310 



GEORGIA. 



izing the investigation was published in Amer- 

 ican, German, and English newspapers. On 

 the 29th of May, at the instance of the Gov- 

 ernor and Attorney-General, the State was al- 

 lowed by an order of the Court to withdraw 

 from the case which it had commenced against 

 the company. Besides the claims of the con- 

 tractors, that of the first-mortgage bondholders 

 for $2,844,986 was entered in the complaint by 

 Henry Clews & Co. Upon the withdrawal of 

 the State, the bondholders, who had not been 

 parties to the original bill, being supposed to 

 be protected by the endorsement of the State, 

 now took charge of the case, pressed their first 

 lien, established their claim, and bought in the 

 road under foreclosure for $530,000, thus shut- 

 ting out all the claimants on simple contract 

 debts, except those who had been paid by the 

 court on laborers' liens. This course of the 

 bondholders in electing to assert their claim 

 upon the property of the road instead of rely- 

 ing upon the security of the State, which was 

 properly the mortgagee according to the act, 

 and held the deed of trust of the road, and not 

 the bondholders, is held to bar the bondholders 

 from recourse to the State under the law of 

 estoppels, since they prevented the contractors 

 from recovering their debts from the assets of 

 the road, even if the bonds were valid in form 

 and substance. As the publication of the leg- 

 islative investigation, the withdrawal of the 

 State from litigation, and the passage of the 

 act of repudiation were sufficient advertisement 

 of the intentions of the State before and while 

 the bonds were being sold, the State is con- 

 sidered released in law and in honor from the 

 claims of the bondholders, which were vitiated 

 by frauds and irregularities originally, of which 

 defects the State had given warning in ample 

 time ; while, moreover, on the ground of the in- 

 validity of the bonds and their repudiation by 

 the State, the bondholders had stepped in and 

 assumed the mortgage in the place of the State, 

 to the prejudice of other parties. Judge Loch- 

 rane claims for his clients that the bonds issued 

 upon the road as far as now completed, $2,850,- 

 000 bonds on one hundred and ninety miles 

 of road, are perfectly valid and regular, while 

 the bonds last issued on sixty miles of road 

 which was never completed were illegal, and 

 should not be paid ; that there was never any 

 just reason for repudiating the former, which 

 were issued in compliance with the law, and 

 with the proceeds of which, obtained on the 

 State's guarantee, railroads, which have added 

 to the wealth of the State, were built. 



The Democratic Convention for the nomina- 

 tion of State officers and Presidential electors 

 assembled in Augusta on the 4th of August. 

 An excited canvass had preceded the Conven- 

 tion, an organized and determined minority 

 opposing the nomination of Governor Colquitt 

 for the governorship. On the first ballot Col- 

 quitt received 209f votes, lacking only 24J- of 

 the necessary two-thirds vote. The struggle 

 over the governorship prolonged the sessions 



of the Convention for seven days, and on the 

 seventh day, after taking thirty-two ballots, it 

 adjourned without making a nomination for 

 Governor in accordance with the two-thirds 

 rule, in the place of which a majority resolu- 

 tion was adopted recommending Alfred H. Col- 

 quitt to the votes of the people. N. C. Bar- 

 nett was nominated for Secretary of State, and 

 William A. Wright for Comptroller. Clifford 

 Anderson was proposed for Attorney-General 

 after two or three ineffectual ballots for other 

 candidates had been taken, and on the next 

 ballot he received the nomination. The State 

 Treasurer. J. W. Renfroe, it was announced, 

 would, in consequence of the failure to nomi- 

 nate a candidate for Governor, go before the 

 people as an independent candidate for Treas- 

 urer ; upon which D. N. Speer was nominated. 

 The minority division of the party settled upon 

 Thomas M. Norwood as the opposition candidate, 

 although his name had not been before the Con- 

 vention. The opposition to Governor Colquitt 

 was ostensibly based upon his endorsement of 

 the Northeastern Railroad bonds, to which, he 

 asserted, the honor of the State was pledged, and 

 upon other official acts which were held to have 

 been unwise. This opposition was intensified 

 by his appointment of ex-Governor Brown to 

 the vacant senatorship left empty by the resig- 

 nation of Senator Gordon. General John B. 

 Gordon unexpectedly sent in his resignation on 

 May 15th. To the request of Governor Colquitt 

 that he would recall his resignation or postpone 

 it until the meeting of the Legislature, he refused 

 to accede, and the Governor was obliged to ac- 

 cept it and appoint another Senator for the in- 

 terim. General Gordon stated, as the princi- 

 pal reason for his action, that he was too poor 

 to support the hospitalities which he felt bound 

 to dispense as a Senator, and was unable in that 

 position to obtain the means of providing to 

 his satisfaction for his family, as he might in 

 private employments. He subsequently ac- 

 cepted the position of attorney to the Louis- 

 ville and Nashville Railroad. Joseph E. Brown, 

 who was appointed in his stead, had been the 

 earliest of the secessionists to accept the posi- 

 tion in which the State was placed by the de- 

 feat of the Southern arms, and in inaugurating 

 the movement, in which many of the leading 

 men of the South soon afterward joined, he 

 placed himself outside the pale of his party in 

 1868, acting and voting with the reconstruc- 

 tionists. His appointment to the senatorship 

 awakened the resentment of the conservative 

 wing of the Democratic party, of which he 

 had constantly been an energetic opponent, 

 and who regarded him with greater hostility 

 than any of their other assailants. Many of the 

 more moderate conservatives regarded Brown 

 as a deserter of his party, half a radical, and 

 altogether ineligible for the senatorship. Sena- 

 tor Brown and Governor Colquitt made com- 

 mon cause in the gubernatorial contest. The 

 conservative Democracy were joined by other 

 factions in opposing the reelection of Colquitt, 



