tus H. Kenan, George A. Gordon, John Milledge, and others, who thought it an unwise policy for the state to increase its liabilities along this line, having already pledged a million dollars to railways.

**

On January 1, 1858, Governor Brown appointed his old friend and benefactor, Dr. John W. Lewis, superintendent of the Western & Atlantic Railroad. This appointment marked an era in the development of the state's property, which soon paid into the public treasury $400,000 per annum. Doctor Lewis faithfully executed his trust.

There was held in Montgomery, Alabama, on the second Monday in May of this year, a great Southern Commercial Congress, to which each state in this section was urged to send delegates. Governor Brown appointed the following distinguished citizens to represent Georgia: †

Delegates from the State at Large-Wilson Lumpkin, George R. Gilmer, William Schley, George W. Crawford, H. V. Johnson, H. Warner, Hines Holt, Thomas W. Thomas, C. J. Jenkins, William H. Stiles, James Gardner, B. H. Hill, F. H. Cone, L. Stephens, E. A. Nisbet, M. A. Cooper, D. J. Bailey, A. H. Chappell, Joel Crawford.

First District-A. H. Hansell, P. Cone, E. J. Blackshear, Charles Spalding, J. H. Cooper, F. S. Bartow, J. P. Screven, G. P. Harrison, John W. Anderson, A. R. Lamar.

Second District-William Dougherty, T. Lomax, J. N. Bethune, J. A. Jones, Jr., John A. Tucker, R. H. Clarke, L. M. Felton, A. H. Colquitt, W. A. Hawkins, W. M. Brown.

Third District-W. Poe, O. A. Lochrane, W. K. De Graffenried, P. W. Alexander, D. P. Hill, C. Peeples, A. F. Owen, George R. Hunter, J. D. Watkins, A. R. Moore.

Fourth District-E. Y. Hill, L. H. Featherstone, A. J. Boggess, B. H. Overby, J. W. Duncan, Robert J. Cowart, J. O. Gartrell, W. C. Daniel, William A. Harris, H. Buchanan.

Fifth District-John H. Lumpkin, H. V. M. Miller, S. Fouche, John A. Jones, W. T. Wofford, Lindsay Johnson, Joseph Pickett, G. J. Fain, C. B. Wellborn, Elisha Dyer.

Sixth District-Sumner J. Smith, Robert McMillan, Asbury Hull, William L. Mitchell, John Billups, William A. Lewis, James P. Simmons, Samuel Knox, W. Boyd, S. Reid.

Seventh District-Augustus Reese, George R. Jesup, P. Reynolds, Miller Grieve, Sr., S. N. Boughton, R. M. Orme, Sr., David W. Lewis, J. W. Burney, Robert R. Slappey, Junius Wingfield.

Eighth District-Isaiah T. Irwin, John Milledge, James T. Nisbet, W. Gibson, Thomas Barrett, A. J. Lawson, A. R. Wright, E. H. Pottle, Robert Hester, Dr. W. Willingham.

Much was expected from this convention, but little was done to stimulate the commercial activities of the South. Its deliberations were altogether sectional in character and it served rather to inflame latent passions than to effectuate practical results. William L. Yancey, of Alabama, and Robert B. Rhett, of South Carolina, both men of fiery tempers, were among its dominating spirits.

*It was from Doctor Lewis that the future governor borrowed enough money to defray the expenses of a law course at Yale.

Avery's "History of Georgia," p. 72.

To glance a moment at the state's judiciary for 1857, the Supreme Court at this time was constituted as follows: Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin, and Associates Charles J. McDonald and Henry L. Benning. Judge Lumpkin had occupied his seat on this bench continuously since the organization of the Supreme Court in 1845; but his two associates were recent accessions. The Superior Court judges at this time were as follows:

Brunswick Circuit, A. E. Cochran; Blue Ridge Circuit, Geo. D. Rice; Chattahooche Circuit, E. H. Worrell; Cherokee Circuit, R. H. Trippe; Coweta Circuit, O. A. Bull; Eastern Circuit, W. B. Fleming; Flint Circuit, E. G. Cabaniss; Macon Circuit, A. P. Powers; Middle Circuit, W. W. Holt; Northern Circuit, James Thomas; Ocmulgee Circuit, R. V. Hardeman; Pataula Circuit, David J. Kiddoo; Southern Circuit, Peter E. Love; Southwestern Circuit, Alex A. Allen; Tallapoosa Circuit, Dennis F. Hammond; Western Circuit, N. L. Hutchins.

