of the North proclaimed at the ballot-box that I should be a slave I heard in the same sound the voice of my God speaking through His providence and saying to his child: 'Be free! Be free!' Marvel not then that I say my voice is for immediate, unconditional secession."

Mr. Toombs also advocated secession, in a magnificent speech before the Legislature, but his views on the subject were already well known and, though he spoke with great rapidity, launching his thunderbolts, in quick succession, amid vivid flashes of lightning, his speech fell far below the standard set by Mr. Cobb's, both in its rhetorical beauty and in its tone of deep moral earnestness. It was likewise before this session of the Legislature that Mr. Stephens delivered his great speech in opposition to secession. He did not question the constitutional right of a state to secede, but he did question the wisdom of such a course as a practical remedy for existing evils, and with all the vigor of his splendid intellect he endeavored to avert the impending disaster. Less eloquent than Mr. Cobb, he read the future with the eye of a seer, and his speech was a marvel of predictive wisdom, perhaps unexcelled in this respect by any speech ever delivered before an assemblage of Georgians. Conservative men of the class represented by Mr. Stephens knew well enough that the people of the North were not all abolitionists, and that in many cities of the North, on the day of John Brown's execution, Union meetings were held to offset the fanatical assemblages in which this cracked-brain insurrectionist was canonized as a martyr. But the tide was rising. Though prone to be conservative, events were fast sweeping Georgia into the vortex of secession. Hon. Howell Cobb in December resigned his seat in Mr. Buchanan's cabinet, but before returning home indicted a powerful letter to the people of Georgia, informing them that the time for disunion was at hand. This letter influenced thousands of voters. Its effect was profound. The state had been prospering for years. Its population in 1860 was 1,057,286 souls, of which number nearly one-half were slaves. The value of the state's real and personal property exceeded $600,000,000, while its manufactures were climbing upward. But present issues were not to be weighed in the scales of merchandise, nor appraised by the standards of mammon.

* Federal Union, December 27, 1859.

"Memorial of Howell Cobb," by Samuel Boykin.

indite

CHAPTER IV

THE LEGISLATURE CALLS A STATE CONVENTION, FOLLOWING A POWERFUL ADDRESS BY HON. WM. L. HARRIS, OF MISSISSIPPI-VARIOUS COUNTY MEMORIALS RESOLUTIONS FROM GREENE AND DOUGHERTY COUNTIES -GEORGIA'S CONSERVATISM-SENTIMENT EVENLY DIVIDED ON SECESSION-EVENTS MOVE ON APACE THE BURNING OF FORT MOULTRIE— BARTOW'S SPEECH IN ATLANTA-GOVERNOR BROWN TAKES TIME BY THE FORELOCK-ORDERS THE SEIZURE OF FORT PULASKI-COLONEL LAWTON EXECUTES THIS ORDER-ITS CHARACTER DISCUSSED AN ACT OF TECHNICAL TREASON, SINCE GEORGIA WAS STILL IN THE UNION, BUT JUSTIFIED AS A NECESSARY MEASURE OF PROTECTION-THE SECESSION CONVENTION ASSEMBLES-ITS DISTINGUISHED PERSONNEL-EXGOVERNOR GEORGE W. CRAWFORD MADE PRESIDENT-SOME OF THE DELEGATES THREE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO BE SETTLED—ALL AGREED ON THE ABSTRACT RIGHT OF SECESSION-JUDGE NISBET'S RESOLUTIONS--Ex-GOVERNOR JOHNSON'S SUBSTITUTE THE GREAT DEBATE -THE PART PLAYED BY A GLASS OF BRANDY IN TURNING THE SCALES -SECESSION WINS THE COMMITTEE TO REPORT AN ORDINANCE SELECTED FROM BOTH SIDES-AN ORDINANCE REPORTED BY JUDGE NISBET-ITS ADOPTION-ALL DELEGATES SIGN THE ORDINANCE, BUT SIX DO SO UNDER FORMAL PROTEST-GEORGIA LEAVES THE UNION-POPULAR DEMONSTRATIONS-SOME MOVED TO REJOICING, OTHERS TO TEARS -COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED TO THE VARIOUS SOUTHERN STATES— SOME OBSERVATIONS ON SLAVERY.

On November 17th, following a powerful address delivered by Hon. Wm. L. Harris, of Mississippi, the Legislature of Georgia passed an act calling for a state convention to assemble in Milledgeville on January 16, 1861, to consider the paramount question of the hour: Union or Secession. To insure the attendance of Georgia's ablest sons an act was passed ordering the adjournment of all the state courts during the deliberations of the Secession Convention.* Resolutions were also adopted setting forth the aggressive acts of the non-slave-holding states. Mr. Harris appeared before the Legislature as Mississippi's accredited commissioner, that state having already called a convention; and in his speech, urging co-operation on the part of Georgia, he called to mind the bold stand taken for state rights by the dauntless Troup.

can easily be imagined; for immediately thereafter decisive action was taken. The election of delegates to this convention was set for the first Monday in January. The office of adjutant-general was re-established

Acts 1860, p. 240.

+ Acts 1860, p. 26.

