Appendix to the Congressional Globe: Containing Speeches, Reports, and the Laws of the Second Session Forty-First Congress Page: 21
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1869.]
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
21
41st Cong....2d Sess.
Reconstruction of Georgia—Mr. Kerr.
Ho. of Reps.
the treasury of that State ? There were also
read here some statements made by a Mr. Mor-
gan, who denied the right of Colonel Nelson
Tift to speak for the Democracy of Georgia.
It maybe that this gentleman is not their fully
accredited spokesman here \ but this I desire
to say for Mr. Tift, that whether regularly
accredited or not his conduct here has done
no dishonor to the Democracy or the people
of Georgia. He has labored with great assid-
uity and zeal to avert this great wrong from
that State, and always with an intelligent ap-
preciation of the best interests of Georgia and
her people.
In justice to him I will append to my remarks
in the Globe his letter to which Mr. Morgan
refers. But who is Mr. Morgan? I learn that
he is one of the hired tools of Governor Bul-
lock. One of the men who on a certain legis-
lative committee assumed the high office of
whitewashing^ the conduct of the Governor in
connection with his illegal uses and misappro-
priations of the public treasure of that State.
But enough on this subject. Mostof thecharges
come from like sources, and are entitled to no
more credit. I will conclude all I desire to
say by adding to my remarks the letter of Mr.
Angier:
Atlanta, Georgia, December 14,1869.
Dear Sir: In answer to yours of the 9th instant I
wrote in a very great hurry yesterday, neglecting; to
mention many truths that should have a bearing
with your committee and Congress in determining
this vexed question of Georgia reconstruction and
the status or Governor Bullock in connection with it.
To show his connection with an interest in the' 'Kim-
ball's opera house building," a portion of which is
temporarily used as a State-house, I will state that
Governor Bullock labored to secure my influence in
favor of paying said Kimball $25,000 yearly rent for
only a portion of the least valuable part of a build-
ing that could not have cost Kimball over $100,000,
reserving to himself all the first-story front on the
main street of six rooms, most the entire basement
story,and a large number of rooms in the upper two
stories. His object now is to organize the General
Assembly, that they will purchase this building for
a State-house at about half a million dollars.
In violation of law and the action of the General
Assembly ho drew on the Fourth National Bank,
New York, for $35,000, and stated to me that $31,000
of the above amount was paid to said Kimball on
account of said opera building and fixtures, and that
the other $4,000 he used himself',' which amount ho has
never accounted for to the State or the Treasury.
After two committees of the General Assembly, one
manipulated in his own interest, have declared this
act of drawing on said bank and the use of the
money illegal and unauthorized, as soon as the
Legislature adjourned in March last he went direct
to New York and drew a draft on said Fourth Na-
tional Bank for $20,000 more in favor of said Kim-
ball ; making in all $55,000, nono of which ever found
its way into the State treasury of Georgia; and
there is no tolling what further amounts he would
have drawn and appropriated himself in violation
of law had I not sent the bank a synopsis of the code
of Georgia bearing on this subject.
To meet these drafts, or guaranty the payment,
he hypothecated seven per cent. State railroad
mortgage bonds, that by spec' il legislation were to
be issued only in "renewal of bonds then due and
interest thereon," and for "funding the State bonds
falling due or maturing in 1868,1869,1870." Two
hundred and sixty-fivo thousand and five dollars of
these seven per cent, bonds he has sold in violation
of the above special statute, setting them apart for a
specific purpose, thus destroying the ability of the
State to comply with the conditions of a circular he
instructed me to have published, causing great and
incessant murmuringsby bondholders in Europe and
this country. The appropriations of 1863 were only
for the la&t half of the year 1868. Still, for the pub-
lic printing of this year, he, in violation of law, drew
310,000 back on last year, notwithstanding the house,
by a vote of over three to one, directed him to charge
it as an advance on tb o printing fund this year. This
no aid that he might save his $25,000 public printing
iund to silence the mouths of the press or bubsidize
them in his behalf. He flooded the country with
proclamations, offering as high as five thousand dol-
lars for the apprehension of a single fugitive, when
the customary reward heretofore has not exceeded
two hundred dollars. At the same time he pardons
those m custody (who have committed willful mur-
ders) without a trial.
% By a trick and fraud, (no doubt through his instruc-
tions) on the last day of the last General Assembly,
as a portion of the appropriation bill, was passed
what may bo palled an India-rubber-blanketsection,
with no amount specified, yet, according to the Gov-
ernor's interpretation and application, unlimited.
