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MEN AND THINGS 
 
 BY HIRAM P. BELL 
 
 BEING REMINISCENT, BIOGRAPHICAL 
 AND HISTORICAL 
 
 t 
 
 PRESS OF THE 
 
 jFootc Sc 2iDabics; Company 
 
 ATLANTA: 1907 
 
AUG 5 30,'' i 
 
 
 /^^^6 
 
 COPYHIGHT 1907 
 BY 
 
 H. P. BELl, 
 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The author has lived in eventful times. He pre- 
 sents to the public in this unpretentious volume, 
 sketches — biographic, historic, reminiscent and analec 
 tic of some of the men and things that have made them 
 eventful. He does so in the ardent hope that they 
 may be interesting to the present generation, and use- 
 ful to future ones. 
 
 Gumming, Ga., Hieam P. Bell. 
 
 March 7, 1907. 
 
V^3 ^ 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 Parentage and Birth of the x\iithor. 
 
 Chapter II. 
 Boyhood on the Farm. 
 
 Chapter III. 
 The Old Field School. 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 Education, Admission to the Bar and Marriage. 
 
 Chapter V. 
 The Bar of Georgia in 1850. 
 
 Chapter YI. 
 Changes in the Law and Its Procedure since 1850. 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 Secession and Reconstruction. 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 Conditions after the War — Lawyers. 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 Amusing Incidents in Court. 
 
 Chapter X. 
 Secession. 
 
 V. 
 
Chapter XI. 
 In the War. 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 Second Confederate Congress. 
 
 Chapter XIII. 
 Personnel of the Members of the Second Congress. 
 
 Chapter XIV. 
 Lincohi and Davis. 
 
 Chapter XV, 
 
 Condition of the Southern People at the Close of the 
 War. 
 
 Chapter XVI. 
 The Forty-third Congress and Party Leaders. 
 
 Chapter XVII. 
 The Forty-fifth Congress. 
 
 Chapter XVIII. 
 Disappointed Ambition. 
 
 Chapter XIX. 
 Social Problems. 
 
 Chapter XX. 
 Woman in War. 
 
 Chapter XXI. 
 Reminiscences of Some Famous Preachers. 
 
 yi. 
 
Chapter XXII. 
 Russo-Japanese War — President Roosevelt — Peace. 
 
 Chapter XXIII. 
 Legislatures of 1898-9, and 1900-1— In the House 
 and in the Senate. 
 
 Chapter XXIV. 
 Life, Service and Character of James Edward Ogle- 
 thorpe, the Founder of Georgia. 
 
 Chapter XXV. 
 The Religion of Christianity. 
 
 Chapter XXVI. 
 The Miracles Coincident with the Crucifixion. 
 
 Chapter XXVII. 
 
 St. Paul. 
 
 Chapter XXVIII. 
 Bishop A. G. Haygood. 
 
 Chapter XXIX. 
 The Causes of Crime and best Methods of Prevention. 
 
 Chapter XXX. 
 Literary Address delivered at Commencement of IMadi- 
 son Female College. 
 
 Chapter XXXI. 
 Semi-Centennial Address. 
 
 VII 
 
MEN AND THINGS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Paeentage and Bieth of the Author. 
 
 I was born in Jackson County, Ga., January 19th, 
 1827. 
 
 My father was of English extraction. He was a 
 native of Guilford County, North Carolina. He was 
 born July 22, 1794. His name was Joseph Scott 
 Bell. His father, Francis Bell, removed from North 
 Carolina, and settled in Jackson County, Ga., about 
 the year 1800. He died in 1837, at the age of ninety- 
 one years. He was a non-commissioned officer in the 
 Continental army, and failed to be in the battle of Guil- 
 ford Court House, by reason of being in command of 
 a squad on detached service. My father was a man 
 of iron constitution, physically, of high temper, strong 
 impulse, resolute will and fearless courage. His edu- 
 cation was limited, being such only as could be obtained 
 by a short, irregular attendance upon inferior schools 
 in the back-woods. He was by occupation, a farmer; 
 never held a civil office, and was never a candidate for 
 one. In politics he was a "State's Rights Whig." 
 He was no trader. His communications were " yea, 
 yea," and "nay, nay." He was the genius of manual 
 
2 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 labor. I do not remember to have known him to spend 
 an hour in idleness. 
 
 Mj mother was Eachel Phinazee, a native Georgian, 
 and of Irish descent. Like my father, she was brought 
 up in a newly settled country, from which the Indians 
 had but recently disappeared, and therefore, her edu- 
 cation was meagre. With poor people, in a newly 
 settled country, bread-winning was the watchword. She 
 was born on the second day of jSTovember, 1794. Her 
 mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Harris, died at 
 the advanced age of ninety-one years, which age, my 
 mother also attained. She was distinguished for plain, 
 practical common sense, unremitting industry, devotion 
 to duty and faith in God. Her spirit was quiet and 
 gentle as a May zephyr, and even her reproof was in 
 tones sweet as the "Spicy breezes of Araby the blest." 
 Success did not elate, nor defeat depress her, but 
 always and everywhere she maintained that self -poise 
 which is the offspring of philosophy and Christianity. 
 
 My father and mother married young, probably in 
 1813 or 1814; and located in a cabin in the woods, on 
 a small tract of land given to my father by his father. 
 This was in the northeast portion of Jackson County, 
 Ga., fifteen miles from any to\\Ti. Here they lived and 
 toiled in agricultural avocation, until 1838, when, 
 immediately after the removal of the Cherokees to the 
 West, my father bought a few himdred acres of land in 
 the woods, unmarked by human invasion, except an In- 
 dian trail, leading from the Chattahoochee to the Eto- 
 wah River, in the county of Forsyth, to which a part 
 of his family removed in the early part of the year 
 
MEN AND THINGS 3 
 
 1838. The remainder of the family joined this col- 
 ony in the spring of 1840. Here he repeated the ex- 
 perience of his early life, — the building of a home, 
 and clearing a plantation in the woods, unscarred by 
 the civilizing touch of the axe and ploughshare. Here 
 he wrought, until he "crossed over the river, to rest 
 under the shade of the trees." 
 
 The family of my father and mother consisted of 
 six sons and six daughters, all of whom lived to attain 
 majority, and a majority of whom passed the allotted 
 threescore and ten years. The senior son, Joseph T., 
 died at the age of twenty-two years. His death left a 
 scar in my mother's heart that never healed. 
 
 My parents were both deeply religious. They united 
 with the Methodist Church shortly after their marriage. 
 My earliest remembrance is associated with the visits 
 of ministers of the Gospel at our home, which was 
 always open to them; and with the regular and syste- 
 matic family worship. Such was their admiration for 
 them, that they gave to each of their six sons, the name 
 of a favorite preacher. 
 
 My father was an official of the church — either stew- 
 ard, class-leader, or trustee — practically all his church 
 life. He was a man of extraordinary power in 
 prayer. I have heard him often, at the family altar, 
 pray with an earnestness and power and pathos, that 
 seemed to me to make the foundation of the house 
 tremble. Faithful, earnest, consistent, devoted Chris- 
 tians, they lived together in harmony, peace and love, 
 for more than sixty years, until all of their children 
 
4 MEH AND THINGS 
 
 became grown, and married; and passed away without 
 a cloud upon their spiritual horizon. 
 
 On a calm, moonlight night in May, 1876, I wit- 
 nessed my father's translation; with a face all radiant 
 with the light of high communion, his last utterance 
 was: "I leave the world in triumph," and gently ex- 
 changed the cross for the crown. My mother survived 
 him nine years. In September, 1885, at the home of 
 her daughter, in Gumming, Ga., she closed a long life, 
 with the stainless record of duty faithfully done, suf- 
 ferings patiently borne, wrongs freely forgiven, and 
 faith unfalteringly kept; and passed sweetly into the 
 joys of the true life. I honor my parents for their 
 character and their virtues; I bless their memory for 
 their love and benefactions to me, in a thousand dif- 
 ferent forms. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Boyhood on the Faem. 
 
 Those familiar with the history of Georgia during 
 the first half of the nineteenth century, wiU remember 
 that, at the close of the Revolutionary War, but a 
 small part of the State, extending from the coast up 
 the Savannah River, was occupied by white inhabitants ; 
 the bulk of the territory, of what now constitutes the 
 "Empire State of the South," was wild woods, occupied 
 by hostile Indians and wild beasts. The absence of 
 money and commerce, the continental war-debt, appre- 
 hension "of failure in organizing successfully the new 
 system of civil government, and the general demorali- 
 zation resulting from the war, and the disorganized 
 state of society generally, created the conditions to be 
 met. These conditions developed the cardinal factors 
 in achieving our present advanced type of civilization 
 — enterprise and industry. Men and women went 
 bravely to work to win bread and better their condi- 
 tion. Controversies were adjusted, and treaties nego- 
 tiated with the Indians, population poured in, new 
 counties were formed, forests subdued, the wilderness 
 reclaimed, churches and school-houses built — cheap 
 and humble at first, it is true, but they were the seed 
 of a harvest to be gathered later. 
 
 That portion of Georgia lying west of the Chatta- 
 
 S 
 
6 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 hoochee River, known as Cherokee, Georgia, was the 
 last portion of the State opened for settlement by the 
 white people. It was occupied by an industrious, 
 hardy class of people, with small means, very speedily. 
 There were few slave-holders among them. The set- 
 tlement of this section of the State took place at the 
 time when President Jackson's removal of the deposits 
 from the national bank, and specie circular burst the 
 bubble of "flush times" sent the wild-cat banks, which 
 had sprung up like Jonah's gourd, to grief; and left 
 the people in debt without a circulating mediiun. 
 Under these conditions — from 1840 to 1847 — and be- 
 tween thirteen and twenty years of age, from sunrise 
 until sunset, in winter and summer, I was engaged, 
 without intermission, in work on the farm, which con- 
 sisted in the winter season, in clearing and fencing 
 the land, cutting, hauling logs, and erecting buildings. 
 The county was heavily timbered, which was wasted 
 with reckless prodigality. Each neighborhood had its 
 circle of fifteen or twenty neighbors ; and every spring, 
 as regular as the Ides of March, each neighbor had his 
 regulation log-rolling; and in the fall, each within the 
 circle had his corn-shucking. The house-raising was 
 another institution of these primitive times. This was 
 carried on either in the winter or in the summer, be- 
 tween the crop-finishing and fodder-gathering season. 
 
 These good people wrought hard and constantly, 
 without money; and strikingly illustrated the truth 
 that: "Man wants but little here below." They were 
 plain and simple in their dress ; the cotton patch, flocks, 
 cards, spinning-wheel, loom-room, and deft hands of 
 
MEN AND THINGS T 
 
 good, virtuous house-wives, supplied the wardrobe. It 
 was not long, however, until the farm, herd, orchard, 
 garden and dairy, poured their treasures into the refec- 
 tory in a variety and profusion that would satiate the 
 appetite of Milo, or eclipse the board of LucuUus. 
 They lived like princes on the proceeds of honest labor. 
 In those days many communities had its little 
 log church, built after a vigorous controversy over the 
 place of its location, at which they held their Sunday- 
 school and attended preaching, which was often on a 
 week day, and to which the men would go from the field 
 and the women from the loom — all in fatigue dress. 
 They went to hear the Word of Life, and were generally 
 thrilled by its power, and comforted by its solace. 
 They lived in peace, all, or most of them, unconscious 
 of what was transpiring in the great big world around 
 them. If they were denied the blessing of different en- 
 vironments and a more advanced state of civilization, 
 the law of compensation exempted them from the an- 
 noyance of an army of cooking-stove, sewing-machine, 
 and insurance agents, and peddlers of rat poison and 
 Chinese grips. It was not long, however, until the 
 thin-nosed, irrepressible wooden-nutmeg Yankee clock- 
 peddler put in his appearance. 
 
 It is written: "In the sweat of thy face shall thou 
 eat bread." My boyhood life on the farm is a striking 
 illustration of the truth of this divine statement. An 
 accident to an elder brother in the spring of 1834, sent 
 me to the plow at the age of seven years. Other hands 
 put on the gear and tied the hamestring, and a friendly 
 stump or fence corner, after climbing, enabled me to 
 
8 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 reach the back of the horse. In 1843, in the absence 
 of my father, I bossed the farm. The weather was 
 phenomenally cold in the winter and spring, forage 
 was scarce, live-stock died — a magnificent comet 
 stretched across the southwestern heavens. Miller's 
 prediction of the approaching end of the world alarmed 
 the superstitious. It snowed in March, and the ground 
 was deeply frozen as late as the 5th of April; and 
 vegetation indicated no sign of appearance at that date. 
 A little later, an indiscreet neighbor put out fire on an 
 adjoining farm in dry, windy weather, which caught 
 the dead timber on my father's farm, set the fence on 
 fire, and necessitated the tearing down and rebuild- 
 ing of between two and three hundred panels, to save 
 the rails. I felt something of the consternation of 
 ^ISTapoleon, when he discovered the blaze of Moscow. 
 I did not retreat, but saved the fence. How much 
 trouble, labor, expense and solicitude we could save 
 others by a little caution at the proper time ! In the 
 winter of 1842-43 my elder brother and myself made 
 the rails and enclosed a forty-acre lot of land, thirty 
 acres of which was mainly a chinquapin thicket. When 
 the crop of 1843 was finished, my father returned home 
 from a mining enterprise in which he and my elder 
 brother had been engaged, and constructed a threshing- 
 machine, the band of which my two brothers and my- 
 self turned, in the month of August, until we threshed 
 out the wheat crop of one hundred bushels, at the rate 
 of five or six bushels per day. In the winter of 
 1843-44, my elder brother having attained his major- 
 ity, left home and entered school. My two younger 
 
MEN AND THINGS 9 
 
 brothers and I devoted our time to the clearing of the 
 thirty acres of chinquapin thicket, which consisted in 
 cutting o£F the bushes near the ground with club or 
 pole-axes. 
 
 Early in the month of May, 1844, the brush was 
 burned, the ground was laid off, without breaking, 
 and planted in corn. After wheat harvest, on the 
 twentieth of June, my brother Matthew and I com- 
 menced to plow it for the first time. Father and a 
 negro woman followed with the hoes. The rows were 
 nearly a quarter of a mile in length. The water- 
 sprouts were as thick, and very nearly as tall, as or- 
 dinary wheat at maturity — so thick and tall that we 
 frequently lost the row in running the furrow next to 
 the corn. The corn having grown in the shade, was 
 about eighteen inches high, and the stalk but little larger 
 than a well-developed sedge-broom straw; so slender in- 
 deed, that when the sprouts were taken from around 
 it much of it fell do^^•n. We had been plowing, or 
 trying to plow, for about three hours in this wilderness 
 on an immensely hot day, when I discovered an im- 
 mensely large rattlesnake making an effort to dis- 
 engage itself from entanglement with the foot of my 
 plow. I shall not attempt to describe my liorror, for 
 the reason that there are some things beyond the at- 
 tainment of human power. I killed the snake, re- 
 ported at once the adventure to my father, and begged 
 him to abandon the field, urging that it was tenptiug 
 providence to take the risk of the snakes. But my 
 father had more faith than T, and scarcely gave my 
 importunate plea a respectful hearing. We ploughed 
 
10 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 on for nearly a week; and passing each other near the 
 centre of the field, we stopped and engaged in conver- 
 sation. I noticed in a moment mv brother's face 
 turned white as cotton. He had discovered a large 
 rattlesnake lying nnder a bush in the row between us. 
 We loosed our horses, despatched the rattler, and 
 turned to hitch them, when I discovered, under another 
 bush nearby, a companion snake of equal size, w^hich 
 was also promptly despatched. After ten days of 
 ploughing in new ground covered with a wilderness of 
 bushes, permeated with roots and stumps, and in- 
 habited by rattlesnakes — suffering all the agonies of 
 mental crucifixion — we finished the job, with Nil as 
 the result, so far as the crop yield was concerned. A 
 few years ago, as I closed my brother's eyes in death — 
 within an hour after I reached his bedside in Milledge- 
 ville — these struggles, toils and associations of our boy- 
 hood came trooping down the dusty aisles of memory, 
 with a powder and pathos for which language has no 
 expression. 
 
 The year 1845 was eventful in most of the Gulf 
 States, on account of the absence of rain, and the fail- 
 ure of crops. Hundreds of families, especially from 
 South Carolina and Georgia, sought homes in the West. 
 Four weeks of the summer of this year is epochal in 
 my history. I had, for that period, the benefit of my 
 brother's instruction. The preceding year, he had the 
 instruction of a first-class teacher, and was himself 
 an accomplished grammarian. This month's instruc- 
 tion from a competent teacher laid the foundation for 
 what little I may have attained in the way of education. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 11 
 
 In 1846 my father took a new departure in his farm- 
 ing enterprise. He had tried cotton, which his boys 
 had shivered with cold in picking during Christmas 
 week and in January and which he had hauled with 
 an ox-team to Madison, Ga., then the head of the Ga. 
 K. E., and sold at two and one-half cents per pound. 
 This departure consisted in substituting a tobacco for 
 a cotton crop. He planted ten acres in tobacco plants. 
 The land happened to be in the most favorable condi- 
 tion to produce its largest yield of crab-grass. The 
 season was unustially wet, the growth of the tobacco 
 was retarded, that of the grass, not. After much toil, 
 the crab-grass, late in the sununer, was subdued. If 
 there is any one thing for which a farmer-boy ardently 
 pants, it is a few wrecks of rest, after the crop is "laid- 
 by," and the peach and watermelon season puts in an 
 appearance. But just as this halycon heaven of 
 boyish delight was reaished, the tobacco plants must be 
 topped, and the worms and suckers removed. This 
 process consists in pinching off the top bud, and suckers 
 with the fingers; and knocking off the great, green, 
 loathsome worms with a stick, and mashing them with 
 the foot. The operator is bent forward in the broiling 
 sunshine, besmeared with the gum and stench of this 
 plant, and disgusted with the sight of the worms. This 
 is anything but a delightful exercise. It was com- 
 pleted, in this case, some days after the drying fodder 
 had suffered for gathering. Then the tobacco-house 
 was to be built and daubed, the plant to be cut, placed on 
 sticks and cured, stripped from the stalk and bound 
 into hands. What the crop yielded in money I do 
 
12 MEU A.ND THINGS 
 
 not now remember. I am sure it was the only ex- 
 periment my father ever made with tobacco. He went 
 back to cotton. 
 
 Having attended school — all told, only six or eight 
 months in snatches of two or three weeks at a time — in 
 the old field school, most of that time to very inferior 
 teachers, even for this grade of school; and having at- 
 tained the age of twenty years, without education, I 
 proposed to my father to serve him another year if he 
 would send me to school for one year; or, that if he 
 would release me from the service, I would discharge 
 him from the obligation to give me a year's schooling, 
 as he had done for my older brother, and take the 
 chances of educating myself. He generously accepted 
 the latter proposition. It is due to the memory of my 
 dear father to say that he had a high appreciation of 
 his obligation to educate his children, and ardently 
 desired to discharge that obligation. But having a 
 large family to support, always necessarily in debt, 
 settling in the woods remote from school* fitted to be 
 entrusted with one's education, it was utterly impracti- 
 cable for him, with these environments, to carry out 
 his wishes in this respect. It is a matter of solace to 
 me, that most of his children, somehow, secured a good 
 English education. 
 
 Before I close .this chapter, allow me to say that 
 there is one phase of the life of the average country- 
 brought-up boy, that it would do him great injustice 
 to omit. It is about the time, in his history, when 
 the first application of a dull razor is made to his upper 
 lip, designed to elicit the appearance of an infantile 
 
MEN AND THINGS 13 
 
 mustache, and he is, or thinks he is, desperately in love 
 with a neighbor's pretty daughter. My observation 
 convinces me that this event in a boy's life constitutes 
 a rule of general, if not universal application. I was 
 not an exception to the rule. On a bright Sunday 
 morning, having blacked my shoes — that is, the top of 
 the front portion of them — with a mixture of cold 
 water and chimney soot — as much as I could induce 
 them to mix — donned my best suit, saddled and 
 mounted a small mule, something — but little larger, 
 than a full grown Texas jack-rabbit — (it was a very 
 small mule), and set out on the Don Quixotic adven- 
 ture of calling to see the object of my supposed idolatry. 
 Within a quarter of a mile from the house the road 
 crossed a creek with rather precipitous banks. The 
 mule, as it soon afterwards became apparent, was 
 thirsty. As soon as it came within reach of the water, 
 it very naturally but very suddenly and decidedly un- 
 ceremoniously, put its mouth to the water, which left 
 its body in an angle of something over forty-five de- 
 grees. The result was, the rider was tumbled over 
 the mule's head into the creek, followed by the saddle, 
 which fell on him. This mishap was then esteemed a 
 calamity. It is now regarded as the poetry of the 
 ludicrous. It would present a picture that would 
 shame the genius of Nast, whose artistic skill as a 
 cartoonist broke the heart and caused the death of 
 Horace Greely. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Old Field School. 
 
 The old field school, like some other institutions 
 of this country, has, in its peculiar way, served its day 
 and generation, and by common consent has been rele- 
 gated to memory and history. In these days of pub- 
 lic school fads, higher educational pretentions, college 
 and university base and foot-ball games, and punch- 
 bowl banquets, reference is seldom made to an institu- 
 tion which, though lowly in origin and humble in claim, 
 has made possible all these institutions as well as our 
 advanced state of civilization. When it is referred to 
 it is usually with the sneer of derision or the smile of 
 amusement. It seems that such a spirit of ingratitude 
 is capable of repudiating the love of a mother, or re- 
 proaching the misfortune of poverty. It met a condi- 
 tion of society at a time and under circumstances which 
 could not have been met without it. It kindled a light 
 that makes the opening years of the twentieth century 
 all radiant with the glow of intelligence. The "old 
 field school" possessed three distinctive sides — the 
 ludicrous, the sentimental and the useful. Its houses, 
 furniture and comforts, as well as the extent of its 
 curriculum and the qualifications of its teachers, com- 
 pared with those of the present time, appear ludicrous 
 in the extreme. 
 
 14 
 
MEN AND THINGS 15 
 
 The school-house was usually located in the corner 
 of an old field cleared by the Indians, or in the woods, 
 constructed of small round oak or large, split pine logs, 
 notched down at the corners and covered with clap- 
 boards. The orthodox dimensions were 24x16 feet. 
 The larger part of one end was devoted to what is 
 known as a "stick and dirt chimney." Economy in 
 labor and money was promoted by dispensing with 
 sleepers and floor, and substituting the ground therefor. 
 The furniture consisted of a small, rough pine table 
 and a superannuated chair in the rear of it. This was 
 the throne of the intellectual sovereign. The seats for 
 the pupils were made of oak or chestnut logs about six 
 inches in diameter, split open in the center and pegs 
 driven into auger holes from the round side of the half- 
 log. These pegs were of a length that would prevent 
 the feet of the urchins occupying the benches from 
 reaching the dirt floor by a distance of from six to 
 eight inches. To occupy such a seat for a long, hot 
 summer day was a penance that ought to atone for a 
 multitude of sins. The remaining article of furniture 
 was the writing bench. This consisted of a rough plank 
 nailed to the top of a frame, as nearly on a level as 
 practicable, twelve inches wide and ten feet long, and 
 a plank of similar dimensions joined to each of its 
 edges, slightly inclining downwards. 
 
 The aesthetic will perceive that this equipment, in 
 the line of convenience and comfort, was neither ex- 
 pensive nor elaborate. The curriculum was not exten- 
 sive but it had the merit of being in harmony with its 
 surroundings, and conflned, within the constitutional 
 
16 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 limitation, to "the elements of an English education 
 only." It embraced spelling, reading, writing and 
 arithmetic The standard text-books were : The Ameri- 
 can Spelling-book^ the American Preceptor and Da- 
 worth's or Fowler s Arithmetic. A little later, as this 
 class of educational institution advanced, the Colum- 
 bian Orator and Weems' Life of Washington were 
 added. 
 
 The teachers, in the main, were men of advanced 
 age, too lazy to work and too poor to live without it. 
 Having appeared after the age of Raphael, Titian, 
 Angelo and Reynolds, and passed away before the dis- 
 covery of Daguerre, the world has lost the pleasure 
 of looking upon their pictures and must rely only upon 
 such faint and imperfect pen-pictures as memory alone 
 can supply. 
 
 I have in mind with some degree of distinctness, the 
 image of four of them who are strikingly typical of the 
 class. For fear of marring the pleasure of some filial 
 descendants in tracing his heraldry, for the discovery of 
 his ancestral escutcheon, I refrain from stating names. 
 Indeed, the given or Christian name of the first one to 
 whom I refer is forgotten. I only remember that his 
 students, by common consent, substituted for it, what- 
 ever it was, the name "Nipper," so that he was known 
 
 only as Nipper A s. I do know, however, that 
 
 he was a tall, ungainly, bald-headed, sour-tempered old 
 man, with no magnetism and but little intelligence. He 
 was not deficient in physical force, as two certain boys 
 who engaged in an innocent game of "hard-knuckles" 
 during study hours when he was supposed to be asleep, 
 
MEN AND THINGS 17 
 
 after having visited, at the noon recess, a neighboring 
 still-honse, discovered to their mortification and discom- 
 fort. 
 
 The next one, W , whose only possession was a 
 
 homely wife and a bad "small boy," was an Irishman 
 of exuberant cheerfulness. No conditions seemed to 
 discourage or dishearten him. He secured his sup- 
 port, principally, from his neighbors by borrowing such 
 articles of food as were necessary to prevent actual 
 starvation, under the pretext that "to his surprise, he 
 had ascertained that the articles desired had just been 
 exhausted at home," and with the munificence of a 
 prince bestowing an "order" or conferring a proconsul- 
 ship upon a grateful subject, he promised to return it 
 with manner that simply defies description, except to 
 say that it was done in a way of Irish shrewdness that 
 made the lender feel that he was the beneficiary. This 
 feeling was the only benefit he ever received for the 
 loan. His theory of teaching seemed to consist, judg- 
 ing from his practice, in the belief that light could be 
 communicated to the mind by the application of force 
 to the body. 
 
 H , unlike W , was a man of some means. 
 
 He had a wife, a very large family of children, five 
 or six dogs and two rifleguns, the stocks of which were 
 
 well worn by long use. Mr. K was a man of large 
 
 frame, dark complexion, of slow motion and deliberate 
 speech ; though of robust health he seemed to be averse 
 to motion, and the act of breathing appeared to be irk- 
 some to him. If the "law of the Lord" was not his 
 delight the law of inertia was . His uncharitable 
 
18 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 neighbors entertained the suspicion that he was afflicted 
 with an attack of remediless laziness. Of the truth 
 of this imputation, posterity must judge. I only state 
 the facts in the case. 
 
 F , the remaining member of this quartet of 
 
 famous pedagogues, was a man of decidedly marked, if 
 not unique, personality. His stature w^as low, his head 
 large and of peculiar form, his lower limbs short and 
 bent with a regularity that fitly represented the seg- 
 ment of a circle, the convex side being outward; his 
 feet inclined to the club variety; his walk w^as sort of 
 hobbling and shuffling movement. The conception of 
 a cross between a chimpanzee and a dwarf would pre- 
 sent the nearest an ideal picture, of which his figure 
 was susceptible. In bestowing her gifts, Nature had 
 been parsimonious with him; some — and among them, 
 beauty — had been entirely withheld. An officiating 
 clergyman said at a vagrant's funeral, that "Whatever 
 else might be said of the deceased, all would admit that 
 he was a good whistler." So I can say of this dead 
 pedagogue (and it is about all that could be said), he 
 wrote a beautiful hand. 
 
 These great men of the olden time were differen- 
 tiated, mainly, if not solely, in their personality. They 
 were all old men. They were about on an equality in 
 scholarly attainments, perhaps T should say, in the 
 absence of scholastic attainments. They all taught at 
 the same place, used the same books, practiced like 
 methods and quenched their thirst at the common "still- 
 house." 
 
 As the branches taught were few, the methods em- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 19 
 
 ployed were simple. The lessons were studied vocally, 
 not silently, and by far the largest portion of the study 
 consisted in the hubbub of mingled voices in every va- 
 riety of key. The full measure of vocal power was 
 developed in preparing the "heart lesson" preceding 
 the evening adjournment. With favorable atmospheric 
 conditions the hum of this noise could be distinctly 
 heard at the distance of a mile, and the peculiar 
 shrieks of one boy's voice (Duncan Campbell's) could 
 be easily distinguished at that distance. The useful 
 art of writing was taught by commencing with a so- 
 called "line of straight marks" across the top of a leaf 
 of coarse, unruled paper. This, of course, was made 
 by the teacher and called the "copy." The beginner, 
 equipped with a goose-quill pen and the juices pressed 
 from oak-balls (well known among the scholars as ink- 
 balls) for ink, commenced the process of copying the 
 marks. The second lesson was the mark, as in the 
 first, curved at the bottom and traced upward. This 
 mark, in the figurative language of the teacher, was 
 called "pot hooks." The third copy was a line of "pot 
 hooks" with the second line curved at .the top and 
 brought down to evenness with the lower curve; then 
 followed copies of capital letters of the alphabet, etc. 
 It was a singular fact that the students almost inva- 
 riably in making these curves, slightly twisted and pro- 
 truded the tongue, and kept the tongue and eyes in a 
 movement precisely corresponding to the motion of the 
 pen. I never did understand, and do not now know, 
 which was the dominant motor in this operation — these 
 members or the pen. I had the privilege of securing 
 
20 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 early instruction from each of the worthies here men- 
 tioned, in an institution which I have endeavored to 
 describe. Whatever mistakes in instructions or dis-" 
 cipline they made I forget and forgive. For whatever 
 of good they did me, I give them the thanks of a heart, 
 which I trust is incapable of ingratitude. 
 
 THE SENTIMENTAL SIDE OF THE OLD FIELD SCHOOL. 
 
 "A land without sentiment is a land without liberty." 
 The short resolution adopted by the Pilgrim fathers in 
 the cabin of the "Mayflower" was the prophecy of our 
 magnificent structure of democratic constitutional gov- 
 ernment. They symbolized the religious faith of the 
 United States as they stood on "Plymouth Rock." 
 
 "And shook the depths of the forest gloom with 
 hymns of lofty cheer." 
 
 The old field school was our present civilization in 
 embryo. It was the beginning of what now is. Pioneer 
 settlers were always distinguished for their energy, 
 industry, fearlessness and faith. This school was 
 theirs. Indeed, it was the pioneer educational institu- 
 tion of the North American wilderness. 
 
 On a Monday morning, late in July or early in 
 August, coming from all directions, in a circle within 
 three miles around the school-house, from forty to fifty 
 children of both sexes, ranging in age from five to 
 twenty years, might be seen to meet at the school-house. 
 They were simply and cheaply clad in such apparel as 
 their good mothers could manufacture. They were all 
 barefoot, except the few grown girls. They were all 
 
MEN AND TH ING8 21 
 
 bronzed by the mingled force of hard labor and hot 
 sunshine. The commissariat consisted of bacon, or 
 steak, sandwiched between slices of corn-bread, or bis- 
 cuit, neatly wrapped in a clean napkin and placed in a 
 small tin bucket, or basket, and a black quart bottle — 
 which had seen other service — filled wdth butter-milk 
 and closed with a corn-cob stopper. The dessert — 
 peaches and apples — were carried in the boys pockets. 
 There was no difficulty in arranging classes. All that 
 w-as necessary was to point out and assign as lessons, 
 the alphabet, the lesson in spelling and the multiplica- 
 tion table. A few lessons being recited, the noon re- 
 cess reached and lunch over, they assembled on the play- 
 ground, and speedily renew^ed old and formed new 
 acquaintances. They cared little for the ceremonious 
 etiquette of courts, or the military discipline of camps. 
 These children on the play-ground presented a scene 
 on which idle angels would delight to look for. 
 
 "They also serve, who only stand and wait." 
 The games they played, if lowly and rustic, were 
 healthful and harmless. Their section of the country, 
 at least, had not been favored with the entertainment 
 of the cock-pit, the bull-fight, nor foot-ball. ISTor had 
 a powerful daily press then delighted the public with 
 columns of detailed description of the bloody "rounds" 
 of Jeffries and Fitzsimmons. To preserve the facts 
 of history, a list of them is given; they were: Base, 
 tag, cat, marbles, bull-pen, town-ball, shinny, roly-hole 
 and mumble-peg. Both sexes joined in the first two 
 named, therefore base and tag had precedence in popu- 
 larity. I always thought, for the reason, that the exe- 
 
22 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 cution involved the thrill of touch. These children had 
 a common experience in labor and poverty; had 
 learned self-denial and self-sacrifice; had waded in the 
 branch and been charmed by the ripple of its tiny water- 
 falls; had gathered autumnal fruitage in the tangled 
 wildwood; had breathed alike the fragrance of the rose 
 and honeysuckle; had listened in ecstacy to the chorus 
 of the birds and gazed in wonder upon the stars that 
 deck the diadem of night. They had communed with 
 Nature and reveled in its charms until their life had 
 become an unwritten idyl. They had likewise realized 
 in their short, young lives all the emotions of hope and 
 fear, of success and defeat, trial and triumph, and grati- 
 fication and disappointment. 
 
 As they stood on the play-ground about to advance 
 a step in the social and intellectual world, each felt the 
 consciousness of a force within that was not understood, 
 and that could neither be defined nor described, still 
 it throbbed in the brain, pulsated in heart-beats and 
 gurgled through the veins. It was present in their 
 ambitions, aspirations, admirations, envyings, rivalries, 
 likes and dislikes. What was this force? Was it the 
 struggling of the mind for higher attainments in knowl- 
 edge, the panting of the restless spirit for the solace of 
 peace, or the thirst of the soul, clamoring for one full 
 draught of immortality? N'o body can tell. 'No one 
 knows. Whatever it was, it was the power, dying 
 
 "Ion caught from Clemanthe's eye" 
 that assured him of a reunion of love, 
 
 "Beyond the sunset's radiant glow." 
 
MEN AND THINGS 23 
 
 If they never heard the name of the poet, nor read 
 the couplet, they all felt the sentiment that 
 "Kind words were more than coronets, 
 And simple faith, than Norman blood." 
 
 It was very soon discovered that in playing the 
 game of base some boys were very easily caught by 
 certain, particular girls. It was further observed that 
 the same boys and girls, in going home in the evening, 
 would linger at the parting of their ways and play, or 
 pretend to play, "tag." They parted with the com- 
 pact, that whichever one reached the place first on the 
 succeeding morning, in returning to school, would make 
 a cross-mark or drop the twig of a green bush in a 
 particular place in the road. This sign always accel- 
 erated the movements of the party of the second part. 
 I never heard of any complaint of violating the stipu- 
 lations of this treaty. It may be, after all, that these 
 trivial, simple little things shed light on the solution 
 of this great problem that has baffled the learning and 
 exploded the theories of psychologists. It was a little 
 thing to dip seven times in "Jordan" but it healed a 
 leper. 
 
 In long after-years and from far-away places, many 
 a heart has sent memory back to the old play-ground, 
 and silently sighed for 
 
 "The touch of a vanished hand," 
 and the sparkle of an eye forever closed. 
 
 The Useful Side of the Old Field School. 
 
 It must be remembered that the school under con- 
 sideration, was the educational initiative, the first 
 
24 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 grade or primary species of the genus old field school. 
 This grade did not, and necessarily, could not exist 
 long. It was subject to the great law of gradation, 
 progress and development, which seems to have dom- 
 inated the process of creation, as well as the disclosures 
 of revelation. As the good people improved their con- 
 ditions, increased their means and enlarged their views, 
 they built better houses, used superior books and em- 
 ployed more capable teachers. Occasionally, in a more 
 wealthy neighborhood, an academy would spring up, 
 and as new counties were formed the law provided for 
 the establishment of an academy at the county-seat. 
 In the meantime the University was struggling up to 
 the guerdon of triumph; later the gi-eat churches built 
 colleges for both sexes; finally public sentiment crys- 
 talized into constitutional provision for the public 
 school system. 
 
 The first grade of the old field school, as described 
 in these pages, is the granite bed-rock upon which this 
 superb superstructure rests. It was the small seed 
 from which this luxuriant harvest within the period of 
 a century was gathered. The children of this school, 
 belonging to the same grade of society, identified in 
 common environments, and the sympathies which result 
 from early association (at least many of them), mar- 
 ried and organized homes in the quiet country, in 
 which peace, gentleness, aft'ection and contentment ex- 
 emplified the only remnant of Eden, unblasted by the 
 fall. They became the parents, and grandparents, of 
 a race of men and women that subdued the wilderness, 
 beautified it with gardens, orchards, farms, towns and 
 
MEN AND TH INQS 25 
 
 cities, and crowned it with temples of worship and 
 learning, and hospitals and asylums. A race of chiv- 
 alrous patriots, who in 1812, dispersed the boasted navy 
 of England, sent back to her, from ISTew Orleans, the 
 pickled corpse of Packenham; scaled the rocky heights 
 of Cherubusco, Chepultepec, Milino del Key ; floated the 
 American flag from the dome of the capitol of the 
 Aztecs, and spangled the "milky way" of national glory 
 with a gorgeous jewelry of stars. 
 
 The people provided the old field school for them- 
 selves. It was the best they could do, and they deserve 
 the grateful thanks of all the coming ages for what 
 they did. 
 
 There were two other potent factors co-operating 
 with the old field school in laying the foundation for 
 these achievements. They were the Decalogue and the 
 Sermon on the Mount. Side by side with the school 
 appeared the irrepressible Methodist circuit rider, with 
 his much-used and well-worn Bible, hymn-book and 
 "Discipline," preaching every day in the week, at the 
 little log church or school-house, and at night fre- 
 quently at some house of a brother in the neighborhood. 
 At the same time the Baptists appeared, preaching on 
 Saturday and Sunday. The preaching of that day 
 dealt with the doctrines of depravity, repentance, faith, 
 regeneration and obedience, as taught in the Bible, with 
 occasional reference, by the Baptist brethren, to some 
 of the dogmas of the ironclad theology of Geneva, such 
 as election and reprobation, final perseverance, mode of 
 baptism, etc. These combined forces formed the char- 
 acter of a good people and directed the course and 
 
26 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 shaped the destiny of a great nation. The power of 
 many of these men finds fit expression in Wirt's de- 
 scription of the blind preacher : "They spoke as if their 
 lips had been touched with a live coal from off the 
 Altar." They accepted the Mosaic cosmogony. They 
 taught that "the Son of Man came to seek and to save 
 that which was lost," and that He brought "life and im- 
 mortality to light." They indulged in no speculations 
 on the "glacial" and tertiary periods, nor did they waste 
 any time in searching for "protoplasm," nor tracing 
 their paternity, through the processes of "evolution," to 
 a monkey progenitor. 
 
 Schools, academies, colleges and universities can not 
 educate. They can only supply the means to aid and 
 enable people to educate themselves. Education, in its 
 last analysis, is a personal work, facilitated by the aid 
 of helpful agencies, or retarded, of course, by their 
 absence. To become thoroughly educated, compara- 
 tively, requires a life-long, unremitting, systematic pro- 
 cess of observation, reading and thinking; and this can 
 only be done by the student himself. The great and 
 learned Newton said that he "had only picked up a 
 few shells on the shore, while the great ocean of knowl- 
 edge lay, unsailed, beyond him." The old field school 
 did its work, and did it well. Like the "Mother of 
 the Gracchi," she can present George Washington, Ben- 
 jamin Franklin, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and 
 Abraham Lincoln, as her jewels, and proudly challenge 
 Harvard or Yale, Oxford or Cambridge, Leipsic or 
 Heidleberg, or all of them combined, to duplicate this 
 quintet of American immortals. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Education, Admission to the Bar, and Maekiage. 
 
 At the age of twenty years, with an attendance, al- 
 together, at school, of six months — four at the old field 
 of the first grade, and two of the second grade. I left 
 home with the blessing of my parents, and entered on 
 the battle of life. My wardrobe was such as my dear, 
 good mother could provide. I had a purpose (this 
 was all), owned no property, did not have one cent of 
 money; bought books and secured board and tuition on 
 credit; and entered the academy at Gumming, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1847. It should be stated that my school in- 
 struction had been supplemented by studying during 
 the long winter nights, with my brothers and sisters. 
 We had many and most interesting "spelling-bees," and 
 recitals, in English grammar and geography. I made 
 it a point to read every book upon which I could put 
 my hands; and in 1845, I had the advantage of very 
 superior instruction from my brother, for five weeks, 
 who taught near Sheltonville, Ga., the odor of whose 
 lessons has lingered for threescore years, in the com- 
 munity, "like the fragrance of roses that have once 
 been distilled." The principal of the Academy, Joseph 
 K. Valentine, was a professional teacher, in middle 
 life; a fine scholar and a gentleman. He was so thor- 
 ough in the Greek and Latin languages, that he read 
 
 27 
 
28 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 the text-books in the course as promptly and with as 
 much facility, as he read English. The students, in 
 constant attendance, numbered about one hundred, half 
 of whom, approximately, were grown. It was a mixed 
 school. In arranging the classes, it was my good for- 
 tune to be assigned to a class of five grown girls, in three 
 or four studies. In preparing the lessons in these 
 studies, we occupied seats together. Being further ad- 
 vanced, especially in English grammar, than any of 
 them, I was helpful to them in that study. I had 
 parsed most of Milton's "Paradise Lost," and when sur- 
 rounded by this coterie of beautiful girls, I felt as if I 
 was in "paradise found." One of the most interesting 
 and valuable lessons, was the ''Heart" spelling lesson. 
 The class was a large one, more than twenty, of the 
 grown students. The book used was "Town's Speller 
 and definer," a book of something over 300 pages, con- 
 taining the words in most common use, with accurate 
 definitions. The first thing after the noon recess was 
 this lesson, which had been carefully studied during 
 the recess. The class stood in a line; the teacher called 
 the word, and the class spelled and defined it. At the 
 formation of the class, each student took his place at 
 the nearest point at which he reached it; before the 
 end of the second lesson the five girls and myself were 
 the first six in the class, counting from the head — four 
 of them above and one below me. We stayed there 
 for one year — not one of the six missed the spelling or 
 defining of a word in the book for that period. These 
 girls were : Virginia M. Lester, Martha Erwin, Joseph- 
 ine Strickland, Virginia Sims, and Mary Sims. They 
 
MEN AND THINGS 29 
 
 all had been trained by practical, sensible, good parents ; 
 Were all of nearly the same age and size, were social 
 chums, ardent personal friends, free from malignity 
 and envy, bright as stars, and animated with ambition 
 and rivalry to excel each other. A year's class and 
 social association with them failed to discover the slight- 
 est defect or weakness in the character of any one of 
 them. The respect, confidence and friendship of all 
 of them, and the priceless love of one of them, have 
 been the blessing and solace of my life. And now, the 
 precious memory of them comes to my spirit, sweet and 
 sad, as the tremulous echoes of a nightingale's dying 
 song. 
 
 Within three months from the day I entered that 
 class, Virginia M. Lester and myself were engaged to 
 be married so soon as I finished my (education, and was 
 admitted to the bar. As unwise and reckless as this 
 engagement may have then seemed, time and trial vin- 
 dicated its wisdom. Her bright smile, like light on 
 "Memnon's lyre," set my heart to throbbing with the 
 music of love, that was as resistless as a decree of des- 
 tiny. She was in the bloom of young womanhood. 
 The ease and grace of her pose, the simple elegance of 
 her manner and the beauty of her face and figure, would 
 have delighted an artist, as a model for his masterpiece. 
 Added to these charms was a spirit radiant with the 
 light of hope and joy; and a heart, pure as love, and 
 faithful as truth. For thirty-seven years she made 
 more than one heart contented and happy, and one home 
 a paradise of peace and love. She merited the highest 
 eulogium ever pronounced on woman — that which came 
 
30 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 from the lips of the !Nazarene, when he said of Marv 
 of Bethany: "She hath done what she could." I loved 
 her, living, with an ardor for which language has no 
 expression ; I mourned her, dead, with an anguish for 
 which earth has no consolation. 
 
 Josephine Strickland married John B. Peck, of At- 
 lanta, Ga., and was the first of the class to pass away. 
 Mary Sims married Lewis D. Palmer, now of Nash- 
 ville, Term. She and Virginia M. Lester died on the 
 same day, April 30, 1888. Virginia Sims married Mr. 
 Backman — both are dead. Martha Erwin, who mar- 
 ried Mr. W. H. Camp, now of Floyd County, Ga., is 
 the only survivor of this class of splendid girls and 
 noble women. She is now in "the sere and yellow 
 leaf," but possesses all the sweetness, gentleness, mod- 
 esty and sly humor of the long ago. 
 
 My studies were grammar, geography, philosophy, 
 chemistry, logic, rhetoric, composition, history and the 
 Latin language. In spare hours I read "Plutarch's 
 Lives," Irving's "Life of Columbus," Prescott's Con- 
 quest of Mexico," Seneca's "Philosophy," and Locke on 
 "The Understanding." I pursued these studies in this 
 school during the year 1847 and the greater portion of 
 1848. In 1849 I taught in the Academy at EUijay, 
 Ga. ; and read law. I was admitted to the bar, at 
 Spring Place, Ga., on N"ovember 28, 1849, by Judge 
 Augustus R. Wright, after an examination in open 
 court of four hours, by a committee consisting of Judge 
 W, H. Underwood, Judge Turner H. Trippe, Warren 
 Akin, J. W. Johnson, William Martin, and R. W. 
 Jones. I entered upon the ordeal of that examination 
 
MEN AND THINGS SI 
 
 with a trepidation that makes me shiver to think of now, 
 but my good angel was not nodding at his post ; and it 
 so happened that I did not fail to answer every ques- 
 tion correctly. In pursuance of our engagement, Vir- 
 ginia M. Lester and myself were united in marriage in 
 Gumming, Ga., on January 22, 1850. I taught that 
 year, in Ellijay; and continued my study of law. In 
 the latter part of that year, we settled in Gumming. I 
 possessed only two things — the best of wives, and the 
 noblest of professions. 
 
 On June 11, 1890, I was united in marriage to Mis3 
 Annie Adelaide Jordan, in Eatonton, Ga., at the home 
 of her aunt, Mrs. M. L. Eeid. She was the daughter 
 of Warren H. Jordan, of Noxubee Gounty, Miss. — a 
 native Georgian — and her mother was Miss Julia L. 
 Hudson, of Eatonton, Ga. — both of whom died before 
 she was grown. She is an accurate scholar, and an ac- 
 complished pianist. Her sweet and gentle ministries 
 of love and devotion to me, in joy and sorrow, in health 
 and in sickness, have imposed upon me an obligation 
 of gratitude I can never recompense. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Bab of Geoegia in 1850. 
 
 At the time I was admitted, the bar of Georgia, com- 
 pared most favorably with that of any State in the 
 Union — indeed, with that of any age or country. At 
 its head were John M. Berrien, Eobert M. Charlton, 
 William Law, Francis S. Bartow, John E. Ward, 
 Charles J. Jenkins, George W. Crawford, Andrew J. 
 Miller, Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, Wil- 
 liam C. Dawson, Francis H. Cone, Joshua Hill, Augus- 
 tus Reese, Linton Stephens, Augustus H. Kennan, 
 William McKinley, Eugeni^ A. jSTisbet, Barnard Hill, 
 Washington Poe, Samuel P. Hall, Absalom H. Chap- 
 pell, Henry G. Lamar, Seaborn Jones, Walter T. Col- 
 quitt, Martin J. Crawford, Hines Holt, Henry L. Ben- 
 ning, William Dougherty, Hiram Warner, Robert P. 
 Trippe, Herschel V. Johnson, Edward Z. Hill, Benja- 
 min H. Hill, Charles Dougherty, Junius Hillyer, 
 Howell Cobb, Hope Hull, Thos. R. R, Cobb, James 
 Jackson, Cincinattus Peoples, Thos. W. Thomas, B. H. 
 Overby, Nathan L. Hutchins, Charles J. McDonald, 
 David Irwin, Andrew J. Hansell, George D. Rice, Wil- 
 liam H. Underwood, Turner H. Trippe, Warren Akin, 
 Augustus R. Wright, George IST. Lester, John W. H. 
 Underwood, Edward D. Chisolm, Joseph E. Brown, Lo- 
 gan E. Bleckley, Dawson A. Walker, William H. Dab- 
 
 32 
 
MEN AND THINGS 33 
 
 ney, John B. Floyd, O. A. Lochrane, James L. Cal- 
 houn, James Starke, William Martin, and the first 
 Chief Justice of the State, Joseph Henry Limipkin. 
 This list of illustrious lawyers furnished cabinet min- 
 isters, senators and representatives in the United States 
 Congress, equal to the best in the Union; governors, 
 judges of the supreme and superior courts of the State ; 
 and ministers to foreign countries. It contained many 
 of the ablest statesmen and most eloquent orators of the 
 age. In their day, they led the public sentiment, and 
 moulded and shaped the public policy of the State, 
 and largely, of the nation. They were the leaders of 
 the bar. Yet there were hundreds of lawyers, very 
 nearly, if not quite, their equal in legal learning and 
 professional skill, in the management of causes in the 
 courthouse. 
 
 The country will never know its wealth of talent and 
 capacity for public service, for two reasons — the mod- 
 esty of meritorious men, and the lack of opportunity. 
 Public position, like the clown's measles that "struck 
 too large a family to go round," can not furnish the op- 
 portunity to all the capable and meritorious. 
 
 As a class, lawyers are the closest thinkers, and best 
 logicians in the world. The reasons are obvious. The 
 science of law trains its votaries in the best methods 
 of securing its object, which is the ascertainment of 
 truth and the enforcement of right. 
 
 The definitions of the law are clear. Its distinctions 
 being fine, must be accurately observed and drawn, con- 
 flicts (or seeming conflicts) reconciled, language con- 
 strued, doubts resolved, and its application to facts — in- 
 
34 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 finitely varied — ^made; all to be done with reference 
 to the rights of an anxious client; and involving the 
 reputation of the lawyer, and frequently the bread of 
 his family. His profession is a direct intellectual com- 
 bat with an antagonist that may be relied upon to do 
 his best to defeat him. The struggle is in the c^en — 
 before the public — with a judge present to decide who 
 is victor or vanquished. The practice of the law is the 
 best possible training in the art of successful disputa- 
 tion. It has the incentives to thorough research and 
 thought, to the examination and study of both sides of 
 a case or question. He studies the strength and the 
 weakness of his adversary. He learns much of 
 human nature and human infirmity by contact 
 with parties, witnesses and jurors. It has been 
 urged that the study and practice of law contracts and 
 narrows the mind. Precisely the contrary is true. It 
 expands the horizon of mental vision, enlarges the field 
 of investigation, of inquiry, and liberalizes the process 
 of thought. Law, in its different departments, of in- 
 ternational, national, civil, criminal, military and mari- 
 time, comprehends every right and interest of man ab- 
 solute and relative, in all his relations. Familiarity 
 with it and the knowledge of it, therefore, extend the 
 range of thought, and increase the domain of knowl- 
 edge. Jefferson and Hamilton, Piekney and Wirt, 
 Webster and Choate, Clay and Crittenden, Prentiss and 
 Douglass, and Stephens and Toombs, illustrate and dem- 
 onstrate this truth. 
 
 Able and upright lawyers are no unimportant factors 
 in conserving the moral interests of society and eleva- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 35 
 
 ting the tone of public sentiment to proper standards. 
 The vindication of rights, the denunciation of wrongs, 
 the maintenance of truth, and the exposure of false- 
 hood, in the discussions of the courthouse, involving, 
 as they do, the interest and rights of every spectator, 
 is an education by no means lost on the public mind. 
 Discussions of moral questions in the pulpit and on 'the 
 platform deal with them in the abstract, in the court- 
 house, in the concrete. 
 
 It has been urged that lawyers were ambitious and 
 inclined to seek office and honors. This is not true of 
 them as a class, any more than it is of any class or pro- 
 fession. It is perhaps true that more offices in the 
 government are filled by them, than any other class. 
 Civil government is an institution of law ; and a knowl- 
 edge of the law is an important, if not a necessary, 
 qualification for the duties of the office. In all judi- 
 cial offices it is absolutely indispensable, and legal 
 training and knowledge is a qualification for wise and 
 intelligent legislation, as experience has abundantly 
 shown. 
 
 Lawyers have always ^-^d the van in the assertion, 
 maintenance and defense of liberty. They have always 
 stood for human rights and against the tyranny of des- 
 potism. It was a lawyer who sounded the first note of 
 hostility to British oppression in the Virginia House 
 of Burgesses, in a resolution written on the fly- 
 leaf of a law book. That sound had its last echo 
 in the surrender of the British at Yorktown. A 
 lawyer wrote the Declaration of Independence, The 
 Constitution of the United States is mainly the product 
 
36 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 of two lawyers — James Madison and Alexander Hamil- 
 ton. These two great and patriotic lawyers were the 
 representatives and exponents of two opposite schools 
 of political thought and theories. They were equally 
 able, honest and patriotic. They each urged their 
 views with the emphasis of conviction. The Constitu- 
 tion of the United States embodies the compromise of 
 these opposing theories of civil government. 
 
 John Somers, in a five minutes speech, procured the 
 acquittal of the Bishops, in a trial, that drove the last 
 of the Stuarts from his crown and kingdom. The 
 learning and eloquence of Halifax and Somers obtained 
 in the Convention Parliament, the limitations upon 
 power and prerogative, secured in the Act of Settle- 
 ment, and the Bill of Rights. The powerful denuncia- 
 tions of oppression by Webster and Clay, in the Ameri- 
 can Congress, thrilled and incited the Greeks to the 
 resistance of Turkish despotism in Europe, and the 
 Latins in opposing Spanish tyranny in South America. 
 
 In the late war between the States, Bartow fell in 
 the first fray and Cobb soon thereafter; and hundreds 
 of lawyers of perhaps less learning and eloquence, but 
 with equal valor and patriotism, "poured out their 
 generous blood like water" in defense of the right of 
 self-government, on more than five hundred fiercely 
 fought fields. 
 
 History amply vindicates the claim of the profession, 
 to the highest niche in the temple of fame, for devo- 
 tion to learning, liberty and patriotism. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Changes in the Law and Its Peooeduee Since 1850. 
 
 At the time of which I write, Joseph Henry Lump- 
 kin, Eugenius A. Nisbet and Hiram Warner occupied 
 the Supreme bench. Such men as Edward Y. HiU, 
 David Irwin, Junius Hillyer, John J. Eloyd, Garnett 
 Andrews, Herschel V. Johnson, Francis H. Cone, Au- 
 gustus R. Wright, and many others of equal ability, 
 presided on the circuit bench. 
 
 The Supreme Court was established in 1845, after a 
 protracted struggle. The earlier volumes of its re- 
 ports contain monumental evidence of the independence 
 and learning of the first three judges. Lumpkin was 
 learned, eloquent, impressive and humorous. ITisbet 
 was equally learned, dignified and elegant; Warner 
 was cold as a Siberian icicle, and clear as a tropical 
 sunbeam. I confess that he was my ideal of a judge. 
 I never think of him, as he sat upon the bench, strug- 
 gling, sometimes alone, to uphold the constitution and 
 the law against the debauchery and dishonesty of so- 
 called relief legislation, without applying to him, the 
 magnificent eulogium pronounced by the Attorney-Gen- 
 eral, on the dead vice-president, when Cushing said of 
 King: "He stands to the memory, in sharp outline, as 
 it were, against the sky, like some chiseled column of 
 antique art, or consular statue, of the Imperial republic, 
 
 37 
 
38 ME2J AND THINGS 
 
 wrapped in his marble robes and grandly beautiful in 
 the simple dignity and unity of a faultless proportion." 
 
 The last fifty years have wrought marvelous changes, 
 in Georgia, in the law, its forms of procedure, and the 
 questions with which it deals. The War and the al- 
 tered conditions resulting from it have contributed 
 greatly, if not mainly, in producing these changes. 
 
 Before, the principles, practice and forms of equity 
 and the common law were separate and distinct; now, 
 they are merged. Then, the English common law forms 
 in all their "vain" repetitions, and technical refinements 
 and distinctions in pleadings, were followed ; now, the 
 pleader states his client's case — in law or equity, what- 
 ever it may be — in short, pithy paragraphs. Then, all 
 persons interested in the event of the suit were incom- 
 petent witnesses ; now, all parties living and sane (with 
 a few exceptions) are competent. Then, only the 
 parties to the record could be heard in the case ; now, 
 anyone, in any way interested, may intervene and be 
 heard. 
 
 There has been as decided change in the subject- 
 matter of litigation as in the forms of proceeding. The 
 institution of slavery was the fountain of a stream that 
 carried fortunes to the profession. The farmers be- 
 came rich, breeding negroes, buying land and making 
 cotton. The validity and construction of wills, breaches 
 of warranty of the soundness of slaves, action of trover 
 for their recovery and debt for large amounts of in- 
 debtedness upon their sale — these and the trial of dis- 
 puted land titles, as population increased and settle- 
 ments were extended raised the questions upon which 
 
MEN AND THINGS Z9 
 
 the legal giants fought their battles and won their fame 
 and fortunes. 
 
 This was the agi'icultural age of Georgia. The 
 abolition of slavery eliminated from the courts this 
 source of litigation, and substituted a totally diiferent 
 kind of questions and controversies. The ordinance of 
 the convention of 1865, providing for the adjustment, 
 by the courts of Confederate contracts, upon the princi- 
 ples of equity and justice, the depredations and tres- 
 passes of home guards and robbers during the last years 
 of the War, a;id the relief legislation of the reconstruc- 
 tion period, filled the courts for a few years with a 
 flood of litigation. But this was necessarily tempo- 
 rary, and soon passed away. Now (1904), commercial 
 and corporation law and practice are regnant, and con- 
 fined, principally, to the cities and larger railroad 
 towns. In the rural counties the practice arises from 
 the levy of distress warrants and executions upon the 
 foreclosure of liens, and the defense of negroes for 
 larceny, robbery and burglary usually by assignment 
 of the court. How the hundreds of young men, an- 
 nually brought to the bar by colleges, universities and 
 otherwise, are to win bread, by the practice, in the 
 light of the present outlook, is their problem ; not mine. 
 It is alleged that some of the more enterprising mem- 
 bers of the profession — especially in cities — have hench- 
 men employed to hunt up business, and that they follow 
 a train wreck, like vultures, the scent of a carcass. I 
 hope, for the honor of the profession, that this allega- 
 tion is a slander. 
 
 This progress, reform, or certainly change in our law, 
 
40 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 commenced in 1847 upon the passage of the act which 
 substituted, for the common forms of pleading, the short 
 forms, popularly known as the "Jack Jones forms." 
 The law allowing appeals in the superior court was 
 repealed. The marital rights of the husband as to 
 property owned by the wife at the time of marriage 
 or acquired by her after marriage were wholly changed. 
 The homestead laws enlarged from their pony propor- 
 tion up to sixteen hundred dollars worth of property — 
 real and personal — which, however, is practically nulli- 
 fied by the creditor invariably taking a waiver note 
 and mortgage on everything that the debtor owns or 
 ever expects to own. The school law which humanity 
 provided for the education of the poor has given place 
 to a system that imposes annually, upon the people of 
 the State, a tax of nearly two millions — a large portion 
 of which is devoted to training negro children in idle- 
 ness and crime, under the pretext of qualifying them 
 for useful citizenship. These and numerous other 
 radical changes have been made in our law to such an 
 extent that if a Georgia lawyer had fallen asleep in 
 1850 and waked up in 1904 Kip Van Winkle would 
 have been no more remembered! Whether these 
 changes were all wise and promotive of the public in- 
 terest raises a question upon which opinions will differ. 
 The British government sent an agent to this country 
 to investigate the question of law reform, who carried 
 back copies of the "Jack Jones" forms of pleading, 
 which were enacted into law by Parliament. The 
 
MEN AND THINGS 41 
 
 joimgest of her American colonies, in less than one 
 hundred years from the establishment of its independ- 
 ence, furnished to the Mother of the common law her 
 form of pleading. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Secession and Reconstruction. 
 
 On the sixteenth day of January, 1861, the people 
 of Georgia, by their chosen delegates, assembled in con- 
 vention at the capitol in Milledgeville. 
 
 This was perhaps a body of the ablest men ever 
 assembled in the State. The magnitude of the issue 
 to be considered and determined induced the people to 
 select the men supposed to be best qualified to deter- 
 mine wisely. 
 
 The people were prosperous ; many of them rich ; all 
 of them peaceful and happy. They o^vned African 
 slaves, numbering hundreds of thousands. Their barns 
 were crowded with fullness and plenty. They ex- 
 hibited the finest type of society civilization ever pre- 
 sented. This prosperity had been achieved in the 
 Union, under the protection of the Constitution of the 
 United States. The practical nullification of the fugi- 
 tive slave provision of the Constitution, by the hostile 
 legislation of fourteen States, and the election of a 
 President by them from one section of the Union, upon 
 the issue of hostility to the institution of African slav- 
 ery as it existed in the Southern States, convinced a 
 majority of the convention that their safety and pres- 
 ervation of their rights could only be secured by dis- 
 solving their relation with States thus faithless to con- 
 
 42 
 
MEN AND THINGS 43 
 
 stitutional obligations. Three days after the conven- 
 tion met — on the nineteenth of January, 1861 — it 
 adopted, by a vote of 166 yeas to 130 nays, the Ordi- 
 nance of Secession, and thus withdrew from the Union, 
 in the exercise of the right of self-government asserted 
 in the Declaration of Independence. This opened 
 "Pandora's box," and a tragedy was enacted that Gen- 
 eral W. T. Sherman rightly named "hell." 
 
 On the twenty-fifth of October, 1865, another con- 
 vention of the people assembled at the same place. The 
 environments were different. The slaves had been freed 
 by force ; the barns were empty ; the fields, gardens and 
 orchards had been trampled down; dwellings robbed; 
 cities sacked and burned; live stock slaughtered or 
 stolen; mills and factories demolished; churches pro- 
 faned and cemeteries desecrated; the flower of South- 
 ern chivalry dead ; the land groaning in poverty, widow- 
 hood and orphanage; and crushed by the iron heel of 
 a relentless military despotism; the people put under 
 the government of military satraps. This convention, 
 like the former, was composed of able and patriotic 
 men. Herschel V. Johnson presided over its delibera- 
 tions and Charles J. Jenkins led them upon the floor. 
 
 President Johnson had adopted his plan of readjust- 
 ing the seceded States in their relations to the Union. 
 James Johnson, an able and conservative citizen of the 
 county of Muscogee, had been appointed Provisional 
 Governor, and the convention assembled for this pur- 
 pose. The Ordinance of Secession was promptly re- 
 pealed by a unanimous vote, the payment of the War 
 debt prohibited and the emancipation of the slaves ex- 
 
44 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 pressly recognized. The presidential program of recon- 
 struction was literally carried out. A State constitu- 
 tion was adopted in conformity to the Constitution of 
 the United States. A general election for Governor, 
 members of Congress and members of the General As- 
 sembly was held. Charles J. Jenkins was elected Gov- 
 ernor. 
 
 "The pure of the purest, 
 The hand that upheld our bright banner, the surest." 
 The legislature assembled on the fourth of December 
 and unanimously ratified the thirteenth amendment to 
 the Federal Constitution, prohibiting the existence of 
 slavery. Charles J. Jenkins was inaugurated Governor 
 on December 19, 1865, and Provisional Governor James 
 Johnson relinquished the conduct of the State affairs 
 to the authorities thus constituted. The legislature 
 elected Alexander H. Stephens and Herschel V. John- 
 son United States Senators. The people supposed that 
 constitutional civil government was restored, that mili- 
 tary domination would cease, and that they could per- 
 sue their avocations in peace and hope, if in toil and 
 poverty, but this was a mistake. The legislature met 
 on November 1, 1866. The fourteenth amendment to 
 the Constitution had been submitted to the State for 
 ratification. Governor Jenkins, in his message to the 
 legislature, made a masterly argument against ratifi- 
 cation. The legislature declined to ratify by a unani- 
 mous vote in the senate, and by a vote of 132 to 2 in the 
 house. Major-General John Pope assumed command 
 in the third military district, containing Georgia, Flor- 
 ida and Alabama, on April 1, 1866, Civil government 
 
MEN AND THINGS 45 
 
 having been restored and in successful operation in the 
 State, Governor Jenkins made an effort to bring the 
 question of the constitutionality of the reconstruction 
 act before the Supreme Court for adjudication. This 
 effort failed. The State of Georgia presented the 
 anomalous spectacle of being under two governments — 
 a civil government under constitutional law adminis- 
 tered by Governor Jenkins, and a military despotism, in 
 violation of law, enforced by Major-General John Pope. 
 On the sixth of January, 1868, Major-General 
 George G. Meade assumed command in the third mili- 
 tary district. Congress had repudiated the Presidential 
 scheme of reconstruction and adopted that provided in 
 the several reconstruction acts; and impeached the 
 President. 
 
 On January 11 the State officers were admonished 
 under color of authority, not to interfere with the exer- 
 cise of military authority in the States composing the 
 third district. Governor Jenkins and State Treasurer 
 Jones were ordered to pay out of the public treasury 
 the public money, under military order, which they 
 declined to do for the reason that they had taken an 
 oath to support the Constitution, which provided that 
 "ISTo money shall be drawn from the treasury of this 
 State, except by appropriations made by law. Where- 
 upon General Meade issued the following order: 
 "Charles J. Jenkins, Provisional Governor, and John 
 Jones, Provisional Treasurer, of the State of Georgia, 
 having declined to respect the instructions and failed 
 to co-operate with the Major-General commanding the 
 third military district, are hereby removed from office. 
 
46 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 Brevet Brigadier-General Thomas H. Ruger appointed 
 Governor and Brevet Captain Charles F. Rockwell to 
 be Treasurer of Georgia." 
 
 A constitutional civil government in a time of peace 
 was thus summarily abolished by an order, on the 
 ground that its officers refused to violate their official 
 oaths and allow the treasury robbed, and a military 
 despotism substituted in its place and the treasury 
 opened to the robbers. 
 
 Under the congressional plans of reconstruction, a 
 registration of voters, under the first civil act, was 
 ordered, and an election for delegates to a constitu- 
 tional convention. One hundred and eighty-eight 
 thousand six hundred and forty-seven voters, white and 
 black, were registered. The white majority was about 
 2,000. The election of delegates was held from October 
 29th to ISTovember 3d. Of the delegates chosen, 133 
 were white and 33 black. John E. Bryant, of Skowhe- 
 gan, Maine, was one of the whites, and Aaron Alpeoria 
 Bradley and Tunis G. Campbell, from the southern 
 coast of Georgia, were two of the blacks. This white and 
 black spotted convention assembled in Atlanta, under 
 the supervision of General Meade, made for Georgia the 
 organic law, known as the Constitution of 1868. On 
 March 14, 1868, a military order was issued for an 
 election commencing April 20th, to continue four days, 
 on the ratification of the Constitution, and for State 
 officers, representatives in Congress, and members of 
 the General Assembly, of which three Senators and 
 twenty-five representatives elected were negroes. On 
 July 4, 1868, "pursuant to General Order No. 98, is- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 47 
 
 «ued from Headquarters, Third Military District, De- 
 partment of Georgia, Alabama and Florida, dated At- 
 lanta, Georgia, July 3, 1868," the Legislature met in 
 Atlanta, and was organized by R. B. Bullock, under 
 military order of Gen. Meade. 
 
 On July 29th, Joshua Hill and H. V. M. Miller 
 were elected United States Senators. The fourteenth 
 amendment to the Constitution was ratified, and all 
 the conditions of Congressional reconstruction complied 
 with. On July 28, 1868, the State was declared to be 
 restored to the Union. 
 
 Upon examination of the Constitution of the State, 
 no provision thereof expressly gave to the negroes the 
 right to hold office ; the negroes were therefore expelled 
 from the Legislature. On December 22, 1869, Con- 
 :gress passed ''An Act to promote the Reconstruction of 
 the State of Georgia." Whereupon Rufus B. Bullock 
 issued the following order: "Atlanta, January 8, 1870. 
 In pursuance of the Act of Congi-ess (to promote the 
 reconstruction of the State of Georgia), approved De- 
 cember 22, 1869, it is ordered that J. W. G. Mills, 
 Esqr., as Clerk pro tem. will proceed to organize the 
 Senate. He will call the body to order at 12 o'clock 
 M., on Monday, the tenth instant, in the Senate cham- 
 ber. The names of the persons proclaimed as elected 
 members of the Senate, in the order of General Meade, 
 dated "Headquarters, Third Military District, Depart- 
 ment of Georgia, Florida and Alabama, Atlanta, Ga., 
 January 25, 1868, General Order 90. As each name 
 is called, the person so summoned will, if not disquali- 
 fied, proceed to the clerk's desk, and take oath or make 
 
48 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 affirmation (as the case may be) prescribed in the said 
 act, before Judge Smith, United States Commissioner, 
 who will be present and administer the oath. When 
 the oaths are so executed, thej will be filed with the 
 Honorable, the Secretary of State, or his deputy, who 
 will be present; when all the names mentioned in 
 said order of General Meade, have been called as be- 
 fore provided, such of the persons as shall be qualified 
 will thereupon proceed to organize by the election and 
 qualification of the proper officers." 
 
 RuFus B. Bullock, 
 Provisional Governor. 
 
 On February 15, 1870, the General Assembly pro- 
 ceeded to elect three United States Senators, after hav- 
 ing already elected two — Messrs. Hill and Miller, who 
 were in life, had not resigned, were at Washington 
 applying for their seats, and whose term of service 
 had not expired. But, of course, official oaths and 
 constitutional obligations were cobwebs, with the ma- 
 jority of the Legislature. Foster Blodgett was declared 
 elected for the term of six years, to commence on March 
 4, 1871. Henry P. Farrow was declared elected for 
 the term expiring on March 4, 1873, and Richard H. 
 Whitely was declared elected for the term expiring 
 March 4, 1871. Georgia had seven Senators in life, 
 elected — not one of whom had been permitted to qual- 
 ify, and take his seat. The patriotic members of the 
 Senate entered upon the journals their indignant pro- 
 test. But Provisional Governor Rufus B. Bullock had 
 the protection of Brevet Major-G«neral Alfred H. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 49 
 
 Terry, cominanding the military district of the State 
 of Georgia. 
 
 On July 18, 1870, the Provisional Governor in- 
 formed the General Assembly that he had secured un- 
 oflScial information of the passage of an act to admit 
 the State to representation in Congress, and adding 
 that he was informed that "the Greneral commanding 
 will make no objection to the General Assembly pro- 
 ceeding with legislation." The Governor and Treas- 
 urer, presented against each other, respectively, charges 
 of high crimes and misdemeanors, which were investi- 
 gated by a joint committee of the two houses of the 
 General Assembly during the months of May and Jime, 
 1870. The evidence, and the report of the committee, 
 which appears on the journal of the General Assembly, 
 establish the guilt of both. Eeconstruction in the se- 
 ceded States, was a reign of falsehood, lawlessness, rob- 
 bery and despotism. It is due to a few able and patri- 
 otic members of that historic Legislature, to say that 
 they made a manly and gallant stand for constitutional 
 liberty and common honesty, for which the country 
 owed them a debt of gratitude it will be difficult to dis- 
 charge. Finally the State was allowed representation 
 in Congress. Gov. Bullock found it necessary to his 
 safety to retire from the State before the expiration of 
 his term of service. A new election installed an honest 
 democratic administration. 
 
 In 1877, the people of Georgia held a constitutional 
 convention, over which that incorruptible statesman 
 and patriot, Charles J. Jenkins, presided; and estab- 
 lished a Constitution that secured white over black do- 
 
50 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 mination, and restored the supremacy of the civil over 
 the military authority. 
 
 The men who invoked, imposed and enforced Con- 
 gressional Reconstruction upon a brave and patriotic 
 people — defeated in war — in the anguish of grief, and 
 thralldom of poverty, sacrificed honor, race and liberty 
 for power and plunder, and have gone to history, em- 
 balmed in infamy. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 Conditions apteb the War — Lawyees. 
 
 The reconstruction regime packed the judiciary, as 
 far as possible, with judges in sympathy with their 
 policy. That policy had greatly demoralized the pub- 
 lic sentiment. This was especially true in certain sec- 
 tions of the State. The people of the mountain region 
 of the State were opposed to secession. They lived 
 remote from cities and railroads, owned few slaves, 
 made an honest living by hard labor, and distilled their 
 corn and fruit without revenue. They did not care 
 whether slavery was established or prohibited in the 
 territories; the government was beneficent to them. 
 They honored its founders, loved its traditions, and 
 were proud of its flag. Their delegates in the conven- 
 tion were nearly unanimous in opposing secession. 
 Several of their delegates declined to sign the ordinance 
 after it was adopted. These people had bright intel- 
 lects, strong convictions and high prejudices. They 
 were true and faithful in their friendships, bitter and 
 relentless in their enmities, generous in hospitality, and 
 full of resources in the execution of their purposes. 
 When the war came they were divided. Most of them 
 joined the Confederate, but some the Union army; and 
 many sought to avoid service in either. During the war, 
 Home Guards, representing both sides — imder the pre- 
 
 51 
 
52 ME2i AND THINGS 
 
 text of protecting — plundered the people. When the 
 war ended, and the men returned home with four years' 
 training in the nursing and indulgence of passion, it 
 will be readily perceived that collisions and conflicts 
 were inevitable. The influence of reconstruction prin- 
 ciples, practices and ethics, superadded to the partisan 
 prejudices and passions engendered by the war, left the 
 people in a state of demoralization that found expres- 
 sion in disorganization and crime. Men appeared at 
 public gatherings and superior courts with imiforms 
 and army, or navy pistols buckled around them, look- 
 ing daggers at those supposed to be or to have been 
 enemies, and anxious for an excuse or an opportunity 
 for revenge. The Union element felt that they had 
 triumphed in war, and seemed to exult in the oppres- 
 sions of reconstruction, relying upon those in power to 
 protect them in whatever line of conduct they saw 
 proper to adopt or pursue. Inoffensive men were shot 
 down unceremoniously in open daylight, at the supper 
 table, at night, or from ambush while at work in the 
 field. A conviction for murder could not be secured. 
 Judges, solicitors and jurymen were of the party tem- 
 porarily in power. William P. Milton, at Ellijay, 
 while sitting at supper at his home, was shot through 
 a window, and killed. Worly sneaked up behind Wil- 
 liam Ellington, and shot him in the back. Hately rode 
 into town in open daylight and shot James G. Inlow 
 through the head as he sat on the sidewalk, killing him 
 instantly. N'ear "White path," Bartley Pinson, while 
 ploughing in his field, was shot from ambush and fell 
 dead in his tracks; and not one of the criminals was 
 
MEN AND THINGS 53 
 
 convicted. At Morgantown, James Morris, a kind- 
 hearted old gentleman over seventy years of age, was 
 aroused about midnight by the screams of a woman in 
 distress, and walked across the public square to the house 
 of Spencer Pruitt, ordinary of the county, whence the 
 cry of distress proceeded. He stepped into the house, 
 and asked : "In the name of God, what does this mean ?" 
 Whereupon Pruitt, a very large, strong man, — who was 
 shamefully abusing his wife, seized Morris and 
 held him until he made his two boys stab him to death. 
 The next day Pruitt pointed to the boys, and said: 
 "There are the brave chaps who stabbed the d — old 
 rascal to death." Pruitt and his boys were indicted. 
 He escaped, and was never tried. The boys were tried, 
 of course, before a Republican judge, prosecuted by a 
 Republican solicitor-general, and a Republican jury. 
 James R. Brown and I were employed to aid the prose- 
 cution, which we did, to the utmost of our ability. 
 Unknown to us and the court, Pruitt's friends had 
 armed themselves, and formed a conspiracy to kill 
 Brown and myself in the courthouse as soon as a verdict 
 of guilty was returned. Samuel Ralston was informed 
 of it, armed a number of his friends, and notified the 
 leader of the conspiracy that he and his crowd were 
 under observation, and the first motion towards vio- 
 lence they made would cost them their lives. The de- 
 fense was that they were under fourteen years of age, 
 and acted in obedience to the order of their father. 
 They were acquitted. Later, Duke Palmer, a lawyer 
 living in Cleveland, was returning home from Towns 
 superior court, and was shot in the back by an assassin 
 
64 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 concealed in the bushes on the roadside. It so hap- 
 pened that he and I occupied the same room at the 
 hotel, in Hiawassee. He was a brave man, and of su- 
 perior intellect. The night before he was killed, he 
 gave me an account of his life, and especially his ad- 
 ventures in Mexico, which were both thrilling and ro- 
 mantic. We sat up until midnight, in conversation. 
 The next morning he bade me: "good-bye," seeming 
 cheerful and happy — little dreaming of the tragic fate 
 awaiting him. That afternoon at 2 o'clock I organized 
 an inquest over his dead body, as it lay in the road, 
 covered with dust and blood. The assassin was con- 
 cealed behind a stump about ten paces from the road. 
 A party was indicted and tried in Towns superior court, 
 but acquitted. These cases are mentioned as a sample 
 of many others — as illustrating the disorganized state 
 of society, gTOwing out of the secession and reconstruc- 
 tion of the State. 
 
 The courts in the coimties of Gilmer, Fannin, Union 
 and Towns were held in May and October. The soft, 
 balmy zephyrs, the murmur of sparkling water- 
 falls and the fragrance of roses, azalias and laurel 
 blooms in May; and the variegated hues of ex- 
 tensive and magnificent forests, and the brisk, health- 
 ful breezes of October, were delightful beyond the power 
 of expression. Environment, with these charms and 
 beauties of nature, ought to mollify the malignity of 
 hate ; and purify and etherealize the spi rit of love ; and 
 doubtless it did. The spirit and discussions of the 
 bar had a most favorable influence in allaying party 
 animosities. The lawyers were a jolly, noble set of 
 
MEN AND THINGS 55 
 
 fellows, full of good humor, and from envy, perfectly 
 free. The lawyers who practiced in the mountain 
 counties of the Blue Ridge Circuit, were : Geo. D. Rice, 
 James R. Brown, William P. Price, C. D. Phillips, C, 
 J. Wellborn, Wier Boyd, Marshall L. Smith, E. W. 
 Chastain, J. E. Alsabrook, W. H. Simmons, J. A. 
 Jervis, and James Butt, Democrats ; and John S. Fain, 
 John A. Wimpy, W. T. Crane, W. T. Day, Samuel C. 
 Johnson, James M. Bishop, Republicans. These men 
 fought like tigers over their cases in the courthouse, 
 but when the intellectual combat was ended — being 
 personal friends — their social intercourse with each 
 other and with the people was of the kindliest and most 
 pleasant character. Their conduct, prompted by a high 
 sense of obligation to the public, did much to restore a 
 better state of feeling among the people. They were 
 greatly aided by a class of substantial citizens of each 
 of the parties, who stood for the right and against the 
 wrong; who had wisdom enough to see the folly of the 
 strife, and patriotism sufficient to endeavor to stop it. 
 When the war cases were disposed of in the courts, an 
 honest Democratic administration of the State govern- 
 ment inaugurated, and capable Democratic judges 
 placed on the bench, peace was restored and the wrongs 
 and passions of these stormy and turbulent times rele- 
 gated to the historian. Most of these men — either be- 
 fore or after the time of which I write — held high 
 office. Chastain and Price were representatives in 
 Congress; Rice, Brown and Wellborn, judges of the 
 Superior Court ; and Smith, judge of the City Court of 
 Gainesville. Phillips, Johnson, Bishop, Wellborn and 
 
56 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 Greer, solicitors-general. Eight of them were State 
 Senators. Three, Rice, Chastain and Day, were mem- 
 bers of the Secession Convention. Seven of these men, 
 Rice, Chastain, Alsabrook, Fain, Johnson, Boyd and 
 Bishop, have crossed the silent river. They lived in a 
 time of peace, and through the storms of war. They 
 each did their duty as they understood it. Honor to 
 their memory and peace to their ashes! 
 
