Pursuant to this recommendation of the governor, other corrective measures were applied, but it remained for Robert Toombs effectually to close the doors of Georgia's State Treasury to the demands of corporate greed by his last great work in the Constitutional Convention of 1877.

Governor Smith's administration was signalized by its progressive achievements. But an unfortunate controversy with ex-Governor Herschel V. Johnson, who aspired to a seat on the Supreme Bench, resulted in the temporary estrangement of not a few political friends. Still another element of discord made its appearance in the treasury department. Col. John Jones, a man of proven fidelity to the interests of Georgia, had succeeded Doctor Angier as state treasurer, with the outgoing of the Bullock regime; and while the integrity of Colonel Jones was not seriously questioned, he was the victim of loose methods of bookkeeping employed in his office; and, due to this fact, he unwittingly paid a second time with interest, certain bonds which had already been paid to Henry Clews and Co., of New York, but which had not been cancelled. This was brought to light by a committee of investigation, appointed in 1875. On recommendation that a competent man be appointed to aid the treasurer in straightening out the affairs of his office Governor Smith appointed to this position, Dr. James F. Bozeman, who immediately entered upon his work, in the treasury department, with gratifying success. An utter lack of system was found to prevail; and deeming the treasurer's bond insufficient Governor Smith issued an executive order requiring said official to furnish a new bond. With this requisition the treasurer refused to comply, and on November 26, 1875 was removed from office by the governor. He was succeeded in office by a most competent gentleman, Hon. James W. Renfroe, formerly tax collector of the County of Washington, but he, too, was destined to sail on troubled waters and to find the treasurer's office a "stormy Petrel."

Meanwhile the deposed state treasurer was made defendant in a series of suits at law and against him a judgment of $96,000 was eventually found. The trial lasted for nearly two years, extending far into Governor Colquitt's administration. His sureties, John T. Grant and C. A. Nutting, were called upon to make this sum good. Colonel Grant, in settlement of his liability, made a cash offer of $35,000 which was accepted by Governor Colquitt, on advice of the state's counsel. Due to these unfortunate transactions, the old state treasurer closed his career under a dark cloud. But evidence to convict him of criminality was entirely lacking and there will always attach to his memory the sobriquet which he well earned by reason of his fidelity to trust, during the days of reconstruction, that of "Honest Jack Jones."

CHAPTER IV

THE CENTENNIAL YEAR AN EVENTFUL ONE IN POLITICS-FIVE CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR-L. J. GARTRELL-HERSCHEL V. JOHNSON— JOHN H. JAMES-THOMAS HARDEMAN-ALFRED H. COLQUITT-THE LAST NAMED CANDIDATE INHERITS HIS FATHER'S GENIUS-THE STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION MEETS GENERAL COLQUITT THE NOMINEE -OPPOSED BY JONATHAN NORCROSS, THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE— COLQUITT'S OVERWHELMING MAJORITY-GEORGIA'S VOTE CAST FOR TILDEN AND HENDRICKS-ONLY ONE CHANGE IN THE STATE'S DELEGATION IN CONGRESS-ORGANIZATION OF THE NEW STATE LEGISLATURE -COLQUITT INAUGURATED-URGES ECONOMY IN EXPENDITURES— GEORGIA EMBARRASSED BY BANKRUPT ROADS WHOSE BONDS BORE HER ENDORSEMENT TO AMEND THE ORGANIC LAW, A STATE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION IS CALLED OFFICE OF STATE CHEMIST CREATED -BENJAMIN H. HILL ELECTED TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE-DEFEATS THE INCUMBENT, THOMAS M. NORWOOD-Two EX-GOVERNORS ALSO CANDIDATES-STATE HOUSE OFFICERS ELECTED THE STATE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1877-SOME OF THE PROMINENT DELEGATES-EX-GOVERNOR JENKINS MADE CHAIRMAN-TOOMBS, THE MASTER-SPIRIT OF THE CONVENTION-A FOE TO CORPORATIONS-SOME OF THE CHANGES MADE IN THE ORGANIC LAW-FRAUDULENT BONDS REPUDIATED GOVERNOR'S TERM OF OFFICE REDUCED TO TWO YEARSOFFICE OF ATTORNEY-GENERAL MADE ELECTIVE-SALARIES REDUCED -STATE CONTROL OF RAILROADS FUNDS FOR DEFRAYING THE ExPENSES OF DELEGATES EXHAUSTED-TOOMBS TO THE RESCUE-A DRAMATIC SCENE-THE NEW CONSTITUTION SUBMITTED TOOMBS GOES BEFORE THE PEOPLE-THE NEW CONSTITUTION IS RATIFIED-ATLANTA IS CHOSEN THE PERMANENT SEAT OF LEGISLATION-THE HOMESTEAD LAW OF 1877 ADOPTED.