This is independent of the contingent fund of $20,000
for the year, which, all but a few dollars, he ex-
hausted in less than six months, mostly for "inci-
dental expenses executive department." On this
(whathQmakesIndia-rubbcr-blanketsectionJwhich
if strictly construed could amount to but a few thou-
sand dollars, he has drawn nearly, one hundred thou-
sand dollars, the greater portion in the way of pat-
ronage to buy influence, over fifteen thousand being
to fee" attorneys only as " retainers
While he gets up sensation telegrams and howls of
outrages committed on Union men and colored citi-
zens he neglects to mention the many rapes com-
mitted by negroeson unoffending, defenseless, inno-
cent white girls and women. As you have seen in my
reports, I was a Union man, opposed strenuously and
publicly secession; my office being headquarters of
the Union association here: left the South with my
family in 1863; lived near Boston until the close of
the war; returned South in 1865; supported the con-
gressional measures of reconstruction; voted for and
publicly supported General Grant for President and
Bullock for Governor; have always been classed as a
Radical by the Democrats; have been in nearly every
southern State since the war, withholding my political
opinions on no occasion; known to beanorthern man
by birth and residence till I was twenty-four years
old; yet I have never been treated with the least se-
verity and almost uniformly with kindness. Pub-
lic sentiment will set itself against and correct what
few political outrages there may have been—though
Ihaveseen none—much sooner under/wM reconstruc-
tion than military rule under the direction of Bul-
lock, who shows his great inconsistency and insin-
cerity by crying outrages, while ho has exercised the
pardoning power until courts and jurors have but
little to encourage them in the prosecution of crime.
Instead of striving to allay bitter animosities and
promotepeaceand prosperity, as the chief Executive
of a great State, it has been and is still his effort to
stir up hatred and strife that he may get a firmer
hold on Georgia by which to exercise his usurpations
and tyranny on all who will not become his personal
adherents and accomplices in mischief and self-inter-
est, which is the principal cause of the unsettled state
of public affairs in Georgia. Democrats with him are
as good for his selfish purposes as Republicans, and
he has found not a few to yield to his patronage. Had
it been the good fortune of Georgia to have a wise,
honest, and just Executive the General Government
would not at this date be troubled with reconstruc-
tion in Georgia or have cause to complain of disloy-
alty in her borders; and you should not mistake
contemptfor Bullock for dislike to the Federal Govern-
ment. Our best substantial men, including those who
havo^uniformly been Union men and favor the con-
gressional plan of reconstruction, who feel that Geor-
gia is theirhomc, and who love good society, law, and
order, feel that this is a critical time for their loved
Georgia.
The Democratic papers in the interest of Bullock,
influenced by his patronage, are loud in their denun-
ciations of the fifteenth amendment, and bitterly
oppose the reseating of the expelled colored mem-
bers. "VYhen you reflect that Republicans aided this
expulsion, and that they and Bullock will secretly,
if not openly, oppose their being reseated by the
General Assembly in order that he may secure vio-
lent congressional action, and that Bullock with his
adherents defeated the fifteenth amendment last
winter, I cannot see how a Republican Congress can
sustain him.
Most respectfully, yours, N. L. ANGIER,,
Treasurer of Georgia.
Albany, Georgia, November 30,1869.
Dear Sir : As one of the Representatives of Geor-
gia in Congress, I do not hesitate in answer to your
letter to state such facts as in my opinion are neces-
sary to a proper understanding of the present rela-
tion of Georgia to Congress.
After the reconstruction of Georgia under the acts
of Congress in July, 1868, and the admission of our
Representatives to Congress, both branches of the
Legislature of Georgia, under their constitutional
authority to judge of tho election and qualification
of members of their respective houses, adjudged and
declared the colored members ineligible, and their
places were filled by the eligible candidateswho had
received the next highest number of votes.
This action of the Legislature was denounced by
Governor Bullock to Congress as revolutionary and
violative of the conditions upon which Georgia was
admitted to representation in Congress under the
reconstruction acts, whereupon our Senators were
refused admission to the Senate, and bills were intro-
duced in both Houses of Congress proposing various
penal correctives.
Subsequently a bill was agreed upon by tne friends
of the several bills, and reported by the chairman
of the House Reconstruction Committee, [Mr. But-
lek,] which combined the worst features of the bills
previously introduced and embodied a military des-
potism for Georgia of tho most malignant type.
The passage of this bill was defeated and further
action postponed until December with great diffi-
culty: and prominent among the means used to that
end was the passage by the Legislature of the pre-
amble and resolution to which you refer.
The following extracts from tho record will show
the opinion which the friends of Georgia entertained
of this action of the Legislature, and the use they
mndeofit. 4i , _
In my published statement to the Reconstruction
Committee of the House," February 18,1869, after
setting forth the reasons upon which the Legislature
had acted in excluding the colored members, the
"statement" proceeds:
Let us suppose, for the sake of the argument,
that the decision of the Legislature is wrong, and
that the constitution rightly construed makes every
elector eligible to office. What is the proper remedy ?