 Rice was a very able lawyer, deeply read in the law, 
 devoting his entire attention to its study and practice. 
 He prepared his cases thoroughly, briefed the questions 
 of law and fact — both leading and collateral — elabor- 
 ately, and therefore entered upon the trial well equip- 
 ped. When he went upon the bench of the Western 
 Oircuit, he turned over to me five cases in Lumpkin 
 Superior Court. They were so well prepared that I 
 found it easy to win all of them. 
 
 Brown was a superb lawyer and practitioner. It 
 was delightful to be associated with him in a case. He 
 studied and practiced law as a scientific system, devised 
 for the enforcement of human rights, in conformity to 
 certain established rules. He seized with promptness, 
 the controlling questions in the case, fortified his posi- 
 tion with authority and logic, and usually carried the 
 strong points of his adversary by assault. 
 
 Chastain was admitted to the bar without reading 
 law, in middle life. He possessed a fine intellect, hand- 
 some person, and was brave as Roland. He was a born 
 politician, and the loader of his section. He was Rep- 
 resentative and Senator in the State Legislature, and 
 twice a Representative in Congress. He was intensely 
 
MEN AND THINGS 57 
 
 Southern. His friends were devoted to him, and his 
 enemies respected and feared him. He was a fluent 
 speaker, knew men, and was formidable before juries. 
 
 Price was a good lawyer, but it seemed to me that he 
 never enjoyed the disputes and contentions of the court- 
 house. As a lawyer, he was open, manly and fair. In 
 his practice, he sought the triumph of the truth and 
 the right. He rendered invaluable service to the State 
 as a member of the Legislature, in reconstruction time. 
 As a member of Congress, he secured the Mint at Dah- 
 lonega, from the Government, and the establishment of 
 the ]^orth Georgia Agricultural College, a service that 
 merits the gratitude of the people, and enshrines him 
 in their affection. He is a cultured, courtly, Christian 
 gentleman. 
 
 Boyd was unique, admitted to the bar past mid- 
 dle life, while Clerk of the Superior Court of Lump- 
 kin County, he was more familiar with the forms 
 of practice than the principles of jurisprudence. He 
 never had the slightest conception that his client could 
 possibly be in the wrong or his adversary in the right. 
 He was intensely ardent in his convictions, absolutely 
 honest; saw a case or legal principle only from his 
 standpoint, and never dreamed that any other view was 
 admissible, or any modification possible. His view of 
 the settlement or compromise of a case was to demand 
 a bonus for taking all he claimed. His antagonist 
 might therefore rely upon a fight to the bitter end. 
 His character, earnestness and honesty made him a 
 power before a jury that knew him. 
 
 Smith was a jurist, not an advocate. He was a close 
 
58 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 student, with a clear, incisive intellect; and reveled in 
 the complex and abstruse subleties of metaphysics. If 
 he had lived in the time of Aristotle, the Greeks would 
 have voted him an Apotheosis, as the divinity of techni- 
 calities. He saw — clear as a sunbeam — defects and 
 objections to pleadings, proof and everything the other 
 side did, alleged or said. His style was cold, clear and 
 conversational. He was perfectly conscientious. While 
 he enjoyed winning a case on its merits, he was charmed 
 and delighted to triumph on a technicality. As asso- 
 ciate counsel, in consultation, as you would state the 
 strong points of your case, he would suggest a thousand 
 questions that might arise in your case, and was equally 
 fruitful in suggesting difficulties in the adversary's 
 way. Occasionally he made points of inestimable 
 value. It was always much more safe to have him 
 ■with you than against you. 
 
 Phillips, unlike Smith, cared nothing for technicali- 
 ties. He was rather a loose pleader. His mind 
 quick in action, his person imposing, his humor exu- 
 berant, his invective withering — all taken together, 
 made him an advocate of decided power. His speech 
 in the prosecution of Rogers for murder, in Fannin 
 Superior Court, the presiding judge (Lester) thought 
 was the finest he ever heard. 
 
 Wellborn was a good lawyer, of finely balanced mind 
 and character. His pleading neat, he presented his 
 proofs clearly, and sought the triumph of right and 
 justice in the administration of the law. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Amusing Incidents in Court. 
 
 It often happens that in the contention of strife and 
 anxieties of court proceedings, something will occur to 
 excite mirth, and relieve the tension of counsel and liti- 
 gants. The spectators are always on the ''qui vive," 
 for something of this sort. It is astonishing how^ 
 quickly they catch a sally of wit, a felicitous retort, or 
 an exhibition of the ludicrous. They listen to the 
 judge and lawyers, and scan the witnesses, in the ex- 
 pectation of hearing something either interesting or 
 amusing. A witness was on the stand in Cherokee Su- 
 perior Court. He was a minister of the Gospel. I 
 have observed that a certain class of that sacred profes- 
 sion (I hope a small one), on the witness stand, always 
 seek to impress themselves upon the court and country 
 — they generally succeed. I never understood the rea- 
 son for it. But it has been true since the time of the 
 Rev. Burwell Shines. The witness in question was a 
 master in the figurative style of speech, as the 
 sequel will show. He had made his statement 
 in answer to questions, on the direct examina- 
 tion. The late Judge George iN". Lester, conduct- 
 ing the cross examination, said : "Do I understand you 
 to state so and so," repeating the statement made by 
 the witness to which he replied with an air of offended 
 
 59 
 
60 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 sacradotal dignity: "Mistur Lustur, I have chawed my 
 terbacker." 
 
 On a certain Tuesday morning, in Ellijay, just as I 
 entered the courtroom, the judge called the case of 
 George Ellis vs. William Cole, trover, and announced 
 Greer for the plaintiff. The parties announced 
 "ready." Counsel read the declaration to the jury, 
 and swore the plaintiff as a witness, who went upon the 
 stand. He had an expression of peculiar sadness that 
 engaged my attention, excited my curiosity, and pre- 
 sented an imploring appeal for sympathy. He was tall, 
 angular and bony in physique, with very black hair and 
 bear. His head had the appearance of having been 
 just taken from a charcoal heap; his arms were long, 
 and hands and feet large. His trousers lacked about 
 four inches of reaching to his shoes, which were home- 
 made and of primitive style. He was in his shirt- 
 sleeves — that is, he was without coat or vest — the collar 
 unbuttoned. The buttons on his bosom were manufac- 
 tured of coarse, cotton thread. His shoulders were so 
 round, or rather bent, that when they touched the wall 
 his head projected about one foot from it, as he stood 
 upon the stand. As he stood thus he was the living 
 personification of sorrow. From his testimony, which 
 was delivered in monosyllables mainly, it appeared that 
 he did a certain amount of ditching, for which Cole was 
 to pay him a cow and calf and a rifle-gun. The gun 
 was delivered; Cole refused to deliver the cattle. The 
 calf had died, but another calf had succeeded it. The 
 action was brought to recover the cow and her increase. 
 Greer (feeling that he had proven a strong case), turned 
 
MEN AND THINGS 61 
 
 the witness to the other side for examination. "Ah, 
 stop a moment, Mr. Ellis. What became of that cow 
 and calf?" With an expression of anguish, that he 
 would be supposed to show in looking for the last time 
 upon his wife's coffin, he answered in these words: 
 "They tell me that the cow are dead, and that the calf 
 what she had superior to that time were in the same 
 fix." 
 
 Unity in variety seems to be a universal law of na- 
 ture. Of all the multitudinous leaves of the forest, no 
 two of them are precisely alike. The same is true of 
 the forms, features and intellectual attributes of the 
 human race. Men appearing very much alike in many 
 respects, yet differ widely in an infinite variety of char- 
 acteristics. We meet, occasionally, a man of no merit, 
 but great ignorance and self-assertion, who moves among 
 his fellows with a sort of "hail, the conquering hero 
 comes" air that advertises him as a candidate for the 
 popularity and fame among men, for which he has al- 
 ready given himself credit. His manners and move- 
 ments are as pompous and bombastic as a Pronuncia- 
 mento, of Santa Anna, in revolutionary times in Mexico. 
 Whether this characteristic results from a high soul, 
 with lofty aspirations, that has been starved and 
 dwarfed by the want of opportimities for expansion and 
 development, or whether it is the offspring of narrow, 
 contracted ignorance, stimulated by an unworthy and 
 unattainable ambition, presents a problem that is re- 
 ferred to the psychological, for solution. These reflec- 
 tions have been suggested by the character of a witness 
 for the State in the case of the State vs. Richard Ratliff, 
 
62 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 charged with the offense of assault and battery, in Gil- 
 mer Superior Court. This witness was a man of strik- 
 ing appearance and manner. He was slightly above 
 medium height, a little rotund but of shapely figure, 
 with rather a springy, yet dignified movement. His 
 complexion was florid and nose decidedly red. He 
 wore a black Prince Albert coat, a beaver hat, standing 
 collar, supported by a rather wide black stock. Taken 
 altogether, he was by no means a man of repulsive ap- 
 pearance — rather the contrary. His great pretention 
 was his facility in the use of words; his strength lay 
 in his capacity to coin them, and his weakness in his 
 total ignorance of their meaning. The trouble out of 
 which the indictment grew, occurred at a "road work- 
 ing." Of course a "road working" without at least one 
 fight would be justly esteemed a failure. There was 
 but one on this occasion, but this one had in it (accord- 
 ing to the statement of the witness) the element of what 
 the lawyers call a "continuendo," when the witness 
 related the first part (for it took place in installments), 
 and stopped. "Go on," said the solicitor-general, "and 
 state what next occurred." Straightening up himself, 
 and adjusting his stock and standing collar, with an ex- 
 pression on his face which gave the public notice, that 
 something important was about to happen, he said: 
 "Previous aufter that, I was foUering along before, and 
 seen the priminary gwines on." 
 
 In Union Superior Court the case of John Doe ex 
 dem. Brown, et al. vs. Richard Roe, cas. ejr., and 
 Smith, tenant, etc., was on trial. The defense was the 
 statute of limitations. The late witty, humorous, elo- 
 
MEHf AND THINGS 63 
 
 quent John W. H. Underwood, was counsel for defend- 
 ant. A witness on the stand had stated clearly and in- 
 telligently about the possession of the lot sued for, how 
 much was cleared, etc., when the following occurred. 
 Counsel: "Mr. Witness, you say Smith is in possession 
 of this lot of land, claiming it as his ?" Witness : "Yes, 
 sir." Counsel: "You say Smith cleared twenty acres 
 of the lot?" Witness: "Yes, sir." Counsel: "When 
 did Smith first enter into the possession of it?" Wit- 
 ness: "I don't remember the time." Counsel: "See if 
 you can not refresh your recollection?" Witness: 
 ^'Well, Squire, really (scratching his head just behind 
 the right ear), I can't remember. Counsel: "Was it in 
 the spring, summer, fall or winter?" Witness: (In a 
 deep study for a moment), then, brightening up, an- 
 swered : "Ah ! I remember now. Squire, it was the time 
 that March Addington wintered John Butt's bull." 
 
 In the rural districts of the country, before the ad- 
 vent of railroads, telegraphs, telephones, daily mails, 
 common schools, and cheap watches, even the most in- 
 telligent paid but little attention to dates. There was 
 nothing in their surroundings that made it especially 
 necessary to store away in the garret of memory the 
 rubbish of dry and useless dates. It was convenient for 
 them to regulate their calendar by important events, oc- 
 curring under their own observation. Very few knew 
 or cared anything about the day on which Columbus 
 sailed from Palos on his great voyage of discovery, or 
 when he discovered San Salvador, or the date of the 
 inauguration of the Reformation, or when the last of 
 the "Stuarts" was driven from the throne, the Briti.sh 
 
64 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 dynasty changed and the ''Bill of Rights" adopted by 
 the Convention Parliament. But, ''Big Court," the 
 "Camp-meeting" and the "Fourth of July Barbecue," 
 they attended and remembered. These events became 
 epochal in their history, as the bases from which they 
 reckoned time. The fact that March Addington "win- 
 tered John Butt's bull," was perhaps of less impor- 
 tance than these historic events ; yet it was by no means 
 of insignificance in vindicating the truth of a question 
 involving time. There is a deep philosophy underlying 
 these facts. It is found in the statement that if you 
 wish to interest a person in any matter, you must iden- 
 tify him with its activities. It is upon this principle 
 that a wife never forgets the date of her marriage, or a 
 mother the birth of her child. The question of time 
 arises in some form, in the trial of every case. The 
 case of the State vs. Hugh Porter, for malicious mis- 
 chief w^as no exception to the rule. The fact alleged 
 as constituting the offense was the killing of Shade 
 Green's cow by Porter, in his corn-field. Mr. Green 
 was a man of some humor which, though in the rough, 
 would sometimes sparkle. He was an honest man and 
 a truthful witness; which, unfortunately, can not be 
 said of all witnesses. The cow was found dead in Por- 
 ter's cornfield ; the damage to the corn, the habit of the 
 animal and the height of the fence, were under investi- 
 gation. John Echols, a witness, had described the 
 height of the fence by stating that "he could stand 
 astride of it." Mr. Green, the prosecutor, was on the 
 stand. I asked him, as follows : "How high was Por- 
 ter's fence ?" to which he replied : "It was about up to 
 
MEN AND TH INGS 65 
 
 John Echols' fork." To the question : "When was the 
 cow found dead ?" he answered : "It was summers along 
 in tatur diggin time." I asked: "When do we dig po- 
 tatoes ?" He replied : "Ah ! Well now, that depends 
 entirely on when the bread gives out." 
 
 Augustus M. Russell was a man of strongly marked 
 characteristics in many respects. In person, he was 
 tall — six feet and two inches — his hair straight and 
 black, with brown eyes and synunetrical form. His in- 
 tellect was of a very high order, bright, active and vig- 
 orous. By affinity, his relations and connections were, 
 socially and intellectually, high ; by the law of moral 
 gravitation, his associations were otherwise. With his 
 mental superiority, steady habits, close application and 
 extensive research would have easily placed him kmong 
 those at the head of his profession anywhere. As it 
 was, his professional reading did not extend far beyond 
 Hotchkiss' Codification and Cobb's Analysis and 
 Forms. His clients and cases were of a class that did 
 not yield a revenue equal to the "steel trust" and 
 "Standard Oil Company." To contemplate him as a 
 whole was suggestive of royalty in ruins. The Hon. 
 Alexander H. Stephens told me of an adventure he had 
 with him at Calhoun, Ga. Mr. Stephens made a speech 
 during a political campaign at which Hussell happened 
 to be present. When he concluded, Russell's friends 
 and chums called on him to reply, which he did, and in 
 which he most recklessly assailed Stephens with all sorts 
 of charges without the slightest regard to truth — to 
 one of which, that greatly nettled Mr. Stephens, he 
 sharply said : "I deny the fact." Russell paused a 
 
66 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 moment, and then said, ''Yes, fellow citizens, that is 
 the gentleman's trouble, he always denies the facts." 
 Mr. Stephens added that that lesson taught him the im- 
 portance of caution in the use of words. 
 
 In Lumpkin Superior Court, Russell was defending 
 a client, charged with an offense by special presentment 
 of the grand jury. The presentment had not been en- 
 tered on the minutes of court, as the law required. He 
 moved to quash the presentment on that ground. The 
 solicitor-general moved an order to enter it on the min- 
 utes of court "ISTunc pro tunc," to which he responded: 
 "May it please your honor, I have examined all the au- 
 thorities, searched Hotchkiss and Cobb (and your honor 
 knows Mr. Cobb was a very sharp man), and I can not 
 find in the books any authority for the making of a 
 nunc pro tunc business out of a special presentment." 
 The judge ruled that there was such authority. 
 
 Emancipation changed many things. Among them, 
 the definition of the crime of disturbing religious wor- 
 ship. The change was from a "Congregation of white 
 persons, assembled for public worship" to "A congrega- 
 tion of persons assembled for Divine service." Before 
 this change, J. P. C. was indicted and tried in Lump- 
 kin Superior Court for the offense of interrupting and 
 disturbing "a congi'egation of white persons, lawfully 
 assembled for public worship." He was defended by 
 Mr. Russell. There were two witnesses in the case, the 
 Rev. Mr. Roberts, and the Hon. Eli Wehunt. The for- 
 mer was a primitive, or "Hardshell" Baptist clergy- 
 man. The crime was alleged to have been committed 
 while he was preaching on a certain Sunday, at his own 
 
MEN AND THINGS 67 
 
 house. It appeared from the evidence that Mr. Roberts' 
 home was a combination of dwelling and still-house, 
 and that the products of the still-house were stored in 
 the smoke-house, located at some distance from where 
 it was made. The preaching was in that part of the 
 combination used as the dwelling. It did not appear 
 what the theme of the discourse was. Whether it was a 
 learned digging in search of the Greek roots of immer- 
 sion, or of the decree before the foundation of the world, 
 that foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, was left, 
 by the testimony in the case, to conjecture. It was 
 probably both. It did appear that Mr. Roberts and his 
 neighbors had fine orchards and that the apple crop was 
 abundant, and that it was a "pity" to allow the fruit to 
 rot and waste. It further appeared that the neighbors 
 frequently met at Mr. Roberts', especially on Simday 
 (as it was a leisure day), though the visits were by no 
 means confined to that day. It did not appear that any 
 females attended that service. Nor did it appear 
 whether the crowd of men met for the service, or 
 whether the service was improvised because the crowd 
 had assembled. Mr. Roberts, in his testimony, stated 
 clearly and distinctly that neither he nor his congrega- 
 tion were disturbed in the slightest degree. The Hon. 
 Eli Weliunt, who, after the time of the trial, obtained 
 the high honor of representing Lumpkiri County in the 
 General Assembly of the State — a county that had been 
 represented by such men as the Honorable W. P. 
 Price and Honorable Weir Boyd — had been denied 
 the advantage of an early education. Indeed, I 
 am informed that he did not know a letter of the al- 
 
68 ME^^ AND THINGS 
 
 phabet. He was of Dutcli descent, and of marked per- 
 sonality. He was of medium height and size ; his eyes 
 grey, and set far back; his cheek-bones high, and his 
 forehead low ; his beard long and red, carefully divided 
 in the middle, each haK neatly platted and skillfully 
 tied into a knot under his chin. The color of his hair 
 was immune from the power of description; the near- 
 est approach to description is to say that it seemed to be 
 a combination of pale claybank and Albino pink. There 
 was nothing peculiar in his dress except that at the 
 time of the trial, he wore a vest, made of spotted, tanned 
 fawn-skin; and it was a picturesque garment. He tes- 
 tified that while Mr. Roberts was preaching, on the 
 Sunday in question, in his dwelling, he and defendant 
 met behind the smoke-house, in which the brandy was 
 stored — some distance from the dwelling — with no one 
 but himself and the defendant present. The defendant 
 abused him, and they had a private quarrel. With this 
 evidence the State closed ; the defendant introduced 
 none, and the court took a recess for dinner. Upon re- 
 suming the bench after dinner, the judge said: "Gentle- 
 men, proceed with the argument of this case. Mr. Rus- 
 sell, state your points to the solicitor-general." Russell 
 rose from his seat with some difficulty, and balancing 
 and steadying himself as well as he could, responded to 
 the judge's order as follows: "M-M-may it please your 
 h-lionor, my point in the defense is that Eli Wehunt is 
 not a congregation of wliite persons assembled for pub- 
 lic worship." The verdict of the jury sustained the 
 point. 
 
 Almost every superior court has pending, a case that 
 
MEN AN D THINGS 69 
 
 attracts more than ordinary public interest. This was 
 true of a case in Gihner County, popularly known as: 
 "The Granny King case." Mrs. King was a kind- 
 hearted old lady, who practiced a profession that made 
 her especially popular with the married ladies, in a 
 thickly settled coimnunity, with a rapidly increasing 
 birth-rate. Mr. and Mrs. King owned a plantation con- 
 taining some very fine bottom land, on "Owlto^vn 
 Creek." They had no children. Mr. King died. 
 Most people have observed that it is not difficult to find 
 those who desire the possession of what the late Judge 
 Dawson A. \Yalker was accustomed to call "rich flat- 
 land." It turned out to be true in this case. The Ahab 
 who sought this vineyard was a collateral relative who 
 resided in Dawson County, whose name was "Mont- 
 gomery." He applied for letters of administration. 
 Mrs. King resisted the application on the ground that 
 she, as the widow, was entitled to it. Rice, Boyd and 
 Smith represented Montgomery; James R. Brown and 
 H. P. Bell represented the widow. Pending the con- 
 troversy over the administration, Montgomery filed a 
 bill in equity to recover the property. It turned out 
 on the trial of the right to the administration, that 
 Mrs. King had been previously married. She claimed 
 to have been divorced, but could only show one verdict 
 granting it. Montgomery won the administration. 
 Mrs. King set up in her answer and cross bill, that her 
 money, earned by her profession, paid for the land, that 
 the deed was taken in his name, and that he held it as 
 an implied, or resulting trust for her. On the trial, 
 Boyd moved to dismiss his bill, to which counsel for 
 
70 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 Mrs. King objected, on the ground that she had set up 
 cross equities. In support of his motion, Boyd, among 
 other things, said: "May it please your honor, we 
 have met the gentlemen on the other side of this fight, 
 and vanquished them on every field; and now, may it 
 please your honor, when we want to retire across the 
 "Amicalola mountain," and enjoy in peace our victory, 
 the gentlemen won't let us." The motion was refused, 
 the case tried, and Mrs. King won. Fannin, Union 
 and Towns followed the circuit, closing with Towns. 
 Boyd and Smith, returned home in the same buggy. 
 After a long silence, Boyd suddenly said: "Bro. Smith, 
 we have no cause to complain of our luck during this 
 riding; we have lost but one case." "That is true, Bro. 
 Boyd, but we have tried but one," replied Smith — the 
 "Granny King case." 
 
 It is as refreshing to a lawyer, as a fountain in a des- 
 ert, to a caravan, to meet with a party in a case, who will 
 "swear the truth to his own hurt." In an age distin- 
 guished for its avarice, it is seldom a party in interest 
 can be found who will not discolor the truth in favor of 
 his interest. Occasionally, however, a rare exception 
 to this general rule will occur. Such an instance took 
 place in Fannin Superior Court. John A. Jervis, 
 Esqr., sued John Brown, in ejectment, for the recovery 
 of a lot of land. The defendant was an octogenarian — 
 his hair white as snow, his rather small person slightly 
 bent with age. The expression of his face placid and 
 benevolent; he looked the very embodiment of peace 
 and innocence. Jervis presented his evidence, showing 
 his absolute right to recover. N"© counsel was marked 
 
M EN AN D THINGS 71 
 
 or appeared for the defendant. Col. Wier Boyd, sit- 
 ting by, seeing the situation, and humanely desiring to 
 do a kindness to an aged, worthy, poor old man, or 
 share with him in a division of the land in the event 
 he recovered, or both, held a brief consultation with the 
 defendant, said: "Your honor will please mark my 
 name for the defendant;" administered the witness's 
 oath to defendant and said to him: "Uncle Johnny, go 
 on the stand," and proceeded to examine him as fol- 
 lows : Coimsel : "Uncle Johnny, do you know the land 
 sued for in this case?" Witness: "I do." Counsel: 
 "Who is in possession of this land ?" Witness : "I am." 
 Counsel: "How long have you been in possession?" 
 Witness: "IsTine or ten years." Counsel: "What im- 
 provements have you put on this lot?" Witness: "I 
 built a cabin and cleared twelve or fifteen acres." 
 Counsel: "Did anybody ever disturb your possession?" 
 Witness: "ISTo, sir." Counsel: "You state. Uncle 
 Johnny, that you have occupied this land without dis- 
 turbance, continuously, for nine or ten years, built a 
 house on it, and cleared twelve or fifteen acres of it, — 
 all the time, claiming it as your own?" Witness: "I 
 just went on the land and cleared, and built the house, 
 and lived on it. I never claimed it. It is not my 
 land." Counsel : "What ! Do you say that this is not 
 your land ?" Witness : "Yes, sir ; I say that this land 
 is not mine, I never claimed it. It belongs to the plain- 
 tiff." Counsel: "Come down, Uncle Johnny." 
 
 Charles Alston, of Towns County, was insulted, or 
 supposed himself insulted, to an extent that, in his 
 opinion, demanded blood in atonement. He therefore 
 
72 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 challenged the offender. Whether the challenge re- 
 sulted from the gravity of the offense, the homicidal 
 impulse, supposed to be irresistible, in the constitutional 
 organism of a certain class of the genus homo, or from 
 hereditary chivalry (for he was a native South Caro- 
 linian), was never satisfactorily ascertained. The 
 grand jury of the county, less in sympathy with the 
 punctillios of personal honor than the enforcement of 
 criminal law, indicted him for an alleged violation 
 thereof. This rude action of the grand jury amused 
 the people of the community, but disgaisted the defend- 
 ant. He employed Col. Weir Boyd to defend him. 
 The case, from its novelty in this section of the State, 
 created great interest in the public mind; and from its 
 importance, w^eighed heavily upon the thought of his 
 faithful counsel. After its continuance for several 
 terms of the court, it was finally tried, resulting in the 
 triumphant acquittal of the defendant, to the dispar- 
 agement of the code penal, and to the honor of the 
 code duello. After the adjournment of the court, at 
 which the trial took place, Boyd and Marshall S. Smith 
 were returning home in a buggy, together as usual, 
 Boyd driving the regulation mule, and Smith in- 
 tensely absorbed in an effort to untangle the knotty 
 kinks in a skein of metaphysical abstrusities, 
 and "Distinguish and divide a hair, 'twixt north and 
 north-west side." Boyd said to him: "Brother Smith, 
 what do you think of my speech in the Alston case? 
 Smith replied : "Brother Boyd, it was a failure." Boyd 
 said (with solemn emphasis) : "Brother Smith, I carried 
 that speech too long, it soured." 
 
M JSzV AND THINGS 73 
 
 Men do not always show wisdom in choosing an avo- 
 cation. They sometimes disregard the advice of the 
 Roman philosopher "to consult capacity and follow in- 
 clination," and follow inclination without consulting 
 capacity. This truth finds a signal illustration in two 
 applications for admission to the bar. They were made 
 at different times, but to the superior court of the same 
 county. One of the applicants was an ignorant, pre- 
 tentious, pedantic pedagogue. He was tall, of very 
 dark complexion, and elaborately and gaudily dressed. 
 When the court met in the morning for the examination, 
 he arose, with a pompous, magisterial sort of movement. 
 Having very much the appearance of a combined ad- 
 vertisement of an animal and circus show, he addressed 
 the court as follows: "May it please your honor, as I 
 have recently been engaged in the very interesting study 
 of philology, I ask the privilege of answering the ques- 
 tions, in this examination, in a paraphrastic manner." 
 The privilege was accorded. He answered the questions 
 so very paraphrastically that the judge advised him to 
 withdraw his application. C. W., the other applicant, 
 had passed middle life by at least a decade. He had 
 failed to realize his ambitious hopes for distinction in 
 defeat, for numerous small offices which he sought. He 
 had taught singing-school without discovering a bonanza 
 in melody, but was not without power in politics, in his 
 militia district, which was remote from the county 
 courthouse. In stature, he was a little below medium 
 size, in intellect, below mediocrity ; and in culture, still 
 lower. His two upper front teeth were missing, and 
 the color of his hair was of the clavbank variety. His 
 
74 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 application was duly filed, and the order of court, ap- 
 pointing the committee of examination, regularly 
 passed, and entered on the minutes of court. The com- 
 mittee met the applicant, G. L. conducting the examina- 
 tion on Common Law. After asking, "What was law 
 in general? What was civil law; what natural, and 
 what revealed law was?" And various questions about 
 rights — alienable and inalienable, absolute and rela- 
 tive — all of which was Egyptian hieroglyphics to W., 
 G. L. turned to the "economic or domestic relation, 
 when the following occurred : G. L. : "Mr. W., how 
 many kinds of persons are there in law ?" ]^o answer. 
 G. L., explaining, stated, "there are two, natural and 
 artificial." G. L. : "What are natural persons ?" No 
 answer. G. L., explaining again : "]^atural persons are 
 such as the God of nature formed ; you and I are natu- 
 ral persons." G. L. : "AVhat is an artificial person ?" 
 "A woman," promptly answered W. G. L. : "Mr. W., 
 how many kinds of children are there in law ?" "Two," 
 answered W. G. L. : "That is correct. ISTow, Mr. W., 
 what are they ?" W. : "Boys and gals." He was ad- 
 mitted, and a license certifying "that after examination 
 he was found to be learned and well skilled in the knowl- 
 edge of the law ; and authorized to practice in all the 
 courts of law and equity in this State, except the Su- 
 preme Court." Somehow litigants managed their busi- 
 ness without his assistance. I never knew nor heard 
 of his receiving a retainer, or appearing in a case. 
 Young men may avoid breakers ahead by choosing 
 a life-work with deliberation and decision and pursuing 
 it with integrity and industry. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 Secession. 
 
 The Secession Convention at Milledgeville, adjourned 
 January 29th, to meet in Savannah upon the call of 
 the president. On February 9th I reached Nashville, 
 as Commissioner of Georgia to the State of Tennessee. 
 That State, at an election, though recently held, had 
 refused to call a convention to consider the grievances 
 of which the Southern States complained, by a popular 
 majority of ten thousand votes. 
 
 The Legislature was not in session. The only means 
 I, therefore had of official communication with the au- 
 thorities was with the Governor of the State. That 
 chivalric, patriotic, sterling statesman, Isham G. Har- 
 ris, was governor. The Ordinance of Secession, together 
 with the reasons for its adoption, were officially and 
 formally presented to him in the executive office, and 
 the co-operation of Tennessee, with the seceded States, 
 in the formation of the Southern Confederacy, invited. 
 Gov. Harris was in thorough and hearty sympathy with 
 the movement, but surrounded with great obstacles. 
 The people had refused to call a convention to consider 
 the matter ; the legislature was not in session ; the 
 border States peace conference was in session in Wash- 
 ington, and a condition of apprehensive uncertainty and 
 alarm reigned supreme. The Governor could only 
 
 75 
 
76 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 await the logic of events and conform his action to their 
 results. 
 
 While I was in Xashville, Gen. Leslie Combs, of 
 Kentucky, addressed an immense concourse of people 
 at night, in the public square. His speech was an elo- 
 quent and impassioned appeal for the Union. Pend- 
 ing its delivery, the mayor of the city read a fake tele- 
 gram from Washington, stating that Lewis T. Wigfall, 
 of Texas, had killed Andrew Johnson in a duel. The 
 excitement of the multitude defies description. My re- 
 port of this mission appears in the journal of the Con- 
 vention. 
 
 On my return from Xashville, I met at Chattanooga, 
 Jefferson Davis, with his party, on his way to Mont- 
 gomery to assume the presidency of the Confederacy. 
 The crowds at the different railway stations to Atlanta 
 were numerous and enthusiastic. Though the night 
 was far advanced, at Dalton, upon the vociferous and 
 continued demand of the crowd, he came out of the car, 
 and made a short and thrilling speech. 
 
 By proclamation of President G. W. Crawford, the 
 Convention reassembled, on March 7th, at Savannah; 
 and after ratifying the permanent constitution of the 
 Confederate States, revising the constitution of the 
 State, and the passage of such ordinances as were neces- 
 sary to adjust tho State to its new relations and provide 
 for such exigencies as the changed order of things might 
 create, adjourned sine die, on March 23, 1861. 
 
 There followed a restless, feverish state of the public 
 mind. Secession orators and leaders assured the peo- 
 ple "That we were in the midst of the most remarkable 
 
MEN AND THINGS 77 
 
 revolution of history — remarkable because peaceful." 
 The intuition of the common people taught them better. 
 The coming event had "cast its shadow before." They 
 had no doubt but that war would result, and were far 
 from being a unit in favor of the policy of secession, 
 until the fire upon Sumter, and the proclamation of 
 President Lincoln calling for 75,000 men to suppress 
 the insurrection, dispelled the peace delusion, and united 
 the Southern people from "many as the billows, to 
 one as the sea," in the defense of their firesides, their 
 altars and their homes. 
 
 Lincoln's proclamation determined the course of Vir- 
 ginia and Tennessee; and they joined the Southern 
 sisterhood. Robert E. Lee and Albert Sydney John- 
 ston resig-ned their commissions in the United States 
 Army, and tendered their stainless blades to the land of 
 their nativity and allegiance. The latter was at San 
 Francisco, Cal., at the time, and made his way in mid- 
 summer, across the desert to Texas, the State of his 
 adoption and his love. His escort was thirty brave 
 young men (some of them army officers), who had 
 formed the resolution to cast their fortunes with the 
 South, without any knowledge of his purpose to do so. 
 They were only too glad to be joined by such a com- 
 rade. They ran the gauntlet of a cordon of Federal 
 garrisons from Los Angeles to Fort Fillmore, infested 
 with hostile Indians, robbers and marauders, under a 
 temperature that was burning, and a thirst consuming, 
 for a distance of fifteen hundred miles, moving mostly 
 during the night, requiring six weeks time, and accom- 
 plished the march without a serious mishap or adventure. 
 
78 MEN AND THING8 
 
 The brave people of Kentucky, Missouri and Mary- 
 land, writhing in the crucifixion of a conflict between 
 the sentiments of love for the Union and hatred of op- 
 pression, stood for the neutrality of their respective 
 States until the policy and power of the Federal Gov- 
 ernment bound them in the chains of slavery and tram- 
 pled them in the dust and blood of despotism, and se- 
 cured from the border States two hundred and fifty 
 thousand of the best troops in the Union Army. It 
 was then too late to correct the mistake. The States 
 of Kentucky and Missouri then had democratic admin- 
 istrations, and if these great States had united with the 
 Confederacy at the beginning, the final result might, 
 and probably would, have been different. 
 
 The promptness with which Maj. Anderson surren- 
 dered Fort Sumter, intensified the enthusiasm of the 
 excitable and impulsive, and increased the delusion that 
 the conflict would be short and successful. Among the 
 young men, especially, there was a restless rush to enter 
 the military service. The unreflecting esteemed it a 
 sort of holiday recreation, and hungered and thirsted 
 for the excitement of the fray. People of thoughtful- 
 ness, familiar with history, and who understood the 
 character of the American people, knew better. It is 
 due to this class of young men who entered the service 
 early, unburdened with families and business obliga- 
 tions and relations, to say that they developed into the 
 finest soldiers the world over saw. Trained by disci- 
 pline to subordination, thrilled by the impulse of an 
 ardent patriotism, led by soldiers like Robert E. 
 Lee, Albert Sydney Johnston, Stonewall Jackson and 
 
MEN AND THINGS 79 
 
 Bedford jST. Forrest, they were invincible to any antago- 
 nist but death. The author joined the first company 
 of volunteers raised in the county of Forsyth, but a 
 large mass-meeting of the people requested him, by reso- 
 lution — unanimously adopted — to withdraw from the 
 company and remain at home for the present, to aid 
 in raising troops and in making provision for the fami- 
 lies of such as might need assistance, with which reso- 
 lution he complied. 
 
 The battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861, was a brilliant 
 triumph of the Confederates and gratifying to South- 
 ern pride and complimentary to valor; but it 
 increased the delusion under which the Southern 
 people labored as to the continuance and result 
 of the war. The masses of them knew nothing 
 of Gen. Scott's plan to overwhelm the Confederacy with 
 three grand armies, one to move against Richmond, 
 another down the Mississippi River, and the third to 
 bisect the Confederacy diagonally from Louisville via 
 the L. & X. railway to the sea. Nor did they know 
 of the vast efforts and resources employed for the 
 organization and equipment of these immense armies ; 
 nor were they fully aroused to a sense of their danger 
 until the disaster of Forts Henry and Donelson ; and 
 the retreat of Albert Sydney Johnston from Bowling 
 Green, to the south bank of the Tennessee River, brought 
 them to a realization of their peril. 
 
 The year 1861 was fruitful in local strife in the bor- 
 der States, and elaborate preparation for the fearful 
 struggle to follow, Tn October I was elected to the 
 Senate. This was the first general election under the 
 
80 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 revised constitution, bv which the Senators were reduced 
 to fortj-folir in number. The counties of Cherokee, 
 Forsyth and Milton formed the thirty-ninth district. 
 The Legislature met in Xovember. It was the first 
 General Assembly after the secession of the States, and 
 the formation of the Confederacy. All classes, profes- 
 sions and avocations in the State were represented by 
 typical men — men of high personal character, eminent 
 ability and unselfish patriotism. Warren Akin was 
 elected speaker of the House of Eepresentatives. On 
 its roll of members appears the names Elbridge G. Caba- 
 niss, Thos. M. ]^orwood, George Is". Lester, Thomas G. 
 Lawson, George T. Barnes, Osborne L. Smith, Milton 
 A. Candler and many others of merit and ability. The 
 Senate was organized by the election of that accom- 
 plished and scholarly gentleman, John Billups, presi- 
 dent, and James M. Mobley, secretary. The agricul- 
 turalists had superb representatives in the Senate in 
 Wm. M. Bro^ra, Wm. M. Hill, Timothy Furlow, Kich- 
 ard Lane and Samuel Y. Jamison ; the bar in James 
 L. Seward, Miles W. Lewis, William Gibson, George 
 Gordon, A. J. Hansell, James P. Simmons, Samuel D. 
 Killen and Weir Boyd ; medicine in Drs. Winn and 
 Beasley; and scholarship in Joseph H. Echols. The 
 Senate was a body of very able and patriotic men, ani- 
 mated with the single purpose of faithfully discharging 
 their duty to the State, in the hour of existing and im- 
 pending national calamity. They were distinguished 
 for their ability and moderation, their wisdom and pa- 
 triotism, their courtesy in official and social relations, 
 their viffor and fairness in debate, and unselfish devo- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 81 
 
 tion to the public interest. This Legislature sought, as 
 far as possible, to husband the resources of the State, 
 mitigate the burdens of her people, and strengthen the 
 arm of the Confederate government. 
 
 So far as he is informed, the writer is the only sur- 
 vivor of that body of patriotic public servants. The 
 personal friendship and delightful association with 
 these Senators has always been and continues to be, a 
 most pleasant memory to liim. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 In The Wae. 
 
 The picnic phase of the war passed with the year 
 1861. 
 
 The following year opened, with the conviction uni- 
 versally prevailing, that it would be protracted, stubborn 
 and bloody. The call of the government for more troops 
 was urgent; and in response thereto, the Governor of 
 Georgia issued his order for twelve regiments of volun- 
 teers, to serve for three years, or during the war. Henry 
 C. Kellogg raised one company of 100 men and the 
 writer another of an equal number in Forsyth County. 
 These companies repaired to Camp McDonald early in 
 March, 1862, for organization into regiments. These 
 two — "E" and "I" — Captains, Kellogg and Bell; two 
 from Cherokee— "A" and "B"— Captains, Mullin and 
 Grantham; two from Jackson — "G" and "H" — Cap- 
 tains, Story and Howard; two from Hall — "F" and 
 "H" — Captains, Law and Reeves; one from Pickens — 
 "C" — Captain, Harris, and one from Banks — "D" — 
 Captain, Ragsdale, were formed into the Forty-third 
 Regiment of Georgia Volunteers. The field officers 
 elected to command it were : Skidmore Harris, Colonel ; 
 H. P. Bell, Lieutenant-Colonel, and Henry C. Kellogg, 
 Major. Early in April the regiment was ordered to 
 Chattanooga, where it soon entered upon the usual 
 
 82 
 
MEN AND THINGS 83 
 
 experience of raw recruits — in sickness, superin- 
 duced by the change of the habits and comforts 
 of home-life, to the exposure, privation and duties 
 of life in the camp. Measles, flux, dysentery and 
 brain fever attacked the troops; some died and nearly 
 all, were more or less, sick. In this condition of 
 affairs, Brigadier-General Ledbetter, who was command- 
 ing at Chattanooga, was ordered to Bridgeport to defend 
 the railroad bridge against General Mitchell, who, with 
 a column, six thousand strong, from Buell's army, was 
 advancing to seize it. General Ledbetter gathered all of 
 his soldiers that were able to move, not exceeding 500 in 
 number, crossed the river and formed his line of battle 
 on the west bank, sending out scouts under Lieutenanc 
 Rheinheart to ascertain and report the movements of the 
 enemy. Starnes' cavalry reported that the enemy was 
 rapidly approaching in forces. Convinced of his in- 
 ability to resist it, General Ledbetter ordered his troops 
 to fall back across the river, which they did in order. 
 Their camp equipage, knapsacks, etc., were placed on a 
 hand-car to run over the bridge. After all had crossed 
 except those in charge of the hand-car, and General Led- 
 better, Lieutenant-Colonel Jackson and the writer, who 
 were awaiting the return of the scouts, the enemy's bat- 
 tery opened fire on us from the top of the hill, with a 
 storm of grape and canister. Rheinheart had been 
 wounded and he and his scouts captured. We walked 
 across the bridge in a tempest of balls and splinters from 
 the battery, not 400 yards distant, without being struck. 
 It was not a comfortable experience. The hand-car was 
 behind us, near the middle of the river. It struck me 
 
84 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 and knocked me from the plank, upon which I was 
 walking, and but for the accident of falling diagonally 
 across the bridge-timbers I would have gone to the bot- 
 tom of the river. This episode added nothing to the 
 comfort of the occasion. Just as the hand-car reached 
 the end of the bridge it ran over a soldier and cut off, 
 entirely, both of his lower limbs at the trunk, and the 
 poor fellow was wallowing in his blood and gasping in 
 the agonies of a horrible death. 
 
 The bridge was blown up and the advance of the 
 enemy, by that means, arrested. This was my introduc- 
 tion "to the pomp and glorious circumstance of war." 
 
 When I entered the army, with the opinion enter- 
 tained of the magnitude and duration of the war, I did 
 not cherish the slightest hope of escaping death. In 
 middle life, without military training or predilection, 
 and honored with command, my only resource was to 
 obey orders, do my duty and perish rather than soil the 
 escutcheon of my wife and children with the stain of 
 cowardice. This I resolved to do, and never faltered in 
 keeping this resolution. The first test came at Bridge- 
 port. I was in .command of the regiment, but so sick 
 that I could scarcely stand on my feet, but I did stand 
 all day, though in agony, and without complaint. When 
 a field officer pleads sick, in the hour of danger, the bur- 
 den of proof is upon him. The result of this affair was 
 an attack of fever that kept me in bed for three months, 
 with the balance quivering in uncertainty most of the 
 time. I rejoined the regiment the last of July, still 
 feeble, in East Tennessee, near Morristown. 
 
 The regiment, then in Reynolds' brigade, was or- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 85 
 
 dered to Cumberland Gap, then strongly fortified, and 
 occupied by the Federals under Gen. Morgan. There 
 was a fight with the Federals, under DeCoursey, at 
 Tazewell, resulting in DeCoursey's defeat, and his with- 
 drawal and return to the gap. Nothing of interest oc- 
 curred except occasional firing between the pickets and 
 foraging parties of the hostile forces, until the last of 
 August, when, in conjunction with Bragg's invasion 
 of Kentucky, Kirby Smith's column crossed the Cum- 
 berland Mountains at Rogers' Gap and the Federals 
 evacuated their stronghold and fell back toward the 
 Ohio. Smith had a sharp engagement early in 
 September with ISTelson at Richmond, in which 
 he won a brilliant triumph over superior num- 
 bers, capturing many prisoners and a large amount 
 of arms, etc., and completely routed the Federal forces. 
 Bragg captured Mumsfordsville, moving in the di- 
 rection of Louisville; Smith moved to Lexing- 
 ton. We were then in the far-famed "Blue grass re- 
 gion of Kentucky," The counties of Fayette, Bour- 
 bon, Madison, Scott, Jessamine and Harrison form the 
 most beautiful country I ever beheld. Its broad, ma- 
 cadamized pikes, its palatial homes, its baronial farms, 
 its expansive fields of blue grass, with their fat, slick, 
 grazing herds ; its beautiful forests of walnut, beach, 
 maple and elms, touched with the first tints of autumn 
 — all conspired to heighten its charms. But I con- 
 fess to being absorbed in other thoughts. We were in 
 the birthland of Lincoln and Davis, among a people, the 
 valor of whose forefathers, at Broadaxe, Wisconsin 
 Heights, Tippecanoe, Thames, ISTew Orleans, Buena 
 
86 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 Vista, Cerro Gordo, Cherubusco, Chapultepec and Mo- 
 lino del Key, had shed the light of imperishable glory 
 upon the chivalry of Kentuckians and the history of 
 Kentucky — a State whose glorious history is illus- 
 trated with a long list of illustrious jurists, ora- 
 tors, statesmen, heroes and poets — with her Clays 
 and Crittendens, her Marshalls and Breckenridges, 
 her Prestons and Johnsons, her Prentices, War- 
 fields and Welbys — a glorious list of names that eclipse 
 the proudest that emblazon the escutcheon of ISTorman 
 heraldry. A land whose men are brave as Csesar, and 
 whose women, more beautiful than "the star-eyed Sor- 
 ceress of the Xile," was now hopelessly divided, and 
 trampling the flowers of this Eden in the blood of civil 
 strife and fratricidal slaughter. 
 
 Smith advanced to Covington, causing consternation 
 in Cincinnati. I established and commanded the Con- 
 federate picket line in front of Covington. 
 
 The result of this campaign was the evacuation of 
 ISTashville and Cumberland Gap by the Federals, the 
 inauguration of Ilawes, Governor at Frankfort, the 
 capture of Mumsfordsville by Bragg, the victory of 
 Smith over I^elson, at Richmond, and the bloody battle 
 of Perrysalle. This battle was fought by Bragg after 
 the Confederate retreat and Federal pursuit began. 
 The Confederates captured a large number of prisoners 
 and arms, besides securing and sending out a vast 
 amount of commissary stores. Bragg returned to Mur- 
 freesboro; Smith, to Knoxville, and the Federal army 
 to ISTashville. T resigned my seat in the Senate, at 
 Georgeto\^^l, Ky., in September, 1862, in time to elect 
 
MEN AND THINGS 87 
 
 a successor before the meeting of the General Assembly. 
 Hon. James K. Brown was elected to fill the vacancy. 
 I shall never cease to cherish kind and tender memories 
 of the hospitality of Kentucky Confederates. Riding 
 along a street in Lexington, literally covered with dust, 
 a beautiful woman came out of a handsome cottage, to 
 the gate, and asked me to alight, '^Come in and have 
 breakfast." The want of harmony between her ap- 
 pearance and mine induced me to make an effort to ex- 
 cuse myself, which proved unavailing. I went in, and 
 met the hospitality of a sparkling julep and a delight- 
 ful breakfast, dispensed with the charming grace, dig- 
 nity and elegance for which the sex is distinguished. 
 I felt something of the sentiment which, I suppose 
 thrilled the heart of the Indian when he discovered the 
 Alabama, and christened it into the name of "Here we 
 rest." J^ear Paris, I was attacked violently with bil- 
 ious fever. I was taken to the elegant home of Frank 
 Ford, who, with his good wife, gave me special atten- 
 tion and tender nursing for eight or ten days; at the 
 same time keeping up with the movements of the op- 
 posing forces, with the view of preventing my capture. 
 Finally he informed me that the movements of Wool- 
 ford's cavalry made it vital to me to leave. He put 
 me into his buggy and drove me, in the night, a distance 
 of twenty miles, to Lexington, with a negro boy to ride 
 a horse which he had given to me. I found at the hotel 
 a member of Bragg's staff, sick, and much exercised for 
 his safety. The next afternoon T left Lexington in the 
 direction of Xicholasville, on horseback. After pro- 
 ceeding five or six miles I broke down and could pro- 
 
88 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 ceed no further. I stopped at the home of Elijah 
 Bryan and remained here more than a week. Mr. 
 Bryan had another guest, in the person of a pale, sick, 
 slender youth, who belonged to Churchill's Brigade. 
 He had been in the battle at Kichmond. His age, size 
 and condition, with his intelligence, coolness and cour- 
 age, impressed me greatly. 
 
 The retreat of the Confederates was a severe blow to 
 Southern sympathizers. As the Federals fell back and 
 the Confederates advanced, they hoped the war would 
 be transferred across the Ohio. They were jubilant at 
 the coming, and in tears at the departure of the Con- 
 federate army. It was to them unexpected and dis- 
 appointing. Everybody was on the qui vive for news. 
 All sorts of rumors were flying in every direction as to 
 the movements of the troops of the respective armies. 
 Under the observation and information of Mr. Bryan, 
 I finally ascertained the location and movement of my 
 command, and convinced that if I escaped capture, no 
 time must be lost, I determined to make the effort to 
 rejoin it. Mr. Bryan repeated precisely the kindness 
 of Mr. Ford, by putting a negro boy on my horse, and 
 taking me in his buggy, delivered both at the bridge 
 across the Kentucky Eiver just as it was being set on 
 fire by order of the Confederates. With a grateful 
 heart I bade my friend "good-bye," mounted my horse 
 and was the last to cross the bridge. I held up better 
 than I expected that day, and stopped at a comfortable 
 Kentucky home, where I had some rest. I awoke in 
 the morning to find that someone, during the night, had 
 swapped horses with me. M\ horse (the present from 
 
ME2i AND THINGS 89 
 
 Mr. Ford), was large, fat and able. In his place I 
 found a very thin colt, utterly broken down, with a 
 horribly sore back, and so weak that it staggered in 
 walking. The only thing to be done was to take the 
 chances with the colt. So, shortening my saddle-girth 
 a few feet and putting on the saddle, I mounted the 
 crippled colt, to escape the Federal army. When I 
 reached the command and removed the saddle, the colt 
 tumbled down, where it was left when the camp moved. 
 The comforts of that day's travel were not promoted by 
 the kind ( ?) assurance of everyone I passed, or met, 
 that "I was gone up," that the "Yankees will get you." 
 With my facilities for movement, it was a little tanta- 
 lizing to be constantly advised as I was, to "hurry up." 
 After resting a few days at Lenoir's Station, we were 
 ordered to Eeadysville, and thence, on December 19th, 
 took the train at Tullahoma for Vicksburg, where we 
 arrived on the evening of December 27th, and marched 
 from the train, into line of battle, at Chickasaw Bayou, 
 where the fight was in progress. I was in command of 
 the regiment. The troops on that part of the line all 
 next day (Sunday), were under constant fire of shells 
 and sharpshooters.— About sun-up, I was ordered to 
 change the position of the regiment, and while moving 
 to the new position, was shot by a sharpshooter. I was 
 carried to the rear, and at night removed to the hospital 
 in Vicksburg. 
 
 Singular coincidences often occur. Maj. Humble, 
 of Louisiana, was shot in the knee; Lt.-Col. Timmons, 
 of Texas, in the ankle, and I in the leg, equidistant 
 from the knee and ankle, on the same day, and met at 
 
90 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 the hospital at night. Maj. Humble died that night. 
 Lt.-Col. Timmons and I were removed to a private 
 house in the suburbs of the city, and placed in the same 
 room. His foot was amputated and he died. The ball 
 that hit me, ranged between the two bones of the limb, 
 lodging in the knee-joint, destroying the periosteum, 
 caries of the bone succeeded, and gangTene in its most 
 malignant type, supervened, defying arrest by the sur- 
 geons. The sloughing progressed with a rapidity and 
 to an extent that was startling. Half a dozen army 
 surgeons, upon consultation, adjudged the case hope- 
 less, and so informed my wife by telegram. My host- 
 ess, Mrs. Eberline, told the doctors that pulverized loaf- 
 sugar would arrest the sloughing, which of course, they 
 ridiculed. But when they surrendered the case as 
 hopeless, they told her she could try her sugar. She 
 pulverized a plateful, sifted it through a muslin cloth, 
 and applied it to the wound. I never had any idea of 
 the intensity of agony until then ; the only way to con- 
 ceive of it was to feel it. The third application en- 
 tirely arrested the sloughing, and within two or three 
 days the wound, which was a large and ghastly one, 
 began a healthy granulation. It turned out that Mrs. 
 Eberline was one of those inspired geniuses in the dis- 
 covery of simple remedies for emergent ailments with 
 which we sometimes, though rarely, meet. That she 
 was the human agent that saved my life, I have never 
 entertained the slightest doubt. T have been thus par- 
 ticular in recording in detail, what may seem to others 
 a very small matter, in the hope that sometime, some- 
 where, the facts may be of value to somebody. On 
 
MEN AND THINGS 91 
 
 March 8, 1863, occupying a litter, I was placed on the 
 train, under the care of that true soldier and faithful 
 friend, M. H. Eakes, now a useful member of the 
 Xorth Georgia Conference of the M. E. Church, South, 
 and reached home a week later. During the year, with 
 two exceptions, capture and death, I had passed through 
 all the vicissitudes and experience of soldier-life, of 
 hunger and thirst, heat and cold, dust and mud, weary 
 marches and sleepless bivouacs, sickness and wounds; 
 and perhaps had suffered more, and done less, than any 
 soldier in the Confederate service. Col. Harris was 
 killed at Bakers' Creek. I was promoted to the Colo- 
 nelcy and resigned. Kellogg was promoted, and was 
 wounded at 'New Hope; but, with Joseph E. Johnson, 
 surrendered the shattered remnant of the Forty-third 
 Georgia Volunteers at Greensboro, INT. C, in 1865. 
 Frank Simmons concealed the regimental flag, and 
 brought it home. He concealed it by wrapping it 
 around his person, under his shirt. Its tattered frag- 
 ments are now with the Archives of the Regimental As- 
 sociation. 
 
CHAPTER XIL 
 
 Second Confedekate Congress. 
 
 In October, 1863, I was elected representative from 
 the ninth district, to the second Congress of the Con- 
 federate States. The Congress met in Richmond in 
 December. The House of Representatives was com- 
 posed of the following gentlemen, from: 
 
 Alabama — Thomas J. Foster, William R. Smith, M. 
 H. Criiickshank, David Clopton, F. S. Lyon, W. P. 
 Chilton, James L, Pugh, James S. Dickinson. 
 
 Arkansas — Felix I. Batson, Rufus K. Garland, T. 
 B. Handley, Augustus H. Garland. 
 
 Florida — S. St.George Rogers, R. B. Hilton. 
 
 Georgia — Julian Hartridge, W. E. Smith, M. H. 
 Blandford, Clifford Anderson, John T. Shewmake, Jos. 
 H. Echols, James M. Smith, George N. Lester, Hiram 
 P. Bell, Warren Akin. 
 
 Kentucky — W. B. Machen, George W. Triplett, 
 Henry E. Read, George W. Ewing, James S. Chris- 
 man, H. W. Bruce, Humphry Marshall, E. M. Bruce, 
 James W. Moore, B. F. Bradley, John M. Elliott. 
 
 Louisiana — Charles J. Viller, Charles M. Conrad, 
 Duncan F. Kenner, L. J. Dupree, John Perkins, Jr. 
 
 Mississippi — J. A. Orr, W. D. Holder, Israel Welch, 
 H. C. Chambers, O. R. Singleton, E. Barksdale, John 
 T. Lampkin. 
 
 92 
 
MEN AND THINGS 93 
 
 Missouri — Thomas L. Sneed, N. T. Xorton, John 
 B. Clark, A. H. Conrow, G. G. Vest, P. S. Wilks, R. 
 
 A. Hatcher. 
 
 North Carolina — W. jST. H. Smith, R. R. Bridges, 
 James T. Leach, Thomas C. Fuller, Josiah Turner, 
 John A. Gilmer, James M. Leach, James G. Ramsay, 
 
 B. S. Gaither, George W. Logan. 
 
 South Carolina — James H. Witherspoon, Wm. 
 Porcher Miles, L. M. Ayer, W. D. Simpson, James Far- 
 row, W. W. Boyce. 
 
 Tennessee — J. B, Heiskell, W. G. Swan, A. S. 
 Colyar, J. P. Murray, H. S. Foote, E. A. Keeble, Jas. 
 McCallam, Thomas Menees, J. D. C. Atkins, John V. 
 Wright, M. W. Clusky. 
 
 Texas— S. M. Darden, C. C. Herbert, A. M. Branch, 
 F. B. Sexton, John R. Baylor, S. H. Morgan. 
 
 Virginia— R. L. Montague, R. H. Whitfield, W. C. 
 Wickham, Thomas Gholson, Thomas S. Bocock, John 
 T. Goode, Jr., W. C. Rives, D. C. DeJannette, D. Fun- 
 sten, T. W. M. Holliday, John B. Baldwin, W. R. 
 Staples, S. A. Miller, Robt. Johnston, C. W. Russell. 
 
 DELEGATES FROM THE TERRITORIES. 
 
 Arizona Territory — M. H. McWillie, Cherokee 
 Nation; E. C. Bowdinot, Choctaw Nation; R. M. 
 Jones, Creek and Seminole Nations ; S. B. Callahan. 
 
 Thomas S. Bocock, of Virginia, was elected speaker, 
 and A. R. Lamar, of Georgia, clerk. 
 
 The First Congress imder the permanent Confeder- 
 ate Government had been in session often during its 
 
94 ME IS! AND THINGS 
 
 term, and had made provision by law for the use of 
 all our men and means in supporting the prosecution 
 of the war. That body had enacted the Conscript law, 
 which placed every able-bodied man and boy between 
 the ages of eighteen and forty-five, in the Confederacy 
 (except in the border States), and established the Con- 
 stript Bureau, charged with the duty of their enroll- 
 ment in the military service of the Government. It 
 had imposed enormous taxes upon the people, including 
 a heavy tax in kind ; in a word — it had reaped the field 
 of resources and but little to glean, by the Second Con- 
 gress, had been left. Up to July, 1863 — in the lan- 
 guage of the French Minister, M. Douyrs de I'Hays, the 
 "strusffle seemed to be balanced" with the scales in- 
 dining in favor of the Confederacy. But upon the re- 
 sult of the battle of Gettysburg and the siege of Vicks- 
 burg, "gravitation, shifting, turned the other way" and 
 with separation from the trans-Mississippi portion of 
 the Confederacy, by the Federal control of the river, 
 and the loss of supplies drawn therefrom; for that 
 reason, the fortunes of the Confederacy had something 
 of the appearance of desperation. The proposition of 
 France to the English and Russian Governments, to 
 unite with her in an effort to secure an armistice, with 
 the view of myolitions for peace, had been declined. 
 Foreign governments recognized under their interpre- 
 tation of International Law, the sufficiency of the block- 
 ade of Confederate ports. The neutrality of these gov- 
 ernments prevented our privateers from entering their 
 ports with their captures for adjudication as prizes; 
 and therefore, they had to be burned or sunk, at sea 
 
MEN AND THINGS 95 
 
 The railroads were worn out and transportation crip- 
 pled. The constant withdrawal of labor from the 
 farms was diminishing the production of supplies; 
 great numbers of so-called ''homeguards," and "details" 
 were scouring the country in search of conscripts and 
 deserters. Trusted leaders like Johnson, Jackson, Polk 
 and a host of others of inferior rank, but equal courage, 
 like Ashbv, Morgan, Barksdale, Cleburne and hundreds 
 of others, had fallen. The women and such children 
 as were large enough to aid them, were making a most 
 heroic struggle to keep the wolf away. The State gov- 
 ernments, as fast and as much as they could, were dol- 
 ing out pittances of corn, flour and cotton-cards to aid 
 them in tlie fearful effort for food and clothing. The 
 men who had passed middle life and raised families, 
 who were accustomed to peaceful pursuits of agricul- 
 ture, and the enjoyment of domestic life, without mili- 
 tary aptitude or ambition, were unfit for soldiers. Sol- 
 diers are made as well as born, and more made than 
 born soldiers. The city of Richmond was practically 
 beleagurered by an army of overwhelming numbers am- 
 ply equipped, bountifully supplied, and ably com- 
 manded. It was defended by a force wholly inadequate 
 in numbers, badly clothed and poorly fed. Judge Geo. 
 IS". Lester and myself called on a certain Simday, to see 
 our friends in the trenches, around the city. The late 
 Judge X. L. Hutchins, Jr., the Colonel commanding a 
 battalion of sharpshooters, invited us to dinner. The 
 spread consisted of thin, gi'een, sour sorghum syrup and 
 coarse corn bread. This was no fault of the Govern- 
 ment, nor its ofilcials. It was the misfortune of our 
 
96 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 situation. The government exhausted all of its powers 
 and resources, in the effort to provide for the necessi- 
 ties and comforts of its heroic defenders, yet these brave 
 men stood by their flag and defended their convictions 
 with a valor never surpassed, under the leadership of a 
 General without an equal. It was under these condi- 
 tions and surroundings that the Second Confederate 
 Congress met, transacted the public business, and wit- 
 nessed the dying agonies of a Government, instituted 
 to preserve and perpetuate the inalienable right of civil 
 self-government. 
 
 It is interesting to consider the military operations 
 around the city of Richmond, while CongTess was in 
 session. In the latter part of the winter, and early 
 portion of the spring, Grant and Lee were confronting 
 each other, north of Richmond. The former, with an 
 army of 141,160 troops and an available reserve of 
 137,602. The force of the latter numbered 50,000, 
 with no reserves. The campaign was opened by a 
 movement of Kilpatrick, Custer and Dalgreen to cut 
 Lee's communication with Richmond, and by a sudden 
 dash, release the Federal prisoners, assassinate Presi- 
 dent Davis, and his Cabinet, and sack and burn the 
 city. Dalgreen was met by the War and Treasury De- 
 partment Clerks and volimteer citizens, not liable to 
 military duty, at the outer defenses of the city, and re- 
 pulsed with considerable loss — he being among the 
 killed. Custer retreated, burning the bridges behind 
 him; Sheridan, with 8,000 tropps, was approaching 
 when Stewart gathered up a force of 7,100 men, ha- 
 rassed his rear, and by a detour, and forced marches, 
 
MEN AND THINGS 97 
 
 flanked him and appeared in his front at "Yellow Tav- 
 ern," six miles from Richmond, where, being reinforced 
 by the department clerks, he was engaged and repulsed. 
 The brave Stewart, at the head of his column, with everv 
 chamber of his pistol empty, fell, mortally wounded. 
 On May 1st, Gen. Butler arrived at Bermuda Hundred. 
 
 On May 3rd, Grant and Lee fought the great battle 
 of the "Wilderness," which continued for three days. 
 The United States forces being driven back. Grant 
 withdrew and swung around to Spottsylvania Court- 
 house, where Lee promptly met him, and the fight was 
 renewed and the field made historic by a baptism of 
 blood. The armies confronting and fighting almost 
 daily, moved in the direction of Richmond until they 
 met in the terrible death grapple of slaughter and blood 
 at Cold Harbor. I shall never forget the feelings I 
 experienced while standing on Capitol Hill, in Rich- 
 mond, listening at the guns sounding the death knell of 
 the Confederacy. 
 
 While these environments were not favorable to calm 
 and deliberate legislation, the Congress was undismayed 
 end entered in a business-like way, upon the dis- 
 charge of its duties. In fact, its duties were few and 
 simple — only to provide for the increase of the array 
 and its support, and for these purposes there were no 
 means or resources of men, money or supplies to be ob- 
 tained. The only thing that could be done, therefore, 
 was to go through the form of legislatiop. This, Con- 
 gress proceeded to do. The questions of leading inter- 
 est, discussed and considered, were the increase of taxa- 
 tion, the extension of conscription, the suspension of 
 
98 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 the writ of Habeas Corpus, the employment of negroes 
 in the ranks, and the appointment of a Peace Commis- 
 sion. 
 
 It must be remembered that the men in the trenches 
 had families at home, struggling against starvation. 
 When the tax bill was imder consideration, I submitted 
 an amendment exempting the products of the garden, 
 orchard and dairy, when used for the support of the 
 family, and not for sale. Hon. Charles M. Conrad — 
 not distinguished for comeliness of person, who wore a 
 wig of rather long, faded hair, of nondescript color — by 
 way of ridicule, proposed to amend my amendment by 
 adding "butter and eggs." Another statesman, who had 
 been imbibing freely (it was in night session), moved to 
 add "bees-wax and tallow." Quite a ripple of amuse- 
 ment passed through the House, at my expense. AVhen 
 it subsided, I arose and spoke as follows : 
 
 Mr. Speaker: "I accept both amendments, for the 
 reason that they extend the aid which my amendment 
 is designed to give to the toiling women and children 
 of the country, to prevent their starvation. I appre- 
 hend that their gallant husbands and fathers in the 
 trenches around this beleaguered capitol, upon whom 
 we depend for our personal safety, will not appreciate 
 the statesmanship that would deride by ridicule, aii 
 effort to help those dearer to their hearts than the blood 
 they so freely give for our protection. E"or will their 
 respect be increased for the wisdom and gravity of legis- 
 lators who can derive amusement from such derision. 
 I confess my surprise at this feeble effort at wit, com- 
 ing from the gentleman from Louisiana. He is a sort 
 
MEN AND THINGS 99 
 
 of favorite with me. I was charmed by his appearance 
 the first time I saw him. Indeed, I had come to the 
 conclusion to beg of him the favor of a lock of his beau- 
 tiful hair, to keep as a souvenir of both his exalted 
 statesmanship and his personal pulchritude." 
 
 After thoroughly discussing the bills to increase taxa- 
 tion and extend conscription, wnth the certainty that 
 neither could be done, Congress passed them both. The 
 first law provided for the enrollment of those between 
 the ages of eighteen and forty-five years. The new law 
 included those between seventeen and fifty years of age. 
 While the chairman of the committee on military af- 
 fairs, Hon. W. P. Miles, was discussing the conscript 
 bill with regard to including ministers of the Gospel, 
 a member asked him the question "did not St. Paul 
 labor ? Was he not a tent maker ?" to which, in much 
 confusion, he replied, "I will say to the gentleman, that 
 I can not answer his questions at present, as I am not 
 fresh from the authorities upon the subject." Perhaps 
 the ablest discussion of the Congress was that upon 
 the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus. It was 
 not suspended. The question of enlisting the negroes 
 into the ranks as soldiers was long disputed, and the 
 bill for that purpose finally passed. Grant had said 
 that the Confederacy had "robbed the cradle and the 
 grave" to recruit its armies, and had calculated on suc- 
 cess with mathematical certainty on the basis that when 
 the last Confederate soldier was dead, the United States 
 would still have an army left. The argument was that 
 they could not conquer the Confederates, but that by 
 holding on long enough, they could destroy them. And 
 
100 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 it was for this reason that the United States Govern- 
 ment, under Grant's advice, refused to exchange pris- 
 oners. Every Confederate held in prison was equiva- 
 lent to a dead soldier. The Confederacy had put its 
 last man into the field. The Union had an army that 
 quadrupled its numbers, already in the field, with large 
 resources of men at home ; and the world from which to 
 recruit its depleted ranks, with agents abroad actively 
 engaged in enlisting mercenaries. The United States 
 Government, therefore, cruelly allowed thousands of 
 brave men on both sides to suffer, languish, and die in 
 prison, rather than exchange them, in conformity to 
 the usage of civilized warfare. To put the negroes 
 into the ranks in sufficient numbers to do any good 
 would have soon diminished the production of supplies 
 to the starvation point. If they had the capability of 
 becoming soldiers, the time required for their organi- 
 zation and training, made their employment too late. 
 The Confederacy was rapidly tottering to its fall. 
 
 The members of the House of Representatives were, 
 in the main, able men. There was among them a small 
 class of impulsive, enthusiastic optimists, inclined to 
 radicalism. There was another class of wise, practi- 
 cal, conservative men, who knew that it required men 
 and money to prosecute successful war ; and that the 
 Confederacy had neither. This class clearly saw that 
 the end was near. Anxious to save whatever could be 
 secured, from the final wreck, and make a last desper- 
 ate effort to accomplish that object, they favored an ef- 
 fort at negotiation, the appointment of a commis- 
 sion to the Government of the United States, to 
 
MEN AND THINGS 101 
 
 ascertain upon what terms peace could be made and the 
 war ended. Four men, Adkins, of Tenn., Echols, Les- 
 ter and Bell, of Ga., were quietly active and prominent 
 in originating this movement. It was soon discovered 
 that many members favored it. 
 
 In the meantime, Francis P. Blair appeared in 
 Richmond from Washington, upon what was under- 
 stood or conjectured to be, a sort of unofficial peace 
 mission. The sentiment in favor of an effort at nego- 
 tiation grew rapidly. A meeting was held at the 
 "Ballard House," over which Hon. W. A. Graham, 
 Senator from J^orth Carolina, presided. At this meet- 
 ing, after full consideration, it was resolved to intro- 
 duce and press the passage in the House of Representa- 
 tives a resolution authorizing and requesting the Presi- 
 dent to appoint a commission for that purpose. The 
 morning after the meeting the Richmond Sentinel came 
 out in an article with the sensational head-lines : "Trea- 
 son! Treason!" bitterly denouncing the meeting as a 
 traitorous conspiracy against the Confederacy. 
 
 When President Davis was informed of this move- 
 ment, he stated promptly and frankly that if it was 
 thought best, he would appoint the commission at once, 
 without awaiting the action of Congress. He had an 
 interview with the vice-president upon the subject, in 
 which it was determined to appoint the commission. 
 The President asked Mr. Stephens to suggest a com- 
 missioner; he named Judge Campbell. The President 
 then named Senator Hunter and asked Mr. Stephens to 
 be a member of it, to which he agreed. And the 
 Hampton Roads Commission was raised. 
 
102 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 It was a bright Sunday morning when the commis- 
 sioners left Richmond to meet the United States Com- 
 mission, upon this high embassy. The result of the 
 meeting is history. When the Confederacy embarked 
 on her career, one of her first acts was the dispatch of 
 commissioners to the United States Government at 
 Washington, to settle all matters of controversy peace- 
 ably by negotiation. They were rejected. In the 
 final catastrophe she went down with the olive branch 
 held out to her foes. Surely she is exempt from re- 
 sponsibility for the bloodshed and slaughter which nego- 
 tiation might have avoided. 
 
 The friends of this movement, to secure peace, had 
 but little hope of success, but they felt better after ex- 
 hausting their last effort in that direction. The failure 
 seemed to intensify the determination to die in the last 
 ditch. Mr. Davis made a stirring speech to a large 
 crowd in the African Church. Dr. James A. Duncan, 
 the eloquent pastor of the Broad Street Methodist 
 Church, preached a masterful sermon, from the text: 
 "The Sword of the Lord and Gideon" intended to 
 strengthen the spirit of resistance, and rekindle the 
 light of dying hope. But great speeches and eloquent 
 sermons can not beat great armies, led by able generals. 
 Soldiers, supplies, arms, equipments and money, are 
 the instruments that win battles. President Jefferson 
 Davis and his Cabinet and Congress, General Lee and 
 his officers and men, did all possible to be done, to in- 
 sure success. And what they did with the means at 
 command will forever stand the wonder of history. 
 
 An agricultural people, without a government, an 
 
MEN AND THINGS 103 
 
 army, a navy, a treasury or factory, and their ports 
 closed by blockade, improvised all these in an in- 
 credibly short time, and prosecuted a war of defense, 
 against an enemy numbering three to their one, for 
 four years. They fought six hundred battles, winning 
 a greater number of them than they lost — a record 
 without a parallel. And at last, when their beloved 
 Confederacy went down, it fell like Sparta at ''Ther- 
 mopylae," when its defenders had poured out liberty's 
 "last libation." 
 
 It appears to a layman incapable of military criti- 
 cism, who necessarily forms his judgment upon facts 
 and results, that some Confederate commanders exhibi- 
 ted a skill and genius, that if equalled, was certainly 
 never surpassed. Such is shown by Jackson, in his 
 celebrated valley campaign, in which, by divining the 
 intention of the enemy, information of his strength and 
 location, accurate calculation of time, and the celerity 
 of his own movements, with vastly inferior numbers, he 
 defeated a large Federal Army, by attacking in detail, 
 under Banks, Milroy, Freemont and Shields. And 
 then he threw his troops, at the critical moment, into the 
 Confederate lines at Frazier's Farm, Gaines' Mill, and 
 Malvern Hill, and aided in the defeat of McClellan. 
 
 By the same high quality of military leadership, Lee, 
 with three troops to his one against him, repulsed Grant 
 at the Wilderness ; met him at Spottsylvania ; slaugh- 
 tered him at Cold Harbor, and kept him out of the 
 Confederate Capitol. Lieutenant R. W. Dowling, com- 
 manding the garrison (forty-four Irishmen), at Fort 
 Grigsby, a weak earthwork, armed with fifteen guns, 
 
104 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 located at Sabine Pass, was attacked by a Federal fleet 
 of twenty-three vessels, and a force estimated at from 
 ten to fifteen thousand men. In an engagement lasting 
 an hour and thirty minutes, the garrison sank two gun- 
 boats, crippled a third one, killed fifty, captured eigh- 
 teen heavy guns, besides small arms, supplies, etc., and 
 one hundred and fifty prisoners, including the com- 
 mander of the fleet. The fleet was driven away and not 
 a man hurt. This simple story reads like the wildest 
 romance. 
 
 About the last of February or first of March, 1865, 
 Congress having done all it could do — suffering from 
 my wound, and seeing that the impending doom must 
 soon come — I left Richmond, with the Hon. Warren 
 Akin, and two Alabamians, for my home. When we 
 reached Greensboro, E". C, we learned that all the 
 railroad bridges had been burned by the military, or 
 washed away by the floods. We went to N'ewton, to 
 the end of the Western ISF. C. Railway, and thence took 
 the chances. .After much effort and difiiculty, we suc- 
 ceeded in hiring a four-horse wagon and team, which 
 the rain and mud made necessary, to carry four men, 
 with light baggage, to Spartanburg. From this place, 
 we proceeded by rail to Abbeville. Akin's family had 
 refugeed to Elberton, and mine to Jefferson. From 
 Abbeville to Elberton we were taken by another wagon 
 "and four." 
 
 Strange and unaccountable things sometimes occur in 
 human history. Riding along in the wagon from ISTew- 
 ton to Spartanburg, Col. Akin told me a dream he had 
 the night before he left Richmond. He dreamed that 
 
MEN AND THINGS 105 
 
 he was at home, and picked up his son Elbert, a boy of 
 fifteen years, lying on the ground, the blood flowing 
 from his mouth, and found him dead. Sitting on the 
 hotel veranda at Abbeville, he arose, stating that he 
 would go to the postoffice across the public square, and 
 see if he could get any news from home. I noticed him 
 as he left the office, open a letter, which he read, walk- 
 ing slowly. I discovered, in a moment, from his move- 
 ments (though fifty yards distant), that it contained 
 sad news. Mrs. Akin had sent him a letter to Rich- 
 mond, which he failed to receive, giving particulars. 
 In the letter just received from Mrs. Akin, among 
 other things, she incidentally said: "Since our beloved 
 Elbert's death," without any other or further allusion 
 to the subject. This was the first news of his eldest 
 son's death. Although he maintained his calmness, I 
 could see that his feelings were intensely wrought up 
 with the mingled emotions of grief, anxiety and imcer- 
 tainty. 
 
 When we reached the Savannah River, it was so 
 swollen by recent rains that the ferryman preemptorily 
 refused to put us across. After earnest importunities 
 of argument, and extravagant offers of pay, at last 
 Col. Akin said to him, with an emphasis that touched 
 his heart and overpowered his will: "I live in Elber- 
 ton ; my son is dead, and I am going to reach Elberton 
 this night." "What is your name?" asked the ferry- 
 man. "Akin," replied the Colonel. "Are you any 
 kin to the man who was killed in a horse-race the 
 other day in Elberton?" asked the ferryman. The 
 ferryman, against his judgment, finally consented, with 
 
106 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 our aid, to put us across. By running the boat near 
 the bank, whose friction neutralized the force of the 
 current, to a proper distance, he shot it like an arrow 
 diagonally across the raging flood, and struck the oppo- 
 site landing. I spent that night in the hospitable, but 
 bereaved home of my friend. ISTo allusion was made 
 to the sorrow during the night. Next morning, as I 
 bade him good-bye at the gate, he pointed to a large 
 locust tree near, and said it was against that tree that 
 Elbert was thrown and killed. The droam proci?cly 
 revealed the facts. Elbert and another boy hud rid- 
 den the horses to water. Returning, for amusement, 
 they undertook to see which was the faster horse, with 
 the result here recorded. To me, sometimes it seems 
 a wonder that a boy was ever raised to manhood. 
 
 I had the adventure of a train wreck near Athens, 
 but escaped injury, and after a journey of ten or twelve 
 ^ays — which can now be made in a shorter time — I 
 reached home. A few days thereafter, at Appomattox, 
 the curtain fell upon the bloody tragedy. It was soon 
 followed by two crimes of monstrous enormity — the as- 
 sassination of President Lincoln in Ford's Theatre, at 
 Washington, and the shackling in irons, of President 
 Davis, in Fortress Monroe, upon the basely false charge 
 of complicity therein. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Peesonnel of the Membees of the Second 
 congeess. 
 
 The study of a people, their opinions, principles, pas- 
 sions and prejudices, as reflected through their repre- 
 sentation, as well as the character, capacity, and per- 
 sonal peculiarities of the Representatives themselves, 
 was to me always interesting and instructive. 
 
 The seething, boiling passions of revolutions, like 
 volcanic eruptions, often cast to the surface anknown 
 men, endowed with high capacity for command and 
 leadership. However this truth may have been illus- 
 trated in the military history of the Confederacy, it 
 finds no confirmation in the civil service department of 
 the government. The President and his Cabinet were 
 distinguished statesmen, well known for their ability 
 and long and faithful public service. This is also true 
 of a number of the members of both houses of Congress. 
 
 The House of Representatives was a body of able, 
 brave, earnest men, ardently devoted to the success of 
 the Confederate cause and unusually free from selfish 
 ambition. Of course there were divergent views and 
 opinions upon the wisdom of particular measures, but 
 the members were a imit in the desire and purpose to 
 promote the public interest. In ability, the members 
 
 107 
 
108 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 approximated as nearly equality as could be found in 
 any body of the same number. The Georgia members 
 were : Julian Hartridge, a graduate of Brown Univer- 
 sity, a fine lawyer and polished orator. He had served 
 his State as legislator and prosecuting attorney with 
 decided ability. He was a strong debater and a courtly 
 gentleman. William E. Smith was a practicing lawyer, 
 with a strong will, clear discriminating judgment ; rarely 
 spoke, but always voted. He had lost a leg in battle. 
 Mark Blanford, rugged, rough, blunt and bright, was 
 a lawyer, striking square from the shoulder, and never 
 surrendering. He lost an arm in the war. After. the 
 war, he was associate justice of the Supreme Court of 
 Georgia, and was distinguished for his brevity, clear- 
 ness and correctness of his decisions. Clifford Ander- 
 son was a lawyer. He took his stand, while yet a 
 young man, at the head of the profession. He was 
 a pleasing speaker, had represented his county in the 
 Legislature, before the war, and ably served the State 
 as attorney-general, after the war was ended. John 
 T. Shewmake was a quiet, cultured gentleman, who 
 thought much, and spoke little. He was always present 
 and gave close attention to the business before the 
 House. Indeed, he kept a book in which he made a 
 careful memorandum of everything that was done. 
 Joseph H. Echols, an educated gentleman, was an ex- 
 tensive planter. He had presided over a female college 
 at Madison, Ga. He was a State Senator in 1861-2. 
 He was an accomplished gentleman, a genial compan- 
 ion, a faithful friend and an ardent patriot. James 
 M. Smith, vigorous and robust in mind and body, was 
 
MEN AND THINGS 109 
 
 an able lawyer. Though not inclined to speech-making 
 he thought closely and logically and had strong and de- 
 cided convictions, which he did not hesitate to avow 
 and defend, and, as occasion was supposed to require, 
 with the emphasis of certain expletives that do not ap- 
 pear in Sunday literature. He was the first Democratic 
 governor, after the Hegira of Rufus B. Bullock and 
 his carpet-bag menagerie. George 'N. Lester was ad- 
 mitted to the bar at the age of nineteen, by special act 
 of the Legislature. He had been Supreme Court re- 
 porter. He served two terms as chairman of the Judi- 
 ciary Committee of the House of Representatives in the 
 State Legislature; lost his right arm in the battle of 
 Perryville, Ky. After the war, he was judge of the Su- 
 perior Court in the Blue Ridge Circuit, and Attorney- 
 General of the State. Hiram P. Bell received an Aca- 
 demic education, secured by his own efforts ; was a mem- 
 ber of the convention that seceded from the Union. He 
 opposed secession; was elected to the Convention, Com- 
 missioner to the State of Tennessee; was elected State 
 Senator in 1861, served one session, and resigned to 
 remain in the army; was Lt.-Col. of the Forty-third 
 Regt., Georgia Volunteers; was desperately wounded 
 and permanently disabled for further service at Vicks- 
 burg. After the war, he served in the Forty-third and 
 Forty-fifth Congress of the United States, and one term 
 each in the House and Senate of the Legislature of 
 Georgia. Warren Akin was probably the ablest lawyer 
 in the Cherokee Circuit. He was a strong debater. 
 He opposed Governor Brown for the Governorship, 
 and, though defeated, he made a brilliant campaign. 
 
