator. In 1828 was elected judge of the southern circuit, as a Troup man, was afterwards beaten for the office by Honorable Moses Fort, a Clark man, and removed to Americus, where he practised a number of years and removed to Albany ; was elected to Congress in 1838 and 1840, and was twice elected judge of the southern circuit, and his administra tion is remarked for ability and integrity. He is, more over, a Baptist minister of pure and spotless character. He, like his brother Eli, never drank intoxicating liquors, never chewed or smoked tobacco. Eli, when a youth, spent two years in Mississippi ; but returned to Georgia and, in the office of his brother, studied law and was ad mitted to the bar in 1823. Ho served many years as a member of the Legislature of Lawrence county, in the House and Senate ; and was often elected without oppo sition. He now resides at the beautiful town of Perry, in Houston county, and practises law.
It is doubtful if any State has produced such an array of intellectual men as Georgia at this period. Iu truth, the number is such, of men whose endowments wrould have made them noted in other times, that abilities alone,

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

49

without attending propitious circumstances, are not suf ficient to secure more than ordinary local distinction. The general diffusion of education, and the manifest re wards of superior intellectuality have summoned the mil lion to the competition, while many have been aroused to effort by the demands of poverty, or the urgent claims of business in their respective trades, avocations, and po sitions in life.
There are comparatively few who have been devoted to literature, or to study and learning, except as they seemed necessary in and ancillary to their success in other pursuits.
We have had and now have many preachers in the or thodox churches in this State, of pulpit eloquence that would have distinguished them in this or any country in Europe a century or two ago, who have been known only to a limited extent beyond the circle of pastoral duties. The State has given many able preachers to the church, such, for instance, as Lovic Pierce, James O. Andrew, Jesse Mercer, John E. Dawson, Alonzo Church, S. K. Talrnage, Stephen Elliott, Ignatius Few, John Colinsworth, Charles D. Malory, Vincent Thornton, William Arnold, Andrew Hainmel, Isaac Waddell, Asa Chandler, Billington M. San ders, Cyrus White, James Henderson, Joel Colley, Wil liam Moseley, A. B. Longstreet, John Walker Glenn, Jo seph S. Baker, Adam T. Holmes, Alien Turner, Samuel Anthony, Jesse H, Campbell, Jonathan Davis, Alexander Means, George F. Pierce, Henry H. Tucker, Jesse Boring, William J. Parks, William T. Brautley, Charles M. Irvine, James E. Evans, Russell Renneau, Caleb Key, Armenius Wright, Shaler G. Hillyer, Alfred T. Mann, Patrick H. Mell, E. H. Myers, Nathaniel Macon Crawford, John Jones, John S. Wilson, Edward Neufville, Henry Kollock, John

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MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

P. Duncan, Eustace Spear, Isaac Axson, ------ IToyt, C. W. Lane.
Preachers, like lawyers, differ from each other in men tal and physical constitution, in temper, manner, and doubtless in depth, stability, and sincerity of piety their chief qualification for their sacred mission. Those who have distinguished themselves, and accomplished great good, have differed widely in early advantages of educa tion, and in their progress in and cultivation of general learning; as in the above short list, which contains some of the most learned, as well as a few whose learning "was limited almost to the text and commentaries of standard authors on the Bible. They also differ widely as to their methods of preserving, to transmit to future generations, the benefits of their study and labor. Some will live in their sermons and theological disquisitions ; while others, dealing alone in, and producing powerful effect by extem poraneous logic, pathos and eloquence, will live only in "vague tradition, and that but for a brief period of the world's rapid march and change.
It is a period of silent revolution in the methods of propagating religion and gaining members to the Chris tian churches. Instead of appealing to the middle aged and the old, and relying on persons of matiire mind and age to keep the ranks of the laity filled, and to supply the places of departing a.nd retiring clergy, it is found that the children are more easily inducted, and more to be relied on for increasing the membership. Instead of converting people who are hardened in sin and inured to vice, the leading minds of the churches have directed their policy more to early training, arid to bringing up people to be religious from childhood. Hence the Sab bath school system has become popular and in general

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use. Men of ability and eloquence, instead of preaching to large crowds at camp and maps religious meetings, who are not often accustomed to hear eloquent discourses^ now, on account of the increase of preachers and local churches, preach more often in church edifices and to regular con gregations and organized churches ; and hence it is more difficult to become widely known, even if there were fewer eloquent pulpit orators.
It is not so with lawyers and politicians. The contests over life, liberty, and property draw the people to the fo rum of public j ustice, and the antagonisms of opposing parties arouse the masses, and draw the people together to hear their chosen speakers and leaders. Political lit erature and news are far more attractive to the great ma jority of men than that of art. science, or the Bible.
It attracts attention that a large volume of legal talent in this State is in brothers, such as Alexander II. and Linton Stephens,Charles and William Dougherty of this State, and Robert Dougherty of Alabama ; Howell and Thomas R. R. Cobbj Eli and Lott Warren of Southern Georgia ; Daniel and Alexander McDougald of Columbus; Edward Y. of Lagrange, and Joshua Hill of Madison ; Nathaniel and Albert Foster of Madison, Ebenezer D. and Charles Cr. of Newnan, and William McKinley of Milledgeville ; John I. of Newton, and Stuart Floyd of Morgan county, Edmond II. of Talbot, and Bedford S. Worrell of Stewart county, John Worrell of Sumter county ; Obadiah C. of Upson, and William Gibson of Warren county ; Seaborn Jones of Muscogee, and John A. Jones of Polk county ; Augustus H. Hansell of Pulaski, and Andrew J. Hansell of Cobb county ; William F. of Coweta, and Gilbert J. Wright of Carroll county ; William W. and Henry P. Merrell of Carroll county ; Philemon and Edward D.

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MY COSTEMPOKAEIES.--1857.

Tracy of Macon ; William and Cliarles D. Phillips of Cobb county ; Eugenius L. and Marcellus Douglass of Randolph county; Richard P. Lyon and John Lyoii of Dougherty county; Eugenius A. and James A. Nesbit of Macon; William K. De Graffenreid of Macon, and Benjamin B. De Graffeureid of Milledgeville ; Samuel Hall and Robert S. Hall of Miicon county ; John McPherson Berrien of Sa vannah, Thomas M. Berrien of Wayriesboro, and I. W. M. Berrien of Rome ; George S. and John W. Owens, Savan nah ; Joseph E. and James R. Brown, Cherokee county; Lncius J. Gartrell of Fulton, and John O. Gartrell of Cobb county ; George N. of Cobb, and Paul Lester of Forsyth county; John R. and Thomas W. Alexander, Rome; George D. of Cobb, and John H. Rice of Cass county ; Hiram and Obadiah Warner of Meriwether county ; John W. Barney of Jasper, and Thomas I. B-arney of Morgan county ; Henry H. and William Gumming of Augusta ; George, John, and William R. Schley of Augusta ; I. T. and R. I. Bacon of Lagrange ; Samuel C. of Sumter,,and William D. Elam of Marion county. A large number of whom have been prominent in the legal profession, and many of them in the politics of the State. But it only presents a partial list of the prominent and gifted men of this period.
Barnard Hill of Talbot ; David Irwin of Cobb ; Warren Akin of Cnss ; Charles Murphy of DeKalb ; William H. Dabney of Gordon ; Nathan Tj. Hutchings of Gwinnett; Junius Wingfield of Putnam ; James M. Calhoun and John Collier of Fulton ; David H. Vason and Henry Morgan of Dougherty ; Augustus Eeese, Thomas P. Saffold and Isham Fannin of Morgan ; William M. Reese of Willies ; Edward II. Pottle of Warren ; Isaac E. Bower of Baker ; William C. Perkins of Randolph ; Eldridge G. Cabaniss

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53

and James S. Pinchard of Monroe ; David W. Lewis of Hancock ; W. H. Dabney, of Gordon ; Thomas Chandler, of Carroll county,--are among the stable men of failability without brilliancy, and take high rank in their sec tions of the State.
Among the older class of able men are William Ezzard and Amos W. Hamrnond of Atlanta ; Iverson L Harris and Augustus II. Kenan of Milledgeville ; Washington Poe, Absalom H. Chappell, Samuel Terry Bailey, John R,utberford,>Jam-es I. Gresham, Henry G.Lamar of Macon ; Junius Hillyer of Athens ; William T. Gould, Ebenezer Starnes, John Millcge of Augusta ; William S. Rockwell, William B. Flemrning, the lamented Robert M. Charlton, William Law, Levi S. De Lyoii of Savannah; Thomas Butler King of Glynn conntjr.
Among the brilliant men in middle a,ge are John E. Ward, Francis S. Bartow, Henry R. Jackson, Alexander R Lawton of Savannah ; John W. II. Underwood, Augus tus R. Wright of Rome ; William Hope Hull, and Cincinnatus Peeples of Athens ; Luther J. Glenn, Lucius J. Gartrell, Basil H. Overby of Atlanta ; William W. Clark, John A. Tucker and Burwell K. Harrison of Stewart county ; Robert McMillan of Habersham county; Thomas W. Thomas of Elbert county.
Among the able and prominent men of middle age are Edward J. Harden, Thos E. Lloyd, Henry Williams of Savannah ; Robert P. Trippe of Monroe; Lucins H. Featherstone of Heard county; Blount C. Ferrell of Troup county ; Eobert J. Cowart of Atlanta; Elijah W. Chastain of Gilmer ; H. S. M'Kay of Sumter county ; Samuel Y. Jamisoii of Union county; Richard M. Johnson of Hancock ; James Miliier of Cass county; Andrew H. H. Dawson, J. M. Lovell of Savannah ; Richard Simms and Joseph Law of

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MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

Bainbridge ; Samuel S. Stafford of Early county, Amos T. Akerman, Robert Hester of Elbert county ; Mial M. Tidwell of Eayette county ; Thomas Morris of Franklin, Ben jamin Oliver of Heard county; James P. Simmons of Gwinnett county ; Andrew J. Hansell of Cobb county ; James A. Pringle of Houston; Samuel P. Thoward of Jackson county ; George A. Hall, Obadiah Warner of Meriwether county; Hartford Green of Pike county ; Leonard T. Doylall of Griffin; Robert S. Burcli, A. T. Mcliityre of Thomas county ; John B. Morgan of Troup county ; Noel B. Night of Cobb county ; Porter Ingram of Harris.
Among the prominent younger men my seniors, some o whom are able and brilliant, are Logan E. Bleckley of Atlanta ; Hugh Buchanan of Coweta ; James M. Smith of Upson ; Levi B. Smith of Talbot; William A Harris of Worth; Willis A. Hawkins of Sumter; John L. Harris of Glynn ; Ambrose R. Wright of Jefferson ; William T. WoffordofCass; Edward Dale Chisolm of Polk; Thomas Hardeman, Jr. and Alexander M. Spear of Bibb ; Janaejs N. Ramsey a.nd James M. Mobley of Harris county; Alfred H. Colquitt of Baker; Benjamin H. Bighan of Troup; Joel A. Billups of Morgan ; Leander W. Crook of Chattooga ; Rufus W. McCane of Spalding; W. S. Wallace of Taylor ; George T. Bartlett of Jasper ; Alexander Pope of Wilkes ; James R. Lyon of Butts ; Miles W. Lewis of Green; Richard H. Clark of Baker ; Samuel Hall of Macon ; John A. Jones, Jr., Beverly E. Thornton of Muscogee; John Jinks Jones of Burke county ; Charles W. Mabry of Heard county ; Daniel S. Printup of Floyd county ; Osborne A. Loclirane of Bibb county.
There are many men who have attained political dis tinction who are not lawyers, among them the learned and eloquent Dr. Homer V. M. Miller of Rome, a man

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55

long distinguished as the Demosthenes of the mountains, who has never been elected to a public office ; the brilliant and eloquent James Watson Harris of Cass county ; Gen. William B. Woflbrd of Habersham; Thomas Stocks of Green ; Gen. Peter Cone of Bullock ; Joseph Dunnegan of Hall; Dr. George D. Phillips of Habersham ; James Gard ner and Thomas C. Howard, who retired from the law practice early to enter upon the brilliant career of polit ical editors ; Theodore L. Guerry of Randolph ; and John D. Stell of Fayette county; Simp son Fouche of Floyd county ; Mark A. Cooper of Cass county.
These lists do not embrace by far all, but present a fair representation of the prominent Georgians of the period, extending as it does from the old and retiring, down to many not much older than myself whose race of life is still to run.
There are two men now in advanced life, about whom a separate volume might be written, more important to the prosperity of the State than any of our politicians, wlio long ago retired from law and politics to carry forward to its grand success the great railway improvement of the State; these are Richard R. Cuyler of Savannah and John P. King of Augusta.
If each individual mentioned were the subject of a truth ful sketch, there would be manifest the greatest possible diversity of talents and capabilities, of learning, of habits of industry and application, of style and manner, of culture and taste, as well as moral character. Many of them are church members, and some are consistently religious; others far less consistent in practice. Many who do not profess to be religious and are not church members are stable in morals, and noted for purity of character in public and private. Some are addicted to drunkenness,

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some to gaming, and some to other sensual vices but the array of personal integrity, honor, morality, and purity of private character, is lovely to contemplate by all -who are interested in the preservation of the glory of the present and transmitting- it to future generations.
I present five men together whom I closely noticed because of their eccentricities as well as power and influ ence, and their striking diversity of character : Owen H. Kermn, John A, Jones, Thomas A. Latham, John Kay, and William H. Underwood. None of them are noted for piety, or the use of religious pretension for worldly aims. Jones, Kenan, and Latham. defy the Church and society in some of its forms and requirements. Like many of our public men they suffer the misfortune of being addicted to profane swearing in public and private, a mode of parlance and emphasis that, like that of drink ing in high life, has to be tolerated on account of the respectability and number of men of wealth and social power who follow it j but which lowers the dignity and weakens the influence of many of the able men of the State.
Kenan was prominent as a lawyer and judge, out spoken, impulsive, and ardent in everything in which he engaged, exacting and dictatorial, as well as honest and brave. A man of tall and large frame, commanding man ner and air, and severe rough features j wore a doublebreasted coat buttoned around his chest, and a heavy watch-chain and seal, and the balance of his toilet in neg ligence. He is the subject of many anecdotes and narra tives among the old lawyers. The latter years of liis life have been on a rich farm in Murray county, sur rounded by wealth and ease.
Jones, who also has retired from practice on his estate

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in Polk county, is stout and vigorous and hale at three score and ten, or thereabouts, and has all the fire and courage of a man of forty. Though not regarded as the equal in law learning and power as an advocate with his brother Seaborn, he has been when pursuing the practice an able lawyer, and was for a short time judge of his circuit. He is a severe advocate, a generous and confiding friend, and a vindictive foe ; has reduced Jefferson's theory of State rights and sovereignty to extreme radical ideas and is an intolerant partisan. He was for several years prominent as member of the Legislature, and is the au thor of the Bill of 1847 establishing or allowing a short form of pleading which dispenses, in great part, with legal knowledge and skill in the pleader, the labor o drafting, and has therefore come into common use in our courts.
His hatred to the people of the North and of the gov ernment of the United States knows no bounds, and he lives in hope of the political separation and independence of the slaveholding States--wears his hair and beard long, and openly and often swears never to shave until the State of Georgia shall have seceded from the Union.
Thomas A. Latham, of Campbell county, is a man of more general and pleasurable observation and remark, whom everybody who knows him, in defiance of the ordinary basis of full trust and confidence, naturally and voluntarily likes and derives amusement and pleasure from because he is ready to do good and be kind to all, a,nd can be provoked to hurt or harm none save those who are so unwise as to assail him or depredate xipon his rights. He is in excess of six feet in height when at ease, and a good deal so when aroused, and is of form and size to match. Body, head, and features large, the skin that

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MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

shows age, as well as gray hairs, is of coarse cellular tis sue, fie stands with his body much in advance of his lower limbs and feet, which are also large. He adheres to the old method of tying his huge cravat and to the gorgeous ruffle bosom shirt, to the double-breasted, long swallow-tail coat, and allows on big occasions the expan sive bandanna handkerchief to hang out gorgeously from the rear pocket. When quiet he is almost as still as a tombstone., when aroused he is almost a volcano in human form. The current of his affections is like a river in. its flow, and that of his invective and resentment like the lava from Vesuvius,
He prides himself in being from old Virginia and in all the amenities of the primitive stock of gentlemen when he is amiable, gentle, and kind, but defies all forms and ceremonies when the exigencies of the occasion, or the fury of intoxication, disengage the sleeping elements of the antagonist. We regard him as a careless practi tioner,, but in the cases in which he prepares he is power ful and terrible. His voice is strong like his body, his speeches are loud ; his capacity to unsettle the dignity of a court-room by ridicule and anecdote and physical per formance to suit are unsurpassed, and he carries this rare faculty into the walks of private life--often sits in appar ently profound abstraction, undisturbing as a statue but a close listener to the running conversation of the company, and, when the subject has been worn threadbare or takes an unsatisfactory turn, suddenly flares his sententious wit and ridicule, or his commendation and applause, like a shooting meteor that startles, delighting or discomfiting, and often breaks it up into a storm of merriment and laughter. All his instincts and emotions, as well as his education and practices, are democratic. In private in-

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terview he is gentle, mild, generous, and confiding; in debate, public or private, never fails to become boisterous in tone and manner in praise of his own and denunciation of the opposing party.
John Ray of Coweta county, is of Irish birth and brogue ; has a well-rounded, though not tall body ; large head, round full features, and prominent, full dark rolling eyes. For the last quarter of a century has been promi nent as a lawyer, advocate, and democratic orator in western Georgia. Honorable, honest, consequential in air and manner; sensitive and brave, suspicious of foes, and confiding with friends; the theme and occasion of many bar anecdotes, which his brethren seldom venture to narrate in his presence. He now retires in the feeble health of advanced age, in ease and wealth.
William H. Underwood, differs from them all. He was naturally of well-formed body, and head, and face',--the former somewhat sunken, and the latter wrinkled by age before I ever saw him. He was of early, severe study and extensive learning, and memory tenacious to old age. He was a lawyer by life-long practice, except when he performed the duties of judge in early life. He came to Cherokec, Ga., long before my day here, from Elbert county, where he was accustomed to meet Dooley, Thomas W. Cobb, Jeptha V. Harris, William H. Crawford, Duncan G. Campbell, Tait and Blackburn, and other great lawyers of the early part of the century.
His observation was close, and his criticism incisive. He detected faults in all men, and their faults made stronger impressions than their virtues on his mind, that revelled in its own freedom, and defied the opinions of those of weaker mould. He despised two classes, and could scent their qualities in more men than it was popu-

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lar to avow and publish. One hypocrites in religion, the other demagogues in politics.
He never was a democrat as the word is now inter preted, or a republican as it was understood in his early life. He has always believed in a strong general govern ment had a contempt for clamors of State rights in all their forms, and was one of the few avowed federalists of this State, and was the tool or slave of no party. He was a whig, because the whigs were opposed to the democrats ; not that he loved whigs, but hated the demo crats, as a party, and condemned the political ideas that were the basis of their organization, and popular element of success. He had profound respect for leaders he believed to be able and patriotic and honest, who were few in number.
His cynic wit, so proverbial, and so dreaded by court, bar, and social companions, was the natural result of his order of mind, his education and methods of study, his life and honest opinions of men and things. And it came unbidden and welling up like the water from a fountain acted oil by the law of gravity. If it pleased others he was happy ; if it hxirt others it wounded him in tarn.
I, like others, long stood aloof in fear of the bristles that pointed gangrene at my feeble powers and efforts. But I lived to get beyond the icicles and crust he pre sented to the world, and to 6nd that in the rear of it all there was the big, warm heart of a noble old man, who would do all the world good, if in his power.
William Dougherty and Henry L. Benning are men of the Columbus bar, whose fame rests, the first on his achievements and powers as a lawyer, the other, as law yer and judge of the State supreme court. Dougherty is of the splendid physique of his deceased brother Charles ;

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and, having passed the first half century of life, is so fresh in body and mind as to hid fair to live another fifty years. He, like Benning, is moral and temperate in eat ing, and abstains from liquors and tobacco, and like him, intemperate in labor. There are but few with whom to compare him in order to fix his standard of ability. He is genial in social life, stutters slightly and occasionally, though fluent in conversation, and is full of heart-stirring and mirth-provoking anecdote. He is powerful, logical, brief and bold in argument, and almost irresistible before court or jury. Ho is withal an enemy, and the subject of enmity, because he has long been the hero of a financial warfare against the stockholders of certain banks that failed, with a large number of their bills in circulation in the hands of the people, to make them liable to the hold ers of those bills. He has a large personal interest as well as great stock of professional ambition and reputation in the issue. The war involves many people of wealth and influence, and calls forth the strong men of the bar in that part of the State to protect and defend the stock holders against the suits oil the defunct bank bills.
Henry I/. Benning was one of the able lawyers arrayed on that side ; was for some of the parties and son-in-law of Seaborn Jones, who wras a party largely interested as well as leading lawyer in the defence. Such was the sit uation at the time of the election by the Legislature of Benning as associate justice of the supreme court, in 1853, against Judge Nesbit, whose opinions were not favorable to the relief of the stockholders. When the questions came before the supreme court, in cases in which Benning was not of counsel, hut involved the same questions as the cases did in. which he had been employed for other parties, Mr. Dougherty challenged his right to preside

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and try them with the two other judges, and demanded that he should retire from the bench. Benning, with a firmness strongly tested by the sentiment of the bar of the State against it with but few exceptions, overruled the challenge ; holding that he was not legally disquali fied by his having been employed and formed his opinions from investigating the questions in other cases before his election as judge, or by his relationship to persons inter ested in the questions and not parties in the cases before him. That it was a stern duty imposed by law and his oath of office, which he cannot shirk or evade, to preside in all cases that come before the court, in which, by his election, qualification, and commission, he has had given to him power and authority to preside. The lawyers of the State not interested as counsel differ. Some able and stable men sustain Benning, while a ma jority think he should have retired. But even some of those agree with Benning in his judgment and dissent ing opinions as to the liability of the stockholders after the dissolution of the corporations. The discussion ex tended to the press and political circles, in which it was freely asserted that the political influence of the bank stockholders was brought to bear upon the Legislature in the nomination of Benning over other prominent and able aspirants, and in his election ; and as freely asserted, on the other hand, that it was an element of weakness, on account of the popular sympathy in other parts of the State with the bill holders. And it was also charged that the refusal to re-elect Judge Nesbit, and the election of a Democrat, was a violation of the implied compact between the parties, when the court was organized, not to make politics a test in the election of judges. It has, how ever, been the custom of both parties, with but few excep-

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tions in the past, to elect their own men to all offices, when they had the numerical strength to do so. Benning, like Dougherty, is a man of learning, research, and ability as well as courage, integrity, and purity of private char acter.
Columbus has furnished a magnificent cluster of lawyers besides Colquitt, Dougherty and Benning, some of whom have figured largely and others sparingly in pol itics. Among the more noted, Daniel and Alexander McDougald, Joseph Sturgis, Alfred Iverson, Marshall J. Welborn, Grigsby E. Thomas, Adam G. Foster, Hines Holt, James Johnson, and Seaborn Jones, to whom, many who knew them all well, award, that in some respects, and in the general average of powers as counsellor, prac titioner and advocate he was somewhat the superior.
Two men among the most perfect models of their re spective style of man, and among the most universally beloved of the old Whig leaders who retired from, high official position on the ascendency of Democratic power in the Legislature, one from the United States Senate, the other from the supreme court bench, were William Crosby Dawson, lately deceased, of Greensboro; and Eugenius A. Nesbit, of Macon, still living. Dawson has been dis tinguished for all that good will to men, kindness, and urbanity can produce in a single character. A man of medium size and height, with large, broad nose, somewhat flat face and forehead, and eye radiant with intelligence, and inviting good nature and charity, indicating his gen erous and genial social nature to all who ever approached him. He was endowed by nature with only fair average abilities, which have been largely cultivated at the bar, on the bench, in both houses of Congress, and as grand master of masons.

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Nesbit is a model man in form of body, arms, hands, neck, head and face ; but is small, far below tho average size of the Anglo-Saxon in this State, but is of durable temperament and elastic physical constitution. He is of unostentatious grace, self reliance, somewhat severe dig nity, and a presence that forbids familiar, vulgar approach. He is of pure public and private character, and a Chris tian. His career as a Whig leader and as representative in Congress was popular ; and his research and learning adorn the early volumes of the supreme court reports, where his opinions are recorded, and which take high rank with American jurists.
He is contemporary of Samuel Terry Bailey, of Macon ; and Dawson, with Francis H. Cone, of Greensboro ; both lawyers of superior ability, learning and large success, of northern birth who came in early life to this State, but who differ widely from each other. Bailey's habits of thought, study, and practice caused him to stand some what aloof from the brethren in social life, but he was him self always thoroughly prepared, and brought to every contest a large measure of severe criticism-
Cone, large and portly, with a piercing black eye, was always free and full in conference ; bold, confident and defiant in argument and tactics before any court, high or low, or the jury. As lawyer, jxidge, legislator, he was thorough, and profound ; and in social life, as playful as a boy. His humor is a perennial spring, and his anecdotes take the widest range, from the grave and learned, to the ridiculous and gross. As a Democratic leader he lost caste with the people after his encounter and stabbing Mr. Stephens, in 1848.
Judge Nesbit is also contemporary at Macon with Ab salom II. Chappell, a man of tall and stately dignity, and

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great integrity, as 'well as learning and ability. Like most of the great old lawyers, he is not inclined to accept any legal proposition as settled ; but prepares thoroughly on authority to support every possibly disputed premise, and exhausts every point in debate, never considering his work done until the edifice of an unanswerable and exhaustive argument is complete.
Three of the ablest men of upper Georgia are at Rome: Augustus R. Wright, John W. H. Underwood, and John Rainsey Alexander.
W right is of somewhat spare and erect, but of strong and durable as well as active body ; is of the sanguo-nervous-bilious temperament, full of emotion, impetuous and rapid in all his mental operations. He loves truth and despises consistency when the two seem to come in con flict. Has the reputation of being changeable in religion and politics, having in turn been a preacher of the Meth odists and Baptists, and a leader of the Whig and Demo cratic parties. He is a man of learning as well as accu rate thought, never was a student in the ordinary acceptation of the word, for he is a genius, takes in, ab sorbs and comprehends things without mental plodding. His speeches always draw crowds, at the bar and on the hustings ; full of wit and humor, with a" thorough under standing of human passion and sympathy. His voice is like a clarion in clearness and expansive power; and in issues that call forth his great exertions his eloquence rises to grandeur and sublimity.
Underwood has the advantage and disadvantage of hav ing a distinguished father in the same profession. The one to be put forward under favorable auspices in youth, the other the tardiness with which the public accepts the conclusion that the son is equal to the father in real merit

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and ability; because not all the sons of great men are great; and even where they inherit the parental mind, by reason of the care and exemption from toil the father's success brings to the sons, and the groundless confidence reposed in ancestral greatness as a safe passage through the world, the sons often fail; but not so of Underwood. He is of fine form and person, of fluent language and delivery in speeches and in conversation. His voice is clear and distinct, though not capable like Wright's of ex panding and enlarging in volume with the passion and power of the oration. But, nevertheless, he is-a powerful and effective advocate and stump speaker, a . learned and able lawyer and counsellor. His father's wit is a thunder bolt that regards not the company or presence, and con sults no man's opinions or feelings. His is the gentle and refreshing breeze, and sometimes almost a gale, that fans and cools and enlivens all men, and blows nobody ill.
Alexander is not distinguished for wit nor eloquence, but is a sound and safe counsellor and effective and logical advocate whom passion never betrays into error ; a safe ally and a dreaded foe ; open, candid, true and unimpassioned. All three of the men are of pure private character.
Henry K. Jackson,, of Savannah, and William Hope Hull, are men of rare production, universal confidence, and general admiration. The first the cousin, the latter the neighbor, and both life-long bosom friends, of Howell Cobb, and both Democrats from youth. Hull is much like Cobb in size and form, without favor of features, and in breadth, quickness, and power o mind, which has been confined mainly to the law practice.
Jackson was an ardent and impassioned student and advocate, full of ambition and chivalry, and proud custo dian of the honor and dauntless courage as well as ability

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of Ms historic family. He was a gallant commander of a Georgia regiment in the late Mexican war ; has been an able and inflexible judge, and an eloquent and- effective Democratic orator. He is, withal, a man of literary taste and cultivation, and of rare poetic gifts. As lawyer, scholar, and patriot, he is loved by his able associates, se niors and juniors, of the Savannah bar, and by the people of the State.
Among the multitude of able and promising of the younger class of my seniors, I mention particularly six a little older than myself, and nearly of equal ages, who are endowed naturally with great minds, each having the most abundant capacity to sustain himself in any height to -which the political seas may drift, or the storms of party drive him. Robert G. Harper, and Lucius Q. C. Lamar, of Newton; Thomas R. R. Cobb, of Clarke; Linton Stephens, of Hancock; Benjamin H. Hill, of Troup ; and Joseph E. Brown, of Cherokce county.
It is rare to find among so large a number approxi mating them, in any State or country, such a number of contemporaries who are the equals of these ; and they all differ from each other in mind and temper.
Harper and Lamar, after graduating at Emory college and tarrying in the vestibule of court till their beards grew, set out as partners in law practice at Covington. Harper is gentle and modest, but firm, resolute, and per sistent. The rays of the diamond sparkle more brightly as the scintillations of genius are struck by action and contact, and as the obscuring rubbish of modesty and unpretension is thrown aside, leaving bare to the gaze of the most astute critic the God-made man of worth; and yet he is less known, less appreciated, applauded and honored than the others.

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Lucius Ijamar is of over-endowed brain and nerve power, is charged as if by a galvanic battery in all his physical and mental composition when called forth to make intellectual effort. Impetuous from inherited love of right, and antipathy to wrong; honest himself, he demands more than mortal effort and ambition can achieve; that is, to see all other men true and honest. No power is too high to be questioned, no influence potent enough to awe liiin. Disappointment may await, but its augurs have no terrors for the brave heart and buoyant hopes of this young man eloquent, who comes heralded by pa rental greatness and powerful family prestige.
Thomas Cobb and Linton Stephens are alike in one in cident and barrier to their hopes of public political honors. They have each a senior brother among the pop ular and ambitious men of the period ; each has an idol in his own household, above self and next to the Deity. Cobb is a great, learned, laborious, untiring-, ambitious lawyer, while his brother Howell, with a larger brain but none the more powerful, carries all his plans and aims into the line of political promotion ; arid the junior is none the less fit for high position and power in the State.
Linton Stephens differs from his brother in all but great mind, courage, integrity and fraternal devotion. Alexander has always, when composed, looked like he was almost ready for the undertaker. Linton has a bilious, nervous composition, with a strong frame and hard mus cles that can stand labor and endure exposure. lie is brave, and despises the opposite quality ; confident in his own judgment, and contemns the feeble reasoning power that reaches an opposite conclusion. Careless in manner and in dress, fears no personal opposition or dnnger, and carries his life in his hand for the friends he confides in

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and loves, yet assails or invades none who assail or invade not him. He is shaded by the fame of his brother, but for powerful, severe logic, and aggressive, persistent, ex haustive analysis and argument he has but few equals hit the State.
Benjamin H. Hill is one o the rare young men of the age, and exceeds them all in the most coveted and courted gift of political aspirants,--popular eloquence. He has full self control upon all emergencies, at the bar of the supreme court, before the judge of the circuit, or the jury, where he is irresistible., and in the popular meetings, large and small.
Nature made him an orator by giving him a command ing and attractive person, a large and active brain, and unbounded capacity for utterance. He has the physi cal power to rise with his own estimate of the magnitude of his theme, and I have never seen his spirit fag or his voice fail to meet the enormous demands of his fruitful imagination. He has the courage to assert any premises that may be needed, and it puzzles the severest critics to detect the error of argumentation to sustain what he as serts.
Most of the old party leaders in opposition to the De mocracy have come over to us, and Hill has a limitless field in which to exert his power before the people in op posing the resistless career of the party.
Joseph E. Brown has been reared in the mountain dis trict of Cherokee, Georgia ; comes o the race of hardy, honest and true men of the times. He has the largest and best balanced brain of all the young men of the State and. scarcely has an equal in energy and perseverance.
As orator, in the popular and appropriate understand ing of the term, he is barely the equal of either of the

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five alluded to j but as a debater lie is tlxe inferior of none, and the superior of most of thorn. He is never caught unprepared, and never meets an emergency, however sud den or great, which he cannot summon resources to meet. Never is a blow aimed at him or his cause,, that he can not ward off or parry. He was a lawyer at an early pe riod of life, and almost as soon, among- the front and able lawyers of Cherokee, Georgia, feared and respected for his masterly powers. He is cautious, watchful, never tires, or leaves any means untried "which promise success, and never leaves a fortress or battery of his adversary unassailed.
An ardent Democrat from his boyhood, a leading mem ber of the State Senate at twenty-eight years of age, pres idential elector at thirty-two; active in all the popular elections and debates since he came to manhood, he pos sessed the full confidence and challenged the full support of his party in the election for the judgeship, an office not political, against the popular incumbent, David Irwin, one of the ablest among- the old judges and one of the purest and best men of the circuit. The bitterness and preju dice growing out of the race, connected as it was with the political strife between the Democratic and American parties, soon subsided after he entered on the discharge of official duties. Firm, impartial, vigilant, sober, moral, fearless in the administration of civil and criminal law, the people of both parties approve and sanction his elec tion. Thorough in knowledge of the law and practice, and with abilities that would distinguish him in any court of the. State, the lawyers pronounce him an able judge.
There are four men in the State to whom the public mind turns as naturally, when the matter of intellectual greatness, moral and political power with reference to our

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own men, as it lias done to the trio of Clay, Calhoun and Webster in the national firmament. These are Alexan der H. Stephens and Kobert Toornbs of the Whigs, and Herschel V. Johnson and Howell Cobb of the Democrats.
Cobb is the youngest, now forty-two years old. He was a college graduate, a lawyer, and the solicitor of his circuit before he "was twenty-two years old; was elected to Congress and served four consecutive terms and was speaker of the House, at the age of thirty-four. Differing from Governor Towns, Ex-governor Charles J. McDonald, Walter T. Colquitt, Herschel V. Johnson, and a majority of the leading Democrats upon the proper course for the Southern Sta,tes to pursue, upon the great territorial slavery compromise of 1850, and agreeing with Berrien, Jenkins, Toombs, Stephens, and the majority of leading Whigs of the State who favored accepting it as a final ad justment, he came home, advocated and defended the measure known as the omnibus bill, justified the national government in adopting it, and opposed all ideas of resist ance to it on the part of the people of the slaveholding States.
The General Assembly called a State convention of del egates, to be elected by the people, to determine the course that Georgia would take on account of the passage of the bill by Congress; the points of which were: abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and a law to carry into effect the provisions of the Federal constitution for the restoration of fugitive slaves in the free States to their owners in the slave States ; the admission of Cali fornia as a State with an anti-slavery constitution, alleged to be fraudulent ; the organization of the territories of New Mexico and Utah, and the payment of $3,000,000 to Texas to cede part of her slave territory to New Mexico.

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Many of the old Whig and Democratic leaders accepted eeats in the convention ; some of the old Whigs as South ern Eights men, but the most of them adhering to the Union; some of the old Democrats as Union men, but the majority as opposed to submitting without resentment or resistance in some form to the injustice and aggressive spirit of the North and the general government toward the South and the institution of slavery.
In this convention, Charles J. Jenkins was the Madison " come to judgment." He stood like a great, towering and impassable statue by the paths that seemed to ]ead to degradation and humility on the one side, or to disor der and strife on the other. He rose above the stratum of the unconditional submissioiiists, and bowed the tall heads of the immediate resistance and secession men to the true level on which all could meet without dishonor and without revolution. The address and resolutions ac cepting the settlement, and setting forth contingencies for resistance in the future, were adopted, and the conven tion dissolved. But the issues that had called it into be ing had dissolved for the present the organization of the national Democratic and Whig parties in the State. At the State election of 1851, the parties were Union, com posed of the majority of old Whigs and minority of old Democrats ; and Southern Rights, composed of a majority of old Democrats and minority of old Whigs. Cobb ac cepted the candidacy of the Union party, and Charles J. McDonald of the Southern Rights party, for governor.
The contest was exciting and the discussions on the hustings were of the kind, and by the men, to arouse popular passion to its utmost height. McDonald was not a popular orator like Johnson and other Democratic lead ers and Southern Eights Whigs. The incomparable Walter

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T. Colquitt was still in the splendor of his oratorical powers. McDonald was supported by many of the most popular and gifted men of the State.
Cobb made the canvass in person, and was supported by the matchless and irresistible eloquence and vast per sonal influence of Toombs, Stephens, Berrien, Jenkins, and others. He was sustained by some of the old Dem ocratic leaders, among the most popular of whom was John Henry Lumpkin.
The people were excited and resentful, but loyal to the Union. At heart they were opposed to submission to wrong, but saw no method of resistance but revolution and violence, to which they were unwilling to resort for existing causes. The discussion before them tended to strengthen this feeling; and the popular judgment in fa vor of accepting and acquiescing in the compromise set tlement. The cause of Cobb gathered strength, and that of McDonald declined ; and when the election came, tho majority was overwhelming for Cobb.
The Legislature elected at the same time was also over whelmingly of the constitutional Union type, based on the acceptance of the settlement and preservation of the Union on the terms set forth by the convention known as the Georgia platform; and thus ended the dispute about resisting the government at this time.
The termination of the issues that called the Union and Southern Rights parties into existence dissolved again their elements, and revived the old party organizations. The Union Democrats aligned themselves with their na tional party for the presidential election of 1852; and the Whigs of the Union party rejoined their national allies.
Governor Cobb soon found himself in antagonism to the

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leading men who had contributed most to place him in power, and in full accord and sympathy with the public men who had been his former political allies, but many of them, veh.era.ent in opposition to him as a Union Demo cratic leader.
When the national bugles were sounded, summoning the clans to the national conventions, the old Whigs and old Democrats, having accomplished their joint aim on a temporary question, parted in peace. The old Democrats who had learned to love their new allies, the Southern Rights Whigs, went with the few that still adhered, in the most perfect harmony and confidence, into the affiliation of the national Democracy. They had been in a minority as Southern Eights men, but soon found themselves in the majority as re-organized Democrats ; and found themselves elevated above their former triumphant Union Whig op ponents by having a national and State government, both Democratic ; Franklin Pierce was president, and Ilowell Cobb governor.
As the term drew to a close, Cobb had served the pur poses of his candidacy and election. He preferred the national to the State service, and chose to retire volun tarily from, the executive office.
The old Democrats of the State had now the opportu nity to honor one of the men who had stood firmly for the cause of the South, and had gone down defiantly with the southern wing of the party, but who was then in ac cord with all the principles and aims of the national party and the banner was confided to Herschel V. John son.
The old Whigs who had reunited with their national party in 1852, were disappointed in the result of their presidential nomination, General Wmfield Scott. They

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were not satisfied with the party platform adopted, or General Seott's letter of acceptance. Taking the man and his antecedents, the platform of resolutions declaring the principles and policy of the national party, and the letter of the candidate, all into critical review, they re garded the action of the party in national convention as giving effect to the anti-slavery and anti-southern procliv ities of a large portion of the national Whigs. Those leaders, prominent for the presidential office, who were constitutional in political creed, regardless of their abstract opinions of slavery, had been thrown overboard ; and to their minds, as described and expressed by themselves, the national party was abolitionized, and unsafe for the South.
Mr. Stephens, Mr. Toombs, Mr. Jenkins, who had been reared, and become leaders, and won their laurels in the battles of the party, supported and seconded by many of the old Whigs of this and other southern States, rebelled, and refused to support the candidate and the party as or ganized and championed.
The result was a vote expressive of their principles, to which, as Whigs, they had long adhered; and also of their opposition to the national Democracy with Franklin Pierce as the candidate, and which was intended to be complimentary to the men for whom they voted--Daniel Webster, who died after he was nominated and before the election, and Charles J. Jenkins, the author of the Geor gia platform.
There were a few men in this and other Southern States too extreme in their pro-slavery and sectional feelings and opinions to affiliate so soon with either of the national parties, who cast their votes for George M. Troup of Georgia, and General John A. Quitrnan of Mississippi.

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But in 18-53 the chasm that had stood open, and di vided the Scott and the Webster Whigs in this State had been closed, and the wounds inflicted on each other in the temporary breach had been healed ; and with great union and enthusiasm they rallied to the support of Charles J. Jenkins, for governor, against Herschel V. Johnson.
The canvass was a manly and masterly one, as it was bound to be with such men for leaders, supported as they were by the able and popular men of their respective par ties. Cobb, who had encountered the opposition of John son while a Union candidate for governor, now espoused , his cause as a Democratic candidate, and that of the party candidates for Congress and the Legislature. Mr. Ste phens and Mr. Toonibs gave to Jenkins a support intensi fied by cordial agreement in principles and in aims, and a lifelong friendship for the man himself. The speakers and the press aligned themselves with the respective par ties in all the ardor and zeal of ancient friendship and hatred.
Herschel V. Johnson, three years senior to Tlowell Cobb, then approaching forty-one years of age, was then nominated judge of the Ocmulgee circuit, though he never had been extensively engaged in the law practice prepar atory to judicial duties. He had been a close and severe student, and from youth an ardent Democrat; and by his probity and virtue, his freedom, from all that could arm an adversary with charges to assail his private character, and by his fearless and masterly eloquence in the debates of his party, like Toombs, Stephens and Cobb had leaped to the very front in early life. He had been made prom inent for the office in 1845 when he was thirty-three years old and yielded voluntarily to Mathew Hall McAlister of

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Savannah, who was defeated in the election by the Whig candidate, then governor, George W. Crawford. Again, 1847, he withdrew in favor of George W. Towns, who while in office appointed him United States senator, to fill the seat made vacant by the resignation of Mr. Colquitt, where he soon achieved a brilliant reputation as orator and debater.
Johnson, to be known and appreciated, must be well known. We do not, in our approach to him, reach the warm strata and temperature of his heart and soul until we get close to him. Admiring his intellect, his solid judgment and honesty, enthused by his wonderful powers as a popular speaker, we do not feel invited, as by the air and manner of many of our public men, to come up a.nd he a close, warm-hearted and confiding friend. This cause was felt strongly in his relations with the men of his own party. He has been conscious that they could not assail his private or public character or deny his great merit and valuable public services; that he was perhaps stand.ing in the way of many aspirants, hence did not have as cordial support for himself as he has uniformly rendered to others.
But a man endowed as he was by nature, cultivated by study and learning, trained by many hard fought con tests with the political foe, who is in sympathy with the Democratic masses, as he has ever been, needs no help from party leaders where he can be seen and heard. He never made the mistake of underrating his adversary. He had debated with all the Whig leaders ; knew their powers ; knew Jenkins to be a man of great ability and unassailable character. He assured me, at the hotel in Rome, when about going out to meet him the first time in debate after their respective nomination, that he feared

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MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

his power, arid dreaded the momentous contact with so able and pure a man.
The crowd was large; and the speeches in full keeping with the intellectual giants \vlio had met. Johnson was more in sympathy with the masses upon the issues dis cussed., the merits of the national Whig and Democratic parties. His style of enunciation was more exciting, and he had at least a partial triumph over his adversary, bitt such a triumph as wavered with the conflicting emotions of great masses of people,, at that time not fully settled and determined in their final course.
Johnson had been a Southern Rights Democrat, and was denounced as what was known as " fire-eater," and that class of men had been defeated and had grown into disfavor ; but before being a " fire-eater " he had been a life long national Democrat, and was then struggling to restore the power of the national Democracy in the State. Jenkins, the candidate of the Whigs, had all this to confront, with all his prestige as a union man and restorer of peace between the sections as author of the Georgia platform. The interest in the canvass did not abate at the election, and the result was so close that all doubt and uncertainty were only dispelled by an official count.
The Democratic Legislature elected with Johnson had the election of a senator. The retiring Gov. Cobb and his defeated Democratic competitor, Charles J. McDonald, were again rivals In competition for the distinguishing honor., either of whom 'would have made an acceptable senator ; either could have been easily nominated in the party caucus but for the candidacy of the other, and as easily elected on joint ballot.
The Southern Rights Democrats and the new allies, the Southern Rights Whigs, were willing to accept the

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

79

aid and powerful influence of Cobb In the exciting and doubtful contest to restore the party to power, but not to bestow the coveted honor of the senatorship upon Mm.
The caucus put forward McDonald as the candidate and Cobb retired, but all his friends in the Legislature did not vote for the nominee,, and after protracted balloting.? Mc Donald finally failed to get a majority vote. The result was a compromise of the alienated factions on Hon. Alfred Iverson as senator. Cobb went back temporarily into private life, and at the next election in 1855 went back to the IL >use from his district. McDonald has been placed on the supreme court bench, for which Ms native capac ities and large experience and learning eminently qualify him.
The country, however, was not to remain at rest. The disengaged elements of the Whig party with the co-oper ation of disaffected and dissatisfied Democrats organized a new party combining most of the tenets of the Whig party and based upon opposition to the right of foreign. born citizens and members of the Catholic church to hold office. The fatal experiment was tried of a popular party organized to control the republican government of the Union and of the States in secret lodges., and concealing the identity of the membership from the public. It was first known and spoken of as tlie " Know Nothing " party, a cognomen assumed, and applied on account oi: the obli gation of the members to "know nothing " when interro gated as to the membership, the organization, and move ments of the party. This was a feature "which when dis covered and ventilated soon became more odious to the popular mind than the leaders and speakers were ever able to make Catholics and foreigners.
When new and untried it was popular and captivating

80

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

to men out of office and power. It promised reform of abuses and promotion to office, and bid fair to sweep the Democracy from their reign of authority. In tills State it gained many Democrats but lost more largely of influen tial Whigs. Mr. Stephens opposed it and fought all its principles and aims with a zeal and power peculiar to himself". Ho was seconded by Mr. Toombs and many prominent old Whigs, who were for the time being called Anti-Know Nothings and Anti-Americans, as the new party when fully developed took the name of American party.
But in the canvass of 1856 the Anti-Know Nothing Whigs all took open ground as Democrats in the support of Mr. Buchananfor the presidency. Perhaps no canvass in the State has ever exceeded that of 1855 in point of masterly discussion before the people. Gov. Johnson then a candidate for re-election against Hon. Garnett Andrews of Wilkes county, the nominee of the American party, and Basil II. Overby, the candidate of the Temperance Reform and Prohibition party, spoke all over the State. He was in full health and in the zenith of his oratorical glory. Cobb, who was a candidate in his own district where his election was assured, canvassed other parts of ttie State with the most withering orations to large mass meetings. Toombs brought all his powers to bear to en lighten the public mind and beat down the new party. They were aided by many able speakers of both the old parties of less distinction.
The old Whig leaders having refused to bear the stand ard and colors of the new American, and having joined their ancient foes in the warfare upon the new bantling, were treated with strong resentment by their old party friends, who called out the remaining leaders, and fol-

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81

lowed them with great enthusiasm. Andrews, their can didate, like McDonald, was not a popular orator, and such was the case with several of their candidates for Congress. Hence the services of those who could speak were in great demand. Dr. H. V. M. Miller, " Demosthenes of the moun tains," exceeded if possible the past brilliancy and elo quence that had given him the distinguishing title in his orations to large assemblages of the people. Benjamin H. Hill was a candidate for Congress, and, though defeated by Judge Warner, added to the brilliant reputation he had as lawyer that of one of the most powerful popular orators in the State. The admiration of his party men for him arose almost to idolatry.
When the national canvass of 1856, which resulted in the election of Mr. Buchanan, as president, came on, the Democrats had defeated the 'Whigs and Americans in turn, and were in full power in the State, having a ma jority of the votes of the State in the ranks and a major ity of the popular old Whig leaders. They have had an easy victory so far as relates to the vote of Georgia, though a hard struggle in other parts of the Union. Mr. Bu chanan goes into power with the highest prospects of a popular administration.
In these elections of 1855 snd 1856 the Democratic party opposed the proscriptive ideas of the Know Nothing or American party based on religious opinion and place of birth. The party was also in accord with the settlement by Congress of the subject of slavery in the Territorial government, as had been provided in the acts organizing Kansas and Nebraska territories, and enabling the people to form State governments repealing restrictions and leaving them to establish, protect, tolerate, or refuse and reject the institution of slavery without hindrance or

82

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

intervention by Congress or the Executive Government of the United States. The old issues of the Whig and Democratic parties had nearly all received a historic solu tion ; and on these new ones the Whig leaders referred to could freely harmonize with the Democrats. Their own National party had drifted nearer and nearer the whirl pool of abolition ; and they could have no a.lliance with it consistent with their views of constitutional relations be tween the States and sections of the Union and fidelity to the slaveholding Soulh. Hence their affiliation with National Democracy was patriotic and cordial.
The four men under review, all perhaps nearly equal in many respects, a.re essentially different in others, and each in some particulars is greater than all the rest. Like the Douglierty, Lnimpkin, Hansell, Warren, and Hill brothers, and Hugh Haralson, Mark A. Cooper, David J. flailey, and many others, three of these are men of line physical proportions and foim, and will in this respect compare favorably with Webster, Hunter, and Breckenridge ; Toombs is physically the most faultless, and has only to be seen in any presence to attract attention and admi ration ; Johnson is scarcely less perfect; Cobb lacks height to make him the equal of either, and is more in physical mould like Silas Wright, and Thomas H. Benton. Ste phens is the opposite to them all in every part of his physi cal frame, and is as rare for his physical frailty as Toombs for physical perfection ; their confidence in each other and love borders on that of parental ardor in disinterest edness.
Stephens is encumbered by his pride of consistency; Toombs wears his as a loose summer gown, defies public opinion and criticism, despises his foes, and defies his friends if they differ from him, never dodges a bolt aimed

MY CONTEMPOBAKIES.--1857.

- 83

at him for want of consistency, but goes direct in search of the truth of the matter as now seen and understood, and prides as much in confuting his own former errors as those of other men.
Stephens is formal in his reasoning processes, parlia mentary in modes of procedure, and courteous to his ad versaries ; lies in defiant manly coil like the rattlesnake, and lets all unlntruding foes pass unharmed, but strikes with unerring aim and deadly fang whomsoever dares to assail him, his positions, or the party under his lead.
Toombs defies time, place, and circumstance, as does the storm when the winds are unchained. Stephens has method, art, consistency, as well as vigor and correctness of thought; Toombs has giant strength combined with electric quickness and brevity. Under his magic brain power figures are conceived., born, and achieve their talismanic effect upon admiring men in a moment of time.
All things considered,for pure intellectual power Toombs scarcely has a peer. And when they are combined with his wonderful power of utterance and daring cour age they would make a powerful rival in any popular government. From early life they gave him. prominence in the House, and now give him. rank among the ablest men of the Senate.
Stephens, with his bodily frailty and weakness and his brain power, possesses faculties of person of the rarest be stowed on men. His voice is that of a woman in tone but of a man in extent before he Is aroused. Then his pale feat ures and emaciated frame without muscles invite sym pathy and dread of physical collapse and failure, from strangers who have not heard him and witnessed his tri umphs. The eye, that lies in somewhat melancholy ra diance when at rest, like his placid and confident mind,

84

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

begins with his increase of strength and warmth of body to glow with unearthly brilliancy. He gathers physical power as the surging- of the awakening brain heaves against its barriers, and all the muscular, the fibrous, and nervous man rises from the ghost-like to the God-like. The voice glides from the combined tone of the flute and nightingale to the volume of a speaking angel of light and intelligence. His audience passes under the magic power of eloquence, and there he holds them at his will. The men who heard him on the hustings from 1843 to 1856, who survive and see this florid picture^ will pro nounce it not overdrawn. But he enthused his own and enraged the opposing party. His friends loved and worr shipped. His enemies admired his masterly powers, dreaded his fearful assaults, and hated his party for hav ing such a formidable and tormenting leader.
But many of the grandest flights of eloquence I have witnessed and felt were by Herschel V. Johnson. He pos sesses physical manhood, grandeur, and beauty like Toombs when aroused, and like Stephens his voice gains compass, power, and melody as he ascends on the wings of unchained fancy, and sways alike the judgment and emo tions of men. His logic is not stronger, but not so brief as that of Toombs; both like Stephens are masters of in vective. Stephens and Toombs have anecdote; Johnson and Cobb,like Douglas and Calhoun and Andrew Johnson, deal in earnest, persistent argument and reason that go direct to the mind, the heart, and sentiments of men. But Johnson's severity often drives his enemies into closer alliance against him.
Cobb either has no such power, or, from superior wis dom and more human kindness in his heart, never commits such mistakes for the cause and the party of which he

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85

is champion. Those who hear him, no matter whether of his or the opposing party, listen to him with or without their consent. They are chained by the presence of a great masterly mind and powerful person charged with the commission of pleading the cause of a common coun try and a brotherhood of people, and guided by the promptings of sincerity and the love of truth, but with less music and power of voice, and grace of motion than some of the q-thers; a man who always rises above the tricks of the dejnagogue and the falsehood of the unscru pulous panderer to popular ignorance and prejudice. While he treats his own cause with masterly power and unwavering fidelity, he treats his foe fairly. And this makes him perhaps the most effective and successful popular speaker of the four. While many may honestly differ from this judgment, none who are candid will deny his great power over the people through his wonderful gifts as a popular speaker.

CANVASS OF 1857.
Since the chapter on " Contemporacies " was written, the parties have passed through a singularly organized and exciting canvass for the office of governor, and by oppo site causes brought out two young men as candidates. The Whigs having been defeated in 1852, and again in 1853, the party having been absorbed in this State by the new American party in 1855, and suffered defeat under that organization, had lost the more powerful and promi nent party leaders in 1856, and hence was a hopeless minority at the time of the election of Prest. Buchanan. The result was, the remaining old and prominent men of the party seemed not to desire a hopeless candidacy ; but the party, -composed as it was of a large minority, and of a

86

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

large volume of public intelligence,, virtue, and patriotism*'

was not willing to abandon the organization., and yield*

to the dominant Democratic party without a manly strug

gle to regain power.

Their convention summoned to the lead and placed the'

banner in the bands of the zealous, gifted and eloquent

Benjamin H. Hill.

*,

The Democratic party being in the ascendency, and haV- *

ing a redundancy of men among the old leaders who cov

eted the honor of being Governor, was greatly troubled'in

convention to unite on any one of the aspiring candidates

for a nomination., James Gardner., Henry G. I^amar, Wm.

H. Stiles, Hiram Warner, and John Henry Lumpkin, and a

number of outstanding men, ready to accept a candidacy,

under the usage of compromising disputes among promi

nent men by the nomination of a rnan not known as a

candidate.

James Gardner was heralded by a long and brilliant

reputation as editor of The Constitutionalist newspaper at

Augusta, and had contributed largely for many years to

the Democratic victories of the State by his power as a

political writer ; had come in possession of fortune, and

desired the honor of retiring under the eclat of a nomina

tion by his party, for the highest office in the gift of the

State. He was seconded and supported actively and unan

imously, by the Democratic leaders in that part of the

State.

Henry G. Lamar is a man of ripe age, fair abilities,

sterling integrity, high sense of personal honor, eminently

patriotic, and sound in the Democratic faith, and true

to the South, and the recipient of a powerful family influ

ence as well as that of his life-long personal friendships

among the public men in his part of the State.

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

87

Hiram Warner came from the North in early youth, identified himsalf with the State, and has been a steady and reliable Democrat from that time to the present. In early life he served with distinction in the Legislature, and later he served as judge of his circuit, three terms, and a term of eight years as judge of the supreme court, in addition to. his long and successful career when out of office as a lawyer in western Georgia. He also served with great ability as representative in the last Congress. And at different periods of life has been recommended for this office. His character for ability., fidelity, conser vatism., and personal honesty gave him many strong friends and supporters for this nomination.
William H. Stiles had been a member of Congress on the general Democratic ticket before the State was laid off into congressional districts; a minister to Austria four years., vmder President Polk, residing at Vienna, and is a man of erect form, pleasing person, courtly style, and polished manner of popular oratory ; a true and chivalrous representative of southern Democracy, supported by the elegant and refined people of Savannah.
John Henry, nephew to Wilson and Joseph Henry Lumpkin, son of an honest primitive Baptist preacher, George I/ampkin, came to Cherokee, Georgia, from Oglethorpe County, when young. Has been solicitor and judge of his circuit, and several times member of Con gress, and has long been a Democratic leader of great personal cleverness and popularity in this part of the State. And in this contest for a nomination to the office, which, arbove all others, lie has long coveted, he was the choice of this part of the State, with many warm support ers in other sections.
While any one of them would have been an acceptable

88

MY CONTEMPOBABIES.--3857.

man to the people, the antagonisms between their friends in the convention were so strong as to prevent the nom ination of either, and as a sequence to defeat them all. It resulted after a long session, and repeated fruitless ballotings, in throwing all overboard, and nominating by acclamation, "upon the recommendation of a special select committee, the present Governor of Georgia,
JOSEPH EMERSON BROWN,
of whom my purpose to prosecute the history of the State will impose the most pleasant duty to write more at large.
The friends and adherents of the defeated candidates, notwithstanding the evidences of discontent that at first gave encouragement to the opposition party under Mr. Hill, in the course of the canvass gradually yielded to Mr. Brown their cordial and united support, and the party of Mr. Hill, the Whig, American, or opposition party as it is called, voted for him as enthusiastically even in the face of admitted numerical strength in the Democratic ranks.
The canvass was a heavy one for the candidates, and was conducted with great zeal and ability. Hill with in cisive tactics, his stirring and impressive eloquence, ap pealed to the prejudices and the solidifying sentiments of his own party with a resume of its contests and achieve ments, and to the supposed disafiecting elements of the Democracy; arraigned the party which had been in power in the Union and in the State upon the current newspaper charges of maladministration and abuse of power and discretion. The administration of the Western & Atlantic railroad was reviewed with terrible scathing, because it was alleged that it had been used for party purposes and to promote favorites to the waste of public finances and the injury of the State.

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

89

Brown with his perseverance, calmness, composure, and confidence as well as moral and physical courage, in his convincing reason and powerful argumentation addressed the assembled masses in every part of the State, and tri umphantly defended the party who had committed the banner to his hand to lead.
He defended the party with which he had been identi fied from his childhood, and whose principles were de rived from and based upon the constitution itself--the party of a proud American ancestry, the projectors of Constitutional Liberty and the founders of Kepublican Government and makers of the Constitution itself--a party whose administrations had been the chief source of prosperity and development of a great country--the nursery and school of statesmen, and the champion of political justice and eqiiality, and whose history wras that of unrivalled progress and development, and under whose rule the United States had been the admiration of the world abroad, and had drawn contributions of people, of arts, science, and learning as well as of wealth, from all parts of the globe. A party whose triumphs were not offeree or violence, but results of reason and intelligence, the force and effect of the love of truth and justice, and enlightened public opinion.
His nomination was the defeat of the people's favorites in the different parts of the State where he was, as well as being a young man for so high a position, a personal stranger to the masses of the people. That the ardent friends of all the defeated aspirants should, before the election, yield in his favor, and join in full accord and give him a cordial and enthusiastic support, based on the sanction and conviction that he was the strongest as well as most suitable man of them all, is one of the features of

90

MY CONTEMPORARIES.--1857.

the politics of this State which can only be explained on the hypothesis that in the newly elected and installed, and comparatively youthful, Governor the people have discovered a man of destiny.

CHAPTER II.
GOVEENOK JOSEPH E. BROWN'S EARI/T Lira:.
His rapid rise from the walks of humble private life, obstructed by the disabilities of poverty, and the want of early scholastic advantages which many of his contem poraries enjoyed, propelled by the self-sustaining energy of a naturally great mind to the highest honor in the gift of the State at the age of thirty-six years, invests his personal history with an interest to the people of this and future generations, and with a priceless value to mankind. Many men in this State have risen rapidly, and come to high official honors in early middle life. But they were propelled by early advantages and propitious surround ings, and were obstructed by far less competition in other able and popular men.
Cobb rose as rapidly, and began earlier in life to receive public honors than Brown. But he grew up in the heart of the State, enjoyed the training of her masters of learn ing in Franklin College at Athens, came up in the very centre of political power and influence, and was heralded by powerful family prestige, and sustained by worldly fortune. Brown conies from the mountain district, the remote interior of the State, far from railroads and tele graphs, and schools of learning, and the boasted intellect ual centres, and as far from political cabals and juntos. His fortunes have not been speeded or his morals diluted by the improvements of metropolitan life and society, nor does he share too largely the sympathy of the older

92

GOV. JOSEPH E. BROWN'S EARLY LIFE.

men supplanted or postponed by his promotion and ele vation. He enters on his high office with but few political props to uphold, and fewer dead weights to pull him clown.
He is a comparatively frail man in body; may die young. Hence this note of his physique. He is five feet ten inches in height, and weighs about one hundred and thirty-five pounds; he will not compare with Toombs and Johnson in splendor of personal outline, or with Mark A. Cooper, and John C. Breckenridge, in stately and imposing height and form, and strength of body ; and still he is further removed from the pattern of Alexander H. Stephens.
His complexion is fair, though slightly swarthy, or wanting in the ruddv, fresh glow of the young men of active life, physical strength, and health. The hair and beard are black, the latter of reasonable luxuriance, and the former indicating a slight want of richness and depth of soil. The head is unusually large, and seems to balance well on the vertebral column ; the brow expansive and in dicating in its conformation a native powerful mental organ ization with uncommon perceptive and reasoning faculties ; the brain within seems never to tire, but is capable of pow erful and prolonged exertion ; the features are full and reg ular, with a cheek, chin, and nose in proportion with the high and well-rounded forehead; large square mouth and thick lips; eyes of deep, dark blue when in repose, and radi ant under mental effort and excitement; his chest is too thin for great strength of lungs ; he is not fitted for loud and boisterous declamation ; his throat is weak, and subject to irritation and disorder; his voice is loud and smooth in tone, distinct and clear in pronunciation, which can be well understood to the extent of the voice itself. But it can not be extended like that of Hill, Johnson, and Stephens.

GOV. JOSEPH E. BEOWK'S EARLY LIFE.

93

Hence he is never very loud or vehement,, even in the most important speeches, but is always self-possessed, self-reliant, confident, and deliberate. He is earnest and emphatic in conversation, but never boisterous or noisy, and never emphasizes his ideas with oaths or expletive adjectives. Never deals in fiction or fancy in conveying his thoughts to his hearers, but uses facts and reason, and the most exhaustive argumentation, in the plainest, and most approved English words. With the air of slow and stately dignity, he has no military dash in his walk and physical motions. Nothing of the swell of the nabob, or dainty toilet of the fop; and nothing of the coarse, care less, and ruffian manner of the hoosier. Genteel, but not showy; neat, but not gaudy, is his style of dress and address.
But few, perhaps, "will be able, by following his exam ple in pursuit of public honors, to approximate his bril liant success. But there are points to be noted in his personal habits, that all the world may profit by follow ing. He abstains habitually and totally from all intoxica ting drinks, and loathes and rejects tobacco in all its forms and uses. And in my intimate and cordial friendly relations with him in private life, I have never heard him vise a profane oath, or relate an obscene or vulgar anec
dote. In religion he is also a decided character, and is as firm
and pronounced a Baptist in church relations, as he is a Democrat in politics. It is, however, a noteworthy fea ture of the religion of the churches, and the politics of this State, that they never mix much with each other.
The politicians on their canvasses are not over-zealous in religion ; and the men of the church in turn forget or disregard its fellowship when they come to vote in party

94

GOV. JOSEPH E. BROWN'S EAELY LIFE.

elections. The Christians of the period love the cause of religion and adhere strongly to their respective churches when in the prosperous or revival state, and for all the legitimate and scriptural purposes of their professions ; but when the tide of politics arises they naturally drift, every man with his own party.
Brown is a steady and consistent Baptist--the line of distinction is as clear between Baptists and Methodists for all religious purposes, as between Democrats and Whigs for political purposes. The members of opposing churches respect each other as Christian professors, and those of opposing parties respect each other as citizens of a com mon government, while they stand aloof and act in their separate organizations. Hill is a decided Methodist, but was enthusiastically supported by all good Baptist whigs, as Brown was by all good Methodist democrats. It is, moreover, a very mai'ked characteristic with both, parties, and exemplified by the public officers of both, whether political, judicial, or ministerial, that in the discharge of official duty they are sternly impartial between all the religious denominations.

1879.
After the eventful period of twenty-two years--when the then youthful statesman has grown gray, and his career has been crowned "with the most eminent suc cess--in public administration, so far as it was in the power of the largest measure of abilities and the most sleepless energy and perseverance to save the State from disaster, and in the management of his own private fort une, as well as the public enterprises in which his business capabilities have been employed, his life becomes invested with an interest and value to mankind whenever and

G-OV. JOSEPH E. BEOWK'S EAKLY LIFE.

95

wherever genius and talent struggle with privations and difficulties, and when masterly abilities and moral courage attempt to confront and repress wrong and correct abuses ; and where sagacity and forecast, almost prophetic, by bold and daring originality, seek to wield the powers of government in the interest and general improvement and advantage of the people, instead of burdening- thorn for selfish and ambitious purposes.
Even the childhood and youth of a man whose grand thoughts resulted in original plans for the general good, but many of which were thwarted or retarded by de structive war, to be utilized and adopted by his succes sors, have an example so moral and sublime as to claim the minute attention of aspiringyoursg men in all countries.
His paternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish, his immediate ancestor the descendant of emigrants, of honorable descent, to Virginia upwards of a century ago. Like Grawford, Forsyth, and many others who have adorned the State in high positions, the ancestry was Virginian. The grand father, Joseph Brown, was a whig rebel, and took active part in the war for independence. The father, Mackey Brown, wras a native of South Carolina, to which State the ancestors had removed. In early life he removed and became a citizen of Tennessee where he joined the army in the brigade of General Carroll and served under General Jackson in the campaign of New Orleans. There was a consequent family admiration of Jackson as a hero and statesman.
His mother's maiden name was Sally Rice, who was also of Virginian ancestry. The Rice family having be fore emigrated to Tennessee, Mackey Brown and Sally Kice were married and resided in that State until a short time before the birth o Joseph Emerson, which took

06

GOV. JOSEPH B. BROWN'S EARLY LIEE.

place on the 15th day of April, 1821, in Pickens district, South Carolina, whither the parents had removed. Dur ing his boyhood they removed to and settled in Union county, which is in north-eastern Georgia. It was in that remote mountain home, under the control of and in duti ful and affectionate obedience to steady religious Baptist parents, that he passed his early youth. He labored in the field and attended stock to aid in the family support until he was nineteen years of age. He had been sent to the country schools, had learned to read and write, and had acquired some knowledge of arithmetic and the ele mentary branches of ordinary education.
It was only a spark of knowledge that struck the tin der of a great brain in the formative state ; but the igni tion took place, and the flame, which no adverse fortune nor accumulation of discouraging circumstances could extinguish, began to burn and brighten and to irradiate its light and heat. The world has witnessed the rapid rise and brilliant career of the mountain boy in the proudest position in the gift of a great and appreciative people.
The labored steps of genius without fortune by which he began to climb the rugged hill to fame and power, though humble in themselves, are sublime in moral grand eur, and are heralds of hope and encouragement to mind with energy and perseverance in all lands and all ages to come.
He heard of Calhoun Academy in Anderson district, South Carolina, under Wesley Leverett, a distinguished teacher, and seeing the light as its rays came from the east, he planned the grand enterprise of reaching and passing a year in that school. He had 110 exchequer, never had revelled on cash, the gift of parental bounty, or from any source whatever; never had clothing except the

GOV. JOSEPH E. BROWN'S EARLY LIFE.

97

common but neat domestic manufacture, had no liorse of his own to ride over the long- mountain road to Anderson, had no money to pay for board and tuition after he should reach the place. His "worldly estate consisted of a yoke of steers.
He set out with the oxen with his younger brother James, now an eminent lawyer at Canton, to ride alter nately his father's plow-horse and drive the steers, and to carry back the horse after the main part of the jour ney was completed--a distance of about one hundred and thirty miles.
He sold his steers after arrival for eight months' board, entered the school and went in debt for tuition. There was no danger in trusting him then, and there has never been since.
His earnest manner gained him credit, his energy and enterprise enabled him to meet its demands promptly. At the end of his board-contract he returned to Union County, Georgia, and taught a three months' school, with the proceeds of which he paid his tuition-debt and had some money left to apply to the expenses of another term.
He returned to Carolina and spent two years of close hard study, on credit mainly for board and tuition, in the course of which, he made such advances in the languages and mathematics as to have been prepared if he had pos sessed the means to pay the expense to enter an advanced college class. He returned to Georgia, went to Canton, the county seat of Cherokee County, and took charge of the town academy as teacher in January, 1844, in debt for two years preceding board and tuition, with six scholars which soon increased to sixty ; while teaching this school he read law of nights and Saturdays without an instructor ;

98

GOV. JOSEPH B. BKOWN'S EAB.LY LIFE.

and at the end of the year he returned and paid off his South Carolina debt.
In 1845 he pursued the study of law with a view to its practice, and at the same time earned his board by teach ing the children of Dr. John W. Lewis. In August of that year, after a critical public examination which he sus tained with unsurpassed promptness and correctness, he "was admitted to practise in the courts.
Dr. Lewis, who had observed the immense promise of young Crown, and comprehended the extraordinary mind with which nature had endowed him, and the sleepless energy with which he was pressing it to development and practical use, loaned him the money to pay the ex pense and attend the law school at Yale College, where he entered in October, 1845. Having the advantage of a previous course of thorough and severe study of law he was enabled to keep up with his law classes, and also found time to take a liberal literary course. Having graduated in 1846 he returned to Canton and entered into practice which soon became extensive and lucrative.
Eleven years later as the victorious leader of the great Democratic party of Georgia he was installed into the office of chief magistracy with the honors that crowned a success brought about by native and cultivated ability and reached without cause of reproach.
In 1847 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Joseph Grisham, a Baptist clergyman of South Carolina, who has been among the most devoted of wives as she is one of the noblest and best of women ; she has been constantly by his side, in all his arduous duties with aid in toil and wise counsel in times o trial and embarrassment, constant and devoted in affection and so just and generous, so noble and self-sacrificing, as well as self-possessed and

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prudent, even under strong provocation in ill-natured pub lic criticism,, as to have held and maintained the universal esteem and high respect of all parties, the foes as well as the friends of her distinguished, often assailed and much abused husband.
It is difficult for even a great man to continue to act wisely without a true and devoted wife to aid him in coun sel and share his cares and toils. Such has been the good fortune of Gov. Brown from early manhood to the present.
They have been blessed in their offspring as well as domestic worldly success and prosperity. Julius L. Brown, the elder son, a graduate of the State University of Geor gia and Cambridge Law school, has become prominent in the legal profession ; Joseph M. Brown who inherited much of the father's intellect, educated for the same pro fession, but on account of premonitions of physical weak ness has changed his purposes and become a railroad man; Elijah A. and Charles M. Brown* are inclined to the noble calling of agriculture ; George M. the youngest child is yet a school boy; Mary V. is the wife of Dr. E. L. Connally of Atlanta, and Sallie is not yet grown.
But all has not been continued bliss in this happy household. There was an idol taken away, where mem ory still lingers, in all the freshness it had, when the handmaid and the herald of parental and paternal grief--- grief that bowed low the strong head of the father, and embalmed the true mother's heart. Bright in childhood, as the diamond, newly cut from the imbedded secrecy of the. untold past ages and centuries, were his mind and soul, encased as they were, in a casket made frail by early and incurable spinal disease ; and by the continued ravages of which it was prevented from, growth, develop-
* Since tills was written Charles M. Brown has died, as hereafter stated.

100

GOV. JOSEPH E. BROWN'S EAELY LIFE.

ment, and vigor, endowed as he was with genius, whose rays sparkled, during his brief life, through the sombre clouds of pain and unrest, he passed like a meteor from out of sight of men.
This was Franklin Pierce Brown, whose mortal remains repose beneath a towering, beautifully surmounted, and ornamented monument of Carrara marble, executed in Italy, in the Oakland cemetery at Atlanta, where he was laid in 1871, at the age of eighteen years. A child almost in frame, he was a pre-conscious, self-educated man in mind, in heart, and in all the attributes that endeared him to his kindred, and to his own and his par ents' friends. His private library, as he read and mas tered the books, enlarged with the growth of his mind, the expansion of his judgment, and cultivation of his affections and taste, and at his early death, it embraced one hundred volumes. The inscription on his monument is from a voluntary tribute to his memory, from Alex ander H. Stephens : " Such a prodigy of intellect arid virtue, in a body so frail, I never met, in any other human form, and never expect to if I live a thousand years."
There are, perhaps, but few, if any, of the wives of public men of this age who can be compared with Mrs. Brown as to the traits of mind, and heart, and the disposi tion and habits which render a wife, in truth and reality, a helpmate to her husband, and which rendered her the equal of her husband in many respects.
Instead of wasting his estate by extravagance and use less display, she has been a model of household and domes tic ecjnomy. Instead of leading an idle life, devoted to pleasure and gayety, as most -women do, whose 1 husbands have distinguished them, she has been devoted to toil and industry, and has scarcely been the inferior of her hus-

GOV. JOSEPH B. BROWN'S BAELY LIFE. 101
band in the wonderful power he possesses o endurance of protracted mental and physical labor and exertion. ~ v It should be recorded to encourage the wives of all public men, that Mrs. Brown, in addition to the care of her children, and household duties, with her own hand, copied for the printer the original manuscripts, difficult for most people to read, of all the messages and public documents of the Governor while in office. And in like manner all his discussions and opinions, as chief justice of the supreme court of Georgia ; and in addition, with the aid of the lamented and life-long afflicted son, Franklin Pierce Brown, kept a complete file in scrap-books of the public criticisms and comments and commendations on the Governor, and most of the public documents from his early life to the present; which, since the destruction of public records and files by the Federal cavalry at Milledgeville, have greatly facilitated the writer in this work.
The student of biography may be curious to know by what kind of ladder he ascended from such lowly begin nings to so high a station and rank, and with such extraor dinary rapidity. The answer to the inquiry.is, a ladder he built as he ascended. It wag based on the solid foun dation of brain, backbone, and heart; mind, heroic endur ance and irrepressible perseverance and energy, and honest purpose. The warmth of his patriotism, and sympathy with the masses of the people of all classes, and his fearless advocacy of the right, melted and moulded the material of its rounds, in rapid succession, by which he reached the height, and stood firmly planted on the foundation of self-sustaining ability and wisdom.
He was accustomed to attend courts, give unremitted attention to, and takes notes of all the proceedings on, legal questions. If he was counsel, he went in pre-

102

GOY. JOSEPH E. BROWN'S EARLY LIFE.

pared on facts and law; if he was not counsel, in the case on trial, he was a laborious student of law in its applica tion to the affairs of men, and therefore deeply interested in every cause that came to be tried by the coiirts He had neither disposition nor time to loiter and dissipate, or associate with the idle and vicious.
His first election to public office was in 1849, when nominated by the Democrats of the forty-first senatorial district, composed of Cobb and Cherokee counties ; when, after encountering strong popular opposition on account of his temperance opinions and practices, and his stubborn and persistent refusal to carry his election by buying whiskey and treating voters, he was elected by a large majority, and entered the senate under the administra tion of George W. Towns, amid a splendid array of legis lative talent and worth. Towns had been re-elected over Hon. E. Y. Hill by a doubtful struggle, and the parties were closely matched, and nearly equally divided in the legislature. In the Senate, were Andrew J. Miller, Blount C. Ferrell, Peter E. Love, Alien E. Cochran, William W. Clayton, Thomas Purse, Richard H. Clark, William B. Wofford, John D. Stell, David J. Bailey, Charles Murphy, Edward D. Chisolm, James M. Spurlock. In the House were Linton Stephens, Lucius J. Gartrell, Edmund H. Worrell, William T. Wofford, John A. Jones, A. T. Mclntyre, Charles J. Jenkins, Alexander McDugald, Rob ert P. Trippe, Randolph Spaulding, James N. Ramsey, Thomas C. Howard, John W. Anderson, George P. Harrison, A. D. Shackelford, A. H. Kenan, Winslow J. Lawton. There were others of merit in both Houses.
The State being in the rapid stage of development, her Legislature was a body of the first significance and importance ; and summoned the best men of the respec-

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103

tive parties. The questions before this body were well calculated to draw out and utilize the wisdom of the elder, and develop the capacities of the younger members of the Houses, the men of mark and merit. It is a truth, however, that a large majority of this, as other preced ing Legislatures, was of men not constituted by natural, endowments or acquired abilities for the high arid respon sible duties of legislators. Young Brown was placed on three important standing" committees o the Senate ; among them the committee on the judiciary.
The questions of revenue, finance^ and taxation, wr ere prominent, and summoned the highest talent of both par ties. There was a public debt of upwards of $1,800,000, which had been created in great part by the losses and the complications of the State through the State Central Bank, and the construction of the Western & Atlantic Railroad.
The theory of equalizing the burdens of government that were increasing with its enterprises, and consequent expenses, by the equitable system of ad valorem taxa tion, had been favored by Gov. Crawford. So far as relates to real estate, it was more strongly and forcibly urged by Gov Towns, on the general theory of placing all taxable property on the basis of paying taxes to support govern ment according to value. The idea that the owner of a slave-child, or invalid, or of small value, should pav as much tax, on that slave, as the owner of a slave of large value, and a like theory as to other property, and assets, tended to bring the system of "specific taxes," into dis favor, and to inaugurate that of taxing values instead of specified property.
The Western & Atlantic railroad, the first enterprise of the kind by any Southern State^ was being completed.

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GOV. JOSEPH E. BBOWN'S EARLY LIFE.

The subject of a suitable organization and system of laws for its government and management, so as to make it available as a great channel of inland transportation, and the development of the country, as was originally in tended, and a source of revenue to the State after paying the debts contracted for construction, and at the same time guard against the corrupting influences of so large a money collecting and disbursing institution, was one of momentous importance.
The administration and government, and financial affairs of the State penitentiary ; the asylums of the luna tics, and deaf and dumb; the public land system; the disputed boundary with Florida; the rnilitia laws, and means of the protection of the State; the purity of elec tions; salaries of public officers; the supreme court; edu cation, and the threatening relations of the people of the North toward the South on the slavery question, were under severe and critical review in this Legislature, and all afforded ample field for the intellectual powers of Mr. Brown and his able contemporaries of the Senate and House.
Gov. Towns, who was of the class called " hot spurs," and afterward "fire-eaters," brought the subject of fed eral relations before the Assembly, stating in strong terms his views of the dangers to the South growing out of anti-slavery aggressions by the Northern people. It was in this Legislature that the measure was adopted which divided the Democratic and Whig parties up to 1852. The call of a convention of the State to consider her course on account of the alleged fraudulent organisa tion of the Territory of California into a State govern ment, with a constitution prohibiting slavery, and the admission of the State into the Union by Congress : the

GOV. JOSEPH E. BROWN'S EARLY LIFE.

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debates on this question and matters germane to it had the effect to develop different and conflicting opin ions between Democrats and between Whigs in reference to the preservation of the Federal Union; and the integ rity of the States and the protection to the constitutional rights of the South in the peculiar institution of slavery. They differed as to the value and importance of the Union, while all were Union men ; they differed also as to the extent of the aggressive spirit against slavery and the imminence of the danger, while they were all State Bights and Southern Rights men. The result was an explosion and disbanding of party organizations for the time being.
In these discussions, and those which followed before the people, Mr. Brown, while not a Disunionist or Seces sionist, as many of the Southern Rights men were, was firmly and decidedly in favor of such a course as might tend to arrest aggression and preserve the Union and Constitution by providing safeguards, or enforcing those we had, for the rights of the States, and the honor and interest of the slaveholding people of the South.
But, as we have seen, the wing of Democracy with which he acted was largely in the minority when the people came to elect delegates to the convention, and in the subsequent election of Cobb over McDonald for gov ernor, with a strong Union legislature which elected Mr. Toombs in the place of Mr. Berrien to the United States Senate. But, as we have seen, upon the settlement of the disputed issues the local and temporary parties organized on them "were disbanded, the old Whig and Democratic parties re-organixed, and the Southern Rights Democrats passed out from under the cloud of defeat and minority.
In the organization of the Democratic forces of the

106

GOV. JOSEPH E. BROWN'S EARLY L

State for the decisive canvass between the national \Yhigs and Democrats In the Union, and to determine the mooted and vexed question as to the ascendency and power of the one or the other, under the lead of Winfield Scott and of Franklin Pierce, the prominence, ability, and in fluence of Brown caused him. to be placed upon the Demo cratic electoral ticket for the 5th congressional district of the State, which, after a successfiil canvass was carried for himself and the Pierce electors by an overwhelming and increased majority.
I have elsewhere alluded to his candidacy and election over Hon. David Irwin, the incumbent judge of the Blue Ridge circuit in 1855, and his brilliant and able admin istration for the two years ensviing, which position he held at the time the State Democratic convention nominated him for governor.
The wisdom of the State has fluctuated much upon the proper mode of appointing judges of the superior court. From time out of mind they had been elected by the General Assembly on joint ballot; but by Act of 1852, reenacted in 1854, the State constitution was so changed as to give their election to the people. This contest be tween Brown and Irwin was a trial in that, as there was in other circuits of the new system, which in the course of a few years proved, to be unsatisfactory on account of the repugnance of the people to bringing their candidate to electioneer personally for votes, and the supposed de moralizing tendency upon the judges when after a suc cessful canvass they have to preside over friends and foes and to pass judgment upon the legal rights of those who stxpported, as well as those who voted against them. In many parts of the State It had the appearance of tending to evil.

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The next change was to clothe the governor with the power to nominate, and the senate to confirm or reject-- as in the case of appointing judges of the supreme court --which system was in force until 1877, when the con stitutional convention of that year so altered the constitu tion as to return to the original system of electing by the Legislature, except that instead of a vote by ballot as formerly, the method is to vote viva voce.
The method last abandoned was intended to remove the appointment from all the corrupting influences of popular elections ; but it was found to be a source of dis satisfaction because of the vast power it placed in the hands of the governor, and the impossibility of the ap pointment of any man, however well suited or however much desired by the people, who could not in some way procure a nomination by him.

