Georgia Historic Newspapers

    ,
OLD SERIES —VOL. XCI
NEW SERIES —VOL. XL.
TERMS.
TJE DAILY CHKOJ.ii. uE A SENTINEL, the
oldest newspaper in the South, U published
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Address WALSH A WRIGHT,
Choonicle A Sentinel. Atiguara. Oa.
(Cfjrontcle and Sentinel
W F.DN ESDAY... FEB RUARY 9, 1876.
THK It EASONS OF TIIE EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE.
The jast criticisms of the Chronicle
and Sentinel upon the recent extraor
dinary action of the State Democratic
Executive Committee have elicited a
defense of the committee from one of its
members. This defense we publish in
another column of the Chronicle and
Sentinel this morning, and to it we
call the attention of our readers. We
are sorry that the writer has not given
the public his name; but as it is well
understood that he is a member of the
committee and an influential member
we may accept his defense as embody
ing the views of his associates and reply
to it accordingly. This member of the
committee thinks that the “strictures of
the Chronicle and Sentinel were evi
dently written in ignorance of the
reasons governing the committee.” Our
correspondent is right. The “strictures”
were written "in ignoranoe of the
reasons governing the committee” and
were intended to elicit some explanation
of their extraordinary eondnct. Now,
after seeing the explanation offered by
one of the committee, we are fully satis
fied of the justice of onr remarks and
feel very confident that the position
which we have taken will be sustained
by the people of Georgia.
As regards the selection of General
Gordon as General Lawton’s “al
ernate” upon the National Execntive
Committee, we have but a few words to
say. In the first place, there is no pre
cedent, so far as we have been informed,
for tbg appointment of an "alternate” to
serve upon a oommittoo. Either Gen
eral Gordon or General Lawton should
have been suggested as a proper person
to fill the vacant position. If General
Lawton cannot go to Washington City
he should not have accepted the ap-
pointment. If he can go there
was no necessity for naming
General Gordon as his alternate.
Ae wo Have said before, it is rumored
4h*t General Gordon is the member of
a Congressional clique organized for
the purpose of seouring the nomination
of a certain gentleman for the Presi
dency. The selection of the time and
place for holding the Nominating Con
vention may have much to do with the
choice of a nominee. General Gordon
was sent to Washington to frame laws,
and not to make Presidents. If he dis
charges his duty in the Senate to the
satisfaction of his constituents he will
have his time fully occupied. His
ability to respond to the “shortest no
tice” has nothing to do with the matter.
'The time of meeting has been fixed
-for the twenty-second of this month,
and the man who cannot be present at
that time should promptly decline the
Appointment.
A "Member of the Committee” says
the oommittee adopted their plan of
choosing delegates because of the
“tight times,” because of the expense
of holding two State Conventions “in a
month or two of each other.” Eco
nomical execntives, considerate oommit
tee ! Who asked or expected you to
pay the expense of these Conventions ?
What business is it of yours whether
•money is tight or easy, so long as you
•do not have to foot the bills ? We
have e} ways understood that the dele
gates to State Conventions were expect
ed to pay, and did pay, their expenses j
out of their own pockets. Why this |
dartre to save a few dollars to them at
the expense of yourselves, gentlemen
•of the Executive Committee? Do
you not know that when the nine Dis
trict Convention* fail to agree upon J
the selection of the “same eight j
delegates at large,” you, gentlemen of ,
the Executive Committee, will be put!
to the “necessity, expense and trouble" ,
of meeting in Atlanta to select these j
same eight delegates ? You wear your
“me with a difference.” The desire of i
the committee to save money can be ful
ly appreciated when it is remembered
that their ecouomy is designed to give
them the right to name nearly one-fifth
of the delegates from Georgia. A slight
knowledge of the rule of th(<m will en
able the merest tyro in political mathe
matics to work oat this problem. If we t
are not mistaken tiauw were hard in
1872. It is true the “panic” had not
come, but Southern people hareaadnred
a perpetual panic since the elose of the
war; yet, in 1972, in spite of the “troHble
and expense,” tvo State Conventions met i
in Atlanta “within O month or two of each
other" —one to choose delegates to the •
National Democratic Convention, the
other to nominate a candidate for Qov- ,
wrnor and to select Presidential elastnrs.
.But then this “ trouble and expense - ” 1
spared the Executive Committee the ne
cessity of speaking for cue-fifth of the
people of Georgia. This is where the
shoe pinches the toes of the Executive
Committee. They are not pleading tor
economy but for the usurpation of pow-
It remains to be seen whether the
people will submit to this kind of treat-.
meat. {Till not some other “Member
of the Committee” give a more plansible
excuse for their conduct ?
The Harrisburg Telegraph says: “One
of the hard-working preachers of our
city writes us that of his members who
t*k. Harrisburg daily papers ninety per
. cent, are subscribers to the Telegraph."
Is this the reason he is so hard worked ?
—Xorrittown Herald.
A WELL AIMED BLOW.
Mr. Sprinokb, a Democratic member
of Congress from Illinois, has introduced
a bill which provides that:
—Citizens of the United States, temporarily
residing and doing business in foreign conn
tries, are hereby prohibited from owning, leas
ing. baying and selling or in any manner
trafficking in persons held as slaves in any snch
countries or dependencies, and that all citizeuß
of the United States violating the provisions
of this act. by themselves, their agents or em
ployes, shall be deprived of all claims to pro ;
tection from the Government of the United
States for wrongs committed or losses suffered
by them in each foreign States, countries or
their dependencies on account of such slaves.
The closing words of this bill, which
we have pwA in italics, are to be struck
out. So tRt if a citizen of the United
States own or deal in slaves in a foreign
country, and that country do him or his
property injury in any way, whether on
account of snch slaves or not, this Gov
ernment will not protect him or redress
his wrongs in the premises. The ob
ject, in short, of the measure is to out
law any citizen of the United States
owning or trafficking in slaves, and we
hear that the bill makes a stir at the
Federal capital. In the first place, it is
an anti-slavery measure, and yet it is
only when a Democratic majority ap
pears in the Honse that snch a proposi
tion is mooted, and then by a Demo
cratic and not a Republican . member.
Nor can the Republican minority olaim
that while they were so long the majori
ty the matter escaped their notice. Presi
dent Grant pointedly called it to their
attention in one of his earlier messages,
but no consideration was vouchsafed it
in either Senate or Honse. The great
party of moral ideas, universal liberty,
equal rights and so on and so on, is con
victed of having permitted American
citizens to remain slaveholders and ne
gro dealers abroad for ten long years af
ter emancipation in this conntry, and
when, at any moment, it was in the
power of that sanctimonious organiza
tion to terminate snch an anomalous
state of affairs. No wonder that the
heathen rage. To deepen their mortifi
cation, it is not a Southern Democrat
who might be supposed to be bringing
the bill in for effect, that proposes the
measure bnt a Northern Democrat, and
a Democrat from the State of Abraham
Lincoln above all others !
There is also another and greater
reason for disquietude of the brethren
over Mr. Springer's, bill. It cuts the
gronnd from under General Grant’s
feet on the Cuban question. The
President, aided and abetted by the
more sagacious and nnscrnpnlons of
the Republican leaders, has been
feeling his way toward a war with
Spain as a means of making for himself
and his party snch A degree of capital as
might give him a third term in the
Presidency and his party anew lease of
power. To prepare the public mind to
believe that Spain has been most grossly
and insultingly unjust toward.to citizens
of the United States in Cuba, his mes
sages have always harped upon the in
jury done American interests by the con
tinuance of the Cuban insurrection, but
lo ! Mr. Springer’s bill brings to light,
in the very first discussion evoked by it,
that these same much injured Ameri
cans are Cuban slave-owners and that
their wrongs are fer the most part in'
the shape of injuries done to that kind
of property. Now it is rather a dubious
business for President Grant to ask the
Amerioan people to back him in a war
with Spain to redress the wrongs dune
slave-holding citizens of the United
States resident in Cuba.