110 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 He was speaker of the House of Representatives of 
 1861-2, and won reputation as a presiding officer. It 
 will be seen, that of the members of this delegation one, 
 James M. Smith, became Governor; two, Lester and 
 Blandford, Judges; two, Anderson and Lester, Attys.- 
 General ; three, Hartridge, Bell, and William E. Smith, 
 members of the United States Congress. 
 
 Governor Brown's controversy with President Davis 
 on the constitutionality of the conscript law and the 
 right to appoint military officers in certain cases, had 
 brought the Governor and the State, into disfavor at 
 Richmond. The members from Georgia, being new 
 men, were supposed to have been chosen because of the 
 Governor's views and their sympathy therewith, or be- 
 cause they had been mangled in battle, and that, in 
 either case, the delegation could not be relied upon. 
 This suspicion or speculation was successfully dissi- 
 pated when Akin, Lester, Hartridge and Anderson 
 tackled them in debate. This fact, I accidentally as- 
 certained by overhearing a conversation that I could 
 not avoid hearing, between Judge Gholston, a member 
 of the House, and another gentleman. Gholston, after 
 stating the distrust of the Georgia members, as above- 
 stated, added that after hearing these gentlemen from 
 Georgia and becoming personally acquainted with them, 
 he was never more astonished in his life ; that he found 
 the delegation as able, faithful and true as any one in 
 the House. 
 
 What is called oratory, or eloquence, has never been, 
 and can never be, accurately defined nor described. 
 There is no common authoritative standard of perfec- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 111 
 
 tion established for the adjudication of its merits. 
 Styles of speaking, and the impressions produced, are 
 as different as those of a flower garden and a thunder 
 storm; a battle and a landscape. Patrick Henry's 
 "Give me liberty, or give me death," and William Wirt's 
 answer to "Who is Blannerhassett ?" are the illustra- 
 tion. The pictures of attitudes in books, that profess 
 to teach the art of public speaking, are only ludicrous 
 cartoons. Each auditor is a judge, and every auditor 
 has an equal right to judge what constitutes it. Three 
 professors will disagree in awarding the medal in a 
 contest between a half-dozen college boys. Some speak- 
 ers, by mellifluous voice and chaste, smooth flowing dic- 
 tion, will charm the weak esthetic ; others, by clear, cold 
 logic, will convince the judgment and control the re- 
 luctant will of the stubborn ; still others, by the sym- 
 pathetic earnestness of pathos, will excite and control 
 the passions of the emotional. The possession, by a 
 speaker, of all these powers, in harmonious combina- 
 tion, in my opinion, makes him an orator. Few men 
 possess them. Bishop George F. Pierce possessed them 
 all in a larger degree than any speaker it was ever my 
 privilege to hear. And Sargent S. P. Prentiss, in a 
 more eminent degree than any orator of whom history 
 or tradition, gives any information. The nearest ap- 
 proach to a true definition of oratory, eloquence in- 
 cluded, that can be attained, is that it is that form of 
 speech, from living men to living men and women, that 
 convinces the judgment, controls the will, masters the 
 emotions and incites to action. 
 
 Most legislation is considered and formulated in the 
 
112 M EN AND THINGS 
 
 committee-room, and reported by the chairman to the 
 House. The chairman, usually, engineers the report 
 through the House, and is therefore, often on his feet 
 engaged in discussion, and for this reason, the unini- 
 tiated think he is a great man. This may or may not 
 be true. Sometimes chairmen are appointed because 
 of their ability ; often because of favoritism. Valuable 
 men in legislation are those who think wisely and work 
 constantly. Francis S. Lyon, whose character is so 
 finely drawn, under the name of "The Hon. Francis 
 Strother," by the master limner, Joseph Baldwin, in 
 his "Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi," was 
 chairman of the committee on Ways and Means; W. 
 P. Miles, on Military Affairs; John A. Gilmer, on 
 Privileges and Elections; Charles W. Russell, on the 
 Judiciary; and Frank B. Sexton, on Postoffices and 
 Post-Roads. As accomplished speakers, I think Hart- 
 ridge and Vest excelled. Marshall, Lester, Akin and 
 Baldwin were the strongest parliamentary debaters. 
 W. N". H. Smith, Machen, Gilmer, Chilton and Col- 
 yar, were the wisest practical legislators. . Barksdale, 
 Dupree and Perkins were able, optimistic extremists. 
 Charles W. Russell was a man of coldness, courage, 
 and ability. It was understood that the administra- 
 tion relied on him for leadership. Two men greatly 
 impressed me for the possession of what I re- 
 garded as high qualities and capacity for legisla- 
 tion. They were W. N. H. Smith, of N". C, and W. 
 B. Machen, of Ky. They were w^atchful, wise, cau- 
 tious and practical. They were both modest, unobtru- 
 sive and able. They understood the use of language, 
 
MEN AND THINGS 113 
 
 and in a few plain words, successfully exposed the 
 wrong, sustained the right, or explained the doubtful. 
 William C. Rives was the Nestor of the House in age 
 only. He had been United States Senator, and Min- 
 ister to France, and at that time, stood with the first 
 statesmen of Virginia; but age had palsied the sceptre 
 of his power. There was one member of the House 
 who, for uniqueness and picturesqueness, stood, like 
 Adam's recollection of his fall, alone. This was Henry 
 S. Foote. His intellect was bright, his information 
 large, his experience varied, and his courage invin- 
 cible. He had been shot in a duel wdth Prentiss, had 
 the memorable scene with Benton in the United States 
 Senate, and had defeated Jefferson Davis for Governor 
 of Mississippi. He represented the Washville District, 
 Tenn. He had lost all hope (if he had any), in the 
 success of the Confederate cause. He was a Don 
 Quixote, a sort of free lance, that w^ould fight a wind- 
 mill or a mogul engine with equal alacrity. For some 
 cause which I never understood, or it may be without 
 any cause, he was exceedingly bitter in his feelings to- 
 ward Mr. Davis and Mr. Benjamin. He allowed no 
 occasion to pass; and with or without excuse, he 
 never spoke without indulging in denunciatory invec- 
 tive against them, pronouncing their names with a 
 vicious malignity of tone, and a contemptuous sneer of 
 derision and distortion of expression of face, that baf- 
 fled description. A resolution to expel him was intro- 
 duced and referred to the committee on privileges and 
 elections. All the members of the committee — the 
 chairman and myself excepted — promptly adopted a re- 
 
114 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 port in favor of the resolution. We submitted a minor- 
 ity report against the resolution. He was not expelled. 
 A short time after this he left Richmond. It will be 
 understood that the mention of certain members of 
 Congress by name, is not to the disparagement of those 
 not referred to by name. I wish I had the data, time 
 and space to give to those who come after us, the his- 
 tory, of every member of this body of true men, who 
 participated in the last scene of the play, and witnessed 
 the fall of the curtain upon the bloody tragedy of Civil 
 War. 
 
 I am unwilling to close this chapter without referring 
 to one member of the cabinet ; the last one appointed by 
 Mr. Davis. I refer to John C. Breekenridge, Secre- 
 tary of War. I had a matter of business for a constit- 
 uent before the department and happened to be present 
 when he was sworn in. Being inmiediately introduced 
 to him, I congratulated him, and the Confederacy, 
 upon his appointment, to which he replied that he 
 could not say as to the Confederacy, but that certainly, 
 in view of the momentous responsibilities of the office, 
 he was not to be congratulated personally. He invited 
 me to a seat, took one himself in my front, and at once 
 began, in an easy way, a most charming conversation. 
 He inquired what district I represented, and in what 
 section of the State it was located. He asked particu- 
 larly about the state of affairs in Georgia, the condi- 
 tion and sentiments of the people in my district. Know- 
 ing the pressure of business, and the weight of responsi- 
 bility upon him, as well as the value of time, as soon as 
 a pause occurred in the flow of his delightful conversa- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 115 
 
 tion, and I could do so without rudeness, I stated what I 
 wanted. He said: ''Really, I do not know whether this 
 matter is under the jurisdiction of the Secretary, or the 
 Chief of the Conscript Bureau. You see this business is 
 all new to me ; I will see." Calling his chief clerk by the 
 tap of his bell, who at once responded, he asked him 
 "which had jurisdiction, the Secretary or the Chief?" 
 "Both," replied the clerk ; whereupon, in a moment and 
 without a word, he took up his pen and granted my re- 
 quest. This is the man who contests, with Henry Clay, 
 the premiership of affection in the heart of Kentuck- 
 ians; that presided over the highest legislative body in 
 the world, and of which Clay had been the most illus- 
 trious member. He was scholar, soldier, orator, states- 
 man and patriot. The memory of this brief interview 
 has lingered with me for almost half a century, fresh as 
 the dew of the morning, and sweet as the fragrance of 
 roses. His superb physique, his versatile accomplish- 
 ments and excellencies, his intellectual, moral and so- 
 cial qualities — all in symmetrical and faultless com- 
 bination — made him, in my conception, the most mag- 
 nificent specimen of manhood I ever beheld. When 
 the Confederacy fell, the United States requited his 
 long and brilliant .public service with malignant hate 
 and relentless persecution, and thus compelled him to 
 seek refuge among strangers. On entering the boat 
 on the coast of Florida, which Avas to bear him away, 
 he thanked a Confederate private who had served him; 
 adding that he wished it was in his power to requite 
 his kindness. "It is," replied the private. "Corporal 
 A. has abused and lorded it over me because he is an 
 
116 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 oflScer and I a private, I want to outrank him ;" where- 
 upon he was brevetted Captain on the spot, and made 
 happy. This was the last official act of the Confeder- 
 ate Secretary of War. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 Lincoln and Davis. 
 
 ISTo two men in the last half of the ISTineteenth Cen- 
 tury engaged a larger share of public attention than 
 Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Future gene- 
 rations will be anxious to know their history, actions 
 and achievements, without the time and labor required 
 to gain the knowledge, by searching the numerous vol- 
 umes in which it is to be found. They were both born 
 in Kentucky, not far apart in distance, and near in 
 time, Davis in 1808 and Lincoln in 1809. They were 
 born under the same moral, social and civil institutions, 
 but under diverse conditions; Lincoln, in abject pov- 
 erty, Davis in comparative affluence. Lincoln, with- 
 out education in his boyhood, went to the wilderness of 
 Illinois to earn his bread by the toil of his hands and 
 the sweat of his brow. Davis went from Transylvania 
 University to West Point for military training. After 
 a few years they met in the Blackhawk War, Lincoln 
 the awkward, untrained captain of a company of three- 
 months raw militia; Davis, the scholarly, polished lieu- 
 tenant of the regular army. Lincoln next appears, suc- 
 cessfully practicing the profession of law in the county 
 of Sangammon, 111.; Davis, at the head of the "Mis- 
 sissippi Rifles," winning victory for his country at 
 
 117 
 
118 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 Buena Vista, in Mexico. Lincoln, a free-soil Whig, 
 became a leading lawyer in the ^N^orthwest; Davis, a 
 pro-slavery States Rights Democrat, became a planter, 
 in the Southwest. They were both intensely patriotic 
 and ambitious. They had experienced alike the tri- 
 umph of success and the chagrin of defeat. Trum- 
 bull and Douglass each had defeated Lincoln for the 
 United States Senate ; a Warren County Whig had de- 
 feated Davis for the Legislature, and Henry S. Foote 
 had defeated him for Governor of Mississippi. Both 
 had been Representatives in Congress. Lincoln was an 
 ardent supporter of the father-in-law of Davis, Gen. 
 Taylor, for the Presidency. Davis supported Gen. 
 Cass for that high office. 
 
 The compromise measures of 1850 and the Kansas- 
 I^ebraska Legislation of 1854, formed the volcano, 
 whose eruption deluged the land in the burning lava 
 of human passion which was soon to be crimsoned into 
 seas of human blood. 
 
 While Davis was quietly and ably administering the 
 affairs of the War Department in Pierce's Cabinet, 
 Lincoln was busily and earnestly engaged in organiz- 
 ing the anti-slavery elements of all parties into the Re- 
 publican party. The condition of affairs in "bleeding 
 Kansas," supplied the means of success. The anti- 
 slavery people met in a "Freesoil" convention in Bloom- 
 inffton in 1856. To this convention Lincoln was chosen 
 a delegate. It was to this convention he delivered his 
 celebrated "lost" speech. It was called his "lost" 
 speech because the reporters were so overwhelmed by its 
 power and eloquence that they forgot to report it. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 119 
 
 Joscpli ^Medell cominenced to report it for a Chicago 
 paper, but after writing a few lines of the introduction, 
 he laid aside his pencil and thought no more of the re- 
 port until the conclusion of the speech. It was pre- 
 served in this way. A young lawyer w^ith whom Lin- 
 coln had thoroughly discussed the matter of the speech 
 before its delivery, took accurate and elaborate notes, 
 by which he was afterwards enabled to reproduce it. 
 I doubt whether any other speech, ever delivered on this 
 continent, ever produced consequences so momentous. 
 That speech formed and solidified the Republican party 
 and made Lincoln its great leader. After the expira- 
 tion of Davis' service in the Cabinet, he was returned 
 to the United States Senate, from Mississippi, and be- 
 came, by common consent, leader of the pro-slavery, 
 States Rights sentiments of the South. Lincoln was 
 elected President on an anti-slavery platform. Davis 
 was the recognized champion of slavery and States 
 rights, as guaranteed by the Constitution. 
 
 Lincoln and Davis were alike in some respects. They 
 were each endowed with the highest order of mind. 
 They were both thoroughly educated; Lincoln, seK- 
 educated by close, constant, laborious reading and pa- 
 tient and profound thought and extensive observation 
 and experience. Davis' education, the best the fore- 
 most institutions of the country could give, w^as en- 
 larged and perfected by reading, thinking, and official 
 association with the first men of this and foreig-n lands, 
 in the discharge of cabinet, senatorial and military 
 duties. They were both perfectly familiar with the 
 political history of the country. They belonged to op- 
 
120 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 posite schools of constitutional construction and civic 
 policy. Lincoln was elected President of the United 
 States of America. The Southern States seceded, 
 formed a new government, which they named "The 
 Confederate States of America," and unanimously 
 elected Davis, president. Thus, these two great men 
 confronted each other. They stood like the disputing 
 knights, looking upon opposite sides of the same 
 shield. On Lincoln's side the device "Preserva- 
 
 tion of the Union;" on Davis' "The Sovereignity 
 of the States, and the right of Self -Government." 
 They were equally honest, conscientious, patriotic and 
 determined, and compromise imjoossible, was inevitable, 
 the fractricidal conflict came. 'No one knows and no 
 one can tell, the burden of labor they endured, the tor- 
 ture of anxiety they suffered, and the anguish of grief 
 they experienced, during the four years of slaughter 
 and blood. 
 
 Lincoln and Davis were unlike in their personnel. 
 Lincoln was tall in stature, six feet and two inches, raw- 
 boned, with hands and feet large, and limbs long, un- 
 graceful in movement and attitude ; indifferent to dress 
 and almost ludicrously uncouth on horse-back. The 
 expression of his face was variable as the weather. In 
 repose, it was indicative of profound thought. When 
 telling an anecdote, in which he excelled, it kindled 
 with the light of humor, xit times, his face was shaded 
 with the expression of mingled dignity and sorrow, 
 with a "far-away look" that told of some tender emo- 
 tion that silently stirred the depths of his great heart. 
 Davis was five feet, ten inches in height, compactly 
 
MEN AND THINGS 121 
 
 built, •with rather small hands and feet; a finely 
 rounded and well-formed head; plainly but neatly 
 dressed; talked in a low, calm voice; with manners the 
 perfection of gi-ace and elegance. He sat his horse like 
 a Knight of the Crusaders. His step, with a very 
 slight limp from a wound in the foot at Buena Vista, 
 was the elastic tread of the trained soldier. They dif- 
 fered widely in their style of composition and elocution. 
 Lincoln expressed his thoughts mainly by the use of 
 nouns, verbs and participles, using short, simple, Saxon 
 words, many of them of one syllable, but well chosen, 
 to express forcibly the idea. Like the miner, digging 
 in the gravel for gold, he struggled by the shortest and 
 simplest way, to reach the nuggets of truth his honest 
 heart sought to find. He was sparing in the use of ad- 
 jectives and adverbs. His sentences were sometimes 
 rugged and disjointed. They lacked smoothness and 
 completeness in roundness and rhythm, but went with- 
 out ceremony or surplusage straight to the center, and 
 presented his thought in unadorned purity. And yet 
 occasionally, though rarely, he excelled all the great 
 masters in the beauty, power and pathos of his style, 
 as exemplified in his Gettysburg speech, his letter of 
 condolence of Mrs. Bixby, and the incomparable sen- 
 tences with which he closes his first inaugural. He 
 said: "I am loathe to close. We are not enemies, but 
 friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion 
 may have strained it must not break, our bonds of af- 
 fection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from 
 every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living 
 heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will 
 
122 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched 
 (as they surely will be), by the better angels of our 
 nature." 
 
 Davis' style, like his character, was chaste and clean, 
 his words aptly chosen, and so arranged into sentences 
 as to evoke the precise thought, with mathematical ac- 
 curacy. It was smooth, easy, gTacef ul and clear as sun- 
 light. It was cold, presented the thought intended with- 
 out the slightest tint of coloring. Davis was precise but 
 not pretentious. He seemed to be cold without being so. 
 He believed in forms. It was constitutional with him. 
 His training at West Point, his administration of the 
 War Department, adding to his natural inclination in 
 that direction, made him punctilious in the observance 
 of forms. He was proud, but it was the soldiery pride 
 of conscious honor and rectitude. He was brave; he 
 never "stooped to conquer." He would have perished in 
 flames at the stake sooner than bend the supple 
 hinges of the knee, that thrift may follow fawning." 
 Davis closed his first inaugural in these eloquent 
 words: "It is joyous, in the midst of these perilous 
 times, to look around upon a people united in heart, 
 where one purpose of high resolve animates and actu- 
 ates the whole; where sacrifices to be made, are not 
 weighed in the balance against honor and right, and 
 liberty and equality. Obstacles may retard, but they 
 can not prevent the progress of a movement, sanctified 
 by its justice and sustained by a virtuous people. 
 Keverently let us invoke the God of our fathers to 
 guide and protect us in our efforts to perpetuate the 
 principles which, by His blessing, they are able to vin- 
 
ME If AXD THINGS 123 
 
 dicate, establish and transmit to their posterity. With 
 the continuance of His favor, ever gratefully acknowl- 
 edged, we may hopefully look forward to success, to 
 peace, and to prosperity." 
 
 The attitude of these two great men may be summa- 
 rized thus : Lincoln would destroy the "Constitution to 
 serve the Union." Davis would dissolve the Union to 
 serve the Constitution. During these stormy times, 
 they had a similar personal and family bereavement; 
 they each had a favorite boy. Tad Lincoln died in 
 the "White House," at Washington; Joe Davis was 
 killed by a fall from the veranda of the "Executive 
 Mansion in Richmond." The heart of Lincoln had 
 lavished all its wealth of affection on Tad. It was 
 wrung with anguish at his death. I witnessed grief 
 personified, in Davis, at the funeral of Joe. A feeling 
 of deep sadness, stealthily steals over one, as he reflects 
 upon the end of these two great men. Lincoln was the 
 head of a government de jure ; Davis, of a government 
 de facto. They were respectively, the commanders-in- 
 chief, of the armies and navies of their governments, in 
 which three and a half millions of men were engaged — 
 on land and sea — in a death grapple for national ex- 
 istence, and these w^ere brothers of the same blood, iden- 
 tified in history, hopes and destiny. In the hour of 
 exultant victory, Lincoln was basely assassinated by a 
 citizen brought back into the Union he died and suf- 
 fered so much to restore. Davis, in the mortification 
 of defeat, was cruelly imprisoned, and disfranchised by. 
 a government, to the service of which he had given his 
 best thought and blood, and died without a country. 
 
124 MEm AND THINGS 
 
 It will be the wonder of those who come after us 
 that a people with a history so glorious, resources so 
 immense, progress so rapid, and a prosperity so uni- 
 versal, would rudely risk or wreck it all in a sectional 
 Civil War. The reason they did is simple and ob- 
 vious. It was because passion, avarice and ambition 
 usurped the throne of reason, justice and patriotism. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Condition of the Southern People at the Closb 
 OF the Wae. 
 
 There were three things which enabled unprincipled, 
 ambitious demagogues, JSTorth and South, to madden 
 the American people and create the conditions that 
 made the Civil War possible, if not inevitable. They 
 were, the conflict in Kansas, the assault of Brooks upon 
 Sumner, in the Senate, and John Brown's raid upon 
 Harper's Ferry. These facts appealed to passion, with 
 a force that overcame the resistance of reason and pa- 
 triotism. The deplorable assassination of Lincoln in- 
 flamed the victors into a frenzy of fury, put into the 
 presidency the prince of ambitious demagogues, in 
 whom neither party had the slightest confidence, and 
 for whom neither had any respect, and thus entailed 
 upon the vanquished the heritage of reconstruction. 
 Had Lincoln survived, all the probabilities are, and all 
 the indications show, that the States would have been 
 allowed to readjust their relations to the Union, through 
 their o^vn voluntary civil action, without intervention of 
 military despotism. And the butchery of Mrs. Sur- 
 ratt and Wirtz would not have disgraced the pages of 
 American history. The L^nion would have been really 
 
 125 
 
126 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 restored and become stronger than ever before, in the 
 affectibns of the American people. 
 
 Reconstruction was inaugurated and guided by a 
 cyclone of malignant hate, upon a people who had 
 bravely fought for their convictions until overwhelmed 
 by resources and numbers. When the end came, their 
 poverty was pitiable, their anguish pathetic, and their 
 helplessness remediless, when this monstrous policy of 
 despotism was imposed upon them. They were cut 
 off from the world by the blockade on one side and by 
 an army of immense numbers on the other. The boys 
 and men between the ages of seventeen and fifty, were 
 in the field. The four years of horrible war had abso- 
 lutely exhausted all their resources of men and means. 
 The glorious chivalry of the Confederacy filled un- 
 marked graves — from the Susquehanna to the Rio 
 Grande. Fields, orchards and gardens, had been tram- 
 pled down. Dwellings had been abandoned or burned, 
 towns and cities, sacked and consumed, people shot 
 down and their homes "prowled." Churches and ceme- 
 teries had been desecrated and robbed. The people were 
 practically without food and clothing, and absolutely 
 destitute of money; schools were suspended, and serv- 
 ices at the churches nearly so. The whole land was a 
 scene of decadence, ashes and ruins; and every home 
 filled with hearts breaking and bleeding with the agony 
 of grief for dead loved ones. A few gray-headed men 
 and matrons, many widows, some youths and children, 
 and the maimed, shattered remnant of the world's brav- 
 est army, were left. Virtue, intelligence and patriot- 
 ism w^ere proscribed by law; and enfranchised, igno- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 127 
 
 rant, illiterate, thieving negroes, were set to making or- 
 ganic laws — constitutions for the government of a people 
 with the blood of Kevolutionary sires flowing through 
 their veins. This martyrdom continued in most of the 
 Confederate States for seven years. 
 
 "Surely there is some chosen curse, some secret thun- 
 der, in the stores of Heaven, red with uncommon wrath, 
 to blast the wretch who owes his greatness to his coun- 
 try's ruin." At the commencement of the war, plant- 
 ing was largely abandoned. It was a sort of social enter- 
 tainment to cut and make neat uniforms for the boys; 
 and pack, and ship to them, boxes of dainty viands. As 
 the war progressed, the withdrawal of the labor of the 
 field, reduced the production of supplies. The tax in 
 kind claimed a large share for the support of the army ; 
 and the question of support soon began to be a serious 
 one, for the non-producers — the women and children at 
 home. It became impossible to obtain coffee ; parched 
 meal, corn and rye were substituted, ^^^len the supply 
 of clothing was exhausted, the good women, resorted to 
 the old-time spinning-wheel and loom, — both home- 
 made. The State managed to distribute among the 
 people a small number of pairs of cotton-cards ; and the 
 land became vocal with rasping, crashing cards, the 
 hum of wheels and the hanging-rattle of loom. Home- 
 made apparel, dyed with maple and sweet-gum bark, 
 ivy leaves, and the bark off walnut roots, constituted the 
 wardrobe. It is surprising with what artistic skill the 
 dear, good women mingled these colors into a "thing of 
 beauty," and therefore, "a joy forever." They met 
 necessities by improvising expedients. They exhibited 
 
128 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 resources of invention that entitles them to a lofty niche 
 in the temple of genius. 
 
 It made but little difference that Confederate money 
 constantly depreciated, because there was nothing to 
 buy nor sell. What little trading was done was on 
 credit; but the price agreed on was upon the basis of the 
 face value of Confederate currency. The last purchase 
 I made before the surrender, was a bushel of salt, for 
 which I paid $1,000.00. There was much indebtness 
 contracted before the war, existing at its close. At my 
 suggestion a public mass-meeting of the people of For- 
 syth County was held, which unanimously adopted a 
 resolution asking creditors and debtors to settle by 
 compromise, the indebtedness, upon reasonable terms. 
 Many of them did so. The people of Georgia, in the 
 Convention of October 1865, passed an ordinance au- 
 thorizing the courts and juries to adjust the equities 
 between the parties to Confederate contracts, upon the 
 basis of the value of the money and the value of the 
 thing for which it was promised, as compared with 
 gold, or par money. This was a happy solution of a 
 perplexing problem. 
 
 The more enterprising class of the recently emanci- 
 pated, ignorant, free negroes united with Yankee "Car- 
 pet-baggers," Confederate, boom-proof refugees, and 
 conscript "dodgers," joined Congress, led by Steven 
 Sumner, Butler and their partisan followers in the 
 work of reconstruction. Another class of negroes, as 
 soon as they were enabled to procure the desired outfit 
 of a brass watch-chain, a cane, umbrella, eye-glasses, 
 Prince Albert coat, standing collar and plug hat, joined 
 
MEN AND THINGS 129 
 
 the ministry. They engaged in soliciting contributions 
 to build imaginary churches. The cash they thus ob- 
 tained, which was not inconsiderable, never material- 
 ized into tangible buildings. The remaining class of 
 the colored people, and by far the largest, entered with 
 vigorous energy upon their favorite pursuits of running 
 rabbits, burning rails, stealing chickens, attending frol- 
 ics and funerals and reporting to the "Freedman's 
 Bureau" complaints of contracts which they themselves 
 had violated. They generally secured redress from this 
 august tribunal, by imposing upon the employer a pun- 
 ishment for the negro's violation of his contract. 
 
 The true and faithful men, women and children, 
 with broken-down army horses and mules, and such im- 
 plements as they could improvise, went to work im- 
 pelled by necessity and inspired by hope. Many a 
 brave Confederate, with one arm or a wooden peg-leg, 
 followed the plow in cheerful toil, to support the wife 
 and children of his love. They nobly requited this de- 
 votion by generous aid in the field, and the faithful 
 performance of the wifely domestic duties of the house- 
 hold. Rigid frugality, unremitting industry, and the 
 blessings of the great God, who notes the sparrow's fall, 
 and feeds the young ravens when they cry, rewarded 
 their heroic efforts with signal success. 
 
 There was a saving factor in the preservation of or- 
 der and the prevention of lawlessness in the institution 
 and organization of the "Ku Klux Klan" — the report 
 of the Congressional committee to the contrary, not- 
 withstanding. It was the old patrol system of slavery 
 times; with the addition of fantastic dress and hobgob- 
 
130 MEN AXD THINGS 
 
 lin masks, intended to restrain base negroes from crime 
 and lawlessness, by appealing to their superstitious 
 fears. It acted like a charm. I never heard of a case 
 of outrage perpetrated by the "Klan," except through 
 the report of the Congressional committee, based upon 
 the testimony of men of the type of Titus Oates and 
 Dangerfield, the vile emissaries of reconstruction, who 
 would incite the black race to crime against the white. 
 
 The mind that conceived the "Klan" was a genius. 
 He understood precisely the nature and weakness of 
 the negro ; and he discovered the means of making that 
 weakness, instead of the instrument of crime, the ele- 
 ment of safety to both races. It met an emergency of 
 the gravest character with a remedy of the most abso- 
 lute success. The triumphant defense finds expression 
 in the legal maxim: "Salus populi, suprema est lex." 
 Constant, patient, hopeful toil ; with remunerative 
 prices for the South's great staple, and the blessing of 
 Divine Providence, the influx of capital and the im- 
 migTation of sterling, energetic business men from the 
 Northern and I^orthwestern States have within the brief 
 space of four decades transformed the South from a 
 plain of ashes and ruins, into a garden of bounty and 
 beauty. 
 
 The promise and possibilities of the future have no 
 horizon. All this was accomplished by a people, w4io, 
 — like Job — were "chosen in the furnace of affliction." 
 It is something to have lived in the age of such a people. 
 It is more to have been a part of such a people. 
 
 It is due to the colored people to put on record (which 
 I do with great pleasure,) their fidelity and devotion 
 
MEN AND THINGS 131 
 
 to their masters, their families and their interests dur- 
 ing the war. Thev were reliable, faithful and true, 
 until contact with the Federal army inspired them with 
 treacherous hostility. Some — a few — have remained 
 faithful to the attachment and friendships of their for- 
 mer relations — through all the vicissitudes that fol- 
 lowed their changed condition. An aged slave of the 
 brother of Jefferson Davis, who lived in Florida, was 
 accustomed to send to the ex-President and his family, 
 at "Beauvoir,'' choice fruits from his garden and or- 
 chard. And when the venerable old man heard that 
 the President was dangerously sick — through g-reat 
 difficulties — he made his way to New Orleans to grasp, 
 one time more, the hand of his friend and his idol. He 
 reached the city the day after the death ; and found the 
 room containing the remains, closed to visitors. Mrs. 
 Davis admitted him to the death-chamber. The hum- 
 ble African standing looking upon the dead President, 
 with his aged, dim eyes streaming with the torrents of 
 grief, and heart heaving with agony, presents a scene 
 of anguish so deep, and love so pure that I drop the 
 curtain and let God and angels only, look upon this 
 "sanctum sanctorum" of devotion and love. 
 
 When Sherman's army reached Kennesaw, I found 
 it necessary to fall back in imitation of the Fabian 
 policy of General Joseph E. Johnston ; and ref ugeed 
 from Gumming to Jefferson, in July 1864. Being a 
 member of the Confederate Congress was supposed to 
 be a sufficient cause for my arrest and imprisonment, 
 if not execution. The day after I left a squadron of 
 Yankee cavalry made its appearance in town for that 
 
132 MEX AND THINGS 
 
 purpose; but after plundering the citizens, shooting at 
 some boys and capturing a few horses, retired without 
 accomplishing their high and patriotic purpose. I re- 
 mained in Jefferson until October 1865. When I left 
 I turned over my house, garden and orchard ^ to a 
 homeless shoemaker, to occupy, free of rent until called 
 for. In October I came over to notify him that I had 
 arranged to return home and wanted the house. To my 
 amazement, he said he did not see how he could leave. 
 He made various pretended excuses for not vacating, all 
 of which I promptly removed, or answered. At last 
 he said flatly that he would not leave, that the property 
 was given him by the Yankees and was his. This ex- 
 hausted the argument or reduced it to the argumentum 
 ad hominem. It is scarcely necessary to add that 
 he speedily found it eminently convenient to retire 
 from the place. 
 
 It is strange how calamitous times develop the oppo- 
 site phases of himaan character. While angels of 
 mercy in human form, are helping the stricken and 
 suffering in the Johnstown and Galveston floods, — in- 
 carnate fiends are cutting off the fingers of dead wo- 
 men to rob them of jewelry. This tenant at will would 
 requite a favor with robbery. There is no form of 
 conscience to which these degenerates can be remit- 
 ted. The final assize, alone, can settle with them. 
 From the surrender in April 1865, to the close of the 
 year, I did not have a penny in money, in this world. 
 My two former slaves, Adam, and Jane, his wife, re- 
 mained with us during the year and aided us in 
 moving back home. I supplied them with an outfit of 
 
MEN AND THIXGS 133 
 
 household furniture; and each of them a neat, sub- 
 stantial suit of clothes (for which 1 went in debt) ; 
 and furnished them a wagon and team, to move to their 
 chosen home. Adam soon became prominent in religion 
 and politics. About two years thereafter he came into 
 my office — the shreds of the suit I had given him, drip- 
 ping with water and his teeth chattering with cold, — 
 to employ me to defend him for stealing meat. After 
 all, emancipation is not an unmixed blessing! 
 
 From January 1866 to the last of December 1873, 
 I was engaged in practicing law, in ten counties in 
 "Blue Ridge" and adjoining circuits, with occasional 
 cases in other counties and in the Supreme Court. 
 During the course of my practice I have appeared 
 in about sixty cases of murder, generally for the 
 defense. I have had three clients executed, for 
 one of them was assigned with Colonel C. 'D. 
 Phillips, by the court. Among these clients were 
 three women, two of them white, and one col- 
 ored. But one white woman has been hanged in 
 Georgia since I came to the bar. I never heard of but 
 one other, a good record for the 'Empire State of the 
 South.' These seven years were immediately suc- 
 ceeding the surrender and during the reconstruction 
 period. The courts in the mountain counties were full 
 of cases gTowing out of the war. This litigation was 
 characterized by bitter and fierce passion. It is due 
 to the bar to say, that the lawyers did much to allay 
 personal hostility, and restore fraternity among the 
 people. A circuit practice, among a rural people, was 
 delightful to me. It is a fine school in which to study 
 
134 me:si and things 
 
 human nature. The hidicrous, the humorous and pa- 
 thetic, all pass in kaleidoscopic panorama before the 
 court. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Foety-tiiikd Congress and Pakty Leaders. 
 
 The Forty-third Congress met in December 1873. The 
 representatives from Georgia were Morgan Rawls, Rich- 
 ard H. Whitely, Phillip Cook, Henry R. Harris, 
 James H. Blount, James Freeman, Pierce M. B. 
 Yonng, Ambrose R. Wright and Hiram P. Bell. Gen- 
 eral Wright died before Congress assembled ; and Alex- 
 ander H. Stephens was chosen to fill the vacancy. Mor- 
 gan Rawls was unseated, upon a contest by Andrew 
 Sloan, who took Rawls' seat. Three of these represen- 
 tatives were Republicans, — Whitely, Freeman and 
 Sloan. The delegation took the modified oath. The 
 Forty-third Congress was overwhelmingly Republican. 
 James G. Blaine was re-elected speaker and Edward 
 McPherson, clerk. The Congress was spotted with half 
 a dozen or more, free negi'oes — three of whom were 
 from the State of Calhoun, Preston, Lowndes and Mc- 
 Duffy. Three of the late Confederate States, South 
 Carolina, Louisiana and Arkansas, were still struggling 
 in the anarchical throes of the aftermath of recon- 
 struction. The vital national questions before this Con- 
 gress were : the silver question, the Force Bill, the Civil 
 Rights Bill, repeal of the Salary Grab Act of the Forty- 
 second Congress, etc. Much time was devoted to con- 
 
 135 
 
136 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 tested seats, occupied by Democrats, by defeated Kepub- 
 licans, who generally won upon party grounds. It was 
 during this Congress that Kala Kawa, King of the Ha- 
 waiian Islands, visited Washington. He was accorded 
 an official public reception by the House of Representa- 
 tives. He was a dark, copper-colored negro, appearing 
 to be about forty-five years old; six feet in height, 
 squarely built with an avoirdupois of about 200. He 
 wore a black 'Trince Albert" coat, standing collar and 
 plug hat. He took his stand in front of the Speaker 
 of the House. Mr. Blaine received him in a formal, 
 handsome speech of official palaver, to which the 
 King's premier, Mr. Allen, a Massachusetts Yankee, 
 responded with the same material, less handsomely. 
 During this memorable State occasion, I happened to 
 occupy a seat next to Hon. A. Herr Smith ; a small, dry, 
 hard, typical Pennsylvania Republican, and the suc- 
 cessor of Thaddeus Stevens. Mr. Smith seemed to be 
 enraptured and said to me, in a whisper, "Oh my! 
 \Xhsit a magnificent king!" I replied jocularly, "Yes, 
 that negro would have brought $1,500.00 on the block 
 in ante-bellum times." It so offended him that he did 
 not wish to speak to me afterwards. President Grant 
 gave to the King a State reception at the ^Vhite House, 
 and I had the honor of an introduction to the King, 
 by the Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, as the 
 King stood by the side of the hero of Appomattox and 
 President of the United States. How much all this 
 may have had to do with afterwards obtaining the 
 King's domain, I will not undertake to say. It w^as 
 during colored radical regnancy that the radical leaders 
 
MEN AXD THINGS 137 
 
 caused the South Carolina negro, — Elliott, to reply to 
 the great Constitutional argument of Alexander H. 
 Stephens against the Civil Eights Bill. The bill was 
 passed. The scene in the House of Representatives 
 attending this legislative folly, was a memorable and 
 historic one. The bill was the offspring of malignant 
 hate, intended to harrass and humiliate the white people 
 of the South. It was unconstitutional, subversive of so- 
 cial order and mere brutum fulmen, when enacted into 
 law. It emanated from the brain and heart of Benjamin 
 F. Butler, of Massachusetts. On the day of its pas- 
 sage, the lobby and galleries were crowded and packed 
 to their utmost capacity with excited, anxious specta- 
 tors, who came to witness, — by a combination of ISTorth- 
 ern radicals. Southern renegades and free negroes, 
 through the forms of law — the degTadation of a section 
 and a brave people that had given Washington, Henry, 
 Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Clay and Cal- 
 houn, to national glory and history. As I surveyed from 
 my seat, that crowd, Macaulay's magnificent description 
 of the audience at the trial of Warren Hastings, pressed 
 with vivid force, upon my thought and memory. 
 There was this difference only. In the American 
 audience, there was not, as in the English, the stars, 
 garters and heraldic insignia of hereditary nobility. 
 Butler made the closing speech. His personnel was not 
 prepossessing. He was rather below medium height 
 obese, heavy, full with flabby cheeks, shaggy eye-brows 
 and cock-eyed. He was a man of decided ability and 
 will power ; in partisan politics, a free lance, but al- 
 ways for Butler. In speech his voice was harsh and 
 
138 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 his manner and attitudes ungraceful. His points in 
 debate were sharp and vigorous. ^Mien under the in- 
 fluence of high passion in speech, he blew and spouted, 
 like a harpooned whale. Senator Voorhees thought 
 Thaddeus Stevens resembled Danton. Butler was the 
 Marat in this attempted social revolution, to place the 
 African upon an equality with the Caucasian. During 
 his speech he made a statement involving racial chas- 
 tity, concerning the people of Richmond, Va., where- 
 upon the tall, handsome young Republican represen- 
 tative of the Richmond district arose, advanced a few 
 steps down the center aisle, and fiercely and bitterly 
 denounced the statement as a falsehood. The vote was 
 taken, the bill passed, the infamy went on record — an 
 Apple of Sodom presented to the negroes, which turned 
 to ashes on their lips. The character, endowments and 
 motives of the men in ofiicial life who lead the 
 thought and make the laws for the government of the 
 people, have always been the subject of interesting in- 
 quiry and considerations; and peculiarly so, in troub- 
 lous and revolutionary times. 
 
 The writer is fully aware of the unconscious color- 
 ing which prejudice, arising from party affiliations, or 
 opposing views, is likely to give in the estimate of 
 those with whom we disagree. But he begs to assure 
 the reader that in his estimate and criticism of the 
 great public men with whom he deals, his sole desire 
 is to present the truth, as it appears to him. Others, 
 of course, may differ widely from him in opinion. But 
 uniformity of opinion upon such a subject, is not at- 
 tainable. 
 
MEN AND THIN OS 139 
 
 James G. Blaine was the nncliallenged leader of 
 the Republican party in the House of Eepresenta- 
 tives during the Forty-third Congress. He possessed 
 many fine elements of successful leadership. A com- 
 manding figure, great personal magnetism, a good judge 
 of men, an active, sprightly mind, a ready debater and 
 a thorough parliamentarian, he found but little diffi- 
 culty in controlling its policy, principles and legisla- 
 tion. And yet it seemed to me that he was lacking in 
 the qualities of broad, comprehensive statesmanship. 
 His public life impressed me as a play for the presi- 
 dency. He was aided by able lieutenants — Dawes, Kelly 
 and Garfield. These were men of great ability and 
 large experience in public life. They w-ere respectivel;)^ 
 at the head of the most important committees of the 
 House. They were, while ardent partisans, fair deba- 
 ters and patriotic legislators. They differed from Blaine 
 in this : Blaine was a political leader ; they were leaders 
 in legislation and the practical duties connected with it. 
 They were masters of its forms and procedures. They 
 were all good speakers, none of them approximating the 
 highest order of oratory. 
 
 Of the four, Blaine was the most pleasing speaker. 
 Committee service in the House has a tendency to 
 specialize the thoughts and efforts of members. Blaine's 
 speciality was to keep his party properly in line, and 
 ready for offense or defense. Kelly's specialties were: 
 Currency, Manufacturers and Tariff. The thoughts 
 of both Dawes and Garfield took in a wider range of 
 legislation. Garfield was the most erudite of these 
 famous men. He was not a successful party leader. 
 
140 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 He was more of the scholar, philosopher and statesman. 
 Blaine was the Knight whose plume the rank and file 
 of the Republicans followed as their Oriflamme. The 
 four great leaders of the Democratic minority of the 
 House were Samuel J. Randall, James B. Beck, Sam- 
 uel S. Cox, and L. Q. C. Lamar. They each differed 
 from the others in qualifications, and each excelled 
 the others in the different departments of parliamen- 
 tary leadership. Randall was cool, quiet, of plain sim- 
 ple speech, always self-poised, knew exactly the pre- 
 cise status of the business, watchful as Argus, nothing 
 escaped his notice and no advantage over the adversary 
 was allowed by him to pass unimproved. He led the 
 60 successive hours, day and night, of fillibustering 
 against the Civil Rights Bill. His mastery of the 
 mystic mazes of the rules of the House, and the skill 
 with which he unwound the knotty tangles of parlia- 
 mentary puzzles, showed a genius of the highest order. 
 The value of such a leader of the minority against a 
 united majority, not troubled with scruples of con- 
 science, is invaluable. 
 
 James B. Beck was a rugged, robust Scotchman. He 
 represented the Ashland district, made famous by the 
 representation of Henry Clay and John C. Brecken- 
 ridge. When he first entered the House he was placed 
 on the Committee on Reconstruction, as he said to me, 
 for "the reason tliat the Republicans supposed he 
 had no sense," and could give them no trouble. 
 
 But that appointment sowed dragon's teeth, the 
 harvest of which the Republican party continued 
 to reap as long as Beck lived. He was honest, 
 
MEN AND THINGS 141 
 
 bold, courageous, and irrepressible. As a speaker, 
 be was not eloquent nor charming; his style was 
 plain — all ornament was discarded. He was al- 
 ways equipped for debate. He was a gallant knight, 
 in full armor, standing for the right and against the 
 wrong. No vicious legislation escaped his exposure and 
 denunciation ; no wise measure ever lacked an advo- 
 cate, and the people always found in him a fearless 
 champion, and their enemies a dreaded antagonist. 
 Barricaded in a fortress of facts and entrenched in 
 authorities, he vanquished his assailants — in combina- 
 tion or detail — as they chose to attack him. In the 
 opinion of the writer, he w^as the strongest debater and 
 the wisest practical legislator in public life, during the 
 period of his long service in Congress. He was pre- 
 cisely the man the exigencies of the times demanded in 
 the halls of legislation. 
 
 Samuel Sullivan Cox, Eepresentative in Congress 
 from Ohio, for four terms, and from Xew York for 
 ten and elected for the eleventh, in many respects 
 stands alone in the Legislative history of the United 
 States. Personally, he was, perhaps, the best be- 
 loved, and at his death, the most universally lamented 
 of any man of his time. He was great from boyhood. 
 Hereditary revolutionary blood flowed through his 
 veins. Upon his graduation, at Brown University, he 
 carried off the prizes in history, in poetic criticism and 
 in political economy. He was a marvelous man. He 
 had travelled in Europe, Asia, Africa and South Amer- 
 ica. He had drawn learning and inspiration from the 
 temples and tombs of Athens, Rome and Jerusalem ; 
 
142 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 had stood in the shadow of the pyramids and studied 
 the riddle of the Sphjnx, and the dynastic history of 
 the Pharoahs ; mused among the ruins of Memphis ; 
 and breathed the fragrance of the roses at Damascus. 
 He was an unabridged encyclopedia of learning; he 
 seemed to me to know everythng — science, art, literature, 
 history and political economy — in all their various 
 departments — were as familiar as household words — 
 and this knowledge included accuracy in the exact 
 sciences. 
 
 The authorship of a most brilliant description of a 
 sunset, after a storm, caused him to be dubbed with the 
 sobriquet, "Sunset" Cox. This was a misnomer — it 
 should have been "Sunshine" Cox. Sunset has no 
 appropriateness to him, except in the eclipse of the 
 grave. Smishine is the proper spnbol of his illustrious 
 life and character. 
 
 In high social qualities he was without a peer. It 
 was truly said of him that "he had friends everwudiere ; 
 enemies nowhere." Malignity and hate had no place 
 in his warm, generous heart. He was a living em- 
 bodiment of the doctrine of the universal brotherhood 
 of man. Armed with great learning and endowed 
 with the highest social attributes, he stood on the floor 
 of the American House of Representatives for twenty- 
 eight years — the fearless, unyielding tribune of the 
 common people, of a common country. 
 
 The Hon. Amos Cummings, in his funeral eulogy, 
 says : "To the nation he was born here ; it was here 
 that his generous, genial, manly spirit had full play; 
 here he displayed the patriotic fervor, the exquisite 
 
MEN AND THINGS 143 
 
 eloquence, the iridescent imagery, tlie peerless dic- 
 tion, the penetrating logic, the sparkling humor and 
 the delightful disposition that endeared him to the na- 
 tion." 
 
 Mr. Cox spoke often, and never without the closest 
 and most respectful attention of all parties. His rising 
 came to be regarded as the signal of a coming argument 
 of power, adocned with gems of literature, sparkling 
 wit, classical illustrations and spiced — as occasion 
 might require — with bitter sarcasm, withering irony 
 and burning invective. The House was never dis- 
 appointed in expectation. He had the capacity, greater 
 than any orator of ancient or modern times, of combin- 
 ing all these, in harmonious proportions, in a speech. 
 And yet his spirit was so genial, and style so persua- 
 sive, that he never offended an antagonist. His re- 
 sources of learning were so great, his knowledge of facts 
 so accurate, his style so chaste, his wit and humor so 
 bright and exuberant, and his patriotism so pure, that 
 he never failed to conciliate the love and admiration 
 of his auditors. For three decades his meteoric genius 
 and learning made both hemispheres radiant with 
 brightness and beauty, which still scintillated in the 
 mellow glow of his books and his speeches. 
 
 He entered CongTess at the early age of thirty-two, 
 and continued a member for twenty-eight years — 
 through the stormiest period of his country's history. In 
 nine days after his entrance, he delivered the first 
 speech made in the new hall of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives. He witnessed the fight on the floor between 
 Keith and Grow, when the belligerents of the opposing 
 
144 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 sectional parties, met in the melee, with Washburn, of 
 Illinois, and Potter, of Wisconsin, leading one, and 
 Barksdale and Lamar, of Mississippi, the other. 
 Through all these years of strife and storm he stood, 
 with a wealth of intellectual resources, unequalled ; with 
 passions under absolute control, in an armor of integrity 
 more invulnerable than the shield of Achilles, the Ivan- 
 hoe of the American House of Eepresentatives. 
 
 Lucius Q. C. Lamar was, by one year, the junior of 
 Cox in age. They entered Congress at the same time — 
 Lamar continuing a member for two terms — until the 
 secession of Mississippi. He was a native Georgian 
 and graduated at Emory College, under the presidency 
 of that illustrious humorist, jurist and divine, x\ugus- 
 tus B. Longstreet, whose charming daughter became his 
 wife. Mr. Lamar removed to the State of Mississippi, 
 was elected adjunct professor of mathematics and assist- 
 ant of the celebrated Dr. A. T. Bledsoe, in the uni- 
 versity of his adopted State. In 1866 he was elected 
 professor of political economy and social science in the 
 University of Mississippi, and in 1867 was transferred 
 to the professorship of law. He was a member of the 
 Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses, and elected 
 to the United States Senate. He was less vigorous in 
 debate than Beck, and less ready and versatile than 
 Cox, but was a close student and an intense thinker. 
 His range of thought was not so wide as that explored 
 by Cox and many others, but it was exhaustive in its 
 search for truth upon the subjects which it embraced. 
 His style was severely chaste and clear — pruned of 
 all surplusage, and in thought, odorous with the oil of 
 
MEN AND THINGS 145 
 
 the lamp. His professorship of mathematics, political 
 economy, social science and law, together with his asso- 
 ciation with that metaphysician, Dr. Bledsoe, had doubt- 
 less been controlling factors in his mental operations 
 and processes. If he did not, in debate, beat down an 
 adversary into jelly, with the battle-axe of Richard — 
 like Beck ; or hack and slash him to pieces with the 
 scimiter of "Saladin" — like Cox, he pierced his most 
 vital part with no ''Spear of Itlmriel," and left him 
 the bleeding victim of defeat, as more than Eoscoe 
 Conkling ascertained. Lamar was less skilled in par- 
 liamentary tactics than Randall — less efficient in gen- 
 eral practical legislation than Beck or Cox; but, cool, 
 clear, cautious — the recognized representative and ex- 
 ponent of the chivalry of his section — he was dominant 
 in the policies and councils of his party, and com- 
 manded the universal respect of the opposite party. He 
 was full of resources in emergencies. When John 
 Young Brown deliberately rose in his place in the 
 House and uttered his terrific "Burking" denunciation 
 of Butler (that fell as suddenly and startlingly as the 
 shroud of Saladin, appeared at the banquet) it brought 
 the Republican members to their feet, in a tempest of 
 excitement ; motion followed motion, and pandemonium 
 reigned. Beck asked Lamar to take charge of the situa- 
 tion. Lamar arose and, with a dignity of manner, in a 
 tone of voice and with an expression of face that ex- 
 hibited regret, sorrow, sympathy and apology in com- 
 bination, in a few suave, deprecating words, allayed 
 the storm. The sequel was a mild reprimand of Brown 
 by the Speaker. 
 
146 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 There were many true and able Democrats in the 
 Forty-third Congress, less prominent in leadership than 
 Randall, Beck, Cox and Lamar. Among these was 
 Alexander H. Stephens, whose famous history had, 
 even then, been made up and placed on record, and 
 who, like Chatham, came in his feebleness and on his 
 crutches, to protest against the constitutionality of the 
 supplemental Civil Eights Bill. 
 
 The iron-clad Republican party of the ISTorth, 
 speckled with a scattering remnant of white renegades 
 and free negroes from the South, had an overwhelming 
 majority, with the conqueror of Appomattox Presi- 
 dent; and every subordinate office in the government, 
 occupied by the creatures of bitter partisanship. This 
 party sought, in the Forty-third Congress, to accom- 
 plish two things : to entrench itself in power by the pas- 
 sage of the Force Bill, and to insult and humiliate the 
 white people of the South by the passage of the Supple- 
 mental Civil Rights Bill. It failed in both objects. 
 The Force Bill was defeated and the Civil Rights Bill 
 was paralyzed by the blows it received in the Senate 
 and House. It not only proved ''a barren sceptre in 
 their gi'ip," but it secured a Democratic majority in 
 the House in the Forty-fourth Congress. The Ameri- 
 can people, in the language of Roosevelt, are for a 
 "square deal." They were unwilling that that majority 
 should say who should vote or when and how voting 
 should be done. Nor were they willing to regulate 
 their social life and relations by the standards or tastes 
 of Benjamin F. Butler, around whose name, negro 
 
MEN AND THINGS 147 
 
 troops, the blood of ^Iiimford, and insults to women 
 gathered in mingled memory. 
 
 There were able men on both sides in the Senate. 
 Among the Republicans appear Oliver P. Morton, John 
 Sherman, George F. Edmunds, Matthew Carpenter, 
 Henrj M. Teller, Reuben E. Fenton, Roscoe Conkling, 
 George S. Boutwell, William B. Allison and John J. 
 Ingalls and many other men of decided ability. Charles 
 Sumner died during the Forty-third Congress. The 
 Democratic party presented in this Senate: Allen G. 
 Thurman, Thomas F. Bayard, Eli Saulsbury, Joseph 
 E. McDonald, John W. Stevenson, Matthew W. Ran- 
 som, William Pinckney Whyte, Thomas Randolph, 
 Henry G. Davis, Thomas M. N"orwocd, John B. Gor- 
 don and Francis M. Cockerell. Two of the Republi- 
 cans, Reuben E. Fenton and Henry M. Teller, were 
 liberals of a very high order of ability and statesman- 
 ship. The debates in the Senate upon the vital party 
 issues were elaborate and exhaustive. Thomas M. Nor- 
 wood delivered a speech in the Senate against the Civil 
 Rights Bill which attracted much attention, created 
 great amusement and enlightened the judgment of the 
 people throughout the country. About one-half of the 
 speech, which was a long one, was devoted to the ridi- 
 cule of the measure, in severe irony, ludicrous illustra- 
 tions and blistering invectives; all presented, in an 
 elegant, scholarly style. This greatly amused the 
 American people. The remaining half of the speech 
 was devoted to a masterly argument against its con- 
 stitutionality, which Associate Justice Field, of the Su- 
 preme Court, pronounced to be the ablest constitutional 
 
148 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 argument made upon the subject. It will be remem- 
 bered that in the House the party managers put for- 
 ward a South Carolina negro to reply to Alexander H. 
 Stephens' argument against the constitutionality of the 
 bill ; so in the Senate they put up to reply to IN'orwood an 
 ignorant, slack-twisted, white reconstruction renegade, 
 who posed as Republican Senator from Texas, whose 
 name was Flannagan. He had been thrust into the 
 Senate by the military influence that had put the ne- 
 groes Eevels and Bruce, into the Senate from the State 
 of Davis, Prentiss, Sharkey and Lamar, 
 
 ISTo minority ever served a country in legislative halls 
 with more fidelity and profit than the Democratic 
 phalanx in the Forty-third Congress served the people 
 of these United States. Their gratitude found expres- 
 sion in returning to the House of Eepresentatives of 
 the Forty-fourth Congress a majority of Democratic 
 members, and the election of Samuel J. Tilden to the 
 Presidency. As soon as Tilden's election was ascer- 
 tained and unguardedly conceded by Mr. Hayes, the 
 Republican playwrights proceeded to put a new play 
 on the political boards. This consisted in sending 
 "visiting statesmen" to the States of Louisiana, Florida 
 and South Carolina (overwhelming Democratic States), 
 charged with the duty of working up and manufactur- 
 ing charges of fraud in the election and suborning 
 witnesses to sustain the charge by perjury. This was 
 successfully accomplished. In vain did the Democratic 
 House appoint committees "on the recent election in 
 South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana," and in vain 
 did these committees, or the Democratic majority ascer- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 149 
 
 tain and report the truth. The "visiting statesmen" 
 had fixed things and completed their job. The election 
 in these three States was so muddled in charges and 
 counter-charges of fraud as to furnish a pretext for in- 
 vestigation. As the time approached for counting the 
 electoral vote and declaring the result, President Grant 
 was very quietly ordering troops from stations and gar- 
 risons to the vicinity of the Capitol. It was discov- 
 ered that a partisan commission, with a Republican 
 majority of one on the commission, was the proper 
 authority to do the thing ; that the Constitution declares 
 the Congress shall do — count the vote and declare the 
 result. And by a sort of unconstitutional legislative 
 legerdemain the commission was created. The com- 
 mission was composed as follows : 
 
 Associate Justices of the Supreme Court: ISTathan 
 Clifford, William Strong, Samuel F. Miller, Stephen 
 J. Field, Joseph P. Bradley. 
 
 United States Senators : George F. Edmunds, Oliver 
 P. Morton, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, Allen G. Thur- 
 man, Thomas F. Bayard. 
 
 United States Representatives: Henry B. Payne, 
 Eppa Hunton, Josiah G. Abbott, James A. Garfield, 
 George F. Hoar. 
 
 This commission of able men was created by party 
 jugglery and packed with a Republican majority of 
 one, to perpetuate and consummate under the forms 
 of law the most stupendous fraud of history. It put 
 out of the office of President of the United States the 
 candidate legally chosen by the people, and into it, the 
 candidate rejected by them at the ballot-box. The deter- 
 
150 ME 2^ AND THINGS 
 
 mination of that packed tribunal was as well known 
 before the investigation began, as it was after the de- 
 cision was pronounced. The Democratic members 
 stood for the truth. The Republican members commit- 
 ted the fraud. The evidence taken by the Potter In- 
 vestigation Committee of the Forty-fifth Congress fur- 
 nishes the proof of this statement. This transaction is 
 remitted to future history for its impartial adjudica- 
 tion. 
 
 The Forty-fourth Congress seems to have been 
 fruitful in transferring legislative functions to com- 
 missions. The silver question was referred to a com- 
 mission consisting of John P. Jones, George S. Bout- 
 well, Louis V. Bogy, Richard P. Bland, Randall L. 
 Gibson, Geo. Willard, William S. Groesbeck and Fran- 
 cis P. Bowen. 
 
 The election in 1876 resulted in returning to the 
 House of Representatives a decided Democratic ma- 
 jority. And the changes in the Senate had made the 
 parties about equal in strength in that body. But the 
 counting in by the commission of the defeated candi- 
 date, gave the President to the Republican party, and 
 therefore, neither party had control of the policy of the 
 government. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Foety-fifth Congress. 
 
 The Senators from Georgia in the Forty-fifth Con- 
 gress, were John B. Gordon and Benjamin H. Hill. 
 The Representatives were: Julian Hartridge, William 
 E. Smith, Philip Cook, Henry R. Harris, Milton A. 
 Candler, James H. Blount, William H. Felton, Alex- 
 ander H. Stephens and Hiram P. Bell. , Samuel J. 
 Randall, of Pennsylvania, was elected Speaker, and 
 George M. Adams, of Kentucky, Clerk. In the opin- 
 ion of Alexander H. Stephens, this Congress, in the 
 average ability of its members, outranked any pre- 
 vious one in the history of the government. There 
 were men already famous, and others who afterwards 
 became so, in this Congress. Beck, Lamar, Dawes, 
 Blaine and George F. Hoar had been transferred to 
 the Senate. In the House were: Alexander H. 
 Stephens, Samuel J. Randall, Samuel S. Cox, John H. 
 Reagan, Nathaniel P. Banks, James A. Garfield, Wil- 
 liam McKinley, Thomas B. Reed, Joseph W. Keifer, 
 Roger Q. Mills, Proctor Knott, J. S. C. Blackburn, 
 Clarkson N. Potter, William P. Frye, Eugene Hale 
 and John Randolph Tucker. Of these, James A. Gar- 
 field and William McKinley became Presidents, and 
 each met the sad fate of assassination while in office. 
 Keifer and Reed became Speakers of the House. Rea- 
 
 151 
 
152 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 gan, Mills, Hale and Frye, distinguished Senators, the 
 last-mentioned acting Vice-President after the death of 
 Vice-President Hobart. In addition to these, there 
 was a number of men of equal ability but less official 
 notoriety, in the House. Of this class, the accom- 
 plished Kandolph Tucker, John F. House and Thomas 
 Ewing were typical examples. 
 
 Americans have been taught to believe that the 
 "golden age" of the Senate was the times in which 
 Webster and Choate, Clay and Crittenden, Calhoun 
 and Preston, Forsyth and Berrien, Cass, Buchanan, 
 Benton, Wright and Grundy crossed knightly lances 
 in senatorial jousts. But it may be doubted whether 
 that brilliant constellation was not fully equalled by 
 the one formed in the Forty-fifth Congress. Con- 
 spicuous among the Republicans appeared George F. 
 Edmunds, Roscoe Conkling, William B. Allison, 
 Henry M. Teller, James Blaine, Matthew Carpenter, 
 George F. Hoar, Henry L. Dawes and John J. In- 
 galls. And among the Democrats, Allen G. Thur- 
 man, Thomas F. Bayard, James B. Beck, John T. 
 Morgan, Benjamin H. Hill, Matthew Ransom, John 
 B. Gordon, L. Q. C. Lamar, and Augustus H. Gar- 
 land. Zebulon Vance and George G. Vest entered the 
 Senate later. Oliver P. Morton was dead, and John 
 Sherman had entered the Cabinet, as Secretary of the 
 Treasury. Among these great men, Allen G. Thurman 
 stood, by common concession, primus inter alios, a 
 jurist, publicist and statesman of the highest order and 
 an ideal American Senator. Bayard was a very strong 
 man, with a sublimated ethereal political purity, that 
 
MEN AND THINGS 153 
 
 sometimes lessened his value as a party ally. Conk- 
 ling was richly endowed in mental power, a fluent, 
 graceful speaker, of imposing personal appearance, 
 tastefully dressed, and formidable in debate. His 
 manner was characterized by a hauteur that was little 
 less than repulsive. His step was the stride of 
 Apollo, called by Blaine (in the spat between them 
 in the House), "The strut of the turkey gobbler." His 
 manner and bearing reminded me of Pollock's descrip- 
 tion of Byron: "He from above descending, stooped 
 to touch the loftiest thought, and proudly stooped, as 
 though it scarce deserved his verse;" and what Phillips 
 said of JSTapoleon, "Grand, gloomy and peculiar, 
 he sat upon the throne, a sceptered hermit wrapped 
 in the solitude of his originality." He settled ac- 
 counts with Blaine, when, in his response to the lat- 
 ter's request to make a few speeches in ]S[ew York, in 
 support of his candidacy for the Presidency, he stated: 
 •'That he had retired from the criminal practice." It 
 was said that he declined the Chief-Justiceship of the 
 Supreme Court, tendered to him by Grant. He was 
 the friend of Grant; and led the 306 delegates, who 
 supported Grant's nomination, for a third term. He 
 broke with Garfield's administration, controlled by 
 Blaine, and resig-ned his seat in the Senate, came to 
 political grief, and soon met the fate of all the living. 
 Carpenter was a first-class lawyer of splendid phy- 
 sique, bold, manly and able ; a true type of the best 
 product of the great West. Edmunds was the model 
 Republican Senator. He was of mediimi height, thin, 
 prematurely gray, with bald head, and very slightly 
 
154 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 stooping shoulders. He was a charming speaker — 
 his style, which was of the conversational order, pure 
 as snow and clear as light. He went straight to the 
 vital point of a question, cleared it of mists, and 
 struck for the truth, as he understood it. He was a 
 strong partisan; but a profound jurist, broad-minded 
 statesman and faithful Senator. 
 
 Voorhees, "the tall sycamore of the Wabash," was 
 the Ciceronian orator of the Senate, and of the country. 
 His person, his voice, his taste and his talents — all 
 conspired to make him the master of oratory in the 
 sense of superb declamation, of fine thought in mag- 
 nificently rounded sentences of peerless beauty. His 
 appointment to speak was the signal for crowded gal- 
 leries, and the guaranty of a delighted audience. Gar- 
 land was a plain, quiet, steady man, who was the equal 
 of the first constitutional lawyers of the country. Gor- 
 don, the most magnetic, in the senate or out, was a 
 fluent speaker, ready, skirmishing debater and always 
 eloquent. Plis chivalry and high social qualities made 
 him a general favorite. Ransom was soldier, states- 
 man, orator, and gentleman in harmonious proportions, 
 and happy combination. Hoar, developed into one of the 
 safest, purest, wisest Republican Senators 'New Eng- 
 land ever gave the country. Ingalls was as bright and 
 perhaps, erratic, as a comet. He was unique and pic- 
 turesque in person, dress, style, manner — in everything. 
 He was a brilliant speaker and a dangerous guerilla and 
 free lance, in a general free-for-all senatorial intellec- 
 tual combat. 
 
 Hill never ranked high for statesmanship, nor for 
 
MEli AND THINGS 155 
 
 wisdom in party counsels, but he was a superior law- 
 yer, a great orator and a matchless debater. Burke 
 said of Fox, that ''he was the greatest debater the 
 world ever saw." But Hill had not then lived, and 
 Burke had not heard him. As a debater, a disputant 
 (in my opinion), history furnishes no account of his 
 equal. He had in rich abundance all the powers of 
 a successful orator and debater. His debate with 
 Blaine, on the Amnesty Bill, in the House of Represen- 
 tatives, his Davis, Hall and Bush Arbor speeches in 
 Atlanta, prove this statement. The writer heard him, 
 in Concert Hall in Macon, in 1856, at night, deliver a 
 speech in support of Fillmore for President, which 
 lost, to at least two persons, the sleep of that night. This 
 speech charmed, thrilled and electrilied his audience. T 
 happened to state to the late J. H. R. Washington that 
 I could not sleep for a moment that night, after hearing 
 the speech. He replied that his experience was pre- 
 cisely the same. I listened to him for four hours in 
 the Supreme Court, in the "Choice murder case" in 
 which he sought to reverse the conviction, in the lower 
 court on the plea of insanity. He stated his legal prop- 
 ositions clearly, and argued them so masterfully that 
 I could not see how he could possibly be wrong. But 
 the court overruled every proposition upon which he in- 
 sisted. He handled facts, existing, with a force that 
 would admit of no answer; and improvised such facts 
 as were necessary to his purpose with a skill that de- 
 fied detection. The country will not soon forget the 
 sportive cruelty with which he held Malone writhing 
 in the agony of mental crucifixion in the Senate. Hill, 
 
156 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 at his best surpassed "Fox in debate, Brougham in in- 
 vectives, Demosthenes in power, Cicero in style, and ap- 
 proached Prentiss in the highest realms of beauty and 
 true eloquence." Beck, Blaine , Lamar and Dawes 
 have been considered in another chapter. There were 
 four members of this Senate now living, who, for thor- 
 ough consecration to the public service, ardent patriot- 
 ism, constant and laborious work, practical common 
 sense, legislative wisdom and length of membership 
 have already embalmed themselves in history as 
 model statesmen and standard Senators. These 
 are Jno. T. Morgan, William B. Allison, Henry M. 
 Teller, and Francis M. Cockrell. In the Forty- 
 fifth Congress, Georgia was represented on the most 
 important committees of the House. Stephens was 
 chairman of the Committee on Coinage, Weights and 
 Measures, and a member of the Committee on Rules. 
 Cook was chairman of the Committee on Public Build- 
 ings and Grounds, and on the Committee on Reform in 
 the Civil Service; Harris, on Committee of Ways and 
 Means, and on Expenditures in the Treasury Depart- 
 ment. Blount was on the Committee of Appropria- 
 tions. Bell was on the Committee on Banking and 
 Currency, and on Education and Labor; Hartridge, 
 on the Judiciary, and on Expenditures in the Depart- 
 ment of Justice; Candler, on Privileges and Elec 
 tions, and on Expenses in the War Department; Fel- 
 ton, on Commerce, and on Mines and Mining. W. E. 
 Smith, was on Public Lands, on Patents, and on the 
 Joint Committee, on the Census. The great questions 
 before this Congress were the Tariff, Currency, Silver 
 
MEN AND THINGS 157 
 
 Coinage, Repeal of the Specie Resumption Act, and 
 the investigation of the Presidential Election Frauds. 
 On the currency and silver questions, the discussion 
 was protracted, able and exhaustive. Stephens, Har- 
 ris, Felton and Bell participated in this discussion. 
 The Free Coinage Silver Bill — known as the "Bland 
 Bill" — was passed. Mr. Bland was a small, quiet, 
 modest man. He had mined in Colorado and Utah. 
 He farmed in Missouri, and was a plain, practical, 
 sensible man, thinking much and speaking little. He 
 fought courageously for years for the restoration of 
 silver as a basic money of final redemption with gold, 
 at 16 to 1, and finally won. His triumph was turned 
 into defeat by the veto of President Hayes — dictated, 
 doubtless, by his great secretary, John Sherman. The 
 government was suffering with a virulent attack of the 
 Ohio political "grippe." Ohio men filled the offices 
 of President, General of the Army^ Chief Justice of 
 the Supreme Court, and Secretary of the Treas-iry. 
 It has always been supposed that the sword, the purse 
 and the law, were instruments of power in controlling 
 the affairs of government. This instance does not ex- 
 plode that supposition. Mr. Hayes was an affable, ac- 
 commodating gentleman of high moral character, nom- 
 inated by accident, and counted in by fraud, with no 
 expectation of a second term. Of mediocre ability, 
 among the third class of statesmen, he turned over to 
 his Secretary of the Treasury, who was looking to the 
 success, the management of his administrative pol- 
 icy. Sherman was unquestionably the greatest master 
 of finance in the couiitry. He was said to be among 
 
158 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 those who made fortunes by its manipulations. He stood 
 with the creditors of the government, and capitalists of 
 the country for the "Wall" and Lombard streets, theo- 
 ries of finance, which was to change the government 
 debt from a currency, to a coin debt, eliminate silver 
 from coinage, destroying its debt-paying capacity, thus 
 converting a currency into a gold debt; and, then, re- 
 sume specie payments. The South and West were so 
 clamorous for the double standard, and the nomination 
 for the succession impending, that another bill of Mr. 
 Bland for free coinage of silver, — which passed in the 
 House — was amended in the Senate on the motion of 
 Senator Allison; and finally passed both houses and 
 became known as the "Bland-Allison Act." In general 
 terms this act authorized the Secretary of the Treasury 
 to purchase a limited amount of silver bullion, monthly, 
 and coin the same at the ratio of sixteen of silver to one 
 of gold. This act continued in force, with good results, 
 until Cleveland's administration, under Wall street in- 
 fluence, secured its repeal, divided the Democratic party 
 and entrenched the Eepublicans in power, indefinitely. 
 The Kepublican National Convention met, and the 
 great secretary failed to reach the guerdon so long, and 
 so arduously sought and another Ohio man won. Ohio 
 has been fruitful in great men. She has produced at 
 least one woman who merits the highest niche in the 
 Temple of Fame. In simple, plain elegance in dress 
 and manners, in ardent devotion to the duties of wife- 
 hood, in the charmed circle of home-life, in dignity of 
 bearing, in court life, in s\anpathetic response to ap- 
 peals for help, and in thorough consecration to the 
 
MEN AN D THIN 08 159 
 
 pious duties of the religion of Christianity, Mrs. Lucy 
 Hayes is the finest exemplar of the virtues of American 
 womanhood that ever occupied the White House or il- 
 lustrated the civilization of the nineteenth century. It 
 is reassuring to recognize in her the typical representa- 
 tion of a very large majority of our countrywomen. 
 There are perhaps, some blessings, in the control of the 
 different departments of government, by opposite par- 
 ties. If but little good legislation can be secured, much 
 bad may be prevented, while such as is absolutely nec- 
 essary may be assured. During this Congress there 
 were many measures, some good, others bad, presented 
 and pressed, which failed. A New York engraving and 
 printing bank note company, had presented in the 
 House, a bill to abolish the "Bureau of Engraving and 
 Printing." It was referred to the committee on Bank- 
 ing and Currency. Geo. S. Bout well, ex-Secretary of the 
 Treasury, was employed by the company to represent 
 it before the committee, which he did, in an elaborate 
 argument. Upon my motion, Edward McPherson, the 
 accomplished chief of the Bureau, was invited to reply ; 
 which he did in a masterly way. It was simply a job 
 to destroy the Bureau and rob the government by a con- 
 tract to do its engraving and printing. On my motion 
 a private speculative job was defeated, in which, I have 
 always, felt that I rendered the public some service. 
 As a recognition of this service, the chairman of the 
 committee appointed me the Congressional member of 
 a committee of Treasury Experts raised to determine 
 the relative merits of the work done by steam, and the 
 hand-press. I presided over this committee and wrote 
 
160 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 its report. As chairman of a sub-committee, I reported 
 favorably to the Committee on Education and Labor, a 
 bill to distribute for education among the States, upon 
 the basis of illiteracy, the proceeds of the sale of the 
 public lands. This beneficent measure failed. 
 
 ISTine members of the House had been members of the 
 Confederate Congi"ess. They were Alexander H. Ste- 
 phens, John H. Reagan, Otho R. Singleton, Robert A. 
 Hatcher, J. D. C. Adkins, John T. Goode, William E. 
 Smith, Hiram P. Bell and Julian Hartridge. Hart- 
 ridge died in Washington while a member, deeply la- 
 mented by Congress and the country. Stephens had 
 been vice-president of the Confederacy, and Reagan 
 postmaster-general of both the Provisional and perma- 
 nent governments. Reagan and Ex-Gov. Lubbuck 
 were with President Davis when he was captured. 
 They had entered into a covenant to personally stand 
 by him to the last, and share his fate whatever it might 
 be; and nobly did these true and knightly men keep 
 that agreement. In all the elements that go to make 
 up a pure, noble, great man, John H. Reagan had fev/ 
 equals and no superior in the age in which he lived. 
 The Texas delegation was a strong one — Reagan, 
 Throckmorton, Culberson, Mills, Giddings, Willie and 
 Shliecher. Shliecher died at his post during his term. 
 I wish to emphasize the statement, that the legal maxim 
 "expressio unicus, exclusio alterius," has no application 
 to my reference to men or my failure to refer to them. 
 If conditions would allow, it would afford me great 
 pleasure to put on record my appreciation of the ability 
 of inost of the Senators and Representatives of the 
 
MEN AND THINGS 161 
 
 Forty-fifth Congress. They were, in the main, men of 
 great ability, high moral character and unquestioned 
 patriotism. Some of them became famous in history. 
 Many of them have rendered valuable service to their 
 country and their kind, and all of them did their duty 
 as they understood it. A great number of them have 
 crossed the silent river, and found what the survivors 
 will never know until they rejoin them in another and 
 a different state of existence. In the storm and con- 
 flict of opinion and policy of Congressional life, there 
 is the sunshine of genial companionships, valued 
 friendships and pleasant and tender memories. 
 
 There is one colossal figure of these times that es- 
 pecially claims consideration. Ulysses S. Grant was 
 born in 1822 in the State of Ohio. He was educated 
 at West Point, brevetted captain for gallantry in the 
 Mexican War, and a few years after, resigned his com- 
 mission in the Army. He engaged in farming in Mis- 
 souri and later in the leather business in Illinois — in 
 neither of which was he regarded as successful. He 
 was a strong, quiet, modest, silent man who enjoyed a 
 cigar, was fond of horses, of which he was an excellent 
 judge, and was said to be a connoisseur in the qualities 
 of whiskey. When the Civil War commenced, he or- 
 ganized a company of volunteers, of which he A^as 
 elected captain. He w^as soon Brigadier General of vol- 
 unteers ; captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson ; 
 won the second day's battle of Shiloh, after losing the 
 first; captured Vicksburg; was appointed Major-Gen- 
 eral in the regular army and placed in eonrmjand of 
 the Mississippi Division. In March, 1864, he was ap- 
 
162 MEl^ AND THINGS 
 
 pointed Lieutenant-General of the Armies of the Uni- 
 ted States. He engaged Lee in battle at the Wilder- 
 ness ; sought to flank Lee and reach Richmond ; was de- 
 feated at Spottsylvania, Xorth Anna and Cold Harbor. 
 He crossed the James, finally surrounded Lee, and 
 compelled his surrender, xVpril 9th, 1865. In 1866, 
 he was made General of the Armies of the United 
 States. He was twice elected president, traveled around 
 the world, the feted and flattered guest of kings and em- 
 perors. He lost his fortune in a commercial bubble, 
 wrote his book and died 23d July, 1885, His coun- 
 trymen gave him the grandest state funeral ever ac- 
 corded to an American citizen. The meteoric splendor 
 of this greatness in the world's popular judgment of 
 human greatness, can only be accounted for upon the 
 coincidence of two facts — the inherent qualities of the 
 man and the opportunity his environments gave for 
 their development. Grant's high qualities were com- 
 mon sense, equanimity of temper, constancy of purpose, 
 force of will, fearlessness of consequences and magna- 
 nimity of spirit. His environments were exactly suited 
 to their development, to the fullest extent. He had 
 opened the Mississippi River and divided the Confed- 
 eracy. He was at the head of the Union armies witli 
 the confidence of liis government, supported by re- 
 sources of men and means, without limit. Lee had 
 successively defeated McClellan, Burnside, Pope 
 and Hooker in pitched battles. Relying upon num- 
 bers, he encountered Lee at the "Wilderness." The 
 result of this battle determined Grant's policy in con- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 163 
 
 ducting the war. This policy was the exhaustion of 
 the Confederacy's resources of men and supplies. 
 Grant knew that conscription had robbed the cradle 
 and the grave — that when the last Confederate disap- 
 peared the Union would still have an army. Hence 
 he defeated every effort to exchange prisoners: with 
 him, every Confederate kept out of the army was as 
 good as dead, and could not be replaced; while the 
 Union could lose its prisoners and still its ranks 
 be filled. There was little genius but mu?h 
 mathematics in this logic. Elvers of blood and hun- 
 dreds of slain in battle, and the suffering and death of 
 thousands in prison, did not count. This policy pur- 
 sued by Grant for one year carried him from the de- 
 feat of the Wilderness to the victory of Appomattox. 
 As president of the United States, he appointed his 
 friends and kinfolks to office; communicated his 
 views on public questions in clear, brief messages, and 
 allowed his party in Congress to manage public af- 
 fairs pretty much as it pleased. He gave all his 
 personal and official influence to the pacification of a 
 disturbed country. He closed his letter accepting the 
 nomination for the presidency with the sententious 
 sentence: "Let us have peace." His official, 
 civil life was devoted to that end. He had mingled 
 in enough strife. He showed his magnanimity of soul 
 at the surrender, and in the promptness and spirit with 
 which he rebuked the threatened indictment and ar- 
 rest of Lee in violation of its terms. 
 