Discontinued since 1840.

and to fill this arduous position, Governor Brown appointed Henry C. Wayne. As we have already seen, $1,000,000 had been voted for state defense. The purchase of 1,000 Maynard rifles and carbines was now ordered. At the same time Governor Brown was authorized to accept 10,000 state troops for immediate demands.* To serve the state more effectively, at this crisis in its affairs, Judge Linton Stephens resigned his seat on the Supreme Bench, and the Legislature elected as his successor, Hon. Charles J. Jenkins, of Augusta. †

Quite a number of counties memorialized the Legislature at this session, most of them taking a vigorous stand for secession. Some, as in the resolutions from Greene County, submitted by Hon. Miles W. Lewis, urged delay on the ground that Mr. Lincoln's election was constitutional, that the South was not yet fully united, that the North should be given an opportunity for making amends, that the masses of the people were not ready for disunion, and that an undue haste in overturning the Government would inevitably react upon the South. To the same effect, were the Dougherty County resolutions reported by Hon. Robert N. Ely, afterwards attorney-general. These urged the necessity of co-operation. before any radical steps were taken.

Four states preceded Georgia in severing the bonds of union, viz., South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama. Upon Georgia's action, success or failure for the southern exodus in large measure depended. This was due in part to her geographical location and in part to her prestige among the slave-holding states. The issues at stake only tended to strengthen her conservative bias; and Georgia became the battleground of the most stubborn contest between the rival parties. In breathless excitement the North looked on, hoping that Georgia's action might check the drift toward disunion.

Except to address the State Legislature soon after President Lincoln's election, Mr. Toombs, who was regarded as the leader of the secession movement in Georgia, took no active part in the state canvass, but remained at the national capital until January 7, 1861, when he made his celebrated farewell speech. Howell Cobb, who had retired from the cabinet of President Buchanan, was in the field; and so were Thomas R. R. Cobb and Judge Eugenius A. Nisbet, both recent converts. Another eloquent apostle of secession, whose tongue was tireless in kindling the revolutionary fires, was Francis S. Bartow, an enthusiastic young Hotspur from Savannah. But the opposing side was represented with equal vigor of intellect by men like Herschel V. Johnson, the Stephens brothers, Alexander H. and Linton, and Georgia's matchless orator, Benjamin H. Hill. In view of such an array of talent, it is not surprising if Georgia's action was embarrassed when, like a perplexed traveler in an unfamiliar region, she stood at the parting of the ways.

But events were soon to furnish the determining factors. On December 28, 1860, came the news of the burning of Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor. It proved an effective argument. Francis S. Bartow was

*Acts 1860, pp. 50-52.

+ Senate Journal, 1860, p. 58.

"Confederate Records," Vol. I. Candler, pp. 56-158.

Vol. II-9

addressing an audience in Atlanta, when telegraphic tidings reached the platform, telling of this incendiary act. The dispatch was read amid the wildest excitement. Flourishing the paper in the passionate air above him, the speaker exclaimed in language which carried the temperature still higher:

"Can you talk of co-operation when you hear the thunder of cannon and the clash of sabers from South Carolina? Is the noble old state to be left alone? Awake, men, awake! Acquit yourselves like Georgians!"

From all over the vast assemblage rose the lusty shouts, and the volume of sound seemed to roll in prophetic thunder southward to join the approaching volleys of Fort Sumter. Bartow was soon to fall in the blood-red arms of Manassas. There was reserved for him a brigadier's uniform and a martyr's crown. But no premonition of his approaching death could chill the voice which now rang upon the resonant air or darken the brow on which glistened the rising star of Dixie. The fame of the brilliant young enthusiast, who subsequently resigned his seat in the Confederate Congress at Montgomery, to lead his regiment to battle in Virginia, will always be fragrant with the sentiment with which he started for the front. Objection was raised to his taking guns which belonged to the state and were likely to be needed in defending the state from invasion. "But," said he, "I go to illustrate Georgia!" and with the fadeless fame of the gallant martyr, one of the first to fall, this sentiment will forever be associated.

Resolved that the state should profit by the lesson of Fort Moultrie, Governor Brown no sooner received the news from Charleston than he directed Col. Alexander R. Lawton, commanding the First Regiment of Georgia Volunteers, to seize Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah River. The order was executed on January 3, 1861. Georgia was still in the Union. This executive step, therefore, was technical treason; but the bold initiative was fully justified by the issues at stake. Governor Brown knew Georgia well enough to reasonably anticipate the action of the Secession Convention; and notwithstanding Georgia's welldeserved reputation for conservatism, she was credited in this affair with the most aggressive act of defiance recorded during the history of this period.

On January 16, 1861, the Secession Convention assembled in Milledgeville. This was unquestionably the ablest body of men ever convened in Georgia; and its animating spirit recalled the scene in Tondee's Tavern, where the colonial patriots assembled in 1775 to defy the Crown of England. The foremost men of the state were chosen as delegates. George W. Crawford, one of Georgia's most distinguished ex-governors, wielded the gavel. Albert R. Lamar, one of the state's most brilliant editors, performed the duties of secretary. The convention's temporary chairman was Henry L. Benning, an ex-judge of the Supreme Court of Georgia, afterward a Confederate brigadier general. Toombs was on hand, kingly, imperious and eloquent. With the prestige of long established leadership, he was the central figure of the

*"Confederate Records," Vol. I. Candler, pp. 212-617. Federal Union, Files, January, 1861.