That sort of business will hardly com
mend itself to either North or South.
The North will not stultify itself by a
war for slavery, and the South can look
with perfect equanimity on the adminis
tration of a pretty stiff dose of emanci
pation to the Northern speculators who
are for the most part the slaveholders in
question. We fancy there is more than
one Bleek patriot interested in a Caban
sugar plantation who did his best not so
long back to abolish slave labor on the
sugar plantations of Louisiana.
Taken altogether, Mr. Springer’s bill
is a good one. It evidences that a gleam
of their true policy is penetrating the
heads of the Democratic majority. They
were .sent there not to vindicate the
Democratic party nor to vindicate the
South—for neither need any vindication;
it is only criminals that need defense—
but to charge Radicalism home; to put
Republican leaders on the defensive; to
arraign them for debauching liberty, for
demoralizing the public tone, and ruin
ing the material interests of the people
of the United States; and to make them
do tbe vindication. The grand jury of the
people have indicted them, and it is the
dnty of the Democratic majority to
charge their crimes home.
OPERATING) ON ANDKRSONTIT.I.K.
The New York Sun, in an article on
Mr. Blaine, says he was seeking a
nomination, not looking to the sucoess
of a party. He thought it was time for
him to out-MoRTON Mobton and ont-
Grast Grant. They had made much
of imaginary Ku-Klnx and White
Leaguers, and a host of phantoms,
which it suited their convenience to con
jure up before elections. There was ab
solutely nothing left for poor Mr.
Blaine to operate upon but Anderson
ville; and although the keepers and the
prisoners and the witnesses, and, in
deed, the entire issne, are dead and
gone, he laid hold of it with the infinite
zeal of a struggling oandidate, who is
determined to do a large business on a
very small capital. Accordingly, so far
as lies in the power of Blaine, the Re
publican party is marshalled, literally
speaking, behind the of the
dead past, as if to go into the Presi
dential canvass on the deadest of all
dead issues.
SENATOR SHERMAN’S CANDIDATE.
Senator Sherman has written a letter
to State Senator A. M. Burns, of Ohio,
giving his view of the Residential
quartfon. After making -- a nnnflber of
slanderous statements concerning the
Democracy, he takes up the question of
Republican candidates. He says that
public opinion “has positively closed
the question of a third term. The con
viction that it is not safe to oontinne in,
one man for foo long a period the vast
powers of a Presdeai is based upon the
strongest reasons, and this eonviction is
supported by so many precedents, set by
the voluntary retirement at the end of a
secondterm of so many Presidents, it
would becriminal folly to disregard it. I
do not believe that General Grakt ever
secieqelj entertained the thought of a
third term- but, if he did,the established
usage it youhl make his nomi
nation an act of suieiie. It wonld dis
rupt our party in every Republican
State. Happily for us we need not look
tor tfra contingency of his nomination.”
Senator says he could heartily
support either of top candidates now
generally named. Rot considering all
thing*, he believes the nomination of
Governor ifipra would give Republi
cans more etnsngtfc, baking the whole
country at large, than any ott&r man.
He thinks the Republican party ia Ghio
ought, in their State Convention, to
| give Governor Hatnes a united delega
i tion instructed to support him in the
i National Convention. He believes Gov
j ereor Haynes can be, and ought to be
nominated; bnt that if the State is di
vided, or is not in earnest about the
matter, it will be far better for G6ver
nor Haynes and the State, that his name
be not presented at all.
A SOUTHERN AUTHOR.
In the last number of the New York
Ledger was commenced anew story, by
Professor Wm. Henry Pecx, entitled
“Dame Rathe’s Plot, or the Maid Among
the Marauders—a tale of the Ethrick
Forrest.” Prof. Peck is a native of Au
gusta. He resided in New York for
the past eight years, during which time
he was connected with the Ledger as
one of its leading writers. He is now
living with his family at Atlanta, and is
nnder contract with Mr. Bonner for sev
eral years. There is no writer connected
with the literary papers of the country
who is more popular as a romancer than
Prof. Peck. He is wonderfully graphic
and pictnresqne in his delineations, and
his creations of plots and characters are
marvelous, striking, original and fas
cinating. His stories are always read
with deep and increasing interest by the
readers of the Ledger.
The Bnccess of this paper is remark
ably. The number of subscribers is said
to be over three hundred and fifty thou
sand. This success, however, is to be
accounted for from the fact that Mr.
Bonner employs the best talent on his
paper, and pays his writers a better
salary than is paid to the members of
General Grant’s Cabinet. He is partial
to good writers and good horses, and
never stops to coant the cost. He owns
the fastest horse (Dexter) in the world,
and the best and most profitable news
paper of its kind in the United States.
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
Atlanta, February 1, 1876.
The Convention bill which passed the
House Saturday by a vote of one hun
dred and seventeen to twenty-seven,
meets with the approval of the leading
members of the General Assembly. The
bill,as passed,was the resultof a compro
mise. All of the speakers but one (Mr.
HoGE.of Fulton) expressed themselves in
favor of a Convention. They felt convinced
that the interests of the people wonld
be subserved by a revision of the or
ganic law of the State, but there was a
conflict of opinion as to the time when the
Convention should be called, and as to
whether it would be advisable tc sub
mit the question to the people. Many
of the friends of the measure deprecat
ed the introduction of a question that
might possibly divide our people daring
the State and Federal elections. Fears
were entertained and expressed that the
question of Convention or No Conven
tion would divide the party on the
homestead, and that unscrnpnlons and
designing men, ambitions of political
preferment, seeing the threatened dis
integration of the party, would enoour
age the schism. A heated and bitter
contest would disorganize the labor sys
tem of the State, the colored people
wonld become alarmed,their fears would
be aroused, and their prejudices and
passions excited duriug the canvass.
There would not be fonnd wanting po
litical intriguers who would arouse the
white people on the homestead question
and the colored people on the gronnd
that the rights and privileges which
they now enjoy wonld be cartailed or
abrogated.
While it is true that there is no inten
tion to interfere with the homesteads al
ready set apart or to abridge in any way
the rights guaranteed by the reconstruc
tion measures to the colored race, it
would be no difficult matter to arouse
the apprehension and hostility of the
classes referred to and thus precipitate
issues whioh would divide the people
and produce dissension and strife. The
truest and best men might announce
from every Btump in Georgia that the
homesteads already set aside under the
Constitution of 1868 could not be im
paired; that the political rights of the
negroes would not be curtailed, but
their assurances might prove abortive to
llay the cupidity of the one and the
prejudices of the other. Both classes
would be subject to the intrigues of the
demagogues who are always ready to
foment strife. Prominent members of
the Legislature deprecated any issue
that might tend to divide the party.
If the question was submitted to the
people early in the present year, there
were gravg fears expressed that the re
sult would prove injurious to the mate
rial interests of the State and the unity
of the party. These views were enter
tained by gentlemen representing Sout
hwestern and Southern Georgia; and
while it may be possible that they might
be mistaken as to the result, their
opinions are entitled to respeot. They
favored a convention, but did not deem
it wise to call it before next year. Rep
resentatives from the Northern portion
of the State, especially from Northeast
Georgia, were in favor of submitting
the question t the people in March.
Othere were in favor of calling the Con
vention the present year immediately af
ter the State and Federal elections.
A compromise was necessary to har
monize the conflicting views of the
friends of the measure. It was, there
fore, proposed that the Legislature call
the Convention withoftt submitting the
question to the people—the eleotion for I
delegates to take place in January next, i
to meet in Atlanta in March, 1877. The j
unanimity with which the House voted i
shows that the compromise was accept
able to all the friends of the bill. The
vote shows the conviction in the minds
of the members of the House that a
Convention is inevitable at an early i
day, and there is no one at all familiar
with*lhe delicate and important ques
tions involved who will not approve of
the action of the House.
