494 



GEORGIA. 



habitation should be. And this has been done by a 

 parcel of beardless boys, who have been mustered into 

 the State service. 



Cotton has been removed, such as remained in store 

 here, to the railroad. Ordnance stores and every 

 variety of equipments have been thrown out and carted 

 to the same receptacle for Gove^pment stores. Schoon- 

 ers have been seized, and some, already tilled with 

 earth, are ready to be sunk below, in common with the 

 hulls of Com. TatnalPs fleet, which will never more 

 venture beyond Savannah river. The Fingal, which 

 now lies near Fort Jackson, is also to be sunk, and the 

 gunboats one of which is nearly ready for launching 

 will, if the enemy sooner advances, be given to the 

 devouring flames. Women are leaving, and property 

 of all kinds is being sent off, and will soon line the 

 Central road from Savannah to Macou, rendering every 

 log house a palace, if rosewood and satin damask can 

 do it. 



The demand for soldiers before the Con- 

 federate conscription act took effect was such 

 as to cripple the manufacturing establishments 

 so much that they could hardly fill the orders 

 of the Government. As the Federal forces 

 advanced to make their attacks upon the coast, 

 at Brunswick and Darien, these towns were 

 entirely abandoned by the inhabitants. (See 

 ARMY OPERATIONS.) The defences of Savan- 

 nah, however, were completed for the purpose 

 of making a successful resistance whenever it 

 should be attacked. They extended from the Sa- 

 vannah river, north of the city, to the Louisville 

 road, thus making a circuit of earthworks. To 

 supply the necessities of the soldiers, the gov- 

 ernor, acting under authority from the Legis- 

 lature, seized nearly $350,000 worth of goods in 

 Augusta, under a promise to pdy at reasonable 

 rates. To make up for the deficiency of weap- 

 ons, the governor ordered twenty thousand 

 pikes and bowie knives to be made. Distilleries 

 were also ordered by him to be closed after the 

 15th day of March, throughout the State. The 

 penalty on a refusal to obey this order was a 

 seizure of the still, and its removal to the Gov- 

 ernment foundery at Kome, there to be manu- 

 factured into cannon. All liquor brought near 

 military encampments was to be seized and 

 emptied on the ground. In Fulton county, the 

 grand jury were instructed by the Supreme 

 Court to find bills of indictment against all 

 foreign born citizens who had once exercised 

 the right of citizenship and subsequently 

 claimed exemption from military service in the 

 Confederate army on the ground that they 

 were subjects of a foreign government. The 

 act was held to be a misdemeanor, or punishable 

 by imprisonment in the penitentiary. 



The conscription law of the Confederate 

 Congress met with serious opposition in the 

 State. In some of the northern counties it has 

 never been executed. The governor took de- 

 cided ground against its constitutionality. (See 

 CONFEDERATE STATES.) 



In the Legislature, at its session in Novem- 

 ber, the subject was referred to a joint com- 

 mittee of both Houses on Confederate rela- 

 tions. This committee made two reports. The 

 majority report declared that Congress had no 

 right to compel the citizens of the States to 



bear arms except by a requisition upon the 

 several States for their quotas, allowing each 

 State to exercise such compulsion as might be 

 necessary, and to appoint the officers for her 

 own troops. It also recommended the adop- 

 tion of the following resolutions : 



Resolved, That all laws passed by the Confederate 

 Congress to raise armies from the arms-bearing people 

 of the States by compulsion, and without requisitions 

 upon, or concurrent action of the States, are unconsti- 

 tutional, and within our power to be declared void. 

 While Georgia makes this declaration, she also de- 

 clares her willingness and determination to furnish to 

 the end of this unjust and wicked war which our enemy 

 is waging upon us, as she has done from the beginning 

 of it, all just quotas of troops that may be required of 

 her in a constitutional way. 



Resolved, That under the Constitution of the Con- 

 federate States and the laws of this State, all the troops 

 which Georgia has sent to the field under requisitions 

 from the Confederate Government, have the right to 

 elect the officers who are to command them, and that 

 the laws of Congress which deny or impair this right 

 are unconstitutional, and in our power to be declared 

 void. 



Resolved, That while the foregoing resolutions ex- 

 press our fixed conviction, we are still willing to 

 leave the conscript acts undisturbed in their opera- 

 tion, reserving to the State and her people such 

 rightful remedies as may be demanded by future 

 emergencies. 



The report of the minority took the ground 

 that the safety of the States demanded that no 

 opposition should be made to any measures adopt- 

 ed by the Confederate Congress in the exercise 

 of powers granted and intended for the common 

 defence ; and they recommended to the people 

 of Georgia to acquiesce in the decision of the 

 supreme judicial tribunal of their State, and the 

 governor to countermand any and all orders 

 which he might have issued to suspend the 

 execution of these acts in the State upon the 

 citizens subject thereto. 



The Supreme Court of the State, on the llth 

 of November, decided that the conscription 

 law was clearly constitutional under that pro- 

 vision of the Constitution which gave to Con- 

 gress the power to raise armies, distinguish- 

 ed from the power to call out the militia. 



The views of Gov. Brown were stated in a 

 correspondence which took place at this time. 

 Gen. Mercer, in command of the defences of 

 Savannah, wrote to the governor on the 7th 

 of November, stating that an order from the 

 Secretary of War, received that day, with- 

 drew from him all power to retain the negroes 

 then working upon the fortifications of Savan- 

 nah. Every one would probably leave him in 

 a few days ; he, therefore, made a requisition 

 on the governor for fifteen hundred to work 

 on the defences. The governor, in communi- 

 cating this letter to the Legislature on the 10th, 

 said: 



I also append a letter from him dated the 8th instant, 

 in response to one from me asking to make an urgent 

 appeal to the Secretary of War to send to Savannah 

 reinforcements at an early day. 



It will be seen by reference to the first of these let- 

 ters that the Confederate general looks to Georgia for 

 the means to defend her seaport city. 



While the right is denied to the State by the con- 