164 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Disappointed Ambition. 
 There were eight distinguished statesmen who paid 
 the penalty of ambition in the disappointment of de- 
 sire, and the mortification of defeat, in their aspira- 
 tions for the presidency — Calhoun, Clay, Cass, Sew- 
 ard, Douglass, Chase, Blaine and Sherman. Cal- 
 houn's breach with Jackson and doctrine of nullifica- 
 tion eliminated him from among the possibilities for 
 that high office. Clay lost by the fatal blunder of op- 
 position to the annexation of Texas. Cass' hopes per- 
 ished in the blaze of Buena Vista; Lincoln's debate 
 with Douglass side-tracked Seward; Appomattox put 
 Grant between Chase and his goal; Kansas and Ne- 
 braska placed Douglass on the retired list. The bal- 
 lot-box disposed of Blaine. Sherman could never 
 reach the nomination station in the race. When the 
 political angel stirred the waters of the pool, another 
 stepped in. All these men had been representatives in 
 the House, had won the Senatorial toga and with the 
 exception of Douglass had been cabinet ministers. 
 Several of them had been Governors of States; two of 
 them Speaker of the House ; one Vice-president, another 
 Chief Justice of Supreme Court, and another foreign 
 minister. All these men wore the highest honors, save 
 the presidency, the people or the government could pos* 
 sibly bestow. 
 
 It would seem that all this ought to satisfy human 
 ambition and fully fill the loftiest human aspiration. 
 Yet these men, like the youth bearing the banner with 
 the strange device, "Excelsior," sought to climb the 
 
MEN AND THINGS 165 
 
 Alpine heights of power and only grasped a frozen 
 shroud. They seem to have forgotten that there was 
 but a step between the conquest of Gaul and the dagger 
 of Brutus — the sun of Austerlitz and the eclipse of 
 Waterloo. Whence this insatiable hungering and 
 thirsting in the human soul — for honor, power and 
 fame ? Is it the silent assertion of its conscious im- 
 mortality, wandering like the lost pleiad in search of 
 its original center ? Or, is it that the stain of sin has 
 diverted its powers from, the enjoyment of the spiritual 
 and eternal, to the material and perishing things of 
 the Universe ? It dominates now, and has dominated 
 men and women — to a greater or less degi-ee in all ages, 
 classes and conditions of the race, through all time. It 
 is to be met and reckoned with in human affairs. And 
 yet the history of the wisest, the richest and the most 
 powerful of kings has put it on record, that "All is 
 vanity and vexation of spirit." Webster desired the 
 presidency, but did not seek it, and perhaps, enter- 
 tained no hope of attaining it. Horace Greely both 
 desired and sought it. It is amazing that he, for a 
 moment, should have indulged the thought or enter- 
 tained the slightest hope of defeating Grant. And 
 yet the earnestness with which he prosecuted his cam- 
 paign, shows the intensity of his desire and the hope 
 of his success in securing the coveted prize. An eye- 
 witness assures us that, returning to his office, certain 
 of defeat, and finding scattered over it burlesque car- 
 toons by "ISTast" (ridiculing his candidacy) he put his 
 face in his hands upon his desk, burst into tears and 
 said in anguish, "Is this the reward of my life of la- 
 
166 ME2f AND THINGS 
 
 bor?" and literally died of a broken heart, and was 
 borne to the silence that stills the tumult of strife and 
 withers the laurels of ambition. What these great 
 men suffered in chagrin, disappointment and mortifi- 
 cation at defeat, can not be kno%vn. How much of real 
 joy and happiness they sacrificed can only be conjec- 
 tured. It is a fact that most of them died compara- 
 tively young; Calhoun at 68; Sherman at 69; Chase 
 at 65; Blaine at 63; Greely at 61; Douglass at 48. 
 Only Cass, Clay and Seward lived beyond the "three- 
 score and ten." There are at least two men in Amer- 
 ican history who attained the highest official honors 
 without seeking them, and discharged their duties with 
 an ability and fidelity that will make them famous 
 through all the ages. These are George Washington 
 and Jefferson Davis. They responded to emergency 
 calls for public service ; and imselfishly gave it. In the 
 one case, success made a victor, in the other, defeat, a 
 victim ; in both, the best illustration of true greatness, 
 the unselfish service of others. 
 
 Our theory of a double government, general and lo- 
 cal, national and State, under a written constitution, 
 defining and specifying the powers of each, is a beau- 
 tiful — a Utopian theory. It assumes that those in con- 
 trol will exercise only constitutional powers, and will 
 strictly observe constitutional limitations; that the 
 people will subordinate personal to public interests. 
 If this were true the government would be a Utopia. 
 But in applying the theory in practice, it encounters 
 the passions, selfishness, avarice and ambition of both 
 those who govern and those who are governed with a di- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 167 
 
 versity of interest and opinion, difBcnlt to harmon- 
 ize and reconcile. And hence, self-government will 
 always continue an experiment. The fact that one 
 generation has governed itself, does not prove that the 
 next one will. '"Eternal vigilance is the price of lib- 
 erty." With all our progress, development and power 
 — the first century of our experiment is not altogether 
 reassuring. The jSTorthern States were astonished 
 that the Southern States would secede ; the Southern 
 people were surprised that the government would at- 
 tempt to hold the States together by force. But the un- 
 expected happened in both cases, and a stupendous war 
 resulted. Three presidents have been assassinated. 
 And the theory applied to existing conditions fails to 
 materialize into the Utopia. 
 
 Ours is the best system of government ever devised 
 by human wisdom. The ISTational Government un- 
 dertakes the regulation of our affairs and relations 
 with foreign governments to protect and secure to the 
 States their rights in the exercise and enjoyment of 
 the right of self-government and home rule. But in a 
 government, thus complex in its form and nature — 
 with a domain so large, resources so vast, and a popula- 
 tion so numerous, — differences of opinion, antagonism 
 in interest and collisions of passion will inevitably ex- 
 ist. These conditions constantly present new ques- 
 tions of public policy for the solution of statesmanship. 
 The sole instrument of power is the ballot. The suc- 
 cess of this experiment of self-government depends 
 upon the virtue, intelligence and patriotism of the 
 electors, and the wisdom, capacity and faithfulness 
 
168 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 of public officials. The honors and emoluments of 
 public office are open alike to all, and this is equality 
 and therefore right. But while it invites aspiring pa- 
 triots to desire office as a means of serving the public, 
 it presents to the ambitious demagogues, the bane of 
 republics, the temptation to seek office for selfish pur- 
 poses. The danger is that the people do not always 
 wisely discriminate between them. They do not appre- 
 ciate the oft-repeated truth, that public office is a public 
 trust, to be exercised alone for the public benefit. If 
 all the people of this great country could or would prop- 
 erly appreciate a government that secures the inalien- 
 able rights of man, the proper limitations of liberty by 
 law, the perfect equality of all before the law, the equal 
 distribution of taxation and the duties of citizenship, 
 and an open track for the race of life ; they would con- 
 secrate themselves to its preservation and transmission, 
 unimpaired, to posterity. The blessing of liberty and 
 good government is the product of thousands of years 
 of struggle, suffering, sacrifice and blood. And to 
 maintain, preserve and perpetuate it, requires virtue, 
 vigilance, wisdom and patriotism. The United States 
 of America is the temple that holds the Ark of her 
 Covenant, and shrine of her worship. Let her kneeling 
 devotees forever keep her altar fires aflame. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Social Pkoblems. 
 
 There are certain social and economic problems no\s' 
 confronting the government and people of the United 
 States which clamor for solution. Among the least of 
 these is the race problem. The effort already made by 
 law to solve it upon the basis of equality, is a demon- 
 strated failure. The attempt now being made to dis- 
 pose of it by literary education, will soon prove to be 
 another. The proposition and practice of taxing the 
 labor and property of the country to train free negroes 
 in idleness and crime, and inspire them with an aspira- 
 tion for equality they can never reach, will be aban- 
 doned when its folly and injustice become generally un- 
 derstood. Various theories have been propounded for 
 the disposition of this question — such as their general 
 distribution throughout the United States; their colo- 
 nization in this country; their removal to Africa, etc. 
 So far as the colored race is concerned, its duly and 
 its interest is to earn a living by honest labor. Its 
 capital consists in its muscle and knowledge of agri- 
 culture. That plan which puts the negro to work in 
 the ground for his livelihood, solves at least, the ma- 
 terialistic branch of this problem. The race question 
 as it relates to the African, has very much the charac- 
 teristics of a tempest in a teapot. The Southern peo- 
 
 169 
 
170 ME2J AND THINGS 
 
 pie may be relied on to take care of it. They princi- 
 pally have to deal with it. They understand it. They 
 know how to manage it and will find ways to meet its 
 emergencies in the future. There are questions of 
 graver import than this, pressing for solution. Promi- 
 nent among these is the divorce question. At last the 
 country seems to have become aroused at the danger to 
 social order arising from the numberless and shameless 
 dissolutions of the sacred bonds of wedlock sanctioned 
 by law. This is not surprising when it is remembered 
 that marriage is the God-ordained method of propaga- 
 ting, preserving and perpetuating the race. The fam- 
 ily is the primary and basic institution upon which so- 
 ciety in all its forms and organizations rests. Mar- 
 riage is the indispensable initiative of the family. Re- 
 move, impair or destroy this foundation and the super- 
 structure must crumble and perish in ruins. The 
 recklessness with which marriage is contracted and the 
 facility with which it is dissolved has justly alarmed 
 Christians, patriots and philanthropists. This is a 
 question within the control of law. Indeed its evils 
 result from bad law. Its remedy is simple. It only 
 requires a change in the law of the grounds upon which, 
 or the cause for which a divorce may be granted. 
 Whatever difficulty may exist in securing the desired 
 change in the law, will be found in harmonizing the 
 public sentiments of the different States, upon the 
 ground upon which it should be granted. To consider 
 this question the governors of the several States have 
 been invited to meet in consultation. Bar associations. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 
 
 171 
 
 legislatures, church councils and organized bodies of 
 various other kinds, have given expression of their 
 wish for the suppression of this evil, and the restora- 
 tion of marriage to its proper purity and sanctitv. 
 There is one cause for which Christianity gives it sanc- 
 tion. It would seem that a Christian nation might 
 agree upon that cause. It ih impossible to secure exact 
 statistics of the number of divorces granted each year 
 in the United States. But judging from the best 
 sources of information available, the number in propor- 
 tion to the number of marriages is appalling. "Mod- 
 ern Women," August 1905, publishes the following ta- 
 ble of marriages and divorces in thirteen cities of the 
 United States in 1902 : 
 
 
 Marriages 
 
 Divorces 
 
 Proportion 
 
 New York, 
 
 33,447 
 
 817 
 
 I in 40 
 
 Cliicago, 
 
 16,684 
 
 1,808 
 
 I iu 9 
 
 Boston, 
 
 6,312 
 
 446 
 
 1 in 14 
 
 San Francisco, 
 
 3,656 
 
 847 
 
 I in 4 
 
 Philadelphia, 
 
 9,912 
 
 492 
 
 I in 20 
 
 St. Louis, 
 
 5,959 
 
 573 
 
 I in 10 
 
 Cleveland, 
 
 3,199 
 
 454 
 
 I in 7 
 
 Indianapolis, 
 
 2, 60S 
 
 471 
 
 I in 5 
 
 Kansas Oity, 
 
 1,704 
 
 420 
 
 I in 4 
 
 Los Angeles, 
 
 1,818 
 
 405 
 
 I in 4 
 
 Seattle, 
 
 1,351 
 
 323 
 
 I in 4 
 
 Dallas, 
 
 1,291 
 
 210 
 
 I in 5 
 
 Chattanooga, 
 
 550 
 
 103 
 
 I in 5 
 
 This proportion of divorces to marriages, applied 
 to the entire United States, would give for one year in 
 this country, 35,846 divorces. That this is below the 
 true number, which, judging from the statements of 
 the public press, seems to be rapidly increasing, there 
 
172 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 is but little reason to doubt, 35,846 divorces means that 
 number of wrecked homes, and twice that number of 
 ruined lives — to say nothing of the children and fami- 
 lies who suffer in consequence of the sin. But this is 
 the least evil. To weaken and destroy the sacredness 
 and obligations of the marriage relation is to sap and 
 subvert our social, civil and religious system and in- 
 stitutions, and paralyze and ultimately destroy our 
 Christian civilization. It is the training of pure and 
 happy homes, that makes good men and women, and 
 great and prosperous nations. It is the home where 
 reverence for law and obedience to its supremacy is 
 taught and learned. If the wicked reign of passion 
 and crime is to be controlled or prevented, its purity 
 and sanctity must be preserved. 
 
 Another great problem with which the American gov- 
 ernment and people are now dealing is the conflict 
 between capital and labor. That these two agents 
 of all material progTess which are the compliments of 
 each other should paralyze their potentialities in a con- 
 flict which produces want, loss, bad feeling and 
 bloodshed, instead of uniting and co-operating in serv- 
 ing the best results to both, is folly for which lan- 
 guage has no adequate expression. It must be con- 
 ceded that each is entitled to perfect equality in rights ; 
 that each is absolutely and equally indispensable to 
 the other and to society. Then why not eliminate 
 all antagonism and controversy between them and ob- 
 viate the numerous evils that flow from their strife and 
 conflict? Capital has the undoubted right to legal 
 protection in the enjoyment of its legitimate proflts. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 173 
 
 Labor has precisely the same right to protection 
 in the earnings and value of its toil. There is in- 
 herently no hostility between them, but on the con- 
 trary, an identity of interest that demands alliance and 
 co-operation. Their relations and rights can be regu- 
 lated by contract and enforced by law. When capital 
 — formed into combinations to rob labor — and labor 
 imions united to wrong capital — produce war between 
 them, after both parties and the public suffer much 
 (like they do in all wars) the military power of the 
 government is invoked to suppress it. The frequency 
 of this state of affairs in the United States, is a pessimis- 
 tic prophecy. And the time has come, when the means 
 of prevention should be found and applied. 
 
 Another problem pressing for attention and so- 
 lution iipon the American people is the question of 
 immigration. The Puritans and Cavaliers and their 
 descendants, — combining the best elements of both, set- 
 tled this country, and framed and established its in- 
 stitutions. They have brought its progress and civili- 
 zation to their present state, and they are the only 
 safe conservators of these institutions. They hold 
 them in sacred trust for posterity. Our example, like 
 a Pharos, has giiided France, Mexico and the South 
 American Republics into the light of free representa- 
 tive systems of governments and liberalized the monar- 
 chial systems of Europe. Our distinguished racial ca- 
 pabilities and excellencies must be preserved from de- 
 terioration. Immigration should be restricted to those 
 of good moral character, who are eligible to naturaliza- 
 tion, and come to discharge the duties of good citizen- 
 
174 MEN AND THING 8 
 
 ship, as well as to enjoy the blessings of good govern- 
 ment and who wish to assimilate with our people and in- 
 stitutions. We have neither room nor use for the Laz- 
 zaroni of the effete despotisms of Europe and Asia. 
 The preservation of our system rests with the race that 
 created it. 
 
 Among the problems engaging public attention none 
 is more vital to the republic than the purification of 
 the ballot. The ballot is the expression of the original 
 inherent sovereignty of the people. It is the founda- 
 tion of power. Corrupt the fountain and the stream 
 necessarily becomes polluted. That the ballot has be- 
 come in many places and under different circumstances 
 an article of commerce — of bargain and sale, — must be 
 admitted by all familiar with the facts of current his- 
 tory. By this means the popular choice of rulers has 
 been defeated. Virtue, intelligence and patriotism os- 
 tracized and saloon rowdies manipulated by ward-heel- 
 ers and county demagogues have chosen men to make 
 and administer law, who barter the franchise, rights and 
 interests of the people for bribes. It is astonishing that 
 the American people continue so quiet under such 
 wrongs, so fraught with destruction to their highest in- 
 terests. This astonishment is increased when it is re- 
 membered that the remedy is so obvious and simple. 
 There are many methods of purifying the ballot by law. 
 It may be done by guards placed around the place of 
 voting ; by amending and enforcing the law, prescribing 
 the qualifications of voters ; by increasing and vigor- 
 ously enforcing the penalties against the crime of illegal 
 voting, even to the disfranchisement of the criminal. A 
 
MEN AND THINGS 175 
 
 concentrated public opinion can speedily secure this re- 
 form so imperiously demanded by the highest consider- 
 ations of the public interest. Will the people rise to 
 the height of the argument ? Or, will they, by their 
 apathy and indifference like "the base Judean, cast a 
 pearl away, richer, than all his tribes ?" 
 
 There is another j)roblem before us, with which the 
 govermnent has undertaken to deal, and, which it is 
 ardently hoped, it may be able to righteously solve in 
 ultimate suppression. This is the combination of cap- 
 ital known as "Trusts," formed for the purpose of de- 
 stroying competition, monopolizing the trade and fixing 
 the price in certain articles of necessity to the public, 
 in which they deal. In a word, it is a combination to 
 dictate the price the people must pay for things indis- 
 pensable to them. In all the essential elements of 
 morals they stand upon the same basis of the highway- 
 man and the train-wrecker. They force the people's 
 money from them contrary to their will, and without 
 compensation. These trusts are public robbers, and 
 should be summarily placed under the ban of public 
 opinion and of law. This insufferable greed and ava- 
 rice diverts capital from its beneficence in the prosecu- 
 tion of legitimate enterprises, profitable to the owner, 
 and useful to the public, and converts it into war upon 
 commerce and plunder of the people. The President 
 of the United States deserves the gratitude of the na- 
 tion for his efforts to free it from this blood-sucking 
 octopus. In a world of movement, change, activity, 
 progress and retrograde, there will always be problems 
 pressing for solution upon the race. 
 
CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 WoMAx IN War. 
 
 (Address of H. P. Bell at the Confederate Reunion, at 
 Marietta, Oa.) 
 
 Confederate Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 The highest expression of patriotism is the offering 
 of one's life upon the altar of his country, in the de- 
 fense of its honor, its liberty and its flag. This expres- 
 sion every true Confederate soldier has freely and vol- 
 untarily given. Confederate soldiers had no agency in 
 causing the late Civil War, not creating the conditions 
 which made it inevitable. They dealt with it as an 
 existing fact. When their country was invaded and 
 volunteers were called for they responded promptly. 
 They left home, farm, office, business, wife, children — 
 all that was dear to them, and submitted their blood and 
 life to the chance of battle. They endured heat and 
 cold, hunger and thirst, fatigue and toil, sickness and 
 suffering, danger and death ; and all this without a 
 murmur. They did their duty always and everywhere 
 with unfaltering fidelity. For four long and bloody 
 years, on more than five hundred battlefields, they hold 
 at bay more than thrice their number, and these stood, 
 until overwhelming numbers and resources, depleted 
 their ranks to a corporal's guard by exhaustion and 
 
 176 
 
MEN AND THINGS 177 
 
 death. They enriched the soil of their country with 
 their blood, and its history with their valor. "When sur- 
 render became inevitable, they acquiesced; and fought 
 the more difBcult conquest of self in overcoming hos- 
 tility to their enemies. The sacred and shattered rem- 
 nant of this glorious army returned to their despoiled 
 homes to struggle with poverty, support their families, 
 repair their fortunes and discharge the duties of good 
 citizenship. Thus engaged they were confronted ])y 
 an effort of the Federal government to subordinate them 
 to the political domination of their recently emanci- 
 pated slaves; and for a period of five years struggled 
 against the monstrous crime of reconstruction. They 
 finally succeeded in placing their State governments un- 
 der white Democratic control; and defeated the nefa- 
 rious scheme to destroy white supremacy in the South. 
 In all the calamitous national vicissitudes, all the Con- 
 federate soldiers did their full duty, faithfully, nobly, 
 heroically. But one duty remains to be performed by 
 them. That duty is the erection, by them, of a monu- 
 ment to commemorate the patriotism of the glorious 
 women of the Confederacy. It is a shame to us that 
 this duty has been so long neglected. And we have bur 
 little time in which to perform it. It is upon us, a 
 duty of the highest obligation. 
 
 If woman's hand first, "Forth reaching, plucked that 
 forbidden fruit, whose mortal taste brought death into 
 the world and all our woe," yet, nobly has she wrought 
 and patiently has she suffered in atonement for the dis- 
 aster that blighted the bloom of Eden. She has in 
 every age of this world's history identified her poten- 
 
178 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 tialities for good with all human affairs, in all the de- 
 partments of human endeavor, from the least interest of 
 an individual to the highest concerns of the race. It 
 was the genius of a woman that preserved in the frail 
 craft of floating bulrushes, on the 'Nile, the world's 
 greatest leader and lawgiver. It was the minstrelsy of 
 a woman that celebrated that leader's triumph on the 
 hither side of the sea. It was a brave woman, who, at the 
 peril of her life, dared to approach the Persian throne 
 in the absence of the outstretched scepter to secure the 
 repeal of an unchangeable law, relieve a nation from 
 the condemnation of death and bring to condign pun- 
 ishment the vilest criminal of history. It was the strat- 
 ^y of a beautiful widow that dispersed the Assyrian 
 arniy, cast the bloody head of the commander at the 
 feet of the despairing Sanhedrim, and saved from de- 
 struction the beleaguered capital. It was a Spartan 
 mother, who, looking upon her son, pointed to his shield 
 and said : "Come with it when the battle's won, or on 
 it from the field." In the bloody butchery of Saragossa, 
 the beautiful Agostina issued from the convent, clad in 
 white, kissing her cross, and mounting the breach with 
 lighted match, at which the last gunner had fallen, 
 poured from his silent gun a storm of destruction upou 
 the assailants, dictated the reply of Palafox, "war to the 
 knife," to Leferre's demand for surrender and defeated 
 the conquerors of Marengo and Austerlitz. When the 
 commander of Carthage, against the protest of his wife, 
 surrendered to Scipio, she cursed his treason, gathered 
 her children into her arms and with them plunged into 
 
MEN AND THINGS 179 
 
 the burning temple and perished with her city, rather 
 than witness the triumph of the Komans. 
 
 It was a gentle maiden, that poured the contents of 
 the broken alabaster box upon the head of the weary 
 ISTazarene, made nineteen centuries fragrant with 
 the odor of love, and embalmed in historic immortality 
 the name of Mary of Bethany. It was a group of sor- 
 row-stricken women who lingered latest at the Cross and 
 appeared earliest at the sepulcher. It was a woman 
 who caught at the empty tomb, from angelic lips, the 
 thrilling whisper, "He is not here. He is risen," and 
 first proclaimed the truth of the resurrection, that ca- 
 bles the broken heart of humanity to the cherished hope 
 of immortality. It is thus seen that in all human af- 
 fairs, the agency and influence of woman has been man- 
 ifest. In civil government, in religious and social sys- 
 tems, in science, art and literature, and in the tragic 
 events of the history of the race, she has appeared at the 
 front and acted her part. And yet, her most potential 
 activities have been exerted in quietude and silence, 
 without the emblazonry of publications on the pages of 
 history. This is eminently true of her relations to, and 
 service in the late war between the States. With the 
 united opposition of Southern women, defense against 
 invasion would have been impossible. With their luke- 
 warm support it would have been brief and feeble. 
 But with their sympathy, their service, their sacrifice 
 and their suffering, it was protracted, heroic, glorious, 
 Upon these grounds their claims to monumental com- 
 memoration rest. These queens of love, regnant in 
 the realm of home, surrendered all that was most dear 
 
180 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 to them, in their devotion to their country. The de- 
 claration of war was the signal to the women in city, 
 town, and country to seek new fields of effort, industry 
 and economy, in preparation for the impending strug- 
 gle. They bore increased burdens of labor without a 
 murmur, submitted to the less of comforts, without re- 
 pining, and performed duty with a fidelity that would 
 admit no excuse. After providing for the management 
 and support for the family at home, they found time to 
 hasten to the side of sick, wounded and dying loved ones 
 on distant battlefields ; to accomplish which, they disre- 
 garded military orders, baffled the interference of 
 guards and overcame the protests of conductors. They 
 threaded the aisles of hospitals in ministrations of 
 mercy, relief to the suffering and solace to the dying; 
 and love and grief for both. They consecrated their 
 souls and bodies, a living sacrifice of unselfish serv- 
 ice to others with a devotion worthy of Eastern devo- 
 tees. They suffered want without complaint and con- 
 cealed their grief in silent tears. 
 
 "The maid who binds her warrior's sash, 
 
 And smiling, all her pain dissembles. 
 The while, beneath a drooping lash, 
 
 A starry tear-drop hangs and trembles. 
 Though Heaven alone, records the tear. 
 
 And fame may never know her story, 
 Her heart has shed a drop as dear, 
 
 As ever dewed the fields of glory. 
 
 The wife who girds her husband's sword 
 'Mid little ones, who weep and wonder, 
 
MEN AND THINGS 181 
 
 Then bravely speaks the cheering word, 
 Although her heart be rent asunder, 
 
 Doomed, in her nightly dreams to hear 
 The bolts of war that round him rattle 
 
 Has shed as sacred blood as ere 
 
 Was poured upon the plains of battle. 
 
 The mother who conceals her grief 
 
 As to her heart, her son she presses 
 Then, speaks the few brave words and brief. 
 
 Kissing the patriot brow she blesses ; 
 With no one but her secret God, 
 
 To know the grief that weighs upon her. 
 Sheds holy blood, as e'er the sod 
 
 Received on freedom's field of honor." 
 
 The labors they performed, the privations they en- 
 dured and the sacrifices they made, were trifles com- 
 pared to the agony they suffered. This, speech has no 
 power to express, and art, no skill to portray. Family 
 circles broken, loved ones in unmarked graves on 
 battlefields in distant States; and scarred and broken 
 hearts bleeding in desolated homes ; it seemed that 
 they had exhausted their resources of labor and love. 
 Not so. They were quick to discover and occupy new 
 fields for the exhibition of their enterprise and affec- 
 tion. When they could no longer aid, still they could 
 honor their dead heroes. This they did in their efforts 
 to build monuments to their memory, of marble, and 
 pay tribute to their graves, in flowers. And, descend- 
 ing from mother to daughter their work still goes on. 
 
182 ME 2^ AND THINGS 
 
 Once every year in tlie sweet spring-time, these pil- 
 grims come to their Mecca with their offering, and 
 dead valor reposes 
 
 "Under the roses the blue. 
 Under the lilies the gray." 
 
 Pagan and Christian alike, through all the ages have 
 commemorated the virtues, services and achievements 
 of their great men and women in monumental shafts, 
 storied urn and magnificent mausoleums. The pencil, 
 guided by genius; and the chisel, under the same mys- 
 terious force, have transmitted their features and 
 forms in breathless beauty on marble and blushing col- 
 ors on canvas to perpetuate their glory, challenge the 
 admiration and stimulate to imitation the generations 
 to come after them. I appeal this day to the gratitude, 
 the honor anji chivalry of Confederate heroes to dis- 
 charge their only remaining duty ; to build a monimient 
 to the memory of the glorious Confederate women who 
 aided with their hands, encouraged with their smiles, 
 comforted with their prayers and blessed them with 
 their love. Our mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts, 
 of Confederate times won the bravest battle that ever 
 was fought. 
 
 The bravest battle that ever was fought. 
 Shall I tell you where ; and when ; 
 
 On the maps of the world, you will find it not 
 'Twas fought by the mother s of men. 
 
 N'ay, not with cannon nor battle-shot. 
 With sword or nobler pen, 
 
MEN AND THINGS 183 
 
 Nay not with eloquent word or thought 
 From mouths of wonderful men. 
 
 But deep in a walled- up woman's heart 
 
 Of woman that would not yield, 
 But bravely, silently bore her part. 
 
 Lo ! There was that battlefield. 
 
 No marshalling shout, no bivouac song, 
 
 No banners to gleam and wave. 
 But oh ! these battles they last so long 
 
 From babyhood to the grave. 
 
 And faithful still, as a bridge of stars 
 
 She fights in her walled-up-town ; 
 Fight on and on, through the endless years, 
 
 Then silent, unseen, goes down. 
 
 Oh ye, with banner and battle-shot 
 
 And soldiers to shout and praise, 
 I t^U you the kingliest battles fought, 
 
 Are fought in these silent ways. 
 
 O, spotless woman, in a world of shame, 
 
 "With grand and splendid scorn 
 Go back to God as white as you came 
 
 The kino-liest warrior born." 
 
 ^t3^ 
 
 The part taken by the women of the Confederacy in 
 the war between the States is preserved only in fading 
 memories and perishing hearts. These frail witnesses 
 will soon fail to bear their testimony to the greatness 
 of their character and the lesson of their lives. History 
 and literature devote their attention mainly to the man- 
 
184 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 agement of campaigns, the result of battles and the crit- 
 icism of commanders. The great battle of the women 
 at home has gone without a historian. The knightly 
 chieftain of the Confederacy has honored himself in 
 dedicating his great book: "The Rise and Fall of the 
 Confederate States of America," to his countrywomen. 
 But the wilderness of material furnished to the poet, 
 the painter and the sculptor has remained unexplored 
 by them. Four decades have elapsed since Appomat- 
 tox rang down the curtain upon the bloody tragedy; 
 and still the privilege of expressing our gratitude has 
 been neglected and the consciousness of duty discharged 
 lost. Many, perhaps, most of these noble w^omen have 
 crossed the silent river. Many of them who did their 
 duty and blushed at fame, have gone from humble 
 homes to unmarked graves, and rest from their labors 
 but their works follow them. Their daughters trained, 
 by their instruction, and inspired by their example, 
 have taken up the work of sentiment and love which 
 they inaugurated; and thus, their work is perpetuated. 
 It may be well enough to honor maids of honor and 
 sponsors in reunion parades, frolics and balls ; but it is 
 a poor tribute to the service, sorrow, sacrifice and suf- 
 ferings of the heroines "chosen in the furnace of afflic- 
 tion" in the fiery ordeal of war. Can surviving vete- 
 rans afford to blur their record with ingratitude so 
 great? Are they willing to close the record of their 
 lives without a lasting and permanent expression of ad- 
 miration and love for the women who shed luster upon 
 all the virtues of their self in the darkest hours of na- 
 tional calamity? Whatever reasons of poverty, misfor- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 185 
 
 tune or other things, may have hitherto been urged as 
 an excuse for the neglect of this duty, can no longer be 
 accepted. Prosperity universally abounds all over this 
 Heaven-favored country. Then let the surviving vete- 
 rans crown their claim to knighthood by erecting on the 
 soil they sanctified with their blood, a monument to the 
 memory of their countrywomen. When this shall have 
 been done, their duty to country and kind will have 
 been performed, and like Simeon, they will be ready 
 to depart in peace. Let them build of the most endur- 
 ing granite or purest marble ; and let it rise to a height 
 proportionate to the virtues it commemorates, which 
 will make it the loftiest on the planet. Place upon its 
 summit her faultless stature, molded in bronze by some 
 Mills or Crawford or chiseled in marble by some mod- 
 ern Praxiteles or Canova. Plant her feet upon the con- 
 quered cross ; and on her head the victor's crown. Morn- 
 ing's earliest blushes would kiss from her lips the sweet- 
 est dews of- night, and twilight's last lingering rays 
 would mingle with the charm of her smile until the 
 stars of heaven mustered to stand nightly sentinel, 
 around her beauty and her glory. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Reminiscences of Some Famous Peeacheks. 
 
 The religion of a people is a force not to be ignored 
 in the matter of government and civilization. And this 
 is true, whether it is established by law, as in England, 
 or prohibited from such establishment, as in the United 
 States. In the former it is legal, in the latter it is 
 moral force. The utterance, "My kingdom is not of 
 this world," would seem to repudiate the alliance of 
 church and state; and discountenance the union of the 
 kingdom of Christ, with the kingdoms of the world. 
 The ministers of the religion of Christianity are sup- 
 posed to teach its doctrines correctly, illustrate, in their 
 lives, its virtues truly and to advance its interests 
 wisely. Diversity in the power and degree of gifts ob- 
 tains, among them, as among other classes and profes- 
 sions. Some have received ten talents and some one. I 
 have enjoyed the privilege of hearing some of the distin- 
 guished preachers of my time. Dr. Lovick Pierce said 
 to the writer, that he never heard a poor sermon. I 
 have enjoyed that high privilege, on more occasions 
 than one. Most of these great and good men have passed 
 away. Their biographies have never been written, 
 published and spread. There are a few, the fragrance 
 of whose memory still lingers in tradition only — who33 
 life and work have not been written, why not, is unac- 
 
 186 
 
MEN AND THINGS 187 
 
 coimtable, to those familiar with their merits. Among 
 these may be mentioned, William J. Parks, John W. 
 Glenn, Jesse Boring, Samuel Anthony, Jackson P. Tur- 
 ner, Gadwell J. Pearce, and William M. Crumley. 
 These men were all Northeast Georgians. A radius 
 of fifty miles, from a common center, would include 
 the section from which all sprung. They were contem- 
 poraries. They were all self-educated ; not one of them 
 had been in college. They were all brought up in the 
 country and on the farm. All of them (except Jackson 
 P. Turner, who died in middle life) lived to advanced 
 age, and fell at last with armor on. This constellation 
 planted the Methodist Church in JSTorth Georgia more 
 than half a century ago. They differed widely in the 
 personal elements of power. But they were a unit in 
 the possession of power. Parks was a Franklin County 
 farmer of small means and limited education and of un- 
 prepossessing personal appearance. He joined the 
 South Carolina Conference in the first quarter of the 
 nineteenth century, and soon became a distinguished 
 leader in the Methodist Church. He owes this distinc- 
 tion to two qualities: integrity and common sense. 
 Plain, practical and sensible, he treated and dealt with 
 all questions in the concrete. At the General Confer- 
 ence at ISTashville, the Presiding Bishop, forgetting or 
 pretending to forget his name for the moment, referred 
 to him as the "brother from Georgia, who always says 
 something when he speaks." 
 
 John Walker Glenn w^as a Jackson County farmer. 
 He had been a local preacher for some years when he 
 joined the Georgia Conference. He at once took a high 
 
188 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 stand in this body of strong men. He was fearless, 
 aggressive, able and eloquent. He was an ardent be- 
 liever in the dogmas of American Theology and de- 
 fended them with the skill of a master. At his funeral 
 service at Griffin, at the Annual Conference in 1868, 
 Dr. Lovick Pierce said: "John W. Glenn was the 
 brightest star in the galaxy of the Georgia Conference." 
 These two great men, more than any others — than all 
 others — planted the Methodist Church in ISTorth Geor- 
 gia. As soon as the Indians were removed, Cherokee, 
 Georgia was formed into a Presiding Elders' District 
 over which they were among the first to preside. 
 
 Jesse Boring (unlike Parks and Glenn) joined the 
 Conference at Charleston, while Georgia was a part of 
 the South Carolina Conference, when he was quite a 
 young man. He was a native of Jackson County, Geor- 
 gia, and, no doubt, a sheaf gathered from the sowing of 
 Parks and Glenn. His first charge was a mission (I 
 think Pensacola) distant from his home, 300 miles. 
 Previous to his joining the Conference, Parks — being 
 the pastor at the church of which my parents were mem- 
 bers — put up Boring to preach, who, after announcing 
 his text, stood awhile in great confusion, and said, fin- 
 ally, "Unless you all repent and believe, you will be 
 damned." Parks had to come to the rescue and preach 
 without expectation or the usual preparation. They 
 dined that day at my father's house. At the table 
 Parks said to Boring, "Young man, you will never 
 catch me in such a trap again." Whatever criticism 
 may be made of Boring's sermon, it must be admitted 
 that it had the soul of wit, brevity, and that it com- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 189 
 
 pressed into very few words a vast amount of Gospel. 
 This same young man lived to win a triumph of power 
 and eloquence that has never been equalled on this con- 
 tinent. When Presiding Elder of the Mobile district, 
 at a country campmeeting not far from the city, on 
 Sunday, at 11 o'clock, he preached on the "Judgment," 
 he captured the multitude at the commencement. As 
 he argued its certainty, its necessity, and its finality, 
 the people in the congregation began to rise to their 
 feet, lean forward, listening in rapt attention with a 
 stillness and awe that reacted upon the speaker and in- 
 creased the tide of power he poured upon them. In 
 his wonderful strain of overmastering eloquence when 
 he reached the blast of the Judgment Trumpet, that 
 called the quick and the dead from earth and sea, the 
 vast multitude fled in every direction from the stand, as 
 if it had been stricken by lightning and closed the serv- 
 ice of that hour. Dr. Boring, though below the aver- 
 age size, was of impressive presence, his complexion 
 dark and cadaverous, his nose Roman, his head massive 
 and finely rounded and balanced. His figure, though 
 thin, was erect. His movements were easy, graceful 
 and dignified; his enunciation clear and distinct; 
 his pronunciation accurately correct; his emphasis 
 perfect. His conversation and public discourse had 
 all the marks of punctuation properly placed. He was 
 a master of logic and rhetoric. His voice, which was 
 thoroughly cultivated, had a peculiar, weird tone, 
 which increased its power. As a preacher in. the sense 
 of developing, explaining and enforcing the truth of a 
 text, he was superior to any man I ever heard, and I 
 
190 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 have heard the most distinguished preachers of the Pres- 
 byterian, the Baptist, the Episcopal and the Methodist 
 Churches. Dr. Boring gi-aduated in the Science of 
 Medicine, and held a professorship for some years in a 
 medical college. He was many times a member of the 
 General Conference; was a member in 1844, at Xew 
 York, when the Church divided on the slavery question. 
 He was a missionary to California in the early fifties. 
 His greatest work was securing the establishment of 
 the orphans' home as an institution of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church South. This measure he originated 
 and carried through the Conference at Memphis in 
 1868 against both indifference and opposition. He un- 
 dertook to raise, by voluntary contribution, the funds 
 for the Georgia home at a time when the people were in 
 great poverty, and harassed with reconstruction 
 troubles. His appeals in behalf of the orphans of dead 
 Confederates — ^never surpassed in pathos, power and 
 eloquence — bore fruit, in the prosperous orphans' 
 homes in the various Conferences of the Southern Meth- 
 odist Church, to say nothing of similar homes it incited 
 other great churches to provide. He lived for more 
 than fourscore years and devoted his splendid talents 
 during his life to the service of religion and humanity. 
 And a great church, full of fine w^riters with an im- 
 mense publishing house has never put on permanent 
 record, the achievements of his great life and service 
 for the benefit of others, but left them to fade out in 
 traditional memories. 
 
 Jackson P. Turner was born in Gwinnett County of 
 poor parentage; joined the Georgia Conference without 
 
MEN AND THINGS 191 
 
 education, in 1842 ; served the Dahlonega Circuit as 
 junior preacher and in less than two years became the 
 Presiding Elder of the district, a thorough scholar, and 
 took his place among the ablest preachers in the State. 
 He died a young man. His death eclipsed the hopes of 
 a most useful and splendid career. 
 
 William M. Crumley was a native of Habersham 
 County. Like Turner, he was brought up in poverty 
 and without educational advantages. He joined the 
 Conference in early life and devoted himself unreserv- 
 edly to the Christian ministry. He was in many re- 
 spects a marvelous man, though never attained distinc- 
 tion in scholarship. His gentleness of spirit, suavity of 
 manner, brilliancy of imagination and refinement of 
 sentiment, added to his knowledge of the Scriptures 
 and his power of simple illustration, gave to his ser- 
 mons a power and pathos of persuasive eloquence 
 rarely equalled, that was fruitful of trophies for the 
 Cross. ISTo congregation ever became weary under his 
 sermons, and no charge he served, ever desired a 
 change of pastors. 
 
 Gadwell J. Pearce was a Gwinnett County man, not 
 distinguished for piety in early life, but for high pow- 
 ers of intellect. He was bright, fearless and aggressive. 
 After his conversion he was licensed to preach, joined 
 the Conference and rose rapidly to usefulness and dis- 
 tinction. He was Presiding Elder, filled various agen- 
 cies, and represented his Conference in the General 
 Conference. He was of fine personal presence and 
 bearing. As a speaker, he was distinguished for his 
 
192 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 originality and style, as vrell as for the force and 
 uniqueness of his illustrations. 
 
 Samuel Anthony, another Gwinnett County man, 
 has been justly embalmed in historic fame by the fa- 
 cile pen of Bishop Fitzgerald, in his "Centennial 
 Cameos." An attempt to add to the Bishop's tribute 
 would only mar its beauty and detract from its force. 
 
 There were two other men in l^orth Georgia in the 
 forties, for a few years, who left a deep and lasting 
 impression upon the public mind from their power 
 in the pulpit. These were Eobert J. Cowart and Rus- 
 sell Reneau. Cowart was a middle Georgian. He joined 
 the Conference when a young man with an inferior edu- 
 cation. In 1843, at the age of 29, he was appointed 
 preacher in charge of the Marietta Circuit, Avith W. H. 
 Evans as Junior, and Peyton P. Smith Presiding El- 
 der. This Circuit embraced the counties of Cobb, 
 Cherokee, Milton and the Southern portion of Forsyth. 
 This was before the Church changed its policy and 
 abolished week-day preaching. There were twenty- 
 five or thirty churches in the charge and preaching at 
 each church once in every two weeks, so that each 
 preacher made the round of his Circuit once a month. 
 It so happened that Cowart's appointment was at a 
 near-by church on the day of the plantation fire referred 
 to in a former chapter. After preaching a magnificent 
 sermon, he came in the afternoon to the aid of the writer 
 in fighting fire. A few years after, we were associated 
 in the defense of Musgrove, a Baptist preacher, 
 charged with stealing a negro, in Forsyth superior 
 court. (It is due to the memory of Musgrove and to the 
 
MEN AND THINGS 193 
 
 Baptist Church, to say he was acquitted.) Physically, 
 intellectually and socially, he was a magnificent speci- 
 men of manhood ; six feet and two inches in height, 
 with an avoirdupois of two hundred and twenty, and in- 
 tellectual endowments in harmonious proportion. Ap- 
 proaching middle life, full of vigor, with constant 
 reading and speaking every day, his great gifts devel- 
 oped rapidly into a masterful control of the thought?, 
 passions and emotions of his auditors. His mind was 
 rapid in its operations; his perception quick; his vo- 
 cabulary aesthetic and extensive; his emotions sympa- 
 thetic, and his power of description unrivalled. He 
 was a powerful, eloquent and charming preacher. The 
 Conference appointed him for the following year, to 
 Jacksonville, Fla. He declined to go ; located and read 
 law under direction of the late Gov. Joseph E. Brown. 
 He was admitted to the bar and soon after v/as ap- 
 pointed by Governor Johnson, attorney for the Western 
 and Atlantic Railway. He was afterward judge of the 
 City Court of Atlanta. Most of his friends thought 
 he made a mistake in leaving the Conference and r(}tir- 
 ing from the active ministry. 
 
 Russell Reneau came from the Holstein to the Geor- 
 gia Conference, and was appointed Presiding Elder 
 of the Cherokee District in 1845. This district in- 
 cluded nearly all of ISTorth Georgia. He had been 
 early in life a school teacher, preacher and Presiding 
 Elder in the Holstein Conference. He was, in person, 
 below medium height, inclined to obesity in middle 
 life, and in the full maturity of his intellectual pc»wer. 
 He was a writer of power and author of an unpublished 
 
194 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 English Grammar. He was a thoroughly trained de- 
 bater ; a fine English scholar and deeply read in polemic 
 theology. He had been brought up in the pure atmos- 
 phere and surrounded by the magnificent scenery of 
 East Tennessee, at the time and in the section so stirred 
 by the theological controversies between Brownlow, 
 Posey and Koss. He published a very able book on 
 the much-discussed and hackneyed subject of baptism. 
 He kept his glove in the arena, on all the dogmas in 
 dispute, between the Armenians and Calvinists. When 
 he came to the Cherokee District the county was new; 
 had been settled but a few years, and settled mainly by 
 members of the Baptist and Methodist, whose adher- 
 ents were approximately equal in numbers. There 
 was less intelligence and liberality in sentimen then 
 than now. Each party was anxious to recruit its ranks : 
 and the pulpit dealt largely in polemics. Sometimes 
 the more ardent champions of the respective creeds 
 would meet in debate, with the result always that each 
 side claimed the victory. These conditions were pre- 
 cisely such as put him upon his metal and at his best, 
 in the display of his JSTapoleonic power, in theological 
 debate. His discussion was absolutely free from secta- 
 rian malignity. His mother was a Baptist, and often 
 in the midst of an overwhelming argument against Cal- 
 vinism, he would allude to it, and pay her piety and 
 love a tribute of affection that would melt his congrega- 
 tion to tears. With him it was a conscientious duty to 
 discuss, explain and defend the doctrines of polity of his 
 church. His reason for indulging so largely in contro- 
 versy was the necessity of instructing his people in the 
 
MEN AND THINGS 195 
 
 doctrines of Christianity and impressing them with the 
 importance of seeking for the truth. It must not be in 
 ferred that his pulpit efforts always dealt with or in the- 
 ological polemics. He was a masterful preacher of the 
 Gospel. He had, in a more eminent degree tlian any 
 man I ever heard, the power of compressing a whole 
 discourse into a single expression or sentence. In this 
 power he resembled and transcended N'apoleon. His 
 speech was in short, clear, strong, sententious sentences 
 — never of dubious meaning ; his voice of great volume, 
 finely trained and controlled, was occasionally start- 
 ling as a bugle blast. It was my fortune to hear the 
 last sermon (I think) he preached in Georgia. It 
 was at 11 o'clock on Sunday, at a campmeeting on 
 the ground now occupied by the town of Alpharetta, 
 Milton County, in the early fifties. His text was 
 Psalm XXIII. It was his last appearance before a large 
 concourse of his personal friends and admirers, as the 
 year was fading into autumn, and death. The envi- 
 ronments stirred the emotions of speaker and audience. 
 His lips had been touched with a live coal from off the 
 altar. His sermon was an orderly, lucid exposition of 
 the Psalm. Towards the conclusion in a voice clear as 
 crystal, and tremulous with emotion, with great tears 
 dripping from his cheeks, he drew a contrast between 
 the value of matter and spirit, the perishable and im- 
 mortal, in a tide of eloquence that was perhaps never 
 equalled, certainly never surpassed. Soon after this 
 he went to the West. I heard that he died after preach- 
 ing for six hours consecutively, at Fort Smith, Arkan- 
 sas. 
 
196 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 The lives of none of these great men, so far as I am 
 advised, have ever been vj^ritten and published. It is 
 singular that they have not been. Two other great 
 Georgia preachers have fared better at the hands of 
 their contemporaries. The great lives and labors of 
 Dr. Lovick Pierce and Bishop George F. Pierce have 
 been preserved in biography — as was most meet — and 
 transmitted in permanent form, to all future time. 
 
 Lumpkin camp-ground, located in Dawson County, 
 on the road connecting Gumming and Dahlonega and 
 nearly equi-distant between them, and easily accessible 
 from Gainesville and Dawsonville, has been for more 
 than fifty years perhaps, the largest and most popular 
 camp-ground in the State. The people from the four 
 towns named, and from the surrounding densely settled 
 sections, annually tented in great numbers. The multi- 
 tudes attending, especially on Sunday, would number 
 four or five thousand. In 1867 or 1868, Bishop Pierce 
 attended the meeting and preached on Sunday, to a vast 
 concourse. His text was a verse from the 6th chapter of 
 John. His theme was: "Christ the Bread of Life." 
 He was at his best, in vigorous health and in the perfect 
 maturity and strength of his marvelous powers. The 
 surroundings were inspiring, the crowd from town 
 and country immense. In the open air, with weather 
 conditions delightful, the inspiration of the Holy Sab- 
 bath was upon the thoughts and hearts of the people. I 
 occupied a seat between Ex.-Gov. Joseph E. Brown and 
 Maj. Raymond Sanford — both ardent Baptists — in an 
 eligible position for seeing and hearing the preacher. 
 For one hour and a half he held the enthralled attention 
 
MEN AND THINGS 197 
 
 of thousands in a quietness as still as death, during 
 such a sermon as he only could preach. When he con- 
 cluded, Governor Brown turned to me with great tears 
 rolling down his cheeks, and said, "that is the grand- 
 est man on this continent/' Major Sanford concurred 
 with him. To those who never heard the Bishop undi^r 
 similar circumstances, I can convey no adequate de- 
 scription ; to those who have, it is imnecessary to try. 
 
 The contribution made to progress, civilization and 
 Christianity by these men, and those of their class else- 
 where, can never be measured, and will never be appre- 
 ciated. The boys, college-called to the ministry in 
 these days, may part their hair in the middle more artis- 
 tically, perform gymnastic gyrations more gi-acefully, 
 pitch, kick and catch balls more skillfully and talk 
 more learnedly of teams, innings, and umpires thar 
 these great men; but it is gravely doubted whether 
 they approach more closely the Throne of Mercy above 
 or the hearts of the people below. 
 
CHAPTEK XXII. 
 
 Russo-Japanese War — Peesidekt Roosevelt — 
 
 Peace. 
 
 In 1904 Russia and Japan engaged in war. It con- 
 tinued for eighteen months. Russia put into her army 
 and navy 840,000 men of which she lost 375,000 — at 
 a cost in money and property of $1,075,000,000. This 
 includes sixty-eight ships of war. The army and navy 
 of Japan mustered 700,000 men, of which number 
 250,000 were lost, with a loss in money and property, 
 including twenty-four warships, of $475,000,000. 
 The total number engaged was 1,540,000 men. The 
 total cost was $1,550,000,000. This was a prodigal 
 expenditure of men and means for an eighteen months' 
 war. This vast sum does not include the incidental 
 losses of the belligerents. Both parties distinctly an- 
 nounced that they did not desire the advice or inter- 
 ference of other powers; that they would settle the 
 controversy in their own way and to suit themselves. 
 Early in the summer of 1905, nearly a million of men 
 in. Manchuria confronted each other, in strongly forti- 
 fied lines, from the hills of which frowned heavy guns 
 numbered by the thousands. Battalions, brigades and 
 divisions were manoeuvering for advantage in position, 
 
 198 
 
ME2J AND THINGS 199 
 
 Tinder the eye of able and skillful leaders, preparatory 
 for a decisive battle. The powers, the press and the 
 people of Christendom were watching and listening with 
 anxious solicitude, for news of the impending shock. 
 In the fearful stillness, presaging the storm, one great 
 man has the coura^, the capacity, the patriotism and 
 the humanity to step to the front with the olive branch 
 of peace — Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United 
 States — ten thousand miles from the scene of strife, ad- 
 dresses a similar note to each of the belligerents, sug- 
 gesting to them an effort to secure peace by negotiation. 
 He addressed a note at the same time to the great pow- 
 ers of Europe, informing them of what he had done, 
 his desire for peace and invoking their co-operation 
 with him in his effort to secure it. The belligerents, 
 after manifesting diplomatic indifference (but both 
 extremely anxious to get out of their trouble) finally 
 agreed to advance far enough to make an effort to as- 
 certain upon what terms it would be proposed and con- 
 sented to appoint commissioners for that purpose. 
 Some difficulty arose as to the place of the meeting. 
 Each party objected to the nominations of the other. 
 Washington City, United States, was finally selected as 
 the place for the meeting. To promote the comfort 
 and quiet of the plenipotentiaries, the President ar- 
 ranged for the meeting at Portsmouth, N. H., he 
 spending the summer in his cottage at Sagamore Hill, 
 in easy communication with the plenipotentiaries. M. 
 DeWitte, on the part of Russia, and Baron Komura, 
 with their respective suites and proper credentials, 
 
200 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 promptly met and earnestly entered upon the business 
 in band. Tbey were eacb in daily communication 
 witb tbeir respective governments, and in frequent 
 separate correspondence witb President Eoosevelt, who 
 was in constant communication tbrougb bis embassa- 
 dors, witb tbe Emperors of Kussia and Japan. All the 
 effort made, and tbe labor bestowed, and tbe anxiety 
 by tbe President in untangling knots, suggesting con- 
 cessions and barmonizing conflicts, will perbaps re- 
 main unknown to all but bimself. At last, on tbe 5th 
 day of September, 1905, tbe treaty was signed and tbe 
 civilized world drew one long, free, full breath of re- 
 lief. 
 
 That President Roosevelt alone achieved this victory 
 of peace will never be questioned. Emperors, Kings, 
 Presidents, statesmen, diplomats and publicists through- 
 out tbe world have honored and congratulated him for 
 it, and tbe great heart of the great common people re- 
 sponded, 
 
 "Blessed are the peacemakers." 
 
 After the complete destruction of tbe Russian navy 
 in the battle of the Straits, while eacb party bad a pow- 
 erful army in hostile array, eacb claiming the certainty 
 of triumph, but trembling with tbe apprehension of de- 
 feat, the quick intuitive perception of President Roose- 
 velt and tbe promptness in action for which he is so 
 distinguished, discovered tbe opportune and critical 
 moment for his interposition and tbe suggestion of nego- 
 tiation for peace. It was a bold and tactful display of 
 
MEN AND THINGS 201 
 
 statesmanship that closed at once the bloodiest and most 
 destructive war of modern times, save one, and placed 
 the United States government, of which he was tho 
 head, in the van of the great powers of the world in 
 power and influence in the control of international af- 
 fairs. It made him the first man of the age, and glori- 
 fied his country in the annals of humanity. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Legislatures of 1898 and 1900. Ix the House 
 
 AND IN THE SeNATE. 
 
 Legislation is a high function. It is the exercise of 
 the supreme power of the State. Its dignity, gravity 
 and importance are not always properly estimated. To 
 a capable, conscientious legislator, it involves the drudg- 
 ery of labor, constancy and clearness of thought, and 
 honesty and integrity of purpose. Those men who re- 
 gard it a frolic in which they may have a good time 
 are wholly unworthy of the high trust. Contrary to 
 expectations and he, may add, to his desire, the 
 w-riter found himself a member of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives in 1898 and 1899 ; and of the Senate in 
 1900 and 1901. John D. Little of Muscogee County 
 was elected speaker and John T. Boifeuillet of Bibb, 
 clerk of the House in 1898. These gentlemen possessed 
 high qualifications for the offices to which they were 
 chosen. There was a large number of the members 
 above the average in ability; many of them of superior 
 practical wisdom in statesmanship. I am restrained 
 from expressing my opinion of them by name for tsvo 
 reasons. First, it might be misconstrued into dispar- 
 agement of other worthy men. Second, since the ex- 
 ample of Adam, Iscariot and Arnold, I believe in the 
 possibility of falling from gi-ace, and that it is better 
 
 202 
 
MEN AND THINGS 203 
 
 to crown the victor when he reaches the goal at the end 
 of the race. Let it suffice to say, that association with 
 these able and partiotic gentlemen resulted in forming 
 warm personal friendships, the tender memory of which 
 will end only with life. The routine of tax and appro- 
 priation bills engaged, mainly, the attention of this 
 Legislature. There was no great question of overshad- 
 owing magnitude, enlisting popular attention before it. 
 The nearest approach to it was the Willingliam prohibi- 
 tion bill. This bill was thoroughly and ably debated. 
 In the discussion, licensed saloons, blind tigers, local 
 option, dispensaries, etc., came in for a large share of 
 consideration. The bill passed in the House but was 
 defeated in the Senate. Some questions of importance 
 in the direction of reforms were raised and considered ; 
 but few measures of much public interest were finally 
 enacted into law. An interesting episode in the history 
 of this legislature was the visit of President McKinley 
 to the capital of Georgia. He was accompanied by 
 Generals Chaffee, Lawton, Wheeler, Lieutenant Hobson 
 and others. He was formally received by the General 
 Assembly in the representative hall. It was in his 
 speech on this occasion that he captured the South, by 
 saying that the "time had come for the government to 
 take charge of the preservation of Confederate soldiers' 
 graves." He held a public reception in the rotunda of 
 the Capitol and made a most favorable impression upon 
 the vast throngs that saw and heard him ; and who little 
 dreamed of the deplorable fate that awaited him at 
 Buffalo. 
 
 In 1900 I was returned as the senator from the Thir- 
 
204 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 tj-ninth ' district, of which I was the first senator after 
 its organization forty years previous. Of this Senate 
 Clark Howell was chosen president, and Charles iN^orth- 
 en, both of Fulton, secretary; and both without oppo- 
 sition. These gentlemen were popular, able and effi- 
 cient ofiicers. I was chairman of the committee on 
 constitutional amendments and chairman of a special 
 joint-committee of both Houses, appointed to consider 
 and report on constitutional amendments generally. A 
 bill was pending providing for calling a constitutional 
 convention. This joint-committee was raised to secure 
 such amendments as were deemed desirable, and thus 
 avoid the expense of a convention. After much consid- 
 eration and labor the committee reported a bill provid- 
 ing for ten vital amendments, which, if adopted, would 
 have made the government of Georgia the best State 
 government in the Union. Eight of them were adopted 
 by the Senate. The bill failed in the House. All great 
 reforms in peaceful times come slowly. The bane of 
 legislation is that there is too much immature and local 
 legislation. It has always seemed to me that this should 
 be suggested by wisdom and necessity resulting from the 
 experience of society. Our constitution undertakes ':o 
 secure uniformity in general legislation. It is the vast 
 amount of local legislation and the looseness and in- 
 accuracy in the language in which bills are written, as 
 well as frequent change by amendment, with different 
 judicial constructions, that creates confusion and uncer- 
 tainty in our law. This legislature re-elected Augustus 
 O. Bacon to the United States Senate. And it was dur- 
 ing its session that Admiral Winfield S. Schley visited 
 
MEN AND THINGS 205 
 
 the Capital. He was received by the Legislature in 
 joint session in the Representative Hall. Fresh from 
 the victory of Santiago and the idol of the popular heart 
 the public affection for him was augmented by the ef- 
 fort of the Republican party to pluck his laurels for 
 the brow of Admiral Sampson. He made an admirable 
 speech, saying among other things "that there was 
 glory enough in Santiago for all; and that men who 
 stood behind the gims and in front of furnaces were en- 
 titled to their full share." That gallant Georgian, Lieu- 
 tenant Thomas Brumby, who stood by Dewey's side on 
 the bridge of the Olympia in the battle of Manila, was 
 of Schley's party. A short time thereafter his remains 
 were brought to Atlanta ; and Georgia gave to Brumby 
 a magnificent State funeral. "The paths of glory lead 
 but to the grave." 
 
 In compliance with the joint resolutions of the two 
 Houses, I delivered the address on the Secession Con- 
 vention of Georgia, which appears in this volume. With 
 this Legislature closed my very humble public service. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 LiFE^ Service and Chaeacter of James Edward 
 Oglethorpe, the Founder of Georgia. 
 
 True greatness consists in the unselfish service of 
 others. Tried by this test, James Edward Oglethorpe 
 was truly a great man. He was born in 1696, and 
 matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 
 1714, at the age of 18. The same year upon the recom- 
 mendation of Marlborough, he was appointed aide de 
 camp to Prince Eugene of Savoy, under whom he 
 greatly distinguished himself for military skill and per- 
 sonal courage in the siege of Belgrade in the war with 
 the Turks. His training under such captains as Marl- 
 borough and Eugene, made him an accomplished mili- 
 tary officer at the age of twenty-one years. In 1722, at 
 the age of twenty-six, he was elected a member of Par- 
 liament. He was one of the very few young men who 
 enter public life with the sole purpose of rendering 
 public service instead of promoting personal ambitions. 
 
 Of high family connections, a large endowment of 
 intellectual powers, and inheriting from a deceased 
 brother an ample fortune, the blandishments, splendors, 
 and allurements of court-life on the one hand, and labor, 
 anxiety, sacrifice and suffering for the unfortunate of 
 his race, on the other, were before him. He chose the 
 latter like another Moses. Impressed with the inhu- 
 
 206 
 
MEN AND THINGS 207 
 
 manity of the British laws, which inflicted hopeless im- 
 prisonment upon helpless insolvents, and the brutal op- 
 pression of British jailors, he determined, if possible, 
 to secure the reformation of the former and the punish- 
 ment of the latter. He was appointed chairman of a 
 committee raised by the House of Commons, to visit 
 the prisons, to examine into the condition of the inmates 
 and suggest means of reform. This committee in three 
 separate reports, disclosed a condition of injustice, op- 
 pression and suffering that aroused the public indigna- 
 tion for the outrage against humanity and civilization. 
 Honest, unfortunate men, who had failed in business 
 of various kinds, possessing tender sensibilities, refined 
 sentiments and high character, were crowded into filthy 
 and loathsome dungeons with criminals of the lowest 
 and vilest type, surrounded with stench and vermin to 
 languish out a miserable existence of horrible cruelty 
 and suffering. The English law then made no provision 
 for the relief of insolvents from perpetual imprison- 
 ment. To Oglethorpe belongs the credit of its reforma- 
 tion. He conceived the scheme of compromising the 
 debts, securing to the creditors such amounts as the 
 friends of the debtors could be induced to raise; and 
 the release of the debtors from prison on the condition 
 that they would emigrate to America and plant a col- 
 ony. After much effort and anxiety on the part of 
 Oglethorpe, this wise plan was adopted. On the 9th 
 day of June, 1732, King George II., granted to certain 
 trustees, of whom Oglethorpe was one, a charter to th.3 
 tract of land situated between the Savannah and Alta- 
 maha rivers. The proprietary of South Carolina hav- 
 
208 ME II AND THINGS 
 
 ing surrendered all claim to it, for the reason that the 
 new colony would be a protection to South Carolina 
 against incursions from hostile Indians, this place was 
 selected for the colony. To promote this enterprise 
 Parliament donated £10,000, and institutions and in- 
 dividuals contributed liberally. The emigTants spent 
 their last Sabbath in England at Milton, on the 
 Thames, They attended divine service in a body. On 
 the 17th day of JSTovember, 1732, the galley Anne, of 
 200-tons burden, commanded by Captain Thomas Ogle- 
 thorpe with about one hunlred and thirty persons, sailed 
 to seek a home in the wilderness. This frail craft bore 
 across the waves the fortimes of empire. The young- 
 est son of Richard Cannon, aged eight months, and 
 the youngest son of Robert Clark, died on the passage 
 and found a grave at the bottom of the sea. The pathos 
 of their burial at sea is too deep and intense for ex- 
 pression. On the 13th of January, 1733, the Anne 
 dropped her anchor outside the bar at Charleston har- 
 bor. On their arrival, the first thing they did was to 
 assemble the immigrants and engage in devout thanks- 
 giving to Almighty God for their preservation and pro- 
 tection in the passage. They were most hospitably re- 
 ceived at Charleston. After spending a few restful 
 days they sailed, touching at Port Royal for Yamma- 
 craw blufP on the Savannah River, which Oglethorpe^ 
 assisted by Col. William Bull, had previously marked 
 out for their future home, ^yhere they landed early in 
 Pebruary, 1733 and laid the foundation of the beauti- 
 ful city of Savannah, and the great State of Georgia. 
 Here, under a charter securing to them the rights of 
 
MEN AND THINGS 209 
 
 British subjects, in a wilderness filled with savage In- 
 dians and wild beasts, these noble and heroic spirits re- 
 commenced the battle of life which they had fought and 
 lost in the old world. In their early struggles they seem 
 to have been marvelonsly protected against the triple 
 bane of colonies — famine, pestilence and massacre. For 
 this exemption they were doubtless indebted to the gra- 
 cious providence of God and the wise- leadership of 
 Oglethorpe. Oglethorpe's policy of justice and fair 
 dealing conciliated the confidence anl secured the 
 friendship of the Indians. Caution, exercise and tem- 
 perance preserved the health ; and a genial climate, fer- 
 tile soil and active industry supplied the wants of the 
 colonists. No colonists were ever animated by a loftier 
 purpose or followed a wiser leader. The device, "Non 
 sibi sed alliis," indicates the object of this enterprise 
 and the character and purpose of Oglethorpe. The du- 
 ties of his position were grave, complex, numerous, oner- 
 ous and responsible. An accurate account of his transac- 
 tions was to be made to the trustees. The improvements 
 of the settlement were to be conducted under his super- 
 vision. DisagTeements and disputes among the colonists 
 were to be adjusted by him ; complaints of the Indians 
 for inflicted wrongs by the whites were to be heard and 
 the wrongs redressed ; the health and morals of the 
 people to be conserved; the boundary between the 
 grant in the charter and Florida to be clearly ascei'- 
 tained ; the movements of the ever malignant, treach- 
 erous and avaricious Spaniards to be constantly watched. 
 All these duties were discharged by him with an ability 
 and fidelitv that illustrates his character and estab- 
 
 t5 
 
210 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 lishes his claim to a high place in the list of unselfish 
 philanthropists. These duties were performed at the 
 right time and in the best way, with the utmost order 
 and system. In his first letter to the trustees, after 
 reaching his destination, among other things he said, 
 "I am so taken up in looking after a hundred necessary 
 things that I write now, short, but shall give you a 
 more particular account hereafter." A gentleman from 
 South Carolina visiting him, writes as follows: "Mr. 
 Oglethorpe is indefatigable ; takes a vast deal of pains ; 
 his fare is indifferent — having little else at present, but 
 the simplest provisions. He is extremely well beloved by 
 all his people. The general title they give him is "Fath- 
 er.' If any of them are sick he immediately visits them 
 and takes a great deal of care of them. If any difference 
 arises he is the person that decides it. Thus this great 
 man, with the "attention and affection of a patriarch, 
 watches over and takes care of his people." Oglethorpe 
 soon concluded articles of friendship and commerce 
 with the Indians. His policy in dealing with the In- 
 dians is characterized by wisdom, humanity and states- 
 manship. The venerable and able Mico Tomo Chi Chi, 
 wise in council, courageous in action and faithful in 
 friendship, co-operated heartily and efficiently with 
 him in his policy of justice and friendship in their 
 dealings and relations. These relations being satisfac- 
 torily settled, he next addresses himself to the exten- 
 sion and protection of the settlement. He planted dif- 
 ferent settlements at eligible places and constructed 
 fortifications to secure their safety. The population 
 was increased by the accession of small numbers of 
 
ME2f AND THINGS 211 
 
 Hebrews, Italians and Germans at different times. At 
 the end of fifteen months, this great enterprise was suc- 
 cessfully inaugurated. Oglethorpe returned to Eng- 
 land, taking with him Tomo Chi Chi, the Mico, his 
 wife, son and a few chiefs. The colonists were greatly 
 affected at his departure, following him to the ship on 
 which he sailed, weeping. In the language of Mr. Von 
 Reck, "They could not restrain their tears when they 
 saw him go, who was their benefactor and their father ; 
 who had carefully watched over them as a good shepherd 
 does over his flock; and who had so tender a care of 
 them, both by day and by night." The Indians were 
 presented at court and received by the King on his 
 throne. They were feted, flattered and wondered at to 
 their delight and amazement during their stay in Eng- 
 land, Oglethorpe resumed temporarily his seat in Par- 
 liament. He availed himself of the interest which the 
 presence of the Indians created in the public mind to 
 solicit contributions of books, for the religious and lit- 
 erary instruction of both the colonists and the Indians. 
 The importation of African slaves and arms into the 
 colony was prohibited. 
 
 On the 10th of December, 1735, he sailed from Eng- 
 land with two ships, the "Symond" and the "London 
 Merchant" of 200-tons burden each, convoyed by H. M. 
 sloop of war "Hawk," with two hundred and 
 two persons on board. Elaborate preparation 
 had been made for Oglethorpe's passage on the 
 "Hawk" but he chose to deny himself these comforts 
 and take a cabin on the "Symond," where he could 
 be in personal association with the emigrants. These 
 
212 MEN. AND THINGS 
 
 ships bore to the colonies supplies of provisions, agri- 
 cultural implements, arms, ammunition, etc. Among 
 the passengers were John Wesley, as missionary, and 
 Charles Wesley, his brother, as secretary of the Indian 
 affairs for the colony of Georgia. While they each 
 practically failed in Georgia they both became famous, 
 John, as the founder of a great Protestant church and 
 Charles as the peerless, sacred poet of history. The 
 theology of the one and the songs of the other, have 
 thrilled and solaced the heart of humanity around the 
 planet. 
 
 Oglethorpe placed Causton in charge of affairs in the 
 colony. His management was unwise and injudicious, 
 resulting in discontent among the people and financial 
 embarrassment to the colony. Upon his return he 
 brought over something more than two hundred immi- 
 grants for Avhose settlement he immediately provided. 
 He settled Augusta about this time. He also discovered 
 the true line between Georgia and Florida and secured 
 the adoption of a treaty or arrangement by which the 
 dispute with the Spanish was harmonized and adjusted 
 which, however, was rudely repudiated by the Spanish 
 authorities. He was alert in strengthening the de- 
 fenses of the coast to meet the impending invasion. 
 The distance from England, the delay and difficulty 
 in obtaining assistance and his inadequacy of men and 
 munitions of war placed him and the fortunes of the 
 colony in the utmost peril. But they developed in him 
 the highest qualities of the true soldier and statesman. 
 His defense of St. Simons, against a vastly superior 
 force was characterized by the rarest courage and mili- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 213 
 
 tary skill and strategy, of which a fitting memorial 
 is the name of the "Bloody Marsh." The retreating 
 Spaniards were followed subsequently by Oglethorpe to 
 St. Augustine and the failure to capture this strong- 
 hold resulted only from the weakness of Oglethorpe's 
 force. 
 
 Causton had been deposed and the mischief his con- 
 duct had inflicted upon the colonists in the main re- 
 paired. The negro insurrection in South Carolina sup- 
 pressed and the Spanish invasion repelled, Oglethorpe 
 now provided for the future security of the colony by 
 thoroughly repairing the fortifications upon which its 
 protection depended. This accomplished, the colonists 
 with a career of prosperity opening up before them, 
 after ten years of arduous toil, deep anxiety and self- 
 sacrifice, he left Georgia for England, July 23, 1743. 
 It would seem that this pioneer knight of humanity, 
 after having done, suffered, sacrificed and accomplished 
 so much for the service and happiness of others, would 
 escape the wrongs of misrepresentation, calumny and 
 persecution. Yet such was not the case. Ambition, 
 avarice, malignity and meanness have characterized 
 every age of this world's history. These contemptible 
 vices put in their appearance among the colonists. I^ 
 mutinous soldier attempted to assassinate Oglethorpe. 
 Others with higher pretensions but equally base spirit, 
 by vile slander, would paralyze his influence and blast 
 his fame. One, Col. Cooke was conspicuous for his as- 
 saults upon the character and conduct of his general. 
 A British court-martial branded the charges as false; 
 and dismissed him from the service with infamy. The 
 
214 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 contrast of these low vices with his illustrious virtues 
 only added brilliancy to their splendor. In the brief 
 period of a decade this loyal subject of the crown and 
 faithful servant of the trustees — equally a master in 
 the conception of the grandest schemes and the execu- 
 tion of the smallest details, perfectly familiar with the 
 caprices of human nature, and largely endowed with 
 the power to control men, disregarding difficulties and 
 overcoming obstacles, pursued his purpose with a step 
 as steady as time, planted a colony in the wilderness^ 
 conciliated the friendship of the Indians, humbled the 
 pride of the Spanish and thus laid upon the granite 
 foundations of justice, truth and virtue, the corner- 
 stone of the great Empire State of Georgia, whica 
 stands and will forever stand — the imperishable me- 
 morial of his greatness. Upon his return to England 
 he submitted his report to the trustees and received their 
 sincere thanks for the ability, fidelity and success with 
 which he had discharged the trust. 
 
 The king appoved his conduct, recognized his ability 
 and the value of his services, and promoted him to the 
 rank of Lieutenant-General, Major-General and finally. 
 General of the British Army. Artists, scholars, poets, 
 orators, statesmen and philosophers sought his society 
 and friendship. He retained his seat in Parliament 
 until 1754, and was recognized as the Governor of the 
 Colony of Georgia until the surrender of the charter 
 of the trustees to the crown in 1Y52. He lived to wit- 
 ness the dismemberment of the empire he had done, 
 
MEN AND THINGS 215 
 
 suffered and spent so much to extend and glorify. He 
 held an interview with Mr. John Adams, the first 
 plenipotentiary from the young republic to the court 
 of St. James. He lived to the advanced age of ninety- 
 seven years, nearly one-third of a century longer than 
 the allotted span. He died with the serene tranquility 
 of a philosopher in the sublime faith of a Christian. 
 
 The analysis of Oglethorpe's life and character de- 
 velops a rare and bright constellation of high qualities 
 and shining virtues. If he had ambition it was not 
 that reprehensible sort which seeks power, wealth and 
 fame for self-aggrandizement, but rather that laudable 
 kind which seeks to be remembered for the good done 
 for others. A wise, practical legislator and statesman, 
 he knew how to discover and apply remedies for exist- 
 ing evils. A brave and skillful commander, he knew 
 when and where to protect the weak. Recognizing his 
 duty to his God and his race, his heart trembled with 
 sympathy to the appeals of sorrow and his strong hand 
 was outstretched for the relief of suffering. He ex- 
 changed ease, comfort, pleasure and security for toil, 
 anxiety, hardship and danger. He devoted time, tal- 
 ents and fortune upon the altar of philanthrophy to 
 minister to the help of others; and stands the foremost 
 Englishman of his age; and next to Washington, the 
 finest character in history. Marlborough and Blen- 
 heim, Wellington and Waterloo, N"elson and Trafalgar, 
 pale and fade in comparison with Oglethorpe and Geor- 
 
216 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 gia. If it be true, as an American poetess has sweetly 
 simg 
 
 "That parted friends of whom we say 
 'In beds of clay they rest," 
 Bend meekly down from glory's sphere 
 And, with an angel's smile or tear 
 Allure us to the blest;" 
 
 then the spirit of Oglethorpe must woo, with solic- 
 itude the prosperous, happy millions of Georgians, to 
 the practice of virtues, his own life so gloriously illus- 
 trated. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The Religion of Christianity. 
 
 The soul of man has thirsted and panted in all 
 climes through all the ages for the solution of the mys- 
 terious problems of life and death. Divine revelation 
 as contained in the sacred Scriptures alone furnishes 
 it. The religious element or instinct of the race has 
 found expression in vague theories and speculations 
 and the establishment of monstrous and revolting sys- 
 tems of idolatry to propitiate the unknown and un« 
 knowable cause or author of being, of its origin and 
 destiny. 
 
 The book of nature, open to all the world, has sug- 
 gested to reason and philosophy the invisible things 
 of Him from the foundation of the world, which are 
 -clearly seen, being understood by the things that are 
 made even His eternal power and God-head." But 
 reason and philosophy could never find out the institu- 
 tion and administration of a moral government involv- 
 ing law, prescribing death as the punishment of its 
 violation, nor the stupendous scheme of merciful sal- 
 vation, which infinite Goodness ordained for the pardon 
 of sin and rescue from death. Divine revelation alone 
 reveals this truth ; hence its necessity and value. It 
 opens with a brief historic summary of the Creation, 
 communicated by God, through inspiration to Moses. 
 
 217 
 
218 MElsf AND THINGS 
 
 It shows that the first pair were created male and 
 female, free from sin, endowed with volition, put in a 
 pleasant place, assigned to agreeable employment and 
 subjected to law. This was the law of faith and obe- 
 dience, the cardinal and constitutional law of the Divine 
 administration, unchanged and unchangeable. They 
 disbelieved, disobeyed, and thus brought death into the 
 world with all our woe;" and thus raised the great prob- 
 lem with which the religion of Christianity deals, — the 
 maintenance of the integrity of an unchangeable law 
 that condenms to death and yet saves the criminal un- 
 der its condemnation. After the disaster of the fall, 
 the law of faith and obedience was presented in another 
 form — in the form of promise. 'The seed of the wo- 
 man shall bruise the serpent's head." This promise 
 was vague but Abel caught its import of atonement and 
 pardon and evidenced his faith by his offering of the 
 symbol in sacrifice of the lamb slain from before the 
 foundation of the world. The revelation of God, of 
 Himself and His government was slow, gradual and 
 progressive with salient points and cri&es which served 
 as keynotes in the music of the march. Such were 
 the translation of Enoch, the call of Abraham, and 
 the giving of the law to Moses. Enoch walked with 
 God; by which is meant he believed and obeyed Him. 
 He was translated as the sign and proof to the patri- 
 archial age of the final resurrection. Abraham was 
 chosen the head and founder of the family through 
 which the promise was to be fulfilled, and deliverance 
 was to come. His selection was made after subjecting 
 his faith and obedience to the severest test that Infinite 
 
MEN AND THINGS 219 
 
 wisdom and goodness could devise. The Decalogue, 
 written by God on tablets of stone, was delivered to 
 Moses as the basic rules and principles for all time, 
 by which the race should regulate its conduct and rela- 
 tions with the Creator and each other. It vindicates 
 the majesty of the sovereign and provides for the pro- 
 tection of every right and interest of the subject. The 
 worship of the Tabernacle with its symbolic ritualism 
 was the shadow of good things to come. "Our school- 
 master to bring us to Christ." Obedience to the cere- 
 monial law was the test of faith in the promise. It 
 was in a sense spectacular, appealing to the thought 
 through the senses. The prophetic succeeded the patri- 
 archal age. The promise had been repeated with in- 
 creasing clearness and emphasis. The Temple super- 
 seded the Tabernacle. 
 
 Elijah's fiery flight had illustrated to the prophetic 
 age the glorious truth of the final resurrection. Job 
 knew that his Redeemer liveth, and that after his skin, 
 worms destroyed his body, yet in his flesh he should 
 see God. Daniel saw a kingdom set up which shall 
 never be destroyed. Isaiah, whose lips were touched 
 with a live coal from off the altar from the loftiest sum- 
 mit of prophetic vision, witnessed the final sacrificial 
 scene, which he described with historical accuracy and 
 announced the truth before the event that "with His 
 stripes we are healed." 
 
 Zachariah saw in the twilight of the dispensation of 
 law a prophecy, "a fountain flowing out from the 
 House of David, and from Jerusalem, half of it to- 
 wards the former sea and half of it towards the hinder 
 
220 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 sea; and in winter and summer shall it be." The multi- 
 tudes of the former sea slaked their thirst for immortal- 
 ity by faith in the promise, those of the hinder sea by 
 faith in its fulfillment. In the fullness of time there 
 was a rumor at Jerusalem that a new king of the Jews 
 was born. 
 
 A strange star had appeared and guided wise men 
 to Bethlehem to offer him their fealty and worship. 
 The shepherd told a strange story of a new song '"Glory 
 to God in the Highest; Peace on Earth — Good Will to 
 Men." Herod became alarmed for his throne and mas- 
 sacred the children of Bethlehem in the hope of destroy- 
 ing the new king. But his parents, being warned in a 
 dream of danger, fled with the young child into Egypt 
 where they remained until Herod's death. 
 
 These events seem to have passed out of the public 
 thought, except the memory of Herod's cruelty and 
 of the grief of the sorrow-stricken mothers of Bethle- 
 hem. Thirty years thereafter a bold, fearless and 
 earnest ascetic emerged from the wilderness and start- 
 led the country by boldly proclaiming that "the King- 
 dom of Heaven was at hand" and preaching the doctrine 
 of "baptism and repentance for the remission of sins," 
 as the necessary preparation for the reception of the 
 King. The seed of the woman appeared on the banks 
 of the Jordan, whom when John saw, he exclaimed to 
 the multitude "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh 
 away the sin of the world!" Startling announcement! 
 
 Annealed by the baptism of water and the Spirit 
 for His mission, which was "to seek and to save that 
 which was lost," He selected His Disciples and entered 
 
MEN AND THINGS 221 
 
 upon His offices — of prophet to teach, priest to atone, 
 and king, to rule. His advent was in the fullness of 
 time. The highest tides of Grecian, Roman and Hebrew 
 intellect and learning met at the Jewish Capital. The 
 nations were at peace. Judaism, power and paganism 
 were at their best to examine the pretentions and contest 
 the claims of the Carpenter of Nazareth to the Messiah- 
 ship. "And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a 
 mountain, and when He was set, His disciples came unto 
 Him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, say- 
 ing "what ?" — stating the necessary conditions of spirit 
 in the process of transition from condemnation to par- 
 don, from pollution to purity, from death to life, viz: 
 Humility, repentance, submission, sincerity, forgive- 
 ness, purity. These eternal truths he utters in the 
 sweet persuasive form of blessings. "Blessed are the 
 poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.'' 
 "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be com- 
 forted." "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit 
 the earth." "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness for they shall be filled." "Blessed 
 are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." 
 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 
 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called 
 the children of God." This is the culmination, purity 
 of heart and peace with God. The Master in this dis- 
 course is dealing with the questions of life and death 
 in a kingdom of law and love. He asserts the suprem- 
 acy and duration of the Decalogue; and proceeds to 
 interpret it according to its true spirit and meaning, 
 and to explode its perversion by false teachers. He 
 
222 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 proceeds with His instruction in the application of the 
 provisions of law, and principles of love in the conduct 
 of life, in terms so simple, with illustrations so clear, 
 that the weakest mind could not misunderstand; and 
 with wisdom so profound that the shrewdest malignant 
 could not assail until He reached the climax: "Be ye 
 therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven 
 is perfect." After this. He returned to the line of in- 
 struction, asserting the true and assailing the false in 
 motive and method. He emphasized the importance 
 of sincerity and rebuked the shame of hypocrisy in 
 professed worship. He guards all the coming genera- 
 tions against the ignorance, weakness, selfishness and 
 hypocrisy in prayer by instructing how, and for what 
 to pray. "After this manner therefore, pray ye : "^Our 
 Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.' " 
 ISTot your Father nor mine, but Our Father in the plural, 
 so that each one prays for himseK and all others — thus 
 recognizing the relationship of family — father and chil- 
 dren with all the tender sentiments of affection which 
 the relationship implies and in precise conformity to 
 the law. 
 
