GEORGIA. 



447 



GEORGIA. Much suffering was experienced 

 in Northern Georgia from the scarcity of food 

 in the early part of 1863. Such were the appre- 

 hensions of Gov. Brown, that he issued a call 

 for the Legislature of the State to convene on the 

 26th of March. The object of the session was 

 to secure the application of all the productive 

 labor of the State to the cultivation of articles 

 necessary to sustain life. The short crop of 

 1862, and the difficulty of transporting supplies, 

 had forewarned the authorities of the dangers 

 of a famine. In Savannah both corn meal and 

 bacon were scarce in the spring, and the sup- 

 plies which existed were greatly reduced by the 

 seizures of the Government. In the hospitals 

 bacon and corn bread were the only articles 

 furnished for nourishment. 



The impressments of provisions for the army 

 caused much dissatisfaction. In March thirty 

 cents per pound were allowed for bacon when 

 the market price was ninety cents. This dif- 

 ference in the price allowed by the impressing 

 officers, and the market value, led to the pre- 

 paration of a case, by mutual agreement, at At- 

 lanta, which was to be carried to the Supreme 

 Court of the State to test the constitutionality 

 of the law. The plaintiffs denied the author- 

 ity of the Impressment Commissioners to fix an 

 arbitrary price to be paid for every man's goods 

 which the Government might from necessity 

 impress, without regard to the circumstances 

 of each particular case. They denied that prices 

 thus fixed were or oould be, in all cases, "just 

 compensation," and that it was just compensa- 

 tion in this case ; hence the suit involved the 

 constitutionality of this feature of the law, and 

 the competency of the Congress to pass such a 

 law. 



In September, Gov. Brown issued a procla- 

 mation on the subject to the people. It was 

 based on information that subalterns, without 

 authority, often made impressments, and gave 

 certificates which were not valid. He admitted 

 the power of the Government to make the im- 

 pressments, and urged the citizens to resist when 

 they were made by persons who could not show 

 proper authority. He also directed all the civil 

 and military authorities to assist persons in de- 

 fending their property against illegal seizures, 

 and to arrest and commit to jail all persons 

 making impressments without authority, until 

 a warrant could be issued against them for rob- 

 bery. The following resolution, offered hi the 

 Legislature at its session in November, also il- 

 lustrates the oppressive operation of the im- 

 pressment law : 



Whereas, the impressment laws passed by the Con- 

 gress of the Confederate States have been greatly per- 

 verted and violated by the impressment officers, and 

 those professing to be, by reason of which many of the 

 itizens of this State have been greatly harassed, de- 

 frauded, and wilfully wronged ; therefore, be it 



Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives in General Assembly convened, That the Secre- 

 tary of War be, and he is most respectfully requested 

 to revoke the appointment of all the impressment offi- 

 cers of this State, and to have appointed in their place 

 and stead, in counties where it may be necessary to 



make impressments to feed and support our gallant 

 armies, one or more responsible citizens, not liable to 

 military duty, residing in the counties respectively. 



Liberal arrangements were made throughout 

 the State for the relief of the families of soldiers 

 and others. As an instance, inMuscagee county, 

 the grand jury made an assessment of sixty 

 thousand dollars for the benefit of the poor. 

 The State appropriation to the county amount- 

 ed to thirty-three thousand dollars for the relief 

 of indigent families of soldiers, whether living 

 or dead. There was also a relief association at 

 Columbus, with a capital of $100,000, which 

 furnished provisions to soldiers' families at less 

 than the market prices. 



The election for State officers took place on 

 the first Monday of October. The candidates 

 were Joseph E. Brown, who held the office 

 when the ordinance of secession was passed, 

 and Joshua Hill, a member of Congress at the 

 same period. (See ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA, 1861, 

 pp. 211, 212, 213; also CYCLOPAEDIA, 1862, pp. 

 272.) Gov. Brown, in his letter consenting to 

 a renomination, said : " We should never, u- 

 der any circumstances, consent to a reconstruc- 

 tion of the old Union, or to any political union 

 with the Abolition States upon any terms what- 

 ever. Nor should we ever lay down our arms 

 till the independence of these Confederate States 

 is unconditionally recognized." 



The views of Mr. Hill were also expressed in 

 a letter that was made public. After stating 

 that he had no desire whatever for the office for 

 which he had been nominated, he says : 



Since my resignation of my seat as a member of the 

 Congress of the United States, which occurred imme- 

 diately upon the withdrawal of my colleagues, I have 

 taken no active part in politics. I had often expressed 

 my honest convictions that the destruction of the Union 

 would be followed by a long and bloody war, disastrous 

 beyond precedent in its results to every section ; and 

 that the idea of dissolving the Union with the hopes of 

 reconstructing it on a basis more permanent and pro- 

 tective of the rights of the slave States, was fallacious 

 and absurd. I compared the effort to accomplish such 

 an impossibility to the folly of taking the most delicate 

 glass and crushing it to atoms, in the vain hope of col- 

 lecting the scattered fragments, and, by reuniting them, 

 making the scattered vessel more comely and durable 

 than it was befofc. It was a strange delusion, without 

 which the Union could not have oeen broken. I be- 

 lieve what I said of the impossibility of reconstruction. 

 Time and events have deepened these convictions. 



I felt little comfort in the flippant assurance of san- 

 guine orators " that the Yankees could not fight if they 

 would, and would not if they could." I knew the time 

 was when they had fought, and I believed that, by col- 

 lision with our brave troops, they would learn to do it 

 again. In war, as in politics, it is unwise to underrate 

 your adversary. 



The war, with all its afflictive train of suffering, pri- 

 vation, and death, has served to eradicate all idea of 

 reconstruction, even with those who made it the basis 

 of their arguments in favor of disunion. I always re- 

 garded it as impossible, except by the success of the 

 Northern arms, and then only the Union in name, and 

 not the free Government of our fathers. I want no such 

 Union as that, and will not accept it. 



The best argument in favor of disunion, and the one 

 most relied on by its advocates, was apprehension 

 for the security of our slave property. If it was not 

 then in danger, it is in extreme peril now. 



