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Toombs was the first to transfer his allegiance to democracy; while Mr. Stephens, though prompt to renounce the whigs, was slow to join the democrats. To quote an expression used by Mr. Stephens at this time, afterwards a famous campaign slogan, "he was simply toting his own skillet."

United States Senator John M. Berrien, desiring to relinquish the toga, on account of physical infirmities, resigned his seat in 1852, and to succeed him Judge Robert M. Charlton, of Savannah, was appointed under a temporary commission, the Legislature of 1851 having already elected Robert Toombs to this office for a full term of six years, to begin March 4, 1853.

Several new counties were created in the next two years. On January 15, 1852, an act was approved creating the new County of Taylor, out of lands taken from three other counties, to wit: Talbot, Macon, and Marion. The new county was named for President Zachary Taylor. In 1853, the Legislature created seven additional new counties as follows: Catoosa, Dougherty, Fulton, Hart, Pickens, Paulding, and Worth; while in 1854 seven more were created, as follows: Calhoun, Chattahoochee, Charlton, Clay, Clayton, Coffee, and Fannin.¶

Atlanta, the county-seat of Fulton, became, fifteen years later, the new capital of the state.

As Governor Cobb's term of office drew to a close, two candidates for governor entered the field: Herschel V. Johnson and Charles J. Jenkins. Strictly party lines were not drawn in this election. It was more of a fight between candidates, both of whom were firm believers in the sovereignty of the state. Mr. Jenkins was a whig, and while as a national organization the whig party in Georgia was dead, its former members rallied to the support of Mr. Jenkins, whose personal popularity also brought to him a large element of democratic strength. The contest was probably the closest on record in Georgia, considering the number of votes cast, Mr. Johnson receiving 47,638 against 47,128 cast for Mr. Jenkins.||

Two vacancies occurred this year on the Supreme Bench. Hon. Hiram Warner resigned to enter the race for Congress and Hon. Eugenius A. Nisbet, at the expiration of his term, was not a candidate for re-election. To fill Judge Warner's unexpired term of two years, Hon. Ebenezer Starnes was elected by the Legislature on November 15, 1853. At the same time, Hon. Henry L. Benning was elected for a full term of six years to succeed Judge Nisbet.

From 1853 to 1855, the following state delegates represented Georgia in Congress: James L. Seward, Alfred H. Colquitt, David J. Bailey, William B. W. Dent, Elijah W. Chastain, Junius Hillyer, David A. Reese, and Alexander H. Stephens. Dr. Reese was the only member of the delegation elected at this time as a whig. Mr. Stephens was returned as an independent. All the other members were democrats.

Only two of these were re-elected to the Thirty-fourth Congress (1855-1857): Messrs. Seward and Stephens. The newly elected mem

For any further particulars in regard to these counties see section on "Georgia Miscellanies.

|| H-J, 1853, p. 34.

bers were:

Martin J. Crawford, Robert P. Trippe, Hiram Warner, John H. Lumpkin, Howell Cobb, and Nathaniel G. Foster.* All of these were democrats except Mr. Foster, who was elected on the American, or know-nothing ticket. Judge Hiram Warner, in his successful race for Congress this year, defeated the afterwards illustrious Benjamin H. Hill, who was put forward by the know-nothings. Some account of the origin of this party will be found further on in this work.

To succeed Hon. William C. Dawson, whose term as United States senator was to expire on March 4, 1855, the Legislature, in the fall of 1853, elected Hon. Alfred Iverson, of Columbus, a southern rights democrat.

Georgia's delegation to the Thirty-fifth Congress (1857-1859) was as follows: James L. Seward, Martin J. Crawford, R. P. Trippe, L. J. Gartrell, Augustus R. Wright, James Jackson, Joshua Hill, and Alexander H. Stephens. All of these were state right democrats except Mr. Hill, who was a strong unionist.†