CHAPTER III.
GOVERNMENT or GEORGIA UNDER JOSEPH E. BROWN.
This embraces tlie period from his inauguration in November, ] 857, up to the commencement of, and during the whole of the late war, to the final collapse of the con federacy, and to the suspension of civil authority in the State, and his arrest and confinement under the military authority of the United States in the year 1865, having been four times elected by the people of the State, and by large and increased popular majorities. In 1859 the opposition nominated the Hon. Warren Akin of Bar tow county, who canvassed the State with great zeal and ability. But it was in the face of increased and solidified confidence of the people in and largely widened and in tensified popularity of the incumbent ; and Mr. Akin, as would any other man of either party in the State, suffered defeat.
In 1861, after the war was fully opened on a large scale, they nominated the Hon. Eugenius A. Nesbit, a man of great ability, and purity, and of large personal popularity, who, like Brown, had thoroughly and heartily joined in the movement, and cast his lot with the fortunes of the new confederacy. But he, like Akin, suffered de feat by a very large majority.
In 1863, when the fatal crisis of the bloody struggle was being passed, and when the murmurings of discon tent were beginning to be heard, and it was supposed that the somewhat silent voice, and unorganized senti-

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109

ment of opposition to the war in its inception, and espe cially to its continuance, and tlie strong desire for an adjustment, and peace, would find expression at the bal lot-box, the Hon. Joshua Hill was brought out as a candidate. He was an acknowledged Union man. An old Whig with strong party prejudices, and great personal integrity, decision, moral courage and firmness, who at the time of secession represented his district in Congress, and refusing to acknowledge the validity of the ordinance of secession, did not retire with the Georgia delegation from Congress, but formally resigned his seat, thus acknowledg ing the authority of the Federal government over a repre sentative of Georgia in Congress. It being impracticable to defeat Brown by the popular vote, and with a view to securing the election to the General Assembly, a third can didate was brought out. There wTas a sentiment of oppo sition to Brown among men, as much opposed to Hill as he was, growing out of his opposition to the policy of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, which will claim particular attention in another part of this volume. This opposition put forward as a third candidate a man of fair ability, and great excellence and purity of private character, and a true patriot ; the Hon. T. M. Furlow of Sumter county, a strong Secessionist. But both those able and popular men, like Benjamin H. Hill, Warren Akin, nnd Judge Nesbit, were doomed to overwhelming defeat, by a majority required by the State constitution over both competitors. It is a marked ieature in this election, that the Georgia troops in the army, by act of the Legislature, held elections in their camps and voted, in the face of, and defiance to, tlie complaints o the confederate administration and authorities against the course Brown had pursued, in maintaining, even in war, the constitu-

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tion of the Confederacy, and the rights of the soldiers, as well as people. The soldiers of this State voted for Brown by large majorities.
The history of Georgia in this period is, to a large ex tent, a continuation of the history of her Governor, which naturally divides itself into the civil and military admin istrations.

CIVIL ADMINISTRATION OF Gov. BROWN.
Entering upon the duties of his office when really a young man for the position, and when he was regarded and classed among the young men of the State, as the successor of a line of able and distinguished men, such as Lumpkin, Schley, Gilnier, McDonald, Crawford, Towns, Cobb, and Herschel V. Johnson, the anxiety and solici tude with his own party and his special friends as to his ex perience and knowledge and ability to sustain the reputa tion of the State and administer the government were only equalled by the expectation of short-comings and failure on the part of his defeated political foes. It was difficult for the intelligent public to conceive that a man from the remote interior without the benefits of long association with central political juntos and rings, and without experience in civil administrations and a compara tive personal stranger to a large portion of the people, could enter upon such an office without meeting many difficulties to obstruct his success. It was not in their process of reasoning upon the probabilities of his success that a man in the interior, endowed as he was by the very largest measure of brain power and unparalleled energy, perseverance, and moral courage, could become learned from the same authors studied in the central towns ; that he had the same universe spread out before him in which to

UNDER JOSEPH E. BEOWN.

Ill

study nature, and people of the same race to live among and study human passion and frailty; and that there was more leisure and fewer obstructions in the way of

just and correct conclusions, and more influences to fix

his principles and habits in accordance with the demands

of integrity and fideli'ty in private intercourse and in pub

lic administration. Hence the true character of Joseph E Brown was not
well understood, or the full measure of his administrative

capacity well conYprelierided by ^y considerable luim

of even his own party in the State. Many good men\ 'were inclined to think the party had succeeded with a

man who had to be aided and instructed in his duties,

and were not prepared for the conclusion that he was

himself bold, fearless, an irrepressible leader prepared

to follow the dictates of his own superior judgment, and

to lead not only the people, but his seniors in age, in the

matters of sound, practical, successful, honest government. . """ Able men of the State in the Legislature and out felt

they were his seniors in age, experience, and intellectual

rank, that when he differed from the General Assembly, and sought to arrest hasty, inconsiderate, or unwise legis lation by the exercise of the constitutional prerogative and

duty of

THE VETO POWER,

he was dealing out his personal vanity, presumption, and

ambition to the obstruction and hinderance of the legis lative will emanating from the superior wisdom and pru

dence of the leaders thereof; and that he failed to culti

vate a proper consideration and deference for the opinions

of that body. Against the criticisms of the opposition which had al

ready added to his strength and popularity with the peo-

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GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

pie in his second election, in the message of November, 1859, he thus vindicates his administration :--
"The numerous examples of hasty and inconsiderate legislation, which we so often -witness, are becoming a source of great detriment to the State and should be discouraged by all prudent legislators. One of the great evils of the age is, that we legislate too much. As a general rule, the failure of a bill that has merit in it is less to be regretted than tlie passage of a ba<l law. "Wholesome rules of law with which the people have become familiar should not be changed, unless for good cause after very mature de liberation. A failure on th'e part of the Legislature to observe this rule has involved our laws in much uncertainty, and has often kept the people in ig norance of their true meaning. Our legislators have frequently given too little attention, to their duties during the earlier part of the session, and have left the greater part of the business of the session to be transacted within the last few days before adjournment. Hence, their inability to give to each im portant measure, brought before them at the close of the session, the atten tion and deliberation necessary to its proper disposition. The consequence has been, that we have had much inconsistent and unwise legislation. If we would learn wisdom by experience, we might do much to correct this evil in future. I feel it my duty to use all the influence and power of my position to that end. I shall not, therefore, hesitate to lay aside and withhold my sanction from all such bills passed in the hurry and confusion which iisually precede an adjournment as fail to command the approbation of my judg ment, together with all such as have not been plainly and correctly enrolled and signed by the proper officers.
'*! would further suggest the propriety of dispensing with a great deal o the trivial, local, private, and class legislation which is introduced into almost every General Assembly, much of which is useless because it benefits no one, and much of it is unjust and mischievous, because it benefits a few individ uals at the expense of the many. Let it be remembered, that each .useless local Act introduced and passed cumbers the Journals and the pamphlet of Acts, and that the State pays out of money raised from the people by taxa tion, for printing 4,000 copies of the Journals of each House and 5,000 copies of the Act itself, and that one day spent by the General Assembly in the passage of such Acts costs tVie State over $2,500, in pay of members, officers, and other expenses. A proper and just regard for economy demands refor mation in this particular. The same objections that are applicable to trivial and local legislation, apply to much of our private or individual and class legislation, with many other objections on account of its injustice and in equality. It would, in my opinion, be much better for the Legislature, with few exceptions, to lay down genera] rules of law, and let all alike regulate their conduct by them.
"Entertaining these views, I have, during my term in office, frequently

TINDER JOSEPH E. BROWN.

US

withheld my sanction from bills of the character above described. In so doing, I do not consider that I have been wanting- in respect for the General Assembly. The Constitution has assigned to the Governor, as well as to the General Assembly, official powers and duties, and the people should hold him. responsible for the independent exercise of his official powers, as well as the faithful discharge of his official duties. Neither House of the General As sembly feels that it is wanting in respect for the other when it refuses to pass a Bill which it does not approve, though it may have been passed by the other. The constitution declares that the governor ' shall have the revision of all Bills passed by both Houses before the same shall become laws ;' and it only gives to the General Assembly power to pass laws, ' notwithstanding his dissent,' by two-thirds of both Houses.
"If the Governor, therefore, out of respect for the two Houses, signs a Bill which his judgment does not approve, he denies to the people the exercise of that executive revision, which, under the constitution they have a right to demand as a protection against basty or unwise legislation."

CRIME AND PARDONING- POWER.
At this period, the increase of crime had kept pace with the multiplied chances for escape of punishment on the part of those violating public law. With the increase of the class of men who disregard law, and pursue their own inclination, in defiance to its penalties, there had been a fearful relaxation on the part of judges, and an in crease of men who serve on juries whose own life and conduct made them amenable to law, when rigidly admin istered, and who therefore had strong sympathy with per sons under indictment for the like offences they were in the habit of committing. The laws against gambling en counter the opposition of all men fond of gambling, those regulating liquor traffic have not much support from men fond of tippling. Laws to protect virtue, and for the promotion of purity, between sexes, have all the chances of being evaded when libertines chance to be on the jury to try those who violate them. Men who rely upon deadly weapons, and cultivate the idea of punishing per sonal insults and offences by violence, are slow to punish

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GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

men whose conduct results from similar ideas and prac tices.
The increase of legal skill and tact in the defence of criminals ; the disposition to xise the pardoning power by the Governor, and the General Assembly, tended to give assurance to lawless men against the iiltimate penalties of criminal law, "where there were social, pecuniary, or political advantages to be used in their behalf. As judge\ of the superior court for the two preceding years, he \ had seen the evil tendency of relaxation, and the want \ 1 of firmness and nerve in the courts and juries. He had set his face as a judge against it, and "while he incurred the hatred of criminals, and men committing misdemean ors, by preventing their escape from conviction, and im posing and executing the laws' penalties, he drew to him the confidence, esteem, and ardent support of the law and order loving people of all parties. And now that the executive office of the State was placed in his hands he had to confront the same spirit and fearful ten dency, in a higher sense of responsibility, and in the face of far more formidable opposition. It was the influence of wealth and social power of political leaders whose op position was to be dreaded in all future contests, and the attempt to make him odious before the people for the al leged want of proper feelings of humanity, clemency a.nd mercy. It involved on him the decision between the policy of giving encouragement to criminals, and immu nity to crime, through the tender emotions of forgiveness and mercy, as to temporal penalties on the one hand, and the protection of life, liberty, and property of the whole people by making punishment certain, according to the rules of law. It involved him in the refusal to turn con victed offenders loose by the indiscriminate or liberal use

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of the pardoning power, and to sanction bills of the Gen eral Assembly, even when backed by powerful influences, whose object was to relieve properly and legally con victed criminals from the penalties of their crimes.
The first important bill of this kind passed in the first session of the Legislature was to commute the pun ishment of John Black under sentence of death for mur der in Ilabershani county. In his veto message to this bill the Governor, after ably reviewing the case, and the law as to the constitutional power to commute by the Legislature after co**eetion and sentence by the Court, foreshadowed his views and policy as follows : --

"While I am controlled in my action in this case by the Constitutional question, it may not be amiss to notice the question as one of public policy in connection with the question of Constitutional obligation. Should the right to commute the punishment be recognized and exercised in this case, it is not probable that there would ever be another ease of capital punishment in Georgia ; the most aggravated case of murder would probably be brought be fore the General Assembly. Eloquent and sympathetic appeals would be made to the passions and feelings of the Legislature. The result would probably be in every case a commutation of the punishment; and when the convict went to the Penitentiary, in a few years he might be pardoned out aiid let loose upon the community to shed more innocent blood. The clamor which is beginning to be raised for the pardon of every felou I can but re gard as a false sympathy, tending to encourage the commission of crime by destroying in the minds of bad men the fear of certain punishment. In a deliberate case of wilful murder the best interest of the community requires that the culprit should suffer death. This is the revealed law of our Creator; He hag said, * the murderer shall surely be put to death.' Again, lie has said, 'moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death, but he shall be surely put to death.' * So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are; for blood it defileth the land; and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.' That State or JSTation, which is most faithful in its ob servance of God's moral law, is always the most prosperous and happy. If we would save our land from the stain of innocent blood, we must execute
d punish the guilty. While the pardoning po

not fail to be attended

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GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

with the most ruinous consequences ; when the murderer is turned loose upon tlie community, let it be remembered that the blood of the innocent, slain like the blood of Abel of old, cries to us from the ground,"

The firm adherence to the settled opinion and policy of this message, in their application to the multitude of cases for pardon, drew down upon him the odium and the curses of criminals, their relatives and advocates, and strengthened the confidence of the law abiding people in their Governor, and tended to protect them against the crimes of lawless men by removing the hope of immunity from punishment -when legally convicted.
The rule laid down in the case of Black was a hard one to adhere to, and subjected the Governor, in the course of his administration, to many severe tests of his firmness. Many are able to brave danger in the most terrific form, or to resist the influence of rewards when offered. But few men who are charged with individual responsibility in matters involving life or liberty have the stability to withstand the influence of sympathy aroused by the claims of early friendship, and the sacred and heart-subduing pleadings and appeals of a true and noble mother for her son under sentence of death. The case of William A. Choice, of Rome, put him to the test in both.
His mother, a women of great worth and propriety, and of superior intelligence, had been proprietor of a hotel at Dahlonega, where Brown in his boyhood carried country produce to sell. Her great kindness to the poor country boy was fresh in his manhood memory. At this period she was the mother of elegant daughters, inter married with prominent and influential men. The son himself, under sentence, was a man of brilliant mind, and of large personal popularity in his youth. The mother, as all true mothers would, visited the Governor

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in person, in behalf of her only son. But he was firm, treating her with great tenderness and kindness ; he com municated to her his determination to consider the case in the light of official duty under oath, and to follow his convictions of right in the case. The case attracted the attention of the people at large, was much discussed in newspapers, and social circles. Hon. Benj. H. Hill, the great criminal lawyer and advocate, who had defended him in vain in the court, and Hon. Daniel Printup, his brother-in-law and an able lawyer, sought and obtained seats in the State Senate, where, on the discussion of the bill for pardon, the former exerted his wonderful power of logic, eloquence, and pathos.
The bill passed both Houses and went to the Governor. After an able review of the case, in which his judgment concurred with the court and jury, reviewing- the plea of insanity, as the result of intoxication, the Governor concludes his veto message in the following language, which well illustrates the times, the case, and the man of iron will in the discharge of official duty :--
" In determining a question of the character of the one now under con sideration, I should be unfaithful to the high trust reposed in me, if I should permit my reason to be overcome by my sympathy.
"No act of my life has been more unpleasant than the one I now perform. K"o one has a higher appreciation of the character of the relatives of the defendant, and no one would more sincerely rejoice to be able to soothe the feelings of a mother whose heart, pierced with anguish, now languishes with untold grief. But, if ifc were proper for me on this occasion to be influenced by considerations of this nature, I should do wrong, were I to contemplate the sufferings on one side, and refuse to look upon the picture of misery on the other.
" A few months since the family of Webb, the deceased, was comfortable and happy. His wife and little children had the care and protection of a fond husband and a kind father; but in a moment of time, by the cruel act of the defendant, the wife a widow, and the children orphans, were left to mourn their irreparable loss, and were thrown upon the cold charities of the world almost friendless and penniless, to make their way through life as

1

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best they could, poor and neglected. But duty forbids that I should be influ enced by the contemplation of this scene of misery on either side. The laws must be vindicated, and crime must be punished, or society cannot be pro tected, and Courts and Juries must be sustained in the administration and execution of the criminal laws of the land, or violence and bloodshed will prevail to an extent that will excite and prompt our people to take the law into their own hands, iri the belief that it is the only protection left them.
" I am not unmindful, while making this decision, that the pardoning power is a necessary one in every well regulated government, and that there are some cases in which it ought to be exercised, as in cases of partiality, prejudice, or highly excited feelings on the part of the Court or Jury by whom the case was tried, rendering it highly probable that injustice was done the defendant, or on account of perjury or mistake on the part of the witnesses for the State, which is afterwards discovered, and which may have materially influenced the verdict against the defendant, or in cases of con viction upon such slight evidence that the mind is left in great doubt about the guilt of the defendant, or in cases of extreme youth,--in these and pos sibly a i'ew other instances when injustice is likely to be done, and when the remedy is no longer within the reach of the Courts, the humanity of out Constitution has wisely vested in another department of the government ample power to prevent the injustice, by extending a pardon, and thus arresting the judgment of the Court, lint it should not be forgotten that this power is subject to be greatly abused, and that it -was not the intention of those who formed our Constitution, that the verdicts of Juries and the judgments of Courts should be indiscriminately annulled by its exercise, aod felons convicted of atrocious crimes thereby turned loose again upon the community ; the extension of mercy to such offenders is the infliction of cruelty ant! injustice upon society. I am also aware that it is argued that the pardoning power is a Godlike power, and that it is noble to exercise it. But it should not be forgotten when this argument is used, that God himself required no less than the blood of his own Son as an atonement for sin before he exercised the pardoning power, and ' without the shedding of blood is no remission,' is the language of his eternal truth. God has said ia his revealed law, that ' the murderer shall surely be put to death,* ' more over ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death : but he shall be surely put to death. So ye shall not pollute the 3and whereon ye are, for blood it defileth the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.' If then we would respect the revelation of God, and save our land from the stain of innocent blood, we must execute the law and punish the guilty. Some may say that the stern truths of the Bible are not suited to the humanity and sympathy of the present age ; they are none the less truths, however, on that account, and it is none the less certain that the curse of

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God will rest upon that State or nation -which disregards them, and that his blessings will attend those who obey them,"
The pardon failing, for the want of a two-third vote over the veto, the pending writ of error was prosecuted in the supreme court, and the conviction was affirmed. In the Legislature, a year later, a bill was passed to pardon him, and place him. in the lunatic asylum. This bill was also vetoed by the Governor, on the grounds that the supreme court had reviewed and pronounced upon the whole case, and thoroughly considered the law of insanity in its application to this case. And upon the further ground that there was no power in the Legislature to adjudge him a lunatic, and commit him to the asj^lum, which could only be legally done by the court having jurisdiction of the case. This bill was passed over the veto, and Choice sent for a short time to the asylum, and died there.
BANK:S AND BANKING.
November 5, 1857, the retiring Governor Johnson com municated to the Legislature in his general message :--

therefore submit this whole subject to your consideration ; and to enable you to act advisedly, I herewith transmit to you copies of the late returns of the various banks of Georgia, exhibiting; their condition, made in pursuance of executive proclamation. It is gratifying that these statements afford evi dence of their solvency. Will you legalize their suspension and fix a day in the future when they shall resume specie payments? As a general rule, it is safest to meddle as little as possible with the currency of the countryThe laws of trade regulate it best. Hence, in view of the crisis that is upon

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us, complicated, as ifcis, with the interests of agriculture, and the price of its productions, it would seem to be wise to tolerate the suspension, in reference to all those Institutions, which, upon examination, shall prove to be sound and solvent. It is not only legitimate, but the duty of the Legislature to in vestigate thoroughly the condition of the banks; to institute a diligent enquiry into their mode of transacting business, and, by the use of all the powers--even to sending for persons and papers--which may be necessary to ascertain whether they have confined their operations strictly within their appropriate spheres, or whether they have embarked in speculations, by plac ing their funds in New York, to shave southern paper at a heavy discount, or in any other manner departed from the objects contemplated by their charters. It is due to the country that a full exposition be made; it is the only manner in. which the public can be protected. If such abuses shall be de tected, let the Legislature, in granting them tolerance in their present predica ment, put them upon terms which will prevent their recurrence for the future."

This message came from one of the most able and pop ular governors the State has had, and it was natural for the General Assembly to follow its suggestions, by the passage of an act to legalize the bank suspensions, and relieve them from the forfeiture of their charters, to which by suspension? they became liable. And the passage of the legalizing act recommended, developed in the young Governor a trait of character and a firmness in the face of the moneyed corporations of the State that drew to him the admiration of the people. His attempt to throt tle the banks, and to force them like individuals to obey the laws of the State, was a sublime exhibition of moral courage, and imbedded him securely in their confidence, while it arrayed against him a monetary power and politi cal influence that were well calculated to deter weak and timid men. His terrible review of banks and banking in this State, in reply to their pleas for suspending specie payments, in the veto message, to which no successful reply could be made, is one of the State papers that will do to be read in any country, or stage of civilized gov ernment, by people seeking the height of truth and jus-

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tice. The document is elaborate and exhaustive. The
foundation, premises, and conclusions are in the following extracts:--
" Our banking Institutions have exclusive privileges conferred upon them by law which are very valuable, and which the laboring masses are pro hibited tinder a heavy penalty from exercising upon the same terms upon which the banks exercise them. The banks are permitted by law, without bond or security, to loan their credit, or, in other words, their own notes as money, and to charge interest upon them. The laboring man, whatever may be his occupation, is denied this privilege, and is subject to indictment and punishment as a criminal if he attempts to exercise it. He can receive in terest only upon the capital which is the income of his labor ; and upon this he is permitted to charge only legal interest, or seven per cent, per annum. The laboring masses produce the capital. Indeed, all capital is the result of labor; and that system of legislation which establishes a favored class, and confers upon them privileges denied to others, by which they are enabled to enrich themselves by taking from the laboring masses the income of their labor, is not only unjust, but contrary to the genius and spirit of our gov ernment.
" I affirm that our banks, which have suspended and so continue, are guilty of a high commercial, moral, and legal crime. Of a commercial crime, be cause they have brought the present crisis upon the people for selfish pur poses, when there was no great necessity, and when by spending a few thou sand dollars of their immense profits in the purchase of specie the suspension could easily have been avoided. By refusing to do this they have destroyed public confidence, deranged commerce, caused our great staple to fall several cents on the pound, by which our planters have sustained a loss of several millions of dollars, and the value of property throughout the State has greatly depreciated. The credit of the State abroad has been injured, while general distrust and depression have been the result. They have been guilty of a moral crime by violating- their contract with the people, in refusing to meet their solemn promises when they acknowledge, nay, even boast of their ability to do so, thereby doing the grossest injustice to the laboring masses who have confided in them and been deceived by them. They have been guilty of a legal crime by wilfully and knowingly violating and setting at open defiance a positive statute of the State, making the price of our property, the price of labor, the happiness and welfare of the people, and the law of the State all bend to their interest. They are governed solely by their interest, and it is their interest in times of prosperity to expand and extend their circulation, raise the price of property, stimulate a spirit of speculation and involve the country in their debt as much as possible.

" In 18-10, while the people were passing through one of those periods of

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distress above alluded to, they determined to protect themselves, if possible, against such a state of things in future ; and, through their representatives, they passed a law requiring the banks which had suspended to resume spe cie payment within less than two months after the passage of the Act and requiring all the banks of this State in future to redeem all their liabilities in specie, on demand or presentation--while forfeiture of the charter was pro vided as the penalty for a violation of the law. The people relying upon this plain statute, as well as the common law which takes away the charter of a corporation which abuses the trust and palpably violates the contract upon which the charter was obtained, supposed they were secure against further bank suspensions. On account of the value of their corporate privileges it was believed that motives of interest would prompt the banks to make, out
of their large gains, a sacrifice, if need be, sufficient to enable them to pro cure the specie and redeem their bills to save tbeir charters. It was not then believed that the banks would have the power to violate the law with im punity, and to dictate the terms of their own pardon. Since the passage of the Act of 1840, the number of banks and the amount of banking capital in the State have greatly increased. As their number and capital have increased, their power in the State and their influence over the legislation of the country have increased. Who has not observed within the last few years the increas ing influence of our wealthy corporations over our Legislature? When their
interest is at stake, outside pressure becomes very strong upon the law-mak ing power and is too sensibly felt.
" If the suspension is legalized it cannot be denied that the banks have triumphed over the people and set the law at defiance. They have made at once the interest upon the whole amount of their circulation for the entire period of the suspension. They receive interest upon all their bills; they pay no interest and cannot be compelled to redeem the bills- It is no reply to say that they may be sued .and compelled to pay interest after protest, and ten per cent, damages. The bills are scattered all over the State in, the hands of the people, in small sums, and not one in fifty has an amount of the bills of any one bank large enough to justify him in employing a lawyer in Augusta or Savannah, and standing a suit with the bank. Better give -up the debt in many cases than incur the expense, trouble, and delay. Legalize the suspension and the bills still further depreciate, property falls lower, and exchange rises higher. The country has no currency but depreciated bill?> (for the banks will lock up all the gold and silver in their vaults) and we have no means of determining- which banks are solvent, and which are in
solvent- At the time set for them to resume the insolvent banks would be unable to do so. During the suspension they would have flooded the country with their bills and the failure would then fall much more heavily upon the people than it would if they were wound up now before they have time to in crease the circulation of their worthless bills. If they are not g-ood the sooner the test is made, and the fact known, the better for us all. If they are good,

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they can buy gold and resume specie payment. If they do not, let their charters be forfeited."

The General Assembly, although Democratic, was not apacewith the pioneer Governor in his attempt to execute the law upon banks, and to protect the people. He was in this, as in many other respects, living" in advance of even the higher classes of intelligent leaders, who re garded the summary course he recommended harsh and hurtful in its certain effects on commerce, credit, and the general business of the country. They overruled his veto and passed the suspension Act ; but behind the legis lators stood the people in almost solid phalanx with their heroic Governor. The banks felt that the Executive was, when true to the trusts of his high office, a power in the State not to be scoffed or derided, but to be obeyed and respected when charged with the duty of protection to the people.
The Act granted them until the 15th of November, 1858, to resume ; but the voice of the people and the odium of suspension in the face of the statute of the State caused the resumption by the first of May preceding.
In the general message of November, 1858, after stat ing the history and effect of this bank controversy the Governor says :--
" For the purpose of compelling these corporations to yield obedience to the law in future, I respectfully recommend the penalty for disobedience be increased, and in addition to the penalty already prescribed, that a tax of two per cent, a month upon the whole amount of the capital stock mentioned in the charter of each delinquent bank be levied and collected in gold and sil ver for the entire time daring which any such bank may in future remain in a state of disobedience, and fail to make its returns as directed by the statutes. There can be no just reasons why wealthy corporations should be permitted at their pleasure to set the law at defiance, while individuals are compelled bo suffer rigorous penalties for its violation. The mandates of the law should be obeyed as promptly and implicitly by the most influential and

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wealthy as by the poorest and most needy. This is republican, equality, and our people should be content with nothing else.
I presume it will not be denied by any one that we have erred by a too liberal and unguarded grant of corporate powers and privileges to mone3*ed monopolies. And it is "believed that a future extension of this policy would soon enable these monopolies to control the government of Georgia and make the people the subjects of their power. It is already claimed by some that they now have the power, by combinations and free use of larg-e sums of money, to control the political conventions and elections of our State, and in this way to crush those who may have the independence to stand by the rights of the people in opposition to their aggressive power. I trust that the bold, independent and patriotic people of Georgia may never be compelled to bow the neck in subjection to the yoke thus intended to be imposed by the corporate powers of the State. Let it not be forgotten, however, by those who have watched with anxiety the growing power of corporate influ ence, that the price of republican liberty is perpetual vigilance.
" The monetary and commercial affairs of the country must necessarily re main subject to panics, under heavy pressures, at certain, if not frequent intervals, as long as our present banking system is continued with its enor mous powers and privileges, which have been enlarged and extended by legislative enactment, chartering new banks from year to year. The people should take this subject into serious consideration, and pronounce upon it a calm and deliberate judgment. Every intelligent person must admit that it is impossible ior a bank having a paper circulation bhree times as large as the amount of its specie to redeem all its bills in specie on demand. Should all its bills be presented for payment at any one time, and the specie be de manded, it can then redeem but one-third of them. In that case, if the bank has sufficient assets, or property, the other two-thirds may possibly not be an ultimate loss, but payment must be delayed till the money can be realized by a disposition of those assets and property, which may not be till the end of a lengthy and uncertain litigation. It is clear, therefore, that our present pa per currency is not a currency convertible, at all times, into gold and silver upon presentation ; and that only one-third of it, should payment be demanded on all at one time, can, in the nature of things, be so convertible, so long as the banks issue three dollars in paper for one in. coin.
"In my judgment, no paper currency is safe which is not so regulated as to be at all times readily convertible into gold and silver. It is true, our people, by a sort of common consent, receive the bills of the banks and use them as money, though in reality they rest on no solid specie basis. But sad experi ence has taught us that such a circulating medium subjects the country to panic at the first breath of distrust or suspicion, which may be produced by the failure of a single bank having a large circulation and extensive connec tions with other banks, and may widen and extend to the prostration of the credit of the whole country. Such a currency, having no solid specie basis,

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can be available only so long as the community will consent to receive promi ses to pay money in the place of money itself.
" The people take from the banks their bills as money. The banks re ceive intei'est, and often exchange, upon them. When required to redeem their bills in specie, they suspend, if they choose to do so; and then, if an at tempt is made to coerce payment in specie, they resist it, holding a rod over the people by threatening to make them pay upon a specie basis debts contracted by them for the bills of the bank; notwithstanding those bills, when they received them, rested on a basis of one-third specie. The high prerogative of exercising banking privileges,and of issuing their own notes or bills to be circulated as money, not resting upon any solid specie basis, is secured to the banks under our present system of legislation as an exclusive right, while the exercise'of similar privileges upon like terms is denied to all individual citi zens of the State by stringent penal enactments.
" The privilege of using their own notes as money gives, to the favored few who enjoy it, immense advantages over their fellow-citizens, and may often enable the managers of these corporations to amass great wealth by their high salaries and large profits. ft may however be said that many of the stockholders are widows and orphans ; that the stock la in the market for all; and that the dividends are not greater than the profits realised from other investments. This may be admitted. Indeed, it seems in practice to be generally true, that corporate privileges do not result so much fco the bene fit of the imiss of stockholders as to the benefit of the few who manage the corporation. To estimate correctly the profits made out of the people by those engaged in banking1, we must not only count the dividends of seven, eight or ten per cent, distributed among the stockholders, but we must also take into the account the banking houses, real estate and other property purchased out of the profits of the bank and held by the corporation. Besides, we should consider a reserved fund of two, three, or four hundred thousand dollars, made up of accumulated profits, and often kept back by our larger banks and not distributed among the stockholders, together with the high salaries of all the officers of the bank, which must be paid before any dividends are distributed. These sums, though made out of the people by the banks, are not semi-armually divided among the stockholders. To these add all sums paid to attorneys, agents, etc., and all amounts lost by defaulting agents, which, while they cannot be set down as profits of the corporation, since neither its officers proper nor Its stockholders are bene fited thereby, are still sums of money which, under the workings of the sys tem, .ire drawn by the corporation from the pockets of the peopJe.
"To all tins add the large suras lost almost every year on account of broken banks, whose bills are left worthless in the hands of the people, who have paid full price for them as money. And take into the account the further fact th?it the State, in 184S and 1849, issued 515,000 of her bonds, to meet her liabilities on account of the Central bank, $240,000 of which

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are still outstanding-. And that in 1855, she issued $48,500 of bonds to pay her indebtedness on account of the Darien bank, which are still unpaid, making $289,500 of bonds on account of these two banks which still remain a povtion of the public debt., the interest upon "which is paid annually out oi the taxes of the people--and we may form some estimate of the amounts which the people of Georgia have paid and continue to pay in taxes, and suffer iu losses, to sustain the banking system.
" Again, in many instances, those who control the corporation may have great advantages in being able, if they choose, to obtain such accommoda tions as they may desire, by the use of its funds, when a favorable oppor tunity for speculation occurs. The dividends paid to stockholders are therefore no proper criterion by which to judge of the advantages of the .corporation to those who hold its offices, and control and manage its capital and its operations ; or of the sums lost by the people on account of the work ings of the system.
" Thus far I have discussed this question upon the supposition that the liabilities do not exceed three dollars for every one of specie actually on hand in the banks to meet and satisfy them. This supposition is more favorable to many of the banks than facts will justify. The law of their charters only requires that their liabilities shall not exceed three dollars for every one of capital stock actually paid in and not three dollars for every one of specie on hand to meet those liabilities. As an illustration of the error of our present legislation in incorporating banks, suppose the amount of the capital stock of the bank be limited by the charter to $500,000 which is to be paid in, in gold and silver, by the stockholders. The charter then provides that the liabilities of the bank shall at no time exceed three times the amount of the capital stock actually paid in. The stockholders paid in the 500,000 in gold and silver. The directors of the bank may then, without any violation of the letter of the charter, incur liabilities against the bank to any amount that does not exceed 51-500,000; and that too, without any obligation on their part to keep in their vaults the (fj>500,000 actually paid in, or a like sum. If they should take out -400,000 of their specie and invest it in real estate or other property, leaving but $100,000 of specie in the vaults, they may still contract debts to the amount of a million, and a half, and may point in triumph to the language of their charter, and to the fact that the $500,000 of capital stock was once actually paid in, as their author ity for so doing.
" This bank legislation of our State does not seem to have been well under stood by our people. They have generally believed that banks, by the let ter of their charters, were required to have on hand at all times an, amount of specie one-third as large as the entire amount of their liabilities. The banks have understood the matter very differently, and have not only claimed, but exercised the right when they regarded it their interest, to ex tend their liabilities far beyond three dollars for every one of specie actually

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on hand to meet those liabilities. By examination of their returns made to this department in October, 1857, it will be seen that at the time of the late suspension of our banks in Augusta and Savannah, the liabilities of one of them for bills in circulation and individual deposits, exceeded thirteen dollars for every one dollar of both specie and bills of other banks which it then had on hand. Another had only one dollar in specie in its vaults for every Jifteen dollars of its liabilities for bills in circulation and deposits. Another had not one dollar in specie for every seven of liability for bills in circulation and deposits ; and another had only one dollar in specie for every eleven dol lars of its liabilities of the character mentioned above. It is true these banks had other assets, bat those assets were not money. The question naturally suggests itself, how can such a currency be convertible into gold and silver--the money of the constitution--on demand or presentation ? How can a bank with^een dollars of cash liabilities for every one dollar in specie, or even of five dollars for one, pay its liabilities promptly on demand ? Ifc is impossible. And how can its bills be justly considered safe as a circulating medium, or as money, if it cannot redeem them promptly on demand ?
"In consideration of all the imperfections and abuses of our present bank ing system, I am of opinion that we should do all in our power to bring about its complete reformation, and if this be not possible, we should abandon it entirely. I am the advocate of no harsh measure that would either violate the legal rights of the present corporations (however unwisely they were granted), or that would bring distress upon the people by a sudden return from a paper to a specie currency. A reformation so radical, if attempted, must be the work of years. If the Legislature would continually refuse to charter any new bank, or to enlarge the capital stock of, or re-charter any bank now in existence, the system would gradually work itself out by efflux -of time; and we might, without any sudden shock, return, safely to the cur rency of the constitution, plant ourselves upon a firm specie basis, and rid ourselves of a system against which the great and good men who conducted the revolution and formed our constitution intended to guard their posterity, when they declared in the constitution that nothing but gold and silver coin should be made a legal tender.
" In two of the States of this Union banks are prohibited by constitutionalprovision ; two others have no banks, and another had but two small banks, whose charters, it is said, have been forfeited by the late suspension. And I am informed upon what I consider reliable authority, that the late com mercial pressure was comparatively but little felt within the limits of those States.
" Should our people determine, however, to continue the present banking system, and to charter new banks, increasing their number and thereby in creasing their power in the State, I would respectfully urge the importance of guarding all charters with much greater stringency in the future. Let the charter of each provide that the entire liabilities of the bank shall at no

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time exceed threel dollars for every one of specie actually in its vaults and "bona fide the property of the "bank, on pain of immediate forfeiture. Let the simple fact of suspension of specie payment render the charter absolutely null and void. This-would deter them from engaging in such wild specula tions and over-issues as compel them to suspend in case of pressure. Let provision also be made tliat all executions issued against the corporation may be levied upon the property oC any stockholder until the creditor be satisfied, leaving the stockholder to his legal remedies against the rest of the stock holders to enforce contribution among themselves. Let the bills of the bank in the hands of the people at the time of suspension bear interest from that time till paid. And let the Legislature retain the right, by express reserva tion in the charter, to alter, modify, or repeal it at pleasure. In rny opinion it would be best for the Legislature to refuse to grant a charter to any cor poration for any purpose whatever without retaining a similar power, should its exercise be required by the interests of the State or the public g-ood. If the corporation is unwilling to trust the people with this repealing power, bow much more should the people be unwilling to trust the corporation without it."
Two years later, when the then recent election of Mr. Lincoln, the abolition candidate, as president, rendered secession and revolution probable, and when the State was preparing for a convention to determine her course, the banks again sought relief by an Act to legalize their suspension.
On the 30th of November, 1860 : " For the general rea sons against bank suspensions contained in the message of December, 1857," he returned the Bill without approval in an elaborate message setting forth the history of the question and the results.
The following extracts show the firmness and nerve of the Governor in the maintenance of his opinion of right:--

" The suspension of specie payment by the banks is not for the benefit of the banks but for the benefit of the people ! The constant efforts made by bank men to practise upon popular credulity, by the declaration of this strange absurdity, are not a little remarkable. If this be true why is it, when such a measure is to be carried, that our lobbies are crowded with bank presi dents, bank directors and bank stockholders who are constantly besieging the members of the General Assembly with clamorous appeals for the passage

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of the bill, while the brinks with -which they are connected co-operate with

them for the purpose of keeping up the excitement by refusing to extend the

smallest accommodation to the people till the bill is passed? Why is it that

these gentlemen never ta"ke upon themselves to guard the people's interest

and spend money to secure the passag:; of bills through the Legislature, ex

cept when it is desirable to pass a bank suspension bill ? This is not the first

time I have seen till their influences brought to bear upon the Legislature

for the purpose of accomplishing an object in the midst of wild excitement

and great alarm. The small number of members of the present General

Assembly who were here iu 1857, and voted for the bank bill of that year,

will, I think, concur with me in the statement, that the excitement at the

capitul in 1807 was much greater than the advocates of the present bill have

been able to civate on this occasion. The people then did not appreciate

the favor conferred on them by the passage of the law.

*

*



*

"It may be claimed that the present political aspect of affairs requires the legislation proposed by this bill. In case the convention of the people of this State, when it meets in January next, shall pa?s an ordinance declaring the State out of the Union, on account of the refusal of the Northern States to abide by the Constitution, it, may become proper to iuike an exception to ,1 general rule; and permit a suspension for a short time: as a chiinjie in the relations of Georgia to the United States' Government might, for a, time, produce some derangement in the currency which ouiild nut be anticipated by the banks; and they might, iu such case, bo entitled to a. lenity to which they would not bo entitled under ordinary circumstances. I do not admit, however, that it is either wise or just to pass ;m Act iu advance which au thorizes the suspension till 1801, without regard to what may be the action of the convention. If the State secedes from the Union, the Legislature will probably have to bo again convened to provide for our future safety and wel fare; and. it might then be time enough to determine this question."

The General Assembly; yielding to the clamor for relief and fearing the injurious effects threatened, passed the act over the veto.
f his bank controversy, and the unyielding opposition of the executive to everything that tended to result in wrong and damage to the people, through the defalcation of any banking companies, is one Important part of her history, which in connection with the sleepless vigi lance over the treasury, the sagacious management of the public property and judicious course in providing for and

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meeting promptly (he State's debts, gave to her Gov ernor a measure of popular confidence and ardor of pop ular support that grew and strengthened with the severity of criticism, and the vindictiveness of opposition from his enemies. And it goes far to explain the true causes for the advanced position Georgia held among her Bister Southern States in credit, the value of her bonda, and the confidence of financial men and institutions abroad.

N OF WESTERN & ATLANTIC RAILROAD.
This great public work, as a State enterprise, met with strong popular opposition from its inception based on the Democratic theory of opposition to internal improvements by the general government, and the political doctrine that it is inequitable and unjust to tax the whole people for improvements to particular sections, and for the direct benefit of only a portion of the taxpayers. The friends and advocates of the road replied to the objec tions by picturing the effect of this enterprise when completed upon the general prosperity of the State and the enhancement of values, and consequent increase of resources, and tlio means of meeting and discharging the State's debts contracted for the building and equip ment of the road, by the opening of a new outlet of travel and commerce to the ocean and gulf through the heart of this State.
Under the rapid historic development of the country within the State, and increase of trade and travel from beyond her limits, and the verification of the theories of the projectors and advocates of the road, the popular pre judice against it as a public work abated ; and the people realized the immense value and benefit they had acquired

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through the superior wisdom of the men they had opposed and censured for incurring State debts to build it.
But the history of tlie road, the financial management of it, and the popular feeling growing out of the adverse criticisms of the party out of power, and not enjoying the emoluments of the offices and contracts which the party in power had at command and to bestow, had precipitated difficulties, and great perplexities, to the immediate prede cessors of Governor Brown.
The personal integrity and honesty of Governors Towns, Cobb ? and Johnson, who had the administration of the State and road for the ten years preceding, were beyond all question by candid men. Still, in spite of all vigilance on their part, complaints against thorn, and against the .Democratic party in power under their ad ministrations of partiality and favoritism Cor party purposes, and of fraud and peculation, and private specula tion on tlie part of officers and employees were rife, through the partisan press, in public orations, and.private discussions of the people. The road was held up to the public as a huge and overpowering means of political and partisan power and control over the people in elec tions, through the influence of men enjoying and seeking personal advantage and gain.
The Democratic masses did not credit the charges made against their Governors, and the party under their admin istrations adhered firmly and truly to the integrity of Governor Johnson, whoso purity of character was above all suspicion for the four years he had been in power. Still the people, while not willing to quit the party on account ot individual abuses and wrongs brought to their attention, earnestly desired some system of reform in the administration of the road, that would quiet? and effect-

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GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

uully stop the clamors of the opposition, by the removal of every appearance of the wrongs complained of. Such was the public temper at the time Governor Johnson re tired, and Governor Brown was installed.
He had resided in the section of the State through which the road was located, been engaged in the law practice, and presided as judge when its affairs had been investigated, and had been called on as a Democratic leader and public speaker to defend his party against the multitude of charges made against its management. He not only knew and felt the public temper and desire, but understood to what extent there was just cause o com plaint. He not only was endowed with superior compre hension and ability, as well as sleepless vigilance and tire less energy, but had more nerve, moral courage, and inflexible will to work out the desired reform than any of the public men of the State probably possessed at that time. And with all these, he combined an honest pur pose to bring about the much desired reform ; to cut off extravagance, peculation, and waste, and to make the road a source of revenue in lieu of an expense arid bur den to the State.
Like his predecessors, he lived to see that it was a moral impossibility to silence all complaints. The an tagonism excited by displacements and removals inaugu rated a system of severe espionage and criticism upon all his official action.
These complaints from the opposing party soon ceased, and that party derived satisfaction from Democratic dis content. The Governor "was subjected to the criticisms and murmurings of displeased men of his own party. He appointed Dr. John W. Lewis general superintendent of the road. A man unlike himself in age and experi-

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ence, but, like himself, a Democrat in full accord with the principles and high aims of the pa,rty, and a man of great personal integrity, industry, and of economy and success in his own private affairs, who carried with him into this high and responsible and perplexing office not only the purpose to administer it faithfully and honestly, to make the road a financial success to the State, arid thus pre serve and enlarge his own reputation, but to enhance that of the young1 Governor by whom he had been ap pointed, and whom it was his own pride and happiness to have aided in his early struggles to complete his edu cation And who, like his chief, had been long annoyed by complaints, true and false, of malversation on the part of under officers and employees, and who was, therefore, in full accord with him in the purpose to reform all real abuses, and disarm enemies of the accustomed luxury of complaining even at the appearance of waste.
No time was lost, or pains spared in carrying these aims and purposes into execution. And with the inauguration of rigid and inflexible economy, there arose a merciless complaint--not of waste, corruption, malversation, or pecu lation--for all appearance of these had instantaneously disappeared ; but of alleged niggardly economy and downright stinginess, as well as a total want of financial libcrali f y on the part of the management. Dr. Lewiw was assailed with severe complaints on account of his prompt action and stern adherence to the policy of his chief, which challenged his own unqualified approval, and with jest and ridicule for alleged penuriousness. But with the nerve and firmness only equalled by that of his chief, he disregarded them all and plied his mind and all his energies to make the policy, what it proved to be, a grand success for the State. Discontented people even.

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GOVERNMENT OF GEOBGIA

directed their criticism to the Governor himself, and did not scruple to refer to the republican simplicity and well regulated economy of Ills own household and private affairs.
He never drank or encouraged the drinking of intoxi cating liquors before or after lie became Governor, and could not use tobacco or endure the smoke of it. These long enjoyed excitant luxuries were discontinued in the receptions of the mansion ; and that which was based on principle, and his exalted conceptions of morality, and his decided convictions of the ruinous effects of the example of drinking in high life, was attributed to stinginess, or ill advised and distasteful economy on the part of a high public officer, who was expected to cater to the culti vated taste and the appetite of the people with whom he had official or social contact.
But all complaint and criticism were powerless to shake his purposes, or to unsettle the fixed principles of a life shaped by them in private, and carried with all their strength and vigor into the administration of the State, in all her multiplied interests.
The connections of the road w^ere about being largely extended by the completion of the roads northwest of Chatfcmooga, its western terminus, by which there was an increase in the gross income. By reason of the re form inaugurated, the stopping of unnecessary waste, and useless expenditure, the comparative expenses were diminished, and there began a rapid increase in the net earnings and profits of the road, which were paid monthly into the treasury of the State from that of the road. As a natural consequence, the popularity of the Governor widened, and grew in intensity, and confidence, and ap proval, and support extended to all classes and parties, in

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every section of the State. And the matters alleged against the Governor, of an excess of economy, and an over zeal in stopping" leaks, and cutting' off useless ex penses, were such as to magnify his popularity with the people, and to strengthen their purposes to support and uphold his administration. These purposes became so general and fixed with the large majority of the people of the State, that no public man could assail the wisdom, or question the integrity of his administration, without depreciating himself in public confidence.
In November, 1853., the retiring Governor Cobb, in his annual message, reviewed the affairs of the road, its management and government, advocating a uniform system of government by superintendent appointed by, in harmony with, and amenable to the Governor, and opposed to its sale as had been suggested. He brought before the Legislature the difficulties-and embarrassments attending- it, and recommended '' to lease the road under an act of incorporation. Let a charter be granted with a capital stock of $500,000, in shares of $100 each, etc." The General Assembly however did not see fit to carry out his plan, but continued the government of the road under his successor, Governor Johnson.
He, after two years of trial and vexation under the system, in his message of November, 1855, made the fol lowing statement and recommendation :--

" The Road is the people's property, constructed for their common benefit and therefore it is peculiarly appropriate for you, as their representatives, to prescribe the line of policy to be pursued. Nor is it necessary to discuss the various plans suggested for its future maua^eraeiifc. Some insist that it should be sold, either in part or in whole, so as to sever its ownership from the State, or to give its control to private individuals. Others urge that it should be leased for a term of years. These propositions were discussed by my Immediate predecessor, and considered by the last Legislature. The_y

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GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

have also, in the mean time, engaged the popular mind, to a considerable extent, and you are doubtless prepared to represent correctly, by your action, the public sentiment. Another mode proposed is, to placo Its management in the hands of a board, composed of three Commissioners, to be chosen by tlie people. I refer to those propositions to demonstrate what I believe to be indispensable to meet the expectations of the people of the whole State, and that is, the necessity of removing its administration beyond the arena of politics--of talcing it from Executive control--of making it independent of party influences, However widely different these various propositions are, they afford conclusive evidence of the restlessness of the popular mind on the subject. The sentiment is all pervading, and is manifested in a thousand forms, that this is expected and demanded at your hands. How it shall be done is the question for your wisdom. I have 110 hesitation iu expressing the firm belief, that it were better to adopt any one of these pro positions, than to permit the i-oad to be managed under the present mode of its organization. The idea of this vast capital being subject to the fluctua tions of party politics--confided to agents, who, as a general rule will he changed every two years, in obedience to the utterances of the ballot box, is preposterous and ridiculous hi the extreme. It is only railroad men who understand the conduct of these great works. Politicians, who aspire to gubernatorial honors, know but little, if. anything, about It. How absurd, therefore, to place the Executive at the head of the road--inexperienced and therefore disqualified--and expect him to manage it with skill and success? How unjust to him---how hazardous to the interest of the people, to saddle him with so heavy a responsibility. Without disparagement to predecessors, it is believed that the road has never been better managed than it has been during the last two years. Economy and. punctuality, in every department, have been enforced--not a dollar lost by defalcation--not a dollar recovered in litigation for damages which accrued within that period--but fe\v and slight disasters from running oil" or collisions of trains--and yet the dissat isfaction and complaint, in certain quarters, are deep and loud. All, all demonstrating that tlie policy of severing it from Exucu'.ive control is absolutely imperative. I respectfully urge the Legislature to do it."
The General Assembly, large as was the measure of confidence In the "wisdom of their re-elected Governor, declined to carry out his wish, to have the government of the road separated from Executive control.
On retiring in November, 1857, his message contains this statement:--

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137

$3,052,260.82. The working expenses of tlie road for the same period have

been $1,329,411.51, and the net earnings 81,722,819.31. How has this large

amount of not profits been disposed of ? Has it been squandered or applied

to necessary expenditures V These are questions which should be answered

to the satisfaction of the people, and when thus answered, the senseless

clamor wliich is raised against the management of the road, for mere

decency's sake, ought to cease. Then see how the account sfcand.

Net earnings for four years,

$1,722,8-19.31."

To which is a tabular statement of tlie expenditure of the entire amount,, ol: which were paid into the State treasury for 1854, $50,000 : 1855, $100,000 : 1856, $43,500: 1857, $100,000 : The balance mainly for locomo tives, tracks, depots, cars, etc.
And upon this the Governor makes this comment:

" Whether these expenditures were proper, is left for fair minded mea to determine. They, at least, seem suited to the enterprise, and cannot be con sidered unreasonable!, when it is recollected that the road is not even yet com pleted and thoroughly equipped for the annually increasing business ifc is compelled to accommodate. At all events, it will scarcely be asserted by any having a due regard for veracity, that the money has been either stolen or wasted. But these heavy expenditures will not be required hereafter. The time has come for the patience of the friends of the road to have its reward. I fully concur with the Superintendent, that henceforth, under proper manage ment, it will pay into the State Treasury $350,000 annually.
"It may be suggested, however, that the mismanagement is not in the application of the net earnings, but in the expenses of maintain ing and work ing the road. Let us see how the State Road compares, in this respect, with other roads in the State, what proportion the current expenses bear to the gross earnings. The gross earnings of the Georgia Hail road, for the last four years, were $1,016,3-46,14 ; the expense for working and maintaining- it, for the same period, were $1,848,017.02, or about 45 per cent. The gross earn ings of the Macon & Western road, for the four years, from December, 1852, to December, 1856, were $1,290,445.00, and the working expenses for the same period, $-108,340.00, or 50 - per cent. The gross earnings of the Central Railroad, including the line from Gordon, to Eatouton, from December 1, 1853, to December 1, 1850, and the line from Millen to Augusta, to the 1st of January, 1850, were 54,697,269.08; and the current expenses for the same period, were $2,219,0-18.17, or i7\ per cent. These are confessedly the best managed company roads in Georgia. But the Western & Atlantic Railroad compares favorably with them in reference to the point under con sideration. Its gross earnings for the last four years are $3,052,200.82,

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GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

and its working expenses, for the same period, $1,329,411.51 , or a little loss than 43^- per cent. It would seem that the country might afford to be satis fied, i the State road bo managed as cheaply as those of private companies. Certainly the fact is worthy of consideration, when its administration is branded with corruption and mismanagement."

With this the Executive authority of the State, which continued to hold the management of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, passed into the hands of Joseph E. Brown, where both remained up to and during the late war, and the surrender of the State with the Confederate authorities and property at its close.
The results of Governor Brown's policy and sagacity, his energy and firmness, are briefly stated in the following extract from his annual message in November, 1859 7 and after his re-election as Governor.

"For information in reference to the condition, management and incomes of the Western & Atl.-intic Railroad for the year ending 30th September last, you are referred to the Report; of Dr. John W. Lewis, its very vigilant, efficient, ami worthy Superintendent. I feel that I do but an act of justice when T say that in my opinion the State has at 110 time had connected with the road, in any capacity, a more competent, trustworthy, and valuable public servant. It will he seen by reference to his Report, that the sum of 8102,000 in cash has been paid into the State Treasury from the net earnings of the road during the fiscal year ending 30th September last; and it will be seen by the report of the State Treasurer and Comptroller General, that four hun dred and twenty thousand dollars have been paid into the Treasury during the fiscal year ending 20th October, 1859. The old iron on about 25 miles of the track, has. since the 1st January, 1858, been taken up and its place supplied with heavy new rail. Tho road-bed and all the superstructure and machinery are kept in excellent order. No new debts are contracted which are not promptly paid, monthly, if demanded ; and no agent appointed or re tained in office during my administration is known to be a defaulter to the amount of a single dollar,
"I confess that the amount paid into the Treasury from the road, during the past year, has somewhat exceeded my expectations. For this I am in debted not only to the Superintendent, but also to the untiring efforts oC the honest, industrious, and faithful officers and agents associated with him and under his control.
"It has, I think, been clearly shown -within the last two years that the

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139

road owned and controlled by the State is a productive piece of property, and with proper management in future, I feel safe in the prediction that it will remain so and that the incomes from it will continue to increase with the increase of population, "business, and wealth in the country.
" So long as the road remains under my control I invite strict scrutiny into its management; for I subscribe fully to the doctrine that it is proper to hold public functionaries to rigid accountability. Arid I am willing that judgment be pronounced upon my official conduct under the application of this rule.
" In the construction of the road under State management it is not doubted that there were in many instances too lavish ari expenditure of the public money, and that it cost a much larger sum than it should have cost. I am not prepared on that account, however, to admit that any good reason exists why a State may not manage a great public work of this character with as mneh honesty, economy, and success as a corporation. To accomplish this object it is only necessary that the officer having the appointing power select agents who are competent, honest, and faithful; that he lay down strict rules for the government of their conduct; that he give so much of his individual atten1 tion to the work as will enable him to know whether or not those rules are violated ; and, in every case where he discovers be lias been deceived in the selection of a proper agent, or, where an agent has palpably violated the rules laid down for his government, that he may have the moral firmness and nerve without regard to personal considerations, to apply the corrective . by a prompt removal. The observance of these rules is, in my opinion, a duty of the appointing power from which he should never shrink. Jf he performs this duty he can seldom fail of success.
" KegvjrdJJig- it as a matter of interest, I have endeavored at the expense of considerable labor, to ascertain the original cost of the State Road; but I find it impossible, for the reasons given in the able and very valuable report of Col. P. Thweatt, comptroller general, who has also given much attention to this subject, to arrive at a conclusion with entire accuracy. It is believed that the report of Mr. Garnetfc, then chief engineer, made in 1847 of the amount expended to that time is about correct. He estimates the whole cost to the date of his report at $3,305,165.88. Since that time there has been appropriated to the construction of the road, its equipments, etc., in cash and in the bonds of the State, the sum of $t, 136,300.27. Addthe.se sums together and we have 81,441.532.15 as the total amount appropriated by the Legis lature, and paid out of the State treasury for the construction and equipment of the rond. This, in my opinion, is a very near approximation to correct ness.
" I am aware that some persons, in accounting for the gross incomes of the road since its completion, have charged large amounts of these incomes to construction. These sums were, I think, generally more properly chargeable to repairs, &c, than to original construction. As an instance, the Etowah.

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GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

bridge was burned down some years after the road had been in operation, and it became necessary to build a new one. The cost of this could not properly be chargeable to original construction, but was, I think, properly chargeable to repairs on. account of casualty.
"A portion of the iron originally laid down on the track became so much worn as to be unsafe, and it was necessary to procure and lay down new iron in its place. The cost of this also was properly chargeable to repairs and not to original construction. If a Depot building was sufficient, when the road was completed, to accommodate all who had business at the place, bat which afterwards, on account of the decay of the structure or increase of business at the location, was found to be in sufficient, and it became necessary to build a new one, its cost could not justly be charged to original construc tion.
" Without multiplying instances of this kind, I conclude that as soon as the Legislature had appropriated a sufficient sum to complete the road, and to place upon it the superstructure and machinery necessary to the transac tion of the business offered by the country to the road, the original construc tion account was at an end, and that all such enlargement of buildings, re construction of bridges, renewals of superstructure repairs of track, &c., &e., as were afterwards required for the safety of transportation and travel over the road, or for the accommodation of increased business, is properly charge able to expense of keeping up the road, and not to expense of building and putting it into operation. Had the road remained unproductive to the Treasury for a quarter of a century, 011 account of bad crops, casualties from fire or flood, commercial pressure, bad management, or from, any other cause, it could only have been evidence that the original investment was an unfor tunate one for the time; but surely the repairs made and all the State's losses during that time, could not, in justice to the officers afterwards in charge of the road, be properly chargeable to original cost in calculating the per ceiifc. which the road might afterwards pay upon the original investment. Estimating the original cost, therefore, at $1,441,582 13, the road during the past fiscal year (ending 2> >th October last) has paid into the treasury o the State nearly nine and a half per cent, upon the original investment. And it should not be forgotten in this connection that it was built at a time when rail roading was not well understood, and that it was built as a public work, at a. cost g-reatJy more than would have been expended in its construction, even at that time, by a private company.
" Had the same economy been used which is usually practised by private companies, the whole cost of the road would not probably have exceeded, if it even had amounted to, $3,000,000.
" The sum paid into the treasury during the past year is fourteen per cent, upon that sum. In comparing the present management of the road with company management, it is certainly just to the present officers, who did not build it, to count the per cent, upon such sum only as the road should rea-

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141

After three years trial, in the annual message of No vember, 1860, the Governor thus states the result of the last years operations :
" It will be Sften upon, an examination of the report of Dr. John TV. Lewis, the able and faithful superintendent of the State Road, that the road is in excellent condition in every department, and that the net amount paid into the State treasury for the past fiscal year is 9-150,000. This sum has been paid into the treasury after deducting all expenditures and making all neces sary repairs, and after paying $22.9i6 of bonds and coupons of the funded debt of the road, which fell due 1st January and July last, together with over ten thousand dollars of other old claims, which originated before the commencement of my term in office, and which had been for years in litiga tion. It affords me pleasure to add that the officers of the road, in every department of its management, have generally been diligent and attentive a.iKl have acquitted themselves with much credit during the past year."
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS BY TIIE STATE.
/As early as November, 1855., Governor Johnson, whilcX /he announced the opinion to the Legislature that it was
unwise and inexpedient to appropriate money or subscribe stock by the State to aid in the construction of railroads, favored the idea of " completing the skeleton of the system so as to extend an arm. into each of the grand geographical sections or divisions of the State, by lending her credit under securities and guarantees, which would place
er beyond the contingency of ultimate liability and loss." He sanctioned and approved the Atlantic & Gulf
Road charter, which provided for $500,000 stock by the State in it, while he disapproved of the plan of granting State aid.
In November, 1857, he announced to the General As sembly that, in granting new railroad charters they should never lose sight of the policy of protecting lier

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GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

State Road from ruinous competition; she should be care ful not to cripple the efficacy of company roads which have been built by private capital ; she should preserve the symmetry of the system of our internal improvements, so that in its farther development and growth to maturity it shall, as a primary object, promote her own. wealth and the prosperity o her towns and seaports."
He adds--

" Augusta, Savannah, and Brunswick are the three points of commerce at which the productions of our agriculture nmst find their market and their door of cxJt to the marts of the world. The perfection of our internal im provement system, as well as the Interests of agriculture, requires that each of these commercial points shall be connected as directly as possible with each section of the State, so that all our people may enjoy a choice of markets for the sale of their produce. The State may aid in the construction of lines of road projected in reference to such conuecticms, upon guaranties of se curity that prevent the possibility of ultimate loss. Beyond this she ought not to go. As to the mode in which she should extend her aid, I prefer the loan of her credit for a given amount per mile, to a subscription for stock. By the former method she can secure herself by statutory lien upon the road and its appurtenances; whereas, by the latter, she must rely upon the suc cess and profits of the enterprise."

When Governor .Brown came into office the incomplete railway system of the State was of paramount importance, and public opinion, while it favored progress and exten sion of the system, was by no means harmonious as to the part the State should take in providing means for the purpose. Many people regarded the prospective profits as a sufficient inducement to private capital, controlled by intelligence, to assure the construction of all roads that were required by commerce and travel, and that as a natural sequence they would be constructed in due tinie. They favored liberal charters to private companies, and opposed the policy of the States furnishing money or in curring pecuniary obligations to build them.

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143

Others regarded the matter in the light of public policy

and the demands of the situation to keep pace with the

improvements in progress on the east, north, and west of

us; and the immense advantages of leading in the gen

eral scheme, so that this State shall have a controlling" in

fluence in the general system of improvements, and for

the more direct effects of equalizing the benefits among

all the people and every section of the State ; and for the

general enhancement of values and increase to the State

of her sources of revenue.

s

It was an issue between progressive democracy on the

one hand, and stationary and cautious conservatism on

the other. It was an issue to summon the decisive

energy, and put in action the mental and moral force of

the popular young Governor, who was in all nis nature,

his antecedents., and his impulses, as well as fixed opin

ions, a man of progress. And the threatened evils were

of sufficient moment to make the matter of securing the

State one of equal importance with that of internal im

provements. In his first annual message he took the fol

lowing bold ground after reviewing the State's relations

with existing roads,

"Other sections of the State are still destitute of the advantages of rail road facilities. I am decidedly of opinion that it would be good policy for the State to lend her credit to aid in the construction of such roads as may be necessary to develop lier vast resources, provided she be made perfectly secure beyond doubt, against ultimate loss. Tins could be done by the en dorsement of the bonds of the company, by the State, after a certain pro portion of tiie road is first completed, for an amount sufficient to enable the company to purchase iron for the road. The bonds thus en dorscd should be made payable twenty years after date, with six per cent, interest, payable semi-aiimiuJIy : and let the State take a mortgage npon the entire road, and all its appurtenances, declared by law to be prior to all other liens ; to be fore closed, and the road and Its appurtenances sold in sixty or ninety days after the failure of the company to pay any instalment of either interest or prin cipal when due. And in the event the whole road and its appurtenances

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GOVER^MEHT OF GEORGIA

should fail under such mortgage pale to bring a sum sufficient to pay the entire amount foi' which the State shall have become liable, on account of the company, let the law provide that each solvent stockholder ahull be liable to the Stute, according to the number of the shares he may own, for his propor tion of the deficiency. This, in my judgment, would make the State secure; \vhile it would enable each company engaged in the construction of a road necessary to tho development of the resources of the State, to obtain the money requisite to its completion, upon such time and terms as would enable the company, should the road prove as remunerative as its projectors antici pated, to refund it out o the future net earnings of the road. Of course such a law should be a general one, alike applicable to all roads in any part of the State, in the benefits of which, all roads now in process of construc tion, or to be hereafter projected, on. equal and well defined terms, conditions and limitations, might participate. Guard, the State against possibility of loss, and I am decidedly in favor of State aid, by lending her credit in the construction of all such roads as may bo necessary to the prosperity of her people, and the development of her resources."

/"VV year later, reviewing and reiterating the opinionsV Above expressed, and urging that " the law if passed ' should be a general one, giving to everjr company in the State, engaged in the construction of a railroad, the same I aid, subject to the same liability," and elaborately arguing Vthe policy, he answers one of the formidable objections^/ in the following:
"It is sometimes said, that in justice to the railroad companies already in existence, the State should not aid or encourage the building of other roads which may come in competition with those now in operation. Some of thepe companies are now making1 very large profits, and while I desire to see them prosper, and would not wish to soe their dividends reduced below a point where the stock would be reasonably profitable, no matter how much other interests might be thereby promoted, 1 am unwilling that such sections of tho State as are without railroads should be denied their benefits on the gvovind that the large incomes of some of the wealthy companies now in ex istence might be reduced by giving these sections an opportunity to partici pate in the advantages which would result to them from tlie construction of other roads. Indeed, I entertain no doubt that the interest of the people re quires that the number of roads be increased till no one shall have a monop oly of the business of any very large portion of the State, provided that each shall be left with sufficient business to make its stock reasonably renumorative. The greater the competition between tho roads the lower will he

r

UNDER JOSEPH E. BROWK.

145

the freight and fare, and the better for the interest of those who travel and ship freight over them. When there is no competition, for the purpose of accumulating larger incomes the freights are usually placed by the Company at a very high figure, and the shipper must bear the loss.
"Again, I deny that any Company has a right fco complain that Injustice has been done it by the State should she permit or encourage the building of such roads as the interest of her people in different sections require, which do not in any manner violate the chartered rights of such company. Most of our railroad charters contain guaranties to the respective companies that no lateral road shall be built within a certain number of miles of the road of the company to "which the guaranty is given ; say twenty miles, as an in stance. These corporations claim that the charter is a contract between the State and the company, and they cling with tenacity to every chartered right given them by this contract, and exercise it, if profitable, no matter how onerous its exercise by them may be to other interests in the State. They should therefore be content with the contract; and should not bo heard to complain when the State exercises rights reserved by her when she granted to them their charters. The State, in the caso above supposed, as an instance, when she granted the charter, guarantied to the company an exclusive right over a strip of her territory forty miles wide. With this guaranty they were content, accepted the charter, invented their money, and built the road. The interest of a large number of persons outside of the lim its embraced in the guaranty probably afterwards requires that they have a road; the State encourages its construction and it is built. What injustice is done to the first company and how have they been deceived ? They have the fall measure of their rights, and the full benefits of what they insist upon as their contract. It is true, they may not have so large a monopoly as they desire, but they have all they contracted for, while another portion of the State is developed, and the people have the benefits of low freights resulting from the competition,
" The State lias taken stock in two railroad companies. Z oppose this policy, and do not think she should be a partner with her citizens in such an enterprise. My opinion is that she should have no interest in any property over which she has cot the entire control. By endorsing the bonds of the company, with ample security, she complicates herself with none of its pri vate management or affairs. '*

The policy recommended was never fully adopted ; the intervention of war operated to impede the progress of internal improvement as well as public and common school education. No general bill such as that recommended by Governor Brown was passed after the war. The Georgia

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Air Line road, chartered in 1856, obtained from the Legis lature in 1868 an act to lend the credit of the State to that enterprise, upon the plan of Governor Brown, as to the security of the State against loss by first mortgage lien, and the endorsement of the State of the bonds of the company. Numerous bills of like character in favor of other roads were enacted. But, unfortunately for the State, she wanted the sagacity, care, vigilance, and firm- ness of Governor Brown to protect her against gross frauds, as will appear in the history of the administration of Governor Rufus B. Bullock, from July, 1868, to Octo ber, 1871.
COMMON SCHOOL EDUCATION.
On account of the revolution in public opinion and feel ing in the last twenty years in this State, which presents so widely different a situation now from what we know to have existed then ; and on account of what has actually been achieved in general and popular education in the last decade ; and in view of the neglect of previous Legis latures to provide any system of public education that de served the name, it is difficult to realize and appreciate the forecast and liberal views of the Governor, and the boldness with which he pressed upon the Legislature the subject of common school education. r While he set his head and bent all his energies to the subject of retrenchment, economy, and reform in every de partment and all the details of government, and to the most rigid scrutiny into everything to be supported or paid for by the State, wherein a dollar might be saved, he exhibited views and plans for the education of the people of the State that were by many regarded as prof ligate and extravagant, not to say visionary ; and brought them before the Legislature at the end of the first year of J

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/ his administration; which are set forth in the following
I extract from his message of November, 1858.
"The public debt of the State amounts at present to $2,630,500, payable at different times during the next twenty years. A large portion of this debt has been contracted from time to time on account of the State Road. This debt, it will be remembered, is subject by legislation, already had, to be in creased $900,000 on account of the State's subscription for stock in the At lantic & Gulf Railroad Company. This would make the whole debt $3,530,500, should no part of it be redeemed before the bonds of the State for the above mentioned $900,000 shall have been issued. By the terms of the contract with the bondholders, $289,500 of this debt is now subject to be paid at the option of the State, though payment cannot be demanded till 1863 and 1868. The Central Bank bonds are also falling due in considerable sums annually. Good faith requires that the debts of the State be promptly met when due. And sound policy dictates that such bonds as are due or not, at the option of the State, be taken up as fast as she has the means.
" The net earnings of the Western & Atlantic railroad are already pledged for the payment of a large portion of this debt. I therefore recommend the passage of an act setting apart $200.000 per annum of the net earnings of the road to be applied in payment and purchase of the public debt. And, in view of the great and acknowledged necessity existing for the education of the children of the State, and of the immense advantages which would result from the establishment of a practical common school system, I further recommend that a sum as large as the entire amount of the public debt be set apart as a permanent common school fund for Georgia, to be increased as fast as the public debt is diminished; and that the faith of the State be solemnly pledged that no part of this sum shall ever be applied to, or appro priated for, any other purpose than that of education, Let the act make it the duty of the Governor each year as soon as he shall have taken up the $200,000 of the State's bonds, to issue $200,000 of new bonds, payable at some distant period to be fixed by the Legislature, to the secretary of State as trustee of the common school fund of the State, with semi-animal interest at sis per cent, per annum, the bonds to be deposited in the office of the secretary of State. As the public debt is thus annually diminished, the school fund will be annually increased, until the whole debt is paid to the creditors of the State, and the amount paid converted into a school fund. And as the fund is increased from year to year, the amount of interest to be used for school purposes will be likewise increased.
" Should this plan be adopted, in a few years the school fund of Georgia. including the present fund for that purpose, would be in round numbers $4,000,000. The amount of interest accruing from this fund, to be expended in erecting school-houses and paying teachers, would be $24:0,000 per annum. I am aware of the difficulties which have been encountered by those who

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have attempted heretofore to devise a practical and equal school system for the State, owing In a great degree, it is believed, to the fact that portions of our State are very densely, while others are quite sparsely populated. But the fact of our inability to accomplish all we may desire is no sufficient rea son why we should neglect to do that which is in our power. Probably the principal cause of our failure in the past is attributable to a lack of funds and of competent teachers.
"With the gradual increase of the fund proposed, it is not doubted that the -wisdom of our State would, from time to time, improve our present defective system till it would be so perfected as to afford the advantages of an education to all or nearly all the children of the State. Let the teachers be paid by the State, and let every free white child in the State have an equal right to attend and receive instruction in the public schools. Let it be a common school, not a poor-school system. Let the children of the richest and the poorest parents in the State meet in the school-room on terms of perfect equality of right. Let there be no aristocracy there but an aristocracy of color and of conduct. In other words, let every free white child in Georgia, whose conduct is good, stand upon an equality of right with any and every other one in the school-room. In this way the advantages of education might be gradually diffused among the people ; and many of the noblest intellects in Georgia, now bedimmed by poverty and not developed for want of educa tion, might be made to shine foi'th in all their splendor, blessing both church and State by their noble deeds.
" Should $4,000,000 be insufficient to raise annually the sum required, the fund might be increased from the incomes of the road to any amount neces sary to accomplish the object. The interest on this fund should be semiamiually distributed equally, among the counties, in proportion to the whole number of free white children in each, between sis and sixteen, or of such other age as the Legislature may designate. Authority should also be left with each county to tax itself, at its own pleasure to increase its school fund, as at present. And it should be left to the inferior court, or school commis sioners of each county, to lay off the county into such school districts as will be most convenient to its population, having due regard to their number and condition.
EDUCATION OF TEACHERS.
" Assuming that provision will thus be made to raise all the funds necessai'y to build school-houses and pay the teachers to educate all the free white children of the State, the next question which presents itself, and perhaps the most important one of all, is, how shall the State supply herself with competent teachers? raised in her midst and devoted to her interests and in stitutions?--southern men, with southern hearts, and southern sentiments?
" For the purpose of educating G-eorgia teachers in Georgia colleges, I pro pose that the State issue her bonds payable at such distant times as the Leg islature may designate, bearing interest at seven per cent, payable serni-an-

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nually. The interest to be paid out of the net earnings of the State Koad ; and the honds be redeemed out of its proceeds, should it ever be sold. That she deliver !$200,OQO of these bonds to the State University at Athens, as au additional endowment; $50,000 to the Georgia Military Institute, at Mari etta, and $50,000 to each of the denominational Colleges in the State, in consideration that each of said five Colleges will bind itself to educate, annually, one young- man as a State student for every $200 of animal interest which the endowment given by the State pays to the College ; furnishing him with board, lodging, lights, washing, tuition, and all necessary expenses except clothing, which might be furnished by the student himself or his par ents. The interest on this $400,000 of bonds would be $28,000 per annum. This sum would maintain and instruct as above suggested one hundred and forty young men annually, being one from each county in the State, and two from each of the fourteen counties having the largest population, unless other new counties are formed. I propose that these young men be selected from all the coiinties in the State, from that class only of young men whose parents are unable to educate them, and that only such be selected as are of good moral character, industrious and attentive, who desire an education, and who give promise of future usefulness. That the selection be marie in each county by a competent committee appointed by the Inferior Court, after an examination at some public place in the county of all such young men aa desire to become beneficiaries, and will attend on a day to be fixed by the Inferior Court, after giving due notice. Let the committee be sworn that they will be governed in the selection by the merits of the applicant, without prejudice or partiality; and that they will select no one whose par ents are known to be able to g~ive him a collegiate education without doing injustice to the rest of his family. And I propose that the place of any such student in college be supplied by another, whenever the faculty of the college shall certify to the inferior court of his county that he is neglecting his studies or failing to make reasonable progress, or that he has become ad dicted to immoral habits. I propose that fche State, in this manner, give to each of the poor young men thus selected his collegiate education, on condi tion that he will enter into a pledge of honor to make teaching his profession in the county fi'om which he is sent for as many years as he shall have been maintained and educated by the State in college ; the State permitting him to enjoy the incomes of his labor, but requiring him to labor as a teacher.
"Many of these young gentlemen would, no doubt, adopt teaching as their profession for 2ife. This would supply the State after a few years with com petent teachers. And as these young men while teaching in various coun ties in the State would prepare others to teach without going to college, pure streams of learning would thus be caused to flow out from the colleges, and be diffused among the masses of the people throughout the State. Then we would not so often hear the complaint that the child must unlearn at one school what it has taken it months perhaps to learn at another under an

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incompetent teacher. This plan is intended to equalize, as far as possible, the poor with the rich, by giving to as many of them, as possible, at the ex pense of the State, an opportunity to educate their sons in college, a privi lege at present confined almost exclusively to the rich ; as poor men have not means to educate their sons, however deserving- and promising they may be.
" Under the plan above proposed it is not intended to make a donation, or absolute gift to the colleges, of a single de-llai' of the bonds of the State. It is intended only to deliver the bonds to the colleges and to pay to them the interest, senn-annually, as a compensation for them to maintain and edu cate annually, one hundred and forty young men of promise, who could iu no other way enjoy the advantages of a liberal education ; \vho in turn are to diffuse intelligence among the great body of the people, thereby supplying the State with Georgia teachers well qualified to teach the youth of Georgia; and who would be, at the same time, the natural friends of her institutions. As part of this plan I also propose that a General Superintendent of schools for the State be appointed with a salary sufficient to secure the best talent, -whose duty it shall be to collect valuable information upon the subject, and report annually to the Kxecutive, to be laid before the Legislature; and to traverse the State in every direction, visit the schools, address the people, and do all in his power to create a lively interest on the subject of education.
" Carry out this plan and who can estimate its benefits on the State V I regard the education of the children of the State as the grand object of primary importance, which should, if necessary, take precedence of all other questions of State policy. . For I apprehend it -will be readily admitted by every intelligent person, that the stability and permanence of onr republican institutions hang upon the intelligence and virtue of our people. ~fo mon arch rules here! And it is the pride of our system of government that each citizen at the ballot bos possesses equal rights of sovereignty -with every other one. Thanks be to our Heavenly Father, the popular voice cannot here be hushed in the silence of despotism, but the popular will dictates the laws. May it thus ever remain! How important it is, therefore, that the masses of the people be educated so each may be able to read, and under stand for himself, the constitution and history of his country, and to judge and decide for himself what are the true pi'inciples and policy of his govern ment. But how much more important it is, in my opinion, that every person in the State be enabled to read for him or herself the Holy Bible,, and to comprehend the great principles of Christianity, in the eternal truths of which, I am a firm, though humble believer. Educate the masses and in culcate virtue and morality, and you lay broad and deep, in the hearts of our people, the only sure foundation of republican liberty and religious toleration ; the latter of which is the brightest gem in the constitution of our country.
" By adopting the proposed line of policy we have it in our power, with-

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out increase of taxation or burden to our people, to place Georgia, so far as education is concerned, in the proudest position of any State in the Union. Let her educate every son and daughter within her limits, and she may then justly boast that she is the Empire State of not only the South, but of th whole Union. By this plan the public debt would be reduced, and the school fund increased, annually, $200,000 ; and the interest amounting yearly to 928,000 on the bonds delivered to the colleges, would be paid semianniially, out of the net earnings of the State road; and there would still be left an annual income from that source of $72,000, to be applied to other purposes."

The Legislature did not adopt the plan of the Governor, but took what was then regarded as an important step in the matter of public education. The State's bank stock, consisting of 1833 shares of the stock of the Bank of the State of Georgia; S90 shares of the Bank of Augusta; 186 shares of the Georgia Railroad and Banking Co., by Act of the Legislature of January, 1852, had been set apart,, as a permanent fund, for the education of the poor. The Legislature to which this message was addressed, added thereto an annual appropriation of $100,000 of the net earnings of the "Western & Atlantic Railroad, to be apportioned to the white children of the counties returned between the ages of eight and eighteen years.
His views expanded with the increase of intensity of his mind and emotions upon the subject of education, and as official duty and experience brought him to the con templation of the subject in its limitless importance to the welfare of the people, and their descendants in the fu ture.
The disaster of civil war intervened to prevent the consummation of his plans. But justice to a noble and farseeing patriotism and statesmanship, whose aims were thus thwarted and their grand results withheld from the peo ple of the State, calls for the brief statement of his scheme for the promotion of the higher grades of learning, pre-

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sented to the General Assembly in November, 1860, by the permanent and liberal endowment of the1
UXIVEISSITY OF GEORGIA.
" The far seeing wisdom of those who framed our State constitution not only grasped but fully comprehended the importance of promoting the Arts aud Sciences when they Inserted in that instrument the following clause:
" ' The Arts and Sciences shall be promoted in one or more seminaries of learning; and the Legislature shall, as soon as may be, give such further do nations and privileges to those already established (the State University was then established), as may bo necessary to secure the objects of their insti tution.*
" This is still a portion of the constitution, which I, and each of you, have sworn to 'observe, conform to, support, and defend." Have the spirit and intention of this provision of the constitution been carried into effect by the Legislature in the meagre endowment which the State University has received from the State? Have the objects for which the University was instituted been secured? If not, is the State not abundantly able to carry the spirit and Intention of the constitution into effect without embarrassment to her government or burden to her people? If so, can we consistently, with the oaths which we have taken, refuse to make the necessary appropriation ? These are questions -well worthy the serious consideration of each and every one of us. But, aside from any obligation which the constitution imposes upon us, can we doubt the wisdom and sound statesmanship of such a course? I cannot think that it is sound policy for Georgia to refuse to eudow her University, while her people send out of the State in a few years for the education of their children a sum of money more than sufficient to make the endowment which would be necessary to draw large numbers of the youths of other States to our University to be educated. This would cause Georgia to receive the money of other States, for the education of their children, instead of paying her moziey to other States for the education of her owu.
"That State is always the most wealthy, powerful, and respected in which knowledge is most generally diffused and learning in all its branches most liberalSy encouraged. We cannot doubt that England is indebted in a very great degree to her Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and to the influ ences which have gone out from them, for her ability to dictate laws to a large portion of the world and to draw wealth from every quarter of the globe. Nor can we deny that Massachusetts by her liberal course towards her Cambridge, and Connecticut by her liberality to Yale College, have greatly enlarged their wealth at home and increased their influence abroad; and have been able through the instrumentality of their Universities to instil into the youthful minds of the educated of all the other States of the Union many of their own peculiar liotioiis of religion and government, while they have drawn millions of money from other States lor the education of their

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children. Georgia has contributed largely to build up Northern colleges, and has purchased from them, or those educated by them, most of her test aod school books and much of her literature. Most of those Northern col leges, which have shared so largely the Southern patronage, are now hostile to Southern institutions. Notwithstanding all this they still get Georgia patronage, because it Is believed they can furnish educational advantages superior to those offered by Georgia colleges. This mi^ht not; now have been the case had the money sent out of Georgia by parents and guardians for education been_expended at our own University. Is it not time we had learned wisdom by experience? We claim that ours is the Empire State of the South. Why then should we refuse to endow and build up our University where the sons of the South may enjoy educational advantages equal, if not superior, to those offered by New England colleges; where authors may be reared and literature and school books produced which will enlighten and elevate the minds of onr youths without subjecting them to abolition taint or New England fanaticism?
" After mature deliberation upon this question, I feel it my duty to recom mend the appropriation of five hundred thousand dollars, to be paid in five annual instalments, of one hundred thousand dollars each, for the endow ment of our State University. This sum, added to the present endowment, would be sufficient to construct the buildings, purchase the library and ap paratus, and endow the professorships, necessary to make it, in a few years, a first class Uttiversity; and would further enable the trustees to pay such salaries as would command the services of the most distinguished professors in the country. This would at once give the University a commanding po sition in the Southern States, and relieve us from the necessity of further patronising Northern Colleges. I think the heart of every Georgian should swell with pride at the contemplation. And I do not doubt, when the ques tion shall be fully discussed before our people, that they will be found to be in advance of most of our politicians upon this subject. He who does right, will seldom have cause to fear the popular verdict.
" The aggregate taxable property of this State is supposed to be, this year, about $700,000,000. The seventieth part of one percent, upon this sum, will raise, annually, the $100,000, Tins will be a fraction less than one cent and a half, per annum, 011 each one hundred dollars' worth of taxable property, or a fraction over seven cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property, to be paid in Jive annual instalments.
"What Georgian is so destitute of State pride, apart from every considera tion of patriotism and sense of duty, that he would refuse to pay this small sum to see our State University fully endowed, for all time to come, and put in a position of equality with any University in the Union ? I think I know the great masses of the farmers and mechanics of our State, who are its very bone and sinew, and upon whom every other class of citizens is dependent for its support, well enough to say for them, in advance, that many of our public

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men underrate their intelligence and liberality; and that not one in every twenty of them, who pays tax on one thousand dollars' worth of property, would hesitate a moment to contribute a dime and a half a year, for Jive years, for the purpose of building up a University which would place Georgia in the very front rank of all her Southern sisters, where the young men of the South who, in future, are to conduct its government, direct its energies and defend its honor, may be educated, without assisting by their patronage, to build up, elsewhere, institutions at war with our dearest rights. But ifc is not indis pensably necessary that even the small additional tax above mentioned, should be collected from the people for this purpose. Each annual payment might be made out of the incomes of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, and the tax at present paid by the people of this State,be reduced within, the five years; and we would still have money enough to meet promptly, in times of peace and prosperity, all,the necessary expenses of the government.
"In return for this appropriation, the University should be required to educate and maintain, from year to year, such number of poor young men as the Legislature which makes the appropriation, may direct. I would suggest that the number be one from each county in the State; to be selected in such manner as the Legislature may prescribe. The young men selected as bene ficiaries should be such only as have not the means to educate themselves, and whose parents are unable to defray the expenses of a collegiate educa tion for them. Each should be required, when he enters the University, as a consideration for the instruction he is about to receive from the State, to sign a pledge of honor, that he will, if not providentially prevented, teach school, in Georgia, as many years next after he leaves the University as he was instructed in the University, or refund to the State the money expended in his education with lawful interest. The benefits of a collegiate educa tion should not be confined to the sons of the wealthy; but the State should provide, as far as possible, for the education of moral young men who are talented and promising; and who,by reason of their poverty, are unable to educate themselves. From this class would rise up many of our most dis tinguished and useful citizens. Many of the brightest and most intelligent boys in Georgia are found among the poorest and humblest of her citizens. Inured to labor from their infancy, when the portals of the college are thrown open to them, they are not unfrequently found to outstrip the more favored students; and afterwards, when they come to enter the arena of active life, they are usually more energetic and more likely to become dis tinguished and useful thau those whom necessity has never taught the value of personal exertion. Many of these young men would make teaching a pro fession for life, which few of the sons of the wealthy after graduating in col lege are willing to do.
" It is generally admitted by the most intelligent and best informed, that the establishment of a State University of a high character would work no detriment to the denominational, or other colleges of the State. The gradu-

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wou en uer e necessy o ea cessary advantaagges. The buuiln dingg up of the nversy, upon
o do much to advance our common school pro

/ , In the same message, the Governor recommended a /normal school for the education of female teachers, upon
the plan, " that the girls educated there divide among themselves and do in their turn all the cooking, washing, and other labor necessary to be done at the school. Each would be required to furnish her own clothes. The actual cost of maintaining each in the school would therefor'e be the prime cost of the provisions used by each, to gether with books, lights, and fuel. At this school, -which should be located in some healthy portion of our State, j large numbers of young females, whose parents are una' ble to educate them, might be prepared to teach our priI mary schools, or indeed to teach in any of our schools. I While receiving their scholastic education at the normal ! school, these young ladies would also receive a domestic education, which would be of great utility to them in any
osition which they might occupy in after life." ^~In all the brilliant career of Governor Brown, there appears at this day to the writer nothing that invests his sagacity with the appearance of prophetic wisdom like this of educating women without elevating their tastes, habits, and dispositions above useful labor, and without lowering their physical capabilities below its de mands. If his theory could then have been applied to

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the education of both girls and boys, in all tlie South, we, as a people, slionld not only have been infinitely better prepared for the demands and prevention of war, while raging, but for the situation after emancipation, which summoned us to self-sustenance and self-dependence.
In his zealous advocacy of a common school system of education, and for the education of teachers he was only in advance, but in strict harmony, with his predecessor Governor Johnson, who, in his retiring message, urged the subject in strong terms upon the consideration of the Legislature, as well as the claims of the State University for the promotion of learning in the advanced sciences. He says, " we need a University proper. Such its founders designed our State college to be, and the constitution, as I have shown, has made it obligatory on the General As sembly to carry that design into effect."
*******
He says, further quoting the Constitution :--

*' What has been done to carry into effect this clause of your Constitution? How little? It lias reference mainly to the State University, which had been chartered in 1W7S. Hence, it is obvious, that it is the sworn duty of the Gen-

byi tious and pr:

Assembly, with the positive injunction to such action as may be proper to supply the wants of the State. That contracted policy which is ever stand ing at the door of the Treasury, with a naming two-edged sword, is but lit tle better than moral treason to the Constitution, which, for more than half a century, has been pleading- for conformity on the part of those who swear to obey. Education is the friend of the State. It will elevate the people. It will diminish crime and the expense of executing the laws. It will raise out the poor from the mire into which innocent poverty has snnli them, and place them 011 an intellectual equality with the favored sons of fortune. It will dig from the mine many an unpolished gem to glitter in the crown of cultivated society. It -will stimulate enterprise, and direct its energies to profitable objects. It will dignify labor, and open new channels for capital.

