GEORGIA. 



309 



and the others then hid in the bushes and fired, 

 and upon being dislodged sought another am- 

 bush and fired a second volley. 



A resolution was agreed to by the State Sen- 

 ate, on one of the last days of the session, by 

 which the Senators and Representatives in 



>ngress are instructed to endeavor to secure 

 an enactment exempting from revenue taxation 

 all distilled spirits made by farmers on their 

 >wn lands, from grain or other material of their 

 own production, not to exceed 1,000 gallons per 

 annum, to the same extent to which brandy 

 manufactured from apples, peaches, or grapes 

 is exempted, and allowing its manufacture un- 

 der the provisions and restrictions applying to 

 brandy. 



Arrangements are being made for an exhi- 

 bition of appliances, methods, and products of 

 the culture and the manufacture of cotton, to 

 be held in Atlanta, in the months of September, 

 October, and November, 1881. The scheme 

 was first proposed by Edward Atkinson, who 

 made a speech before the people of Atlanta, in 

 which he criticised the institution of slavery 

 and its social and material consequences very 

 bluntly. The kindly and interested serious- 

 ness with which the leading Georgians and the 

 citizens in general received the strictures of a 

 former abolitionist and approved the advice of 

 a practical New England business man was re- 

 marked throughout the country. J. "W. Ryck- 

 man, of Philadelphia, afterward visited Atlanta 

 in behalf of the project, and an association was 

 organized under the name of the International 

 Cotton Exposition Company. The capital stock 

 was limited to $200,000, and a quarter of that 

 amount was at once subscribed in the State. 

 Senator Joseph E. Brown was chosen Presi- 

 dent, Samuel M. Inman, Treasurer, and J. "W. 

 Ryckman, Secretary. The need of more care- 

 ful and thorough methods of preparing cotton 

 for the market is felt by manufacturers, and 

 in this planters are naturally interested, as well 

 as in improved methods of culture, which, it 

 is thought, might treble the yield from the same 

 area. The Southerners are very desirous to 

 see the English and American processes of man- 

 ufacture exhibited, on account of the young in- 

 dustry which has sprung up along their water- 

 courses, engaged in spinning coarse yarns and 

 weaving the heavier fabrics. They think that 

 the climatic conditions of the South are more 

 favorable for cotton manufacture than those of 

 New England, while the saving in freight, and 

 the superior condition of the cotton before it is 

 compressed into tight bales, give them great 

 commercial advantages. 



Active efforts are being made by the attorney 

 of the holders of the repudiated bonds of the 

 Brunswick and Albany Railroad to compel the 

 State to acknowledge its warranty, which was 

 disclaimed by an act of the Legislature, passed 

 in 1872, and by a clause in the Constitution of 

 i877 forbidding the payment of these bonds. 

 The bonds amount to nearly $3,000,000, and 

 are held principally in Frankfort- on-the-Rhine. 



The attorney for the German bondholders is 

 O. A. Lochrane, of Georgia, who has applied to 

 Congress to submit to the people the question 

 of the annulment of the eleventh amendment 

 to the United States Constitution, which forbids 

 legal process against a State in the suit of private 

 parties. Judge Lochrane hopes to rally to the 

 support of such a measure a strong party of the 

 holders of repudiated Southern bonds and their 

 sympathizers, and to bring pressure enough 

 to bear upon Congress, and excite enough pop- 

 ular interest, to secure the repeal of the amend- 

 ment, the effect of which would be to bring the 

 action of the repudiating States into the United 

 States courts for review, to be tested by the 

 ordinary rules of law and equity. The con- 

 struction of the Brunswick and Albany road 

 was commenced with Northern capital just be- 

 fore the war. About sixty-five miles had been 

 completed, and some 1,400 tons of iron were 

 lying on the wharves at Brunswick, when the 

 ordinance of secession was passed. In the se- 

 cession Convention a resolution was adopted 

 granting immunity to public works from con- 

 fiscation. Nevertheless, the property was seized 

 as belonging to alien enemies. At the close of 

 the war the owners made a claim upon the 

 State for the material destroyed, and a com- 

 promise was effected by which they were to 

 complete the road, and the State to pay a sub- 

 sidy of $15,000 for every mile constructed. 

 This measure was passed in 1869 by a Demo- 

 cratic Legislature. In October, 1871, the rail- 

 road was seized by Governor Bullock and placed 

 in the hands of a receiver, being in a bankrupt 

 condition, the President, J. C. Kimball, having 

 no funds to pay the contractors, to whom about 

 $1,000,000 were owing. Henry Clews, banker, 

 of New York, was the Treasurer and financial 

 agent of the road, and had the bonds of the 

 road, bearing the warranty of the State, which 

 he proceeded to negotiate in Europe. The seal 

 of the State was attested by the British consul 

 in Savannah, and the bonds were purchased by 

 German investors on the strength of the State's 

 guarantee. Among these bonds were a num- 

 ber predicated upon a section of the road not 

 completed. The refusal of the Treasurer to 

 complete the road, and his failure to pay the 

 contract debts, which were distributed among 

 about eight hundred Georgia citizens, and en- 

 tailed upon them great hardships, exasperated 

 the people. The Legislature appointed the bond 

 committee, in the winter of 1871, to investigate 

 the validity of the bonds sold by Clews & Co., 

 which reported that the company had not con- 

 formed to the charter in many respects, and 

 had consequently lost its legal existence; that 

 the bonds had been issued on sections before 

 they had been completed, and were invalid 

 under the authorizing act ; and that there was 

 irregularity in the recording of the deed of 

 trust securing the bonds sufficient to vitiate 

 them. The General Assembly passed the act 

 declaring the endorsement of the State null 

 and void on August 16, 1872. The law author- 