 "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy 
 God in vain." Hallowed, honored, revered and glorified 
 be Thy name. Thy kingdom of truth, love and law — 
 to all hearts the expression of hungering and thirsting 
 after righteousness. "Thy will be done on earth as it 
 is in heaven." The unconditional surrender, submission 
 and obedience of the human to the divine will "Give us 
 this day our daily bread." Christ is the bread of life, 
 of which if a man eat, he shall never die. This invoca- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 223 
 
 tion calls for the spiritual life of Christ as the daily 
 banquet of the hungry soul, and also the material which 
 nourishes the physical body, "Forgive us our debts, as 
 we forgive our debtors." This recognizes the absolute 
 equality of rights and obligations ; and that no one can 
 claim forgiveness who refuses to concede it. 
 
 "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us 
 from evil." This has been called the wisest utterance 
 that ever fell from lips — human or divine. It seeks 
 certain safety by avoiding all risks. The Teacher knew 
 that temptation had wrecked the race. He had felt 
 and struggled with its power. He knew the weakness 
 of men. He knew whence deliverance comes ; and gra- 
 ciously ordains this invocation as the means of secur- 
 ing safety. The spirit that utters this prayer truly 
 will not fail to realize that God's is "the kingdom, the 
 power and the glory forever." Following this prayer, 
 are lessons of truth simply stated and beautifully illus- 
 trated, dealing with the providence of God and the 
 hearts and life of men, in their relations to Him, and to 
 each other — uniting the authority of the law, the 
 prophets and the gospel in support of the infinite wis- 
 dom and absolute perfection of the rule, "In all things 
 whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do 
 ye even so to them." 
 
 The people were astonished at His doctrine, for "He 
 taught them as one having authority and was not as 
 the Scribes." What blessing and a joy it would have 
 been to Socrates, Seneca and Plato to have heard this 
 most wonderful discourse! 
 
224 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 Truth is imchangeable. The great Teacher never 
 modified these truths, but as occasion required, elabo- 
 rated, emphasized and intensified them, in simile, 
 parable and story, and exemplified them in his life. 
 The Epistles continue their explanation and seek to 
 secure their adoption in faith and practice. All avail- 
 able resources were exhausted to suppress them, and 
 discredit the Teacher. As these efforts increased in 
 magnitude and malignity, He assumed a bolder atti- 
 tude; and interposed higher claims for their authorship 
 and authority; and overwhelmed his assailants with dis- 
 may, chagrin and discomfiture. The common people 
 heard Him gladly. The scribes and elders rejected 
 Him. But a Greek woman and a Roman captain be- 
 lieved, and were blessed by Him. The scepter was de- 
 parting from Judah, in the presence of the Lion of his 
 Tribe. 
 
 For about three years the Messiah toiled and traveled 
 over Palestine and preached the gospel of the King- 
 dom of Heaven on mountain and in plain, in cities and 
 solitudes and on land and lake. He hungered and 
 thirsted and was without home and shelter. Great 
 multitudes followed Him always and everywhere 
 and pressed upon and crowded around to hear Him. 
 For "He spake as never man spake." He healed the 
 sick, restored the blind, cured the lame, cleansed the 
 lepers, cast out devils, gave speech to the dumb, fed 
 the hungry, stilled the storm, and calmed the sea, 
 raised the dead, pardoned penitents and preached the 
 gospel to the poor. AVhile thus engaged malignity hav- 
 ing met him at the cradle with an edict for His death — 
 
MEN AND THINGS 225 
 
 pursued Him without intermission, until it secured it 
 on the cross. As He approached the end, He an- 
 nounced to His disciples plainly that His enemies 
 would kill him, and that He should arise the third 
 day. A few days thereafter, taking Peter, James and 
 John with him into a mountain He was transfigured 
 before them. Moses, representative of law and Elijah, 
 of prophecy, appeared and talked with him of his 
 approaching decease at Jerusalem, and witnessed 
 the glorious light of the gospel, the gospel of salvation 
 as symbolized in the transfigured face of its author. 
 Moses received the tablets of the law in the terrors of 
 cloud, thunder and lightning on Mount Sinai. Elijah 
 overthrew the prophets of Baal with consuming fire 
 from heaven upon Mount Carmel. But on the ra- 
 diant brow of Mount Tabor, in the calm sweet- 
 ness of light and love, the light of the world in 
 His transfiguration, indicated the fulfillment of 
 promise, prophecy and ceremonial law as well as 
 His glorification after His resurrection, receiving 
 from His Father, from the bright cloud which over- 
 shadowed Him, the message to all the world, for all 
 time, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well 
 pleased, hear Him." The end was approaching. The 
 last authoritative celebration of the Passover was held, 
 at the conclusion of which a new memorial was insti- 
 tuted; the banquet of faith in the broken body and 
 shed blood of the world's Redeemer in the symbol of 
 bread and wine and the monumental lesson of service 
 and humility taught in washing the disciples' feet. 
 
226 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 The awful tragedy of the betrayal, mock trial and 
 Crucifixion immediately followed; succeeded by the 
 Resurrection, the delivery of the commission to preach 
 the gospel to all the world, the Ascension and the Pen- 
 tecost. The three principal figures in the condemna- 
 tion and Crucifixion scene — Judas, Caiaphas and Pi- 
 late — each sought refuge from despair in suicide. The 
 Jews, at their Capital, through their constituted author- 
 ities murdered the Son of God. His response to that 
 crime is read in the overthrow of the Capital by the 
 Romans under Titus and the subsequent history of the 
 Jews. The gospel of the Son of God and the agency 
 of the Holy Spirit are the powers now engaged for the 
 world's salvation. The sacred Scriptures revealed God 
 as an eternally seK-existing Spirit, in unity with the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
 proceeding from the Father, forming the one, only 
 true and living triune God — the Creator and author cf 
 all things. He is absolutely infinite, in wisdom, in 
 power, in righteousness, in knowledge, in justice, in 
 truth, in mercy, and in love. They reveal further the 
 establishment of a moral government, based upon law, 
 faith and obedience — designed to glorify Himself and 
 promote the happiness of His creatures, ^'\llen unbe- 
 lief resulting in disobedience brought death upon 
 the race as the penalty for sin. He graciously provided 
 for atonement and satisfaction for sin, by the death 
 of His Son; and secured to the race upon the simple 
 conditions of a repentance, faith and obedience to law, 
 salvation and eternal life. ''For God so loved the 
 world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoso- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 227 
 
 ever believeth in Him, should not perish but have ever- 
 lasting life." 
 
 "Let all the world fall down and know, 
 That none but God, such love can show." 
 
 The Kingdom of Heaven is not of this world. The 
 religion of Christianity deals with the heart, soul and 
 conduct of dying men and women during probation ; and 
 seeks by regeneration to translate them from the domin- 
 ion of the law of "sin and death" to the law of the spirit 
 of life in Christ Jesus, which makes us free from the law 
 of "sin and death." The result is conformity to the di- 
 vine will, spiritual life, hid with Christ in God and 
 eternal life in the end. The kingdom of heaven is a 
 kingdom of light, truth, love and life, that makes men 
 and women pure and happy. 
 
 To prove the difference between the true and the 
 false it is only necessary to contrast it with all other 
 systems of religion. It has blessed the race with the 
 establishment of hospitals, asylums, sanitariums for 
 the afflicted, clothed the naked, fed the hungry, minis- 
 tered to the sick, helped the poor, solaced the sorrowing, 
 educated the ignorant, reformed the vicious, pardoned 
 the penitent, purified the sinful ; and lifted humanity to 
 its present plane of civilization, hope, light and char- 
 acter. It has contested every inch of its progress with 
 the innumerable powers of darkness and evil. It has 
 steadily advanced through storms of persecutions — il- 
 lustrated by the faith of confessors and sanctified in the 
 blood of the martyrs. 
 
 What have Paganism, Buddhism, Tauism, Confuci- 
 anism, Shintoism, Islamism, Mormonism and all the 
 
228 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 other 'isms done to bless the world? Echo answer, 
 "What ?" And yet, at the recent Chicago World's Ex- 
 position it was gravely proposed to compare, consider 
 and discuss the relative merits of these monstrous sys- 
 tems, with the peerless truth of Christianity. All of 
 the grand facts involved in the divine plan of admin- 
 istration of this world's affairs have now transpired and 
 become historic, except two, the resurrection of the 
 dead and the final judgment — awarding rewards to the 
 righteous and punishment to the wicked. These are 
 both assured by promise and prophecy. Indeed they 
 constitute the keystone in the arch of time and proba- 
 tion. 
 
 Eternal life is the reward of faith and obedience; 
 and eternal death the punishment of unbelief and diso- 
 bedience. The one glorifies His gTace, the other vindi- 
 cates His justice. 
 
 Is the revelation contained in the sacred Scriptures 
 true? If not, hopeless despair only remains. 
 
 The arguments demonstrating its proof have long 
 since been exhausted and have remained ; and will for- 
 ever continue unanswered. To recapitulate them in 
 hrlei: the mysterious system of the universe is known 
 to exist. It could not and did not exist without a cause. 
 'No effect can exist without a cause. The Pagan world 
 is proof that unaided human thought could never find 
 out the cause. Hence the necessity of a divine revela- 
 tion of the author and object of its creation. The great 
 open book of nature which can not otherwise be under- 
 stood, is read of all men, and fully explained in the 
 li2;ht of revelation. Every star that sparkles in the 
 
MEN AND THINGS 229 
 
 crown of niglit, twinkles its silent testimony to the in- 
 finite wisdom, power and righteousness of its author. 
 The unity of purpose, design, plan and object of the 
 Creation as disclosed in the sacred writings, recorded 
 by inspired men in different and distant ages, dissimi- 
 lar in mental endow^nents, personal environments and 
 under different social and civil systems, supply the 
 strongest internal evidence of their truth. Another and 
 an infallible test of truth, is found in the exact and pre- 
 cise fulfillment in their minutest circumstantial details 
 of prophecies, cries uttered hundreds and thousands of 
 years before the events, by inspiration. This seems 
 to me absolute demonstration of the truth of this revela- 
 tion. 
 
 God's revelation of Himself, His creation and His 
 moral government and spiritual kingdom have been in 
 all the ages, evidenced by the sanction of miracles. ISTo 
 human powder can raise the dead. The Galilean start- 
 led and confounded His enemies and amazed the multi- 
 tude by the miracles He wrought in their presence, to 
 which He appealed as the proof of His unity with the 
 Father, the omnipotence of His power, and the divin- 
 ity of His mission. The final proof is the conscious 
 conviction and experience of the human soul, directly 
 witnessed by the Holy Spirit. Howbeit when He, the 
 Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all the 
 truth ; for he shall not speak of himself ; but whatsoever 
 he shall hear, that shall he speak ; and he will shew you 
 things to come, 
 
 "He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of mine, 
 and shall shew it unto you." The only sin that shall 
 
230 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 not be forgiven is the sin against this witness. The re- 
 ligion of Christianity transfers the dog-licked beggar 
 from the rich man's gate to Abraham's bosom; and the 
 penitent thief from the cross to Paradise with Christ. 
 Agnosticism removes IngersoU from the triumphs of 
 the platform and forum to a cupful of urned ashes. 
 Reader, which do you prefer? Which? The Scrip- 
 tures disclose Christianity as a kingdom of law and 
 love, faith and obedience, light and life. "Thy King- 
 dom come." 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 The Mira-cles CoI^^CIDENT with the CEroinxioN. 
 By H. P. B. 
 
 "Now when the centurion, and they that were with him 
 watching Jesus, saw the earthquake and those things Ihat 
 were done, they feared greatly, saying: 'Truly, thi& was the 
 Son of God. " St. Matthew' 
 
 The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ was the most impor- 
 tant event in the history of the world. The Cross is the 
 grand focal center of the moral universe, to which the 
 faith and hopes of a guilty race have gravitated in every 
 clime and in all ages. It is the concave mirror that 
 gathers from heaven all its rays of light and life, and 
 the convex speculum that scatters them in every direc- 
 tion over the earth. Involving, as it does, the highest 
 interests of humanity, as well as the great principles 
 of the Divine administration, every incident connected 
 with the Crucifixion is to be regarded as of significant 
 import. This is certainly true of the co-incident mira- 
 cles. I do not share in the opinion commonly enter- 
 tained that they were intended as the mere attestations 
 of the Divine displeasure at the cruelty exhibited in the 
 execution of the Eedeemer. This seems to have been 
 the opinion of the guard detailed to watch him while 
 on the Cross. 
 
 Darkness and earthquakes have certainly been used 
 as the instruments of Divine punishment ; but that they 
 
 231 
 
232 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 were not so used on this occasion is abundantly demon- 
 iStrated in the fact that no one was destroyed or pun- 
 ished by them. That these miracles all occurred pre- 
 cisely at the time and place they did, and that they 
 never occurred before nor since clearly establishes, 
 as I think, the truth of two propositions : First, that 
 they did not result from natural causes — from the ordi- 
 nary operation of the laws of nature — and, therefore, 
 were not accidental co-incidences; but that they were 
 the immediate result of a supernatural, a divine agency, 
 and for this reason, properly miracles ; and second, that 
 they were the representatives of great and vital ideas, 
 involved in the divine administration, respecting the 
 economy of human salvation. 
 
 Assuming this view to be the true one, and I appre- 
 hend none can controvert it successfully, the inquiry 
 arises what are the ideas they were intended to repre- 
 sent ? What are we to understand them to signify ? 
 
 This article proposes to answer these inquiries, and 
 present the solution of their import. They were four in 
 number: 1. The darkness. 2. The earthquake. 
 3. The rending of the veil. 4. The resurrection of the 
 saints ; and will be considered in the order named. 
 
 These miracles all speak the language of symbol. 
 In relation to the first, the simj^le statement of the Di- 
 vine record is, that there was darkness over all the land 
 from the sixth to the ninth hour. 
 
 Darkness is the symbol of despair. This miracle was 
 the first in the order of time. So the first condition of 
 humanity, affected by the atonement then in process of 
 
MEN AND THINGS 233 
 
 consummation, was one of tlie hopeless despair, of which 
 the darkness was the terrific sign or symboL 
 
 The language of the law was : "In the day thou eatest 
 thereof, thou shalt surely die." 
 
 The immutable truth of the Almighty Lawgiver was 
 pledged to the enforcement of the penalty upon the in- 
 fraction of the prohibition. Adam's disobedience made 
 himself and his offspring obnoxious to this penalty. 
 
 In the absence of the atonement outside of Christ cru- 
 cified, the destiny of the race was precisely that of the 
 "angels w^ho kept not their first estate," and who w'ere 
 "reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness to the 
 judgment of the great day" — a destiny of hopeless de- 
 spair and eternal death. This was the thing of which 
 the darkness was the sign. 
 
 It was a fit emblem of man's condition after the fall, 
 aside from the provision made for his recovery. Ostra- 
 cized from Eden, cherubims brandishing the flaming 
 sword of wrath along every avenue that approached the 
 Tree of Life, a ruined and wretched race moved in mel- 
 ancholy procession from the cradle to the grave, and 
 from the grave to hell. 
 
 There was no eye to pity, no arm to save. It was the 
 impending doom of despair and death that was sub- 
 limely signified in the darkness that overshadowed the 
 scene of Crucifixion. 
 
 What consternation that vast multitude of scoffing 
 spectators upon Cavalry must have felt, when, without 
 any premonition, the eye of Heaven was put out to show 
 them their ruin without the Savior they were engaged 
 in crucifying! How they strained their aching eyes to 
 
234 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 peer through this noon of night ! Oh ! how their bosoms 
 heaved with anxiety, and their hearts throbbed with 
 fear, in that hour of dreadful stillness, as they listened 
 to the blood-drops as they fell at the foot of the Cross 
 from the Redeemer's bleeding side ! 
 
 The next miracle in the order of consideration is the 
 earthquake. 
 
 An earthquake is the symbol of revolution — ^the over- 
 throw of dominion. 
 
 The idea presented or represented by this sign is the 
 overthrow of the empire of sin and death — the conquest 
 of the Cross of Christ. 
 
 "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which 
 was lost." The world was lost. "Sold under sin," taken 
 by the Devil captive at his will, "Condemned already," 
 "there were none righteous," "Judgment came upon all 
 unto condemnation," mankind were the servants of sin 
 and the subjects of Satan. The mission of the Son of 
 God was one of invasion and conquest. He came to 
 
 "Break the power of cancelled sin 
 And set the prisoner free." 
 
 Paradoxical as it may appear, yet it is true, that the 
 gTandest declaration of war to which the world ever lis- 
 tened was the thrilling pean that swelled from the heav- 
 enly hosts of "glory to God in the highest, peace on 
 earth, good will toward men." It announced the open- 
 ing of the campaign that was to vanquish death and hell 
 and result in the rescue and salvation of sinners. The 
 Devil understood well its import. He knew Avith what 
 antagonist he must measure arms. He opened the con- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 235 
 
 flict by the same strategy that wrought onr ruin in Para- 
 dise. He endeavored to subsidize the allegiance of his 
 adversary by the temptation in the wilderness, but he 
 was vanquished on this first field. 
 
 Everything that Jesus said, and everything that He 
 did, was in hostility to the kingdom of Satan — was a 
 blow aimed at his supremacy over the human soul — was 
 an effort to break the slavish chains of sin in which he 
 held the world in thralldom — to overthrow the spiritual 
 darkness that reigned like the "starless night of desola- 
 tion around its heart and hopes." 
 
 This conflict was to culminate in the fulfillment of 
 the promise made in the Garden amid the scenes of our 
 disaster, that "the seed of the woman shall bruise the 
 serpent's head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." 
 
 Its crisis was the hour of Crucifixion. As the final 
 conflict approached, Jesus was betrayed by one disciple, 
 denied by another and abandoned by the rest. He en- 
 countered alone the trinity of hell — the world, the flesh 
 and the Devil. 
 
 When crushed by the superincumbent burden of "sins 
 not his own," He pressed His sacred face to the chilly 
 ground of Gethsemane, and mingled the accents of His 
 dying prayer with the midnight murmurings of Ke- 
 dron. There was no arm bared in His defense, no tear- 
 drop to melt with His sorrow, and no heart to throb in 
 unison with His anguish. It is true He was strength- 
 ened by an angel, but there was not a pang alleviated, 
 nor a drop taken from the cup that pressed His quiver- 
 ing lips. 
 
236 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 When he exclaimed, "It is finished," He dealt the 
 final blow upon the head of Satan that broke his grasp 
 upon the human soul, and sent him reeling back to his 
 home in hell. And Heaven announced in the symbol 
 of an earthquake, the redemption of the world from the 
 dominion of death, as Jesus 
 
 "Conquered when he fell." 
 
 The veil of the temple was a curtain that separated 
 the holy place where the priest ministered from the 
 sanctum sanctorum, into which the high priest alone 
 entered, once a year, to make expiation for the sins of 
 the people. "And the veil of the temple was rent in 
 twain from the top to the bottom." 
 
 When the veil of the temple was rent, or split, it dis- 
 closed to the public view the Mercy Seat, and opened 
 access to it to all alike, priest and people, Jew and Gen- 
 tile — signifying, symbolizing the great truth that Jesus, 
 the Great High Priest of the new covenant, who, 
 "through the eternal spirit, offered himself without spot 
 to God," had "consecrated for us, through the veil — 
 that is to say, His flesh — a new and living way" to 
 the Mercy Seat above, of which that in the temple was 
 the figure; where, "after he had offered one sacrifice 
 for sins," "He forever sat down on the right hand of 
 God." The whole ceremonial economy of the temple 
 service was a system of symbolism — "a shadow of good 
 things to come." The atonement offered by Jesus 
 Christ, the Great High Priest, "once for all," was the 
 substance. The rending of the veil as Jesus expired on 
 the cross, proclaimed the fulfillment of the types and 
 the shadows of the ceremonial system, in the new and 
 
MEN AND THINGS 237 
 
 living way opened up to the Throne of Grace — the 
 Mercy Seat in Heaven, by a crucified, risen, ascended 
 and. continually interceding High Priest. 
 
 The intervention of priestcraft and the intercession 
 of saints were exploded when the veil was rent. Sal- 
 vation was purchased for all alike, Jew and Gentile, 
 through the merits of the atonement, upon the simple 
 conditions of repentance towards God, and faith in our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. The hearthstone, church altar, the 
 closet and grave, become shrines upon which penitent 
 sinners and believing saints could offer, through the 
 blood of atonement, the incense of an acceptable wor- 
 ship. And thus the "grace of God that bringeth salva- 
 tion appeared unto all men." 
 
 "And the graves were opened ; and many bodies of 
 the saints which slept arose, and came out of the grave 
 after his resurrection, and went into the holy city and 
 appeared unto many." 
 
 The resurrection of the saints was the fourth and 
 last miracle coincident with the Crucifixion. Many in- 
 quiries have arisen, and much speculation has been in- 
 dulged upon this subject. The questions who were these 
 saints, and what became of them may not probably be 
 answered satisfactorily. The history of the transaction 
 is certainly silent upon the subject. 
 
 But the question under consideration, and the one it 
 is proposed to discuss is, what was the design of the 
 miracle ? What does it teach ? What is the thing which 
 it signifies ? It is the sign or symbol of the general res- 
 urrection of the human body at the end of time — at 
 the final judgment. The disobedience of Adam in- 
 
238 MEIi AND THINGS 
 
 volved his race in the doom of spiritual, physical and 
 eternal death. ''The wages of sin is death." The 
 atonement presents a sublime system or plan of recover- 
 ing mercy, precisely adequate to human exigency in 
 this condition. It justifies from Adamic transgression, 
 relieves from the judgment of condemnation to which 
 his disobedience exposed him. It grants a new trial, 
 and places man back on probation. It secures the quick- 
 ening efficacy of the Holy Spirit, which sufiiciently re- 
 stores spiritual life to enable him to exercise faith in 
 Christ, which it substitutes for obedience to the law as 
 the test of our probationary state ; and offers pardon for 
 actual transgression on the condition of repentance and 
 faith, and thus saves from eternal death. 
 
 As we have already seen, the condition of the race 
 after the fall was symbolized by the darkness, the over- 
 throw of hell's dominion over it by the earthquake, and 
 access to the Mercy Seat in Heaven by the rending of 
 the veil. 
 
 But there is one consequence of original sin yet to 
 be removed. This is physical death, the death of the 
 human body. That exemption from this was not se- 
 cured by the atonement of Jesus Christ is demonstrated 
 by the broken hearts, graveyards and funeral crowds of 
 earth. The inquiry then arises how did the atonement 
 meet this difficulty, or relieve from this doom ? The 
 answer is not by exempting the body from death, but 
 by restoring it to life after it died. This it does in 
 the general resurrection at the last day. 
 
 "The hour is coming, and now is, in which they 
 that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
 
MEN AND THINGS 239 
 
 come forth ; they that have done good unto the resurrec- 
 tion of life, and they that have done evil unto the resur- 
 rection of damnation." This is the mode by which "our 
 Savior Jesus Christ abolished death." This is the clos- 
 ing scene in the world's great drama, and was gloriously 
 symbolized by the closing miracle in the scene of Cruci- 
 fixion. The doctrine of the resurrection is the keystone 
 in the arch of the Christian's faith; withdraw it, and 
 the whole superstructure of Christianity tumbles into 
 ruins, and leaves the world in the eternal embrace of 
 relentless death. But while 
 
 "An angel's arm can't snatch us from the grave, 
 Legions of angels can't confine us there." 
 "While humanity shudders at the gloom of the grave, 
 the Christian looks upon its darkness, when spanned by 
 the rainbow of hope, refiected from the blood-drops of 
 Calvary and sings, 
 
 "Yet in this lowly bed was laid 
 
 The Savior's form divine. 
 And death's unbreathing cell became, 
 Salvation's living shrine." 
 The four great cardinal truths or facts in the history 
 and destiny of the human race — the fall — the restora- 
 tion — the salvation secured to all — and the resurrection 
 of the body — were signified by these miracles that 
 passed in symbolic panorama before the gazing world, 
 on the bloody brow of Calvary when the son of man 
 "Closed his eyes to show us God." 
 Oh, what eternal interests cluster around the cross ! 
 
240 ME2f AND THINGS 
 
 It threw back upon the symbolic blood of patriarchial 
 altars, the light of a coming Savior. It poured its 
 kindling splendors along the pathway of prophecy, the 
 beacon star of kings and seers. It mingled its beams of 
 hope with the sacrificial blood of the Temple, and 
 pointed adoring priests to the lamb for sinners slain. 
 It flashes upon earth's teeming and coming millions 
 salvation from the power of sin and the thrall of death. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 St. PAtJL. 
 
 The circumstances under which St. Paul makes his 
 first appearance on the stage of history, indicate the 
 decided and important part he is destined to act in its 
 drama. The Prince of Peace had announced, before the 
 crucifixion, that His kingdom was not of this world; 
 and that those whom He had selected to establish it, 
 should indeed drinlv the bitter cup that the world had 
 pressed to His reluctant lips. The powers of earth and 
 hell resisted, at the threshold, the establishment of His 
 spiritual kingdom. Stephen was awarded the honor of 
 wearing the first Christian martyr's crown. At his 
 execution, St. Paul, although a young man, was more 
 than a disinterested spectator. He was not only a wit- 
 ness, but a party to the transaction. His presence on 
 this occasion, the interest he took in it, his age consid- 
 ered, and the consequences likely to result from it, 
 evince, at once, a decided character, as well as an incli- 
 nation to impress that character upon the history of his 
 race by identifying himself prominently with its most 
 important events. Xature was prodigal in the bestow- 
 ment of her favors upon him. He possessed a mind of 
 surpassing comprehension, clearness and power. His 
 moral attributes were all in profusion. His aspirations 
 were elevated, his prejudices high, his impulses strong, 
 
 241 
 
242 MEIJ AND THINGS 
 
 his affections ardent, and his will invincible. He was by 
 lineage, a Jew, and by profession, a Pharisee. He was 
 born and reared amid the culminating splendors of the 
 Augustan age — the most intellectual, perhaps, of the 
 world, the present excepted. At Athens, Hesiod and 
 Thucydides had written, Demosthenes and Pericles had 
 spoken, Pindar and Homer had sung. The marble was 
 breathing under the polishing touches of Phidias and 
 Praxiteles. Apelles had mingled the light of immor- 
 tality with the colors of his pencil, and the canvass 
 blushed in the trophies of his genius. 
 
 At Rome, great names illustrated the annals of paint- 
 ing and statuary, poetry and eloquence. Rome was the 
 proud mistress of the world — there was none to dispute 
 her empire or measure arms with her prowess. The 
 wisdom of Gamaliel was the exponent of Rabbinical 
 learning at Jerusalem. Mythology had enrolled her 
 multitudinous divinities in the Pantheon, until every 
 interest, secular and sacred, was under the protection of 
 its peculiar deity. The greater portion of the intellect 
 of this highly intellectual age was devoted to religion 
 and the arts and sciences. The claims of rival systems 
 of philosophy was the subject of constant disputation 
 among the schoolmen. Vice and virtue, good and evil, 
 the character and attributes of the human soul — all 
 claimed their full share of consideration. In all these 
 systems of philosophy, cultivated intellect was strug- 
 gling with its own weakness; and the human soul was 
 attesting its own immortality, and gasping for that 
 light which divine revelation alone sheds upon its hope 
 and destiny. The Gentiles were idolaters — were heath- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 243 
 
 ens. The Jews were the custodians of the Sacred Ora- 
 cles of the true God, but had subordinated the mightier 
 matters of the law — judgment and mercy — to the tith- 
 ing of anise and mint; and had substituted for the doc- 
 trines of Revelation the commandments of men. St. 
 Paul, — equal to any, and surpassed by none in his nat- 
 ural endowments, and these developed and embellished 
 by every contribution that could be levied upon Roman, 
 Grecian, Chaldean, and Hebrew literature, — burned 
 with restless ambition to win a name and the honors 
 and emoluments which merit confers on position. 
 Brought up at the feet of her mightiest master, he was 
 profoundly learned and deeply skilled in the abstrusi- 
 ties of the Mosaic Law, both as it was truly written 
 and as it was perverted by the traditions of the scribes 
 and elders. 
 
 Entering into the schemes and identifying himself 
 with the fortunes of the Pharisees, he sought to distin- 
 guish himself in the effort to crush and strangle the in- 
 fant Church. Hence, soon after the martyrdom of Ste- 
 phen, he is found on his way to Damascus, breathing 
 threatenings and slaughter, with a warrant from the 
 High Priest, authorizing him to arrest and carry bound 
 to Jerusalem, any disciples of either sex that might be 
 found in that city. On his way to accomplish this mis- 
 sion of persecution and blood, he was converted by a 
 miracle. With characteristic promptitude he inquires, 
 "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" ISTotified that 
 he was called to turn the Gentiles from darkness to light, 
 and from the power of Satan to the power of God — re- 
 ceiving the royal investiture — he rose, mailed from 
 
244 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 Heaven's armory ; and bounded into the arena of moral 
 gladiatorsliip with the world, a true knight of the Cross, 
 floating a flag and bearing a shield emblazoned with 
 Jesus and the Eesurrection. The wealth and power, 
 passion and prejudice of the world, were in hostile array 
 against the religion whose championship he assmned. 
 Its founder, humanly speaking, was an obscure Gali- 
 lean, who had been crucified for alleged sedition against 
 the great and powerful government of Kome. Some of 
 his few and scattered disciples had fallen victims to the 
 malice of the Jews, while the remainder were fugitives 
 from their cruelty. 
 
 In addition to the opposition before him, and the dif- 
 ficulties around him, he must encounter the odium that 
 treason attaches to party. But Paul's was not the 
 spirit to flinch at difficulties, or quail at opposition. 
 His was a spirit that panted for glorious strife, and re- 
 joiced in foemen worthy of his steel. 
 
 His moral nature changed; his learning and great 
 powers of logic and eloquence, sanctified by the power 
 of the Holy Ghost; his wliole conduct, brought under 
 the disciplinary control of the Gospel ; his heart burning 
 and melting with sympathy for his ruined race, and 
 burdened with the value of immortal souls, and a com- 
 mission bearing the signet of the King of Kings, he 
 enters upon a glorious career of trial and triumph, that 
 presents him as the grandest character of all time and 
 history. 
 
 The idolatry of the Gentiles, taught in the schools, 
 practiced in the temples, patronized by tlie multitudes, 
 and protected by the State, was to be assailed on the 
 
MEN AND THINGS 245 
 
 one hand. On the other, degenerate Judaism, with its 
 exchisive claims to Divine favor, its boasted heraldry, 
 its hereditary prejudices, its formulary of types and 
 shadoAvs, priests and blood, altar and victim — the fossil 
 remains of an antiquated and exploded system — conse- 
 crated, however, by the hopes and faith of generation 
 after generation, and hoary with the seal of ages, but 
 perverted by apostates to the purposes of pride and par- 
 tyism. The religion of Christianity was opposed to 
 both of these, and proposed to recruit its army from 
 them; hence its movements were aggressive and its ob- 
 ject conquest. Vicissitude, temptation, trial, persecu- 
 tion, and suffering in all its forms were to be met and 
 endured by those who embraced its faith, raised its 
 standard and supported its cause. Paul was advised of 
 all this. To use a favorite figure of his own, he knew 
 that he was to enter upon a "fight." But he was un- 
 dismayed at the prospect before him. He ^vas prepared 
 for any and for every emergency. As might have been 
 expected, from his first entrance upon his high embassy, 
 he was assailed from every quarter, from Jewish syna- 
 gogue and heathen temple, from fierce rabble and cruel 
 power. 
 
 Persecutions dogged his footsteps from city to city, 
 from kingdom to kingdom, from country to country. 
 Like a personified ubiquity, it met him at every step. 
 It had gorged its hellish appetite with the blood of the 
 incarnate Master, yet it panted with peculiar thirst for 
 that of His greatest apostle. Bonds, imprisonments, 
 stonings and scourgings, were the responses he received 
 for his messages of love and peace. Humanity weeps 
 
246 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 at his own simple recital of his sufferings. ISTor did he 
 ever repine at the probable honors he sacrificed as a Ro- 
 man Proconsul or a member of the Sanhedrim, in em- 
 bracing the religion of the despised I^azarene. He 
 never complained at the hardness of his lot, the burden 
 of his labors, the severity of his afflictions, the inten- 
 sity of his sufferings. He never faltered in his purpose. 
 If he exclaimed in reference to the magnitude of the 
 duties before him, "Who is suSicient for these things ?" 
 the reply v^as, "I can do all things through Christ 
 strengthening me." He conferred not with flesh and 
 blood. In the midst of affliction, suffering, trial and per- 
 secution, he gloried in tribulation, and felt, in response 
 to a sublime faith, that "this light affliction, which was 
 but for a moment, would work out for him a far more 
 exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Greatness is 
 developed either in doing or suffering. Paul displays 
 it in both. These two grand achievements of virtue are 
 exemplified in every act and circumstance of his Chris- 
 tian life. What a grand and glorious conception he had 
 of the philosophy of the religion of Christ, when he 
 exclaimed, "I take pleasure in persecutions, in re- 
 proaches, in necessities, in distresses for Christ's sake, 
 for when I am weak then I am strong." Adversity 
 shows the moral manhood that is in us. It is not diffi- 
 cult to be great in prosperity, brave in the absence of the 
 enemy, and fearless when we are out of danger. It is 
 the fire that discovers the pure gold. If he had been a 
 mere time-server, he would have cowered before the in- 
 sane yell of the maddened devotees of Diana at Ephe- 
 sus, the clamorous rabble at Jerusalem, and the infu- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 247 
 
 riated mob at Thessalonica. But thoroughly imbued 
 with the spirit of his mission, and the importance of his 
 message, he is, everywhere and under all circumstances, 
 the same peerless herald of the Cross. He vindicates 
 the claims of his Master to the Messiahship, from the 
 authority of the prophets, upon the steps of the castle 
 at Jerusalem, to the confusion of the Jews, and in the 
 judgment hall at Csesarea, to the astonishment of Festus. 
 He proclaimed to the Areopagus in the midst of Mars' 
 Hill, at Athens, the unknown God whom the Athenians 
 ignorantly worshipped. He stood in the shadow of the 
 Pantheon, upon the scenes of the triumphs of Demos- 
 thenes ; and with the arm of Hercules, hurled the thun- 
 derbolts of a greater than Jupiter against the idolatry 
 of the Gentiles. And yet with the humility of a serv- 
 ant, he gathered sticks at Melita to warm his ship- 
 wrecked companions. He unrolled the flag of the Cross 
 by the Fane of Venus, at Corinth, totius Grecise lumen, 
 among her thronging thousands, and yet he plied the 
 lowly trade of the humble tent-maker around the quiet 
 fireside of Aquila and Priscilla. He could wish him- 
 self accursed from Christ for the salvation of the Jews, 
 and yet he pronounced the bitter malison: "God shall 
 smite thee, thou whited wall," upon Ananias, their 
 high priest. He was not a whit behind the very chiefest 
 of the apostles, and yet he was less than the least of the 
 saints. He was the storm-god of the tempest, and the 
 genius of the zephyrs. These antitheses were not an- 
 tagonisms, were not contradictions, but the extremes of 
 a perfect character, at once, both unique and harmo- 
 nious. They doubtless conspired to impress the multi- 
 
248 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 tude with widely different views respecting this re- 
 markable man. Regarded as the tutelary divinity of 
 eloquence at Lystra, he was denounced as a babbler it 
 Athens. Supposed by th'e barbarians on the Island to 
 be a murderer, when the viper fastened its fangs in his 
 hand, they thought him a god when he shook it un- 
 harmed into the fire. 
 
 He was as abundant in labors as he was patient in 
 suffering. His travels, sermons, debates, defenses, 
 speeches and ^\Titings are the everlasting monuments of 
 his labors. Every Sabbath bell proclaims, and every 
 church spire attests throughout Christendom, the glo- 
 rious results of his life and labors. We look through the 
 dust and moss of eighteen centuries and behold him in 
 the closing scene of his life. The wisdom of the Senate 
 had rejected the suggestion of Caesar to enroll the name 
 of Jesus among the divinities of the Pantheon, Still 
 the banner of the Cross floated by his eagles even in 
 Rome. But its bravest knight, although a victor, was 
 a captive. Contemplate him in this his last hour of con- 
 flict and of triumph; in chains and in prison, con- 
 demned to die and awaiting the hour of his execution ; 
 sitting upon the straw of his dungeon, with the meagre 
 remnants of his stationery lying upon the stone, on 
 which he had just written his last letter. There he sits, 
 of diminutive stature and slightly deformed person, scar- 
 red with the terrible conflicts of life's great battle ; his 
 brow calm, his countenance placid, the Christian's 
 deathless hope sparkling from his eye and the martyr's 
 
MEN AND THINGS 249 
 
 smile of triumph playing upon his lip. He is iminter- 
 ested in the high debates of the Senate, the inflamma- 
 tory harangues of the forum, or the wild shouts of the 
 populace as they welcome the returning victor, who 
 bears to the feet of Caesar the crowns of subjugated 
 kingdoms. He surveyed the present, forecast the future, 
 and retrospected the past. In looking over the fields 
 of his conflicts and triumphs, he beheld no trampled 
 vineyards, no desolated gardens, no sacked cities, no 
 burnt villages, no smouldering ruins nor blood-dyed 
 battlefields. He heard no widow's wail nor orphan's 
 cry, nor shriek of violated virtue. Oh ! no, none of these 
 for the weapons of his warfare were not carnal; but 
 every field was strown with the scattered wreck of de- 
 caying Judaism, and piled with the ruins of the Em- 
 pire of Sin. The dismantled fortress of Idolatry had 
 disgorged its captive thousands, to breathe the air of 
 truth with which Christ made them free indeed. Joy 
 and peace, and hope, and light, and life and love were 
 the monuments that marked the spots where his vic- 
 tories were won. 
 
 He bequeathed to his race this magnificent autobiog- 
 raphy, unapproached and unapproachable by anything 
 in history, sacred or profane. 
 
 "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of 
 my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, 
 I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. 
 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
 
250 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 ness, which the Lord, the Eighteous Judge, shall give 
 me at that day." 
 
 The trial is past, the fight is ended, and the guerdon 
 won. 
 
 He sealed his discipleship with the blood of martyr- 
 dom, and dying, left a name that, like the gorgeous 
 splendors of a summer's sunset, pours up the horizon of 
 history a stream of posthumous glory, that makes the 
 world radiant with the light of a deathless hero. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 Bishop A. G. Haygood. 
 
 So much has been said and written, and so well ard 
 tenderly said, and written of the dead Bishop, that it 
 would seem to be superfluous to add more. But these 
 beautiful tributes have come through the mist of tears ; 
 and from tongues and pens tremulous with the emotions 
 of grief. His great life deserves contemplation and 
 analysis in the calm light of history and philosophy. 
 
 Like Alexander Hamilton and the younger Pitt, Hay- 
 good was great from the beginning. Hamilton was an 
 orator and statesman at the age of seventeen ; the trusted 
 military counsellor of Washington at twenty; led the 
 last charge of Continentals for liberty at Yorktown at 
 twenty-five; suggested a written constitution for the 
 government of the people — whose independence his 
 sword had done so much to achieve — and stood at the 
 head of the American bar before he was thirty; was 
 secretary of the treasury at thirty-four ; at the touch of 
 his magic genius a stream of prosperity fertilized a des- 
 sert of bankruptcy and made it blossom as the rose. 
 
 William Pitt was a member of parliament at twenty- 
 one; British premier at twenty-five, holding the high 
 office at the request of the king — in defiance of all pre- 
 cedent against the adverse vote of the commons — allied 
 nations against the ambitious schemes of the Man of 
 
 251 
 
252 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 Destiny, and, at the age of thirty, stood alone, the 
 peerless statesman of Europe. 
 
 They each died young, and at the same age — forty- 
 seven; Hamilton, the first thinker, writer, constitu- 
 tional lawyer and financier of a hemisphere ; and Pitt, 
 the most accomplished orator, statesman and diplomat 
 of Europe ; the one, wept by a continent ; the other 
 mourned by a kingdom. 
 
 Haygood, at the age of twenty-one, commenced his 
 life work on a totally different, less famous, but more 
 important line; junior preacher on the Watkinsville 
 circuit; rapidly rising to the charge of a circuit, thence 
 to stations, army chaplain, conference secretary, pre- 
 siding elder, delegate to the General Conference, Sun- 
 day-school secretary, author, college president, editor 
 of the church paper, elected to (but declined) the Epis- 
 copate, fraternal delegate to the General Conference of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, agent of the Slater 
 fund, elected bishop the second time, which office was ac- 
 cepted — excelling in each and all of these high posi- 
 tions. Stricken at fifty-seven with the shaft of death, 
 in the full-orbed splendor of his moral, intellectual and 
 spiritual meridian ; he passed in a blaze of glory, from 
 the field of conflict to the crown of martyrdom, his 
 death sending a thrill of sorrow round the world. How 
 blessings brighten in their flight ! 
 
 The value of such a life and character to the world 
 will never be known until revealed in the "final consum- 
 mation." His great gifts^ powers, and services were 
 not duly estimated by all while he lived. He was mis- 
 understood by some, misjudged by others, and misrep- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 253 
 
 resented by a few. This annoyed and grieved him. 
 Indifferent as Mansfield to the applause of the multi- 
 tude, he enjoyed, like Canning, the approval of the 
 wise and good. Some of his eulogists have intimated 
 that he was not an orator, others that he was not a 
 scholar. This needs explanation. They doubtless .mean 
 that he was not an orator after the type and style of 
 Pierce and Prentiss. And who living or dead ever 
 was ? His was not the rounded, sonorous, pompous style 
 of Cicero. He did not speak to the gallery nor play to 
 the grandstand; nor did he scatter bouquets of dainty 
 flowers sprinkled with rose water upon his audience; 
 to the delectation of esthetic imbeciles or sentimental 
 enthusiasts. Yet he was an orator of the very highest 
 order of a particular school of this divine art. Grace- 
 ful in attitude and action, distinct in enunciation, al- 
 ways emphasizing the right word, using precisely the 
 proper word and the fewest possible in number, to give 
 the thought the greatest force, severe in invective, and 
 melting in pathos, Avith a voice as clear as a clarion, 
 and a soul all aglow with light from on high; he sent 
 from pulpit and platform — to the heart and consciences 
 of men and women, great, concrete truths — burdened 
 with the responsibilities of time and pregnant with the 
 destinies of eternity, with a power that few men in 
 this or any age ever equalled. Those, who, at a country 
 campmeeting, at eleven o'clock on Sunday, at the close 
 of the war — heard him arraign and denoimce the domi- 
 nant sins of the times, upon the text : "Because iniquity 
 abounds the love of many shall wax cold," had the privi- 
 lege of witnessing the exhibition of a power of invec- 
 
254 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 tive that Brougham never equalled. And those who 
 have heard him upon the Master's touch of the leper, 
 heard a depth of pathos soimded that Summerfield 
 never reached. 
 
 His style was suggestive. He expressed the control- 
 ling central thought of a subject; but in such logical 
 and harmonious connection as to keep an intelligent 
 hearer busy, filling in those that were suggested. 
 And, usually, there was more thought suggested by him, 
 that was expressed by others who were esteemed good 
 preachers or speakers. So, of his writings. There is 
 more pure thought scattered along to be read between 
 the lines than most writers express in the lines. He 
 never failed either to convince, or enlighten, or edify 
 his auditors — always interested, and often charmed 
 them. 
 
 But it has been intimated that he was not an accurate 
 scholar. Those who make this intimation, mean, I sup- 
 pose, that he was not a scholar in the sense of wan- 
 dering about among lizzards, in the ruins of Babylon, 
 searching for a scratch or a mark on a brickbat to prove 
 who was the principal workman, in building Babel; 
 or how many bricks it would take to complete the job. 
 ISTor of the enthusiast who would spend one-half of a 
 life-time, with a pick and shovel, digging through strata 
 of forgotten ages, after the dead root of a Greek verb, 
 that was obsolete before Homer sung or Troy fell; and 
 when he thought he had found it, spend the other half 
 in defending his opinion of its meaning. If to know 
 God and men, books and things, if to understand the 
 laws and truths of the kingdom of truth and grace — 
 
MEN AND THINGS 255 
 
 as disclosed in revelation, and the kingdom of nature 
 as revealed in science, if to understand thoroughly, the 
 greatest living, and read fluently, two of the greatest 
 dead languages of the earth; if to understand himself 
 and be able to teach the mental and logical process by 
 which the truth is discovered ; if to know all the great 
 events of history — ancient and modern — that have 
 shaped the course of civilization and controlled the des- 
 tinies of nations ; and if to know the obligation of duty 
 in all the relations of life, and how to discharge it, — 
 constitute scholarship, — then, he was a scholar of rare 
 attainments. He was an orator, scholar, theologian, 
 statesman, philosopher, philanthropist, patriot and 
 Christian. Some may deny to him statesmanship. Let 
 us see if his claims to this distinction are well founded. 
 At the close of the war, the Southern people — chagrined 
 with the humiliation of defeat and appalled at the out- 
 rages of destruction — stood aghast at the magnitude of 
 the race problem with which they were confronted. In- 
 telligence, patriotism and virtue were disfranchised and 
 ostracized ; while ignorant negroes from the cotton fields 
 were ordaining State constitutions. How were the 
 races to live together ? What was to be done with the 
 negroes? ISTo greater social and political problem ever 
 appealed to statesmanship for solution. Haygood 
 solved it in four words, and three of them monosylla- 
 bles. These words were the title of a book — ''Our Bro- 
 ther in Black." Their uniqueness arrested public at- 
 tention. Their wisdom appealed to the public sense of 
 justice, and their philanthropy secured the support of 
 the wise and the patriotic. This title, by implication. 
 
256 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 epitomizes the book — justice in dealing with the negro 
 — his education in letters, in morals — and especially in 
 the industrial arts. This unpretentious book, more 
 than a decade in advance of public sentiment, has done 
 more to disarm sectional and promote national frater- 
 nity, than all the frothy speeches made at banquets or 
 in congress, during the last thirty years. Accepting the 
 agency of the Slater fund, he illustrated by his work, 
 what he taught in his book. But is his solution a suc- 
 cess ? Let the speech of Booker Washington, and the 
 colored exhibit at the late Atlanta Exposition answer. 
 The fame of Bishop Haygood does not rest upon the 
 evidence of brass bands, processions and the newspaper 
 puffs of paid correspondents. It rests on the granite 
 foundation of what he was and what he did. The 
 measure of true greatness is the amount and extent of 
 service rendered to others. This infallible test has been 
 established by an authority, from which there is no 
 appeal. 
 
 "Whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be serv- 
 ant of all." Great, as he unquestionably was, in his 
 gifts and attainments, his chief claim will forever stand 
 upon the entire, unselfish and unremitting consecration 
 of all that he had, and all that he was, to the service of 
 the Lord and to his kind. This service explored every 
 part of his Master's vineyard and permeated every in- 
 terest of humanity. ^ATiether he was the official head 
 of a particular department of Church work, he was al- 
 ways a leader, if not the leader in it ; and this is true of 
 all the departments and enterprises of his Church. He 
 was undismayed by opposition. ISTeither elated with 
 
MEN AND THINGS 257 
 
 success nor discouraged by defeat. ''Instant in season 
 and out of season;" always ready to aggi-essively ad- 
 vance or heroically defend the truth, in pulpit or coun- 
 cil, on platform or hustings — meeting bishops, boards, 
 cormnittees, traveling through rain and sun, in heat and 
 cold, in day and night, always and everywhere in full 
 armor — another veritable Knight of the Leopard, 
 ready for combat with any Saracen who opposed the 
 claims of his Master, or assailed the interest of his king- 
 dom. Xo summer vacation, nor pleasure trip to Eu- 
 rope ever allured him fram the dust and strife of the 
 field, where the battle raged for God and humanity. 
 It is impossible in a paper like this, to even summarize 
 a tithe of the great things he has done. All he did and 
 all he thought was gi-eat. He lived in a realm and 
 dwelt on a plain of faith and thought, occupied by few 
 men of this world. His great head, heart and hand, 
 all through his life, scattered the seeds of a harvest that 
 will be gathered all along the coming ages. He was 
 the incarnate genius of work ; and all his work was for 
 others. There was a felicity in his death ; he had done 
 enough. He needed rest. With him ''To live was 
 Christ, to die was gain." He fell with his armor on, 
 and his face to the foe — combining the integrity of 
 Soule, the intellect of Doggett, the saintliness of Mar- 
 vin, the spirit of Pierce, with the toil of Asbury and 
 McKendree — he goes to history, among the foremost 
 men in the illustrious roll of American Methodism. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Causes of Ckime and the Best Method of 
 Pkevention. 
 
 The primal cause of crime is the hereditary taint of 
 sin in human nature. The remedy, regeneration, be- 
 longs to the realm of the spiritual. "Ye must be born 
 again." The exciting cause is the presence of tempta- 
 tion. The remedy for this is avoidance and resistance. 
 There is infinite wisdom in the utterance, "Lead us not 
 into temptation, but deliver us from evil." 
 
 Crimes may be classified into two divisions, namely, 
 those that flow from sensualism, and those that spring 
 from the intellectual side of our being. In both cases 
 it is the prostitution of powers designed by divine wis- 
 dom to promote human happiness. The question is, 
 what is the cause of crime and how can it be prevented ? 
 In every age of this world's history, there has raged a 
 conflict between the opposing forces of good and evil. 
 This conflict is perhaps more intense now than at any 
 former period. One great cause of the increase of 
 crime is the almost total abdication of the parental duty 
 of properly training children in the home circle. The 
 home is society in embryo. It is the State in incip- 
 iency. It is the granite foundation upon which the 
 church rests. The selection of Abraham as founder 
 of the Jewish commonwealth and church was based on 
 
 258 
 
MJS72V AND THINGS 259 
 
 the fact that he governed his house. ''Train up a child 
 in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not 
 depart from it," is the inspired truth of Kevelation. 
 The experience and observation of the ages have crystal- 
 ized this truth into the aphorism, "As the twig is bent 
 the tree is inclined." The careful training of children 
 in the home, God's ordained institution, in the pro- 
 visions of the Decalogue as matter of law, and in the 
 doctrines of the Sermon on the Mount as the expression 
 of love, will form the highest type of virtuous character, 
 and present the surest guarantee against crime. The 
 Sunday-school with its perfunctionary performance 
 and the common school with its routine of daily lessons, 
 while they may aid, they can not possibly substitute the 
 constant, watchful, patient parental training of the 
 home. It is this training that forms good character; 
 it is its neglect that makes criminals. The moral les- 
 sons of the pulpit come in the cold abstract, and do 
 not reach children. The principal cause of all the 
 crimes resulting from sensualism comes from two insti- 
 tutions, namely, the tolerated brothel and the licensed 
 saloon. This truth is so manifestly self-evident that 
 it would be worse than a waste of words to argue it. 
 'Not is it necessary to list the long catalogue of horrible 
 crimes of debauchery, slaughter and suicide, with their 
 train of Avretchedness, blight and ruin that flows from 
 their bitter and poisoned fountain. To suppress these 
 by moral suasion is about as practicable as to arrest a 
 cyclone with a feather. The only successful means of 
 suppression is the imperial edict of the law, vigorously 
 and rigidly enforced. It is less difficult to make a good 
 
260 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 man or woman by proper training in childhood, than by 
 reformation after they become confirmed in crime in 
 manhood and womanhood. The worship of gentleness, 
 culture, purity and love, around the sacred altar of 
 home, in which duty is the daily sacrifice, is the surest 
 way to prevent it in the future. To remove the tempta- 
 tion as far as practicable, and to punish the hardened 
 criminals with absolute certainty, is the most effectual 
 method of protecting individuals and society. That 
 class of crimes which spring from the intellectual side 
 of the human nature is the offspring of the vices of idle- 
 ness and pride, and the passion of avarice. Too lazy 
 to work, and too impatient to wait, the get-rich-quick 
 demon seizes them, and a long list of frauds, thefts and 
 robberies, ranging in turpitude and magnitude, from 
 the snatching of a dime purse on the street by a negro 
 footpad, to the plunder of Bengal by Warren Hastings, 
 is inflicted upon society. 
 
 This dark catalogue includes every variety in amount 
 of booty, and every grade in type of villiany. It draws 
 its recruits from those who should be of the highest 
 classes of society, who ought to promote its interests and 
 exemplify its virtues. It includes both sexes, as witness 
 Senators Mitchell and Burton, Madame Humbert and 
 Cassie Chadwick. Young men of promise, middle-aged 
 men of culture, and old men of wealth, rob widows and 
 orphans, impoverish stockholders and depositors. An- 
 other class of criminals, pickpockets, rob stores, blow 
 open safes, wreck trains and assassinate the aged and 
 infirm, for the pittance their toil and self-sacrifice had 
 laid up for a rainy day. These crimes seem to be in- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 261 
 
 creasing in frequency and tragic horror. A prophecy 
 of evil portent to our civilization, is found in the popu- 
 lar, and legal disregard of the sanctity of the institution 
 of marriage, the impunity with which its dissolution is 
 sought, and the facility with which it is obtained. 
 Against the social and civic evils of divorce Christian 
 people have protested in vain. This evil has grown so 
 rapidly and been so destructive of the joys of home life 
 as at last to arouse the public conscience to some appre- 
 ciation of its magnitude. The antidote for this evil is 
 the repeal of the law that provides for divorce, or to re- 
 duce the grounds upon which it may be granted, to the 
 single one authorized in the 'New Testament. The 
 number and character of the gi'ounds upon which it may 
 be granted, in conservative Georgia, have reduced the 
 cable of wedlock to the weakness of a cobweb. The un- 
 wise, not to say wicked, divorce law is the fruitful source 
 of numberless debasing crimes that sap and imdermine 
 the foundations of our social system. To thoroughly 
 arrest this downward social and moral gravitation, only 
 requires a short, simple act of the legislature. The leg- 
 islature has provided, by long and elaborate laws, when 
 birds may be killed, doves baited and fish caught. But 
 small matters, like the sacredness of marriage, the pu- 
 rity of the home, and the preservation of our social sys- 
 tem seem to have escaped its attention. There is an- 
 other crime of great moral turpitude committed with un- 
 blushing audacity, amazing frequency, and practical 
 impunity. This is the crime of perjury. This crime 
 assails the very citadel of truth itself. It endangers 
 every human right and interest. The law has at- 
 
262 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 tempted to prevent and punish it, but it has blundered 
 in the technicality and complexity of its definition; so 
 that, though constantly committed, it is seldom pun- 
 ished. This definition should be revised and simplified 
 so as to facilitate conviction, and secure its punishment. 
 There are but two forces available in preventing 
 crime, one moral, the other legal. There are other aux- 
 iliary forces that may aid or retard these, but they are 
 adventitious and may, or may not, operate. It seems 
 to me that philanthropists and humanitarians have ex- 
 hausted their resources of invention and activity in their 
 varied and multiplied efforts to reform criminals and 
 prevent crime. Such small success as they may have 
 achieved, has been confined mainly to small boys and 
 girls fioating like driftwood on its muddy current. 
 But these isolated cases, worthy and Christianlike as 
 the work is, do not meet the exigency of the case. Tt 
 is society in its individual and aggregate relations with 
 which sociology is dealing. Crime is war upon society. 
 It attacks the absolute rights of life, liberty and prop- 
 erty. In the defense of these rights, society, like 
 Scipio, should carry the war into Africa. Our Penal 
 Code needs some amendments. All forms and degrees 
 of larceny, robbery, burglary, and embezzlement should 
 be punished with life imprisonment. Safe-blowing, 
 train-wrecking, and the kidnapping and holding a person 
 for ransom, should be pimished with death. This 
 change would eliminate from society the professional 
 and incorrigible criminals, relieve its fears, secure its 
 peace and protect its property. It may be urged that 
 such rigor would be too severe for young offenders, and 
 
MEN AND THINGS 263 
 
 in cases where small amounts were involved. The re- 
 ply is that the constitution clothes the executive with the 
 power to pardon or commute. The exercise of this 
 power would meet such exceptional cases, if they should 
 arise. It may be insisted that this change would be 
 extreme and radical ; but it must be remembered that 
 desperate diseases require heroic treatment. 
 
 Some observation, and the best thought that I have 
 been able to bestow upon the question under considera- 
 tion, brings me to the conclusion that reform is needed 
 in the following particulars: In the home training of 
 the children of the State ; in the repeal or reformation of 
 our divorce laws ; in the absolute prohibition of brothels 
 and licensed saloons ; in increasing the punishment of 
 certain crimes, and the vigorous prosecution and pun- 
 ishment of all crimes. It is not supposed that the ac- 
 complishment of these reforms would exterminate 
 crime, but that it would greatly diminish it there can 
 be no reasonable doubt. The sources of crime are pe- 
 rennial. The conflict between right and wrong will con- 
 tinue as long as time shall last. 
 
 "Vice is a creature of such hideous mien, 
 To be hated, needs but to be seen. 
 
 But seen too oft, familiar with its face. 
 We first abhor, then pity, then embrace." 
 
 All that human agency can do, is to give the right its 
 best support with all the means at command. To suc- 
 ceed with these reforms requires the concentrated senti- 
 ment, and united effort of all the good people of the 
 State. If in harmonious co-operation with the leaders,. 
 
264 MEl^^ AND THINGS 
 
 the powerful daily press would devote the space in their 
 columns filled with the nauseating details of police court 
 proceedings, and bridal trousseaus, to the discussion of 
 these vital questions; if the pulpit would substitute 
 for its dull platitudes and hazj, scientific speculations, 
 the vital truths of Kevelation, in thoughts that breathe 
 and words that burn ; if legislators, instead of planning 
 for higher honors and maneuvering for party advantage 
 would raise these questions in the halls of legislation 
 and discuss them like statesmen; and if parents would 
 appreciate their momentous responsibility to their chil- 
 dren and train them in the paths of rectitude, public 
 sentiment would be aroused and united, these and other 
 reforms secured, crimes diminished, society safe- 
 guarded and civilization advanced. 
 
 The late Civil War, directly or indirectly, contributed 
 immensely to the increase of crime. Four years of in- 
 dulgence in hate and the practice of plunder and slaugh- 
 ter, scattered the seeds of harvest which we are now 
 reaping. Before emancipation, the home life, constant 
 employment and discipline of owner, overseer and pa- 
 trol, made the negi-o practically an unknown factor in 
 the commission of crime. The withdrawal of these re- 
 straints by his emancipation made him its gi-eatest 
 quantity. Before the war executions were seldom, now 
 they are frequent. Then we had no stockade nor chain- 
 gangs, now the State is dotted with them. Then our 
 jails and penitentiary were comparatively empty, now 
 they are crowded to overflowing. Then the crime, name- 
 less here, was scarcely known, except by its definition in 
 the Penal Code, now it is almost of daily occurrence. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 265 
 
 The genius who discovers a preventive for this crime 
 will outrank Columbus as a benefactor. Other crimes 
 are punished by ordinary legal methods, but outraged 
 public opinion falls back on the higher law of "Salus 
 populi suprema est lex," and punishes this without the 
 expense and tedium of judicial procedure. 
 
 To recapitulate : The primal causes of crime are, Ist, 
 The hereditary moral weakness of human nature ; 2nd, 
 The existence and presence of temptation; 3rd, The 
 adoption of wrong principles and practice of bad habits 
 in childhood. The best methods of prevention are, 1st, 
 The proper moral training of children by the parents in 
 the home ; 2nd, The removal of temptation by all means 
 possible; 3rd, Its speedy, certain and severe punish- 
 ment. 
 April 12th, 1906. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 LiTEEAEY Address Delivered at the Commence- 
 ment OF Madison Female College. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 The nineteenth century is distinguished for its prog- 
 ress and development; its inventions in art, and its 
 discoveries in science. This progress has exploded 
 cherished theories; and induced the abandonment of 
 old methods. In nothing is the advancement of civili- 
 zation more strikingly exemplified, than in the inau- 
 guration of female colleges, and the recognition of wo- 
 man's equality in capabilities of intellect, and her claims 
 to superiority in the realms of sentiment. 
 
 It is a star in the diadem of Georgia that she estab- 
 lished the first female college in the world, and thus 
 led the van of the nations in the endeavor to give the 
 widest range, and the fullest development to the powers 
 of the female mind. This recognition so long withheld, 
 of equality in powers and privileges, has resulted in the 
 discovery of new fields of legitimate operation for wo- 
 man's enterprise and avocation; and assigned to her, 
 her true position, in the domestic, social, moral and in- 
 tellectual relations of life. . 
 
 The future historian of the annals of the race, will 
 record, as the grandest discovery of the century — so full 
 of the marvelous conquests of mind — the true position 
 
 266 
 
MEN AND THINGS 267 
 
 and high destiny of woman. Sculpture has exliausted 
 the resources of its genius in moulding the graces of her 
 form. Painting has mingled the hues of the rose and 
 lily, to heighten the blushes of her beauty. Poetry has 
 festooned her with garlands, woven from the wild flow- 
 ers of fancy, to sublimate and etherealize her charms, 
 and chivalry has apotheosized her among the divinities 
 of its worship, and bowed with devotion at the shrine of 
 its idol. But sculpture, painting, poetry, and chivalry, 
 have never comprehended the mysteries of her being, the 
 magnitude of her labors, nor the gi-andeur of her des- 
 tiny. Divine Revelation — source of all truth, presents 
 her, as a being of flesh and blood, soul and spirit, sin- 
 ning in Eden, and weeping on Calvary, help-meet for 
 man; the joy of the home life, the charm of the so- 
 cial circle and the ornament of the Christian church. 
 She unites in blended harmony, with the gentle graces 
 of manner and the bewitching smiles of love, the high 
 qualities of patience, endurance and courage. Every 
 age of the world, every form of civil government, every 
 system of religion, and every type of civilization finds 
 her rising to an equality with great emergencies, and 
 displaying rare powers for sacrifice and achievement. 
 
 I invoke your attention, as not inappropriate to this 
 occasion, to the consideration of Woman's patriotism. 
 
 !N^o merely secular interest is of equal importance 
 with civil government, which defines and protects 
 human rights, public and private, absolute and rela- 
 tive. Patriotism — unselfish sacrifice for the public 
 weal, deep solicitude for the common interest, faithful 
 discharge of public duties, — has always held a high 
 
268 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 place in the catalogue of public virtues. "Render unto 
 Csesar the things that are Csesar's," was the utterance 
 of high authority. Woman's love is the inspiration of 
 patriotism in men. If there were no homes made happy 
 by the love of devoted wives, there would be no country 
 worth defending. If there were no mothers nor sis- 
 ters to protect, there would be no incentive to discharge 
 the obligations patriotism imposes. 
 
 This inspiration is a perennial influence, controlling 
 the conduct of men in the minor duties of citizenship, 
 in the unobtrusive walks of peaceful life as well as in 
 nerving the arm of valor for the defense of home and 
 country, "Where the front of battle lowers." 
 
 It was this subtle, silent power that moved the heart 
 of French chivalry, and swelled the song of British 
 valor, on the night before the storming of the Malakoff. 
 A soldier guarding the outer trenches cried out to his 
 comrades "give us a song !" 
 
 "They lay along the batteries' side. 
 Below the smoking cannon, 
 Brave hearts from Severn, and from Clyde, 
 And from the banks of Shannon. 
 
 They sang of love, and not of fame. 
 
 Forgot was Brittain's glory, 
 Each heart recalled a different name, 
 
 But all sang: "Annie Laurie." 
 
 Voice after voice caught up the song. 
 Until its tender passion, 
 
ME 2:1 AND THINGS 269 
 
 Rose like an anthem, rich and strong, 
 Their battle eve confession. 
 
 Dear girl, her name he dare not speak. 
 
 Yet as the song gTew louder. 
 Something upon the soldier's cheek 
 
 Washed off the stains of powder. 
 
 Beyond the darkening ocean, burned. 
 
 The bloody sunset's embers, 
 While the Crimean Vallies burned, 
 
 How English love remembers. 
 
 An Irish Nora's eyes are dim. 
 
 For a singer dumb and gory. 
 An English Mary mourns for him. 
 
 Who sang of "Annie Laurie." 
 
 The memory of loved ones at home was the in- 
 spiration of those heroes in life, and their solace in 
 death. The world will never know how many a soldier 
 boy has breathed to his breaking heart with his dying 
 breath, the name of its idol. 
 
 But it is not so much, of the patriotism which women 
 inspire in men, as that which they exhibit in themselves, 
 that I am to speak. I do not seek illustration of my 
 theme, in the example of the world-renowned women, 
 whose triumphs in founding empires, conducting wars 
 and commanding armies, constitute the romance of 
 history. Women like Margaret of Anjou and the maid 
 of Orleans. But the thrilling story of Esther com- 
 
270 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 bines so many of the true elements of patriotism, that I 
 will be pardoned for allusion to it. It presents the 
 high resolve to save her kindred and her nation. Wom- 
 anly strategy in devising the methods to accomplish 
 her purpose, heroic daring in approaching the King to 
 ask the abrogation of a law of the Medes and Persians, 
 sublime faith -in the success of her enterprise, the 
 self-sacrifice that periled life upon the issue of the un- 
 dertaking; success vindicated the wisdom of her strat- 
 egy, the claim of her courage and the confidence of her 
 faith. 
 
 It is said that women do not reason, that they sub- 
 stitute impulse for logic. There is no greater mistake ; 
 they may not, and do not, — like cautious, politic men, — 
 toil through the labyrinthine mazes of major and minor 
 propositions, syllogisms and sequences, nor do they be- 
 wilder themselves with the complex substitues of meta- 
 physics. But give them the data, the facts, and mind 
 and heart-faith and feeling conduct them at once, to 
 the correct conclusion. And from the judgment thus 
 formed, who dares enter an appeal ? Csesar disre- 
 garded the remonstrances of his wife, went to the Sena:e 
 and fell at the hands of assassins. The world furnished 
 but one, who had the judgTixent to discover the inno- 
 cence, and the courage to interpose for the life of the 
 rejected N^azarene. "Have thou nothing to do with 
 that just man," said the wife of Pilate to the Governor. 
 So long as these two transactions, — one recorded in 
 sacred, and the other profane history remain, husbands 
 at least, may well tremble to disregard the deliberate 
 judgment of their wives, founded in wisdom and an- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 271 
 
 nouuced in love. Whatever the process may be, — in- 
 tuition, inspiration or reason, — the fact is shown to be 
 true, by observation, experience and history, that a 
 womans' conclusions are seldom wrong. There is so 
 much love — of hope and heart, — of faith and feeling, 
 in her patriotism, that it is diflScult to discover its 
 source, define its extent, or measure its value. It is 
 neither confined to periods nor occasions; it is an attri- 
 bute of the sex, — distinguishing them always and every- 
 where. Its manifestations are multiform. They em- 
 brace her smiles and tears, her notes of warning and 
 words of encouragement, and a thousand acts, unde- 
 fined and undefinable, ranging, from the administration 
 of cordial to a dying soldier, to the founding of an 
 empire for the government of millions. It crops out in 
 the material example and precept, in the family, the 
 formation of communities, States and society; in its 
 sympathy for the sorrowful and its ministrations to 
 the suffering. History has embalmed in immortality, 
 the name of Florence N^ightingale ; and yet thousands 
 of American women, unknown to song, story and fame, 
 have done all that she did. They have breathed the 
 poison of hospitals and braved the slaughters of en- 
 sanguined fields to mitigate the pain of the wounded, 
 and soothe the anguish of the dying. 
 
 The late war furnished a severe test of women's ca- 
 pabilities for doing. The resignation with which she 
 submitted to privations, the cheerfulness with which she 
 endured labor and the faith with which she offered 
 her oblations, are testimonies of her patriotism. But 
 her ministries did not cease with the war. Her liber- 
 
272 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 ality commemorates valor in monuments; and her af- 
 fection, in the annual tribute of flowers and tears. The 
 severest, the crucial test is found in what she suffers — -. 
 what she bears. History records the deeds of men, the 
 results of battles, the fame of heroes ; and throws a 
 glamour over the horrors of slaughter, and in their 
 wild excitement they forget their fallen comrades; 
 time mitigates their grief, and business engages their 
 attention. But it is not so with the mothers of 
 the land. Like those of "Cornelia" their sons were 
 their jewels; and though they sent them with the 
 heroism that immortalizes the Spartan Matron, yet the 
 wounds are unhealed in the hearts from w^hich they 
 were torn ; and in sorrow and silence they bear their 
 grief and never complain. 
 
 The wives made widows by the w^ar, have struggled 
 on, toiling for bread to appease the hunger of helpless 
 orphans ; committing them in faith and in tears, to Him 
 who hears the young ravens wdien they cry ; and no his- 
 tory records their trials, and no one ever dreams that 
 each moment wrings a burning blood-drop from a 
 broken heart. 
 
 The maiden whose only love fills an unmarked, sol- 
 dier's grave, gently smiles in the festive throng, but 
 the subdued sorrow of a languid eye, and the slightest 
 palor of a sweet lip tell a story of anguish that would 
 make the angels weep. 
 
 During the war our country-women passed around 
 guards, against orders, crossed the lines without pass- 
 ports, and periled life without fear, to reach the ob- 
 jects of their love, and the recipients of their benefac- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 273 
 
 tions, 'No disappointments discouraged their efforts, 
 no defeat chilled their ardor and no despair clouded 
 their faith. 
 
 On a bright May day at Malmaison, the Empress 
 of France and Queen of Italy, passed away. Whisper- 
 ing with her last breath, "Isle of Elba-Napoleon." A 
 few^ years later by a singular felicity, the "man of 
 Destiny" murmured back from the ocean-girded rock, 
 his last words in response : "Head of the army, France- 
 Josephine !" 
 
 Home — Country — Love! — the trinity that inspires 
 patriotism in men and women living, and shrives them 
 with sacred ministries, dying. 
 
 A gallant Admiral responded to the question, "Which 
 is the most exciting moment of battle ?" "the moment 
 in which the deck is sprinkled with sand to catch the 
 blood." 
 
 This college sends out, each year, her class of gradu- 
 ates, to enter upon the struggles of duty in the cruise 
 of life ; and these commencement ceremonies sprinkle 
 the deck of the ship upon which they sail, with sand to 
 catch the blood shed in the strife. 
 
 Young ladies of the college, and especially of the 
 graduating class, allow me to congratulate you upoa 
 the completion of your college course, and upon your 
 advent into society ; and to say that your new relations 
 involve important duties and grave responsibilities. 
 Duty is the grandest word in the language of earth. 
 It will levy its contributions upon your patience, cour- 
 age, faith and hope. Its pathway leads to success, 
 honor and happiness. It subdues enemies, overcomes 
 
274 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 temptations, triumphs in trial, and wins the guerdon 
 at last. Your education is not completed; it is only 
 commenced. The foundation is laid; it remains for 
 you to erect and adorn the superstructure. I appre- 
 hend that no student ever left college a thorough scholar. 
 All that the best institution proposes to do, is to de- 
 velop and discipline the powers of the mind, train it in 
 the proper methods of thought, and supply it the ele- 
 mentary principles and ascertained facts of science; 
 and thus enable the student to complete the work of 
 education. 
 
 Again allow me to remind you that an ardent attach- 
 ment for kindred and race, for the institutions of home 
 and country, does not meet the behests of your being 
 and destiny. You remember the beautiful story of 
 "Paradise and the Peri." The Angel who kept the 
 gate of light, beheld the Peri weeping. 
 
 "I^ymph of a fair but erring line, 
 He gently said, 'One hope is thine.' 
 
 'Tis written in the book of fate. 
 The Peri yet may be forgiven. 
 Who brings to Heaven's eternal gate, 
 The gift that is most dear to Heaven. 
 Go seek it, and redeem thy sin, 
 'Tis sweet to let the pardoned in." 
 
 Her first offering was liberty's last libation — a drop 
 of patriot blood. This offering was rejected. Her 
 next was the lover's dying sigh, but this moved not the 
 crystal bar. She then presented the repentant sinner's 
 tear and the oatps moved ajar. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 275 
 
 "And well the enraptured Peri knew, 
 Twas a bright smile the Angel threw, 
 From Heaven's gate to hail that tear. 
 Her harbinger of glory near." 
 
 The claims of religion are not met in love or patriot- 
 ism; they can not be ignored with impunity, nor sup- 
 plied by substitutes. Poetry regards woman an Angel, 
 and Kevelation represents her as fallen. Believing the 
 truth of the one, and adopting the fancy of the other, T 
 declare her, though fallen, an Angel still. 
 
 H. P. Bell. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Semi-Centennial Address. 
 delivered at the college chapel^ gumming^ ga., 
 
 SATURDAY EVENING^ JULY 18tH^ 1902, 
 AT 7 O^CLOCK P. M. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen and My Brethren of LaFayette 
 Lodge : 
 
 It has been characteristic of the human mind, in all 
 the ages to mark by some expression of commemoration 
 its appreciation of important events. At the IsTational 
 Capitol the highest shaft in the world honors the great- 
 est man of history. We celebrate the birth of Con- 
 stitutional Liberty by appropriate ceremonies on the 
 Fourth of July, its natal day. We commemorate the 
 great fact of the resurrection and the cherished truth 
 of immortality by the festivities and worship, annually, 
 of Easter. 
 
 In conformity with this custom of civilized people, 
 LaFayette Lodge ISTo. 44, of Free and Accepted Mason- 
 ry, have thought proper by this occasion and these fes- 
 tivities to celebrate the semi-centennial of its existence. 
 In my opinion it is wise to thus pause in life's pil- 
 grimage, and retrospect the past, survey the present, 
 and forecast, as far as practicable, the future. 
 
 In addition to this, the Worshipful Master has an- 
 nounced that this occasion of the commemoration of the 
 
 276 
 
MEN AND THINGS 277 
 
 fiftieth anniversary of the lodge's life, is intended as 
 a personal compliment and expression of goodwill to 
 your speaker, and a recognition of the length of his 
 membership in the lodge, and his character and serv- 
 ices in the community in which that fifty years have 
 been spent. 
 
 Allow me, my dear brethren, to say to you that for 
 this expression of your esteem and endorsement of my 
 humble character and services, I give to you in return, 
 the gratitude — the profoundest gratitude — of a heart 
 that loves every one of you. I state the truth when I 
 say that I would not exchange this expression of the 
 love and confidence of my brethren, friends and neigh- 
 bors 
 
 "For all the wealth of every urn. 
 In which unnumbered rubies burn." 
 
 I may be pardoned here for a personal reference. 
 There is not a living soul in this town who was here 
 when I came. There is not a living member of I.a- 
 Fayette Lodge who belonged to it when I joined — not 
 one. When I recur to the x>eople of Gumming, old and 
 young, fifty years ago, and remember with mournful 
 pleasure the delightful associations of young life, the 
 friendships formed in school, the festal joys of social 
 life, and the sweet thrill of love's first young dream, 
 and realize that the friends of those days — ■ 
 
 "Are all scattered like roses in bloom. 
 Few to the bridal most to the toomb. 
 
278 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 I feel like one who treads alone, 
 Some banquet hall deserted; 
 Whose beauty fled, whose garlands dead, 
 And all but me departed." 
 
 Fifty years; — nearly twice the age of a generation. 
 What changes ! What momentous changes have been 
 wrought in the last fifty years. What memories of 
 joys and sorrows, of festal throngs and funeral crowds ! 
 Then, the graves were scattered over yonder on the 
 hill, but now, they are as thick as" autumn leaves that 
 strew the brook of Vallombrosa." Think of the changes 
 affecting humanity in all departments of life, of human 
 thought and endeavor, in the last fifty years. That 
 dark continent of Africa has been explored and gone i;o 
 Geography. That stupendous crime against humanity, 
 the African Slave Trade, has been suppressed. The 
 Empire of the Bourbons and Bonapartes has passed into 
 the Eepublic of France. The South African Govern- 
 ment has passed under the British Crown. The great 
 Empire of Chas. V., which four hundred years ago 
 dominated the earth, has surrendered its last inch of 
 ground on the Western Hemisphere. The Iron Gate 
 of the Orient has been unbolted, and Japan and China 
 taken into the companionship of the mystic mesl-.es of 
 the telephone and telegraph, and the people of differ- 
 ent and distant nations talk to each other as member.? 
 of a family circle. 
 
 Engineering skill and enterprise has bored the gran- 
 ite base of the Alps, and scaled the dizzy heights of the 
 Rockies, and the restless tides of trade and travel pour 
 
MEN AND THINGS 279 
 
 their rushing current under the one and over the othev. 
 The engine screams across the earth from Quebec to 
 the Vancouvers and from St. Petersburg to Port Ar- 
 thur, so that the globe is girded with railways and the 
 ocean planted with telegraphs. Koch has discovered 
 the microbe theory of human disease, and Pasteur a 
 remedy for rabies, and Beatty, a Georgian, has achieved 
 one of the most wonderful triumphs of surgery. The 
 X-Ray makes visible the most opaque of solid bodies, 
 and the genius of Edison has subjected electricity to 
 the servitude of vision and machinery. All these in the 
 last fifty years ! And to these must be added a war 
 engaging in arms three millions that reddened the earth 
 and ocean in the blood of fratricidal strife, and struck 
 the shackles from four millions of African slaves. 
 
 This is a world of transformation, of transmutation, 
 of change, as well as progress. It is said that the 
 human body changes every seven years, and that in 
 each period of seven years an entirely new body is sub- 
 stituted. Change is constantly progressing in the 
 human institutions, and in the form of the physical 
 globe. Mountains sink and lakes appear on the land. 
 Islands rise, and the waters recede into the ocean. But, 
 my brethren, there are some things that do not change — 
 never change. Truth never changes. Truth is as 
 unchangeable as the God who ordained it. Unchange- 
 able truth is found and taught in the s;>Tnbols of Free 
 Masonry. These truths are revealed by the Author of 
 truth, and find expression in His word and law. The 
 plumb teaches us precisely in accord with the Divine 
 Revelation the obligation upon us to walk uprightly be- 
 
280 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 fore God and man. "Mark the perfect man, and be- 
 hold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." 
 "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who 
 shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh up- 
 rightly, and worketh righteousness and speaketh the 
 truth in his heart." 
 
 The level teaches us the natural equality of the race, 
 its identity in the incidents to a common pilgrimage, 
 from the cradle to the grave, that we are passing upon 
 the same level to a common home and final assize. 
 