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It will disinter the mineral wealth of the State, and add millions to the pro ductions of agriculture. It will bring into the field of science an array of mind that will adorn oar escutcheon, and dazzle the world by its achieve ments. In a word, Georgia must fail of her greafc mission without the adop tion of a wise and comprehensive educational policy. Away, then, with that narrow stinginess which begrudges a dollar to such a cause, while it is often wasteful of thousands upon objects that possess little or no merit. G-o for ward boldly, firmly, liberally, to meet the wants of the State. Adjust your scheme fco the character of our population. Apply to the task your wisest deliberations. Impart to it the element' of self-vindication and self-support. Make it simple in its details, and dependent, for its success and growth, upon the voluntary support of the people."

He suggested a plan in pursuance of these views which the General Assembly did not adopt.

CHAPTER IV.
STATE GEOLOGIST AND CHEMIST,
After two years of executive experience, Governor Brown, whose vast and extensive perception and fore cast seem to have extended to every possible method of promoting the material interest of the State, and develop ment of her internal resources, brought this subject forci bly to the attention of the Legislature, and to the people of the State. In November, I860, he renewed the appeal in the following strong terms. His plans in this, as in other vast interests, were defeated or delayed by the in tervention of war.
" I also renew my recommendation of last year, for the appointment of a State geologist and chemist. Probably few of our citizens living in other sec tions of the State have formed a correct estimate of the immense value of the mineral region of Georgia. It is believed that the quantity of iron ore, of the very best quality, within her borders, is sufficient to supply the demand of all the Southern States, for that most important of all metals, for centu ries to come. This ore is chiefly found in a very healthy section of the State, where there is abundant water power, of the finest character, and upon never failing streams. The great grain growing section of the State embraces these iron mines. Provisions may generally "be had cheap. The coal fields of Georgia and Tennessee are in close proximity, and a railroad communica tion is already established between the two. Lirne, charcoal, and every other material necessary in the manufacture of iron, may be had in great abun dance near the mines. I think I may truly say, that no State in the Union possesses superior advantages for the manufacture of iron. If this interest were fully developed, it would add millions to the wealth of Georgia, and would tend greatly to increase her population. It would afford profitable employ ment to a large number of laboring men, retain large sums of money in the State, now sent out annually for the purchase of iron ; and would make the State much more powerful and independent in her present or any future position she might be called upon to assume.

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" There are also very extensive and valuable slate quarries in this mineral region. One of these, in Iolk county, is already being developed and worked to advantage by its enterprising proprietors. I commend these valuable interests to the protecting care of the Legislature. Gold, silver, copper, lead, manganese, and other valuable minerals and metals, have also been found in different sections of our State. Much money has been wasted in the search after these metals by persons lacking the necessary information to guide their labors in the right direction. If the energies of practical men engaged in the search were directed by scientific knowledge of the subject, results would no doubt be produced the most interesting and valuable to the State. To this end, the importance of a thorough geological survey of the State, by a man of eminent ability, cannot be too highly estimated. The appropriation for this purpose, if made, should be sufficient to secure the services of a man. of the highest character in the profession.
" To the duty of making a geological survey of the State should be added that of making1 a chemical analysis of the different qualities of soil in the different sections of the State; so as to afford the planters in each section necessary information as to the kinda of productions to the raising of which each kind of soil is best adapted, and the kind of manures best suited to each different quality of soil. This, it is believed, would be of great value to the planting interest. Certainly no class of our population has stronger claims upon the liberality and bounty of the Legislature ; and none has been lon ger neglected. Every appropriation necessary to the advancement and en couragement of agriculture should be promptly and cheerfully made by the Legislature."
CODE OF GEORGIA.
Of all the vast progress of the State under Brown there
is no step to compare in public utility with the codifica tion of her common law of force, the principles of equity,
the British and State statutes, and the penal code, with all the minute regulations of all the offices and depart
ments of the government in one methodical and concise volume. It has reclaimed the laws to which the people
are subject from the waste and rubbish of the multitudi
nous changes and from the vagaries and uncertainties of
disjointed lumber scattered through acts and digests, ele
mentary books and judicial reports, and placed before the
people and the officers charged with public duties one of
the clearest and most easily to be studied and understood

160

THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH.

systems ever met with in judicial history. It places her civil on a par with her penal code, which is one o the most perfect because the most in harmony with human frailty, and the principles of man's rights to life, liberty, and property ever devised in any country.
The wisdom of the Governor is, however, only manifest in the forecast that urged the necessity of the work, and in the men selected for its execution, David Irwin, Rich ard H. Clark, and Thomas R. R. Cobb, to whom the code of Georgia is a monument that ages will brighten and burnish, instead of corroding and mouldering.

THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH.
The moral and religious tone of the State government under Governor Brown is, to the Christian philosopher who has witnessed the depravity in high places which has been so prevalent in late years, one of the truly grat ifying features of her history. At an early period of life he had adopted a sound code of morals for his own gov ernment and practices in strict accord with the code. His face had been set and his energies directed against all crimes of moral turpitude--everything that was dishonest.
These principles of moral and legal conduct he carried with full vigor and energy into the public administration as a judge, and adhered to them, without faltering, against all public clamor or private abuse and criticism. It was not in the nature of his moral constitution to be overawed or in timidated or driven from his convictions of right and wrong by any power or influence whatever ; and when inducted into the chief magistracy of the State he felt summoned by the higher and more weighty responsibilities of the posi tion to exercise them in every department of the service.
The General Assembly, as early as 1859, acting under

RETRENCHMENT AND ECONOMY.

161

his advice for the protection of the public morals, and to prevent the desecration of the Sabbath by the general preparation for elections on Monday, changed the general election day to AYednesday.
At the session of 1860, the Governor took the follow ing bold position which, however, he could not adhere to because the demands of a war of invasion made it wholly impracticable :--

"The step taken at the last session for the protection of the Sabbath against desecration is highly commendable and praiseworthy. Another still more important remains to be taken. The railroad companies of this State are in the habit of running their regular passenger trains on the Sabbath day. This is generally excused on the supposed necessity of carry

ing the mails on that day. I do not think the excuse is a sufficient one, nor do I think any great public necessity requires that mail service should be

performed on the Sabbath day. The mail facilities which we enjoy on the other days of the week are much greater, than they were a few years since,

and" are, in my opinion, quite sufficient for all the actual necessities of the country. I have permitted the mail trains to run on the State road, on the Sabbath day, in conformity to the general usage of the railroad companies of this State, and in obedience to the requirements of a contract with the post-office department which was made prior to my term in office, and

which continued in existence the greater portion of the time since I have been charged, with the management of the road. The practice of running

trains on the Sabbath should, in my opinion, be prohibited by law. If it is wrong for the government of the State to permit the trains to run on the

State road on that day, it is equally wrong to allow them to run on any company road in the State. The General Assembly have full power to prevent this practice in the future. I therefore recommend the enactment of a law subjecting the superintendent of each and every railroad in this State to indictment for misdemeanor, in the superior court of the county in

which the offence is committed ; and on conviction to fine or imprisonment, or both, at the discretion of the court, for each and every engine, or train,

which shall, with his knowledge or consent, be permitted to run upon the road under his control, on the Sabbath day. 'Remember the Sabbath day

to keep it holy,' is addressed alike to the legislator and to the private

citizen."

RETRENCHMENT AND ECONOMY.

These were the ruling tenets of the civil administration

of Governor Brown, adhered to with a moral courage 11

1G2 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. BROWN.
that, in the face of the then potent opposition n,ncl often biting criticisms by political foes, and not n infrequently by men he displeased in his own party, rose to the height of sublimity, and heroic firmness.
Not a leak at which unlawful drainage from the public treasury had been tolerated, no matter how respectable the beneficiaries, or honored the custom by age and use, could escape his sleepless ken, or his bold efforts to stop and suppress. And many things that tended to a waste of the public money that were authorized by law were assailed, and reform demanded of the Legislature; even to the reduction of the members and officers of that large and unwieldy body. In this direction he was hide-bound and impervious to sympathy, charity, love, affection, or any other method of approach to the public Treasury.
Tn the opposite direction of using the public money and credit to aid and advance all and every enterprise or method of benefit and improvement to the State and peo ple, which, after mature and critical examination met the approval oE his judgment, he was liberal, not to say profuse.
MILITARY ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR BROWN".
This extends over a period of several years of peace prior to the revolt of the Confederate States, and through the four years of war that ensued.
When he was first inaugurated, like his predecessors he was by the Constitution of the State invested 'with the power of Commander-in-chief of the army and navy with out anything that bore the resemblance or name of either to command in any emergency that might have arisen,, or that he could call into action for the protection of the State against invasion from without or disorder within.

MILITARY ADMINISTRATION OF GOV BROWN. 163
He was also by authority of the Constitution Comman der-in-chief of the Militia of the State which was in a state of non-user and general neglect, without any pre tended organization, officers, means of instruction in. drill and tactics, or the duties of a .soldier in service, and there fore wholly inefficient if not useless in case any occasion should have arisen that required the Governor to call the citizen soldiers to protect the State, preserve public order, or to execute the public laws. The State almost literally had no division,, brigade, regimental battalion, or com pany officers, and no rolls of men liable to do military duty. Public drills and musters vaguely remembered as the subject of ridicule, and barren of good results as to military order and instruction, had in almost every part of the State been wholly discontinued, and nothing Had been introduced to supply the want, leaving the Commander-in-chief without a force to protect the State except the civil officers and the posse comitatus, which in many places were not reliable for even local emergen cies had they arisen.
The great State of Georgia was virtually dependent, not on any power the Governor could have wielded, or any organized force for self-protection., but "was dependent on the chances of continued peace and order without force; or upon the prompt voluntary action of her people for her protection and defence through the few amateur volun teer companies in the towns and cities.
Finding the State in this condition, and looking forward to the possibility of things that were precipitated soon af ter, he began to press upon the people of the State, through the Legislature, the importance of reforms and changes in the militia system, and the preparation of the citizen soldiery for the pxiblic service. Into this, as

164 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. BROWN".
many other reforms and proposed changes., he carried his zeal and energy., guided by his usual forecast and sagacity. The magic influence was felt throughout the State as the early culminating dangers began to be seen in the distance ; and the grand result was, that Georgia sent early to the field of carnage, when war had been inaugurated, an ex cess in number according to white population over all the States, north and south; and the annals of battle and inarches, and of suffering and heroic endurance, place her troops in the front rank among her sister confederates from the beginning to the end of the strife.
He pressed the importance of the State's military school at Marietta, and urged its re-organization and such pub lic appropriations as were needed to make it a, success, and enlarge its usefulness in training the young men of the country to arras.
He also urged the Legislature to change the militia laws, and to put the State in a situation to protect her self, in the following strong terms:--
ienee, those who depend alone upon patriot!
of the other hemisphere, our people would be found at the commencement of the struggle to be almost destitute of military training. Until this deficiency could be supplied, they might be

MILITARY ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. BROWN. 165
unable to contend with the disciplined troops of a regular, army -without great loss of life and much detriment to our national character.
"There is probably no State in the Union, certainly not one of the old thirteen, iff which military training is more neglected than in our own. We" know not how soon we may be brought to the practical test of defending ourselves against the assaults of foreign ambition, or the more unnatural at tacks of those who ought to be our brethren, but whose fanaticism is prompt ing them to a coarse which is daily weakening the ties that bind us together as one people. The father of his country has admonished us to prepare for war in time of peace. If we would profit by his advice it is necessary that""" we reorganize our military system. I do not hesitate to say, that the State should offer every reasonable inducement for the organization and training of volunteer military corps, as the best and most efficient mode of revivingthe military spirit among our people. This cannot be done until she has made provision for arming- such companies. At present, the only provision for this purpose is the distribution of the small quota of arms which the State receives'annually from the General Government, and which is wholly inadequate to the demand. The consequence is, that many of our volunteer companies are without arms, while many others would be organized were it known that they could be supplied with suitable arms.
" Frequent applications are made to this department for arms with a view to the organization of new volunteer companies; and when those who apply are informed that they cannot'be supplied, all further attempts to organize such companies are abandoned.
" For the purpose of encouraging the organization of volunteer corps, I recommend that all laws now in force requiring the performance of military service other than that performed by volunteer corps be suspended, except in case of insurrection or invasion; and that a. commutation tax be assessed and collected from each person of twenty-one years of age, or upwards, who is subject to do military duty in the State, and who is not a member of an organized volunteer corps which drilled at least once a month through out the yoar preceding- the collection of the tax. This tax should be large enough to raise a sum sufficient to arm the entire volunteer force of the State with the latest and most approved style of arms. As soon as a sufficient sum shall be collected in this way, I recommend, as a means of procuring the contemplated arms, that it be expended in the erection at some suitable location in the State of a State foundry for the manufacture of arms and other munitions of war. This would make the State much more independent in case of emergency. The God of nature has supplied us, in rich profusion, with all the materials necessary to the accomplishment of this purpose.
"If ample provision were made for arming our volunteers, they would exhibit much military pride; and the young gentlemen educated at our State military institute would, in all probability, be elected to the command of

166 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. BROWN.
many of the companies, who would bring into practical operation, in training OUT militia, the science and skill which they have acquired at the institute. la case of war, we could then bring into the field n large force of well-trained volunteers, commanded by officers of thorough military education, who would, in almost every case, be natives of our soil. Our untrained militia, if called into the field, with such a force and such officers at their head, would at once become infused with the military spirit, and soon with much of the military skill, of the volunteers, and would constitute witti them an invinci ble army."
Again he says, in urging the claims of the military institute, and his plans for its success :--
" Jt would not only put the institute upon a solid basis, and add largely to the number of educated persons in our State, affording a collegiate education to many of the poorest, though brightest and most intellectual hoys in Georgia, but would diffuse a knowledge of military science among the people of every county in the State; which all must admit, in these perilous times, is a desideratum second in importance to no other.
" We should not only arm our people, but we should educate them in the use of arms, and the whole science of war. We know not how soon, we may be driven to the necessity of defending our rights and our honor, by military force. .Let us encourage the development of the rising military genius of our State-, and guide, by the lights of military science, the energies of that patriotic valor which nerves the stout heart and strong arm of many a young hero in our midst who is yet unknown to fame."
Following these vigorous and bold enunciations in his general message of November, 1860, he urged the erec tion of a foundry for the manufacture of arms and other munitions of war, and an arsenal for the arms of the State.
The bold and dauntless spirit of the Governor, -who had the unrestricted confidence of the masses of the people, produced a revolution in the public mind, not only of opinion, but sentiment and feeling, upon the matter of the public preparation for defence, and the prompt use of the citizen soldiery of the State, not only with refer ence to the then possibility of a conflict with the Northern people, but to the public defence from foreign assaults, as well as internal disorder.

ADMINISTEATIOK OF GOV. BROWN". 167
Tlie people began to wake up from the many years of stupor and carelessness and inactivity in military matters. They knew with certainty that they had the blood of brave ancestry in their veins ; that they individually were endowed with dauntless courage that prepared them for the imminent deadly breach, and for any feats of daring to which the public duty or private demands of personal honor might summon them.
But they realized an almost total want of the knowl edge of arms and of war, in any organized method of their use, as well as of discipline and drill in camp and field. Men of individual courage, but strangers to the magic power and effect of discipline, drill, and the harmonious movements of large bodies of men in uni form. Skilled in the single use of the , rifle, they knew not its potency by the regiment and corps, under simultaneous obedience to orders.
The patriotic spirit of the Governor was caught by the people, and reflected by their representatives in the Legislature. And large numbers of volunteer companies were organized in the towns and cities, and incorporated by law, with liberal provision for arms at the expense of the State.
In the course of his three years of administration prior to the election of Abraham Lincoln, which was followed by prompt action on the part of several slaveholding States to secede from the Union, the Governor of Georgia had rapidly advanced from the position of a young and in experienced mountaineer to that of a front and control ling rank among Southern governors and statesmen. In this position he combined the rare qualities that had en abled him to leap to it so soon : superior ability, sleep less energy, unequalled forecast, boldness, full confidence

168 MILITARY ADMINISTRATION OF GOT. BROWN.
in the great results, patriotic devotion to his section and State and ardent love of her people, ambition for fame to be achieved by faithful and beneficial public service, and the esteem and admiration of the people towards him. Under his lead, it was natural for his State to hold an important and controlling influence over the course of the Southern people in the then approaching crisis of their relations with the Federal government, and States of the North. The communications of her Gov ernor, in connection with the published opinions of her leading statesmen holding . office at Washington, were read and accepted in this State, and in every part of the South by men not disposed to submit to Northern aggres sion. And they exercised a vast and rapid influence in preparing the public mind for, and raising the public temper to the point of, armed resistance and organized preparations for the public safety.
On the assembling of the Legislature, when the result of the presidential contest was not reached, the Governor transmitted the invitation of South Carolina to all the Southern States to meet in convention to " concert meas ures for united action," which had been accepted by the States of Mississippi and Alabama, and declined by Vir ginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas. He advised against this movement because so few States would be represented in it, and therefore but little good could be expected to result from it.
In the same special message he used the following pointed language :--
" If it is ascertained that the Black Republicans have triumphed over us, I recommmend the call of a Convention of the people of the State at an early day ; and I will cordially unite -with the General Assembly in any action, which, in their judgment, may be necessary to the protection of the rights and the preservation of the liberties of the people of Georgia against the

MILITARY ADMINISTRATION" OF GOV. BKOWN. 169
further aggressions of an enemy, which, when flashed with victory, will be insolent in the hour of triumph.
"For the purpose of putting this State in a defensive condition as fast as possible, and preparing for an emergency which must be met sooner or later, I recommend that the sum of one million of dollars be immediately appropri ated as a military fund for the ensvring year; and that prompt provision be made for raising such portion of the money as may not be in Treasury as fast as the public necessities .may require its expenditure. 'Millions for defence, but not a cent for tribute,' should be the future motto of the South ern States.
"Toevery demand for further concession, or compromise of our rights, we should reply, ' The argument is exhausted,' and we now ' stand by our arms.'"
This message was sent to them on November 7th, and on the 16th the Governor approved a bill appropriating $1,000,000 as a military fund for the year 1861, for the protection of the rights and preservation of the liberties of the people of Georgia/' "to be expended bv the Governor in such manner as he may deem best for the purpose of placing the State in a condition of defence," etc.
In this special message on federal relations prepared pending1 the presidential contest, he presented the subject of the violation of constitutional obligations by several of the Northern States by the passage of severe laws against reclamation of fugitive slaves, as required by the Constitution oftlie United States, and provided for by Act of Congress, and argued the matter with great ability and at length; and recommended retaliatory legislation on the part of this State. But the election of Mr. Lincoln trans pired ; and the General Assembly adopted the plan of call ing a State convention, and providing for military defence as recommended in that contingency.

CHAPTER V.
SECESSION OF COTTON-GROWING STATES, AND ORGANI ZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY.
The seventh day of November, A. D., I860, the na tional election day, to which the people of the United States, divided in interest and consequently in opinion and feeling, looked anxiously, had dawned upon us. Its sun had risen with bright beams of hope and promise to the infatuated arid aggressive majority section. But a deep gloom and oppressive foreboding- had settled on the great popular heart in the South. Conscious of numeri cal weakness, as the North was of strength, the bitter cup seemed about to be presented to the unwilling lips of the Southern people ; to drink which portended political death; to refuse and repel it was to change the strife from the forum to the tented field of war ; from the hitherto peace ful and harmless play of the ballot to that of the direful bayonet and bullet; to replace the eloquence of the hust ings and legislative hall by the tread of armed legions, and the hoarse music of artillery and muskets. Two great peoples, long bound together by common ties of mutual interest and protection, still held together by the tenure of law and organized government, had grown into im mense sectional factions, and feeling themselves separate and distinct, in interest, in aims, arid destiny, were about to argue with each other, with lead instead of logic, the vexed problems the latter had failed to solve ; were about to reach a final analysis in the flow of the blood of broth-

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY.

171

ers. The love that had long warmed the national heart, and blended the once weak and dependent sections in a common and apparently indissoluble tie of friendship and union, was already in great part changed into hatred as intense as the human heart and mind can feel withovit special individual insnlt and injury.
The people of the South approached the polls of the election with a seriousness and earnestness becoming the great crisis which had been reached. Some believed that defeat in the election was a foregone conclusion ; others trusted that an overruling Providence would give some di rection to the raging storm which would be compatible with the safety and honor of our section and people, while many were credulous enough to believe that their respect ive candidates would be elected. But within a few hours after the ballotings had ceased, the telegrams displaced all doubts, and broke to the Southern mind the awful truth--that Abraham Lincoln, tlve nominee and standard bearer of the great Northern Republican party, was, by a triumphant majority vote in the electoral college, the president elect of the United States.
The pause that ensued was awful but brief; the shock was overpowering and the effects visible upon all classes of our people. But the chilled blood which had returned to the heart, leaving paleness to the cheek and bringing tremor to the nerves, soon reacted under the smart of wounded honor, and resumed its course of circulation with double speed. Where lately sat a shadow of dread and gloom, now presented to every beholder a look of defiance. Where hesitation and doubt had given a sickly cast to every effort and action, now all was alive with fixed purpose and resolution.
The telegrams which announced to the South the tri-

172 SECESSION OF COTTON-GROWING STATES.
mnph of the Republicans "were almost instantaneously responded to by the announcement that the legislative councils of the States of the South, in session, were call ing the people together in State conventions to consider the mode and measure of their safety. And the Execu tives of those States whose Legislatures were not in session were culling them to assemble for the same pur pose. There was an earnestness patent upon the face of the bulletins of that time which could not fail to impress the victors of the ballot-box that their triumph was not complete ; and that a great barrier to their aims was soon to be set up in the form of a concentration on the part of the cotton States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas to withdraw from the Union and organize a, separate government ; and a strong probability that the mother of States and statesmen, the cradle and grave of heroes, old Virginia, would ally herself -with her Southern sisters ; and that North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas would follow ; with a reasonable probability that Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland would sooner or later cast their fortunes with us. The time to intervene between the election of Mr. Lincoln, the 7th of November, and the 4th of March when he was to be installed into office and invested with the executive authority of the government, was not quite four months. Hence the time given by the State Legis latures for popular deliberations was short, they being impressed with the belief that prompt and immediate decision was necessary in the then emergency of the ^ country.
We have already sketched the reasons and considera tions moving the people to action, in which, seemingly by a general consent, the lead was awarded to South Caro-

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY. 173
Una. Her sterling purpose for many years past to resist the encroachments of Federal authority, and the promi nence which her debates had given her, and the general confidence in the sincerity of her statesmen, and the virtue and fidelity of her people, seem to have awarded to that State the front rank in the movement of secession.. Her ordinance of secession wns adopted on the 20th of Decem ber, A. D., 1860 ; that of Mississippi on the 9th, and Ala bama and Florida on the llth, Georgia on the 19th, Louisiana on the 26th of January, A- D., 1861, and that of Texas on the first day of February.
The aggregate vote of the people against the candi dates who were in favor of immediate and separate State action, as well as the vote of delegates in some of the State conventions, was large. The actions of the conven tions were generally made unanimous, or nearly so, after a test vote had been taken and the decision of the respective States for secession clearly ascertained. By which course the dissenting delegates gave in their adhesion to the will of the majority, and avowed their purpose to adhere to and defend the States to which they respectively be longed. In which example they were generally followed by the dissenting people at home. The mode adopted by the several seceding States to give effect to the purpose of secession was to pass in their several conventions an ordinance repealing the ordinance by which they became attached to the Federal Union. To illustrate this form of proceeding we annex here a copy of the ordinance passed by the Georgia convention :--

174 SECESSION OF COTTON-GROWING STATES.
AN ORDISAKCE
To DISSOLVE THE UNION BETWEEN THK STATE OF GEORGIA AND OTHER
STATES UNITED WITH HER UNDER A COMPACT OF GOVERNMENT ESTITLKK " THE CONSTITUTION OF TnE UNITED STATICS oi<" AJIEKICA."
We, the people of (lie Slate of Georgia, m convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is here/iff declare,! and ordained,
That the ordinance adopted by the people of the State o Georgia in con vention, on the second day of January, in the year of our Lord seventeen hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States .of America was assented to, ratified, and adopted ; and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying and adopting amend ments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded, and abrogated.
We do further decline and ordain. That the Union now subsisting between the State of Georgia and other States, under the name of the "United States of America," is hereby dissolved, and that the State of Georgia is in the full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty wliieh belong and appertain to a free and independent State.
On the motion of Judge Nesbit, the author of the ordi nance, it was engrossed on parchment, signed by the delegates, and deposited in the archives of the State. The following is a list of the convention, those voting against the ordinance marked with & * the balance voting for it. The vote stood 208 to 89.
Applinq--Seaborn Hall, J. H. Latimer. i'onia--*\V. E. Bell, S. W. Pruett. Baker--A. II. Colquitt, C. D. Hanimond. Baldwin--*A. H. Kenan, L. II. Briscoe. Berrien--W. J. Mabry, J. C. Lamb. Bibb--Washington 1'oe, John B. Lamar, E. A. Nisbet. Brooks--V. S. Gaulden, Henry Briggs. Bryan --C. C. Slater, J. P. Hines. Bullock--S. L. Moore, Samuel Harville. Burke--E. A. Alien, E. B. Gresliam, W. B. Jones. Bolts--D. J. Bailey, Henry Hendrieks. Camtlen--~S. J. Pattcrson, E. M. Adams. Campbell--3. M. Cautrell, T. C. Glover. CaUunm--W. G. Sheffield, E. Padgett. Can-oil--B. W. Wright, B. W. Hargrave, Alien Rovve. Cass--*W. T. WoSbrd, II. F. Priee, *T. II. Trippo. Catoota--PresIey Yates, J T. McConnell.

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Charlton--F. M. Smith, H. M. Mershon. Chatham--I?. S. Bartow. A. S. Jones, John W. Anderson. Chaltoaaa--*Wesley Shropshire, L. Williams. Cherubic--W. A. Teasley, E. E. Fields, John McConnell. Cto*--T. K. B_ Cobb, Asbury Hull, Jefferson Jermiilgs. Ctayton--*K. E. Morrow, James F. Jolmston. Clay--TV'. II. C. Davenport, B. F. Burnett. Clinch--Benjamin Sermons, F. G-. Ramsey. ColS--G. I>. Rice, A. A. Wimi, E. H. IJnclley. -Co/te--*Rowan Pafford, *J. H. Frier. Columbia--Vf. A. S. Colling, H. E. Casey, R. S. Neal. Colqulu--H. C. Tucker, John G. Coleman. Cmcela--A. B. Calhoun, J. J. Pinson, W. B. Shell. Crawfor'l--W- C. Cleveland, Isaac Dennis. Darfe--S. C. Hale, R. M. 1'ariss. florason--*Alrt>d Webb, R. H. Pierce. Oecatur--Richard Simms, C. J. Munnerlyn, B. H. Gee. Tie Kail--Charles Murphy, *G. K. Smith. Z>ooljf--John S. Thomas, Elijah Butts. I) luaherty--Richard H. Clark, C. E. ilallary. Early--II. W. Sheffield, James Buehanan. Echols-- Harris Tomlinson, J. B. Preseott. Effniyham--E. \V. Solomons, A. G. Porter. Elberl--J. C. Burch, E. H. O. Martin. Emnnuel--*A. E. Kirkland, *John Overstreet. Fatmin--\V. C. Fain, E. W. Cliaataiii. Fayetle-- M. M. Ttdwell, J. L. Blalock. Flmjd--Jsaaea Ward, Simpson Fouche, F. C. Shropshire. Fortyth--Hiirdy Strickiaud, H. P. Bell. Franklin--Jolm H. Patrick, "Samuel Knox. Fttllon--J. P. Alexander, L. J. Glenn, J. P. Eogan. Olasscock-- Joshua F. Usry, Calvin Eogue. Qilmer--it-Joseph Piokett, *W. P. Milton.
Gordon--W. H. Dabney, James Freeman, R. M. Young. Greene--'S. M. Crawford, K. J. Willia, T. Jf. Poullaiu. Gwinnett.---*R.. I). Winn, *J. P. Simmons, -T. P. Hudson. Hntersham--R. C. Ketchum, Singleton Sisk. Hull--E. M. Johnson, P. M. Byrd, Davis Whelchel. Hancark--*Liuton Stephens, B. T. Harris, T. M. Turner. Haralson--Vf. 3. Head, B. R. Walton. Harris--U. P. Hill, W. J. Hudson, H. D. Williams. Hurt--R. S. Hill, J. E. Skelton. Heard--*ll. P. Wood, C. W. Mabry. Henry--*!?. E. Manson, E. B. Arnold, J. H. Low.

175

176 SECESSION OP COTTON-GKOWLNG STATES.
I!<mebm--3. M. Giles, D. F. Guiin, B. W. Brown. Irwin--M. Henderson, *Jacob Young. Jackson--J. J. McCulIoch, J. G. Pitman, D. B. Lyle. Jaxper--*Aris Xewton, *Reuben Jordan, Jr. Jefferson--*[{. V. Johnson, ^George Stapleton. Johnson--*WMie.m Ilust. J. R. Smith.
Jones--James 31. Gray, F. T. Pitts. Laurens--Xathar, Tucker, J. W. Yopp. Lee--W. I!. Richardson, Goode Bryan.
Liberty--W. B. Fleming, S. M. Varnadoe. liOvmileb--C. II. M. tlovvel], Isaiah Tilman. Lumpkin--*Benjamin Hamilton, '"William Martin. StaiJiiiai--J. S. Gholston, A. C. Daniel. Macon-- W. II. Robinson, J. H. Carson. Marion--\Y. M. Brown, J. M. Harvey. Afcfutost--J. M. Harris. G. W. M. Williams. Merlicethf-r--II. R. Harris, W. U.'Martin, *Hram Warner. Afffior--W. J. Chesliier, C. I>. Whitehead. Mi/fon--^Jackson Graham, *J. C. Street, Jfitcfoll-- WiUiam T. Cox, Jesse Heed. Jl/oni-oe--B, L. Roddey, Iliram Phinizy, Jr., J. T. Stephens. Montgomery--T. M. MoBhae, S. H. Latimer. Rliirycin--TliomRS F. Saffold, Augustus Reese. Murray--*Anderson Farnsworth, *Enclid Waterhouse. Afvscoaee--J. N. Ramsey, Henry L. Benning, A. S. Rutherford. Newton--W. S. Montgomery, Alexander Means, *Pnrmedus Reynolds. OyletJtorpe--D. D. Johnson, Samuel Gienn, AViIIia Vniiiugham. rauUling--Henry I.estev, J. Y. Algood. Fie/tens--*Jnmes Simmons, W. T. Day. Pierce--E. D. Hendry, J. W. Stevens.
Pike-- R. B. Gardener, G. M. MeDowell. folk--W. E. West, T. W. Dupree. J'ulatki-- T. J. MeGrift, C. M. Bozeman. Pulnam--H. T. Davis, D. R. Adams. Qui(njo--E. O. Eliington, L. P. Dozier. Katun--Samuel Beek, H. W. Cannon. Randolph--Marcellus Uouglas, Arthur Hood. Richmond--George W. Crawford, J. Phinizy, Sr., J. P. Garvin, Schley--H. ly. French, W. A. Black.
Sa-ifeti --C. Humphries, J. L. Singleton. Fpauldiny--W. G-. Dewberry, Hetiry Moor. Stewart--James A. Fort, James Uilliard, G. Y. Banks. Sumier--\V. A. UawkJns, T. M. Furlow, Henry Daveiipoi-t. Taloot--*W. 11. Seal, W. B. Marshall, L. B. Smith.-

OBGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY. 177
Taliaferro--*Alexander H. Stephens, *S. IT. Perking. Tatnall_-*P.enjamiii Brewton, *Henry Stricklaiid. . Tnylor_W. J. F. Slitchell, H. H. Long. Tel/air-- *H. McLean, Jnmes Williamson. Terrrll--*\Vi]liain Barrington, *D. A. Coehran. Thomas--A. H. Hansel], S. B. Spencer, W. G. Fonder. Town.----*John Corn, *Elijah Kimsey. Traup-- B. tl. Hill, W. F. Beasley, J. E. Beall. T'l-igy*--John Fitzpatrick, S. L. Kichardson. Union--*,!. II. Muggins, J. P. Welborn. Upstm--*F. W. Alexander, *!'. S. Sfcerman. Walker--*G. G. Gordon, K. B. Dickersoii, T. A. Sharpe. Wallon--George Spence, *Willia Kilgore, H. D. McDauiul. Ware--W. A. McDonald, C. W. Stiles. Warren--M. U. Cody, X. A. Wicker. Wayne--Hency Fort, H. A. Cannon. Washington--E. S. Langrnade, Lewis Billiard, A. C. Harris. Wetiler--P. Jb\ Brown, M. H. Bush. PTiife--Isaac Bowen, E. F. Starr. WkitfiM--*J. M. Jackson, F. A. Thomas, DIckorson TaliaEerro. Wilcox--V. A. McLeod, Smith Turner. Wilkes--Eobert Toomba, J. J. Robertsou. Wiltinmn--X. A. Carswell, *R. J. Coehran. Worth--K. G. Ford, Sr., T. T. fllounger.
Before the introduction of the ordinance a test vote was had upon a simple resolution offered by Judge Nesbit, in these words :--
BesolverJ. That in the opinion of tliia Convention, it is the right and duty of Georgia to secede from the present Union, and to co-operate with such of the otlitr States as have or filial! do the same, for the purpose of forming a Southern Confederacy upon the basis of the Constitution of the United States.
The vote on this was the test of the question of imme diate secession and stood 166 to ISO. Forty-one mem bers, after the main question had been thus decided, left the eighty-nine, voting with the majority. They were Messrs. Adams, Beasley, Black, Bowen, Briscoe, Brown of Marion, Brown of \Yebsterp Billiard, Bush, Casey, Cody, Collins, Grawford of Green, French, Haines. Harris

178 SECESSION OF COTTOX-GKOWUSTG STATES.
of Hancock, Ilenderson, Hill of Harris, Hill of Troup, Hudson of Harris, Johnson of Clayton, Ketchum, Larnar of Lincoln, Langmadc, Low, Long, McDaiiiel, Means, Mershon, Noal of Columbia, Saffold, Sisk, Smith of Tal-" bot, Spence, Stephens of Monroe, Teasley, Thomas of W bitfield, Tucker of Hancock, Wicker, Williams of Har ris, and Yopp.
OCCUPATION or FOET PULASKI.
The two channels of Savannah river at its mouth are commanded by Port Pulaski, on Cockspur, a low, marshy island a half mile wide, situated at the head of Tybee roads. It is a five sides work, of seven and a half feet walls twenty-five feet above water, sin-rounded by a forty-eight feet wet ditch. The fort is capable of mount ing one hundred and forty guns. It had only twenty thirty-two pound guns, with limited supply of ammunition and stores, and without a military force, being; in charge of an ordnance sergeant and his assistants.
It was manifest that the policy of the United States was coercion by armed forces in case the secession move ment should be carried into effect, and the States seced ing disregard the authority of the general government, and that the arms and fortifications of the government would be placed in condition to be promptly used for that purpose. The occupation of this fort, by the State, was regarded by Governor Hrown, and all the leading men of the State, as of the first importance in the event of an at tempt to invade and subjugate it. It was also regarded as scarcely less important that it should be done promptly, while there were no forces there to resist, and the taking of it would be unattended with violence and bloodshed, and consequent popular exasperation North and South.

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY.

179

While secession was the fixed purpose, it was only first in magnitude and importance to the preservation of peace between the sections, if indeed such were possible and practical, and, whatever doubt any may have then entertained, the prudence and wisdom of this, by some called rashness and folly, were soon after fully verified by transpiring1 events.
Governor Brown, who had established headquarters at the city of Savannah in order to act promptly in any emergency as commander-in-chief, on the second day of January, 1861, issued to Colonel Alexander R. Law ton commanding 1st regiment Georgia volunteers, an order reciting', among other things :--

"

we are

eceding

foot to

ops the Southern forts, including Fort Pulaski in this State, which if done will give

the Federal government in any contest great advantages over the people

in this State, to the end therefore that this stronghold, which commands

also the entrance into Georgia, may not be occupied by any hostile force

until the convention of the State of Georgia, which is to meet on the

16th irist;int, has decided on the policy which Georgia, will adopt in this emer

gency, you are ordered to tak possession of Fort Pulaski, as by public order

herewith, and to hold it against till persons, to be abandoned only under or

ders from me, or under compulsion by an overpowering hostile force."

On the morning of the third of January, Colonel Lawton, in obedience to the Governor's order, embarked on board a steamer at Savannah, in command of detachments from the Chatham artillery, Captain Cleghorn ; the Sa vannah volunteer guards., Captain Screven , and Og'letliorpe light infantry, Captain Bartow; numbering one hundred and twenty-five men and officers; and at noon of that day took formal possession of the fort in the name of the State of Georgia, and without encountering any re-

180 SECESSION OF COTTON-GROWING STATES.
sistanco. Her flag was raised and saluted above the bat tlements of the.fort, where it continued to float over her troops until they were transferred to the Confederacy, with the command of the fort; and was lowered to give place to that of the newly formed government.
This independent and prompt action by the Executive was sanctioned by the secession convention on the 18th of the same month, by the following resolution :--
Two STATE REGIMENTS ANTEKIOR TO THE CONFEDERACY.
The convention after adopting the secession ordinance with the view to provide for the defence of the State by ordinance authorized the Governor to raise and equip a military force not to exceed two regiments of infantry, or infantry and artillery in such proportion as he should di rect. He proceeded to raise and equip one regiment of regulars, under the command of Colonel Charles J. Wil liams, and a regiment of volunteers under the command of Colonel Paul J. Semmes. He had continued, after tak ing possession, to hold the fort and garrison the river approaches to Savannah, and to project and carryforward such improvements as he was able to do by the aid of slave-laborers tendered by planters, and by the troops under his command, mainly the volunteer companies of Savannah, up to the time, in April following, when the first regiment of regulars was distributed at Savannah, Fort Jackson, on the river., Fort Pulaskl, and on Tybee Island. These regiments by ordinance of the Convention had been transferred to the Confederate .Governor, and

ORGANIZATION OS THE CONFEDERACY. 181
early in the summer of 1861 were sent to tlie Virginia front.
TKANSFER TO CONFEDERACY.
By ordinances of the convention of March 20, all the military operations in. the State having reference to or questions between this State or any of the Cenfederate States of America and powers foreign to them, and the arms and munitions of war acquired from the United States with the ibrts and arsenals, and which were then in the said forts a,nd arsenals, were transferred to the Con federate States; and that government was authorised to occupy, use, and hold possession of all the forts, navy yards, arsenals, custom houses, and other public sites and their appurtenances within the limits of this State, and lately in possession of the United States of America; and to repair, rebuild, and control the same at its discretion, until said ordinance be repealed by a convention of the people of Georgia.
EXEKCISE OF SEPARATE STATE SOVEREIGNTY.
After the passage of the ordinance of secession by the several conventions composed of delegates representing the people of the seceding States respectively, the Execu tives thereof prior to the formation of a new union rep resented by common government acted upon the theory that each for the time intervening was a separate and distinct sovereign power, having withdrawn all delegated powers and rehabilitated themselves with all the attributes of sovereignty as if each had been a free and independent nation. This was in full accord with the doctrine and theory of State rights as understood by the great and gifted leaders of Southern opinion, and consequently the Governors of seceded States were well upheld and sus-

182 SECESSION OF COTTOX-GKOWING STATES.
tamed by the judgment and sympathy of statesmen and by the great volume of public virtue and intelligence.
In Georgia this was strikingly illustrated in several ex citing instances. The govern men t had at the ar.senal at Augusta a company of United States troops under the command of Capt, Arnold Elzey, with the government flag waving over them on Georgia soil, a battery of can non, twenty thousand stand of muskets, and largo quanti ties of ammunition.
Governor Brown determined that this state of affairs was inconsistent with the sovereignty and independence of the State, and decided upon the seizure of the arsenal, arms, and military stores and holding thorn under tho au thority of Georgia. Hon. Henry K. Jackson who had been judge of the Savannah district in early life, commanded the regiment of Georgia volunteers in the Mexican war at a still earlier period, and was later a minister to the court of Aus tria uuder President Buchanan, and a life-long prominent Democratic leader in the State, enthused by the novel and threatening aspect of public affairs, became a mem ber of the Governor's staff as aid-de-camp, aa did Gen eral William Phillips. Attended by these and a small force the Governor in person demanded to occupy the ar senal, arms, and stores. Captain l^Izey, a brave oflicer but not hostile in feeling to tho South, at Grst refused under a sense of duty to the government; but at last and with out violent collision yielded to the necessity which would have forced the surrender, in the conduct of which he was treated, with all courtesy and consideration due to himself, his men, and the tTnited States government.
About tho time of the secession of this State there were shipments of arms being mado from New York which attracted the attention of the authorities there.

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDEEACY.

183

Some of the arms were claimed and proven to be private property shipped for sale by merchants. But all the cir cumstances indicate thafc the authorities of this Hfcate were preparing for the emergency which in fact soon after arose. These arms were seized at New York under the authority of the police o the city, held adversely and against the authority and people of Georgia.
It was an occasion for and which summoned the prompt action of her Governor and commander-in-chief. lie made his demand direct upon Governor Morgan of the State of New York for the release of the arms. The man ner of the United States government had been most contemptuous toward the seceding States, and Gov ernor Morgan at first so treated the Governor's demand for the arms; paying no attention and making no reply. In the course of a few days of this contemptuous silence, Governor Brown determined to enforce his demand by re prisal upon the property of citizens of New York in this State. There were several vessels at the port of Savan nah, which, by order of the Governor, Colonel Henry R. Jackson promptly seized and held, under the military au thority and in the custody of the State, until the restitu tion of. the arms demanded by Governor lirown should be made by the Governor of New York, and which were forcibly held by the police of New York city. This led to a correspondence between the two Governors, which, after much cavil and some delay, resulted in conceding the demand on the part of Governor Morgan, the release and sending forward of the captured arms; and the final release of the New York vessels held under the Governor's order by Colonel Jackson in the river at Savannah.
The State convention, as a provisional, measure of publie safety, as elsewhere stated, authorized, the Governor

184 SECESSION OF COTTON-GROWING STATES.
to raise and equip two regiments, to act under his author ity a,s Commander-in-chief. The first., known through the war as the first regiment of Georgia regulars, was recruited and formed by individual enlistments, they be ing formed into companies and officered by his appoint ment. He was also authorized to purchase steamboats for the defence of the river approaches. These were placed under the command of Commodore Tatuall, a na tive of Georgia, who, having resigned hits place in the United States navy, accepted service under Georgia by the appointment of her Governor,
These land and naval forces, weak and crude as they were compared with those of the United States govern ment then being put in order and marshalled to subjugate the South, were all under the command of Henry R. Jack son, whom the Governor had appointed brigadier-general, who held the command until the organization of ths Con federacy, and the transfer of the forces to the Confederate States of America.
ASSEMBLING OF THE PROVISIONAL CONGRESS.
The convention of the State of Alabama, having adopted a similar ordinance to those of South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida, invited the States by delegates, to a convention to be holden at the city of Montgomery on the 4th day of February, proximo, to which invitation they responded, by the several conventions as they se ceded.
In this State, they were elected by the convention in numbers corresponding with our members of Congress; two from the State at large, and one for each representa tive.
The result of which was that ROBERT TOOMBS, of the

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY.

185

county of Wilkes, and Ho WELL COBB, of the county of Clarke, were duly elected for the State at large, and the following named persons for the several districts affixed to their names, to wit :

S. BARTOW, lor the 1st Congressional District.

MARTIN J. CBAWFOBD, " 2d

"

"

EUGENIUS A. NESBIT, " 3d

"

"

BENJAMfx II. HILL,

" 4th

"

"

AUGUSTUS E. WKJGIIT, " 5th

"

"

THOMAS E. K. COBB,

" 6th

"

AUGUSTUS H KESAN, " 7th

"

"

ALEXANDER H. ST'EI-KENS," 8th

"

."

In the mean time, the authorities of the seceding States took control of and held the United States arsenals, navy yardSj forts, and all places and property of the govern ment, within their respective limits, in opposition to the authorities of the United States ; Forts Sumter, in South Carolina, and Pickens, in Florida, having been timely gar risoned by United States troops, were still held by the Federal government against these States, and continued to be held in opposition to the new government when or ganized.
The State of South Carolina sent to Georgia, as a spe cial commissioner, the Honorable James L. Orr. commis sioned by his Excellency, Governor F. v^. PJckens, who communicated to the Georgia convention on its first meet ing, the 16th of January, the official action of South Car olina--her ordinance of secession adopted on the 20th of December, preceding.
Ex-Governor John Gill Shorter, commissioned by Gov ernor A. B. Moore, represented Alabama, and communi cated the action of that State and her secession ordinance

186 SECESSION OF COTTON-GLOWING STATES.
adopted In convention on the llth of January, six clays prior to the assembling of oar convention; and also the invitation of that State to meet in convention at Mont gomery, on the 4th of .February.
The Honorable Thomas W. White, commissioned by Governor .John Q. Pettus of Mississippi, represented, that State, communicating1 to our convention the proceedings of that State, which had seceded on the 9fch of January.
The State of Georgia, after following the States which had seceded, appointed Honorable D. C. Campbell a spe cial commissioner to the State of Delaware, with a view to induce that State to join her slaveholdmg sisters.
In like manner, and for the same purpose, General John W. A. Sanford was commissioned to Texas ; Honorable A. I-L. WYight, to Maryland ; Honorable Samuel Hall was commissioned to his native State, North Carolina ; Hon orable Hiram P. Bell, to the State of Tennessee; Dr. W. C. Daniel, to the State of Kentucky ; and Honorable W. J. Vasou, to the State of Louisiana.
The State of South Carolina, after her secession, had made the fruitless attempt to settle by peaceful negotia tions all matters of probable conflict and dispute to grow out of her separation and withdrawal from the Union, by sending- commissioners to Washington charged with au thority to do so. This mission, notwithstanding the high character of the gentlemen accredited, and the respect ful manner in which they demeaned themselves toward the authorities of the government, failed to accomplish any of its objects; but tended to confirm the already well-grounded apprehension of the hostile aims of the United States toward the States preparing to withdraw.
As we have seen, no organized convention or co-opera tion, of States existed prior to the separate action of each.

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY. 187
They recognized tlie legal power of the United States over the citizens so long as the States remained in the Union. But it was not by any State or any portion of the people anticipated that the sovereignty resumed by the seceding States would be continued to be separately exercised by any.
All eyes turned with solicitude therefore to the conven tion invited by Alabama at Montgomery.
That body was promptly organized by making ExGovernor Ho well Cobb, of Georgia, president. This gen tlemen had been Secretary of the Treasury under Presi dent Buchanan after serving his State as Governor, and in the House of Representatives in Congress. lie was a popular Democratic leader from his 3^0uth, was a Union man in 1850 ; but became an ardent secessionist upon the election of Mr. Lincoln, and exerted the utmost of his powers and large influence over the public mind to bring about the separation. He had himself been often and highly spoken of for President of the United States. His ability, firmness and moderation, as well as his distinc tion and popularity., eminently fitted him for the deli cate and responsible position.
ELECTION" OF PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT.
The deliberations of this body were conducted in secret, and whatever differences in judgment and plans may have sprung up; they did not embarrass the people, who regarded it as a harmonious and eminently patriotic assem bly; and were prepared in mind and heart to accept and promptly co-operate in its action.
The convention having assumed the title of Confeder ate States of America, proceeded to elect Hon. Jefferson Davis of the State of Mississippi provisional President,

188 SECESSION OF COTTON-GROWING STATES.
and Hon. Alexander H. Stephens provisional Vice-Presi dent of the Confederate States.
These appointments were received and cordially ap proved by all classes of people. There were other able and competent leaders who would no doubt have ac cepter! the position of president, and whose respective friends and admirers would have been more gratified for the time being to see honored than Mr. Davis; but to him no objection was publicly urged, if any existed.
His private life and character had ever been without reproach. He had given proof of his gallantry and ability in the field during the war between his country and the republic of Mexico. He had been long a member of Congress from Mississippi, discharged with ability and to the great satisfaction of the United States the duties of secretary of war daring the administration of President Pierce; and had been an eminent leader of the Southern people upon the subject of State rights, and Southern rights,, and the issues that had now divided the Union.
He united in himself in the opinion of his people in a rare degree the qualities of unsullied honor, devotion to the South, moral and physical courage, ability as a states man and no ordinary military talents, with a firmness and integrity of purpose and strength of will seldom to be found, as well as energy and perseverance equal to the crisis. The opinions of many were much modified and changed as to some of the points above mentioned during the four years of severe trial that ensued; but in nothing that related to his honor, courage, firmness, patriotism, or devotion to the South and her people. But at the time of the publication of his appointment the effect was the very best upon the people generally, who believed tliat? all things considered, he was the best man

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY.

189

in the confederacy then formed for its presidency. Those who had favored the claims of other men soon settled down in the patriotic and satisfactory conviction that the convention had acted wisely in selecting him.
The appointment of Mr. Stephens vice-president, and his acceptance of the second place were equally gratifying to all the friends of the revolution. His clear head and honest heart, his great experience in public life, forecast, and practical wisdom, and unsullied private life and char acter had given him large influence over statesmen North and South, and upon the people of the South. fie had been long the object of pride in his State, and of a warmth of admiration rarely felt for any public political leader. Up to the secession of Georgia he had been bitterly and firmly opposed to the movement, was a delegate from his county in the secession convention, where he spoke and voted against it, but, impelled by his loyalty to his State and his theory of State rights and sovereignty, so soon as she acted he ceased his opposition and joined the movement. His appointment by the Congress was com mended, not only commended upon the ground that the public men and people esteemed him eminently fitted, but also upon the ground that it afforded additional proof of the good faith of the secession party and promoted the best of feelings and cordial relations between them and those who ha'd opposed secession. All the people had reason to realize that the conflicts between them were ended, and the antagonisms engendered by them buried with the past, and were replaced by fraternity, and united and harmonious and earnest counsels looking to the suc cess of the cause and the good of the people.
The convention proceeded with great dispatch to frame a provisional constitution, and to organize the depart-

190 SECESSION OF COTTON-GROWnSTG STATES.
merits of government. On the llth clay of March the provisional Congress, composed of the delegates., assembled as a convention, adopted a permanent Constitution,* and proposed the same for ratification to the several State conventions represented in that Congress., which was by each promptly ratified and thus became the organic law of the Confederate States of America,
CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES.
The new government is founded upon the model of the old, being identical in the leading characteristics--the executive, legislative and judicial branches.
The general enumeration of delegated and reserved powers, in the main, are copied from the old constitution with only a few modifications and express restrictions.
The preamble contains the significant clause not in the old constitution : " each State acting in its sovereign and independent character; " and also the clause : " invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God." The Confed erate Constitution provides that no person, of foreign birth, not a citizen of the Confederate States, shall vote for any officer, State., or Federal; and provides that army officers of the general government, residing and acting solely -within any State, may be impeached by the Legislature thereof. That no bounties shall be granted from the pub lic treasury, nor duties laid xipon importations from for eign countries to foster any branch, of industry; and that duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout
of illtference between the Coustiiution of tlie United States ana tli^t of the Confederate States.

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY.

191

the Confederate States ; denies to Congress the power to appropriate money for any internal improvement intended to facilitate commerce, except for furnishing lights, bea cons, and buoys, and other aids to navigation upon the coast; and the improvement of harbors, and the removal of obstructions in river navigation ; in all which cases, it is provided that the duties shall be laid on the navigation facilitated thereby.
It requires that after a given day the post-office depart ment shall be self-sustaining, and prohibits the passage of any bankrupt law to discharge any debts contracted be fore the passage thereof; or any law impairing the right of property in negro slaves.
It requires that all bills appropriating money shall spec ify in Federal currency the amount of each appropriation, and the purposes for which it is made ; and prohibits Con gress from granting extra compensation to any public con tractor or agent after the contract is made or the service rendered. It specifies the powers and duties of Congress in reference to the territories of the Confederate States;, and particularly recognizes and establishes the institution of slavery therein. It changes the presidential term from four to sis years, making the President ineligible for a sec ond term, and gives Congress the power to grant to the heads of executive departments the privilege to sit in either House of Congress, and discuss questions appertain ing to their respective departments. It provides that Congress, upon the demand of any three States concur ring in the proposal of any amendment, shall summon a convention of all the States, to take into consideration the amendments to the constitution thus proposed.
It restricts the limitation in the old constitution that " no tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from

192 SECESSION Of COTTON-GROWING STATES.
any State," and provides, that it may be done by a vote of two-thirds of both houses.
It prohibits the importation of negroes of the African race except from the slaveholding States or territories of the United States, and gives Congress power to prohibit it from any State or territory not of the Confederate States.
It omits the prohibitory clause, " nor shall vessels bound to or from one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another." Omits the prohibition to the States to " emit bills of credit." It restricts the prohibi tion to the States without the consent of Congress to lay any d uty on tonnage, so as to except "sea-going vessels, for the improvement of its rivers and harbors, navigated by aid vessels," but provides that such duties shall not con flict with any treaties of the Confederate States with for eign nations ; and requires that any surplus revenue thus derived, after making such improvements, be paid into the common treasury. It provides also that where any river divides or flows through two or more States they may enter into compact with each other to improve the navigation thereof.
It requires a vote of two-thirds of Congress to appro priate money^ and the yeas and nays recorded, unless the appropriation is asked by the head of a department and submitted to Congress by the President ; or for the pur pose of paying its own expenses and contingencies; or for the payment of claims against the Confederate States, the justice of which shall have been judicially declared by a tribunal for the investigation of claims agvu'nst the government, which tribunal it is made the duty of Con gress to establish.'*

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY.

193

But the author's main objection to this, as to the old constitution, was that it did not provide absolutely for the enforcement of the doctrine of perfectly equal rights, im munities, exactions, and burdens to all States, sections, classes of people, and of occupations and callings, so far as they are affected by the common, government ; and that odious and oppressive discriminations may be made by statute law without a violation ot the constitution. The conclusion of the elaborate chapter was in these words : --

<l When we shall have waded through years as we already have through months of sore conflict, privation, slaughter, and waste--if a favoring Provi dence shall see fit to so afflict us--when we shall have gained our independ ence of the United States, with whose powerful and increasing armies our gallant kindred now contend, then we shall have gained an extension merely of the old charter of. liberty. "We shall then have, as a boon to ourselves and to bequeath to our children, the rig-lit to cavil and debate as to what is meant by the grants and restrictions in the Confederate constitution, until the deep wells of passion are stirred up, sectional or internal jealousies form into factions and parties based upon opposing interests. Then thft descendant,-; of the heroes of Bethel, ^Ifinassas, and Oak HM1 will be called on to again solve in blood the still unsettled problem of human rights and wrongs."

the right

194 SECESSION OF COTTON-GROWING STATES.
CONFEDERATE CONSTITUTION.--How ADOPTED.
The Confederate constitution never came before the people for ratification. Tlie delegates to tlie State con ventions were elected by the people to decide upon the issue whether the States calling1 them would submit to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States and the placing in power a sectional party and ad ministration hostile to the institution of slavery and upon the mode and measure of redress. After passing seces sion ordinances and separating the respective States from the Union, as understood by us, they pi'oceeded to ap point delegates to a convention of seceded States upon the invitation of Alabama. In many instances persons of their own bodj^ were appointed. In Georgia all the dele gates to Congress, except Howell Cobb, Martin J. Cra\vford ? and Augustus II. Wright, were delegates from their respective counties in the State convention.
The convention of States or provisional Congress framed the Confederate Constitution ; referred it back to the same State Conventions by which alone it was ratified. The people did not appoint the members of the provisional Congress, and never by their vote upon it ratified the Constitution enacted by it.
But while there was no formal specific ratification ex cept by the Secession convention, the hearts of the peo ple generally were In frill sympathy and accord with the movement, and approved the apparent haste under the pressing emergencies with which it was effected. The convention desired rio popular discussion on the form and details of a constitution in the face of a vital struggle for national life itself. And the people generally having full confidence in the wisdom and patriotism of the pro visional Congress did not desire to have it discussed. It

r

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEKERAGY.

195

bad met on the 4th of February and made and organized a provisional government; and by the llth day of March framed and submitted to the State conventions for ratifi cation the form of a permanent Constitution,
The Congress proceeded to organize a post office de partment, Avar department, the attorney-general's or de partment of justice, treasury department, and department .of state, and to adopt such ena.ctme.nts as the situation of affairs seemed to require in order to carry on the machin ery of the new government, a.rjd for the public defence in case war should result from the separation.

EFEORTS TO NEGOTIATE.
It was the settled purpose of the new government, and a large and overwhelming majority of the people, now that the States had withdrawn and formed a, new union, to maintain it even at the hazard of war between the se ceded States and the United States. J>ut it wa,s intensely desired by many of the people that it should be evaded, and the separation result in the establishment of peace and amity between the twro governments. To this end a com mission was sent to Washington with powers a,nd instruc tions to adjust and settle all conflicting claims and com plicated affairs between the United States and the Confed erate States in a manner satisfactory to both, provided the former would negotiate upon the basis of the independ ence of the latter. This commission necessarily failed, as that government was fully determined to treat the seceding people as rebel subjects, and in no sense whatever to recognize any legal status or any claim or demand of the seceding States as a separate and independent govern ment. Alleged perfidy and duplicity and contemptuous treatment by the officials at Washington toward the com-

196 SECESSION OF COTTON-GROWING STATES.
missioners afforded grounds for severe criticism and tended further to add to the provocations, and inflame the passions of the Southern people.
EFFORTS FOR TUVCOGNITLON.
The Confederate States also sent a commission to Eu rope headed by William L*. Yaricey of Alabama, with a view to procure the recognition by England and France of the independence of the Confederate States.
It had been often urged by speakers and writers to the people of the South, when favoring secession, and in con troverting- the probability that war would result, that the United States were too deeply interested in our products to go to war with us ; and that England arid France be ing manufacturing countries, and largely interested in the growth of raw fabrics in the Southern States, would be by sympathy based on interest and jealousy toward the United States, the only remaining part of this country that offered them competition, would become our friends and allies, and upon the formation of a Southern govern ment would promptly recognize us; and thus tend to prevent war. Our people, as well as our government were sadly disappointed, when by the entire failure of those governments to move on that line, they suddenly realized their fixed purpose of neutrality in form, but qua.si hostility in fact and effect; and that from these pow erful and controlling European nations aH the recognition we could get, until our independence should be achieved, was that of "belligerents;" for whatever of sympathy may have been felt by English and French people toward the Confederate States, it became more and more appar ent that we had no well grounded hope of any from those governments.

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY.

10?

AT COMPROMISE.--PRESIDENT BTJCHAXAN.--AC
TION OF THE BoEDEli STATES.
The work of separation and reorganization having been completed to the satisfaction of the friends of the revolu tion, there seemed to be but one check to the general joy and happiness of the people ; one fearful barrier to the immediate national prosperity. Our house was easily set in order; our affairs among ourselves were adjusted with out an apparent element of strife or discord ; for, as to all the elements, moral, religious, social and material, all that exert any control in politics and government, we wore then a united, earnest^ and enthusiastic people. The great check was in the terrible truth, that our relations with the government of the United States with which, the Southern States had been so long bound by fraternal, social, material, and constitutional ties were not settled. The great problem was still to be solved--whether our de mand to depart in peace, live separate, and be an inde pendent nation, was to be allowed without force by that government. The public awaited the determination of the issue with deep anxiety, and witli mixed emotions of hope, dread, and fear. Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Mis souri, all slaveholcling Southern States, had not seceded. Strong hopes seemed to be entertained by the leading statesmen of most of those States that terms of adjust ment; and reconstruction might stiJl be agreed on; and that by wise and prudent councils the final dismember ment of the Union might be prevented.
These hopes, however, were not based on nny overtures, propositions, or manifestation of amiable temper or peace ful designs by the Republican party, in or out of Congress,

198 SECESSION OF COTTON-GROWING STATES.
or from the executive department of the government. Their leaders seemed defiant; their political press con temptuous in tone; while the members in Congress promptly voted clown every proposal that sprang from Southern men seeking to conciliate and reunite the sec tions.
The seats of the members from the seceding States had all been vacated upon the passage of the ordinance of se cession by the respective States. The members from the border slave States not seceded, were left to contend against the overwhelming numbers of the ^Republicans and War Democrats in Congress.
A peace-Congress composed of delegates from those border States was held, and presided over by the vener able Ex-President John Tyler of Virginia, to which many looked with anxious hope, but was unavailing. Hon. John C. Breckeriridge, senator from Kentucky, the hon ored leader of the southern wing of the old Union Democ racy, remained in his seat, and brought to bear his powerful logic and eloquence to 110 purpose but to satisfy himself and the country that there was but one alterna tive left the South--submission to the new administra tion, and the rule of the sectional Kepublican party., and the influence and logical sequences of its teachings and doctrines on the Institution of slavery and the people interested in and identified with It, or prompt prepara tions to resist its aggressive and coercive power. Proposi tions for compromise conciliation were submitted by the venerable and sage leader of the old southern Whigs, lion. John C. Crittenden of Kentucky. They too were spurned by the unyielding Republicans.
President Buchanan had been defeated In his efforts to preserve the constitution of his country and pi'olong its

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199

unity and peace. His policy was condemned by the omnipotent voice of the people of his own section of the Union. His administration, like his long and eventful public life, was drawing to a close. He bad lost prestige to a large extent, and fallen between the contending hosts, not looked to as a lender of the North, not relied on as a friend of the South, or dreaded as among her strongest foes. He provoked the ire of the Northern peo ple by an alleged inclination to favor, or to be too lenient towards the South. Be provoked the animadversions of Southern people, by what appeared to be a vacillating policy and course of conduct. A patriot desiring to prevent dissolution and strife, and to see a peaceful ter mination of the pending troubles, but without power to control the storm which lie would not aggravate by what appeared would be a futile attempt at prompt suppression.
His long and able services to his country and govern ment in Congress, in the cabinet, as minister abroad and as President of the United States, begun in the brighter and purer days of the republic, characterized by unfalter ing devotion to what he regarded the public good, through sunshine and shade, amid the storms of public passion, and in the calm nnd serene days of the peaceful past, was now about to terminate with the violent sever ance of the Federal Union he had so long loved and cherished.

SlCCZSSIOX AND AOCJCSSIOX O? HOHDZIt ST-&TZS.
All efforts to reconcile the alienated sections having failed, and the people of the border slaveholding States having left to them the choice of their own course, to remain in the Union and abide the consequences to now to themselves from a government regarded as to a large

200 SECESSION OF COTTON-GROWING STATES.
extent hostile to them, mid their institutions; and to be compelled as citizens subject to that government to aid in subjugating those who had withdrawn, .and with whom they hnd common cause of complaint, or to unite their fortunes and destiny with them, did not long hesitate.
Aa South Carolina had led the cotton-growing States, and Keemed by common consent to bear the palm for the unanimity and promptness of her people, Virginia now seemed to be looked to with deep intercut as likely to ailect the action and course of the border States. Many of the people of the cotton States had favored and voted for secession n a remedy under the hope and belief that it would be peaceful. Tint Virginia adopted it, after its peaceful features had vanished; and when her people knew that grim-visaged war was at her gotca as an niternative, threatened and morally certain, to submission; and with a strong probability that her own bosom would be the seat of the deadly oud wasteful conlhct.
Her ordinance of secession was adopted on the 17th of April. Her sublime exmuple was followed by Arkansas on the 6th of Mny ; by North Carolina on the 20th, and by Teimosseu on the 8th of June.
Maryland cast her lot on the side of the Union, not withstanding many of her noblest people were true to the South; and many of her brave sons volnutoriiy as sumed the labor and danger of defending he] cause.
The Executive of Mianuuri declared that State seceded on the 8th of August Hut the people \\erc uppoaed to the movement, and went with the TJnicm. Still a few of the noble and brave joined our standard.
In Kentucky, a provisional southern government was organized after it was known that the Stato authorities would not actjand when it was strongly probable that the

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201

majority of her people favored the old Union. Both Kentucky and Missouri, however, sent members who acted as such in the Confederate Congress, and troops to our armies.*

CHAPTER VI.
PREPARATIONS FOB AVAR.--COMPARATIVE STRENGTH AND RESOURCES. -- OPENINGS OF HOSTILITIES.--FIRST YEAK'S OPERATIONS is THE FIELD.--SITUATION OF THE PEOPLE.
After the secession of the cotton States and the organ ization of the Confederacy, in most of those States the military spirit, in anticipation of warlike movements, be gan to be kindled. Volunteer companies in the towns and cities began to inure themselves to drill and discipline, and new ones to form in every direction. It was not to cast lots upon whom the burden should fall of defending the South, but the questions were, who can soonest get ready, organize, and equip for the post of danger ? AVho can get arms, and "who shall be the favorites of the gov ernment in being allowed the honor of going1 first to the war--of repelling by force the invading foe ?
The government of the United States had garrisoned Fort Suinter, which commanded the approach of the city of Charleston ; and Fort Pickens, which commanded the approach to the navy yard at Pensacola. The State of South Carolina, while indignant at the action of the gov ernment in covering her designs, and in trifling with that Stale, and in garrisoning Fort Suinter contrary to repre sentations held out to her commissioners at Washington; and while many of her people desired and urged a differ ent course, very wisely forbore to make any assa.ult upon the fort or attempt to regain it by force, bat contented

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herself with preparations to pi-event the reinforcement of the garrison. Such was the condition of affairs when the conduct of them by the State was relinquished to Confederate authority. Major Andersoii of the United States army was in command of the garrison in the fort, while its reduction was confided to the command of Brig adier-General G. T. Beau regard of the Confederate States provisional army, then composed of such State military organizations as had been turned over to the Confederacy, and of such volunteer companies as had been tendered to and accepted by the Confederacy. The South Carolinians guarded the approach of United States vessels which might be intended to provision, or reinforce the fort while the works projected for the reduction of it were being con structed. Major Anderson contented himself to witness these hostile demonstrations "without attempting to disturb them although they were under the range of his guns.
The artillery fire from one of the Confederate batteries, erected to command the approach to the fort, upon a United States vessel approaching the fort with supplies in violation of the faith of the United States government not to attempt to provision or reinforce it but under orders from her military authorities., may be denominated the first shot of the revolution. This was followed within a few days by the opening of General Beauregard's bat teries upon the fort, which resulted in its reduction. All efforts that peaceful inclination or honor required having been exhausted, the single alternative was left of reducing the fort, or suffering it to remain in the hands of the United States forces in a threatening posture towards Charleston.
The question as to who begun hostilities depends upon the right of secession. If secession was an act of rebellion

204

OPENING OF HOSTILITIES.

the attempt to occupy the fort and expel the forces of the United States was an attack upon that government and clearly an act of war. If secession was the exorcise of a right to which the States were entitled, then Fort Sumter was within the jurisdiction and limits of a govern ment foreign to that of the United States, and the occu pation, garrisoning, and holding it in a threatening post ure, and the attempt to provision and reinforce it against the consent of the new government were all acts of war on the part of the United States; and the reduc tion by force, and the occupation of the fort, and the ex pulsion of the troops of the United States 011 the part of the Confederate States, were acts of self-defence.
The right of secession was a foregone conclusion with us and we could not hesitate as to the proper course to pur sue in that emergency. That right was denied by the government of the United States. The authorities of that government, therefore, held that the firing upon, the vessel in their service and upon, the fort in the occupancy of their troops were acts of war. This difference of opinion and different line of action in consequence of it brought the two nations to the conflict of arms. But there was underlying this ostensible issue of forces, and antecedent to it. a settled purpose on the part of the United States government to resort to coercion. If she had been peace fully inclined, there can be no possible doubt that she could without dishonor, and would without hesitation, have given the matter a direction which would have met the ardent wishes of the South by avoiding the resort to arms. Our only mode of avoiding the issue of battle was to submit unconditionally, and of this our people and government were fully sensible.
The works projected for the reduction of Fort Sumter

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205

as well as the bombardment are said to have been con ducted with consummate skill, and the latter was attended with scarcely any serious casualties upon either side. The great God of battles seemed unwilling, even after the peace of a continent was broken in the thunders of battle, that the red tide of war should be opened upon such a country.
The success of General Beauregard's operations against Sumter raised him to the full measure of public confi dence, and the acts of hostilities had the effect to raise the blood of both sections to fever heat. All hope of avoiding war was now blighted, and the purpose of cultivating peaceful measures, abandoned. The de mand of the South to be let alone, she had lawfully de termined to enforce if possible, regardless of the cost in re sources, treasure, and blood. Invasion and conquest under the guise of suppressing the rebellion and restoring the Union engrossed the great Northern mind, and stirred the passions of that people to the utmost capacity. Their public journals were the daily chronicles of busy prep arations for war. The gates of Janus closed amid the pro found peace of the United States for thirteen years were now fully open. The storm of popular passion had now reached the point of madness, and devoted the people of both sections to destruction, and the " red right hand " of Omnipotence was upraised to smite them.

COMPARATIVE POPULATION.
By the census report of the United States for the year 1860, the total population was 31,640,869; that of the non-slaveholding States was 18,950,759 ; that of the nonslaveholding territories, 262,701; white and black popula tion of the slaveholding States, 12,433,409. This, however,

206

OPENING OF HOSTILITIES.

is not the estimate of peoples as they stand opposed in this war. The population of the eleven States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ala bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, and Tennessee, which are the States properly embraced in the Confederacy, are whites 5,671,723 ; slaves 3,570,987; to which add a liberal estimate of the people of Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland, who co-operated with us, say one-third of the people of Missouri and Kentucky, and one-fifth of those of Maryland, added to the white populala,tion Sonth 797,793 whites, and 130,776 slaves, making 6,468.516 whites, and 3,701,763 slaves and a total popu lation in the South in that war of 10,170,279. Add to the northern population the remainder of the people of Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland not included on the southern side by our estimate, 1,967,766, makes the grand total for the North 21.181,226.
In addition to the fact that more than one-third of the 10,170,279 on the side of the South were slaves, liable to be abducted or corrupted and rendered useless, and an element of weakness upon the near approach of the enemy, the fore going is a more than liberal estimate ha favor of the South when it is remembered that Western Virginia and a ma jority of the people of East Tennessee were opposed to us, and co-operated with the other side whenever opportunity ollered,and there were numerous persons along; the border in other Sta,tes thus disaffected. When it is considered that President Davis adopted the policy of defensive war and declined generally to invade the enemy, it is apparent at once that the efficient number for the South was decreased at every advance of the enemy. For those who were thus cut off from us and left within the line of the enemy's occu pation were powerless to aid us, even if they did not be-

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FIRST YEAB, IK THE FIELD.

207

come disaffected by the presence of the enemy among

them, and their resources in provisions were not only thus

cut off from us but were converted to the use of the

Federal army.

It is not practicable to present a precise estimate of the

strength of the two sections in people. The North in

creased rapidly by immigrants, and when we consider the

extent of the Union sections of the South, and the fact

that so large an element were slaves and unavailable for

bearing arms, it was thought fair to estimate three for

one in favor of the United States a.gainst the Confederate

States.

The superficial area of the Confederate States was

741,990 square miles ; that 'of the United States, includ

ing the four slave States of Delaware, Maryland, Ken

tucky and Missouri, was 1,045,820 square miles; and that

of the territories of the United States, 1,580,000 square

miles.

DIVISION" OF TEKKITOKT.

The dividing line between the two confederacies, if

fixed on the northern boundary of the eleven States

mentioned, was upwards of two thousand miles in length.

By far the greater portion is a dry line; and \ipon the

balance the Red, the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Poto-

mac rivers mark the boundary. There were no moun

tains forming a line of boundary, except a part of that

between Virginia and Kentucky, The line of sea-coast to

be defended wa*s still greater in length than the bound

ary line by land, reaching from the mouth of the Rio

Grande to that of the Potomac, from which a.ny one of

the eleven States could be directly invaded except Ar

kansas and Tennessee. The States of Virginia, North

Carolina, Texas and Tennessee furnished a large surplus

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OPENING OF HOSTILITIES.

of beef and bacon, corn and wheat, while n. considerable portion of these essentials were drawn from other States. The resources of the South in sugar, syrup, and rice seemed ample to meet the wo/nts of the people and the army. The large area of the cotton crops occupying the most valuable lands of the cotton States rendered the snpply of grain and meat., in those States, somewhat sparse. But the planters wisely determined to curtail the cotton, arid largely increase the crops of grain, and there was but little ground to fear that the confederacy would be self-sustaining In all the articles needed to feed the people and the army for an indefinite period.

COMPARATIVE RESOURCES AND VALOR.
It was apparent, however, that the resources of the United States were vastly superior to ours in cattle, hogs, corn and wheat, from the middle and western States. The facilities for internal transportation of troops and army stores by railroads and rivers, seemed to be abun dant in both sections. The North also possessed great advantages over the South in the supply of mules and horses for wagons, artillery, and cavalry. The supply in the South was ample for immediate use, and for some time to come ; but as the war became long protracted, this became an embarrassing subject to "us. For Avar is as destructive to horses and mules as to men, and we had comparatively few facilities in the South for raising these animals.
Great reliance was placed in the South upon the supe rior courage and bravery of our troops over those of the North. While there was no apparent reason to doubt the prowess of the South, or the skill of her rising military chieftains, but great reason to be proud of both, there

r

F1E.ST YEAR IN THE FIELiX

209

did not seem to be good grounds to doubt the soldierly qualities of the northern men. The vigorous, physical and mental constitutions of the western men, in connec tion with their habits and mode of life, did'not seem to warrant the conclusion that they would prove deficient in courage, endurance, or skill. Drill, exposure to hard ships and privations, and familiarity with danger, did much to improve the prowess of the troops from the middle and eastern States. The large element of Irish' composition in the federal army, together with the pres ence of the troops of the regular army who had seen much service, were things which an impartial and con siderate spectator could not overlook in order to reach the conclusion that federal troops in that war would bo formidable in battle. There were, however, apparent, well-settled facts which warranted the conclusion that the Confederates would be a match for the Federals, man for man. The fiery impetuosity of their temper, the fact that personal physical courage in private life was esteemed in the South a higher virtue than it wa,s in the North, the familiarity of all our people with the use of firearms, and their consequent skill as marksmen, and above alh theconsideration that they were fighting1 in defence of their country, homes, firesides and families, against an invad ing army--stimulants which must be wanting to the northern troops--seemed to warrant this conclusion.
They were vastly our superiors in mechanical skill and in their reso\irces and preparations for the manufacture of machiner3r, clothing, shoes, blankets, tents, arms, am munition, wagons, rolling stock for railroads, boats for river service, transports, gun-boats, and all manner of ships of war, and also in navigation. They had a navy, we had none. They had an army which they retained,

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OPENING OF HOSTILITIES.

except that most of the army officers of southern birth quitted their service to join ours, while we had no army and but comparatively few anus or ordnance stores. They had a government fully organized and a full repre sentation at foreign courts; we had to supply the former, but were wanting in the latter because foreign govern ments did not recognize our nationality. They had a national credit which we had to supply by a judicious use of the resources at our command. They had the open markets of the world in which to buy and sell, and enlist hireling troops to take the place of their citizen soldiers, while we were blockaded and our ports of entry sealed up except to such ships as were fortunate enough to carry oil a trade through the blockading squadron of the enemy. * Such were some of the difficulties that seemed to en viron the Confederate States and stand between us and the independence of our country. But we had a deter mined will to be free. We had the peace and security of our homes, the safety of our women and children, the weal of the present and future generations at stake ; we had truth, justice, honor, and humbly trusted that we had the just God of battles on our side and would ultimately prevail.
For the causes and with the auspices we have endeav ored faithfully to set forth, the government of the Con federate States, sustained by their people, boldly ventured upon the expedient of war for that independence.
The occupation of Forts Pickens and Sumter by the forces of the United States, as we have seen, was cause of irritation to the people of the Confederacy. The gov ernment took early steps to expel them. While the com mand of the forces and works for the reduction of Fort Sumter was confided, as we have seen, to General Beau-

FIEST TEAR IN THE FIELD.

211

regard, those at Pensacola for the purpose of reducing Fort Pickens were confided to the command of Gen. Braxton Bragg. The country "waited for several weeks in vain to see the success at Fort Sumter repeated at Fort Pickens; but after weeks of delay the people ascer tained, what was probably much sooner known to the commanding general, that the enterprise was impracti cable.
In the mean time the question absorbed the attention of the people, and doubtless of the government, as to what mode of atta.ck the Federals would employ ; whether they would invade us from the Atlantic and Gulf coast, or organize land forces and invade the border States.
That the military councils of the enemy were guided by able and experienced men who had seen mu,ch service could not be doubted ; while the capacity of those in our service to command large forces with success was a prob lem which time and trial alone could solve. It was ex pected of Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott, who was at the head of the United States army, that he would be faithful to his government while in its service; but by many it was doubted whether he would consent to con tinue in that service if it should involve the invasion of Vir ginia, his native State ; and which contained beneath her sod the ashes of his own children. The struggle between the pride of an eminent and lifelong soldier; the love of military glory ; the ardent attachment he cherished to tile union of that country, beneath whose flag he had so often led her sons to victory, on the one hand ; and the behests of a sympathy which would have moved a less stern heart than his, and which is common to the most of mankind, on the other, must have been one of sore trial to the vet eran chieftain. But the country was soon made acquainted

212

OPENING OF HOSTILITIES.

with the stern reality that Virginia was to be immediately invaded under the supreme command of General Scott. The occupation of Fortress Mvmroe and other oiltposts on the Virginia border along the Chesapeake bay, and the Potomac river, was soon followed, by the advance of United States troops across the river opposite the city of Wash ington ; and the occupation of Alexandria and other places on the soil of Virginia. All doubt was now dis pelled ; whereupon the Confederate government, in order to be near the scene of action, removed from the city of Montgomery in Alabama., and fixed its temporary location at the city of Richmond in Virginia. Most of the troops in the service and those being tendered and received were hurried to the Virginia frontier by railroad, to aid in ar resting the progress of and repelling General Scott's forces.
The requisitions for troops by the President upon the States were promptly tilled by volunteers ; who were soeager to engage in the active campaign, and so impatient to reach the post of danger, that they could barely be re strained in the camps of instruction until they could be taught the ordinary commands and evolutions of the com pany and regimental drill. In most instances, the ex penses of fitting out the volunteers for the field were borne by the men themselves,, and by contributions freely made by citizens. The sympathy of the people for the absent and departing soldiers was deep and universal. The tears of multitudes of people in all conditions and circumstances in life,, and even of the slaves, flowed copiously, betoken ing the warmth of their devotion to the departing compa nies and regiments. The men of the towns and cities, and along the lines of railroad, greeted them with shouts and hxizzas ; and the women with the waving of miniature

FIRST YEAR IN THE FIELD.

213

flags and handkerchiefs, and with smiles of admiration, and words of comfort and cheer ; and lavished upon them the substantial and luxuries of life. In most houses where a sick soldier might chance to lodge, he was an object of more tender regard than a sick inmate. The bodies of the dead were returned under escort to the bereaved rel atives at home. The enthusiasm of the people was only surpassed by that of the soldiers themselves, and they re sponded to the greetings of the people everywhere with, shouts and yells that rent the air, and spoke a language of determination and zeal which nothing could surpass, and which no one could, misunderstand. The pay of a soldier was no part of the inducement to volunteer, in per haps a large majority of cases. Of the troops who were entering the army at this period, it is probable that there were as many who would have paid, if necessary, for the privilege of getting into service as there were who would have declined to go for want of pay. In cases not a few, where the poor men who had not subsistence to leave with their families at home, and who desired to volunteer, found no difficulty in procuring the promises of their more opulent neighbors to provide for them in their absence ; and thousands departed for the field upon the faith of such unsubstantial reliances whose families were dependent upon their daily labor for food and raiment, and unable to procure these without them. The spirit of volunteer ing was only equalled by the willingness and anxiety of the people at home, of both sexes, to aid in whatever work or contribution seemed necessary to forward the good cause ; in a word, for the first few months, war went in silver slippers, and wore only an aspect of glory and re nown.
The young men on their way to the war, sported, by

224

OPENING OF HOSTILITIES.

their sides, savage looking dirks and pistols, some anti quated, others of the more recent improvements, as if they expected to fight the enemy with them ; and many doubtless expected that sort of rencounter, and desired the opportunity to display their superior prowess in the imminent deadly breach.
There was extant, a great mania for what, in the par lance of this day is denominated "Zouave," which means, so far as I can comprehend it, that feature in the military which delights in exhibiting, to the admiring g-aze of spectators, a fantastical and gay military suit, of which there seems to be no settled model, and of actions and evolutions, equally fantastic, as if the whole was intended to strike terror into the hearts of the country people. For certainly a brave and disclipined army on either side "would not run from the fantastical array of colors and costumes until those who wore them should show either superior courage or skill in the use of arms, but would delight in the advantages of vision this gay dress would afford them on the field. As to the maniial exercises and quirkish motions of the Zouaves, if ifc should ever occur that a battle is fought hand to hand with the bayonets, gun-stocks and barrels, instead of bullets, they might be of great benefit, for the reason that the men in that case will already have been taught to strike and dodge the enemy--to run from and pursue him, as the casualties of the scuffle might render either tactics necessary.
In reference to most men whom the world calls patriots it may be noted, that there is a singular mixture of devo tion to country with devotion to self. I am not able to analyze it so far as to designate the exact parts and pro portions of each which constitute the great military hero, the great politician and statesman, and the demagogue.