General Lawton, whose convictions
last year were against a Convention on ’
the gronnd of expediency alone, pro- j
posed the compromise. He is one of
the purest and ablest men in the State,
and, I could say with truth, in the
South. There is nothing small in the
man. He has neither egotism nor pom
posity ; neither assnmacy nor servility.
Firm in his convictions, ho is candid in
the expression of his opinions and al
ways courteous and dignified. A gen
tleman of the most liberal culture and
of the highest legal attainments, he
stands to-day the peer of any map ip
Georgia. There is nothing negative
about him. His views on all questions
are broad and national, and are express
ed with a precision, force and elegance
which always command respect and
never fail of the impression that he is a
man of great strength of character, of
spotless integrity and of superior abili
ty. He is not only a patriot, bat a
statesman—a man who has never songht
office, bat one who wonld do honor to
Georgia either as her Chief Executive
ofiiee c; as one of her representatives
in the Senate ot top United States.
I have deemed this due to t£e ex
alted character of the distinguished
member from Chatham. To him
is dw the credit of the measure
which harmonised &e conflicting
views of the friends of a Conyemion.
With such men in a Convention to
fraßr e^& e organic law, the people need
have no appaeiiep.ajops us to the result.
The rights of all person* aiu be pre
served under the new Constitution, and
the beet- interests of the State will be
subserved. . P. W.
AUGUSTA, GA., WEDNESDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 9, 1576.
THE RECORDS OF THE SOUTH.
From the Southern Historical Society
we have the first number of the papers
to be issued monthly under the anspices
of that organization. It is stated by
the Society that “these papers will con
tain a great deal of the official history
of the late war and many contributions
from the ablest of the men who made
the great struggle for constitutional
freedom,” and this first number makes
good the promise by presenting among
other matters an able paper by Hon. B.
M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, on the aims
and mfltives of the Southern Con
federacy ; the inaugural address of
Hon. Jefferson Davis as Provisional
President in 1861, and the famous ad
dress of the first permanent Congress of
the Confederate States. Besides pub
lishing papers now so rarely to be
found, the Society busies itself with the
collection and classification of material
relative to the late war, in hopes of some
day forming “a complete arsenal from
which the defender of onr cause may
draw any desired weapon.” The Secre
tary of the Society is Rev. J. William
Jones, Richmond, Va., and the sub
scription to the publication $3 per
annnm.
THE CONTENTION BILL.
The Chronicle and Sentinel has al
ways mantained that the sovereign peo
ple of Georgia alone had the right to
decide whether or not a Constit ntional
Convention should be assembled. For
this reason we regretted that the House
of Representatives passed General Law
ton’s amendment calling the Conven
tion without submitting the question to
the peoplb and expressed the hope that
the Senate would rebuke that gentle
man by striking out his amendment and
putting the bill in proper shape. We
have since learned that the action of
General Lawton and the gentlemen who
voted with him was the result
of a desire to prevent a possible
division of the party upon the
question in certain sections of the State.
This division wonld have proven disas
trous, and in order to prevent it the
amendment mentioned was determined
upon. It is considered certain that the
Senate will take this view of the matter
and pass the bill in its present shape.
When the new Constitution is framed it
will be submitted to the people for rati
fication and they will then pass upon the
action of their delegates.
THE TOTE ON THE CENTENNIAL.
An analysis of the vote by which the
House passed the Centennial Appro
priation bill Tuesday shows that sixty
Democrats and Liberals and eighty-six
Republicans voted for it and 107 Dem
ocrats and Liberals and 23 Republicans
against it. New England voted very
stropgly for the bill. Twenty-seven of
the twenty-eight members from that
section were present, only six of whom
voted against the appropriation. Maine,
Massachusetts and Rhode Island voted
solidly for the bill. The Middle States
also gave it a strong support. Of the
sixteen Democratic members of the New
York delegation, seven voted for it, six
against and three were absent. Eleven
of the seventeen Democrats from Penn
sylvania voted for the bill, five against
and one was absent. All the New Jer
sey delegation voted for the bill. Four
of the six members from Maryland voted
for it. In a large m/jority of instances
members of loth parties from States
contiguous to Pennsylvania were staunch
supporters of the bill. Seventeen
Southerh Democratic members voted
for the bill. Most of the Republican
votes in opposition to the bill came
from the West, and Western Democrats
with few exceptions voted against it.
There is little doubt that it will pass
CoDgress, and if passed it will certainly
receive the approval of the President.
MINOR TOPICS.
Hancock, of Texas, wants to have the
Treasury accumulate $100,000,000 in gold by
the Ist of March next, and apply it forthwith
to the retirement of a like amount of green
backs, $60,000,000 of which he would destroy
as soon as redeemed and $40,000,000 of which
he wonld retain as a reserve. He thinks that
in this way greenbacks could be brought to par,
and the resumption act he made a dead-letter
by next June. That would be exoellent, bar
ring, of course, the inevitable panic which the
sudden contraction would cause ; bnt how
would Mr. Hancock get that amount of gold in
so short time ? Bristow, who is hard money
to the bone, finds this a serious question. Has
Hancock thought of it ?
It seems the implacable grand jury is still
Hying at high game. It is announced that the
late Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Saw
vet, has been indited at Washington for fraud
in the matter of a cotton claim. The facts are
stated to be, that after Secretary Bichabdson
(who. by the way, was not mnoh better than
Sawteb) bad sent the Pabkman A Brooks
claim to the first auditor Jot examination,
Sawyer struck out the words requiring exami
nation, and substituted the word “approved,”
over the Secretary’s name, thereby giving the
Secretary's approval to the claim, and thereby
causing it to be paid.' The Treasury Depart
ment seems to have been a precious place
when Bichabdson and Sawteb had charge of it.
The chief featnre in the scheme for reor
ganizing the federal judiciary reported in the
House by Mr. Knott, the Chairman of its
Judiciary Committee, is the intermediate tri
bunal called Court of Appeals, which it es
tablishes between the circuit and the Supreme
Coqrt. 'Uie object qf this intermediate conrt
is to reliWe the increasing pressure of busi
ness on th 6 supreme tribunal, %nd expedite
business. There is to be one Ccurt of Ap
peals in every circuit, the bench to be com
posed of the supreme judge assigned to the
circuit, the regular circuit judge, and the sev
eral district judges thereof. Appeals are to be
to the Court of Appeals from the Circuit and
District Coarts, and appeals are to be from it
to the Supreme Court where the matter in
controversy exceeds the value of SIO,OOO.
Louisville puts in a seductive plea to have
the Democratic National Convention held there.
The Courier-Joumql is eloquent on the sub
ject. Jt thinks St. Lotus js out of the ques
tion, because ‘ 'there is not a hotter place in
the world or out of it than St. fjouia in July.”
As for Louisville, the editor paints its charms
thus glowingly t “We have blooming parterres>
wide boulevards and spacious halls. Our hotel
accommodations can hardly be surpassed. Oar
climate is free from poisons of
the South, and is never tainted with thoee sick
ening odors which make travelers shun the
crowded streets of St. Louis in Summer. We
have spacious parks and shady drives, along
which the political enthusiast may cool his fe
verish brain after the conflict and agony of the
day is over." llist ought to settle the ques
tion.
