Atlanta - Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow. John R. Hornady
both sides had their way, though it is doubtful if either side had much weight in determining future events; events which were being shaped in Washington and over which the people of the South had little or no influence.
The State of Georgia subsequently became a party to a suit before the Supreme Court of the United States in which it was sought to obtain an injunction against the operation of the Sherman act, but the only effect was to intensify the feeling of those who had determined to make a thorough job of discipling the South.
Under the provisions of the Sherman Law, Major-General John Pope was appointed Commander of the Third Military District, comprising Alabama, Georgia and Florida, and he arrived in Atlanta by special train from Chattanooga on Sunday, March 31, 1867. He was met at the station by a committee of local citizens and escorted to the leading hotel, where a reception was held in his honor. It was attended by many prominent citizens, all of whom were received by General Pope in a most gracious manner. He greeted them in civilian clothes and his deportment throughout was that of one who wished to make himself agreeable and to remove any tension which might exist.
One of the first acts of the military commander was to remove the headquarters of the district to Milledgeville. At the same time he announced that all civil officers then in office in the three States under his jurisdiction, would retain their positions until the expiration of their terms, ''unless otherwise directed in special cases." He expressed the hope that "no necessity will arise for the interposition of the military authorities in the civil administration," and pointed out that such a necessity could only arise "from the failure of the civil tribunals to protect the people, without distinction in their rights of person and property."
Altogether, the impression made by General Pope was most favorable, and there seems little doubt that he endeavored to discharge his difficult duties in a way to cause the least dissatisfaction, but in the end the good feeling which characterized his advent, disappeared and a clamor arose for his removal. He was removed on December 28, 1867, and Major-General George G. Meade was named as his successor. The change was received with enthusiasm by the people, but in the course of time General Meade became about as unpopular as his predecessor had grown. It is probable that both of these officials endeavored to discharge their duties with as little friction as possible, and the resultant dissatisfaction was due, not to any desire on their part to be harsh or extreme, but to the fact that the laws under which they worked were harsh and extreme and could not be interpreted and administered in a manner wholly foreign to their fundamental character, however well-intentioned the administrator might be.
The method of restoration to the Union was the point upon which the differences of this period largely turned, and it was while discussion upon this subject was at fever heat that a flaming and dramatic figure leaped to the front. With a fearlessness that astonished those given to equivocation, and with an eloquence that was as a consuming fire, Benjamin H. Hill stepped into the arena and exposed the reconstruction scheme in all its nakedness. Speaking before a great convention in Atlanta, with the people hanging upon his every word, he urged the sacredness of the Constitution, denounced the Sherman act as violative of that great document, and continued "I charge before Heaven and the American people this day, that every evil by which we have been afflicted has been attributable directly to the violation of the constitution. Tinkers may work, quacks may prescribe, and demagogues may deceive, but I declare to you there is no remedy for us, and no hope to escape the threatened evils, but in adherence to the constitution."
He then denounced in the most scathing terms those who would support a convention which they knew to be contrary to the constitution. "I shall discharge the obligation of the amnistry oath," he said. "It required me to support the constitution and the emancipation of the negro, and I do, but I will not bind myself to a new slavery — to hell — by violating it."
Many others of prominence and influence adopted a like attitude toward the approaching State Convention, holding that it was called in defiance of the fundamental law of the land and that to participate in it was to trample underfoot the one document under which liberty was guaranteed unto the people. Robert Toombs, former Governor Herschel V. Johnson and others were of like mind. The latter advised registration on the part of the people, but noncompliance with the terms imposed. He warned them " never to embrace their despotism," but to hope for a reaction in the North and West against "the overthrow of constitutional liberty."
The convention at which these brilliant orators poured out the vials of their wrath before a vast and embittered audience, was held in an immense arbor erected on Alabama Street, July 23, 1868. The day was fearfully hot, and the multitude composing the audience occupied hard wooden benches, but for five hours they listened eagerly to the words of such men as Robert Toombs, Benjamine Hill, Ralph J, Moses and Howell Cobb, their passionate sentences, as they described the evils of the reconstruction program, being greeted with storms of applause.
Governor Jenkins, who was active in the prosecution of the injunction proceedings in the United States Supreme Court, was also outspoken in his denunciation of the illegality of the methods proposed under the military acts; so much so that it brought on a sharp exchange of letters between General Pope and himself. These differences continued under the new military commander, General Meade, culminating finally in the removal of Governor Jennings from office and the appointment of Brigadier-General Thomas H. Ruger, to this position. This action was taken by General Meade on January 13, 1868, and the immediate cause was the refusal of Governor Jennings to authorize the patent of a bill, amounting to some forty thousand dollars, which money was to pay the cost of holding the state convention; a gathering which the governor held was unconstitutional. The State Treasurer, John Jones, was removed at the same time for the same cause, and he was succeeded by Captain Charles F. Rockwell, also of the United States army.
The order for the State Convention, about which so much bitter controversy raged, was issued by General Pope on November 19, 1867. It was to be held in Macon on December 5, 1867, and was for the purpose of framing a constitution for the civil government of the State of Georgia.
When this convention met there were twenty-two negroes among the delegates, and one of these was made a door-keeper while another was designated for the duties of messenger. Thus for the first time the black man made his appearance in a gathering of this character in the State of Georgia.
While the convention was in session and shortly after he had appeared before the body and delivered an address, General Pope was removed from office, and a few days thereafter his successor. General Meade arrived in Atlanta. He was met here by an enthusiastic citizenship, and was presented with a set of resolutions shrewdly designed to flatter him, and at the same time, afford the populace an opportunity to flay his predecessor. These resolutions were adopted at a mass meeting held at the City Hall in Atlanta on the night of January 4, and were presented to General Pope upon his arrival two days later.
In the preamble to this remarkable set of resolutions, the facts surrounding the attempt of General Pope to force the payment of the $40,000 heretofore referred to, were set forth, while the convention itself was denounced as ''conceived in fraud and brought forth in iniquity." It was also charged that the retiring general had been "surrounded while in this city by evil counsellors in civil life to whom he lent a listening ear, and whose thirst for office influenced them to counsel to further oppression and degradation of our people, in order that they might fatten on the spoils thereof."
The first part of these resolutions, which so seethed with the popular feeling of the hour, went on most ingeniously, ''While this meeting is unalterably opposed to the military acts of Congress, under which it proposed to 'reconstruct' the Southern States, and while it disclaims any wish (were it possible) to influence the action of Major-General George G. Meade, politically or otherwise, yet it can but express its gratitude that our people shall have in him, as military commander of this district, a gentleman and a soldier, who, we have reason to believe, mil uphold and not destroy the civil government of the State; who will uphold and not trample underfoot the civil laws he may find in force, and who will restore those set aside by his predecessor; who will guarantee freedom from fraud and corruption in registrars, managers and voters, in any future elections or registrations that may be had under said military acts; and who will tolerate, in its fullest extent, freedom of speech and of the press in the discussion of the great