FIRST YEAH IN THE FIJELD.

215

I am certain, however, that the proportions differ in the different classes, and in different men of the same class. There is no doubt but there were some few men who raised companies and regiments for service in this war,, and many privates who volunteered, from a sense of duty to the country, realizing at the same that it was at the sacrifice of their personal and private interests. It was evident, however, from the beginning" of hostilities, that a man who did not take part in the war would stand no chance whatever for promotion in the civil department, after it should have terminated. , Men love wealth be cause it gives power, and in popular governments they love office for the same reason. This prevailing mania has made a majority of the intellectual portion of our countrymen place-hunters and office-seekers; universal suffrage and eligibility to offices of honor and profit has the effect to stimulate thousands of the ignorant and uneducated to seek promotion to the lower grades of office. The volunteering and raising of military forces is more a matter of calculation than most persons engaging in them would be willing to confess.
If the war should be of short duration then they ex pect to wear their laurels with gratification and profit to themselves. If it should last long, then it were better to have gone into it while there way opportunity to se cure the positions of lieutenants, captains, majors, colonels, etc., than to ultimately have to go as private soldiers to fill up the decimated companies. Then this love of office and power was the very salt of the country, for it stimu lated the aspiring men not only to volunteer but to bring to bear all their personal influence upon their fellow citi zens to induce them to enter the service. Thus the cause of the country had its advocates and orators of different

216

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caliber, and upon as widely variant processes of reason and logic, in every neighborhood throughout our whole bor ders. This same spirit coupled with natural bravery and the love of martial glory "was a safe guaranty for the good conduct of these men after they had entered the service. It was a little humiliating, however, to observe that while the change from the walks of civil life to the exposures and associations of the camp, removed in a great measure from the restraints of religion and female influence, there were sad changes in the moral bearing of many men. Yet at the same time they had not discarded petty jeal ousies and contentious for place. This natural weakness of human nature had much to do in developing the causes which led to the dismemberment of the old government, and its effects upon the cause in which we were strug gling were to be dreaded if the war should continue for many years.
The rapidity of increase in the forces on both sides during the months of May, June, and July evinced to all that the campaign of Virginia was to be upon a much larger scale than perhaps either government at first an ticipated. It is probably true that the exaggeration by the press and people for sensational purposes and in a spirit of braggadocio had the effect from each side to stimulate the other to double diligence to raise and send forward countervailing forces. The chief difficulty in the way of the South was in furnishing arms to the troops who were willing and anxious to volunteer. Hence the atten tion of the government was at an early stage of the war di- . rected to the subject of importing arms through the block ade from Europe, and of manufacturing them within the Confederacy. In this department it appears that no time was lost or energies spared to meet the pressing demand.

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The policy of President Lincoln seems to have been different from that of President Da vis in reference to appointments to high military rank. The former seemed willing" in many instances to trust civilians with impor tant commands, while the Litter seemed to adhere "with great pertinacity to men of military education and expe rience in the field. His fondness and partiality for gradu ates of the United States military school at West Point, where he was educated, had early become a subject of general remark, and of complaint among those gentlemen who held high political, professional and social stations, and who had not had in early life the advantages of West Point,and of whose fitness to command armies the president had riot been fully impressed. Mr. Lincoln had, how ever, found a countercheck to the evils of his policy in that of promptly removing the appointees when they gave proof of incompetency.
The plan of General Scott's campaign in Virginia was to invade from four material points at the same time. Generals McClellan and Kosecrans advanced into that portion of the State west of and among the Alleghany mountains., known as Western Virginia, with forces vari ously estimated from five to fifteen thousand men. Gen eral Patterson commanding a larger force advanced from the upper Potomac into that fair and fertile region along the Shenandoah river known as the valley of Virginia. General McDowell with the principal column moved from the direction of Washington on the northeast of the State towards Richmond, while General Cutler held the command in the peninsula. General Huger of the Con federate States provisional army held the command of our forces at Norfolk; General John B. Magruder those in the peninsula; those fronting the enemy's advance

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from Washington were under Major-General G. T. Beauregard while the army of the Shenandoah in the valley was confided to the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. The forces sent to Western Virginia, and which seemed to have remained in detached portions under Gen. J. JB. Floyd, and other subordinate commanders, were under the command of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Thus it appears the government, with a commendable magnanim ity and zeal, but with questionable propriety, undertook the defence of the whole State. The impression of the country seems to have been that Western Virginia was not only disloyal to vis, but that the expulsion of the Federal troops from it was impracticable., and that the occupation of it by the enemy would prove comparatively harmless to us, as the people there were separated by mountains from the true and loyal people of Virginia, over which it was as difficult for the enemy to advance and invade further, as General !Lee found it to carry his troops and their supplies. The detachments of the forces^ when they met the enemy, it was generally against supe rior numbers and sometimes against superior skill. The hardships and exposures to rain and mud during the prevalence of the camp diseases of the new troops, sick ness and deaths, retreating before superior forces, and notwithstanding occasional successes and partial advan tages gained over the enemy, the general want oi success of the campaign in the mountains had a demoralizing tendency upon the troops; failed to accomplish the expul sion of the enemy from the country, or any substantial good to the cause of the South.
The surprise and defeat of Confederate forces at Lau rel Hill, an advanced out-post under the command of Brig adier-General Garnett who was killed in the action, and

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succeeded in command by Col. James N, Kamsey of the first regiment of Georgia volunteers, by the Federal forces under General McClellan may be recorded as the first reverse of our arms. The manifestation, of high soldierly qualities and talents on the part of General McClellan, and of great cunning and energy on the part of his Ger man subaltern. General Kosecrans, caused no little trepi dation in the Southern heart as foreshadowing that we had to combat with military skill as well as superior mumbers.
The splendid air-castles, built by men of sanguine tem perament, of eo,sy victory, were vanished into thin vapor, and the unwarranted calculations of thousands of good and true men, that only a few months were necessary to demonstrate to the enemy our superior prowess, and com pel him to desist from his vain attempt at subjiigation, were modified by the sober second thought that our suc cess was to cost more toil and tribulation, and a greater outlay of blood and treasure, than was at first anticipated. The birth of the nation was to be attended with pro tracted anguish.
And now candor coin pels the confession that the cam paign of 186.1 in Western Virginia ended in ill-success, while in connection with the current events of the year it had not impaired the general confidence of the people.
So far as is known, the war was opened in Virginia, and the first shot was fired from a battery at Sewell's point, under the command of Capt. Peyton Colquitt of Colum bus, Georgia, upon a Federal gun-boat. The battalion to which Captain Colquitt's company was attached was the first organized force sent from Georgia to Virginia, and perhaps the first from, any other State. As an illustra tion of the spirit of the people, and the energy of Gov-

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ernor Brown of Georgia, I will be pardoned for the allusion to the manner in which this battalion was raised and sent off.
Governor Letcher of Virginia telegraphed from Rich mond to Governor Brown at Milledgeville that four com panies were needed immediately at Norfolk, and, not having them ready, he desired to know if Georgia could despatch them at once. Having1 no organized forces in camp, the governor went to the office and, through the operators of the wires, got captains of city volunteer com panies, Collins and Hardeman of Macon, Doyall of Griffin, and Colquitt of Columbus, to their respective telegraph offices, and asked them if they would respond to Gov ernor Letcher's call. All answered in the affirmative; but some asked one, and some two days to get ready, the members of their companies being citizens and not being in camp. The governor informed them that they must decline, or go immediately. " Then we are ready," was the unanimous reply. And on the following day Governor Brown had the gratification to announce to Governor Letcher, by the telegraph, that the four com panies were on the railroads en route to Virginia. In one or two cases the ladies of the city met and made up uniform suits for the whole companies before the hour for their departure the next morning.
The movements of the enemy on the peninsula brought them in collision with General Magruder's forces on the tenth day of June, 1861, at Bethel church, where a bril liant success was achieved by the Confederates, attended with considerable slaughter of the Federals, and a re markable escape from casualties on our part. In this engagement, Col. D. H. Hill, of a North Carolina regi ment, acted so gallant a part as to attract the attention

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and applause of the public and honorable promotion by the government. The result of the battle, while it checked and discouraged the enemy on the peninsula, had the effect to electrify the South, and served greatly to mature the growing assurance of the army and peo ple. The battle of Bethel was but a skirmish compared "with other fields already made memorable in the annals of the war; and is likely, on account of the smallness of the force engaged in it, to sink into insignificance. But its consequences and effects are not to be measured in the faithful records of the revolution by the numbers of the slain, or the extent of the temporary advantages gained over the foe. For in the morale of the army much depended upon the results of the first conflict of arms; and the effect of this success told wonderfully upon the bearing of other troops upon other fields distant from Bethel church.
Courage in battle nerves men to act and endure, but when separated from confidence of success it is of but little avail. There are doubtless thousands of men who at the outset would not fight in single combat, but having confidence in those associated with them in line of battle they did not yield to the promptings of fear, but stood firm and discharged their duty well until familiarity with danger made them careless of its approach, trained and inured them to action and endurance, and made them good soldiers.
From the tone of the public journals in the United States from the early part of the summer it was evident that there was a strong outside pressure upon General Scott towards a forward movement for the purpose of cap turing Richmond, the seat of the Confederate government. But this time-honored chieftain, well aware of the obsta-

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cles in the undoubted valor of Southern troops and the skill of Southern commanders, better known to him than to the country at large, prudently awaited the maturity of his ample preparations in the accumulation of men, munitions, and transportation, upon 'which he relied for a successful campaign which should crown his brilliant ca reer. The public anxiety was intense. General Johnston, with characteristic caution, maneuvered against General Patterson in the valley, and awaited his advance in a state of preparation to give him. battle should he return to make the attack which the public was led to expect for several weeks. On the 19th of July a portion of General McDowell's forces had been put in motion and were en countered and signally repulsed by a part of General Beauregard's forces along the east bank of Bull Run creek. The intention to attack General Beauregard in large force being apparent to General Johnston he qxiickly transferred his command to the east of the Blue Ridge, and by a forced march formed a junction with General Beauregard in time to take a prominent part in the general engage ment occasioned by the advance of General McDowell in force on Sunday morning, July 21st, near Manassas junc tion. General Johnston, with a courtesy as rare as his genius, awarded to General Beauregard the command of the field although he was of superior rank. The battle raged, with dreadful loss on both sides, from early in the morning until the afternoon was considerably advanced, and with fortune seeming rather to favor the Federals. The regular army as well as the volunteer forces fought with a heroism worthy of any cause, which, with the ad vantage of largely superior numbers, accounts for the .advantages gained over the Confederates.
It is said, that the enemy were unaware of the fact that

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Johnston had formed a junction with Beaureg-ard prior to the engagement, and that they were fighting against their combined forces; and that the arrival, at an opportune moment and place, of General Kirby Smith, with a divi sion of reinforcements, in sight of the contending armies, was supposed by the Federals to be the coming of Gen eral Johnston's army from the valley. From this suppo sition or some unknown cause, a general panic seized the Federal army, followed by a disgraceful stampede of the whole force, leaving everything in disorder, and complete victory in the hands of the Confederates.
It is said, that to the Federal army, at a respectful dis tance in the rear, tliere were attached a number of per sons of rank in both sexes who had come out to witness the sport of driving the rebels before the grand Federal army ; the capture of Richmond, and the suppression of the rebellion by the planting of the United States flag upon the dome of the Capitol building. Numerous amaz ing relics have been preserved by our troops, gathered from the field of disorder, which with articles of more value were scattered in the track of their retreat. Among them envelopes of letters with mottoes printed announcing the fall of Richmond; others with the picture of a woman placing the flag upon the Capitol dome. So certain were theTJnited States army arid Northern people of an easy victory, and an almost unobstructed march through our country.
Hence it is by no means unnatural that dismay should have suddenly seized the public mind upon the announce ment of this unexpected disaster.
It is a misfortune to be regretted, that after the hard marches and exposures of the Southern troops our army was not in a condition to advance, follow up, and improve

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the advantages thus gained. The troops had evidently been chafed by the restraints imposed either by the pol icy of the administration in not carrying the war into the enemy's country, and resting our cause upon the defensive; or by the want of means and outfit to invade. Our army was made of volunteers who went out for action; the de moralizing effect of keeping them idle in camp was palpa ble, especially when they feel that the opportunities of success were diminishing with the constant increase of the enemy's forces. Thus they had lain comparatively idle, and seen General McClellan take the place of General McDowell, and by his military character restore confidence to the broken spirits of the enemy ; and by his skill and energy they had not only recovered from the deadly blow stricken at Manassas, but become more formidable than before ; and our forces were again thrown upon the de fensive.
In this action at Manassas, South Carolina lost, among others her gallant son, Brigadier-General Barnard H. Bee; while the hearts of all Georgians were made sad by the fall of her intrepid son, Brigadier-General Francis S. Bartow. A number of officers before but little known, by their gallantry and ability attracted the public notice ; among them Brigadier-General James Longstreet, of Ala bama; Brigadier-General Thomas J. Jackson, of Virginia; and Brigadier-General Bonham, of South Carolina.
The public confidence in Generals Johnston and Beauregard was strong and abiding, and the country bowed with a becoming reverence and resignation to the policy of the administration, supposing and believing that the facts, if fully known, would show the superior wisdom of the executive counsel in restraining the further advance of our army after the victory of Manassas. There were

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many able men among us who believed that, even if we were prepared to strike the enemy by invading him, the true policy for us in the end was still to act on the de fensive j while numerous others were very restive under the policy, believing that the only true mode for us to de fend was to advance and strike blows thick and heavy. They preferred to make the enemy's country the seat of the war; and to make them, as far as possible, not only sustain the losses and submit to the depredations neces sarily following from the presence of large armies, but draw our support from their territory. They urged their policy especially as the question of provisions was likely to become a vital one in the South if the war was long protracted. It was supposed that under this policy the northern people would soon feel themselves directly in terested in the cessation of hostilities, in which event the popular pressure upon Mr. Lincoln would be for peace instead of war. It was insisted that upon the defensive policy the government had adopted we not only would have our entire army to feed from our own resources, but must necessarily suffer all the damage that would result from the presence of two large armies upon our soil. Those who agreed with the President upon his defensive policy argued in this wise : We only asked to depart in peace and to be left alone prior to the war, and that is all we desire now. We do not desire to lay waste the ene my's country or to subjugate the northern people. To act upon this high moral theory must make for us friends abroad and even in the enemy's country. If we were to invade the North the case would be radically changed; our enemies will then be fighting in the defence of home and all that is dear or sacred to a people, and, therefore, whatever differences may exist among them as to the

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propriety of the war will be immediately forgotten atid they will present to us an unbroken front. That, in a word, it would be folly to think of invading a country like the United States, with a population as intelligent as our own, three times our numbers, and vastly superior to us in arms and provisions. However much we desired to see the evils of the war turned upon the invaders them selves, these reasons seemed to possess great weight and rather commended the prudence of the President and his Cabinet to the more thinking and cautious of our
people. The reverse of the Federals at Manassas seemed to have
had the effect, after the first shock of disaster and disap pointment, to arouse the energies of the government at Washington and of the people of the United States, who had up to that time not realized the difficulties in the way of suppressing the rebellion and restoring the Union. This effect was manifest from the general and extensive preparation upon sea and land to invest the whole Con federacy. In the South the effect was in a certain sense injurious. It is true it established general belief in the success of the revolution and had the desired effect in building up the confidence of the army, which were so much accomplished in the right direction if kept within proper bounds ; but when it caused a relaxation in the energies of the people it could not be otherwise than dele terious. Abroad, Confederate stock went up and, from the tone of European journals, it was evident our cause had made a rapid stride at foreign courts. The prospect of early national recognition seemed to dawn upon us with a most encouraging lustre. The anxiety of the Washington cabinet upon this subject was too apparent to be concealed, and all the arts of diplomacy were brought

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to bear upon the governments of England and France to prevent recognition.
In view of the prospect of opening diplomatic relations with those governments, and for the purpose of expedit ing that desirable end, President Davis appointed Mr. Mason of Virginia and Mr. Slidell of Louisiana as minis ters to their courts. The gentlemen succeeded in evad ing the blockaders upon our coast, a,nd reached Havana, in Cuba, where they embarked on a British steamer bound for Europe. The vessel containing the ministers was captured by the United States naval forces on the 8th of November, forcibly entered, and the ministers were carried away and confined in a northern prison. The insult thus offered to the flag of Great Britain was made the subject of complaint against the government through Her Majesty's minister at Washington, and a rupture between those governments was expected by many, and ardently wished for by most of our people. But they misunderstood the genius of the prime minister at Wash ington, and the spirit of the government. For the amende was promptly made, Messrs. Mason and Slidell released and forwarded on their mission to Europe, in pursuance to the demands of the English government.
The government of the United States had hitherto, prior to this war, refused to accede to the proposals of Kuropean powers to abolish privateering between civilized nations at war--regarding it as a relic of barbarism, and inconsistent with the present advanced stage of Chris tianity and civilization--and to place it upon the same footing with piracy. And now that President Davis had adopted that among other legitimate modes of warfare, and inasmuch as the Confederates had no maritime com merce, and could not therefore be damaged in case the

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enemy should adopt it, the policy of abolishing it by the code governing belligerent nations became desirable on the part of the United States. It had been a "weapon in their own hands heretofore, and now its keen edge was to be turned against them. But the governments of Europe, inasmuch as it was a point between the dismembered sec tions of the government which had declined to accede to their wishes to abolish it, prudently and sagaciously de clined at this juncture to interpose in the matter. And as the case stood, while we "were subjected to the ravages of invading enemies upon land, the authors of those mis chiefs felt the fangs of a deadly serpent upon the high seas.
If the enemy had confined his depredations in prop erty to that belonging to or in the service of our govern ment, and his war upon persons to those in arms or otherwise in the government service, the moral sensibili ties of the South would have been strongly appealed to to respect private property of the people of the United States whether on sea or land. But it was difficult to see how a merchant's cargo of goods on board an ocean steamer should be held more sacred than a farmer's smoke house or corn-crib in Virginia; or the ship upon which the goods are carried entitled to any more courtesy at the hands of our people than the private residence of noncombatants, their fences, growing crops, stock and poultry, received at the hands of our invaders.
It is one of the evils of war in its most refined sense, and where all the conventionalities of civilized belligerent nations are strictly observed, that the innocent must, to a greater or less extent, suffer with the guilty ; and it should address itself to the Christian and humane senti ments of mankind as one of the strongest reasons why the

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martial disposition of nations should be replaced by a sen timent more in accordance with the teachings of the New Testament; but hope in this direction, which had sprung up under the general spread of biblical knowledge in America, had taken its exit. There was no alternative; the regeneration of the nations in this respect lies through the ordeal of a baptism of the people in each other's blood. When the appetites of the Americans for power, plunder^ and glory shall be satiated on. the one hand ; or the love of justice and freedom be extinct on the other; then, and probably not till then, will they cease to resort to arms to settle their debates.
A great Southern Senator, Mr. Toombs, said in his place, " The last analysis of liberty is the blood of the brave." This liberty of which the Senator spoke is a divinity that has been worshipped under different guises and forms in all ages of the world. Altars have been erected to her in almost every part of the habitable globe, which have smoked with the blood of millions upon millions of vic tims, and still her cormorant appetite is unsatisfied ; her rites and ceremonies are as variegated under different cir cumstances and in different countries and ages as the color and form of the clouds She has an elder and younger sister who have ever remained close by her on either side ; and who each, ever and anon, have passed by her name, and borne her image ; they are despotism and licentious ness. Upon their altars too, have untold millions been offered. It would have been equally true if the Senator had said--" They have their last analysis in the blood of the brave; and brave men when once aroused, provoked and enlisted will fight as well for the one as for the other; and upon abstract as well as concrete ideas of either."
At an early stage of hostilities, the Federals, to hide a

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deeper scheme and more deadly purpose, began to treat fugitive slaves as contraband of war ; and to afford them shelter and protection. They held that inasmuch, as slaves were laborers producing supplies for the South, and thus upholding the so-called rebellion, it was legitimate to de prive us of that support; that argument followed to its logical sequences would, in case such a step should prom ise a more speedy termination and certain success of their enterprise, naturally lead to a general blow at the institu tion of slavery--not by statute, but by the bayonet. Thus this struggle for political independence wound up in one to prevent our enemies from enslaving us, in order to lib erate our slaves. The struggle unfortunately took that direction, and was attended with partial success to the Federals; and they were able to penetrate the interior of the country, and it necessarily entailed great suffering upon the people on account of the failure of bread crops from the deficiency in the labor department ; while the issue appearing to be for and against the institution of African slavery in the eyes of all foreign nations, those who were against slavery sympathized with the Federals; hence, as the leading nations of the "world at that time were opposed to slavery, the conclusion "was that they rather took sides with our enemies, irrespective of the true merits of our quarrel.
At an early stage of hostilities, the scheme of a produce loan was put on foot by the Confederate government, by which agents were sent through the country to appeal to the people to come up and meet the wants of the govern ment, and enable her to negotiate for arms and munitions of war, and such articles as were indispensable, by pledg ing each a given quantity of their produce of corn, wheat, cotton, rice, sugar, syrup, bacon, beef, etc., to be deliv-

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ered by a certain day at certain specified points on the lines of public transportation. To this appeal, thousands made a liberal response and large amounts were sub scribed, for which government securities were to be taken by the people in payment.
One of the chief difficulties under which we labored at that time was the diffuse nature of our military opera tions, rendered necessarily so by the many and far dis tant points at -which, the enemy had seen fit to assail us. It was considered a piece of masterly strategy on the part of the enemy to make demonstrations in every possible direction, and thereby call off and weaken our small forces, and make them a prey to their larger forces.
The people of the Confederacy had manifested a pecu liar sensitiveness where the enemy approached them, and seemed to insist that the government should send forces wherever the enemy made a demonstration. By this means the President was harassed between the desire to concentrate his forces, and the disposition to meet the wants of the people in every direction. Those upon the threatened coast seemed to think the energies of the gov ernment should be mainly directed to the protection of our seaports, while the people more remote thought the cities and sandy plains upon the Atlantic and Gulf coast were of little importance compared with the grain-growing regions of the border States.
While the campaign in Virginia to which we have al luded was in progress during the current year 1861, scenes were enacted and operations conducted in other parts of the Confederacy of deep and absorbing interest. The work of fortifying the cities of Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, New Orleans, and numerous other places had gone bravely on, and the public mind, for a long time

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anxious upon the subject, seemed to rest in the belief that the approaches to these important points were sufficiently guarded and fortified to justify the hope that they would be held against any attack likely to be made upon them.
It seemed to be a matter of the first importance to pre vent the entrance of the enemy into the Mississippi river from above or below; as the occupation by them of that stream would sever the Confederacy and destroy the com munication between the States east and west of it. Hence the strong garrisons that were sent to the forts command ing the river below New Orleans, and the fortifications at different points from Memphis to the neighborhood of the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The dem onstrations of the enemy early in the summer made it necessary to establish a line upon the southern border of Kentucky to repel the advance of the enemy at the sev eral points that were threatened. Major-General Zollikoffer, of Tennessee, with a Confederate force held the command of the southeast part of Kentucky near the Cumberland Mountains. General Albert Sydney Johnston, with his headquarters at Bowling Green in Kentucky, had command of the troops at that point and others thence west to the Mississippi river, where he succeeded BrigadierGeneral S. B. Buckner in command. Major-General Hardee, of Georgia, and Brigadier-General Gideon J. Pillow, of Tennessee, had for several months held commands along the same line west of the river and in the southeast portion of Missouri. The entrance of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers into the State of Tennessee had been provided against by the erection of Forts Henry and Donaldson near the border of Tennessee and Kentucky. The high military character of Gen. Sydney Johnston had given confidence to the public that the farther advance

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from, that region would be effectually guarded, and that if Major-General Buell in command of the Federal forces should attack him, the victory of the Southern troops would be confidently relied on.
On the 7th of November, Brigadier-General Pillow achieved a brilliant success over the Federal forces, at Behnont, west of the Mississippi river, after a desperate conflict, driving them hotly pursued for several miles to their gunboats. In this action Brigadier-General Frank Cheatham, ofNashville, bore a gallant and conspicuous part; and also Bishop, now General, Leonid as Polk, of ^Louisiana.
Upon the invasion of Missouri by the Federal General Lyon, and his capture and dispersion of the organizedState militia, General Jackson tendered to Ex-Governor Sterling Price the chief command of the whole Missouri State forces, with the rank of major-general, which posi tion he accepted ; and by his eminent soldierly qualities and vast personal popularity succeeded in collecting around him a band of determined Missourians and entered upon a series of skilful operations against Lyon which endeared him to the hearts of the Confederate people. Brigadier-General Jeff. Thompson, a native of Virginia, and a bold and skilful pioneer of the West, residing in Mis souri, upon the call for the State troops by Governor Jackson, organized early in the summer of 1861 a brigade of 2,500 men as a separate command with which he., with a sleepless vigilance, annoyed the Federals during the fall months, skirmishing with them almost continually. His engagements at Bloomington, Pattonville, Black Water Station, Big River Bridge, and Frederickstown in October had given the name of Jeff. Thompson an early celebrity in the annals of the war in Missouri and Arkansas, and rendered it a terror to the Federals in that region.

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fy The Federal General Lyon, by force of superior num bers, activity, perseverance and energy, succeeded in driving General Price before him nearly to the south west border of the State, "when he united his forces with those of Gen, Benjamin McCulloch, the partisan leader, whose laurels won in the Mexican war were still green, and pointed to him as a rising star in the revolution. JVFcCulloch's forces consisted of troops from Texas, his adopted State, Arkansas and Louisiana. A severe and sanguinary engagement took place on the 9th of August at Oak Hill near Springfield, west of the Ozark moun tains, in Missouri, in which General McCulloch held the ranking command, and bore himself with a boldness and intrepidity never surpassed in the annals of the war. The superior gallantry and skill of the Southern men were everywhere conspicuous, and resulted in a complete victory over the forced of General Lyon. The announce ment was received with great joy throughout the Con federacy. The beauty of the picture, however, was greatly marred by the fact that the two commanders, Generals Price and McCulloch, fell into a dispute which was made public, about the honors of the day's achieve ments, and the parts respectively borne by the Missourians, and McCulloch's troops.
Brig.-Gen. John S. Williams, a native of Kentucky, re siding at the opening of the war in southern Illinois, being driven out for his Southern sentiments, came to Kentucky, and under authority of the President raised a force of about 1,500 men armed with shot-guns and coun try-rifles to operate against the Federals, and rendezvoused at Prestonsburg. General Nelson, in command of 5,000 Federal troops, approached, and Williams retreated to Piketon? whither Nelson followed. Williams selected a

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strong position at Ivy Creek, where Nelson was disas trously repulsed, and his army disorganized. Williams only lost eight men.
The autumn months were enlivened by an engage ment at Dranesville in northern Virginia; the surprise and capture by night of the Federal garrison on Santa Kosa Island in Florida, and numerous conflicts and skir mishes on different parts of trie extended field of operations.
On the 20th day of October, a sanguinary engagement was followed by a splendid victory for the Confederate arms under the command of General Evans of South Carolina, at Leesburg, near the Potomac river in Virginia. The Federal forces- that had crossed at that point were under the command of Generals Stone and Baker, the latter of whom was killed upon the field. The battle is said to have been conducted with skill upon the part of the Confederate commanders, and with inordinate gal lantry on the part of officers and troops. The retreat of the enemy from the field was, if possible, more disgrace ful than that at Manassas in July before. Discarding arms and everything which could retard their flight, leav ing artillery on the field, and a large number of prisoners in our hands, they crowded down the hill to the river in the most promiscuous and confused masses to escape by their boats across the river, pursued by the Confederates, and mown down at every step, while the well, the sick, wounded and dying \vere crowded into the boats to over flowing, and all in the wildest consternation and dismay. One densely crowded boat sunk in the middle of the stream, and many of the unfortunates were drowned. It adds to the disgrace of the Federals at Leesburg that they fought, and were whipped;, with a force largely superior to that of the Confederates under General Evans. The

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slaughter of Federal troops is described as immense, and their public journals did not attempt to conceal the fact that the defeat was overwhelming and disgraceful.
The first of November was the time fixed by law for the election of a president and vice-president of the Con federate States to be*installed in ^February next, under the permanent constitution, when the provisional govern ment should have expired by its own. limitation. It was evident from the general tone of public journals in the South, and from every source of information, that the great mass of the people retained their confidence in the wisdom and fidelity of President JDavis and Vice-president Stephens,, and wore content to have them elected and placed in power for the next six years, but were averse to agitation and controversy, such as would be likely to flow from opposition in the approaching election. Such opposition could not spring- out of any difference in the principles and aims of the revolution.. No great issues had sprung up, and there seemed to be no grounds for a contest except it should be based upon, a want of confi dence in the administration, or a personal preference for other men. Hence no opposing ticket was offered, and the incumbents were elected by the unanimous vote of the people, so far as they chose to exercise the elective franchise. It cannot be overlooked, however, that there "was an tinorganized element of opposition, which was not only espoused by men of ability, but found expression in numerous severe criticisms in such leading journals as the Richmond JPxaminer and the Charleston Jkfercury. The talents emploj^ed in the conduct of these journals for bade their being treated with contempt, and rendered them a source of real annoyance to the friends of har mony, who believed that the opposition was not founded

FIEST YEAR IN THE FIELD.

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upon the highest motives of patriotism. But of its merits we did not undertake to determine, feeling that time alone could fully enable an impartial public to decide.
The effect of the enemy's blockade was everywhere visible upon the people in all grades and conditions in life in the South ; and in nothing was it more striking than in the dress of ladies, and the curtailing of table luxuries. The display of homespun skirts by ladies of wealth and position had a wonderful effect upon the lovers of style and fashion in the less affluent grades of society. Knitting of socks and sewing upon garments for soldiers became elegant employments in the female circle ; while those who had not servants to work for them, plied their busy hands daily in the manufacture of cloth for their own families, and their absent relatives in the army. The cutting off of the supply of coffee, and consequent sus pension of its rise, and the substitution of teas made from wheat, rye, barley, potatoes, and other articles according to the tastes of the people, was rapidly curing a national disease of the people in the Confederate States; and the effects were everywhere visible in the improved complex ion of female cheeks and in the general diminution of ner vous headaches, after the first effects of the privation sub sided. The use of coffee as a stimulant a.nd sedative, for its pleasurable temporary effects, had produced 1.1 general disease of the nervous constitution, requiring; the applica tion periodically a,ecording to habit to allay the nervous irritability which coffee itself produced ; hence the sus pension of its use was a sore trial generally to females, and most persons of a nervous temperament; but there was scarcely a case occurred under my observation in which the general health was not benefited as soon as the constitution could rally and recuperate from the inju-

-238

OPENING OF HOSTILITIES.

rious effects which coffee, through years of indulgence, had produced.
If the war should have had the effect also to prevent the general use of spirituous liquors and tobacco, we should have been richly repaid in a national point of view for the losses we sustained but these articles being so largely produced within the Confederacy, there was but little ground to hope for this reform. There was ground to hope that the general improvement in the physical con dition of the women in the South, from quitting the use of coffee, and resorting to industrial habits and pursuits, would tell wonderfully upon the mental and physical con stitution of the generation to follow us. Now if the men could be induced or forced to quit the dirty and delete rious use of tobacco, and the brutalizing practice of drunk enness, what a physical, intellectual and moral race would grow up to take the place of the present diseased and de praved set of men and women !
I should be untrue to my record of latent and visible causes and effects to pass in silence the wide-spread con tagion of drunkenness among the officers of the Confed erate army; or to express the apparently well-grounded fact that the well-earned laurels of many a gallant and otherwise promising Confederate, sooner or later faded from their brows under the blossoms of bestializing whis key and brandy.
The first effects of these stimulants are well calculated to mislead the good and true, as well as to accelerate the wicked tendencies of the naturally bad and vicious. They affect the spirits agreeably, and seem to add to the phys ical vitality and improve the digestion and general health; but apace they blunt the moral sensibilities, gradually be numb the physical energies, becloud the intellect, over-

FIRST YEAR IN THE FIELD.

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come the amiable qualities of nature's noblemen, and im part an irascibility to their temper; make steady siege upon the strongest fortress of mankind--their pride of charac ter. And when that is reduced and overcome, the helpless victims of the temporary pleasure of the habitual use of the beverage sink to the level of vagabonds. It was folly to trust that men whose habits were hurrying them down this inclined plane could successfully discipline and command troops. The officers thus addicted were really incapable of the discharge of their important duties, dis gusting and demoralizing to their men, and to the coun try, and a reproach to the cause. And it was a strong draft upon religious faith when we were required to be lieve that a just God "would be propitious to the country while these evils were tolerated by the ruling authorities. There were grounds to hope that this blighting disease that infested the moral atmosphere of the Confederate camp would soon reach its crisis when the axe would be laid to the root. Officers had to cease to be drunken or be displaced if we wished to have a satisfied and disci plined army, or would hope to win battles. The low murmur of subalterns and privates gave an uncertain sound from the line of encampments, and if the evil was not arrested general demoralization must have ensued.
There is an aspect in which war seems to be at radical variance with the teachings of Christianity. It is in referance to the observance of the holy sabbath day. It would seem impracticable in many emergent cases to sus pend operations on that day ; the march of armies, the running of railroad cars, and steamboats under the regu lations of government for transporting mails, troops, and army supplies, and the operation of telegraph lines for the transmission of news, are necessary to a state of war,

240

OPENING OF HOSTILITIES.

and it is not apparent to my mind how the war can be successfully carried on and these practices avoided. But the prevalent custom in the army of making the sabbath a day of review and inspection was certainly reprehensible and shocking to the pious portion of our countrymen, while there seemed to be no reason in a military point of view for that desecration of the Lord's day. The same authority which forbade the crimes of theft and murder, also enjoined the observance of the Christian sabbath
Now if these crimes were constantly practised by the command of the government, it would be vastly more repulsive to the moral sensibilities for the reason that they violated the palpable laws of nature, and the mischiefs flowing from them were immediate and perceivable. But they no more certainly contravene the heavenly command, and we have no authority to support the belief that they would certainly provoke the Divine displeasure, than does the violation of the holy sabbath. Still there were numerous evidences in the history of the expiring year's operations to satisfy our learned clergy, and many of our spiritual minded people, that the Supreme JR.uler of the world had signally interposed in our behalf.
There was a general advance of prices of all articles of apparel and provisions, owing to the growing scarcity in all that we were accustomed to bring from other sections, or from foreign countries, and to the decrease in produc tions and the waste of the army. The temptation to en gage in speculation in these was more than the public virtue could resist, or public odium frown down. The number of those who obtained their consent to de rive personal advantages from the woes and misfortunes of the country, and the wants of the self-sacrificing poor, seemed rather to be on the increase; and the danger was

FIRST YEAR IK THE FIELD.

241

that the great number of heretofore respectable men "who had thus stilled their consciences, and were prepared to barter their country for gain, would continue to increase until this deadly species of treason, not overt, should be. come itself, respectable.
The public confidence seemed firm, that notwithstand ing the temporary scarcity the resources were sufficient to produce the supply within reasonable time, in most ar ticles of primary necessity. The limited number of cotton factories, and the great want of cotton cards in the hands of the people who had, in a great measure, suspended the domestic manufactures, gave grounds to fear that we should be closely pressed in obtaining a supply of cloth ing. The subject of a supply of salt to meet the wants of this country during a, long, continued blockade was one of the most serious that the public mind was called upon to digest during the war. A portion of the salines in Vir ginia were aheady within the lines of the enemy's military operations, while those which were not, were liable to con stant interruption. On the coast, all operations for the manufacture of salt were necessarily subject to be broken up at any time by the enemy's fleets. The reclaiming of the deposits of salt from the beds of smoke houses, where it had settled from the dripping of pork, had aided some in supplying1 this essential article ; while it was hoped that discoveries of salines might be made, and operations pro jected at points where salt could be safely manufactured. Some was imported through the blockade and the supply on hand, by strict economy, was made to extend far be yond the time to which it would hold out with the ordi nary lavish mode of using1 it. It was evident, however, that our people who were determined upon the accom plishment of independence, would live without salt, or

242

OPENING OF HOSTILITIES.

xipon a very small quantity, rather than contemplate the idea of surrendering to the enemy.
The question of subsistence for the families of poor men who were in the public service, and who were desti tute of the necessaries of life, assumed a grave aspect. It was found that private contributions and individual charity, however promising upon the opening of the war, had proven to be an uncertain reliance, and that suffering for wa,nt of food and clothing would follow unless some certain provision was ma.de for their support. It was conceded on all hands that they were entitled to a sup port from the property holders of the country. The hus bands, sons, fathers, or brothers who customarily sup ported them, being now detained from them in the post of exposure and danger, or having died or become dis abled in service, in a struggle for the protection of prop erty, the sentiment was general that the holders of that property ought to see to it that the helpless ones did not want for the necessaries of life ; it was found also that pri vate contributions, even if they could be relied on, operated very unequally upon the holders of property. There were some also who were naturally very liberal and patri otic, and would from charitable impulses give bountifully, while others from natural stinginess or lukewannness in the cause gave but very little, and others nothing a.t all.
In view of this, and fully alive to the necessity of pro viding a support for them, the Legislature of the State of Georgia, and perhaps of other States, empowered the county court of each county to impose a large tax upon the property of the citizens thereof to raise a fund for this purpose. The error of this system was found upon trial to be that the counties having the least property would generally have within their limits the most paupers.

FIRST YEAR IN THE FIELD.

243

Those very rich, 'counties where there were but few fami lies too poor to support themselves were almost exempt from the burden of supporting the poor: while in the populous poor counties the burden on the few small hold ers of property was either unsupportable, or the poor left unprovided for.
Experience demonstrated the necessity of drawing the pauper fund from the public treasury of the State, so that property wherever located was reached, and the poor whose necessities had been brought upon them by the withdrawal of their reliance for a .support to serve in the Confederate army, were partially supported.
One portentous aspect of our affairs seemed to indicate a tendency to alienation between the rich and the poor of the people, and the troops of oar army. The means of supplying the poor in many cases decreased, while the ap plicants for bounty increased, and not unattended in many instances with a spirit of exaction which was not visible at the outset. In other cases the ardor of patriotism and the breadth of charity alike decreased under the growing prospects of realizing high prices from speculators and ex tortioners for their bread and meat. Hence, their grow ing apathy to the idea of lavishing upon the hungry poor around them, notwithstanding the promises made to the departing soldiers,, far away from home, enduring hard ships., privations, and exposure to danger. This evil in creased with the prospective advance of high prices, and with every new levy of troops, which increased the num ber of paupers in almost every neighborhood in the South. Tile reality of supporting other men's families for one, two, or three years, was quite different from that outburst of evanescent charity that flowed into the laps of the poor upon the breaking out of hostilities. The reflex influence

244

OPEKIKG OF HOSTILITIES.

of the discontents in the home circle upon the poor men in the army, after a few more months when they had be come tired of the service, and sought pretexts to complain, was deleterious.
We close this imperfect review of the year 1861, and await with anxiety the now undeveloped changes which the incoming year would make, with the remark that, surveying the whole field of operations, it appeared that the prospect of eventual success was high ; that the ob stacles in the way were not insuperable ; that we had no real cause to despond, that our condition was every way as good as could have been expected ; and that, with the continuation of Divine favor, we must sooner or later be a disenthralled and independent people. It was in the power of our enemies to long harass and perplex us; to lay waste our cities, destroy our fields and industrial re sources, shut us out from communication with the world, crimson many a field with the best blood of our country, and literally clothe the South in mourning for her gallant dead ; but we did not believe it in their power ever to subjugate us; and such was the prevailing sentiment of our people at that time.

r

CHAPTER VII.

DEFENCE OF GEORGIA BY STATE FORCES.

On the 6th of November, 1861, Governor Brown, on the assembling of the Legislature, in his general message, makes the following succinct statement on the subject

of the

DEFENCE OF THE STATE.

"The Act of the last Legislative authorised the Governor to call out ten. thousand volunteers, if necessary, for the defence of the State.
"Early in. the spring [ divided the State, into four sections or brigades in tending, if necessary, to raise one brigade of volunteers in each section, and appointed one major-general and two brigadier-generals with a view to the prompt organization of one division in case of emergency. The position of major-general was tendered to Gen. Henry R. Jackson, who has lately gained a very important victory over a, greatly superior force of the enemy in north western Virginia, who declined it in favor of Col. William II. T. Walker, late of the United States Army and a

wo weeks and the officers sent home to hold their respective commands in readiness. This was the condition of our volunteer organization early iti June when the United States troops crossed the Potomac and invaded the soil of "Virginia, Not knowing how soon a similar invasion of our own soil might be made by a landing of troops upon our coast, I ordered General Phillips to call his whole brigade into a camp of instruction and hold them in

246 DEFENCE OF GEORGIA BY STATE FORCES.
readiness for immediate action should emergencies require it. This order was promptly obeyed by the energetic and efficient officer to whom it was given. General Phillips, assisted by Adjutant-General Wayne and Major Capers, the superintendent of the Georgia Military Institute, pressed for ward the instruction and preparation of the troops with great activity and energy. The troops remained in camp from the llth of June till the 2d of August. They were a noble, patriotic, chivalrous band of Georgians, and I hazard nothing in saj ing, military men being the judges, that no brigade in the Confederate service was composed of better material, or was better trained at that .time for active service in the field. The season having so far advanced that it was not probable that our coast wouJd be invaded before cold weather, T tendered the brigade to President Davis for Confederate service in Virginia. The President refused to accept the tender of the brigade, but asker! for the troops by regiments. Believing1 that a due respect for the rights of the State should have prompted, the President to accept those troops under their State organization., and if any legal obstacle in the way of accepting a brigade existed that it should have been removed by the appointment of the general who had trained the men, and who was their unanimous choice, to continue to command them in active service, I at first refused to disband a State organization, made in conformity to the statute, and tender the troops by regiments; more especially as the President only demanded the two regiments which would have left the three battalions to be disbanded or maintained as battalions through the balance of the season by the State. Finally the president agreed to accept the battalions and regiments, and in view of the pressing necessity for troops in Virginia, I yielded the point, and accepted General Phillips's resignation, and permitted the troops to be mustered into the Confederate service by regiments and battalions.
" About the time these troops left the secretary of war also ordered out of the State the regiment of Regulars under Colonel Williams, and the 2d regiment of volunteers commanded by Colonel Sernmes, both excellent regi ments, well drilled and armed. This left the coast almost entirely defenceJess. By that time I had permitted nearly all the arms of the State to go into the Confederate service, and it has been a very difficult matter to get arms enough to supply the troops since ordered to the coast.
" At the time Fort Pulaski was by an ordinance of our State Convention turned over to the Confederate government the number and size of the guns in tVie fort were very inadequate to its successful defence against a fleet with heavy guns, and, as the secretary of war made no provision for the proper supply of guns or ammunition I deemed it my duty to purchase, with funds from the State treasury, the necessary supply, which was done at a cost of $101,521.4:3. In this estimate is included the freights paid on the supply and a number of heavy, guns sent to other parts of the coast together with. work done on gun carriages, etc. During the months of August and Sep-

DEFENCE OF GEORGIA BY STATE FORCES. 247
tember our climate was considered a sufficient protection of our coast against invasion ; but an attack was reasonably looked for so soon as the advanced stage of the season would render the health of an army on the coast secure. I had petitioned the secretary of war to send a larger force to our coast, prior to the order by which I called out General Phillips's brigade, and had offered to supply promptly any number of troops needed in obedience to a requisi tion from the War I^epartrnent, and had mentioned five thousand as the num ber which I considered necessary. He replied, declining to order so many, and I felt it to be my duty to hold State troops in readiness to meet any con tingency until the period when the climate would be a sufficient protection.
"Early in September I visited the coast and inspected the fortifications and batteries which had been thrown up by Confederate authority. I was fully satisfied that the number of troops upon the coast in the Confederate service was entirely inadequate to its defence, and as no requisition waa made upon me for any increase of the force, I felt it to be my duty to call out State troops and increase the force as soon as possible. It is trne the State was not invaded, bat the danger was considered so imminent as to admit of no further delay and I was of opinion that my action was justified by both the letter and spirit of the constitution of the Confederate States.
" In the early part of September last I appointed Gen. George P. Harrison, of Chatham county, a brigadier-genera), under the Act of the last session of the Legislature, and ordered him to organize a brigade of volunteers armed as far as we had the means with military weapons, and the balance with good country rifles and shot guns, and to throw them into camp of instruc tion near the coast where they could readily be used when needed. General Harrison has pressed forward the organization with his characteristic prompt ness and energy and now has a fine brigade under his command. I have also, within the last few days, appointed Maj. F. W. Capers a brigadier-general and ordered him to take command of the second brigade now about organized.
"When I permitted nearly all the State's guns to go out of the State in the summer, I entertained the hope that such number of the troops with the guns as might be needed would be permitted to return to our coast in case of necessity during the winter. Considering the danger imminent, I lately requested the secretary of war to order back to our coast five regi ments of armed Georgia troops. This request was at the time declined by the secretary, who agreed, however, to supply the Confederate general in command at Savannah with one thousand of the Enfield rifles lately imported.
"As very little expenditure has been made by the Confederate govern ment to place Georgia in a defensive condition, and as the number of Con federate troops upon the coast is not sufficient to meet the necessities of the service, and as the enemy's fleet is now off our coast, I am of opinion that the State will be compelled in. a very great degree to take her own defences

243 DEFENCE OF GEORGIA BY STATE FORCES.
into her own hands, and I therefore recommend such additional legislation as the Genera] Assembly may think necessary for that purpose together with

u oe.

ou we ave o contnue our roops n e e, wc tn

quite probable, during" the winter, an appropriation of less than 83,500,000

will be insufficient to meet the exigencies of the service for the ensuing year.

"It is true the sum asked for is large, but the emergency in which we are

placed and the results which must foJlow our action are such, that we cannot

for a moment stop to count the cost. The only question proper for disciis-

siou now is, how many men and bow much money are necessary to protect

the State and repel the invasion. Other States have voted larger sums than

I have asked. I see by the message of Governor Harris, that the gallant

State of Tennessee has appropriated and expended $5,000,000 as a military

fund within the last six months.

" How the amount of money above demanded is to be raised, is a question

for the serious consideration of the General Assembly. The war tax imposed

by the Confederate government, together with the expenses assumed by dif

ferent counties for supplies needed by their compatiies in the service, will

greatly increase the burdens of taxation. If we add this additional sum to

that to be collected within tlie present year, the burden will be too onerous.

On the other hand, we should not forget that the debt which we now incur,

with the interest, has to be paid by us and our posterity. While we cannot

avoid some increase of the public debt of the State, I think it wise that we

increase it as little as possible, and that we meet a large part of our neces

sary expenditures by taxation.

, reeem e ons at no very distaannt ppeerirood.. In thee managemeennt of pprrivaatee affairs, I have generally noticed that he who is largely indebted, and keeps his property and pays heavy interest rather than -sell property enough to pay the debt and stop the interest, is seldom prosperous; so it is with a State. The revolution has happened in our day ; its burdens belong; to the present generation, and we have no right, by a very large increase of our public debt, to transmit the greater portion of them to generations yet unborn/*
THE TRANSFER OF STATE TROOPS TO THE CONFED ERACY.
The subject of maintaining a separate military force, by the State, sufficient for the defence of her coast in

DEFENCE OE GEORGIA BY STATE FORCES. 249
addition to the large drain upon the population by troops already in the Confederate service, having been much. discussed by the public journals, the General Assembly took the following action on the 16th December, 1861:--
" Resolved, By the G-eneral Assembly of Georgia, that the Governor be, and be is hereby authorized and instructed to tender to the Confederate Government the volunteer forces called into service under the law of I860, or which may hereafter be called into service for the State defence, in com panies, battalions, regiments, brigades or divisions, as may be fouud to be acceptable to the war department of the Confederate States ; Provided, That the Confederate States will receive them for the term of their enlistment and for local defence in this State, under the act of Congress to provide for local defence and special service, approved August 21, 1861; And provided further, That, if the Confederate States shall not accept said troops, in that event the troops shall remain in service as State troops, under the terms of their enlistment; And provided further, That such tender shall be marie, so far as the troops now in the State are concerned, before the 15th day of January next, and before a greater sum than one million of dollars is raised or ex pended as provided for in the 20fch section of the general appropriation bill; And provided further, That none of said troops shal! be transferred to the Confederate service without their full consent, first fairly obtained, by coin panies, if organized as independent companies, by battalions, if organized in independent battalions, or by regiments if organized in regiments.
" Be it further Resolved, That we earnestly recommend the Confederate Government to receive said State forces, should they assent, -with -all their field and general officers, and if there be no law now authorizing such accept ance we respectfully request our. Senators and Representatives to urge the passage of a bill to effect so desirable an object.
"Assented to December 10, 1861."
The following extract from the annual message of Governor Brown, the 6th of November, 1862, contains a full account of the transfer :--
"In compliance with the resolution of the General Assembly passed at its last session, directing me to transfer the State troops to the Confederacy with the consent of the troops, I ordered the question of transfer to be submitted to a fair vote of each organized body of troops, and the majority against the transfer amounted almost to unanimity. Soon after the passage of the Conscription Act, however, which passed after the expiration of the term of enlistment of part of the men, but a short time before the end of

250 DEFENCE OF GEORGIA BY STATE FORCES.
the term of much the larger portion of them, the Secretary of War informed me that all the State troops between IS and 35 years of age must go into the Confederate service. At that time an attack upon the city of Savannah was daily expected, and for the purpose of avoiding conflict and collision with the Confederate authorities in the face of the enemy, I agreed to yield the point, and I immediately tendered the State army to Brigadier-General Lawton, who then commanded the Military District of Georgia, Major General Henry R. Jackson, who commanded the State troops, having- retired from the command to prevent alV embarrassment. General Lawton accepted the tender, and assumed the command of the troops. The claim made by the Secretary of War did not include those under 18 or over 35 years of age, bxit it was thought best to tender the whole together, as the detachment of those between 18 and 35 from each organization would have disorganized the entire force.
" While referring to the subject, I feel it a, duty which I owe to the gal lant officers and brave men who composed the State army to say, that they were, at the time of the transfer, as thoroughly organized, trained and disci plined, as probably any body of troops of equal number on the continent who had not been a much longer time in the field. They had performed without murmur, an almost incredible amount of labor in erecting fortifica tions and field worts necessary to the protection of the city., and had made their position so strong as to deter the enemy, with a force of vastly supe rior numbers, from making an attack. While they regretted that an opportunity did not offer to show their courage and efficiency upon the bat tle-field, they stood, like a bulwark of stoat hearts and strong arms, between the city and the enemy, and by their chivalrous bearing and energetic prep aration, in connection with the smaller number of brave Confederate troops near, saved the city from attack and capture, without bloodshed and carnage.
" It is but justice to Major-General Jackson, that it be remarked, that he had, with untiring energy and consummate ability, pressed forward the prep aration of the defences and the training of the army", and that the people of Georgia owe much of gratitude to him for the safety of the city of Savannah and its present freedom from the tyrannical rule of the enemy. There is not, probabiy, an intelligent, impartial man in the State who does not regret that the services of this distinguished son of Georgia should not have been prop erly appreciated by the Confederate authorities, and that he should not, after the Georgia army was transferred, have been invited by the President to a command equal to -his weJ2 known ability and merit. This was requested by the Executive of this State, which request was presented to the President by her entire delegation in Congress.
" It is also due Brigadier-Generals George P. Harrisoii, F. W. Capers, and W. H. T. Walker, that their names be honorably mentioned for enlightened generalship and efficiency as commanders of their respective brigades. The

RAISING HEVENUE BY THE STATE.

251

Executive of the State, appreciating the merits of these officers, asked for positions for them as commanders in the armies of the Confederacy, but neither of them, so far as I know, has been tendered any command. Tf this might be excused as to Generals Harrison and Capers, 011 the ground that they were not graduates of West Point and old army officers, though one of them has a thorough military education, and the other is known to be a moat valuable, energetic military in an, having the confidence of the whole people of the State, this excuse does not apply in the case of General Walker, who is a son of Georgia, a graduate of West Point and an old soldier, who has shed his blood in }>is country's service on many a battle field. His ability and gallantry are acknowledged by all who admire cool courage and high-toned chivalry. But no one oi" the Georgia generals who had commanded her State army has since been invited to a position, and even this gallant old sol dier is permitted to remain in retirement, while thousands of Georgia troops who entered the service of the Confederacy under requisitions upon the State, and whose rig-ht, under the Constitution, to be commanded by gener als appointed by the State is too clear to admit of doubt, arc thrown under the command of generals appointed from other States, many of whom have had neither the experience in service, nor the distinction which General Walker lias, while confronting the enemies of his country, purchased with blood upon the battle field."

RAISING REVENUE BT THE STATE.
In the annual message of November 6, 1861, tlie Gov ernor made the following recommendation as to the methods of raising revenue :

SALE OF STATE BONJ>S.
" The Act of the last General Assembly of the State which appropriated one million of dollars as a military fund for the year 1861, made provision for raising the money by the sale of sis per cent. State bonds. At tlie time of the passage of the Act our six per cent, bonds were above par in the market and were eagerly sought after by capitalists. Soon after the dissoltition of the United States Government, bonds and stocks of all kinds were greatly depreciated in the market and it became impossible to raise money at par on any securities bearing only six per cent, interest. The Govern ment of the Confederate States fixed the rate of interest on its bonds a-t eight per cent, and persons having money to invest preferred these bonds to the six per cent, bonds of any State. I was consequently unable to raise money on the bonds bearing the rate of interest fixed by the statute without putting them upon the market at a considerable discount. After some negotiation most of the banks of this State agreed, each in proportion to

252

KAISIKG RKVENUE BY THE STATE.

the amount of its capital stock, to advance to the Treasury at seven per cent, such sum us might be necessary to conduct our military operations. This advance was made upon a statement placed upon the Executive Minutes and a copy forwarded to each, by which I agreed to recommend the Legis lature when assembled, to authorize the issue of seven per cent, bonds to each for the sum advanced, payable at the end of twenty years, the interest to be paid semi-ammally and the State to reserve to herself the right, at her option, to redeem the bonds by paying to the holders the principal and inter est due at the end of five years. Upon this agreement, a copy of which is herewith transmitted together with a statement of the sum advanced by each bank, the wants oC the Treasury were relieved and such sums have been advanced from time to time as the necessities of the State required. It is proper that I mention in this connection that the Central Railroad and Banking Company through its able arid patriotic president, the Hon.. R. R. Cuyler, tendered to the State one hundred thousand dollars and took six per cent, bonds in payment before any other bank had acted and at a time when money could not be commanded in the market at that rate. This conduct was alike liberal and patriotic and was followed by agreement on the part: of several other banks, each to take ten per cent, upon its capital stock, to which the six per cent, bonds were issued accordingly. I do not think it right that these last named banks should be permitted to sustain loss on account of their liberality, and I therefore recommend that the sis per cent, bonds issued to each bank iu this State oil account of these sums advanced, be taken up, and that seven per cent, bonds be substituted in their place, and also that seven per cent, bonds be issued to all the other banks for the sums advanced by them in. accordance with the agreement upon which they made their respective advances. This would place all the banks upon an equality and do justice to each of them. The part of the loan which has been taken amounts to $807,500. Of this sum $25,000 of the six per cent, bonds were issued to Sharps Manufacturing- Company of Connecticut, in part pay for carbines purchased from the company, leaving the sum of $842,500 taken by the banks of this State upon which only $306,000 of bonds have issued, the balance having been advanced without the issue of bonds upon the contract above mentioned. While nearly the whole amount of the military appropriation had been expended prior to the end of the fiscal year, the receipts from the State lload and from other sources have been such as to meet the ordinary expenses of the government as well as the extraordinaryappropriations of the last Legislature; also fco pay part of the drafts upon the military fund and to leave in the Treasury at the end of the fiscal yenr a net balance of $324,009.86'. As this sum in the treasury was not appropri ated for military purposes, but is mostly appropriated for other purposes and rmdrawn, I had no right under the constitution to draw upon it, and as the military fund was lately exhausted and the perilous condition of the State required large expenditures and prompt action for the defence of the coast,

RAISING REVENUE BY THE STATE.

253

it became necessary for me to negotiate a further loan with the banks of Savannah to meet the emergency till an appropriation could be made. This I thought better than to convene the Legislature in extra session a very short time previous to the regular session. Under this arrangement I have received from the banks of Savannah through G-. B. Lamar, Esq., whose services have been of great value to the State both in. New York prior to the secession of Georgia from the old Union, and in Savannah since that time, such sums as the service required, for the repayment of which it will be nec essary to provide out of the military fund to be appropriated at the present session- The amount advanced is not yet large, but it will become nec essary to increase It daily till an appropriation is made to meet the heavy expenditures now being incurred to sustain our troops in the field. I earnestly solicit for this subject the early attention of the General Assembly.

TREASURY NOTES.
" It is possible the State might find it difficult to raise by the sale of bonds, the portion of the money above recommended to be raised in that way for the ensuing year. Should it "be found that such is the case, I recommend that the Treasurer of this State be authorized to issue, under the order of the Governor, Treasury notes, similar to those issued by the Treasury Depart ment of the Confederate States ; and that said notes be made receivable in the payment of taxes, or any other debt due the State, or the State Koad.
" And for the purpose of giving these notes credit as currency, let provi sion be made by law, that any person presenting at the Treasury five hun dred, or one thousand dollars of them, shall be entitled to have and receive for Said notes a bond of the State of Georgia,, for the same amount, bearing eight per cent, interest, payable semi-ammally, the principal to be paid at the end of ten years ; with the like privilege tor each additional amount of five hundred or one thousand dollars presented.
" This would pL'ice the notes upon a basis of security that the most cautious could not suspect, and would doubtless enable the State to raise such sums iis her necessities may require. With this security, it is believed that our "banks could not fail to receive the notes on deposit, and that they would be received in payment of debts, and answer all the purposes of currency. As the faith of the State would be pledged for their redemption, uo higher se curity would be asked by her citizens."

In the annual message of November 6; 1862., the Gov ernor makes the following statement in regard to those notes :--
" The Appropriation Bill passed at your last session made it my duty, in case there should isot, at any time, be money in the Treasury to meet any ap-

254

KAISING REVENUE BY THE STATE.

propagation, to raise it "by the sale of State bonds, or by issuing Treasury notes, as I might think best. In each case where I had the discretion, I did not hesitate to decide to issue Treasury notes, bearing no interest, in place of bonds bearing interest; and I have found these notes not only current, but in great demand as an investment. The whole amount of Treasury notes is sued is $2,o20,OrO.
" The notes are payable in specie or eight per cent, bonds, #ix months after a treaty of peace, or when the banks of Augusta and Savannah resume spe cie payments if before that time. These notes have generally been laid away as a safe investment by banks and others into whose hands they have fallen; and it is a rare occurrence to see one in circulation. Should it become nec essary, as it probably will, to extend the issue to meet part of the liabilities of the Treasury for the present fiscal year, I respectfully recommend that no alteration be made in the form of the notes, as there is on hand a very considerable amount of the printed bills that can soon be issued without ex pense, which would be useless in ease of any change in the present form, and it would cost great delay and expense to procure paper and have others pre pared.
tl The only objection insisted upon against the issue of Treasury notes, in place of the sale o bonds to me^t the demands on the Treasury, is, that the issue of a large amount of notes to be circulated as currency, depreciates the value of paper currency in the market. This is unquestionably true, as evi denced by the present state of our currency. 'But it is equally true that enough of paper currency must be issued, in the present condition of tbe country, to meet the demand. Suppose the State needs a milJiou of dollars, and puts her bonds jii the market to raise it, and receives paper currency in payment for them, it is quite evident that the Confederacy, or the bunks, must issue a million to meet this demand, in addition to the issue they would otherwise make for other purposes; and the same depreciation growing out oil a redundancy of paper currency follows, whicJi would happen, were the State to issue a million of dollars in ber own. notes, and thus meet her own demand. The question is not one of the depreciation of the currency by over issues of paper, as the number of dollars in paper currency to be placed upon the market is the same in either case, but it is simply a question, of interest. Shall the State use her own notes, which, pass readily as currency without in terest, and are generally laid away as an investment, or shall she pay interest to a corporation for the privilege of using and circulating its notes, founded upon a less secure basis than her own? In my opinion there is no room for hesitation in making the decision in favor of Treasury notes. The amount of interest saved to the Treasury in one year at seven per cent, upon the is sue of notes already made in place of bonds, is $163,400, To this might have been added the further sum of $170,870, had I been authorized by tbe stat ute to issue and use Treasury notes in place of bonds to meet the Confed erate war tax. This statute was a special one for a special purpose, however,

KAISING- REVENUE BY THE STATE.

255

and confined me to the use of bonds without giving me discretion to issue Treasury notes,"

In the annual message of November 6 ? 1862, the Gov ernor makes the following statement as to the disburse ment of the five million appropriation :

"Of the five millions of dollars, appropriated at your last session for mili tary purposes, only $2,539 290.25 have been drawn from the Treasury during the fiscal year. Of this sum $350,000 has been returned by Lieut.-Col. Jared I. Whitaker, Commissary-General, and $50,000 by Lieut.-Col. Ira B. Foster, Quartermaster-General, and $58,286 by Major L. H. Me In tosh, Chief of Ord nance, for stores in their respective departments, sold to officers under the army regulations, and to the Confederacy after the State troops were trans ferred. The amount of the appropriation which has been used is, therefore, $52,081,004.25. Of this sum $100,000 was expended in payment for arms purchased in England prior to your last session ; and $50,000 for iron to be used in fortifications and upon the gunboat called the ' State of Georgia.' This boat was built under the supervision of Major-General Jackson while in command, and completed after he retired. The balance of the money for its construction was contributed by the cities of Savannah, Augusta, and other corporations, by soldiers, and chiefly by the ladies of this State, who have shown since the commencement of our struggle, on all proper occasions, a liberality and patriotism worthy the most distinguished matrons of the Revolution of 177(5. For support, equipment, pay and transportation of two companies now in service as bridge guards on the State Road, $10,000. This leaves $1,921,000.85, which, together with a special appropriation of 8100,000, was expended upon the Georgia army, and for other contingent military purposes. It will be seen, however, by reference to the reports of the Quartermaster-General and the Chief of Ordnance, that very consider able sums were expended for the purchase of horses, artillery, etc,, which were transferred to the Confederacy with the Georgia army, for which no payment has been made to the State. These sums, with contingent military expenditures, when deducted from the above mentioned sums will leave the whole cost of the Georgia" army of nearly 8,000 men, for nearly six months, including pay, clothing, subsistence, transportation, and every other expense, a little short of $2,000,000."

CHAPTER VIII.
GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA IN RELATION TO THE WAB.
This State is necessarily conspicuous in any full and fair narrative of the achievements of Southern arms during the war with the United States ; and while not feeling sum moned by any charges or implications against the gal lantry and heroism of her officers and soldiers, and not desiring to give them undue or unjust prominence among the forces so nobly representing other States of the Con federacy, where all achieved so much to perpetuate their fame, ample justice is attempted in other parts of our work to the noble sons of Georgia. It is perhaps impos sible to set forth the number of troops the State had in the service. In the belief of its truth I have stated that she sent a larger number in proportion to white popula tion than any State north or south. This fact, if true, is referred to, not to cast the remotest reflection upon any Confederate State. For they all in view of the circum stances surrounding them performed their duty nobly in furnishing troops, and the conduct of their citizen sol diers. But it is a part of the means at command of repelling charges that have been made against the admin istration of the State, to the effect that it hindered and impeded the Confederate government in the prosecution of the war. Such a charge or implication aimed at her Governor, and embracing her people who at the ballot box, at the home precincts, and at the voting places in

GEORGIA IN RELATION TO THE WAR,.

257

the army sustained him, calls for special notice, and such is the purpose of this chapter.
As the sequel will disclose, there was conflict of judg ment between Governor Brown and President Da,vis, as to the method of raising forces in the State for the Confed-^ erate service; some of the troops were organized, the officers commissioned, and the regiments turned over by the State to the Confederacy. The government author ized men to raise regiments, legions, battalions, etc. As piring" men organized companies of infantry, artillery, cavalry, and with other denominations, and were received into the Confederate service. By acts of the Confederate Congress the President received many organizations, and by the enrolling and conscript officers, large numbers of troops who were distributed among the commands of this and other States. Some of the small commands were organized svitli troops from other States.
Iwen during the war the matter of Georgia troops was of such uncertainty of identification., as to their num ber and organizations, that the Governor., acting under the authority of the Legislature, detailed the writer of this treatise to make a roll of Georgia troops in. the Confeder ate service. On arriving at Richmond, the demands on the war department in June, 18G3, were such, in conse quence of army movements at that time, as to render the mission impracticable. I was recalled and, disasters fol lowing rapidly, the matter was delayed and, on account of the downfall of the Confederacy, was never undertaken afterwards.
The regiments of the State organized before and after the Avar began, under the State authority, and turned over to the Confederacy, and those raised in the State by Con federate authority, the numerous battalions and companies

258

GOVERNMENT OF GEOKGIA

aggregated and conscripts raised in the State and sent to commands already in the field, and the troops employed in the State service under the command of the Governor, and used in the common defence, amounted to troops enough for about one hundred average regiments. The State had only a little upwards of 100,000 voters at a full election, and a population of 583,000 whites, and 462,000 blacks at the opening of the war. It is a truth to be noted that the regiments raised and turned over by the Governor, and those organized by Confederate authority in the State, were generally full in numbers, and of the material that compared favorably with the troops of other States. And still more noteworthy is the fact which is beyond dispute, that Georgia remained nearly to the last "within Confed erate lines, and her soldiers did not in large numbers retire to their homes, and that in the main her regiments "were kept fuller and better recruited than those from some of the other States. It would be untrue to assume that there were not Georgia stragglers and deserters, as there were from all the States, in large numbers toward the close of the war, when the morale of the army was affected by the conquests and advances of the Union forces, the defeats and disasters of ours, and the generally failing fortunes of the Confederacy and loss of the grounds of hope for final success, and the alienation of the feelings of the people by the course of the Confederate Govern ment and her authorities, civil and military. But it is true, in fact, that a larger proportion of her troops re mained at the front, and in line, than from several other States, if not all of them.
It is not true, in fact, that the civil administration of this State obstructed the Confederacy or hindered its plans and enterprises, or its success, by any lack or with-

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259

holding of her quota of the means of war, either in sol diers, quartermaster and commissariat stores, stock, pro visions, clothing, medical aid, fighting men, or ability in military officers, or in the civil departments of the Con federate government.
If it were, on the other hand, asserted that the ruling powers of the Confederacy, in the civil department, did not obstruct, hinder, delay, and finally defeat the grand purposes of the revolution, and necessitate the downfall of the Confederacy, in part, by the measures and policy wherein President Davis differed in judgment from Gov ernor Brown, and about which they "had controversy dur ing the war, it would be to ask observing and thinking people to overlook and disregard the direct relation be tween cause and effect--the alienation of the people in part from the government; the abatement of their ardor in the cause of Southern independence by the manifest discriminations and injustice of the Confederate govern ment, and its apparent disregard of the principles of con stitutional law, and of equality of rights--for the love of which they had gone into the revolution.
On the other hand, with the advantages of a full retro spect, and a better knowledge of our own and the resources of the government at war with us, and the feelings and influences of foreign nations, it would be speculative to argue that even if the views and policy of Governor Brown had been adopted and carried out by Mr. Davis, we should have achieved independence--as many of the most dis cerning people believe. Hence, we address ourself to the task of faithfully and fairly presenting the facts and truths of the matter between them.
President Davis and Governor Brown had been lifelong Jeffersonian Democrats, and therefore State rights men.

260

GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

They had been, in all the controversies between national and local parties, growing out of the subject of slavery, ardent pro-slavery and southern rights Democrats ; and both favored the measures and policy on the part of their respective parties and States which led to withdrawal, and the organization of the Confederate government, and which invited or provoked the war, as the Federals under stood the question; and both carried all their talents, moral courage, energy and patriotism into the contest. After the steps had been taken, and war had resulted, both saw and comprehended its magnitude, its destructive power, and the dangers to which the South was exposed j and both realized that their own, and the fortunes and happiness of their people, depended upon the success of the revolution. One was President of the Confederate States ; the other, Governor of Georgia--a very important member of the new union, in geographical position, re sources in men and money, and in the morale of the gov ernment resulting from the vast influence of her public men over the people of the Soiith. They were men of strong mind--self-confident and self-reliant, men of strong and decided convictions, and settled opinions after inves tigation ; and both were executive in talents, and decidedly so in disposition ; with this difference between Brown and I) avis, and between him and all the public men of the South--his mind acted with more rapidity and precision, and he never grew tired" or fagged ; and while he never lacked for expedients, and his mind was ever fruitful of plans, he never adhered to or followed them after their failure was manifest j but like Davis, nntil convinced of mistake or error, he adhered firmly to his opinions. They are alike endowed with firmness by nature, which has been largely cultivated in practice.

IK RELATION TO THE WAR.

261

They differed in opinion, and therefore in practice, as to the matters publicly controverted between them; and co-operated wherein they agreed, both, having the same general purpose and aim--the political independence of the Southern States, and the establishment of the new Con federacy. It cannot be shown that in any matter touch ing the war, that either offered opposition to the other, except in the vital and important matters wherein they differed in judgment; or, on the part of Governor Brown, that he ever refused or neglected to co-operate with the President, heartily; and aid in every way in his power, in any and all matters wherein they agreed ; on the contrary, he was in the constant habit, in public and private, to friends and foes of the President, of vindicating and de fending his policy and action, wherein he agreed with him.
The controversy was based on differences of opinion on important principles, and on the part of Governor Brown was made entirely public through the press of the South. He stood on the correctness of his judgment; acted upon the conclusions then drawn, as did the President; and each must abide the positions then chosen, in the calm judg ment of those who come after them.
The matters do not rest in vague human memory, but in records that time has not changed.
Before presenting these controversies, we recnr to the action of Governor Brown at home, and of the State un der his lead and advice.
As seen heretofore, there was conflict between the Gov ernor and the State Legislature on numerous 'matters of State policy relating to the civil administration, from the time he came into office up to the time when war became imminent. Then the spirit of the Governor was the

262

GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

spirit of the great people who leaped into solid column under his lead, and sustained his action and seconded his plans, in full confidence of his ability and wisdom as well as patriotic devotion to their rights and happiness.
Under his advice, the General Assembly as before stated, upon the call of a State convention and before the State seceded, appropriated $1,000,000, and placed the same at his disposal as a military fund ; and when that body called a convention to be elected by the people to determine what should be the course of the State, in view of the triumph of the Republican party in the election of Mr. Lincoln, the public confidence in Brown was so strong and general that his opinions had, perhaps, more potency over the Southern mind than any of our leaders. Men of the Legislature, not before in sympathy with the Governor, united with his ardent admirers and friends in calling1 out his opinions of the situation, and his counsel and advice to the people.
His letter in response, written with great zeal as well as masterly ability, was extensively published throughout the South, and exercised a very powerful influence on the people of all the slaveholding States.
In the session of November, 1861, when the war had progressed a few months, tinder his recommendation $100,000 were placed at his disposal for State troops, and $5,000,000 appropriated as a military fund for the public defence.
In reply to all possible charges or implications of a want of co-operation and support on the part of Georgia, I make the following extract from the annual message of Gov ernor Brown, of 6th November, 1861; showing his ex traordinary promptness and energy in the first half-year of the Avar :--

IN RELATION TO THE WAB.

263

" The Secretary of War has frequently made requisition upon me as the Governor of this State for troops ; these I. promptly furnished. Thirty regiments and three battalions of State troops have gone into the service of the Confederacy. Of this number twenty-one regiments and three battalions have been armed, accoutred, and equipped by the State. "We now have ac cepted and nearly all in the field of Sfate troops, not in Confederate service, seven regiments and three battalions, which, with the help of the country arms in use, are being- fully armed, equipped, and accoutred by the State. We also have in service from Georgia ten regiments, which have been ac cepted by the President independent of State authority, making thirty-seven regiments and sis battalions of State troops, and ten regiments of independ ent or Confederate troops. Counting two battalions as a regiment, Geor gia has therefore in service fifty regiments, forty of-State troops and ten independent. Including a few country arms, she has armed, accoutred, and equipped thirty of these regiments."

And, as will appear, requisitions made after that time were promptly responded to, and more than filled.
Under his recommendation the Legislature assumed the payment of Georgia's part of the Confederate war tax, and provided for raising and paying the same by the State, thus keeping the vexatious and demoralizing tax gatherer of the Confederacy from the doors of the people then fully united and intent on the public defence. To meet and remedy a most fearful evil in the rear of the armies, acting under his advice the Legislature took the lead of all the States by making large appropriations for the relief and support of indigent families o Georgia soldiers in the field ; and for the manufacture of salt for the people, then apparently about to suffer generally for its want, 011 account of Federal blockade ; and for the aid and relief of our soldiers in the hospitals of the armies ; and for the manufacture and distribution of cotton cards among the women of the State to enable them to supply clothing at home, and for their sons, husbands, and broth ers in the service ; for the manufacture of shoes for the barefooted troops., and the supply of blankets and medi-

264

GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

cine, and other necessaries to sustain them in the struggle ; and for the manufacture of arms and ammunition, then a matter of the most critical and pressing importance to the Confederacy. We had fighting men in redundancy com pared with the lack of arms.
Brown was wiser and more sagacious, and therefore a stronger stay and support to the Confederacy than the other Southern governors, in adopting the policy of reserv ing the power and control of the State government, and the means of preserving order and executing the laws of the State, as well as other public emergencies that might arise requiring prompt action to repel invasion from the S#ate. The Legislature, responding to his advice and rec^Ommendations, placed State troops and arms at -his dis/posal and the militia not engaged in Confederate service, which he organized in addition to the regiments and battal ions of State troops in active duty under his command, and upon the pay of the State.
By this policy he was enabled to keep up the morale of the State, preserve the respect and confidence of the peo ple at home and her soldiers in the field, to maintain the control of the white over the black race, and keep the latter in the fields to produce provision-supplies in lieu of the white men who were bearing arms. He was thus able to exercise the power and influence necessary to meet and promptly respond to every requisition on this State for the Confederate service in addition to the men in arms in State service, aiding in the common cause and enterprise of repelling the enemy and guarding the ap proaches to our common country.
While he protested against the conscript acts and pol icy, he did not oppose the enrolment of private soldiers of the militia which did not break up its organization;

IK RELATION TO THE WAR.

265

but refused to allow the officers enrolled and ordered away; refused to allow the State organization to be broken up by conscripting her civil officers, as was done in other States. He refused to yield the power of the State of which he was Executive, for enforcing peace and tranquillity at home, and for responding to the calls of the Confederacy, lawfully .made upon her; and for this lie was censured--censured for a policy which, firmly as well as wisely adhered to. rendered this State more efficient to the last in upholding the Confederacy* In his first annual message, after hostilities began, and when the issue of battle had been accepted on both sides and was fiercely maintained by Federals and Confederates, he concluded his elaborate review of the situation as follows:--

"From the foregoing- reflections, it naturally follows, that our whole social system is one of perfect homogeneity of interest, where every class of society is interested in sustaining the interest of every other class. We have all the harmonious elements necessary to the perpetuity of that republican and re ligious liberty bequeathed to us by our fathers ; with none of the distracting and conflicting elements which must destroy both in the Northern States, and which have already precipitated the country into a bloody revolution, a id a8 t' -
tempted to hurl to the ground the fairest structure ever dedicated to 1 ber'ty
on the face of the globe. To sustain this priceless heritage is the li rhest earthly duty of the Christian and the patriot. Kuthless and bloody ids have been laid upon it. To wrest it from them may cost hundreds of llions

iquered, our property is confiscated, and we and our childrt
Northern avarice and Northern insolence. Sooner than submit to this, I u e the last doollarr I could rraaisee,, and wTould
ervently pray, like Samson of old, that God would give me strength to lay oo ld upon the ppiallarrss of the eedcifiece,, and would eennaablee me wwhiele beenndningg ww ith its weiighhtt, to diiee a glorrious death beneath the crumbling ruins of that Tem ple of Southern freedom which has so long attracted the world by the splen
"

2G6

GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

And such was the ring of metal from his pen and tongue in public and private, to the close of the struggle. It abounds in all his messages and State papers, and is reflected in all his official action through the entire war.
I have said his mind never tired, and his energies never fagged; it is literally true that he was a man of unre mitting toil, day and night, barely taking 'time for refresh ment and sleep. And nothing in his power or in the range of his public duties was allowed to be neglected or delayed.
He pressed upon the Legislature at every meeting the claims of the Confederacy; and constantly on the Confed erate authorities, high and low, the claims of Georgia and the rights of her soldiers and people.
It is fresh in the memory of the writer, impressed there by persistent and unremitting toil in his department,that no claim, or appeal, or request to him, was allowed to be overlooked or neglected. The sick and wounded in the distant hospitals, the illiterate and poor in the remotest parts of the State, and often of other States, sent their doleful complaints by thousands. They all liad to be read and promptly and satisfactorily answered, as well as all letters from officials and influential people. He performed immense quantities of the reading and the labor of writ ing--in the midst of which I came then to the conclusion, which must have been erroneous, that he had the faculty of giving minute and comprehensive attention to two subjects precisely at the same moment of time. It arose from having frequently applied to him at his table with letters on new subjects--read them and asked for instruc tions when he was engaged in reading letters or actually writing--and receiving immediate directions^ showing

IN RELATION TO THK WAK.

267

that he had minutely noticed and comprehended every point in what had been read to him.
The people and the soldiers, and especially their fam ilies at home, loved and almost "worshipped " Joe Brown,'* as he was called, while the Confederate authorities clam ored for the sripreme control, and the emasculation of the power and influence by which he was enabled to render them the greatest and most valuable aid and support.
And while he differed in judgment from President Davis and his Cabinet and boldly made known his opin ions, he never relaxed his energies, or abated his zeal, or changed his purposes of political independence for the Confederacy, and never showed the white feather or the slightest signs of yielding to the common foe as long as the Confederate Government had an army or civil organ ization or a purpose and aim to protract the struggle.
And when the contest was ended and the revolution had proved to be a stupendous failure, he exercised, as we shall see in the sequel, the same bold and fearless mind and judgment in advance of his own people, indicating the wisest and best course for a conquered people. But it was by far easier to lead a patriotic and exasperated people into war and guide their counsels amid its waste and destruction than it proved to be to calm the passions of a depleted, impoverished, subjugated, insulted, and op pressed constituency "who had passed under the yoke and for whom he no longer had the power to implead or en force respect and protection.
We recur to the matters of controversy between the Confederate President and the Governor of Georgia.
The public policy of the President and Cabinet, and of the Congress, is set forth in the following extract from the annual message of Governor Brown, in which his ob-

268

GOVERNMENT O~F GEORGIA

jections, and the reasons therefor, are stated in the matter
of raising and organizing troops for the Confederate
armies :--
"The Constitution formed by ttie Convention, and since adopted by each of the eleven Confederate States, is the old Constitution of the United States amended and improved in such particulars as the experience of three quarters of a century had shown to be necessary. Under this Constitution the new government of the Confederate States is now in successful operation and is maintaining itself with great ability botii in the Cabinet and in the field. The action of our Congress has "been generally characterized by pru dence, wisdom and forethought. While I take imich pleasure in making this statement and in yielding to the new government my hearty and cordial support, the candor, which I would exercise towards a friend, compels me to say, that in my judgment, two important acts passed by our Congress are hard to reconcile with the plain letter and spirit of the Constitution.
"The 10th item of the 8th section of the 1st article of the Constitution of the Confederate States is in these words: 'Congress shall have power' 'to provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for govern ing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the Confederate States, reserving to tlie States respectively tJie appointment of the <officers and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.' The first section of the act of the Congress of the Confederate States, approved May 8, 1861, authorizes the President to accept the services of volunteers who may offer their services without regard to the place of enlistment. The second section of the act is in these words :--
" ' That the volunteers so offering their services may be accepted by the President in companies to be organized by him into squadrons, battalions, or. regiments. The President shall appoint all field and staff" officers, but the company officers shall be elected by the men composing the company; and if accepted, the officers so elected .shall be commissioned by Hie President.'
" The first section of the act approved May 11, 1861, is in these words:-- " * That the President be authorized to receive into service such companies, battalions, or regiments, either mounted or on foot, as may tender themselves and he may require, without the delay of a formal call upon the respective States, to serve for such term as he raay prescribe.* " Arid part of the third section of said act is in these -words :-- " ' The President shall be authorized to commission all officers entitled to com missions of such volunteer forces as may "be received under the provisions of this act.' " The language of our Constitution is the same that is used in. the Constitu tion of the United States, and it is believed that the term militia, as there used when applied to.troops, was always understood to be in contradistinc-

IK KELATION TO THE WAU.

269

761' to

listed and its officers are appointed by the government under wliose authority jt is raised. In this case there is no restraint upon tlie power of Congress, and it may therefore confer npon the President the power to appoint all the officers. In the case of the militia, which term includes volunteers and other military forces not embraced in the regular army, the same unrestrained power is not granted. While the States have delegated to Congress the power of organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and of governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the Confederacy, they have expressly reserved to themselves the appointment of the officers, and have therefore expressly denied to Congress the right to confer that power on the President or any other person. Notwithstanding the express reservation by the States of this power, the acts above referred to, authorise the President to accept the volunteer militia of the States independently of State authority and to commission every officer of a regiment from a third lieutenant to a . colonel. This act, by vesting in the President the power of appointing the officers of the militia, which power the States have carefully and expressly reserved to themselves, enables him to control, independent of State author ity the whole consolidated military force of the Confederacy, including the militia as well as the regulars. It' this practice is acquiesced in, the Confed erate government, which has the control of the purse with the power to tax the people of the States to any extent at its pleasure, also acquires the supreme control of the military force of the States, and with both the sword and the purse in its own hands may become the uncontrollable master instead of the useful servant ot the States.
" I am not aware of any case in which the government of the United States prior to its disruption ever claimed or exercised the power to accept volunteer troops, commission their officers and order them into service, with out consulting the Executive authority of the State from which they were received. The idea does not seem ever to have occurred to President Lin coln, so long as he held himself hound by any constitutional restraints, that he had any power to accept troops from the bolder States to assist in coercing us into obedience without the prior consent of the Executives of those States. Hence he made his call upon them for troops and met a repulse that turned the tide of popular sentiment in our favor in most of-those States and redounded greatly to the salvation of the South. During1 the \var of 1812, when Massachusetts refused to send her troops out of the State, the plea of necesai'y might have been set up by Mr. Madisou as a justification to some extent for such an encroachment, but neither lie, who had partici pated so largely in the formation of the Constitution, nor the Congress in that day seemed to have felt justified even by necessity in adopting any such measure. In the present instance, the plea of necessity could not be set up, as it will not be pretended that the Executive of any State in the Coiifeder-

270

GOVERNMENT OE GEORGIA

acy had refused to respond promptly to each and every call made upon him

for troops. Even now, I believe it may be truly said, that the number re

quired in each and every case of each and every Executive has been promptly

furnished.