 The square is the emblem of virtue, and teaches us 
 to measure with mechanical precision, our motives and 
 actions by the rules of rectitude as prescribed by the 
 provisions of law. The gavel admonishes us to break 
 off from our conduct and character, the moral obliqui- 
 ties which impair moral symmetry and puts us out of 
 harmony with moral rectitude. In practical or opera- 
 tive architecture, when the materials for a structure 
 have been prepared and adjusted by the proper appli- 
 cations of the plumb, level, square and gavel, the trowel 
 spreads the cement which unites the different parts into 
 a whole, into strength and solidity, so that the building 
 rises a thing of strength, symmetry and beauty. These 
 simple, familiar implements are indispensable in prac- 
 tical or literal masonry. The simple, yet sublime, 
 truths taught by them symbolically, are equally indis- 
 pensable in adjusting and constructing human charac- 
 ter. Contemplate the history of the race, marred and 
 blurred by its record of wrongs, frauds, treacheries, in- 
 justice, oppression and slaughter — "in which man's in- 
 humanity to man, makes countless thousands mourn" — 
 
MEN AND THINGS 281 
 
 and contrast it with the ideal character of absolute per- 
 fection, illustrated and exemplified in the sinless life 
 of the crucified Galilean, and say whether hum;m na- 
 ture and conduct do not need a vigorous application of 
 all the tools that divest them of vices and polish them 
 as fit stones for the everlasting temple. 
 
 "Poor ruined race, said the pitying spirit, 
 Dearly ye pay for the primal fall. 
 Some flowers of Eden ye still may inherit, 
 But the trail of the serpent is over them all." 
 
 Have men no passions to be subdued? IS'o appetite 
 to be controlled, no habits to be reformed, no hate to be 
 overcome? ISTo change or reformation of life to be 
 made? Hate is hell, and hell is hate. Have we no 
 favors to requite? 'No wrongs to forgive, no sorrows 
 to solace, no assistance to render, no help to extend? 
 If not, then we do not need the polishing of moral 
 masonry. 
 
 Leigh Hunt, in his beautiful legend of Abou ben 
 Adhem, illustrates this power of love so earnestly urged 
 and strikingly symbolized in the trowel. An angel 
 with a book appeared to ben Adhem, who asked what it 
 contained. The angel replied, "The names of those 
 who love God." "Is my name in the book," said ben 
 Adhem. "It is not," replied the angel. "Then write 
 my name as one who loves his brother," said ben Adhem. 
 The next day the angel showed him the book, and lo! 
 ben Adhem's name led all the rest. 
 
 My brethren, we do not know and do not appreciate 
 
282 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 the privileges and value of that life \Yhieh finds expres- 
 sion in helpfulness to others. True greatness consists 
 in the unselfish service to others — 
 
 "He that hath soothed a widow's woe, 
 Or dried an orphan's tear, doth know — 
 There is something here of Heaven." 
 
 In this world of chance and change, of joy and sor- 
 row, of trial and triumph, of strength and weakness, 
 we have vast opportunities to do others good, with an 
 infinitely small outlay of effort. And just in the pro- 
 portion that we serve and help others, do we approxi- 
 mate the ideal type of real true life. The great God 
 has so affiliated duty and pleasure, that the highest re- 
 ward for helping others is the consciousness of having 
 bestowed it, and with this consciousness is connected 
 fearlessness to meet the adjudication of the final trial. 
 
 Every mason is confronted in his lodge with these 
 symbols of truth, and upon the altar, with an open 
 Bible containing God's revealed will and eternal law. 
 Free masonry urges in all her teachings, conformity to 
 that will and obedience to that law. Perfect and abso- 
 lute compliance with the lessons of free masonry makes 
 of a man all that can be made, except one thing. 
 "By the deeds of the law no man can be justified.'' 
 He is annealed in justification only in the blood of the 
 crucified N^azarene, upon the condition of faith. 
 
 LaFayette Lodge has made up her record of half a 
 
MEN AND THINGS 283 
 
 century. How does the record stand? If all right, it 
 will stand forever. Have her members met all their 
 obligations? Have her members lived up to her doc- 
 trines? Have they strengthened the weak, solaced the 
 sorrowing, admonished the erring, visited the sick, fed 
 the himgry, clothed the naked and buried the dead? 
 If so, we have made the world better, and may claim 
 the approval of Him who said: "Inasmuch as ye did 
 it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it 
 unto me." If our record does not stand, if duties have 
 been neglected, obligations violated, wrongs perpetrated, 
 then the record is wrong and there is but one solution 
 of it : Repentance for the past and improvement in the 
 future. 
 
 'No ken nor seer can lift the veil that conceals the 
 next fifty years. It is safe to assume that there will bo 
 no member of LaFayette Lodge, now present, in life 
 fifty years hence. Our pilg-rimage will have ended, our 
 privileges and opportunities to help others will hav6 
 passed away, and our account and record will have 
 been made up to confront us at the final Bar. Let 
 these solemn truths incite us to aspirations for a higher 
 plane of personal and masonic life, and vitalize us for 
 redoubled effort in the faithful discharge of duty in 
 all the relations of life. 
 
 Let us — each one — so live that when his feet shall 
 brush the dews of Jordan's brink, he may gather "the 
 drapery of his couch around him and lie down to pleas- 
 ant dreams." 
 
Appendix 
 
HE'S! AND THINGS 287 
 
 In Second Confederate Congress. 
 
 Speech of the Hon. H. P. Bell, of Georgia, Delivered 
 in the Uouse of Representatives, in Secret Session, 
 January 2 J/., 1865, Against the Tax Bill Reported 
 hy the Chaiirman of the Committee of Ways and 
 Means. 
 This bill proposed to continue in force the exist- 
 ing legislation imposing taxes, and to increase the 
 amount of taxation one hundred per cent. 
 
 The House being in Committee of the whole, Mr. 
 Sexton in the chair, Mr. Bell said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman: If I were to consult my own in- 
 clination, I should content myself with giving a silent 
 vote against the bill now under consideration, but I do 
 not feel that I could remain silent without a gross 
 dereliction of duty to those who have confided to, me 
 the sacred trust of representing their views, their feel- 
 ings and their interests upon this floor. The framers 
 of the old Constitution denominated the taxing power, 
 the vital part of the Constitution. The subject of tax- 
 ation, always an important one, is now especially of 
 vital concernment to the government, of difficult solu- 
 tion by Congress, and of deep and absorbing interest 
 to the people. They have granted no right with more 
 reluctance than the right to impose upon them the bur- 
 dens of taxation, and have confined its exercise exclu- 
 sively to agents or representatives of their OAvn selec- 
 tion. The bill before the committee proposes to con- 
 tinue in force the existing legislation imposing taxes, 
 and to increase the amount of the taxes one hundred 
 
288 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 per cent, upon all subjects of taxation, except upon 
 agricultural products; but wbile it does not double the 
 tithe, it repeals the law allowing the farmer or agricul- 
 turist to credit the tax upon property employed in 
 agriculture with his tithe. The discussion, therefore, 
 of this bill involves the consideration of our whole 
 scheme of taxation as now established by law. And to 
 the tax laws, as they now stand and as this bill pro- 
 poses to continue them, I am invincibly opposed. And 
 I mention as the first ground of my objection their 
 complexity. It is not singular that the various acts 
 upon this subject are of difficult comprehension, when 
 we reflect upon the manner and circumstances under 
 which they have been passed. Tax bills have origi- 
 nated with the Committee of Ways and Means : the views 
 of different members of the committee have been various 
 and conflicting; they have been modified and changed 
 so as to harmonize them in order that a majority 
 might be able to agree upon some sort of measure 
 to be reported back to the House, where it encouniered 
 at the threshold, a greater contrariety of opinion and a 
 multiplied number of amendments, involving increased 
 antagonisms and incongruities ; each member in the 
 House proposes an aniendmenj: to carry out important 
 views, which are often, not thoroughly digested, clearly 
 defined, nor felicitously expressed ; some are adopted ; 
 others rejected, and, ultimately, a sort of armistice is 
 agreed on between belligerent opinions and rival propo- 
 sitions, and such a compromise, concluded as will 
 harmonize a majority and secure the passage of a meas- 
 ure which, at last, entirely commands the approval of 
 
MEN AND THINGS 289 
 
 no one. Having thus passed the House, it is sent to 
 the Senate, referred to the Finance Committee, reported 
 back, where it passes through a similar process, and is 
 subjected to the same legislative ordeal, resulting in the 
 adoption bj the Senate, of sundry amendments, in which 
 the House refuses to concur, and finally becomes the sub- 
 ject-matter of discussion and settlement by a Conference 
 Committee, where the same routine of conflict, amend- 
 ment, agreement and compromise transpires, the result 
 of which is a conglomerated jumble of legislative non- 
 sense and folly. Enacted under these auspices, it is 
 not remarkable that those who witnessed and partici- 
 pated in the throes of statesmanship in which our tax 
 legislation had its birth do not understand the offspring 
 of their own genius, and hence it becomes necessary to 
 pass a multitude of explanatory statutes, and every ad- 
 ditional act but increases the obscurity of the one it 
 was intended to explain; it is but adding a deeper 
 tint to the darkness of midnight. The tax laws thus 
 originally incomprehensible and still more mystified 
 by explanatory acts, pass from the laboratory of legis- 
 lation into the crucible of construction ; and if those 
 w^ho make the law do not know what it means, it is 
 difficult to conceive how any one else can comprehend 
 its meaning. If Congress, therefore, does not under- 
 stand it, it can not reasonably be expected that the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury or the Commissioner of Taxes 
 will be able to correctly construe and expound it. And 
 although Mr. Memminger is an astute and able lawyer 
 and Col. Allen both an able and faithful public officer, 
 still the contradictorv and absurd constructions of the 
 
290 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 Treasury Department demonstrates that neither of 
 these high and able functionaries knows what it means. 
 To illustrate what I mean and prove the truth of what 
 I say, it will be recollected that it was decided that 
 under the Act of February 17, 1864, the tax of ten 
 per cent, on profits had to be collected on merchandise 
 bought before the first of January, 1863. Here is a 
 solemn adjudication, an express ofiicial construction of 
 the law. Subordinates acted in conformity to this de- 
 cision, collected the people's money, and afterwards, the 
 construction was overruled and the money collected 
 under it had to be refunded. In one instance as much 
 as twenty thousand dollars improperly collected, or 
 rather collected under what was afterward held to be 
 an erroneous interpretation, had to be paid back to the 
 citizen by the collector. Again, it was decided that 
 profits on produce made prior to 1863, but sold in 1S63, 
 was income of 1863. Here a distinct construction upon 
 an important question involving the rights of the peo- 
 ple, was deliberately made. Subsequent investigation 
 satisfied the authorities that the law did not warrant 
 the interpretation given, did not mean what they had 
 held it to mean; the decision was reversed and it was 
 declared that the profits were not liable to be taxed at 
 all. It would seem that Mr. Memminger has either be- 
 come bewildered in the arcana of this legislation or else 
 he determined to depart from the usual and ordinary 
 methods of ascertaining the meaning of the law, viz. : by 
 exploring the intention of the legislator, etc., and draw 
 upon the revellings of a disordered fancy and the In- 
 spirations of an erratic imagination to aid him in con- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 291 
 
 struing it. Under the Act of June 14, 1864, he con- 
 strues the word family to include carriage, horses and 
 to exclude a large class of slaves — and we have actually 
 passed an act at the present session, gravely and wisely 
 declaring that horses are not members of the family. 
 And what is equally ludicrous, he held that shucks and 
 straw, under another provision of the law, meant fodder. 
 Shades of all the lexicographers ! Who ever dreamed 
 before that horses, under the magic of construction and 
 the jugglery of departmental legerdemain could be 
 transformed into members of the domestic circle. The 
 expositions of these laws have increased their mystery 
 and multiplied the difBculties of applying them; they 
 have piled "Pelion upon Ossa," and made "confusion 
 worse confounded," and as they now stand enacted by 
 the legislature and expounded by the department, they 
 defy the genius of interpretation. A compound sub- 
 tlety in the abstrusities of metaphysics is the perfection 
 of clearness and simplicity compared to their hidden 
 enigmas ; a blind man without a giTide, in the gloom of 
 midniffht in the Mammoth Cave of Kentuckv is sur- 
 rounded with floods of noonday light, compared with 
 the "unlucky wight" who undertakes to explore their 
 labyrinthian mazes. 
 
 Sir, is it possible that Congress can not frame a law 
 that can be understood ? Or do you desire to keep the 
 people in ignorance of the law by virtues of which the 
 government thrusts its hands into their pockets and 
 takes their money ? I can hardly think that this legis- 
 lation is the result of design ; it is an illegitimate abor- 
 tion of chance, the deformed progeny of a, dwarfed 
 
292 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 statesmanship, and it ought not to be allowed to remain 
 longer npon the statute book. 
 
 Mr. Chairman : This scheme of taxation is obnox- 
 ious to a still more formidable objection ; this objection 
 is based upon the inequality of its provisions, and there- 
 fore, the injustice of its operations. This inequality 
 results mainly from the adoption of different bases of 
 valuation for different species of property. Some prop- 
 erty is estimated at the value of 1860, and therefore, 
 estimated upon the specie value; other property is es- 
 timated at its value in currency at the time of assess- 
 ment. Land and negroes are assessed at the value of 
 1860, which is the gold standard, and gold and foreign 
 exchange are estimated in Confederate currency, and 
 its value has been settled by the Treasury Department 
 to be eighteen dollars in currency for one in gold or 
 foreign exchange ; therefore, the owners of gold and 
 foreign exchange are taxed eighteen times as much as 
 the owners of land and negi'oes. The injustice of tliis 
 discrimination is too manifest to require serious argu- 
 ment to expose it. 
 
 Again, property purchased since 1862 is assessed 
 upon neither the value in 1860, nor upon the value at 
 the time of assessment, but upon the amount of the pur- 
 chase-price. Why this basis has been adopted, ignor- 
 ing the value of 1860, and the value at the time of as- 
 sessment, simply because the property has changed 
 ownership, I confess my inability to comprehend. The 
 value of property in 1862 was probably double what it 
 was in 1860, and perhaps half what it was in 1864 or 
 1865. If by adopting this mode of assessment it was 
 
MEN AND THINGS 29S 
 
 intended to increase the taxes as a sort of punishment 
 for purchasing it, it is simply an outrage. At all 
 events, this mode of valuation is wholly indefensiblo 
 upon any ground of sound logic or recognized political 
 economy. 
 
 In further illustration of this ground of objection, it 
 will be seen that railroad bonds and stocks, and Con- 
 federate bonds are taxed upon the amount due on tJieir 
 face. Here still another and different basis of assess- 
 ment is adopted, and one that entirely ignores the ques- 
 tion of value altogether. This principle of valuation is 
 unequal and imjust for the reason that the railroad 
 bonds are worth three or four times as much as the 
 Confederate bonds; while the tax is assessed upon the 
 amount specified in their face without regard to their 
 value, the owner of the Confederate bonds pays three or 
 four times as much up the value of his property as 
 the holder of the railroad bonds. 
 
 The great difficulty upon this subject arises from the 
 adoption of the value of 1860 as the basis of assessment. 
 The value of property is constantly fluctuating in a rev- 
 olution. In estimating it, time, place and circum- 
 stances, situation, etc., exert a controlling influence in 
 regulating it. The value of the same kind and descrip- 
 tion of property is increased in one place while it is 
 diminished in another. The proximity and depreda- 
 tions of the public enemy may have rendered it useless, 
 and for this reason greatly diminished its value since 
 1860, while on the other hand many circumstances may 
 have conspired to largely increase its value since 1860, 
 and still the tax, under this arbitrary rule, is imposed 
 
294 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 upon the value of 1860, discarding the existing value 
 at the time of assessment; Avhen it is notorious that in 
 one case the owner pays upon a value that does not ex- 
 ist and in the other he does not pay upon a value that 
 does exist: or in other words, he pays precisely the 
 same amount of taxes upon the diminished that he does 
 upon the increased value. In the one case he pays too 
 much, in the other he pays too little. When we survey 
 the extent of country overrun by the enemy, and look 
 at the amount of property that has thereby been di- 
 minished in value, while the property in those sections 
 of the country not overrun has been largely increased 
 in value, the monstrosity of this basis of assessment 
 becomes apparent. "What reason can exist for the per- 
 petuation of a law, so palpably and manifestly unjust 
 and inequitable in its operations? The people will 
 apothesize among the tutelary divinities of their L( use- 
 hold worship the wisdom of that legislator who relieves 
 them from the incubus of this wild and reckless leg- 
 islation. 
 
 All the objections to the present scheme of taxation 
 can be easily obviated by passing a bill predicated upon 
 the ad valorem principle, simple in its terms, just in its 
 provisions and equal in its operations. Such a meas- 
 ure shall receive my cordial support; imder no cir- 
 cumstances will I vote for one of a different kind. I 
 will neither share the glory nor divide the responsibil- 
 ity of those who adopt a burdensome, unequal and un- 
 just system. 
 
 Again, I oppose the scheme of which the bill under 
 consideration forms a part, on the grounds that it 
 
MEN AND THINGS 295 
 
 has been arraigned before the bar of an enlightened 
 public opinion and received judgment of condemnation. 
 The verdict of the people has been pronounced against 
 it. I recognize the distinction drawn by Lord Mans- 
 field between the voice of a virtuous and enlightened 
 people and the clamor of a mob ; and while I discard and 
 contemn the latter, I yield implicit obedience to the 
 behests of the former. The people want a plain, sim- 
 ple, equitable system of taxation, one that distributes 
 its burdens equally and operates alike upon all classes 
 of society. This is equality, and this they have a right 
 to demand, and with nothing less, in my judgment will 
 they be satisfied. 
 
 While I am satisfied that it is not true, yet it would 
 seem that the government had exhausted its ingenuity 
 in devising a system of measures to irritate, override 
 and defy the popular sentiment of the country. 
 
 Sir, this government belongs to the people, they cre- 
 ated it, and they are pouring out their blood and treas- 
 ure wdth the profusion of a prodigal to establish and 
 sustain it, and they have a right to shape its policy and 
 control its legislation. The genius of our system of 
 all representative government — is, that the government 
 derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. 
 You can not administer it upon principles antagonistic 
 to the popular will in a time of peace, much less in the 
 midst of a revolution inaugurated to establish and vin- 
 dicate popular rights. The public will must have ex- 
 pression through the forms of law, or it will find it 
 over the head of authority and in defiance of law. Our 
 statesmanship has failed to comprehend the philosophy 
 
296 MEX AND T H I N G IS 
 
 of the revolution. The governinent can not control pub- 
 lic opinion in a free State nor in any form of govern- 
 ment in a revolution; it can only guide and direct it. 
 You may mount the phaeton, seize the reins and guide 
 the coursers, but you can do nothing more. It was the 
 popular breath that bore Charles I. from the throne 
 to the scaffold; it was the same irresistible power 
 that carried Charles II. from exile to the throne, 
 Cromwell did not create the revolution — the revo- 
 lution created Cromwell, but he had the capacity 
 and genius to guide it. And if you persist in forcing 
 upon the f)eople a line of policy and a system of meas- 
 ures to which they are hostile, you will drive them 
 from the support of the government, and the revolution 
 will result in disaster and failure. The bill now before 
 the committee and our whole legislation upon the sub- 
 ject of taxation, is but a link in a chain of measures, 
 the tendency of which is to alienate the affections of the 
 people, destroy their interest and abate their enthusiasm 
 in this struggle. They engaged in this war to se- 
 cure and vindicate rights. They expected the protec- 
 tion of personal liberty, and received the suspension cf 
 the writ of habeas corpus; they looked for the preser- 
 vation of personal security, and the country is filled 
 with rapine and murder ; they ask for the enjoyment of 
 the rights of private property, and the land is ravaged 
 with robbers and impressing ofiicers, who sweep over 
 the country like locusts, leaving poverty, want and deso- 
 lation in their wake. They have "asked bread and 
 you have given them a stone." The result of this pol- 
 icy is seen in the thinned ranks of your gallant army 
 
MEN AND THINGS 297 
 
 that desertion has depleted, and in the waning hopes 
 and broken spirit of the noblest people on the earth. 
 
 Sir, you may pass this monstrous bill, but you will 
 find it one thing to pass it and another to enforce it. 
 The people are patient and patriotic, but they are now 
 groaning under the burdens of heavy taxation, and I 
 announce to you to-day that they can not and will not 
 pay the amount imposed by this bill. It will remain a 
 dead letter upon the statute book. They do not expect 
 to get through the war without the payment of heavy 
 taxes ; this they are perfectly willing to do ; but I have 
 misconceived their character if they submit cheerfully 
 to the wholesale robbery of this iniquitous bill. You 
 have impressed their horses and mules and cattle and 
 provisions, and taken from them the means of cultiva- 
 ting their farms. The enemy has overrun large tracts 
 of country in other sections and stolen and carried them 
 off. In many portions of the country the bulk of the 
 male population is in the army and nobody is left at 
 home to make the money with which to pay the taxes now 
 required by law. This hour there are hundreds and 
 thousands of pure and noble wives, mothers and sisters 
 struggling to support helpless families, who are treading 
 the frozen ground barefooted, with insufficient clothing 
 to protect their persons from the chilling blasts of win- 
 ter. The whole country is filled with aching heads, 
 anguished bosoms, and bleeding hearts — with the weeds 
 of widowhood and the wails of orphanage, and you 
 propose to mitigate their sufferings, conciliate their 
 affections and energize their patriotism by sticking to 
 an irritated public feeling, like the shirt of jSTessus, the 
 
298 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 exhausting provisions of this monstrous measure. 
 
 There are burdens necessarily incident to war, and 
 it is a sacred duty that Congress owes to the people to 
 mitigate their weight and severity as far as possible ; to 
 let them feel that the government respects their rights, 
 appreciates their sacrifices and sympathizes with their 
 sufferings. When this is done it will revive the hopes 
 of the army and people, re-invigorate and re-inspirit 
 them, and they will continue this struggle, until their 
 patience and valor shall win a glorious independence 
 for their country. 
 
 Sir, flings have been made at the fidelity of Georgia. 
 That grand old commonwealth needs no vindication 
 from me. In the language of a great statesman, on a 
 great occasion, "I shall enter on no encomium upon 
 Georgia. There she is, there is her history, the world 
 knows it by heart." There is her Chicamauga, Ring- 
 gold, Resaca, Kennesaw, ISTew Hope, Atlanta and Jones- 
 boro, and there they will remain forever. Every foot 
 of her soil from her northern border to the Atlantic 
 coast has trembled under the consecrating seal of a bap- 
 tism in blood. Her gallant sons have mingled their 
 blood with the soil they died to defend, upon every bat- 
 tlefield from Gettysburg to the Rio Grande. Every 
 altar liberty has erected in this struggle is red with 
 Georgia's sacrificial libation. Her devotion to the im- 
 perishable principles of constitutional liberty and 
 inalienable right of self-government has been illustrated 
 by the self-sacrificing spirit and heroic suffering of her 
 soldiers in the field and her people at home. I would 
 institute no invidious comparisons between the contri- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 299 
 
 butions of Georgia and the other States to this revolu- 
 tion, but I state a historic fact, and challenge contradic- 
 tion, when I assert that she has sent more men into the 
 field and paid more money into the treasury than any 
 other State in the sisterhood. You could not remain 
 here in security twenty-four hours if you withdrew the 
 bayonets that gleam around the national capital from 
 her shattered battalions. She has entwined with the 
 laurel that blooms on her brow, the cypress that symbol- 
 izes her sorrow. Fifty thousand of her martyred dead 
 have been entered upon her roll of honor and embalmed 
 in historic immortality. 
 
 On fame's eternal camping-ground, 
 
 Their silent tents are spread, 
 And glory guards with solemn round 
 
 The bivouacs of her dead. 
 
 Atlantic and Great Western Canai.. 
 
 Speech of Hon. Hiram, P. Bell, of Georgia, in the 
 House of Representatives, Fehruary IJf, 187Jf. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, the question of increased facilities for 
 more and cheaper transportation is the great question 
 to which the attention of Congress is now called by all 
 classes and interests in every section of the Union. 
 This question overshadows all others in its grandeur 
 and magnitude. The public opinion of the country has 
 exhausted all the forms of expression through which it 
 could be heard in favor of the adoption of some means 
 for its accomplishment. The press, public meetings, 
 
300 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 boards of trade, chambers of commerce, conventions of 
 governors, of members of Congress, of States, and of 
 the nation, and official reports of congressional commit- 
 tees, have all spoken the same language upon this sub- 
 ject without a single note of discord. They have all 
 recognized its necessity and sought its solution. The 
 mineral, mechanical, agricultural, commercial and 
 manufacturing interests are all vitally interested in this 
 great question. The representatives of the people can 
 not, dare not, postpone favorable action upon it. 
 
 The rapid increase in the population and productions 
 of the country has created the necessity for cheaper 
 means of putting these productions upon a market that 
 will facilitate the exchange of commodities, enhance 
 the value of labor, and thus reward the toils of industry. 
 Experience has demonstrated the inefficiency of rail- 
 way transportation to meet the exigencies of the case; 
 hence the public attention has been directed to the 
 feasibility of opening waterways foT commercial com- 
 munication between the gi-eat valley of the Mississippi 
 and the Atlantic Ocean. Among the various lines thiit 
 have interposed their claims to favorable consideration, 
 and pre-eminent among them in the superiority of its 
 advantages, stands the Atlantic and Great Western 
 Canal. Basing its claims upon the superiority of its 
 advantages, it challenges the aid which I invoke from 
 the Government for its construction. 
 
 The President, in his annual message to the second 
 session of the Forty-second Congi-ess, indicates his 
 readiness to recommend Government aid to such enter- 
 prises as will cheapen transportation and facilitate the 
 
MEN AND THINGS 301 
 
 exchange of commercial commodities, Avhenever it is 
 clearly shown that they are of "national interest, and 
 when completed will be of a valne commensurate with 
 their cost. 
 
 IsTow, in regard to the Atlantic and Great Western 
 Canal, I undertake to demonstrate the following propo- 
 sitions : 
 
 First. That it is feasible. 
 
 Secondly. That when completed it will be of a value 
 commensurate with its cost. 
 
 Thirdly. That it is a work of national interest. 
 
 IT IS FEASIBLE. 
 
 If these propositions can be established, it follows 
 that it is the duty, as well as the interest, of the Govern- 
 ment, to aid its construction. Is the connection of the 
 Mississippi and its affluents with the Atlantic Ocean 
 feasible ? Is it practicable 'i There are two infallible 
 tests of truth, and but two. One is trial, experiment; 
 this test is based upon the evidence of facts. The other 
 infallible test is mathematical demonstration. Tried 
 by both of these tests this enterprise is feasible beyond 
 all doubt. 
 
 If the question were left to the speculations of mere 
 theorists, reasonable doubts of its practicability might 
 be safely entertained. But this is not left to the uncer- 
 tainty of conjecture. The fact is that these highways 
 of trade and transit have been constructed and succesv 
 fuUy operated for centuries, increasing the wealth and 
 ministering to the wants of individuals, cities, and na- 
 tions. They are to-day great arteries through which 
 
302 MEJSr AND THINGS 
 
 commerce flows in China, Russia, the N'etherlands, 
 Italy, France, Great Britain, and the United States. 
 The genius of DeLesseps has but recently astonished the 
 world in mingling through the Suez Canal the waters 
 of the classic sea that bore Csesar and his fortunes with 
 those which overwhelmed Pharaoh and his hosts; and 
 thus revolutionized the commerce of the East, if not of 
 the world. Without descending to particulars or refer- 
 ring to details, it may be stated as a historic fact that 
 the feasibility of constructing canals and the utility of 
 canal navigation stand demonstrated upon the evidence 
 of trial and success. 
 
 But it may be said that this does not prove the feasi- 
 bility of a particular canal — of the Atlantic and Great 
 Western Canal. I reply that it unquestionably proves 
 its feasibility, provided it can be shown that there are 
 no physical, no engineering difficulties that render its 
 construction impracticable. This question involves the 
 other test of truth, mathematical demonstration. The 
 proof has been furnished by the actual survey of the 
 route by an able and accomplished engineer, Major 
 McFarland, who reports that "there are no formidable 
 engineering difficulties along the line." It had been 
 supposed that the Sand Mountain presented a formid- 
 able difficulty to the construction of this work, yet an 
 actual survey shows it to be perfectly practicable across 
 that supposed barrier. 
 
 This engineer, in his report, says that — 
 "The engineer's survey shows two practicable routes 
 across it, one passing up the valley of Short Creek, the 
 other up the valley of Town Creek, on either of which 
 
MEN AND THINGS 303 
 
 an abundant supply of water for the service of the 
 canal can be obtained during eight months of the year, 
 while during the remaining four months, by resorting 
 to the use of storage reservoirs, a sufficient supply may 
 be obtained." 
 
 The feasibility of this route has been ascertained by 
 precisely the same means that the practicability of all 
 other canal routes has been ascertained, namely, by the 
 actual survey of skilled engineers. It being estab- 
 lished that it can be constructed, that there are no en- 
 gineering difficulties in the way, let us inquire whether, 
 
 WHEN COMPLETED^ IT WIL"L BE OF A VALUE COMMENSU- 
 EATE WITH ITS COST. 
 
 The consideration of this proposition involves an 
 examination into the cost of construction, the revenues 
 it will yield when completed and the contribution it will 
 make to the material wealth of the country. And here 
 we enter upon no unexplored wilderness of speculation, 
 or wild dream of fancy, but we are guided by the safe 
 and steady light of experience. The engineer esti- 
 mates the cost of opening this line of water communica- 
 tion from Guntersville, on the Tennessee Eiver, to 
 Brunswick, Georgia, on the Atlantic coast, suitable for 
 barges carrying one hunlred and seventy tons during 
 the low-water season and three hundred tons during the 
 ordinary stages of water, upon a liberal basis, at 
 $34,354,291, including river improvements. 
 
 The entire cost of the Erie Canal up to the 30th of 
 September, 1862, was $38,977,831.16, which, with in- 
 terest up to that date, amounted to $52,491,915.74; and 
 
304 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 after deducting expenses $12,518,860.03, there re- 
 mained a net profit of $59,264,810,62, not only suffi- 
 cient up to that time to pay the entire cost of construc- 
 tion with interest but leaving a balance or surplus of 
 nearly $7,000,000 for the State of its gross earnings. 
 Since the 30th of September, 1862, the net earnings 
 were about $20,000,000 more. Since the completion 
 of this great work, less than a half century, its income 
 has paid the entire cost of construction and yielded a 
 net profit of $27,000,000. 
 
 These facts furnish a safe basis for the calculation 
 of the revenues which the Atlantic and Great Western 
 Canal will yield when completed in the way of tolls. 
 Indeed, all the advantages of cost of construction, dis- 
 tance of route, climatic obstructions, etc., are in favor 
 of this, and against the Erie Canal. 
 
 The distinguished engineer, in his report referred to, 
 says of this line, comparing its merits with the lake and 
 canal, the James River and Kanawha, and the Missis- 
 sippi routes, that — 
 
 "It may be said for it, that it enjoys every advantage 
 possessed by the others ; it is superior to them all in this, 
 that it will never be obstructed by ice; will never be 
 rendered impassable by drought; does not descend suf- 
 ficiently low in the heated regions to have its cargoes 
 injured by heat or moisture ; will require no rehandling 
 of cargoes between the points of shipment and dis- 
 charge; and will cost but little more than the Erie 
 Canal enlarged, while its capacity will be greater, and 
 no doubt it will, like the Erie Canal, pay for the orig- 
 inal outlay, interest, expenses of repair and service, 
 
MEN AND THINGS 305 
 
 with a large balance to its credit, in the course of thirty 
 years." 
 
 Taking St. Louis as the great center of trade in the 
 valley of the Mississippi, and the point from which 
 Western products start in search for the Atlantic coast 
 and a foreign market, the advantages of distance in 
 favor of this line are as follows: 
 
 Miles. 
 From St. Louis by lakes and Erie Canal to 'New 
 
 York 1,950 
 
 From jSTew York to Liverpool 3,150 
 
 Total distance 5,100 
 
 From St. Louis to ISTew Orleans 1,270 
 
 From ISTew Orleans to Liverpool 4,756 
 
 Total distance 6,026 
 
 From St. Louis to Savannah by proposed canal . .1,508 
 From Savannah to Liverpool 3,390 
 
 Total distance 4,898 
 
 The distance in favor of the Atlantic and Great 
 Western Canal against the lake and Erie route is 210 
 miles, and against the Mississippi, via I^ew Orleans, is 
 1,136 miles, with a corresponding difference in favor 
 of the Savannah, in the cost of transportation. Super- 
 add the fact that this route is unobstructed by ice, 
 while the Erie is annually obstructed for four or five 
 
306 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 months; and that no damage results to cargoes from 
 climatic causes, as is the case with the Mississippi route, 
 and the question of advantages between these lines, 
 ceases to be debatable. 
 
 It is not my purpose, however, to disparage the claims 
 of any route, but to show the superior advantages of the 
 particular one whose claims to favorable consideration 
 I am now urging. The necessities of the country de- 
 mand the construction of e\ery line that will develop 
 our domestic commerce and secure an outlet to the ocean 
 for our trade abroad. 
 
 If the Erie Canal has shown such results under these 
 comparative disadvantages, what may we not safely ex- 
 pect from the Atlantic and Great Western, with the 
 superior advantages which it possesses. To these may 
 be added the greater necessity now for transportation 
 than when the Erie was constructed. It developed and 
 built up the commerce upon which it has fed. "Wliile 
 the subduing of the wilderness and the honest industry 
 of toiling millions have crowded the great valley of th^ 
 Mississippi with a vast surplus, that wastes and rots 
 while thousands in the East are perishing with famine, 
 whose hunger our bounty could appease if we could but 
 convey it to them. But it is not only in India that 
 bread is needed — the exhausted States of the ruined 
 South likewise want it. 
 
 The Committee on Commerce of the House of Kepre- 
 sentatives, in the second session of the Eorty-second 
 Congress, in their able report say that — 
 
 "The census of 1870 shows that Georgia, South Caro- 
 lina, Alabama and Florida produce 57,215,600 bushels 
 
MEN AND i H/NGS 307 
 
 of grain. Their average consumption, according to 
 data furnished by the Bureau of Statistics, is 104,521, 
 470 bushels. This leaves a deficit of 47,305,870 
 bushels to be supplied by other States. As the larger 
 portion of this grain is needed along the seaboard, in 
 what is known as the cotton belt, we may assume the 
 distance from St. Louis to Savannah as the average 
 distance this grain is moved. This would make the 
 cost of transportation on each ton $14.40, at 1^/4 cents 
 per ton per mile. The cost for the same distance by 
 this canal would be $4.88. This is a saving of $9.52 
 upon each ton, and an aggregate of $13,647,024.72 
 upon one article in a single year; the development of a 
 latent value of nearly $14,000,000, to be divided be- 
 tween the producer and the consumer." 
 
 To state the case in other words, this canal would 
 save to the producers of the West and the planters of 
 the South in the transportation of corn alone for one 
 year nearly $14,000,000 ; and this amount alone, for 
 three years, would more than pay the cost of the canal. 
 This single fact, undisputed and undisputiible, demon- 
 strates the value as well as the necessity of this great 
 work. 
 
 IS THIS A WORK OF NATIONAL INTEREST ? 
 
 Unquestionably it is. The development of the produc- 
 tive resources of the country, the increase of its wealth, 
 and the expansion of its commerce, foreign and domes- 
 tic, are all matters of national interest; and if these 
 interests of the country are promoted by the construc- 
 tion of this highway of trade, then it is a work of 
 
308 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 national interest. Will it affect favorably the produc- 
 tive resources of the country ? 
 
 Let us examine this question a moment. 
 
 The States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and 
 Florida are adapted to the production of cotton, while 
 large portions of these States are not well adapted to 
 the production of grain. The average yield of corn is 
 less than ten dollars per acre, while the average yield 
 of cotton is about forty dollars. It is of course to the 
 interest of the farmers to cultivate cotton, because it 
 yields a greater profit; it pays better than grain. But 
 it is cheaper to raise grain than to purchase it even at 
 a nominal price in the West, because of the expense of 
 transporting it. 
 
 The Committee on Commerce, heretofore referred to, 
 say that in those States — 
 
 "The scarcity of food and the high prices demanded 
 for it force more than five million acres into grain. 
 This takes away from the production of cotton about 
 one-half of the labor and capital of the South. These 
 acres planted in cotton would add two million five hun- 
 dred thousand bales to our exports, and increase the 
 value of the exports $200,000,000 annually, which 
 would cause the wealth of the world to flow to us in- 
 stead of away from us, as it has been doing in times 
 past." 
 
 Statistics show the values of imports and exports for 
 the eight months ending August 31, 1871, as follows: 
 Imports $408,503,331 
 
MEN AND THINGS 309 
 
 Exports 389,242,497 
 
 Leaving against us 19,260,834 
 
 For the same period in 1872: 
 
 Imports $479,924,793 
 
 Exports 391,920,267 
 
 Leaving balance against us 88,004,526 
 
 This balance, together with the interest on the foreign 
 debt, must be paid in coin. Yet if this channel of 
 trade were opened so that the planters in these four 
 States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Flor- 
 ida could obtain their grain supplied from the West 
 cheaper than they can make them on their exhausted 
 lands, they could and would put these five million acres 
 now" in grain into cotton, and raise thereon two million 
 five hundred thousand bales, contributing annually to 
 our exports $200,000,000, which alone, in the year 
 1872, would have turned the tide of foreign trade in 
 our favor to the extent of $112,000,000. 
 
 Cotton constitutes our most valuable export. The 
 statistics show a most startling diminution in its pro- 
 duction for the last year, which results from the neces- 
 sity to diversify the crops in the cotton States. A cor- 
 responding diminution in our exports and a correspond- 
 ing increase in the balance of trade against us neces- 
 sarily ensue. If this state of things continues long, 
 with the competition in the production of cotton, the 
 foreign market will be mainly supplied from the East, 
 and we will make but little, if any, more than will sup- 
 ply our own factories. How can this result be obviated i 
 
310 MEl^ AND THINGS 
 
 It can only be done by reducing the cost of transporta- 
 tion, so that these cotton States can obtain their sup- 
 plies of bread and meat from the crowded granaries 
 of the West at a less cost than it requires to make them. 
 Then the entire labor and capital of the cotton States 
 will be directed to the production of cotton. The coin 
 will be kept in the country, the West will be supplied 
 with a market that will compensate labor, the currents 
 of commerce will be stimulated, and the productive 
 energies of the country vitalized. 
 
 The development of the resources of the country, of 
 any element of wealth or power, in any State or section, 
 assumes the importance and rises to the dignity of a 
 national interest. The constantly multiplying wants 
 of society have increased, and are increasing, the de- 
 mand for two articles especially at a rate not hitherto 
 known. I allude to iron and coal. 
 
 There is on the line of this proposed canal a region 
 in which iron and coal are found, unsurpassed, if 
 equalled, in the extent of its quantity or the superiority 
 of its quality. This belt of iron-ore and coal lies at the 
 eastern base of Lookout Mountain, and extends from 
 near Chattanooga to the Coosa River at Gadsden in 
 Alabama, a distance of about eighty miles. The su- 
 perior quality of both the ore and coal has been shown 
 by practical tests and scientific analyses. Boundless 
 forests and exhaustless water power are in proximity to 
 these great elements of national wealth, yet they are 
 almost wholly valueless, practically, for the want of 
 transportation. 
 
 The development of these interests would not an- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 311 
 
 tagonize the coal and iron interests of other sections of 
 the country, because the demand for them is an ever- 
 increasing one. On the contrary, similarity of inter- 
 ests identifies the different sections of the Union, har- 
 monizes conflicting views of constitutional construction 
 and administrative policy, and thus unites the differ- 
 ent sections of the Union. It is a gTeat mistake to sup- 
 pose that because this great country is diversified in 
 climate, soil and productions, therefore the interest of 
 the different sections is antagonistic. This very di- 
 versity is the bond of unity. What one section has, 
 another has not, and what one section does another does 
 not, so that the producer, the manufacturer the mer- 
 chant, and the common carrier are all mutually aal rel- 
 atively dependent on each other. 
 
 The country needs a statesmanship whose grasp com- 
 prehends the interests of all, and a patriotism whose 
 ardor, ignoring local prejudices, embraces the entire 
 Union. 
 
 I present another fact, showing the national impor- 
 tance of this waterway. It will give an outlet to the 
 Atlantic Ocean, to sixteen thousand five hundred miles 
 of inland navigation, embraced in the term "Missis- 
 sippi and its tributaries," and will connect with it five 
 thousand miles of similar navigation, penetrating every 
 portion of four States, connecting with the Atlantic, 
 thus distributing at homo and pouring into the foreign 
 market by the shortest and cheapest route the treasures 
 of the most productive region on the globe, drained by 
 twenty-one thousand, five Lr.ndrcd miles of inland 
 navigation. The simple statement of these facts star- 
 
312 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 ties us with the stupendous magnitude and national 
 grandeur of this enterprise. 
 
 With every element of wealth, surrounded with pro- 
 fusion and burdened with excess, we are starving at 
 a banquet and famishing at a fountain. 
 
 The national debt amounts to $2,293,170,689.43, 
 upon $1,712,749,200 of which we pay interest in coin. 
 The revenues fail to meet current expenses on a peace 
 basis. Commerce decaying; labor disorganized in the 
 South, and unproductive in the West; starving f reed- 
 men imploring the Government to feed them upon ra- 
 tions issued from the War Department; finances de- 
 ranged; factories running on half time, and thousands 
 of operatives turned out of employment in the North; 
 agrarian mobs and communistic associations clamoring 
 for bread or blood in the cities; railroad magnates 
 monopolizing the profits of industry, and money 
 changers defiling the temple with a heartless idolatry 
 at the shrine of mammon — this state of things must be 
 changed. These evils must be corrected. If we would 
 avert from the country the fearful crisis which the 
 deadly conflict between capital and labor, already 
 inaugurated, will precipitate upon us, we must provide 
 channels for the distributions of the productions of the 
 country, the expansion of its commerce, the develop- 
 ment of its resources, and the reward of its labor. 
 
 How can the means be obtained ? 
 
 The bill now pending provides them. Its passage, 
 in my judgment, will secure the completion of this work 
 in a short time, and without any liability to the Gov- 
 ernment except the use of its credit. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 313 
 
 The bill provides that upon the completion of each 
 section of ten miles, to be certified by an engineer under 
 the direction of the War Department and approved by 
 the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Treasury is 
 required to indorse said certificate upon the bonds of 
 the company, not to exceed $80,000 per mile, the bonds 
 to constitute a first mortgage upon the canal and all the 
 property of the company. The bonds may be depos- 
 ited with the Comptroller of the Currency, who shall 
 thereupon issue to the company currency notes, not to 
 exceed in amount the bonds deposited. As soon as the 
 work is completed the company shall pay into the 
 Treasury annually not less than 6 per cent, of the whole 
 amoimt of the currency so issued for the redemption of 
 said currency ; and as the notes are redeemed the bonds 
 shall be canceled. If the company fail to pay the 6 
 per cent, annually within thirty days after it becomes 
 due, the Secretary of the Treasury may take possession 
 of it and apply its earnings to the redemption of the 
 currency. 
 
 This scheme will secure the means to open this line. 
 It involves no danger to the Government; no taxes are 
 to be imposed ; no money to be borrowed, and no risks 
 incurred. 
 
 The notes are not to be issued until ten miles of the 
 work or line is completed, and upon that, and each con- 
 secutive ten miles, the certified bonds of the company 
 will constitute a mortgage. The Government will be 
 amply secured. It will pay no interest, and the com- 
 pany will pay no interest. The annual payment of the 
 6 per cent, will redeem the currency in sixteen years; 
 
314 MEN A77D T II I N G i^ 
 
 and if the company fail to pay it within thirty days 
 after it becomes due the Government may take charge 
 of it and apply its income to the redemption of the 
 notes. 
 
 These notes would be distributed among the laboring 
 class, men of small means, who greatly need it; and in 
 a section where the circulation does not exceed two dol- 
 lars pe?' capita, and where the people are clamorous for 
 an increase of currency. It would be placed beyond 
 the control of bank and railroad monopolists ; and thus 
 open this great national highway of trade, and at the 
 same time supply the people in the South and West, 
 where they most need it, with money. 
 
 The necessity for the means of exchanging commer- 
 cial commodities without absorbing the profits of labor, 
 and a desire for relief from the dominion of extortion- 
 ers and the monopoly of corporations, have united the 
 honest, toiling masses of the country in the demand for 
 legislative interposition. Nor will they cease until this 
 demand meets with a response from their representa- 
 tives. If we fail to respond they will fill our places 
 with those who will. Already hundreds of thousands 
 of patriotic men have sundered the ligaments that bind 
 them to party, and united upon this question ; and their 
 voice comes up to this Capitol, like the roar of gather- 
 ing waters, demanding a market unburdened by monop- 
 oly and extortion for the products of their labor. 
 
 These hardy farmers of the South and the great West 
 demand something more than the repeal of the salary 
 bill. They are for economy ; but it is not that sort of 
 economy that keeps up the expenses of thirty custom 
 
MEN AND THINGS 315 
 
 houses that yield no revenues to the Government; that 
 sort of economy that expends annually millions of the 
 public money in paving the streets and beautifying the 
 grounds of this magnificent city while their homes are 
 covered with mortgages. They w^ant that sort of econ- 
 omy that equalizes the burdens and benefactions of the 
 Government; that distributes its productions, husbands 
 its resources, and develops its wealth. 
 
 Argument of Hon. H. P. Bell, of Georgia, Before the 
 Senate Committee on Revolutionary Claims, April 
 27, 1874, on the Bill to Refund to the State of 
 Georgia the Sum of Thirty-five Thousand, Five 
 Hundred and Fifty-five Dollars and Forty-two 
 Cents, Expended by said State, for the Common 
 Defense in 1777. 
 
 Mr. Bell said: 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: 
 
 The bill under consideration provides that the Fed- 
 eral Government shall refund to the State of Georgia 
 the sum of thirty-five thousand, five hundred and fifty- 
 five dollars and forty-two cents, which amount the State 
 expended for the connnon cause of independence in the 
 Revolutionary struggle in 1777. This debt was in- 
 curred for supplies purchased by the agents of the State 
 from Robert Farquhar, a merchant of Charleston, South 
 Carolina, for the troops, at Savannah, under the com- 
 mand of General James Jackson. These troops were 
 engaged in the common struggle for independence, and 
 utterly destitute of clothing. The debt was contracted 
 
316 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 for clothing. After the settlement of the accounts of 
 Georgia with the general government, this account was 
 audited by the auditing officers of the State and certifi- 
 cates of indebtedness issued for the sum of five thou- 
 sand pounds sterling. Peter Trezvant married the 
 daughter, and only child of Eobert Farquhar, and by 
 virtue of his marital rights became the heir-at-law of 
 Robert Farquhar, and the legal owner of these certifi- 
 cates of indebtedness against the State. In 1838, while 
 a resident of Great Britain, he memorialized the Legis- 
 lature of the State, praying the payment of these certifi- 
 cates. The Legislature adopted the following preamble 
 and resolution upon this subject, to wit: 
 
 "Whereas, several claims upon the State have been 
 presented to the present session of the legislature, which 
 claims have been dormant for many years ; and wliereas 
 the policy of the State, as declared by the acts of piidt 
 legislatures (which run nearly contemporaneous with 
 their creation), has prevented the authorities thereof 
 from discharging and paying the same; and inasmuch 
 as it is impossible that the legislature can, through any 
 of its committees, investigate the same during its ses- 
 sion; and, public justice never requiring the refusal of 
 a just debt nor the payment of one of such antiquated 
 existence, without a due investigation of the same, to 
 the end that justice may be done the claimants and the 
 State — 
 
 "Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives in General Assembly met, That his Excel- 
 lency the Governor, appoint three fit and proper persons 
 to investigate fully the claims of Peter Trezvant, R. M. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 317 
 
 D. J. Elliott and Milledge Gaulphin, in behalf of him- 
 self and others, and that said persons report to the next 
 session of the Legislature the entire facts connected with 
 the same, the Uahiliiy of the State to pay them or any 
 part of them, and whether interest is allowable upon 
 the same, together with such facts, if any exist, show- 
 ing the discharge of the State from such liahility, an^i 
 all other facts connected with each of said claims as 
 shall he useful in determining their validity." (Acts 
 of 1838, page 276.) 
 
 Under this resolution, Joseph H. Lumpkin, William 
 Law and David C. Campbell were appointed to dis- 
 charge the duties which it imposed — gentlemen dis- 
 tinguished for their talents, their learning, and their 
 virtues. They were charged with the duty of "report- 
 ing to the next session of the Legislaure the entire facts 
 connected with the same, the liability of the State co 
 pay the claim, or any part of the same, and whether in- 
 terest was allowable upon the same, together with such 
 facts, if any exist, showing the discharge of the State 
 from liability, and all other facts connected with each 
 of said claims as shall be useful in determining their 
 validity." 
 
 It will be perceived that every question of law and 
 fact involving the validity of this claim, and the liabil- 
 ity of the State to pay it, was submitted to this com- 
 mission. After a most searching, thorough and able 
 investigation of the justice of the claim, the considera- 
 tion upon which it was based, and the question as to 
 whether it was barred by lapse of time, and at a time 
 when the popular judgment and prejudice were op- 
 
318 MEN AND THIN3S 
 
 posed to the payment, they unanimously reported in 
 favor of the justice of the claim and the obligation of 
 the State to pay it. In their very elaborate report they 
 say (I quote from the original manuscript report now 
 before me), "we have, as we conceive, fully established 
 that the certificates were rightfully issued — that they 
 are genuine, and that they have never been paid." 
 
 Again: "The reasons which have now been assigned 
 have brought us to the conclusion that the State is bound 
 by every principle of honor and justice to redeem the 
 certificates held by Mr. Trezvant." 
 
 I^otwithstanding the thorough examination of the 
 facts and legal questions involved, and the decided con- 
 viction and judgment in favor of the justice of this 
 claim, and the obligation resting on the State to pay it, 
 the Legislature hesitated for years, before making pro- 
 vision for its payment. Finally, pressed with the irre- 
 sistible conviction of its justice, the Legislature, in 
 1847, passed an act, which was approved December 25 
 of that year, providing for the payment of the sum jf 
 twenty-two thousand two hundred and twenty-two dol- 
 lars and twenty-two cents, being the original principal 
 of the debt of five thousand pounds reduced to Federal 
 money. And for this sum, the State issued her bonds 
 bearing date on the first day of January, 1848, at six 
 per cent, interest per annum. Those bonds were paid 
 at maturity on the first of January, 1858, the principal 
 and interest amounting to the sum of thirty-five thou- 
 sand five hundred and fifty-five dollars and forty-two 
 cents, wTiich amount this bill provides the General Gov- 
 ernment shall refund to the State of Georgia. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 319 
 
 The State presented her memorial to the Thirty-sixth 
 Congress, praying the passage of an act refunding this 
 amount to her. This memorial was referred in the 
 Senate, to the Committee on Kevolutionary Claims. 
 After a careful examination of the claim the commit- 
 tee was unanimously of the opinion that the claim was 
 just and ought to be paid, and unanimously reported 
 a bill for that purpose. The bill was not reached on 
 the calendar, and thus failed. 
 
 See Senate Report, No. 94, first session Thirty-sixth 
 Congress. 
 
 See Senate Bill No. 231, first session Thirty-sixth 
 Congress. 
 
 Senate Bills and Resolutions, Part 1 to 258. 
 
 The existence and justice of this claim, the consid- 
 eration upon which it was based, the obligation of the 
 State to pay it, and the payment by the State are all 
 abundantly established by the report of the commis- 
 sioners appointed by the Legislature to examine it, by 
 the act of the Legislature providing for its payment, and 
 by the report of the committee of the Senate, in 18G0, 
 to which reference has already been made. 
 
 Unquestionably the State of Georgia expended this 
 sum in prosecuting the common struggle for independ- 
 ence in 1Y77. She now asks that it be paid back to her, 
 as like indebtedness or expenditures of other States, all 
 for the same purpose and in the common cause, have 
 been repaid to them. This claim was not presented by 
 the State, and, therefore, not allowed in the adjustment 
 of the accounts between the Federal Government and 
 the State, under the assumption act of 1790, because its 
 
320 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 justness was not admitted by the State at the time of 
 the settlement. But after the settlement, in 1794, this 
 claim was audited by the auditing officers of the State, 
 the amount due ascertained, and certificates of indebt- 
 edness issued. It is supposed that the non-residence of 
 Mr. Trezvant accounts for the delay in presenting it for 
 payment. When presented, no means could be found 
 to avoid the payment, except the repudiation of a just 
 debt, which involved a violation of faith and a sacrifice 
 of honor, for which the State was not prepared, and of 
 which her patriotic people were incapable. 
 
 Shall the Federal Government reimburse the State ? 
 
 Congress passed an act, which was approved August 
 5, 1790, by which the Federal Government assumed, 
 and provided for the payment of all the debts of the 
 several colonies, or States, incurred by them in the 
 prosecution of the common cause, and appointed a com- 
 mission to adjust the matters of account between the 
 General Government and the several States, growing out 
 of expenditures made in support of the war prosecuted 
 by the colonies against Great Britain for the establish- 
 ment and maintenance of our independence. Under 
 this law the accounts were settled, the States being 
 charged with the amounts advanced to them by the 
 Colonial Congress, and credited with the amounts sev- 
 erally and respectively expended by them. It is be- 
 lieved that all the claims which the States, or any of 
 them, held against the Government, so far as their ex- 
 istence was known and their validity recognized, were 
 adjusted. The validity of this debt was not admitted, 
 if its existence was known, until after the settlement 
 
MEN AND THINGS 321 
 
 between the States and the United States. Indeed, the 
 validity of this claim against the State was never fully 
 recognized by the State until the passage of the .lot pro- 
 viding for its payment, approved December 25, 1847. 
 
 Certainly the State would not have been justified in 
 presenting to the Federal Government, for payment a 
 claim, the justice and validity of which she did not ad- 
 mit ; and the fact that the claim was either imknown, or 
 disputed was a sufiicient reason why it was not or should 
 not have been presented for payment, by the State, in 
 her settlement with the Government of the United 
 States. 
 
 The act of Congress of August 5, 1790, established 
 and settled the policy of the Government in the assump- 
 tion of the debts incurred by the several States on ac- 
 count of the common cause of independence. It has 
 been the policy of Congress to provide for the payment 
 of such debts, where they existed, as were not included 
 in the settlement between the several States and the 
 general Government. I refer to an instance illustra- 
 ting the truth of this proposition. A short time before 
 the close of the Revolutionary War, the State of Vir- 
 ginia enlisted a nmnber of troops to serve during the 
 war with the express stipulation that if they served out 
 the term of their enlistment they were to receive full 
 pay, and if they were not called into service, they should 
 receive half pay. The surrender at Yorktown closed 
 the war before these troops w^ere called into the service. 
 The officers and privates claimed, under the stipulation, 
 their half pay. Virginia declined to pay, on the 
 ground that no sorvico bnd been ronderr'd. Tin*? claim 
 
322 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 was in existence at the timo the accounts of Virginia 
 with the General Government were settled. They were 
 not included in the settlement. Afterwards Virginia 
 opened her courts and allowed the claimants to test the 
 validity of their demand. Suits were instituted and 
 judgments were rendered in favor of the claimant'? 
 against the State. 
 
 Congress passed an act in 1848, which provided for 
 the repayment to Virginia of the sums thus recovered. 
 This provision is contained in an appropriation act, and 
 is in the following words : "For repayment to Virginia 
 of money paid by that State, under judgment of her 
 courts against her, to Revolutionary officers and soldiers 
 and their representatives, for half pay and commutation 
 of half pay, a sum not exceeding eighty-one thousand, 
 one hundred and seventy-three dollars and seventeen 
 cents, provided, however, that the agent of said State 
 shall deposit authenticated copies of the acts or judg- 
 ments under which the money was paid by the State 
 of Virginia." 
 
 Georgia, like Virginia, denied her liability to pa^^ 
 this claim. Virginia opened her courts to the claim- 
 ants against her, who instituted suits, and recovered 
 judgments. Georgia referred the claim against her to 
 commissioners, whose investigation and report estab- 
 lished the justice of this claim, and her Legislature 
 passed an act providing for its payment. Virginia 
 paid the claim against her, and Congress pased an act 
 to repay the amount to Virginia. Georgia paid the 
 claim against her, and asks Congress to repay — to do 
 that justice to her which was done to Virginia. If it 
 
MEN AND THINGS 323 
 
 was the duty of the General Government to pay Vir- 
 ginia, why is not also the duty of the Government to 
 pay Georgia ? The debts were contracted by the States 
 in both cases for the same purpose — the public defense. 
 In the case of Virginia the debt was paid for service 
 which was never rendered. In the case of Georgia the 
 debt was contracted and paid by the State for cloth- 
 ing, for her troops while actually engaged in the serv- 
 ice. There can, therefore, be no question of the justice 
 of this claim or the liability of the Federal Government 
 to pay it. 
 
 Louisiana. 
 
 Speech of Hon. Hiram P. Bell, of Georgia, in the 
 House of Representatives, February 10, 1875. 
 
 The House being in Committee of the Whole on the 
 President's annual message. 
 
 Mr. Bell said : 
 
 Mr, Speaker, the people of this country were startled 
 at the announcement of the events that transpired on 
 the 4th day of January, 1875, at the capital of the 
 State of Louisiana, On that day, at that place, in 
 a time of peace, the soldiers of the United States Army, 
 with fixed bayonets, entered the capitol of the sover- 
 eign State of Louisiana and broke up and dispersed 
 by armed force the representative branch of her Gen- 
 eral Assembly. This outrageous act of tyranny and 
 military despotism was committed upon the order of 
 the person who claimed to be the governor of the State, 
 
324 ME2i AND THINGS 
 
 and Avas approved by the President of the United States 
 and his Cabinet ministers. 
 
 The sole pretext for this high-handed usurpation was 
 that in the opinion of William Pitt Kellogg, the House 
 of Representatives was an illegal assembly. The mem- 
 bers were chosen by the electors of Louisiana at the 
 time and place and in the manner prescribed by law. 
 The House of Representatives had assembled at the time 
 and place fixed by law for the meeting of the Legisla- 
 ture under a written constitution, which provides, 
 among other things, that — each House of the General 
 Assembly shall judge of the qualification, election, and 
 return of its members. 
 
 The returning board failed to pass upon the election 
 of five persons claiming to have been chosen, and ex- 
 pressly referred the question of their election to the 
 House of Representatives. The House, in the exercise 
 of a plain, constitutional right, adjudged that they were 
 entitled to seats, and adopted a resolution seating them 
 as members, subject of course to any contest that might 
 be filed. And ihi^ is the ground of alleged illegality 
 upon which Kellogg based his order or request to the 
 military to dispose of the House. What law made Kel- 
 logg the judge of the qualification, election, and re- 
 turn of the members of the House of Representatives? 
 The constitution of Louisiana made the House itself the 
 judge of that question ; and the assumption on the part 
 of Kellogg to determine the question of who were or 
 who were not qualified, elected, and returned as mem- 
 bers was a plain and palpable violation of the Constitu- 
 tion which he had sworn to support. Claiming to be 
 
MEN AND THINGS 325 
 
 the chief magistrate of a great State, the guardian of 
 her rights and the defender of her Constitution, he 
 tramples that Constitution into the dust at the expense 
 of his official oath, and sacrifices the rights and liber- 
 ties of the people to personal aggrandizement and party 
 supremacy, and thus embalms himself in historic in- 
 famy as a usurper and a tyrant. There are none so 
 stupid as not to know that Kellogg invoked the arm 
 of military power to disperse the House of Representa- 
 tives, not because it was illegal, not because the five 
 members were improperly admitted, but because a 
 majority of the members were not in political sympa- 
 thy with him and the party with which he is allied, and 
 of which he is the fit representative and exponent in 
 the South. The incipient step, therefore, in all this 
 trouble on the 4th of January was a usurpation. The 
 whole difficulty arose from the claim of that burlesque, 
 upon the idea of a governor to judge of the qualifica- 
 tion, election, and return of the members of the House 
 of Representatives, a right which the Constitution se- 
 cured to the House itself, and a right about which there 
 could not possibly be any doubt. 
 
 The American people begin to understand, and his- 
 tory will faithfully record, the extent to which the ir- 
 repressible carpet-bagger has exhausted Southern pa- 
 tience and fatigued Southern indignation. And by 
 whom was this judgment of illegality pronounced ? By 
 a man who held the office of governor by virtue of an 
 order issued ex parte at the dark hour of midnight by a 
 judge who resigned to avoid impeachment by his own 
 party, for granting that order, upon the gTOund that !ie 
 
326 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 had no jurisdiction in the matter. If Durell had no 
 right to grant the order, for the want of jurisdiction, 
 that practically kept Kellogg in office, then the judg- 
 ment was a nullity and Kellogg took nothing by it. If 
 Kellogg held the oflSce by virtue of a popular election, 
 and in accordance with the popular will, why was it 
 necessary for a corrupt judge to draggle the judicial 
 ermine in the mire of party politics to sustain him ? 
 
 The next step in this drama of usurpation and out- 
 rage was the invasion and dispersion of the House of 
 Representatives by armed Federal soldiers, supplied by 
 the Federal Government upon the application of Kel- 
 logg. The ground upon which this interference is 
 based is not that there was an invasion of Louisiana, 
 not that domestic violence existed, but that in his opin- 
 ion the House of Representatives was an illegal assem- 
 bly. And the Federal authorities coincided in judg- 
 ment with Kellogg and granted his request, dispersed 
 the representatives chosen by the people according to 
 the Constitution and laws of Louisiana, and installed in 
 power those whom the people had rejected but whom 
 the returning board, by the most stupendous fraud, de- 
 clared to have been elected. But concede that it was 
 an illegal assembly ; concede that the five men sworn in 
 as members under the resolution of the House were im- 
 properly, were illegally admitted ; what law constituted 
 either Kellogg or the armed military the judge of the 
 qualification, election, and return of these members ? 
 What constitution authorized them, or what law, State 
 or Federal, authorized them to break up and destroy 
 one branch of the General Assembly of a State of the 
 
MEN AND THINGS 327 
 
 American Union? Whether the House of Representa- 
 tives was an illegal assembly or not is not the question. 
 But the question is, by virtue of what authority the 
 Federal Government took it upon itself to judge of the 
 legality of the assembly, and by virtue of what authority 
 of law the Federal Government enforced with the re- 
 lentless arm of military power the judgment which it 
 pronounced adverse to its legality. These are the ques- 
 tions which the law-abiding and liberty-loving people 
 of the United States, in a thousand forms and through 
 a thousand instrumentalities, are pressing with the 
 earnestness of alarm upon the Chief Magistrate and his 
 constitutional advisers. Failing to show the authority 
 demanded, the act stands a naked usurpation. 
 
 Is there no cause for alarm when the Chief Magis- 
 trate of the Republic, clothed by law with vast power 
 and patronage, the chief of a powerful party, distin- 
 guished for military prowess and achievements, de- 
 stroys by the fiat of power the Legislature of a State 
 and strikes do^Ti at one blow the constitutional liberty 
 of the people? 
 
 The question still recurs, by what authority of law 
 can this interference be justified? Section 4 of article 
 4 of the Constitution is invoked in vain for this pur- 
 pose. It provides : That the United States shall guar- 
 antee to every State in this Union a Republican form 
 of government, and shall protect each of them against 
 invasion, and on application of the Legislature, or of 
 the executive,when the Legislature can not be con\'cned 
 against domestic violence. 
 
328 ME:ti AND THINGS 
 
 This section neither binds nor authorizes the Presi- 
 dent of the United States to guarantee to each State a 
 Eepublican form of government. The usurpation of 
 this power by a Republican President was one of the 
 grounds of impeachment alleged against him by a Tie- 
 publican House of Representatives. 
 
 In the case of Luther vs. Bonlen Chief Justice 
 Taney said : It rests with Congi'ess to decide what gov- 
 ernment is the established one in a State; for t,s the 
 United States guarantees to each State a Republican 
 form of government, Congress must necessarily decide 
 what government is established in the State before it 
 can determine whether it is Republican or not, and when 
 the Senators and Representatives are admitted into the 
 councils of the Union, the authority of the government 
 imder which they are appointed, as well as its Republi- 
 can character, is recognized by the proper constitutional 
 authority, and its decision is binding on every other 
 •department of the government, and could not be ques- 
 tioned in a judicial tribunal. 
 
 But no question is made upon the form of the gov- 
 ernment of Louisiana. All concede that her govern- 
 ment was Republican in form. If the question were in- 
 volved. Congress and not the President would be the 
 judge. Does the provision of the section under con- 
 sideration, which guarantees to each State protection 
 against invasion and domestic violence, justify the dis- 
 persion of the House of Representatives by the armed 
 military? Unquestionably not, because there was tio 
 invasion and no domestic violence, and for the addi- 
 tional reason that the Legislature must make the call. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 329 
 
 if it can be convened. The Legislature was convened, 
 and did not make the application for the interposition 
 of the military. The state of facts upon which alone 
 the governor was authorized to call for Federal assist- 
 ance did not exist. This call for Federal troops was 
 made by Kellogg when the Legislature could have been 
 convened, ^vhen it was actually convened, and for that 
 reason Kellogg had no constitutional right to make it, 
 nor any other power except the Legislature. The appli- 
 cation of Kellogg was itself a violation of the Consti- 
 tution. It was the exercise of a power which depended 
 upon the happening of a contingency, when the contin- 
 gency upon which the right attacked had not happened. 
 
 Again, domestic violence did not exist in ISTew Or- 
 leans at the time. If it is said that white men were 
 armed, or that white-leaguers were armed, the reply 
 is that the Constitution protects white men and white- 
 leaguers in the right to keep and bear arms. And the 
 truth is that they were compelled to bear them in jSTew 
 Orleans to prevent the armed police from stealing them. 
 
 The exercise of a constitutional right by the people 
 of Louisiana, or any other State, can not justify the 
 dispersion and destruction of the House of Representa- 
 tives by armed power. 
 
 The American people thoroughly understand the rea- 
 son why Kellogg appealed to force, and the alacrity with 
 which the force was supplied, and the vigor and prompt- 
 ness with which it was used. It was not to protect the 
 State against domestic violence, because domestic vio- 
 lence did not exist, in the sense in which that term is 
 used in the Constitution. The expulsion of a legal, and 
 
330 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 the induction of a fraudulent House of Representatives 
 was not protection against domestic violence. The plea 
 of domestic violence is a pretext, a sham. The aid of 
 the Federal arm was invoked to dissolve the House of 
 Representatives because that house was adverse to Kel- 
 logg in political sentiments and party affiliation. It 
 was invoked to maintain a government that did not 
 derive its powers from the consent of the governed. It 
 was invoked to maintain a usurpation, in defiance of 
 the popular will, originating in fraud and upheld by the 
 midnight order in chancery of a judge driven to resign 
 by an impending impeachment, and a government that 
 is still maintained by the unconstitutional interference 
 of armed Federal power. 
 
 I have characterized Kellog as a pretended governor, 
 and I have the very highest official authority for insist- 
 ing that he is not and never was the rightful governor 
 of Louisiana. The President of the United States, in 
 his special message to the Senate upon the question of 
 Kellogg's election, says: 
 
 "It has been bitterly and persistently alleged that 
 Kellogg was not elected. Whether he was or not is not 
 altogether certain, nor is it any more certain that his 
 competitor, McEnery, was chosen. The election was a 
 gigantic fraud, and there are no reliable returns of the 
 result." 
 
 The President's recognition of Kellogg as the gov- 
 ernor is not based upon the fact of his election, for the 
 election under which he claims to have been chosen is 
 pronounced to be a gigantic fraud. And it is expressly 
 
MEN AND THIN OS 331 
 
 declared that there are no reliable returns of the result 
 of that election. 
 
 From these two facts it would seem to be impossible 
 that Kellogg should be the governor. If the election 
 was a gigantic fraud, then nobody was elected. Fraud 
 vitiates elections as well as contracts. No person ever 
 did or ever can rightfully exercise the functions of an 
 elective office when the election itself is a gigantic 
 fraud. The President says that "there were no reliable 
 returns of the result." Then there is no evidence of 
 his election ; because the only legal evidence of his elec- 
 tion is reliable returns of the result, and that evidence 
 the President declares does not exist. The presidential 
 recognition is based upon the ground that "Kellog ob- 
 tains possession of the office, and in his opinion had 
 more right to it than McEnery." But how did Kellogg 
 obtain possession of the office? By reliable returns of 
 the result of the election, the only way in which he 
 could rightfully obtain it? Not at all; but virtually 
 and practically by the midnight- ex parte order of a 
 Federal judge, who was compelled to resign to avoid 
 impeachment by a Republican House because he granted 
 that illegal order in the exercise of a usurped jurisdic- 
 tion. And this is the governor who appealed to bay- 
 onets to determine a question that the Constitution of 
 Louisiana declares the House of Eepresentatives shall 
 decide ! 
 
 The Constitution of a sovereign State of this Union 
 has been trampled into the dust in the capital of that 
 State beneath the ruthless tread of an armed soldiery, 
 and the patriotic citizens of the Republic, East, West, 
 
332 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 ISTorth and South, in alarm demand to know by what 
 authority of law the deed was done, and with united 
 voice and earnest hearts they press the question. The 
 leaders of the Republican party have shrewdly at- 
 tempted to divert the public attention from this thril- 
 ling inquiry by the oft-repeated and threadbare cry of 
 outrages, proscription, murder, and insecurity of life 
 and property in the South. Is this a manly meeting 
 of the issue ? Do they suppose that the American peo- 
 ple will accept this old story, repeated a thousand times 
 and as often refuted, as a justification of this wrong 
 done to Louisiana ? Crimes always have been and al- 
 ways will be perpetrated by all classes in every form 
 of government and in every type of civilization. Law- 
 lessness, crime, and bloodshed exist to a greater or less 
 extent in every State in the Union. This is to be de- 
 plored ; it can not be prevented ; it can only be punished. 
 If crimes are not punished in the States of Louisiana 
 and Mississippi, who are to blame for it ? The Repub- 
 lican party has had control of these State governments 
 in all their departments, executive, legislative and judi- 
 cial, ever since they were reconstructed ; whether right- 
 fully or by usurpation, they have had control. Why 
 has crime not been punished ? Why is the judicial 
 arm of those States under the domination of the colored 
 Republican officials? Why does it riot afford protec- 
 tion? The admission that crime can not be punished 
 is a confession that the Republican party is incapable 
 of governing in those States at least. In every State 
 under Democratic rule and government in the South, 
 crime is punished, rights are protected, law enforced, 
 
MEN AND THINGS 333 
 
 and peace and order assured. This difference does not 
 arise from a difference in the people to be governed, but 
 from the difference in the capabilities and methods of 
 those who govern. 
 
 Everybody knows that the lamentable state of affairs 
 in Louisiana has resulted from the efforts made to se- 
 cure power and plunder by the miserable rival factions 
 of the Republican party, headed respectively by War- 
 moth and Kellogg. Yet this wretched abortion of a 
 State government, brought into being at the dark hour 
 of midnight by the order in chancery of a judge then 
 drunk and since abhorred, confessedly unable to pro- 
 tect life or punish crime, is the government which Fed- 
 eral soldiers overthrew the Constitution of Louisiana to 
 perpetuate over a people that have the right to be free. 
 AVhat agency- General Sheridan had in this affair does 
 not appear. The President informs us that he — 
 
 "Requested him to go to Louisiana to observe and 
 report the situation there, and if in his opinion neces- 
 sary, to assume the command ; which he did on the 4th 
 instant, after the legislative disturbance had occurred, 
 at nine o'clock p. m., a number of hours after the dis- 
 turbance." 
 
 Whether he was sent down with the view of hurting 
 somebody we are left to conjecture. It is clear he was 
 on the ground at the time, and deemed it necessary to 
 assume command and "report." He reports as follows : 
 "W. W. Belkxap, 
 
 "Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. 
 
 "I think that the terrorism now existing in Louisiana, 
 Mississippi and Arkansas could be entirely removed and 
 
334 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 confidence and fair dealing established by the arrest 
 and trial of the ringleaders of the armed White League. 
 If Congress would pass a bill declaring them banditti, 
 they could be tried by a military commission. The 
 ringleaders of this banditti, who murdered men here on 
 the 14th of last September, and also more recently at 
 Vicksburg, Mississippi, should, in justice to law and 
 order and the peace and prosperity of this South era 
 part of the country, be punished. It is possible that if 
 the President would issue a proclamation declaring 
 them banditti no furthei action need be taken except 
 that which would devolve upon me. 
 "P. H. Sheridan, 
 "Lieutenant-General United States Army." 
 
 To which report the Secretary of War replied : 
 
 "Your telegrams all received. The President and 
 all of us have full confidence and thoroughly approve 
 your course." 
 
 The simple proposition in this suggestion is that Con- 
 gi*ess suspend the writ of habeas corpus in Louisiana, 
 Mississippi and Arkansas, and turn the destinies, rights, 
 liberties and life of the citizens of these States, in a 
 time of peace, over to the tender mercies of a military 
 commission appointed by General Sheridan. Blit re- 
 flecting that Congress might not see it in that light, and 
 might still have some little regard for the Constitution 
 and the liberties of the people, he recommends a shorter 
 and more summary method of disposing of the white 
 citizens of three States : 
 
 "Let the President issue a proclamation declaring 
 
MEN AN D T H ING8 335 
 
 them banditti, and no further action need be taken ex- 
 cept that which would devolve upon me." 
 
 That would settle the question truly. That would 
 put a quietus to strife; that would protect law and sup- 
 press terrorism ; that would give peace to these States ; 
 the peace that Hastings gave to Hindostan; the peace 
 that Austria gave to Hungary; the peace that Kussia 
 gave to Poland — the peace of death. Yet this advice is 
 given by the second officer in rank in the United States 
 Army, coolly, deliberately, in a time of peace, to the 
 Eepublican President of the United States, and the 
 lightning flashes back the presidential expression of con- 
 fidence and approval. And all this under a Govern- 
 ment whose written Constitution declares that the privi- 
 lege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended 
 unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public 
 safety may require. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, it is singular that so much horror is 
 manifested at the White Leagues of the South and none 
 against the black leagues. It is notorious that almost 
 the entire body of colored voters in the South are mem- 
 bers of oath-bound leagues, meetings in darkness, and 
 many of them armed and incited to the most deadly hos- 
 tility to white men by bad men of the Republican party 
 for selfish partisan ends. But no words of complaint 
 or rebuke escapes Republican lips, no Republican press 
 teems with denunciation of them, and no arm of Federal 
 power is bared for their suppression. 
 
 The midnight heavens blush in redness with the 
 flamess of burning dwellings and gin-houses in South 
 Carolina, and the lieutenant-general of the army advises 
 
336 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 no suspension of tlie writ of habeas corpus that he may 
 summarily try the incendiary and punish the arson. 
 Why is this ? Is it because the turpitude of crime con- 
 sists in the color of the perpetrator ; or is it because it is 
 done by those who maintain a negro despotism over the 
 people of that suffering State? Why is there no con- 
 demnation of the black leaguers in the South ? Is it 
 because they were organized by adventurers in the in- 
 terest of the Republican party that they are not con- 
 demned ? 
 
 Why are not the armed organizations and hostile 
 demonstrations of the negroes in the South denounced? 
 It was this state of affairs that created the necessity for 
 White League organizations. It is because the negroes 
 have been armed and incited to hostility to the whites 
 by Republicans to secure power and plunder in defiance 
 of the popular will. This denunciation of the White 
 Leagues, this cry of lawlessness and insecurity of life 
 and property is raised to evade the issue and divert the 
 public attention from the true, the vital question in- 
 volved. That question is by virtue of what authority 
 of law the armed soldiers of the United States dispersed 
 the House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana. 
 It is no answer to this question to say that lawlessness, 
 violence and intimidation exist in Louisiana. This is 
 the answer of the lieutenant-general of the army. 
 Three bishops of different branches of the Christian 
 church, and the pastor of the synagogue caveat the truth 
 of the allegation in these words : 
 
 "We, the undersigned, believe it our duty to pro- 
 claim to the whole American people that these charges 
 
MEN AND THINGS 337 
 
 are unmerited, unfounded and erroneous, and can have 
 no other effect than that of serving the interest of cor- 
 rupt politicians who are at this moment using the most 
 extreme efforts to perpetuate their power over the State 
 of Louisiana." 
 
 I do not care to discuss the issue of fact thus joined. 
 But I will be allowed to state that the very able report 
 of the committee of this House, a majority of whom are 
 distinguished Republicans, explicitly and unequivocally 
 sustains the bishops and contradicts the general. But 
 admit that disorders exist in Louisiana; who is respon- 
 sible for them ? If crime is unpunished ; if life and 
 property are insecure; if business is deranged and 
 ruined ; if property is depreciated in value ; if taxation 
 amounts to confiscation, in the language of your com- 
 mittee, and if the people are discontented, who is re- 
 sponsible for it all ? This deplorable state of affairs is 
 the legitimate result of the misrule of rival Republican 
 factions utterly unworthy of public confidence and 
 wholly incapable of securing the objects for which gov- 
 ernment was instituted. And it was to sustain those 
 in power, thus unworthy, thus incapable, and of whose 
 election there were no reliable returns, that the Federal 
 soldiers broke up the House of Representatives. 
 
 It is the duty of the State government to punish 
 crime, to enforce law, and to protect right. And that 
 government that fails in these objects, fails to execute 
 the high trusts with which government is invested for 
 the public good. In the State of Georgia, under Repub- 
 lican rule, crime was not punished; but it is due to the 
 courts of that State to sav that it was no fault of theirs. 
 
338 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 A Republican governor, himself a fugitive from justico, 
 pardoned the most outrageous cases of murder, both 
 before and after conviction, and in many cases after 
 convictions had been affirmed by the Supreme Court. 
 The corruption of the executive palsied the arm of the 
 judiciary, and the criminal went free. 
 
 It is true, and the people of this country know that 
 it is true, that crime is punished, right protected, and 
 order maintained in every Southern State in which the 
 Democracy is in authority. Why? Because Demo- 
 crats have been placed in power by the popular will. 
 The people govern themselves. If disorder exists in 
 Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, they were pro- 
 duced by the struggle for power by rival Republican 
 factions in Louisiana and Arkansas, and by a carpet- 
 bag, negro government in Mississippi that was incapable 
 of discharging the functions of government. 
 
 I can not relieve my mind from the conviction that 
 there is "method in all this madness." I think that 
 Kellog disclosed the secret, when, in his communication 
 to the President at Long Branch of August the 19th 
 he despondingly says that Louisiana is now the last 
 State in the southwest, except Mississippi, that remains 
 true to the Republican party. It would seem, then, 
 that the supremacy of the Republican party after all 
 was the great question. If Louisiana remains true to 
 the Republican party, why is not the Republican party 
 able to govern Louisiana ? 
 
 A distinguished leader in that party in high official 
 power says, speaking of the Southern people : 
 
MEN AND THINGS 339 
 
 "What they want is to be let alone, and then they will 
 take possession of Louisiana, and they will take posses- 
 sion of Mississippi in the same way, and they will take 
 possession of Florida in the same- way, and they will 
 take possession of South Carolina in the same way, and 
 thus they intend to secure a solid Democratic South." 
 
 Can it be possible ! Is it credible that peace, quiet, 
 law, and order in these States are to be sacrificed to 
 party supremacy ; and still who doubts it ? 
 
 It is boldly proclaimed by one of the first men in 
 ability and position in the Republican party that if the 
 white people of the South are let alone it will secure a 
 solid Democratic South, And that is literally true. 
 If let alone by the Federal Government, if left to exer- 
 cise the constitutional right of local self-government, 
 there would soon be a solid Democratic South. This 
 is the reason why the Federal soldiers did not let Louis- 
 iana alone. When let alone, the people are opposed to 
 usurpation; when let alone, they are in favor of the 
 subordination of the military to the civil authority; 
 when let alone, they are capable of punishing crime, 
 of preserving peace, and of enforcing law. 
 