The centennial year of American independence was a most eventful one in the history of politics, both state and Federal. It witnessed the nomination of Tilden and Hendricks by the national democracy and brought to light the colossal frauds perpetrated by the republican party in falsifying election returns, so that notwithstanding a pronounced majority in the popular vote for Tilden and Hendricks, the democracy was counted out in the electoral college. Excitement has seldom risen higher than during the heated presidential campaign of 1876. It was a period of unrest fraught with imminent peril to the nation.

But the state's political cauldron was scarcely less ebullient. Toward the close of Governor Smith's administration, the number of prospective candidates for the governorship began to thicken. One of the first to enter the field was Gen. L. J. Gartrell, an ex-member of both Federal

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$30,000,000 pledged to railroads, the total length of whose mileage was 2,500 miles. Three new judicial circuits were created: the Albany, the Augusta, and the Allapaha ; * four new counties were added to the map: Douglas, Dodge, Rockdale, McDuffee; † a public school system was organized,‡ and an act passed authorizing the lease of the Western and Atlantic Railroad.** This last named measure was introduced by Dunlap Scott. It provided for a twenty year lease of this property at a fixed rental of $25,000 per month or $300,000 per annum. The act was approved October 24, 1870. Under the terms of this act the road was leased to a company of which Ex-Gov. Joseph E. Brown was president, December 27, 1870. Bond was given by the lessees for $8,000,000. While the Bullock Legislature organized a public school system, it used for other purposes the sum of $327,000, belonging to the school fund, and left the support of the public schools to Governor Smith's administration. First and last, the Bullock Legislature cost Georgia a king's ransom. Its very name to this day is a synonym and a by-word for corruption. Operating expenses alone taken into account, it surpassed all records. To quote Colonel Avery: ¶ "Nine years of Democratic Legislation, from 1853 to 1862, cost only $866,385, or less than this single Radical General Assembly."

But reconstruction was in its last throes. The Bullock Legislature, overwhelmingly republican, ratified the Fifteenth Amendment, thus bringing the state once more en rapport with the congressional statutes and making reconstruction an accomplished fact. When Congress met in December, 1870, the entire delegation elected to represent Georgia in the House was seated. There were two sets of credentials presented to the Senate, those by Messrs. Hill and Miller, elected in 1868, before the unseating of the negroes and those presented by Messrs. Farrar and Whitely, elected afterwards. But the seats were rightfully awarded to the former. Hill was at once seated on taking the test oath. He had given no aid to the Confederacy and had opposed secession. Doctor Miller was not seated until his disabilities were formally removed by Congress, in February, 1871, on the eve of final adjournment. The state's congressional delegation chosen in the fall of 1868 was as follows: Wm. W. Payne, R. H. Whitely, Marion Bethune, Jefferson F. Long, Stephen A. Corker, Wm. P. Price, and Gen. P. M. B. Young. Three of these were sterling democrats; but all were seated early in 1871. To capitulate, Georgia had three times been reconstructed; and in this connection we quote the excellent summary made by Governor Candler. Says he:

"The first reconstruction was that of President Andrew Johnson, made as commander-in-chief of the United States, under the power recognized by all nations of the victor to prescribe terms to the vanquished. Under this reconstruction the state was required to repudiate her war debt and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution

of the United States, abolishing slavery. She promptly, for the sake of peace, did both.

"She was again reconstructed under the General Reconstruction Act of March, 1867, and was required to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment conferring civil rights on the negro. She first rejected it, but it was afterwards ratified by the Bullock Legislature.

"She was finally reconstructed under the provisions of the Reorganization Act, which required her to reseat the negro members of the Legislature who had been ejected, and to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment, conferring the elective franchise on negroes.

"All of the reconstructions were under the direction and control of a military commander, under whose orders the Provisional Government and the Legislature were required to act.

"The first reconstruction, inaugurated by Lincoln and adopted by Johnson, was necessary and proper, and was the logical sequence of the war between the states. The other two were wicked and unnecessary, and were required by the radicals for two purposes, to punish and humiliate the Southern people and to recruit the ranks of the Republican party by enfranchising the recently emancipated slaves and thus enable the party to perpetuate itself in power indefinitely."