"These acts have also been very inconvenient in practice.

^K

-*

a-

#

*

*

*

*

" On several occasions, after I have put companies under orders for the pur

pose of filling requisitions made upon me, I have learned that these compa

nies had previously left the State without my knowledge, which caused delay

growing out of the necessity of ordering in other companies to fill their places.

So long as there are two recognized military heads in the State, each having

the power to order out the militia without informing the other of the compa

nies ordered by him, conflict and confusion must be the inevitable result.

Again, as these independent regiments receive their commissions from the

President, and leave the State without official notice to the Executive, there

is no record in Georgia wliich gives the names of the officers or privates or

shows that they are in service from the State. The only knowledge which

the Executive has of their being in service is such as he derives from the

newspapers or other channels of information common to any private citizen

of the State.

"But I fear that these acts may, in the end, entail upon us or our posterity

a greater misfortune than the mere practical confusion and inconvenience

growing out of them. As T have before remarked, thoy give to the President

the control of the militia of the States and the appointment of the officers to

command them, without the consent of the States. This is an imperial

power, which in the hands of an able, fearless popular leader, if backed by a

subservient Congress in the exercise of its taxing power, would enable him

to trample under foot all restraints and make his will the supreme law of the

land. It may be said in reply to this, that the acts only give the President

the power to accept the services of such of the mili tia of the States as volun -

teer to serve him. This is true. But \ve cannot shut our eyes to the fact,

that in times of high political excitement, when the people are divided into

parties, a fearless favorite leader having this power, and in possession of all

the public arms, munitions of war, forts, arsenals, dockyards, &c., belonging

to the government, might be able to rally around him such force as would

give him a fearful advantage over those who might attempt to prevent the

accomplishment of his designs. Such is my confidence in the present able

Executive of the Confederate States, and so thoroughly am I convinced of

his lofty patriotism and his purity of purpose, that 1 entertain but little fear

that he would abuse even absolute power or subvert the liberties of his coun

try for his own personal aggrandizement. This is no reason, however, why I

should consent to see absolute power placed in his hands. While I might

not fear him as a dictator, I would never consent that he be made dictator.

His term of office is limited by the Constitution and must expire with his

RELATION TO THE WAU. new term at the end of six years. His im

271 future

The Governor also differed from the Confederate Pres ident on the subject of the right of Georgia troops to elect officers. His views and those of the government are well stated in the following extract from the annual message of November 5? 1863 :--
" In this connection. I earnestly invite the attention of the General Assem bly to the correspondence (copies of which are herewith forwarded) between the Secretary of War and myself in reference to the right of Georgia's vol unteer militia in the military service of the Confederacy to elect their own officer,1*. And it is proper that I here remark that since the Correspondence was ended, even the right of the home guards to elect to fill vacancies is also denied, ami the power of appointing the company officers as well as tho field officers Is claimed by the President.
" The Constitution gives Congress power to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the Confederate States, reserving to the States respect ively the appointment of the officers. The right of the State to appoint the of ficers to command her militia or any part thereof, when employed in the ser vice of the Confederate States, is not left to inference, but is reserved in plain, simple language, which admits of no two constructions. The State, by her constitution and laws, has provided how she will make these appointments. All militia officers are to be elected by the people subject to do military duty under them, and the officers of the volunteer militia are to be elected by the members of the volunteer organization, to bo commanded by the officers when elected, and all vacancies are to be filled in the same way. In a word, the State appoints those who are elected by tlie persons to be commanded.
" If the militia of Georgia, or any part thereof; is now employed in the ser vice of the Confederate States, no one can question the right of the State, as reserved in the Confederate constitution, to appoint the officers to command

GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA.
is equally unquestionable. "By the militia of a State, I understand the frame rs of the constitution to
have meant the arms-bearing people of the State. That they intended to use the term in this sense is evident from the fact that they speak ol the militia as in existence at the time they are making the constitution, and confer power upon Congress, not to create a new militia, nor to organize that al ready in existence, but to provide for organizing the militia. In other words, they gave Congress power to provide- for forming into militia organizations the arms-bearing people of the respective States. Had the constitution given Congress power to organize the militia without any qualifying: words? would have had power to appoint officers to command them, or to the President to appoint them, as tho militia cannot be orga ficrs. The language used \vas well weighed and carefully { was given to Congress to provide for organizing that already in existence with out sufficient organization--the militia or arms-bearing people of the States. "When Congress has provided for the organization, and the States have or ganized the militia, Congress may authorize the President to employ them, in the service of the Confederate States, but, in that case, the States expressly reserve to themselves the riirht to appoint the officers to command them, and Congress caimot, without usurpation, exercise that power or confer it upon the President.
" The President has made repeated calls upon this State for organized bodies oJ! her troops for Confederate service, and his requisitions have invari ably been lilled by the tender of militia organized and officered by the State, and they have been accepted by him with their officers as organized. Iii addi tion to this, the conscript act has been passed, which has made all persons be tween 1.8 and 45, (except those exempted by the act,) subject by compulsion to "--- r --1 '--" -- -- :-- This act has been executed in G- ---- : - v " --------
id them, her rig-lit to appoint a single officer to fill a single va single company, battalion or regiment, is now denied; and it is cla-i ---_ _.__ they arc all in future to be appointed, not by the State, but by the President,
given for this extraordinary pretension is, that it will

IX RELATION TO THE WAR.

273

service to elect those who shall
competent to elect to fill vacancie
in the military fluid, and intimate acrpui
make them le^-s competent to judge of the qualifications of tho.se who aspire to command'.' The simple statement o the proposition is a sufficient expose of its fallacy. At the organization of our regiments, the men elected officers on short acquaintance, as but little time was allowed them ; and doubtless made some mistakes, putting in men loss competent than some others Jeft out. They haw since seen them tried in service, and now know who is bast qualified. But when a vacancy occurs, they are now to be confined to those who were first elected to lower positions, to fill the higher positions, to which they never chose them. And if an officer who claims promotion i^ set aside for incompeteiiey by an examining; board, the next izj rank may step for ward and claim the place, atul is held to be entitled to it over the beat man in the regiment if he is a private, though he may be the choice of every mail in the command. It is only the lowest commissioned officer in the company who is taken from the ranks; and if the best and most competent man (ailed to get a commission at the first election, he cannot now aspire- from the ranks to a higher position than the lowest lieutenancy. This policy of fill ing all vacancies by promotion not only disregards the constitutional right a of the States, but it does the grossest injustice to those who Mre often the most deserving of promotion, and denies to the men the valuable right of selecting- their own rulers.
" If it is said the President may go out of the regular line of promotion, and reward merit in the ranks, it may be truly replied that this is seldom done; and that the men cannot look to their companions in arms, but can look only to the President for promotion. This not only concentrates al] power in iiis h^nids, but subjects every man's claims to his favoritism, prejudice, or caprice; and destroys independence of thought and of action by compelling all to depend for promotion upon their capacity to flatter or their ability to please a single individual, Georgia's troops have done their duty nobly in the field, and they have a right to look to the government of their State for the protection of their rights. Many of them now claim this pro tection. Shall they have it?
" I recommend that this General Assembly pass a joint resolution declara tory of the reserved rights of the State, and of the constitutional right of election by her troops, and demanding of the Confederate Government the recognition of this right."

Next to the conscription l.iws and the provision for exempting slaveholders, perhaps nothing done by the Congress of the Confederacy had so damaging' effect as the law allowing

274

GOVERKMENT OF GEOKGIA

SUBSTITUTES IN THE ARMY.
Governor Brown's opposition to that law, and the prac tice of government and army officers, is strongly set forth in his message to the Legislature, as follows:

"That portion of the conscript act which authorizes those within conscript age to employ substitutes, has, in my opinion, been productive of the most unfortunate results. If conscription is right, or if it is to be acquiesced in as a matter of necessity, it Is certainly just that it act upon all alike, whether rich or poor. With the substitution principle in the act, its effect has been to compel the poorer class, -who have no money with which to employ substi tutes, to enter the army, no matter what may be the condition of their fami lies at home, while the rich, who have money with which to employ substitutes, have often escaped compulsory service. This is not just aa between man and man. While I trust I have shown that the poorest man in the Confederacy has such interest at stake as should stimulate him to en dure any amount of hardship or danger for the success of our cause, it can not be denied that the wealthy are under as great obligation to do service, as they have, in addition to the rights and liberties of themselves and their children, a large amount of property to protect. If every wealthy man would do his duty, and share his part of the dangers of the war, but few complaints would be heard from the poor. But if the money of the rich is to contimie to secure him from the hardships, privations, and dangers, to which the poor are exposed, discontent, and more or less demoralization in the army must be the inevitable result.
"He who has paid two or three thousand dollars for his substitute has often made it back in a single month, by speculation, and it has not unfrequently happened that the families of those in service, at eleven dol lars per month, have been the most unfortunate victims of his speculation and extortion.
"A very large number of stout, able-bodied yonng men, between 18 and 45 years of age, are now out of the army, and in their places the gov ernment has accepted old men over 45, who have, in most cases, been unable to undergo long marches, privation, and fatigue. Thousands of these have sunk by the way, either into the hospitals or into the grave- It is also . understood that much the larger number of deserters and stragglers from the army have been substitutes who have entered it for hire, and, after receiving the stipulated price, have sought the first opportunity to escape, which thev have in some instances been permitted to do, with the acquiescence and en couragement of officers who have been their partners in guilty speculation. Thus the same individual has been accepted as a substitute for each of sev eral able-bodied young men, who have been left at home to seek for gain and

IN RELATION TO THE WAR.

275

enjoy comfort, while our enemies have gained advantages on account of the weakness of our armies.
" If we expect to be successful in our struggle, the law must be so changed as to place in service the tens of thousands of young men who are MOW afc home. This would reinforce our armies, so as to enable us to drive back the enemy upon every part of our borders. After this change in the law the government could provide for the protection of the most important interests at home, by making proper details of such persons as are indis pensably necessary. This would be much better than the extension of the cotrscription act up to 50 or 55, as it would bring into the field young men able to endure service, in place of old men who must soon fail when exposed to

by it

,

the contract, which it is not in the power of the Government to divest. L,e t

us examine this for a moment. I purchase a lot of land from the State of

Georgia, and pay her one thousand dollars for it, and she conveys it to me

by grant under her great seal. The contract is as solemn, and binding-, as the

Government can make it. My fee simple title is vested and complete. But

while I have the grant in my pocket and the State has my money in her

treasury, it is discovered that public necessity requires the State to repossess

herself of the land ; I refuse to sell to her ; she may pay me just compensation,

and take the land without my consent, and she violates no fundamental princi

ple, as all our private rights must yield to the public good, and if we are in j ured

we can only require just compensation for the injury.

" Again, suppose I have labored hard and made upon my land a surplus of

provisions, which are my own right and property, and I refuse to sell them to

She Government, when the army is in need of them; it may t;ike them with

out my consent and pay me just compensation, and I have been deprived of

none of my constitutional rights.

" The right of a person who has employed a substitute, to be exempt

from military service, can certainly stand upon no higher ground. The Gov

ernment has extended to such persons the privilege of exemption upon the

employment of a proper substitute, but if the public safety requires it, the

Government certain^ has as much right to revoke this privilege as it has to

pensation for it, the Government would have the right to .----.,, --,, ,,._^ Ui_ tute, as well as the principal, in service, as the substitute has been paid by

276 GOVERNMENT IN BELA.TION TO THE WAB.
the principal for the service, and the principal has been compensated for the damage done him by ordering him into service. It would be competent, however, in estimating the damages in such case, to take into the account, the interest the principal has in the success of our cause, and the establish ment of our independence, as necessary to the perpetuity of his liberties, and the security o all his rights. It would also be competent to inquire whether he has indeed suffered any pecuniary loss. If he has paid three thousand dollars for a substitute, and has been kept out of the army for that sum for one year, and during that time he has made ten thousand dollars more, by speculation, or otherwise, than he would have made had he been in the army at eleven dollars per month, the actual amount of compensation due from the Government to him might be very small indeed, if anything.
" Believing that the public necessity requires it, and entertaining no doubt that Congress possesses the power to remedy the evil, without violating vested rights, I respectfully recommend the passage of a joint resolution by this General Assembly, requesting Congress to repeal that part of the conscript act which authorizes the employment of substitutes, and, as conscription is the present policy of the Government, to require all persons able to do mili tary duty, who have substitutes in service, to enter the military service of the Confederacy with the least possible delay, and to provide some just rule of compensation to those who may be injured by the eftaetnient of such a law. I also recommend that said resolution instruct our Senators, and re quest our Representatives in Congress, to vote for and urge the passage of this measure at tbe earliest possible day."

CHAPTER IX.
GOVERNOR BROWN* AND THE CONFEDERATE MILITARY.
Governor Brown took strong and decided ground against the practices of the Confederate military of indis criminate seizure and impressment of private property, as follows:--
IMPRESSMENT OF PRIVATE PROPERTY.
" It is also my duty to call your attention to another matter considered by the people of this State a subject of grievance.. The power is now claimed by almost every military commander to impress the private property of the citi zen at his pleasure, without any express order from the Secretary of War for that purpose; and in many cases without the payment of any compensation. --the officer, who is in some cases only a captain or lieutenant, giving a certificate that the property has been taken, for public use; which seizure, after long delay, may, or may not, be recognized by the Government; as it may determine that the officer had, or had not, competent authority to make it.
"I am aware that the Constitution confers the power upon the Confederate Government to take private property for public use, paying therefor just com pensation; and I have no doubt that every true and loyal citizen would cheerfully acquiesce in the exercise of this power, by the properly authorized and responsible agents of the Government, at all times when the public ne cessities might require it. But I deny that every subaltern in uniform who passes through the country has the right to appropriate what he pleases of the property of the citizen without being able to show the authority of the Government for the exercise of this high prerogative. As our people are not aware of their proper remedies for the redress of the grievances hereinbefore mentioned, I respectfully suggest, that the General Assembly, after consid eration of these questions, declare by resolution or otherwise, their opinion as to the power of the Confederate Government and its officers in these par ticulars. I also respectfully request that the General Assembly declare the extent to which the Executive of this State will be sustained by the repre sentatives of the people in protecting their rights, and the integrity of the Government, and sovereignty of the State, against the usurpations and abuses to which I have invited your attention."

278

GOVERNOR BROWK"

One of the potent causes of irritation among the poor men of the Confederate armies, and which was a fruitful and growing cause of discontent, was the small price paid to soldiers in actual service after the depreciation of the Confederate currency They began to compare their sit uation with the exempts and favored people at home, arid to think of the insignificant purchasing power of the gov ernment currency ; for instance, that a soldier's wages for a month would not buy a bushel of salt for his family or a decent pair of shoes for his wife. They began to mur mur and complain, arid to deluge the Governor of Georgia, whom they from the first regarded as a true friend, ever ready to aid them in all methods in his power. He made the effort in vain, through the Legislature, to induce Con gress to stimulate and conciliate the army by an increase of the pay of soldiers.
The following pointed message upon that subject shows some, at least, of the powerfully working causes of the ul timate downfall of the Confederacy, and constitutes a vital part of the history of the struggle.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

)

MILLED SEVILLE, April 6th, 1863. >

" To the General Assembly;--

"The armies of the Confederate States are composed, in a great degree, of poor men and non-slaveholders, who have bub little property at stake upon the issue. The rights and liberties of themselves and of their posterity are, however, involved; and with hearts full of patriotism, they have nobly and promptly responded to.their country's call, and now stand a living fortifica tion between their homes and the armed legions of the Abolition Government.

Upon their labor their families at home have depended for support, as they have no slaves to work for them. They receive from the Government but eleven dollars per month, in depreciated currency, which, at the present high

prices, will purchase very little of the necessaries of life. The consequence is, that the wives of thousands of them are now obliged to work daily in the field to make bread--much of the time without shoea to their feet, or even comfortable clothes for themselves or their little children. Many are living

A]STD THE CONFEDERATE MILITARY.

279

upon.bread alone, and feel the most painful apprehensions lest the time may come when enough even of this cannot be afforded them. In the midst of. all the privations and sufferings of themselves and their families, the loyalty of those brave men to the Government cannot be questioned, and their gal lantry shines more conspicuously upon each successive battle field. Freemen have never, in any age of the world, made greater sacrifices in freedom's cause, or deserved more of their country or of posterity.
"While the poor have made and are still making- these sacrifices, and sub mitting to these privations to sustain our noble cause and transmit the rich blessings of civil and religious liberty and national independence to posterity, many of the rich have'freely given up their property, endured the hardships and privations of military service, and died gallantly upon, the battle field. It must be admitted, however, that a large proportion of the wealthy class of people have avoided the fevers of the camp and the dangers of the battle field, and have remained at home in comparative ease and comfort with their families.
"If the enrolling officer under the conscript act has summoned them to camp, they have claimed exemption to control their slaves, or they have re sponded with their money, and hired poor men to take their places as sub stitutes. The operation of this act has been grossly unjust and unequal between the two classes. "When the poor man is ordered to camp by the enrolling officer, he has no money with which to employ a substitute, and he is compelled to leave all the endearments of home and go. The money of the rich protects them. If the substitution principle had not been recognized, and the act had compelled the rich and the poor to serve alike, it would have been much more just.
"Again, there is a class of rich speculators who remain at home preying like vultures upon the vitals of society, determined to make money at every hazard, who turn a deaf ear to the cries of soldiers' families, and are pre pared to immolate even our armies and sacrifice our liberties upon the altar of mammon. If laws are passed against extortion, they find means of evad ing them. If the necessaries of life can be monopolized and sold to the poor at famine prices, they are ready to eng-age in it. If contributions are asked to clothe the naked soldier or feed his hungry children, they close their purses and turn away. Heither the dictates of humanity, the love of coun try, the laws of man, nor the fear of God, seem to control or influence their actions. To make money and accumulate wealth is their highest ambition, and seems to be the only object of their lives. The pockets of these men can be reached iu but one way, and that is by the tax gatherer; and, as they grow rich upon the calamities of the country, it is the duty of patriotic statesmen and legislators to see that this is done, and that the burdens of the war are, at least to some extent, equalized in this way. They should be compelled to divide their ill-gotten gains with the soldiers who fight our bat tles ; both they and the wealthy of the country, not engaged as they are,

280

GOVEKNOR

should be taxed to contribute to the wants of the families of those who sacri fice all to protect our lives, our liberties and our property.
" I consider it but an act of simple justice, for the reasons already stated, that the wages of our private soldiers be raised to twenty dollars per month, and that of no ri-conj missioned officers in like proportion, and that the wealth of the country be taxed to raise the money. I therefore recommend the passage of a joint resolution by the legislature of this State, requesting our Senators and .Representatives in Congress to bring this question before that body, and to do all they can, both by their influence and their vote, to secure the passage of an act for that purpose, and to assess a tax sufficient to raise the money to pay the increased sum. This would enable each soldier to do something to contribute to the comfort of his family while he is fighting the battles of his country at the expense of his comfort arid the hazard of his life.
" T respectfully but earnestly urge upon you tbe justice and importance of favorable consideration and prompt action upon this recommendation.
"Let the hearts of our suffering soldiers from Georgia be cheered by the intelligence that the Legislature of their State has determined to see that justice is done them, and that the wants of themselves and their families are supplied, find their arms will be nerved with new vigor when uplifted to strike for the graves of their sires, the homes of their families, the liberties of their posterity, and the independence and glory of the Republic.
"JOSEPH E. BROWJT."

The Legislature, by joint resolution, promptly united with the Governor in the justice and importance of the matter, and appealed in vain to the Confederate Congress to adopt it.
The efforts to increase the pay of soldiers was met by the Government with the presentation of the reason that it was ruinous to increase their pay, because the currency was already depreciated, and the depreciation would be increased with the increase of its volume thus to be ren dered necessary. The troops in the army could not ap preciate the reason while they could see it violated by the Government through its agents in every expenditure, ex cept that of paying the soldiers in service. Agents were advancing prices rapidly for all government supplies, and competitors in market with ready government cash for

AND THE CONFEDERATE MILITARY.

281

all the necessaries of .life; in many instances the agents and officers buying on speculation and selling to the Gov ernment at large and fabulous profits. The soldiers could see that the expansion was rapid ; that the prices advanced by Government officers and agents, in order to carry on their speculations, excluded their families from the mar kets at any lower rates. They therefore could not see the justice of the Government that kept them in service, whether they were willing or not under the conscript sys tem, and refused to increase their pay. There were thou sands of men in the service who did not regard the matter, and would have remained voluntarily in service without any pay at all. But the effect was very injurious upon thousands of others who desired the money for their families at home.

SUSPENSION OF THE HABEAS CORPUS. From an early period of the war, the Governor pro tested in strong terms against the assumed and unauthor ized authority of military commanders to declare martial law and place such portions of country or places as they desired to have absolute control of under military govern ment, and to suspend civil authority and the processes of civil law. On the 10th of March, 1864., he communicated his views on the subject as follows :--
" I cannot withhold the expression of the deep mortification I feel at the late action of Congress in attempting to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, and to confer upon the President powers expressly denied to him by tlie Constitution of the Confederate States. Under pretext of a ne cessity which our whole people know does not exist in this case, whatever may have been the motives, our Congress with the assent and at the request of the executive has struck a fell blow at the liberties of the people of these States.
The Constitution of the Confederate States declares that, ' The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of

282

GOVERNOR. BROWN

rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.' The power to sus pend the habeas corpus at all is derived, not from express and direct delega tion, but from implication only, and art implication can never be raised in opposition to .an express restriction. In case of any conflict between the two, an implied power must always yield to express restrictions upon its exercise. The power to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus derived by implication must therefore be always limited by the express declaration in the Constitution that:--
" ' The right of the people to be secure in their persona, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated; and no warrants &halL issue but upon probable cause, supported by oafh or affirma tion, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized,' and the further declaration that, 'no person shall be de prived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.' And that,
'"In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right of a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State or district where the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascer tained by law, aud to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory pro cess for obtaining; witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel in his defence.'
" Thus it is an express guaranty of the Constitution that the 'persons' of the people shall be secure, and 'no warrants shall issue,' but upon probable cause, supported by ' oath or affirmation,' particularly describing ' the persons to be seized;* that 'no person shall be deprived of liberty, without due pro cess of law,' and that in 'all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right of a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury.'1
" The Constitution also defines the powers of the Executive, which are lim ited to those delegated, among which there is no one authorizing him to issue warrants or order arrests of persons not in actual military service; or to sit as a judge in any case, to try any person for a criminal offence, or to appoint any court or tribunal to do it not provided for in the Constitution as part of the judiciary. The power to issue warrants and try persona under criminal accusations are judicial powers which,belong, under the Constitution, exclu sively to tlie Judiciary and not to the Executive. His power to order arrests as commander-in-chief is strictly a military power, and is confined to the arrest of persons subject to military power, as to the arrest of persons in the army or navy of the Confederate States; or in the militia, when in the actual service of the Confederate States; and does not extend to any persons in civil life unless they be followers of the camp or within the lines of the army. This is clear from that provision of the Constitution -which declares that:--
" ' No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising

A1STD THE CONFEDERATE MILITARY.

283

in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of "war or public danger.' But even here the power of the President as commander-in-chief is not absolute, as his powers and duties in ordering arrests of persons in the laud or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service, are clearly defined by the rules aiid articles of war prescribed by Congress. Any warrant issued by the President, or any arrest made by him, or under his order, of any person in civil life and not subject to military command, is ille gal and in plain violation of the Constitution ; as it is impossible for Congress by implication to confer upon the President the right to exercise powers of arrest expressly forbidden to him by the Constitution. Any effort on the part of Congress to do this is but an attempt to revive the odious practice of ordering political arrests, or issuing letters de cacliet by royal prerogative, so long since renounced by our English ancestors; and the denial of the right of the constitutional judiciary to investigate such cases, and the provision for creating a court appointed by the Executive, and changeable at his will, to take jurisdiction of the same, are in violation of the great principles of Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus Act, and the Constitu tion of the Confederate States, upon which both English and American liberty rest; and are but an attempt to revive the odious Star Chamber court of England, which, in the hands of wicked kings, was used for tyrannical pur poses by the crown, until it was finally abolished by Act of Parliament, of 16th Charles the First, which went into operation on the first of August, 1641. This Act has ever since been regarded as one of the great bulwarks of English liberty ; and, as it was passed by the English Parliament to secure our English ancestors against the very same character of arbitrary arrests which the late Act of Congress is intended to authorize the President to make, I append a copy of it to this message, with the same italics and small capital letters which are used in the printed copy in the book from which it is taken. It will be seen that the court of ' Star Chamber,' which was the instrument in the hands of the English king, for investigating his illegal arrests and carrying out his arbitrary decrees was much more respectable, on account of the character, learning, and ability of its members, than the Con federate Star Chamber, or court of 'proper officers,' -which the Act of Con-/ greas gives the President power to appoint to investigate his illegal arrests.
1 ani aware of no instance in which the British king has ordered the arrest of any person in civil life in any other manner than by judicial warrant is sued by the established courts of the realm; or in which he has suspended, or attempted to suspend, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus/since the Bill of Rights and act of settlement passed in 1689. To attempt this in 1884 would cost the present reigning Queen no less price than her crown.
" The only suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, known to our Constitution, and compatible with the provisions already stated, goes to the simple extent of preventing the release under it of persons whose ar rests have been ordered under constitutional warrants from 3 udicial authority.

284

GOVERHOR BKOWK

To this extent the Constitution allows the suspension in case of rebellion or invasion in oi'der that the accused may be certainly and safely held for trial; but Congress has no right under pretest of exercising this power to author ize the President to make illegal arrests prohibited by the Constitution ; and when Congress has attempted to confer such powers on the President, If he should order such' illegal arrests it would be the imperative duty of the judges, who have solemnly sworn to support the Constitution, to disregard such u[(constitutional legislation and grant relief to persons so illegally im prisoned ; and it would be the duty of the legislative and executive depart ments of the States to sustain and protect the judiciary in the discharge of this obligation.
" By an examination of the act of Congress, now under consideration, it will be seen that it is not an act to suspend the privilege of the writ o habeas corpus in case of warrants issued by judicial authority but the main purpose of the act seems to be to authorize the President to issue warrants supported by neither oath nor affirmation and to mafee arrests of persons not in military service, upon charges of a nature proper for investigation in the judicial tri bunals only, and to prevent the Courts from inquiring into such arrests, or granting relief against such illegal usurpations of power, which are In direct and palpable violation of the Constitution.
" The act enumerates move than twenty different causes of arrest, most of which are cognizable and triable only in the judicial tribunals established by the Constitution ; and for which no warrants can legally Issue for the arrest of persons in civil life by any power except the judiciary; and then only upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation particularly describing the persons to be seized ; such as * treason ' ' treasonable efforts or combina tions to subvert the Government of the Confederate States,' 'conspiracies to overthrow the Government,'or ' conspiracies to resist the lawful authority of the Confederate States,' giving the enemy ' aid and comfort," ' attempts to incite servile insurrection,' * the burning of bridges,' * railroad," or 'tel egraph lines,* 'harboring deserters.' and ' other offences against the laws of the Confederate States,' &c., &c. And as if to place the usurpation of power beyond doubt or cavil, the act expressly declares that the ' suspension shall apply only to the case of persons arrested or detained by the President, the Sec retary of War, or the general officer commanding the Trans-MIssissippi Mil itary Pepartment, by authority and under the control of the President,' in the cases enumerated In the act, most of which are exclusively of judicial cogni zance, and in which cases the President has not the shadow of constitutional authority to issue warrants or order arrests, but is actually prohibited by the Constitution from doing so.
" This then is not an act to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the manner authorized by implication by the Constitution; but it is an act to authorize the President to make illegal and unconstitutional arrests in cases which the Constitution gives to the judiciary, and denies to the Ex-

THE CONFEDERATE MILITARY.

285

ecutire; and to prohibit all judicial interference for the relief of the citizen, when tyrannized over by illegal arrest, under letters de cachet issued by Ex ecutive authority.
"Instead of the legality of the arrest being examined in the judicial tribu nals appointed by the Constitution, it is to be examined in the Confederate Star Chamber; that is, by officers appointed by the President. Why say that the t Pre--ide.ni shall cause proper officers to investigate' the legality of arrests ordered by him? Why not permit the Judges, whose constitu tional right and duty it is, to do it?
" We are witnessing with too much indifference assumptions of power by the Confederate Government which in ordinary times would arouse the whole country to indignant rebuke and stern resistance. History teaches us that submission to one encroachment upon constitutional liberty is always followed by another; and we should not forget that important rights, yielded to those in power, without rebuke or protest, are never recovered by the people without revolution.
" If this act is acquiesced in, the President, the Secretary of War, and the commander of the Trans-Mississippi department under the control of the President, each has the power conferred by Congress to imprison whomso ever he chooses; and it is only necessary to allege that it is done on account of ' treasonable efforts' or of 'conspiracies to resist the lawful authority of the Confederate States,' or for 'giving aid and comfort to the enemy,' or other of the causes of arrest enumerated in the Statute, and have a subaltern to file his affidavit accordingly after the arrest if a writ of habens corpus is sued out, and no court dare inquire into the cause of the imprisonment. The Statute makes the President and not the courts the judge of the suffi ciency of the cause for his own acts. Kither of you or any other citizen of Georgia, may at any moment (as Mr. Vallandigham was in Ohio) be drag ged from your homes at midnight by armed force, and imprisoned at the will of the President, upon the pretest that you have been guilty of some offence of the character above named, and no court known to our judiciary can in quire into the wrong or grant relief.
" When such bold strides towards military despotism and absolute author ity are taken by those in whom we have confided, and who have been placed in high official position, to guard and protect constitutional and personal liberty, it is the duty of every patriotic citizen to sound the alarm ,- and of the State Legislatures to say in thunder tones, to those who assume to govern us by absolute power, that there is a point beyond which freemen wiJl not permit encroachments to go.
"The .Legislatures of the respective States are looked to as the guardians of the rights of tho-se whom they represent, and it is their duty to meet such dangerous enactments upon the liberties of the people promptly ; and express their unqualified condemnation; and to instruct their Senators and request their .Representatives to repeal this most monstrous act, or resign a trust

286

CAUSES OF THE WAR,

'which by permitting it to remain on the statute book they abuse, to the injury of those who have honored, them \vith their confidence io this trying period of our history. I earnestly recommend that the Legislature of this State take prompt action upon this subject, and stamp the act with the seal of their indignant rebuke.
"Can the President no longer trust the judiciary with the exercise of the legitimate powers conferred upon it by the Constitution and laws ? In what instance have the grave and dignified Judges proved disloyal or untrue to our cause? When have they embarrassed the Government by turning- loose traitors, skulkers or spies ? Have they not in every instance given tlie Gov ernment the benefit of their doubts in sustaining its action, though they might thereby seem to encroach upon the rig-fats of the States, and for a time deny substantial justice to the people ? Then why this implied censure upon them ?
" What justification, exists now for this most monstrous deed which did not exist during the first or second year of the war, unless it be found in the fact, that those in power have found the people ready to submit to every en croachment rather than make an issue with the Government while we are at war with the enemy; and have on that account been emboldened to take the step which is intended to make the President as absolute in his power of arrest and imprisonment as the Czar of all the Russias? What reception would the members of Congress from the different States have met in 1861, had they returned to their constituents and informed them that they had sus pended the habeas corpus, and given the President the power to imprison the people of these States with no restraint upon his sovereign will? Why is liberty less sacred now than it was in 1801? And what will we have gained when we have achieved our independence of the Northern States if, in our efforts to do so, we have permitted our form, of government to be subverted, and have lost constitutional liberty at home ?
" The hope of the country now rests in the new Congress soon to assemble. They must maintain our liberties against encroachment and wipe this and all such stains from the statute book, or the sun of liberty will soon set in darkness and blood,
" Let the constituted authorities of each State send up to their representa tives when they assemble in Congress an unqualified demand for prompt re dress ; or a return of the commissions which they hold from their respective States."

THE CAUSES OF THE WAR, How CONDUCTED, AND WHO RESPONSIBLE

He discusses as follows :--
" Cruel, bloody, desolating war is still waged against us by our relentless enemies, who, disregarding the laws of nations and the rules of civilized war-

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287

fare, whenever either interferes with their fanatical objects or their interest, have in numerous instances been guilty of worse than savage cruelty.
"They have done all in their power to burn our cities when unable by leir skill and valor to occupy them ; and to turn innocent women an
i .among them without

, and other valuable property.
" They have cruelly treated our sons while in captivity, and in violation of a cartel agreed upon, have refused to exchange them, with us for their own soldiers unless we would consent, against the laws of nations, to eschang-e our slaves as belligerents when induced or forced by them to take up arms against us.
" They have done all in their power to incite our slaves to insurrection and murder, and when unable to seduce them from their loyalty, have, when they occupied our country, compelled them to engage in war against us.
" They have robbed us of our negro women and children who we fortable, contented and happy with their owners, and, under pr

hunger. " In numerous instances their brutal soldiers have violated the persons of
our innocent and helpless women; and have desecrated the graves of our ancestors, and polluted and defiled the altars which wye have dedicated to the worship of the living God.
" In addition to these and other enormities, hundreds of thousands of val uable lives both Xorth and South have been sacrificed, causing the shriek of the mother, the wail of the widow, and the cry of the orphan to ascend to Heaven from almost every hearthstone in all the broad land once known as the United States.
"Such is but a, faint picture of the devastations, cruelty, and bloodshed, which have marked this struggle.
"War in its most mitigated form, when conducted according to the rules established by the most enlightened and civilized nations, is a terrible scourge, aad cannot exist without tho most enormous guilt resting upon the heads of those who have without just cause brought it upon the innocent and helpless people who are its unfortunate victims. Guilt may rest in unequal degrees in a struggle like this upon both parties, but both cannot be innocent. Where then rests this crushing load of guilt?
" While I trust I shall be able to show that it rests not upon the people nor rulers of the South, I do not claim that it rested at the commencement of the struggle upon the whole people of the North.

288

CAUSES OF THE WAK,
intelligent, and patriotic portion of the people of th

.. D . .

-,

large number of persons whose education had brought them into sym

pathy with the so-called Republican or, in other words, the old Federal con

solidation party, who -would never hiwe followed the wielted leaders of that

party who nsed the slavery question as a hobby upon which to ride into

power, and who to-day stand before Heaven and Earth guilty of shedding

the blood of hundreds of thousands and destroying the brightest hopes of

posterity, had they known the true objects of their leaders and the results

which must follow the triumph of their policy at the ballot-box.

" The moral guilt of this war rested then in its iiicipiency neither upon the

people o the South, nor upon the Democratic party of the North, or upon

that part of the Republican party who were deluded and deceived. But it

rested upon the heads of: the wicked leaders of the Republican party who

had refused to be bound by the compacts of the Constitution made by our

common ancestry. These men when iu power in the respective States of the

North Arrayed themselves in open hostility against an important provision of

the Constitution, for the security of clearly expressed and unquestionable

rights of tUe people of the Southern. States.

"Many of the more fanatical of them denounced the Constitution because

of its protection of the property of the slaveholder as a ' covenant with death

and a league with Hell,* and refusing to be bound by it, declared that a

' higher law * was the rule of their conduct and appealed to the Bible as that

* higher law.' But when the precepts of God in favor of slavery were found

in both the Old and the New Testament they repudiated the Bible and its

divine Author and declared for an anti-Slavery Bible and an anti-Stavt-ry God.

" The abolition party having, when in. power in their respective States, set

at naught that part of the Constitution which guarantees protection to the

rights and property of the Southern people, and having by fraud and mis

representation obtained possession of the Federal government, the Southern

people in self-defence were compelled to leave the Union in which their

rights were no longer respected. .Having destroyed the Union by their

wicked acts and their bad faith, these leaders rallied a majority of the people

of the .Xorth to their support with a promise to restore it again by force.

on

m pact be

WHO RESPONSIBLE.

289

they have destroyed, and to save themselves from the just vengeance which awaited them for their crimes, the abolition leaders in power have lighted up the continent with a blasts of war which has destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property, and hundreds of thousands of valuable lives, and loaded posterity with a debt which must cause wretchedness and poverty for generations to come.' And all for what? That fanaticism mig-ht triumph over constitutional liberty, as achieved by the great men of 1776, and that ambitious men might have place and power. In their efforts to destroy our liberties the people of the North, i successful, would inevitably lose their own by overturning, as they arc now attempting to do, fchc great principles of Republicanism upon which constitutional liberty rests. The Government in the hands of the abolition administration is now a despotism as absolute as that of Russia.
" Unoffending citizens are seized in. their beds at night by armed force and dragged to dungeons and incarcerated at the will of the tyrant, because they have dared to speak for constitutional liberty, and to protest against military despotism.
" The habeas corpus,--that great bulwark of liberty, without which no peo ple can be secure in their lives, persons, or property; which, cost the .English, several bloody wars, and which was finally wrung from the crown by the sturdy barons and people at the point of the bayonet; which has ever been the boast of every American patriot, ami which I pray God may never, under pretest of military necessity, be yielded to encroachments by the people of the South,--has been trampled under foot by the Government at Wash ington, which imprisons at its pleasure whomsoever it will.
" The freedom of the ballot-box has also been destroyed, and the elections have been carried by the overawing influence of military force.
"Under pretext of keeping men enough in the field to subdue the South, President Lincoln takes care to keep enough to hold the North in subjection also--to imprison, or exile those who attempt to sustain their ancient rights, liberties, and usages, and to drive from the ballot box those who are not subservient to his will, or enough of them to enable his party to carry the elections. Can an intelligent Northern conservative man contemplate this state of things, without exclaiming,'whither are we drifting ? What will we gain by the subjugation of the South, if in our attempt to do it we must lose our own liberties; and visit upon ourselves and our posterity the chains of military despotism ? '
" How long a people once free will submit to the despotism of such a gov ernment the future must develop. One thing is certain; while those who now rule remain in power in "Washington the people of the Sovereign States of America can never adjust their difficulties. But war, bloodshed, devasta tion, and increased indebtedness must be the inevitable result. There must be a change of administration, and more moderate councils prevail in the Northern States before we can ever have peace While subjugation, abolL-

290

CAUSES OF THE WAR,

tioii, and confiscation are the terms offered by the Federal Government, the Southern people -will resist as long as the patriotic voice of woman can stimulate a guerrilla band or a single armed soldier to deeds of daring in defence of liberty and home.
"I have-said the South is not the guilty party in this dreadful carnage, and I think it not inappropriate that tlie reasons should often be repeated at the bar of an intelligent public opinion ; that, our own people and the world should have 'line upon line, arid precept upon precept,' 'here a little and there a little/ 'in season and out of season' as some may suppose, to show the true nature of this contest, the principles involved, the objects of the war on our side, as well as that of the enemy, that all right minded men everywhere may see and understand that this contest is not of our seek ing, and that we have had 110 wish or desire to injure those who war against us except so far as has been necessary for the protection and preservation of ourselves. Oar sole object from the beginning has been to defend, main tain, and preserve out- ancient usages, customs, liberties, and institutions, as' achieved and established by our ancestors in the revolution of 177G.
" That Revolution was undertaken to establish two great rights--State sovereignty and self government. Upon these the Declaratiou of Inde pendence was predicated, and they were the corner-stone upon which the Constitution rested. The denial of these two great principles cost Groat Britain her American Colonies which had so long been her pride. And the denial of them by the Government at Washington, if persisted in, must cost the people of the United States the liberties of themselves and their poster ity. Those are the pillars upon which the temple of constitutional liberty stands, and if the Northern people, in their mad effort to destroy the sover eignty of the Southern States and take from our people the rights of self government, should bo able, with the strength of an ancient Samson, to lay hold upon the pillars, and overturn the edifice, they must necessarily be crushed beneath its ruins, as the destruction of State sovereignty and the right of self government in the Southern States, by the agency of the Fed eral Government, necessarily involves the like destruction in the Northern States; as no people can maintain these rights for themselves who will shed the blood o their neighbors to destroy them, in others. It is impossible for half the States of a Confederacy, if they assist the central government to destroy the rights and liberties of the other half, to maintain their own rights and liberties against the central power after it has crushed their Co-States.
" The two great truths announced by Mr. Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence and concurred in by all the great men of the Revolution were, 1st, ' That Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.' 2d, ' That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent Stains'
"We are not to understand by the first great truth that each individual

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291

member of the aggregate mass composing the State must give his consent before he can be justly governed; or that the consent of each or a particular class of individuals in a State is necessary. By the ' governed ' is evidently here meant communities and bodies of men capable of organizing tmd main taining government. The 'consent of the governed' refers to the aggregate \vill of the community or State in its organized form, and expressed through its legitimate and properly constituted organs.
"In elaborating this great truth Mr. Jefferson in the Declaration of Inde pendence says, tfiat governments are instituted among men to secure certain 'inalienable rights'--that 'among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; ' ' that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to insti tute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organ izing ;ts powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness,'
"According to this great fundamental principle the Sovereign States of America, North and Soirth, can only be governed by their own consent; and whenever the government to which they have given their consent becomes destructive of tlie great ends for which ic was formed, they have a perfect right to 'abolish it' by withdrawing their consent from it, as the Colonies did from the British Government, and to form a 'new Government, with its foundations laid on such principles, and its powers organized in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness,' "Upon the application to tlie present controversy of this great principle, to which the Northern States are ;is firmly committed as tlie Southern States, Georgia can proudly challenge New York to tvial before the bar of enlightened pub lic opinion, and impartial history must write the verdict in her favor and triumphantly vindicate her- action in the course she has pursued.
"Not only all the sovereign States of America have heretofore recognized this great truth, but it lias been recognized by the able and enlightened Em peror of the French, who owes his present elevation to the 'consent of the governed,'
" lie was called to the presidency by the free suffrage or consent of the French people, and when fie assumed the imperial title he again submitted the question to the governed' at the ballot-bos, and they gave their * consent.'
" At the recent treaty of peace with the Emperor of Austria he ceded an Austrian province to France, and Napoleon refused to ' govern it' till the people at the ballot-box gave ' their consent ' that he should do so.
"The Northern States of America are to-day, through tlie agency of the despotism at Washington, waging a bloody war upon the Southern States, to crush out this great American principle announced and maintained in a seven years' war by our common ancestry, after it has won the approbation of the ablest and most enlightened sovereign of Europe.

292

CAUSES OF THE WAR,

_.. _.__ ..... , ___... .

.......

.a

. ._,, __ __sign ___,,_ __

tlie South by force, and to recognize and maintain as the Government of

these States, not those who at the ballot-bos can obtain the ' consent of the

governed,' or of a majority of the people, but those who can obtain the con

sent of one tenth of the people of the State. Knowing that he can never gov

ern these States with ' the consent of the governed,' lie tramples the Declar

ation of Independence under his feet and proclaims to the world that he will

govern these States, not by the ' consent of the governed' but by military

power, so soon as he can find one tenth of the governed humiliated enough to

give their consent.

stitution he proclaims that, so soon as one tenth of the people of each of the seceded States shall be found abject enough to take an oath to support his unconstitutional acts and at the same time to support the Constitution, and shall do this monstrous deed, he will permit them to organize a State Gov ernment and will recognize them as the Government of the State and their officers as the regularly constituted authorities of the State. These he will aid in putting down, driving out, expelling-, and exterminating the other nninnee teennthtss, if ttheeyy do noot likeewwisse taakee thee p prreescsrcibeed ooaatht..
" One tenth of the people of a State put up and aided by military force to rule, govern, or exterminate nine tenths! And this to be done under the guise or professed object of guaranteeing .Republicanism ! What would Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, lituicock, or even. Hamil ton have said to this kind of Republicanism ? What say the conservative

reedom of their posterity ( 1 the L-rOvernment at Washington guarantees .uch Republicanism as this to Georgia in 1861, what may be her guaranty to
0)1hio and other Western States in 1874 ?
every hazard, under every privation, and to the last extremity. " Hut I must notice the other great ti-uth promulgated in the Declaration

AND WHO RESPONSIBLE.

293

of Independence--that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.
"George the third denied this great truth in 1776, and sent his armies into Virginia, the Ca.roliiias, and Georgia, to crash out its advocates, and main tain over the people a government which did not derive its powers from the 'consent of the governed.' President Lincoln in 1861 has made war upon the same Spates and their Confederates to crush out the same doctrine by armed force. Yet he has none of the apparent justification before the world that the British King had. The colonies had been planted, nurtured and
governed by Great Britain. As States, they had never been independent and never claimed to be. This claim was set up for the first time in the Declara tion of Independence. Under these circumstances, there was some reason why the British Crown should resist it. But the great truth proclaimed was more powerful than the armies and navy of Great Britain.
" On the 4th of July, 1776, our fathers made this declaration of freedom and independence of the States. The Revolution was fought upon this declaration, and on the 3d day of September., 1783, in the treaty of peace, ' His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, to wit, New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Connecticut, New York, K"ew Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, .North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia., to be_/Vee, sovereign
and independent Stale*, that he treats with them as such,' etc.
"On and after that day, Georgia stood before the world clad in all the habiliments and possessed of all the attributes of sovereignty. When did Georgia lose this sovereignty? Was it by virtue of her previous compact with her sister States ? Certainly not.
" The Articles of Confederation between the colonies, during the struggle, set forth the objects to be attained, and the nature of the bond between the parties to it, and the separate sovereignty of each of the States a party to ifc was expressly reserved. Was it when she with the other States formed the Constitution in 1787? Clearly not. The Constitution was a compact be tween the thirteen States, each of which had been recognized separately by name, by the British King, as a free, sovereign and independent State.
" The objects and purposes for which the Federal Government was formed were distinctly specified, and were all set forth in the compact. The govern ment created by it was limited in its rjowevs by the grant, with an express
reservation of all powers not delegated. The great attribute of separate State Sovereignty WAS not delegated. In this particular, there was no change from the Articles of Confederation, Sovereignty was still reserved and abided with the States respectively. This more 'perfect Union* was based upon
the assumption that it was for the best interest of all the States to enter into it, with the additional grant of powers and guarantees--each State being bound as a sovereign to perform and discharge to the others all the new
obligations of the compact. It was so submitted to the people of the States

294

CAUSES OF THE WAR,

respectively and so acceded to by them. The States did not part with their separate sovereignty by the adoption of the Constitution. In that instrument all the powers deleg-ated are specifically mentioned. Sovereignty, the great est of all political powers, the source from which all others emanate, is not amongst those mentioned. It could not have been parted with except by grant either expressed or clearly implied. The most degrading act a State can do is to lay down or surrender her sovereignty. Indeed, it cannot be done except by deed or grant. The surrender is not to be found in the Con stitution amongst the expressly granted powers. It cannot be amongst those granted by implication ; for by the terms of the compact none are granted by implication except such as are incidental to or necessary and proper to exe cute those that are expressly granted. The incident can never be greater than the object--and it' nothing in the powers expressly granted amounts to sovereignty, that which is the greatest of all powers cannot follow or be car ried after a lesser one, as an incident by implication--and then to put the matter at rest forever, it is expressly declared that the powers not delegated are reserved to the States respectively or to the people. Sovereignty, the great source of all power, therefore was left with the States by the compact, left where King George loft it, and left where it bas ever since remained, and will remain forever if the people of the States are true to themselves, and true to the great principles which their forefathers achieved at such cost of blood and treasure, in the war of 1776.
"The Constitution was only the written contract or bond between the sovereign States in which the covenants were all plainly expressed, and each State as a sovereign pledged its faith to its sister States to observe and keep these covenants. So long as each did this, all were bound by the com pact. But it is a rule as well known and as universally recognized in savage as in civilized life--as well understood and as generally acquiesced in be tween sovereign States as between private individuals, that when one party to a contract refuses to be bound by it, and to conform to its requirements, the other party is released from further compliance.
" Without entering into an argument to show the manner in which the Northern States had perverted the contract, and warped its terms to suit their own interest, in the enactment and enforcement of tariff laws for the protection of their industry at the expense of the South, and in the enact ment of internal improvement laws, coast navigation laws, fishery laws, etc., etc., which were intended to enrich them at the expense of the people of the South, I need cite buC a single instance of open, avowed, self-confessed, and even, boasted violation of the compact by the Northern States, to prove that the Southern States were released and discharged from further obligation to the Northern States by every known rule of law, morality, or comity.
" One of the express covenants in the written bond to which the Northern States subscribed, and without which, as is clearly seen by reference to the debates in the Convention whicli formed the Constitution, the Southern States never would have agreed to or formed the compact, was in these words;

AND WHO KESPOXSIBLE.

295

f< * No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be discharged from such, service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of tlie party to whom such service or labor may be due.
"Massachusetts and other abolition Slates utterly repudiated, annulled, and set afc naught this provision of the Constitution j and refused either to execute It or to permit tlie constituted authorities of the United States to cany it out within their limits.
" This shameful violation by Massachusetts of her plighted faith to Georgia, and this refusal to be bound by the parts of the Constitution which she re garded burdensome to her and unacceptable to her people, released Georgia according to every principle of international law from further compliance on her part. In other words, the Constitution was the bond of Union be tween Georgia and Massachusetts, and when Massachusetts refused longer to be bound by the Constitution, she thereby dissolved the union between her and Georgia.
"It is truthfully said in the Declaration of Independence, that experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are snfferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are ac customed. So it was with Georgia and her Southern sisters in this case. Though Massachusetts and other Northern States by their faithless acts and repudiation of the compact had dissolved the union existing between the States, the Southern States did not declare the dissolution ; hoping that a returning sense of justice on the part o the Northern States might cause them ag-aiii to observe their Constitutional obligations. So far from this be ing the case, they construed our forbearance into a consciousness of our weak ness, and inability to protect ourselves; and they organized a great sectional party, TV hose political creed was founded in injustice to the South; and whose public declarations and acts sustained the action of Massachusetts and the other faithless States.
" Tliis party, whose creed was avowed hostility to the rights of the South, triumphed in the election for President in I860. The election of a Federal Executive by a sectional parfcy, upon a platform of avowed hostility to the Con stitutional rights of the South, to carry out in the Federal administration the doctrines of Massachusetts, and other faithless States, left no further ground for hope that the rights of the South would longer be respected by the Northern. States ; which had not only the Executive, but a majority- of the Congress.
" The people of the Southern States, each sovereign State acting for itself, then met in Convention; and, in the most solemn manner known to our form of government, resumed the exercise of the powers which they had delegated to the common agent, now faithless to the trust reposed in it.
"The right of Georgia as a member to the original compact to do this is too clear for successful denial. And the right of Alabama, and the other

29G

CAUSES OF THE WAR,

States, which had been admitted into the union since the adoption of the Con stitution, is equally incontrovertible ; as each new State came into the union as a sovereign, pon an equal footing in all respects whatever with the origi nal parties to the compact.
" The Confederate States can, therefore, with confidence, submit their aefcs to the judgment of mankind; while with a clear conscience they appeal to a just God to maintain them in their course. They were ever true to the com pact of the Union so long as they remained, members of it--their obligations under it were ever faithfully performed ; and no breach of it was ever laid at their door, or truly charged against them. In exercising their undoubted right to withdraw from the "Union, when the covenant had been broken by the Northern States, they sought no war--no strife.--They simply withdrew from further connection with self-confessed, faithless confederates. They offered no injury to them--threatened none--proposed none--intended none. If their previous union with the Southern States had been advantageous to them, and our withdrawal affected their interests injuriously, they ought to have been truer to their obligations. They had no just cause to complain of us, the breach of the compact was by themselves--the vital cord of the union was severed by their own hands.
"After the withdrawal of the Confederate States from the Union, if those whose gross dereliction of duty had caused it had reconsidered their own. acts and offered new assurances for better faith in future, the question would have been fairly and justly put to the seceded States, in their sovereign capacity, to determine whether, in view of their past and future interest and safety, they should renew the union with them or not, and upon what terms and guarantees ; and if they had found it to be their interest to do so, upon any terms that might have been agreed upon, on the principle assumed at the be ginning, that it was for the best interest of all the States to be bound by some compact of union with a central government of limited powers, each. State faithfully performing its obligations, they would doubtless have con sented to it. But if they had found it to be their interest not to do it, they would not and ought not to have done it. For the first law of nature, as ap plicable to States and communities as to individuals, is self-protection and self-preservation.
"Possibly a new government might have been formed at that time, upon the basis of the Germanic Confederation; with a guaranty of the complete sovereignty of all the separate States, and with a central agent or govern ment of more limited powers than the old one; which would have been as useful for defence against foreign aggression, and much less dangerous to the sovereignty and the existence of the States than the old one when in the hands of abolition leaders had proved itself to be.
" The length of time for which the Germanic Confederation has existed, has proved that its strength lies in what might have been considered its weak ness--the separate sovereignty of the individual members, and the very lim ited powers of the central government.

AND WHO RESPONSIBLE.

297

" In taking the step which they were forced to do, the Southern States were careful not to provoke a conflict of arms, or any serious misunderstand ing with the States that adhered to the government at Washington, as long as it was possible to avoid it. Commissioners were sent to AVashing'ton to settle and adjust all matters relating to their past connection, or joint inter ests and obligations, justly, honorably, and peaceably. Our commissioners were not received--they were denied the privilege of an audience--they were not heard. But they were indirectly trifled with, lied to, and misled by du plicity as infamous as that practised by Philip of Spain towards the peace commissioners sent by Elizabeth of England. They were detained and de ceived with private assurances of a prospect of a peaceful settlement; while the most extensive preparations were being made for war and subjugation. When they discovered this they withdrew, and the government at Washing ton continued its vigorous preparations to reinforce its garrisons and hold the possession of our forts, and to send armies to invade our territory.
" Having completed his preparations for war, and ref used to hear any propositions for a peaceful adjustment of our difficulties, President Lincoln issued his proclamation declaring Georgia and the other seceded States to be in rebellion, and sent forth his armies of invasion.
"In rebellion against whom or what? As sovereign States have no com mon arbiter, to whose decision they can appeal when they are unable to settle their differences amicably, they often resort to the sword as the arbiter,- and as sovereignty is always in dignity the equal of sovereignty, and a sovereign can know no superior to which allegiance is due, one sovereign may be at war "with another, but one can never be in rebellion against another.
" To say that the sovereign State of Georgia is in rebellion against the sov ereign State of Rhode Island is as much an absurdity as it would be to say that the sovereign State of Russia was in rebellion ag-aiust the sovereign State of Great Britain in their late war. They were at war with each other, but neither was in rebellion against the other, nor indeed could be; for neither owed any allegiance to the other.
"!N"or could one of the sovereign States be in rebellion against the govern ment of the United States. That government was the creature of the States by which it was created ; and they had the same power to destroy it at pleas ure which they had to make it. It was their common agent with limited powers, and the States by which the agency was created had the undoubted right, when it abused these powers, to withdraw them. Suppose, by mutual consent, all the States in the Union had met in convention, each in its sov ereign capacity, and had withdrawn all the delegated powers from the Fede ral government, and all the States had refused to send Senators or Represent atives to Congress, or to elect a President; will any sane man question their right, or deny that such action of the States would have destroyed the Federal government? If so, the Federal government was the ereature of the States and could exist only at their pleasure. It lived and breathed only by their

298

CAUSES OF THE WAU,

consent. If all the parties to the compact had the right by mutual consent to resume the powers delegated by them to the common agent, why had not part of them the rig-tit to do so when the others violated the compact--refused to be bound longer by its obligations, and thereby released their copartners? The very fact that the States by which it was formed could at any time by mutual consent disband, and destroy the Federal government, shows that it had no original, inherent sovereignty or jurisdiction. As the creature of the States it had only such powers and jurisdictions as they gave it; and it held what it had at their pleasure. If, therefore, a State withdrew from the con federacy without just cause, it was a question for the other sovereign States to consider what should be their future relations towards it, but it was a question, of which the Federal government had not the shadow of jurisdiction. So long as Georgia remained in the Union, if her citizens had refused to obey sach laws of Congress as it had constitutional jurisdiction to pass, they might have been in rebellion against the ".Federal government, because they resisted the authority over them which Georgia had delegated to that government, and which, with her consent, it still possessed. But if Georgia for just cause, of which she was the judge, chose to withdraw from the Union and resume the attributes of sovereignty which she had delegated to the United States Gov ernment, her citizens could no longer be subject to the laws of the Union, and no longer guilty as rebels if they did not obey them.
"It could be as justly said that the principal who has delegated certain limited powers to his agent in the transaction of business, which lie has afterwards withdrawn on account of their abuse by the agent, is in rebellion against the agent; or that the master is in rebellion against his servant; or the landlord against his tenant; because he has withdrawn certain privi leges for a time allowed them, as that Georgia is in rebellion against her former agent, the government of the United States.
" Those I understand to be the great fundamental doctrines of our republi can form of government so ably expounded in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798 and 1799, which have ever since been a test book of the true republican, party of the United States. Departure from these principles has destroyed the federal government and been the prolific cause of all our woes. Out of this departure has sprung the doctrine of loyalty and disloyalty of the States to the Federal government, from which conies ostensibly this war against us ; which is itself at war with the first principles of American con stitutional liberty. It involves the interests, the future safety and welfare, of those States now deemed loyal, as well as those pronounced disloyal. It is the doctrine of absolutism revived in its worst form. It strikes down the essential principles of self-government ever held so sacred in our past history ; and to which all the States were indebted for their unparalleled career, in growth, prosperity, and greatness, so long as thos'e principles were adhered to and maintained inviolate.
" If carried out and established, its end can be nothing but centralism and

AND WHO RESPONSIBLE.

299

despotism. It and its fatal corollary--th.e policy of forcing sovereign States to the discharge of their assumed constitutional obligations_were fore shadowed by President I_.incoln in his inaugural address.
" Now at the time of the delivery of that inaugural address it is well known to him, that the faithless States above alluded to, and to whose votes in the electoral college he was indebted for his election, had for years been in open, avowed, and determined violation of their constitutional obligations. This he well knew, and he also knew that the seceded States had withdrawn fi-om the Union because of this breaeh of faith on the part of the abolition States, and other anticipated violations, more dangerous, threatened from the same quarter. Yet without a Word of rebuke, censure, or remonstrance with them, for their most flagrant disloyalty to the constitution, and their disre gard of their most sacred obligations under it, he then threatened and tjow wages war against us, on the ground of our disloyalty in seeking new safe guards for our security, when the old ones failed. And the people of those very States, whose disloyal hands had severed the ties of the Union--break ing one of the essential parts of the compact, have been, and are, his most furious myrmidons in this most wicked and unjust crusade against us, with the view to compel the people of these so outraged States to return to the discharge of their constitutional obligations 1 It maybe gravely doubted if the history of the world can furnish an instance of grosser perfidy or more shameful wrong.
" But while the war is thus waged, professedly under the paradoxical pre text of restoring the Union, that-was a creature of consent, by force, and of upholding the Constitution by coercing sovereign States ; yet its real objects, as appears more obviously every day, are by no means so paradoxical. The Union under the Constitution as it was, each and every State being bound faithfully to perform and discharge its duties and obligations, and the central government confining itself within the sphere of its limited powers, is what the authors, projectors, and controllers of this war never wanted; and never intended ; and do not now intend to maintain.
" Whatever differences of opinion may have existed at the commencement,
among our own people, as to the policy of secession, or the objects of the Federal government, all doubt has been dispelled by the abolition procla mation of President Lincoln and his subsequent action. Maddened by ab olition fanaticism and deadly hate for the white race of the South, he wages war, not for the restoration of the Union--not for the support of the Con stitution--but for the abolition of slavery and the subjugation and, as he doubtless desires, ultimate extermination of the Anglo-Norman race in the Southern States. Dearly beloved by him as are the African race, his acts are prompted less by love of them than by Puritanic hate for the Cavaliers, the Huguenots, and Scotch Irish, whose blood courses freely through the veins of the white population of the South. But Federal bayonets can never reverse the laws of God, which must be done before the negro can be made

300

CAUSES OF THE WAK,

the equal of the white man of the South. The freedom sought for them by the abolition party, if achieved, would result in their return to barbarism, and their ultimate extermination from the soil, where most of them were born and were comfortable and contented, under the guardian care of the white race, before the wicked crusade was commenced.
" What have been the abolition achievements of the administration? The most that has been claimed by them, is, that they have taken from their own. ers, and set free, 100,000 negroes. What has this cost the white race of the North and South ? More than half a million of white men slain or wrecked in health beyond the hope of recovery, and an expenditure of not perhaps less than four thousand millions of dollars. "What will it cost at this rate to liberate nearly 4,000,000 more of slaves ? Northern accounts of the sick ness, suffering and death, which have under Northern treatment carried off so large a portion of those set free, ought to convince the most fanatical of the cruel injury they are inflicting upon the poor helpless African.
"The real objects of the war aimed at from the beginning were and are, not so much the deliverance of the African from bondage as the repudiation of the great American doctrine of self-government; the subjugation of the people of these States ; and the confiscation of their property. To carry out their fell purpose by misleading some simple minded folks, within their own limits as well as ours perhaps, they passed in the House of Representatives of the Federal Congress a short time since the famous resolution :
* L ' That as our country and the very existence of the best government ever instituted by man is imperilled by the most causeless arid wicked rebellion, that the only hope of saving1 the country and preserving this government is by the power of the sword, we are for the most vigorous prosecution of the war, until the constitution and laws shall be enforced and obeyed in all parts of the United States; and to that end we oppose any armistice, or interven tion, or mediation, or proposition for pf.ace, from any quarter, so long as there shall be found a rebel in arms against the government ; and we ignore all party names, lines and issues, and recognise but two parties to this war-- patriots, and traitors.'
"Were solemn mockery, perfidious baseness, unmitigated hypocrisy, and malignant barbarity, ever more conspicuously combined, and presented for the just condemnation of a right thinking world, than they are in this reso lution, passed by the abolition majority in the Lincoln Congress ? Think of the members from Massachusetts and Vermont voting for the most vigorous prosecution of the war until the Constitution and laws shall be enforced and obeyed in all parts of the United States. Think of the acts of the Legisla ture of Massachusetts, passed in 1843 and 1855, still standing upon her stattite book, setting at defiance the Constitution and laws. What would be come of these States? And what would become of their members them selves, who have upheld and sustained these violations of the Constitution and laws, which is the chief reason why they now hold their seats, by the votes

AND WHO RESPONSIBLE.

301

of their constituents, if the war should be so waged? How long would it be before they would ground their arms of rebellion against the provision of the Constitution which they have set at naught, and give it their loyal sup port? What would become of their President and his cabinet ; and all who from the beginning of the war, and before that time, have been trampling the Constitution under their feet? Were the war waged as they thus declare it to be their purpose to wage it, they would be the first victims of the sword, were it first turned, as it ought to be, against the first offenders. This they know full well. Obedience to the Constitution is the last thing they want or intend. Hence the mockery, baseness, ant* hypocrisy of such a, declaration of purpose. On their part, it is a war of most wanton and sav age aggression ; on ours, it is a war in defence of inalienable rights; in de fence of everything for which freemen should live; and for which freemen may well be willing to die.
" The inestimable rights of self-government, and State sovereignty, for which their, fathers and our fathers bled and suffered together, in the strug gle with England for independence, are the same for which we are now engaged, in this most unnatural and sanguinary struggle with them. Those rights are as dear to the people of these States as they were to those who achieved them ; and on account of the great cost of achievement they are the more preciously cherished by those to whom they were bequeathed, and will never be surrendered or abandoned at less sacrifice.
" If no proposition for peace or armistice is to be received, or entertained, so long as we hold arms in our hands, to defend ourselves, our homes, our hearthstones, oui- altars, and our birthright, against such ruthless and worse than Vandal invaders, be it so ! We deem it due, however, to ourselves, to the civilized world, and to those who shall come after us, to put upon record what we are fighting for ; and to let all know, who may now or hereafter feel an interest in knowing the real nature of this conflict, that the heavy respon sibility of such suffering, desolation, and carnage, may rest where it right fully belongs..
" It is believed that many of the people of the Northern States labor under the impression that no propositions for peaceful adjustment have aver been made by us.
" President .Lincoln, in his letter to the ' Unconditional Union* meeting at Springfield lasfc summer, stated in substance, that no proposition for peaceful adjustment of the matters in strife had ever been made to him by those who were in control of the military forces of the Confederate States, but if any such should be made, he would entertain and give it his consider ation,
" This was doubtless said to make the impression on the minds of those not well informed, that the responsibility of the war was with us. This declaration of President Lincoln stands in striking contrast with that above quoted, from the republican members of the House of Representatives.

302

CAUSES OF THE WAR,

" When this statement was made by President Lincoln it was well known to him that our commissioners seut to settle the whole matter in dispute, peaceably, were refused a hearing ! They were wot even permitted to pre sent their terms .'
" This declaration was also made soon after it was well known throughout the Confederate States at least that a distinguished son of this State, who is a high functionary of the government at Richmond, had consented as military commissioner to bear a communication iti writing from President Davis, the Commander-fii-Chief of our armies, to President Lincoln himself, with authority to confer upon matters therein set forth- This commis sioner sent from the head of our armies was not granted an audience, nor was the communication he bore received. That communication, as was afterwavds known, related to divers matters connected with the general conduct o the war. Its nature, however, or to what it referred, President Lincoln did not know when, he refused to receive it- But from what is now known of it, if he had received it, and had heard what terms might have been proposed for the general conduct of the war, it is reasonable to conclude that the dis cussion of these and kindred topics might have led to some more definite ideas of the aims and objects of the war 011 both sides, from which the ini tiative of peaceful adjustment might have sprung; unless his real purpose be, as it is believed to be, nothing short of the conquest and subjugation of these States. His announcement, that no offer of terms of adjustment had ever been made to him, is believed to be an artful pretext on his part to cover and hide from the people, over whom he is assuming such absolute sway, his deep designs first against our liberties, and then against theirs.

HOW PEACE SHOULD BE SOT7GHT.
"In view of these difficulties it may be asked, when and how is this war to terminate? It is impossible to say when it may terminate, but it is easy to say how it will end. We do not seek to conquer the Northern people, and if we are true to ourselves, they can never conquer us. "We do not seek to take from them the right, of self-government or to govern them without their consent ; and they have not force enough to govern us without our consent or to deprive us of the right to govern ourselves. The blood of hundreds of thousands may yet be spilt and the war will not still be terminated by force of arms. Negotiation will finally terminate it. The pen of the statesman, more potent than the sword of the warrior; must do what the latter has failed to do.
" But I may be asked how negotiations are to commence when President Lincoln refuses to receive commissioners sent by us, and his Congress re solves to he;ir no proposition for peace ? I reply, that in my opinion it is our duty to keep it always before the Northern people and the civilized world, that we are ready to negotiate for peace whenever the people and government of the Northern States are prepared to recognize .the great f uii-

AND WHO RESPONSIBLE.

303

damental principles of the Declaration of Independence, maintained by our
Stlcommon ancestry--the right of all self-government and the sovereignty of the
States. In my judgment it is -the duty of our government, after each i portant victory achieved by our gallant and glorious armies on the battle field, to make a distinct proposition to the Northern government for peace upon these terms. By doing this, if the proposition is declined, by them, ..,, will hold them up constantly in the wrong1 before their own people and the judgment of mankind. If they refuse to receive the commissioners who bear the proposition, publish it in the newspapers, and let the conduct of their rulers be known to the people ; and there is reasonable ground to hope that the time may not be far distant when a returning sense of justice, and a de sire for self-protection against despotism at home, will prompt the people of the Northern States to hurl from power those who deny the fundamental principle upon which their own liberties rest, and \ylio can never be satiated with human blood. -Let us stand on. no delicate point of etiquette or diplo matic ceremony. If the proposition is rejected a dozen times, let us tender it again after the next victory--that the world may be reassured from mouth to month th&r, we ard not responsible for the continuance of this devastation and carnage.

rests--the sovereignty nf the Stales; and let our own people hold our own gov ernment to a strict account for every encroachment upon this vital principle.
"Herein lies the simple solution of ail these troubles. "If there be any doubt or any question of doubt as to the sovereign will of any one of all the States of this Confederacy, or of any border State whose institutions are similar to ovirs not in the Confederacy, upon the subject of their present or future alliance, Jet all iirmed force be withdi-ttwn, find let that sovereign will be fairly expressed at the ballot-bos by the legal voters of the State, and let all parties abide by the decision.
*' Let each State have and freely exercise the right to determine its own destiny in its own way. Tliis is all that we have been struggling1 for from the beginning-. It is a principle that secures ' rights inestimable to freemen and formidable to tyrants only.'
" "Let both governments adopt this mode of settlement, which was be queathed to them by the great men of the Revolution, and which has since been adopted by the Emperor Napoleon, as the only just mode for the gov ernment of States or even provinces; and the ballot-box will soon achieve what the sword cannot accomplish--restore peace to the country and uphold the great doctrines of State sovereignty and Constitutional liberty.
"If it is a question of strife whether Kentucky or Maryland or any other State shall cast her lot with the United States or the Confederate States; there is no mode of settling- it so justly, with so little cost, and with so much satisfaction to her own people, as to withdraw all military force from, her

304

CAUSES OF THE WAB,

limits and leare the decision, not to the sword, but to the ba]lot-box

ill. But if she should decide to retain her in
on wc t was oune, an wc were carre out n practice by the fathers of the Republic for the first half century of its existence.
" What Southern man can ohject to this mode of settlement? It is all that South Carolina, Virginia, or Georgia claimed when she seceded from the Union. It is all that either has at any time claimed, and all that either ever can justly claim. And what friend of Southern independence fears the result ? What has the abolition government done to cause the people of any Southern State to desire to reverse her decision and return ingloriously to its embrace V Are we afraid the people of any seceded State will desire to place the State back in the abolition union, under the Lincoln despotism, after it has devastated their fields, laid waste their country, burned their cities, slaughtered their sons, and degraded their daughters? There is no reason for such fear.
"But I may be told that Mr. Lincoln has repudiated this principle in ad vance, and that it is idle again to tender a .settlement upon these terms. This is no reason why we should withhold the repeated renewal of the prop osition. Let it be made again, and again, till the mass of the Northern peo ple understand it : and Mr,, Lincoln cannot continue to stand before them and the world, stained ith the blood of their sons, their husbands, and their

s as e rue souon o e grea proem, wc any millions of people, and will find the higher truth

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305

"If, upon the sober second"thought, the public sentiment North sustains the policy of Mr. Lincoln., when lie proposes by the power of the sword to place the great doctrines of the Declaration of Independence and the Con stitution of his country under his feet, and proclaims his purpose to govern these States by military power when he shall have obtained the consent of one tenth of the governed; Jiow can the same public sentiment condemn him, if at the head of his vast armies he shall proclaim himself Emperor of the whole country, and submit the question to the vo'e of the Northern people, and when lie has obtained, as he could easily clo, the vote o one tenth in his favor, he shall Insist 011 his right to govern them as their legitimate sover eign? 1C he is right in principle in the one case, he would unquestionably be right in the other. If he may rightfully continue the war against the South to sustain the one, why may he not as rightfully turn his armies against thy North to establish the other?
" But the timid among its may say, how are we to meet and repel his armies, if Mr. Lincoln shall continue to reject these terms and shall be sustained by the sentiment oi'the North ? as he claims not only the right to govern us, but he claims the right to take from us all th;tt we have.
" The answer is plain. Let every man do his duty ; and let us as a people place our trust in God and we shall certainly repel his assaults and achieve our independence, and if true to ourselves and to posterity we shall main tain our Constitutional liberty also. The achievement of our independence is a great object; but not greater than the preservation of Constitutional liberty.
" The good man cannot read the late proclamation of Mr. Lincoln without being struck with the resemblance between it and a similar one issued, several thousand years ago, by JJen-hadad, king of Syria. That wicked king denied in others the right of self-government; and vaunting himself in numbers, and putting his trust in chariots and horses, he invaded Israel, and besieged Samaria with an overwhelming- force. When the king of Israel, with a small band, resisted his entrance into the city, the Syrian King sent him this message : ' Thou shalt deliver me thy silver and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children ; yet I will send my servants unto thee to-morrow, about this time, and they shall search thy house, and the houses of thy serv ants ; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes they shall put in their hands and take it away.' The king of Israel consulted the elders, after receiving this arrogant message, and replied: 'This thing I may not do.* Ben-hadad enraged at this reply, and confident of his strength, sent back and said :
' ' Tho Gods do so to me, and more also, if the dnst of Samaria shall suffice, for handfuls, for all the people that follow me.' The king of Israel answered and said : ' Tell him, let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth It off.'
"The result was, that the small band of Israelites, guided by Jehovah, 20

306

SHERMAN'S INVASION.

attacked the Syrian armies, and routed them with great slaughter, and upon a second trial of strength the Syrian armies were destroyed and their king made captive.
"When Mr. Lincoln, followingtbe example of this wicked king1, and relying upon his chariots, and his horsemen, and his vast armies, to sustain a cause equally unjust, proclaims to vis, that an we have is his, and that he will send his servants, whose numbers are overwhelming, with arms in. their hands to take it, and threatens vengeance if we' resist, let us--' Tell him, let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.' * The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.* * God is the judge, he puttetb. down one and setteth up another.'
" Not doubting the justice of our cause, let us stand in our allotted places, and in the name of Him who rules the hosts of Heaven and the armies of Karth, let us continue to strike for liberty and independence, and our efforts will ultimately be crowned with triumphant success.
" JOSEPH E. BBOWK."

On the 17th November, 1864, Governor Brown sent

the following message to the legislature, to which that

body, representing the public spirit of this State, promptly

responded by the passage of the act called for, and by

placing the whole white population of the State able to do

military duty, between 16 and 55 years of age, subject to

his orders :--

To the. General Assembly i

" EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, \

jVIiLLKixJEViLLK, Nov. 7, 1864.

^

"I hare received what I consider reliable information, that the enemy has burnt and laid waste a large part of Atlanta, and o several other towns in upper Georgia, and has destroyed the State Road back to Allatoona, and burnt the railroad bridge over the Chattahoochee River, and is now advanc ing in heavy force in the direction of Macon, and probfibly of this city, lay ing waste the country and towns in the line of his march.
" The emergency requires prompt, energetic action. If the whole man hood of the State will rally to the front, we can check his march and capture or destroy his force. There are now in the State, large numbers of men not

under arms in either State or Confederate service. The class of State officers not subject to militia duty, such as judges, justices of the inferior courts, sheriffs, etc , will amount to a fine regiment.
"There are numerous others with Confederate details, not connected with the present active operations of the front, probably amounting to several regiments. All these, and every other person in the State able to bear

APPROPRIATION FOR DEFENCE.

307

arms, no matter what his position may be, should rally to the standard in the field, till the emergency is passed.
" The present militia, laws are not adequate to the occasion, and I respect fully ask the passage of a law, with the least possible delay, authorizing the Governor no make a levy en masse of the whole male population, including every msin able to do military duty, during the emergency, and to accept, for siich length of time as may be agreed upon, the services of any companies, battalions, regiments, brigades, or divisions of volunteers which may tender their services, with any number of men which he may consider effective. PJenary power should bo given to compel all to report who fail or refuse to do so.
" I respectfully suggest that the appropriation bill be taken up and passed without delay, and that a military bill o the character indicated be also passed, and that the Governor and Legislature then adjourn to the front, to aid ia the straggle till the enemy is repulsed, and to meet again if we should live at such place as the Governor may designate.
"JOSEPH E. BROWN."

On the same day the Legislature passed an act ap propriating $500,000 for the Georgia Relief and Hospital Association; $6,000,000 for indigent widows, orphans, and soldiers' families of Georgia, and disabled soldiers ; $800.000 to purchase corn for bread for counties over run by the Federal army; $1,200,000 to pay any part of the public debt to become due in 1865 ; $1,000,000 as a military fund for the State; $1,500,000 to be used in exporting cotton and other produce to pay for clothing, blankets, and other necessaries for Georgia troops, and for the purpose of accumulating exchange in Europe, to pay the interest on the sterling debt of the State, and to meet the demands of the State for railroad supplies, and authorized the issue of treasury notes to meet these sums, all of which were placed by the act under the con trol of the Governor. All these appropriations resulted from the powerful and urgent appeals of the Executive in his messages.
The military fund, and that for the relief of the in digent, and of soldiers' families, were largely increased at

308

GEORGIA'S LOSSES IN TUB AVAR.

the extra session in March, 1865, held at Macon. And the Quartermaster-General of the State was authorized to issue clothing, shoes, hats, and blankets to all Georgia soldiers in service.
As we have seen, the irregular manner of raising troops effectually prevented the estimate of their number as "well as the commands in which the Georgians served. It is also not now practical to report the number of those who died of sickness and accidents, and from wounds in battle, or the number of the maimed or disabled. It will never be pretended by any candid and well-informed person that this State suffered less than any one of her sisters in proportion to population, or ttmt on the battle fields they were less gallant, in camp and on the inarch less orderly and obedient, orin the times of trial,hardship, or affliction, less patient and enduring and uncomplaining. Her voting population at the beginning was 101,505 ; she sent a larger number than this to the field; of course many entered the service who were not voters. The confusion that followed the downfall of the Confederacy prevented any means of knowing the excess of loss by death over those coming to manhood within the four years of war.
This State sent her men, and offered her material re sources on the altar of the Confederacy. In 1861 her property was valued at $072,731,901. In 1868, the earliest period at which official reports are had, it was valued at $191,235,520 ; a loss had thus accrued in prop erty of $481,497,381 ; when to this we add the loss by repudiated securities contracted during the "war under Federal dictation, the sum of $18,135,775, and the untold amount of Confederate paper that became worthless, we approximate the material loss of this great State by the war and its results.

CONFLICT WITH THE CONFEDERACY.

309

In March, 18.64, Governor Brown In his message to the Legislature thus speaks of the matter of

CONFLICT WITH THE. CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT.
" But it may be said that an attempt to maintain the rights of the State will produce conflict with the Confederate Government. I there are those who, from motives not necessary to'be here mtJiiLioi ever ready to raise the cry of conflict, and to criticise and condemn tin

people. "Those who are unfriendly to State sovereignty and desire to consolidate
all power in the Lands of the Confederate Government, hoping to promote their undertaking by operating upon the fears of the timid, after each new aggression upon the constitutional rights of the States, fill the newspaper presses with the cry of ctr"ftlct, and warn the people to beware of those who seek to maintain their constitutional rights as agitators or pen-titans who may embarrass the Confederate Government in the prosecution of the war.
" Let not the people be deceived by this false clamor. It is the same cry of conflict which the Lincoln Government raised against all who defended the rights of the Southern States against its tyranny. It is the cry which the usurpers of power have ever raised against those who rebuke their encroach ments and refuse to yield to their aggressions.
" When did Georgia embarrass the Confederate Government in any matter pertaining to the vigorous prosecution of the war? When did she fail to furnish more than her full quota of troops, when she was called upon as a State by the proper Confederate authority? And when did her gallant sons ever quail before the enemy, or fail nobly to illustrate her character upon the battle-field ?
"She can not only repel the attacks of her enemies on the field of deadly conflict, but she can as proudly repel the assaults of those who, ready to bend the knee to power for position and patronage, set themselves up to criti cise her conduct,- and she can confidently challenge them to point to a sing'le instance in which she has failed to fill a requisition for troops made upon her through the regular constitutional channel. To the very last requisition made she responded with over double the number required.
" She stands ready at all times to do Let- whole duty to the cause and to the Confederacy; but while she does this, she will never cease to require that her constitutional rights be respected and the liberties of her people pre served. While she deprecates all conflict with the Confederate Government, if to require these be conflict, the conflict will never end till the object is attained.

310

BUOWN TRUE TO THE CONFEDERACY.
'For Freedom's battle once begun. Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft is ever won,'
upon her proud banners, until well as Confederate independ

"When bis own State was Invaded and overrun by the Fedora,! troops, under the victorious Sherman in his inarch to the sea, and when the backbone of the Confed eracy was virtually broken, and the circulation of its life blood impeded, the pulse beating low and extremities in great part paralyzed and growing cold, and the people who had sustained the Governor from the beginning of the struggle were desponding and almost bereft of a ves tige of hope, there was an incident which puts forever in the form of detraction, the pretended implication or charge that Brown was not to the last true to the Con federacy and the common cause of independence.
General Sherman made overture to him as Governor of this State for the peace of the State, and through Mr. William King invited him to a conference with a view to this consummation. We are not now treating of the mo tives of the commanding Federal general, but with the purposes and aims of Governor Brown, who had the opportunity to save himself and the State from farther devastation and ruin, by abandoning his confederates in the struggle, and acting on the line of policy then ascribed to him, not by his friends or an impartial public, but by his foes at home and in his own country.
Brown sent back to General Sherman the only reply that he could have made without falsifying his past record, his principles of public and private honor, and every emotion and sentiment of his patriotic heart : --

BKOWN TRUE TO THE CONFEDERACY.

311

" Say to General Sherman that Georgia has entered in to a confederation with her Southern sisters for the main tenance of the same sovereignty of each, severally, which she claims for herself, and her public faith thus pledged shall never be violated by me. Come weal or come woe, the State of Georgia shall never, by my consent, withdraw from the confederation in dishonor. She will never make separate terras with the enemy \vhich may free her terri tory from invasion and leave her confederates in the lurch."
Such was the decisive action of a man in high official station charged with the honor of his people, after the advancing and overwhelming forces of the public enemy had to a great extent placed it beyond himself and his confederates to save the State from widespread rnin.
After the surrender of the Confederate armies, and not before, Governor Brown surrendered to the Federal Gen eral Wilson, commanding in this State, and accepted from him his parol and retired to the mansion at Milledgeville. His parol was soon after violated by an actual arrest at his own home by Federal soldiers and taken from him. He was hurried away to Washington City and imprisoned by armed force without delay, without the privilege of conferring with his family and against his earnest protest and claim of personal liberty on his parol from the Federal commander.
He was afterwards released by President Johnson and allowed to return home, where the State was under entire military occupation, and when he was divested of all mil itary power and prevented by armed force from exercis ing any civil authority in the State ; and therefore he resigned the office that had been by overpowering force wrenched from him ; and the cause of independence for which he had so long struggled, and the hope of Constitu-

S12

FLIGHT FROM SIILLEDGEVILLE.

tional liberty as he had understood it in the nature and history of the Government and the express terms of the Federal Constitution; retired to the pursuit of private business, as did the civil officers of the State, as well as the surviving officers and soldiers of the Confederate armies.

FLIGHT FKOM MII^EDOEVJLLE.
The approach of the Federal army to the State Capital while the Legislature was in session produced a panic and a stampede of that body and caused the sudden a,nd hasty departure of the State officials, including the Governor, his family, and staff. The enemies of Governor Brown were busy in circulating' reports to damage him in the estimation of the people. It was charged against him, after his four years of labor and unrernitted efforts in the cause of liberty and independence, that he proved to be seHish in this emergency, even in the small matter of taking care of his private effects to the neglect of those of the State, which might have been saved, but which he left to fall into the hands of the enemy. The late Gen. Kichard Taylor, brother-in-law to President Davis, arid holding high military rank under him, having referred to this criticism in his book entitled " Destruction and Re construction," has given it sufficient importance to call for the publication of the facts and truths of the removal from Milledgeville.
To this end the author has solicited a statement from Gen. Ira K. Foster, the laborious, efficient, and indefatiga ble Quartermaster-General of the State during the entire war; which statement, descriptive of the situation and showing the criticism referred to to be without merit, is here given :--

FLIGHT FROM MILLEDGEVILLE.

