GEORGIA. 



405 



GEORGIA. For military affairs in Georgia, 

 luring 1864, see ABMY OPERATIONS. 



As the armed hosts came within the northern 

 limits of Georgia, which was the granary of the 

 State, dissatisiactiou with the Confederate Gov- 

 ernment and its conduct of the war began to 

 appear and increase. Perhaps no person mani- 

 fested more of this disaffection than the Gov- 

 ernor of the State. In his message to the Legis- 

 lature hi March, Gov. Brown declared that the 

 action of Congress in funding seven hundred 

 millions of dollars in forty days at a less rate of 

 interest than that pledged on the full notes re- 

 sembled repudiation and bad faith, and that it 

 had shaken the confidence of the people in the 

 justice and capacity of that body. Its discus- 

 sions in secret sessions, he declared to be a 

 blighting course, convenient for canvassing what 

 will not bear the light. The new military bill 

 he considered to be unconstitutional, and that 

 conscription would not fill the army. The act 

 to suspena the writ of habeas corpus conferred 

 powers on the president which were denied by 

 the constitution, and he urged the Legislature to 

 take prompt action to stamp it with the seal of 

 their indignant rebuke. He reviewed the causes 

 of the war, exonerated the northern democrats 

 and moderate republicans, and declared that the 

 responsibility re-ted exclusively with the "wick- 

 ed republicans : ' who denied the compact of the 

 constitution, and demanded an "anti-shivery 

 bible and an anti-slavery God. ; ' and said : " "We 

 should keep before the Northern people the 

 idea that we are ready to negotiate when they 

 are ready, and will recognize our right to 

 self-government and the sovereignty of the 



A special message was sent to the Legislature 

 at a later day, in opposition to the conscription 

 The Supreme Court of the State had de- 

 cided the act to be constitutional, but it had 

 not declared, as the Governor said, that the 

 Confederate Government had the power to en- 

 rol the whole population of the State who re- 

 main at home, so as to place all the people un- 

 der its military control. He insisted that if all 

 between the ages of seventeen and fifty were 

 placed in the army a sufficient number would 

 not remain to raise subsistence. At a later day 

 he defended the State against attacks for per- 

 mitting Gen. Sherman to march unmolested 

 through it, by saying she was abandoned to her 

 fate, and neglected by the Confederate authori- 

 ties, while her army of able-bodied sons were 

 held for the defence of other State?, and thus 

 she was compelled to rely only upon a few old 

 men and boys. 



The Legislature hardly responded to the sen- 

 timents of the Governor. They passed resolu- 

 tions recommending, after every signal success, 

 an official tender of peace to the Federal Gov- 

 ernment upon the principle adopted in 1776, and 

 condemned the act suspending the habeas corpus, 

 also the act turning over to the Confederate 

 authority all persons between seventeen and 

 eighteen and forty-five and fifty ; they also ex- 



pressed confidence in the president and thanks 

 to the armies. 



The militia law of the State called into ser- 

 vice all between sixteen and sixty years of age, 

 and divided them into two classes. The first 

 was composed of those between seventeen and 

 fifty years of age, constituting what is called the 

 militia proper ; and the second class, those be- 

 tween sixteen and seventeen years of age, and 

 between fifty and sixty years of age, constitut- 

 ing what is to be known as the militia reserve. 

 The only exemptions provided for in the bill were 

 those created by the constitution in reference to 

 all officers and members of the executive, legis- 

 lative, and judicial departments of government. 



On the march of Gen. Sherman through the 

 State, an act was passed authorizing the con- 

 scription of every free white male inhabitant of 

 the State for forty days. The Governor, how- 

 ever, exempted the clergy, who were in charge 

 of parishes. 



After Atlanta had been captured by Gen. 

 Sherman, he sent a messenger, William King, to 

 Vice-President Stephens and to Gov. Brown, 

 inviting them to a conference with himself. 

 The invitation, as received, was thus described 

 by Gov. Brown: 



Mr. "William King, who represented himself as the 

 bearer of a message from Gen. Sherman, called upon 

 him and stated, in substance, that Gen. Sherman had 

 requested him to say to the Governor that he would 

 be pleased to receive a visit from him and other dis- 

 tinguished Georgians, with a view to a conference 

 upon the state of the country and the settlement of 

 our difficulties ; that he would give the Governor a 

 passport through his lines with an escort, if desired, 

 to go and return at such time as might be agreeable 

 to mm ; that he ( Gen. Sherman) recognized him 

 (Gov. Brown) as the Governor of the whole State, 

 and as over one hundred miles of the territory of the 

 State is now behind his lines, he (Gen. Sherman) 

 would allow the Governor to go and visit his people 

 in the rear if he desired to look after their condition, 

 and return at his pleasure ; that he would receive him 

 and other distinguished Georgians at his headquar- 

 ters, and treat them with the respect and considera- 

 tion due their positions during the conference which 

 he invited ; that he did not wish to be compelled to 

 overrun and desolate more of the territorv of the 

 State. 



Mr. Stephens replied as follows : 



CEAWTOBDSVILLE (GA.), Oct 1, l^uJ. 

 William King, Sr., Esq. : 



SIR : 1 have considered the message you delivered 

 me yesterday from Gen. Sherman with all the seri- 

 ousness and gravity due the importance of the sub- 

 ject. The message was a verbal invitation, by him 

 through you, to me to visit him at Atlanta, to see if 

 we could agree upon some plan of terminating this 

 fratricidal war without the further effusion of blood. 



The object is one which addresses itself with pecu- 

 liar interest and great force to every well-wisher of 

 his country to every friend of humanity to every 

 patriot to every one attached to the principles of 

 self-government established by our common ances- 

 tors. I need not assure you, therefore, that it is an 

 object very dear to me. There is no sacrifice I would 

 not make, short of principle and honor, to obtain it; 

 and no effort would I spare, under the same limita- 

 tions, with any reasonable or probable prospect of 

 success. But, in the present instance, the entire ab- 

 sence of any power on my part to enter into such 

 negotiations, and the like absence of any such power 