 The trouble with Louisiana has been that she was 
 not let alone. 
 
 Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indi- 
 ana, and other States were let alone, and they recently 
 went solidly Democratic. And leave the South alone, 
 and every State will soon be solidly Democratic. This 
 is the reason why the armed soldiery of the United 
 States did not let the House of Representatives of Louis- 
 
340 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 iana alone. It was, if let alone, Democratic. It may- 
 soon become necessary to apply the method adopted in 
 Louisiana to Massachusetts and ]^ew York. It is a 
 very effective way to convert Democratic States into 
 military despotisms. But just now a universal demand 
 comes up from the people to be let alone. They are 
 honest, they are capable, they are patriotic, and when 
 let alone they will maintain public liberty, they will 
 preserve free institutions, and will transmit unimpaired 
 to posterity the blood-bought heritage of constitutional 
 government. The complaint they make is that they are 
 not let alone; that the armed soldiers of the United 
 States determined a question by force which under the 
 Constitution the House of Representatives alone had the 
 right to determine. Our fathers intended that they 
 should be let alone in the exercise of those rights which 
 were not expressly delegated to the Federal Govern- 
 ment; hence they said in article 9 of amendments to 
 the Constitution that — 
 
 The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain 
 rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others 
 retained by the people. 
 
 And in article 10 of the same amendment that — 
 
 The powers not delegated to the United States by the 
 Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are 
 reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. 
 
 The people of this country have the right to be let 
 alone in the exercise of all the rights and powers which 
 were not surrendered by them in the Constitution to 
 the Federal Government, and this is the difference 
 
MEN AND THINGS 341 
 
 between the creeds of the Democratic and Republican 
 parties. The Democratic doctrine is the freedom of the 
 people to exercise those rights of local self-government 
 not surrendered in the Constitution to the Federal Gov- 
 ernment; while the Republican party maintains the 
 supremacy of the Federal authority over the local affairs 
 of the States, even to the installation and maintenance 
 in power of a governor never elected and the dispersion 
 of a House of Representatives duly elected, and that this 
 power may be rightfully exercised by the executive 
 through the arm of the military. This issue is fairly 
 and squarely made. Louisiana is the illustration. It 
 can not be evaded. This usurpation must be sustained 
 or repudiated. If sustained, constitutional liberty in 
 this country is dead; if repudiated, the supremacy of 
 the Republican party is ended. It remains for the 
 American people to decide it. 'No graver question ever 
 engaged the attention of any people or the deliberations 
 of any assembly, the number of public meetings 
 throughout the country shows with what intense anxiety 
 the great heart of the American people throbs at its con- 
 templation. 
 
 This question of usurpation can not be answered by 
 charges of treason and rebellion in the late deplorable 
 war. That national calamity is past. The issue it in- 
 volved was submitted to the arbitrament of the sword, 
 and the award was against the South. The people of 
 that section accept the situation and abide the result. 
 They pressed their bleeding lips to the oath of allegiance 
 which you presented, and repledged their fidelity to the 
 
842 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 Constitution and the Union. By that pledge they stand, 
 and in its maintenance they would perish. The brave 
 men of the South will defend the flag of the Union 
 with the same heroism that they bore it on the bloody 
 hillsides of Buena Vista and Cerro Gordo. But they 
 want liberty with the Union. They re-echo the immor- 
 tal sentiment of ISTew England's greatest statesman, 
 "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and insep- 
 arable." 
 
 When the people of this great Republic meet at the 
 approaching centennial, they want no State crushed 
 beneath the iron heel of military despotism, bound by 
 the cruel chains of slavery, bleeding in the dust from 
 wounds inflicted by Federal bayonets. They wish to 
 meet the people of this country on that occasion from 
 the East, ISTorth, and West as brethren, identified in 
 interest, sharing the same hopes, animated by the same 
 patriotism, and involved in a common destiny, and in 
 the spirit of magnanimity and fraternity forget and 
 forgive the bitter and unfortunate past; and drawing 
 inspiration from the spirit of our fathers, on that hal- 
 lowed ground, rekindle on the altar of a common country 
 the flame of freedom. The institutions of this country 
 can not be perpetuated by force. They rest for support 
 upon the hearts and aifections of the American people. 
 Then let justice be done to suffering, down-trodden 
 Louisiana. Let the Federal soldiers be withdrawn from 
 her soil; leave her ruined yet patient people to govern 
 themselves. And let us inaugurate an era of equality 
 among the States and of devotion to the Constitution; 
 
MEN AND THINGS 343 
 
 an era of peace, of justice, of friendship. And let us 
 maintain and transmit to posterity unimpaired the sa- 
 cred trust of free institutions and constitutional liberty 
 secured to us by the heroism and blood of our fathers. 
 
 SPEECH. 
 
 Delivered in the House of Representatives, Novem- 
 ber U, 1877. 
 
 Speech of Hon. H. P. Bell, of Georgia, in Support of the 
 Bill Reported by Mr. Ewing from the Committee 
 on Banhing and Currency to Repeal an Act En- 
 titled an Act to Resume Specie Payment. 
 
 The bill for the repeal of the resumption clause being 
 imder consideration — 
 
 Mr. Bell said: 
 
 Mr. Speaker, on the 14th day of January, 1875, the 
 act known as the resumption act was approved. H 
 originated in the Senate and was passed in the House 
 of Kepresentatives under the operation of the previous 
 question. No debate was had upon the bill in the 
 House and no opportunity for debate allowed by those 
 who had the matter in charge. After testing the wis- 
 dom of this law by its practical operation, a large por- 
 tion of the American people have arrived at the conclu- 
 sion that at least that provision of the third section 
 which relates to the redemption in coin of the United 
 States legal-tender notes should bo repealed. A ma- 
 jority of the Committee on Banking and Currency, 
 acting in obedience to what was supposed to be pop- 
 
344 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 ular will, as well as in conformity with the convictions 
 of their own judgment, reported, at the first opportu- 
 nity, the bill under consideration for that purpose. 
 The question thus raised, though simple in its statement, 
 involves, in anything like an extended discussion of it, 
 the consideration of every material interest in this great 
 country. If I were capable of so doing, I should not 
 attempt an elaborate discussion of all the questions of 
 interest that legitimately belong to it. I shall, there- 
 fore content myself with a brief statement of the 
 reasons which induce those whose interest and opinions 
 I represent to desire the passage of the bill as well as 
 those which control my own judgment in supporting it. 
 
 I submit and undertake to maintain the following 
 propositions : 
 
 First. That it is impracticable, if not impossible, 
 for the Government on the 1st day of January, 1879, 
 to redeem in coin the United States legal-tender notes 
 outstanding. 
 
 Second. That, if it were possible or practical it 
 would be unwise in policy and ruinous in results to do 
 so. Can the Government, in view of all its obligations 
 and its available resources, present and prospective, 
 redeem in coin its outstanding legal-tender notes on the 
 1st day of January, 1879? In view of the distressed 
 condition of the country, can we afford to risk the exper- 
 iment? How will resumption affect the volume of 
 the currency, the amount in circulation, the price of 
 property, the value of labor, and the prosperity of all 
 the great industries of the country ? These are grave, 
 practical questions which the tax-burdened and poverty- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 345 
 
 stricken millions of this land are pressing with more 
 than an ordinary interest and earnestness. It seems 
 to me that the amount to be redeemed and the means 
 of redemption are important factors in the solution of 
 the problem. 
 
 The amount of United States legal-tender notes out- 
 standing now is $354,490,892. How much this amount 
 may be varied before the first day of January, 1870, 
 it is impossible to tell. I assume that it will not be 
 gi-eatly changed. What the means of the Government 
 for the redemption of these notes wdll amount to on the 
 1st of January, 1879, is left to conjecture. But if the 
 Government owned and controlled all the coin and bul- 
 lion now in the country, and could use every dollar of 
 it in the redemption of the notes, it would pay but 
 little over 50 per cent. We do know from authentic 
 ofiicial resources that the amount of United States legal- 
 tender notes now outstanding is $354,490,892. And 
 we know from the same source (the report of the Comp- 
 troller of the Currency) that the whole amount of gold 
 and silver coin and bullion in the entire country is 
 estimated at only $186,678,000, which, deducted from 
 the amount of the notes leaves an excess of $167,812,892 
 of the notes over the entire amount of coin and bullion 
 in the whole country. So that if the Government now 
 owned and controlled all the specie in the country and 
 was in a condition to use every dollar in redemption, 
 it could redeem but little over one half of the notes. 
 But it is not true that the Government owns all the 
 gold and silver coin and bullion in this country, or 
 that it can control it all. 
 
346 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 The precise amount of coin in the Treasury belonging 
 to the Government on the Ist day of November, 1877, 
 is $97,479,643.94. The difference between this sum 
 and $354,490,892, the amount of legal-tender notes, 
 outstanding at same date, is $257,021,248,06. To show 
 the ability of the Government to redeem these notes, 
 the opponents of this bill encounter the difficult task 
 of proving that $97,479,892.94 in coin will redeem 
 at par, $354,479,892 in legal-tender notes. To do 
 which they Avill have to invent a new system of math- 
 ematics, for it certainly can not be by any mode of 
 calculation with which the world is now acquainted; 
 or they will have to do what is equally difficult; show 
 that with decreasing revenues and a public debt of 
 $2,047,350,700.75, less cash in the Treasury, the Gov- 
 ernment, on the first day of January, 1879, after dis- 
 charging all its indispensable obligations, Avill be able 
 to redeem, at par, in coin, its outstanding legal-tender 
 notes. He is a bold man w^ho will undertake it, and 
 will succeed in convincing the world that he has a larger 
 endowment of courage than judgment. 
 
 It is unquestionably clear that resumption now would 
 be an impossibility. It is not within the reach of any 
 human power to show that it will be possible or practi- 
 cable on the first day of January, 1879, to show that 
 the amount to be redeemed and the means of redemp- 
 tion will be so varied by that time from what they are 
 now as to attain an equality. 
 
 Eesumption is not to be gradual. The obligation im- 
 posed upon the Government by the law which it is pro- 
 posed to repeal is to redeem in coin the outstanding 
 
MEN AND THINGS 347 
 
 United States legal-tender notes on the first day of 
 January, 1879. The only qualification is that the 
 notes shall be presented in sums of more than $50. 
 That one gold dollar will pay, at par, five paper dol- 
 lars, is a logical as well as a mathematical absurdity. 
 There can be no gi-eat change in the amount of coin 
 required to pay the interest on the national debt be- 
 tween the present time and the time fixed by law for 
 redemption. 
 
 There is no reasonable probability that the produc- 
 tion of gold in this country will increase, or that there 
 will be an influx of it from abroad, since Germany and 
 Great Britain, as well as some other European Govern- 
 ments, have adopted it as the sole standard of value. 
 The public revenues are falling off and taxation has 
 reached the utmost limit that can be borne by the peo- 
 ple. How can the Government be able to resume specie 
 payments at the time prescribed by the resimiption act ? 
 "Where is the coin to come from? How is it to be ob- 
 tained ? Will the bankers of the House and the oppo- 
 nents of this bill enlighten the country upon these ques- 
 tions ? Star-spangled banner and spread-eagle speeches 
 do not answer the question nor satisfy a suffering peo- 
 ple. To say that the effect of resumption will be 
 to appreciate the legal-tender notes to an equality in 
 value with gold, and that therefore the holders of the 
 notes will not want the gold and will not present them 
 for redemption, is to trifle with the question. With 
 the experience of the last ten years in the fluctuations 
 in values of money and property, does any one suppose 
 that the holders of these non-interest-bearing notes 
 
348 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 would keep them a day after they could be exchanged 
 for gold. To suppose that they would is to suppose 
 that human nature will be changed and men will cease 
 to love gold, or that human reason will be .lost and 
 men will cease to understand values. 
 
 Some of the most ardent oppnents of this bill, as 
 I understand, admit that it is impossible, as a matter 
 of fact, for the Government to redeem these notes 
 in coin at the time provided in the resumption act. 
 They would insist, I suppose, that the Government can 
 begin to redeem them, and as soon as redemption is 
 commenced the holders of the notes will take the will 
 for the deed ; by a sort of etherealized imagination take 
 it for granted that resumption is an accomplished 
 fact. This logic may convince resumptionists, capital- 
 ists, and gold gamblers, but the honest and unfortunate 
 debtor, whose property is sacrificed at sheriff's sale, and 
 the unemployed laborer, whose starving family stretch 
 out their skeleton hands for bread, will not understand 
 a piece of financial jugglery that fattens wealth and 
 famishes want. It may be insisted that the Govern- 
 ment can borrow the coin from abroad that may be 
 necessary to redeem its notes. I prefer to let high 
 Republican authority answer that suggestion. A for- 
 mer Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Boutwell, upon this 
 subject, says: 
 
 "The Bank of England, foreseeing that there would 
 be an accumulation of coin to the credit of the United 
 States which might be taken away bodily in specie, 
 gave notice to the officers of the Treasury Department 
 of the United States that the power of that institution 
 
me:s[ and things 349 
 
 would be arrayed against the whole proceeding unless 
 we gave a pledge that the coin should not be removed, 
 and that we would re-invest it in the bonds of the Uni- 
 ted States as they were offered in the markets of Lon- 
 don. We were compelled to comply. It was in the in- 
 terest of the Government that we should do so, because 
 we did not want the coin and we did want the bonds. 
 But it shows the feeling that animates the central finan- 
 cial power of Great Britain. And it shows a policy on 
 the part of that institution, and of every kindred insti- 
 tution on the continent of Europe, sustained by all the 
 banking and commercial classes, by which, if it were 
 necessary and this proposition should become a law, 
 the bonds of the United States would be excluded from 
 the stock market of every financial city. There are in 
 the nine great banks of Europe only $600,000,000 in 
 specie. That specie is held as a reserve with reference 
 to their local business and with reference to the great 
 transactions that take place between the countries of 
 continental E<urope and Great Britain. 
 
 I may say, without disparaging the author of these 
 propositions, that it is useless for Congress to waste 
 time looking in that direction. There is another fact, 
 known to all. We recovered at Geneva an award 
 against Great Britain of $15,500,000. AMien this 
 claim was maturing, the banking and commercial classes 
 of Great Britain induced the government to interpose^ 
 and by diplomatic arrangement through the State De- 
 partment here, operating upon the Treasury Depart- 
 ment, secured the transfer of securities, and thus 
 avoided the transfer of coin. 
 
350 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 In the presence of these facts, is it to be assumed for 
 a moment that we can go into the markets of the world 
 and purchase coin with which we can redeem four, 
 three, two or even one hundred millions of outstanding 
 legal-tender notes ? 
 
 This is the judgment of a gentleman whose position 
 and relation with the financial world enabled him to 
 thoroughly understand the question whether the Gov- 
 ernment could borrow coin to redeem the legal-tender 
 notes. It has been shown that the Government can not 
 redeem these notes because it does not possess and can 
 not control the means to do so. 
 
 I consider the second proposition: That, if it were 
 possible or practicable, it would be unwise in policy and 
 ruinous in results to do so at the time specified. Sup- 
 pose the Government were to redeem every dollar of 
 outstanding legal-tender notes on the first day of Jan- 
 uary, 1879. This redemption would necessarily with- 
 draw them from circulation and leave in circulation 
 only $351,861,450 in national bank notes. Assuming 
 that there would be no change in the amount from the 
 present time until the time fixed for resumption, what 
 would be the inevitable result of such diminution in 
 the amount of the currency ? It could not be otherwise 
 than disastrous in the extreme. Of course, the gold 
 would not enter into circulation, it would be hoarded. 
 A circulation so inadequate to pay the debts and carry 
 on the business of the country, the shrinkage in values, 
 the paralysis of all the industries, and the starvation 
 of the laboring classes would involve us in such ruin as 
 the world has seldom witnessed. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 351 
 
 Resumption does not mean the appreciation of tho 
 legal-tender notes to an equality with the present value 
 of gold, but it means an immeasurable increase in the 
 price of gold and its banishment into the vaults of banks 
 and the coffers of misers, with a corresponding decrease 
 in the value of all kinds of property, and a reduction 
 in the wages of labor, for which the country is not pre- 
 pared, and to which it would not and ought not to sub- 
 mit. If you ask how the people will help themselves, 
 I answer, at the ballot-box. Capital is not the only 
 power in this country. The popular intuition, even be- 
 fore the demonstration of experience, discovered tho 
 mischief of the resumption act, and it will find the rem- 
 edy. The remedy for political evils and unwise legis- 
 lation may come slowly, but it will come surely. 
 
 I but state a truism when I say that when money is 
 high, and the price or value of property falling, money 
 is the most valuable, and therefore the most desirable 
 form of wealth, and "like the leaves of sibyl," it in- 
 creases in value as it diminishes in quantity. 
 
 If redemption on the first day of January, 1879, were 
 practicable, and gold with which the notes were re- 
 deemed and withdrawn from circulation would be 
 hoarded until the falling prices of property and labor 
 resulting from the contraction in the volume of cur- 
 rency, produced thereby, had reached the bottom, and 
 then it would appear to possess the one and control the 
 other. The country is overwhelmed with a burden of 
 debt — national. State, county, municipal, and individ- 
 ual — estimated at seven and a half billions, an amount 
 that almost defies the computation of figures. In the 
 
352 ME2^ AND THINGS 
 
 opinion of many tlie amount of money now in circula- 
 tion is not sufficient to meet the wants of forty-five mil- 
 lions of people in the highest state of civilization, with 
 wants constantly multiplying and demands for money 
 daily increasing, crushed with debt and burdened with 
 an exhaustive and unjust system of taxation. 
 
 Upon the assumption that resumption succeed and 
 the legal-tender notes should be redeemed, the national- 
 bank notes, which, as we have seen, now amount to 
 only $316,775,111, will constitute the only circulation 
 with which the people can pay their debts and carry on 
 the business of life. This is to take place suddenly, at 
 a time arbitrarily fixed by law, when the public reve- 
 nues are diminishing, labor unemployed and unfed, 
 clamoring for work and suffering for bread, property 
 of every description rapidly depreciating, and the gold- 
 bearing securities of the Government as rapidly appre- 
 ciating in the hands of purchasers who obtain them at 
 prices under the nominal value, and universal bank- 
 ruptcy impending over millions of people, who at the 
 same time possess a country without a parallel in history 
 in the extent, variety, and richness of its resources. Is 
 it not singular that the people should challenge the wis- 
 dom of a policy under which all these evils are found 
 to exist and seek to change legislation in which they are 
 believed to have their origin ? And it is not strange 
 that Representatives fresh from them should be in haste 
 to present and press bills to remonetize silver and re- 
 peal Procustean resumption acts. 
 
 Does any one insist that the amount of the currency 
 is larger than the necessities of the people require? 
 
MEN AND THINGS J53 
 
 Does any one deny that activity, enterprise, and im- 
 provement are co-incidents of a large circulation ? Does 
 not every one at all familiar with the subject know 
 that, when money is abundant and cheap, forests are 
 felled, factories are built, railroads are constructed, 
 and that town and cities spring up where savages roam- 
 ed and solitude reigned. 
 
 These facts are known by the testimony of all finan- 
 cial experts and political economists, and by the more 
 reliable evidence of experience in all nations and ages. 
 Upon this subject one of the greatest men this country 
 ever produced, and at one time Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury, William H. Crawford, said, "that all intelligent 
 writers on currency agree that, where it is decreasing in 
 amount, poverty and misery must prevail." 
 
 The American Review for 1876, upon the same sub- 
 ject, says: 
 
 "Diminishing money and falling prices are not only 
 oppressive upon debtors, of whom in modern times 
 States are the greatest, but they cause stagnation in bus- 
 iness, reduced production, and enforced idleness. Fall- 
 ing markets annihilate profits, and it is only the expec- 
 tation of gain which stimulates the investment of cap- 
 ital, inadequate employment is found for labor, and 
 those who are employed can only be so upon the condi- 
 tion of diminished wages. An increasing amount of 
 money and consequently augmented prices are at- 
 tended by results precisely the contrary. Production is 
 stimulated by profits resulting from advancing prices. 
 Labor is consequently in demand and better paid, and 
 
354 
 
 MEN AXD THINGS 
 
 the general activity and bouyancy insure capital a wider 
 range and higher remuneration. 
 
 This is but a history of a small and large circulation 
 always and everywhere. 
 
 The following statement compiled by an intelligent 
 gentleman formerly in the United States Treasury 
 (Mr. Alexander Delmar), shows the effects of expansion 
 and contraction in this country from 1832 to the pres- 
 ent time to be as follows : 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 FroDi 
 From 
 From 
 From 
 From 
 From 
 From 
 From 
 
 1832 to 
 
 1837 to 
 
 1843 to 
 
 1857 to 
 
 1861 to 
 1865 to 
 
 1870 to 
 
 1873 to 
 
 1837 
 1843 
 1857 
 1861 
 1865 
 1870 
 1873 
 18 
 
 PER CAPITA. 
 
 EFFECT. 
 
 Expansion from $7. 50 to 114.00... Activity. 
 Contraction from $14.00 to ?6.90.. Depression. 
 Expansion from $6.90 to $16.70... Activity. 
 Contraction from $16.70 to $i8.70 Depression. 
 Expansion from $13 70 to $28 50.. Activity. 
 Contraction from $28.50 to $20.80 Depression. 
 Contraction from $20. 80 to $14.oO Banliruptcy. 
 Contraction from $14.00 to $10.00 Beggary'crlme, strikes 
 
 I and suicide. 
 
 Much has been said in this discussion of the amount 
 of currency and coin in France, and the prosperity 
 which prevails in that country. Upon this subject Mr. 
 Delmar says: 
 
 France has a population of thirty-three millions and 
 a national currency of $2,000,000,000, or more than 
 $60 per capita. We have not half that amount, with a 
 population of forty millions (I may add nearly forty- 
 five millions,) w^ith a per capita currency of less than. 
 $10. France is prosperous and we are pressed beyond 
 endurance. 
 
 If we have had a terrible war, so has France. If our 
 national resources were exhausted so were those of 
 France. What makes the difference? 
 
MEN AND THINGS 
 
 355 
 
 The debate in this House has developed the fact that 
 precisely the same results followed contraction and ex- 
 pansion in Great Britain from 1818 to 1826. The 
 gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr, Kelly) showed 
 from Tallis's Illustrated Atlas of Modern History of the 
 World the following : 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 CIRCULATION. 
 
 EFFECTS. 
 
 18l8.._ 
 
 £47,727,000 
 41358,948 
 35,129,405 
 23,699.500 
 26,743,260 
 29,502,422 
 33.124,658 
 34,220-738 
 30,911.323 
 
 Prosperity. 
 
 1819 
 
 Distress. 
 
 1820 
 
 1821 „ 
 
 1822 
 
 Distress. 
 
 (Great distress, connty 
 t meetings for relief. 
 
 1823 
 
 1824 _ 
 
 1825 
 
 1826 _. 
 
 ) Great prosperity and 
 S speculation. 
 
 Here stand the facts. What do they teach ? What do 
 they mean if they do not mean that distress follows con- 
 traction and that activity and prosperity follow expan- 
 sion? Will the opponents of this bill interpret these 
 facts if they do not teach that bankruptcy and ruin will 
 follow the withdrawal of $354,490,892 United States 
 legal-tender notes from the circulation w^ith no provision 
 to supply them with something in their stead? It is 
 worse than idle to insist that gold will take their place 
 in the circulation. Resumption of specie payment in 
 Great Britain, in 1821, brought ruin upon a generation 
 in the reduction of the value of property and the wages, 
 of labor. It will do precisely the same thing in the 
 United States, in 1879, unless the bill under considera- 
 tion becomes the law of the land. 
 
 It will be conceded that the great bulk of the indebt- 
 
356 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 edness of the country was contracted upon the basis of 
 an inflated currency and exorbitantly high prices, 
 either during the war or since its close. Payment 
 is demanded when the currency is contracted and when 
 prices of property are ruinously low. But one result 
 has followed, but one result can follow, inability to pay. 
 
 The third section of the resumption act has done 
 much toward reaching this result. The country was as- 
 sured and understood that while that section provided 
 for resumption, it provided for it in a way that would 
 not affect the volume of the circulation. But this turns 
 out to be a delusion. A\Tiether it was pressed through 
 the House of Representatives under the previous ques- 
 tion to prevent the discovery of this delusion, I will 
 not undertake to say. But one thing is clear from the 
 official statement of the Comptroller of the Currency, 
 and that is that under the construction of the Treasury 
 Department it is a most vigorous measure of contrac- 
 tion. Under its operation there have been withdrawn 
 directly of national bank notes in less than two 
 years, $35,086,339; of United States legal-tender notes, 
 $27,595,447; making in the aggregate, $62,681,786., 
 The gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Phillips) showed 
 that about $44,000,000 more had been retired in va- 
 rious w^ays under the operation of the act. 
 
 We have had abundant crops, a large excess of 
 imports over exports in our foreign commerce. We 
 have cut down the expenses of the Government; still 
 debts are unpaid and interest accumulating; values are 
 shrinking and labor is almost starving. 
 
 I will not stop to speculate upon the amount the 
 
MEN AND THINGS 357 
 
 country is daily losing in the stagnation of its business 
 and the idleness of its labor. If these damaging effects 
 have resulted from a contraction that is gradual and 
 continual, covering a period of two years, how can ruin 
 be obviated from the revulsion ensuing from contrac- 
 tion by the withdrawal suddenly and certainly of more 
 than one-half of the currency now in circulation with- 
 out an equivalent to take its place ? It will as certainly 
 follow as effect follows cause. We can not imperil the 
 fortunes of this country upon an experiment so hazard- 
 ous to every interest, public and private. The recent 
 "strike," that startled the country from its center to its 
 circumference with the magnitude of its proportions, 
 the celerity of its movements, and the destructiveness 
 of its operations, involving the loss of many lives and 
 millions of property, contains a lesson from which capi- 
 tal may take warning and the Government derive wis- 
 dom. 
 
 The charge that the repeal of the resumption act 
 means the repudiation of the obligation of the Govern- 
 ment to redeem the United States legal-tender notes, 
 scarcely rises to a dignity that entitles it to contempt. 
 The question of repudiation is not involved in this 
 question of repeal, either directly or indirectly, imme- 
 diately or remotely, l^o time is specified in the obli- 
 gation, when redemption shall take place. The law 
 passed long after the obligation was incurred, fixing 
 the time when it should be discharged, is no part of the 
 obligation. The law can be repealed and no time fixed, 
 leaving the question of time undetermined, as it was 
 before the resumption act was passed, without affecting 
 
358 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 the obligation and without violating the public faith 
 in the slightest degree whatever. There is not the least 
 danger that the Government will ever repudiate its ob- 
 ligation to pay the legal-tender notes, for two reasons: 
 first, nobody in the United States favors it, and in the 
 second place, the Constitution declares that the validity 
 of the public debt shall never be questioned. 
 
 The question is not whether the Government shall 
 ever redeem them, but whether a law that fixes without 
 reason a time for redemption, shall be repealed. I ap- 
 prehend that every friend of repeal on this floor and in 
 this country wishes to see the Government pay every 
 debt it owes. But they do not wish to see the property 
 and prosperity of the country destroyed in an effort 
 to do a thing which the Government is unable to do anvl 
 under no obligation to do, to wit, redeem $354,490,892 
 in legal-tender notes on the 1st day of January, 1879, 
 when it never promised to redeem them on that nor any 
 other specified day. I look for a time in the near fu- 
 ture when the Government will be able to redeem every 
 dollar of these notes. This house, in my judgment, has 
 taken an important step in that direction in passing the 
 bill to remonetize silver. If this should be done, it 
 will convert the large amount of silver in the country 
 from a commodity to a currency, and to the extent of 
 its production swell the volume of the currency. It will 
 depreciate the value of gold, because equally with gold it 
 will be a legal- tender in the payment of customs duties 
 and all debts except those required by the terms &£ the 
 contract to be paid in a different currency. 
 
 If the country can be saved from the ruin which tfic 
 
MEN AND THINGS 359 
 
 resumption act is precipitating upon it by its early re- 
 peal and the statesmanship of the country rises to an 
 equality with the emergencies upon it, there will be 
 but little difficulty in returning within a few years to 
 specie payments. It can not be done, however, while 
 the bane of all prosperity, fluctuation in the value of 
 money and property, shall continue. It can only be 
 done when the volume of the currency becomes steady, 
 the values of money and property become settled, the 
 laws of supply and demand are restored to their normal 
 relations, labor and capital re-adjust their relations 
 upon the basis of reasonable profits for the one and just 
 compensation for the other. 
 
 The question has been raised in this debate why la- 
 bor was cheaper in Europe than in the United States. 
 The reason is obvious. Capital has accomplished 
 there wdiat it seeks to do here. It has dictated the price 
 of labor, and the large standing armies of the European 
 despotisms suppressed complaint. The people of these 
 United States do not intend to allow capital to control 
 labor, nor do they intend to support a large standing 
 army in times of peace to suppress the expression of 
 opinion or hush the cry of want. 
 
 I have endeavored to show that the resumption act 
 should be repealed, because it is impossible for the Gov- 
 ernment to discharge the obligation which it imposes 
 npon it, for the reason that it does not possess and can 
 not obtain the coin necessary for that purpose. And 
 that if it were possible to do so, it would necessarily 
 withdraw from the circulation, already small as com- 
 pared with that of other countries, an amount that 
 
360 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 would leave the people without the means of paying 
 debts and carrying on the affairs of life ; that it would 
 depreciate gold and drive it into the vaults of banks 
 and coffers of misers, and so reduce the value of proo- 
 erty and labor as to destroy the one and starve the other, 
 and thus overwhelm the country in bankruptcy and 
 ruin. That these results must inevitably follow, a 
 very large portion of the people of this country have 
 not the slightest doubt. 
 
 With discreet legislation, the future of this country 
 is full of hope. We are returning to constitutional 
 methods of administration. The ballot dominates the 
 bayonet. Military despotism has ceased in the South. 
 The virtue, intelligence, and honor of her people find 
 expression in the character and patriotism of her rep- 
 resentatives upon this floor and in the Senate. Sec- 
 tional animosity has been displaced by national con- 
 cord and fraternity. The reign of the carpet-bagger 
 has closed ; universal contempt has embalmed him in in- 
 famy and sent him to history. It is but just to the col- 
 ored people of the South to say that since let alone, 
 they conduct themselves with propriety. High respon- 
 sibilities devolve upon us. The inauguration of a sys- 
 tem of legislative and administrative policy that will 
 develop all the material resources of the country, ex- 
 tend its commerce, correct the disorders of its finance, 
 reward its labor, protect its capital, maintain its faith, 
 reform its revenue system, and mitigate the burdens 
 of the people are the high obligations we have assumed 
 
MEN AND THINGS 361 
 
 upon entering these halls, and, for the fidelity with 
 which we discharge them, we must answer at the bar of 
 an enlightened public judgment. 
 
 1 now yield the balance of my time to my colleague. 
 
 Pensions to the Soldiees of the Mexican and 
 
 Indian Wars. 
 
 Speech of the Hon. H. P. Bell, of Georgia. Delivered 
 in the Rouse of Representatives, February 9, 1878. 
 
 The House being as in Committee of the Whole on 
 the state of the Union upon the subject of the bill (H. 
 K. 1^0. 257, reported by Mr. Hewitt, of Alabama, from 
 the Committee on Invalid Pensions, at the first session 
 of the Forty-Fifth Congress), granting pensions to the 
 soldiers of the Mexican, Seminole, Creek, and Black 
 Hawk Indian wars — 
 
 Mr. Bell said : 
 
 Mr. Speaker: Governments, under all forms, in 
 all ages and every type of civilization, have manifested 
 in some way their appreciation of the public service of 
 their citizens or subjects. The achievements of states- 
 men and the triumphs of warriors are carved in bronze, 
 chiseled in marble, or colored on canvas, and thus dis- 
 tinguished virtues and great deeds are preserved to his- 
 tory and transmitted to posterity. This tribute of ad- 
 miration to gi'eatness is creditable to human nature, al- 
 though its expression is often long delayed and fre- 
 quently partial when bestowed. 
 
 The highest evidence of right to public gratitude 
 
362 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 which the citizen of this or any country can give is the 
 offering of his blood and his life to the Govern?zient in 
 the defense of its liberty, the vindication of its rights, 
 and the honor of its flag. 
 
 The Government of the United States has evinced ito 
 appreciation of the service of its citizen soldiery in pro- 
 viding by law, in the form of pensions, a support for 
 them when disease contracted in camp or wounds re- 
 ceived in battle or advanced age or physical infirmity 
 rendered them unable to secure it for themselves. This 
 may be regarded as the settled policy of the Government, 
 the only exception to it being the in the case of the sol- 
 diers of the Mexican war and the Seminole, Creek and 
 Black Hawk Indian wars. Whether the support is al- 
 ways commensurate with the merits or necessities of 
 each particular case, or whether the pension in some 
 particular instances may not be fraudulently obtained, 
 are questions that I do not now propose to consider. 
 There is no American citizen who does not now feel that 
 the pittance granted to the heroes of the Revolution of 
 177 Q was a poor return for the heritage of freedom won 
 by their valor on the field and embodied by their wisdom 
 in the Constitution. And there is no American citizen, 
 I apprehend, who does not regret, since the death ol 
 the last of that band of heroes, that more liberal and 
 just provision was not made by the Government for their 
 comfort and support while living. But the opportunity 
 to cancel that high obligation is now gone, and those 
 who had it in their power to discharge it and failed to 
 do so are left to the reflections which remorse alone can 
 suggest, the never-failing penalty of neglected duty. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 363 
 
 The soldiers of the Mexican war, and of the Semi- 
 nole, Creek and Black Hawk Indian wars, after waiting 
 thirty years for the Government to do them the same 
 measure of justice it has its soldiers in other wars, in 
 conformity with its established policy, and waited in 
 vain, have at length appealed to that Government which 
 they so faithfully served for that right which has been 
 so long deferred and so persistently refused. These 
 veterans pay without complaint their proportion of 
 twenty-eight millions annually in pensions to the sol- 
 diers of the Union Army in the late war between the 
 States. They likewise pay their part of thirty-eight 
 millions annually to support a skeleton army of com- 
 missioned officers to guard the Texas border from incur- 
 sions from the banditti whose country the Mexican sol- 
 diers conquered. They pay taxes also to support the 
 establishment at West Point for the education, at pub- 
 lic expense, of future officers of the army of the United 
 States, to be maintained, at the public expense, in peace 
 as well as in war. 
 
 They do not understand how the Government can deny 
 their claim and at the same time exhibit such princely 
 liberality in granting, in subsidies, $4,500,000 to the 
 Pacific Mail Steamship Company to transport Chinese 
 into California to be sold into slavery, and $1,387,500 
 to the United States and Brazil Steamship Company, 
 and $64,623,512 in bonds and thirty-one millions of 
 acres of the public lands to the Pacific Railroad, and 
 yet be unable to pay a pension of $8 per month to a few 
 hundred old men whose valor won an empire from a for- 
 eign foe, and cast it, glittering with gold, at our feet. 
 
364 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 There is no difficulty in understanding how the Govern- 
 ment became able to give so much land and money 
 away ; the soldiers recovered it for the Government from 
 Mexico. But the difficulty consists in reconciling the 
 conduct of the Government, according to the standard 
 of any nation, civilized or savage, with right of justice, 
 in giving the domain and treasure bought with the 
 blood of the brave, to soulless corporations, and refus- 
 ing to pay to the soldier that which in all other in- 
 stances the Government itself has recognized to be the 
 highest obligation. If the wish of the people of this 
 country could have found expression through the forms 
 of law, justice to these men would not have been denied 
 in the past; and if it is now permitted to have utter- 
 ance, it will not be delayed for a day in the future. 
 
 To subject them to the humiliation of asking for a 
 right so manifestly clear, is itself an act of gross injus- 
 tice. A government inspired with gratitude for distin- 
 guished public service would have magnanimously 
 shown it when the first occasion was presented. I do 
 not propose to discuss the details of the bill reported to 
 the House by the conunittee. I shall certainly give it 
 a most cheerful support, and would prefer it if it were 
 even more liberal in its provisions for the widows and 
 orphans of the dead soldiers. What I propose is to 
 examine the gTound upon which the claim for pensions 
 is based, and to insist, with all possible earnestness, 
 upon its earliest recognition. Who are these men ? 
 What service have they rendered to the Republic ? En- 
 gaged in the peaceful pursuits of civil life, surrounded 
 with domestic joys in the charmed circle of home, un- 
 
MENANDTHI^'GS 365 
 
 used to the discipline of the camp, and untrained in 
 the art of Avar, when their country became involved in 
 the war with Mexico, without a regular army, upon its 
 call for volunteers they came from the field, the coun- 
 ter, the office, and the shop, unallured by the phantom 
 of glory and uninspired by the god of ambition to re- 
 spond to that call. The ardor of their patriotism su- 
 perseded the training of discipline, and their first field 
 developed volunteers into veterans — a community of 
 citizens at home into an army of conquerors in Mexico. 
 Their example taught the world that large standing 
 armies, the instruments with which tyrants destroy lib- 
 erty, are not necessary to the security of free States; 
 that while the genius of our system vests or acknowl- 
 edges power in the people, it rests for its support upon 
 their affection. It demonstrated that the United 
 States could improvise an army of citizen soldiers equal 
 to any emergency of defense or conquest, of which truth 
 the war with Mexico was at once the illustration and tho 
 evidence, and that while with the mercenary war is a 
 trade, with the volunteer citizen right is the object and 
 patriotism the inspiration. Upon the close of the wa:*, 
 reversing the order of transformation of citizen to sol- 
 dier, from soldier back to citizen, and equally a patriot 
 as citizen or soldier, they resumed their places in civil 
 life without a ripple -upon the surface of society, the 
 pride of the coimtry and the admiration of the world. 
 In all the world none could be found who failed to ap- 
 preciate their patriotism and the trophies of their valjr, 
 save the Government they so faithfully served, whose 
 honor they so signally vindicated, wliose prowess they 
 
366 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 SO gloriously illustrated, and to whose domain their he- 
 roism added an empire richer than all the Orient. 
 
 If these men have accomplished nothing more than 
 the demonstration of a military prowess that placed 
 the United States in the van of the gTeatest powers of 
 the earth, they would have been entitled to the gratitude 
 of their country and their kind. The war with Mexico 
 showed the possession by the Government of military 
 resources that straightened the labyrinthean mazes and 
 smoothed the rugged pathways of diplomacy, discover- 
 ing to the great powers of Europe other modes of set- 
 tling national controversies with us than the last resort 
 of kings — the sword. In, considering this claim of 
 the Mexican soldiers upon their Government, their 
 hardships and sufferings are not to be ignored. They 
 were such as are incident to all wars, intensified by an 
 unhealthy climate. Subjection to the restraints of a 
 rigorous discipline, the weary march, the fearful con- 
 tagion, the dreaded hospital, the anxious uncertainties 
 of life in the hour of battle, the absence of all comfort 
 in the bivouac, and unremitting toil, taxing every re- 
 source of physical endurance, and an absence that any 
 hour might make final from loved ones at home — these 
 were all borne with a resignation that never murmured 
 and a courage that never faltered. 
 
 The uniform that distinguishes the soldier is the 
 garland that festoons him for the altar. Heroism :s 
 exhibited in suffering as well as in doing; as well in 
 the disease of the hospital as in the struggle of the 
 field. ITor should we forget the claims of tliose 
 stricken ones, whose husbands and fathers fell either 
 
MEN AND THINGS 367 
 
 by disease or in battle, who were denied the sad solace 
 of dropping on unmarked graves in a foreign land 
 affection's last offering — the tribute of a tear. Their 
 claim is sealed in blood and sanctified by the sorrows of 
 widowhood and orphanage. Can any appeal to the jus- 
 tice or gratitude of their Government be stronger than 
 that which they urge ? But let us put this claim on an- 
 other ground — on what the lawyers would call a quan- 
 tum valebant count — and see how the questions stand in 
 that light. What has the service of these soldiers 
 availed the Government in the increase of its w^ealth, 
 the expansion of its domain, and the augmentation of 
 its power? What are the results of their triumph? 
 California, Colorado, N'evada, Arizona, Utah, i^ew 
 Mexico, and Wyoming were conquered from Mexico. 
 
 Look at California alone! That State now has a 
 population of 800,000, with an area of 188,981 square 
 miles, or 120,947,840 acres more than the combined 
 area of N"ew England, E'ew York and Pennsylvania. 
 In 1872, 3,670 vessels bore to the great commercial em- 
 porium of San Francisco 1,237,227 tons of commerce. 
 The State paid into the Federal treasury in customs du- 
 ties alone, $8,184,481. The same year she shipped in 
 coin, bullion, gold dust, and the precious metals $19,- 
 049,048, and paid in taxes $9,500,000. The produc- 
 tion of gold in that single State for a period of twenty- 
 five years ending in 1872, amounted to the enormous 
 sum of $990,600,000. With commercial advantages 
 unsurpassed, agricultural resources sufficient when 
 fully developed to supply her own people and feed the 
 famine-stricken countries of the East, unrivaled in the 
 
368 Mi7 2V AND THINGS 
 
 salubrity of lier climate, the fertility of her soil, the 
 richness of mines, the magnificence of her scenery, and 
 the activity and enterprise of her people, she stands, if 
 not the envy, the admiration of her older sisters in 
 the Union. 
 
 But the wealth and gi-eatness of this State does not 
 exclusively consist in the richness of her mines, the ex- 
 tent of her commerce, or the value of her agricultural 
 products. Twenty colleges and universities adorn her 
 hills and valleys, affording superior advantages for the 
 higher cultivation of the arts and sciences. Two hun- 
 dred and one newspapers and periodicals, with' a circula- 
 tion of 94,100, enlighten the public mind upon all 
 questions' affecting their political, social, and material 
 interests. Sixteen hundred and twelve schools invito 
 her children to the fountain of knowledge, and nearly 
 one hundred libraries, numbering over two hundred 
 thousand volumes, supply the means of continuing an 
 intellectual cultivation begun in the schools. Religious 
 instruction is received at five hundred and thirty-two 
 churches, accommodating 195,585 persons, and hov/ 
 much these elements and instruments of progress and 
 greatness have been increased since 1872 I have no 
 means of ascertaining. 
 
 If we add to California the area, population, and 
 wealth of Colorado, ISTevada, Arizona, Utah, ISTew Mex- 
 ico, and Wyoming, we have an area of over 937,875 
 square miles — an empire in extent, wealth, and popula- 
 tion in a high state of Christian civilization, added to 
 the Republic. These are the material results of the 
 war with Mexico, wrung by the valor of the men whose 
 
MEN AND THINGS 369 
 
 claim I urge, from a foreign foe, on foreign soil, and 
 cast at the feet of a hitherto ungrateful Government. 
 Statesmanship had but little agency in this grand acqui- 
 sition. Diplomacy only formulated at Guadaloupe Hi- 
 dalgo what blood had purchased at Buena Vista and 
 Cerro Gordo. What the future of this empire will be, 
 time alone will reveal. Three States are already ad- 
 mitted, and Arizona, Utah, N'ew Mexico and Wyoming- 
 will soon add four more to the circle of the sisterhood, 
 with imdefined resources of wealth and elements of 
 development, supplying a home for unnumbered mil- 
 lions of free, active, enterprising, and happy people. 
 
 These treasures eclipse the trophies of the famous le- 
 gions of Caesar. The Mexican veterans secured them 
 from the public enemy and presented them to their Gov- 
 ernment, and ask in return a compensation in the form 
 of a pension which one-sixth of the customs duties 
 paid by California alone into the Federal treasury 
 would annually discharge. And they present as an 
 indorsement of this claim the action of the legislatures 
 of fourteen States of the Union instructing their sena- 
 tors and representatives to support it. That patriot- 
 ism is intense, indeed, that is not chilled by ingratitude 
 so flagrant. If their claim rested on no other ground 
 than the value of their acquisitions it would be indis- 
 putable upon that alone; and posterity will be aston- 
 ished that a right so clear and a claim so just was not 
 conceded without dispute and paid without delay. 
 But the service rendered by the Mexican soldiers does 
 not consist exclusively nor even mainly in the extent 
 and value of material acquisitions. ]Srational greatness 
 
 as 
 
370 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 does not depend entirely upon area of territory nor rich- 
 ness of resources. The type of civilization, the charac- 
 ter of the people, their respect for the rights of others 
 and the courage with which they maintain their own, 
 the institutions which reconcile the largest liberty of 
 the citizen with the most absolute obedience to law, 
 the affection of the people for the Government while it 
 exacts their money for its support and their blood for 
 its defense are far greater elements of power than mere 
 extent of dominion or numbers of population. Greece 
 achieved more glory in the defense of Thermopylae than 
 Rome won in the conquest of Gaul. The most impor- 
 tant service those veterans rendered to their government 
 is found in the position their valor achieved for it 
 among the great powers of the world. It is true that 
 American patriotism and prowess were tested and vin- 
 dicated in the war for independence and in the war of 
 1812. But these were defensive wars, where heroism 
 caught inspiration from the spirit of liberty in the de- 
 fense of homes, firesides, and altars. The great cap- 
 tains of Europe, affecting contempt for free institutions 
 maintained by the affections of the people and defended 
 by a citizen soldiery, predicted disaster to our arms in 
 the invasion of Mexico. The strength of our Repiib-' 
 lican system was on trial. The interested monarchies 
 of Europe and the East were the anxious spectators. 
 The men who now appeal to you for justice, led by Scott 
 and Taylor, were the arbiters of this great question. 
 How gloriously they decided it history has recorded 
 Victory mingled its light with the stars that deck the 
 flag on every field, from the firing of the first gun ?t 
 
MEN AND THINGS 371 
 
 Palo Alo until it floated in triumph from the capital 
 of the Aztecs. Invading a foreign country more than 
 a thousand miles from the capital of their own, they 
 were met upon its border by a force four times their 
 strength in numbers, under the leadership of a chief- 
 tain already famous in history, aroused by the incen- 
 tive which the consciousness of defending home and 
 country can alone inspire. With natural advantages 
 for defense seldom found, and obstructions to aggres- 
 sive advancement rarely met, these heroic men with 
 knightly crests vindicated their country's chivalry, 
 avenged its wrongs and bore its flag in triumph in every 
 fight and on every field from Vera Cruz to the City of 
 Mexico. 
 
 Invincible alike in the skirmish of the chaparrel, the 
 charge of the plain, and the assault upon the fort, the 
 graves of more than ten thousand who fell by disease 
 consecrate the line of march with monumental patriot- 
 ism. In a glorious army like this, where every officer 
 and every soldier was equally a hero, comparison is in- 
 admissible. But even at this distant day the names of 
 Clay, Harden, McKee Yell, Kinggold, and Butler, ex- 
 cite a pride, kindle an enthusiasm, and challenge an 
 admiration constituting a heritage of national fame far 
 more valuable than the pension sought by their survi- 
 vors or the empire won by their blood. Of each one of 
 these it may be truly said — 
 
 His was the hero's soul of fire, 
 
 And his the martyr's deathless name, 
 
 And his was love exalted higher 
 By all the glow of chivalry. 
 
372 menandthiis:gs 
 
 So profoundly impressed were the people of Mexico 
 with the prowess of our army, that they proposed to in- 
 vest its commander with the chief magistracy of their 
 republic. These men were as much distinguished for 
 their moderation in victory as their courage in battle. 
 They were at once the iinest type and truest exponents 
 of American citizens and American soldiers. Since the 
 war with Mexico the military capacity of the United 
 States for any emergency arising from foreign or do- 
 mestic complications has ceased to be a question. If this 
 war had been fruitless in other results, the imperishable 
 luster it shed upon our arms would compensate its cost of 
 blood and treasure, and entitle its soldiers to the justice 
 they seek. Much that has been said in favor of the 
 claims of the Mexican veterans applies with equal 
 force to the brave men who served in the various Indian 
 wars mentioned in the bill of the committee. Their 
 military service may not have been distinguished by as 
 many battles nor as brilliant victories, with as large 
 numbers, as that of the army in Mexico. The results 
 in wealth and domain may have been far less, yet their 
 patriotism was identical, their sacrifices and sufferings 
 were equal, and their title to a pension rests upon pre- 
 cisely the same foundation of faithful military service 
 rendered to their country in the hour of its necessity. 
 Millitary merit, in the subaltern or the superior, is not 
 always to be measured by the standard of success. The 
 mode of Indian warfare is not governed by the code 
 which controls the warfare of civilized nations. Its 
 very nature imposes all the burdens, inconvenierices, 
 dangers and sufferings incident to all wars, without its 
 
MEN AND THINGS 373 
 
 "pride, pomp, and circumstances." There is some- 
 thing thrilling in the grand array of opposing forces 
 upon the same plane of civilization, where the destinies 
 of empires are to be determined upon a single field and 
 the current of history changed from the event. The 
 very fact of opposing a foe of equal skill and upon 
 equal terms appeals to soldierly pride for the utmost 
 display of skill and courage, and stimulates the ardor 
 of patriotism by adding the incentive of ambition. 
 
 Indian warfare includes all the hideous horrors of 
 war without any of its compensating mitigations. The 
 stealthy approach with uplifted tomahawk to the biv- 
 ouac, the deadly shot from the secret covert upon the 
 unsuspecting victim upon the march, the blazing house 
 consuming the remains of slaughtered women and chil- 
 dren, degenerate Indian warfare into horrible massacre 
 or bloody assassination. It was this kind of warfare 
 in which the courage and patriotism of the soldiers 
 were tested in the Seminole, Creek and Black Hawk 
 w^ars. They accomplished all that was attainable. 
 They conquered peace ; they secured protection to the 
 people; and they vindicated the authority of the Govern- 
 ment. They did more: they discharged with fidelity 
 the highest duty they owed to their Government ; they 
 have waited forty years for the Government to discharge 
 its duty to them. How much longer shall they wait? 
 How many more in advanced age and extreme poverty 
 will we allow to go down to their graves stung with in- 
 gratitude, disappointed in their hopes, and suffering 
 for bread? In the name of the American people, 
 whose sense of justice is outraged at the delay, let us 
 
374 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 gladden the hearts of these gallant old soldiers as they 
 stand on the confines of the grave bv according to them 
 now that which they should have had a quarter of a 
 century before. 
 
 It seems to me that the Interior Department has put 
 itself to much trouble to show, upon a basis of calcu- 
 lation utterly fallacious, that there was a great number 
 of these soldiers, and that therefore it would require 
 a large amount to pay the pensions. This logic that 
 a debt should not be discharged because it is large, the 
 country is too dull to appreciate, even if the fact as- 
 sumed were really true. But it is not true that the 
 number is as large as it is supposed to be. After the 
 most thorough investigation of the question by the Mex- 
 ican Veterans' Association, covering a period of several 
 years and every State in the Union, the actual number 
 of the survivors of the Mexican, Seminole, Creek and 
 Black Hawk wars amounts to about thirteen thousand 
 and four hundred, including all that would be entitled 
 to pensions under the provisions of this bill. 
 
 The committee in its very able report submits this 
 nimaber as the nearest possible approximation to the 
 truth. The committee shows that $1,286,400 per an- 
 num would pay the pensions, and that this amount 
 would constantly decrease as the average age of the 
 beneficiaries is about sixty years. Compared with the 
 resources of the Government and the merit of the claim, 
 the amoimt dwarfs into a trifle. If it were impossible 
 to pay this amount, could we not retrench some extrava- 
 gant and useless expenditure — some subsidy — and save 
 enough from prodigal waste to discharge an honest ob- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 375 
 
 ligation? But no such retrenchment, even where re- 
 trenchment ought to be had, is necessary for this pur- 
 pose. These aged soldiers of the Republic have pre- 
 sented their claim. Thev put it upon the ground — 
 
 First. That it is the established policy of the Govern- 
 ment to reward in this way the service which they ren- 
 dered. 
 
 Second. They put it upon the ground of value of these 
 services in the expansion of domain, and the acquisition 
 of material wealth. 
 
 Third. They put it upon the ground of the sacri- 
 fices they made and the sufferings they endured for the 
 public welfare. 
 
 And, last, they put it upon the ground of the imper- 
 ishable luster shed upon our arms by their valor. And 
 standing upon this foundation of truth and justice they 
 appeal to the American people, through their represen- 
 tatives in Congress assembled, for justice long delayed 
 but never controverted. Shall they appeal in vain? 
 Will no remorse linger in the consciences of men who 
 who refuse this claim because complaint can not come 
 from the silence of the grave? Can some future Con- 
 gi-ess relieve the present one from responsibility by 
 granting the pensions when the beneficiaries are dead? 
 Can the Government hope to do justice by granting the 
 pension and at the same time save the money by waiting 
 until nobody is left alive to accept it ? Let us save the 
 Government from injustice so monstrous and reproach 
 so shamei'ul. 
 
376 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 Refunding the ISTational Debt — Postal Savings 
 
 Banks. 
 
 Speech of Hon. Hiram P. Bell, of Georgia, in the 
 House of Representatives, April 2Jf, 1878. 
 
 The House having met for debate, Mr. Vance in the 
 chair as speaker pro tempore — 
 
 Mr. Bell said : 
 
 Mr. Speaker: The financial question is the great 
 economic problem of this country and of this age. Its 
 satisfactory solution is the supreme desire of the Ameri- 
 can people. With a country the gTeatest in extent and 
 richest in resources of ancient or modern times, under 
 a system of government the most beneficent that human 
 wisdom ever formed, we present to-day a sad spectacle 
 of poverty, suffering, and distress. The stagnation of 
 business, the paralysis of industry, the idleness of labor, 
 the destruction of property in the shrinkage of values 
 and existing and impending bankruptcy, are expres- 
 sions with which we have become familiar by daily rep- 
 etition in these halls since we met in October. Differ- 
 ent causes have been assigned and various explanations 
 ffiven for this unfortunate condition of the countrv. 
 There are those who suppose that they have found the 
 cause in extravagant living, in overtrading, and in wild 
 and reckless speculation. They suggest, of course, 
 economy in personal and family expenditures as a pan- 
 acea for all our ills. Others have ascertained that the 
 "Iliad of our woes" comes from an inflated, irredeem- 
 able paper currency, and recommend as a sovereign spe- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 377 
 
 cific the resumption of specie payment. This school of 
 political philosophers teaches the paradoxical doctrine 
 that you can relieve the poverty of the people by de- 
 stroying their property and increasing their debts. 
 This solution finds its equal in absurdity only in that 
 other theory that attributes our troubles to what is 
 called overproduction. The advocates of this theory 
 would insist that the distress which the country now 
 suffers results from the abundance of the products of 
 our mines, fields, and factories. 
 
 If this gi'and discovery that so unceremoniously ex- 
 plodes the doctrines of Adam Smith be true, then the 
 remedy, simple and complete, is at hand. We have 
 only to destroy what we have and cease to produce any 
 more. All this nonsense is worse than trifling with the 
 gravest questions of public interest. The people of 
 this country thoroughly understand the cause of their 
 distress. They find it in the overwhelming indebted- 
 ness of the country — the Government and the people — 
 and in the financial policy of the Government manipu- 
 lated by syndicates in the interest of non-taxed capital, 
 and against the property and labor, upon which class 
 legislation has imposed enormous burdens of iniquitous 
 taxation. That financial policy they have arraigned 
 and denounced, and that financial policy it is the ob- 
 ject of this bill to change and improve. A simple state- 
 ment of what the legislation upon this subject has been 
 is the clearest demonstration of its folly and of its in- 
 justice. The national-bank act secures a monopoly of 
 the banking business to the bondholders. This monop- 
 oly is protected by a prohibitory tax of 10 per cent. 
 
378 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 upon the issues of State banks. The Government pays 
 to the bondholding bankers 6 per cent, in gold semi- 
 annually, and gives them the use of $90,000 on every 
 $100,000 in bonds deposited in the treasury; and all 
 this is done at an annual expense to the people of at 
 least $15,000,000. 
 
 Between the years 1862 and 1868 the Government of 
 the United States issued and sold bonds amountins: to 
 the sum of $2,059,975,700, for which it realized in gold 
 or gold value $1,371,424,238, a loss to the Government 
 and a gain to the purchasers of the sum of $678,551,- 
 460. The interest on this sum for ten years, at 6 per 
 cent., amounts to the sum of $407,130,876. There is 
 therefore now a debt upon the American people, prin- 
 cipal and interest, amounting to the gigantic sum of 
 $1,085,682,336— one-half of the publie'debt, for which, 
 in fact, the Government never received one cent, and for 
 which the creditors never paid one cent. And this is 
 the fountain from which the bitter waters of distress 
 now deluging the entire country have flowed; and this 
 is the debt around which constitutional guarantees have 
 been thrown. The fourteenth article of amendment to 
 the Constitution declares, among other things, "That 
 the validity of the public debt shall never be ques- 
 tioned." This debt was originally payable in paper 
 money or lawful money. It was not originally payable 
 in coin. The act of 13th of March, 1869, pledged the 
 faith of the Government to its payment in coin ; the act 
 of 12th of February, 1873, demonetizing silver, left 
 gold the only legal-tender coin in which it could be paid. 
 
 The financial policy which I arraign has fastened 
 
M EN AN D TH IN GS 379 
 
 upon the people of this country this vast gold-bearing 
 debt under which they are staggering and with which 
 they are crushed, when the Government received noth- 
 ing for it, and w^hich in fact constitutes the spoils 
 W'hich war speculators coined out of blood. Since this 
 debt was created and converted into a gold debt, the pol-, 
 icy has been to constantly contract the volume of the 
 currency, while the population of the country was rap- 
 idly increasing, and the wants and necessities of the peo- 
 ple steadily multiplying. The amount of the currency 
 outstanding in 1866, was $1,696,987,643. In 1876 it 
 was only $748,912,072, a reduction in the volume of the 
 currency in ten years of $948,074,570, an annual aver- 
 age diminution for ten years of $94,807,457. 
 
 The financial system or policy of the Government, 
 manipulated by syndicates, gold rings, bondholders, and 
 bullion brokers in the interest of capital at the sacri- 
 fice of every other interest, culminated in the passagri 
 of the act of June 14, 1875. This act required the Gov- 
 ernment to redeem in gold the outstanding legal-tender 
 notes on the 1st day of January, 1879. To carry out 
 the provisions of this act the Secretary of the Treasury 
 informs us that he has purchased $15,000,000 of coin 
 by the sale of 4 1-2 per cent, bonds, and $25,000,000 
 with 4 per cent, bonds. The bonded debt of the United 
 States is thus increased the sum of $40,000,000, carry- 
 ing an annual interest of $1,670,000, to redeem and 
 withdraw from circulation an equal amount of legal- 
 tender notes which bear no interest. And the Secre- 
 tary informs us that he must have fifty millions more 
 of coin to make resnmption practicable, which he pro- 
 
380 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 poses to purchase with 4 1-2 per cent, gold bonds, thas 
 increasing the public debt ninety millions, with an an- 
 nual interest of $3,650,000. And this is what it costs 
 the people to enable the Government to deprive them of 
 the means of paying their debts and prosecuting their 
 business. 
 
 With the bonded debt of the United States converted 
 by legislation, not by contract, into a coin debt at a high 
 rate of interest and constantly increased; silver demon- 
 etized, leaving gold the only currency in which the 
 debt could be paid ; the legal-tender notes redeemed and 
 destroyed or hoarded in the treasury; State banks 
 strangled, taxed out of existence, the people of this 
 coimtry, numbering nearly fifty millions, would have 
 left to them $320,000,000, to pay their debts and con- 
 duct their business, of national-bank notes, issued by 
 the Government to the banks, to be let out or dra^^^l in 
 as their interest or caprice might dictate. 
 
 This legislation is very rapidly making the stock-job- 
 bers, gold gamblers, and money rings the owners of the 
 property and the masters of the people of this country. 
 Thus the financial legislation stood at the meeting of 
 the extra session of the Forty-fifth Congress, the resuh 
 of which is seen in the fact that the Government se- 
 curities were at a premium, the property of the country 
 ruinously depreciated and its business destroyed. Af- 
 ter this wicked scheme of class legislation, running 
 through a period of ten years and indorsed by an admin- 
 istration distinguished for its appreciation of gifts, if 
 for nothing else, had been accomplished, and while the 
 saints who worship only at mammon's shrine, jubilant 
 
MEN AND THINGS 381 
 
 with triumph, were reveling in high carnival, in fan- 
 cied security, Congress met and the "handwriting ap- 
 peared on the wall." The people had cast the ballot 
 into the scale like the sword of Brennus, and it out- 
 weighed their gold. And all at once there rings through 
 the land, from these Halls and from a subsidized and 
 prostituted press, the cry about plighted faith, public 
 credit, and national honor. 
 
 And while the men of this generation and their chil- 
 dren are writhing under the burdens this monstrous 
 crime against humanity has imposed upon them, like 
 Laocoon and his sons in the crushing coils of the ser- 
 pent, it is just discovered that it is extremely unwise 
 for Congress to legislate upon the subject of finance. 
 Political economists and doctrinaires tell us that these 
 questions are above legislative control ; that they are 
 matters to be regulated and adjusted by commercial 
 values and the laws of trade. The Government con- 
 tractors, speculators, and bounty- jumpers of the war 
 period now serenely draw semi-annually in gold the in- 
 terest on their bonds purchased at 50 per cent, of their 
 nominal value and exempt from taxation, while the 
 Government taxes even the match with which poor war 
 widows, ISTorth and South, kindle the fire with which 
 they cook their scanty meal. I repeat that the cause 
 of the distress upon the country is to be found mainly 
 in this stupendous national debt, largely contracted 
 without an equivalent, and in that system of legislation 
 which has constantly increased its amount by enhanc- 
 ing its value and diminishing the means of its payment. 
 
 Having intrenched themselves behind this legislation, 
 
382 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 conscious of the power with which these spoliations 
 have invested them, the extent of their demands is only 
 equaled by the offensiveness of their insolence. One of 
 their organs has made the announcement that — 
 
 The American laborer must make up his mind hence- 
 forth not to be so much better off than the European 
 laborer. Men must be content to work for low wages. 
 In this way the working-man will be nearer to that sta- 
 tion in life to which it has pleased God to call him. 
 
 This is an oracular pronunciamiento from the money 
 power that the condition of the American laborer is a 
 state of serfdom, and that God has been pleased to ap- 
 point him to a station of inferiority in all the relations 
 of life. This is the legitimate result of that class legis- 
 lation in the interest of money and against all other in- 
 terests in the country which I condemn and denounce. 
 Yet the laborer pays the taxes and fights the battles of 
 the country. And when we warn the people that this 
 legislation is establishing a rich class and a poor clas ;, 
 and making a line of distinction in men in this Govern- 
 ment of freedom and equality, and thus silently but 
 certainly subverting our free institutions and destroy- 
 ing equality and ultimately liberty, arrogant capital, 
 "invisible in war and invincible in peace," concealing 
 its cormorant rapacity by a false pretense to the mild 
 virtue- of timidity, raises the cry of agrarianism and 
 communism, and insists upon increasing the army to 
 preserve order and suppress strikes. 
 
 This Congress when it assembled addressed itself 
 with commendable dispatch and earnestness to the re- 
 lief of the anxietv and distress of the countrv, and com- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 383 
 
 menced to change the mischievous legislation from 
 which our troubles have sprung. 
 
 The passage of the silver bill and the bill to repeal 
 the specie-resumption act, if it succeed, will break up 
 the conspiracy between foreign and domestic bondhold- 
 ers to destroy the country. Stop the contraction of the 
 currency and the shrinkage in the value of property. 
 Utilize one of the great resources of the country, dimin- 
 ish the amount of the public debt by making it payable 
 in a cheaper currency and make its ultimate extinction 
 a possibility. The country can. never have financial 
 prosperity so long as foreign creditors backed by for- 
 eign governments control its financial policy in their 
 own interest. We want the public securities held by 
 our own people and at a lower rate of interest. When 
 this shall have been accomplished and capital is made 
 to bear its just share of taxation, then we can reform 
 our revenue system, reduce taxation, and sooner or later 
 discharge the entire public debt. 
 
 In my judgment the bill under consideration will 
 contribute more to this most desirable result than any 
 measure that has been presented or that can be sug- 
 gested. That if it become a law it will afford practical 
 and speedy relief to both the Government and people I 
 do not entertain the slightest doubt. 
 
 In brief, it provides that any holder of money may 
 deposit the same to the amount of $10 in any postal 
 money-order office in the United States, to whom Uio 
 postmaster shall issue a postal order on the treasury, 
 which, when presented in sums of $10 or any multiple 
 thereof, sliall be receivable in exchange for postal sav- 
 
384 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 ings-bonds of the United States, to be issued by the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury in denominations of ten, twenty, 
 fifty, and one hundred dollars, bearing interest at the 
 rate of 3.65 per cent, per annum, the interest payabl-3 
 every three months. These savings-bonds are exchange- 
 able for notes of the United States, and also for 4 per 
 cent, bonds authorized to be issued under and by virtue 
 of the act of 14th of July, 1870. This bill makes every 
 postal money-order office in the United States, for all 
 practical purposes, a savings-bank in which the holder 
 of money may deposit the same in a place of absolute 
 security to him. It involves no additional expense. It 
 requires no legal machinery except what may readily 
 be provided by departmental regulation, adjustable to 
 the test of trial and the suggestions of experience. 
 
 The liability of the Government to the depositor is 
 the guarantee of his safety; and such bond as the Gov- 
 ernment may require under such regulations as the de- 
 partment may adopt secures the Government against 
 loss. It is a safe and convenient place of deposit, in 
 Avhich the earnings of labor and the acquisitions of in- 
 dustry can be preserved in sums of twenty-five cents 
 and upward to as much as $20 in a day. It will fur- 
 nish an incentive to industry, encourage frugality, fos- 
 ter economy, and soon develop its beneficent results in 
 sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, and feeding 
 the hungry. If it be true that recklessness and extrava- 
 gance have been productive of all the mischief claimed, 
 then the wisdom of that measure or policy that educates 
 the people in the direction of economy and supplies 
 them with a safe, convenient, and inexpensive means of 
 
me:s! and things 385 
 
 preserving and increasing the rewards of their toil can 
 not be questioned. 
 
 In those sections of the Union where savings institu- 
 tions exist it has been found to be true that by this 
 means the daily wages of laborers among the poor have 
 been carefully husbanded. Daily and weekly deposits 
 of small amounts have been made until after a while 
 the aggregate would surround them with comfort. And 
 this has been the case while there was a painful appre- 
 hension of loss from the failure of the banks, which, 
 unfortunately, in too many instances turned out to be 
 well founded. And while losses in these institutions 
 have been numbered by millions, and in the midst of 
 wreck and ruin, there is now on deposit in the savings- 
 banks of the Union, as shown by the report of the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury, the sum of $843,154,804, de- 
 posited by 2,300,000. The American Almanac for 
 1878 shows the number of depositors in 1875 and 1876, 
 in twelve States, comprising the 'New England States, 
 ISTew York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Min- 
 nesota, and California, to be 2,414,952, and the amount 
 deposited to be $892,785,553. This is an average of 
 $369.69 to each depositor. The learned editor of this 
 valuable book, after showing that but partial and incom- 
 plete returns have been made, says : — 
 
 It may be safely stated, however, from the returns 
 which do exist, that the amount of deposits in savings- 
 banks throughout the United States reaches, if it does 
 not exceed $1,000,000,000 held by about 2,800,000 per- 
 sons. 
 
 These facts show the popularity of these institutions. 
 
386 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 Thej also show that the depositors are the poor whom 
 we always have with us, and they further show what a 
 vast sum may he saved by a wise system of economy and 
 frugality. Can any one doubt, in the face of these 
 facts, that an immense amount would soon be saved by 
 the poor people of the United States if they had the fa- 
 cilities for secure deposit which this bill provides ? 
 
 The savings-bank is an institution of recent origin. 
 It had its birth in the present century. Its career has 
 been marked by signal success and beneficence. The 
 British government has in successful operation a postal 
 savings-bank system similar in many respects to the 
 one sought to be established by this bill. There were 
 in 1876 in her savings-banks, on deposit, about $350,- 
 000,000. The postal savings-bank, which this bill will 
 establish, possesses the very decided advantage over or- 
 dinary savings-institutions of absolute security to the 
 depositor. Money-orders are to be issued to depositors 
 without interest, it is true, but negotiable by indorse- 
 ment, and therefore valuable and convenient as a cir- 
 culating medium and receivable in exchange for United 
 States bonds bearing interest at the rate of 3.65 per 
 cent, per annum of the denomination of ten, twenty, 
 fifty, and one hundred dollars. These bonds have all 
 the attributes of a medium and an investment. The 
 amount, the facility with which the interest can be com- 
 puted, and their negotiability by delivery will give them 
 popularity with the people as money and as an invest- 
 ment. 
 
 If they should not circulate as a medium they are 
 exchangeable for TTnited States notes, so that they could 
 
MEN AND THINGS 387 
 
 be readily converted into money at the will or conven- 
 ience of the holder. This exchangeable quality would 
 make the currency adjust itself to the demands of trade 
 and maintain steadiness in the value of property and 
 products. During the business seasons, when crops are 
 put upon the market, they could and would be ex- 
 changed for notes. And in the intervals of quiet the 
 notes would be exchanged for bonds. The markets in 
 this way would be relieved from the extortion and spec- 
 ulation of the banks. Thus the business necessities of 
 the country would be supplied with a currency as occa- 
 sion required and capitalists, large and small, with the 
 means of a safe investment at a seasonably remunera- 
 tive interest. 
 
 The fourth section of the bill provides that all mon- 
 eys received into the treasury in pursuance of this act 
 shall be applied exclusively to the redemption of such 
 bonds of the United States as are redeemable at thj 
 pleasure of the government ; and the Secretary of the 
 Treasury shall call in of such bonds tliose that bear the 
 highest rate of interest. 
 
 The object of this bill is to refund the public debt in 
 securities bearing a lower rate of interest, payable In 
 currency, change our foreign debt into a debt due to our 
 people, and the postal savings-bank system is adopted 
 as the means of raising the money to pay existing bonds. 
 In discussing this bill and kindred measures two ques- 
 tions arise: Is the object desirable, and is the plan 
 practicable? I maintain the affirmative of both propo- 
 sitions. Reference has already been made to the 
 amount of the public debt and the unwise and unjust 
 
388 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 legislation with regard thereto as the principal cause of 
 our present troubles. The total public debt, less cash 
 in the treasury, February 1, 1878, is $2,044,287,366. 
 Of this amount $1,726,933,750 bears interest in coin 
 at the following rates : 
 
 Bonds at 6 per cent $ 748,667,100 
 
 Bonds at 5 per cent 703,266,650 
 
 Bonds at 4 1-2 per cent 200,000,000 
 
 Bonds at 4 per cent 75,000,000 
 
 Total principal $1,726,933,750 
 
 The interest due on this debt on the 1st day of Jan- 
 uary, 1878, amounted to $21,827,524. Of the 6 per 
 cent, bonds $660,000,000 are redeemable at the pleas- 
 ure of the United States, and of the whole $1,452,000,- 
 000 are redeemable on or before the 1st day of May, 
 1881. The amount of the public debt held by foreig-n- 
 ers is variously estimated. The best English authori- 
 ties, Seyd and Baxter, estimate the entire amount of 
 the debts of this country held abroad, including public 
 and private debts of all descriptions, at between twenty 
 and twenty-two hundred millions of dollars. Mr. Ed- 
 ward Young, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, esti- 
 mates the national. State, municipal, and railroad debts 
 held abroad at $1,050,000,000. This does not, of 
 course, include private or individual indebtedness. 
 There is no means of ascertaining precisely the amount 
 of this debt. All, however, agree that it is irrmiensely 
 large. The Secretary of the Treasury estimates the 
 debt of the United States government held abroad at six 
 hundred millions. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 389 
 
 There are many and cogent reasons why it is de- 
 sirable that this debt should be changed from a foreign 
 into a domestic debt, should be owned and held by our 
 own people. Debt is but another name for slavery. 
 The debtor is always to a greater or less extent in the 
 power of the creditor. That a large amount of bonds 
 was held in Germany I suppose was one of the reasons 
 that induced the German Empire to demonetize silver. 
 That its demonetization in the United States was pro- 
 cured here by the bondholders in conspiracy with the 
 creditors there I do not doubt. The financial independ- 
 ence of the United States, therefore, requires the owner- 
 ship of the public securities at home. The export of 
 gold to meet the constantly accruing interest on this 
 debt drains the life-blood from the heart of the nation. 
 
 If this debt were refunded in bonds held by our own 
 people it would stop the exportation of gold to pay the 
 interest. The balance of trade, which last year 
 amounted to the sum of $47,202,682, would turn the 
 tide in our favor and bring to us an annual influx of 
 gold, varying only in amount with that balance. We 
 would thus not only not send abroad large amounts of 
 gold as now to pay interest, but it would be paid to our 
 own people, and we would receive from abroad the ex- 
 cess of our exports over imports in coin. The people 
 of no government on earth that owes a large foreign 
 debt bearing a high rate of interest ever was or ever 
 will be prosperous long. But it is true that great na- 
 tional prosperity may co-exist with a large public debt 
 held at home and for the reason already given. 
 
 The British government is a signal illustration of thiS 
 
390 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 truth. The public debt of England to-daj amounts to 
 $3,850,000,000. It is held by 126,331 of her own 
 people. This debt bears only 3 per cent, interest. It 
 consists of annuities sold by the government to the peo- 
 ple without any time fixed for redemption and with 
 but little prospect that they will ever be redeemed. Yet 
 with this immense debt upon the Government the 
 English are comparatively prosperous. This debt is 
 kept at home and the interest is paid to the English 
 people and constitutes that much of their general 
 wealth. The vast commerce of the Kingdom brings 
 into it constantly large quantities of coin and bullion, 
 and the government maintains a financial policy that 
 keeps all it gets. When we obtained the Geneva award 
 of $15,500,000 in gold, England kept the gold and paid 
 us in our bonds. With our national debt amounting 
 to but little more than one-half of that of Great Britain, 
 owned by our own people and bearing a low rate of in- 
 terest, we would be independent of foreign creditors and 
 foreign governments. And with our immense resources, 
 mineral, manufacturing, agricultural, and commercial 
 wisely developed, we would speedily become the richest 
 as well as the most powerful nation of the world. 
 
 The Eepublic of France is a still more striking proof 
 of the proposition that a government may owe its own 
 people a. large debt and yet be prosperous. The civil- 
 ized world beheld with amazement as well as with ad- 
 miration what seemed almost a financial miracle in the 
 payment of the Prussian war indemnity. France paid 
 in less than two years, in gold and silver, $1,000,000,- 
 000, at a time when her expenditures exceeded her rev- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 391 
 
 enues. It was paid at the close of a war in which two 
 immense armies had trampled down the whole face of 
 the country. Her capital was riddled with Prussian 
 shells and reddened in communistic blood. The sceo- 
 tre was passing from a perishing dynasty and her un- 
 settled form of government in transition through an- 
 archy to a republic. How was this grandest financial 
 achievement of all time and history accomplished ? 
 
 It was done in this way: the French government put 
 upon the market 5 per cent, rentes or bonds and ap- 
 pealed to the French to buy them, and they promptly 
 took $1,640,000,000, advancing to the government 
 money therefor. A second loan w^as so eagerly sought 
 by them that the subscription covered the amount called 
 for thirteen times over, compelling the government to 
 award the rentes among the subscribers pro rata. x\s 
 long ago as 186Y the debt of France was held by 1,095,- 
 683 persons of her own people, and now by a much 
 greater number. The public debt of France, with a 
 population of only 36,905,788 and an area of only 201,- 
 900 square miles, amounts to the almost fabulous sum 
 of $4,695,600,000 — more than twice as much as our 
 own. Her revenues are $514,605,716, while her ex- 
 penditures reach the sum of $519,334,162, an excess 
 of expenditures over revenue of $4,728,446. Yet 
 France has never repudiated any portion of her debt, 
 has never dishonored her own paper, which is now at 
 par with coin, and has never passed a resumption act, 
 and her people are prosperous and happy. 
 
 There must be some solution of this prosperity. It 
 can not be found in the extent of value of her commerce. 
 
392 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 I was astonished to find that for the year 1876 her im- 
 ports were only $4,111,000, and her exports $9,280,- 
 000, leaving a balance in her favor of only $5,179,000. 
 It must be accounted for mainly by the fact that the 
 national debt is due to the French people; that the in- 
 terest is paid to them, and by them kept at home, con- 
 stituting a part of the common wealth, and to the fur- 
 ther fact that Trance floats a larger circulation per cap- 
 ita than any other civilized nation on earth. At all 
 events, it is true that the national debt of France is held 
 bj the French people ; that the circulation is more per 
 capita than that of any other nation, and that her people 
 are more prosperous and suffering less financial dis- 
 tress than those of any government in the world. This 
 state of affairs does not result from the form nor the sta- 
 bility of the government. These are the facts of his- 
 tory, and the light they shed upon the question under 
 consideration is worth infinitely more than the specula- 
 tions of a thousand theorists. Who doubts that, with 
 the public debt refunded at a lower rate of interest, 
 owned by our own people, the country would soon be 
 prosperous ? The government would certainly be inde- 
 pendent of foreign capitalists and domestic stock-job- 
 bers and bullion-brokers. The object of this bill is the 
 accomplishment of this result. 
 
 The refunding of the public debt at a lower rate of 
 interest, and the change of its ownership from foreign- 
 ers to our own people, in the judgment of a majority of 
 the Committee on Banking and Currency, in which I 
 concur, will be secured, by the passage of their bill. 
 And if this object is attained the first important step 
 
MEN AND THINGS 393 
 
 will have been taken toward the ultimate extinction of 
 the debt. But is this postal savings-bank system a prac- 
 tical one? Will it enable the government to raise tho 
 money ? The light of experience is always a safe guide. 
 The test of trial affords some evidence of what may be 
 accomplished. I insist that this plan is feasible. The 
 system proposed by the bill of the Committee on Bank- 
 ing and Currency is almost exactly the British system. 
 
 That system was inaugurated in Great Britain in 
 1863. It started with 301 postal savings-banks. It 
 has since extended over Ireland and Scotland. In 187G 
 the number was 5,448 with 1,702,374 depositors, 1 in 
 19 of the whole population. The aggregate deposits 
 amounted to the sum of $134,982,750. Only the poor 
 deposit in this institution; it was intended only for 
 them. The law establishing them limited the amount 
 that could be deposited by one person and contained a 
 prohibition against depositing in more than one bank. 
 This system has been a success in Great Britain. Why 
 should it not be a success here ? It was a favorite with 
 the people and continues to be. It greatly diminished 
 the deposits in the independent savings-banks, showing 
 its popularity over these independent savings-banks with 
 the English people. It would no doubt do the same 
 here. But what if it did? Who has a right to com- 
 plain ? Certainly the depositors have the right to place 
 their money where, in their judgment, it will be safest 
 
 The confidence of the American people in these insti- 
 tutions will be shown by the amount of money they 
 place in them. Wliat is that amount? The deposits 
 now held by the savings-banks in twelve States of the 
 
394 MEls! AND THIXGS 
 
 Union, as far as can be ascertained, as has already been 
 shown, are $843,154,804. The report of the Comp- 
 troller of the Currency for 1875 shows that the deposits 
 for that year in the savings-banks, State banks, and 
 trust companies of the United States amounted to $1,-- 
 346,014,813. This estimate is based upon imperfect 
 reports. The amount is unquestionably larger. It 
 may be safely assumed to be $1,500,000,000. I take 
 it for granted that a very large portion of these depos- 
 its will be withdrawn, put into the institution created 
 by this bill and invested in the bonds for the issue of 
 which it provides, because of the superior security to 
 the depositor and because of the facility with which the 
 deposit can be changed into a currency or an invest- 
 ment. 
 