51

CUTIIBERT, G-A., December 10, 1880.
"GEN. IRA II, FOSTER,, "Warrenton, Ala.
"Sir:--In the late Gen. Richard Taylor's book entitled ' Destruction and Reconstruction,' purporting t-o be his ' personal experiences in the late war/ describing his visit to Georgia and the confusion produced by General Shtrinan's march through the State, reference is made to a criticism upon .ExGovernor Brown, then attributed to his enemies, to the effect that, in leaving the capitol with his family, he disregarded the State's property in order to take care of his own effects ; that he even brought off his ' cow and cabbages.' He also refers in terms calculated to disparage the State troops. These matters derive importance from the high character of the gifted author, thus putting them in permanent print. I call your attention to them as the Quartermaster-Geiieral of the State, and ask a statement that will present the facts and truths as they were 111 that exciting period, in. order to do justice to this State represented by her Executive.
" Respectfully your obt. servant and friend, " HEHBEHT FIELUEK."

WAURKXTOM, ALA., January 30, 18SU. " HON. HERBERT FIELDER :
" Dear Sir:---I have received your letter of the 19th ult., calling my atten tion to the rumors that were circulated at tho time of General Sherman'd advance to the sea by way of Milledgeville, to the effect that Governor Brown in leaving the capitol with his family to escape the Federal troops, disregarded the State's property In order to take care of his own, bringing away his ' cow and cabbages.'
'*Iii answer to your request for my statement in regard thereto, I have to say--I often heard these reports, and knowing them, to be untrue I as often positively contradicted them. I was there in person, and as QuartermasterGeneral of the State had immediate and entire supervision of the work ; I have never seen more interest and anxiety manifested, or greater efforts made to accomplish any object than was shown both by Governor Brown and his wife in their endeavors to secure that property from the ravages of the opposing army.
"It is well known that Governor Brown owned no property in MilJedgeville at the time, and that he had no private interest to care for and protect ex cept his wife and children, a span of horses and carriage, a fine cow presented to his wife by a friend. These were removed only in time to save capture by the Federal troops.
" I feel ifc to be my duty to give a short history of some of the scenes at Milledgeville shortly after it was made known there that General Sherman with his army had left Atlanta, and was on his way to the sea.
" The Legislature was in session, Governor Brown and family were occupy ing the Executive Mansion, and the city was thronged with visitors. When

314

FLIGHT FKOM MILLEDGEVILLE.

hearing of the movements of the enemy the whole people became excited, reaching almost to a panic. In the afternoon of that day the Legislature promptly adjourned, the members sought their respective homes as best they could, sonie taking passage on railroad trains, others in carriages and on horseback, thereby draining the city and vicinity of wag-on transportation.
" Immediately after being assured of the enemy's advance, Governor Brown issued orders to me, as Quartermaster-General of the State, to secure and protect as best J could the most valuable of the State's perishable property in. and around the seat of government. I at once took in the situation, and was assured that nothing short of Herculean efforts could handle the vast quantity of goods and chattels at the State House, Executive Mansion, Peni tentiary, Armory, Arsenal, and in the quartermaster's and commissariat's store-houses, in so short a time, -with my limited facilities of transportation.
" Upon consideration. Governor Brown and myself agreed that the Lunatic Asylum afforded the safest and in many respects the most appropriate de pository for our immense stores.
" I, having only t\vo or three wagons and teams at .that place, immediately put them, with all others I could command from the citizens by hire, im pressment, or otherwise, to removing the property to that place, taking the most valuable first. I continued to do so with all possible rapidity for several hours, until I became convinced that from the Ion 0" distance to travel it would be utterly impossible with my limited means to remove all the goods to the asylum in the time allotted me, and so reported to Governor Brown. Upon further consultation we concluded it would be safer and a wiser policy as well as more expeditious, to haul the goods to and load them on cars (the railroad depot being much nearer than the Jisylum), keep the cars ready to move on short notice, and to remove them to southwest Georgia. We then had an engine and several cars at the depot, and others were ordered and supplied immediately. The removal to and loading on the cars was com menced and continued day and night with all the energy and rapidity possible for man to use.
" Very soon after t began, hauling goods to the depot I discovered that, from the shortness of the distance to that place, it required more men to load and unload the wagons in order to keep the teams rapidly moving, and so reported to Governor Brown, assuring him that the deficiency could not be supplied for either love or money. Whereupon he informed me the requisite number ;ould be furnished in a few minutes, as he was then preparing pardons for most of the penitentiary convicts, who would be properly equipped and put in the field under General Wayne as soon as I could dispense with their service. But the remainder of the convicts, about ten or a dozen, composed of life-time prisoners and the most noted desperadoes, would be sent to lower Georgia under heavy guard, as Ke did not think it prudent to lejave any within the walls of the penitentiary to be released by General Sheerman and turned loose against us. In a short time, therefore, a. large

FLIGHT FEOM MILLEDGEVILLE.

315

'umber of ex-convicts headed by the noted Doctor Roberts reported for duty, [ nd by their timely and efficient aid we were enabled to accomplish our great ; Bidet taking.
"The removal of the property in and around the Executive Mansion was ! the last in order. Looking around to ascertain what should be taken away, ' I discovered a luxuriant lot of collards in the garden ; and without the knowledge of Governor Brown or his wife I ordered Aunt Celia, an old colored -' took, to cut and bring them to where the wagons were being loaded. I derigned to have the last cabbage cut and put on the train if time would perBit, knowing the Governor's family would need part of them while refugeeing from place to place, and in part lor the use of my own family then camped on the line of railroad at Dawson, whither they had gone after fleeing from Atlanta before General Sherman'.s fierce march. But not for Governor Brown's and my own family alone did I wish to save and bring away the cabbages. The greater part of them I desired and hoped to give to the several hundred poor, homeless, destitute exiles, consisting of the widows and orphans of slain Georgia soldiers; families of brave ones still at the front, aged men and women, and not a few of our noble sons who had long before volunteered and gone forth in the cause of the South and, after much (offering and many hard battles, had returned diseased, maimed, and help less, to the care and protection of those for whom they had fought, had been driven from their homes in Atlanta and vicinity by order of General Sheran and left on line of railroad to Macon and below there, and who had been gathered up and taken to a place of refuge near Dawson.
"There, by order of Governor Brown, I had erected about one hundred cabins in which they were sheltered, protected, and fed at the expense of the State, under the immediate supervision of Milton A. Candler, who did his whole duty in their behalf.
"I also discovered on the premises the fine milch cow alluded to, and ad vised Mrs. Brown to^have her shipped on a stock car, as she would be of great service to her children, and as by leaving her she would be stolen or slaughtered by the Federal soldiers. Mrs. Brown assented and the caw was driven to the train and placed on the car.
" As we were loading the last wagons with furniture we received a dispatch ' that the enemy's cavalry were making rapid advances toward the Central railroad between Macon and Milledgeville ; and this reminded us to be up and off lest our entire train might be captured and we made prisoners of war. The loading of the wagons was about completed when I discovered the small pile of cabbages cut by Celia lying in the yard and had them thrown on top of the furniture, leaving at least nine tenths in the garden uncut. The wagons off in double-quick time and with wonderful dispatch unloaded on cars; steam being up we left immediately and made the trip to Macon in perhaps shorter time than any engine had ever done before.
"On reaching Macon, where a portion of the State troops were stationed, we

316

FLIGHT FKOM MlLMDGEVILM.

found that oar fearw bad been
readied and out the railroad at o
had passed only a few minutes before.
" That evening or tlie next morning our train with Governor Brown and his family went, down to Montezuma on the Southwestern railroad, and stopped on a sideling, and while there at dinner, at Mrs. Brown's table on board (lie cars, I remarked to her that she ought to have had some of our aiiHedgeville ffreens cooker! for dinner. Until then J hare no Idea that she, the Governor, or any member of the family knew they were on board the cars. They bad all left the mansion before the Jast loads of furniture were taken to the train. Kven Aunt Celia did not know that those cut and piled in the yard had been brought away. Such is the origin and history oE the cow and cabbage story.
"You allude in your letter to the work of General Taylor, and to another criticism it contains upon the Georgia State troops, and the policy he attrib utes to Governor lVro\vn of keeping them within the State under all cir cumstances : and in which he refers to the fact of their having- been outside the State, in South Carolina near Savannah, as a clever trick practised an them by General Toonihs when they did not know where they \vei-e going, and done without the authority of Governor Brown.
" This, within my personal knowledge, does great injustice to the gallant troops who were at that time in the State service, and who distinguished themselves on every battle-field from the time they entered the service until the end of the struggle. It also does injustice to that able general, Gustavus W. Smith, -who was in command of the State troops.
" After General Shermau had passed Macon on his march to the sea, I heard a conversation between Governor Brown and General Smith in reference to the use of the State troops beyond the limits of the State, in which the Gov ernor instructed General Smith in emphatic terms to use the troops to the very best of his ability to annoy and cripple Geiioral Sherman's army during their march through the State. The Governor was asked by General Smith daring the interview whether, if within his opinion the public interest and good of the cause required it, he should carry the State troops beyond the limits of the State, or whether he should confine himself within its bound aries. To which the Governor replied with great emphasis, ' Cripple the enemy all you can in the State. But if you see where any advantage can be gained, or where the common cause can be served by carrying- them into South Carolina, or tp any point beyond the limits of the State, do not hesi tate a moment, bttfc""act promptly, and do all yon can for Georgia and the
Con fed er acy / " At that time General Wayne's brigade was in front of General Sherman
between Macon and Savannah, doing all they could to guard the bridges on the Central railroad. And the body of the State militia were at Macon, where they remained in the trenches for the protection of the city until Sherman's

FLIGHT FROM MILLEDGEVILI/E.

31?

army had passed. They were then thrown rapidly by rail into Shermaii's

front near Savannah, and, as is well known to the country, were carried by

General Smith across the Savannah river into South Carolina, where they

fought a gallant battle and defeated the Federal general in command with

heavy iossea. They were then brought back to Savannah, and did all they

could fur the fortification of that city. When Shopman's army beleaguered

the city, they were, as I am well informed, carried across on a pontoon bridge

into South Carolina, and did all they could to annoy the enemy in that State

up to about the time of the surrender. I am informed on the moat re

liable authority that there waa no drawing back or murmuring on the part

of the State troops when the order came to march across the river inLo South

Carolina. .But that they moved forward gallantly and cheerfully to dis

charge that important duty as they had hitherto done in every instance when

duty called.

Tours respectfully,

" TRA H. FOSTEII."

CHAPTER X.
CORRESPONDENCE OF GOVJERXOB BBOWX Ayn JAMES A. SEDDON, SECKJSTABT OF WAR, 1864.
Upon the invasion of Georgia and the approach of overwhelming forces, under command of General Sherman. to the city of Atlanta, Governor Brown called out the State militia, the boys down to the ago of sixteen and old men up to fifty-five years of age, and the State officials--some of whom hail been elected or appointed after being discharged for disability in the Confederate service, and others who had held civil office azicl had not been in the arrny. This force, such as elsewhere were non-combatants, in Georgia, under her Governor, was called to the post of imminent danger and hardship, and responded with great promptness. It amounted to about ten thousand men, organized in companies and regiments, choosing their own officers by election. They were under Major-General Gustavus W. Smith, writh General Robert Toombs as chief of staff, both of whom, having; held com mands in the Confederate army, had resigned, and ac cepted commands of the State militia. But all under the command, for the emergency that called them out, of the Confederate General Johnston, until his removal, and afterward of General Hood--doing noble and gallant ser vice, suffering groat losses and hardships.
President Davis, with all the volunteer forces--inde pendent commands--o this State, all the requisitions previously made more than filled, and all the arms-bear-

CORRESPONDENCE.

319

ing men liable to conscription under Confederate laws, except the civil and rnilitia officers already in service, made through Mr. Seddon, Secretary of War, a requisi tion upon Governor Thrown for these troops to be turned over to the Confederate Government. The correspond ence that ensued is pertinent and full of interest upon the subject of Georgia and the Confederacy. Hence we give it entire :--

CORRESPONDENCE.

"CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, >

AVAR DEPARTMENT.

>

RICHMOND, VA., August oG, ISGi. )

"HIS EXCELLENCY J. E. BROWN", "GovEiixou OF GEORGIA, " Milledgeville, Georgia.

" Sir.'--The condition of your State, subjected to formidable invasion and meruiced with destructive raids in different directions by the enemy, requires the command of all the forces that can be summoned for defence. From recent official correspondence submitted to the Department, it appears, on your state ment, that you have organized ten thousand or more of the militia of your St;ite, and I am instructed by the President to make requisition on you. for that number, a,ud such further force of militia, to repel invasion, ns you mav be able to organize, for Confederate service. Those within the limits of General Hood's Department will report to him; those outside, to the Commandaufc of the Department of South Carolina and Georgia.
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, " JAMKS A. SKDDOJT, " Secretary of War."

" EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 7 MII.LKIKSEVILX.E, GA., September 12, 1864. |
"HOX. JAMES A. SEDDON, SECRETARY OF WAR.
"Sir:---Your letter of the 30th of last month only reached me by last mail,
"You refer to the Tact that T. have organised ton thousand o the min'tia of this State, and say you are instructed by the President to make requisition upon me for that number and such other force of militia to repel invasion as I may be able to organize.
"You preface th5s requisition by the remark that the condition of my

320

CORRESPONDENCE OF GOV.

State, subjected to formidable invasion and menaced with destructive raids in different directions by the enemy, requires the command of all the forces
that can be summoned for defence. " In common with the people of Georgia, I have abundant reason to regret
that the President has been so late in making this discovery. This 'formid able invasion ' commenced in May last, and has steadily forced its way, by reason of overwhelming numbers, through the most fertile section of Georgia, till its leader js now in possession of the city of Atlanta, menacing the centre of the State, threatening by his winter campaign to cut the last line of railroad that connects Virginia and the Carolinas with Alabama and Mis sissippi. The President, during must of the time since the campaign against Atlanta began, has had at his command a large force, said to number some 30,000 men, in Texas and Louisiana. Since the brilliant victories achieved by oar armies in the latter State early in the season, this large; force has had no enemy to confront, except the troops of a few garrisons, who were in. no condition to penetrate the interior of the country or do any serious damage. He has also, if correctly reported, had about 20,000 men under General Early invading Maryland and Pennsylvania, thereby uniting Northern sentiment against us and aiding President Lincoln to rally his people to reinforce his armies. About the same time General Morgan was raiding in Kentucky, and. General Forrest, the great cavalry leader, has been kept in Northern Mis sissippi to repel raids after the country had been so often ovet-run as to leave but little public property for them to destroy.
"Titus, reversing the rule upon which most great generals who have been successful have acted, of rapid concentration of his forces at vital points to destroy the invading army, the President has scattered his forces from Texas to Pennsylvania while a severe blow was being struck at the heart of the Confederacy ; and Atlanta has been sacrificed and the interior of Georgia thrown open to further invasion for want of reinforcements to the army of Tennessee. Probably few intelligent men in the country, except the Presi dent and his advisers, have failed to see that if Generals Forrest and .Morgan had been sent to destroy the railroads ovev which General Sherrnan's sup plies have been transported for three hundred miles through an enemy's country, and to keep the roads cut for a few weeks, and at the same time the forces of General K. Ivirby Smith and Major-General Early, or even half of them, had been sent to reinforce General Johnston, or, after he was super seded, General Hood, the army of invasion might not only have been re pulsed and driven back, but routed and destroyed.
" This would instantly have relieved Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Ten nessee from invasion and raids, and have thrown open the green fields of Ken tucky for the support of our gallant troops. As the army of General Sherman is the only protection provided by the Lincoln government for the Western States, and as the battle for the possession of. a large portion of the Mississippi Valley, as well as of the Gulf States, was to be fought in Geor-

AHD THE SECRETARY OF WAK.

321

gia, justice, not only to the people of Georgia, but the people of all the States, required that all the troops which were not actually necessary to the defence o Richmond, and to huld the enemy in check at the most vital points on the coast, should have been concentrated for the destruction of the Federal army in Georgia, which would, in all probability, have brought the war to a speedy termination.
"I have begged the President to send reinforcements to the army for the defence of Atlanta ever since the enemy were at Etowah. But a verv small number have been sent, and, if I am correctly informed, part of the troops un der General Hood's command have been ordered from this to other States.
" While we have been sorely pressed by the enemy, a camp of 30,000 Federal prisoners has been kept in the rear of our army, which has added greatly to our embarrassments, and has it seems required all the small force of Confed erate reserves, organized by Major-General Cobb, with other occasional reinforcements, to guard them. The reserve force organized under the late Conscript Act for the State defence has been thus employed, I presume, by order of the President, and in the hour of her peril Georgia has not had a single one of them at the front withjunusket in his Iiand to aid in her defence. Had the nailitia been at his command for such service as he might have ordered, and a.t such place as he might designate, the presumption is that the same re mark might have been applicable to them, as other employment could, as in case of the local companies under the President's command, have been found for them at other places while the enemy were besieging Atlanta.
" Another remarkable fact deserves attention. JJuring1 the whole march of the enemy upon Atlanta, and for more than a month after it was closely in vested and shelled by the enemy, it never seems to have occurred to the Pres ident to make requisition upon me for the militia of Georgia to aid in re pelling this 'formidable invasion' or these 'destructive raids,' and it is only when he is informed that I have an organization of gallant, fearless men, ready to defend the State against usurpations of power as well as invasions by the enemy, that he makes requisition upon me for this force and all others I can organize. I must express niy astonishment, however, that you and the President should seem to be ignorant of the fact that this force was organized by me to aid in repelling the army of invasion, that it was placed by me un der the command of General Johns ton and afterwards of General Hood for the defence of Atlanta, and that the brave men of which it is composed, under . the command of the general appointed by the President for the defence of the city, have taken their full share in the dangers, fatigues and sufferings of the campaign, and have acted with distinguished valor both upon the battle field and for over forty days in the trenches around the city of Atlanta, and that they formed the rear guard when Atlanta was evacuated, and brought off with tliem safe and in good order the reserve artillery of the army which was especially intrusted to them by the Commander-in-Chief. For all this no word of thanks or praise comes from, the President to encourage them. They
21

322

CORRESPONDENCE OF GOV. BROWN

were militia. Their generals and other officers were not appointed by the President and their services are ignored by him.
" In making this requisition it is quite clear that it was no part of the Pres ident's object to get these brave men into service. They were there at the time, in the trenches, among those who were nearest to the enemy, where they never faltered in a single instance. It was not done to produce harmony in the command, for the most perfect harmony lias existed between me and both the generals who have commanded the army since the militia were called out, and it is -well known that I placed them for the time under tlje absolute control of the Confederate General commanding. It was not done to increase the number in service at the front, for the President is too familiar with the obstacles thrown in my way by Confederate officers when I have attempted to compel men tq go to the trenches, to have committed this mistake. It was certainly not done to cause Georgia to furnish her quota of troops re quired in like proportion of other States, for she has already furnished more than her just quota, and to every call responded with more than were required, while she lias borne the rigors of conscription executed with as much severity as in any other State. I hear of no similar requisition having been made upon any other State. While Georgia has more than filled every requisition inade upon, her in common with her sixter States, and has borne her full share of conscription, and has for months had her reserved militia under arms from sixteen to fifty-five years of age, I am informed that even the Confederate re serves of other States from seventeen to eighteen, and from forty-five to fifty, have till very lately been permitted by the President to spend much of their time at home attending to their ordinary business. "Without departing from legitimate inquiry as to the cause of this requisition, I might ask why this distinction is made against the good people of this State, and why her Con federate reserves are kept constantly in service, and why requisition is made for her whole militia, when the same is not required of any other State. It is quite clear that it was not made either to compel the State to do her just pttvt, which she has always done, or to put more o her sons into active service for her defence, for every man called for by the requisition was in service be fore it was made. The President must then have had some other motive in making the requisition, and I think it not uncharitable under all the circum stances to conclude that the object was to grasp into his own hands the en tire control of the whole reserve militia of the State, which would enable him to disband its present organization, and place in power over it his own par tisans and favorites as major-generals, brigadier-generals etc., etc., in place of the distinguished officers who were appointed to command in conformity to the Constitution of the country and the laws of the State, and who have commanded the organization with so much honor to themselves, satisfaction to the troops, and advantage to the public service.
" Again, it is worthy of remark that the requisition is made upon me for the whole militia of the State--all I have organized and all I can organize--

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without limitation of time or place of service. If I comply with it the militia of Georgia, after the President has obtained absolute control over them, may be taken for the war from their State, as t^ns of thousands of their bn.vj fellow citizens no.v are, while Georgia and their homes are being overran. If I am asked to trust the sound judgment and good faith of the President for their discharge and return to their homes at such times as their services are not indispensable in the military field, I cannot forget the faith that was violated last fall to thousands of Georgians who were organized under a requisition from the President to be ' employed in the local defence of important cities, and in repelling in emergencies the sudden or transient in cursions of the enemy/ to be employed 'only when and so long- as they might be needed,* ' with the privilege of remaining at home in the pursuit of their ordinary avocations unless when called for a temporary exigency to active duty.'
" Thousands of these men, organized for sis months' service with the guarantees above mentioned, were called out early in September last and were kept constantly in service till the expiration of their term in March. During most of the time they were guarding no important city. There was no sudden emergency or transient incursion of the enemy, no exigency for the last four months of the time, and still they were kept in service in viola tion of the faith that had been pledged to them, and were denied the privi lege of going home or attending to the ' pursuit of any of their ordinary avocations,' and this too after the contract under which they had entered the service had been pressed upon the consideration of the President.
"It is impossible for the agricultural and other industrial pursuits of the people to be saved from ruin if the whole reserve militia of the State from 16 to 55 are put permanently into the service as regular troops. Judging from the past, I cannot place them at the command of the President for the war without great apprehension that such would be their fate. Indeed, not even the President's promise to the contrary is found in tlie requisition you now make. I am not, therefore, willing to expose the whole reserve militia of Georgia to this injustice, and our agricultural and other interests to ruin when no other State is required to make any such sacrifice or to fill any such requisition.
" The Constitution of the Confederate States authorizes the States as well as the Confederacy to keep troops in time of war when actually invaded, as Georgia now is. Her militia have been organized and called into active service under her own laws for her own defence, and I do not feel that I am authorized to destroy her military organization at the behest of the President, or to surrender to him the command of the troops organized and re tained by her by virtue of her reserved power for her own defence when greatly needed for that purpose, and which are her only remaining protec tion against the encroachments of centralized power. I therefore decline to comply with or fill this extraordinary requisition. While I refuse to gratify

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the President's ambition in this particular, and to surrender the last vestige of the sovereignty of the State by placing the remainder of her militia under his control for the war, I beg to assure you that I shall not hesitate to order them to the front, and tltey wiil not shun the thickest of the fight when the enemy is to be met upon the soil of their beloved State. Nor will I withhold them from the temporary command of the Confederate general who eontrols the army during great emergencies when he needs their aid.
" I shall, however, retain the power to withdraw them and to furlough or disband them for a time to look to their agricultural and other vital interests which would otherwise be ruined by neglect, whenever I see they can be spared from the military field without endangering the safety of the State, Of this the Governor of the State at jYIilledgevUle, where ho is near tine field of operations and can have frequent interviews with the commanding gen eral, ought to be as competent to judge as the President of the Confederacy some hundreds of miles from the scene of action, charged with the defence of Kichmoud and all the other responsibilities which require his attention and divide his time.
" Georgia now has upon the soil of Virginia nearly fifty regiments of as brave troops as ever met the enemy in deadly conflict, not one of which ever faltered in the hour of trial. She has many others equally gallant aiding in the defence of other States. Indeed, the blood of her sons has crimsoned almost every battle-field east of the Mississippi from the first Manassas to the fall of Atlanta, Her gallant sons who still survive are kept by the President's orders far from her soil while their homes are being overrun, their wives and children driven out before the enemy and reduced to beggary and want, and their almost idolized State exposed to temporary subjugation and ruin. Experience having sUown that the army of Tennes see with the aid of the militia force of the State is not able to withstand and drive back the overwhelming numbers of the army of invasion, as the Exec utive of Georgia, in behalf of her brave sons now absent in other States as well as of her whole people at home, I demand as an act of simple justice that such reinforcements be sent as are necessary to enable the army upon her soil to stop the progress of the enemy and dislodge arid drive bins back. In view of the fact that the permanent possession of Georgia by the enemy not only ruins her people, but cuts the Confederacy east of the Mississippi in two, and strikes a death blow at the Confederate Government itself, I trust this most reasonable request will ba granted. If, however, I should be informed that the President will send no reinforcements and make no further effort to strengthen our defences, I then demand that lie permit all the sons of Georgia to return to their own State and within her own limits to rally around her glorious flag--atid as it nutters in the breeze in defiance of the foe, to strike for their wives and their children, their homes and their altars, and the 'green graves' of their kindred and sires; and I as their Executive promise that whoever else may be withdrawn from her defence, they will

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drive the enemy back to her borders, or, overwhelmed and stricken down, they will nobly perish in one last grand and glorious effort to wrest the standard of her liberties and independence from the grasp of the oppressor and plant it immovably upon her sacred soil.
" I am very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, "JOSEPH E. BKOWX."

" CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, "WAR DEPARTMENT,
Kicnaroxi>, October 8, 1S64. "HIS EXCELLENCY J. E. BROWN,
"GOVERNOR op GEORGIA, " Milledgeville, Ga.
" Sir :---Your letter of the 12th ult. reached me some days since. Its tenor and spirit have caused painful surprise. It requires forbearance in reply to maintain the respect I would pay your station and observe the official pro priety you have so transcended. I shall seek to notice only such portions as appropriately pertain to aii official communication.
" The department, on the 30th of August, under the direction of the Presi dent, made a requisition upon you for the entire militia "which had been or should be organised by you, that they might be employed to repel the ' for midable invasion* of Georgia by the enemy, and to secure her from 'de structive raids.' The requisition was for militia in a state of organization. The appointment of the officers of militia is secured by the Constitution to the State from which they are drawn, and in proposing to accept organized militia, the officers legally appointed would necessarily accompany their commands.
."The inducements to this call were several. You had in official commu nication stated1 that you had ten thousand militia organized, and you were known to be apparently busy in organizing others. Of these, a portion, it was known, were with the army of Tennessee in some auxiliary relation, and had rendered valuable service with that army iu the defence of Georgia. Only a limited number, however, not believed to constitute half of the number reported by you to be actually organised, were so employed, and were, as has been announced by you, held there only at your pleasure, and for such time and during such operations as you might approve. The services of these gallant defenders of their State were so appreciated as to render it desirable that the full number, organised or to be organized, should be secured to repel the formidable invasion threatening to overrun the State; and both to impart greater unity and efficiency to the command of them and enable the general commanding to rely on the period and tenure of their services, it was necessary they should be in Confederate service, and subject not to your judgment or disposal, but to the control of the constitutional comrnaiider-in-

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chief. It is easy to see how uncertainty as to their control or retention must impair reliance by tle commander on these troops, and embarrass all calculations for their employment and efficiency in combined operations. An additional ground of the call was that some of these troops had been detailed for objects not admitted by the enrolling officers in the State to be authorized by Confederate law, and others were claimed as primarily liable, or previously subjected to Confederate service. Tins had engendered con troversy, and endangered collision between the local, Confederate and State authorities which it was most desirable to anticipate aud preclude.
"Besides, these militia, as far as they were serving the Confederate army, had to be subsisted from the commissary stores of the Confederacy, and might equitably expect pay from its treasury ; but if held as State troops only, both subsistence and pay constituted a charge on the State alone.
"Serious embarrassments had already arisen OH these very points, iwjd de parture had been necessary from the regular obligations of the Confederate Government, which were not just to either that Government or its disbursing officers. The powers of the Confederate Government to provide for the common defence are exercised according to laws through agencies adopted by Congress. None of these laws contemplated the fulfilment of thisv duty, by troops organized and held by the State in its own service, and under officers responsible only to it.
"The Constitution of the Confederate States does n< the power to keep troops in time of war. The State * keeping troops or ships of war in time of peace, ei ment or compact with another State, or with a foreign war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent dange-r a delay.' The power of keeping troops in time of war is naturally includes whatever is necessary to accomplish the object of the reser vation, and is limited in its scope and operation only by the Constitution of the Confederate States 'and the laws which shall be made in pursuance thereof.' It does not imply any withdrawal from the Confederate Govern ment, of those instrumentalities and agencies that the Constitution has con fided to the Government of the Confederacy for the fulfilment of the obligations it has imposed upon it.
"The powers to declare war, to raise armies, to maintain a navy, to make rules for the government of the land and naval forces, to make rules concern ing captures on land and water, to protect each of the States against in vasion, which are deposited with Congress, manifest the purpose of the States in forming their Constitution, to charge the Confederate Government with the burden of providing1 for the common defence. The clause in the Consti tution relative to the militia was framed in harmony with the same purpose. The Constitution charges Congress with the organization, equipment, and diecipline of tfie militia, and designates the President as Commander-iii-Chief of those that may be called into service.

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"It was evidently the design of the Constitution, and of the laws o Con gress, in pursuance thereof, which are the supreme laws of the land, that the President should have the discretion and the power of calling this militia into service, and having personally or through Confederate commanders, the disposition and command of them. In a crisis of great peril, and in a case of plain invasion of your State, he has exercised this power, and made the Constitutional requirements on you. You have met it with a distinct refusal.
"This is the first instance in the annals of the Confederacy of the sug gestion of a doubt on' the right of the President to make such call, and the obligation of compliance by the State Executive.
" During the last war with Great Britain, a question of the kind was made by the Governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut with the President of the then United States. They claimed to decide whether the exigencies existed which authorized the President to make a requisition for militia to repel in~ vasious, and denied his power to associate them with other troops under a Federal officer. They affected to believe the exercise of such a power, im perilled State rights, and promoted persona? ambition. The judicial tribunals determined adversely to the pretensions of these Governors, and the country did not fail to discover, lurking under their specious pretences, hostility scarcely less than criminal to the constituted authorities of the Union, an un licensed ambition in themselves, and a dangerous purpose, in the midst of war, to cripple patriotic efforts for the public defence. The impression was not wanting, either then or since, that they were even in communication with the enemy, or at least proposed to give them eticouragement and moral support.
" Without imputing to you such designs, I cannot repress apprehensions of similar effects from your analogous course under the present more trying circumstances, as indeed it must be admitted 11 all particulars, and especially 011 the main point of the existence of invasion, there was more plausibility in their case than in yonrs, on the grounds assigned for refusal.
" On analyzing your Excellency's letter, it is apparent that the prominent and influencing reasons of your action, spring from a spirit of opposition to the government of the Confederate States, and animosity to the Chief Mag istrate \vhom the people of the Confederacy have honored by their choice and confidence. Your reasons may be reduced to the following:
" 1. That the campaign in Georgia, not having been controlled by the President, according to your conceptions or with the means you advised, you will not permit any force yon can control to be subject to his disposition, but will yourself retain their control and mete out your assistance according to your views of policy and State interest.
" 2. That you suspect the President of a design, after the reception of these militia, to disorganize or disband them that he may displace the officers commanding them and substitute his partisans and favorites.

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" 3. You apprehend that these militia, under the President's control, will be employed for such length of time and under such conditions as will be delete rious to the interests of themselves and the State, and esteem yourself a bet ter judge cm these points, especially as to when and where they shall be employed, fuvkmghed, or discharged, etc.
"4. That these troops, besides being necessary as a defence against inva sion, are also necessary to defend the State against usurpations of power and as ' a protection against the encroachment of centralized power,' and that the knowledge of the President of their ability and disposition to do this was the motive for the call on you.
"In reference to the first, it might not be safe, as it would not be expedi ent, now to expose the circumstances of the present campaign, the counsels that guided, or the resources that have been or could be commanded for its operations.
' None should hare known, more certainly than your Excellency the zeal and energy with which the President and this department, under his auspices, have striven to command resources and means for the defence of G-eoJ'gia and the overthrow of the invader, nor the impediments and difficulties often un fortunately resulting from the obstruction of the local authorities which they had to encounter. Aware early of the danger that menaced the State, be sides concentrating troops from other departments for its defence, this department strained all the powers Tested in ifc for recruiting the army within the limits of Georgia and accumulating supplies for its support. The legislation of the Congress that ended its session in February last had been comprehensive and vigorous.
"Your Excellency cannot have forgotten how that legislation was de nounced and the efforts of the department impaired by the countervailing action of the Executive and local authorities of your State- To the depart ment It cannot be impiited as a fault that Georgia was invaded by ' over whelming numbers/ The ten thousand militia you boast to have organized, without adding to the count those you are proceeding to organize, if incor porated with the veteran regiments prior to the first of May, would have been an invaluable acquisition to the tinny of Tennessee and not improbably have hurled back the invader from the threshold of your State. That they, or a large proportion of them at least, were not ready for that service and other auxiliary means to its operations were not afforded, I am bound to think was due to the obstacles and embarrassments interposed by your Excellency arid the local authorities, with your countenance, to the enforcement of the Acts of Congress for the recruitment and maintenance of the armies. Your Ex cellency may not have foresee^ and realized the extent and import of the approachmg invasion, but to whom then with, most safety and wisdom, (apart even from constitutional obligation) can the disposition and command of the troops in question be committed?
" In your second reason it is difficult to find anything but the ascription

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to the President of an unworthy design--a design that cannot be accom plished without disappointing the objects which I have explained as the cause of the requisition. The disbanding of the militia organizations after their call into service would result in the discharge of such of the men as are not liable to service under the Act of Congress of February last, arid those who are liable, in such an event, would be placed in those veteran regiments raised for Confederate service in the State o Georgia prior to Ariri], 1862, whose diminished numbers attest the fidelity, valor, and suffering with which they have performed their duty. "Whether, therefore, the militia be retained in their miJitia organizations, as is contemplated, or be disbanded as you ap prehend may be done, iii neither event can new organizations be made or new officers appointed. Your suspicions as to the motives and designs of the President are simply chimerical.
"In your third reason your Excellency has apparently forgotten the true inquiry, where, constitutionally and legally itt all such matters, the discretion, of decision is lodged, and further, that a provision adequate in the view of Congress against abuse has been provided in the limitation of time for which the militia may be called out to sis months. In illustrating the danger of undue detention, in Confederate Service your Excellency refers to the course pursued towards the troops for local service enlisted 'by you last fall under a call from the department. During the last winter your Excellency addressed to this department an acrimonious letter oil this subject, which was replied to ia a spirit of forbearance and with a careful abstinence from the use of recriminating language.
"Justice to myself demands that I should place upon the records of the department the facts to which you have again alluded in the same language of acrimonious reproach. It had been designed to raise troops for special defence and local service as the general rule throughout the State, to consti tute a part of the provisional army, and to be subject to the call of the President when needed. You asked to supervise and control the whole matter, arid unfortunately the privilege was yielded.
"You abused it to form nondescript organizations, not conforming to the regulations of the provisional army, scant in men and abounding in officers, with every variety of obligation for local service, generally of the most re stricted character, and for the brief period of only sis months. Thus it was that you were enabled to indulge the vain boast of raising some sixteen thou sand men for the defence of the State, while in fact scarce a decent division of four thousand men could be mustered for the field, and those only for six months' service. From the time they were passed to Confederate service there was pressing necessity for their presence in the field, for Georgia was not only menaced, but actually invaded, and the number was too limited to allow substitution or furlough. Apart from this, you persistently claimed that they should be held and regarded as militia. In that view, they could not if dismissed be recalled on emergency as local troops, and this

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naturally induced their detention for the full period of their limited term of service.
" To your last reason I refrain from replying as its character would justify. I cannot think the significancy of the language quoted has been duly appre ciated by your Excellency. I prefer to consider them as inconsiderate utter ances rather than the foreshadowing of a guilty purpose to array your State in armed antagonism against the Confederacy, and so to betray the cause of herself and sister States.
" Such purpose I know would be scorned and rebuked by her heroic sol diery and loyal people, and it will not, while it be possible to avoid it, be ascribed by me to one whose official station makes him their recognized or gan. I must, however, gravely regret that the spirit of your Excellency's past action and public expressions has caused grievous misconceptions in relation to the feelings and purposes of yourself, and perhaps of others of influence in your State, in the convictions of our enemies to their encourage ment, and the mortification of many patriotic citizens of the Confederacy.
"Our enemies appear to have conceived you were even prepared to enter tain overtures of separate accommodation, and that your State, so justly proud of its faith, valor and renown, could be seduced or betrayed to treach ery and desertion. So painful a manifestation of the hopes inspired by your indulgence of resentments and suspicions against the Confederate Adminis tration will, it is hoped, awaken to consideration and a change of future action. To the department it would be far more grateful, instead of being engaged in reminding of constitutional obligations and repelling unjust imputationp, to be co-operating with your Excellency in a spirit of unity and confidence, in the defence of your State and the overthrow of the invader.
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, "JAMES A. SEDDON", " Secretary of War."

"EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
MlLLEDGEVJLLE, GA.,
November 14,186-1. " HON". JAMES A. SEDDON, SECRETARY OF WAR.
" Sir.---Official engagements have prevented earlier attention to your letter of 8th ulfc., which reached me on the 20th.
" Yon are pleased to characterize a portion of my letter as acrimonious, and claim that I have transcended the bounds of official propriety, and seem to desire me to understand that you labor under difficulties in, restraining your self within the bounds of forbearance in your reply. As the acrimony of my letter consisted in a simple narrative of truths, communicated in a plain straightforward manner, calling things by their right name, I feel that I am due you no apology. Of course no personal disrespect was intended. I am dealing not with individuals, but with great principles, and -with, the conduct

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of an administration of the government, of which your department is but one branch. And if you will not consider the remark acrimonious, I will add that the people of my State, not being dependent, and never intending to be, upon that government for the privilege of exercising their natural and Constitutional rights, r>or the Executive of the State for his official ex istence, I shall on all occasions feel at liberty to exercise perfect independ ence in the discharge of my official obligations, with no other restraints than those thrown around me by ;i sense of duty, and the Constitution of my country, and the laws of ray State.
14 You remark that this is the fii'st instance in the annals of the Confederacy of a suggestion of a doubt on the right of the President to make such a call, and the obligation of compliance by the State Executive. > Doubtless you are right, as this is unquestionably the first instance in the annals of either the old or mnv Confederacy of suc7i a call, made by the President. It pre sents the isolated case of an attempt by the President to single out a partic ular State, and, by grasping into his own hands its whole military strength, to divest it of its last vestige of power to maintain its sovereignty ; not only denying to it the right plainly reserved in the Constitiition to keep troops in time of war when actually invaded, but claiming the power to deprive it of its whole rnilitia and leave it not a man to aid in the execution of its laws, or to suppress servile insurrection in its midst.
"The President demands that Georgia shall turn over to him, and relin quish her command and control over every militiaman now organized by her Executive, and all he may be able to organize. The militia is composed mainly oi' a class of men and boys, between ages not subject by the laws of Congress or of the State to serve in the Confederate armies. The President calls for all the State has of the above description. As no such requisition was ever before made upon any State, and it probably never entered into the mind of any statesman that such a call ever would be made, it never became necessary to question the right to make it.
" You cite the case of the refusal of the Governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut, during the last- war with Great Britain, to furnish troops for the common defence upon the requisition of the President of the United Slates, and say it must be admitted that my course is analogous to theirs * in all particulars,' and that there was more plausibility in their case than in mine, on the grounds assigned for refusal. Let us test this statement by the standard of truth. You say the cases are analogous * in all particulars.' I deny that they ace analogous in any particuJar, To show the character of that call, I quote the language of President Monroe :
" ' It will be recollected that when a call was made on the militia of that State, for .service in the war, under an arrangement-which was alike appli cable to the militia of all the Slates, and in conformity with the acts of Con gress, the Executive of Massachusetts refused to comply with the call.' That, then, was a call under an arrangement alike applicable to the militia of all the

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States. This is not a call made under an arrangement alike applicable to the militia of all t?,e States, or indeed of any of the other States. This is a call for all the militia which the Executive of Georgia has organized or -may be able to organize. No such call was made by the President upon the militia of any other State. The analogy fails then at the very first step. But let us trace it a little further. That was a call for men within the age required to do military service in the armies of the United States. This is a call for men who are exempt by act of Congress from all service in the Confederate armies, and of whom it is expressly declared, by an act of the Legislature of Georgia, that they shall not be ' liable to any draft or other compulsory process to Jill any requisition for troops upon the Governor of the State by the President of the Confederate States.' That was a call which the Presi dent could legally make, and which the Governors had lawful authority to fill. This is a call which the President had no lawful right to make, and which the Governor could not fill without violating a positive statute of his State. That was a call for active militia who were not in service, but were at home attending to their ordinary pursuits. This is a call for reserve militia, who, at the time it was made and for months past, had been in actual service--most of the time in the trenches around Atlanta, under the constant fire of the guns of the enemy. In that case, the Governors of. iTassachusetts and Connecticut refused to place the militia of those States under the command of a Federal general. In this case the militia had already been placed by the Governor of Georgia under the command of a Confederate general, where they were on the very day the call was made, and had been for some months previous.
"In that case, the Governors of those States adjudged that no emergency existed to Justify the call for the militia, after the President had decided that

them in, months before the President saw the emergency arid called for th< services of the militia. In that case, the President was making an honest effort to get the militia of Massachusetts and Connecticut into service, to aid in repelling any assaults that might be made by the enemy. In this
al influence
to get the militia of Georgia out of service, where they were confronting the enemy and shedding their blood in the defence of their State.
" When they were in the trenches under the fire of the enemy, the Presi dent held out, as a reward for their delinquency iu case of their desertion from the State militia and return home, a guarantee of the privilege of re maining there in local companies, to be called out only in emergencies to defend their own counties and vicinage.
"I append to this letter, paragraph 1, General Order No. 63, and a para-

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graph of General Order No. 67, by reference to which it will be seen that all detailed men were required, and all exempts from Confederate service invited to enroll themselves in local companies afe home, with promise that they should be called out only in emergencies to defend the counties of their
residence and contiguous counties. " The p -eseut militia of Georgia are composed of exempts from Confederate
service and such detailed men as are not in the military service of the Con federate States. The militia, of the State, then at the front, was composed of men of these classes only. The order was addressed to all men of both classes. The President denied the right of the Governor of Georgia to call out the detailed men for service, and would, if consistent, stand ready to pro tect them In case they would desert the militia service and return home and join his local companies. Thus the strong temptation of remaining at Lioiiie was held out by the President to these men if they would ino-loriously aban don Atlanta when beleaguered by the enemy, and, after desertion from the militia, enlist in Confederate service, which would give the President the en tire command of them and enable him to destroy the militia organization of the State. .Fortunately, the temptation succeeded in inducing but a small portion of the militia to desert and return home. They were generally true men and stood gallantly by their colors, knowing their country needed their services at the front and not in local companies in the rear. General Order No. 03 was issued on the 6th of August and was followed by General Ordfjr No. 67 on the 16th of the same month. The President then waited two weeks and as the militia still remained in the trenches around Atlanta lie found it necessary to change his policy and resort to a requisition upon me for the whole militia of the State as tlie only means left of accomplishing- his
objects. " President Madison offered rjosimh inducements to and made no .such requi
sition upon the militia of Massachusetts and Connecticut. So mnch for the analogy of the two cases. But you. are as unfortunate in your facts as in your analogy, as will be further seen by your statement that the 'judicial tribunals determined adversely to the pretensions of the Governors.' lly ref erence to the 8th volume Massachusetts lieports Supplement, page 549, you -will rind that the Judges of the supreme court of that, State had the case before them and determined every poit made by Governor Strong in bis favor and ' adversely to the pretensions ' of the President.
"But you remind me that the 10,000 militia, which you say I had organ ised, with those I was proceeding- to organize, if incorporated with the veteran regiments prior to the first of May, would have been an invaluable acquisi tion to the army of Tennessee and not improbably have hurled back the invaders from the threshold of my State. If this were true and the movemerits and strength of. the enemy were so much Letter understood by the 1'resident than by myself, as you would have the country believe, why was ifc that the President made 110 call for the militia in May when the armies were

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above Dalton ? Why was the call delayed till the 30th of August, two days beforu Atlanta fell, and then mailed to me too late to reach Miliedgeville till aEter the fall? If the control of the whole militia of the State by*the Pres ident was so essential to the defence of Atlanta, how do you account for the neglect of the President to call for them till after the campaign had ended ID the surrender of the city to the enemy?
" Seeing that the President did not seem to appreciate the emergency and the danger to Atlanta, upon, consultation with that far-seeing general and distinguished soldier, Joseph E. Johnston, I had ordered the militia to report to him and aid the gallant army of Tennessee. ] first ordered out the civil and military officers of the State, when the armies were near Dalton, and afterwards called out the reserved militia, including aJl between sixteen and fifty-five years of age, when they were at Kennesaw, During all this time and for nearly two months afterwards no call was made by the President for thenservices. If the statements you now make are correct, surely such neglect by the President in so critical au emergency involves little less than, criminality,
" Again you state as one of the inducements to the call that T had stated in official correspondence that I had ten thousand militia organized--that a por tion of these were known to be with the army of Tennessee in some auxiliary relation--only a limited number, however, not believed to constitute half the number reported by me to be actually organized.
"You are again incorrect in your facts and, unfortunately, ignorant of the strength of the force that was under your command.
"In the official -correspondence to which I suppose you allvide, 1 did not state that I had organised ten thousand militia. The language used was, 'nearly ten thousand armed men.' At that time the two regiments of the State Line, who are regular troops for the war, numbered nearly fifteen hun dred. They too were placed tmder the Confederate commander and nearly five hundred of them while under his command have been disabled or lost upon the battle-field. Hut if I had made the statement as you incorrectly charge, it would have been true,
"The tri-rnonthly report forwarded by Major-General G. "VV, Smith, who commands the division of State militia, to General Hood, dated September 10, 180-4, but a few days after the fall of Atlanta, showed upon the muster rolls of his division nine thousand one hundred and seventy men. This re port did not include the regiment of Fulton county militia, which had been detached for local service in the city under the command of Brigadier-General M. J. Wright of the Confederate army; nor the regiment of Troup county militia which was stationed by the commanding general at West Point under Brigadier-General Tyler ot the Confederate army. Nor did it include tlie two regiments of the State .Line which had been ordered into other divisions of the army of Tennessee. Nor did it include the battalion, of cadets of the Georgia Military Institute, who did gallant service in the trenches of

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Atlanta. Nor did it embrace the names of the gallant dead of this division, who never turned their backs to the enemy but fell upon the battle-field or died in the hospital. These had rendered the last service in the power of the. patriot to his country before the President saw the necessity which in duced him to call for them, and as they slept at the date of his call in the soldiers' grave they were, unfortunately, unable to respond. But if you say that the whole ten thousand were not in the trenches with muskets in their hands, I reply that, while many were sick and some absent without leave, a larger proportion of the number upon the muster rolls were there than of probably any other division in General Hood's army, and, judging- from the late speech of the President in Macon, a mticli larger number than the usual average in the armies of the Confederacy.
" As I understand your letter, you. deny that it was the purpose of the President to disband or disorganize the militia, and say lie intended to take the organization with all its officers and maintain it. I do not pretend to quote your language, but state what I uoderstand to be the substance. Unfortunately your own record contradicts you. In the requisition made by you occurs this sentence: 'Those within the limits of General Hood's department will report to him ; those outside to the Commandant of the department of South Carolina and Georgia.' The line between these depart ments cuts in two General Smith's division and probably three of the four brigades of which it is composed, and the requisition orders that part of this division and those brigades on one side of it to report to General Hood, then, at Atlanta, and that part on the other side, to the Commandant whose head quarters wrero at Charleston, lint this was not all ; it amounted to an order in advance, if I responded to the call, to a large proportion of the militia then under arms to leave Atlanta in the very crisis of her fate and return home and report to General Jones whose headquarters were at Charleston. This would not only have permanently divided and disbanded the militia organization as it existed under the laws of the State, but would have aided the President in carrying out his policy already referred to of withdrawing the militia from Atlanta before its fad, and compelling armed men then aiding in its defence to leave and report to a Commandant upon the coast where there was no attack anticipated from the enemy. So deter mined was the President to accomplish both these objects that he did not pretend to conceal his purpose, but incorporated it into the requisition itself.
" Past experience has also shown that the President will surmount all obstacles to secure to himself the appointment of the officers who are to command troops under his control. Soon after the commencement of the war Georgia tendered to him an excellent brigade of her moat gallant sons, fully armed, accoutred and equipped with two months' training in camp of instruc tion. He refused to accept it as it was, but disbanded it and, refusing to recog nize the commanding general (though every officer, I believe, in the brigade, from the highest to the lowest, petitioned to have him retained), scattered the

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regiments into other brigades. The twelve months' men entered the service with officers elected by them, and he accepted them with their officers. The Constitution of the Confederate States, as I have heretofore most conclu sively shown, and as the L-egisl at Lire of the State lias resolved, as well as the laws of the State, authorise them to elect officers to fill all vacancies that occur. The President has disregarded this right, and claims and. exercises the right to appoint all such officers for them. His past coarse, as well as the plain language of the requisition, shows that you misrepresent the Presi dent when you deny that it was his purpose in making the requisition to dis band the militia; and I am satisfied that I do him no injustice hi supposing that it was his intention, after they were disbanded, to appoint his own. partisans and favorites to command them.
" IVeieTenee is made in your letter to the act of Congress to show that the President could only hold the militia sis months under a call upon the Gov ernor for their services. You seern to forget that many o those then in service for whom he called had already served nearly four months. And you seem to suppose that I will be unmindful how easy it would be at tbe end of six mouths for the President simply to renew the call for another six months, and continue this to the end of the war, and in this way keep the old men and boys of Georgia constantly in service to the destruction of all her agricultural and other material interest, while no such requirement is made of any other State. But if this were not possible by these repeated calls, what guaranty have they uudai- the act of Congress and the promise of the President that they would bo disbanded at the end of six mouths? The original twelve months'men entered the service under the like protection, as they supposed, of an act of Congress and a solemn contract with the Presi dent that they should be discharged at the end of their time. But before the time expired the President procured another act o Congress which changed the law on that subject, and he then refused to be bound by his con tract, and those of them who survive are yet in service near the end of the fourth year. Even the furloughs promised them were not allowed. And ministers of religion who made a contract with the Government to serve for one year, and others who agreed to serve three years in the ranks, are held after the expiration of their time, when they would be embraced in the exemption act, "which- protects tliose at home if tbe Government had kept its faith and discharged them according to the contract.
"In this connection I must also notice your remarks in reference to the six months' men of last fall in this State. And as every material statement you now make upon that subject is contradicted by the records of your de partment, made up over your own signature, the task is an unpleasant one.
"' You say ' it had been designed to raise troops for special defence and local service FOK THE WAR with the obligation of service as the general rule throughout the Slate, to constitute a part of the provisional army, and to be subject to the call of the President wfcen needed.' If this statement means

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anything, it is intended to mean that the call was made on me for the troops to serve for the war, with obligation, as the general rule, to do service through out the State. That is what y 11 now say. Wiiat did youthen say? I quote from your requisition of 6th June, 1863.
" ' The President has therefore determined to make a requisition 011 the Governors i. f the several States, to furnish by an appointed time, for service within the State, and for the limited period of six months, a number of men,' etc. Again, in the same requisition you say, l I am instructed by the Presi dent, iu his name, to make on you a requisition for eight thousand men, to be furnished by your State, for the period of six MONTHS from the first day of August next, unless in the intermediate time a volunteer force organized under th law for local defence and special service, of at least an equal num ber, be mustered and reported as subject to his call for service within your State.'
"This does not look much a=( if the call was made for troops FOR THE WAR ! Was it for troops to serve as Ike general rule throughout the State f I quote from the same document. You say, 'it becomes essential that the reserves of our population capable of bearing arms, etc., be relied on for em ployment in the local defence of imi>arfant cilits, and in repelling in emergencies the sudden or transient incursions of the enemy.* Again, ' local organizations or enlistments by volunteering for limited periods and special purposes, if they c.in be induced, would afford more assurance of prompt and efficient action-' You then refer to the two acts of Congress for local defence and special ser vice, and enclose copies of them and call my attention to them. Aod you proceed to say, 'under the former of these, if organizations could be effected, with the limitation* prescribed in their muster rolls, of service only at liome or at specified points of importance within the particular State, they would be ad mirably adapted to obtain the desired end.* In speaking of the inducements to be held out to those wiio wilt form volunteer companies under the act of" Congress, you speak of them as ' organizations for special service within the State, under officers of their own selection, and with the privilege of remain ing at. 7iome in. the pursuit of their ordinary avocations, unless when called for a temporary exigency to active duty,' In reference to the service to be per formed by these organizations, you then use this language :
" ' Without the general disturbance of a call on the militia, the Organiza tions nearest to the points of attack would always be readily summoned to meet the emergency, and the population resident in cities and their vicinities would, without serious interruption to their business or domestic engagements, stand organized and prepared to man. their entrenchments and defend, under the most animating incitements, their property and homes.'
" You remark again, ' After the most active and least needed portion of the reserves were embodied under the former law, the latter would allow smaller organizations with more limited range of service, for objects of police and the pressing contingencies of neighborhood defence. Could these laws be
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generally acted on, it is believed, as full organizations of the reserve popula tion would be secured for casual needs as would be practicable.'
" There is not a word in any of this about service as the general rule throughout the State. But every impression looks to local and limited services in sudden emergencies, such as the sudden incursions of the enemy, and to the defence of their own homes and the entrenchments around them, by those who live in cities, ' to neighborhood defence,* * casual raids,' etc., with the clear promise to all that, so soon as the emergency had passed they should be permitted to return home and attend to their 'ordinary avocations,' their ' business or domestic engagements,' etc. The troops recollect how this promise was kept.
" But you charge that I had formed nondescript organizations not con forming to the regulations of the provisional army, scant in men and abounding in officers, with every variety of obligation for local service, gen erally of the most restricted character, and for the brief period of only six

"Each organization formed by me was in conformity to the statutes, copies of which you enclosed as the guide for my action, and for the exact time designated, in your requisition over your own signature. Each had the number of men specified in the statutes, and no one of them had a super numerary officer, with my consent, or so far as I know or believe. The requi sition expressly authorized me to accept troops for local defence, of the most restricted character, with ' the limitations prescribed in their muster rolls of service only at home or at specified points of importance.' But while yovi ex pressly authorized this I refused to do it, except in case of companies of me chanics and other workmen in cities--the operatives in factories, and the employees of railroads, etc., when the nature of their avocations made it actually necessary. Tri all other cases I refused to accept the companies when tendered, if their mutter roltx did not cover and bind them to defend, at least one-fourth of the whole territory of the State. Many of them covered the whole territory of the State with the conditions of their muster rolls. Some complaints were made at my course, because I required more thtm was required by either the acts of Congress, or the requisition of the. Secretary of War.
''Another charge is, that when called out 'scarce a decent division of four thousand men could be mustered for the field, and then only for six months,' Your obliviousness of facts, as well as of records, is indeed remarkable. Only those whose mufter rolls embraced Atlanta and the territory between it and the Tennessee line were called oufc till near the end of the period for which all were enlisted,. and you got a division of many more than four thousand within that boundary.
" The others, over twelve thousand, were at home, engaged in their 'ordi nary avocations,' ready to respond to your call in case of an 'emergency,' or * sudden incursion of the enemy.' But you never called for any of them till

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a short time before the end o the term of their enlistment. Those you then called out you never even armed, and it was believed by them that they wore only assembled for the convenience of the conscript officers, to save them the trouble of searching' through the country to see if any among them were subject to conscription. Nobody pretended that there was any 'emer gency ' or ' sudden incursion of the enemy' at the time of the last call, in the sections of the State they had agreed to defend. I have gone thus fully into this record for the purpose of showing the palpable injustice which you attempt to do me, and of exposing the flimsy pretext under which you seek to defend the bad faith which was exercised by the Government towards the gallant men who, by their prompt response, more than doubly filled your requisition in its letter and spirit.
" As a last means of escape you say I persistently claimed that they should be held and regarded as militia. * In that case they could not, if dismissed, be recalled on emergency as local troops, and this naturally induced their detention for the full period of their limited term of service.' I should have been greatly obliged if you had given a reason why militia mustered into service for the period of six months, with the express promise that they should be permitted to remain, afc home in the pursuit of their 'ordinary avocations,' except in 'emergencies' or to meet 'sudden and transient incur sions of the enemy,' could not receive furloughs and return home between 'emergencies' and 'sudden and transient incursions of the enemy,' and re assemble on the recurrence oE the emergency. Why could not the same men, living in the same district, united for the same purpose, to defend the same territory against 'sudden and transient incursions of the enemy,' have received furloughs to return home and attend to the pursuit of their ' ordinary avocations,' if called militia and commanded by officers appointed as the Con stitution provides, by the States, as well as if called local companies, and commanded by officers appointed by the President? What strange magic is there about the President's commission which would enable men, organised for service under officers holding it, to receive furloughs when not needed for service,which the same men, organized for the same service, could not get it" their officers received their commissions in the constitutional mode from the State ? If the same companies, composed of the same officers and men, may be temporarily dismissed when not needed for the service they have engaged to render when called by the name 'local companies,' why may this not be done when they are called "by the name militia?
" As no reason can exist for the distinction you attempt to draw as a justi fication of the President's conduct, none was as.-igned by you. It is simply absurd to say that the militia cannot be furloughed and sent home when not needed, to be recalled when needed. But for the interruption of our militia organization, which grew out of the Conscript Act of February last, instead of ten thousand, I could hare sent nearer thirty thousand to Atlanta, to aid
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" The Legislature, unfortunately for Georgia, turned over to the President's control that part of the organized militia within the ages specified in the act of Congress and, when the hour of peril came, out of all the large num ber embraced in the act of Congress, and turned over to his control by the resolution of the Legislature, he had not a single one at the front with a musket in his hands, to aid in the defence of the State. Of all the Confed erate reserves, to which the State was told she might safely look for defence, not a man with a musket iu his hands was at the front during the whole march of the Federal army from Daltou till its triumphant entrance into Atlanta. And if action had been delayed until the President called, as shown by the date of his call, not a man of all the reserve militia of the State would have been there. The Confederate reserves organized were not sufficiently numerous to guard the unarmed Federal prisoners in the State, and I had to furnish, when their services were much needed at the front, a battalion of militia to aid them.
" The interruption by the State authorities, to which you refer, is entirely imaginary. After the decision of the Legislature, your officers were left perfectly free to execute the law of Congress in all its rigor. But if it were real, surely the President, with the aid of his large force of officers in this State, should have been able to get Homebody to the i'ront. A single man with a good musket might have rendered some assistance. Or if this, by reason of inefficiency, could not be done, if he had 01-Jet-eel his corps of con script officers there, as I ordered the State officers, they were snffioieutly numerous to have done essential service. For even this favor, at that crit ical period, the people of Georgia would have been under great obligations to him.
" t must not forget another ground oE the call, as you term it, which was that some of these troops (the ten thousand organized militia) had been de tailed for objects not admitted by enrolling officers in the State to be au thorized by Confederate law, and others were claimed as primarily liable, or previously subject to Confederate service. This, you say, had 'engen dered controversy,' which it was most desirable to ' anticipate and preclude.' As Confederate enrolling officers htwl denied the right of the State to make details, and had claimed certain men whom the Governor held as a part of the militia of the State, and as the Governor did not at once yield to the pretensions of those Confederate officers, but was disposed to contend for the rights of the State, the President, unwilling to allow the controversy, determined to relieve the State of her whole militia, by making- requisition for id, and taking it all into his own hands, which would 4 anticipate and pre clude ' any further controversy ; as the State, having no militia left, need have no further controversy about her right to any particular individuals as part of it.
This new discovery of the President of the mode of settling a contro verted right, and the magnanimity and statesmau.-hip displayed by him in

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this affair, cannot be too highly jipprc-ciated. By imitating his example in future, the stronger party can always make a speedy settlement with the weaker, without allowing any unpleasant controversy about rights.
" Your assertion, that my past action and public expressions have given encouragement to our enemies, to the mortification of many patriotic citizens of the Confederacy, may be properly disposed oJE by the single remark, that if we may judge of the encouragement of our enemies by the general ex pression of their public journals, the President gave them more delight, hope, and encouragement, by his single speech at Macon, than all the past acts and public expressions of my life could have done, had I labored constantly to aid and encourage them. He who can satisfy the enemy that two-thirds of the ieu who compose our g-.-illant armies are absent from their posts, affords them delight and encouragement indeed, as they will 110 longer doubt, if this be true, that the spirit of our people is broken, and that our brave defenders can no longer be relied on to sustain our cause in the field. All remember the mortification which this speech of the President caused to the patriotic citizens of the Confederacy. If it had been true, surely it should not have been publicly proclaimed by the President. But I am satis fied it was not true, and that, in making the statement, the President did grievous injustice to the brave men who compose our gallant, self-sacrificing armies.
"It has also been agreeable to you to speak of my action as springing from a spirit of opposition to the Confederate Government, and animosity to the Chief Magistrate. I have but a word of reply to this unjust and ungenerous attack. Some men are unable to distinguish between opposition to a gov ernment and unwillingness blindly to endorse all the errors of an.adminis tration, or to discriminate between loyalty to a cause and loyalty to their master. My loyalty is only due to my country ; you can bestow yours where your interest or inclinations may prompt.
' I do not consider that the point you attempt to make about the pay and subsistence of the militia, while under the Confederate general commanding the department, has in it even a show of plausibility. They were accepted by him for the time as an organization, and, while under his control, he has the absolute command of them, and the Governor of the State does not exer cise the slightest control over them. What possible pretext for saying1 that ho may not order this division subsisted and paid as well as any other division under his command? There is just as much reason for saying that a divis ion of Georgians under Gen. Lee should not be subsisted and paid by the Confederacy, while under his command, as that this division under Gen, Hood should not be subsisted and paid while he commanded them. The truth at the bottom of all this is so visible that it cannot be concealed even by an attempt to muddy the water.
" I find the statement emphasized by you, that the Constitution of the Con federate States does not confer on the States the power to keep troops in time

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of war. As the States were sovereign arid possessed all power when they formed tlie Constitution which gave life to the Confederate Government, neither that Government nor the Constitution could confer any power ou the States. They retained all that they did not confer upon it. I Jut admit your statement, and what follows? You were obliged to admit in the nest sentence that the States did reserve that power. Having1 reserved it, they are certainly authorized to exercise it. As you admit, they not only reserved the power, but the reservation naturally includes whatever is necessary to accomplish the ohject of it. But you then attempt to explain it away, by denying that the reservation means anything, and, in effect, contend that the Confederate Government may take from the State the last one of the troops which she has reserved the power to keep, without violating the re served rights of the State. In other words, the State has plainly reserved the right to keep troops in time of war when actually invaded. But this right you, in effect, say is subordinate to the will of the President, who may take the last one of them from her whenever he chooses to do so.
"According to your mode of reasoning, if a State or an individual dele gates certain powers to an agent, and reserves certain other powers, the re served powers are limited by and subordinate to the delegated powers, and may be entirely destroyed by them when, in the opinion of the agent, this is necessary to enable him to execute, to their fullest extent, the delegated powers. In other words, the reserved powers are to be construed strictly, and the delegated powers liberally, and the reserved are to yield to the delegated whenever there is apparent conflict. I confess I had not understood this to be the doctrine of the State Bights or Jeffersonian school. I had been taught that the delegated powers are to be construed strictly, and in case of a delegation of powers with certain reservations, that the delegated, powers are limited and controlled by the reserved powers. This well-established rule is repudiated by you when it conflicts with the purposes of the Confed erate administration, and you claim that the power reserved by the States to keep troops in time of war, when actually invaded, simply means that they may keep them til] the Confederate Executive chooses to call for and take the last one of them out of their control.
"To justify all this, you are driven to the usual plea of necessity. You say it was necessary that the whole militia of Georgia should be in Con federate service, and subject, not to my judgment or disposal, but to the control of the constitutional commander-ill-chief.
" I deny that the President is, or ever can be, without the consent of the State, the constitutional comrnander-in-chiei" of the whole militia of the State. When we take the whole contest together, the Constitution is phmj upon this point. He is declared to be the conimauder-in-chief of the army and navy of the Confederate States and of the militia of the several States when called into actual service of the Confederate States.
" Congress has power to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the

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laws of the Confederate States, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. Congress has power to provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia,, and for governing swc/t part of them as may be employed in the service of the Confederate States. Then comes the qualification. The States reserve the right to keep troops in time of war, when aetualiy invaded. If she is not invaded, under provision made by Congress, they may be called forth if the emergency requires it- If she is invaded, she may keep such part of them as -she thinks proper, under her reserved right., and they cannot be taken without her eonsPiib, The whole case is in u nutshell. Congress may provide for calling forth the mililia, and for governing tuchpart of them as are employed in the service of the Confederate States. The .President is, for the time, commander-in-chief of all who are so employed. And u\\ may be so (ttttplayt-d, except such as the Slate determines to ke*p, by virtue of her reserved right in time of war, when actually invaded. These Congress has no rig-M; to call forth, and no right to provide for governing; and of these the President is not the constitutional eoinmaiider-in-chief, but the Governor of the State is, so long as the State keeps them, and she has an. unquestion able right to kr.ep them as long as the iuvu.si.ou of her territory lasts.
"This I understand to be the constitutional right of the State of Georgia. By this, as her Executive, I sUnd, and regard with perfect indjjferewce all assaults upon either my loyalty or motives by those who deny this right, or seek to wrest it from her to increase their own power or gratify their own ambition.
"A word as to the iise T shall make of this militia and of all the troops at the command of the State. N"o sentence in my former letter is an 'incon siderate utterance.' No word in it justifies the construction that I will array my State in 'armed antagonism against the Confedey-aey.* On the contrary, I will use the troops to support and maintain ail the just rights and constitutional powers of the Confederacy to the fullest extent. No State is truer to the Confe'feracy than Georgia; and none will make greater sacrifices to maintain its rights, its just powers, and its independence. The sacrifices of her people at home, and the blood oE her sous upon thu battle-field, have abundantly established this truth. But while I will employ all the force at my command to maintain all the constitutional rights of the Confederacy and of my State, I shall not hesitate to use the same force to protect- the same rights against external assaults ajirl internal usurpations. Those who imagine themselves to lie the Confederacy, and consider only loyalty to themselves as loyalty to it, and who recognize in neither the people nor the State any rights which conflict with the.ir purposes or future designs, doubt less see in this the 'foreshadowing of a guilty purpose.' It is, to say the least of it, a fixed purpose.
" It is not only my right, but my duty, to uphold the constitutional rights and liberties of the people of Georgia by force, if ueeessary, against usurpations and abuses of power by the central Government. The militia is, under the

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Constitution, one of the proper instrumentalities for that purpose. There

is scarcely a single provision in the Constitution for the protection o life,

liberty, or property in Georgia, that has not been and is not now constantly

violated by the Confederate Government through its officers and agents.

"It has been but a short time since one of the stores of the State of Georgia,

containing property, in the peaceable possession of the State, was forcibly

entered by a Confederate officer and the property taken therefrom by force.

I had no rnilitia present at the time to repel this invasion of the rigUts of

the sovereign State, but should have had them there soon if the property had

not been restored.

"A single Confederate provost marshal in Georgia admits that thirty

citizens ami soldiers have been shot by his guard, without his right to shoot

citizens being questioned till -within the last few days, when lie was greatly

enraged that a true bill for murder should have been found by- a grand jury

against one of them for shooting down a citizen in the streets who offended

him by questioning his authority over him. Every citizen in the State, both

man and woman, is arrested in the c irs, streets and hig'hways, who presumes

to travel without a puss. They are arrested without law. and imprisoned at

pleasure of Government officials. The houses, lands, and effects of the people

of Georgia are daily seized and appropriated to the use of the Government

or its agents without the shadow of law, without just compensation, and in

defiance of the decision of the supreme judicial tribune of the State; and

her officers of justice are openly resisted by the officers of the Confederate

States. The property of the families of soldiers now under arms to .sustain

the Confederacy is forcibly taken from them without hesitation, and appro

priated in many ca^es without compensation.

" In tiiis state of things the militia are necessary to uphold the civil tribu

nal of the State, and will be used fur that purpose whenever the proper call

is made by the proper authorities.

"No military authority, State or Confederate, can be lawfully used for

any oilier purpose than to uphold the civil authorities, and so much of it as

the Constitution of my country baa confided to my hands shall be used for

that purpose, whether civil society, its Constitution and laws shall be in

vaded from without or from within. Measured by your standard, this is

doubtless disloyalty. Tested by mine, it is a high duty to my country.

" Kespectfully, etc.,

" JOSEPH K. Bno\vN."

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" COXFEDEKATE STATES OF AMERICA, > WAR DEPArtTM&XT, RICHMOND, VA., December 13, IStJl. J
"HIS EXCELLENCY JOSEPH E. BROWN", GOVERNOR OF GKOHGIA, Macon, Ga.
" Sir:--Your letter of the 14th ult. has been received. In accordance with the rule I have prescribed to myself in my correspondence with you, I shall avoid all notice of the observations in your letter which do not in my opin ion form matter proper for official communication.; and therefore much of your letter will have no response.
"An act of Congress of the 27th of February, 1881, provided: ' That to enable the Government of the Confederate States to maintain its jurisdiction over all questions of peace and war, and to provide for the public defence, the'President be, arid he is hereby authorized and directed to assume control of all military operations In every State, having reference to or connection with, questions between said States, or any of them, and powers foreign to them.' On the 6th March of the same year, they empowered the President ' to employ the militia, military and naval forces of the Confederate States to repel invasion, maintain the rightful possession of the Confederate States in every portion of the territory belonging to each State, and to secure the public tranquillity and independence against threatened invasion.' These acts of Congress do not exceed the competency of that body under the Constitu tion. They confer plenary powers upon, the President to employ all the military power of the Confederate States to meet the extraordinary emergen cies that might arise, and which were then foreshadowed. You do not deny the existence of the emergency anticipated and provided for by Congress. You simply contend that you should employ the militia instead of the Presi dent. That you should conduct #ome military operations, rather than the President, and that Congress judged unwisely in confiding power to him, rather than to yourself. In my judgment, these acts of Congress bind you, both as a citizen and an officer, and you owe prompt, cordial, and unhesitating obedience to them.
' In stating the parallel case of the conduct of the refractory Governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut in the war with Great Britain, during the administration of Mr. Madison, I was aware that the former had the support of the opinion of the judges of that State, as contained in a letter addressed to him, and as cited by you. They had also the support of their State Leg islatures and of the resolves of the Hartford Convention, composed of dele gates from those and other States. The authority of these different public officers and agencies support your Excellency; but the judicial opinions of the supreme court of !N"ew York, and of the supreme court of the United States, as rendered in the line of their duty in cases before them, and the general sentiment of the people and the uniform action of the authorities of loyal States, ajiford no such support.

346

CORRESPONDENCE OF GOV. BROWN

" Maj. Gen. Cobb informs the Department that he has made a satisfactory adjustment of this difficulty, and I dismiss the subject without further renui'k.
' lu the summer of 18(53, it became apparent that unless the population of the different States who were not embraced in the acts of Congress of the 16th April and 27th September, 1862, providing for the public defence, usually termed. Conscription Acts, were organized for service, that the country would be exposed to frequent and injurious incursions from the enemy, by which it would be devastated before the means of defence could be carried to the place of invasion. A proposal fov thw organization was prepared and communicated to the Governors of all the States. This plan all the non-conscript population in companies under the acts

sitioii, was presented to facilitate the accomplishment of this leading and prominent object.
" I addressed you on the 6th of June, 18G3, a letter on the subject, a tele gram on the 12th, and a second letter on the l!3th of the same month. The general orders of the department, embodying its views as to the nature of these volunteer organizations, and disclosing the details of the measure, were published by the Adjutant and Inspector-General, the 22d June, 186,3. These orders required that those companies should be formed for service during the war; that they were not to be called into service except in cases of emergency ; that they were not to be employed beyond the limits of the State; that when the emergency terminated they were to be dismissed to their homes ; that service in those companies would excuse from service as militia ; that those companies were preferred to militia organizations ; that they were to be armed by the Confederate States as far as necessary, and were to be paid by them while in service. A copy of this order is enclosed.
" These -views were disclosed in the letters I have before referred to. The extracts you have made from them to defend your conduct do not represent the views of the department fairly.
'* In my letter o the 6th of June, I state the necessity for organization of the non-conscript population ; the many and grave objections to the use of the militia ; the superiority of the system of defence proposed by voluntary organizations for home defence, and the motives that might be addressed to the people to adopt that mode of defence. J state in that letter that : * For this (the organization) the legislation of Congress has made a full provision by two laws, one entitled An Act to provide for Local Defence and Special Service, approved August 21, 1861; the other entitled An Act to authorize the formation of Volunteer Companies for Local Defence, approved October 13, 1862, to which your attention is invited, and of which, as they are brief, copies are appended. Under the former of these, if organizations could be effected with the limitations presented hi the muster rolls of service

AND THE SECH.ETARY OF WAR.

347

only at home, or at specified points of importance within the particular State, tney would be admirably adapted to obtain the desired ends of calling out those best qualified for the service; of employing them only when and so long as they might be needed; of having them animated with e*f>rit dn corps, reliant on each other and their selected officers, and of thus securing the largest measure of activity and efficiency, perhaps, attainable from other than permanent soldiers. After the most active arid least needed portion of tite reserves were embodied under the former law, the latter would allow smaller organizations with more limited range of service for objects of police and the pressing contingencies of neighborhood defence. Could these laws be generally acted on, it is believed as full organization of the reserve popu lation would be secured for casual needs as would be practicable.'
" 1 closed that letter by saying1 : ' I am instructed by the President in bis name to make oil you a requisition for live thousand men, to be furnished by your State for service therein, unless in th intermediate time a volunteer force, organized under the law for local defence and special service, of at leant an equal number be mustered and reported as subject to Ins call for set-nice witkin your State.'
" In my telegram, of the 12th, I say : ' Your assurance of co-operation is gratifying-. Organizations under the law of the Provisional Congress are preferred, because of their Linger term/; nf duration and greater adaptation for ready call on temporary service and then for dismissal to their ordinary pursuits.'
" In my letter of the 19th of June, I repeated the arguments in favor of organizations for local defence in preference to ' militia organizations or organizations on a basis similar to the militia for a limited period of service.' I stated to you that ' I did not suppose there would be such difficulties, delays, or confusion as you anticipated ; that the process of forming the or ganizations is very simple and familiar to your people as Laving- been gen erally adopted in volunteering for the provisional army. There will be no occasion to send on to the department here anything but the muster rolls, which, under the regulation* to be is.s-<?(/, may be verified by a judge, justice, or colonel of militia. I think, with deference to your opinion, the whole matter of prompt and easy accomplishment.'
" The regulations referred to were published on the 22d of June, 1863. They declare their object to be to afford 'instructions as to the method by which such organizations may be made, and the privileges they may claim ; * and with these regulations the Act of Congress of August 21, 1801, wtis published, which authorized the President to accept the services of volun teers of such kind and in such proportion as he may deem expedient, to serve for such time as he may prescribe, for the defence of exposed places or localities, or such special service as he may deem expedient.
" The general features of these regulations I have already stated. They define with exactness the conditions as to time of enlistment, the place uf

348

COBRESPOWDEINCE OF GOV. BROWN

service, the duration of their special and particular service upon the Presi dential call. These were the organizations that you were expected to form, and you seem to have entirely overlooked or forgotten the duty that you undertook to fulfill.
"It is not pretended by you that you carried into effect this plan for the organization of the State reserves, and that your promised co-operation was unproductive of the results anticipated from it. You followed the suggestions of your own mind, and did not act, and, so far as this department knows, did not attempt to act comfortnably to the views presented to you.
"I made no complaint of your failure to do this, nor was the failure made the subject of any observation until you assumed the ground of being the injured party, from which you railed at the President and the department, as wanting in faith to you; \vhile the fact was, if there "was any want of faith or breach of duty, you alone were the guilty party, I recur to the subject now simply to correct the misrepresentation of the conduct of the department by your garbled extracts from its correspondence--extracts which do not exhibit fairly the subject under consideration. 1 abstain now from imputing your conduct to bad faith to the department, in repelling the wanton and reckless assault upon the integrity of the administration of this department.
"Your remarks upon the patriotism and services of the people of Georgia will have no contradiction from. me. I fully appreciate both. I have not believed that they could be seduced from their fidelity to the Confederate States or their duties under their Constitution. I have not supposed that they could be betrayed into any desertion of the common cause. The unan imous voice of the Legislature of the State was not required to assure me of their truth and loyalty. Ifc has but confirmed the opinion that the seeds of baleful jealousies, suspicions, and irritation, that have so industriously been scattered among them, have been wholly unproductive of the fruit antici pated.
" It is to be hoped in the future that all the energy that has been thus em ployed will be diverted to the legitimate object of achieving the independence of the Confederate States, securing the peace and tranquillity of the Confed eracy, and promoting thereby the true greatness of Georgia.
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, *' JAMES A. SEDDON, " Secretary of War."

"EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, } MACOST, GA., Jan. 6, 1865. )
"HON". JAMES A. SEDDON, SECRETARY OF WAR:
" Sir:--It becomes my duty to notice your communication of 13th December, which reached me a few days since.
" After citing the Acts of Congress of 28th February and the 6th March,

AND THE SECRETARY OF WAR,

349

1861, conferring power upon the President to assume control of military operations in the States and to call forth the militia, etc., you declare that Congress in passing these Acts did not exceed its competency under the Con stitution, and you then insist on a construction of these Acts which denies the right reserved by the States to keep troops in time of war, and which confers upon the President the power to call upon one State for a class of her population which are not subject under any law of Congress to do militiii-y duty, and for which he makes no similar requisition upon any other
State. " The Acts which you quote are not properly susceptible of any such con
struction as you are obliged to place upon them to make them serve yonr purpose. If they were, there could be no doubt upon the mind of any lawyer who understands the rudiments of constitutional law that Congress had no power or authority to pass them. No candid lawyer will insist for a moment that an Act of Congress can take from the Stales the right which they have plainly reserved in the Constitution to keep troops in time of war, or that the President has any power or control over any troops which a State mny so keep, or that he can justly and legally make requisition for them, or that he has any legal or just grounds of complaint if a State refuses to turn tliQm over to him if he should transcend his legal authority by making the requi sition. Nor will any lawyer insist that the President lias any power to make requisition for militia which Congress lias not made provision for ' oryri/iizir.gj or for men or boys not subject to milibia duty under the laws of Congress. As these Acts of Congress could confer upon the President no powers which :ire denied to him by the Constitution, and as his late requisition upon the Executive of this State was in clear violation of her reserved rights under the Constitution, I am surprised that you should attempt to justify this usurpation of undelegated powers by a resoi t to congressional action as directory to the President to violate the rights of the States.
" In your former letter you declared that my refusal to fill this requisition of the President was analogous in ' all particulars ' to the conduct of the Governors of Massachusetts arid Connecticut in the last war with Great Britain in refusing to fill the requisition made upon them by the President of the United States. In my answer, I showed too conclusively for reply, that the cases were not analogous in any particular. Without attempting to make good your assertion, or to controvert a single position in my argument, or to trace the analogy in a single particular, you again allude to the subject in your last letter by saying: 'In stating the parallel case of the conduct of the refractory Governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut,' etc. N"ow no one knew better than yourself that the cases were in no degree parallel and that you could neither trace the parallel lines nor point out the analogy.
" To avoid a misstatement contained in your former letter that * the judicial tribunals determined adversely to the pretensions of these Governors/ you say you were aware that the former (the Governor of Massachusetts) had

350

CORRESPONDENCE OB" GOV. BROWN

the support of the opinion of the judges of that State and of the legislatures of those States, etc. ; and that the authority of these supports me in my posi tion. Here again you are as incorrect as L have shown you to he in almost every important statement which has been ina.de- by yon. There is nothing In the opinion of the judges of the supreme court of Massachusetts sustain ing the Governor of that State which gives the slightest support to my posi tion, or that has the least bearing upon the controversy between us. What were the points decided by that opinion of the court? They were substan tially the following :
" 1. That when the President made a requisition upon the Governor of a State for the militia to repel threatened invasion, it was the right of the Governor to judge whether the emergency existed. lie decided that it did not.
"2. That whuii the militia were called out nuder a requisition from the President, no Federal officer but the President in person had the right to command them. These were the positions of the Governor of Massachusetts, aud the opinion of the judges sustained him.
"Neither of these questions has arisen in this discussion. I have not denied the existence of the exigency, but foresaw it aud had the reserve militia in the field in battle with the enemy months before the President seems to have seen it, at least months before he realized it to an extent to cause him to make the requisition.
"I have not raised the question as to the right of a Confederate officer other than the President in person, to command this militia so called out by me while in service. On the contrary, I had placed them under the com mand of a Confederate general long before the requisition was made. With these facts before you, a little reflection cannot fail to show you how much mistaken you are when you make the assertion that the decision of the judges of the supreme court of Massachusetts, or of the Legislatures of those two States, sustaios rnycour.se or any position I have taken. As there is neither analogy nor parallel between the cases cited by you and my own case, no decision sustaining the Governors in those cases can either sustain or condemn my course upon an entirely different state of. facts and circum stances.
" But you say the judicial opinions of the supreme court of Xew York, and of the supreme court of the United States as rendered in the line of their duty, afford no such support. As you have not shown how the action of the G-overnors o Massachusetts and Connecticut, or the correctness of their position could have come judicially before the supreme court of New York, or the supreme court of the United States ; and as you have not been able to cite any case in which the question of the conduct of those Governors was ever before either of said courts, I am left to suppose that you ave, as I have shown you to be in so many instances, again unfortunate in your statement of facts, and that in attempting to sustain an erroneous statement in your other letter, you have added another to former mistakes.

THE SECKETAKY OF WAR.