Brief was the respite from internal dissentions secured by the compromise measures of 1850. Calhoun had passed away in 1850; Webster and Clay in 1852. The great issue of slavery was again opened with volcanic results when Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, in the United State Senate, introduced a bill to organize Kansas and Nebraska as territories. This was in 1854. Meanwhile the Fugitive Slave Law had been virtually nullified in many of the Northern and Western states, thus widening the breech. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill proposed to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820, excluding slavery from the territories north of a certain parallel, 36 degrees, 30 minutes, and to allow the people therein to settle the question for themselves. This became known as "Popular" or "Squatter Sovereignty." The principle was an altogether new one, unknown prior to the Compromise of 1850, when Utah and New Mexico were admitted on these terms. Mr. Douglas secured the adoption of his measure, the effect of which was to remove entirely out of the sphere of congressional legislation the question of establishing slavery in the territories. From this time on the question was to be settled by the people themselves. In other words, the principal of squatter sovereignty was substituted for the principle of congressional restriction. This measure was passed in the Senate by a vote of 37 to 14 and in the House by a vote of 113 to 100. The South was a unit for the bill, democrats and whigs voting together. It was also supported by Northern democrats. Opposition came solely from Northern whigs.

Great satisfaction was felt in Georgia over what seemed to be a generous concession to the South made by the democrats at the North, for the sake of the Union; and loud were the expressions of approval heard on every hand, commending the statesmanship of Mr. Douglas, the Little Giant. At first the whigs were inclined to be non-committal, but eventually joined in the demonstration, contending that the democrats had simply stolen whig thunder.‡

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But what appeared on the surface of things to be a great victory for slavery was only the precursor of a tragic drama enacted on the plains of Kansas, the effect of which was to write the doom of slavery in human blood. Westward the caravans began to move. In a mad rush, settlers from both the free states and the slave states started for Kansas, there to engage in a feudal fight which was destined to leave its crimson record upon every door-post and to find its sequel in one of the colossal conflicts of history.

It was the cry of bleeding Kansas to which the newly organized republican party responded in 1856 when John C. Fremont, of Missouri, was nominated on a free soil platform. Thousands of Northern whigs joined the New England abolitionists in supporting the free soil candidate; and while the new party polled a minority vote it mustered sufficient strength to excite the gravest fears as to what another four years might accomplish.

James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, for President, and John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for Vice-President, was the ticket nominated by the national democratic party in the famous Cincinnati convention of 1856. The principle of non-interference on the part of Congress was at this time reaffirmed.

During the campaign of 1856 another new party banner was foisted. Most of the northern whigs had gone into the anti-slavery camp; but there was quite a large contingent drawn into the American or knownothing party, a political organization unfriendly both to foreign immigrants and to Catholics and designed with the object professedly of securing a dominance of the native element. Its slogan was "America for Americans." As early as 1854 the know-nothing party had become an important factor in Georgia politics. Most of its adherents were old-line whigs. But Mr. Stephens, as we have seen, refused to join the new party, preferring to take an independent course; and it was at this time that he made the famous remark, when asked where he stood: "I'm just toting my own skillet." Mr. Toombs on most of the public issues of the day voted with the democrats. The leader of the knownothings in Georgia was Senator Berrien. But, dying in 1854, his mantle fell upon the broad shoulders of a young intellectual giant destined to become one of the commanding figures of an approaching era of division: Benjamin H. Hill.

Georgia's support was given in the campaign of 1856 to Buchanan. and Breckinridge, and her ten electoral votes were cast by the following delegation: W. H. Stiles and J. N. Ramsay, from the state at large; and district electors, Iverson L. Harris, L. J. Gartrell, Thomas M. Foreman, John W. Lewis, Samuel Hall, James P. Simmons, J. P. Saffold, and T. W. Thomas.*

Governor Johnson was renominated for governor by the democracy of Georgia in 1855, but there were two other candidates for this office nominated by opposition parties. Judge Garnett Andrews, one of the ablest lawyers of the state, for years a judge of the Northern Circuit, was put forward by the know-nothings; while Hon. B. H. Overby, a Methodist preacher and a strong prohibitionist, once a fire-eating whig,

*Lanman's Biographical Annals of the United States Government,"

pp. 532-533.

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THE MITCHELL HOUSE: WHERE GOVERNOR TROUP DIED IN 1856, WHILE VISITING HIS OVERSEER

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BURIAL PLACE OF GOVERNOR GEORGE M. TROUP, NEAR SOPERTON

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