 There is very nearly enough money lying inactive cr 
 drawing a small interest in the savings-banks. State 
 banks, and trust companies to pay the bonded debt of 
 the United States. This bill makes it to the interest of 
 the holders of this money to put it where the govern- 
 ment can use it for that purpose. The system we pro- 
 pose establishes forty-one hundred and forty-five postal 
 savings-banks located at convenient and accessible 
 points in every State and Territory in the Union, af- 
 fording facilities to almost every community in the en- 
 tire country for the preservation and investment, with- 
 out trouble and without expense, of the proceeds of the 
 labor and industry of the people. And at the same time 
 it enables the government, without additional taxation, 
 to raise the money to pay off the public debt now exist- 
 in<r and refund it at an interest but little over one-half 
 
MEN AND THINGS 395 
 
 as much as it now pays. Does any one doubt the popu- 
 larity of these savings institutions in the light of experi- 
 ence in Great Britain and the United States? And in 
 view of their popularity does any one doubt that with 
 the increased facilities afforded and incentives inspired 
 by this bill if it become the law^, a sufficient sum would 
 be raised to enable the government to refund the public 
 debt in the bonds proposed, and thus relieve the country 
 from the high rate of interest it now pays, and that too 
 within a very few years ? With this accomplished, pay- 
 ment of the national debt, now pressing like an incubus 
 upon the prosperity, the property, the hopes, and the 
 hearts of the people of this country, would speedily fol- 
 low. Then syndicates, money-rings, and combinations 
 would be unable to shape the policy of the government 
 and control the destiny of the country. There is no con- 
 flict between capital and labor. Each is equally an im- 
 portant and indispensable factor in the solution of the 
 problem of civilization. Each is the complement and 
 the auxiliary of the other. Capital supplies labor with 
 employment and rewards its endeavor. Labor furnishes 
 to capital the means of profitable investment and opens 
 new fields for adventurous enterprise. Each is equally 
 entitled to legislative protection and encouragement, 
 and to each is the world and the race equally indebted 
 for their progress. 
 
 It is not against capital in the abstract nor when le- 
 gitimately employed that complaint is made. But it is 
 the corrupt and illegitimate use of money by bullion- 
 brokers, stock-jobbers, and gambling combinations in 
 the accomplishment of legislation in their own interest 
 
396 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 and against the public interest that the country con- 
 demns and denounces — that class of money-rings that 
 produce corners in gold and panics in business to satiate 
 an accursed thirst for gold that shames even that of Pi- 
 zarro and his robber band. We have recently witnessed 
 the humiliation of a great State by the bribery of the 
 Legislature to enact a charter for the government of the 
 greatest city in the Union that enabled one of these 
 rings to rob the honest tax-payers of that city of mil- 
 lions of dollars. It is that greed for gain that acts 
 from no motive but interest, that recognizes no law but 
 selfishness, and worships no god but gold, that finds its 
 fittest expression in the bowlings of the maniacs around 
 the counters of the exchange on Black Friday. 
 
 It is against these that the people of this country en- 
 ter their solemn protest, and it is against these that ev- 
 ery interest of this country demands protection. I 
 honor the men who by energy and industry acquire for- 
 tunes, and who while they increase their means aid pub- 
 lic enterprise and advance the public prosperity. And 
 I honor men even more, like Peabody dead, and Corco- 
 can living, who having acquired fortunes by the same 
 honorable means dedicate them to great benevolent and 
 humanitarian purposes. But capital is protected. We 
 must not forget protection to the poor, says Sismundi 
 in his political economy : 
 
 On whatever side we look the same lesson meets us 
 everywhere — protect the poor — and ought to be the 
 study of the legislator and the government. Protect 
 the poor, for in consequence of their precarious condi- 
 tion they can not contend with the rich without losing 
 
MEN AND THINGS 39? 
 
 every day some of their advantages. Protect the poor, 
 that they may keep by law, by custom, by a perpetual 
 contract, that share of the income of the community 
 which their labors ought to secure to them. Protect 
 the poor, for they want support that they may have 
 some leisure for intellectual development in order to 
 advance in virtue. Protect the poor, for the greatest 
 danger to law, and to public peace and stability, is the 
 belief of the poor that they are oppressed. Protect the 
 poor, if you wish industry to flourish, for the poor are 
 the most important of consumers. Protect the poor, if 
 your revenues require to be increased, for after you 
 have carefully guarded the enjoyments of the poor you 
 will find them the most important of contributors. 
 
 This bill makes no distinction in classes. It is ex- 
 actly equal in its operations on all, as all laws should 
 be, and still its passage, in my judgment, would be a 
 peculiar blessing to the poor for the encouragement to 
 industry which it gives and the means of preserving the 
 rewards of that industry which it affords. Again, if it 
 should accomplish the results claimed for it, and T doubt 
 not it will, it will supply the money to pay the foreign 
 debt and refund the national debt at a lower rate of in- 
 terest in securities that will be held by our people. Tt 
 would enable us to accomplish another most desirable 
 object, the reduction of taxation and the reform of a 
 revenue system that is unjust in its discrimination, op- 
 pressive in its amount, unwise in its policy, and a dis- 
 grace to the civilization of the nineteenth century in the 
 mode and instruments of its enforcement. Fruitless 
 efforts are made at each session of Congress to mitigate 
 
398 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 the burdens which it imposes upon the people. We are 
 informed by the Secretary of the Treasury that we must 
 diminish appropriations or increase the revenues. 
 
 If the interest on the public debt can be reduced, as 
 proposed, nearly one-half, the gold sent abroad to pay 
 the interest kept at home and paid out to our own peo- 
 ple, with the influx of gold from abroad which the bal- 
 ance of trade gives us, then taxation can and will be 
 reduced. But so long as we are compelled to raise 
 money to pay the interest on the public debt at its pres- 
 ent rate I see but little hope of less taxation. 
 
 Another benefit resulting from this measure is the 
 identification of all classes in every section of the Union 
 and in almost every community of each section with the 
 credit of the government. They will scrutinize more 
 closely its financial policy and guard more vigilantly its 
 expenditures and hold to a more strict accountability its 
 officers and agents, and may prevent the precipitation 
 upon the country of the question of repudiation. 
 
 N^early one-half of the families of France have money 
 in the public funds — are creditors of the government. 
 To have their names in the grand livre of the public 
 debt is esteemed an honor. It is an honor that is ea- 
 gerly sought, as the promptness with which the rentes 
 were taken shows. One of the effects of this wide dif- 
 fusion of the public securities among the people of 
 France is to unite them in maintaining the public 
 credit. Of course they look upon the public debt as 
 a most sacred obligation. The reason is obvious; it 
 is due to themselves, and for it they paid a full consid- 
 eration. They therefore maintain the public faith from 
 
MEN AND THINGS 399 
 
 motives of interest as well as sentiments of patriotism. 
 
 This sentiment does not change with a change in the 
 form of their government. It is the same in the re- 
 public and in the monarchy. In our system of govern- 
 ment, based upon the popular will and resting for sup- 
 port upon the popular affection, it is of the first im- 
 portance that the people should be identified in interest 
 as well as in sympathy with the Government in its pol- 
 icy as well as its principles. The public debt of the 
 United States, held by nearly fifty millions of people 
 scattered all over our vast territory, would take from 
 the financial question its sectional element, with the 
 animosities which will always attach to it so long as it 
 remains sectional. It will take from it its class 
 element. And if this debt is refunded it will avoid 
 the question of the consideration of the debt which the 
 American people may be driven to the necessity of 
 raising unless we change our financial policy. 
 
 Another vital result of this measure will be the gen- 
 eral diffusion of the money paid out for interest over 
 the whole country. It will not only not go out of the 
 country, as now, but it will not be concentrated in 
 one or two great money centers. It will flow out from 
 the treasury like the blood from the heart, to the ex- 
 tremities of the country in every direction and through 
 all sections, vitalizing industry, rewarding labor, and 
 stimulating enterprise. 
 
 My conviction is thorough that, with silver remone- 
 tized and tliat vast resource of national wealth aiilized 
 in currency, the resumption act repealed and any fur- 
 ther contraction of the volume of the currency pre- 
 
400 MEN AND 7' H I N O S 
 
 vented, this bill passed into a law and faithfully admin- 
 istered, the whole public debt of the United States can 
 be speedily refunded at a rate of interest but little 
 more than half what we now pay, and the current of 
 specie changed from foreign countries to us instead of 
 from us to them, and that "gravitation shifting will 
 turn the other way," from depression to activity, from 
 bankruptcy and ruin to prosperity and wealth. 
 
 Then we can develop the grand and diversified re-, 
 sources of this magnificent country, whose vastness and 
 variety defy and fatigue the computation of mathe- 
 matics. 
 
 Then we can abolish a revenue system that violates 
 the Constitution, that outrages popular sentiment, that 
 wrings from honest toil the earnings of its sweat, and 
 that exhausts the substance of the people by the enor- 
 mity of its demands. 
 
 Then the sound of hammers, the blasts of furnaces, 
 the whir of wheels, the hum of spindles, and the whis- 
 tle of engines will fill the land with the music of in- 
 dustry. Then the Government can demand her awards 
 against foreign powers in gold, and not be compelled 
 to receive them in its own bonds. And then the peo- 
 ple of this country, disenthralled from the financial 
 slavery fastened upon them through the forms of law 
 by bondholders and syndicates, can reap the fruits of 
 their toil, rest in the protection of the law, and rejoice 
 in the possession of their country. 
 
 Mr. HUMPHREY. I move that the House do now 
 adjourn. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 401 
 
 The motion was agTced to; and accordingly (at ten 
 o'clock and five minutes p. m.) the ITonse adjourned. 
 
 Speech of the Hon. Hiram P. Bell, of Georgia, Deliv- 
 ered in the House of Representatives, January 23, 
 1879, in Support of the Bill Reported by Mr. 
 Goode froii the Committee on Education and. La- 
 bor, to Set Apart the Proceeds of the Public Land 
 for the Education of the People. 
 
 The House being in Committee of the Whole, and 
 having under consideration the bill (H, R. ISTo. 3542) 
 to apply the proceeds of sales of public lands to the 
 education of the people, &c. — 
 
 Mr. Bell said : 
 
 Mr. Chairman: The bill under consideration for- 
 ever consecrates and sets apart the net proceeds arising 
 from the sale of the public lands for the education of 
 the people. It does not change, nor affect in any way 
 whatever, any law now in force authorzing the pre- 
 emption of public lands, nor the entry of public lands 
 for homesteads, nor does it interfere in any manner 
 with the power of Congress over the public domain. 
 It provides after paying the expenses of sale, that 
 the whole of the net proceeds shall be distributed among 
 the several States, Territories and the District of Co- 
 lumbia upon the basis of population between the ages of 
 five and twenty-one years. For the first five years — the 
 
402 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 whole of said proceeds and for the next five years one- 
 half to be apportioned to the several States and Ter- 
 ritories and the District of Columbia, according to 
 the numbers of their respective population of ten 
 years old and upward who can not read and write, 
 as shown from time to time by the last preceding 
 published census of the United States. It further pro- 
 vides that one-fourth of the money appropriated by this 
 act shall be given to the colleges shown as agricultural 
 colleges, established or hereafter to be established in 
 accordance with the act approved July 2, 1862, unless 
 in any case the Legislature of a State or Territory 
 shall otherwise direct. 
 
 In a word, it gives three-fourths of the amount 
 to the cause of popular education and one-fourth, sub- 
 ject to the control of the State and Territorial Legis- 
 latures, to the aid of agricultural education. It pro- 
 vides that after ten years the whole amoimt shall be 
 invested in bonds of the United States bearing a rate 
 of interest at 4 per cent, per annum, principal and 
 interest payable in coin, the interest thereon to be 
 applied to free education in conformity with the pro- 
 visions of the bill. 
 
 This bill contains ample provisions to secure the 
 application of the fund to the object intended and ap- 
 propriate penalties for its misapplication. 
 
 I apprehend that no great difference of opinion 
 exists and that no controversy will arise upon the de- 
 tails of this measure. I^or can any question of con- 
 stitutional power arise. 
 
 The second clause of section 3, article 4, of the Con- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 403 
 
 stitution declares that "The Congress shall have power 
 to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations 
 respecting the territory or other property belonging to 
 the United States; and nothing in this Constitution 
 shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the 
 United States, or of any particular State," 
 
 This provision grants plenary powers to Congress 
 to dispose of the public domain. 'No one will hazard 
 his reputation for intelligence by denying that the 
 power to dispose of the territory necessarily includes 
 the power to dispose of the proceeds of the territory. 
 The ownership of the territory necessarily involves the 
 right and power, in the absence of any constitutional 
 qualifications or limitations, to dispose of it and its 
 proceeds. 
 
 But the question upon which a difference of opinion 
 may exist is whether the disposition proposed by this 
 measure is wise. And to the consideration of this great 
 question the attention of the country is invited, and 
 upon it the favorable action of Congress invoked. It 
 has passed into a maxim that the preservation and per- 
 petuity of our institutions depend upon the virtue and 
 intelligence of the people. The question of man's ca- 
 pacity of self-government is still an unsolved prob- 
 lem. Every effort hitherto made has resulted in fail- 
 ure. We are now making the world's last experiment 
 under conditions more favorable to success than 
 any that history records. The recognition of power, 
 of sovereign political power in the people, is the dis- 
 tinguishing attribute, the very genius of our system. 
 The rights, duties, and powers of executive, legislative, 
 
404 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 judicial, and ministerial officers are all defined, pre- 
 scribed, and limited by law. The untrammelled ballot 
 — the sole peaceful instrument of original, inherent, 
 political power — is the power behind the throne that 
 is greater than the throne. Every ballot is a vital fac- 
 tor in determining the destiny of millions. It there- 
 fore follows that upon the intelligent and wise exer- 
 cise of this power all the great moral, social, and civil 
 interests of society in this country depend. This ques- 
 tion is not ephemeral in its nature, sectional in its char- 
 acter, nor local in its influence. It is as wide in its 
 range as the wants of humanity, enduring as the quench- 
 less fires of intellect, and deals with the destiny of 
 races. There is no question of public expenditure, ex- 
 cept the expenses of administering the government and 
 payment of the public debt, so purely national in its 
 object as this. 
 
 All expenditures for railways and canals, the im- 
 provement of rivers and harbors, the erection of pub- 
 lic buildings, &c., contain local as well as national ele- 
 ments, and not unfrequently engender local and sec- 
 tional prejudices and animosities. But every State, 
 every section, and every individual in the Republic 
 is deeply interested in the qualifications of every citi- 
 zen to discharge the obligations and meet the high re- 
 sponsibilities of American citizenship. 
 
 The public domain was acquired by the common 
 blood and the common treasure of the people, and it 
 seems to me that there is a peculiar fitness in devoting 
 it to their education. Then the basis of distribution is 
 one of perfect equality — illiteracy for ten years and 
 
MEN AND THINGS 405 
 
 population thereafter. It may be urged that the ba- 
 sis of illiteracy is unequal because it gives the larger 
 portion of this fund to the South for ten years. It is 
 true that the South would get the larger portion for 
 that period, but it does not follow that the distribution 
 is unequal for that reason. Equality and justice con- 
 sist in meeting the necessities of the case. The educa- 
 tion of the illiterate is the object, and this distribution 
 recognizes the right of every illiterate child to an equal 
 participation in this benefaction. But this issue of 
 inequality or injustice is an unfortunate one for the 
 opponents of this bill to raise. While Georgia and 
 Virginia, receiving only an equal amount per capita 
 for their illiterate with all the other States, would 
 receive in the aggregate more than any of the others, 
 it may be interesting to inquire what contributions to 
 the national Treasury these two States have made by 
 the cession of their territory, and how they compare 
 with the contributions of the other States, and also what 
 States have been the beneficiaries of the Federal Gov- 
 ernment in the way of internal improvements and pub- 
 lic works. 
 
 From 1789 to 1873 the Federal Government ex- 
 pended in public works, railroads, canals, and wagon- 
 roads, the sum of $207,999,664.77. Of this $18,594,- 
 049. 4G was expended in the sixteen Southern and border 
 States, $174,885,371.21 in the ^rthcrn and Western 
 States and Territories, and $15,520,224 in the District 
 of Columbia. Of the aggregate simi of $207,999,664.77, 
 $103,294,501.35 were appropriated in bonds and money 
 to public works from 1865 to 1873 ; the remaining 
 
406 ME1<J AND THINGS 
 
 $104,705,163.43 to railroads, wagon-roads, and canals 
 from 1789 to 1873. Of this sum neither Georgia, 
 Texas, nor West Virginia received one dollar. Vir- 
 ginia, N'orth Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, 
 Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Mis- 
 souri received $5,480,172.94, while the other States 
 and Territories received $99,224,990.49. 
 
 Georgia ceded to the Federal Government the ter- 
 ritory now constituting the States of Alabama and 
 Mississippi with the express stipulation in the deed 
 of session that "it should be considered as a common 
 fund for the use and benefit of the United States, 
 Georgia included." The Government realized from 
 this magnificent domain $40,000,000 in cash, while in 
 the distribution of $104,705,163.43 for works of in- 
 ternal improvement among the States, Georgia did not 
 receive one cent. Besides, the United States this day 
 owe her $36,000 for money she expended for the com- 
 mon defense in the Revolutionary war. The State of 
 Virginia ceded to the Government the territory com- 
 prising the greater part of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana 
 and Illinois, containing an area of 137,860 square 
 miles, property worth $10,329,669,974, while she has 
 received of the $104,705,163.43 only $57,538.27. The 
 Government had received up to 1850 from the sale of 
 public lands ceded by Virginia $80,000,000. 
 
 This grand old Commonwealth, after having given 
 away an empire, stands "like royalty in ruins," strug- 
 gling with misfortune, poverty and debt, with elevated 
 crest and unbroken spirit. She urns in her heart the 
 ashes of her heroes and statesmen; the lofty device of 
 
MEN AND THINGS 407 
 
 sic semper tyrannis still emblazons her shield. Wrap- 
 ped in the imperial robes of her ancient sovereignity, 
 she stands not at your door a mendicant asking alms, 
 but the mother of States and of statesmen, demanding 
 for her illiterate children an equal participation in 
 the treasure her bounty bestowed. 
 
 Georgia shelters her two hundred and seventy-five 
 thousand illiterate under her arch supported by wis- 
 dom, justice, and moderation, and in the calmness of 
 conscious dignity points to the magnificent domain of 
 Alabama and Mississippi and the forty millions the 
 Government received from the gift as the evidence of 
 her right to an equal share of this treasure. In the 
 presence of these facts avarice itself must stand 
 abashed, and no whisper of inequality or injustice be 
 heard or breathed. 
 
 The last census discloses the humiliating fact that 
 there are nearly six millions of children in the United 
 States over ten years of age who can neither read nor 
 w'rite. Every chapter of our legislative historv rec- 
 ognizes the constitutional power of Congress to aid the 
 education of the people. Many laws have been passed 
 and a vast amount of the public lands donated for this 
 purpose. Individual effort and parental affection and 
 solicitude have contributed much toward the intellec- 
 tual development and cultivation of the people of this 
 country. The different religious sects throughout the 
 country, stimulated by a legitimate denominational 
 pride, animated by a generous emulation and inspired 
 by the loftier sentiment of Christian philanthvophy, 
 have employed all their energies and exhausted all their 
 
408 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 resources to promote the cause of education and ad- 
 vance the standard of a Christian civilization. Eight 
 hundred and thirtj-four thousand four hundred and 
 eleven noble men and women, worthy to wear ''the red 
 wreath by martyrs won," instruct weekly in Sunday- 
 schools over six millions of children. States have 
 endowed and maintained colleges and universities. 
 Every section and every State bristles with spires 
 of colleges, male and female. I believe every 
 State in the Union now has established by organic laAv 
 a system of free public schools supported by taxation; 
 still the deplorable fact meets us everywhere, and at 
 all times, that there are six millions unblessed by any 
 and all of these agencies, with the light of le:irning, 
 who are starving at a banquet and famishing at a 
 fountain. And yet these children are soon in part to 
 bear the ark that contains the oracles of popular liberty 
 and the covenant of free institutions. The education 
 of the masses in this country, at least in the rudimen- 
 tary principles of learning, is demanded by every con- 
 sideration that patriotism, philanthropy, and religion 
 can urge. Neither denominational church enterprise 
 nor private effort, much as they have done, can accom- 
 plish this most desirable object. Experience has 
 shown that some system established by law, harmonious 
 in its machinery, universal in its operation, and perpe- 
 tual in its duration, is required. Experience has also 
 demonstrated that the establishment and maintenance 
 of such a system is an undertaking of the gTeatest dif- 
 ficulty, involving the utmost exercise of patience, the 
 largest share of liberality, and the highest order of 
 
MEN AND THINGS 409 
 
 statesmanship; for the reason that its establishment 
 and successful operation depend upon so many condi- 
 tions rarely found to exist in combination. 
 
 The people of the Southern States are engaged in a 
 heroic struggle with these difficulties, which are nu- 
 merous and formidable. The system encountered at the 
 threshold the opposition of enemies, the fears of 
 the timid, the doubts of the faithless, the apprehension 
 of friends, and the poverty of all. Every step taken 
 discovered some new obstacle in the way of success. 
 There are but comparatively few large cities and towns 
 in the South ; the greater part of that section of the 
 Union is rural, the people are engaged in agricultural 
 pursuits, the population in the country is sparse, and 
 great diflSculty was found in the location of school- 
 houses so as to accommodate the largest numbc-r and 
 equally distribute the benefits of instruction. But the 
 greatest difficulty with which they had to contend, and 
 which it is the object of this bill to obviate, to some ex- 
 tent at least, was the want of means. All will readily 
 recognize money as an indispensable element of suc- 
 cess; and that we do not possess. The losses resulting 
 directly and indirectly from the war, the overwhehning 
 burden of debt, public and private, with which the peo- 
 ple are crushed, and the enormous taxation necessarily 
 imposed upon them, make it doubtful whether the sys- 
 tem of free public schools in the Southern States, so 
 courageously inaugurated, will not have to be aban- 
 doned in despair or left to languish and ultimately 
 perish for want of support unless timely aid comes from 
 some quarter. Those who have not taken the trouble 
 
410 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 to examine into the extent of these losses have but little 
 
 conception of their mag-nitude. Take, for illustration, 
 
 the State of Georgia: 
 
 The taxable property in Georgia was valued 
 under oath by the tax-payers in 1860 
 at $672,322,777. 
 
 In 1868 it was valued at 191,235,520 
 
 A loss of 481,087,257 
 
 This includes 450,000 slaves, valued at $302,694,833. 
 The losses, aside from the slaves, amounted to $188,- 
 392,424, an amount nearly equal to the whole taxable 
 property in 1868. It will be borne in mind that this 
 property was valued at a time when cotton brought a 
 high price, when the volume pf the currency was 
 large, before the contraction policy of Secretary McCul- 
 loch was inaugurated and before the war values had 
 shrunk to a normal condition. If we add to these 
 losses the duplication of the public debt, the consequent 
 increase of taxation, the subversion of our labor system, 
 and the revolution in our modes, habits, industries, 
 and economies, not only of a life-time but of timi; im- 
 mem^orial, some just judgment can be formed of our 
 poverty and condition to commence and prosecute an 
 expensive system of popular education. And yet Geor- 
 gia probably suffered less than most of the South- 
 ern States. I have purposely refrained from allu- 
 sion to the crucifixion of reconstruction through which 
 we passed. I have no fancy for rekindling the fires of 
 hate and passion that deluged a continent in blood, nor 
 have I any respect for the man who ignores the vital 
 
MEN AND THINGS 411 
 
 issues of the living present and coming future to in- 
 dulge in crimination and recrimination for the low 
 purposes of party or for any other purpose. 
 
 Under these circumstances of discouragement and dif- 
 ficulty we have inaugurated this system of public edu- 
 cation, and are now struggling to maintain and make it 
 a success. It has in every Southern State the sanction 
 of organic law. The provision upon this subject in 
 the constitution of Georgia is as follows : 
 
 There shall be a thorough system of common schools 
 for the education of children in the elementary branches 
 of an English education only, as nearly uniform as 
 practicable, the expenses of which shall be provided 
 for by taxation or otherwise. The school shall be free 
 to all children of the State, but separate schools shall 
 be provided for the white and colored races. Author- 
 ity may be granted to counties upon the recommenda- 
 tion of two grand juries, and to municipal corporations 
 upon the recommendation of the corporate authority, 
 to establish and maintain public schools in their respec- 
 tive limits by local taxation; but no such local law 
 shall take effect until the same shall have been sub- 
 mitted to a vote of the qualified voters in each county 
 or municipal corporation and approved by a two-thirds 
 vote of persons qualified to vote at such election, and 
 the General Assembly may prescribe who shall vote on 
 such questions. 
 
 Emancipation has immensely swelled the number 
 to be educated, and therefore increased the demand for 
 means. This increase in number occurred precisely 
 at the time when the means were most diminished. 
 
412 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 The additional number brings no material aid, except 
 perhaps the single item of poll tax levied upon the 
 colored people. Under the educational system of every 
 Southern State the colored people are entitled to an 
 equal participation with the whites in the school fund. 
 There is no distinction, except that the white and col- 
 ored schools are separate. 
 
 Whatever differences of opinion may have existed, 
 or whatever theories may have been advanced or spec- 
 ulations indulged respecting the capabilities of the 
 negi'o race for intellectual development and distinction, 
 with proper facilities for culture, it is clear that the 
 truth can be ascertained by the test of trial. This ex- 
 periment the white people of the South have deter- 
 mined, if possible, shall be made. In making it they 
 discharge an obligation while they dispense a benefac- 
 tion. The history of the negro race is a sad one. It 
 has been the sportive plaything of capricious fortune. 
 Its destiny has been wrought by agencies over which 
 it had no control. Hugging for countless ages the 
 torrid zone, the influences of habit and climate devel- 
 oped the animal nature and emasculated the intellec- 
 tual and moral powers, leaving barbarism as the result. 
 The contact of the negro with the white race has hith- 
 erto been, in the main, under conditions that confined 
 the means of their advancement to imitation and obser- 
 vation. ISTeither history nor tradition brings from 
 them any contribution to civilization in the achiovment 
 of arms, the discoveries of science, or the inventions of 
 art. I have said that the white people of the South are 
 but discharging an obligation to the negi'oes in an effort 
 
MEN AND THINGS 413 
 
 to educate their children. They served us before eman- 
 cipation, they were faithful to us in the dark days of 
 the war, and they have, under the circumstances and 
 temptations surrounding them, demeaned themselves 
 well since the surrender. 
 
 What were the circumstances surrounding them? 
 They were suddenly transformed from slaves to freed- 
 men; they did not and perhaps never will know who 
 was responsible for their enslavement. They would 
 naturally hold their former masters responsible and re- 
 gard the agents of the Federal Government as their de- 
 liverers; and thus the avenues to their confidence and 
 credulity were opened. The Freedman's Bank was es- 
 tablished to be plundered by knaves, and the Freedman's 
 Bureau organized to control their political affiliations 
 under the pretext of managing their affairs. Artful 
 villians appealed to their communistic instincts by 
 false promises of an agrarian division of property. In- 
 famous adventurers swore them to deadly hostility to 
 the whites in secret conclaves in the darkness of mid- 
 night, and aroused their superstition by administering 
 the oath over skeletons and coffins. Xewly clothed 
 with the rights, privileges, and immunities of citizen- 
 ship, they were marched and countermarched on elec- 
 tion days to the stirring music of drum and fife around 
 the polls in the presence of disfranchised patriotism and 
 ostracised virtue and intelligence. They were elevated 
 from prison cells to legislative halls, and converted 
 from sweating convicts into pompous legislators, ex- 
 changing the humbler occupation of bearing burdens 
 for the loftier business of making constitutions. And 
 
414 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 at last Federal legislation undertook to bridge the social 
 gulf separating the races, established by nature and 
 extending "down to earth profound and up to heaven," 
 and invite them over to perfect social equality with the 
 superior race. 
 
 Yet with all these powerful influences pressed upon 
 them, let it be said to the infinite credit of the great 
 mass of the colored people that they have conducted 
 themselves with a propriety and exhibited a capacity 
 for usefulness in society that has more than met the 
 expectations of their most judicious friends. If occa- 
 sional riots have attended or preceded elections, they 
 have been instigated and manipulated outside cf the 
 South, or by the agents of parties outside, to inflame 
 and control public opinion pending closely contested 
 elections in other states, with the view of controlling 
 important elections. And thus the colored people have 
 been made the unwitting instruments of occasional 
 disorders which have their conception in foul con- 
 spiracies outside of the South, and for which the white 
 people of the South are falsely held responsible. The 
 relations of friendship existing between the races in 
 the South are not at all surprising; it is but the ligiti- 
 mate effect of obvious causes and results from tradi- 
 tional family attachments not in any wise incompatible 
 with superior and subordinate relations. The races are 
 identified in interest and in neighborhood. The deal- 
 ings of the white race with the black have been charac- 
 terized by the strictest justice, fairness, and honesty; 
 the colored people have received from them sympathy 
 in their sorrow, assistance in their misfortunes, and 
 
MEN AND THINGS 415 
 
 encouragement in their struggles ; all of their political 
 rights have been conceded with cheerfulness and en- 
 forced with fidelity; an upright and learned bench 
 always assigns for the defense of the accused who are 
 unable to employ counsel the ablest lawyers the bar 
 supplies ; and now, in almost hopeless poverty, the white 
 people are paying heavy self-imposed taxes to test the 
 experiment of their education. 
 
 If the colored people are the "wards of the nation," 
 if the Federal Government is the guardian of these 
 people, this bill and this occasion furnish the finest 
 opportunity it will ever have to discharge the most im- 
 portant duty of the guardianship — the education of the 
 wards. They stand here by the millions through their 
 representatives and insist that the Government ^vill at 
 least aid their late owners in this humane effort to im- 
 prove their condition; and this appeal they emphasize 
 with the pathos of helplessness, of poverty. How far 
 their general education, if it can be accomplished, would 
 affect their inclination to manual labor and impair their 
 capacity for its performance, is a question that may 
 well excite serious apprehension. Living as they do 
 in a purely agricultural section, and adapted as their 
 labor is to the climate and productions of that section, 
 their manual labor is not only indispensable to their 
 own support, but of the first importance to the prosperity 
 of the whole country. But the consideration of tlais 
 question is foreclosed by the general judgment of the 
 country that the experiment shall be made. The prac- 
 tical question now^ is, how to secure the means to make 
 it. Since the organization of the Government, Con- 
 
416 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 gress has donated to the cause of education, under differ- 
 ent acts, land amounting in the aggregate to 95,737,T14 
 acres, and the siun of $47,785,197.93 in money. The 
 greater portion of the land was given to the jSTorthwest- 
 ern States by setting apart for educational purposes, in 
 that section, sections 16 and 36. Upon her annexation 
 to the Union the State of Texas reserved her public 
 lands, and has therefore ample resources for the sup- 
 port of her educational system. But she stands the 
 solitary exception among the Southern States, who have 
 received only a trifling sum compared with the amount 
 received by other States, Virginia and Georgia less than 
 almost any of them, although each ceded to the Gen- 
 eral Government an empire in extent and wealth, and 
 now in the extremity of their poverty, when the 
 number of their illiterate population has been 
 doubled, they invoke the aid which the bill 
 proposes to extend. They do so in common with 
 the other Southern States, not only to educate the white 
 children within their borders, but to educate the ignorant 
 colored race in which one-eighth of the sovereign polit- 
 ical power of the Republic is vested by the Constitution 
 and laws of the United States. Thirty-five Represen- 
 tatives of the American people on this floor symbolize 
 the power of the negro race, two-fifths of which — four- 
 teen in number — accrued from emancipation; .o say 
 nothing of the improvement of their intelligence, their 
 morals, and their elevation in the scale of civilization. 
 Does not the qualification for citizenship, which educa- 
 tion alone supplies, demand imperatively that speedy 
 
MEN AND THINGS 417 
 
 and ample provision be made for that education ? 
 
 Are not the institutions of this country imperiled by 
 the ignorance of so large a number with whom political 
 power is deposited, whose votes from ignorance, are 
 liable to be controlled by prejudice or purchase? Is 
 not the Government under some obligation to furnish 
 the means to qualify these people for the enjoyment of 
 the right and the exercise of the power which is so im- 
 ceremoniously and bountifully thrust upon them ? This 
 bill provides that one-fourth of the money appropri- 
 ated by it shall be given to the agricultural colleges un- 
 less the Legislatures of the States and Territories shall 
 otherwise direct; thus devoting one-fourth of the sum 
 to agricultural education. The judgment of Congress 
 and the country has been made up upon the wisdom and 
 propriety of fostering intelligence in the cultivation 
 of the soil of this country. That judgment is recorded 
 in the act establishing these colleges and appropriating 
 a part of the public land to support them, and in the 
 acts of the various Legislatures accepting the donation. 
 The success of these institutions vindicates their cbim 
 to liberal support. 
 
 I but state what all know to be true when I assert 
 that the agricultural is the paramount interest of this 
 country, the basis of all prosperity, and the only origi- 
 nal source from which subsistence and clothing come. 
 There can be no reason why its votaries should not be as 
 well educated as those of any other art or science, and 
 there can exist no reason why cultivated intellect should 
 not be employed in the discovery and the development 
 of the resources of the soil. The I^orth Georgia Agri- 
 
 28 
 
418 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 cultural College, established by the act of 1862, has 
 accomplished more good in the few years of its exist- 
 ence than any two schools in the State within the same 
 period ; unfortunately its buildings were recently de- 
 stroyed by fire. 
 
 To the products of the soil are we mainly indebted 
 for the balance of trade in our favor, amounting for the 
 last year to $309,309,741. It is the labor employed in 
 agriculture and the products of that labor that enable us 
 to dispute commercial supremacy with Great Britain. 
 This labor is productive in the proportion that it is 
 guided by intelligence. 
 
 If experience should show that one-fourth of this 
 money could be more usefully employed in other depart- 
 ments of education, then it is perfectly competent for 
 the Legislatures of the States and Territories so to em- 
 ploy it. It is within the control and subject to the di- 
 rection of the State and territorial authorities. There 
 can therefore, as it seems to me, be no well-founded ob- 
 jection to the bill because it gives a part of the money 
 to this particular class of institutions. While this is- 
 truly a national question, still, regarding it from a local 
 and sectional standpoint; in view of the necessities for 
 aid to public education in the South, it is important 
 to inquire what amount this measure will supply. As- 
 suming, as estimated by the Cormnissioner of Educa- 
 tion, that the sales will amount annually to $1,500,000, 
 the amount that each of the Southern States would re- 
 ceive is exhibited in the following table : 
 
 Alabama $101,534.56 
 
 Arkansas 35,347.50 
 
MEN AND THINGS 419 
 
 Florida 19,034.61 
 
 Georgia 124,221.66 
 
 Kentucky 88,058.19 
 
 Louisiana 73,208.10 
 
 Mississippi 83,056.90 
 
 Missouri 58,960.03 
 
 ITorth Carolina 105,425.63 
 
 South Carolina 76,978.02 
 
 Tennessee 96,679.35 
 
 Texas 58,772.35 
 
 Virginia 118,203.99 
 
 West Virginia 21,602.58 
 
 $1,061,083.47 
 It will be seen that the State of Georgia would an- 
 nually receive upon this basis $124,221.66, one-fourth 
 of which, or $31,055.41, for five years would amount 
 to $155,277. This would endow the agricultural col- 
 lege, leaving to the cause of popular education in this 
 State each year $93,166.25, which amount would vary 
 of course with the amount of the sales of the public 
 land. We can form some estimate of the aid which this 
 bill will render to the education of the people of the 
 United States when it is remembered that the public 
 domain, surveyed and unsurveyed, amounts to 1,154,- 
 471,762 acres. Whether this domain shall be wisely 
 and humanely devoted to the education and elevation 
 of the masses of the people of this country, distributed 
 upon the basis of necessity and equality, or given to 
 rich and powerful corporations, and thus increase their 
 
420 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 means of fixing the price of labor and controlling legis- 
 lation, is not a debatable question. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, the first century of our national ex- 
 istence vindicates the wisdom that founded our insti- 
 tutions and the beneficence that disting-uishes their 
 operation. Our career is the wonder and admiration 
 of the world. We have extended our domain from a 
 narrow strip along the Atlantic coast across a hundred 
 degrees of longitude to the Pacific Ocean, increased the 
 number of States from thirteen to thirty-eight and our 
 population from three millions to fifty millions. We 
 have a country that possesses every variety of climate 
 and production, soil and scenery. It combines in prod- 
 igal profusion every element of individual and national 
 wealth. It opens an inviting field to every industrial 
 enterprise and bestows the richest rewards upon the 
 efforts of labor. It has given to immortality the names 
 of Franklin, Fulton, and Morse, and bequeathed to 
 mankind the* triumphs of their genius. Its discoveries 
 in science and inventions in art have revolutionized the 
 industries and commerce of the world. Her iron ships 
 float upon every sea and bear to every port the treasures 
 of her mines, her fields, and her forests. 
 
 Our skill has unlocked the arcana of nature and util- 
 ized her physical forces in constructing the temple of 
 freedom, and American genius has brought its trophies 
 of sculpture, painting, and poetry to adorn its colunms 
 and festoon its arches. American orators have eclipsed 
 the famous masters of antiquity. American literature 
 has attained a range of thought, a felicity of expression, 
 and a purity of sentiment unknown to other ages and 
 
MEN AND THINGS 421 
 
 countries. We have sent back to the birthplace of civil- 
 ization the inspiration of a new national life and 
 aroused the East from the slumber of ages. Hoary sys- 
 tems are dissolving in the blaze of the star of empire 
 that "westward takes its way." Vitalized by contact 
 with us, China and Japan have adopted systems of pop- 
 ular education abreast with the demands of the age that 
 rival the best models of modern times. But while we 
 are dazzled with the splendor of these achievements that 
 cultivated intellect has done so much to secure, we are 
 confronted with the melancholy fact that six millions 
 of American children are unable to read and write the 
 language in which the historian records and perpetuates 
 them. 
 
 If so much has been accomplished in the brief period 
 of a century under existing disadvantages, what hopes 
 are the least sanguine not authorized to indulge of the 
 future grandeur and glory of our common country? 
 Each conquest in this aggressive march to national des- 
 tiny enlarges the desire and augments the power for new 
 and grander results, and each new acquisition imposes 
 additional obligations. 
 
 jSText in importance to the obligation to preserve pub- 
 lic liberty is the duty of providing the means for popu- 
 lar education. These will be the two great agents of 
 advancement in the future, as they have been of suc- 
 cess in the past. The possibilities' of our future prom- 
 ise more than the realization of Utopian dreams. They 
 spread out over the vast West a population numbered 
 by hundreds of millions, combining the strength of the 
 Koman with the culture of the Greek, uniting the chiv- 
 
4'22 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 airy of Bayard with the benevolence of Howard, and ex- 
 hibiting in blended harmony the best elements of the 
 Puritan and the Cavalier ; a wilderness reclaimed from 
 primeval solitude, yielding to industry harvests that fill 
 the marts of the world with commerce and appease the 
 hunger of nations with bread ; great national highways 
 substituting the dim trail of the receding Indian, mag- 
 nificent cities occupying the place of abandoned 
 wigwams, and the light of council-fires paling before 
 the superior light reflected from galleries of art, halls 
 of learning, and temples of worship, realizing the ful- 
 fillment of prophetic prediction : 
 
 "The wilderness shall be glad for them, and the desert 
 shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." 
 
 This population under the protection of and this 
 progress fostered by a Government under a written con- 
 stitution, that explicitly defines the powers of the Gov- 
 ernment and expressly secures the rights of the people, 
 we may here expect to witness the highest physical, so- 
 cial, moral, and political development of which the race 
 is capable. 
 
 It was during the thousand years of darkness and 
 blood, when cloistered monks monopolized the learning 
 of Europe and Asia, leaving the masses in ignorance, 
 that barbarous conquerors and ambitious prelates fas- 
 tened upon the world the despotism of the Feudal sys- 
 tem and the horrors of the Inquisition. Against this 
 stupendous crime upon humanity its mind, heart, and 
 conscience have never ceased to utter their protest. The 
 revival of letters and the general diffusion of knowledge 
 relaxed the grasp of the tyrant and broke the spell of 
 
MEN AND THINGS 423 
 
 tyranny ; and cultivated intellect, inspired by patriotism 
 at the expense of blood has erected and consecrated upon 
 American soil the sacred temple of liberty, rebuilt her 
 ruined altars, installed her banished priestess, and re- 
 stored the worship of her divinity. And here, under 
 the patronage of Republican institutions and universal 
 education, liberty finds its freest expression, religion 
 its purest model, and humanity its highest type. 
 
 Speech of Hon. Hiram P. Bell, Delivered Before the 
 General Assembly of the State of Georgia in Spe- 
 cial Joint Session, Dec. 3, 1901. Reported by Mr. 
 McAllister. Subject :The Georgia Secession Con- 
 vention of 1861. 
 
 Mr. President ; Mr. Speaker ;Gentlemen of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of the State of Georgia ; Ladies and Gen- 
 tlemen : — 
 
 I can only wish that I deserved a tithe of the eulo- 
 giums which my friend has seen proper to pronounce 
 upon me. I am really at a loss to know whether to 
 accept it as a tribute of friendship, or as an example of 
 the splendid ability of the president to round magnifi- 
 cient periods of oratory. 
 
 We live and have lived in a history-making epoch ; 
 and we are here to-night to consider the most important, 
 certainly the most thrilling event in the history of this 
 great commonwealth, — the secession convention of 1861. 
 The decade that preceded that convention is crowded 
 
424 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 with the startling developments of the conflict of opin- 
 ion in this country, upon the question of African Sla- 
 very. We thought — or the country thought — upon the 
 admission of Missouri into the Union in 1821, that 
 there would be a respite from the slavery agitation. 
 There was comparative rest for a period of nearly thirty 
 years. But Southern valor in the field, under the ad- 
 ministration of a Democratic president, on the battle- 
 fields of Mexico, aided by Southern diplomacy at Guad- 
 aloupe, Hidalgo, had won for our common country an 
 empire upon the Pacific slope. In 1847, Commodore 
 Stockton captured California, in area nearly as large 
 as ISTew England, E^ew York and Pennsylvania. A 
 military government was organized, a constitutional 
 convention was called. That convention framed a con- 
 stitution excluding African slavery, which was sub- 
 mitted, under military authority, to a conglomeration 
 of mongrels, Mexicans and Indians; id et omni genus, 
 and with that constitution, thus irregularly and ille- 
 gally framed, California applied for admission into 
 the sisterhood of States. 
 
 That application was met with an indignant protest 
 from the men of the section whose blood and valor had 
 wrung the soil from the grasp of a foreign power. It 
 kindled their chivalry like flame, and reopened the 
 fearful conflict of opinion between the sections of 
 our common country. Its solution was found in the 
 compromise measure of 1850. The admission of Cal- 
 ifornia into the Union, the passage of the Fugitive 
 Slave law, the abolition of the slave trade in the District 
 of Columbia and the dockyards of the United States, all 
 
MEN AND THINGS 425 
 
 had their effect, and the fires thus kindled were never 
 extinguished. The Southern people met in convention 
 in jSTashville under the presidency of a Southern States- 
 man, and protested. The people of Georgia assembled 
 in convention in 1850, and while they acquiesced ex ne- 
 cessitate rei in existing conditions, they entered a vig- 
 orous protest, and announced that unless the aggressions 
 of the JSTorthern States upon the South ceased, they 
 w^ould be resisted to the disruption of every tie which 
 bound Georgia to the Union. 
 
 This controversy resulted in a division of the South- 
 ern people and the Democratic party into two factions, 
 marshalled respectively under the banners of Southern 
 Rights and Union, and so complete was that division, 
 and so well defined, that in 1852, when the party har- 
 monized upon Pierce and King for the presidency and 
 vice-presidency, the Democratic party of Georgia ran 
 two electoral tickets. And so intense was this factional 
 feeling in the sister State of Alabama, that the Demo- 
 cratic party of Alabama, although her ablest statesman 
 was upon the ticket, nominated the lion-hearted Troup, 
 of Georgia, and the chivalric Quitman, of Mississippi, 
 for the presidency and vice-presidency. 
 
 Mr. Pierce gave to the country a comparatively con- 
 servative administration. In 1854, Stephen A. Doug- 
 las, chairman of the committee on Territories in the 
 United States Senate, and Alexander H. Stephens, 
 •chairman of a similar committee in the House, re- 
 ported the now famous and historic "Kansas-i^ebraska" 
 bill, the leading feature of which was the recognition 
 of what was known as the doctrine of papular sover- 
 
426 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 eignty. That rekindled the fires of slavery agitation. 
 ISTew England piety gathered from the slums of her 
 cities her thugs, riff-raff and pluguglies, armed them 
 with Sharp's rifles and sent them to the borders of Kan- 
 sas to butcher men who had settled and were occupying 
 the country. The result of that contest was the bring- 
 ing forward of John C. Fremont for the presidency in 
 1856, and he failed of an election by a very small ma- 
 jority of the popular vote of the country. 
 
 In 1858, the celebrated debates between Stephen A. 
 Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, took place in the State 
 of Illinois, when they contested the United States sena- 
 torship before the people, the issue being the Congres- 
 sional exclusion of slavery, maintained by Lincoln, or 
 the right of the people to ordain their own government 
 and institutions, maintained by Douglas. The result 
 was the popular verdict for Lincoln, but the legislative 
 triumph of Douglas. That campaign, and his Cooper 
 Union speech made Abraham Lincoln president of the 
 United States. He was the representative of a purely 
 sectional party. 
 
 In the meantime, the Democratic convention for the 
 nomination of presidential candidates assembled at 
 Charleston. During this agitation there flourished a 
 large secret organization of Southern patriots known 
 as the Knights of the Golden Circle. A leading and 
 distinguished Alabamian advocated the policy of a di- 
 vision of the party at Charleston and the defeat of the 
 nomination of Douglas, who was the recognized leader 
 of the party as to strength if not as to ability, and there 
 is now in print extant a letter in which he announced 
 
MEN AND THINGS 427 
 
 that the policy of the fire-eating element of the South 
 was to defeat the nomination of Douglas for the presi- 
 dency, divide the party, secure the election for Lincoln, 
 and precipitate the Cotton States into revolution. 
 
 The convention was divided. Douglas was within 
 a fraction of a vote of receiving the requisite two-thirds. 
 One wing of the party nominated Brcckenridge and 
 Lane; another nominated Douglas and Johnson. The 
 Eepublicans nominated Lincoln and Hamlin. The 
 N"ational party nominated Bell and Everett.. These 
 parties represented these distinctive political positions 
 upon the everlasting slavery question: Breckenridge 
 represented the proposition of Congressional protection 
 to slavery in the Territories ; Lincoln, the Congressional 
 exclusion of slavery from the territories; Douglas pro- 
 claimed the inherent popular inalienable right of the 
 people of the Territories, as well as elsewhere, to deter- 
 mine their own institutions as they might wish. Bell 
 represented a platform with ten words: "The Con- 
 stitution, the ITnion, and the enforcement of the law." 
 That contest was upon those issues. Lincoln won in 
 the electoral college by a large majority, but was de- 
 feated in the popular vote by over a half million. 
 There was no election in Georgia, — T mean no election 
 by the people. 
 
 In the autimm of 1860, the Legislature of Georgia 
 assembled, the State all ablaze with interest, with ex- 
 citement and with apprehension. There were those in 
 Georgia who insisted upon the secession of the State 
 from the Union by the Legislature. "Wiser counsels 
 prevailed, however, and on the 20th of November, 1800, 
 
428 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 a bill passed the Legislature calling a convention of the 
 people of the State of Georgia to consider the gi*a\it7 
 of the situation and adopt the line of policy that Geor- 
 gia desired to pursue. 
 
 That convention met on the 16th day of January, 
 1861. In some counties the distinct issue was made — 
 in a few, not a great many. In a great many other 
 counties the Southern Rights party had no opposition. 
 In many other counties what was known as the Union 
 or Co-operation Party had no opposition. In still 
 other counties, there was a union of the two parties 
 in the selection of candidates. 
 
 That convention met to wrestle with the weightiest 
 question that ever oppressed patriot hearts. I shall 
 never forget my approach to the capitol on that occa- 
 sion. I had never been in Milledgeville. The first view 
 I had of the capitol of my own State, after a Presiden- 
 tial campaign in which I had made in every county in 
 my Congressional district the best Glorious — Union — 
 and — Star — Spangled — Banner speeches of which I was 
 capable, presented to my gaze a tremendous flag float- 
 ing from the capitol building, with a rattlesnake in coil, 
 its mouth open — the symbol of the creature that with- 
 ered Eden's bloom with the slime of sin. The cold re- 
 pulsion upon my heart and my feelings is simply be- 
 yond the power of language to express. I had loved the 
 glorious old Stars and Stripes, It had sheltered Wash- 
 ington and his shivering soldiers in the snows of Valley 
 Forge. It was borne by Scott and Harrison at Lundy's 
 Lane and the Thames, when British grenadiers that 
 fought with Wellington in Spain and won with Wei- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 429 
 
 ling-ton at "Waterloo, fled. It shadowed the brave De- 
 Kalb as he lay bleeding on the smoking plains at Cam- 
 den. It was christened in a baptism of the richest blood 
 from the heart of Jasper, and had floated in triumph 
 from the dome of the capitol of the Aztecs, 
 
 "Flag of the free heart's hope and home, 
 By angel hands to valor given. 
 Its stars have lit the azure dome. 
 And all its hues were born in Heaven." 
 
 I call your attention now to the personnel of the con- 
 vention of 1861. It was composed of 296 men repre- 
 senting every interest of the State, representing every 
 department of industrial endeavor, representing every 
 type and class of ability in Georgia. There was a con- 
 stellation of Georgia's most brilliant stars at the head 
 of that memorable and historic body. Ex-Secretary 
 of War George W. Crawford, ex-Governors of Georgia 
 Crawford and Johnson, ex-United States Senators 
 Toombs and Johnson, ex-Justices of the Supreme Court 
 Benning, Xisbet, Stephens and Warner, ex-Congress- 
 man Stephens, Toombs, Colquitt, Poe, Bailey, IN'isbet, 
 Chastain and Murphy, (Murphy died the day the con- 
 vention assembled), and ex-judges of the superior court 
 almost innumerable, — Hansell, Tripp, Rice, Reese, Har- 
 ris and Fleming ; all men of the highest ability and the 
 purest patriotism, who had held the highest offices of the 
 Government, save that of President of the United States. 
 In addition to these able statesmen, three lawyers were 
 in that convention who stood in the very forefront of 
 the bar in all the South: Benjamin H. Hill, Thomas 
 
430 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 R. R. Cobb and Francis S. Bartow. Divinity and 
 scholarship were represented by J^athan M. Crawford, 
 president of Mercer University, and Alexander Means, 
 ex-president of Emory College. The bar, the pulpit, 
 the farm, the counter, the doctor-shop, the office — ev- 
 erywhere, everybody had the very best specimens of 
 the race for representatives in that convention. 
 
 When we met everything was in uncertainty, every- 
 thing was in doubt. There has never been a question 
 in my mind but that at the time of the election of those 
 who were opposed to secession per se, were immensely in 
 the majority, l^obody knew what would be done, or 
 what could be done, to chain the cyclone. The feeling 
 was so intense as to make men stand aghast as they 
 looked into the face of their fellows. The very air quiv- 
 ered with the intensity of feeling, solicitude and appre- 
 hension. The co-operationists called a caucus on the 
 evening of the 15th, at which Alexander H. Stephens, 
 Linton Stephens, Hiram Warner, and, as I remember, 
 Benjamin H. Hill, and my distinguished friend, ex- 
 Governor McDaniel, and many others of us, met with 
 a view to arranging some sort of a platform upon which 
 we could stand, and it was finally arranged that Gov- 
 ernor Johnson should prepare a substitute to the prop- 
 osition to secede immediately, which he did. 
 
 ISText morning the convention met. Of course, we 
 knew not what the other side was doing, except as it 
 developed in the infinite shrewdness of their policy. 
 When we met, Asbury Hull moved that George W. 
 Crawford should be elected president by acclamation. 
 The significance of that selection lay in the fact that 
 
MEN AND THINGS 431 
 
 Hull was the embodiment of conservatism, purity of 
 character and the absence of madcap passion. He was 
 a type of magnificent, moral, conservative and intel- 
 lectual manhood. Of course, the motion was adopted. 
 The next proposition was to elect a secretary, and Mus- 
 cogee, always in evidence when a good officer is needed, 
 came to the front with Albert Lamar, with a blue cock- 
 ade in his hat, and he was elected. Then they manoeu- 
 vered. These parties skirmished, neither knowing ex- 
 actly where the majority would lie. Everybody anx- 
 ious, everybody scared — I pledge you my word I was 
 completely dazed. I didn't know what would happen. 
 I felt like I was standing in the shadow of some great 
 event that had been cast before, and nearly everybody 
 felt the same way. There was no jubilation, no fim, 
 no frolicking, no absence from that convention on free 
 passes. Every delegate was in his seat. 
 
 Well, they manoeuvered about in the adoption of 
 rules until the ITth. The Commissioner of South Car- 
 olina was on hand, and ex-Governor Shorter, of Ala- 
 bama, was there also, and at the proper time they were 
 invited to address the convention, on the 18th. All was 
 going along nicely, and all running in one current. 
 When the convention met on the 19th, Mr. Hull moved_ 
 to go into secret session, and so soon as the doors were 
 closed, one of the finest historical characters that I ever 
 knew arose, — small, elegant, ho looked as if he had just 
 been withdrawn from a bandbox in his wife's boudoir. 
 Cold as a Siberian icicle, clear as a tropical sunbeam, 
 pure as the down on a seraph's wing, — such was Eu- 
 genius A. Nisbet. I would not trust my memory to 
 
432 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 quote his language, but this is the resolution which he 
 I)resented to the convention: 
 
 ''The doors were then closed, and Mr. ISTisbet offered 
 the following resolutions, which were taken up and 
 read : 'Resolved, that in the opinion of this convention, 
 it is the right and duty of Georgia to secede from the 
 present Union, and to co-operate with such of the other 
 States as have or shall do the same, for the purpose of 
 forming a Southern Confederacy upon the basis of the 
 Constitution of the United States.' Resolved that a 
 
 committee of be appointed by the chair to report 
 
 an ordinance to assert the right and fulfill the obliga- 
 tion of the State of Georgia to secede from the Union." 
 
 History has recorded the consequences that followed 
 from that resolution ; and you will be surprised to hear 
 that that pure, clear and able man, in about a twenty 
 minutes speech, argued in favor of the adoption of that 
 resolution, and based his argument solely upon the 
 groimd that it was the only way to prevent war ! The 
 argument was that if we did not secede we w^ould fight 
 among ourselves. There was no sort of idea of any war 
 with the United States if we did secede. When he took 
 his seat. Governor Johnson arose and presented a very 
 remarkable paper, which you will find by reference to 
 the Journal of the convention. In the magnificent, 
 Macaulay-like style peculiar to him, as faulty in logic 
 and as untrue in practicability as a composition of that 
 length could well be, it was the best we could do to 
 catch in falling. Well, I expected debate like that 
 war of the fabled gods, which shook nations and realms 
 in its jar. Governor Johnson made perhaps a fifteen or 
 
MEH AND THINGS 433 
 
 twenty minutes speech, which was an attempt to defend 
 his substitute. The truth is, that we were like Atlas, 
 crushed by the superincumbent burden of the world. 
 The question was too deep, and the consequences too 
 great, and those great and glorious orators trembled, 
 as I thought then and as I think now. They certainly 
 failed to come up to my expectations. 
 
 When he sat down, Thomas R. R. Cobb arose, free 
 from passion, earnest, calm, pure, patriotic, and made 
 a short speech, taking it for granted that of course w^e^ 
 were going to secede, and down he sat. When he took 
 his seat Alexander H. Stephens arose, under a high tide 
 of excitement. I was associated with him pretty closely 
 for four years, but I had never seen him so excited. 
 He w'ent on to picture the cost and suffering and sacri- 
 fice that the Union involved. He spoke of the benedic- 
 tion it had been to the people. He spoke of the glory 
 and grandeur that it was destined, imdissolved, to ac- 
 complish. "But," said he, "if you ever intend to se- 
 cede, the sooner you do so, the better," which was a 
 confession of judgment in open court. Mr. Toombs 
 then arose, that combination of Cato, Agamemnon and 
 Mirabeau, and for about ten minutes, with the skill of 
 a master he told of the persecutions in legislation and 
 of the aggressions of the itsTorth upon the rights of the 
 South. He spoke of the benefactions that they had re- 
 ceived from the Government in the way of high protec- 
 tive tariffs, in fishing bounties and in the coast trade, 
 and he charged upon them the intended destruction of 
 the institution of slavery by the election of a sectional 
 president pledged to its exclusion by law from the Ter- 
 
434 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 ritories and its confinement within the then existing 
 limits. He closed with this remark: "Mr. President 
 and gentlemen, these are facts. South Carolina has 
 withdrawn. It remains for you to grasp in fraternity 
 the bloody hand of Massachusetts, or align yourselves 
 with gallant South Carolina !" That is the only sen- 
 tence that ever shcJbk my views upon the question. 
 When he concluded Dr. Means arose and made a Star- 
 Spangled-Banner speech, such as only he could make. 
 Judge Reese, of Madison, made a strong, sturdy little 
 talk. Just as the dinner hour approached, and the con- 
 vention was about to adjourn, Benjamin H. Hill took 
 the floor and by common consent, or as we call it now% 
 unanimous consent, he was recognized. He opened 
 his speech with, I think, the most thrilling eloquence 
 I have ever heard. Said he, "Mr. President and Gen- 
 tlemen of the Convention, we now witness the dying 
 throes of the grandest government God Almighty ever 
 vouchsafed to man. Let us not be in haste to wrap 
 around its corpse the winding-sheet." And for thirty or 
 forty minutes, with a power of speech, with a thrilling 
 eloquence and with a logic characteristic of Benjamin 
 H. Hill alone, he addressed that convention; and yet 
 that speech, which ordinarily would have stirred multi 
 tudes to madness, fell upon that convention like the ar- 
 rows aimed at the heart of Priam, — bloodless to the 
 ground. Francis S. Bartow, far back in the Represen- 
 tative hall, arose, all on fire, and with decided power 
 and energy and vim (I like to have said vindictiveness) 
 he made a telling speech. So soon as he sat down. Mar- 
 
.MEN AND THINGS 435 
 
 cellus Douglas arose, pointed at liini and said: ''That 
 man is Charles Carrol of Carrollton." 
 
 The vote was taken; ayes 166, noes 130. The ordi- 
 nance carrying the resolution into effect was adopted. 
 George W. Crawford, the president, announced: ''Gen- 
 tlemen of the Convention, I have the pleasure to an- 
 nounce that the State of Georgia is free, sovereign and 
 independent!" A question arose with some of the Un- 
 ion delegates about signing the ordinance, and there 
 were some that were disinclined to sign. When, how- 
 ever, the convention at length adopted a resolution re- 
 questing them to sign, all of them except seven did so. 
 Latimer and McRae, of Montgomery, Simmons, of 
 Gwinett, Welchel and Byrd, of Hall, and Simmons, of 
 Pickens, were those who refused to sign the ordinance, 
 but it is due to their memory to state, that whilst they 
 signed a protest against its passage, they pledged, like 
 our forefathers, their lives, their fortunes and their 
 sacred honor for its vindication, William C. Fain, 
 of the county of Fannin, refused to sign either the ordi- 
 nance, or the protest. He was killed early in the War 
 by scouts near his own home. 
 
 I have remarked that a good many hesitated about 
 signing the ordinance. W. T. Day, of Jasper, and 
 Anderson and Farnsworth, of Murray County, had quite 
 a discussion over the question. They thought about it 
 all of one night, and the next morning when they arose, 
 Farnsworth said to Day: "Day I have been pondering 
 this thing over all night, and I have concluded that I 
 will sign the ordinance as a witness that the damned 
 thing has passed." 
 
436 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 What followed, my fellow-citizens, is a matter of 
 history. The theory of secession was Paradise pro- 
 mised; its realization was Hell endured. When that 
 Ordinance of Secession was passed, Georgia was worth 
 seven hundred millions of taxable property, according 
 to the official message of the Governor ; four years from 
 that day our heritage was ashes and ruins, ground and 
 glory and graves. I am not repining at the result ; 
 but it was, and it always will seem strange to me, that 
 men of experience, men of statesmanship, men of pa- 
 triotism, men of wisdom, could be so immensely mis- 
 taken, as to suppose that the spirit which had organized 
 a sectional party, elected a sectional president and over- 
 thrown and subverted the Constitution which they had 
 sworn to support, would let us depart in peace. Seven 
 years after this event, free negroes, carpet-baggers, 
 bounty- jumpers and Federal army officers were assem- 
 bled in this capitol, making a constitution for Georgia; 
 not free, but for disfranchised virtue and patriotism. 
 I do not blame anybody. I am dealing with historic 
 facts. But I can not relieve my mind and my heart of 
 the conviction that sometime, somewhere, somebody will 
 have to answer for the blood and slaughter of 1861. 
 And the years following, we had no government; we 
 had no constitution ; we had no army ; we had no navy ; 
 we had no commerce; we had no commercial relations 
 with the world; and the united judgment of the civil- 
 ized world was against lis upon the controlling issue of 
 that controversy, — African slavery. And yet, in the 
 absence of all this, more statesmanship and more pa- 
 triotism were never exhibited, in my judgment, than 
 
MEN AND THINGS 437 
 
 was by the statesmen of the Confederacy after we got 
 into the struggle. The grandest Congressional delega- 
 tion, in my opinon, in history, was the delegation of 
 Georgia to the Provisional Congress. Think of it! 
 Bartow, Crawford, Kennan, Stephens, Toombs, Howell 
 Cobb, Thomas K. R. Cobb, Benjamin Harvey Hill and 
 Augustus R. Wright! The trouble was that the world 
 was against us ! The grandest army that ever trod the 
 planet was the Confederate Army. It grasped the 
 sparkling gem of victory from the cannon's smoking 
 mouth, on a hundred bloody fields, and spangled the 
 milky way of glory with its gorgeous jewelry of stars ! 
 On the 28th day of January the convention ap- 
 pointed to the several Southern States the following 
 commissioners, charged with the duty of presenting to 
 the officers of said States, the Ordinance of Secession 
 with the reasons which induced its adoption. The com- 
 missioners were for Virginia, Henry L. Benning ; Mary- 
 land, Ambrose R, Wright; Kentucky, Henry R. Jack- 
 son; Tennessee, Hiram P. Bell; Missouri, Luther J. 
 Glenn ; Arkansas, D, P. Hill ; Delaware, D. C. Camp- 
 bell; I^orth Carolina, Samuel Hall; Texas, J. W. A. 
 Sanford. After the passage of various ordinances to 
 adjust the relation of the State to the new condition, the 
 convention took a recess, to meet at Savannah upon the 
 call of the president, in obedience to which it reassem- 
 bled in the city of Savannah, March 7, ISGl. On the 
 15th of March the permanent Constitution of the Con- 
 federate States of America adopted by the Provisional 
 Congi'ess at Montgomery was presented by the president 
 
438 ME2J AND THINGS 
 
 of the convention. On the day following, on motion of 
 Alexander H. Stephens, the Constitution was unani- 
 mously ratified. 
 
 On the 23rd of March the convention adopted and 
 submitted to the qualified voters of the State for rati- 
 fication, the State Constitution, which was duly rati- 
 fied on the first Tuesday in March, 1861. 
 
 The convention adjourned sine die March 23, 1861. 
 Thus the issue made up betAveen the ISTorthern and 
 Southern sections of a once common Union was submit- 
 ted to the determination of the sword, the ultima ratio 
 regum. 
 
 I have spoken of a past event. I know now of but 
 eight solitary survivors of all those who participated in 
 that event. I am delighted to see my distinguished 
 friend, ex-Governor McDaniel present. He is one. 
 Augustus H. Hansell, of Thomasville, Jefferson Jen- 
 nings, of Jackson, Henry R. Harris, of Meriwether, 
 William T. Day, of Pickens, William A. Teasley, of 
 Cherokee, L. H. O. Martin, of Elbert, and your speaker 
 of this evening is the eighth. 
 
 Oh, how time flies ; and how these reminiscences of 
 past mistakes and troubles and sorrows should incite 
 us to the faithful discharge of patriotic duty while our 
 short probation exists. 
 
 I thank you, gentlemen of the General Assembly 
 and Ladies and Gentlemen, for the kind attention that 
 you have given me. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 439 
 
 Memorial Address of Mr, Bell^ of Georgia^ on the 
 Life and Character of Julian Hartridge. 
 
 ]\[r. Speaker : The whole country received the an- 
 nouncement that Julian Hartridge was dead, with con- 
 sternation and sorrow. The people of Greorgia have en- 
 shrined his memory in their hearts and placed upon his 
 bier their immortelles, dripping with tlie tears of their 
 anguish. The summons came to him in the vigor of 
 his manhood and the full maturity of his powers, and 
 closed a useful and brilliant career with scarcely a note 
 of warning. We are prepared for the demise of the 
 aged and infirm, and we watch the flickering of life's 
 lamp in them with emotions similar to those with which 
 we look upon the mellow glow of sunset. The grave 
 then loses something of its terrors as we contemplate it 
 as the resting-place of a weary pilgrimage. Ignoring 
 the sad truth that humanity is subjected to the univer- 
 sal law of suffering and death, we assign to life's dura- 
 tion the limit which age alone prescribes. We seem to 
 forget that — 
 
 Leaves have their time to fall. 
 And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 
 
 And stars to set; — ^but all, 
 Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O death ! 
 
 Death palsies the arm of the warrior, and he drops 
 from his nerveless grasp the shattered spear. It stills 
 the tongue of the orator, and the senate and the forum 
 are silent. It severs the chord in the tide of song, and 
 the harp of the minstrel hangs upon the willow. It 
 
440 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 drinks from the blushes of beauty the mingled hues of 
 the rose and lily, and the reptiles of the grave banquet 
 upon the lips our love has pressed. Every age and 
 every clime is monumental with its symbols and strewn 
 with the trophies of its conquests. 
 
 And still we are startled when its victim is selected 
 from the strong, suddenly stricken down in the full- 
 orbed splendor of manhood's high meridian, leaving 
 exalted position vacant, and forever blighting the prom- 
 ise of future honor and usefulness to country and 
 kind. The estimation in which the lamented Hart- 
 ridge was held by the people of his native State is 
 shown by the honors conferred upon him living, and 
 the grief with which they mourn him dead. He was 
 born in the city of Savannah, and spent the gambols of 
 his childhood and won the triumphs of his manhood in 
 that beautiful city that keeps vigil like a weeping vestal 
 over the repose of his ashes. 
 
 Julian Hartridge commenced his education in the 
 schools of his native State and completed it at Brown 
 University in Rhode Island, graduating with high dis- 
 tinction. He selected the law as his profession and 
 for a period attended the law school at Cambridge, Mas- 
 sachusetts. Soon after his admission to the bar the 
 people of his country, always distinguished for their 
 wisdom in selecting their ablest men for oflBcial trusts, 
 returned him to the Legislature, in which, at a bound, 
 he placed himself in the front rank of the wise men 
 of the State as an eloquent speaker, ready debater, and 
 practical legislator. He was a delegate to the historic 
 national Democratic convention that met in Charleston 
 
MEN AND THINGS 441 
 
 in 1860. Returned to the Confederate Congress in 
 1861, he was re-elected in 1863 and served as a member 
 of that body during the existence of the Confederacy. 
 
 He was chosen chairman of the executive committee 
 of the Democratic party of the State of Georgia in 
 1871, delegate for the State at large to the national 
 Democratic convention in 1872, an elector for the State 
 at large on the Greeley and Brown ticket in the presi- 
 dential campaign. He was elected a representative 
 from the first district of Georgia to the Forty-fourth 
 Congress and re-elected to the Forty-fifth, of which he 
 was an honored and useful member at the time of his 
 death. He was always fully equal to the emergency 
 surrounding him, discharging the duties of every offi- 
 cial position to which he was called to the gratification 
 of his friends and the admiration of his enemies. He 
 recognized in the law a jealous mistress, and paid 
 chivalric court to her shrine. He entered the lists for 
 professional trial and professional triumph with a bar 
 illustrated with the learning and adorned with the vir- 
 tues of Berrien, Charlton, and Law, and soon the lance 
 of the youthful knight was gleaming at its head. He 
 was elected by the Legislature solicitor-general of the 
 eastern judicial circuit, and the certainty with which 
 criminals were convicted and crime punished attested 
 the ability and fidelity with which he met the obliga- 
 tions and discharged the duties of that responsible of- 
 fice. 
 
 His thorough culture, his sense of justico, his love of 
 right, and his powers of analysis eminently fitted him 
 for success at the bar. His statements of the questions 
 
442 ME Is! AND THINGS 
 
 • 
 
 of law in his case had the clearness and force of argu- 
 ment, and his representation of the facts the merit of 
 fairness and candor. Eepudiating mere dicta as au- 
 thority, he venerated the precedents established by the 
 great lights of the law based upon authority and sus- 
 tained by reason. He seized with promptness the con- 
 trolling points of his case and fortified them with au- 
 thority until his position w^as impregnable, and then 
 assailed his adversary in his weak points by harrassing 
 sorties from his chosen stronghold. His position thus 
 taken and his authorities arranged, he brought to his 
 argument the aid of a style of singular vigor and per- 
 spicuity. He aroused the indignation of juries against 
 wrong with blistering invective and won them to his 
 cause and his client with the appeals of melting pathos. 
 He added to a handsome person the accomplishment 
 of graceful action and the power of a charming voice. 
 His elocution was faultless; you could neither add nor 
 reject a word without marring its beauty or impairing 
 its harmony. The sentences were so constructed as to 
 evolve the exact thought with the greatest possible force, 
 and to flow in ''Pierian streams, transparent, cool, 
 and sweet." Tlie multitude hung like the bees of Hv- 
 bla upon his lips to catch the sweetness his eloquence 
 distilled. His mind, trained in the disputations of the 
 forum, in intellectual gladiatorship with lawyers of the 
 highest order of ability, who came together like electric 
 clouds, flashing as they met, acquired wonderful powers 
 of activity and concentration; and these po^vers, mar- 
 shaled by him for the ascertainment and defense of 
 truth, were wielded with the skill of a master. 
 
ME1<! AND THINGS 443 
 
 The truth was his guiding star in all his investiga- 
 tions. He sought it by the nearest ways and plainest 
 methods that earnest inquiry and thorough research 
 could discover. His resources of learning supplied him 
 with rich stores of classical illustration which were used 
 not to embellish, but to intensify his logic. Criminal 
 prosecutions involving the death penalty fully devel- 
 oped his transcendent powers of advocacy. The an- 
 nouncement that Hartridge would address the jury in 
 a murder case was the signal for an admiring multitude 
 to crowd the court-room. The reports of the Supreme 
 Court of Georgia contain the evidence of his research, 
 and learning as a jurist. He was averse to the irksome 
 drudgery of routine labor, but delighted in the investi- 
 gation and solution of new and difficult problems of law 
 and political economy. Brave as Caesar, he was 
 modest as a maiden. He had an exalted conception of 
 the amenities and proprieties of life in its private, pro- 
 fessional, and public relations. 
 
 He seldom spoke in the House of Representatives, 
 his sensitive nature revolting at the struggle for the 
 floor w^hich frequently characterizes its proceedings, 
 and his modesty recoiling at the thought of thrusting 
 a speech on unwilling auditors; but when he did speak 
 he always confined himself to the question, enlightened 
 the House, and commanded its attention. His speech 
 on the electoral commission, and the one delivered at 
 the last session on the bill to prevent the introduction 
 into the United States of contagious and infectious dis- 
 eases, are fine models of parliamentary eloquence. The 
 world is unwilling to concede excellence in more than 
 
444 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 one department of intellectual superiority, but his pro- 
 fessional brethren who knew him best have accorded 
 to him rare powers of advocacy and great learning as 
 a jurist, and by common consent have assigned him his 
 position at their head. 
 
 Of his statesmanship it is scarcely necessary to speak 
 in this presence; decided in his convictions, ardent in 
 his patriotism, comprehensive in his views, and in- 
 tensely devoted to the Constitution of his country, he 
 was a model representative of an intelligent and pa- 
 triotic constituency. To appreciate the social qualities 
 of Julian Hartridge it was necessary to know him inti- 
 mately. Beneath an apparently cold exterior was con- 
 cealed an affluence of genial nature, warm frienship, 
 and tender sensibility. At his desk during the last 
 session of Congress, he grasped my hand warmly, and 
 in the absence of any suggestion leading or referring to 
 the subject, with evident emotion said : 
 
 "I am regarded as cold, distant, and proud, but no 
 man has ever been so misunderstood ; there never was a 
 greater mistake. There never was a warmer heart than 
 mine. The truth is, it arises from a defect in my vis- 
 ion. I am near-sighted, and can not recognize my dear- 
 est friends at any distance from me. I would give the 
 world if it were otherwise." 
 
 Although I had been acquainted with him for twenty 
 years, I never knew nor appreciated him until that mo- 
 ment. It developed in him the possession of a large en- 
 dowment of these rare and high qualities which consti- 
 tute the charm of social life, beautifully and compre- 
 hensively called — 
 
MEH AND THINGS 445 
 
 The softer green of the soul. 
 
 His countrymen have twined for his memory the 
 wreath of hiiirel and cypress — the insignia of their 
 pride and the symbol of their sorrow ; and his friends 
 have dropped upon his new-made grave friendship's 
 last offering, the tribute of their tears. 
 
 But strew his ashes to the wind 
 
 Whose sword or voice has served mankind — 
 
 And is he dead, whose glorious mind 
 
 Lifts thine on high ? 
 To live in hearts we leave behind. 
 
 Is not to die. 
 
 In the death of my late colleague the Kepublic has 
 lost a patriotic citizen and a wise statesman, the profes- 
 sion an eloquent advocate and a learned jurist, society a 
 courtly gentleman and a brilliant ornament, and his 
 family a devoted husband and affectionate father. All 
 that is left to them of Julian Hartridge is the heritage 
 of his wisdom, the light of his example, and the mem- 
 ory of his virtues. Time will mitigate our grief, and 
 in the rush and w^hirl of busy life other thoughts will 
 engage our attention, but there is a sad home in the 
 sunny South within whose broken circle there are bleed- 
 ing hearts for the healing of which earth has no balm. 
 
 For time makes all but true love old; 
 The burning thoughts that then w^ero told 
 Run molten still in memory's mold, 
 
446 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 And will not cool 
 Until the heart itself be cold 
 In Lethe's pool. 
 
 The influence of wealth, the resources of learning, 
 and the authority of power, all stand dumb and helpless 
 in the presence of death. It is the solution of all the 
 rivalries, struggles, and achievements of time. Sur- 
 rounded with blighted hopes and funeral trains, the 
 broken heart of humanity through all time has pressed 
 the question of the suffering patriarch of Uz, "If a man 
 die shall he live again ?" The quivering spirit whose 
 insatiable thirst for immortality attests the divinity of 
 its origin and the duration of its destiny, kindles with 
 joy as it catches the response from the rejected iSTaza- 
 rene at Bethany, "I am the resurrection and the life ; 
 he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall 
 he live." 
 
 Poor wanderers of a stormy day. 
 
 From place to place we're driven, 
 And fancy's flash and reason's ray 
 Serve but to light the troubled way, — 
 There's nothing true but Heaven. 
 
 And false the light on glory's plume. 
 
 As fading hues of even. 
 And love and joy and beauty's bloom 
 Are blossoms gathered for the tomb, — 
 There's nothing lives but heaven. 
 
MEN AND THINGS 447 
 
 Stonewall Jackson. 
 
 (The following was written for a school boy's decla- 
 mation.) 
 
 It has been said that a great man is the gift of a 
 century. Stonewall Jackson stands alone in the nine- 
 teenth century in the isolated gTandeur of his great- 
 ness. Indeed, the student of the annals of his race will 
 look in vain, along the lists of illustrious names that 
 genius has apotheosized among the demi-gods of his- 
 tory, for his peer. It was the exultation of Pompey 
 the Great, that an army would rise at the stamp of his 
 foot, yet he fled from the disaster of Pharsalia and fell 
 at the hands of an assassin. The eagles of Ca?sar 
 flashed the triumph of Kome over a hemisphere, yet he 
 fell the victim of treason leaving a name the synonym 
 of conquest and' ambition. Hannibal disputed for 
 years the power of Home, but the stars of Carthage- 
 nian glory went down in blood and her great chieftain 
 died in exile. Europe trembled, thrones crumbled and 
 kings fled at the advancing footsteps of the ^lan of Des- 
 tiny ; but the fate of Waterloo bound Xapoleon, like 
 Prometheus to the rock, the prey of Bourbon vultures. 
 But the living light ofvictoryblazed upon Jackson's peer- 
 less banner, on every field. The invincible legions un- 
 der his leadership charged the enemy's batteries with 
 the tread of fate and the sanction of ?. God. He grasped 
 at the "cannons smoking mouth," the burning palm of 
 victory and mingled its light with the stars tliar spark- 
 led upon his country's banner. "His was the hero's 
 
448 MEN AND THINGS 
 
 soul of fire — and 
 
 His the martyr's deathless name, 
 And his love was exalted higher 
 By all the glow of chivalry." 
 
 The Goddess of Liberty touched his heart with a ves- 
 tal spark from her altar, and he sprang, like Minerva 
 from the brain of Jupiter upon the plains of Manassas, 
 and valor sealed to him in a baptism of blood on his first 
 field the enduring name of Stonewall. She festooned 
 his brow with the laurels of triumph and he hung them 
 in garlands of faith, upon the cross of Calvary. Some 
 conquerors have been stimulated to great achievements 
 by the love of glory ; others by the thirst for power, but 
 the sentiment that nerved the arm, absorbed the thought 
 and thrilled the heart of Jackson, was love of country. 
 
 "Breathes there a man with soul so dead. Who never 
 to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land." 
 The heraldic insignia that emblazoned the shield of 
 Jackson is not alone stamped with the blood of revolu- 
 tionary conflict. Virtue intertwined with the laurel 
 with which she wreathed his brow, the evergTcen of 
 immortality, the sublime symbol of the Christian's 
 hope and faith, and the hero that wrested victory from 
 the enemy's standard, cast it, as the trophy, at the feet 
 of the Divinity his soul adored. There was no niche 
 for the God of Ambition in the temple in which he 
 worshipped. He poured upon his country's shrine from 
 a spotless heart, liberty's last libation, with the profu- 
 sion of a Prince and the adoration of a Priest. 
 
 This luminary was extinguished in the blaze of vie- 
 
MEN AND THINGS 449 
 
 torj his valor had won, and by a mysterious Provi- 
 dence, he fell at the hands of his own comrades, and 
 with him expired the cause, vindicated by his sword, 
 illustrated by his patriotism and consecrated in his 
 blood. The grief of ten millions of stricken hearts 
 wailed his funeral dirge. 
 
 "Bury me," said the dying hero, "at Lexington in 
 the valley of Virginia," and his redeemed spirit crossed 
 "over the river to rest under the shade of the trees." 
 His ashes repose in the bosom of the Old Dominion with 
 those of Washington and Jefierson and Madison and 
 Henry and their compatriots of revolutionary fame. 
 And Virginia pours the tribute of her tears upon her 
 hero's grave. 
 
 "Such graves as his are pilgrim's shrines, 
 Shrines to no creed or code confined. 
 The Delphian vales, the Palestines, 
 The Meccas of the mind." 
 
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