The Republican National Convention will
consist of seven hundred and fifty-four mem
bers, so that a nomination for President or
Vice-President will require three hundred and
seventy-eight votes. New York has seventy
members ; Pennsylvania, fifty-eight; #hio,
forty-four; Illinois, forty-two; Indiana, thirty:
Missouri, thirty: Massachusetts,
Kentucky, twenty-four; Tennessee, twenty
four: Michigan, twenty-two; Virginia, twenty
two: lowa, twenty-two ; Georgia, twenty-two;
North Carolina, twenty ; Wisconsin and Ala
bama, twenty; Maryland, sixteen; New Jersey,
eighteen: Texas, sixteen : Louisiana, sixteen;
South Carolina, fourteen ; and Arkansas, Cali
fornia and Connecticut, each twelve. Each
Territory. is allowed two votes. The numer
ous representatives from the large and popu
lous States would be snaaianf to decide most
questions in the Convention if there were any
mission of sentiment or preference among
them. There does not, however, appear to be
rnoqb. epfJVZ? of that in tW nominations, as
eaqfa of there Statesnas a separate candidate.
The allowance of yoUs to the Territories in
creases the weight of the delegation from the
W^-
Gem. John Jay Knox, of fcaoyborp,
N. Y., ia dead, aged 94.
THE CONTENTION QUESTION.
Speech of Hon. A. D. Candler, of Hall, De
livered in the Haase of Repreaoatativea,
January 27th, 1876.
[Reported by J. If. Graham ]
The House of Representatives having
nnder consideration the bill to provide
for holding a Constitutional Convention,
Mr. Candler, of Hall, said:
Mr. Speaker :
It is perhaps necessary for me in the
beginning of this debate to answer the
question which has been often asked
why the delegates to be elected to the
proposed Conventien are not to be elected
from the counties instead of the Sena
torial Districts. Why each county is
not allowed a delegate ? In 1861 each
oonnty had one or more delegates, so
also, in 1865 every county had its repre
sentation. To this inquiry 1 answer
that the Constitution of 1868 is to-day
the organic law of the State, and we are
bound by solemn oaths to support it
until it is amended by competent au
thority. That Constitution provides
for its own amendment in two ways—
first, by the concurrent action of two
consecutive Legislatures, ratified after
ward by the people at the ballot box,
and secondly, through a convention of
the people as proposed by the bill now
nnder discussion, bat the same instru
ment in the section which authorizes the
holding of conventions for its amend
ment declares that the General Assem
bly shall not call a convention of the
people in which representation is not
“based upon population.” If the com
mittee in view of this provision had so
apportioned the representation in the
convention as to allow each county to
elect one delegate—if in other words
they had taken the population of the
smallest county in the State as the basis
of representation,—it would have swelled
the convention to more than five hun
dred—a body so large, as experience
has shown, as to be not goaly ex
pensive and exceedingly unwieldly
but the result of its labors would be less
wise than if the body had been smaller.
The bill, as it stands, provides that the
delegates to the convention shall be
elected from the Senatorial districts on
a basis of one delegate to each six thou
sand inhabitants. This gives an aggre
gate of one hundred and ninety-four
delegates—a body at once small enough
to be not unwieldly and at the same
time large enough to secure wise and
prudent action. This much I have
deemed it necessary to say in reply to
gentlemen who have inquired why each
county was not allowed a representative.
The friends of the bill on your desk
invite a free, open and honorable dis
cussion of the question and propose to
abide the result. They do not desire
any snap judgment in the matter, but
reoognizing it as the most important
measure that has been before the Legis
lature since the people of the State re
claimed the control of their government
they desire that it have the considera
tion which the importance of so grave a
question demands, and that it be dis
posed of in such a way as to secure the
best possible results to the people of
the State. Two years ago I opposed, on
the floor of this House, the calling of a
Constitutional Convention, not because
I did not recognize fatal errors in the
instrument which we are all bound to
recognize as the fundamental law of the
State, but because I thought the time
had not come for a calm, dispassionate re
vision of an instrument spawned'upon us
when we were prostrate by a Conven
tion of aliens, enemies and emancipated
slaves—because I thought it better to
bear our “present ills than fly to those
we know not of” by giving onr unscru
pulous eijpmies who held control of every
department of the Federal Government,
a pretext to interfere in our domestic
affairs and re-enact the scenes of 1868,
when the duly elected representatives of
the people of Georgia were driven out
of her capital at the point of the bayonet
and ignorant negroes and thieving car
pet baggers were installed in their stead.
But these dangers are now past. Rea
son and justice have been re-enthroned
and the sceptre is fast slipping from the
grasp of the usurper. There is now no
danger of Federal interference. The great
Democratic party now has complete con
trol of the sword and the purse of the
nation, and the people of Georgia and
every other State can now dare to do
right without fear of molestation.
But the opponents of this bill ask why
do you want this convention ? What
changes do you propose to ’make in the
organio law ? I answer W 6 propose to
make snch changes as us to
return to the old landmarks of bur fath
ers—such changes as will restore to
Georgia her ancient prestige and make
her again the “ Empire State of the
South.” There is too much friction in
the running of our State government. It
is not that smooth, lightly running ma
chine that the Georgia of old was. It is
a harsh, heavy running machine, crush
ing the people under a burthen of taxation
which they can bear no longer. By a
comparison of the reports of the Comp
troller-General for 1855 and 1875 it will
be seen that in 1855 with an aggregate
wealth of about a thousand millions of
dollars it took only a million of dollars
to pay the interest on tbe State debt
and administer the State government
and now in 1875 with an aggregate
wealth of only one-fourth what it was in
1855, there is wrung from the people in
taxes directly and indireotly over three
millions annually. Why is this ? It is
true our population has increased some
but has it grown in proportion to the
expenses of administering the govern
ment ? It is easy to see why the per
centage of taxation should be greater
now than in 1855 because our aggregate
wealth has been so fearfully diminished,
but we are not speaking about per cent
age, we are talking about the actual
dollars and cents required then and now
to carry on the affairs of the State. But
to bring the question oloser home to the
representative of eyery county in the
State let us refer to a few of the coun
ties and see how this burthen of taxa
tion is affecting them now as oompared
with twenty years ago. The oounty of
Chatham was required then to contri
bute to the support of the State govern
ment 822,000, now she pays one hundred
and eight (108) thousand—an increase of
over 400. per cent. The county of'Sumter
paid in 1855 State tax to the amount of
87,700—n0w she pays 818,800, or two
and a half times as much. The county
of Irwin in 1855 paid sßlo—now she
pays $1,580. The county of Richmond
then, paid sl6,ooo—now she pays $76,-
000. The county of Gilmer then paid
SBO0 —now she pays $5,00Q, and the
county of Hall, which J Have tjje honor
to represent, then paid $2,000, and now
her people are required to surrender to
the State SIO,OOO a year out of their
hard earnings, and for what? Why this
fearful increase in taxation ? Because
our property has been destroyed? This
does not afford a satisfactory solution
to the question. We had as many in
stitutions to sustain in 1855 as we have
now. Justice had to be administerd
then as well as now ; the government
had to be carried on then as well as
now. Why, then, are we required to
groan under so much heavier burthens
of taxation how than then? The an
swer to these questions can be found
only in radical' defects in the organic
law. The Constitution of a State is the
corner stone of the fabric, and it innst
first be reset before you cun rebuild the
fabrio. Our Constitution must be re
vised and made to conform to the genius
of our people before we can return to the
methods of economy and good govern
ment practiced by onr fathers. The
first change in the organic law that I
wonld indicate as imperatively demand
ed by the people, is the abolition or
material redaction of our enormous
homestead. Its existence has paralyzed
every enterprise and cast a blight over
every industry in the State. It is fast
reducing onr small farmers and our me
chanics and laborers tit the white dis
tricts of Georgia to the condition of
serfs. Under its baleful influence the
rich are growing poorer. There is no
confidence between man and man. —
Credit is destroyed and one failure in a
cron forces the small farmer to abandon
bis little farm for want of something on
which to live while he cultivates it, and
become a hireling to his more opulent
neighbor, who is able to supply him
with bread for his hungering children.
A man most be worth over $3,000 or he
is liable by one year’s failure to become
a beggar. Confidence most be restored
before there can be any prosperity in the
State, and confidence can only be res
tored by a change in the organic law,
whereby this unreasonably large home
stead is destroyed or materially reduced.