351

"As an excuse for dismissing the subject without further attempt to sus tain your position,you remark that Major-General Cobb informs the depart ment that he has made a satisfactory adjustment of this difficulty. While there has been perfect harmony between General Oobb and myself in mili tary matters from the commencement of Sherman's advance upon AiJanta to the present time, as there has been between Generals Johns ton, Hood, Beauregard and mjself; there has been, no adjustment whatever between rue and General Cobb of what you are pleased to term ' this difficulty.' I have neither by word nor act done anything to recognize the right of the Presi dent to make this requisition, or to admit the obligation of the Governor to fill it. I have stood in reference to General Cobb, as I have towards you and the President, upon the reserved rights of the State, and have refused to re linquish the control of the State over her reserved militia while she deter mines to keep them, orto fill a requisition which the President had no right to make. I am happy to find that upon reflection yon seem, to see your error, and are prepared to accept this as a satisfactory adjustment, of a controversy which you have unjustly provoked; and in which you cannot sustain yourself upon any known principle of reason or law.
"You devote a greater part of your letter to another attempt to justify your bad faith to the Georgia troops called out under the President's requisi tion of 6th June, 1863, and to prove, contrary to the plain language of the requisition, that they were called for during the war. You complain of what you call my 'garbled extracts,' and you quote extensively from the requisition, but you are particularly careful to so * garble * your own extracts as not to quote that essential part of it twice stated in the letter, as I have already shown, that they were required only for six months. Jt-wivs-upon this requisi tion, with the two Acts of Congress, which you sent with it as the guide for my conduct, that I promised co-operation with you in the organization. The promise was redeemed both in letter and spirit, and your call for eig7tt thou sand men (nut jiae thousand as you now erroneously state in your last letter) was met with mare than double the number required, organized in strict ac cordance with the plain language of the requisition and the Acts of Congress on that subject".
61 As candor and truth at least are expected of one occupying your posi tion, it is painful to witness the shifts to which you resort t^ do injustice to my State, and to misrepresent the conduce of her Executive in a matter where he more than doubly filled your requisition.
" I am now favored by you with a copy of a general order issued by Adju tant-General Cooper weeks after the requisition was made, which I do not recollect that I ever saw till I received your letter, and you complain that I did not carry out your views as expressed in that order. I obey no orders from your department; nor was this order furnished to me when you made the requisition, or during the organization of the troops, with even a request that I conform to it. I was asked by you to organize the troops in accord-

CORRESPONDENCE OF GOV. BROWN
any voice of approbation. " While the people of this State are true and loyal to our cause, they are
not unmindful of the great principles of Constitutional Liberty and State Sovereignty upon which we entered into this struggle, and they will not hold guiltless those in power who, while charged with the guardianship of the liberties of the people, have subverted and trampled personal liberty under
hour of extreme peril, has shown so conclusively as to require no further gument or illustration, the wisdom of the reservation made by the States, the Constitution, of the right to keep troops in time of war. Georgia ha furnished over one hundred thousand of her gallant sons to the armies o the Confederacy. The great body of these men was organized into regi ments and battailous of infantry and artillery, which have been sustained by recruits from home, from month to month, to the extent of our ability. Those who survive of tViese regiments and battalions have become veterans

AND THE SECRETARY OF WAtt.

353

hundred miles in length, has been devastated. "Within this belt most of the public property, including several court houses with the public records, and a vast amount of private property, including many dwellings, gin houses, much cotton, etc., have been destroyed. The city of Atlanta, with several of the villages of the State, has been burnt; the capital has been occupied and desecrated by the enemy, and Savannah, the seaport city of the State, is HOW in hjs possession. During the period of Sherman's march from At lanta to Milledgeville, there was not one thousand men of all the veteran

place,;.
" Thus ' abandoned to her fate* by the President, Georgia's best reliance was her reserve militia and State line, whom she had organized and still keeps, as by the Constitution she has a right to do. Without them, much more property must Lave been destroyed, and the city of Macori, so impor tant to the State and Confederacy, must have shared the fate of Atlanta and Savannah, while Augusta, with the small Confederate force by which she was saved, divided with Macon, must also have fallen.
"These troops whom Georgia keeps have not only acted with distinguished gallantry upon many bloody battle-fields upon the soil of their own State, but they have, when an important service could be rendered by them, marched into the interior of other States. The noble conduct of the Troizp County militia in their march to Pollard, Alabama, to aid in the protection of the people and property of that State against the devastations of the enemy, and the heroic valor displayed by Maj.-Q-en. G-. W. Smith and part of his command then with him at Honey Hill, iti South Carolina, whyre he won -- with the Georgia militia, her State line and a small number of gallant Confederate troops, most of whom were Georgians--one of the most signal victories of the war in proportion to the number engaged, fully attest the correctness of my assertion in their behalf.
" In view of these facts, with the late bitter experience of the people of this State fresh in his recollection, the Georgia statesman must indeed be a blind worshipper of the President who would advocate the policy of turningover to his control, to Vie carried out o the State at his bidding, old men and boys not subject under the laws of Congress to military service, and of a class not required by him of any other State.
"I cannot close this communication without noticing certain expressions in your letter which are not ^infrequently used by persons in authority at Ricchm moonnd,, such as 'rreefrraactoorryy Goveerrnnoorrss,,* 'looyyal States,' etc. Our peeoopple have become accustomed to these imperial utterances from those who wield the central despotism at Washington, but such expressions" are so utterly at

354

CHAPTER XL
CoBHESPOXDENCE OF PRESIDENT D&VIS AND GOVERNOR BEOWST UPON CONSCKIPTION.
In the spring of 1S62, upon the subject of raising; troops, there sprung up a fundamental difference of opinion between President Dav'is and Governor Brown. So long as volunteer forces were raised in the States by the authority of the President, or he made requisition on the Governor for them, there was no serious or exciting' issue between them. But when, as will appear, in order to force the citizen soldiers of other States, which, unlike Georgia, appeared to be tardy in responding to his calls, the Congress, at the request of the President, attempted to place all within given a.ges subject to summary con scription, the execution of the law within this State gave rise to a severely critical correspondence. Jt relates to and contains the matters that tended in no small part, in the sequel, to the failure of the Confederacy. It was a difference in opinion between men who were each illtent on independence for the South, which will appear in tlie letters of each. To avoid all appearance of unfair ness, we dispense with, abbreviations, and set forth their entire letters.
"EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, ) MH.I.KDQKVII.I.K, GA., April'22, 1862. J
" HIS EXCELLENCY JEFFERSON DAVIS, Richmond, Virginia :
'Dear Sir :--So soon Eis I received from the Secretary of AVar official notice of the passage by Congress of the Conscription Act, placing in the military service of the Confederate States all white men between the ag-es of 18 and

356 COHKESPONDEHCE OF PRESIDENT DAVIS
35 years, I saw that ifc was impossible for me longer to retain in the field the G-eorgia Slate troops, without probable collision and conflict with, tlie Con federate authorities, in the face of the enemy. I, therefore, acquiesced in the necessity which compelled me to transfer the State forces to the com mand of the Confederate general at Savannah, and tendered to General Lawtoii, who commands the ililitary District of Georgia, not only the con scripts in the State army, but also those not conscripts, for (he unexpired term of their enlistment. General Law ton accepted the command with the assurance that he would interfere as little as possible with the company and regimental organizations of the troops. This assurance, I trust, Ihe Gov ernment will permit him to carry out in the same spirit of liberality in which it was given. If the Stabe regiments are broken up and the conscripts be longing to them forced into other organizations against their consent it will have a very discouraging effect. If the regiments and companies were preserved, and permission given to the officers to fill up their ranks by re cruits, (.here would be no doubt of their ability to do so; and I think they have a just right to expect this privilege.
" Georgia has promptly responded to every call made upon her by you for troops, and has always given more than you asked ; she now has about 00,000 in the field. Had yuu called upon her Executive for 20,000 more, (if her just quota,) they would have been furnished without delay. The plea of necessity, so far, at leasf, as this State is concerned, cannot be set up in defence of the Conscription Act.
" When the Government of the United States disregarded and attempted to trample upon the rights of the States, Georgia set its power at defiance and seceded from the Union, rather than submit to the consolidation of all power in the hands of the central or Federal government.
"The Conscription Act not only puts it in the power of the Executive of the Confederacy to disorganize her troops, which she was compelled to call into the field, for her own defence, in addition to her just quota, because of the neglect of the Confederacy to place sufficient troops upon her coast for her defence--which would have required less than half the number she has sent to the field--but also places it in his power to destroy her State gov ernment by disbanding her law-making power.
" The Constitution o this State makes every male citizen \vho haa attained the age of 21 years eligible to a seat in the House of Representatives of the General Assemblj7, and every one who has attained the a,ge of 25 eligible to a seat in the Senate. There are a large number of the members of the General Assembly between the ages of 18 and 35. They are white citizens of the Confederate States, and there is no statute in the State, and I am aware of none in the Confederate States code, which exempts them from military duty. They, therefore, fall within the provisions of the Conscription Act. ft may become necessary for me to convene the General Assembly in extra session ; or, if not, the regular session will commence the first "Wediies-

AND GOV. BROWN TIP OX CONSCRIPTION. 357
day in November. When the members meet at the Capitol, if not sooner, they mig-lit by claimed as conscripts by a Confederate officer, and arrested with,a view to carry them to some remote part of the Confederacy, as re cruits, to fill up some company now in service. They have no military power, and could only look to the Executive of the State for military pro tection ; and I cannot hesitate to Ray that, in such case, I should use all the remaining military force of the State in defence of a co-ordinate constitu tional branch of the government. I can, therefore, permit no enrolment of the members of the General Assembly under the Conscription Act. The same is true of the judges of the supreme and superior courts, should any of them full within the ages above mentioned; and of the secretaries of the Executive departments ; the heads and necessary clerks of the other de partments of the State government ; and the tax collectors and receivers of the different counties, who are now in the midst of their duties, and are not permitted by law to supply substitutes, and whose duties must be per formed, or the revenues of the State cannot be collected. The same remark applies to the stall: of the Comniarider-in-Chief. There is no statute exempt ing them from military duty, for the reason that they are at all times sub ject to the command of the Governor, and are not expected to go into the ranks.
"The State's quartermaster, commissary, ordnance and engineers'depart ments fall within the same rule. The major-generals, brigadier-generals, and other officers of the militia, would seem to be entitled to like consider-
" Again, the Western & Atlantic Railroad is the property of the State, and is under the control and management of the Governor. It is a source of revenue to the State and its successful management is a matter of great military importance) both to the State and the Confederacy. I now have an efficient force of officers and workmen upon the road, and must suspend opera tions if all between 18 and 35 are taken away from the road.
" I would also invite your attention to the further fact that the State owns and controls the Georgia Military Institute at Marietta, and now has in the Institute over 125 cadets, a large proportion of whom are within the age of conscripts. If they arc not exempted, this most important insti tution is broken up. I must not omit, in this connection, the students of the State University, and of the other colleges of the State. These valuable institutions of learning must also be suspended if the law is enforced against the students.
" I would, also, respectfully call your attention to the further fact that in portions of our State where the slave population is heavy, almost the entire white male population capable of bearing arms except the overseers on the plantations are now in the military service of the Confederacy. Most of these overseers are over IS and under 35. If they are carried to the field thousands of slaves must be left without overseers, and their labor not only

358 COKBESPO^TPEXCE OF PBESIDEiNX DAVIS
lost at a time when there is great need of it iu the production of provisions ami supplies for our armies, but the peace and safety of helpless women and children must he imperilled for want of protection against bands of idle slaves, who must he left to roam over the country without restraint.
" It is also worthy of remark, that a large proportion of our best mechanics, andoC the persons engaged in tlio various branches of manufacturing now of vital importance to the success of our caiise, are within the ages which subject them to the provisions of the Conscription Act.
"My remark that I cannot permit the enrolment of such State officers as are necessary to the existence of the State government, and the working of the State road, does not, of course, apply to persons engaged in. the other useful branches of industry considered of paramount importance, hut I must ask, in justice to the people of this State, that such exemptions among these chis.-es be made as the public necessities may require.
" As you ave well aware, the milituvy operations of the Government cannot be carried on without the use of all our railroads, and the same necessity exists for the exemption of all other railroad officers and workmen, which ex ists in the case of the State road.
" Theae are doubtless other important interests not herein enumerated which will readily occur to you, which must be kept alive or the most serious consequences must ensue.
" The Constitution gives to Congress the power to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part ot! them as may be employed in the service of the Confederate States, reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according- to the discipline prescribed by Congress. The Conscrip tion Act gives the President the power to enroll the entire militia of the States between IS and 35, and takes from the States their constitutional right to appoint she officers and to train the militia.
" SVhile this Act does not leave to the States the appointment of a single officer !o command the militia employed in service of the- Confederate States under its provisions, it places it in the power of the President to take a major-general of the militia of a State, il: he is not 35 years o age, and place him in the ranks of the Confederate States army, under the command of a 3d lieutenant appointed by the President, and to treat him as a deserter if he re-fuses to obey the call and submit to the command of the subaltern placed over him.
" 1 do tint wish to "be understood, in any portion of this letter, to refer to the intentions of the President, but only to the extraordinary powers given him by the Act.
"Tliis Act not only disorganizes the military system of all the States, but consolidates almost the entire military power of the States in Uie Confederate Executive with the appointment of the officers of the militia, and enables him at his pleasure to cripple or destroy the civil government of each State, by

AND GOV. BROWN UPON CONSCKIPTJON. 359
arresting and carrying' into the Confederate service the officers charged by the State Constitution with the administration of (.he State government.
"I notice by a perusal of the Conscription Act that the President may, with the consent of the Governors of the respective States, employ State officers in the enrolment of the conscripts. While I shall throw no obstacle in the way of the general em-olment of persons embraced \vitiiin the Act, except us above stated, I do not feel that it is the duty of the Executive of. si State to emp!oy actively the officers of the State in the execution of a law which vir tually strips the State of her constitutional military powers, and, if i'ully ex ecute*, destroys the legislative department of her government, making even the sessions of her General Assembly dependent upon the will of the Confed erate Executive. I therefore respectfully decline all connection with the pro posed enrolment-, and propose to reserve the question of the constitntioaality of the Act, and its binding force upon the people of this State, for then- con sideration at a time when it may less seriously embarrass tlie Confederacy in the prosecution of the war.
" You will much oblige by informing jne of the extent to which you pro pose making exemptions, if any, in favor of the interests above mentioned, and such others as you may consider of vital importance. The question is one of great interest to our people, and they are anxious to know your pleas ure in the premises.
" Very respectfullv, yonr obedient servant, " JosF.i'ii E. B.UOWX."
" "RICHMOND, April 28, 1862. " TO HIS EXCELLENCY JOSEPH E. BROWN,
" GOVKKNOK O.F TTIK STATK OF GEORGIA. :
" Dear Sir:--I have received your letter of the 22d iust,, informing me of your transfer of the Georgia State troops to General I.awton, commanding Confederate forces at Savannah--suggesting" that there be as lit lie interfer ence as possible ou the part of the Confederate authorities with the present organization of. those troops--and nienUomng various persons and classes as proper subjects fur exemption from military service nuclei- the provisions of an 'Act to further provide for the public defence,* approved 011 the IGtli inst.
" T enclose copies of the Act for receiving State troops tendered, as organized, and of the Exemption Act. By the lirst, interference with the present or ganization of companies, squadrons, battalions, or regiments, tendered by Governors of States, is specially disclaimed. By the other, exemptions are made which explain ("satisfactorily, 1 trust,) the policy oi' Congress \villi re gard to the persons and interests yon specify.
" The constitutionality of the Act you refer to as the ' Conscription Bill ' is clearly not derivable from the power to call out the militia, but from that

360 CORRESPONDENCE OF PRESIDENT BAVIS
to raise armies. With regard to the mode o officering the troops now called into the service of the Confederacy, the intention of Congress is to me, as to you, to be learned from its Acts; and from the terms employed, it would seem that the policy of election by the troops themselves is adopted, by Con-
" With great regard, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, "JKFFEUSOX DA VIS."
"EXECUTIVE DEPAUTAIEN"!1, > MILI-EDG-KVILI-E, GA.J- May 9, 1S62. )
"HIS EXCELLENCY JEFFERSON DA VIS:
"Dear Sir:--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 28fch ult., in reply to my letter to you upon the subject of the Conscrip tion Act. i should not trouble you with a reply were it not that principles are involved of the most vital character, upon the maintenance of which, in my opinion, depend not only the rights and the sovereignty of the States, but the very existence of State government.
"While I am always happy as an individual to render you any assistance in my power iu the discharge of the laborious and responsible duties assigned yon, and while I am satisfied you will bear testimony that I have never, as the Ksieeiitive of this State, failed in a single instance to furnish all the men and more than you have called for and to assist you with all the other means at my command, 1 cannot consent to commit the State to a policy which is in my judgment subversive of her sovereignty and at war with all the principles for the support of which Georgia entered into this revolution.
"It may be said that it is 110 time to discuss constitutional questions in the midst of revolution, and that State rights and State sovereignty must yield for a time to the higher law of necessity. If this be a safe principle of action it cannot certainly apply till the necessity is shown to exist; and I apprehend it would be a dangerous policy to adopt were we to admit that those who are to exercise the power of setting aside the Constitution are to be tho judges of the necessity for so doing. But did the necessity exist in this case? The Conscription Act cannot aid the Government in increasing its supply of arms ov prouisiim.--, but can only enable it bo call a larger number of men into the field. The difficulty has never been to get men. The States have already furnished the Government more than it can arm, and have from their own means armed and equipped very large numbers for it. Georgia has not only furnished more than you have asked, and armed and equipped from her own treasury a large proportion of those she has sent to the field, but she stood ready to furnish promptly her quota (organized as the Consti tution provides) of any additional number called for by the President.
" I beg leave again, to invite your attention to the constitutional question Involved, You say in your letter that the constitutionality of the Act is

AND GOV. BROWN UPON1 CONSCRIPTION. 3G1
clearly not derivable from the power to call out the militia but from that to raise armies. Let us examine this for a moment. The Sth section of the 1st Article of the Constitution defines the powers of Congress. The 12th paragraph of that section declares that Congress ' shall have power to raise and support armies.' Paragraph fifteen gives Congress power to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Confederate States, sup press insurrections, and repel invasions. Paragraph sixteen gives Congress power to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia and fur governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the Con federate States, reserving to the Slates respectively the appointment of ilie officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.
" These grants of power all relate to the same subject matter and ace .ill contained in the same section oE the Constitution, and, by a well known, rule oi construction, imisfc be taken as a whole and construed together,
"It would seom quite clear that by the grant of power to Congress to raise and support armies, without qualification, the trainers of the Constitution intended the regular armies of the Confederacy and not armies composed of the whole militia of all the States. It' all the power given in the three paragraphs above quoted is in fact embraced in the first in the general words to raise art/tie*, then the other two paragraphs are mere surplusage and the framcrs of the Constitution were guilty of the folly of incorporating into the instrument unmeaning phrases. When the States, 'by the 16th para graph, expressly and carefully reserved to themselves the right to appoint the officers of the militia when employed in the service of the Confederate State*, it was vurttiinly never contemplated that Congress had power, should it become necessary, to call the whole militia of the State into the service of the Confederacy, to direct that the President should appoint (commission,) all the officers of the militia thus called into service, under the general lan guage contained in the previous grant of power to raise armies. If this can be doiifj, the very object of the State in reserving the power of appointing the officers is defeated, and that portion of the Constitution is not only a nullity, but the whole military power of the States, and the entire control of the militia, with the appointment of the officers, is vested in the Confederate Government, whenever it chooses to call its own action 'raising an army,' and not 'calling forth the militia.' ^Is it fair to conclude that the States intended that their reserved powers should be defeated in a matter so vital to constitutional liberty, by a mere change in ihe use of terms to designate the act? Congress shall have power to raise armies. How shall it be done? The answer is clear. In conformity to the provisions of the Constitution which expressly provides that, when the militia of the States are called forth to repel invasions, and employed in the service of the Confederate States, (which is now the case,) the States shall appoint the officers. If this is done, the army is raised as directed by the Constitution, and the reserved

362 CORRESPONDENCE OF PRESIDENT DAYIS
rights of the States Ait! respected; hut if the olfir^rs of tho militia, wlieo ciiUed forth, arc appoJuteri by the Prosider.t, the army composed of the militin is not raised as directed by the Constitution, a.jid the reserved rights of tho States a?n jiMr^ai-dcd. The falliers of the Republic, in 1787, showed the utmost solicitude on this very point. Tii the di-sc unions in the couveiiUory njion the Adoption of this paragraph in the Constitution of the United States, \vliicli \vo have copied and adopted without alteration, Mr. .Ellsworlh said: ' The* whole .-luthorifcy over the militia ought, by no means to bo taken away from the S titles, whoso consequence would pi ue a way to nothing after such a sacrifice of power/ fit explanation of the power which the committee,
who reported this parngiaph to 1no convention, intended by it to delegme to the general government, when the militia should bo employed in the service
of th.it government, Mr. King, a member of the committee, said: 'By organizing, the committee meant proportioning the officers and men ; by arrnlinj. specifying the kind, size tvud calibre ol arms; by di#cij>lininy} pre scribing the manual exercise, evolutions, etc.
"Mr. Gerry objected to the delegation of the power, even with this ex planation, and said ; ' This power in the United States, as explained, is mak ing the States drill sergeants.' Ue had as lief let the citizens of Massa chusetts be disarmed, as to take the command from the States and subject them to the General Legislature.
"Mr, Madison observed tkat ' tirming, as explained, did not extend to furnishing arms, nor the term i/isc'qiliriing, to penalties and courts-martial for enforcing them.
" After the adoption by the convention of the first port) of the clause, Mr. Madison moved to amend the next part of it, so as to road, 'reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers tinder the runic of general officers.'
" Mr. Shermau considered this as absolutely inadmissible. lie said that ' if the people should be so far asleep aa to allow tlie most influential officers of the militia to be appointed by the general govern mo at, every man of dis cernment would Tuuauthum by sounding the alarm to them/
" Upon Mr. Madison's proposition, Mr. Gurry said: ' Let us at once destroy the State governments, have an Executive for life, or hereditary, and a proper Senate, and then there would be some consistency in giving full powers to the general government; but as the States are not to be abolished, he wondered at the attempts that were made to give powers inconsistent with their existence, tie warned the convention Against pushing the experi ment too far/
" Air. Madison's amendment to add to the clause the words ' under Oie rank of general officers.' waa voted down by a majority of eight States against three, according to the * Madison Papers,' from which the abovo extracts are taken, and by nine States against two, according to the printed journals of the convention. The reservation In the form in which it now stands in the

AND GOV. BROWN UPON CONSCRIPTION. 363
Constitution, 'reserving to the States the appointment of the officers' when the militia, tire employed In the service of the Confederacy, ns well the o-eneral officer;-; tin those under that grade, was then adapted unanimously by the convention.
*' At the expense of wearying your patience, I have been thus careful in tracing the hislory of this clause of the Constitution, to show that it -was'the clear understanding of those who originated this part of the fundamental law, that the States should retain their power over their militia, even while in the serviceofthe Confederacy, by retahmjg1 tho appointment of all t lie <{tji<-tir$.
"Ja practice, the government of tho United States, among other numerous encroachments of power, had usurped to itself tho power which the conven tion, after mature deliberation, had expressly denied to it, lo wit, tho power of appointing ihe general officer* of the militia when employed in the service of the general government.
"Jjiit, even that government, had never attempted to go to the extent of usurping the power to appoint the field ami company oflicers. If the framers of the Constitution were startled at the idea oE giving the appointment of the general officers to the general government, and promptly rejected it. How would they have met a proposition to give the appointment of AI,J, TIIK OFFICERS, down to the lowest lu'utemuit, to it?
"But yon say, 'with regard to the mode of officering the troops now called into the service of the Confederacy, the intention of Congress is to be learned from its nets, aud from the terms employed it would seem that the policy o election by the troops themselves is adopted by Congress.'
"I confess I had not so understood it, without very essential rpirdificatiori. It is true, the twelve-months men who re-enlist have a right, within forty days, to re-organize and elect their- officer?.
" 15ut if I understood the act, judging from the terms used, all vacancies which occur in tho old regiments are Lo be filled, not by election, bnt by the President, by promotion, down to the lowest commissioned oll'icer, who^e vacancy alone is filled, by election, and even this rule of promotion maybe pet aside by the "President at any time, under circumstances mentioned iii the act, and he may appoint any one he pleases to fill the vacancy, if, in his opinion, the person selected is distinguished for skill or valor; and the com mission in either and all the cases mentioned must be issued by the President.
"Quite a number of Georgia regiments arc in for the war whose officers hold commissions from the Kxceuiive of the State ; but even in these regi ments, under the act, every person appointed to fill any vacancy which may hereafter occur, must, it would seem, hold his commission, not from the State, but from the President.
" But admit that Congress, by its acts, intended to give the troops in every ease the right Lo elect their officers (which has not been the established practice, as you. have commissioned many persons to command as field of-

364 COKEESPOKDENCE OF PRESIDENT DAVIS
fieerg without- election,) this does not relieve the acts of Congress from the charge of. violation of the Constitution. The question is not as to the mode of selecting- the person who is to havu the commission, but as to the govern ment which has, under the Constitution, the right to issue the com mission. The States, in the exercise of their reserved power to appoint the officers, may select them by election, or may permit tlie Executive to select them; but tlie appointment rests upon the commission, as there is no Complete ap pointment till the commission is issued, and, therefore, the government that issues the commission exercises the appointing power and controls the appointment.
" I am not, however, discussing the intention of Congress in the assump tion oC this power, bat only the question o its powers ; and whatever niav have been ita intention, I maintain that it has transcended its constitutional powers, oiiii 'has pJaceci in the hands of the Executive of the Confederacy that which the States have expressly and carefully denied o Congress and re served to themselves,
" But you tnay ask, \rliy hold the Executive responsible for the unconsti tutional action of Congress ? I would not, of course, insist OK this any further thaw the action of Congress hEts been sanctioned 'by the .Executive, and acted upon by him.
*-Feeling satisfied that the Conscription Act, and such other acts of Coiigress as authorize the President to appoint or commission the officers o the miJitia of the State, when employed in the service of the Confederate States to 'repel Invasion,' are in palpable violation of the Constitution, I can con sent to do no act which commits Georgia to willing acquiescence in their binding force npon. her people. I carmot, therefore, consent to have any thing to do with the enrolment of the conscripts in this State, nor can I per mit any commissioned, officer of the militia to be enrolled who is necessary to enable the State TO exercise her reserved right of training her militia, ac cording to the discipline prescribed by Congress, at a time whefi to prevent troubles with .her slave*, a, strict military police is absolutely ueeegsary to the -safety of her people. Nor can. t permit any other officer, civil or military, who is necessary to the maintenance of the State government, to be carried out of the State as a conscript.
"Should you at any time need additional troops from Georgia to fill p> her just quota, in proportion to the number furnished by the other States, you have only to call on the Executive for the number required, to be organizecl and officered as the Constitution directs, and your call wili, as it ever has done, meet a prompt response frouj her noble and patriotic people, who, AvhiJo they "will watch, with n jealous eye, even in. the midst of revo lution, every attempt to undermine their constitutional rights, will never be content to be behind the foremost in the discharge of tfcsir whoJe duty.
<f I am, with great respect, your obedjent servant, " JOSEPH E, BROWN,"

r

AKD GOV. 33KOWK UPOJT

365

" EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, > RICHMOND, May 20, 18G2. >
"Dear Sir:--I received youT letter ot tliefttli.inst.iii due course, \jut the importance of the subject embraced in it required cave fill consideration; and this, together with other pressing duties, has caused delay in. my reply.
"The constitutional question discussed by you. in relation to the Cotiscyiption I..aw had been duly \veigbed before ! recovnimnirted to Congress the passage of such a law ; it was fully debated in both houses ; and your letter has not only been submitted to my Cabinet, but a written opinion luis been required from the Attorney-General. The Constitutionality of the law was sustained by very Large majorities in both houses. Tins decision of the Congress meets the concurrence, not only of my own judgment, but of every member of the Cabinet ; and a copy of the opinion of the Attorney-General, herewith enclosed, develops the reasons 011 which his conclusions are based.
"I propose, however, from my high respect for yourself, and for other eminent citizens who entertain opinions sjmiL-ir to yours, to set forth, some what at length, my own views on the power o the Confederate Government over its own armies and the militia, and wilt endeavor not to leave without answer any of the positions maintained in your letter.
" The main it' not the only purpose for which independent States form unions or confederations is to combine the power of the several members in such manner as to form one united force in nil relations \vith foreign powers, whether in. peace or in. war. Each State, amply competent to administer and control its own domestic government, yet too feeble successfully to resist powerful nations, seeks safety by uniting with other States in like condition, and by delegating1 to some common agent the combined strength of all, in order to secure advantageous commercial relations in peace, and fco carry on hostilities with efleet in war.
"Now, the powers delegated by the several Stales fco the Confederate Government, which \s their common, agent, are enumerated in the 8th section of the Constitution, each power being" distinct, specific, and enumerated in paragraphs separately iivmi~bercd. The only exception is the 18th paragraph, which, by its own terms, is made dependent on those previously enumerated, as follows :
" ' 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers/ etc.
" oSTow the war powers granted to the Congress are conferred in tlie follow ing paragraphs :
" No. 1 gives authority to raise ' revenue necessary to pay the dehts, pro vide for the common defence, and carry on the government,* &c.
"No. 11, 'to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning; captures on land and water : '
"'No. 12, * to raise and support armies; hut no appropriation of money to that nso shall be for a longer term than two years.'

366 CORRESPONDENCE OF PRESIDENT PAVIS
"No. 13, ' to provide and maintain a navy ; ' "No, 14, 'to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval, forces." " U is impossible to imagine a more broad, ample, and unqualified delegntiOK of the whoJe wnr power of e;icb State, than Is here soijtuined, with the solitary limitation of the appropiiations to t\vo years. The Siates not only gave power to raise money for the common defence; to declare -war; to raise and support armies (in the plural) ; to provide and maintain a navy; to govern and regulate both land and naval forces ; but they went further, and covenanted, by the 3d paragraph of the 10th section, not ' to engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.' " I know of but two modes of raising armies within the Confederate States, viz.: voluntary enlistment, and draft or conscription. I perceive, in the delegation of power to raise armies, no restriction as to the mode of procur ing- troops. I .see nothing which confines Congress to one class of men, nor any greater power to receive volunteers than conscripts into its service. I see no limitation by which enlistments are to be received of individuals only, but not of companies, or battalions, or squadrons, or regiments. I find no limitation of time of service hut only of duration of appropriation. I discover nothing to confine Congress to waging war within the limits of the Confederacy, nor to prohibit offensive war. In a word, when Congress desires to raise an army, and passes a law Cor that purpose, the solitary ques tion is under the 18th paragraph, viz. : ' Is the law one that is necessary and proper to execute the power to raise armies,' etc.? *' On this point yon say : 'But did the necessity exist in this case ?' The Conscription Act cannot aid the Government in increasing the supply of arm* or provitiiojin, but can only enable it to call a larger number of 'men into the field. The difficulty has never been to get men. The States have already furnished the Government more than it can arm,' etc. " I would have very little difficulty in establishing to your entire satisfac tion tiiat the passage of the law was not only necessary, but that it was abso lutely indispensable ; that numerous regiments of twelve-months men wore on the eve of being disbanded, whose places could not be supplied by new levies in the face ot superior numbers of the foe, without entailing the most disastrous results : that the position of our armies was BO critical us to fill the bosom of every patriot 'with the liveliest apprehension ; and that the pro visions of this law were effective in warding off a pressing" danger. But I prefer to answer your objection on other and broader grounds. ''I noJJ, tdat when a specific power is granted by tJje Constitution liko that now in question, ' to raise armies,' Congress is the judge whether the law passed foi- the purpose of executing that power is ' necessary and proper.' It is not enough to say that armies might be raided in other ways, and that, therefore, this particular way is not 'necessary.' The same argil-

AND GOV. BROWN UPON CONSCRIPTION. 3G
merit might be used against every mode of raising armies. To each succes sive mode suggested, the objection would be that other modes were practica ble, and that, therefore, the particular mode used was not ' necessary.* The true and only test is to enquire whether the law is intended and calculated to carry out the object; whether it devises and creates an instrumentality for executing the specific power granted ; and ii! the answer be in the affirmative, the law is constitutional. None can doubt that the Conscription L,aw is calculated and intended to ' raise armies.' It is, therefore, ' necessary and proper ' for the execution of that power, and is constitutional, unless it comes into conflict with some other provision of our Confederate compact.
" You express the opinion that this conflict exists, and support your argu ment by the citation of those clauses which refer to the militia. There are certain provisions not cited by you, which are not without influence on my judgment, and to which I call your attention. They will aid in denning what is meant by ' militia,' and in determining1 the respective powers of the States and the Confederacy over them.
" The several States agree ' not to keep troops or ships of war io time of peace.' Art. 1, sec. 10, par. 3.
"They further stipulate, that * a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' Sec. 9, par. 13.
" That ' no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infa mous crime, imless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in eases arising in the laud or naval forces or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger,' etc. Sec. 9, par. 30.
""What then are militia? They can only be created by law. -- The armsb earing- inhabitants of a State are liable to become its militia, if the law so order; but in the absence of a law to that effect, the men of a State capable of bearing jirms are no more militia than they are seamen.
" The Constitution also tells us that militia are not troops nor are they any part of the land or naval forces; for militia exist in tune of peace, and the Constitution forbids the States to keep troops in time of peace, and they are expressly distinguished and placed in a separate category from land or -naval forces, in the 16th paragraph, above quoted ; and the words land or naval farces are shown, by paragraphs 12, 13 and 14, to mean the army and navy of the Confederate States.
'Kow, if militia are riot the citizens taken singly, but a body cre ated by law, if they are not troops, if they are no part of the army and navy of the Confederacy -- we are led directly to the definition quoted by the Attorney-General, that militia are a l l>ody of soldiers iri a State enrolled for discipline/ In other words, the term 'militia' is a collective term, meaning a body of men organized, and cannot be applied to the separate in dividuals who compose the organisation.
" Tiie Constitution divides the whole military strength of the States into

3G8 CORRESPONDENCE OF PRESIDENT DAV1S
only two classes of organized bodies--one, the armies of the Confederacy ; the other, the militia of the States.
" Ij! the delegation of pov>r to She Confederacy, after exhaust!tig the Sub ject of declaring war, raising and supporting armies, and providing a navy, in relation to all which the grant of authority to Congress is exclusive, the Constitution proceeds to deal with the other organized body,'the militia, and, instead of delegating- power to Congress alone, or reserving it to the States alone, the power is divider! as follows, viz. : Congress is to have power--
" ' To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the C*onfederate States, suppress insurrections, and repel invasion*.' Sec. S, par. 15,
" ' To provide for organizing, arming1, and disciplining the militia, and for governing sneh. part of them, as may be employed in the service of the Con federate States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of officers (rml Ute authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.' Tar. 16.
" Congress, then, hat; the power to provide for organizing the arms-bearing people of tho States into militia, Each State has the power to officer and train, them when organized.
" Congress may call forth the militia to esecxxte Confederate laws. The State ho.* nob sin-rendered the power to call them forth to execute State laws.
" Congress may call them forth to repel invasion ; so may the State, for ib has expressly reserved this right,
" Congress may call them forth to suppress insurrection, and so may the State, for the power is impliedly reserved of governing all the militia, except the part in actual service of the Confederacy.
"I confess myself at a loss to perceive in what manner these careful and well-defmod provisions of the Constitution regulating the organization and government of the militia, cau be understood as applying- in the remotest degree to the armies of the Confederacy; nor can I conceive, how the gr^nt of exclusive power to declare and carry on war by armies raised and sup ported by the Confederacy, is to be restricted or diminished by (he clauses which grant a divided power over the militia. On the contrary, the delega tion of authority over the militia, so far as granted, appears to me fco be plainly an additional enumerated power, intended to strengthen the hands of the Confederate Government in the discharge of its paramount duty, the common defence of the States.
"You state, after quoting the 12th, 15th, and 16th grants of power to Congress, that, 'These grants of power all relate to the same subject matter, and are all contained in the same section of. the Constitution, and by a well known rule of construction must be taken as a whole, and construed together.*
"This argument appears to tne unsound. All the powers of Congress a,re enumerated in one section ; and the three paragraphs quoted can no more control each other by ma-sen of their location in the same section, than they

AND GOV. DROWN UPO^T CO'XSCKTPTTON,

s because lie is a member of the State militia, is to deny the powei.11 army at nil ; for, practically, nil men fit for service in the army n,braced in the militia organizations of the several SUfces. You vever, to suggest, ruth or than directly to assert, that, the conscript - ..., I) unconstitutional, because it comprehends nil arms-bearing men between eighteen and thirty-live years: at least this is an inference which I draw from your expression, 'armies comncsed of the whole militia of ft!I the States/ Hut it is obvious that, if Gong reps have power to draft into the armies raised by it any citizens st a.'l (\vithout regard to th fact whether

.-

.

,

our very existence is threatened by armies vastly superior in numbers to

ours, the necessity for defence has induced a call, not 'for the whole mi lit hi

of all the States,' not for any militia, but for -man to compose armies for the

Coonnfeedeerraatee Staateess.

"Surely, there is no mystery on this subject. .During our whole past

history, as well as during our recent one year's experience as a new confed

eracy, the militia, ' hae been called forth to repel invasion ' in numerous

instances; and they never came otherwise than as bodies organized by the

370 CORRESPONDENCE OF PRESIDENT DAYIS
States, with their company, field, and general officers; and when the emer gency had passed, they went home again.
"I cannot perceive how any one can interpret the conscription law as taking away from the States the power to appoint officei-s to their militia. You observe on this point in your letter, that unless your construction is adopted ' the very object of the States in reserving the power of appointing the officers is defeated, and that portion of the Constitution is not only a nulliby, but the whole military power of the States, and the entire control of the militia, with the appointment of the officers, is vested in the Confederate Government, whenever it chooses to call its own action "raising an army," and not calling forth the militia.'
"I can only say, in reply to this, that the power of Congress depends on the real nature, of the act it proposes to perform, not on the name given to it; and I have endeavored to show that its action is merely that of 'raising an army,' and bears no semblance to 'calling; forth the militia.' I. think I may safely venture the assertion, that there is not one man out of a thou sand of those who will do service under the Conscription Act that would describe himself, while in the Confederate service, as being a militia man; and if I am right in this assumption, the popular understanding; concurs entirely with my own deductions from the Constitution as to the meaning of the word 'militia.'
" My answer has grown to such a length that I must confine myself to one more quotation from your letter. You proceed: ' Congress shall have power to raise arm/e,". How shall it be done ? The answer is clear. In conformity to the provisions of the Constitution, which expressly provides that when the militia of the States are called forth to rppel invasion, and employed in. the service of the Confederate States, which is now the case, the State shall appoint tho officers.'
" I beg you. to observe that the answer, which you say is clear, is not an answer to tho question put. The question is: J3ow are armies to be raised? The answer given is, that when militia are called forth to repel invasion the State shall appoint the officers.
"There seems to me to be a conclusive test on this whole subject. By our Constitution Congress may declare war, ojfcnsive as well as defensive. Ifc may acquire territory.--Now, suppose that for good cause, and to right unprovoked injuries, Congress should declai-e wav against Mexico, and invade Sonora. The militia could not he called forth in such a ease, the right to call it being limited 'to repel invasions,' Is it not plain that the law now under discussion, if passed under such circumstances, could bv no possibility Toe aught else than a law to ' raise an army '? Can one and the same law be construed into a 'calling forth the militia,' if the war be defen sive, and a ' raising of armies,' if the war be offensive ?
"At some future day, after oar independence shall have been established, it is no improbable supposition that our present enemy may be tempted to

AND GOV. BROWN UPON CONSCRIPTION. 371

abuse his naval power, by depredation on our commerce, and that we may

be compelled to assert our rights by offensive war. How is it to be carried

on ? Of what is the army to be composed ? If this Government cannot call

on its arms-bearing population otherwise than as militia, and if the militia

can only be called forth to repel invasion, we should he utterly helpless to

vindicate our honor or protect our rights. War has been well styled 'the

terrible litigation of nations.' Have we so formed our Government that in

this litigation we must never be plaintiff? Surely this cannot have been the

intention of the framers of our compact.

"Jii no aspect in which I can view this law, can I find just reason to dis

trust the propriety of my action in approving and signing it; and the ques

tion presented involves consequences, both immediate and remote, too

momentous to permit me to leave your objections unanswered.

"In conclusion, I take great pleasure in recognizing that the history of

the past year affords the amplest justification for your assertion, that if the

question had been whether the conscription law was necessary in order to

raise men in Georgia, the answer must have been in the negative. Your

noble State has promptly responded to every call that it has been my duty

to make on her; and to you, personally, as her Executive, I acknowledge

my indebtedness for the prompt, cordial, and effective co-operation you

have afforded me in the effort to defend oar common country against the

common enemy.

" I am, very respectfully,

"Your obedient servant,

" JEFFKESOX DAVIS.

" His Excellency Jos. E. BROWN,

" Governor of Georgia,

"Milledgeville."

" ATLANTA, June 21, 1862.
"HIS EXCELLENCY JEFFE11SON DAVIS, PRESIDENT, &c.
"Dsar Sir:--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th ult., in reply to mine of the 8th of the same month, which reached my office, at Milledgeville, on the 8th inst., together with a copy of the written opinion of the Attorney-General, and has since been'forwarded to toe at Canton, where I was detained by family affliction.
"Your reply, prepared after mature deliberation and consultation with a Cabinet of distinguished ability, who concur in your view of the constitu tionality of the Conscription Act, doubtless presents the very strongest argument in defence of the Act, of which the case is susceptible.
''Entertaining, as I do, the highest respect for your opinions and those of each individual member of your Cabinet, it is with great diffidence that I express the conviction, which I still entertain, after a careful perusal of vour

372 CORRESPONDENCE OF PRESIDENT DA.VIS
letter, that your argument fails to sustain the constitutionality of the Act; and that the conclusion at which you have arrived is maintained by neither tlit.' contemporaneous construction put upon the Constitution by those -who imt.de it. nor by the practice of the United States Government under it during the earlier and better days of the Republic, nor by the language of the instrument itself, taking- the whole context and applying to it the well established rules by which all constitutions and laws are to be construed.
'Looking to the magnitude of the rights involved, and the disastrous consequences which, I fear, must follow what I consider a bold and danger ous usurpation by Congress of the reserved rights of: the States, and a rapid stride towards military despotism, T very much regret that 1 have, not, in the preparation of this reply, the advice and assistance of a number equal to your Cabinet, of the many 'eminent citizens' who, you admit, entertain with me, the opinion that the Conscription Act is n palpable violation of the Constitution of the Confederacy. Without this assistance, however, I must proceed individually to express to you some views, in addition to those con tained in my former letter.-, and to reply to such points made by you in the argument, as seem to my mind to have the most plausibility in sustaining you'' conclusion.
" The sovereignty and independence of each one of the thirteen States at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, will not, I presume, be denied by any, nor will it be denied that each of these States acted in its separate capacity, as an independent sovereign, iti the adoption of the Constitution. 'Die Constitution is, therefore, a league between sov ereigns. In order to place upon it a just construction, we must apply to it the rules, which, by common consent, govern in the construction of all writ ten constitutions and laws. One oE the first of these rules is, to inquire what was the intention of those who made the Constitution.
"To enable us io le;irn this intention, it is important to inquire what they did. and what they said they meant, when they -were making it. In other words, to inquire lor the contemporaneous construction put upon the instru ment by those who made it, and the explanations of its meaning by those who proposed each part in the convention, which induced the convention to adopt each part.
"I incorporated into my last letter a number of quotations from the de bates of prominent members of the convention upon the very point in ques tion, showing- that it was not the intention of the convention to give to Con gress the unlimited control of all the men able to bear arms in the States, but that it wa,s their intention to reserve to the States the control over those who composed their militia,by retaining to the States the appointment of the officers to command them, even while 'employed in the service of the Con federate States.' J might add many other quotations containing strong proofs of this position, from the debates of the Federal convention, and the action of the State conventions which adopted the Constitution; but I deem it

AND GOV. 13ROW!* UPOjST CONSCRIPTION. 373
unnecessary, as you made no allusion (.0 the contemporaneous construction in your reply, and I presume you do not insist that the explanations of its meaning- given by those who made it sustain your conclusion.
" I feel that, I am fully justified by the debates and the action of tlie Fed eral and State conventions, in saying that it was the intention of (.he thirteen sovereigns, to constitute a common agent with certain specific and limited powers, to be exercised for the good of aH the principals, but that it was not the intention to give the agent the power to destroy HIP. principals. The agent was expected to be rather the servant of several masters, than the master of several servants. I apprehend it was never imagined that the time would come when the agent of the sovereigns would claim the power to take from each sovereign every man belonging to each, able to bear arm?, and leave them with no power to execute their own laws, suppress insurrections; in their midst, or repel invasions.
' In reference to the practice of the United States Government under the Constitution, 1 need only remark, that I do not presume it will be contended that Congress claimed or exercised the right to compel persons constituting the militia of the States, by conscription or corapuL-slnn, to enter the service of the General Government, without the consent of their State Government, at any time while the Government was administered, or its councils controlled, by any of the fathers of the Republic who aided in the formation of the Con stitution.
"If, then, the constitutionality of the Conscription Act cannot be estab lished by the contemporaneous construction of the Constitution, nor by the earlier practice of the Government while administered by those who made the Constitution, the remaining' inquiry is, can it be established by the lan guage of the instrument itself, taking the whole contest, and applying to it the usual rules of construction, which were generally received and admitted to be authoritative at the time it was made.
" The Constitution, in express language, gives Congress the power to ' raise and support armies.' You rest the case here, and say you know of but two modes of ' raising armies,' to wit: ' by voluntary enlistment, and by draft or conscription,' and you conclude that the Constitution authorizes Congress to raise them by either or both these modes.
" To enable us to arrive at an intelligent conclusion as to the meaning in tended to be conveyed by those who used this language, it is necessary to inquire whafc signification was attached to the terms used, at the time they were used ; and it is fair to infer that those who used them intended to con vey to the minds of others the idea which was at that time usually conveyed by the language adopted by them. Apply this rule, and what did the con vention mean by the term 'to raise armies?' I prefer that the AttorneyGeneral should answer. He says in his written opinion :
Si ' Inasmuch as the words " militia,'" " armies," " regular troops," and " vol unteers," had acquired a definite meaning in Great Britain before the llevolu-

374 COBKESPOIN'DENCE OF PRESIDENT DAVIS
tionary war, and as we have derived most of our ideas on this subject from that source, we may safely conclude that the term " militia," in our Constitu tion, was used in the sense attached to it in that country.'
"Upon this statement of the Attorney-General rests his definition of the term 'militia,' which is an English definition; and upon that definition rests all that part of your argument, which draws a distinction, however un substantial, between calling forth the militia by the authority of Congress, and calling forth all men in the State who compose the militia by the same authority. In the one case, you term it calling forth the militia, and admit that the State has the right to appoint the officers : in the other case, while every man called forth may be the same, you term it raising an army, and deny to the State the appointment of the officers. As this is necessary to sustain the constitutionality of tlie Conscription Act, you cannot disapprove the statement of the Attorney-General above quoted. If, then, the AttorneyGeneral is right, that the terms 'militia,' 'armies, 'regular troops,' and 'vol unteers ' had acquired a definite meaning in Great Britain before the Rev olutionary war, and we have derived most of our ideas on this subject from that source, and if we may safely conclude that the term 'militia' in our Constitution was used in the sense attached to it in that country, is it riot equally safe to conclude that the terms ' armies,' and to ' raise armies,' hav ing acquired a definite meaning in Great Britain before the Revolutionary war, were used in our Constitution in the same sense attached to them in that country ?
" At that period, the government of Great Britain had no Conscription Act, and did not ' raise armies ' by conscription ; therefore the convention which made our Constitution, 'having derived most of their ideas on this subject from that source,' it is 'safe to conclude ' that they used the term to 'raise armies' in the sense attached to it in that country. Jt necessarily fol lows, the Attorney-General being the judge, that your conclusion is erro neous, and that Congress has no power to ' raise armies,' not even her reg ular armies,' by conscription.
" 35ut, as those who framed the Constitution foresaw that Congress might not be able, by voluntary enlistment, to raise regular or standing armies suf ficiently large to meet all emergencies, or that the people might refuse to vote supplies to maintain in the field armies so large and dangerous, they wisely provided, in connection with this grant of power, another relating to the same subject-matter, and gave Congress the additional power to call forth the militia to execute the laws of the Confederate States, suppress in surrections, and repel invasions.
" In this connection, I am reminded by your letter, that Congress has power 'to declare war,' which you say embraces the right to declare offensive as well as defensive war; and you argue, as I understand, that the militia can only be called forth to repel invasions, and not to invade a foreign power, and that Congress would be powerless to redress our wrongs, or vindicate

AND GOV. BROWN" ITPOX CONSCRIPTION. 375
our honor, if it could not ' raise armies ' by conscription, to invade foreign powers. If this were even so, it might be an objection to the constitutional government, for want of sufficient strength, which is an objection often made by those who favor more absolute power in the general government, and who attempt, by a latitudinaruin construction of the Constitution, to supply powers which were never Intended to bo given to it. But does the practical difficulty which yon suggest in f;ici, exist? I maintain that it docs not. And T may here remark, that those who established the govern ment of our fathers did not look to it as a great military power, whose people were to live by plundering other nations in foreign aggressive war, hnt as a peaceful government, advised by the Father of his Country to avoid 'entangling alliances ' with foreign powei'S.
" But you suppose, after our independence is established, that our present enemy may be tempted to abuse his naval power, by depredation on our commerce, and that we may be compelled to assert our rights by offensive war, and you ask, ' How is it to be carried on ? ' 'Of what is the army to be composed? ' Tlie answer is si vnry simple- one. If the aggression is such as to justify us in the declaration of offensive war, our people will have the in telligence to know it, and the patriotism ami valor to prompt them to re spond by- voluntary enlistment, and to offer themselves under officers of their own choice, through their State authorities, to the Confederacy, just as they did in the offensive war against Mexico, when many more were offered than were needed, without conscription or coercion ; and just as they have done in our present defensive war, when a most every State has responded to every call, by sending larger numbers than were called for, and larger than the government can arm and make effective. There is no danger that the honor of the intelligent free-born citizens of this Confederacy will ever suffer because the government has not the power to compel them to vindicate it. They will hold the government responsible il'it refuses to permit them to do it. To doubt this, would seem to be to doubt the intelligence and pa triotism of the people, and their competency for self-government.
" It would be very dangerous, indeed, fco give the genera! government the power to engage in an offensive foreign war, the justice of which was con demned by the governments of the States, and the intelligence of the people, and to corn[jol them to prosecute it for two years, the term for which appro priations can be made and continued by the Congress declaring it. Hence the wisdom of our ancestors in .limiting the power of Congress over the militia, or great body of our people, so as to prohibit the prosecution, by conscription or coercion, of an offensive foreign war, which may be condemned by an intelligent public opinion.
" France has a conscription act, which Great Britain has not. Both are warlike powers often engaged in foreign offensive wars. What advantage has the conscription law grven to France over Great Britain? Has not the latter been as able as the former to ' raise armies' sufficient to vindicate her

370 CORRESPONDENCE OF PRESIDENT DA VIS
honor and maintain her rights? When France had no conscription law at ovie period of her history, she \vas a republic. Soon alter she bad a con scription law she became an empire and her ruler an emperor, leaving her people -without the constitutional safeguards which protect the people of Great Britain.
" But you ask, 'Shall we never he plain tiff in this " terrible litigation of nations?"' If the litigation commends itself to the intelligence of the people as just, they will not hesitate to put themselves at the command of the Government to assume the plaintiff's position. The eagerness with which the people of the Confederacy now desire that we assume the plaintiff's position, and become the attacking and invading party, instead of acting con stantly upon the defensive, is evidence to sustain my conclusion on this point.
" That those who framed the Constitution looked to a state of \var as tending- to concentrate the power in the Executive, and as unfavorable to constitutional liberty, and did not intend to encourage it, unless in cases of absolute necessity, and did not, therefore, form the government with a view to its becoming a power often engaged in offensive war, may be inferred from the language of Mr. Mad:.son. He says :
" ' War is, in fact, the true nurse of Executive aggrandizement. In war a physical force is to be created, and it is the Executive will \vhich is to direct it. In war the public treasures are to bo unlocked, an I it is the Executive hand which is to dispense them. lu war, the honors and emoluments of office are to be multiplied, and ifc is the Executive patronage under which they are to be enjoyed. It is in war, finally, that laurels are to be gathered, and it is the Executive brow they are to encircle. The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the 'human breast--ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venial love of fame--are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace.' See Federalist, page 452.
' Jn connection with this remark of Mr. Madison, it may not be amiss to add one from Mr. Calhoun. That great and good rnau, who may justly be styled the champion of Stale ll'ujhLs and Constitutional Liberty, in the first volume of his works, page 3G1, while speaking of the war which was forced upon Mi-. Madison while President, by Great Britain, says :
" ' It did more; for the war, however just and necessary, g-ave a strong impulse adverse to the Federal and favorable to the national line of policy. TJji.-i is, indeed, one of the unavoidable consequences of ivar and can be counteracted only by bringing into full action the negatives necessary to the protection of the reserved powers. These would of themselves have the effect of preventing wars, so long as they could be honorably and safely avoided ; and, when necessary, of arresting to a great extent ike tendency of the Government to transcend the limit* of the Constitution during its prosecution, and oE correcting all departures after its termination. It was by force of the trlbunitial power that the plebeians retained for so long a period their liberty iu the midst of so many wars.'

AND GOV. BROWN UPON CONSCRIPTION. 377
" I bey to call special attention to the portions of the above quotation which -L have italicised.
"Having rested the constitutionality of the Conscription Act upon the power given to Congress to ' raise armies,' you enunciate a doctrine which, I must be pardoned for saying, struck me with surprise ; not that the doctrine was new, for it was first proclaimed, I believe, almost as strongly by Mr. Hamilton in the Federalist, but because it found an advocate in you, whom I had for many years regarded as one of the ablest and boldest defenders of the doctrines of the State Rights school, in the old government. Your lan guage is :
" ' I hold that when a specific power is granted by the Constitution, like that now in question, to "raise armies," Congress is the judge whether the law passed for the purpose of executing that power, is necessary and proper.'
' Ag'ain you say; "' The true and only test is, to enquire whether the law is intended and calculated to carry out the object, whether it devises and creates an instru mentality for executing the specific power granted, and if the answer be in the affirmative the law is constitutional.' " From this you arg-ue that the Conscription Act is calculated and in tended to 'raise armies,' and, therefore, constitutional. "lam not aware that the proposition was ever stated more broadly in favor of unrestrained Congressional power, by Webster, Story, or any otheT statesman or jurist of the Federal school. 'This-is certainly not the doctrine of the Republican party of 1798, as set forth in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. The Virginia Resolu tions use the following language, that ' It (the General Assembly of Virginia) views the powers of the Federal Government as resulting from the compact to which tlie States are parties, as limited by the plain sense aud intention of the instrument constituting that compact, as no further valid than they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise, of other powers not granted by said
1 ' ' s who are parties thereto have the right and
-..,--- -.-..,-,,--- . _. -. - . --. 3 appeared o a design to expound cer tain general phrases-- which having been copied from the very limited grant of powers in the former articles of confederation were the less liable to be misconstrued--so as to destroy the meaning and effect of the particular enumeration which necessarily explains and iitni's (he general phrases, so as to consolidate the State's by degrees into one sovereignty, the obvious tendency and

378 CORRESPONDENCE OF PRESIDENT DAVIS
inevitable result of which would be to transform the present republican sys tem of the United States into an absolute or at leant a mixeil monarch;/.'
"The following quotations are From the Kentucky Resolutions drawn up by "Mr. Jefferson himself (the italics, as in the last quotation, are rny own), ''J'hat the several States composing the United States of America fire not united on the principle of unlimited submits.-ion to the general Government, but that, by a compact under the style and title of a, Constitution of the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general Gov ernment for special purposes--deli-gated to tliat Government certain definite powers ; resereiny ear ft State to itxrlf, the residuary mnss of riijht to their own sfilfnove.rnm>.>nt ; th:it whensoever the general Government ansumis itndeleydtedpow ers its acts are unauthoritative^ void and of nn force. ; that to this compact each State Hccecled as a State, and is an integral party--its co-States forming as to it self the other party ; that th.e government created by (his compact was not made the excl-usice or fi.na,l JUDGK of the exie.nt of the powers de/eya'ed io it--since that would have made ITS T>JSCIIETIOX and not the Constitution the measure of its power* ; but that, as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common JunGE, each has an equal right to JUHGK for itself as Vt-ll of infrac tions a,-'of the mode and measure of redraws.'
" And ;igain : " * Thut the construction applied by the general Government (MS evinced by sun dry of their proceedings) to th<

AND GOV. BROWN ITPO2T CONSCRIPTION. 370
power Or righfc to do so, and acting upon the doctrine laid down by you, Congress, claiming to be the judge, proceeded to adjudicate the case, and de termined that the action of Georgia amounted to an insurrection, and passed laws for ifcs suppression. Among others, they have parsed a law, it" we may credit the neivspaners, which aurhorm-s t!ie President to arm our negroes against us. Congress will, no doubt, justify this act, under the, specific power given to it by the Constitution, to ' raise armies," as the armies as wall as tho militia, may be used to suppress insurrection, and execute the laws. Apply the test laid down by you, and inquire, is this jaw ' calculated and intended ' to carry out the object (the suppression of the insurrection, and the execution of the laws of the United States in Georgia) ? and does it ' devise and create an instrumentality for executing the specific power granted?' Congress, the judge, answers the question in the affirmative. Therefore the lnw is consti tutional.
" Again, suppose you are right, and Congress has the constitutional power to 'raise armies' by conscription, nnil, without the consent of the States, to compel every man in the Confederacy between 18 and 3d years old, able to bear arms, to enter these armies, you must admit that Congress has the same power to extend (he Jaw, and compel every man between 10 and 00 to enter. And you must admit that the grant of power is as broad in times of peace as in times of war, as there is in the grant no language to limit it to times of war. It follows that Congress has the absolute control of every man in the State, whenever it choo&es to execute to the full extent the power given it by the Constitution to ' raise armies.' flow easy a matter it would have been, therefore, had the Congress of the United States understood the full extent ot its power, to have prevented in a manner perfectly constitutional the secession of Georgia and Mississippi from fclie Union. It was only neces sary to pass a conscription law declaring every man in both States able to bear arms, to be in the military service of the United States, and that each should be treated as a deserter if lie refused to serve j arid that Congress, the judge, then decide this law was ' necessary and proper,' and that it cre ated an instrumentality for the execution of one of the specific powers granted to Congress to provide for the execution of the laws of the Union in the two States, or to provide for ' raising armies.' This would have left the States without a single man at their command, without the power to organize or u.se military force, and without free men to constitute even a convention to pass an ordinance of secession,
" L it is said the people of the States would have refused to obey this law of Congress, and would have gone out in defiance of it; it may be replied that this would have been revolution and not peaceful secession, tho right for which we have all contended--though our enemies have not permitted us to part with them in peace--the right for which we are now fighting.
"Your doctrine carried out not only makes Congress supreme over the States, at any time when it chooses to exercise the full measure of its power

380 COIIR7CSPONDEKCE OF PRESIDENT DA VIS
emarked, Congress has as much power to extend the act to een 16 and CO, as it had to take all between 18 and 35. Tf the act is constitutional, it follows that Congress has the power to compel the Governor of every State in the Confederacy, every member of every Legisla ture of every State, every judge of every court in every State, every officer of the militia of every State, and all other State o
, of the 1st article of the Constitution to nd leave the people of the States with no other government than such military despotism as Congress in the exercise of the specific power to 'raise armies ' (which I understand you to hold is a distinct power to be construed separately) may, after an application of your test, judye to be best for the people. " For, as all the State officers which I mention might make effective pri vates in the armies of the Confederacy, and as the law passed to compel them to enter the service might 'create an instrumentality for executing the spe cific power' to 'raise armies/ Congress, the judge, need only so decide and the act would be constitutional. " I may be reminded, however, that Congress passed an Exemption Act af ter the passage of the Conscription Act, wliich exempts the Governors of the

OY. BROWX UPON" CONSCRIPTION. 381
has the same power to repeal which it had to pass the Exompfiou Act. All the State officers, therefore, are exempt from conscription by the (/race and special favor of {,'ongresx and not \syrigkf, as the governments of the independ ent States whose agent, and not master. Congress had been erroneously sup posed to bo. If this doctrine be correct, of what value are Stute r/ylus and State sovereignty?
" In. tny former letter I insisted, under the general rule, that the 12th, 15th and 16bh paragraphs of the section under consideration, all relating to the same subject matter, should be construed together. "While your language oil this point is not so clear as in other parts o your letter, I understand you to take issue with me here. You say :
"'Xothing can. so mislead as to construe together and as one whole the carefully separated clauses which define the different powers to be exercised over distinct subjects by Congress.'
" These are not carefully separated clauses which relate to different powers to be exercised over distinct subjects. They all relate to the same xuhj^ct, matter, the authority given to Congress over the (question of war and peace. They all relate to the use of armed force by authority of Congress. .If, therefore. Coke.. Illackstoua and Mansfield of England, and Marshall, Kent and Story of this country, with all other intelligent writers on the rules of construction, are to be respected as authority, there e;m, it would seem, be no doubt of the correctness of the position that these three paragraphs, together with all others in the Constitution which relate to the same subject matter, are to be construed together ' as one whole.'
" Construe them together, and the general language in one paragraph is so qualified by another paragraph upon the same wfy'ect matter, that all c;ui stand together, and the whole, when taken together, establishes to my mind the iiusoundiiess of your argument and the fallacy of your conclusion.
" But 1 must not omit to notice your definition of the term ' militia,' and the deductions which you draw from it.
"You adopt the definition of the Attorney-General that 'the militia are a body of soldiers in a State enrolled for discipline.' Admit, for the purposes of the argument, the correctness of the definition. All persons, therefore, who aie enrolled for discipline under the laws of Georgia constitute her militia. AVhen the persons thus enrolled (the militia) are employed in the service of the Confederate States, the Constitution expressly reserves to Georgia the appointment of the officers. The Conscription Act gives the Presi dent; the power by compulsion to employ every one of those persons, between IS and 35, in the service of the Confederate States; and denies to the State the appointment of ft single officer to command them while thus 'employed.' Suppose Congress, at its next session should extend the Act so us to embrace all between 18 and 45, what is the result? 'The body o soldiers in the State enrolled for discipline ' are every man ' employed in the service of the Confederacy,' and the right is denied to the State to appo ; nt a single officer

382 CORRESPONDENCE OF PRESIDENT DA VIS
when, the Constitution says she shall appoint them all. Is it fair to conclude when the States expressly and carefully reserved the control of their own militia, by reserving the appointment of the officers to eomnuvml them, tliat they intended under the general grunt of power to ' raise armies ' to authorize Congress to defeat the reservation and control the militia with their officers by calling the very same men into the field, individually and not collectively, organ ixiog1 them according to its own will, and terming- its action ' raising an army ' and not calling forth the militia f Surely the great men oj; the revo lution, when they denied to the general government the appointment even of the general officers to command the militia when employed in the service of the Confederacy, did not imagine that, the time would come so soon when that government, under the power to * raise armies,' would claim and exercise the authority to call into the field the whole, militia of the States individually, and deny to the States the appointment of the lowest lieutenant, and justify the act on the ground that Congress did not choose fo call them itito service in thoir collective capacity, and deny that they were militia if called into ser vice in any other way.
"11 Congress has the power to call forth the whole enrolled force or militia of the States in the manner provided by the Conscription Act, thoro is certainly no obligation upon Congress ever to call them, forth in any other manner, and it rests in the discretion of Congress whether or not the tStates shall ever be permitted to exercise their reserved right, as Congress has the power in every case to defeat the exercise of the right by calling forth the militia under a Conscription Act, and not by requisitions made upon the States. It cannot be just to charge the States with the folly oE making this important reservation, subject to any such power in Congress to render it nugatory at its pleasure.
"Again, you say 'Congress may call forth the militia to execute Confed erate laws; the Slate has not surrendered the power to call them forth to execute Slats laws.'
"' Congress may call them forth to repel invasion; so may the State, for it has expressly reserved this right.'
" ' Conyress may call them forth to suppress insurrection, and so may the State.'
"If the conscription law is to control, and Congress may, without the con sent of the State Government, order every man composing the militia of the State, out of the State, into the Confederate service, how is the State to call forth her own militia, as you admit she has reserved the right to do, to exe cute her own laws, suppress an insurrection in her midst, or repel an inva sion of Vier own territory?
" Could it have been the intention of the States to delegate to Congress the power to take from them -without their consent the means of self-preser vation, by depriving them of all the strength upon which their very existence depends 'I

AND GOV. BKOWN UPON CONSCRIPTION. 383
"After laying down the position tlia.t the citizens of a State are not her militia, and affirming that the militia are 'a body organized bylaw,' you deny that the militia constitute any part of the land or nanftl. forces, and say they are distinguished from the land and naval forces; and you further say they have always been called forth as 'bodies organized by the States,' with their officers; that they 'do not become part of the armies rained by Con gress,' but remain militia; and that when they had been called forth, and the exigencies which provoked the call hud passed, 'they wont home again.' The militia when called forth are taken from the body of the people, to meet an emergency, or to repel invasion. If they go in as ' bodies organized by the States,' you hold that they go in militia, remain militia, and. when the exigency is passed they go home militia ; but it' you call forth the same men by the Conscription Act for the same purpose, and they remain for the same length of time, ad do the same service, they are not militia, but the armies of the Confederacy, part of the land or naval force. In connection with this part of the subject you use the following language :
" ' At the present moment, when our very existence is threatened by armies vastly superior in numbers to ours, the necessity for defence has induced a call, not for the whole militia of all the States, not for any militia, but for men to compose armies for the Confederate States.'
"lu the midst of sueli pressing danger, why was it that there was no necessity for any militia; in other words, no necessity for any 'bodies of men organized by the States,' as were many of the most gallant regiments now in the Confederate service, who have won on the battle-field a name in history, and laurels that can never fade?
" Were no more such bodies ' organized by the States ' needed, because the material remaining within the States of which they must be composed was not reliable? The Conscription Act gives you the very same material. Was it because the officers appointed by the States to command the gallant State regiments and other ' organized bodies' sent by the States were less brave or less skilful than the officers appointed by the President to command similar ' organized bodies'? The officers appointed by the States who now command regiments in the service, will not fear to have impartial history answer this question. AVa3 it because you wished select men for the armies of the Confederacy V The Conscription Act embraces all, without distinc tion, between eighteen and thirty-five able to do military duty and not legally exempt. You do not take the militia. What do you take? You take every man between certain ages, of whom the militia is composed. What is the difference between taking the militia and taking all the men who compose the militia? Simply this : In the ozie case you take them with their officers appointed by the States, as the Constitution requires, and call them by their proper name, 'militia/ 'employed in the service of the Confederate States.' In the other case you take them all as individuals -- get rid of the State officers --appoint officers of your own choice, and call them the 'armies of

384 CORRESPONDENCE OF PRESIDENT DAVIS
the Confederacy.' And yet these armies, like you say the militia.' do, will 'go home' when the exigency has passed, as it is hoped they are not ex pected to be permanent like the regular armies of the Confederacy; or, iu other -words, like the land and naval forces provided for in the Constitution, from which you distinguish the militia. Indeed, the similarity between these 'armies of the Confederacy/ called forth in an emergency, to repel an invasion, to be disbanded when the emergency is passed; and the militia or bodies of troops organized and officered by the States, called fonh for the same purpose, to be composed of the same material and disbanded at tha same time, is ngost remarkable in everything, except the name and the ap pointment o the officers.
" Excuse me for calling your attention to another point in this connection, "As yon admit that the militia have always been called forth as ' bodies organized by the States,' and when thus called forth that the States have always appointed the officers, I presume you will not deny that when the President, hy authority of Congress, has made a call upon a State for ' organ ized bodies of soldiers,' and they have been furnished by the State from the body of her people, they have entered the service as part of the militia of the State ' employed in the service of the Confederate States ' under the 15th and IGlh paragraphs of the 8th section of the 1st article of the Constitution. "Your message to Congress recommending- its passage shows that there was no necessity for the act, to enable you to get troops, as yon admit that the Executives of the States had enabled you to keep in the field adequate forces, and also that the spirit of resistance among the people was such that it needed to bo legulated and not stimulated. Yvou say: " ' I am happy to assure you of the entire harmony of purpose and cordial ity of feeling which have continued to exist between myself and the Execu tives of the several States, and it is to this cause that our success in keeping adequate forces in the field is !.o be attributed.' Again you say : " ' The vast preparations made by the enemy for a combined assault at numerous points on our frontier and sea-coast have produced the result that might have been expected. They have animated the people with a spirit of resistance so general, so resolute, and so self-sacrificing, that it requires rather to be reg'ulnted than to be stimulated.' " If then the Executives of the States by their cordial co-operation had enabled you to keep in the field ' adequate forces,' and the spirit of resistance was as high as you state, there was no need of a conscription act to enable you to 'raise armies.' "Since the invasion of the Confederacy by our present enemy, yon have made frequent calls irpon me, as Governor of this State, for 'organized bodies ' of troops. I have responded to every call and sent them as required, 'organized' according to the laws of the State, and commanded by officers appointed by the State, and in most instances fully armed, accoutred, and equipped. These bodies were called forth to meet an emergency, and assist

AND GOV. BROWN UPON CONSCRIPTION.

385

in repelling an invasion. The emergency is not yet passed, the invasion is not yet repelled, and they have not yet returned home. If your position be correct, they constitute uo part of the land or naval, force*, as they were not organiz'd nor their officers appointed by the President, as is the ease with the armies of the Confederacy, but they were called forth as bodies ' organized and their officers appointed by the States.' Hence they are part of the militia of Georgia employed in the service of the Confederate States as pro vided by the two paragraphs of the Constitution above quoted, and by para graph 10 of section 9 of the 1st article, which terms them 'militia in actual service in time of war or public danger.' They entered the service with only the training common to the citizens of the Stale. They are now well trained troops. But having gone in as 'bodies organized by the State,' or as ?nilitia, you say they remain militia, and go home militia. In this case we seem to -agree that the State, under the express reservation in the Constitu tion, has the right to appoint the officers. J liave the written opinion of Mr. Benjamin, then Secretary of War, about th,e time of the last call for twelve regiments, concurring in this view, and recognizing this right of the State. And it is proper that I should remark that the State has, in each case, been permitted to exercise this right, when the troops entered the service in com pliance with a requisition upon the State for 'organized bodies of troops.' The right does not stop here, however. The Constitution does not say (he State shall appoint the officers while the organizations may be forming to enter the service of the Confederacy, but while they * may be employed in the service of the Confederate States.' Many thousands are now so employed. Vacancies in the different offices are frequently occurring by death, resigna tion, etc. The laws of this State provide how these vacancies are to be filled, and it is not to be done by promotion of the officer nest in rank, except in a single instance, but by election of the regiment, and commission by the Governor. The right of the State to appoint these officers seems to be
admitted, and is indeed too clear to be questioned. "The Conscription Act, if it is to be construed according to its language,
and the practice which your generals are establishing under it, denies to the State the exercise of this right, and prescribes a rule for selecting all officers in future, unknown to the laws of Georgia, and confers upon the President the power to commission them. Can this usurpation (1 think no milder term expresses it faithfully) be justified under the clause in the Constitution which gives Congress power to 'raise armies '? and is this part of the Act constitu tional? If not, you have failed to establish the constitutionality of the Con
scription Act. "The 14th paragraph of the 9th section of the 1st article of the Constitu
tion of the Confederate States declares that-- " ' A wll regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the
right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' This was no part of the original Constitution as reported by the convention and

386 CORRESPONDENCE OF PRESIDENT D-V.VIS
adopted by tlie States, But 'the convention of a number of the States hav ing at the time of their adopting the Constitution expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added, Congress at the session begun and held at the city of New York on Wednesday the 4th of March, 1789, pro posed to the Legislatures of the several States twelve amendments, ton of which only were adopted.'
"The second amendment was tlie one above quoted, which shows very clearly- that the States were jealous of the control which Congress might claim over their militia, and required on this point a further 'restrictive clause' than was contained in the original Constitution.
" The lOtli paragraph of the preceding section expressly reserves to the States 'the authority of training the militia according to the discipline pre scribed by Congress.' Tn connection with this, you admit that the States re served the right to call forth tht?ir own militia to execute their own laws, sup press insurrections or repel invasions. This authority to calf, them forth would have been of no value without the authority to appoint officers to command them ; and the furth
of this State, as to disband the militia in the event they should be compelled to leave their commands. This would leave me without the power to reor ganize them, as a vacancy can only be created in one of these offices by resig nation of the incumbent, or by the voluntary performance of some act which amounts to an abandonment of his command, or by a sentence of a, court martial dismissing him from office. The officer who is dragged from his com mand by conscription, or compulsion, and placed in the ranks, is in neither category; and his office is no rnore vacated than the office of a judge would he, if he were ordered into military service -without his consent. And unless there be a vacancy I have no right to fill the place, either by ordering an election, or by a brevet appointment. I have no right in either ease to comTM;^;^n ,. ouccessor so long as there is a legal incumbent.

AND GOV. BROWN UPON CONSCRIPTION. 387
ized force to suppress it, I felt it an imperative duty which I owed the peo ple gi this State, to inform you in a former letter that I could not permit the disorganization to take place, nor the State officers to be compelled to leave their respective commands and enter the Confederate service as conscripts. --'Were it not-a fact well known to the country that you now have in service tens of thousands of men without arms and with no immediate prospect of getting arms, who must remain for months consumers of our scanty supplies of provisions, without ability to render service, while their labor would be most valuable in their farms and workshops, there might be the semblance of a plea of necessity for forcing the State officers to leave their commands, with the homes of their people unprotected, and go into camps of instruction, under Confederate officers, often much more ignorant than themselves of military science or training. I must, therefore, adhere to my position and maintain the integrity of the State Government in its executive, legislative, judicial and military departments, as long as I can command sufficient force to prevent it from being disbanded, and its people reduced to a state of pro vincial dependence upon the central power.
" Jf I have used strong language in any part of this letter, I beg you to at tribute it only to my zeaE in the advocacy of principles and a cause which I consider, no less than the cause of constitutional liberty, imperilled by the erroneous views and practice of those placed upon the watch-tower as its con stant guardians.
" In conclusion, I beg to assure you that T fully appreciate your expressions of personal kindness, and reciprocate them in my feelings towards you to the fullest extent.
'* I know the vast responsibilities resting upon you, and would never will ingly add unnecessarily to their weight, or in any way embarrass you in the discharge of your important duties.--While I cannot agree with you in opin ion upon the grave question under discussion, I beg you to command me at all times when I can do you a personal service, or when I can, without a vio lation of the constitutional obligations resting upon me, do any service to the great cause in which we are all so vitally interested.
"Hoping that a kind Providence may give you wisdom so to conduct the affairs of our young Confederacy as may result in the early achievement of our independence, and redound to the ultimate prosperity and happiness of our whole people,
"I have the honor to be, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, " JOSEPH E. BJSOW^T.
" P. S.--Since the above letter was written I see, somewhat to my surprise, that you have thought proper to publish part of our unfinished correspond ence.
" In reply to my first letter you simply stated on the point in question that

388 CORRESPONDENCE OF PRESIDENT DAVIS
the constitutionality of the Act was derivable from that paragraph in the Constitution -which gives Congress the power to raise and support armies. I replied to that letter with no portion of your argument but the simple state ment of your position before me. You then with the aid of your Cabinet replied to my second letter, giving the argument by which you attempt to sus tain your position, and without allowing time for your letter to reach me, arid a reply to be sent, you publish my second letter and your reply, which is your first argument oi' the question. I find these two letters not only in the newspapers but also in pamphlet form, I presume by your order, for general circulation.
" While I cannot suppose that your sense of duty and propriety would per mit you to publish part of an unfinished correspondence for the purpose of forestalling public opinion, I must conclude that your course is riot the usual
through Congress and me .legislature ot tne State. " But as you have commenced the publication in this hasty and as I think
informal manner, you will admit that I have no other alternative but to con tinue it. I must, therefore, request as an act of justice that all newspapers which have published part of the correspondence, insert this reply.
"J. E. B."
" EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, > RICHMOND, July 10, 1862. I
"Dear Sir:--I have received your letter of 21st ult., and would have con tented myself with the simple acknowledgment of. its receipt but for one or two matters contained in it, which seem to require distinct reply.
" I deemed it my duty to state my views in relation to the constitutionality of the conscript law for the reasons mentioned in my letter to you, but it was no part of my intention to enter into a protracted discussion. It was convenient to send my views to others than yourself, and for this purpose I caused my letter, together with yours, to be printed in pamphlet form. I am not aware of having omitted any part of your observations, nor did I antici pate any further correspondence on the subject. I supposed you had fully stated your views as I had stated mine, and no practical benefit could be attained by further discussion.
"It is due however to myself to disclaim in the most pointed manner a doctrine which you have been pleased to attribute to me, and against which you indulge in lengthened argument. Neither in my letter to you, nor in any sentiment ever expressed by me, can there be found just cause to impute to me the belief that Congress is the final judge of the constitutionality of a contested power.
"I said in my letter, that 'when a specific power is granted, Congress is

AND GOV. BROWN UPON CONSCRIPTION. 389

the judg-e whether the law passed for the purpose of executing that power

is necessary and proper.'

"I never asserted, nor intended to assert, that after the passage of such

law it might not be declared uncoiistitutioual by the courts on complaint

made by an individual; nor that the judgment of Congress was conclusive

against a State, as supposed by you; nor that nil the co-ordinate branches

of the general Government could together finally decide a, question of the

reserved rights of a State. The right of each State to judge in the last

resort whether its reserved powers had been usurped by the general Govern

ment, is too familiar and well settled a principle to admit of discussion.

"As I cannot see, however, after the most respectful consideration of all

that you have said, anything to change my conviction that Congress has

exercised only a plainly granted specific power in raising its armies by con

scription, I cannot share the alarm and concern about State rights which

you so evidently feel, but which to me seem quite unfounded.

" I am very respectfully yours,

" Gov. JOSEPH E. BROWN,

" JEI-.-PERSON DAVIS.

" Atlanta, Ga."

" ATLANTA, July 22, 1SG2. "HIS EXCELLENCY JEFFERSON DAVIS:
" Dear Sir :--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 10th inst., and am very happy to ]mow that you disclaim the doctrine which I think every fair-minded man has attributed to you who has read your letter of the 29th May last, and has construed plain English words according to their established meaning.
" \Vhou a writer speaks of a tribunal that is to be ' the judge ' of a case, without qualification, we certainly understand him to mean that this judge has the right to decide the ease. And if the, judge has this right, the decision must be binding upon all the parties ; and 110 distinct and separate tribunal, as a different department of the Government, for instance, has the right to decide the same ease, after it has been decided by the judg'e having compe tent jurisdiction. It would seem to be a contradiction in terms to say, that when a specific power is granted, Congress is the judge 'whether the law passed for the purpose of executing that power is necessary and proper,' and that 'the true and only test is to inquire whether the law is intended and calculated to carry out the object, whether it devises and creates an in strumentality for executing the specific power granted; and if the answer be in the affirmative, the law is constitutional; ' and then to say, after this test has been applied, and Congress has passed judgment, that another de partment of the Government, as the President, or the Judiciary, or another government, as a State, may take up the case thus decided by the tribunal having, under the Constitution, complete jurisdiction, and make a different

390 CORRESPONDENCE OF PKESIDENT DAVIS
decision. It is, I believe, an established principle in all civilized nations, thiit when a court of competent juri.-diction--unless guilty of fraud or mis take-- lias finally decided a. case, the judgment is conclusive upon all the parties.
" But you say you never asserted, nor intended to assert, that the judg ment of Congress was conclusive against a State. Pardon me for saying that you did assert that Congress -is the. judge, and that you did not qualify the assertion by saying the judge in the first instance, nor did you annex: any other qualification or exception in favor of the rights of a State or any other party. I had no right therefore to suppose that you intended to ingraft exceptions upozi a rule which you laid down in the plainest terms without exception.
" \ make the above reference to your former letter, to show that I had no disposition to do you injustice, and that I do not consider that I misrepre sented your position, as contained in your letter. The thousands of intelli gent citizeus, in different parts of the Confederacy, who have placed upon your letter the same cons true tioti which 1 had, will doubtless be gratified that you now disclaim the dangerous doctrine as to the power of Congress, to which your strong unqualified language seemed clearly to commit you.
" In reference to the publication by you of the two letters containing part of GUV correspondence, I. need only say that you had devoted a large portion of your letter (o a reply to my argument which was before you, and had in. the same letter, for the first time, given the arguments by wliich you main tain your own position. These I had never seen ; and as you had replied at length to my argument, it was, I think, but fair and just, according to all rules of discussion, that I have au opportunity to reply to yours, and that the whole case be submitted to the country together. Unless there were important reasons of state which in your judgment made it necessary to place the di.-cussioti before the country incomplete, in order to satisfy the discontents which existed iti the public mind, on account of what a very large proportion of our people regard as a dangerous usurpation, or unless other good reasons existed for a departure from the usual rule in such cases, I am unable to see why the whole correspondence, when given to the public, should not have gone through the usual official channels.
"I have certainly had no wish to protract the discussion of this question, further than duty, and justice to the people of this State required. I feel that I cannot close, however, without again earnestly inviting your attention to a question which you muat admit is 'practical.'
"I think I have established beyond a doubt, in my former letters, the con stitutional right of the State o Georgia to appoint the officers to command the regiments at id battalions which she has sent into the service of. the Con federate States, in compliance with requisitions made by you upou her Ex ecutive for 'organized bodies' of troops. You admitted in your letter that these bodies ' organized by the States,' when called forth by the Confederacy

AND GOV. BROWN UPON CONSCRIPTION. 391
to repel invasion, never came otherwise than with their company, jiel>l, and general .officers. Your former secretary of war, now secretary of state, has also admitted the right of the State to appoint the officers to command the troops sent by her into the service of the Corifederaci*, under requisition from you.
" You have not thought proper in either of your letters to give any reason why the State should be denied the exercise of this clear constitutional right. In this state of the case you still exercise the appointing power which . belongs to the State, and commission the officers who are to command, these troops; The laws of this State give to these gallant men the right to elect their own officers, and have them commissioned by the Executive of tlteir own State. This question is of the more practical importance at present, on
of their right to elect those who are to command them, an field with the assurance that they would be permitted to exercise this right. It is now denied them under the Conscription Act. Some of them have appealed to me to see that their rights are protected. As an act of justice to brave men, who by their deeds of valor have rendered their names im mortal, and as an act of duty, which as her Executive I owe to the people of this State, I must be pardoned for again demanding for the Georgia State troops, now under your command, permission in all cases in which they have already been deprived of it, or which may hereafter arise, to have the company, field, and general officers, who are to command them, appointed byelection, and commissioned from the Executive of Georgia, as guaranteed to the
colonel of a gallant Mississippi regiment, tendered you the appointn brigadier-general for distinguished services upon the battle-field, and you declined the appointment upon the ground that the President had no light under the Constitution to appoint a brigadier-general to command the State volunteers then employed in the service of the United States, but that the States, and not the General Government, had the right, under the Con stitution, to make such appointments. If Congress could not at that time confer upon the President the right under the Constitution to appoint a brigadier-general to command State troops in the service of the Confederacy, Congress certainly cannot now, under the same constitutional provisions,

302 COIIKESPONIXENCJS OF PRESIDENT BAVJS
notice to the Georgia State troops, now under youi- control, who Tnfc into service under requisitions made upon thy State by you, that they will no longer be denied the practical benefit resulting from the recognition.
"You conclude your /etter by saying, 'you cannot share the alarm and Concern about State rights which 1 .so evidently fee].' I regret that you can not. The views and opinions of the best of men, are, however, influenced more or less by the positions in which they are pL-ieed, and tlio circumstances ]>y tvJtich they are surrounded. It is probably not unnatural that those who administer the affairs and dispense the patron a go of a confederation of States should become, to some extent, biased in favov of the claims of the Confederacy when its po\Y;rs are questioned ; while it is equally natural that thoso who administer the affairs of thtj States, and are responsible 01- the; protection of their rights, should be the first to sound the alarm, in case of encroachments by the Confederacy, which tend to the subversion of ihe rights of the States. This principle of. human nature may be clearly traced in the history of the government of the United States. 'While tbnt govern ment encroached upon the rights of the States front time to time, and was fast concentrating the whole power ui its own hands, it is worthy of remark, that the Federal Executive, exercising- the vast powers and dispensing- the immense patronage ot! his position, has seldom, if ever, been able to ' eh are in the alarm and concern about State rights,' whiuh have ou so many oc casions been fvlt by the authorities a;id people of the respective Status-
''With removed assurances of my high consideration and esteem, "I am, vary respectfully, " Tour obedient servant, "JOSEPH E. BROWN."
COPY OF A LETT Eft TO PRESIDENT DAVIS,, TO win en NO
KEPLY HAS BEEN RECEIVED.
"CANTON, G-A., Oct. 13, 1802. "HIS EXCELLENCY, JEFFEItSON PATJS ;
Df.ar Sir: --The Act of Congress passed at its late session extending the Conscription Act, unlike its predecessor, of which it is amendatory, gives you power, in certain contingencies, of the happeuissg of which yon must be ilie judge, to suspend its operation, and accept troops from the States under any of the former acts upon that subject, liy former acts you were authorized to accept troops from the States organized into companies, battalions and reg-iments. The Conscription Act of 16th of April last repealed theo acts, but the ]aLe act revives them when you suspend it.
' For tlse reasons then given, I entered my protest against the first Conscripfcioii Act on account of its uncon.yti'utiomihty, and refused to permit., the enrolment of any State officer, civil, or military, -who was necessary to the in-

AND GOV. BKOWX UPOJ^ CONSCRIPTION. 393
tegrity of the State government, lint on account of the emergencies of the country-, growing out of the neglect of the Confederate authorities to call upon the States for a suflicksnt a,uiounfc of additional force to supply the places of the twelve-months troops, and on account of the repeal of the former laws upon that subject, having, for the time, placed it out of your power to accept troops organized by the States in the constitutional mode, i inter posed 110 acUve resistance to the enrolment of persons in this State between eighteen aurl thirty-five, who were not officers necessary to the maintenance of the govermne,nt of the Stale.
*' The firrft Cuiiscripfctoti Act took from the State only part of her military force. She retained her o/iicers and all her militia between thirty-five* and forty-live. Her military organization was neither disbaiuJed nor destroyed. She had permitted a heavy draft to be made upon it, without constitutional authority, rather than her fidelity to our cause should be questioned, or the enemy should gain any advantage growing- out, of what her authorities niijrht consider unwise council!*. Bat she still retained an oi-g-.inixa.Lion. sub ject to the command of her eonstituted authorities, which shy conld use for the protection of her public property, the execution of her laws, the repul sion of invasion, or the suppression of servile insurrection which our insid ious foe now proclaims to the world that it is his intention to incite, \\hieh if dozie may result iii an i?irli.sorimiiia.tF massacre of helpless women and children.
"At this critical period in our public affairs, when it is absolutely neces sary that each State keep an organization for home protection, Congress, with your sanction, has extended the Conscription Act to embrace all between thirty-five and. forty-five subject to milituvv duty, giving you the, po\\e,r to suspend the act as above stated. Tf you. refuse to exercise this power and are permitted to lake all between thirty-five and forty-five as conscripts, yon disband and destroy all military organization in this State, and leave her people utterly powerless to protect their own families, even against their own slaves. Not only so, but yon deny to those between thirty-five and forty-five a privilege of electing- the officers to command them, to which, under the Constitution of the Confederacy and the laws of this State, they are clearly entitled, which has been allowed to other troops from the State, and was, to a limited extent, allowed even to those between eighteen and thirty-five under the act of IGth April, as that act did allow them thirty days within which to volunteer, under such officers ns they might select, who chanced at the time to have commissions from the War Dep.-irtm.eut to raise regiments-
" If yon deny this rightful privilege to those between thirty-five and fortyfive, and refuse to accept them as volunteers with officers selected by them in accordance with the laws of their State, and attempt to compel them to enter the service as conscripts^ my opinion is, your orders will only be obeyed by mauy ot them when backed by au armed foi-ce which, they have no power to resist.