The Legislature at its session of 1858 passed an act providing for a codification of the laws of this state. To execute the task in question, three commissioners were to be elected by the Legislature, each of whom was to receive $4,000 as his compensation. In the matter of adopting a code, Georgia was a pioneer among the states. Her earliest constitution provided for a codification of the law within five years. On December 6, 1792, an act was passed to carry this provision into effect, but for some reason it became a dead letter. Governor Forsyth, in 1827, sought to revive an interest in the matter but without success. Under the act of 1858 an election for commissioners was held by the Legislature, which body chose for this task ex-Gov. Herschel V. Johnson, Judge Iverson L. Harris and Judge David Irwin. The two first named declined to serve, whereupon Judge Richard H. Clark and Hon. Thomas R. R. Cobb were elected. Three abler lawyers could not have been found. Mr. Cobb was a younger brother of Hon. Howell Cobb, then secretary of the treasury in President Buchanan's cabinet. He had compiled a digest of the laws of Georgia, had published an authoritative work on slavery, and at this time was a professor in the Lumpkin Law School at Athens. He was afterwards to play a most dramatic part in the drama of hostilities. Judge Irwin and Judge Clark were both well known in public affairs. The work of codification proceeded slowly; there were no precedents to guide these pioneers, all of whom were busy lawyers, with professional obligations to meet, but the task was completed in less than two years, was adopted in 1860, and went into effect in 1862. To pass on the code, Messrs. Hines Holt, Daniel S. Printup and W. W. Payne from the Senate, and Messrs. George N. Lester, Isham S. Fannin, W. G. Deloney, Miles W. Lewis, E. N. Broyles and Chas. J. Williams from the House were named as a joint legislative committee; and the action of this committee in approving the code was unanimous.

Governor Brown's uncompromising fight on the banks was at last. victorious. During the year 1858, the payment of specie was resumed. This was some time in advance of the date set for resumption. But quite a number of the banks failed to make, on June 1st, of this year, the semi

*Acts 1858, pp. 95-96.

+ House Journal, 1858, p. 348.

annual returns required by law. At this time no penalty whatever attached to such delinquencies; and without mincing matters, Governor Brown again opened fire upon the banks. Though Georgia's chief executive was only a countryman, he was making his power tremendously felt in the great financial centers of the state. Bank presidents were beginning to look upon him with awe and to impute to this frail but wonderfully firm, self-poised and tranquil man the powers of a magician. To correct the existing defects in the law, Governor Brown proposed that a penalty of 22 per cent per month be imposed upon the capital stock of every bank failing to make returns within the statutory limit; and this recommendation became the law. In the midst of the session of 1858, Hon. John E. Ward, president of the Senate, received his appointment as minister to China; and to succeed him as president, Hon. T. L. Guerry was elected for the remainder of the session, while Hon. William H. Stiles succeeded him as state senator from Chatham. The Legislature at this session created six new counties, to-wit: Clayton, Quitman, Banks, Johnson, Brooks and Echols.*

On June 15, 1858, the state democratic convention met in Milledgeville to name a governor for the next two years; but so entrenched was Governor Brown in public favor, due to his bold stand for the rights of the people, that opposition to his re-election was not for one moment entertained by democrats. Without a dissenting vote he was again renominated by his party and given the most unreserved commendation. Gen. Henry R. Jackson, of Savannah, voiced the sentiment of the convention in an impromptu speech of exquisite diction. Resolutions were adopted reaffirming the Cincinnati platform of 1856 and endorsing the administration of President Buchanan.