This change is demand e 4 not for the
Opulent, for they are able to take eare
of themselve?; bnt, I demand it> in the
interest of toe horny-handed sons of
toil, whose sweat made Georgia the envy
of her neighbors and the Empire State
of sie Sooth in the better days of the
Republic before she had been devasted
By fire and sword r and’ drenched In fhe
blood of her children,
I have examined the Codes of a num
ber of States, taking such as I could get
my hands on most conveniently, and I
find out of thirteen States that none of
them have so large a homestead as Geor
gia. Indeed, the largest are in Ken
tacky and Illinois, and theirs are only
one thousand dollars. Most of the
States have none at all, and those which
have them have made them very small.
Oregon has noneat all; Wisconsin, forty
acres of land; Maine, five hundred dol
lars worth of real estate ; Minnesota,
eighty acres of land; Vermont, no home
stead ; New Jersey, no homestead;
lowa, real estate not exceeding five hun
dred dollars in value, and all the rest in
about the same proportion. Where the
homestead is the least prosperity is
greatest. The men who assembled in
this city in 1868 to frame a Constitution
for Georgia were from all of these
States, but they did not engraft on our
fundamental law the prevailing ideas of
the States from which they came, as is
demonstrated by these figures. They
legislated not for the benefit of Georgia,
but for her oppression and for the par
pose of perpetuating the power of the
unholy political party to "which they
owed allegiance. The homestead was
not intended for the good of the honest
masses of the State but for the benefit
of the nnpatriotic allies of its framers—
recreant sons of Georgia—the miserable
scalawags who wanted to evade the pay
ment of their honest debts.
It has been said that if a Convention
assembles it cannot frame a better Con
stitution. Is it possible for a Georgian
seriously to entertain such an idea ?
Away with such a thought. It de
grades the man who entertains it. The
sons of this proud old Commonwealth
unable to improve on a constitution
made by alien enemies, emancipated
slaves and unscrupulous adventurers !
I cannot believe it possible for a Geor
gian to harbor suoh a thought. Another
objection to holding a convention is
that it will be an enormously expensive
affair, will remain in session for months
and cost the State two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. To this I reply no
convention that ever assembled in Geor
gia has oost so much—not even the pie
bald conoern of 1868* In 1865, when
the very mud sills of sooiety had been
upturned and the government of the
State was “ without form and void” a
numerous convention of the people—
much more numerous than the one we
propose—assembled in Milledgeville and
remained in session twelve days at a
cost to the Statp of about thirty thou
sand dollars and made the best constitu
tion Georgia ever had. .
Mr. Harrison, of Quitman ; What
about the stealage ?
Mr. Oandler—We propose to send
men here who will not steal. We sent
suoh men in 1865. We sent as good men
as ever trod the soil of Georgia, and we
will do it again. The Convention of 1865
had everything to do. The Confed
eracy had fallen, the slaves had been
emancipated, society was disorganized,
and yet they accomplished their work in
twelve days. There is no use for this
Convention to cost much. It will not
cost much. The savings one year will
pay its expense twice over. The people
demand this Convention as a first step
towards that reform necessary to restore
prosperity to the State. The twenty or
twenty-five thousand dollars that the
Convention will cost will be saved, I
repeat, twice over in one year—yes, five
times over. The last point to whioh I
desire to allude is the objection that has
been urged that the assembling of this
Convention will endanger the success of
the Democratic party. It is too late for
the Democratic party to b 6 deranged by
a Convention. Alabama has recently
held a Convention to revise her Consti
tution, and the people have ratified the
proposed amendments by an overwhelm
ing majority, and the democratic
party is stronger than it ever was
in that State. North Carolina held
a Convention, and we hear no
complaint of damage to the party there.
Far off Texas has held a convention late
ly, and the party has not been damaged
there. Arkansas even resorted; to revo
lution to secure a convention to form a
new Constitution and shake off the
shaokles of Radicalism, and the people
not only ratified the new Constitution
but elected a full Democratic State tick
et by such a majority as was unprece
dented in the history of that or any other,
State. I believe as firmly as Ido in the
existence of a God that the prosperity
of this nation depends upon the success
of the democratic party, and I xyill not
be instrumental in endangering its suc
cess. All these grave apprehensions are
entertained by those who are interested
—who hold fat offices that they do not
want to give up, or by those who are
too timid, and magnify mole hills into
mountains. The Radicals have never
carried Georgia but once, and then they
were marshaled by Akerman, Bullock,
Brown, Blodgett and Farrow, and back
ed up by the army of the. United States,
and aided by those unsafe leaders of the
Democratic party who advised the people
to stay away from the polls and “let the
negroes have it all their own way.” “It
was a negro concern,” and even then,
“sharp” and “quick” as they were, they
barely carried the State, and no one sup
poses for a rqoipent that they did it fair
ly. A fair count would haye made the
gallant Gordon Governor. Thjrty thou
sand of Georgia's best and most intelli
gent men were disfranchised. Where
then is the ground fqr fear of Radical
success ?
Mr. Furlow, of Sumter: Will you tell
the House what changes you wish to
make? I have asked several champions
of the measure and they have always
failed to give a satisfactory answer.
MrgCandler: That question could be
asked more pertinently of the Conven
tion. I, however, have no opinion to
conceal. I want the homestead reduced
or abolished and my people do. We
want ohanges in the judiciary. We
want the eternal of" condemnation
put oq the fraudulent bonds so that it
will be oqt of the power of the legisla
ture ever to pay them. We wanf some
changes in the terms of certain offices.
There is too rnuoh centralisation in the
present Constitution. These are some
of the changes that are demanded.
Mr. Pitman, of Troup: .Can’t you re
duce the homestead by legislative enact
ment ?
Mr. Candler: Yes, but the gentleman
being a member of the medical profes
sion knows the importance of adminis
tering medicine to the patient at the
proper time. Delays are dangerous.
Georgia is sick—very .sio^ —sick unto
death and she cannot survive the slow
process of legislative enactment to de
stroy the homestead. W? mqst have a
more active remedy- These a f a few of
the reasons why the people of Upper
Georgia demand a Convention and de
mand it at once.
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
What a Member Ou te Say.
Editors Chronicle and Sentinel ■:
Dalton, Ga., January 30, 1876.— 1
have just seen some editorial strictures
of the Augusta Chronicle the re
cent action of the Ktatfe Democratic Ex
ecutive Committee of Georgia. The
strictures were evidently written in ig
norance of the reasons goyejning the
committee. Wherever thogp reasons are
known the notion of the committee has
been approved. Gen. Gordon was se
lected as alternate, so that if Gen. Law
ton, the principal, conld not attend,
Georgia would not be unrepresented on
the National Committee. Apart from
his acknowledged fitness, Gen. Gordon’s
convenient proximity would enable him
to attend on the shortest notice if any
thing should keep away Gen. Lawton.
In regard to the method of selecting
delegates to the Rational Committee,
promulgated by the State Committee,
the following reasons goverhed its action:
A State Convention' must be called this
year to choose Presidential and
nominate a candidate fo,r Governor.
Electors capnot property be chosen un
til after the Rational Convention. A
Convention to choose delegates to the
National Convention must be held be
fore the meeting of that body. The
committee, therefore, had te lpo£ at the
necessity, pncj tyqnhjle of two
National Conventions in a month or two
of each other. The opinion was univer
sal that in the very tight times npon the
country one Convention, if possible,
ought to be dispensed with. In a con
vention to select delegates it is always
customary for the delegates from each
Congressional District to appoint their
own delegates and alternates. To remit
this matter to the District Conventions
was only practically carrying out the
custom of the State Convention. The
main difficulty Was the selection of four
delegates for the State af large". To call
a State Convention with all of its for
mality .and'cost in these hard times
simply Tor this single purpose
seenied to the committee something that
should be ayoided if possible. ■ The
most feasible method of obviating this
difficulty was to have the District Con
ventions recommend each four names,
and in the event they did not unitekon
the same four for them to empower the
State Committee to select from the
names reoommended what was the fa
vorite ticket. The selection of Wednes
day, the 26th of April, was, after con
siderable discussion, decided the best
day for the assemblage of the District
Conventions. The fact of its being a
holiday does not make it improper for
the few citizens constituting the dele
gates of the District Convention to dis
charge the public duty imposed.