394 CORBESPOXDENCE OF PRESIDENT T>AVIS
" The late act, if I construe it correctly, does not give those between thirtj-five and forty-five the privilege under any circumstances of volunteering and forming themselves into regimental organizations, but compels them to enter the present organizations as privates under officers heretofore selected by others, until all the present organizations are filled to their maximum number.
" Tli is injustice can only be avoided by the exercise of the power given you. to suspend the act, and call upon the States for organized companies, battal ions and regiments. I think the history of the past justifies me in saying that the public interest cannot suffer by the adoption of this course. When you made a requisition upon me in the early part of February last, for twelve regiments, I had them all, with a large additional number in tlie field, subject to your command and ready for service, in about one month. It has now been over six months since the passage of the first Conscription Act, and your officers during that time have not probably enrolled and carried into service from this State conscripts exceeding one-fourth of the number furnished by me as volunteers in one month, while the expense of getting the conscripts into service has probabiy been four times as much as it cost to get four times the number of volunteers into the field.
"Iu consideration of these facts I trust you will not hesitate to exercise the power given you by the Act of Congress and make an early requisition (which I earnestly invite) upon the Executive of this State for her just quota of the additional number of troops necessary to be called out to meet the hosts of the invader--the troops to be organized into companies, battalions, and regiments, in accordance with the laws of this State.
" The prompt and patriotic response made by the people of Georgia to every call for volunteers justifies the reasonable expectation that I shall be able to fill your requisition in a short time after it is made and authorizes roe in advance to pledge prompt compliance. This can be done, too, when left to the State authorities, in snch way as not to disband nor destroy her military organization at home, which must be kept in existence to be used in case of servile insurrection or other pressing necessity.
"If you should object to other new organizations on the ground that they are not efficient, I beg to invite your attention to the conduct of the newly organized regiments of Georgians, and indeed of troops from all the States, upon the plains of Manassas, in the battles before liichmond, upon James Island near Charleston, at Shiloh, at Richmond, Kentucky, and upon every battle-field whenever and wherever they have met the invading forces. If it is said that some of our old regiments are almost decimated, not having more than enough men in a regiment to form a single company, that it is too ex pensive to keep these small bands in the field as regiments, and that justice to the officers requires that they be filled up by conscripts, I reply, that in justice should never be done to the troops for the purpose of saving a few dollars of expense; and that justice to the men now called into the field a*

AND GOV. BROWN UPOK CONSCRIPTION. 395
imperatively requires that they shall have the privilege allowed to other troops to exercise the constitutional right of entering the service under offi cers selected and appointed as directed by the laws of their own State as it does that officers in service shall not be deprived of their commands when their regiments are worn out or destroyed.
' Oar officers have usually exposed themselves in the van of the fight and shared the fate of their men. Hence but few of the original experienced officers who went to ?he field with our old regiments, which have won so bright a Ham*; in history, now survive, but their places have been filled by others appointed in most cases by the President. They have, therefore, no just cause to claim that the right of election which belongs to every Georgian shall be denied to all who are hereafter to enter the service for the purpose of sustaining them in the offices which they now fill.
"If it becomes necessary to disband any regiment on account of its small numbers, let every officer and private be left perfectly free to unite with such new volunteer association as he thinks proper, and in the organization and selection of officers it is but reasonable to suppose that modest, merit and experience will not be overlooked.
"The late Act of Congress, if executed in this State, not only does gross \ injustice to a large class of her citizens, utterly destroys all State military organizations, and encroaches upon the reserved rights of the Stale, but strikes down her sovereignty at a single blow and tears from her the right arm of strength by which she alone can inainbain her existence an'd protect those most dear to her and most dependent upon her. The representatives of the people will meet in General Assembly on the 6th day of next month, and I feel that I should be recreant to the high trust reposed in me were I to permit the virtual destruction of the Government of the State before they shall have had time to convene, deliberate, and act.
" Keferring, in connection with the considerations above mentioned, to our former correspondence, for the reasons which satisfy my mind bevond doubt of the unconstitutionality of the Conscription Acts, and to the fact that a judge ill this State, of great ability, in a case regularly brought before him in Iiis judicial capacity, has pronounced the law unconstitutional; and to the further fact that Congress has lately passed an additional Act author izing you to suspend the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus, doubtless with a view of denying to the judiciary in this very case the exercise of its constitutional functions for the protection of personal liberty, I can no longer avoid the responsibility of discharging a duty which I owe to the people of this State by informing yoii.that I cannot permit the enrolment of conscripts under the late Act of Congress entitled ' An Act to amend the Act further to provide for the common defence,' until the General Assembly of this State shall have convened and taken action in the premises.
" The plea of necessity set up for conscription last spring, when I withheld active resistance to a very heavy draft upon the military organization of the

396 COBEESPOU'DBNCE OF PRESIDENT DAVIS
State under the first Conscription Act, cannot be pleaded after the brilliant successes of our gallant armies during the summer and. fall campaign which have been achieved by troops who entered the service, not as conscripts, hut as volunteers. If more troops are needed to meet coming- emergencies, call upon the State and you shall have them as volunteers much move rapidly than your enrolling officers can drag1 conscripts, like slaves 'in chains,' to camps of instruction. And who that is not blinded by prejudice or ambition can donbt that they will be much more effective as volunteers than as conscripts? The volunteer enters tlie service of his own free will. Pie regards the war as much his own as the Government's war; and is ready, if need be. to offer his life a willing- sacrifice upon his country's altar. Hence it is that our vol unteer armies have been invincible when contending against vastly superior numbers with every advantage which the best equipments and supplies can afford. Not so with the conscript. He may be as ready as any citizen of the State to volunteer if permitted to enjoy the constitutional rights which have been allowed to others in the choice of his officers and associates. But if these are denied him and lie is seized like a serf and hurried into an associa tion repulsive to his feelings and placed under officers in whom he has no confidence, he then feels that this is the Government's war, not his ; that he is the mere instrument of arbitrary power, and that he is no longer laboring to establish constitutional liberty, but to build up a military despotism for its ultimate but certain overthrow. Georgians will never refuse to volunteer as long as there is an enemy upon our soil and a call for their services. Rn.t if I mistake not the signs of the times they will require the Government to respect their plain constitutional rights.
"Surely no just reason exists why you should refuse to accept volunteers when tendered, and insist on replenishing your armies by conscription and coercion of freemen, ~""The question then is not whether you shall hare Georgia's quota of ^-troops, for they are freely offered--tendered in advance--but it is whether you shall accept them when tendered as volunteers, organized as the Constitution and laws direct, or shall, when the decision is left with you, insist on reject ing volunteers and dragging the free citizens of this State into your armies as conscripts. Xo Act of the Government of the United States prior to the secession of Georgia struck a blow at constitutional liberty so fell as has been stricken by the Conscription Acts. The people of this State had ample cause, however, to justify their separation from the old Government. They acted coolly and deliberately in view of all the responsibilities; and they stand ready to-day to sustain their action at all hazards and to resist sub mission to the Lincoln Government and the reconstruction of the old Union to the expenditure of their last dollar and the sacrifice of their last life. Having entered into the revolution freemen, they intend to emerge from it freemen. And if I mistake not the character of the sons, judged by the action of their fathers against Federal encroachments under Jackson, Troup,

AND GOV. BROWH UPON CONSCRIPTION. 397
and Gilmer, respectively, as executive officers, they will refuse to yield their sovereignly to usurpation and will require the Government, which is the common agent of all the States, to move within the sphere assigned it by the Constitution.
"Very respectfully, your ohedient servant, "JOSEPH E. BROWN."

CHAPTER XII.
COKRESPOKDENCE OF GOVERNOR BROWN AND A. FlJLLARTON, BRITISH CONSUL. AT SAVANNAH.
In July, 1863, Governor Brown, desiring to raise for home defence a force of eight thousand men not in the Confederate array, issued a call for volunteers accom panied by an order for a draft, in the event a sufficient number of men did not respond. This order included all persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, of citizens as well as foreign subjects residing within the State. -It drew out from the Hon. A. Fullarton, British consul at Savannah, a strong protest in behalf of those subjects of his government who asked his protection, which led to an able? sharp, and interesting correspond ence upon the subject of the liability of foreign subjects to compulsory service., which we present entire.
"BRITISH CONSULATE, 7 SAVANNAH, July 22, 1S63. j
" TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOV. BROWN", MARIETTA : " flir:--My attention hag been called to your proclamation, and to General
"Wayne's general order No. 16 attached thereto, ordering a draft on the 4th of August from persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, in cluding British subjects, in each county which does not furnish its quota of volunteers to complete the number of 8,000 men required for home defence,
"I am informed that this force when organized is to be turned over to the Confederate government. British subjects, if drafted, will then be forced to become Confederate soldiers, a position in which Her Majesty's government have, since the commencement of the war, contended they ought not to be placed, and from which Her Majesty's consuls have been instructed to use every means at their command to preserve them.
" Her Majesty's government acknowledges the right of a foreign State to

CORRESPONDENCE.

399

claim the services of British subjects resident within its limits, for the pur pose of n.aintaining internal order (in other words, to act as a local police force;), and even, to a limited extent, to defend against local invasion by aforeign power the places of their residence; but they deny the claim to services beyond this, and accordingly I have given advice in the following sense to British subjects who have applied to me on the subject of this draft : that militia, duty is in general an obligation, incident to foreign residence, and that therefore they must not object to vender the service required so long as the Jaw requires a militia organization for the maintenance of internal peace and order. But if it shall so happen that the militia, after being so organ ized, shall be brought into conflict with the forces of the United States with out being turned over to the Confederate States so as to form a component part of its armies, or if it should be so turned over, in either-event, the serv ice required would be such as British subjects cannot be expected to per form ; in the first case, in addition to the ordinary accidents of war, they would be liable to be treated as rebels and traitors, and not as prisoners of war; and in the second case, they would be under the operation of a law (re quiring them, to take up arms against the United States government), which had no existence when for commercial purposes they first took up their residence in this country, and would, moreover, be disobeying the order of tlieir legitimate sovereign, which exhorts them to an observance of the strict est neutrality, and subjects them to severe penalties. For all local service, however, short of the service I have endeavored to describe, I have advised them that the militia organization is lawful and should be acquiesced in by resident British subjects.
" Nearly all British subjects have besides taken an oath that they will not, under any circumstances, take part in the contest now raging in this coun try by tiiking up arms on either side.
"I hope, sir, you will therefore so modify the general order in respect of British subjects who have certificates from me, as to release them from a posi tion which, in the event of a draft, will certainly render them liable to all the penalties denounced by their own sovereign against a violation of their neutrality, calling upon them at the same time to render service as local police for the maintenance of internal peace and order.
"On a former occasion, Mr. Molyneux. advised you that the consulate was placed under my charge during his absence. I recently submitted my au thority to act as Her Majesty's consul fco Mr. .Benjamin, who duly ac corded to me his approval and recognition.
" I am, sir, your most obedient servant, " A. FULL ATS TON, Acting Consul."

400

CORRESPONDENCE OF GOV. BROWN

" MARIETTA, August S, 1863."MK- A. KULLAUTON; ACTINO CO.XSTIL QJ.- GKSAT BRITAIN:
"Dear Sir:--Your letter of 22d July reached these hejtdquvwtors during, my absencr, vvliich has caused delay in rny reply.
'Judging' from your communication, I am obliged to conclude (hat you have not correctly understood the objects of the government in organizing the S,DOO men for Iionie defence.
" You admit tho right of the State to claim the services of JJritiph subjects resident within its limits for the purpose of maintaining ' internal order, 1 and even to a limited extent to defend the places of their residence against iocnl invasion l/y a foreign power. In view of this correct admission on your part, t do not deem it iiecessary to quote authority to show the obligation of Her Mftjosty's subjects to render the service now called for. To maintain ' internal order,' and to defend to aluiiited extent ' against local invasion by <i foreign power,' are the sole objects of the proposed military organization,
" While the men are to be mustered into service for the purpose of afford ing them the rights and privileges of prisoners of war, in ease of capture by the enemy, and to enable the government to command them -without delay in case of sudden emergency, it is not proposed to take them from their homes, or to interrupt their ordinary avocations, unless it be a case of sudden emergency or pressing necessity, for the defence of their homes, or such local ities as command their homes, when in the hands o tho enemy.
"The government of the United States, in violation of the usages of civilized warfare, is no.w resorting to every means within its power to in cite servile insurrection in our midst. It is not only stealing our slaves, which are private property, or taking them by open robbery, mustering' them into its service, -and arming them against us, "but it is doing all it can by secret agencies, to stir up and excite the angry passion of the mass of ignorant .slaves in the in terior, whom it can neither reach by theft nor robbery, to cause thorn to rise iu rebellion, against their masters, with whom they are now comfortable arid happy, and to set fire to our cities, towns, villages, and oilier property. It is needless for me to add that in case they should be successful in inciting in surrection to this point, the butchery of helpless women and children will doubtless be the result.
'< As a means of accomplishing Ihis object., as well as of destroying public and private property, the enemy is now preparing to send cavalry raids &s far as possible into this and other States of the Confederacy. These robber bands will, no doubt, burn and destroy property where they go, carry oft] as many slaves as they can, and attempt to stir up others with whom they come in contact, to insurrection, robbery, and murder.
" It is not expected that the S,000 men called for by my proclamation, and the general order to which you.refer, will be used against the regular armies of the United States. The provisional armies of the Confederate States have shown themselves fully able to meet the enemy upon an hundred battle-fields,

AND THE BRITISH CONSUL.

401

and to drive them back -with severe chastisement, wherever they have not had the advantage of their navy as a support. Bufc it is expected that this home organization, while it may be but little of its time in actual service, will, in ease of sudden emergency, assist in repelling the plundering Viands of the enemy, which evade contact with our armies, and make predatory incur sions to our very homes for the purposes already mentioned, and that they will assist in suppressing any servile insurrections which these plundering
parties may be able to incite. "Many who claim to be Her Majesty's subjects in this State are large slave
holders, whose danger of loss of property and of insult and cruel injury to their wives and children, in case of insurrection, is as great as the danger to the citizens of this State, and their obligation to protect their property and their families against the local aggressions of the United States forces is no
less. " While Her Majesty's government has constantly refused to recognize the
existence of the government of the Confederate States, her subjects have en joyed its protection. And while she refuses to hold any diplomatic relations with us, you, as her representative, are permitted to represent her interests here, and to be heard for the protection of her subjects and their property. In this state of things, British subjects who still elect to remain in the Con federacy should not expect to do less than the service now required of them; and while free egress will in 110 case be denied them, should they desire to depart from this State, less than the service now required will not in future he demanded, in case they choose to remain in the State and enjoy its pro
tection. "Experience has convinced the government at Washington of its inability,
by armed force in the battle-field, to combat Southern valor and compel us to submit to its despotic tyranny. It has, therefore, in connection with that above mentioned, adopted the further policy of destroying agricultural imple ments, mills, and provisions, wherever its armies penetrate into our country, -with a view of effecting by starvation that which it cannot accomplish by the
skill and courage of its troops. " As a further auxiliary to the accomplishment of this object, it drives from
the territory overrun by its armies, the men, women and children who are true to the government of their choice, and compels them to seek safety and support in this and other interior States. It thus taxes the productions of the interior States with the support, not only of their own population and the armies of the Confederacy, but of a large number of refugees. With the blessings of Divine Providence, which, thanks to His name, have been so abundantly showered upon us, we are, by abandoning the culture of cotton, making ample supplies for another year. While we are surrounded by such an enemy, the British government cannot fail to see and appreciate the rea son why we cannot afford to retain and protect among us a class of con sumers who produce none of the necessaries of life, and who refuse to take

402

CORRESPONDENCE OF GOV. BROWN

up arms for interior or local defence, but claim the privilege of remaining as subjects of foreign powers, engaged in commercial pursuits, in ports with which their government recognizes no legal commerce.
" But you insist that there was no law in existence requiring British sub jects to take up firms against the United States government, whi-n for com mercial purposes they first took up their residence in the country. You must not forget, however, in this connection, that at that time the State of Georgia was by her own sovereign consent, a component part of the govern ment of the United States, and that since that time she has, for just cause, withdrawn her consent to further connection wiih the aggressive States of the North, and now with her Southern sisters forms the government of the Confederate States, against which the States which remain united -under the name oE United States, are waging a cruel and unjust war. With this change in the political relations of the country, new obligations are imposed upon the subjects of foreign powers resident within this and other Southern States, which make it their duty to aid in the maintenance of internal order and in the protection of their domiciles and the localities where they are situated, when assailed by the troops of the United States government, or to depart from the States and seek protection elsewhere. Again, the com mercial reasons which you say caused Her Majesty's subjects to take up their residence here, cea=ed to exist when Her Majesty's government refused longer to recognize the existence of legal commerce between her subjects and the citizens of this State and warned them of the loss of her protection if they attempted to carry on commercial relations with us through our ports.
" At the time English subjects took up their residence among our people for commercial purpose?, our ports were open to the commerce of the world, and foreign governments which had commercial treaties with us had a right to claim for their subjects engaged in commerce the usual commercial privileges and protection while domiciled here.
" Noow the governnmmeennt oo f thee Unnieted Staatees cclaam imss that it has our poorrta blockaded ; and while the whole civilized world knows that the blockade is not effective, and that vessels enter and clear almost daily at our ports, the government of Her Majesty chooses to recognize it as a legal blockade, and to acquiesce in the paper prohibition which excludes English subjects with their commerce from our ports. If the British government adopts the pretensions of the government of the United States, and holds that Charleston and Savannah are stiil ports belonging to the United States, it must be admitted that the blockade of these ports by the United States government is a palpable violation of the commercial treaty stipulations between the two governments, as the United States government has no rig'ht, under these treaties, to blockade her own ports against English commerce. If tested by the laws of nations, to which the Uritish government is a party, it is no blockade because not effective. Under these circumstances if the gov ernment of Her Majesty consents to respect the orders of the United States

AND THE BRITISH CONSUL.

403

government, which forbid British subjects to enter our ports for commercial purposes, Hi at govei-umei.it has no right, while this state of tilings continues, to claim commercial privileges for its subjects within the ports where it admits the existence of a legal blockade ; but it must expect those subjects to depart from the^e ports, and if they refuse to do KO, it has no just cause of complaint when the government having possession of these ports compels them to take up arms to defend their domiciles against servile insurrection or the attacks of the troops of a hostile power.
" T learn from your letter that ' nearly all British subjects have taken an oath that they will not, under any circumstances, take part in the contest now raging in this country, by taking up arms on either-side.' In reply to this, permit me to remind you that no such self-imposed obligation can free tlie subjects of Her Majesty who choose to remain in this State, from the higher obligation, which, by the Jaws of nations, they are under to the State for protection while they remain within its limits.
" While I beg to assure you that it is the sincere desire of the government and people of this State, to cultivate the most friendly relations with her Majesty's government and people, I feel it my duty, for the reasons already given, to decline any modification of the order to which you refer in your communication.
"With high consideration and esteem, I am, "Very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, "JOSEPH JC. BROWX."

"BRITISH CONSULATE, SAVANNAH, Axro. 17, 1863. j
"TO HTS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR BROWN, MARIETTA :
" Sir:--T have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's letter of the Sth inst.
"I perfectly understood the intentions of the government in organizing the force of 8,000 men for home defence, bat I am obliged to conclude that you have misunderstood me when I admitted the right of a State to claim the services of British subjects resident within its limits for the purpose of maintaining internal order, and even to a limited extent, to defend the places of their residence against local invasion by a foreign power. Such service might be rendered by them in the event of a war by a foreign power, but not iu a civil war like that which now rages on this continent.
"Her Majesty's government consider that the plainest notions of reason and justice forbid that a foreigner admitted to reside for peaceful purposes in a State forming part of a Federal Union should be compelled by that State to take an active part in hostilities against other States which when he be came a resident were members of one and the same Confederacy. While

404

CORRESPONDENCE OF GOV. BROWN

acknowledging the right of the State, under present circumstances, to the services of British subjects for patrol or police duty, Her MjijeHy's govern ment object to any further extension of such service. I have consequently, under instructions, felt myself compelled to advise those drafted to acquiesce in the dnty until they are required to leave their immediate homes or to meet the United States forces in actual conflict; in that event to throw down their arms and refuse to render a service the performance of which would run directly in the teeth of Her Majesty's proclamation and render them liable to the severe penalties denounced against a violation of the strict neu trality so strongly insisted 011 in that document, trusting to my interference in their behalf with the Government at Richmond under whose command they will be. In other States, British subjects imprisoned for following this advice, have already been discharged from custody and service by order of the War Department.
"Your .Excellency is pleased to inform me that with the change in the political relations of the country new obligations are imposed on the subjects of Her Majesty resident in the Soivth. 1 do not see why this should be so seeing that they, by reason of their being aliens, had no voice whatever in the councils which brought about the present state of affairs. With regard to the protection afforded by the State to an alien, it appears to me to extend little beyond the safety of life, a guaranty which every civilized community for its own sake extends to every sojourner in its midst. You need not be told that the law of Georgia forbids an alien to hold certain kinds of prop erty *, and I cannot see how a thing can be protected which is not suffered to exist. I have nothing to do with British subjects who hold such property in violation of law, but [ do protest against the compulsory service in a civil war of those who have never contravened the law in this respect.
"It is satisfactory to know that the option of leaving the country is al lowed to British subjects and that 110 obstacle will be thrown in the way of those who prefer to do so rather than violate the Queen's imperative orders by meeting in warfare the United States forces. If compelled to take this course, however, I may be permitted to* say thab the comity usually observed between foreign States is not very scrupulously observed.
" I have reason to know that many who have not hitherto been molested, are, in consequence of your Kxcellency's proclamation, preparing to leave, not a few among them being mechanics worth little or no property, of whose inesti mable services, at this crisis, the Confederacy will be deprived. Am I to un derstand that those already drafted may avail themselves of this alternative?
" The dispatches which I have received from the British government rela tive to compulsory service are strong. lam instructed to remonstrate in the strongest terms against all attempts to force British subjects to take up arms. Should these remonstrances fail, 'the governments in Europe interested in this question will unite in making such representations as will secure to aliens this desired exemption.'

AND THE BRITISH CONSUL.

405

"It has hitherto been in my power to report to Her Majesty's government that her subjects have not been called upon to take up arms in this war. I regret that your Excellency's decision makes it impossible to do RO hen.-a.fU-r ; the more so as the eour.se pursued contrasts so strongly with-the conduct of the United States government, who have conceded the claim of boiia fide British subjects to exemption from any military service whatever, and sdso with that of the Governors of other Southern States who, upon representa tion, ordered the discharge of British subjects forcibly detained in service.
"I arn, sir, your most obedient servant, "A. FTJLLAUTOX, Acting Consul."

" MARIETTA, August 26, 1803.
"MR.. A. FULL.AHTON, ACTING Coxsux OP GJUKAT BKITAIN :
** Dear Sir:--In your letter of the 17th inst. now before me you conclude that I misunderstood you when you admitted the right of the State to claim the services of British subjects resident within its limits to defend, to a limited extent, the places of their residence against local invasion by a for eign power. You are pleased to say that such service might be rendered by them in the event of a war by a 'foreign power,' but not in a ciril war like that which now rages on this continent. Then you still admit that, by the laws of nations, Her Majesty's subjects resident in this Slate may be com pelled to render the service now required; in other words, to clt-ftjtid the places of their residence against local invasion by a foreign power. And it follows, you being the judge, that the claim now made uuon Her Majesty's subjects for service is in accordance with the Jaws of nations, if the Confed erate States, of which Georgia is one, are at war with a foreign power. But in your'attempt to escape the just conclusion which results from your ad missions you virtually deny that the United States is a foreign power and claim that Georgia is still a component part of the Government of tlie United States. You have probably been influenced in your persistence in this error by the forbearance of the Government and people of tlie Confederate States in permitting Her Majesty's consuls to remain am on if ns in the exercise of the functions of a position to which they were originally accredited |.y the Government of the United States. As it is no part of my purpose to enter into an argument to convince you that the Uiiiied States is a hostile power foreign to Georgia, I will dismiss this part of the controversy with the, single remark, that if your pretensions be correct, your appeal for the protection of British subjects resident within this State should have been made to the Government at Washington and not to me.
"You are pleased to inform me that you have felt compelled to advise those drafted to acquiesce in the duty until they are required to leavi- their immediate homes, or to meet the United States forces in actual conflict--in that event to throw down their arms and refuse to render a service, tUe per-

406

CORRESPONDENCE OF GOV. 3JROWK

formance of which would run directly in the teeth of Her Majesty's procla mation, etc. It is worthy of remark that the Lmgimge you employ is 'to leave their immediate homes, or to meet the United St.ites forces in actual conflict.' Your advice then to British subjects, it' I correctly understand it, is that when the United St.ii.tes forces attack the immediate locality of their homes or their own houses, they are not to defend them as required by the laws of nations against such local invasion, but they are to throw down their arms and refuse to fight for the protection of their domiciles. In reply to this, it is my duty to inform you that I can neither be bound by your pre tensions that the United States is not a power foreign to Georgia, nor can I admit the right of Her Majesty by proclamation to change the laws of nations, and insist upon maintaining her subjects here and exempting- them from the performance of the duties imposed upon them by Uic laws of nations. When the troops now drafted have been turned over to the govern ment of the Confederate States to be held in readiness to repel local inva sion, if they should, upon the approach of an hostile force, follow your advice and throw down their arms, that government will huve the power to pardon for such conduct, or to strike their names from its muster rolls if it chooses to do so ; but if an attempt should be made by the enemy upon the immediate locality of their homes, while I control and command' the forces to which they are attached, and they should be guilty of- conduct .so tinnatural and unmanly as to throw down their arms and refuse to defend their domiciles, they will be promptly dealt with as citizens of this State would "be, should they be guilty of such dishonorable delinquency.
" In another part of your letter yon take occasion to say that you do not see why the change in the political relations of this country has imposed new obligations upon the subjects of Her Mjijesty, as they had no voice in the councils which brought about the present state of affairs. With the same reason you might say that you cannot see why the laws of nations require British subjects in any case to defend their domiciles when located in a foreign country against the local invasion of another foreign power when they had no voice in the councils which formed the government in which they are per mitted to reside. .1 insist that British subjects resident within its limits, though they had no voice in the formation of the new government, owe the same service to it when established which they owed before its formation to the government whose power originally extended over its territory and embraced their homes ; and that they are bound to conform their conduct to the new order of things or to seek homes and protection elsewhere.
" But I am informed by your letter that, with regard to the protection afforded by the State to an alien, it appears to you to extend little beyond the safety of life. And as the laws of Georgia forbid an alien to hold certain kinds of property you cannot see how a thing can be protected which is not suffered to exist.
" Upon the first point I need only remind you that our courts are at all

AKD THE BRITISH CONSUL.

407

times open to aliens belonging to friendly powers for the re.Tress of their wrongs, and that the same protection is extended to their persons and all the property they legally possess which is enjoyed by citixt-ns of this State,
"I trust EL re-examination of the laws of your own country would satisfy your mind upon the other point, as you will there find that the laws of Great Britain forbid ail alien to hold ' certain kinds of property,' and it is the boast of that Government that it protects aliens who reside within its jurisdiction. The laws of Great Britain in reference to the right of aliens to hold certain kinds of property while domiciled in that "kingdom aro certainly not more liberal to the citizens of Georgia than the laws of Georgia are to the subjects of Great Britain.
"While I am unable to perceive the justice of your complaint in the par ticulars last mentioned, it is gratifying- to know that there is no law of nations or of this State which throws any obstructions in the way of the removal oC any British subject from the State who is not satisfied with the privileges and protection which he enjoys, you remind me, however, that not a few of them are mechanics, of whose inestimable services at this crisis the Con federacy will be deprived in case of their removals. These mechanics have no doubt remained in this State because they felt it their interest to remain. And in reference to them this State will very cheerfully adopt the rule which generally controls the British government. She will consult; her own interest, and will exempt from military service for local defence, such mechanics who are aliens as choose to remain and will be more serviceable in that capacity.
"I reply in the affirmative to your inquiry whether aliens already drafted may avail themselves of the alternative of leaving1 the State in preference to rendering the service. While an alien will not be permitted to evade the service by leaving the State temporarily during the emergency, and then returning, his right to leave permanently when he chooses will not be ques tioned. I do not insist that an alien shall remain here to serve the State, but I contend that while he chooses to remain under the protection of the State he is bound by the laws of nations and of this State to obey her call to defend his domicile against insurrection or local invasion.
" This, I apprehend, is all that is intended to be claimed by your govern ment in the instructions which you quote. While the British government has a right to demand that its subjects shall not be detained here against their will, and compelled to take up arms on either side, it certainly would not place itself before the world in the false position of insisting on the right of its subjects to remain in another State, contrary to the the wish of the gov ernment of such State and to be exempt from the service which, by the common consent of nations, such State has a right to demand.
" You conclude your letter by informing me that my decision contrasts strongly with the conduct of the United States government, who have con ceded the claim of bona fide British subjects to exemption from any military service whatever.

408

CORRESPONDENCE OF GOV. BROWN

" As the United States government is the invading party in this war, and can but seldom need the services of British subjects to defend their domiciles, which are scarcely ever subject to invasion, as it has no ri^ht under the laws of nations to compel them to bear arms in its invading armies, as it is not in a condition to be compelled to economize its supply of provisions, and as it is reported that ib has, by the use of money, drawn large numbers of recruits for its armies from the dominions of Her M.-gesty, in violation of the laws of her realm, it may well afford to affect a pretended liberality, which costs it neither sacrifice nor inconvenience. But you say that my decision also con trasts strongly ' with that of the Governors of other Southern States, who, upon representation, ordered the discharge of British subjects forcibly detained in service.' Iti a former part of your letter when speaking of the advice given to British subjects to throw down their arms, in cast? they

should be required to meet the United States forces in actual conflict, you use this sentence : ' In other States British subjects imprisoned for following this advice have already been discharged from custody and service by order of the War Department.' Excuse me for remarking that these two sen tences contrast so strongly with each other that I am unable to understand why it became necessary for the War Department to interfere and discharge British subjects imprisoned in other States for throwing down their arms and refusing to fight, if the Governors of those States had, upon representa tion, in all cases ordered the discharge of British subjects forcibly detained in

ser c. Trusting that my position is fully understood by you, and that it may
not he necessary to protract this discussion, I am, with high consideration

and esteem,

"Very respectfully, your ob't serv't,

" JOSEPH B. BROWN."

" BRITISH CONSULATE, > SAVANNAH, Sept. 12, 1863. >
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR BROWN, MARIETTA ;
" Sir :--In your letter of the 26 ult., your Excellency informed me that aliens already drafted may avail themselves of the alternative of leaving the State in preference to rendering service. I have now the honor, there fore, to request your Excellency to issue orders to your officers to grant J. D. and F. M. Kiely, two drafted subjects, residents of Rome, Ga., leave to quit the State, and permission to remain unmolested in Rome 30 days to settle their affairs in that city.
" I am, sir, your most obedient servant, "A. FUI.LARTON, Acting Consul."

AND THE BRITISH CONSUL,

409

" MARIETTA, September 14, 18G3.
"MR. A. FULLARTON, ACTING CONSUL OF GREAT BRITAIN:
"Dear Sir:--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your commu nication of the 12th inst., in which you request me to issue orders to the commanding officers to grant J. D. and P. M. Kiely, two drafted JJritish sub jects, residents of Rome, Ga., leave to quit the State and to remain unmo lested in Home thirty days to settle their affairs in that city. This permis sion will be cheerfully granted upon the production to me of sufficient evidence that the persons named are British subjects.
" By an ordinance of the convention of this State, representing her people and her sovereignty, passed on the 16th day of March, 1861, it is declared:
"' That all white persons resident in this State at the time of the secession of the State from the United States with the bnnajiile intention of making it the place of their permanent abode, shall be considered as citizens of this State without reference to their place of birth; provided, that any person not born in this State can exempt him or herself from the operation, of this ordinance by a declaration in any court of record in the State, within three months from this date, that he or she does not wish to be considered a citizen of this State.'
" The ordinance of secession referred to in the above quotation was passed on the 19th day of January, 1861.
"If the Messrs. Kiely were resident in this State on the 19th day of Jan uary, 1861, and did not file their declaration in a court of record in this State within three months from the 16th day of March, 1861, that they did not wish to become citizens of this State, they accepted the privileges and obli gations of citizenship offered them by the State and ceased to be British sub jects, and are consequently not entitled to the leave to quit the State for which you ask under my letter of 26th ult. If, however, they became resi dents of this State at anytime since the 39th day of January, 1861, or, if they were then residents and filed their declaration as required by the ordi nance, within three months after the 16th day of March, 1861, they will be allowed the thirty days to arrange their affairs as you request, and permitted to depart from the State at the expiration of that term.
"With high consideration, I am, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant,
" JOSKPH E. BEOWN."

CHAPTER XIII.
RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.
The surrender of the Confederate armies, and conse quently the forces of this State; the arrest and imprison ment of the Governor, and consequent cessation of all civil authority ; and the substitution of military govern ment over the State for the time being.,--left the people without government or legal protection, except the will of local military commanders and their subalterns.
The President of the United States, Abraham !Lmcoln, had been assassinated. The Vice-President, Andrew John son of Tennessee--a southern Democrat, who had joined our enemies in the struggle--was by that sudden., ill-ad vised, and unfortunate murder, invested with the execu tive power of the Union., just as the last, expiring efforts of the remnant of Confederate powers were being made, and as the banners that had waved so often in. triumph were being lowered., never to rise again.
President Johnson had been selected from the South, while hostilities were progressing, and given the second office of honor in the Union, as a reward of his fidelity to the Union, and opposition to his own State and to the South, and his supposed power of disintegration and di vision among our own people. When the executive power was thus suddenly devolved on him., he chose to follow the policy that gave him power, by conferring power and honor on men who had stood opposed to our cause. He selected and appointed as provisional governor of Georgia, Honorable James Johnson of Columbus, Geor-

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gia,--a man of integrity and nbility, thoroughly identified with the President and Congress in the plans of recon- x struction, acting under instructions from President John son., as proclaimed by him.
He required a convention of the State, of delegates elected by the people. Which body was elected, and met under his proclamation at Milledgeville, on the 28th Octo ber, 1865, composed of two hundred and eighty-five dele gates, representing the integrity, virtue, intelligence, and patriotism of every part of the State. There were many men of prominence in the State, and some who had been prominent in the Confederate government, and a large number who had held responsible and honorable places in our armies. Many of them have been honored by high civil commissions since.
Honorable Charles J. Jenkins, a justice of the State su preme court for several years past, under the appoint ment of Governor Brown, a delegate from Richmond county, was proposed as the president of the convention. He declined in favor of -Ex-Governor Herschel V. Johnson, a delegate from Jefferson county, who was elected, and presided with great dignity, and after a session of fifteen days, on retiring, delivered to the convention, an address abounding in wisdom, prudence, and patriotism, which was extensively published with good effect upon the people.
Mr. Jenkins was made chairman of a committee o six teen, to report business for the convention; and on the succeeding day reported--and which was unanimously adopted:
AX ORDINANCE

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RECONSTRUCTION" OF GEORGIA.

people, in convention, on the nineteenth day of January, A. D. eighteen hun dred and sixty-one, entitled * An ordinance to dissolve the union between the State of Georgia and other States united with her under a compact of govern ment entitled ''the constitution of the United States of America" '; also an or dinance, adopted by the same on the sixteenth day of March in the year last aforesaid, entitled ' An ordinance to adopt and ratify the constitution of the Confederate States of America'; and also ail ordinances and resolutions of the same, adopted between the sixteenth day of January and the twentyfourth day of March, in the year aforesaid, subversive of, or antagonistic to, the civil and military authority of the government of the United States of America, under the constitution thereof, be, and the same are hereby re pealed."

He also reported from day to day the constitution of the State, as its parts were framed and agreed on by the committee, made to conform to the new state of affairs, embodying in the main the old constitution, which was adopted, but which, as will appear, was superseded by another State constitution in 1868.
This convention adopted many ordinances suited to the emergencies.
There was one which gave the courts employment for several years:--

AN ORDINANCE
" To make valid private contracts entered into and executed during the war against the United States, and to authorize the courts of this State to ad just the equities between parties to contracts made but not executed, and to authorize settlements of such contracts by persons acting in a fiduciary char acter,"
Another, which swept away at a single stroke a large
portion of the remnant of many private fortunes:

AN ORDINANCE
"To render null and void all debts of this State created for the purpose of carrying on the late war against the United States.
" Be it ordained by the people of Georgia, in convention assembled, That all debts contracted or incurred by the State of Georgia, either as a separate State, or as a member of the late partnership or confederacy of States, styled the Confederate States of America, for the purpose of carrying on the late

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413

'or the purpose of

,

,

ty, stocks, funds, or assets of any kind to that object

The debt of the State when the war began was $2,667,750. This had been increased $18,135,775, during the existence of the war ; which sum was rendered null and void by this ordinance, consisting in the currency and bonds of the State issued by her authority, and in which a large amount of anti-war securities had been invested.
This course, however, seemed an absolute necessity on the part of ttie convention. Provisional Governor John son had strongly urged it in his message ; and in order to put the terms of reconstruction beyond debate upon this point, he communicated the telegrams from Washington as follows: ----

" WASHINGTON, October 28.

"TO HIS EXCELLENCY JAMES E. JOHNSON":

" Your several telegrams have been received. The President of the United States cannot recognize the people of any State as having resumed the rela tions of loyalty to the Union that admits, as Jeg-al obligations, contracts or debts created on them to promote the war of the rebellion.

(Signed)

" WILLIAM H. SEWABD.

"Received at Milledgeville, October 29, 1865, by telegraph from Washing ton, 28th."

"TO GOVERNOR JOHNSOX: " Your dispatch has been received. The people of Georgia should not
hesitate one single moment repudiating every single dollar of debt created for the purpose of aiding the rebellion against the government of the United States. It will not do to levy and collect taxes from a State and people that are loyal and in the Union, to pay a debt that was created to aid in taking them out, thereby subverting the Constitution of the United States. I do not believe the great mass of the people of the State of Georgia, when left uninfluenced, will ever submit to the payment of a debt which was the main

414

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

By which it appears, that whatever legal or moral ob jections the representatives of the people had to the repu diation, of the State's war debt, in their subjugated condi tion, they had no choice in the matter.
The convention incorporated in the constitution of the State the following clause, which explains itself, upon the subject of
THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY,
"20. The Government of the United States having, as a war measure, proclaimed all slaves held or owned in this State, emancipated from shivery, and. having carried that proclamation into full practical effect, there shall henceforth be, within the State of Georgia, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, save as a punish me tit for crime, after legal conviction thereof; Provided, this acquiescence in the action of the Government of the United States is not intended to operate as a relinquishment, waiver, or estoppel of such claim for compensation of loss sustained by reason of the emancipa tion of his slaves, as any citizen of Georgia may hereafter make upon the justice and magnanimity of that Government."
At the time this constitution -was framed, with the above clause in it., the idea of African slavery in this country was a thing of the past. The freedom of the black race had been proclaimed by the military author ity on the surrender of the Confederate armies, and the occupation of the country by Federal officers, supported by Federal troops and guards; and for a period of five or six months all the slaves of the State had been in a

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEOKGIA.

415

state of actual freedom. No slave-owner pretended to exercise or claim any authority over his former slaves, except such as employer had. over employee. It is a noteworthy fact that in very many cases the freed negroes did not feel satisfied to remain, for wages, with their former masters ; but, as an act of freedom, they seemed to prefer to contract with and hire themselves to other persons than their former owners, and to transfer the lifelong allegiance, subservience, obedience, and cojj fide nee to and in their old masters, to and agents ; which allegiance and cojifitTence were neces sarily of short duration.
At an election midej^thtTprovisions of this constitution lion. Charles J. Jerrfcms was elected governor without opposition, and a Legislature chosen, which, assembled on the 4th of December, at Milledgeville, under the auspices of Provisional Governor Johnson. This legislative body was composed, like the convention had been, of the good and true men of the State, who were the representatives of the white race.
The retiring provisional Governor in his message sub mitted the 13th Constitutional Amendment formally pro hibiting slavery then already abolished by military power, and later by the State Constitutional Convention elected by only white voters. The General Assembly ratified the Amendment.
The provisional Governor continued to exercise the duties of governor for several days, notwithstanding, under his authority and direction, the people had elected a governor, members of the Legislature,, and representa tives in Congress.
On the 12th of December the provisional Governor made to the Legislature the following communication,

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KECONSTBtTCTIOX OF GEORGIA.

which is here recorded, as a relic of those extraordinary times ;
"EXECUTIVE OFFICE,? Mit-LFiDGEViLi-E, GA., Dec. 12, 186o.
" Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives :
" I received this morning a telegram from His Excellency, the President of the United States, a copy of which is herewith transmitted.
" J. JOHNSON, " Governor."

([COPY TELEGRAM.]

" WASHINGTON. D. C., > DKCKMBEB 11, 1865. j

"J, JOHNSON", PROVISIONAL GOVKENOU :

" The Governor elect will be inaugurated, which will not interfere with you as Provisional Governor. You will receive instructions in a few days in. i-egard to being relieved as Provisional Governor.
" AV'hy can't you be elected as Senator? 1 would i^sue no commissions for members of Congress. Leave that for the incoming Governor.
" We are under many obligations to you for the noble, efficient and patriotic manner in which you have discharged the duties of Provisional Governor, and will be sustained by the Government,

(Signed)

"ANDREW JOHNSON, "President U. S."

On the 14th of December Mr. Jenkins was inaugu rated, and entered on the duties of his office with the full confidence of the people of all the former political par ties, now united in a common purpose of political re union and restoration, and the recuperation of the State and people from the waste and desolation of war. His inaugural address is characteristic of the great good man, who had opposed secession, and, in fidelity to his State and section, yielded, like many others, a hearty co-opera tion in the now lost cause of Southern independence. It contained a thorough and truthful presentation of the situation of this State j, and of her relations to the Gov ernment and her constitutional obligations, exerting

RECONSTRUCTION" OF GEORGIA.

417

everywhere a powerful influence upon the minds of the Southern people.
This General Assembly elected Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, late vice-president of the Confederate States, and Hon. Ilerschel V. Johnson, late Confederate States senator, as United States senators for Georgia. But the senators, like the representatives elected by the people, failed to obtain scats in Congress.
In consequence of ill-natured as well as unfounded criticisms and rumors of speculation, peculation, fraud, and mismanagement of the State's finances and the public property and assets during the war, the Constitu tional Convention of the State, assembled under the authority of James Johnson, provisional governor of Georgia, on the 25th of October, 1865, recommended him to appoint a special committee to make a " thorough examination and investigation of the financial operations of the State, from 1st January, 1.S61, to that time, and re port the result of such investigation to the Legislature."
That committee was composed of Hon. Thos. P. Saffold, Hon. Chas. S. Jordan, Jr., and Hon. O. H. Lochrane, who made their report February 22, 1866, to Gov. Jenkins --who had been elected and installed--and to the Legis lature, embodying all the evidence elicited in three months of patient and persistent effort to bring to light everything that had been pointed to or suggested as a foundation for the matters in hand.
The committee published notice of their session in all the journals of the State, inviting all persons to come forward and give evidence who knew anything to support the charges or insinuations, and sent for and examined all the persons in reach who had been referred to for the verification of the suspicions. The committee say :--

418

EECONfcJTBUGTIOHr OF GEORGIA..

" We have invited every one who knew anything that would throw light upon the investigation, to come and tell it; written letters to individuals who were said to be in possession of facts ; sifted testimony, and exam ined the books, accounts, and vouchers of public agents and officials, as well as their private affairs.,--and feel assured an examination of evidence on file in the execu tive office and the exhibits hereto attached will fully sustain the conclusions at which we have arrived."
A tabular statement annexed accounts for every bale of cotton purchased, and shows what went with it.
The committee say :--
" Our conclusion is, after the most rigid scrutiny into the public and private affairs of these officers, from Gov ernor Brown down, that no one of these rumors has been sustained by the slightest proof. Instead of fortunes having been made by them, we have found them gener ally poorer than when they went into office.
" In relation to the financial operations of the commis sary-general. Col. Jared I. Wh.ita.ker, we report, after examining his statements as to his acts, official and pri vate, we found his report to the Legislature heretofore made to be strictly accurate. He accounts for every dollar received by him ; and by his final report attached, marked A and 13, exhibits a fidelity and accuracy which met our commendation. The fullest investigation ren ders it just to him, as he has been assailed, to say that we feel confident no man could have been selected who would have discharged the trusts of his office more ably and faithfully.
' In the examination of books and vouchers of the quartermaster-general, Col. Ira II. Foster, we found that he had fully accounted for the moneys received by him;

BE CONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

419

that his duties were performed with great zeal and in dustry ; and his report up to date hereto attached, marked C, exhibits the accuracy with which his accounts with the State were kept."
Public criticisms were freely indulged to the effect that the Governor had been a partner with E. Waitzf elder & Co. in blockade running-, and in the MiDedgeville Manufact uring Company, and had used public funds in private speculations. Upon these and similar groundless charges the committee subjected him to a rigid examination. His answer as then recorded and published, and to "which, after a period of fourteen years and through the imitations of parties and the heat of antagonism, no one has ever published or otherwise tittered a contradiction., states :--
That he was never a public or private partner of the firm of E. Waitzfelder & Co. ; that he did not now own and never did at any time own a dollar of the stock of the Milledgeville Manufacturing Co. ; that he had used no funds belonging to the State in his private transactions, and that he knew of no such use of the State funds by any officer of the State ; that he had purchased the two plantations which he owned in southwest Georgia and paid for them, in Confederate money when the deprecia tion was very great upon it ; that the Confederate notes he gave for them cost him but a few thousand dollars in gold assets ; that part of these assets he inherited in right of his wife and children from the estate'of his father-in-law of which he was executor, and part he had in railroad bonds when the war began ; that he invested iii land be cause he thought it safest; that a large portion of what he now owned was in land and his city property in At lanta.
As much had been said about the large fortune he

420

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

had made during the -war, ho woxild state that ho would now take in gold, first deducting liis indebtedness, len thousand dollars less for all he possessed when the wr ar ended than his estate, including assets in his hands as executor, which belonged to him in right of his wife raid to his children, was worth the first year of the war.
In view of the official positions held by the Governor a.nd his subordinates representing the integrity of the State in her public administration, these matters are re garded of sufficient moment to be thus published, not only as a vindication of the State and these men who retired fo pursue their-avocations, but to give full oppor tunity to all who may cherish malice against any of them to make such assaults against them while in life as they ever intend to make as to any such matters.
The period of reconstruction tested the firmness as well as judgment of men in position to control public opinion and give direction to public action. Prior to the war, in the face of aggression, insult, injury, and threatened war and subjugation, Joseph E. Brown, Governor o this State, favored most of the means proposed to arrest aggres sion, and in the last resort secession and its terrible con sequences of war as an alternative to submission and the overthrow of the constitutional theory of republican government. Governor Jenkins, a man of cool judgment and large experience, then in private life, while he depre cated the injuries and loathed the spirit of Northern ag gressions, was steadily opposed to secession, and favored the preservation of the Union.
Now, occupj'ing the office of Governor by the unani mous suffrage of the white people of a great but con quered State, he was inflexibly opposed to the ratification by the Legislature of the 14th Constitutional Amendment,

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

421

making all persons born or naturalized in the Unlied States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof., citizens of the United States and of the State in which they reside ; apportioning representatives among the States according to numbers ; imposing disabilities as to holding office on all who had held office and taken the oath to support the Constitution of the United States and afterwards en gaged in the rebellion ; declaring the validity of the pub lic debt of the United States, and prohibiting the United States or any State from assuming or paying any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or re bellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of tiny slave, declaring all such debts, obligations, and claims illegal and void ; and authorizing Congress to enforce the provisions of the amendment by appropriate legislation.
Analyzing this amendment in his message in IT'S usual al.le arid elegant style, he concludes as follows :---

"I ask you to consider, however, why ifc 5s that you are called upon to vote upon its adoption, whilst your State had no voice in its preparation. The Constitution secures to the States the one right as distinctly and as positively as the other. Had your Representatives, and those of other States similarly situated, beeu present, aiding in giving substance and form to it, -possibly it might have come before you a less odious thing. The policy * seems to have beeu, first to push it, without their participation, beyond the stage of amendment, and then say to them, accept our bantling or take the consequences. The omission of any material part of the process of amend ment makes the amendment itself unconstitutional., null, and void.
"Should the States especially to be affected by this amendment refuse their assent to ifc, it cannot be adopted without excluding them from the count and placing its ratification: upon the votes of three-fourths of the now dominant States.
" It is said, however, that unless this concession be made, the now ex cluded States will be kept out of the halls of Congress indefinitely. Were the amendment presented with such a menace distinctly expressed, a higher motive (if possible) than any hitherto suggested would prompt its rejection.
"At the termination of hostilities it was right and proper that the pre-

422

HECOXSTKUCTIOZST OF GEORGIA.

vionsly resisting States should, in the most unequivocal and formal manner, abandon such resistance--should rescind all they had done in antagonism to, and do whatever was necessary and proper to place themselves in consti tutional relation with, that Government. All this, we believe, Georgia has done. Beyond this, in acting upon any proposed change in the fundamental law, even in this critical juncture, my advice is that her legislators act with the same intelligent judgment and the same unflinching firmness that they would have exercised in the past, or would exercise in the future, when in full connection and unambiguous position. Any other rule of action may involve sacrifices of interest and of principle which magnanimity would not exact and self-respect cuuld not make.
" 'To submit to injurious changes in the Constitution, when forced upon a State, according to the forms prescribed for its amendment, would be one thing; to participate in making them, under duress, against her sense of right and justice, -would be a very different thing. The difference, in prin ciple, is as broad as that which distinguishes martyrdom from suicide. Par better calmly await a returning sense of justice, and a consequent reflux of. the tide now running strongly against us."
This message was a reflex of the judgment and feeling of a very large majority at tliat time of the white people of this State.
The subject underwent a critical examination by an able joint committee of the Senate and House on the state of the Republic, who made an exhaustive argu ment in reporting against the amendment, which was rejected by an almost unanimous vote.
Then the difficulties, complications, and delays of re construction began to be seen and realized by the people, who felt and believed they had a right to a voice in the establishment of the terms and conditions of their resto-. ration to the Union ; and that the United States., in the legislative, executive, and judicial departments, were bound by all constitutional checks and prohibitions ; and that the people of the conquered States were by the terms of the surrender reinvested with all the rights, privileges, arid immunities to which, as citizens of the State and of the United States, they were entitled before

RECONSTRTJCTIOK OF GEOB.GIA.

423

secession, war, and subjugation took place. This doctrine was in accordance with the public sense of justice and right, in harmony with public passion and pride in having surrendered to the Government, and given up slaves, repudiated their war debt, and unconditionally acknowl edged allegiance to the Union. In their subjugated state, mortified by defeat, exasperated by the exercise of military power in lieu of civil government, they were ready to heed the advice and counsel of the statesmen and the leading news and political journals, which fixed limits and bounds to the exercise of power, and which sought to enforce the guaranties of civil organic Jaw. The intelligent people of the conquered South viewed themselves from a different standpoint and measured their rights by a different standard--from the standpoint and standard of the leading minds o the Government whose dominion and power had been re-asserted over them. The people here regarded the restoration of Fed eral power, and the submission and obedience and loyalty of the States lately at war with the Government, as the full and complete consummation of all the objects and aims of the war ,- and considered that the Government should demand no more, and that the constitutional rights of the States and people of the South should be regarded and protected as a matter of right on their part, and of duty on the part of the Government. They were not prepared in judgment or sentiment to realize the wisdom or the policy, on the part of the United States, in changing the organic law of the Union so as to invest the liberated black race with full legal, political, and civil rights and immunities as a sequence of emanci pation, and in the enactment of laws to enforce those alleged rights. And whosoever advised in accordance

424

BECON'STKUCTIOir OF GEORGIA.

with the well-defined public opinion and sentiment had the ear and the approval of the people ; and, as a natural sequence, whosoever advised the contrary had the dis favor and negative of the great majority of people, and if he were a Southern rnan he incurred more or less of public odium and denunciation.
Most of the old leaders of parties in this State, whether they had originally favored secession or opposed it as a remedy for acknowledged wrongs, and the men of the State who had become prominent in the civil department, and those whom military career had made prominent and influential, were open in opposition to the proposed organic changes in the government, and to accepting voluntarily the new order of things so far as were neces sarily the results' of these changes.
Some who had opposed secession, such as Governor Jenkins, Herschel V. Johnson, Mr. Benj. H. Hill, and Mr. Stephens, sympathized in this prevailing sentiment and openly avowed their opposition, and cordially co-operated in this opposition with General Toombs, General Cobb, and most of the old and new leaders of the State.
On the contrary, a few who had opposed secession favored accepting the terms of reunion and reconstruction offered by the General Government. And a few who had favored the policy, and advocated the principles and opinions that led to secession, advocated prompt separa tion and the united effort to establish Southern independ ence, and used all their powers and energies to maintain the military and civil authority of the Confederate Gov ernment, now that the cause had finally and hopelessly failed,--the new Confederacy being effectually over thrown, its forces disarmed and scattered, and the power and authority of the United States fully established over

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

425

and recognized and obeyed by the whole Southern people who had been at war with the Federal Government, and all fully recognizing themselves as a conquered people,-- as a matter not of right and justice abstractly considered, or as a voluntary choice, but of wisdom and prudence, and as the speediest and safest method of securing peace to the people and protection to life., liberty, property, and to the civil and legal rights and amenities of the people in their diversified and numerous forms and rela tions, favored the prompt and unconditional acceptance of all the positive and imperative terms dictated by the conquering power. The proposed amendments and their legal and logical sequence?, which the conquered States had no power to resist, "were among those terms, and, for the reasons stated, their ratification by the State was openly urged upon the people.
Conspicuous and prominent among this few was the displaced governor of Georgia, Joseph E. Brown, upon whose head the vials of wrath from his former foes and friends, with only a few exceptions, and from almost the whole political press of the South, were poured out with relentless fury.
His star had been of the first magnitude in the political firmament, respected for its brilliancy and power even by the political foes who did not profess to walk by its light. But now, from thousands of lips, and the teeming columns of the conquered, resentful, and still rebellious press, the tidings and accusations were sent forth, were echoed and reverberated from hill to dale, and from mountain to sea board, that "Joe Brown," to save his own neck from the hangman's halter for Ms alleged treason in resisting Fed eral authority and seizing the arsenal and forts prior to secession and while Georgia acknowledged allegiance to

426

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

the Union, and to save his own property from confiscation, had turned his back upon his own country, betrayed the people -that had honored and raised him to influence and official power, whom he had aided in leading into seces sion, war, and to its direful and disastrous consequences ; and now, to save himself and protect his own accumula tions, he had joined our enemies and made common cause with them, in perfecting and completing our humiliation and dishonor.
It is necessary to have lived in those times to realize the magic power and widespread influence of such pas sionate and unfounded clamor, and their effect upon the popular mind and heart, and the accumulated weight of public odium that gathered around the name and charac ter of Georgia's formerly honored and idolized chief. His name, so potent and magical tip to this terrible test of his fidelity to his own accusing" people, became a synonym of perfidy, treachery, and selfishness., and was everywhere cast out as evil; in many circles the public cruelty ex tended to social proscription.
But., true to an inherited and cultivated firmness and to a higher and broader comprehension of the situation of the Southern States in their subjugated condition than the passions of the times-allowed to most of our late lead ers, he withstood it all with composure, and determined to abide the judgment of later times, while through the press, in private circles and addresses, he made public his convictions of what was wisest and safest for the people, and vainly urged his advice upon them.
A critical examination lately made of the published let ters and addresses of the then deposed and despised pop ular leader furnishes the authority to state his precise position. He regarded the cherished Democratic and Jcf-

RECONSTKUCTEOX OF GEORGIA.

427

fersoniau doctrine of State rights and State sovereignty, and the consequent asserted right of secession of States for causes to be judged of by their people, as completely overthrown; that the disputed right of coercion and sub jugation claimed by the United States government over revolting and seceding States held by that government to be in rebellion was fully established arid maintained by military power, then fully and effectually asserted over this State ; that the State was without power, and hope less as to all means of enforcing a negative, or dictating terms of restoration to and reunion with the United States from which we had separated.
Having made war for four years, when we had an or ganized Confederate government, and governments in all the States composing the Confederacy, when they had the means to carry it on ; and having failed, the Confederate government being completely overthrown, its armies all disbanded, and the disarmed citizen soldiers that composed them,all having returned to their homes; and the general government having proclaimed that the State was without civil government, and substituted for the time being the authority of the military over the people,--he believed, arid so advised, that, it was the duty of the people to ac cept, voluntarily, the terms which he avowed would be en forced as conditions precedent to the restoration of civil State government, and re-admission as a State in tbe Fed eral Union.
He also protested as ardently, in the presence of the military and in the face of Republican domination, against all proposals to go beyond the actual requirements of the conquering power, as made known through the acts of Congress and official orders and proclamations. He ve hemently opposed the State taking any voluntary step

428

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

calculated to degrade or humiliate the white population, not actually dictated and required by the government whose authority we had all sworn in the oaths of amnesty to obey.
These are the opinions, and such were the counsel and advice of the ex-Governor, that brought him face to face with his own people and former constituents, and invoked their hostility and open denunciations upon him.
In October, 1879, in consequence of assaults made on the floor of the Legislature upon the character and con duct of Governor Brown in those days,--and which were also repeated through the press,--he was called out to -vindicate himself. And as pertinent to the matters and subject now before us, the author quotes here his own language to the public. Referring to the days of 1868, he says :--

" That was a period of unprecedented bitterness, madness, and vitupera tion. It was just after the war, at a time when the people of the State felt they had not only lost all, but that the terms dictated by the conqueror were harsh and rigorous. Prominent politicians who were disqualified to hold office under the reconstruction legislation of Congress, and under the four teenth amendment which we were required to adopt, were very bitter and denunciatory, and they fired the passions and worst feelings of the people up to a high point.
"It was easy then to float with the current. My opinion was, however, that it was the time of all others, when, patriots and good citizens should meet the issue calmly and coolly, dismiss passion, and be controlled entirely by the dictates of their judgment. Taking this view of the situation, and feeling that I owed the people of Georgia a debt of gratitude that I could never pay, for the honors and confidence they had bestowed upon me, I looked carefully into the situation, and whilst every prompting of my "nature and of my passions was in the direction of the popular current, my judgment told me it was bad policy and would terminate disastrously to pursue that course. k "I was fully convinced that further resistance to the will of the conqueror would be worse than folly. I knew the Northern mind was inflamed against us, and that the party which had favored the war from the commencement and had come out of it triumphant was obliged for years to control popular

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429

sentiment there. I was, therefore, satisfied the best thing we could'do was to agree with the adversary quickly, to take the first terms they offered us, and-close with them atid get our representatives bjick into Congress at the earliest date possible, and oar State again recognized as a member of the family of States of the Union.U"t was satisfied if we made no resistance to the right oli the negroes to vote, and made no issue with them upon that subject, we could retain their confidence and carry a majority of them with us, in spite i,f all the influence of all the carpet-baggers that could come among them, Jiur 1 was equally well satisfied, if we made war upon the.acts of Congress which gave them the right to vote, it would be a war in which we would ultimately.be vanquished ; and the very fact that we made the issue would put them under the entvo\ o ;he cav pet-baggers who came among us, and \vho represented themselves to the colored people as being their friends sent here to see that these rights were secured.
"I also predicted at the time, in my public speeches which are now of record, that the time would come in less than fifteen years, when the New England States would regret that they had g.ven suffrage to the negro; and when the Southern people, on account o tlie power which the negro vote gave u^i in Congress, would resist any effort to take from tlie colored people the suffrage already given them. Under the 14th Amendment, if the State were to permit none of the colored race to vote, she coald count none of them in her representative population. Tlie Southern States, therefore, have some thirty members of Congress and thirty votes in the electoral college which they would not have if. they had denied to the colored race the right to vote. The Northern radicals saw this in the results of the late presiden tial election, and many of them have since crivd out against unqualified negro suffrage. What Southern man would now yield that right, thereby losing the power which we have in Congress and in the electoral college, and which we would not have if the race were disfranchised?
"But this is not all. Afc the time I took position Tor acquiescence in the reconstruction acts, no loth Amendment had been put upon us, as part of the terms of re-admission into Congress; nor was it done until a number of the States of the South had rejected the 14th Amendment. I predicted at the outset, if we did not accept the terms tlmii offered to us. harder terms would be imposed, and we would be compelled to accept thorn. After we had rejected the 14th Amendment, tiie fifteenth, which guaranteed the right of the negro to vote, was proposed and made part of the terms; and we were informed we would not bare-admitted till we complied with this additional requirement. And we had to comply before we were re-admitted.
*'What has been the result? Those gentlemen in the South who were , then the leaders of popular sentiment, and who opposed the reconstruction
measures to the bitter end, until they had been agreed to by the Southern States, have since become prominent in Federal politics; and, notwithstand ing- their denunciations of the 14th and 15th amendments, and their predic-

430

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA

tions that they would never be enforced, they have since that time a-; . ;md

again wu-orn to support: the Constitution with these amendment- r-.<-,.p0-

rated in it. And the national Democratic convention which met at Si Lmiis

incorporated a plank into its platform declaring its devotion to iii ', n.-iti-

tution with these amendment?.

, my enemies, through th

propel to wake up the old iss^v,

in question the prop ri. Tvjind

not im proper that I should call to mind these facts, and ask the pet p'-. Who I ritrht when I told tl
uld l>e obliged to submit, to these terms? What advantage did Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida, whose people refused to go to the have anything to do with the conventions that formed their con* under the reconstruction acts, g;iin by the liands-off policy? T!ic\ were advised by their leaders to touch not, taste not, handle not the unclr ;u< ; '"lug, to have nothing to do with it, but to give the matter up into tUe. Uands of the nem'oe-*, carpet-baggers, and scalawags. The people followed the mlvice of their leaders, aud the governments of those States were put into the bauds o the cias-es above mentioned. They formed the constitution to suit them selves; and the world knows the result.
"On the other hand, the white people of Georgia were divided upon this question. Some thirty or forty thousand of them who ngreed with me, think ing it better to have a hand in making- the constitution they were to live under, went to the polls and elected some of our best and ablest men, who were not, ineligible to represent them in the convention. The result was, we got a constitution which soon placed the State under the permanent, control of the white race, where we have not had any inconvenience from the posi tion the negroes have occupied in the jury bos,--in a word, a eonstitutiou uuder which the intelligence and virtues of the State soon assevtoi! their supremacy; and our leading position is not only recognized but envied by the Southern sisterhood of St\tes. But for the course of the constituency I have just mentioned, and of the self-sacrificing heroic men who went into the convention, and who watched around it, with the curses of a large pro portion of the white people against them, who had the nerve to breast the storm and do right, we would have been in as deplorable a condition as oar three Southern sisters above mentioned. I leave it therefore for the honest, fair-minded men of this generation, and for impartial history in the future, to say whether the course I took and the advice I gave during that great struggle was the wisest and best that the circumstances permitted. ] am willing to stand or fall by the record-, and my enemies who have provoked this assault are welcome to make the most of it.
" Immediately after the reconstruction acts had passed, if the whole South had accepted the situation and supported General Grant for President in 1S08, we would have been promptly re-admitted to Congress, our State gov-

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

431

ernments would have been left in our own hands, political disabilities would have been removed, and we should have had no carpet-bag rule. This would have thrown together-in the Republican party, as the result of the war, elements not congenial on questions of btmks, currency, tariffs, etc , and before this time a split would naturally have taken place on those issues. And as there would have been no bloody shirt waved, large numbers of Northern men, who now act with the Republican party, who were originally War Democrats, would naturally have drifted back to their old position, which has been prevented by the position of the South on the reconstruction issues.
'Entertaining- these views, I did not snpportthe Seymour movement on

In the numerous published speeches and letters advo

cating the acceptance by Georgia of the reconstruction

proposed and at last enforced by Congress, and the

advice given the Republicans in the State, his address to

the Constitutional Convention, and his addresses advo

cating the adoption of the Constitution after it had been

framed and submitted to the people, and in advocating

the election of General Grant for the presidency,--the

spirit, the opinions, and advice indicated in the foregoing

extract abound. And, as stated, the hated and denounced

ex-Governor, while he advocated going the length de

manded by the Government, protested continually against

going one step beyond it.

,-=

Congress promptly proceeded with the work of recon

struction. The act of March 2, 1SG7, declared that no

legal State governments, or adequate protection to life

432

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

or property, existed in the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas ; divided them into military districts; authorized the President to assign a military commander to each district, and to detail a sufficient military force to protect all persons in their rights of person and property, to suppress insurrection, disorder, and violence, and to punish or cause to be punished all disturbers of the peace and criminals, giving the com manders the discretion to allow the local tribunals to try offenders, or organize a military commission to try them.
The law also provided that when the people of any of those States should form, a constitution in conformity in all respects to the Constitution of the United States, framed by a convention of delegates elected by the innle citizens thereof twenty-one years of age, without distinc tion of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, except those disfranchised for participation in the Rebel lion, or for felony at common law,--the constitution of the State so formed to provide that the elective franchise should be enjoyed by all such persons as are authorized by the act to vote for delegates, and to be submitted to, examined, and approved by Congress,--and when a legislature elected under such constitution should ratify the 14th Amendment,, and that Amendment become a part of the Constitution of the United States,, then that State should be entitled to representation in Congress. The law declared all civil law provisional only in those States until they should comply with its requirements.
Governor Jenkins was by military order of Major-Gen eral J^ittt-r-Pope removed from office, and Brig.-General R tiger of the United States army placed in power. Gen. Pope himself was afterward succeeded by Major-General

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

433

Meade, and he by Major-General Terry, of the United States army, in the command of Georgia.
The States referred to in the act failing to take steps to hold the convention and to comply with its terms, Con gress proceeded with the work of reconstruction. A sup plemental bill was passed providing' for the election of delegates to conventions, for the purposes indicated, under the direction and authority of the military commanders in charge ; providing rigid rules under oath for registration, and excluding all as voters who by the provisions of the proposed 14th Amendment were proscribed from holding office. The freed blacks without exception, except felony at common law. were enfranchised, as were the white peo ple who were voters under existing laws, except as stated.
This proscription debarred a very large number, em bracing most of the leading and prominent men of the State, from the right to register and vote in the election for or against convention, and for delegates to represent them, -- they having held offices before the war, and taken the usual oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and afterward engaged in the Rebellion, as the war for Confederate independence was denomi nated by law and in all official public orders.
The colored people with great unanimity and enthu siasm registered, and crowded to the voting places at the elections. The question as to the assembling of the con vention was made to depend on the votes of those enti tled when voting for delegates. In case a majority were indorsed for a convention, then the military commander was required to assemble the body; but in case there was not a majority of those voting on that question indorsed for convention, then it was not to be held, and the military authority over the State was to continue.

434

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

The registration was conducted by officers appointed under the acts for the reconstruction--many of them negroes. There were 95/214 white voters and 93,457 colored voters registered; total 188,671.
At the election, 95,772 votes were cast for convention, 3,905 against holding a convention, and 5,406 votes for delegates which were blank as to the question for holding the convention. The press of that day abounded "with charges of frauds in the registration and injustice on the part of the officers in charge of it, and with charges of fraud in the count of votes. But this is the official result as announced, and upon which the convention was as sembled by the military authority in command of the State.
The senatorial districts of the State--forty-four in num ber--were adopted as election districts, and one hundred and sixty-nine delegates apportioned and chosen from them, by an election appointed and held for three days only at county seats, and by managers appointed by the military and registration authorities. Many of the man agers were negroes ; and a large proportion of the dele gates elected to the convention to frame the new consti tution for the State and adopt the amendment to the Federal Constitution were negroes who had never before voted, and very many of them entirely illiterate.
In this election, held in October, for and against hold ing a convention to assemble on the 9th of December, 1867, thus organized and submitted to the registered voters of the State, the negroes voted with great una nimity and enthusiasm ; and also for delegates favoring reconstruction to represent them. The white voters in many election districts stood aloof, and refused to partici pate in the election for convention or for delegates. They

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

435

refused to take part in the act of calling a convention, and of appointing by ballot delegates for the purposes indicated. Conducive to this non-action of the white people there had been, between the time of the passage and publication of the reconstruction acts of Congress requiring this convention, and the ratification of the 14th Amendment, a vast amount of able and some acrimonious discussion of the matters by the press and political leaders of the State.
The people had begun to revive their hopes and to regain their energies, and ply their activity and industry. They accepted the action of the Legislature rejecting the 14th Amendment with great unanimity, and seemed to regard the matter as settled. The act of Congress of March, 18G7, looking to this new reconstruction of the State, startled the hopeful people and aroused their re sentment to the General Government, under the general sense of wrong, and of outrage perpetrated by the radical Congress. Such was the public opinion, and the gener ally expressed sentiment of the press representing the people, at that time.
The people thus summoned suddenly to reconstruct themselves and their own government, to conform to ideas and sentiments above all the most repulsive to them, were ready to follow the lead of any man who counselled them in accordance with their feelings and sentiments. In the absence of any leader they were despondent, dispirited, and depressed in view of the ter rible and trying ordeal that was then required by their conquerors.
At this period, most of the former old leaders who sur vived the struggle were hopeless ; many of them, having lost their worldly estates, were depressed by poverty;

436

RECONSTRUCTION OP GEORGIA.

many of them feared the ultimp^te consequences of having been engaged in a war now held to be a rebellion by a government apparently exasperated and incensed a.gainst them. It was a sore and severe trial to many who had not quailed before the guns that finally had subdued our section.
The press seemed to halt and hesitate, the leaders to whom the people looked were silent; but few except Governor Brown spoke, and he "was advising them con trary to every instinct, impulse, and passion of their nattire, and in opposition to their uninformed judgment under the new order of things.
At this juncture Benjamin H. Hill,--who had been before the war a formidable and powerful foe to the Democracy and had opposed secession, and had held the office of senator in the Confederate Congress, had carried his opposition to Governor Brown through the war, had be come a leading spirit and light in the civil government of the Confederacy, and the confidant and adviser of Pres ident Davis,--with a boldness that challenged almost uni versal applause, opened through the press his powerful criticisms on the government and parly in power, the wrongs as alleged of the proposed reconstruction, and the order of things that would result from their adoption by the people, entitled "Notes on the Situation," which had so powerful an effect on the people then, and have been so often referred to since, as to have made them historic, and their object and purport are necessarily a part of our State history. In the 15th of these papers he sums them up as follows :--
" The points which I sought by the ' notes ' to establish were, among others,--
"That the military bills were contrary to the Constitu-

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

437

tion and destructive of all the principles and guaranties of free government in America.
" 2. That they were contrary to every code of civilized nations, and in infamous bad faith to the terms of the fight and the conditions of surrender.
" 3. That the reasons urged to justify these meas ures--such as a desire to restore the Union, elevate the black race, secure guaranties of future peace, etc., etc., were utterly untrue, inconsistent, and insidious--were pretexts to cover the only real purpose, which was to perpetuate the power of the radical party.
" 4. That the acceptance of the plan proposed by these bills could only result in a permanent subversion of the government in the degradation of the people in along and bloody reign of anarchy, with social, civil and agrarian wars, resulting, after unparalleled horrors, in despotism for the whites of the United States, and in the extermination, exclusion, or political re-enslavement of the African race.
" 5. The only remedy for these evils, both threatened and existing, was a speedy return by the people of all sections to the Constitution, and the vigorous enforcement of its remedies against all Its violators.
The elaborate and voluminous discussion of these views with the passionate style of a great writer., and on the stump, by him, one of the acknowledged orators of the age, to a people whose minds and hearts were in unison with his, had a most wonderful effect in uniting and solidifying public opinion in opposition to reconstruction on the terms proposed.
These notes and Mr. Hill's speeches called out elaborate and able reviews by Governor JBrown, written in his usual masterly style, setting forth and defending his own opinions and assailing those of Mr. Hill.

438

EECONSTEUCTIOK OF GEORGIA.

Mr. Hill now had the popular ear and heart. The people in the main shared his sentiments, and hastily and enthusiastically accepted his conclusions, and en tered into his passions; he had almost the unanimous press to land him and condemn his adversary in the dis cussion. The journals promptly published his articles and praised him extravagantly, and the spirit and hopes of the people were aroused and re-assured. A few only of them printed, and nearly all condemned without,meas ure, the reviews and criticisms of Governor Brown. But few of them were charitable enough to spare his motives.
Other powerful influences wore brought to bear upon the public mind at this period. A committee of distin guished citizens of Atlanta called out the views o Ex-Gov ernor Johnson, whose letter, generally published over the State, was a terribly scathing and withering analysis and denunciation of the congressional bills and plan of recon struction ; other prominent and influential leaders joined only in the opposition, and before the time for voting on the call of a convention and the election of delegates ar rived the white people had become almost solid in opposition to the proposed reconstruction.
The effect was to keep the white voters who had reg istered in many districts from participating1 in the election, but not in the slightest degree to stay the progress of reconstruction. The delegates were elected, the conven tion assembled and proceeded with the work of making a new constitution, such as was required by the acts of Congress, and submitting it to the voters who had been registered according to the requirements of the reconstruction laws and orders.
The sentiment of hostility to the proceedings was al most universal in most parts of the State. But even after

KECONSTEUCTION OF GEORGIA.

439

the election of the delegates to the convention, it was in an unorganized state. The people had not participated in the election, and had held themselves aloof from the proceeding, under the advice o the popular leaders who had their confidence, and of the exasperated press of" the State. But they had no course of proceeding, no pro gramme of future action prescribed.
True to the passions, impulses, arid prevailing opinions and judgment of those leaders, a voluntary convention of all who opposed the then proceedings--to recon struct the State under the congressional bills--was called to meet in the city of Macon, to be composed of dele gates representing the counties of the State.
This convention, composed of two hundred and thirtyfive delegates, representing seventy counties, assembled at Macon on the fifth of December, 1867. Hon. Benj. H. Hill was~cnoscn president^His opening and closing addresses, and those of the speakers who took part in the discussions, were of an exciting character, characterized by ability and dignity, in harmony with the prevailing sentiment and feeling of the people.
An able committee, composed o Geo. A. Mercer and C. B. Richardson of the First Congressional District, Philip Cook and T. M. Furlow of the Second, P. W. Al exander and C. II. C. Willingham of the Third, Thomas Hardeman, Jr., and Daniel Hughes of the Fourth, David E. Butler and E. H. Pottle of the Fifth, J. Graham and W. W. McLester of the Sixth, Luther J. Glenn and J. A. Stewart of the Seventh, was appointed. Hon, J. J, Gresham of Bibb was made chairman of the committee.
The action of the committee, which by adoption be came the action of the convention, was more wise and conservative than the speeches and the leading news-

440

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

paper enunciations of that period had been, but was ac cepted and approved generally by the constituency of the convention.
They provided for a committee to publish an address to the people, composed of Herschel V. Johnson, chair man., Absalom H. Chappell, Benjamin H. Hill, Warren Akin and Theodore L. Guerry, which was written by the chairman, in his powerful and masterly style, and was in harmony with the resolutions of this convention, all of which were extensively published.
The preamble and resolutions, which express the con servative opinions and sentiments of opposition to recon struction then prevalent, are as follows :--

" We, the delegates of the people of Georgia, in convention assembled, rec ognizing our obligation to support the general government in all legal and proper measures, and claiming from that government the due performance of the reciprocal duty, to extend to us, in common with all the people of the whole country, the protection guarantied by the Constitution of our fore fathers, do declare and affirm that manly protest against bad public policy is the duty as well as the right of every American citizen; and this without factitious opposition to government, or untimely interruption of public har mony. The season for honest discussion of principles, and for lawful oppo sition to existing abases, and their growth, is ever present and pressing1-
"The Southern people are true to constitutional liberty, and ready to acquiesce in any policy looking to the honor and good of the whole country, and securing the rights of; all classes of people.
** We regard the efforts of the present ruling power to change the funda mental institutions of the United States government, as false in principle, impolitic in action, injurious in result, injurious to the South, and detri mental to the general government. Silence under -wrong may be construed as endorsement. Be it therefore
"Resolved, 1st, That we recognize the duty to sustain law and order, and support cheerfully all constitutional measures of the United States govern ment, and maintain the rights of all classes under enlightened and liberal laws.
"Resolved, 2d, That the people of Georgia accept in good faith the legiti mate results of the late war, and renew their expressions of allegiance to the Union of the States, and reiterate their determination to maintain inviolate the Constitution framed by our fathers.

KECOKSTKUCTION OF GEORGIA.

441

"Resolae'l, 3:1, That we protest dispassionately, yet firmly, against what is known as the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, and against the vindictive and partis fin administration of those acts as wrong in principle, oppressive in action, and ruinous'to the States of the South, as well as hurtful to the true welfare of every portion of our common country, and leading directly, if not intentionally, to the permanent supremacy of the negro race, in all those States, where those laws are now being enforced.
"Resolved, 4th, That we protest in like spirit and manner against the policy of the dominant party in Congress, which seeks to inflict upon the States of the South permanent bad government, as wrong, not only to all races in the South, and to the people of all parts of the Union, but a crime against civilization, which it is the duty of all right-minded men everywhere to discountenance and condemn.
"Resolved, 5th, That we enter on record, in the name and behalf of the people of this State, this, our solemn protest against the assembling of a convention, which, we affirm, with evidence before us, has been ordered under pretence of votes which were illegally authorized, forcibly procured, fraudulently received, and falsely counted, as we believe. And in view of the solemn responsibility of the issues involved, we do hereby declare that we will forever hold the work of framing a constitution by such authority, with intent to ue forced by military power on the free people of this ancient Commonwealth, as a crime against our people, against the continuance of free government, against the peace of society, against the purity of the bal lot-box, and against the dignity and character of representative institutions."

Notwithstanding this strong_and decided enunciation oF alleged r i gh fcs_ an d^ wrongs, and jhe ear_nes_t_j?_rotest of ~ttre~ir~opponents, the reconstruction party in convention proceeded with its work of framing a new organic law for the State.
In the various constitutions that have been made, most"~" of the provisions of the old constitution in force before the war have been retained ; some have been modified, and others expunged, and provisions inserted to suit the new order of things. This Constitution of 1868 made some elementary and radical changes of organic law.
It enacted that, " The~~State of Ofebrgia shall ever main a member of the American Union; the people thereof are a part of the American nation. Every citizen

442

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA.

thereof owes paramount allegiance to the Constitution and Government of the United States, and no law or ordi nance of this State, in contravention or subversion thereof, shall ever have any binding force.
" That the social status of the citizen shall never be the subject of legislation.
" There shall be no imprisonment for debt. " Whipping as .1 punishment for crime is prohibited. " There shall be within the State of Georgia, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, save as a punishment for crime after legal conviction thereof. " All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and resident in this State, are hereby declared citizens of this State," etc. And the right of suffrage is extended to such as are male, and of suitable age and residence--and not disqualified--by special provisions. Debts for the sale or hire of slaves were abrogated. The Legislature was required to provide a general system of education to be free to all children of the State, the expense of which to be provided by taxation or otherwise. A homestead of real estate and exemption of personal estate, to the value of $2,000 of the former and $1,000 of the latter at gold valuation, were provided, and the seat of the State gov ernment peremptorily removed from Milledgeville to Atlanta.
The convention provided by ordinances for an election by the persons already registered as voters, for the rati fication of the constitution framed, and at the same time for the election of a governor, members of the Legis lature, civil officers of the State, and representatives in Congress.
The opposition, composed of the old Democrats and Whigs and conservative men, such as were assembled

BECONSTKUCTIOX OF GEOEGIA.

443

and re