I answer, without hesitation or a doubt, in Georgia,
as in every republican State, the only proper remedy
for this and all similar evils is in the oallot and the
courts. ^ ihese means are as ample and Will be aa
potent m Georgia as in any other "State.
' Both branches of the Legislature ofGeorgiahav©
recently, m deference to the opinion of those who
differ-with them on tho question of the eligibility of
colored citizens to hold office under the constitution
and the laws of the State, passed the following reso-
lution :
444 Whereas it is believed thatajudicial decision of
the question of the colored man's right to hold office
in Georgia under the constitution now in force would
restore the State to her proper position in the Union
and give quiet throughout the State; and whereas
said question is one which the courts of tho State
can properly take cognizance of; and whereas we,
the representatives of the people of Georgia, are
unwilling that any effort should be spared on our
part to bring about a state of peace and happiness to
the people and a settlement of that important ques-
tion :
it therefore resolved by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the State of Georgia in General
Assembly convened, That a case involving the right
of the colored man to hold office shall as soon as the
same can be properly brought before the supreme
court of the State be heard and determined by said
court, and wc believe that the people of the State
will, as they have heretofore always done, in good
faith abide the decision of the highest judicial tri-
bunal of the State whenever so declared.'
44 This seems to be the only response which could
have been given to the charges of wrong which have
been brought against them here. It snows a con-
sciousness of right, and a desire at all times to abide
by tho constitution and laws as they may be ex-
pounded by the courts."
In Governor Bullock's 44 reply," dated executive
department, Atlanta, Georgia, February 26, 1869,
directed to tho Reconstruction Committee and
printed by order of tho House, after quoting the
above resolution he says:
44 This resolution, as is well known to Hon. Mr.
Tift, was adopted by the Legislature without any
intention on their part to abide by such decision, if
it should bo in the affirmative, so far as their own
membership is concerned. It is a fact notoriously
public that a very considerable division of his politi-
cal party occurred upom tho adoption of this reso-
lution, both wings, however, of that party declar-
ing their intention not to abide by suoh decision,
maintaining that their action, so far as their own
membership was affcctcd, was final and unalterable,
and one from which they would never recede.
44 As there was nothing in this resolution tending
in any measure to bring about a settlement of the
matter at issue, I declined to approve it. and it is now
on the table of the house of representatives wait-
ing further action."
in my " rejoinder" to Governor Bullock, printed
by order of the house, referring to this subject I said:
" I disagree entirely with Governor Bullock. I
believe that the preamble and resolution express
truly the motive and purposes of the Legislature who
passed them, and they could not properly go further
or do more under the circumstances. The Legisla-
ture cannot refer the question of the eligibility of
members to their body to the supreme court, because
it is a question confided by the constitution to the
Legislature, and the court has no jurisdiction. But
when a case shall come before the supreme court in
the usual way their decision will be an authoritative
exposition of what the constitution really means and
is on this subject, and will settle the whole question,
because after that time all persons in the Legisla-
ture or out of it who take the oath to support the
constitution must accept that meaning."
Such was the meaniDg which was given to the pre-
amble and resolution of the Legislature by the friends
of Georgia, among whom I include President Grant
and several members of the Republican party in
Congress.
To show still more clearly my own conviction that
the Legislature had provided for a final settlement
of our difficulty with Congress I make the following
extract from my address " to the press and people
of Georgia," which was published in the Albany
News of April 23,1869, and was generally copied by
the press of the State with words of approval:
4,There is now really but one disturbing element
between us and a majority of Congress—the right of
colored men to hold office under our constitution
and laws. It was represented and generally believed
that the Legislature acted in willful violation of law
in declaring them ineligible. The opinion and de-
cision of Judge Schley in the case of the State vs.
White, which was printed in the National Intelli-
gencer and distributed in Congress, modified and in
some instances changed the prevalent opinion of the
action of the Legislature. That case will be decided
by the supreme court of Georgia in June. The de-
cision will settle the law on that subject. The people
of Georgia will abide by it; Congress will, in my
opinion, bo satisfied of its justice, will admit the
Stateto representation, and thus will end our Federal
troubles." .
From these extracts it will be pereeived that mo
friends of Georgia in Congress and elsewhere under-
stood the preamble and resolution above quoted as
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United States. Congress. Appendix to the Congressional Globe: Containing Speeches, Reports, and the Laws of the Second Session Forty-First Congress, book, 1870; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30889/m1/95/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.