A Member of the Committee.
THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG,
Letter tram Gen. Lonsstreet to a Relative
Soon After Its Occupation.
[FYotn the Aew> Orleans Republican.]
We republished from Scribner on Sat
urday a letter from Gen. Lee to Jeff.
Davis, written on the Bth of August,
1863, in which the Confederate chieftain
assumed all the responsibility for the
disasters to his army at Gettysburg, and
asked to be relieved from the command.
There can be no doubt that this letter is
genuine, and that Gen. Lee was entirely
sincere in making the suggestions it con
tains. With this letter and the General’s
reasons for writing it, we have nothing
farther to do at present than call atten
tion to the strong corroboratory relation
it bears to one written by Gen. Long
street, fifteen days before the former
was penned. While Longstreet was en
camped Court Honse, he
received a letter from his unole,, pr. A.
B. Longstreet, LL. D., of Columbus,
Ga., in which the Dootor urged his
nephew to publish some of the facts con
nected with the battle of Gettysburg,
that his correct position and connection
with that affair might be known. The
General wrote to his unole an answer,
from which the subjoined extract is now
published for the first time :
Gen. Longstreet was opposed to the
policy of attacking the Union army at
the cemetery, and so expressed himself
to Gen. Lee, bnt was over-ruled by his
commanding officer, and did the best
he could to turn the mistake into suc
cess. His corps was first in readiness
and first to make the attack. Other
Confederate commanders were so tardy
in coming into action that the day was
lost. Lee saw and acknowledged his
error, thus doing full justice to the sur
vivors, though be could not restore to
to life the thousands of brave men slain
in attempting to oarry out his rash
polioy. Appended to Gen. Longstreet’s
letter is an extract from one written him
some time ago by Oapt. T. J. Goree, his
aid-de-camp at Gettysburg :
Camp, Culpepper Court House, l
July 24, 1863. (
My Dear Unole—As to our late bat
tle I cannot say much. I have no right
to say anything, in fact, but will venture
a little for you alone. If it goes to aunt
and cousins it must be under promise
that it goes no further. Tfie battle was
not made as I would have had it. My
idea was to throw ourselves between the
enemy and Washington, seleot a strong
position and force the enemy to attack
ns. Bo far as it is given to man the
ability to judge, we may say with confi
dence that we sfionld have destroyed the
Federal army, marched into Washington,
and dictated our terms, or at least held
Washington and marched over as ranoh
of Pennsylvania as we oared to had we
drawn the enemy into attack upon onr
carefully chosen position in his rear.
General Lee chose the plans adopted,
and he is the person appointed to choose
and to order. I consider it a part o( my
duty to express my views to the com
manding General. Iff he approves and
adopts them, i£ is well; if he does not,
it is my duty to adopt his views, and to
execute his orders faithfully and as
zealously as if they had been my qwn. J
cannot help but think that great results
would have obtained had my views been
thought better of j yet I am much in
clined to accept the present oanditian as
for the best. I hope and trust that It
is so,
Your programme would all be well
enough were it practicable, and was
duly thought of too. I fancy that no
good ideas upon that campaign will be
mentioned at any time that did not re
ceive their share of attention and con
-1 sideration by Gen. Lee. The few things
that he might have overlooked himself
I believe u?ere suggested by myself. As
we failed of success I must take my
part of the responsibility. In faot, I
wonld prefer that all the blame should
rest on me. As Gen. Lee is our com
mander, he should haye all the support
and influence thatf lyp asp give him- If
the tfiame—if there is auy—can he shift
ed from him to me, I shall help him and
our oause by taking it. I desire, there
fore, that all the responsibility that oan
be put upon me shall go there and re
main there. The truth will be known in
time, and I leave that to show how
much of the responsibility of the attack
at Gettysburg rests upon myself. * *
* Most affectionately, yours,
Dr. A. B. Longstreet
bus, Ga.
General Lee, in a letter wyittep to
General Longstreet in January,
says: “ifad I taken your SsY*oe (at Get
tysburg), ipsteudof pursuingthe course
I did, how different all might have
been.’' Captain T. J- Goree, of Hons
ton, Texas, in a letter to General Long
street, says: “Another important cir
cumstance, which I distinctly remem
ber, was in the Winter of 1864, when
you sent me*from East Tennessee to
Orange Court House with some dis
patches to Gen. Lee. Upon my arrival
there Gen. Lee asked me into fept,
where he was alone, wiffi two, or three
Northern papers onhis table. Here
marked that hp had just been reading
the Sforthern official reports of tfie bat
tle of Gettysburg; tfiat fie find become
satisfied, from reading tfiqsa reports,
that If fie find permitted you to carry
opt yoqr plans ou the tfiird day, instead
of making the attack on Cemetery Hill,
we would have feeeu successful,"
EMORY OOLLECE.
Encourasing Prospect for the Institution.
Oxford, Ga., January 29, 1876.
Editors. Chronicle and Sentinel :
The nnmerons friends of G°l
lege may be gratify tq learjq *fiat the
presept term is opening with encourag
ing prospects. aboqt one hun
dred and fifty student# arrived,
and sti4 they CO W e Thp magniftcent
buildings of tfie rns.tfiutiou ere Ml com
plete well supplied with scientific
aparatus, and every facility for a thor
ough collegiate education, and with the
indomitable energy of President Hay
good and his able and efficient corps of
proiessors, old Emory is destined to a
career of wonted prosperity. Oxford is a
healthy location, none more so, and its
moral, social and religions advantages
are unsurpassed. ancT guar
dians may fia assured ot the ab
sence of the sources of vice and dissipa
tion' aha 'highest- order of training
secured'to their'sons in this institution.
VtesiTos.
■' 1
Editor Cballcp^ed.
[from tfa Omci/nmH Qemntsreial.]
St. Louis, Jannaiy 25.—The long and
bitter personal warfare between Stilson
Hutchins, editor of the St. Louis Times ,
and Frank J. Bowman, a prominent
lawyer of this city, shows signs of com
ing to a head. The Times, of Snnday
last, published an artio!| assailing
Bowman in a terribly wicked manner.
To-day Bowman sent Hutchins a chal
lenge, thd messenger announcing after
the delivery of the into
Hutchins’ hands that hfwijiliwt an
answer at the Wiewde kfo.tftL waited
until and o’clock to-night, at which time,
having received no word from Hntchins,
he adjourned.
Stealing a Long Bide. —A telegram
from Jefferson City, Mo., to a St, fjouis
paper says : “fwo geptlpman who came
op train from the West, report
that iust before arriving here they made
a discovery that a bundle of blankets
under a seat contained $ man. A pas
senger seeing their attention drawn to
the object, came over and asked them
not to expose the hidden party, a poor
fellow who had embarked at San Fran
cisco and ridden -the entire distance in
this manner, excepting that while on the
Plains, where stations were few, he
would get np dozing the absence of the
conductor and stretch his legs awhile,
bat on nearing a stopping "place he
would resume fig position under the
seat; ‘ The'btranger who was acting as
sentinel found the matter out at Omaha
but had not the heart to expose him.
While the passengers were dining hare
the fellow left the tzaimowim qpW the
Maflaaft an 4 tafghd fiwtter. He
wag in excellent condition, and not ap
pearing in need, hia request was refused.
$2 A YEAR—POSTAGE PAID.