Once more Georgia was a sovereign state in the American Union. But her State Government was still in the hands of the radicals. To purge her legislative halls, to inaugurate a governor of her own choice, and to vest the law-making power in the hands of her own representatives, chosen without fear of the bayonet-these were tasks which still remained to be accomplished. The Bullock Legislature had been a travesty upon the law-making power. It had inaugurated an extravagant system of state aid to railroads, as the result of which money was borrowed and bonds of the state issued, fixing upon the state liabilities to the extent of $30,000,000. Most of this was incurred by pledging the state's credit to railroads, either in course of construction or in contemplation. But before some of these lines were completed a new Legislature was elected which repealed state aid in all cases where rights had not become vested. Some of the bonds endorsed by Governor Bullock, in violation of law or without authority of law, were outlawed by the state, but every dollar of bona fide liability, direct or contingent, was recognized and paid by the State of Georgia.

Foster Blodgett was a loyal friend to Governor Bullock, but a friend whose demands were extortionate. He worked for his share of the spoils. To provide a berth for him, Governor Bullock first dismissed from office William W. Clayton, treasurer of the state road, after which Colonel Hulbert, the road's efficient superintendent was sacrificed. Blodgett knew as much about practical railroading as he did about astronomy, and though the state road had been a paying investment ever since its restoration under Maj. Campbell Wallace, often paying into the treasury as much as $450,000 per annum, Foster Blodgett made it a liability to the state, whereas hitherto it had always been an asset. Blodgett succeeded Colonel Hulbert in office on January 1, 1870. His administration ended with the calendar year, but during this short length of time he achieved a record without parallel in the annals of railroading. He ran the road purely as a partisan machine. The receipts

during Blodgett's administration aggregated $1,464,737, but of this only $45,000 was paid into the treasury of the state. Colonel Hulbert had turned over to him $109,131, showing the road's fine condition at this time. But Blodgett represented to the Legislature that half a million dollars was needed for repairs; and he left behind him a legacy of debt, in the round sum of $600,000 which the state afterwards paid.*

But there was one redeeming feature of the Bullock administration. It inaugurated a system of free schools for which provision was made. in the State Constitution of 1868 and in this way laid the foundation for Georgia's splendid present-day system of public instruction. Gen. J. R. Lewis, an appointee of Governor Bullock, was Georgia's first state school commissioner.

On August 17, 1870, Gen. Alfred H. Colquitt was made the recipient of a double honor, foreshadowing his future career of brilliant achievement in Georgia politics. He was chosen to preside over a state democratic convention in Macon, and on the same day was made president of the State Agricultural Society, an association famous for its leverage in elevating public men to office in Georgia. Some of the prominent men in attendance upon the state democratic convention were: Thomas Hardeman, Wm. S. Holt, Augustus O. Bacon, Stephen A. Corker, Wm. M. Browne, James S. Boynton, Cincinnatus Peeples, Rufus E. Lester, John Collier, E. F. Hoge, Nelson Tift, Robert N. Ely, L. N. Trammell, George T. Barnes, James R. Randall, Ambrose R. Wright, Willis A. Hawkins, Linton Stephens, Wm. M. Reese, Albert R. Lamar, James L. Seward, Peterson Thweat, Julian Hartridge, and Alexander R. Lawton. There were 300 delegates in attendance from 109 counties. It was a strong body of men. Judge Linton Stephens wrote its resolutions, pledging the democracy of Georgia to an uncompromising stand for constitutional government. Benjamin H. Hill had ceased to hurl his thunderbolts against the radicals, since reconstruction had become an accomplished fact; and in consequence of his silence he suffered criticism at the hands of many who had formerly been his ardent political admirers. But he was destined to emerge from this cloud and to represent Georgia ere long in the world's greatest forum: the American Senate.

Here, too, another Georgian who had tasted of the bitter herbs, who had long endured ostracism and estrangement, was destined to be his colleague: Joseph E. Brown.

Members of Congress were elected this year as follows: A. T. MacIntyre, R. H. Whitely, John S. Bigby, Thomas J. Speer, Dudley M. DuBose, Wm. P. Price, and P. M. B. Young. Some of these were republicans; but most of the congressmen-elect were democrats. Thomas J. Speer, a republican, died during the session and Erasmus W. Beck, a democrat, was elected to his vacant seat. Colonel MacIntyre and General DuBose were both new members. Colonel MacIntyre was a Scotchman, and was the first democrat to be elected from his district after the war. He had served in the state constitutional convention of 1865 and had been a strong supporter of President Johnson's plan of Reconstruction. General DuBose was a son-in-law of Robert Toombs.