Atlanta And Its Builders, Vol. 2 - A Comprehensive History Of The Gate City Of The South. Thomas H. Martin
George K. Sanderson, Capt. and Act. Asst. Adjt.-General.
A protest went up from the "Conservative Democracy" that echoed throughout the length and breadth of Georgia. The newspapers and publicists of this faction turned upon General Meade with ah the fury of invective at their command — and such men as Hill and Toombs were at no loss for sulfurous adjectives. General Meade did not go out of his way to placate the anti-reconstructionists, but asserted in defense of his action that he had no alternative as a faithful public officer but to enforce the organic act of congress, so long as Georgia was not restored to her former place in the Union. Historian Avery, referring to the manner in which General Pope and Meade performed their unpleasant duties during the reconstruction period, says:
"To their credit be it said that generally they wielded their authority with respect to old usages and established rights; and where they broke over the conventional forms they did it under the soldiers' spirit of obedience to orders. They were directed to enforce the reconstruction measures, and they did it to the letter."
Governor Jenkins, upon his removal from office by General Meade, went to Washington, carrying the great seal of the State. and about $400,000 of money, which was placed in New York, to pay the public debt. He filed a bill complaining that Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois, George G. Meade of Pennsylvania, Thomas H. Ruger of Wisconsin, and C. F. Rockwell of Vermont, had illegally seized the State's property and imprisoned the State treasurer, and asked an injunction of said parties from further spoliation.
In the winter of 1867-8, at the height of the reconstruction excitement, a young men's Democratic club was organized in Atlanta, with Hon. E. F. Hoge as president. The movement attracted a representative and vigorous following, and the club was looked to by the old-school Democracy to keep the rising generation of Georgians free from radical contamination. There was no danger of perversion, however, to judge from the constitution and by-laws adopted by the organization. The club went enthusiastically to work to secure the best speakers and take practical, systematic measures to solidify the Democrats of Georgia against carpet-bagism and the wrongs of reconstruction.
The Young Men's Democratic Club held a meeting on March loth, 1868, in Davis Hall, at which Hon. B. H. Hill delivered one of his characteristic anti-radical addresses. Wallace P. Reed says of the speech: "At the beginning he employed a very fine analogy, comparing the current of politics to the Niagara river, calm and peaceful for a distance, then changing to the rapids, and at last to the precipitous descent." Mr. Hill said in part:
"The issue is wholly changed. It had ceased to be a constitutional question. The issue now pressing is one of actual political life and of social domination. Nothing more startles the man of thought, nothing more startles the reader of history, than the giddiness with which the people are riding the rapids to destruction, almost unconscious of what awaits them. The great difficulty of the times is this; The people have no regard for the truth. They have no love for it, not a particle. I rather think you think more of deception than you do of truth, and that is the reason why so much deception is practiced. The church and society are all at fault. The people are at fault upon this question. Why, it has not only grown into a habit, but it has become a maxim that it is no harm to tell a lie in politics. My friends, a political lie is the worst of all lies, and ought to be held more infamous than all others.
"I deny that the time has yet come when it is necessary for a man to stand up before an intelligent audience and argue the constitutionality of the question now sought to be thrust upon you. There is no man who does not need a guardian, but knows they are unconstitutional, and you know it. The question is not as to whether you understand it, but whether you have virtue enough to do what you know is right. And, people of Georgia, the issue is made. You are to be called upon to determine whether you will have truth or falsehood. I know that now, and indeed for many years back, the air has been full of policy, policy, policy; the making of this bargain, and that bargain I will venture now to say, and I hope I shall offend nobody, though indeed I do not care if I do, in telling the truth, that there are over fifty men this day in Atlanta, who have come here to see if they cannot have some office from one party or the other. I have been speaking to them for the past two days, and so many of them, too, that I begin to think I almost cease to be respectable. Belonging to no party, I support that party which I think is right, and that party today is represented by these young men — the Young Men's Democratic Club. I deem it my duty to come before you today, and put on record for posterity my views of the constitution, which is framed for your support, and the reasons why I deem it, and declare it, infamous, etc., etc.
"I am not going over the old argument which I had the honor to present to an audience in this same hall, at an earlier period in our history, by which I proved that the authority which authorized this matter was originally unconstitutional and void. I say so still, and every man knows that it is. Everybody knows that the convention assembled here to frame a constitution for the people of Georgia, had no more authority to do so than had my young friend sitting here. But even if the original authority were absolutely valid, everybody knows that the convention was not called by an honest vote. I say it was falsely counted, and you know it. I say it was fraudulently managed, and you know it. But put all that by, a convention illegally called, and falsely authorized., is enough to justify an honest man in condemning its action, whatever that action may be."
On March 11th , 1868, the constitutional convention adjourned, but before it dissolved it resolved itself into a nominating convention and named Rufus B. Bullock as its candidate for gubernatorial honors. A grand ratification meeting was held by the "radicals" a few nights later, and the campaign was inaugurated with a bitterness of feeling never before equaled between opposing political parties in Georgia. The Democrats, or "Conservatives," nominated that gallant Confederate General, John B. Gordon, after first consulting General Meade as to his eligibility to hold the office, if elected. General Meade gave as his opinion that General Gordon was eligible, and he was accordingly nominated. Three days were occupied in the election — April 20, 21, 22. The vote in Fulton county (including Atlanta, the vote of which could not be ascertained), was, on the question of ratifying the constitution: for, 2,229; against, 2,019. For governor: Bullock, 1,914; Gordon, 2,357. For congressman: Adkins, 1,958; Young, 2,193. Bullock was declared elected, and the reconstructionists were in high feather.
Governor Bullock was inaugurated, with Georgia literally at the point of Federal bayonets, and his first official act was to issue a proclamation convening the legislature, as follows:
"Under authority granted by an act of congress, entitled 'An Act to Admit the States of North Carolina, South Carolina. Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama and Florida to Representation in Congress," which this day becomes a law, the persons who were elected members of the General Assembly of the State, at an election held on the 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd days of April last, and who are eligible to office under said act, are hereby notified to convene in the city of Atlanta, at 12 m. on Saturday, the 4th day of July next."
Wallace P. Reed gives the following interesting account of the first meeting of the legislature under the reconstruction regime:
"The legislature convened according to this proclamation, and on the 21st of the same month, Governor Bullock transmitted to them a message containing a communication from General Meade, stating that inasmuch as the two houses of the general assembly had complied with his communication of the 8th instant, with respect to the eligibility of its members, under the act of congress and the fourteenth article constitutional amendment, he had no further opposition to make to their proceeding to the business for which they had been called together. He said that he had considered the two houses properly organized since the 18th inst.
"Governor Bullock stated to the Legislature, that, according to the act of congress to admit certain states to the Union, passed June 25, 1868, the legislature was required to ratify the amendment to the constitution, proposed by the Thirty-ninth congress, and known as the fourteenth article, and by solemn public act to declare the assent of the state to that portion of said act of congress which makes null and void the first and third subdivisions of section seventeen of the fifth article of the state constitution, except the proviso to the first subdivision, before the state could be entitled to representation in congress as a state of the Union. Both houses of the legislature therefore passed the following