THE' HATIONAI, CAPITAL
WHAT IS BEING SAID AND DONE.
The Centennial and the South—Sincere Men
—Political Terrapins—Tbe Texas Paciiio
Bill—Currency and Financial—Obstacles to
Work.
(Special Correspondence Chronicle and Sentinel]
The Centennial and the Southern Leaders.
Washington, January 30.—Much
elated over their final triumph in the
House and already confident of forty
tiv# votes in the Senate, the friends of
the Centennial appropriation are prompt
to acknowledge their great indebtedness
to the wise and courageous Southern
leaders who have championed the bill.
Indeed, to Lamar they are indebted for
the best speech made in its favor—a
speeoh which has left the provincial
Bourbons, who found constitutional dif
ficulties to perplex thmr great souls and
confuse their gigantiej(ntellect, not an
argument that will hold water. Doubt
less there have been many Democratic
votes reluctantly cast, for the bill, as I
am fully persuaded there have been
many votes from that side reluotantly
cast ugainstit. In the former case there
was, concession of scruple to a high and
generous motive of advantage to the
whole country; in the latter there were
not a few illustrations of consulting the
“rasoally virtue of prudence” in the
matter of re-election. The Hon. Peck
sniff, who boasts his fondness for news
paper men, and always keeps an eye on
the “boys in the gallery,” told me dur
ing the debate that he wonld be glad to
vote for the bill but for his constitution
al scruples. The truth was that Peck
sniff knew that the Benighty district that
fitly sends him to Washington was op
posed the bill, and he is too discreet
a statesman to quarrel with the provin
cial ignoranoe of the Benighted. Yet
there is a class of
Sincere Men
In Congress who may be expected, until
their constituents shall drive them into
something like breadth of sentiment, to
continue to give votes to keep the Demo
cratic party and the South in the ruts of
narrow proyincialism that have made
both prostrate. All departures in the
direction of liberalism whioh statesmen
like Ijamar, Gordon, Hill, Ransom, Hun
ter and others may head in the work of
extricating the South, will meet the op
position of the honest men of small
minds who have learned nothing in twen
ty years, and who see in progressive pol
itics only a speoies of wild political
ioonoolaam. Suoh men are virtually
Political Terrapins,
And only the via a tergo of the live coal
of indignant popular sentiment disgust
ed with a quibbling and trifling method
of legislation, which gives neither politi
cal relief nor material development, when
both are attainable, can driv-a them into
sympathy with modern ideas. Take Mr.
Randolph Tucker, of Virginia, for ex
ample, and he is by long odds the best
type of the Bourbon members of the
House. Mr. Tucker is a gifted, loyal,
eloquent Virginian of the bluest blood;
he has much of the learning of the
schools, and sll of that which emanates
from the school of States’ Rights, and
yet Mr. Tucker is palpably no more edu
cated by events than if he had passed
the last fifteen years in a sleep_ as pro
found as that of Epimenides. ’A more
stupendous anachronism than Mr. Tuck
er’s argument could not be conceived.
It suggested to me tbe famous irony of
Gen. Early in the midst of the rout of
his army in the Shenandoah Valley.
Riding lip to the side of Breckinridge,
who was dejected and silent. Early said,
“Well, Breckinridge, what do you think
of the rights of the South in ifa Terri
tories now ?”
Texan Badge Bill.
While the fight over the Centennial
bill was progressing there was an unfair
effort to make it appear that it was a
preliminary skirmish certain to be de
cisive of the fate of the important Texas
Faoiflo scheme. Some of the warmest
friends of the Texas Pacific voted against
the Centennial, and there was no foun
dation for the allegation of an alliance
between the friends of the two measures.
The friends of the great scheme of a
lower trans-Qqutinaatal route which
shall unite, by its connection across the
Lower Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia,
and the whole South with the Pacific,
have already measured swords with the
ebampions of the Hnni.ngdon monopoly,
and have gained visible successes in
all these eqpounter®. The Hunting
don pamp is in confusion. Huntingdon
himself was hadly damaged by Tom
Soott in dehate last week before the
Senate Committee. Dr. Gwin’s little
game of doing vigorous 1 attic, with all
sorts of delightful gaßtronomical sur
roundings, at Wormley’s, was speedily
unearthed, and the Doctor comes out in
the poor plight of being fhe chief of
Huntingdon’s hepchmon rather than
the advancp agent of Tilden’s Presiden
tial engagement. The Doctor is an
able man, full of sagacity and fertile in
expedients, but he has struck a ‘Void
trail” in Washington this Winter in fight
ing under a J)em<¥ratio mask a measure
that tfie fiouth has set ita heart upon as
absolutely the only avenue of deliver
ance from the wilderness of trouble in
which ahe has been lost for ten years.
In times part Doctor Gwin acquired
merited oelebrity for his success in get
ting subsidies for his constituents on
the Pacific coast, and there is a geofi
deal of merriment over the aq* j-sqbAidy
arguments with which ha now fights the
Texas Pacific,
Ex-Qoyrufqor John 0. Brown, of Ten
nessee, the Y-ice-President of the
Texas Pacifio, is at WiUard’B Hotel,
where his quarters are the daily resort
of able and upright Southern public
man, wfio, like himself, represent the
progressive Soqth. Twice Governor of
Tennessee, Governor Brown waa very
nearly made United States Senator
when Johnson waa elected. There is
little difficulty in seeing in Governor
Brown a type of the class of public men
for whom the rehabilitated South will
reserve its choicest honors. Rev. Dr.
O. K. Marshall, of Mississippi; Judge
Kennard, of Louisiana; General J. R.
Anderson, of Virginia; C.oionel Wm.
Johnston, of North Carolina, and Gene
ral Withers, vtf Alabama, are among the
prominent BQ.Uthernersrecentlyia Wash
ington who aye pronounced friends of
the Pacific Road. Ex-President
Davis,apd Hon. R. M. T. Hunter,of Vir-
are also quoted as haying earnest
faßh in ita merits as a means of material
restoration for the South.
Essays on finance were the order of
the day in the House yesterday. Soon
we shall have a surfeit of wisdom upon
this snbject, but inquiry satisfies me
that there will be nothing in the action
of the House calculated to imperil
Democratic unity. The average concur
rent sentiment of the party will be fairly
A few Elijah Pograms and
Jefferapfl Bricks will demand a hearing,
but the gag-law will be vigorously ap
plied to such nnisanoea in no me effective
shape.
Congress haa keen slow in getting to
sojifi performance •< but the outlook is
nqw better than at any time sinoe the
holiday*. The Senate has no previous
question, and hence its daily delnge of
loquacity. Per contra , occasionally,
through the operations of the previous
questions, the House hears too little
talk. The rare occasion when hears
any wisdom at all are privileged
party leaders are pot driven to the Con-
the tomb of their
lucubrations. It is important to under
-1 stand that the average Congressman
: dare not read, even Jfcwr<U
N’li£?oeve.
MippsßiN Hamuss.—A difficulty oc
curred in Hamburg last Saturday night
between Tom Carter and Dave Harris,
; both colored, resulting in the death of
the latter. Carter and Harris were
brothers-in-law, Harris having married
Carter’s sister. The husband and wife,
who lived in small outhouse on Cobb
street,, had fallen out and the former
was ordered by his wife to leave and not
return. Saturday night Hatris walked
into the house and found Carter present.
Some words ensued between the two and
Harris AnaUj drew a knife and threat
ened to atab Carter. They then walked
oat to the gate together, still quarrel
ing. Carter, after a few movements,
went to his own house, a short distance
off, secured his gnn, a Bemington rifle,
loaded with powder and a myfi# ball,
returned to the gate wHarris was
standing, points the weapon at him,
when cmiy a few paces distant, and
firea. The ball entered Harris’ body
iust above the heart, passed entirely
through and continued UP the street, a
woman too hundred yards of hearing it
whistle b Harris fell and expired in
* f®W foments. Carter, as soon as be
fired his weapon, ran to the river, threw
his gun op the bans, jumped in the
stream and swam across to the Augusta
side; Prince Bivens, Trial Justice, held
SB inquest over Harris' body Sunday.
