Atlanta And Its Builders, Vol. 2 - A Comprehensive History Of The Gate City Of The South. Thomas H. Martin

      General Pope returned to Atlanta on the 11th of April, and was tendered a public banquet at the National Hotel, upon the evening of the following day. The attendance was large and representative, and the excellent brass band of the Sixteenth Regiment Regular Infantry, stationed at Atlanta, furnished the music for the occasion. The details of the banquet are given by the Intelligencer as follows:

      "General Pope made a speech in which he said that he came to this State to perform a duty as distasteful and embarrassing to him as it was disagreeable to the people of Georgia. He expected to be received at least with indifference, if not with positive dislike. Hence the hearty welcome he had received was an assurance of the people's co-operation in the performance of his duties, and was as unexpected as it was grateful, and encouraged the hope that his mission would be both satisfactory and brief. The act of congress prescribed his duties and the means by which they were to be performed; but the manner in which those means would be used would necessarily depend so much on circumstances that he could not lay down any rules at all. He should, however, endeavor to discharge his duties with strict fidelity to the law, and with due regard to the rights of all."

      The report of the Intelligencer continued:

      V. A. Gaskill as chairman of the committee of reception, offered as the first toast of the evening, the following: "Our Pope — may he be as infallible as the law has made him powerful." This toast was followed by applause, indicative, as was thought at the time, more of the high appreciation in which General Pope was held personally, than of the "infelicitous facetiousness of the wording of the toast itself." In response the general said that the legislation which he had been sent to Georgia to execute was conceived in no spirit of hostility or bitterness to the South, but as the most speedy and the most satisfactory means of restoring the Southern States to the Union. It was based upon the theory that the political issues which had led to the late war were dead, and should be buried as soon and deep as possible. The policy of inaction based upon the recollection or revival of those issues could only be destructive of those in whose interest it was inaugurated. The measures proposed by Congress were proposed as a final settlement of the difficulties then existing, and if accepted in the sincere spirit that prompted them the troubles would at once be at an end.

      The next toast was as follows: "The President of the United States." It was drunk standing, and in silence, as was thought most appropriate under the circumstances. As applicable to the case the following aphorism was cited: "Speech is silver; silence is golden."

      The third toast was, "The Thirty-Ninth Congress," which was responded to by Colonel Farrow under the head of "The National Unity of the States, One and Inseparable."

      The next toast was, "Our Country's Flag," which was responded to by Judge Lochrane, in a speech which was considered the inspiration of the evening.

      The fifth toast was, "Reconstruction — let it proceed under the Sherman bill without appealing to the Supreme Court of the United States, the arbiter of civil rights, not of political issues." This toast was responded to by Governor Brown, who said that the province of the Supreme Court was not to try political but civil questions, and he had no doubt it would refuse to try the questions raised by Mississippi and Georgia. He thought it unwise to bring that question before that body at that time, because he thought it would tend to embitter the feelings of the North against the South, as it would imply an unwillingness to submit to the terms proposed by Congress as the basis of reconstruction.

      "Our Army and Navy — tested in war, we trust them in peace," was the next toast. General Dunn responded to this toast, saying that he was greatly gratified to find a general disposition among the people of Alabama and Georgia, to proceed orderly and in good faith to reconstruct their State governments in accordance with the recent acts of Congress.

      The next toast was as follows: "The Press of our City — may it be the intelligencer of this new era, and the Christian index; not a monthly but a daily opinion in our home, and ever have clean proof against any impression that the devil may set up against it."

      "The State of Georgia" was the last toast. "May the civil and military authorities act harmoniously together for her early reconstruction, and for the protection of persons and property, without distinction of race or color."

      The sentiment in favor of swallowing the bitter reconstruction pill without a wry face seemed to be a growing one, to judge by General Pope's reception; but the nonconformists were many, and either held their peace and kept aloof, or ridiculed the conformists as sycophants and fair-weather patriots. Governor Jenkins was not one of those who "bend the pregnant hinges of the knee that thrift may follow fawning." From Washington, where he was attending to business connected with his injunction suit, he issued a patriotic address to the people of Georgia, in which he freely expressed his opinions concerning reconstruction under the Sherman bill, characterizing the measure as "palpably unconstitutional" and "grievously oppressive," and advising the people to take no action with reference to the registration provision, whatever might be the opinion of the United States Supreme Court. General Pope took no notice of the governor's address, and addressed him a letter, inquiring whether, when he issued the address, he had read his general orders No. 1, and calling the governor's attention particularly to paragraph III, which he declared was clearly violated in the address in question. Governor Jenkins replied, under date of April 20th, 1867, that at the time the offensive address was issued he had not seen the general order referred to, and was ignorant of its existence. He wrote in a conciliatory but manly way, expressing the hope that there would be no conflict or personal friction between them in the discharge of their respective duties. In explanation of his course, he said: "I supposed I was exercising such freedom in the public expression of opinion relative to public matters, as seems still to be accorded to the citizens of this republic, not imagining that it was abridged by the accident of the speaker or writer holding office. So much for the past, general, and I will only add that in future I shall do and say what I believe is required of me by the duty .to which my oath binds me."

      General Pope replied to this at some length, saying among other things: "The existing state government was permitted to stand for the convenience of the people of Georgia in the ordinary administration of the local civil law, and to that end it should be carefully confined. You are debarred, as I am, from the expression of opinion, or using influences to prevent the execution of the laws of the United States, or to excite ill feeling in opposition to the general government, which is executing these acts of congress," etc.

      General Pope appointed Colonel E. Hulbert supervisor of registration, on May 13, 1867, with his office at Macon, Ga. In his history of Georgia, Avery says of the appointee: "Colonel Hulbert was an uncommon individual, cool, adroit, managing, energetic, bold, personally very clever, and the most useful instrument General Pope had. A large, powerful man, prompt, decisive, and with superior administrative ability, he handled the problem of registration with unvarying success for any measure he championed."

      On the 21st of the month an order was issued by General Pope in which his plan for registering the citizens of Georgia and Alabama was set forth. In each district a board of registration, consisting of two white men and one negro, was appointed, the registrars to be compensated in accordance with the rules applying to taking the census, the fees ranging from fifteen cents per name in the cities, to forty cents per name in the remote country districts.

      In the meantime, the opponents of the Sherman law were not inactive. Governor Jenkins continued to exert a quiet influence in line with the sentiments expressed in his famous address, and those old wheel-horses of secession. Hill and Toombs, took the hustings to urge resistance to what they denominated an infraction of civic liberty