But while the democrats were united in supporting Governor Brown, the know-nothings were not idle and, after wavering for some time, nominated Hon. Warren Akin, of Cass. Colonel Akin was one of the purest and best men in the state, a local Methodist preacher, a planter, and a man of superior gifts, with unusual powers as a public speaker. But he belonged to a minority party whose strength was waning with the approach of the great Civil war. In the election which followed Governor Brown's popular majority was 22,000 votes. The state house officials elected were: E. P. Watkins, secretary of state; Peterson Thweat, comptroller-general; A. J. Boggess, surveyor-general; and John B. Trippe, state treasurer.†

To represent the state in Congress for the next two years a strong delegation was chosen, as follows: Peter E. Love, Martin J. Crawford, Thomas Hardeman, L. J. Gartrell, J. W. H. Underwood, James Jackson, Joshua Hill and John J. Jones. Two of these, Joshua Hill and Thomas Hardeman, were elected on an opposition ticket; but all the rest were democrats. Mr. Jones succeeded Alexander H. Stephens, who voluntarily retired from Congress at this time, after a continuous service of sixteen years. Messrs. Crawford, Jackson and Gartrell were all former members. When Georgia seceded from the Union six of her representatives

*Acts 1858, pp. 25-40.

+ House Journal, 1859, p. 47.

Biographical Congressional Directory, 1774-1911, p. 212.

Vol. II-8

withdrew in a body, considering themselves automatically recalled by Georgia's action; while Hon. Joshua Hill, in a written communication addressed to the speaker, formally resigned his seat. But more of this later.

The new Legislature convened on November 2, 1859. Hon. T. L. Guerry, of Quitman, was elected president of the Senate and Hon. Isaiah T. Irwin, of Wilkes, speaker of the House. As usual, there were strong men in both branches.* Messrs. L. H. Briscoe, Peter Cone, Philemon Tracy, Alexander R. Lawton, Alexander S. Atkinson, A. T. Hackett, Daniel S. Printup, Thomas Butler King, Clement A. Evans, George T. Bartlett and William A. Harris were enrolled as senators; while prominent among the representatives were Clifford Anderson, George N. Lester, T. W. Alexander, William Gibson, Robert N. Ely, David W. Lewis, Miles W. Lewis, Julian Hartridge, R. L. McWhorter, John L. Harris and Charles J. Williams. Few were elected to this Legislature who fought Governor Brown in his efforts to control the banks.†

Governor Brown, in his second inaugural, took precisely the same stand, with respect to Federal issues, as Senator Iverson did in his Griffin speech, during the midsummer, maintaining that the next presidential contest might decide the fate of the Union, at which time he could see only two parties in the field: the black republicans and the national democrats.

Important changes were made this year in the personnel of the Supreme Court, Judges R. F. Lyon and Linton Stephens going upon the bench to succeed Judges Charles J. McDonald and Henry L. Benning.‡ Judge Benning and Judge Lyon were first cousins, both grandsons of Basil Lamar, of Lincoln County, Georgia, and kinsmen of the great jurist and statesman, Judge L. Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi. This was also the time for electing a successor to Hon. Alfred Iverson, whose term of office as United States senator was to expire in 1861; but on motion this election was postponed for one year. Senator Iverson had given great offense to the conservatives of the state by his Griffin speech, the strong anti-Union sentiment of which was most hostile but at the same time most prophetic. He predicted the inauguration of a free soil President in 1861, declared the northern democracy paralyzed and powerless, and announced the time at hand for a Southern Confederacy. Georgia was not yet ready to entertain such radical views.**

But the events of this fateful year were destined to make decided inroads upon the state's conservatism. It was at this time that John Brown's famous raid upon Harper's Ferry occurred, kindling the latent fires of passion not only in Virginia, but throughout the South, and lighting this whole section into a blaze of hostile indignation. The attempt to create a slave insurrection was the act of a madman, but its effect was to apply a lighted match to a magazine of powder. Governor Wise, of Virginia, took prompt action. President Buchanan likewise made use of the powers of his office to suppress the outbreak. But the

**

* House Journal, 1859, opening pages.

+ House and Senate Journals, 1859.

Senate Journal, 1859, p. 80.

Milledgeville Federal Union, July 26, 1859; Avery's "History of Georgia,”

p. 104.