THE STATE.
THE PEOPLE AND THE PAPERS.
Seven stores in Dahlonega.
Every dwelling in Hampton is ooou
pied.
Harvey J. Dennis is deputy sheriff of
Pntnam.
A Gypsy camp is on the suburbs of
Columbus.
The Griffin Daily News has begun its
fifth volume.
Walter Cunningham leaves Covington
for Mississippi.
The Southeast Georgian favors Harde
man for Governor.
Let the Butler Herald print its inside
a little more plainly.
Mr. John A. Doane, of Atlanta, has
gone into bankruptcy.
The Jonesboro News reports 120 pu
pils at Clayton Institute.
Dr. W. A. Ferry has moved from Jas
per oounty to Covington.
James Gaddis has been arrested and
confined in Dahlonega jail.
Jackson county boasts a baby three
months old weighing 30 pounds.
The store of H. J. Smith & Son, at
Blaokshear, was burglarized reoently.
James McArthur, a worthy negro
man, died in Milledgeville last week.
There are eight prisoners in Walton
oounty jail—seven men and one woman.
Green and Pearson, two white men,
esoaped from Brunswick jail last week!!
001. A. J. Smith is to deliver the ad
dress on St. Patrick’s day in Bruns
wick.
Miss Fannie Carroll, of Covington,
goes to Fairburn to take charge of a
school.
The attempt to organize a military
company in Brunswiok last week was a
failure.
A little son of Mr. P. J. Ray, near
Rutledge, had liis arm broken by a fall
from a horse.
In Dawsonville a little son of Mr,
Reuben Hill was mortally injured by a
runaway team.
Monroe, in Walton oounty, has had
some trouble over the eleotion of mem
bers of Council.
There are more girls than boys in
Hampton, which makes Hampton a
good place to go to.
Mr. Reuben Burt, of Forsyth county,
was severely injured recently by being
thrown from a mule.
The Enquirer think Columbus will
reoeive 10,000 bales of cotton during the
balance of the season.
In Harris county reoently Mr. Rich
ard Cardwell was killed by a negro
named Henry Eennon.
Mrs. Graham, of Rome, had her face
badly bruised and her left arm fractured
by a fall from a buggy.
Little Eddie, a son of Mr. W. H.
Brookston, was drowned last Sunday by
falling into an old well.
A gate fell on a little son of Dr. J. J.
Montgomery, at Rutledge, tbe other
day, painfully wounding him.
Charlie Herbst—blessings on the glad
faced, true-hearted fellow—is booming,
ahead with the Macon Library.
The tin shop •of M. C. Hooper, in
Ringgold, was broken into the other
night, and his tools utterly ruined.
Charlie Ballou, of Columbus, acci
dentally had the forefinger of his right
hand out off in the Eagle and Phenix
mills,
Henry County Ledger : “The Chboni-
Osb and Sentinel aud Newnan Herald
are most excellent papers, always full of
news.” •
Captain Dick Taliaferro, who waa shot
in Haralson oounty reoently by Cicero
Goggins, has sinoe died. Qoggins is
still at large.
The Eatonton Messenger wants the
Legislature to pass a law requiring the
various counties to keep their roads in
good condition.
John Mason, who killed Dan Gorley,
in Putnam county has been discharged
from custody, the Justices deoiding that
he was justifiable.
We have received No. 1, volume 1, of
the Southeast Georgian, a handsome pa
per published at Blaokshear, by Mr. H„
M< Mclntosh, editor and proprietor.
Mr. W. H. Hinds, whQ proposes fo
establish a bagging factory in Colum
bus, has brought his family to that city
from Ohio, and intends locating there.
Gustavns A. Miller, a workman in the
S. W. R. R. shops at Columbns, haa
been adjudged a lunatic. His brother,
Frank Mifier, will be appointed to take
care <4 him.
The ladies of Athens give a musical
and dramatic entertainment to-morrow
evening to raise funds to purchase a
home for the widow and family of Stone
wall Jaokson. ,
A guano agent informs the Henry
Cwmfy Ledger that his company haa
sustained greater loss in that portion of?
Georgia than in all the rest of the eoum
try together.
A. G. Vining & Bra., of Rutledge,
suspended business a short time since,
but have compromised with their credi
tors and qommenced again under the
supervision of a trustee.
Wa welcome to our table the Macon
Home Jmrnml, now edited by Col. H.
W. Baldwin. Col. Baldwin ia a gentle
man of talent and integrity, and we
shall look forward with pleasure to our
weekly communings with him.
The United States soldiers arrested by
the oivil authorities of Gilmer county,
on the charge of murder of a citizen of
that county, have been turned over to
the United States authorities on writs o£
habeas corpus.
Chief Jnstice Warner thinks Solioi
tors-Generals do not sufficiently look af
ter the interests of the State in prosecu
tions before the Supreme Court, but
content themselves too often with the
sending up of briefs.
Marion eountyis represented as be
ing*,in good condition, many of the
farmers having a surplus of cotton en
hand, sufficient to cancel all their obli
gations, and enough corn and bacon to
carry them to the end of the year.
Tbe Sparta Times and Planter haa
entered upon its tenth volnme. It i B all
a mistake about the Times ami Planter
being sold to Col. H. H. Hickman, or
to Colonel anybody else. Cols. John R.
and Elam Christian stiUown that healthy
sheet.
Mr. Park Woodward and Miss Kate
Howell were married Tuesday evening
at the residence of the bride’s father,
Judge Clark Howell, near Atlanta. The
attendants were : Mr. Charley Howell
and Miss Lizzie Woodward, Mr. Jack
Johnson and Miss Lizzie Overby, Mr.
John E. Woodward and Miss Ella How
ell, Mr. Charley Harmon and Miss Liz
zie Gartrell, Mr. James C. Howoll and!
Mies Estelle Leyden, Mr. John Daniel!
and Miss Annie Hook.
Eatonton Messenger t Madame |Rn
mor has it on our streets that Mr.. W.
A. Branham, who left the conntj some
weeks ago, but who has returned to hia
home in Putnam, is taking preliminary
steps to institute a suit in the sum of
, #IO,OOO damages against Mr. Frank Lev
erett for false imprisonment. We do
not know about the matter, but Mr.
Branham, in eompany with a relative or
relatives, was detained in Macon jail
while on their way to Florida, the au
thorities at Macon acting under tele
graphic instructions from someone
here. If the rumor be true, we imagine
that a lively snit will he put down for
oar next Court, provided the gentleman
can make out a ease.”
MarrUea.
In Bntledge.Lnoy Ward to Wm. Clem
ments.
In Floyd county, Jesse E. Cox to
Hulda Dunn.
In Lumpkin county, A. Goudlock to
Fannie Mayes.
In Lumpkin county, L. Walker to
Emma Medford.
In Angnsta, Wm. Ward, of Butlsdge,
to Georgia Bngg.
In Lumpkin county, G. Hnntsinger to
Sarah Ann Walker.
In Putnam county, J. T. Bossee to
Miss E, a Hammond.
In Gainesville, Dr. G. W. Marvin to
Mrs. Georgia A. Pitts.
In Talbottoai, J. G. Oglesby, of At
lanta, to Jennie.Oottingham.
Near Rutledge, Dr. Bass, of Putnam
county, to Miss Minnie Cox.
9Mik>.
At Deeatnr, Bev. G. J. Pearce.
In Atlanta, Mrs. C. W. Hubner.
In Watkinsville, Willis A. Holland.
Near Watkinsville, Barton 0. Thrasher.
In Monroe county, Mrs. Elizabeth
Maya.